Always Find You

Chapter 16 - "A Bad Dream"

"Chat..." She says quietly at first, until another sting comes from her collarbone, "Chat! Stop!"
She shifts underneath his unmoving weight, trying to wiggle under his legs.

He acts almost as if he can't hear her, keeping her firmly in place. His claws gently trace down to her stomach and find their way to the bare skin her movements just exposed. His hand stops above her hip, his lips still busy on her neck.
Without even looking up from what he's doing, he slowly digs his claws into the skin on her right side.
Marinette screams in agony, hitting the cat with her free hand, but he pins that hand down too and continues his work on her hip.
The kisses keep going on her neck, only getting lower down and burning more and more.

"Chat!!" She screams.

"The cat's not here to save you now." The deep man's voice from on top of her growls. She looks at the man's face: there, in the place of her Chat, is Hawk Moth with a braided rope around his neck.
Hawk Moth digs his hand further into her side, and she can only choke on her pain, words not escaping her throat.
"Shhh," He says, "I'll always be here with you."

Marinette wakes up with a start, her side stinging from her injuries. A heart monitor in the room she's in is beeping almost unnaturally fast.

"Hey, hey, take a deep breath." A hand gently takes a hold of hers, but she flinches away.

Her eyes dart around and find Adrien next to the hospital bed she's laying on. Her breathing won't slow down.

"Marinette, are you okay?" Adrien asks in a worried tone.

Marinette feels her right side: no more blood, and a healing stab wound.

"Y-yeah," She finally stutters, "I just had a bad dream."
The girl sits up slowly and pulls her knees towards her.
"Just a bad dream," She whispers to herself.

The realization that Adrien and her are alone in her room completely goes over her head.

"The- um... The nurse said I could stay here until you woke up. They've been checking in every once in awhile." Adrien rubs his eyes and yawns.

"How long have you been here?" Marinette asks, hugging her knees a little tighter.

"Oh, uh," The boy checks his watch, "About 9 hours."

"9 hours?!" She yells, but then remembers her manners and whispers, "9 hours? Are you serious? I thought I was only out for a few minutes."

"Yeah, not quite: you were in surgery for about 3 hours and then got blood transfusions and the like. You've been asleep for the other 6." Adrien explains.

"A-and you've been here the whole time?"

He looks down at the floor nervously, "Yeah. I hope that's okay with you. Your parents needed some rest about 5 hours in, so I offered to stay and keep them updated."
He shows Marinette a thread of multiple text messages to her parents that are all some variation of 'Still asleep.' Adrien sends another one letting them know she's awake.

"Adrien? Did they find Hawk Moth?"

"Well no, and they couldn't find the akuma who did this either." He grits his teeth slightly.

"No, Adrien, it wasn't an akuma. It was Hawk Moth." She seems to struggle to say his name.

"What? What do you mean?"

"He - um..." She hesitates and sniffles a little, "He kept me in this secret room and would question me constantly. He thought I was Ladybug of all things."
She starts trembling just thinking about it, "I lied to him and told him I was cause he threatened to..." She stops and looks up at Adrien, "Uh- but he didn't let me go, he just kept asking where Ladybug's Miraculous was and he..." Marinette can't help but break down crying.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. You don't have to tell me any more." He puts his hand on hers again, and she doesn't pull away this time, "Marinette, why would he think you're Ladybug, though?"
Adrien hopes she'll confess to him right then and there so he won't have to admit that he knows her secret identity.

She wipes one of her eyes, seemingly thinking of the right answer, "I'm... I don't know."

Adrien looks down at the ground. Should he tell her he knows? Maybe she's too fragile to handle the news right now. The Ladybug Miraculous seems to be burning a hole in his pocket, quite literally. Tikki must be pretty desperate to go back to Marinette.

"Don't worry yourself too much over that. It was a silly question anyway. Get some more rest." He says and kisses the back of her hand.

Adrien helps her lower her head back to the pillow and he returns to his seat. Once Marinette falls asleep, he gently puts the earrings back in her ears where they belong and then falls asleep himself in the armchair.

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Author's Note:
Wow guys, thanks so much for 200 views! Keep reading and voting so I can keep writing. 😉