When Marinette woke up the next morning, the pain was so bad that she actually cried out. The doctor had said that her body was still in shock and probably wouldn't feel the full extent of her pain for a couple of days so it made sense to for her to feel such pain, but it still shocked her. Tikki grumbled a bit in her sleep. Marinette bit her lip to keep from crying out again; her kwami, like her parents, had exhausted herself worrying over her, so Marinette didn't want to wake her. She closed her eyes trying to block out the pain. She was Ladybug, for goodness sakes, she shouldn't be crying over a little bit of pain. She swallowed hard and tried to not let the burning tears behind her eyes spill. After a few minutes of trying to get a hold of herself, she finally let go. Marinette sobbed, hard.
She didn't care if her ribs seared with pain, she didn't care that if anyone found her they would worry, she didn't care if Tikki woke up, she didn't care. It hurt, her body hurt, she was broken and she was done with being strong. Yes, she was Ladybug and yes, she had gotten badly hurt before but it still hurt. Sometimes she wondered just how much her body could take. It wasn't like she didn't love being Ladybug; while she was Ladybug she was strong and confident and everything she wasn't as Marinette, but she was still human. When she was Ladybug it was easy to ignore the pain due to the adrenaline, it was always when she was Marinette that she ever really felt any pain. Of course, that was normal; she always felt the pain when she wasn't in the suit. Between her sobbing and the pain grating on her body, she didn't even hear the trapdoor above her bed open.

"Mari?" A shocked and worried voice came from above her. She opened her eyes, which had been closed tightly against the pain and through her tears she was able to make out Chat. She turned her head to see if Tikki was still sleeping beside her head, but apparently her Kwami had heard the door and had hid herself.

She didn't want Chat to see her like this; its true he didn't know she was Ladybug, but she still didn't want her partner to see her like this. She kept her head turned and bit her bottom lip, her body shaking as she tried to conceal her sobs. She didn't want him to see her in this state, not when she was this weak. But she couldn't stop the tears now that they had come. Everything had just seemed like too much. Marinette knew that this had been coming for a long time, she had hid everything with a fake smile for too long. This was bad. She didn't know how long this outburst would last and she couldn't stop and.... she was beginning not to care.

She startled a bit when she felt a hand stroking her hair. She finally turned her head back to Chat but couldn't meet his eyes, instead focusing on his ridiculously poufy hair. She felt his eyes on her, begging her to look at him but she wouldn't. She shifted her focus again to stare past his head at her ceiling but she felt his piercing gaze still on her. She felt felt his hand coming up to her face, and hesitating before very gently wiping her tears away. Terribly gently. Finally she gathered up courage to look at his face. His face was neutral and when she looked up into his eyes, she only saw understanding. And suddenly she was so thankful for him; thankful that he didn't have pity or worry in his eyes, thankful that he wasn't asking questions, thankful that he was just offering her silent comfort, just thankful that he was here.

She brought her hands up to her face, trying to hide her shame even if he had already seen it all. Lightly, he pried her hands away from her face. She half-heartedly tried to resist but gave up, partly because the struggling caused pain and partly because she just didn't care anymore.  She felt Chat, hold her hands, softly running his thumbs over them. He slowly bent down and lightly kissed the top of her uninjured cheek. This only made her sob harder. He laid down next to her, obviously trying to not rock the bed too much. As soon as he was down, he gently pulled her into him and gently cuddled her. Goddammit, why was it that he was always so gentle when it came to times like this? Marinette thought. Very briefly, another gentle blonde-haired boy flashed through her mind. But she pushed that away, that caused pain too.

With him silently holding her and just letting her cry, she eventually calmed down. She was sure she looked awful but Chat didn't say anything. Finally getting enough breath back she asked him, "Don't you need to be in school?"

"Doesn't matter," He muttered into her hair as his arm that had been lightly clutching her to him suddenly tightened. She'll admit, if it hadn't been made her feel better, she would have complained about the pain it caused. Instead, she just turned her head and nuzzled it into his covered collar bone. He nuzzled her head in response and she realized just how strange and intimate, this probably was.

"Tell me, kitty, do you normally crawl into crying girl's bedrooms and cuddle them?" She asked teasingly, trying to lighten the mood.

"Only yours, Princess." He responded softly, muffled because of her hair.

"You sure?"She asked, suddenly a little afraid of his answer.

"Paw-sitive." She sighed softly, reassured.

"Your cat puns are terrible" She muttered. She felt him chuckle.

"I happen to think they are rather claw-ver." He declared. She groaned.

"What Princess? Don't you think they are purr-iceless?"

"Nooo!"She half groaned and half laughed.

"I'm sure I can purr-suade you to love them. After all, they are litter-ally purr-fect. Fur-tunately, for you, I have a special tail-ent in cat-related puns."

Marinette had to giggle. There was so many awful cat puns in such a short amount of time. Chat grinned and stroked her cheek.

"There is that beautiful smile I adore." He breathed as she blushed. H-he adored?

They didn't say anything for a while, just laying there in companionable silence. Marinette was grateful, for once someone wasn't asking her questions that she couldn't answer. She shifted a bit, trying to get more comfortable, and groaned in response to the pain. She felt Chat pull away a bit.

"Do you need anything? Pain medicine?" He asked quietly, knowingly.

"Please." She whispered.

"Where are they?" He asked.

" Down, on my desk."

"You need water too, right?"

" Yeah, there's a glass of water in the bathroom." She muttered.

"Okay." He moved away from her, making his way off the bed. She watched him until his head disappeared down the ladder. She sighed a bit. What was she thinking? What was she doing? Chat returned a few minutes later, climbing the ladder with one hand. As he pulled himself up onto the landing, he pulled a bottle of pills from his pocket. He sat on her bed and she painstakingly pushed herself up into a sitting position. He handed her the glass of water and opened the bottle of pills, handing her one before closing the bottle back up and setting the bottle on the ground beside her bed. He looked back at her in time to see her gulp down the pills. Marinette handed him back the glass of water and he set that on the ground too. She sank back down on her pillow and Chat climbed back to lay beside her. He put his arm back into its position of resting across her stomach. Marinette closed her eyes, listening to the rhythm of his breathing. She refused to think of the complications this was going to cause, and she refused to think of her frantically beating heart; all she allowed herself to think about was the steady rhythm of his breathing. She knew she should push him away, she knew she should remember who she was and who he was, she knew she shouldn't be allowing this but she didn't have the strength or the energy to deny herself this small bit of comfort. So she just listened to his breathing, letting warmth and peace fill her. They stayed in this comfortable state until they heard Chat's miraculous beeping. He sighed and moved until he was crouched above her. He looked at her with eyes dark with emotions. She knew that he was just as confused as she was. She silently begged him not to ask about it. He looked at her for a few seconds before nodding. He bent down until he was millimeters away from her. He looked into her eyes again before saying;

"I'll be back tonight to check on you."

His words breathing across her face as he moved up to lay a soft kiss on her forehead. She nodded slightly. She swallowed and tried to calm her loudly beating heart. Honestly, that silly kitty shouldn't be having this effect on her.

"Sorry, you've already missed first period." She muttered.

"Don't worry, its okay. But I probably should go to some classes today." He chuckled. He was still crouched over her, which was not helping the condition of her heart. He pulled back a bit, and the look he gave her made her heart skip. He chuckled a bit before giving her a gentle smile and lightly stroking her cheek. Her breath caught in her throat. Seriously, what was wrong with her? This was just Chat...But then again, she normally would never let him do something so intimate...

Beep! She jumped as his Miraculous interrupted the tender moment. Chat sighed again before smiling at her faintly.

"See ya later, Princess." He grinned as he quickly climbed out of the door. She saw the door close and she felt Tikki land lightly on her pillow. Marinette buried her head in her hands, her face red and burning. Tikki giggled.

"What was that? " Tikki asked teasingly.

Marinette groaned. "If I knew the answer I would tell you. What am I doing Tikki? What am I going to do? Why am I doing this? I'm so confused." 

And she was. She didn't know why he comforted her like that. Why did he keep coming to check on her? Why did he do all...of that? Why did she let him? Why didn't she push him away? Why did her heart beat so fast? Why did she like it so much?

She groaned again and she heard Tikki giggle again.  Tikki flew up and lightly touched Marinette's hands that were still covering her face.

"I've been meaning to ask you, but what do you plan on doing about your nightly patrols with Chat Noir?" Tikki asked.

Marinette blew out her breath and took her hands away from her burning face to look at her kwami.

"Well, I was planning on continuing them, even in this state but I don't think its even possible, with the amount of pain I'm in." Marinette explained.

"So I think I'm going to have to call him on his little baton thing and tell him that I'll be busy for the next couple of nights and that I'll have to cancel on our patrols. I'm sure he'll understand." Marinette sighed unhappily, she wasn't happy about this plan but she didn't really have any other choice.

"But you'll have to transform in order to call him on his baton, are you sure your body is ready for that?" Tikki asked in concern.

"No, I'm not sure if my body can really handle it but there's nothing else I can really do."

Tikki was silent for a while, looking hard at Marinette. Marinette knew that her kwami didn't like this plan either but there really wasn't anything either of them could do about it.

"Okay, I guess." Her kwami muttered.

"Alright....Tikki, spots on!"

After a few minutes of fumbling with her yoyo, she finally got it to call Chat. She knew her body couldn't hold the transformation for long so she tried to do this as quickly as possible. She heard it ring once, twice and thrice before she heard it go to voice mail. Can batons even go to voice mail? she wondered. She shook herself a bit and tried to focus.

"Ummm, hi, Chat. This is Ladybug, umm, in case you didn't know. Anyways, I called to say that I'm really, really busy right now and I can't make it for nightly patrols for a while. I'm really sorry, I'll try to come back as soon as I can. Anyways if there is an akuma or an emergency, you can call me on this, I guess. Umm, so bye."  She finished lamely. Oh god, that was so awkward. She forgot how terrible she was on voice mails. Phone calls as Ladybug were fine, but there was just something about voice mails that unnerved her. Normally, she was fine as Ladybug but it seems that not even the suit could work miracles.

"Tikki, spots off." Tikki, giggled as she released the transformation. You could put a red suit on Marinette, but even Ladybug couldn't stop Marinette from shining through. Tikki knew that Marinette hated how awkward she was, but Tikki found it adorable and endearing.

"I'm going to go find some cookies." She said as she flew off and Marinette was left to deal with her battered body and her muddled thoughts about a certain black cat.

Suddenly her brain drifted to the question that had been haunting her for the last couple of days.

"Why did she jump?"

After going to the question, Marinette couldn't stop the thoughts consuming her brain about the topic. And finally she consciously brought the thought that she would never say out loud to the front of her mind;

"Did she really jump to save the little girl?"

Author's note: So here is the update I promised you guys. This fanfic is getting darker that I expected, but that's what I get for writing impulsively. As always I love constructive criticism, I'm wondering if you guys are enjoying how this writing is going? Its way...darker than I expected, I truly thought this was going to be fluffy but now...I don't know. I'm kind of apprehensive of posting this chapter, because its a little...controversial, maybe? I don't know, tell me what you think, please!
 Have a good whatever (morning, night, afternoon, evening, I don't discriminate :))

I love you guys, I'm so thankful that you guys read my little story and comment and vote and omg I just love you guys.

Cutesylittledemon