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It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
It was just another day at school, just another akuma victim, just another day as secretly-Ladybug Marinette Dupain-Cheng, but just another doesn’t lead to Adrien Agreste bleeding out on her lap.
Hemstress is, no pun intended, nothing if not crafty. Rather than facing Paris’ superheroes head on, traps were laid out through the city, and while this normally wouldn’t be a problem for the duo-
“A ball of yarn.”
“Uh-”
“A ball of yarn.”
“My Lady I can explain-”
“We fell for Hemstress’ trap and got trapped in by needles because you got sidetracked by a ball of yarn I can’t believe this actually happened—” and that’s all the warning Chat gets before Ladybug erupts into peals of laughter.
“Laaaaadyyyyyyy—”
Marinette swears she sees Chat’s ears droop down a bit as he whines in embarrassment before reining her giggles in at his pout.
“C’mon kitty,” She has to stop for a second lest she burst into giggles again, “Get us out of here already.”
Grumbling just a little bit, “Cataclysm!!”
With two swipes the two are freed again.
“Let’s catch up we lost a lot of time while Mr. Kitty here got distrac—”
“LADYBUG WATCH OUT—”
Marinette’s just barely turned before Chat slams into her rolling them across the roof, impact jarring and disorienting as she struggles to gather her bearings. She pulls herself from underneath Chat she winces from the pain and looks around.
“Chat? What was that what—”
Needles. There’s a barrage of needles lodged on their previous cell and even more stuck in the wall behind it. A bit shaken, she turns to her feline partner,
“Thanks kitty that was close— Kitty? Hey come on get up—” Marinette reaches down to roll Chat over from his prone form, “I swear kitty if you’re going to try to get a smooch off of me—”
“Unghh…”
Marinette recoils sharply at Chat’s whimper of pain. “Chat? Hey Chat are you alright? Come on Chat say something—” Marinette freezes when her fingers brush across something wet across her partner’s side before hitting something solid that causes Chat to groan.
There’s a needle roughly a foot long and an inch wide embedded firmly in the side of his stomach.
“CHAT!!”
The needle has been taken out with careful guidance from her mental link with Tikki but Chat’s ring is beeping, the transformation is going to wear off soon and his wound won’t. Stop. Bleeding.
“Tikki Tikki what do I do what do I do, he’s still bleeding Tikki!!”
Marinette swipes furiously at her eyes with one arm while the other is pressed firmly down on Chat Noir’s wound in an effort to slow the bleeding.
“Marinette!! The only way you can save him is to defeat Hemstress and bring everything back to normal! Look! The yarn! Use that to wrap his wound so you can fight Hemstress!”
With quick flick of her yo-yo Marinette starts wrapping up the wound as best as she can with a ball of yarn (the beeping’s getting faster-). “Chat, Chat please wake up please say something Chat say something I’m—”
“Oho? If you’re the only one here then I presume that the kitty-cat fell for my trap?”
“Don’t yo-” Marinette has to collect herself for a moment. Hemstress is just another akuma victim, there’s no use trying to blame or take revenge on her. The only thing she can do as Ladybug right now, for herself and for Chat, is to stop Hemstress as soon as possible and pray that the Miraculous Cleansing Light can save Chat.
After that. After that it’ll be Hawk Moth’s turn.
“Awww, cat got your tongue? Don’t worry sweetie I’ll go pay him a visit as soon as I get your Miraculous. I might even stitch him up for you as a bonus, although I do wonder if I’ll be finding Chat Noir or…?”
“You stay away from him!!! Lucky Charm!!!”
Oh god he’s burning, he’s burning what’s going on what happened is Ladybug okay and oh his side burns—
“Tikki Tikki what do I do what do I do, he’s still bleeding Tikki!!”
Is that Ladybug? It sounds like she’s okay but he can’t even open his eyes to make sure. As he slowly starts to fully grasp his bearings through the haze of pain (he thinks he hears Plagg frantically saying something but his link with the kwami seems a bit fuzzy), the sharp beeping of his ring registers just as Ladybug starts to wrap him up with... is that the yarn from earlier?
“Chat, Chat please wake up please say something Chat say something I’m—”
Well. He can’t leave his lady’s call unanswered can he?
“Nnngh… M… My Lady…?”
“Chat!” with a start—Adrien winces a bit from the slight jostle—Ladybug stops where she’s at to peer into his eyes, “Chat you’re awake oh my god thank goodness are you okay what am I saying you’re definitely not okay how could you do such a stupid thing I won’t forgi-”
She’s rambling and it’s actually kind of cute but there are tears in her eyes and also a hole in his side. His transformation is going to wear off any second now and he really needs to go before that happens but he can barely keep his eyes open and replace Ladybug’s hands at his side before—
A final beep is all he gets before the transformation wears off as Plagg pops out from his ring and damn his side hurts. With a hiss of pain Adrien slowly directs his gaze back to Ladybug, a nervous energy thrumming through his veins at the involuntary reveal of the lonely teenage boy who has everything and nothing.
…
“A-Adrien?”
She’s barely thrown up the lucky charm before she’s already racing back to where she had to leave Chat- Adrien.
Chat Noir is Adrien.
Her faithful kitty, her most trusted partner, is Adrien Agreste. Her mind is still reeling from this discovery as she’s scrabbling across rooftops, chasing after the Miraculous Cleansing Light.
All she can think of now is how Chat Noir pushed her out of harm’s way (again, she’s going to have to have a Talk with him about this), how Adrien Agreste looked at her with pained eyes as he struggled to keep pressure on his wound with the help of his kwami as he shooed her off to save the city, how she very well may be too late if the way her Miraculous is beeping as she lands is any indication.
What will she do now? Is he okay? Was he healed? How will she react to him from now on? Should she reveal herself to him? Would he still even like her when he see who she really is?
All of these questions become trivial when she spots him sitting up and waving at her. Breaking into a sprint, she launches herself into Adrien’s arms, sobbing with relief into his shoulders. She doesn’t even realize her transformation has worn off until a startled “Marinette?” slips from Adrien’s mouth.
They have a lot to talk about, Marinette thinks, now that they know who they are now, what it all means, but that can come later. Later, when Marinette can fully come to terms with how Chat and Adrien are safe and well. For now she contents herself with nuzzling her face into the crook of Adrien’s neck and shoulder as she listens to the gentle rhythm of his pulse under his jaw as she feels his hands circling around her to rub circles into her back.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this, but maybe it’ll be alright.
They’re Ladybug and Chat Noir, after all.