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The moment the fight started, Ladybug knew that Tonnerre was going to turn out to be a particularly nasty akuma.
Papillon had been silent for close to three weeks, and whenever he lulled Ladybug and Chat Noir into a false sense of security, he’d make up for the lost time with akumas that would take the two of them literally hours to neutralize. This was one of those fights, both of them having already taken a reprieve from the fight twice after having used their Lucky Charms and Cataclysms with no results. It was the middle of the summer and the heat was starting to make Ladybug lightheaded. Her chest was starting to burn terribly as her endurance failed her, and she could see Chat Noir’s speed slowing. But Tonnerre — who was actually a particularly peeved off weather forecaster who had recently been laid off — was using his powers to create thunderous sound waves that were causing incalculable damage to the arrondissement they were fighting in. Of course Ladybug could reverse any damage done, but it was always a priority to prevent any casualties either way. No matter how much her body was failing her, they needed to keep fighting.
Chat Noir managed to rile up Tonnerre enough so that he was chasing them away from the crowds of people that could’ve been injured. Chat quickly wrapped an arm around Ladybug’s waist and yanked her to the right to avoid the soundwave that had decimated the roof she was running on. “If you have an idea, my Lady, now would be the time to share it!”
She called out her third Lucky Charm and got an industrial fan for her efforts. She clicked her tongue against her teeth and quickly scanned the streets to see an apartment complex coming up in front of them that was under construction. It was covered in tarps and sawdust, as if the workers had only just finished off their work for the day, and Ladybug smirked. “Split up. You lead him into that building and distract him. I’ll come to cover you soon.”
Chat Noir saluted her, howled an insult at the akuma, and booked it on all fours towards the building. Ladybug quickly dropped into a narrow alley beneath her and watched as Tonnerre passed over the roofs above to follow Chat Noir. She looked down at her hands at the fan and drummed her fingers against it in thought. It was a risky plan, and it might cause a lot of damage, but she wasn’t sure how else to take down an akuma that had this much brute force. All else failed, she’d be able to reverse everything she damaged once she won.
She jogged through the back alleys and swung on the lower roofs until she reached the apartment building. She carefully and quietly scaled the side of the building all the way up to the top floor where Chat Noir was currently doing his best to dodge all of the attacks Tonnerre was sending his way. Ladybug slunk through one of the open windows, found an outlet right next to the wall, and plugged the fan in. She pointed it towards the fighting duo and shouted over the sound of their clashing, “Hold your breath, Chat!”
He did as he was told as Ladybug flipped the fan on high, kicking up all the rubbish, sawdust, and plastic tarps that were covering the ground. Tonnerre immediately covered his eyes and started coughing into the crook of his elbow, unable to see even two feet in front of him. Ladybug pointed to the support beams on either side of Tonnerre. “Chat! The beams!”
Chat Noir nodded and called up his Cataclysm before obliterating the beams holding up the roof. Sure enough, the incomplete roof that was right above the akuma had immediately collapsed on top of him, burying him in slabs of wood, broken plaster, and roof tiles. The dust and debris that was kicked up was starting to get into Ladybug’s eyes, but once she turned off the fan and let the air clear, she saw that Tonnerre was completely trapped, his arms pinned to his sides from the rubble that was around him.
Ladybug sighed and swiped her forehead. “Crap, that took way too long.”
Chat Noir shrugged. “Well. At least we’re done. I think his wallet is the akumatized item. Should be right there in his shirt pocket.”
“Don’t you dare underestimate me!” Tonnerre roared. “You think that this is all I had left to show you?”
“Is there more?” Chat Noir scoffed. “While I do love a good show, I think you’ve done enough for one day. You won’t be causing anymore trouble today, my friend.”
“You don’t have any idea how outmatched you are, do you?” Tonnerre said.
Ladybug rolled her eyes and stepped over the mess. “We’re done here, Tonnerre. You’re trapped with nowhere to go. You’ll be thankful to get that nasty butterfly out of your system anyway.”
Tonnerre grinned wickedly and laughed. “We’ll see about that.” Ladybug barely had a chance to blink before Tonnerre easily pulled his pinned arms out from the pile of rubble that had surrounded him and slapped his hands on the floor. The resulting shockwave left the entire building rumbling and shaking, and Ladybug and Chat Noir had to hang onto the walls in order to keep their balance. Tonnerre slammed his hands down on the ground again, and this time the entire floor underneath their feet began to rumble, creak, and groan under the strength of Tonnerre’s attacks. Before she knew it, Ladybug was watching the floorboards in the center of the room splinter inwards and begin collapsing down into the lower floors. “Chat!” she screamed. “Out the window!”
Chat immediately ran for the window with Ladybug right behind him, but he barely made it five steps before the floor completely gave out from underneath him. She heard him curse and attempt to grab onto the edge of the flooring, but his efforts were in vain as he slipped and plummeted through the gaping hole in the ground. Ladybug stopped her sprint to keep herself from falling as well, but Tonnerre let another attack that shook the entire building and made the rest of the floor fall out from underneath her. Tonnerre managed to save himself by hanging onto one of the window sills, but Ladybug didn’t have a chance to hang onto anything before she started to fall too.
Between the strong attacks and the weight of the debris, Ladybug was sure they were dropping more than just one story. She reached for the yoyo at her hip and cast it out in an attempt to latch onto something, but her weapon couldn’t make it through all of the piles of construction that was falling onto them. She suddenly got the feeling that this was going to look particularly bad, and she couldn’t see where Chat had fallen. Instead, she started spinning her yoyo above her as quickly as she could, shut her eyes, and braced herself for the impact.
Tikki had told her that their suits protected them from immense amounts of physical damage, and Ladybug was never more grateful for that than she was in that moment. The wind was painfully knocked from her chest when her back finally connected with the floor, but her yoyo had protected her from being buried by the destroyed building and her suit had kept her bones from shattering on impact. The sounds of all the damage finally falling around her was deafening, and she only barely felt small stray pieces of stone and wood peppering her face and leaving cuts against her cheeks and chin. All she could do was squint her eyes shut against the damage and hope that the building would soon stop collapsing.
It was a long few minutes before the noise settled and left Ladybug laying on her back, surrounded by destruction and silence. She started dry heaving as the dust seeped into her lungs, and her vision was beginning to blacken at the peripheries as she tried to recover from the fall, but otherwise she didn’t feel as if she was seriously harmed.
She finally stopped spinning her yoyo and let it clatter to the ground as she rolled to the side and heard her earrings blaring in her ear. She laid there for a moment and threw her arm over her mouth so that she could catch her breath without breathing in all of the dust. It felt like ages before all the dust finally settled and kept the air clear enough for Ladybug to open her eyes, look around, and try to see where she had fallen.
Ladybug could barely see a staircase — completely blocked off by looming piles of bricks and concrete — with a ‘B’ sign on the door. She cursed under her breath and swiped her hair away from her face. She was all the way in the basement. That meant she had fallen at least seven stories. Had she not been transformed, a fall like that would’ve certainly killed her. She shook off the sickening thought in favor of trying to look around and see if there was another exit that wasn’t blocked off. Unfortunately, most of the wreckage from the building had fallen down here, leaving only a few feet of space around her for her to move. Everything from bits of the ceilings, chucks of the walls, splintered wood, broken bricks, and shattered piping was filling up the room and leaving absolutely no discernable exit. A few of the fluorescent lights that were on in the basement before the blast seemed to have been saved, bathing the area in dim lighting that was only just bright enough to let Ladybug see. No windows. No doors. No gaps for air to get in. She was completely trapped.
“Shit,” she muttered to herself. How in the world was she supposed to get herself out of this one?
Her earrings beeped once more, and she heard an identical beep sound from across the room just a moment later. Ladybug gasped and twisted her head towards the sound, her heart speeding up into a panic. “Chat?”
She didn’t get an answer, and she scrambled on her hands and knees across the room towards the noise. At first, she didn’t see anything other than more refuse and more blocked off exits, but something out of the corner of her eye shifted and she heard groaning coming from the same direction. She maneuvered over a collapsed support beam and underneath a precarious pile of stone and concrete until she found herself in a small pocket of space whose only opening was the small crawlspace that Ladybug had wedged herself into. It was hotter and darker in this small space and much harder to breathe, but she didn’t have to look long before she spotted Chat Noir and felt her throat close up in terror.
Ladybug managed to scan his face and upper body and was relieved to see that he was relatively unharmed save a few cuts and bruises. But what was making her heart sink in panic was Chat Noir’s left leg that was completely buried and pinned by a huge pile of wood, bricks, and concrete. He turned his head when he heard her shifting closer to him, and he smiled through the pain on his face as she watched his hands clench painfully around the part of his leg that was still visible. “Hey….m’lady,” Chat forced out. “Fancy….meeting you here.”
“Oh my God…” she muttered, cupping one of his cheeks and running her other hand along Chat’s thigh right above where it was pinched. “What….how did this….?” Ladybug swallowed and shook her head to still her whirling thoughts. “Are you in pain?”
Chat winced and shook his head. “Surprisingly enough, not really,” he coughed out. “Just feels like a lot of pressure, but no pain. I think it’s because of the suit…”
Ladybug looked around the small space frantically. “W-Where’s your baton? Can you reach it? Use it to get out?”
“Underneath all this,” Chat Noir sighed, tapping the rock that was trapping him. “It’s right next to my left foot, but there’s no way to get to it. Do you have your yoyo?”
“Yeah, but it’s not going to do us any good,” Ladybug said. “It can’t carve through this much wreckage, and there’s not enough space for me to swing it anyway.”
Chat knocked his head back against the ground. “Well. This sucks.” At that moment, Ladybug’s earrings sounded once more along with Chat Noir’s ring. He furrowed his brow. “How much time do you have?”
“Three minutes. You?”
“Four.” He laughed mirthlessly. “Think we can learn the art of levitation by then?”
Ladybug knew that he was trying to lighten the mood and make the situation not seem so dire, but she knew that there was no way she was going to be able to get Chat Noir out of here before his transformation fell, which meant that the pain that Chat Noir was barely feeling was soon going to be excruciating once he was in his civilian form and had no suit to protect him. It was the last thing Ladybug wanted to see, but there was absolutely no way she was going to leave him here by himself in order to suffer through this by himself. Unfortunately, their transformations were running out, and neither of them had anything on hand to feed their kwamis and recharge in time for another transformation. Which not only meant that Chat Noir wasn’t going to get out of this without being severely injured, they weren’t going to get out of this without learning each other’s identities.
Her anxiety was mounting, and the heat and lack of air was making it harder for her to think. She was trying to look around for anything that she could use, willing the last bits of her intuition to find something of use out of sheer luck, but she couldn’t get her head straight enough to think that hard. Chat was hurt. He was going to be even more hurt soon. They were trapped. There was no way out. Ladybug had no idea what she was supposed to do.
Ladybug must have been breathing hard because Chat Noir reached out to place a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it until she was looking his way. “Hey. Breathe, Ladybug. It’s ok. We’ll figure something out.”
She shook her head. “Not in enough time.”
“Look….no serious damage happens unless circulation is cut off for hours at a time,” Chat explained. “Sure it’ll hurt like hell, but I’ll survive.”
Ladybug’s stomach recoiled in horror at the sound of him making such a serious injury sound so casual, but she ignored it in favor of scolding him. “I mean not enough time to spare you the pain! There must be hundreds of pounds of this stuff on you!”
Chat Noir swallowed, pursed his lips, and nodded. “No,” he said simply. “Not enough time for that.”
Ladybug raked both of her hands through her hair. “This is my fault. I should’ve grabbed you while we were falling. I could’ve used my yoyo to grab you, or — ”
“Hey, hey, don’t you do that,” Chat Noir said sternly. “None of this is your fault. This was just….really awful luck which had nothing to do with us. We just….we have to deal with it.”
The guilt was still mounting in her chest, but she suddenly ignored that in favor of the realization that there was no way they were going to be able to keep their identities a secret and help Chat Noir get out of this mess at the same time. It wasn’t as if they could close their eyes or turn their backs to each other, and in all the scenarios that Ladybug had imagined where they could accidentally or even purposefully revealed themselves to each other, this was the absolute last method she imagined. “This….” She couldn’t keep her eyes off of Chat Noir’s leg. “This wasn’t how I wanted to find out…this wasn’t supposed to be how we found out. Not like this.”
“I know,” Chat Noir agreed. “But there’s nothing we can do about it now. We just have to think of a way out of here. You’re so smart. I trust you, I know you can figure something out.”
“I don’t want to see you in pain.”
Chat Noir shrugged. “Better me than you.”
She smacked him on the shoulder. “No, don’t you say that! That isn’t funny! You don’t deserve to be in a situation like this, and I’m going to get you out of it.”
He chuckled. “I know you will.”
Her earrings gave a warning beep and she knew she only had seconds before her transformation fell. Ladybug felt heart clench in anxiety as she clutched her earrings and made eye contact with Chat Noir. “Brace yourself.”
The moment the miraculous’s magic washed over her and left her in nothing more than the clothes she put on this morning, she watched Chat Noir’s eyes go from staring on in anticipation to gawking at her in shock. Marinette didn’t have any time to figure out what the expression meant before Tikki came zipping out her earrings and landing softly in the palms of her hands. She blinked tiredly for a few seconds before she focused and widened her eyes at the sight before her. “Oh no, Marinette,” Tikki lamented. “How did this happen? Are you alright?”
Marinette shook her head. “I don’t know, everything happened so fast, and I didn’t know what happened until it was too late. And I’m fine, it’s not me I’m worried about anyway.” She lifted her hands towards Chat Noir’s body and winced when Tikki gasped and covered her mouth at the sight of Chat Noir’s leg. “You poor thing!” Tikki cried out. “Oh goodness, please tell me you’re not in any pain.”
But Chat Noir’s response was delayed, still staring at Marinette’s face as if he’d completely lost the ability to think of words and form sentences. His mouth moved wordlessly for a moment before he finally managed out a noise. “...Marinette?!”
Marinette’s back straightened up at the sound of her name. “How did you know that?”
Chat Noir laughed in disbelief and placed a hand on his forehead. “This is so crazy,” he muttered to himself. “Oh man, and it all makes so much sense, of course it’s you. God, how did I miss this?”
“Wait a minute,” Marinette asked. “You know who I am?”
“That I do,” Chat Noir replied, smiling softly at her. “Actually. I think that you might even — ”
Whatever he was about to say was frozen on the tip of his tongue and completely forgotten as his ring finally gave its final beep, sounding absolutely deafening in the silence surrounding them. His eyes immediately flew open and he turned to stare at his trapped leg. His fingers tightened into the flesh of his thigh. “Shit,” he muttered. “Oh shit….”
Marinette grabbed Chat Noir’s right hand and placed her other hand over his mouth. She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Just squeeze and scream. You’re going to be ok. You’re going to be just fine.”
Chat Noir nodded and they both shut their eyes when his transformation finally fell. The moment it did, Marinette felt Chat Noir’s entire body tense up as he let out a blood curdling scream into her hand. It made tears come to Marinette’s eyes as Chat Noir squeezed the life out of her hand and banged his fist on the ground next to him. He started sobbing against her fingers and writhing around on the floor, and Marinette did her best to keep him still. She couldn’t imagine how much pain he was in, but she knew that him squirming around would only make things worse. She put their linked hands on top of his stomach and pressed down, trying to keep him still while he rode out the waves of pain.
She kept her lips pressed to his forehead, muttering things against his skin, and rubbing her thumb across his knuckles in an attempt to give him something to ground himself. It only took a few more minutes before his screams turned into groans, which turned into grunting, which then turned into labored breathing. It wasn’t perfect, and she could feel his forehead wrinkling in tension underneath her lips, but Marinette figured that he was gradually losing feeling in his leg and there wasn’t much left for him to scream over. It would give him a brief reprieve, but that meant that they needed to get him out of here as soon as possible before the damage he faced was irreparable.
Marinette finally pulled away from Chat Noir to brush his sweat slicked hair out of his face, but her fingers froze during their progress as she saw Adrien laying on the ground with a black kwami nuzzling up to his cheek.
“It’s okay, kid,” the kwami kept muttering into his ear. “I’ve seen charges way wimpier than you get out of tougher spots than this. We’re gonna get you out of here.”
Adrien forced out a chuckle. “T-Thanks Plagg. Sorry….sorry I didn’t have any food for you.”
“Oh hush up, you silly boy!” Plagg scolded. “Worry about you first for once.”
Marinette was only barely registering the conversation as her fingers brushed over the bridge of her partner’s nose. “Adrien,” she breathed out.
He turned to her and smiled as convincingly as he could. “Hi M-Marinette.” Adrien blew out a strained breath through his teeth and shut his eyes. “C-Crap this h-hurts!”
Admittedly, Marinette froze for a few seconds, the weight of a thousand and one thoughts whirling through her head and begging to be pondered. But she knew she didn’t have any time to be shocked because Adrien was currently clenching his leg and hissing in pain every time he shifted too much. They were running on limited time, and Marinette couldn’t afford to be distracted. She reached over and moved his hands away from his leg. “I know it’s hard, but you have to stop focusing on the pain. It’s not going to help you,” Marinette insisted. She moved until she was kneeling by his head and started to push up on his shoulders. “Here, can you lean up on your elbows?”
Adrien winced at the thought, but he nodded as Marinette helped him up. He groaned and cursed under his breath when he was finally upright, and Marinette gestured to the two kwamis sitting on the side. “Can the two of you help me get his overshirt off? He’s sweating right through this.”
Between the three of them, they managed to pull the sweat drenched shirt from his shoulders and laid him carefully back down on the ground. Marinette swiped Adrien’s bangs away from his face, and slicked his hair back. She pulled her own hair up away from her neck, shed her own blazer, and started using the sleeve to dab the sweat on Adrien’s forehead. “Okay, uh….can you do me a favor?”
Adrien nodded. “Any….anything.”
“You have to keep talking,” she explained to him. “It’ll help keep your mind off your leg, and let me know you’re okay. Do you think you can do that?”
“Anything for my Lady,” he joked. “Your voice is oddly calming, too.”
Marinette smiled sadly. “Then I’ll keep talking right back at you kitty, alright?”
There was so much she wished she could tell him and so much she wished she could ask as he managed to weakly scramble for her hand and press a kiss it. But the one thing that she knew would keep her going was that they would have all the time in the world to talk about this once they were safe and sound and out of this horrible mess. Marinette gently ran her fingers across her brow, smiled, and got down to business. “Alright,” she thought aloud. “Maybe, uh….maybe there’s something here we can use to get this rock off of you and get you out of there. With the building collapsed, there have to be people swarming the place. They’ll find us, and then at least your leg will be safe.”
“If….if I could make a suggestion,” Adrien forced. “That’s putting a lot of faith in people we don’t know are really looking for us.” He turned his head and pinned her with a stern stare. “I think you should focus on finding a way out of here.”
Marinette frowned. “You mean both of us.”
“No. I mean you .”
Marinette shook her head firmly. “No. Absolutely not. Either we get out of here together or — ”
“Or what? Not at all?”
“I am not leaving you down here by yourself!” she exclaimed. “Who knows what could happen? This building might finish collapsing and crush you, then what would I do?”
“You would stop Tonnerre, purify the akuma, and bring everything right back to the way it was before. Including me. Forget me. You need to figure out a way to get out of here.”
Tikki sighed. “He’s right, Marinette. There’s no way we’re going to be able to help him get all this off of him. Our best bet is to help him as quickly as possible, and only you can do that. You have to find a way out.”
“I’m gonna side with the kid too,” Plagg piped in. “Not that I’m saying Chat Noirs are expendable, but if there was ever a choice between him and you, it’s always gotta be you. You’re the only one who can purify akumas and reverse damage, and Adrien knows that.”
Marinette huffed. She hated that part of their job descriptions and hated being reminded of it. Chat Noir always liked to joke about it as if it was funny, and Marinette secretly despised the joke. It was so unfair to think of him as less deserving of safety than her simply because his miraculous awarded him different powers. It wasn’t as if Marinette did anything special to earn her restorative powers anymore than Adrien did, and she didn’t feel comfortable prioritizing herself over a silly technicality like that. Especially when it meant leaving Adrien down here in a hot, dark basement with tons of rock piled on top of his leg and leaving him unable to move.
She clutched the fabric of her skirt. “I can’t leave you down here by yourself. You could die.”
Her words made Adrien inhale shakily and he saw the fear cross his face, but he pursed his lips and set his jaw. “You would bring me back. You always do.”
“You don’t know that — ”
“Yes I do, because I trust you with my life,” Adrien explained. “I always have. This is no different.”
“Think about this logically, Ladybug,” Plagg spoke up. “There’s probably a lot worse under there than just a pinned leg.”
“Plagg!” Tikki admonished.
“I’m just telling the truth,” he argued back. “If you try to unpin him without the help of your magic, you might kill him. And there’s no one down here to help you two. Getting you and Tikki out is top priority. It’s three against one.”
Everything they were saying was making sense, and the logical part of Marinette’s brain that was always telling Chat Noir to stop acting so impulsively was screaming at her to make the decision that would keep the two of them the safest. But all acknowledging that did was make her so frustrated that she was afraid she was going to start crying from the unfairness of it all. It was absolutely terrifying to see Adrien — who was normally so sweet and sunny and optimistic — laying there looking tired, in pain, and covered in grime and dirt, and she didn’t want to make him have to suffer through this by himself. This wasn’t how being partners was supposed to work. They were supposed to stay together. They worked best together. Leaving him behind wasn’t something Marinette ever wanted to do.
But she looked down at Plagg who was rubbing his small hand against Adrien’s forehead, looked at Tikki who was staring up at Marinette worriedly and waiting for her answer, and looked down at Adrien who hadn’t kept his eyes off her once. Suddenly, his eyes seemed familiar to her, looked so much like those eyes that would stare at her right before she tried something ridiculously risky in a fight or suggested something that could potentially put the two of them in more danger than usual. It was complete, and unadulterated faith, and Marinette knew that there was no sense in fighting him on this.
Marinette sighed and wiped at her wet eyes with the backs of her hands. “Okay,” she muttered. “Okay. Alright, I’ll go.”
“It’s the right decision, Marinette,” Tikki explained. “I can help you find a way out.”
“I’ll stay with Adrien,” Plagg promised. “Don’t worry. He won’t be alone.”
“Thank you so much,” Marinette told him, feeling a small twinge of relief warm her chest. She reached out for both of Adrien’s hands, squeezed them in between her own, and pressed three quick kisses to them. “I’m going to save you, okay? And then everything will be normal, and we can talk.”
Adrien smiled. “Over coffee?”
“Anything you want,” Marinette promised.
“I’ll hold you to it,” Adrien smirked. “Now go. That akuma is probably causing a mess of trouble.”
“Hang in there, Adrien,” Marinette told him as she backed away out the crawlspace. “You’re going to be ok. Just….don’t forget to keep talking. And stay calm.”
“I will.”
The air immediately felt cooler when Marinette crawled back out, and Tikki was immediately zipping around the room and phasing through the wreckage, trying to find places where Marinette could manage to pry away something and sneak out. Marinette tied her blazer around her waist and tried to look around for something she could use to move some of the cracked rocks and wood. She climbed over old tarps and carts of construction tools and found a mangled pile of pipes that seemed to have dislodged during the fall. She found one thrown off to the side that was sitting in a huge puddle of water and quickly hit it against her palm. It seemed sturdy enough, and hopefully she could use it to her advantage.
“Tikki!” she called out, moving over to the staircase and trying to see if there was any way to move the things that were blocking the exit. “Have you found anything?”
“Um,” Tikki squeaked back. “Maybe? You might want to come up here!”
Tikki was all the way on the top of the pile of destruction that was currently on top of Adrien and stacked high enough to reach all the way up to what used to be the first floor. Tikki was floating in front of a particularly large chunk of brick and stone and pushed against it. “There’s an opening to the first floor past this huge rock. I checked. You can easily climb out onto the street level through here. It’s the best way out, but I don’t know how to get past this.”
Marinette struggled to climb up to where Tikki was. “Are you sure I can climb out this way?”
“Positive. Won’t be easy, but it’s your best bet.”
“Alright. Stand back, let me try something.” She looked around the side of the wreckage and found a small space where she could easily shove the pipe into. Marinette pushed and twisted it inside until it was halfway in and gripped both of her hands around the pipe. She counted to three in her head before she heaved herself forward and pushed on the pipe, trying to pry the blockage forward and give her an opening to crawl out. She kept throwing her full body weight into it, only managing to move the rock a couple of centimeters forward. Marinette leaned back against the wall of wreckage behind her, propped her feet against the pipe, and used her legs to push as hard as she could.
“Oh come on Marinette, you’ve almost got it!” Tikki cried out. “Just a little bit more!”
Marinette paused for a moment, leaned her head back, and tried to catch her breath. Sweat was trickling into her eyes and down the back of her neck, the dust in the air was making her wheeze, and the cuts that were peppered all over her body were starting to sting. But she bit down on her tongue, leaned back against the wall, and slammed her feet down on the pipe again, willing with all her might for the rock to move so that she could get through and help Adrien and the rest of the city. It took ages for her to wedge the rock loose enough with one excruciating push, but Marinette finally got it teetering over the edge of where it was perched, revealing a small gap behind it where light was starting to filter in. Marinette gasped out in excitement and moved behind the rock to kick at it again until it fell out from away the gap and tumbled down to the ground below with a crash.
She heard Adrien’s voice weakly calling out after a bout of coughing. “Mar….Marinette? Are you okay?”
Just hearing his voice filled her with more relief and calm. “Fine! I think I found a way out. Are you okay?”
It took him a long moment to answer, but his response came nonetheless. “...managing,” he said. “Just hurry.”
“I will, I promise,” Marinette called back. “Stay alert. Keep talking. I’ll come back for you.”
Tikki nuzzled her cheek against Marinette’s and nudged her chin towards the new opening. “Come on, we don’t have much time. I still need to recharge if I’m going to help you.”
Marinette nodded. “Right.” She sent one last longing look down into the dark basement before she squeezed through the exit and into the fresh air just behind it.
By the time a disheveled, dirty, and sweaty Marinette rushed past the ambulances and police officers and into the nearest bakery to beg for a small box of cookies — much to the owners’ confusion — Tonnerre was already a mile over, causing havoc at one of the news stations. She knew it was crazy, but once Ladybug transformed and swung over to the news station, she immediately called upon her Lucky Charm. It was a gamble to do it so soon, but there wasn’t any time to waste. The longer she took to defeat this akuma, the longer Adrien was down there injured, alone, and without her. The more likely it would be that he was descending further into crippling pain. There wasn’t any time to be careful and calculating. It was time to take something out of Chat Noir’s book and hope that her luck combined with her rushing into the situation would be enough to help her.
Ladybug was sprinting with a pair of handcuffs in one hand and her yoyo in another. She wasn’t quite sure if this was going to work, but she could see Tonnerre standing on the top of the news station building, looking like he didn’t see her coming up on his side and wasn’t expecting her to. Ladybug tied her yoyo around one end of the handcuffs and started spinning it to gain enough momentum. Ladybug vaulted herself off of the building, swung her yoyo back, and let it fly across the streets and straight at Tonnerre who had his hands raised and ready for another attack.
Before he could even clasp his hands together, Ladybug cheered as the other end of the cuffs snapped shut around one of Tonnerre’s wrists. His head snapped down to the sidewalk where Ladybug was standing, but he was too late to react as she dashed to the right, pulling Tonnerre off the roof. She ran two blocks with Tonnerre dragging behind her before she sprinted up the side of the building and wrapped her yoyo string around the chimney on the roof. She tied off her string as tightly as she could and looked over the edge of the building to see Tonnerre hanging uselessly by one hand.
Ladybug didn’t waste anytime sliding down the string, plucking the wallet out of Tonnerre’s front pocket, and ripping it in half right in front of him. She quickly untied her yoyo, dragged Tonnerre up to the roof with her, purified the akuma, and laughed in sweet satisfaction as her miraculous magic returned the weather forecaster back to normal and started to quickly repair the damage that was caused all around the city. The police were already circling around the roof, and she would’ve normally hung around a little to make sure that the victim was alright. But there wasn’t any time for that this time around.
“Chat…” she whispered to herself before bolting back towards the apartment building. She had only about two more minutes on her transformation but she knew that was more than enough. Soon enough, the building — unharmed and still in the middle of construction, just like it was before — had finally come into view. Ladybug managed to swing through the window of the apartment complex just in time for her transformation to fall and leave her tumbling on her knees against the rough floor. She ignored the bloody scrapes on her knees as she jogged down the stairs, almost tripping and falling a few times on her way down.
Marinette barreled into the door leading to the basement, and couldn’t contain her excitement as she saw Adrien, sitting in the middle of the dusty basement, completely unharmed.
“Chat!” she screamed, rushing across the room with tears starting to come to her eyes.
Adrien barely had time to look up at her and speak before she practically jumped on top of him, her arms winding around his neck and squeezing tightly, not caring enough to let up or let go. Adrien laughed, wrapping one arm around her waist and resting another hand on the back of her head. “Well, hello to you too Ladybug.”
Marinette wasn’t bothering to hold up her relieved sobbing as she buried her face in his shoulder. “Oh my God, you’re okay! I was so worried about you, I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“Hey, hey, calm down,” Adrien soothed. “Everything’s fine, I’m fine. You don’t need to cry.”
“I was afraid you were going to die before I helped you,” she muttered. “I was so scared I wouldn’t be able to stop him.”
Adrien pulled her away from him, and reached up to wipe her tears off of her cheeks. He took both of her hands and placed them on his leg. “See? Nothing wrong. Fit as a fiddle. You did a great job, just like I knew you would.”
Marinette nodded and laughed through her tears. “I’m so happy to see you.”
Adrien chuckled and pushed her hair behind her ears. “So am I. Didn’t think I’d ever be so happy to see a mysterious, magical cloud of ladybugs heading straight for me in my life. You are quite literally a life saver.”
She laughed again, the sight of Adrien’s face filling her with so much sweet joy that she couldn’t help from leading her head against his chest and wrapping her arms around his waist, not caring that she was covered in dirt and tears. Marinette always purposefully made herself overlook this part — the truly horrifying part where their suits and their powers didn’t protect them from danger, didn’t stop them from having to make impossibly difficult decisions that meant life or death. It was a cruel reminder that this was always going to be a consideration, something that she had to keep in the back of her head if she was ever going to hope to be the hero she was meant to be.
But in that moment it was easy to just let it slip away again, because the worst had been avoided, and she had Chat Noir here with her. Chat Noir was safe. Adrien was safe. The eity was safe. Everyone was happy and healthy and all that filled her with more emotions than she knew what to do with.
They stayed there holding each other for a few moments longer before Marinette lifted her head and smiled. “I, uh….I’m sorry for tackling you.”
Adrien shook his head and grabbed her elbows. “You can tackle me any time. Although, I do believe I was promised coffee and a chat.”
She wrapped her fingers around his forearms and rubbed her thumbs against his skin, grateful that it was warm and alive and soft. “I think I can arrange that.”