Continuing Tales

Wingless

A Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir Story
by spectaclesandbooks

Part 31 of 38

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"I- but- you- Marinette!" Chat spluttered as his gaze flew to the girl's face. A small, tired smile was plastered on it, and Chat felt his heart skip a beat at the beauty of it. Before he could stop himself, he was lurching forwards to envelop her in his arms, the tears beginning to flow once more. "M- Mari, you're awake, y-you're here, oh my g- god, you're h-here…" Chat's voice broke as he nestled his face into her shoulder, his arms probably too tight around her, but he didn't care.

He could feel her shaking under his grip, but couldn't tell if she was crying or laughing. It turned out to be both, as he saw the tears running down her face and heard the chuckles escaping her lips when he pulled back to look at her.

"I'm here, kitty. I promised, didn't I? I promised to stay." Marinette smiled as one of his hands reached out to cup her face. His other hand gripped one of hers to his heaving chest.

She sniffled as she saw the expression on his face, all his joy and hope and relief and love displayed there for all to see. Another smile tugged at the corners of her lips even as she tried to keep the tears at bay.

"I'm here." She whispered, reaching her other hand out to place it over the one of his that cupped her cheeks. She stroked it gently with her thumb as Chat sobbed slightly.

"Oh my god, oh my godMarinette." His legs buckled and he crumpled back into the chair he'd jumped up from in order to hug her. He didn't let go of Mari's hand, but took his other one from her face to clasp it even more tightly between the two. "Thank god, oh thank god, you're here, you're alive…"

"I am, I am, I'm not leaving you, kitty." Marinette's voice broke slightly as she wept in happiness, her emotions also nearly too much to bear. For a moment, there was silence as the two tried to get their feelings under control, at least enough to hold a proper conversation. Sort of.

"I- you, uh- I mean, um… are you okay?" Chat murmured, his eyes roving over the girl's pale face, his heart fluttering at the love he saw there. She let out a breathy chuckle.

"Been better," she admitted, wincing slightly as the pain began to flow through her. As her emotions ebbed and reality grew less fuzzy around her, the discomfort unfortunately grew more prominent.

"Are you in pain?" Chat's hands fluttered over her, wanting to hold her but not knowing where it would hurt.

"It's not bad, kitty, I'm okay," Mari told him reassuringly, weakly reaching out to comfort him with contact. She could see he didn't believe her, but he let her hand guide his back down.

"I can't believe you're awake." Chat sighed after a moment, a smile crossing his face as he gazed at her.

"How long was I out?" The rasp in her voice told her it had been a while, but she wasn't sure exactly how long.

"Um, it's very early Sunday morning," Chat told her nervously, watching her mentally count backwards.

"Oh Jeeze!" Marinette moaned, resting her head backwards on her pillows. "The explosion and the shot and all that stuff was on Friday, right? Soo... two days? Oh, my parents must be flipping out right now."

Chat squeezed her hand comfortingly, anxious to reassure her.

"They're… handling it." He said cautiously, slipping his fingers between hers. "They were here yesterday as soon as the nurses said you could have visitors. They were here for about half an hour, then Alya, Nino and I came to see you."

Marinette tensed slightly and raised her head to make eye contact with him again. He raised an eyebrow questioningly, not sure what had sparked the change in atmosphere.

There was a pause, then;

"Adrien."

Oh.

The single word told him everything he needed to know, and he waited cautiously for a follow up, not missing the way her eyes roamed his face and the stiffness of her hand in his.

"Y- you're Adrien." Marinette whispered, her face unreadable. She remembered seeing him de-transform in front of her as she lay in the alleyway, but she hadn't had a chance to really process. She remembered telling him she loved him, but she hadn't had a chance to really think about who she was saying it to.

"I am." Swallowing nervously, Chat was almost afraid to meet her eyes. He had no idea what he might see there.

There was a silence.

"Oh, thank god!"

Chat was startled when suddenly he had an armful of Marinette as she lurched forwards to yank him into a tight embrace. She ignored the pain that screamed at her from her side, needing too much to hold him, to wipe the nervousness and fear from his face.

Bemused, Chat buried his face in her hair and gripped her to him.

"That's a good thing, I take it?" He murmured. He felt her nod into his chest and laughed quietly. Mari pulled back a moment later to gaze intently into his eyes, hers filling with tears once more.

"The best." She told him, her voice thick. She nodded as she spoke, as if confirming her own words to herself. "The very best. A- Adrien, you're… Chat Noir, you're Adrien."

He gently pushed her backwards to lean on her pillows, knowing that sitting up wouldn't be good for her injury. But he kept her hand in his.

"I am."

It sounded weak, and he didn't know what to say next and he couldn't leave it like this and now he was panicking and his brain seemed to click onto auto-pilot.

"Yep, uh... so, ta-da…?"

There was a pause.

A pause during which Chat felt the mortification crawl slowly up his body. His face turned scarlet and he fought the urge to jump out of the window. What the hell had he just said?!

Marinette's face seemed to be frozen in a mask of shock and incredulity at his words, and Chat made an odd choking sound as he tried to redeem himself.

"Uh- so, I- wait, no- you, uh…" He covered his face with a trembling hand and tried not to melt into a puddle of embarrassment. What was happening to him?

There was a strange sound coming from Marinette, and he looked up to see her stuck between trying not to laugh and laughing really, really hard. Her hand reached out to cover her mouth as she tried to keep the snorts and belly-laughs to a minimum, and the effort of trying to keep quiet made it seem like she was choking.

If possible, Chat felt his face grow even hotter.

"Shut up!" He whispered furiously, but with a humiliated smile at how cute she looked. "It's not like you never said anything dumb around me, so stop- stop snorting!"

"I'm – I'm sorry," Mari choked out, not looking sorry in the least. "B-but 'ta-da'? Really? Oh my god, Chat, what happened to you?"

Chat folded his arms and tried to look calm and collected. It wasn't easy, considering how much he still wanted to curl up and die, as Marinette dissolved into quiet hysterics again.

"I'm sorry, Miss 'I really jacket your's cool.'" He said mock-coolly. Marinette's mouth popped open in horror, the laughs stopping abruptly, but Chat continued mercilessly. "Or, was it more like 'Urgh I mean, uhm- y-y-y-you, look goo- gah, bye!'? Oh, and what was it you said to me the week before Christmas?" He tapped his chin with a finger thoughtfully. "Oh, yes. 'Merry Adrien- no, wait, Christmas Happy, no hold on, M-merry Christmas Adrien, have a good Adrien- no wait- I'm really good hope you have a Christmas, Adrien- oh my god, okay bye!'"

Marinette pressed a shaking hand to her mouth, aghast, and Chat gave her a triumphant look.

"So don't laugh at me just because I said 'Ta-da' okay?" He murmured, leaning into her with narrowed eyes and a sly smirk on his face.

"B- but- I was n-ner- you're Chat- I- I can't - but - oh crap, Adrien!" Marinette let out a despairing wail and buried her face in her hands, trying to hide the vermillion that spread over her face.

Chat let out a laugh and tried to tug her hands away from her face so he could look at how red she was.

"Mari- hey, come on, I was just teasing!" He sighed when she didn't budge.

"Oh my god."

"Hey, I always thought it was cute." He said, his breath fanning over what little of her face was exposed. She peeked through her fingers to look up at him.

"R- really?"

"Yeah. It was adorable."

"B- but… oh god it was so embarrassing! I couldn't even speak to you properly. I f- fell over all the time, I stammered and spluttered and made a complete fool of myself!"

"It's not like I was any better around Ladybug," Chat reasoned, finally succeeding in pulling her hands away from her face and holding them tightly. He looked sincerely into her eyes, fighting the irrationally large urge to kiss her.

"Yeah, well… at least you could talk properly." Marinette fidgeted. "At least your flirting was actual flirting. Your way of talking to the person you liked was much more sane."

Chat smiled, kissing her knuckles.

"It's not like it worked very well, though, is it? It took me finding out who you were and saving you from Chloe's tyranny for us to finally get anywhere. You were very efficient at shutting me down."

Marinette looked guilty.

"Th- that was only because I liked Adrien so much," she confessed. "If I hadn't, I'd have almost certainly given in much earlier. That was really the only major thing keeping me from accepting the fact that I kinda liked you, too."

"What?" Chat yelped, his voice very loud in the near-silence of the hospital room. He fought to keep it down though, as he continued. "You always liked me? You- but- oh my god! I always figured that maybe there was another guy in your civilian life, but my own competition was meOh my god…"

Marinette giggled weakly, her hands tightening around his.

"We're such idiots." She sighed fondly, and Chat looked at her, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Oh my god, we are."

Mari giggled, then sighed again. The mood calmed, but somehow got even more intense. The room was dark and quiet, their voices more subdued but passionate.

"We've wasted so much time, haven't we?"

"We have," murmured Chat, moving closer. The air between the two suddenly seemed to heat up, their gazes locked intently on the other's face. "And I don't want to waste a second more."

"Me neither." Marinette breathed, and that was all it took for Chat to finally close the gap between them and press his lips to hers.

Wingless

A Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir Story
by spectaclesandbooks

Part 31 of 38

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