Also guess who jumped on the Warnersona train! Finally me!!
This is Apple Juice, or AJ for short! I’m still figuring out their personality/traits, but they’re a soft baby with a penchant for baggy/comfy clothes and a desire to be perceived as a threat and nothing else!
When Daddy came to pick up his baby boy........
.... You know you done shet.
CHECK OUT MY SPEED PAINT VIDEO OF THIS WORK!!!
youtube : youtu.be/Y7q3UKOzNh8
note : I DON’T OWN THE BACKGROUND SONG!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpkrpQu8MqI <- link to the song
lol
They are so much more then just ships and a pair of sassy father & son
Chapter 9 of my Sidekick Hacker!Adrien AU is now available on AO3!
AU created by @geek-fashionista
Mewing on her balcony woke her up.
It wasn’t the best of mornings for Marinette. She rolled out of bed, her body sore from wounds she had not even began to survey. They weren’t bleeding, though, so there’s that.
The morning was cold and grey when she opened the sliding door to her balcony. A burst of frigid bitch air hit her bare legs and arms, raising goosebumps wherever it passed. She shivered and wanted to go back inside, but the noise persisted to her left, and she turned to look with tired eyes. Nothing but a pile of crunchy leaves were on her porch. She had been meaning to put some potted plants and a chair or two out there to make a cute sitting area, but it was winter and fuck that.
Just about to go back inside and abandon her query, a shift and sound caught her attention. There was a tree growing between her and her neighbor’s balconies to keep some sort of privacy in their lives. Mostly, it just made Marinette’s porch more shaded than she would like it, and with more leaves to clean up than she ever wanted to.
Bracing herself against the cold air, she walked out onto the porch and leaned over the edge to look down at the tree. One of the branches grew directly into a vent in the building, creating a bridge from the apartments to the outside world. And management wondered why rats were so frequent. Maybe hiring an exterminator would actually do some good?
She shook her head and decided she would tell her landlord about it so rats would be less of a problem. But it didn’t look like it was rats that were rustling the leaves. Marinette watched as a tiny form crept along the branch, its legs shaking and eyes barely opening.
The little kitten was walking away from the vent, probably where its mom had just given birth to it in a warm space, but it was about to fall, and she was not about to have a tiny baby kitten life on her conscious.
Worry overtook her and she laid down on the cold ground to reach over the edge of her porch. Her heart beat with a rush of panic and urgency. The branch was maybe a foot and a half away from her, but she didn’t have a good reading about how far her arm would be able to reach. She felt for the branch until her fingertips brushed a leaf, seeing it move only slightly from her angle. She huffed when she realized she wouldn’t be able to reach all the way.
Changing positions, she laid parallel to the branch, bringing her shoulder completely under the cold metal railing of her porch and searching blindly with her fingers for the soft fur of a kitten. It mewled quietly beneath her, much softer than it had before. Fingers felt hard bark beneath her, and she almost sighed with relief, but kept searching. Moving up and down to branch, she felt the tiny kitten jump as her fingers brushed against its tail. Quickly but deftly, she wrapped her hand around the miniscule body of the kitten, pulling it up from the branch and toward the porch where she waited.
It was a painful process extracting her arm from beneath the railing, but the managed somehow, and pulled the dappled black and brown kitten into her lap, stroking at its head as it meowed angrily. The sound was a mixture between a purr and a growl, cut off with a sneezing clap, sounding like it was yelling “plaque” at her.
“Oh, I know. It’s cold out here, isn’t it? Let’s get you inside.”
Alya was still sleeping soundly, as she would be until Marinette set an alarm on her phone to wake her. The girl would not wake for anything except her alarm. Marinette had tried everything. Pots and pans, screamo music, a trumpet, and cold water. Nothing.
Deciding she would need help sooner rather than later, Marinette set an alarm for two minutes from now. It would give her enough time to get the little kitten something to eat from her kitchen.
Upon further inspection of her kitchen, it looked like they would have to find food elsewhere.
She plopped the kitten on the kitchen counter while she looked through some cupboards and the fridge, but came up with nothing. The internet held nothing for her, either, saying that a baby kitten needed formula.
“Oh, you’re going to be a pain, aren’t you?” Marinette asked the baby cat that was waddling around her counter.
“Who are you talking to?” Alya called across the apartment as she muted her alarm and woke. She got up unnaturally quickly. Where it took Marinette a good half hour to get out of bed, Alya woke up and she was ready to go. These were the reasons that they would not be a team during the zombie apocalypse. Marinette would get bitten first, and Alya couldn't bare having to kill her best friend.
“A kitten I found outside.”
“What?” Alya hurried around the door and found the tiny thing on the counter. “What the fuck is that?”
“A kitten I found outside.”
“Why is it in here?”
“Because I found it outside. It was gonna die.”
“How do you know that?”
“It was in a tree.”
“And?”
“It’s a baby, Alya.”
“So we have to take care of it now?”
“Yup.”
“Fuuu-” she muttered profanities under her breath while she looked for a pet supply store that would be open and close on her phone. “I hate this.”
“Too bad.”
“I hate cats.”
“Get over it.”
“Uuugh. Marinette, do we have to?”
“You don’t have to. But I’m not putting this kitten back out into the cold winter to be abandoned by its mother or to fall out of a tree and to its death. This kitten is not going to be scavenger food. Besides, it’s cute and I like cats.” Alya surveyed Marinette over her phone, checking if she was really serious or not. Mari nodded surely.
“I want you to know that I hate this. And there’s a pet supply store a couple blocks away. Do you want me to stay or-?”
“No, you can go ahead and get the stuff. You don’t have to hang with the cute little thing who will soon become a happy part of our family.” It squirmed in her hands when Marinette picked it up and shoved it in Alya’s face, showing her just how cute the little thing was. Its eyes were still closed, just barely beginning to open, but it was vocal enough for three.
“I will barf on it.”
“You’ll have to clean it up.”
“I’m leaving.” Alya shoved her shoes on her feet and wrapped her jacket around her shoulders on the way out, nearly forgetting her purse on the coat rack.
“Put me on the phone with whoever helps you at the store!” Marinette called after her. She heard a grunt of affirmation, but not much else. For someone who woke so easily, she was one of the grumpier morning people that she had ever met. Maybe the two were correlated somehow.
Ten minutes later, Alya called and Marinette spoke with the person at the pet store, explaining where she found the kitten, what she needed to get, and all the would have to do for the kitten. It would be a rigorous couple of weeks, but Marinette liked the idea of caring for something so small and helpless, watching it grow.
Once she got all the necessities, she asked Alya to get some toys and a bed for it, too. It would need somewhere to sleep, and maybe a cat tree once it got big enough. She would love to get some of those catnip pouches, but those weren’t good for the cats when they were younger. Some cute bowls for food and water would be nice, but she heard that they shouldn’t be put close together, something about cats contaminating their water with the food or something. Either way, she wanted the best for this little kitten, even if she just found it.
The girls took the rest of the day feeding, washing, drying, feeding, playing with, pottying, feeding, and finally petting the kitten to sleep on its new bed, complete with its very own electric heating pad to keep it warm on cold nights. They figured out, through extensive online diagrams, that it was a boy, and had been thinking of names the whole time they spent with it.
Alya and Marinette sat watching him sleep soundly on the bed, his tiny body taking up a fraction of the space available. He purred cutely. His eyes had been urging themselves open throughout the day, but it had been very active all day, with medicines and baths and a lot of care to keep him healthy, and it was time for a nap.
The sun had made it all the way to its apex, and the clouds were letting it shine through, making a slice of sunlight brighten the apartment. It was still freezing outside, but it was nice to imagine it warming up slightly.
“What are we gonna name it?” Alya asked. She had come around the group thinking, as Marinette had suspected she would. It wasn’t like her to drop a project like this, no matter if she liked cats or not. Mari was determined to get her to like cats by the end of it, though.
“No idea.”
“Yes you do.”
“Yeah, but you’ll laugh at me.”
“Probably. But that’s never stopped you before.”
Marinette sighed and contested. “So you know how he purrs really cutely.” Alya nodded reluctantly. “And it sounds like he’s saying something, right? So I was thinking that he was trying to tell us his name.”
“That’s dumb.”
“I know, but you love it.”
“Yes. Continue.” Alya leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes. A strip of light fell across her cheeks, warming them.
“So, to me, it sounds like he’s saying plaque.”
One of Alya’s eyes propped itself open to look at Marinette like she said something horrendous. “Like the stuff on your teeth?”
“No, gross. Like a plaque. That you get your name on when you win a prize or whatever.”
Alya whipped out her phone and began searching something. “I think the plaque <em>is</em> the prize.”
“Whatever.”
“‘A sticky deposit on teeth in which bacteria proliferate,’” Alya read from her phone. “You really wanna name your ‘adorable’ little kitten after bacteria jizz?”
“You are so gross.”
“Whatever.”
“Fine. Fuck. Not Plaque. It’s a cute name though.” Alya gritted her teeth and shrugged in a ‘not really’ sort of gesture. “Fine.”
They sat in silence for a while, Alya playing on her phone before locking it and throwing it down beside her. She leaned her head back again and rested in the sun, breathing steadily. Marinette watched her, and enough time passed that she was sure she had fallen asleep in the sun. When she spoke, it startled her.
“And besides, it doesn’t even sound like ‘plaque.’ It’s softer. More like… I don’t know. Plagg.”
Marinette thought for a minute. “Plagg. I like that.”
“That’s because you love me.”
“I mean… sure?” Alya smacked her arm and Marinette laughed, falling backwards onto the couch and laying her feet across Alya’s lap. The two sighed and watched the faint flickering of the light coming in through the window, distorted by the waving of the tree branches. It was a beautiful day, and it was easy for them to be lulled into soft, contented sleep.
-----
Marinette spent Monday waiting anxiously by her phone. All through lectures and study sessions with friends and classmates, through lunch with Adrien trying to finalize their designs for the Jagged Stone project that was due that Friday, through ballroom and standing way too close to Adrien for comfort, Marinette kept an eye on her phone, waiting for it to light up and give her some news.
“What are you looking at?”
“Huh?” Adrien’s voice brought her head up and away from the screen of her phone for the first time in over a minute. While walking, Adrien had to direct her - and sometimes pull her - out of the way of oncoming people and poles so distracted she was. She kept making up excuses to look at her screen, and finally lapsed into playing games and searching social media to distract herself while still having a finger on what had become her lifeline.
“You haven’t been able to keep your eyes off of your phone since we left class.” Walking to the parking lot after their last class of the day had become ritual. Marinette was concerned that he was walking in the opposite direction of where he needed to be, but he said he didn’t mind. And besides, any time away from the Gorilla - his affectionate name for his driver/bodyguard - was welcome. Marinette had only laid eyes on the Gorilla once when they had been driving away from the paparazzi-littered cafe they had been working at, and she had to admit, the name suits.
She couldn't say that she minded the extra time with him.
“Oh, I’m waiting for a call,” she said absently, turning back to her phone.
“From?”
“What?”
“Who are you waiting to hear from?” She didn’t respond, and he guided her by the elbow away from walking directly into traffic. “Estranged father? Secret family? A suitor, perhaps?”
Marinette only caught the last bit and looked up at him with disgruntled ambivalence. “Sure,” she scoffed. “I have a line of eligible gentlemen just waiting to get a crack at me.”
He nudged her shoulder as they walked. “Why is that so hard to believe?”
She had to stop for a minute. It took a second for him to realize that they had stopped, but he eventually found her absent from his side and turned around to meet her. “Have you met me?”
“Yeah, I think so?” He hadn’t quite caught up to the turn in the conversation yet.
“The last time I had anyone interested in me was three years ago and I scared him from my life. There’s no one that’s gonna come near me with all my baggage. It trips anyone who wants to get close.” So distracted by her phone she was, she didn’t notice that he stepped closer, almost as if they were back in ballroom. But they were in public now, and their dance clothes had been put away. His chest hit the edge of her phone, scraping along her knuckles, and she looked upward.
Damn, he was so tall. And he had to stand directly in front of the sun, which was breaking from the clouds just for this moment to bathe him in heavenly light and make him look like the physical manifestation of Apollo.
“I’m pretty close.”
Obviously, he did not understand the flirtatious tone of his voice, or maybe he did, but he absolutely had no idea what it did to her insides. For a moment, she completely forgot about what was happening on her phone and looked at him, where he was standing so close, but never - <em>ever</em> - close enough. A burst of giggles started in her belly, and built with lightness and heat, traveling through her limbs, making her knees weak, her lips tingle, and her heart beat faster.
It was totally within the range of possibility for her to reach up and kiss him. He was tall, but he wasn’t that tall. She could stretch. Just make it. He would have to lean down a little, maybe, but in the world that Marinette was creating in her mind, he would lean down to her wherever she was just to kiss her. Because they were made for each other, right? Alya certainly seemed to think so.
“Yeah,” she said breathily.
There were times in Marinette’s life when she wished she weren’t so defensive. Her gut instincts were to fight back, with a quip, with wit, with some smart ass comment that was meant to get the other person to stop talking. And with her brain not working, unable to form a coherent thought besides “I want to kiss you and lick you and bite you and fuck you and do unspeakable things to you,” all she could come up with was:
“That’s because you’re not trying to get into my pants.”
Because that was the best thing to say in that situation!
Adrien threw back his head to laugh, effectively breaking the moment.
So he wasn’t flirting, Marinette thought. It was confusing. He was standing way too close for that to be any normal sort of conversation. Was he trying to come on to her? Was he trying to be friendly? Was he really just <em>that</em> clueless as to what it mean to be so close to someone who so clearly had a gigantic crush on him?
Her head spun along with her pulse.
He was still standing pretty close, but her phone buzzed, so she was the first to step away. She would have loved to step closer, but that’s not really a social norm at this point to climb on top of someone who was just flirting with you in a totally platonic, not at all romantic way. God, she wished it was, though.
Heart spiking for a different reason, Marinette bore down on her phone, clicking it open, only to be met with disappointment. Alya had texted her to hurry up and get to the car. There was a warm current to the air, but it was still January, and it was still pretty much freezing.
The pair started walking, Marinette deciding to take an extra precaution and stay a few extra inches away from Adrien, just in case she got the impulse to climb.
“But what were you actually waiting for on your phone?” Adrien asked as they walked.
“Oh, um. I applied for this job - it’s an internship thing, it’s kind of lame - at this fashion company, so I thought that it would be kinda cool, anyway, I’m expecting a call to get ready for - or to set up, actually - an interview, so that I can get interviewed. For the internship.”
Articulate.
“I see.”
“Do you?” She buried her shame by staring deeply into her phone. They had reached the parking lot where Alya was waiting, idling impatiently, though she was always impatient so Marinette didn’t really mind. “Anyway, I’ll see you tomorrow.” She waved goodbye and ducked into the car befor he could respond.
Alya could see the physical awkwardness radiating off of her. “Damn, girl.”
“Shhhh…” Marinette ran her hand over Aya’s face to silence her. “Not today, Satan.”
Alya scoffed and they drove back home.
Marinette spent the evening fixating over the final details of the project. It wasn’t even due for another couple of days, but she wanted to make sure every line, color, and highlight was perfect. Nothing less for Jagged Stone.
When the process became tedious, she took spare pieces of fabric and created a tiny sweater for Plagg. She mainly used the rich green fabric she had plenty of leftover from for that cape thing she had been working on. The green matched his eyes perfectly, though his own were spotted with dots of brown and black, obscuring the purity.
His patchy blackish grey coat had become shinier after a couple of baths, and he had been taking advantage of the many feedings he required, often eating seconds and thirds. Marinette probably spoiled him, but he didn’t seem to mind. He needed the nutrition at any rate.
She secured the sweater around his little body, and crafted four shoes, just because she could. He hated them, but they were cute, so she kept them on, taking as many pictures as she could before he flicked, chewed, or clawed them off.
“Alright, Plagg. I gotta go to the store. You wanna come with me or stay here?”
He meowed his name.
“Great, let’s go.” Marinette went about putting on all of her layers to brave the cold outside. The snows had passed, but the weather was never on her side. As she struggled to pull on a boot, she watched Plagg crawl under the couch, probably chasing after a dust bunny. She really needed to clean.
“Come on, buddy.” Tikki flew into the pocket hidden in her scarf and settled in. Plagg was stuck under the chair. “Come on, seriously, dude? Tikki, gimme a second.”
While Tikki hovered in place, watching, Marinette bent down to look under the couch and reach for the lump of green and black that was the newest member of her family. A couple of fingers wrapped around him and pulled, but he resisted. “Plagg!” She scolded, and he released.
“He’s quite the handful,” Tikki commented as Marinette righted herself.
“He’s lucky he’s cute.” The girls giggled with each other and set out. Plagg and Tikki shared the space in the scarf, while Plagg kept his head poking out to watch the world go by. Tikki allowed herself to peak out as well, strangely comforted by the presence of the feline.
The walk to the store was long, but Marinette needed more first aid supplies, and she didn’t want to pull out her bike until the rainy season had passed. The air conditioning of the store was a literal warm welcome as they stepped from the frigid outside air. Marinette headed straight for the aisle she knew contained the supplies she needed, having been there so many times before. The clerks at the store must think she was a professional street fighter or something for all the times she bought first aid kits, gauze, and various antibacterial ointments to fight the potential gangrene she wasn’t positive didn’t exist on the claws of some of her akuma foes.
Standing in the aisle, Marinette came to the bitter realization that they had moved things. Going to reach for her go-tos, she didn’t find them there. She spun on her heal, looking around her, glad no one else in the store was watching her make a fool of herself in the middle of aisle seven.
“Tikki,” she whispered, unable to see anything of use on her own. “Do you see any of the stuff we usually get?”
A red orb popped out of Marinette’s scarf, a bright contrast to the white, but there was no one around the see. Her head was mostly obscured by Plagg’s anyway. They both searched diligently for a good three minutes and came up with only one of the three things they needed to find.
“Damn,” Marinette conceded.
“What’re you looking for?” A vaguely familiar voice startled her as it came up from behind. She made sure Tikki was completely covered by knit scarf before turning around to meet whoever spoke to her.
Much to her surprise, Felix, Alya’s main prospect at the moment - dare she say boyfriend - was standing there, equally bundled up against the cold, nose red and running.
“Felix!” Marinette said in greeting. “Alya told me you were sick. How’re you doing?”
“Well, you know.” He shrugged. “I’m sick.”
Marinette took it as a joke, but he only nodded absently. Her smile slowly dripped off of her face before changing subjects. “I was looking for the things I usually get here, but everything has rearranged itself. I mean, the last time I came here was a month ago, but I feel like a lot has changed in that time.”
He shrugged. “The world is in flux. Many things are changing.”
Cryptic. Marinette narrowed her eyes and leaned away slightly. “Y’alright, dude?”
He rubbed his nose with the back of his hand and sniffled. “I’m sick.”
“We covered that.” She shook her head and dismissed the behavior as that of someone who had had too much DayQuil, then went back to looking. “I don’t think we’re gonna find anything here,” she whispered to Tikki, and waved good bye to Felix.
His eyes followed her creepily as she walked to the front, asking if they carried any of the items she was looking for, and remained tied to her as she finally found what she was looking for. When she checked out and left the store, she didn’t see him standing behind her anymore, but somehow that was creepier. Like a spider who you want to keep an eye on.
Marinette began her long trek back home, fisting the shopping bag full of supplies she needed to not become an infected, pussey mess.
“That was a strange encounter,” Marinette commented as they walked.
“I’m not sure I like the feeling I get around him,” Tikki whispered from her pocket. She was curled up next to Plagg, who was taking a nap, but her eyes stared up at Marinette through the pocket opening.
“What do you mean?”
“You don’t feel that?” She shook her head. “It’s like an itch behind your antennae. I think it’s the human equivalent of a shiver down your spine. My dots feel like they’re twitching, and I’m not sure why.”
“You should get that checked out,” she quipped.
“Marinette.”
“I’m sorry, but it’s fine, Tikki. I’m sure it is. He’s just off because he’s sick. I’ve looked into this guy extensively.” She had checked every social media feed the guy had, every family friend, everyone who was close to this guy in any way. Nobody that he followed was creepy, no one who followed him had any fetishes outside the usual. “He’s normal. More than normal. I wouldn’t let my best friend go out with a sociopathic serial murderer or someone who was boring or likes pickles too much. I trust him enough to let Alya deal with him. I’m sure he’s fine.”
“Alright,” Tikki conceded, but there remained concern in her voice. “Just keep an eye on him, please, Marinette. Just in case.”
She offered a smile down to her kwami. “I promise. Just in case.” After a few more steps she added, “And I’ll get Alya to share some secrets about him, too. Okay?”
Tikki seemed reassured. “Okay. That sounds good.”
They arrived home without incident, but thanks to Tikki’s worried words, Marinette couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. Followed.
The business of dressing and cleaning wounds was a messy one. Marinette stripped naked and stood in the bathtub, her supplies scattered across the floor close enough to grab upon a moment’s notice. A trash can stood by. Two nurses with bags of blood and hollow needles.
The healing that Tikki had managed on Marinette’s hands had almost completely closed up and sealed the wounds from the broken glass of Mirage. The shallow cuts weren’t too difficult to fuse, and they would heal in time on their own, and quite quickly, if Marinette’s propensity for easy healing - even without Tikki’s influence - had anything to do with it.
Even as a kid, Marinette had popped back up from injuries faster than she should have. A cast for a broken bone that should have taken six weeks to completely heal was taken off at four or five. What doctors took as the elevated healing ability of the young had taken Marinette through to her teens, when a particularly bad spill down the stairs had her in a wheelchair for a month when it should have been two and a half.
Perhaps it was sheer force of will. Marinette hated being sick, injured, or in any way helpless. Healing was the fastest way to get rid of the feelings of weakness and to get back to doing whatever it was she needed to do.
She went about cleaning her back, a mirror set up in front and behind her to be able to see everything she was doing, starting by taking off the original bandages. They had dark splotches of reddish brown where the scabs broke open with a strange movement of her back and bled. The long cuts from Siren were almost completely healed now. Two more days and she wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.
More recent and various were the injuries from Mirage. Clean cuts through her skin made by razor sharp shards of glass. She was lucky they were so thin; the wounds Siren left would leave jagged, uneven scars that probably wouldn’t leave her body for the next ten years or more.
She thought that plastic surgery might be a decent way to get rid of some of the more puckered, gross looking scars she had accumulated over the years, but there would always be more to come, and it was too expensive.
There’s always a catch.
As she reached back to clean off some dried blood from a scab on her back, the wound on her arm decided to break open. She cursed the pain and the sudden fountain of blood that ran down to her fingers. Quickly finishing the job on her back, including large gauze bandages with tape around all sides, she turned to the now gaping thing on her arm.
Gross, she thought, peering down at it, waiting for the coagulates in her blood to kick in with a little help from a stained towel she had at the ready. It took twenty minutes for the large slice to stop bleeding completely, and even then, with every movement it threatened more.
Adhesive stitches had become her best friend over the years, and she made use of almost an entire pack of them on one arm. After cleaning extensively, she began the stitching process, and then wrapping, when a knock came to the door.
“Ah, fuck,” she muttered to herself, looking at the blood that surrounded her. It dripped down her legs and had stained her clothes irreparably. Not that the clothes minded; after having been used for this same purpose so many times, they were more red than their original color.
“Marinette,” Tikki said, hovering near the plush black robe that Marinette favored above all else in her bathroom. Struggling to stand in the slippery bathtub, she managed to get in the robe with the help of Tikki, and scooted on a towel to the door to prevent the blood on her feet from staining the floor as another knock came.
“Coming!” she called, dragging the towel along with her. Tikki waited for her at the door, where he usually watched the conversations from the peep hole.
“It’s Adrien,” Tikki whispered to her.
Marinette cinched her brows. “Really?” she whispered back, and shrugged. With one last check to her devastating appearance, she opened the door, feigning surprise. “Adrien! What’re you doing here?” She leaned on the door hinge, not allowing access or even a view into the apartment that had not been cleaned in far too long for company. Especially <em>this</em> company.
He held up an article of black clothing. “I think this is yours. I found it in my dance bag.”
“Yeah, that’s mine. Sorry, I don’t know how it would get-” she reached up with her injured arm to get the item, and she could feel the bleeding start again. By now she was numb to the pain, but the twinge didn’t stop her from wincing.
“You okay?” Adrien asked as she hid the arm behind her back and reached with the other arm.
“Yeah,” she said, looking for an excuse literally anywhere. “A bad workout. I pulled a muscle and can’t really move it that well.” He didn’t need to know that the only exercise she got was fighting akuma and vigorous sex. I mean, he could definitely learn about the second thing, but that first one is where Marinette got stumped. Her mind fogged over with bad thoughts.
Whatever happened to just being friends? She was supposed to be completely uninterested! Right?
<em>Right?!</em>
“Thanks,” she told him, leaning on the door so it closed to cover the severe bleeding that was happening behind it. Tikki was assisting as much as possible, holding a washcloth - the only thing she was able to grab - to the cut and pressing as hard as her tiny weight could. It barely felt like anything, but it was what was needed.
“Anytime.”
They both stood there a little awkwardly. Looking anywhere but at the other person’s eyes made for a very long, very tension filled silence.
“I would invite you in but I just got out of the shower,” Marinette conceded, trying to break the tension. It didn’t really work. At the idea of a shower, she imagined having them together, getting fit with the aforementioned exercise.
“Oh, yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“I can-” he pointed behind him, suggesting leaving.
“Yeah, sorry.”
“No, it’s-”
“I just gotta-”
“Okay.”
She slammed the door before it could get any more awkward. It managed, though, because the camisole got caught in the door.
With a groan, she tugged at it twice, and thought about just leaving it there, but Adrien spoke through the door.
“I think the shirt is stuck.”
“Yeah, i-” she opened the door. “-got it.” One last blush for the road, she thought, and closed the door again, the cami safely out of reach of the door’s jaw.
Back in the bathroom, she was reminded of the bloody mess. “Those stitches really aren’t the best, are they?”
Tikki examined her arm. “They usually do the job, but this looks pretty serious. Maybe we should get someone to look at it, Marinette.”
“No, Tikki. You know we can’t. What will I say?”
“It’s not a gunshot. You don’t have to report it. Say you fell on a knife or something.”
Marinette sighed. “Alright. I’m clumsy, but I’m not that clumsy.”
“This is your health we’re talking about here, Marinette. This is Ladybug. You’re one and the same. You need to take care of yourself so that she can be at her best. With the akuma becoming stronger like they are, we need to take extra care. You can’t have these major injuries every time you go out to fight.”
The bleeding had finally been staunched, and Marinette went about stitching the cut closed with extra adhesive strips. “It’s not like Hawkmoth is giving me much of a choice. The akuma just keep coming. And with the claws they’ve had recently, I don’t know what I can do to keep myself from being injured. Being in the fray is the only way that I can keep others safe.”
“But you have to stay safe, too, Marinette.” It was more of a scolding than caring, concerned words that Tikki usually offered.
She grunted and began wrapping her arm tightly, trying to staunch any future issues where they came, and then went about cleaning the blood stained bathroom. The bath ran red, pink, and finally clear. All dirty, stained, or otherwise soiled towels were tossed directly into the washing machine, along with Marinette’s clothes and the now soiled bathrobe she wore.
As she was walking back across the apartment, naked, she heard keys jingling at the door. In a split second reaction, she looked from the bedroom, four meters away, to the kitchen, two meters, and decided to go for it. Tikki ushered her towards the open bedroom door. Booking it as fast as possible, the front door still opened as she was half way there.
“Alya, close the door!” Marinette yelled as it swung wide open.
“Marinette, why are you naked!?”
“Oh, shit, she’s naked,” she heard male voices say.
“Why are there boys in my apartment?” Marinette screamed back, through the blessedly closed door. She began throwing on clothes as quickly as possible so as not to disrupt her injuries.
“We’re going out. Didn’t you get my text?”
“Well, obviously not.” Pulling on pants was the last touch, but skinny jeans were impossible, so she had to flop onto the bed to get them on. She pulled on a sweatshirt in defiance.
Nino, Adrien, Felix, and Alya stood around her living room. Well, the boys stood. Alya was comfortably draped across one of the chairs, her feet hanging over one arm.
“I didn’t see anything,” Adrien sputtered and avoided eye contact.
“Dude, don’t lie, that’s rude.” Nino smacked his shoulder. “We all saw your butt.”
“It’s a nice butt,” Alya interjected.
“Very nice.” Nino gave her a wink and Marinette wanted to physically disapparate into nothingness.
“Thanks. Why are you-”
“Wait, what?” Adrien looked between Nino’s wink and Marinette’s blush, connecting dots. She was hoping he would be as clueless about this as he was about his flirting. “Did you-!?” apparently not.
“Yeah, dude,” Alya kicked Adrien’s arm. “Where have you been?”
“It’s not like it’s a thing,” Marinette said defensively.
Nino shrugged. “I mean-”
“It was a thing that is no longer a thing.” Marinette’s eyes were dangerous, but Alya and Nino were enjoying watching Adrien and Marinette squirm. The two eyed each other and smiled as they watched their friends grow progressively more uncomfortable. They were sadists, but Marinette had a strange feeling about those two, like they needed to be alone together for a little while to connect.
But Alya had a boyfriend who wasn’t really a boyfriend - yet - and Marinette was supportive and loving of it, even if Sick Felix was creepy. Either way, this was not the time to play match maker. IT was time to stave off embarrassment.
“Well?”
“Well?” Alya shot back. “You’re not wearing that, are you?”
“I’m not going out.”
“What? Of course you are.”
“It’s Monday night and I still haven’t heard from that internship yet.” Marinette sat squarely in the middle of the coffee table, obstinate to the last.
“Mari, come on-”
Plagg jumped up onto the seat Alya was lounging in and settled into her lap.
“You have a cat?” Nino asked.
“Yup.”
“Since when?”
Marinette was getting more and more frustrated. “Since yesterday. Look, can you guys just go? I’m really tired, I have a lot of things that I have to work on, and I’ll just bring you guys down if I come with you.”
“Impossible,” Alya snarked. “Girl. You haven’t been out in a while. You need a distraction.”
Her shake of the head was final. “If you’re talking about Saturday, it’s handled, and it’s done. I’m fine.” Her voice took on a gentler tone then, trying to ease any concerns. “I promise.”
The girls met eyes for a long time, a silent conversation going on between them. The boys in the room could sense the tension and watched them, flicking eyes between each girl and gauging reactions. They had no idea what was going on, of course, but it was kind of them to try.
Alya was forever concerned that Marinette needed to be watched over and cared for, but Marinette insisted that she was fine. She could take care of herself and would call if she needed anything. Alya reminded her that she would always be there for her, and a squinched nose to the cat in her lap said ‘despite this thing being here.’ Marinette smiled and thanked Alya for her understanding, and both stood up and hugged.
“Okay, what the fuck just happened?” Nino commented.
“We’re leaving. Come on, guys.” Alya was the first one out, and Marinette pushed everyone else out of the apartment, watching them walk down the stairs and exit the building. Alya waved back to her at the top, and Marinette blew a kiss.
“I’ll be fine,” she called.
Alya shook her head and left, giving her a text several seconds later with a couple hundred heart emojis. Finally alone, Marinette went to do nothing and enjoy it.
