Always Find You

Chapter 32 - "Deja Vu"

"Marinette." A light hand shakes her shoulder, "Marinette, wake up."

She opens her eyes with a start, but relaxes when she sees Adrien kneeling in front of her; he's been crying.

"Hey," She sits up and puts her hand on his cheek, "Are you okay?"

Adrien holds her hand there and leans into her touch. He looks like he was originally determined to hold it together, but his resolve quickly breaks and he falls apart.
He shakes his head "no," his eyes squeezed shut to keep his emotions at bay.

Marinette pulls him toward her and hugs him as tight as she can. She feels so helpless: all she can do is hold him and shush him as if he were a nervous horse.
She settles for stroking his hair while his arms are wrapped around her waist.

"What can I do?" She asks, putting a kiss on the top of his head.

"I need-" He sniffles, "I need to go to a hospital. Poor Wayzz has been holding on this entire time."

"I can call an ambulance." Marinette had nearly forgotten about the past hour.

"No, I can't deal with people being here, not right now." He gestures his head in the direction of where his father was.

"So we'll... walk?" She's unsure of what options there are left.

"That's not necessary," Adrien seems to be back to his composed self, "I still have a body guard that can drive us."

"Your bodyguard taking you to the hospital. Seems rather ironic."

Adrien gives her a polite smile, but she can tell that he's putting it on for her sake, "Right."

~ ~ ~

Getting Adrien medical treatment is no easy task. Although Gorilla, his bodyguard, doesn't seem phased by his turtle costume or his celestial looking girlfriend, (if he's allowed to call her his girlfriend) Adrien still feels the need to "explain" the entire way there, conveniently leaving out important details like "the truth."

Once they pull up to the hospital, Gorilla makes a move to get out of the car, but Marinette refuses, insisting she can handle Adrien with his injury. (A sprained ankle, according to him.)

Adrien puts on a fake limp until they get out of sight by the front door.

"We can't risk anybody else knowing about Wayzz, Marinette," He plays with the bracelet on his wrist, "I know we didn't talk about this, but there's still a chance I could die."

She had thought of it before, but pushed it from her mind at the time, "What do we do, then?"

"I have to de-transform before I go in."

"No way! That could leave you bleeding out for a good few minutes."

"And? Nothing new to either of us." Adrien says with a huff.

Marinette nods slowly and lets out a shaky breath, "Okay, please just promise you won't die?"

He gives her a sad smile, "I'm not supposed to make promises I'm not sure I can keep."

She puts Adrien's arm over her shoulder in preparation for the walk inside while he says, "Wayzz, shell off."

Marinette has nearly forgotten just how bad he looked before he transformed (she was a bit busy at the time) and she immediately starts pulling him towards the doors.

"Okay," Adrien says under his breath, "This hurts like a bi-"

"Someone help!" Marinette cries as they get over the threshold, "Hurry, he's dying!"

Nurses seem less called to action as she's not currently a superhero, but they still bring out a stretcher, and Marinette is left in the lobby with the image of Adrien bloodied and dying going through the door.

~ ~ ~

Author's Note:
This chapter wasn't late. What are you talking about?? 😬
But for real, sorry about posting it a day late, had lots of stuff to do yesterday, and apparently finishing this chapter wasn't one of those things.
Please vote and comment, cause I love to get notifications from you guys. 💕
(Also, the temptation was great to title this chapter "Nervous Horse." 😂)