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Akuma attacks were a part of everyday life for those living in Paris. For the first few months, the moment someone called out ‘Akuma’ everything in the city came to a grinding halt, only to resume when the magical ladybugs swept through the streets to repair any damages. As weeks turned into months and months turned into years, the citizens realized that shutting down the entire city during every single Akuma attack was no longer feasible. So, the citizens adapted to the situation they found themselves in. Only the businesses and schools closest to the Akuma attack would shut down, leaving the rest of the city to keep moving on. For most Akuma attacks, this compromise was more than enough. It was rare for Akumas to get so widespread that the entire city needed to shut down. The only time that happened anymore is if Ladybug and Chat Noir are somehow delayed to getting on scene or if the Akuma has a widespread ability.
Which meant that despite three back-to-back Akumas starting at a fresh 1:30 am and lasting all the way to 7:30 in the morning with numerous Lucky Charms and Cataclysms used during the fights to defeat the Akumas; schools on the other side of Paris were unaffected and thus started at 8:00 a.m. on the dot. As a result, Ladybug and Chat Noir left the scene of the latest attack the moment that the Miraculous Cure was released in a desperate attempt to make it to class on time. The Miraculous duo knew that they had to get back to get to class and quickly before people started asking more questions. They only got a couple of blocks away before their Miraculous sounded the one-minute warning. Stopping on the current roof the two heroes sat down in the center as their transformations faded away.
Adrien looked to Marinette with a smile on his lips and exhaustion in his eyes. He could tell by the way that she struggled to stay awake that her energy reserves were spent. He guided her body into his lap so that she could try and get some rest before they needed to focus on getting back to school. He couldn’t stop himself from feeling concerned for her, apparently casting the Miraculous Cure took a lot of energy. Fishing a wedge of camembert cheese from his jacket pocket, Adrien offered it up to Plagg. He was lucky that he was still awake at the time, as he was finishing his missing homework when the first Akuma attacked. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had food already with him and then they would be in some serious trouble. The Kwami of Destruction took the offering and floated onto Adrien’s shoulder to eat.
Seeing that Marinette was dressed in her pajamas, Adrien let out a quiet sigh and glanced to Tikki. “Does Mari have anymore food for you Tikki? Or did you eat it all during the fights.” A yawn escaped his lips, his attention focused back on the red Kwami.
“I ate everything she brought. Neither one of us expected three Akumas today.” Tikki replied, floating down to sit next to Plagg on Adrien’s shoulder. She nuzzled into the shoulder of her other half, just as tired as her human chosen.
Plagg split the slice of camembert in half and offered it to Tikki. “We weren’t expecting three Akuma either.”
“Kwamis, I hope this isn’t a new tactic.” Adrien grumbled, the thought of having to fight several Akuma back-to-back sounded horrible. Especially if they continue to go as late as the ones that they faced today did. He glanced down at the two eating Kwamis. “Let me know when you are done… we still have to get to school.” Taking his right hand, he gently stroked Marinette’s hair, a fond smile on his face. His partner looked so peaceful sleeping there, that he was debating about leaving her here and going to school alone so she could get some extra sleep in. Though the risks of leaving his partner alone on a random rooftop fast asleep far outweighed the benefits of letting her sleep.
Tikki and Plagg shared a concerned glance and quietly finished the cheese. “This is the third day this week Hawk Moth woke you two up with attacks before school. Are you sure you want to go back?” Tikki spoke up, flying into Adrien’s view once she was done eating.
“Going to school was my choice. I need to go even if we’ve been up for the last six hours dealing with three different Akuma.” Adrien ran his hand through his hair in frustration, unfortunately no excuse besides the truth would let them skip school without trouble. He knew that telling the school that they were Chat Noir and Ladybug was out of the question, which left them to drag themselves to school. “Besides, we miss enough class as is when Akumas attack during school. “ Adrien continued on, a sigh escaping his lips as he shook his head. His eyes traveled down to where Marinette was sleeping soundly in his lap. “We can’t miss anymore school than what we already are… Unless we want to start telling people who we are. Otherwise, our only other option is to start dragging Akumas closer to school so classes get delayed or canceled.” Adrien frowned at the thought of purposely endangering his classmates for the sake of getting the school off their backs. “I know Mari wouldn’t like that second plan.”
Tikki glanced between Adrien and Marinette before letting out a defeated sigh. “You are right, she would hate risking her other friends.” She could see no point in continuing this argument, knowing that Adrien was right. She floated down next to Marinette’s Miraculous and waited to transform Marinette into Ladybug.
Adrien gently shook Marinette’s shoulder to wake her up. “Bugaboo, I need you to wake up and say the magic words. You can go back to sleep after you transform.” Adrien knew that if he was caught carrying a sleeping Marinette on his back that people might get curious. At least if they were both transformed then less people would ask questions if they were spotted. Especially after dealing with a total of eight Akumas in the span of forty-eight hours.
A muffled, “spots on” came from Marinette’s lips as Tikki disappeared into the Miraculous a dull pink light slowly enveloped her form as soft pajamas changed into sleek and durable spandex. The transformation took longer than usual, a strong sign that even the Kwamis were exhausted.
A smile came onto Adrien’s tired face, he never grew tired of watching her transform or feel the warm creation magic dance underneath his fingertips. His gaze shifted away from his partner and to his Kwami. Plagg gave him a nod which Adrien responded with one of his own. “Plagg, claws out.” He whispered, trying to avoid waking Ladybug up from her much-deserved rest. Transforming with Plagg felt like a cool wave of energy wash over him, giving him that much needed burst of energy to get them to school.
Picking up Ladybug off the ground took little effort, maneuvering her body in a way that had her resting on his back on the other hand took some effort. To the point that he had to wake her up for a minute to get her securely on his back. With her in a comfortable position and soundly back asleep Chat Noir took off running towards school. Though the runback was familiar enough that he found keeping his eyes open grew more difficult the longer he ran. “Kwamis I’m tired.” He mumbled to himself after nearly missing a jump because he started to doze off. Luckly they were almost at school as he heard the warning bell ring. “No, no, no, no we are not going to be late.” He grumbled to himself, searching for that last burst of energy to get them into class before the final bell.
Jumping off the rooftop, Chat Noir landed at the bottom of the steps leading into school. He dashed inside and almost flew up the flight of stairs to reach their classroom. He slammed into Ms. Bustier’s class just as the final bell rang. “We… are not… late.” He forced out, taking only a few steps into the classroom before his legs gave out. He fell to the ground with Ladybug still on his back.
The class scrambled to their feet, baffled to see the two heroes of Paris in such bad shape. Ms. Bustier ran to check to see if they were both still breathing. Letting a sigh of relief escape her lips she turned to Nino. “Go get the nurse and ask her to bring any spare blankets and pillows.”
Nino nodded and left the classroom without a second thought.
Ms. Bustier turned to Alya,“ how many Akuma have we had this week?”
“Uh, not including any from this morning? At least fifteen, though I’ve heard that there were another three this morning. I haven’t gone through any footage sent to me since last night because I had school.” Alya replied, flipping through the Ladyblog counting the number of different posts she’s made. “Based on the forum posts from the Ladyblog, people are saying there were another three this morning.
“No wonder they collapsed.” Ms. Bustier looked over the two sleeping heroes with a small frown on her face. It made sense why Marinette and Adrien were falling asleep in class this entire week. Hawk Moth was working them to the bone, and all the extra schoolwork she piled on didn’t help either. Returning her attention to her students, a serious look was on her face. “Nothing that happens today leaves this classroom, understood?” She watched her students nod in agreement, that was one problem dealt with. “Well, that explains all their disappearances.” She mumbled to herself hearing the door open, Nino returned with several pillows in his hand with the nurse right behind him. “I hope Nino didn’t get you at a bad time.”
“Uh… no, it’s fine. We should move them to the back of the room, just so no one else sees them.” The nurse spoke after getting over the shock of seeing Ladybug and Chat Noir sprawled out on top of each other sleeping.
“Class, independent study until we get this situation taken care of… okay?” Ms. Bustier sighed, this was definitely not how she expected her day to go.