Falling From Grace ~ A Miraculous Ladybug fic

Chapter 4

Adrien/Chat

He stared blankly at the book shelf, trying to get his eyes to focus on the titles. He couldn't process anything. After the acuma battle, Marinette had completely disappeared. They let school out early, and he had been rushed off to an unscheduled interview. But the entire time, he couldn't get her out of his head. She had thrown herself into harms way for him. She had tackled an acuma, for him. She had almost gotten cataclysmed, for him. What was with her and dangerous situations? Normal people fled. She had that option, he knew she was thinking about it. But she didn't. She ran straight at danger, and had yanked it away from him by it's hair.

"Just pick a book already. It can't be that hard."

Plagg was right by his ear, and Adrien jumped at the sudden sound.

"Why do you think she did it?"

"Well the show host was right. Your hair was a wreck, and it needed to be brushed."

Adrien scowled, snatching a random book off of the shelf and heading back down the stairs.

"Not that. I meant Marinette."

"Oh. You saved her life. Maybe she was returning the favor."

That was stupid. He was a superhero. He was supposed to save her. A civilian. Not the other way around.

"Maybe you should go ask her."

Plagg smirked, and Adrien tossed the book onto the couch.

"Maybe I should. She seems to have a death wish."

Plagg ate a slice of cheese, and Adrien gracefully waited for him to swallow before calling on his transformation.

"Plagg, claws out."

* * * * *

He knocked on her window, and she stepped into view, wrapping a blanket over her shoulders. It wasn't even cold, why was she doing that? She pushed it open and without a word, he slipped in next to her.

"Chat?" She asked as if she was suprised he had come.

As if he had any other choice. She needed to stop putting herself in dangerous situations. She needed to tell him what the hell she had been thinking, grabbing the acuma like that when one touch could have meant her death. He wanted to scream at her that she was stupid for doing it. He wanted to tell her that if she ever did something so blatantly suicidal, that he would throw her into the sienne. But nothing came out.

"Is everything okay?"

No. Of course it wasn't okay. What was she even saying? His hands balled into fists at his side, and he was going to let her have it. She deserved to know how dumb that was. But when he looked up, when he met her eyes, his anger crumbled into a mass of jumbled confusion. Fear. He had been terrified when he saw her run towards them. The knowledge that he was about to watch her die, it had scared him to no end. At that point, he had given up on Ladybug showing up in time. But she had been there. Marinette had been there for him when Ladybug was god knows where. Thinking back, there had been other times she was there for him when his lady wasn't.

"Hey... don't cry." She whispered, and he snapped out of whatever trance he had been in, quickly blinking the tears back.

"I'm sorry." He breathed, yanking her to him.

The blanket fell off as he hugged her, squeezing her tightly against his lean frame. She seemed to freeze, before slowly relaxing against him. He couldn't put any of it into words, and he didn't want to. Pretend flirting was one thing.