Chapter Text
Marinette knew it was going to be a bad day from the moment she woke up. Truth be told, the lingering feeling of anxiety had been haunting her so often nowadays, she could practically call it an old friend. The spike of panic that had hit her this morning, though, was worse than usual.
“You’re just stressed, Marinette. Try to look on the positive side!” Tikki had chirped at her as she’d gotten ready, trying to lift her spirits.
Immortal creatures of unfathomable power never got bags under their eyes, though. Tikki never had to take a history test after falling asleep three paragraphs into the chapter. She didn’t have the physical limitations of a growing teenage body running on four or five hours of sleep every night. And kwamis certainly never had to worry about falling spectacularly in front of their entire gym class on the football field.
Marinette, however, did.
She was currently curled around her own ankle, scared to grip it too tightly in fear of causing more pain. On the other hand, it felt as though she couldn’t squeeze tightly enough. Her muscles or tendons or whatever lay beneath her skin were searingly unhappy and letting her know just how badly she’d messed up.
Jumping in front of Adrien had been…stupid. She knew this before she did it and she especially knew it now. A crescent of her classmates formed around her, various echoes of the same sentiment uttered over and over again.
“Marinette, are you okay!?”
She tried to respond immediately, but the ball she’d taken directly to the nose hadn’t been traveling slowly. Her brain was still rattling around her skull as her ankle throbbed between her hands. Ladybug’s grace and decorum was nowhere to be seen. Marinette’s landing had been sloppy due to the unexpected block she’d made with her face.
Through the ripples of various pain in her body, Marinette looked up and saw Adrien’s worried face peering back at her. He and Alya were on the move in seconds. Adrien and Nino got the others to back up as Alya tried to check on her best friend writhing on the ground.
“I’m fine.” Marinette gritted her teeth, hating the way everyone’s eyes fell on her. It was just another embarrassing mess-up to add to the list. She couldn’t do anything right as of late.
“You don’t sound fine.” Alya hummed back, lifting an eyebrow. Behind her, Adrien’s eyes glimmered with worry. Marinette hated to see him upset about anything, especially since he already had so many reasons. She had no right to add more weight to his shoulders.
“Really, all good.” Marinette bit her tongue so badly it almost bled as she choked on another wave of throbbing pain from her ankle. “Just knocked the wind out of me a little bit.” She held out a hand and gratefully found Alya’s support in getting to her feet.
“Oh, look everyone, she’s alright! It must’ve looked a lot worse than it was.” Lila beamed with glee, ecstatic to accuse her classmate of an overreaction.
“I don’t know, Lila.” Adrien stepped forward, ready to take Marinette’s other side. Marinette was certain she imagined red flooding his cheeks as he did so, but there was no hesitation in his movements. “Marinette isn’t the type to overreact. She seems legitimately injured.”
“Here, Adrien.” Alya smiled deviously but quickly masked it. “Why don’t you take Marinette to the nurse’s office? I’ll grab her things and meet you guys there.”
Mr. D’argencourt quickly agreed to the plan, allowing two of his students to leave immediately as one trailed behind with an armful of books. Behind her, Marinette could just barely hear Lila explaining to the others the difference between a break and a sprain by recounting all the times she’d injured herself some way or another.
Lies. Marinette wanted to yell back, but knew it would do no good. Besides, she had more important things to focus on…like the way Adrien’s arm was wrapped around her as support. Heat flooded her face and she did her best to hide it, turning her gaze to the ground as she took a firm step with her unhappy ankle.
Marinette’s vision went red. She was distantly aware of how Adrien yelped as she gripped his arm tightly to keep her upright. By the time the pain subsided enough for her to think clearly again, Adrien had little divots in his forearm from her nails.
“Sorry!” Marinette squeaked, releasing him quickly in apology. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt Adrien, and here he was acting as a human stress ball. “I’m so sorry!” Her face was overheating to the point where steam might’ve been spilling off her. “I didn’t––I mean I wasn’t––I didn’t think it would––I’m…sorry.” Marinette finished lamely.
Adrien just smiled through all her stuttering. “I’ve twisted my ankle before, Marinette. Believe me, I know how much it hurts to put weight on it.” He made a strange face, like he was recalling a fond memory despite the intent of his words. “Would a piggyback ride be easier? Or I can carry you in a different way if you’d prefer something else.”
Marinette’s mind went blank. Eventually, she agreed to his terms because frankly, it would get this whole debacle over sooner. She didn’t know whether to curse or thank Alya for the horrifyingly incredible result of being carried by her crush across the stadium to the school’s nurse’s office.
“Thanks, Adrien.” It didn’t seem to be enough, but it’s all Marinette could offer for now.
“Happy to help. You definitely blocked the ball from hitting me so it’s the least I could do.”
“Well,” Marinette shrugged. Now that there was distance between the two of them, her mind felt a bit more cohesive. “I guess that’s what a team is, right? They celebrate not only the wins together, but the losses, too.”
“You’re absolutely right.” Adrien, as always, just smiled back. Then he turned to leave. “Get better soon! Our team sucks without you and everyone knows it.” He sent her one final wink before exiting the room.
From that point on, Marinette only picked up on about half of the world around her. The nurse’s voice became background noise as she inspected the injury and called her student’s parents to come take her home for the day.
Marinette barely reacted to any of it, still lost in the smile Adrien had given her as a parting gift. He’d looked so selfless and kind. Even worse, it felt disturbingly familiar: like his smile was one that haunted her dreams enough for her to only remember a wisp of it when she woke up.
Sometimes that wicked sense of deja vu nearly killed her. But after some of the most exhausting months of her life, Marinette couldn’t afford to put anymore thought towards it. Adrien felt familiar in ways he shouldn’t. Then again, Marinette had been a tad obsessed back when she’d had time to spare. These odd feelings were likely just remnants of a bad case of unrequited love.
“Marinette?” Maman’s voice pulled her from the depths of her own thoughts. The girl looked up, seeing her mother holding a dish of what appeared to be rice and vegetables out towards her. “Are you hungry?”
That’s right, her parents had closed the bakery to come pick her up from school when the nurse had called. She was seated at home on her couch, her right leg elevated on some pillows with an old ice pack sitting atop her lightly-casted ankle. A pair of loaner crutches were leaning against the kitchen counter.
Marinette really needed to stop spacing out. It had been too easy to go on autopilot with so many people looking out for her. Becoming dependent and unaware…she couldn’t afford to do that anymore. If someone had been akumatized in the last hour when she hadn’t been paying attention––
“Yeah, thanks Maman.” Marinette smiled. She shoved her endless stream of worries to the back of her min and reached out to accept the bowl. Her mother smiled back and did a final look over before setting her resolve.
“Alright then. Do you need anything else? I’ve got to go help your father in the bakery for the after work rush. Are you fine up here on your own?”
Parents always became too overbearing when something happened to their child. Thankfully, Marinette’s clumsiness was something her Maman and Papa had gotten used to years ago. If she needed something, she’d call. This wasn’t the first fracture she’d gotten and it likely wouldn’t be the last.
Marinette could take care of herself, even if it didn’t look like it. She had to if she also needed to look out for the entirety of Paris. Being self-sufficient was a necessity for those who dared to call themselves the hero of a community. The help from others so far had been nice but she couldn’t…she couldn’t rely on anyone too much. She couldn’t allow herself to let her guard down even for a second.
The safety of the city and everyone she loved depended on it.
She’s fairly certain the nurse had diagnosed it as a small fracture. Just a small one. No big deal. The crutches proved easier to use than she’d expected and honestly, Marinette didn’t even plan on bringing them to school tomorrow. She could walk around just fine.
“Well maybe this can be an excuse for you to finally take a break.” Tikki’s voice rang clear like a bell beside the girl’s ear.
Marinette startled a little. “What are you talking about? I don’t need––”
Tikki glared.
“I don’t need help!” Marinette got defensive, her arms crossing her chest. “I’ll use this extra time to rest a bit so I’ll be good as new by the time school starts tomorrow.”
“Marinette.” Tikki narrowed her eyes just a hint. And it was enough
Honestly, another day or so off school didn’t sound terrible. Marinette imagined sleeping in and loitering around her loft as she waited for her ankle to heal. It was the perfect plan, one that included bountiful amounts of rest and recovery.
…Except she couldn’t afford yet another day off. Even if she used the day to catch up on all her missing assignments from school, she’d just be missing more instructional time, which would likely cause her to fall even further behind. Her grades had been slipping lately, not to mention the increasing variety of class representative responsibilities she’d been dropping.
Thank the stars for Alya, honestly. Marinette owed her more catching all the tasks that had slipped through the cracks recently due to the president’s oversight. They had a media literacy and safety presentation due soon and Marinette hadn’t even started it.
The heroine of Paris sighed, a familiar feeling of dread and anxiety creeping down her spine. Time was not an unlimited resource these days. Broken bone or not, there was work to be done.
“Fine.” Marinette finally conceded to Tikki. “I’ll rest my ankle for as long as I need to–”
“Great!” Tikki clapped her tiny hands together.
“–while I continue narrowing down the list of suspects.” Marinette finished her thought, to the displeasure of her kwami.
Tikki deadpanned. “Not what I meant.”
Marinette shrugged. At the exact same moment, her phone erupted into a symphony of alert sounds and vibrations. The small television in the living room had been on as background suddenly flashed bright colors to warn all Parisians of an ongoing situation.
Someone was attacking the city. Perfect.