He breathed in and coughed out. His senses were revolving around him like a tornado and he couldn’t focus on either. His eyes were full of tears, there was a ringing in his ears and his nose burned.
Bright lights, fuzzy colors, muted sounds.
A sickening stench of smoke.
Barely supporting himself with his arms he looked up, but all he distinguished were the towers of burning orange around him. Orange over dark green and brown. A fire.
A memory came back to him. He had been fighting, near the Jardin des Plantes. He- why was he fighting, again?
Akuma, right. A… clown? Yes, a clown on a monocycle with white face paint, two big tufs of orange hair, a colorful suit, oversized red shoes, four arms… yeah, four arms. It was juggling bowl pins, swords, torches, a kid or three…
Yeah, your typical akuma, dangerous and downright insane.
Finally, the shapes started coming together and the ringing was a lot less annoying, but it persisted. He stood upright and looked around. The garden around him was pretty scorched, but he supposed it could be worse. For some reason that he had yet to remember, he was standing in a small crater near a sidewalk. He looked upwards, and saw the circus’ carp flying over Notre Dame like an OVNI.
Right, he had been sent flying. The clown had eaten the torch and was suddenly spewing fire like a dragon. Ladybug had yet to arrive, and He was running around it when suddenly-
The clown had shot her a fireball and he jumped in front of her before his mind could catch up with his body. He looked back to the flying circus.
That clown sure packed a punch.
He didn’t realize he had already been running towards the Seine and just stopped before he could fall off the railings.
He turned and almost fell when Ladybug barreled him with a hug. A quick one, but warm and filled with affection. He, wide-eyed and unsure of what to do, stopped himself from purring. Suddenly, she released him, almost pushing him away, and returned to the cold demeanor she had shown him for a pair of weeks now. She wasn’t looking him in the eyes when she coldly spoke again “Well, you are a little singed, but other than that you seem fine.” His cat ears dropped.
“Y-yeah, maybe, but I think falling off the Eiffel Tower is still pretty worse,” He said with little mirth. “Where were you? It took you a lot longer to arrive today- wait, when did you come? You saw my little bullet man performance?”
Her smile broadened a little and looked at him from the corner of her eye. “I just arrived in time to watch you bravely jump in front of Marinette. She’s not hurt at all, don’t worry.” Chat visibly deflated in relief. And then, to Ladybug’s surprise, he glared the circus with a hate she didn’t know he was capable. She turned to look at him fully
“Let’s go.” He said before he jumped to the roof of the building neighbor to the Garden, the University of Pierre and Marie Curie. However, Ladybug stayed behind, the anger in his voice had left her recoiling. Why did was he like that? Because of her, because of Marinette? He hadn’t turned like he did just now when he had saved her from the Gamer’s laser. So then why-
I think I’m in love with you and I’m terrified
She could ponder about this later, now she couldn’t keep her partner waiting.
—————————————————————————————————–
The brief outburst of anger was forgotten by the two of them the time the clown had been defeated and the circus returned to the earth. They had left without saying a “Bien Joué”, the same way they had been doing for two weeks now. The Parisians had noticed, and some worried even if Alya had tried to downplay it a little in the Ladyblog.
Adrien and Marinette reunited with Nino and Alya outside the circus. Their outing had been utterly ruined, and it was getting dark. So, they parted, Alya and Nino in one direction, while Marinette and Adrien went to the other. He couldn’t avoid it, everybody knew the direction to his house and he still had to maintain the act, even if he felt awkward, especially if Marinette suspected something. So he racked his brain for something to talk about.
“The acrobats were pretty cool” Marinette, surprised, tripped and Adrien caught her before he could stop himself. He probably needed to do something about his habit of acting before thinking.
“S-sorry, w-what were you saying?” Adrien helped her to stand up and kept walking.
“The acrobats. They were cool flying like that”
“Y-yeah, they were.” She smiled and caught up. “And the girls doing those weird gymnastic poses were incredible! I could have had less of that clown though.”
“Me too. I heard that you almost got hurt.”
“Yeah, I’d be toast if it wasn’t for him. I hope he wasn’t hurt to much from his little bullet man performance.”
Adrien couldn’t help it, even though it would work to sell his lie, but he snickered.
“Yeah, just like when he saves Ladybug.” His smile dropped
Even if she was still a little miffed after the fiasco, she felt thankful for all those times he had taken the shot for her.
“Yeah, they make a great team.” His jaw tensed a little
And before he could stop himself, he blurted “Do you think they are dating?” Thankfully, he barely maintained a level voice. Marinette almost tripped again, but she regained her balance
“Nothing, forget about it.” To his dismay, she didn’t drop it.
“Ah, well, no, not really. They are partners, and they care about each other, but I don’t think they are dating.”
‘Do they? Do they actually care for each other, huh Marinette? Do you actually care?’ He bitterly thought and he clenched his fists in his pockets. The amicable façade he had built and maintained through the last weeks dropped instantly, but he still managed to maintain a neutral face.
Finally, he thought, they reached the point where they would part ways. He muttered a quick goodbye and turned to leave.
“Wait, Adrien,” Marinette called. He seriously debated whether to look back. He finally turned back
“I- uh, we, are your friends Adrien, and we are a worried something may be happening. You don’t have to tell us- o-or there couldn’t be anything at all. B-but still, I want you to know that we care about you.” She smiled, even though she was already expecting him to smile and say it’s nothing, or don’t worry, or whatever, and things would keep going as they’ve been going for the last few weeks.
Instead, his eyes twitched. Both of them, at the same time. The subtlest glare in the world’s history and he left without saying anything.
(I think I just made it worse so I won’t submit anymore)
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