Hold On Tight (A Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction)

Part 14: Wrath and Ruin

Chat Noir heard Marinette scream before he felt the pain. But it didn't take long for the blinding pain to set in. Fire burned through his abdomen as Hawkmoth ripped the blade from his stomach. As painful as it was when he'd been stabbed, when the sword was being pulled from him, the pain multiplied tenfold.

Chat didn't make a sound as he fell too his knees. Marinette continued to scream his name, but he just stared I shock at Hawkmoth as he pressed a hand to his wound, blood spilling through his fingers. He was vaguely aware of his ring beeping again, but he couldn't even register that he would transform back soon. His brain was working so slowly, still trying to process what Hawkmoth had done. What his father had done. Chat had been stabbed. He was dying.

Chat Noir tipped backwards, falling towards the ground. He braced for the pain, the cold, hard ground no doubt would be unpleasant. But he didn't hit the ground. Thin arms circled around him, crushing him into a chest. Mari's chest. It hurt, but she was warm, despite her shivering. He looked at her, his princess. She was crying, sobbing actually, her hands pressing down against his wound until he saw white. As if she was trying to press his blood back into his veins, his life back into his body.

Chat covered her hands with his, knowing it was futile, "Go." He whispered to her, the only thing he was able to manage.

She shook her head as Hawkmoth approached them, "Give me your miraculous child," he said to Marinette, "and his, and you two may leave here."

Chat knew it was a lie. He wasn't leaving here, not after Hawkmoth saw who he was. Marinette turned her head up to the villain, "Please," she breathed, "Please, just let us go. I don't have what you want and if you take his," she choked on her own words. Chat tightened his fingers around hers, "he'll die. You know he will."

"And why should that concern me?" Hawkmoth asked lazily, picking an invisible piece of lint from his jacket, "If you were a smart girl you'd leave now, leave him and live to fight another day."

Chat lifted his hand to Marinette's cheek, forcing her to look at him. Even that movement hurt. Everything hurt, "He's right princess, you have to go. Now."

Mari mimicked his earlier movement, placing her hand over his, "You must not know me very well," she said, copying what he'd stated only minutes earlier, "if you think I'll leave you here."

Chat silently cursed himself for not trying harder, for not protecting her better. He let all of his emotions flood into his gaze, pleading with her. She just shook her head at him, tears streaming down her face.

He opened his mouth to try one more time when his ring beeped a fifth time. His last minute was up. Hawkmoth moved, placing his blade, still slick with his blood, underneath Marinette's chin, ready to make her move out of the way.

Chat Noir's ring changed from black to silver.

One moment He was staring at Marinette as Chat Noir, the next he was Adrien. Red stained the white button up he'd put on earlier that day, the top four buttons ripped from the shirt, putting his bloody abdomen on display.

Hawkmoth choked on his own breath. Then turned and hurled up his guts in the corner of the room.

Marinette stared at him. Stared and stared and said nothing. Adrien wished she would say something. He would beg her to if he hadn't collapsed in a fit of coughing. He wished he'd been able to tell her. Not in this stupid shit situation. Of course she was reeling from the realization. He'd been an idiot in how he'd pursued her. Adrien had known she'd liked him, that he had broken her heart. And then, like the idiot he was, he'd gone after her as Chat Noir. Nice stupid ass decision Adrien.