The Bug, the Bird and the Bats ✔

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Powers and Tears

Seeing as none of them have seen Adrien and Marinette spar with powers yet, besides Kon who can fight with them, and when she asks if they want to see it, they all agree.

What she didn't expect was for damn near all of them to agree. As in Bruce, Dick, Cass and Duke, Jason, Tim and Kon, Stephanie and Damian.

All of them, every single one, wanted to watch her get her ass kicked -whether they knew that it was a habit between their fights or not. They were going to watch her fight so it was going to happen.

Honestly, Marinette Dupain-Cheng was always a little bit nervous to fight against Chat Noir, or Adrien, as it were now. Even if they've developed into the ability to use their miraculous powers without fully transforming.

Because his powers were destruction.

Hers was creation -the very opposite of what is needed to defeat someone.

They were fighting in a concrete room with dried dirt under them, stale air and dull, flickering lights. It wasn't unlike the concrete basement of the Tsurugi household that became a team sparring zone.

The space was wrecked from previous matches and from Tim's weapons when Tim decides to randomly spar against his boyfriend, or Damian against Jon.

It was Adrien's territory -he had the advantage in every aspect and she didn't ignore that.

She'd have to work extra hard to use her powers and even harder to make them effective at all. Like this, it normally took her about three rounds of getting her ass kicked by Adrien to come up with anything that worked, and another two to win instead of coming to a draw.

And that made Marinette dread getting her ass handed to her in front of her boyfriend, in particular.

Because while Damian could both kick the shit out of someone and defend himself, the- -feeling rather pathetic- -heroine could only cry about it. She didn't have the best pain tolerance after all.

Marinette really didn't feel like crying in front of everyone.

But it was either cry or have a panic attack over being hurt, and with the bond the way it is right now so raw, she wasn't willing to put Adrien through that -especially if she blocked him when it was happening, because he could still tell that something is wrong, he just wouldn't be able to know what.

So this day was going great.

-

"Are you ready?" Adrien asks, facing her, wife beater tight against his chest, shorts low on his hips -he's clearly ready for a fight, but not a hard one. This is the third time he has asked her, and every time thus far she's said yes.

They've been practicing for two hours previously, she's already won, she's ready.

The problem is that when she says yes, she stares at him with shaking hands and white eyes and his body won't move because it feels like he's attacking himself and though his self-hatred is strong, his self-preservation is stronger.

Annoyance snaps through the bond.

We've been over this, she snaps through the mind link. Stance changing as she crosses her arms. Can we please just start this already.

Awarded with acceptance and worry simultaneously sent back as a response, Marinette changes back into a fight stance.

"Plagg?" Adrien calls, causing the kwami to fly up from where he was hiding in the roof beams -used to secrecy the pessimistic god still thinks they should have. "Give me power."