Chapter Text
Another explosion and another scream had the students at Collège Françoise Dupont scrambled to escape the terror of the akuma of the week. It never seemed too far which was fortunate this day. The mask over his face, Adrien didn’t feel up to a lengthy confrontation. He could barely handle being in class as it went on, but he refused to stay home. It wasn’t contagious, and as long as he took his medicine in the morning, each lecture passed without issue. There was a tightening in his chest again, and he wondered if he should have taken the two pills instead of the one while he hurried to hide and wait in the locker room in order to transform. Ladybug would be waiting for him. A cold wasn’t going to stop him from helping her.
Unzipping his jacket, Plagg zoomed out and hovered before his face, but he made no sound. His large green eyes only gazed in concern at his kitten while gleaming with defiance, against the idea of even being coaxed into permitting Adrien to transform. That’s right; not even Camembert would convince him at this point. Of course, it would only take the phrase, and he would be unable to resist the Miraculous’ pull, but he would stand his ground until they were spoken... if they were spoken.
A minute passed in which groans and distant rumbles broke the silence, but Adrien didn’t speak. Instead, his hand groped beside him, trying to grab anything to keep him upright only for him to slam backwards into the lockers. They rattled, but that was mute beneath his labored wheezing. Strings rolled along his temple and he realized his mask slipping from his mouth, but made no move to grab it. His hair was plastered against his forehead, sweat beading and rolling down his face, dripping from his chin while he rapidly tried to breathe. It would be easier to suck in air through a straw, he was sure. Fingers fumbled on his locker door again, his other hand clutching and twisting his shirt in hopes to relieve the constriction on his chest while desperately trying to get his medication. He heard blood pounding in his ears like a rapid drum and slowly realized he was sinking. A drum? No, that wasn’t right…
“Adrien…!”
Plagg’s yell was lost above the surface of the water rapidly pulling him down, his body sliding down against the lockers. Gunmetal gray and white were washed together in an indistinguishable blur broken by a single yellow beam – a plank of wood. If he could reach it, maybe he could stay afloat until someone found him. But he couldn’t move forward. Cold needles had begun their incessant stinging lance up and down, pressing into his spine, and his body convulsed beneath the excruciating shocks. The numbness in his limbs would burned away momentarily to allow his nerve-endings to ignite before shooting back up to blind him, and everything tilted.
It managed to break the waves, and he managed to cough haggardly. Copper tickled his tongue between frantic gulps for air and began to pool beneath his cheek, its sharp stench nauseously keeping him awake for a little longer. When did he lie down? The world was shifting again, an icy tempest rising once more creeping over his legs as he struggled to hold onto his rapidly fading conscious. His shaking at least lessened, and he blinked to see large green eyes gazing back at him, glowing through the darkness that crept into the corners of his vision.
Plagg…
The feline kwami was yelling, but the tide washed him out. It was weird. Adrien thought about dying sometimes – how it might happen while he protected Paris alongside Ladybug. He never would’ve thought about it being so anti-climactic. Another blink and he tried to speak when he realized space before him was now unoccupied. His kwami was no longer there, and he couldn't stave off the panic that these last few moments would end just as lonely as his life had been to this point. Lips trembled, and he imagined that he could form the words.
Plagg…
Sweat… or tears? Adrien tried to call out again, but he couldn’t get beyond another hitched gasp. Don’t leave him now; he didn’t want to be alone. They were blurring his grayed vision despite suddenly being seized and his vision forced skyward. Blinking, his sight cleared enough for him to make out faces: a boy, and two girls one of whom was on a cell phone. There’s a baseball cap, and headphones; dark hair tied up in pigtails; and distinct, wavy curls… He was rocking again though not shivering. Were they shaking him? Warmth pressed against his cheek, and his chin was tilted upward that he could inhale just enough…
There… was the sky again in her bluebell eyes.
“Marin… ette…”
He saw no more.