You know, this was supposed to turn into a completely different one-shot than it did (that seems to happen a lot with me), but I really like the direction this took! I hope you guys will like it too. Vote and comment if you've enjoyed!                                                                                                                                                     -Colorado

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was quiet, but the silence was deafening. Even if neither of them were talking, it was too loud. The unspoken truths between them were too vast to try and make sense of them. So, they simply didn't and started with a problem that they could fix.

"Here, let me see your arm." Marinette said gently, walking over to where Adrien was sitting her chaise. He wordlessly held his arm out and Marinette began to dab his injury with a washcloth. "It might sting, just so you know."

"It's okay. I can take it." His voice was still rough from earlier.

"Okay."

She began to tend to the bruise, the two of them falling back into silence. There was too much and too little to say.

"So, um," Marinette whispered. "Are you feeling a bit better?"

Adrien nodded.

"Good. That's good."

Another uncomfortable silence.

Why was this so hard?

Normally, they would be joking by now. Maybe she'd be scolding him for getting hurt, but it would only be because she was worried. Were the masks so important to their relationship that they couldn't talk without them?

"Hey, would you like to stay here tonight?" She asked, her voice just as soft.

"Yeah, thanks."

"Of course, Adrien. I want you to have a safe place to stay tonight."

"Yeah." He said quietly.

"Thank you." Marinette grabbed his hand. "For coming to me and telling me. I'm sure that took a lot of strength."

"I don't think I could've seen you and lied to you about something like this." Adrien sniffled.

"Still, you told me. Thank you for doing that." Marinette leaned forward and grabbed his injury, placing a light kiss on it.

"You don't... mind?" Adrien asked.

"Why would I mind?"

"Because you didn't want to reveal our identities. You were always so against it so I thought that maybe you would turn me away and not want to see me or-."

"Adrien, no." Marinette gently lifted his face towards hers. "I will never turn you away, okay? I was against revealing our identities, yes, but not because I didn't want to know who you were. Ask Tikki! She'll tell you about all the times I begged for her to let us reveal our identities. I didn't want to reveal my identity because it wasn't safe. If Hawkmoth had hurt you because of something I had done, I would've never forgiven myself."

Adrien chuckled bitterly.

"Yeah well, it's obvious that's a bit of a moot point now, huh?" 

Marinette dropped the washcloth and nearly tackled him in a hug.

"I'm sorry, Adrien. I'm so, so, sorry."

For the second time today, tears bubbled to the surface of his eyes.

"I-I-I just can't believe he would do something like this, but at the same time I totally could. He shut me out so many times, he would rarely talk about my mother and when he did it was always talking about how she would come back." Adrien started to cry. "W-well, now I know e-exactly what he meant."

"I'm so sorry."

"It just," he sucked in a breath. "Really sucks."

"I think that's a gross understatement." Marinette gave him a smile.

"Y-yeah, probably. I mean, where am I going to go from here, Marinette?"

"Well," She started to say gently. "I know that tonight once my parents get here, we can make something up or tell them what happened, then we can make your favorite food with all the pastries you could imagine, and then we can have a movie night or a video game competition."

"But what about after my father gets arrested? And Nathalie? Who's going to take care of me? Will I still be able to go school? What's the press going to say? What's going to happen?"

"Well," Marinette intertwined his hand with hers and he held onto it like a lifeline. "I don't know who will be your official guardian, but while the paperwork gets sorted out you can always stay here. Or at Nino's, or Alya's, I'm sure even Chloe will lend you a room at the hotel.

"As far as school goes, maybe you'll have to stay wherever you are for a week or so while everything dies down, but I promise I'll visit you every day. I bet Mme. Bustier could even do a video call so you can still talk and see everyone.

"And if the press even dares to utter one bad word about you, they'll have to do with an infuriated Ladybug. I'm sure once we come out with a statement that the press won't try and pin it on you."

"Yeah, but, what if people just start looking at me with pity? They give me everything I want because I'm the 'poor lonely boy?' I don't think I could handle that."

"We'll face it like we always do. It's us against the world, right?"

"As always, m'lady."

The two of them drew apart from their hug, and Marinette held out a fist. Adrien returned it, cracking the first smile of the day.

"It's going to be alright, okay? I'll do everything in my power to make sure this goes as easy as possible for you." Marinette promised.

"As long as you're by my side, bugaboo, I can handle it." Too exhausted to care about any of the long term effects, Adrien leaned his forehead on Marinette's.

"Glad I can help you, my kitty." She placed a light kiss on his forehead. "Now, is anything else hurting?"

"Well, he may have gotten my back with his cane." He scratched the back of his neck. "But you don't have to-."

"Take off your shirt." Marinette order. Adrien raised his eyebrows and could help but grin.

"Why, princess! How forward!" To his utter delight and confusion, Marinette's face flushed.

"I didn't mean it like that, you stupid cat! I have to tend to your wound, and I can't do that unless you take off your shirt."

"And I'm sure that's the only reason you want to see me shirtless." Adrien winked as Marinette sputtered.

"I can assure you it is!" She squeaked, holding the washcloth up to her face.

Adrien let out a laugh. His heart still hurt, of course it did, but suddenly his mind was more focused on the girl in front of him than on his supervillain dad. 

"Sure, I definitely believe you." He teased, but pulled his shirt over his head.

"Turn around." Marinette said, averting her eyes.

"Aw, you don't want to see this in all its goodness?"

"Adrien! Just turn around."

"Fine, fine." He complied, still grinning, but it slipped off when he heard the gasp come from Marinette's mouth. He flinched.

"Oh, Adrien." She whispered. "And he knew you were Chat Noir when he did this?"

Adrien played with his hands, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

"Yeah."

"Okay, I'm going to get some photographs of this, is that alright? As much as I hate to think about it, I think it could do us good in court."

"Yeah, I know. Go ahead."

"Thank you." She kissed his back, right where the bruise started, before getting out her phone. Adrien stiffened and tried his hardest not to read into it. "Sorry, is that okay?"

"Of course. I was just caught off guard."

"So, I can do it again?"

Adrien gulped, what did that mean?

"If you want to, you won't feel any complaining from me."

"Okay." Marinette took a few quick photographs, before picking the washcloth back up.

She began to clean his wound gently. Focusing on one part of the wound and making sure it was clean before placing a kiss on it and moving to the next part. Adrien didn't even feel the sting of the soap because all he could focus on was how soft his partner's lips were. She took a physical sting away and slowly, Adrien began to relax a bit more.

He was with Marinette after all. She wasn't going to judge him for crying or making a dumb joke. Out of everyone in his life, she was the one who made him feel the safest. That's why he could handle the pain of telling her what his father had done. He knew that with her, he felt more at peace than he ever did with Gabriel.

He really didn't deserve her.

She had put so much on the line for him too. Shortly after they had met up, he fell apart in her arms, explaining through many sobs what had happened. After hearing about the fight between Chat Noir and Hawkmoth, Ladybug immediately told him to follow her. She had led him to her balcony and de-transformed in front of his very eyes. She told him to follow suit which he had done and after another hug, she sat him on the chaise to begin cleaning his wounds.

"There, all better." She said softly.

"Thank you, Marinette. It feels a lot better now, too."

"You're so strong, Adrien." She leaned her head on his shoulder, and her arms encircled him. "I know we didn't talk about it a whole lot, but I'm overjoyed that you're my partner."

"Really?" He whispered. "You aren't disappointed? I mean, I'm Hawkmoth's son."

"And all that does is make me admire you more. You put up with a nasty father, the consequences of being famous, and so much more, and you're still a kind, funny, and wonderful human being."

"Oh." He whispered.

"How could I ever be disappointed when I hit the jackpot in partners? You're so understanding and so good, you don't deserve any of this."

"T-thank you, Marinette." He squeezed his eyes shut to prevent crying yet again. "You have no idea how much it means to me to hear you say that."

"I'll repeat it every single day until you believe it."

"You know that the feeling is mutual, right? I even suspected that Marinette was Ladybug a few times. Then, you know, Multimouse happened. How did you pull that off?"

"Fox miraculous. I'm sorry for tricking you."

"It's okay, you didn't have a choice. You didn't want your miraculous to be taken from you." 

"I hated doing it, you know. I hated all the lies, all the tricks, all the things I couldn't tell you."

"Me too. If I had a nickel for every time I thought about how much I wished things were different, I'd be twice as rich."

"Well, now things are different. In a good way! We won't have to worry about losing our miraculous. I've been doing some research, it turns out that it was never a rule to keep our identities a secret."

"What?" Adrien cried.

"Yeah! The other day, I learned that because Master Fu never finished his training, he just assumed that we had to keep our identities a secret. The truth is that while their identities should be kept under wraps for the most part, it's okay if it's shared with their partner or team."

"Wow." Adrien whispered.

"But of course, Master Fu didn't know that, so I think he would've still taken away our miraculouses if we had an untimely reveal."

"Most likely. It always seemed like he was always a stickler for rules."

"I guess he just wanted to make up for his mistakes. That's probably why he cared so much, if he followed the rules, maybe other disasters wouldn't happen. I understand that, in a way."

"Well, if it's any consolation, I think you're a furtastic Guardian." Adrien kissed her nose.

"Thanks, kitty." She ruffled his hair. "I'm glad that you believe in me."

"Of course I do, I'm your partner, remember? I'm always here to support you."

"And I'll always be here to support you, too. No matter what is going to happen, I'm going to stick by your side throughout it all. So, you better get used to me." She threw him a wink. "Because I'm sticking around."

"It's a good thing I like you then." Adrien bumped his shoulders with hers. "I could get used to you being around and by that I mean: please, stay." The last world came out with a bit more emotion than he had intended.

"Oh, of course I will." Marinette moved in for hugging him again. "I'm not going to leave your side. Ever. So, don't even think about that. Even if I'm not there in person I'm going to be texting and calling you unstop, it's going to be so annoying." She half-joked.

"I look forward to it." 

"On a more serious note, don't hesitate to reach out to me, okay?"

"Okay."

"Even if it is three in the morning, if something happens, call me or if you're staying here, come and wake me up. I will happily sacrifice my sleep schedule for you."

Adrien's eyes grew wide.

"Wow, thank you. I know how much you love your sleep."

"You're worth more, Adrien. You will always be worth more."

"You still need rest though, Marinette, you do so much for so many."

"I know, but I care about you Adrien. I don't ever want you to feel like you're alone ever again. You've got me now, and once they find out, Alya, Nino, and I are going to form the toughest 'Adrien Agreste Defense Squad' there ever was." Marinette vowed.

Adrien snorted, feeling much better than he had the entire day. Marinette was just like that, she always knew exactly what to do to help him. Whether that was distracting him, giving him a shoulder to cry on, or cracking a joke to make him smile. She was there for him, no matter what it was. Whether she was Ladybug or Marinette, she had always been his anchor.

"Paris will be quaking in its boots."

"You bet your ass they will."

After their laughter subsided, the mood turned a bit more somber.

"So, let me know if you don't want to talk about it right now, because I will totally drop it if that's the case, but what do you want to do about your father and when do you want to do it?" Marinette asked, her tone still soft, but serious.

"I don't really want to do anything tonight except spend time with you."

"Done."

"But I think tomorrow we can start figuring out on how to infiltrate the mansion and how we can take down both him and Mayura. The only problem is if he flees the country," Adrien bit his lip.

"There is a way to avoid that, but it would get rid of any secrecy we have right now."

"What is it?"

"I could transform as Ladybug and go over to Alya's. I'll tell her you contacted me with your information and she can post it on the Ladyblog. News will spread fast, I'm sure, but..."

"We'd all be exposed to the press?" Adrien finished for her. 

"Yeah and I want you to be ready when it happens."

"I don't think we can risk this, Marinette. If he escapes from the country because I told you to not put out a warning, I don't think I'd ever get over it."

"So, I should go and tell Alya everything?"

"Yeah, that would probably be the most wise, but not right now. Give me an hour, he can't escape in that amount of time, right?"

"I doubt it. I'm surprised he didn't akumatize anyone."

"Well, that could be due to the fact that I managed to get the miraculous off of him, but that's when Nathalie came in and gave this wonderful bruise on my wrist, so I dropped it, but then I catacylsmed the wall and it and the peacock miraculous got buried under the rubble."

"And I doubt he'd try to leave town without it, good thinking, kitty." Marinette scratched under his chin.

"Why thank you, m'lady."

"So, how about we go and explain to my parents what happened, then eat dinner, then after I can go over to Alya's, would that be okay with you?"

"Yeah, just, be back soon."

"Don't worry, I won't spend a moment longer than I have to at her place. It shouldn't take me more than five minutes."

"Okay. Thank you."

"Of course, leaving your side was always my least favorite part of any patrol or battle. Unless you sacrificed yourself for me, that was probably even worse."

"Once Hawkmoth is gone, I don't think I'll need to until the next big bad shows up."

"You shouldn't need to sacrifice yourself at all." Marinette growled.

"Yeah, but you're the one with the cure. It's just luck of the draw."

"Well, I hate it."

"I know you do, I don't like it either, but I'd much rather it be me than you. I don't think I could take it if you were the one sacrificing yourself for me."

"And you think I can?" Marinette cuddled a bit closer to his chest. "I know rationally that it's better you than me, but I despise it. I hate having to see you disappear."

"I know, m'lady, but soon there won't be a need for that. Hawkmoth will be gone and we'll be free from akumas and battles."

"Yeah, we gotta focus on the positives. No more making up terrible excuses and leaving class in the middle of the day!" 

"No more skipping out on activities because an attack happened." Adrien would probably be able to go to more things too! And maybe even quit some of the extracurriculars he didn't enjoy!

"No more leaving our friends in tricky situations because Hawkmoth and Mayura decided to be butts."

"Yeah. Once everything dies down, being parentless won't be so bad." Adrien joked.

"And maybe it would be a good thing for both of us to look into therapy." Marinette said gently.

"If my new guardian approves of it, yeah that would probably be wise."

"If your new guardian knows what's good for them, they'll support you in trying to get better." She punched her palm.

"Marinette! We're done with the bakery!" Sabine called from downstairs.

Marinette shot Adrien a smile.

"You ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

Marinette stood up and reached out her hand to him, which he happily accepted.

Maybe things right now were terrible, but they wouldn't be forever, and as long as he had Marinette with him, he knew he could get through anything. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was supposed to deal with a lot more physical wounds than emotional ones, but it's important for us to take care of ourselves no matter what the type of pain it is. If we would treat a physical pain, we should treat mental and emotional pains as well. Even if it's hard, it will do a lot of good for us in the long run.                                                                                                                                       -Colorado