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When Adrien walks into the classroom to see Marinette already there, dark purple staining the bags below her eyes and head drooping where it rests on one hand, he's more than a little worried.
Knowing now that she’s Ladybug, he’s started to really see the patterns that tie his classmate and friend to his Lady, rather than brushing them aside as coincidences. One of the many things that he’s realized is that, if a fight is long enough or hard enough, Marinette will almost invariably sleep in, barely running into the classroom on time if she even makes it for the first period.
Today though, Marinette’s here, and she looks like she got absolutely no sleep. She starts awake as Adrien moves to sit down, looking at him blearily with something that looks like shock, then relief.
Adrien, twisting around to face his partner, asks sotto voce, "Hey, what's wrong?"
Marinette blinks at him as she processes his question, then pauses as she understands it before finally formulating an answer and replying, "What? Oh, nothing, I'm fine..."
Except, it comes out a lot more strangled, because by the time she gets to 'fine' it's almost impressive that she hasn’t accidentally split her face with her yawn.
That, completely unsurprisingly, does nothing to convince him that she's fine, but before he can ask further, people start to filter into the room, and all the Ladybug-related questions he has fall off the table.
Nino and Alya, among those who wander in, head to their normal seats. Nino starts small talking at him with sneakily worried glances at Marinette, except Adrien registers pretty much none of it, because his attention is completely diverted by Alya’s whispered what's wrong? and Marinette’s reply of it’s nothing, just a nightmare.
Alya makes a noise like she wants to ask more, and Adrien himself wants to do the same, but that's unfortunately when Ms. Bustier comes in and announces the start of class.
Her voice jerks Marinette out of the doze that she’d been speaking to Alya in and causes her head to collide with the table. This in turn leads to the teacher almost scolding her before she sees her student's face.
Taking in her too-pale skin and the sleepy glaze of her eyes, Ms. Bustier asks instead, "Marinette, are you ok? Do you need to go to the infirmary?"
Marinette, blushing in shame, answers, "N-no, I'm fine. Just had a hard time sleeping last night, it's nothing."
Though Ms. Bustier looks extremely doubtful, she simply nods and starts with the lesson for the day.
Adrien feels Marinette's stare on the back of his neck throughout the entire period.
oOoOo
She’s sprawled helplessly on the ground, trying to force herself to stand. Stunned as she is by her fall, she can do nothing but close her eyes as Timebreaker flies at her, hand outstretched for an attack that means certain death.
Then, there's an impact, and she opens her eyes to see that it's against black instead of spotted red. She opens her eyes and it's Chat Noir who is struck, Chat Noir whose mask falls away as Adrien crumbles to icy diamond dust in her arms, spills through her fingers and dissolves into nothing more than the whisper of her name fading into thin air.
She calls out his name, and gets no answer.
In the hazy night, Marinette wakes up choking back hot tears, and not once after that does she sink back into sleep.
oOoOo
Nino may not know Marinette quite as well as Alya or Adrien do, but he knows that this twitchy restlessness goes far beyond typical Marinette inattention.
She’d actually been somewhat fine - if massively sleep deprived - throughout most of class… until Ms. Bustier decided to send Adrien out with a notice for one of the other teachers.
Adrien doesn’t even clear his seat before his shirt is caught in Marinette’s slender fingers.
Startled by the sudden resistance at his back, Adrien looks at Marinette who, exhausted as she is, doesn’t seem to realize anything’s wrong until she looks up into Adrien’s concerned green eyes and flinches. Then, the white fabric of Adrien’s shirt slips form her grasp, and she mumbles sorry at her desk before moving to pull her hand back hastily to her lap.
She’s stopped by Adrien, who grabs her hand quickly and gives it a reassuring squeeze. Instead of letting go after that, though, he brings her hand up to his lips and brushes a brief kiss over her knuckles.
Nino turns to the front of the room almost fast enough for whiplash, with the unsettling feeling that he's just intruded on a private moment for all that it took place in their public classroom.
He barely registers when Adrien murmurs, almost too quietly for Nino to hear, “Hey, I’ll be right back, okay?” into Marinette’s skin and she, rather than flushing scarlet and babbling, simply hums acknowledgement.
After that, Adrien lets go and walks through the doorway, disappearing from sight in a flash. He’s gone for no longer than a few minutes, but it’s clear when Nino glances back that Marinette is trying - and failing - to keep her attention on her work instead of the door. She looks like she wants nothing more than to race into the hallway and hold Adrien tight without letting go, which is slightly more intense a reaction than ususal.
When Adrien returns, Marinette relaxes only marginally, staring at him all the while. And, she continues to stare at him even as he sits down and goes straight back to work. Adrien notices, of course - it’d be more surprising if he didn’t notice, with that intensity - but unlike Nino he seems to have an actual idea of what’s going on, because his glances back are more worried than confused.
…It must be a Ladybug thing, then. Adrien and Marinette have always been strangely in-tune with each other, even before they really started talking, but it always shows up most clearly when their superhero personas surface, and always with their silent communication. It’s the only time that he and Alya acutely feel like outsiders in their own little clutch, when the two heroes-by-night communicate a world of thoughts in half-glances and brushed fingers, when both of them seem to be simply two halves of a single whole.
oOoOo
During their lunch period, Marinette heads off to the back of the school rather than going home. Adrien naturally follows, absently texting Natalie (and possibly Marinette’s parents) that they’ll be staying at the school as he keeps half a step behind her.
Alya, after a moment’s hesitation, follows the pair with Nino in tow. They’re all worried for Marinette, after all, and there’ll be plenty of time to go home for lunch later.
With Alya and Nino being concerned as they are, it’s a quiet walk to the back of the school. In the silence, Alya wonders if maybe they should fall back and not intrude, since it’s sure to be a private moment for the two (and sadly not in the kind of way that she can cheer over, despite that brief moment in the classroom.) But.. even if she doesn't know what’s going on and can’t do anything to help, she wants to make sure her best friend is okay. She has to see that, at least, before she’ll be satisfied.
Thus decided, Alya and Nino walk over to their best friends’ favorite copse of trees, coming to an agreement to watch and see what’s happening before actually approaching.
When they get there, they see Marinette sitting in a ball under the trees, talking almost more to her knees than she is to Adrien. Adrien, meanwhile, is sitting pretty much shoulder to shoulder with her, leaning in close to hear what she's saying and to offer a silent sort of comfort as he wordlessly reassures her that he’s there.
Alya’s too far away to hear what Marinette’s saying, but it’s unmistakable that she’s crying when she puts her face to her knees and shudders.
They stay still like that for a moment - Marinette curled in hiding and Adrien hovering protectively nearby - until Adrien finally wraps her up in an intimate hug and starts to murmur into her ear. Marinette stiffens in surprise, then twists and leans into the hug, holds Adrien’s white shirt with a similarly white-knuckled grip. It’s a gradual process, but as Adrien continues to whisper soft words, continues to rub slow circles on her back, she slowly - ever so slowly - relaxes.
After a few minutes, Marinette sags limply against Adrien, her face smoothing out into a content smile as she settles into a nap. Adrien smiles breathtakingly fondly at her as he tries to arrange her more comfortably, and not once does he break contact with Marinette.
Alya sees pure love there, reaching beyond fluttering hearts and hot blushes to settle in fathomless trust and care. In that moment, she feels the distance between their two separate groups - between the heroes and the civilians - stretch achingly far.
On the other side of the abyss, Adrien finally relaxes as Marinette sinks into a deeper sleep, with her head on his lap and and a hand curled loosely into the fabric of his jeans. He absently tugs her pigtails loose so that he can comb his fingers through her hair, and it’s only then that he looks up and sees Alya and Nino, standing almost out of sight by the wall.
He tilts his head in a question at them, asking if they're going to come or stay. While his face is carefully neutral, Alya gets the feeling that since Marinette's finally sleeping, he would rather they keep their distance and not risk waking her up.
Nino seems to have the same idea, because he gestures silently back the way they came. Adrien gives him a somewhat relieved nod, and then Nino pulls Alya away, leaving the two superheroes to their privacy.
Glancing back for one last look of her peacefully sleeping friend, Alya is hit by a wave of bittersweet joy. Because she’s so, so happy that Marinette has this relationship, this love and trust and comfort and peace with Adrien that’s deeper than anything they could have imagined would happen, but…
She can’t help but feel the sharp pain of this one chasm in their friendship, this one part of her best friend that she doesn’t really understand.