Chapter Text
Buggaboo <333 ;3:
This is a disaster
Wtf do we do
We’ve gotten out of situations like this before, right?
I believe in you <3
Buggaboo <333 ;3 is typing…
Marinette kept retyping and deleting her response. Adrien watched as the bubble on the screen popped up and then disappeared, over and over again.
He peered at her. She had a slight blush on her cheeks and a nervous look in her eyes. They were shimmering again. Adrien swallowed, the knots in his stomach tightening as he replayed their most recent conversation in his head.
Focus on that later. Akuma first.
You okay?
She looked over at him and he searched her face. He couldn’t read it.
“Do you think it’s gone?” Sabrina asked, “It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything.”
“L-let me check the news footage,” Marinette said. She unlocked her phone and pulled out the akuma report app, “Oh shit.”
“What?”
“You guys might want to see this…” Sabrina looked over Marinette’s right while Adrien stood over her left shoulder. He watched as her blush spread to her ears from the awkward proximity, “U-um… His name is Inhalerator.”
The footage wasn’t of the best quality, as it was clearly being filmed in strong winds. The camera shook frequently.
“Paris is in hiding, as the newest akumatized villain, Inhalerator, has been knocking down buildings with gusts of wind.” Nadia said through the phone. The camera panned towards a giant white cloud, roughly taking the shape of a face.
“I’M COMING FOR YOU LAUREN!” he yelled, blowing at the camera.
The footage went out.
“Yikes,” Adrien said.
“Yeah… yikes,” Sabrina frowned, “At least he’s past Francois Dupont now.”
Marinette pocketed her phone, “Let’s see if we can get out of here,” she said, “Is your head ok?”
“I’ll be honest, I’m still a bit dizzy. But it doesn’t really hurt anymore.”
“Why don’t you sit down while Marinette and I try to figure this out?” Adrien suggested and Sabrina took him up on his offer.
“Let’s try to pry our way through the door.” Marinette started walking towards the exit, Adrien close behind.
Once they had passed two rows of lockers, and therefore were out of sight of poor Sabrina, Tikki and Plagg came out.
“Can you Cataclysm it?” Marinette whispered.
“No,” Adrien said, “Look at the support beams, they're snapped in half. The only reason that they're still standing is because it's being held up by the debris. If I do, more of the ceiling might fall down on us.”
“Can we do it to another wall?”
“Probably,” Adrien shrugged, “But, how would we explain to Sabrina that just as Adrien disappeared, Chat Noir happens to show up?”
“What about a window?” Tikki kept her voice down.
Marinette shook her head, “The ones in here are too high to get to.”
“Unless...” Adrien pondered.
Marinette's eyes were on his in an instant, knowing exactly what he was thinking. She whisper shouted, “If you tell me you’re gonna climb up there without your supersuit-”
“I’m gonna climb up there without my supersuit,” Adrien grinned.
“Chaton I swear to God.”
Adrien might be able to jump from a bench and grab onto the top of a locker row. The rows were a bit taller than him, though. On top of that, no window would be within reach, as each was placed higher on the wall, and in between the rows of lockers. He would have to jump and hope he’d catch the ledge. T he windows were also just barely big enough for a human to crawl through. And then there was that small factor of how he’d get down from that height once he got through
“You’re going to break your neck. Plus, they're not even open-”
“Done,” she heard Plagg say. While Marinette was talking, he had flown to a window, unlocked it, and pushed it open. Adrien threw him a slice of cheese in appreciation.
“I can do this Marinette,” He promised her, “This is nothing compared to what we do on a daily basis.”
“Yeah, while we’re wearing magical unbreakable protective armor!” she yelled, again with a whisper.
“You’ve seen how tall my bedroom ceiling is right? And I have a rock wall that I constantly climb without a helmet.”
“You’re a dumbass.”
“I like to think of myself as a badboy.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her, smirking, and when Marinette’s eyes widened, a blush taking over her cheeks, he stopped. She looked so cute.
They stared at each other for a moment with blank stares, both thinking intensely about the lack of ending to their previous talk, before Tikki cleared her throat.
“ Sooo...” the kwami giggled, then quietly said, “Adrien will say he’s going to get help, climb through the window, then come back as Chat to free you and Sabrina.”
“Sounds like a plan!” Adrien grinned.
Marinette was hesitant, “...ok. Fine. But if you hurt yourself, I’ll never forgive you.”
“Promise I wont!”
Tikki and Plagg hid once again, and they walked back over to Sabrina.
“Did you get the door open?” she asked, hopefully.
“No,” Marinette sighed, “but Adrien does have an idea...”
“We found an open window, so I’m going to try and climb through it.”
“Um. Aren’t those like... really high up?” Sabrina raised an eyebrow.
“I’ve done worse.” Adrien shrugged, “And we need to get help. Maybe I can find Chat Noir or Ladybug.”
“Please don’t break your neck.”
“That’s what I said!” Marinette exclaimed.
“I’ll be fine.” He said, then turned to head back to the window Plagg had opened. Sabrina got up and she and Marinette followed him, concerned looks on their faces.
“Is he out of his mind or is his blood sugar just low?” he heard one of them whisper, and the other giggled.
Adrien stepped on one of the many benches in the locker room. Unfortunately, they were bolted in place so he couldn’t move it to where he’d like. But it would have to do.
“Here we go...” he said under his breath, bending his knees and locking eyes on the target. Trying not to overshoot, he jumped, not making it nearly as high as he needed.
He fell to the floor.
“Adrien!” Marinette gasped, but he shot up immediately.
“I’m fine!” he said, scrambling to his feet, “I just undercompensated!”
In total it only took four tries for Adrien to get his arms around the top of the lockers. Using his body strength, he was able to slowly pull up, kick his feet around, and sit comfortably. He pretended to not feel the bruises that were forming on his skin from his many falls.
He definitely did not have that many tries to make it to the window. Falling from that would hurt like fuck. And he promised Marinette that he wouldn’t hurt himself (they were way past that point already, but she didn't have to know that.)
He didn’t want to procrastinate out of fear of psyching himself up, so he just took a leap of faith and caught the windowsill! (he bonked his head against the wall as a result, but hey, a win is a win.)
Marinette and Sabrina shared cheers of relief as Adrien smiled. He had survived his adventure with all of his body parts in tact, a very much not broken neck, and only a few bruises.
He looked out the window.
Getting down was gonna be a different story...