Chapter Text
Chat is the first to admit that he's distracted when he shows up for patrol that night. It's been a long day, and his mind is still dwelling on what happened earlier. Spinning around in useless circles, actually, as he tries to figure out how he could've done better. How he could’ve protected Marinette better. But short of pushing Lila Rossi out the window of the classroom, he's still not sure what he could have done.
Frankly, pushing Lila out the window hasn't been scratched off the list as an option.
So he's distracted, but not even he could miss the fact that there's something wrong with Ladybug. There's no cheerful greeting, not even a greeting, when she lands beside him. Chat glances over at her, a teasing remark springing to his lips, but the words die on his tongue when he catches sight of her face. There's a bruise on her right cheek and a cut on her bottom lip. The injuries are so familiar that it takes his brain several seconds to accept what he's seeing, and realize that he's not just superimposing the injuries of another blue-eyed brunette onto her lovely face.
"My Lady?" he whispers. "What happened?"
Ladybug's bottom lip trembles. Then suddenly, her face crumbles as tears well up in her eyes. The sight of it is familiar to Chat, yet he has no chance to fully grasp why it's familiar. She turns towards him, arms half-raised; Chat jolts, responding to the silent question, and moves towards her, carefully wrapping her up in a hug. She sinks into him, her cheek coming to rest on his shoulder as she shakes with sobs.
"I c-can't st-stand it anymore," she cries. "I'm tr-trying s-so... so hard and she just w-won't leave me a-alone!"
"Tell me," Chat says softly, his heart sinking through the floor. He's pretty sure he already knows what Ladybug is going to say.
Ladybug cries for a couple of minutes before she starts to talk, her words broken by sobs. "There's this girl in my class. She's a liar, but she's a good liar. Everyone believes whatever she says and she hates me. She threatened me. She said she would make me lose all my friends and make Ad-this guy that I like her boyfriend. She said I'd be left alone."
Chat's heart is pounding in his ears. "She sounds like a horrible person."
"She is!" Ladybug bursts out, her fingers digging into his back. "She's awful! I... I tried to ignore her. I really did. I kept myself back... I didn't want anything to do with her. And that just pissed her off. She attacked me today. She slapped me across the face. And then... and then we got caught... she told everyone that I attacked her. And they believed her! Oh Chat, I got suspended!" Ladybug's voice breaks as she collapses into renewed bawling.
Marinette is Ladybug. Chat stands there dumbly, both arms wrapped around his beloved partner, and tries to understand the magnitude of not how badly he's fucked up, but how badly everyone at Collège Françoise Dupont has fucked up. It's almost too much for his brain to wrap itself around, especially when there is one rising thought that swells above everything else.
Being thrown out a window is too good for Lila Rossi.
--
It was an otherwise normal Monday, if you discounted the fact that Adrien had spent the whole day visiting his teachers to get all the homework for the week. His father was demanding Adrien's presence at company events from Tuesday to Saturday. Adrien wasn't even sure what he would be spending his time doing, but he knew that he could look forward to some very long days capped off by struggling to get through several days of schoolwork in the span of a couple hours. He honestly wasn't sure when he was going to find time to sleep.
Maybe that was why he'd gotten all the way to the front doors before he realized he'd forgotten his math book. He sighed heavily but made the trek back to Ms. Bustier's classroom and pushed the door open, fully expecting the room to be empty since it was late afternoon on a Monday. He looked up when he realized that it wasn't - and froze.
Lila and Marinette froze too.
There was a tense pause as Adrien's wide eyes took in the scene. Lila had Marinette by the hair, forcing Marinette to bend double. It looked like Lila was in the process of drawing her knee back, and Adrien's shocked brain quickly realized that there was only one target: Marinette's face. Marinette's bruised, bleeding face.
"Oh my god, Adrien! Thank goodness you're here!" Lila cried, snapping out of her surprised state. She released Marinette's hair and rushed over to Adrien, grabbing his arm and pressing herself against his side. Big tears formed in her eyes. "Marinette, she - she just lost it and suddenly attacked me! I was doing everything I could to protect myself. I was so scared!"
Marinette was staring at the two of them. To Adrien's experienced eye, she actually looked more confused by what was going on than anything else. He watched as Marinette slowly lifted a hand to her face and touched her split lip. She flinched a little at the pain and lowered her hand, staring at the blood on her fingers with an expression of befuddlement. Then she looked back up at Adrien and Lila. That brought the bright red mark on her cheek into stark relief. Adrien didn't think it was his imagination that it looked like a handprint.
"Marinette attacked you," he repeated flatly, a wave of pure fury piercing through the shock. Part of it was directed at Lila, but he was also furious with himself. He was the one who'd told Marinette to take the high road, to just ignore Lila and ler be. And now this.
Marinette flinched again, her eyes widening. Adrien watched in horror as they started to fill with tears - genuine tears, not the fake ones that Lila could summon on cue. Her hands fall back to her sides as the tears start to roll down her cheeks. And in that moment, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, one of the strongest people that Adrien knew, looked completely and utterly defeated. It was a heartbreaking sight.
Lila smiled. "Let's hurry and call the principal, Adrien, before she tries to get away."
Adrien snapped. He jerked his arm free of Lila and hurried over to Marinette. She had her head down, eyes closed, so she didn't see him coming. She startled violently when he gripped her shoulders, but Adrien didn't let go. He gentled his hold, but he thought that too many people had let Marinette down over the past month. It was high time someone began helping her.
"I'm sorry, Marinette," he said, staring straight into her wide eyes. "I never should've told you that it was okay if just you and I knew the truth. I didn't think it would come to this. I'm sorry."
"What?" Lila exclaimed behind them. "She attacked me!"
"If you think I'm going to believe that, you must really be stupid," Adrien hissed, turning to face Lila. He wrapped a protective arm around Marinette's shoulders. "I know what a liar you are, Lila Rossi. Your bullshit isn't going to work on me. For someone who's claiming to be attacked, you look pretty put together. The only person with injuries that I see here is Marinette."
Lila sputtered, clenching her hands into fists. "I just don't bruise easily! I can't believe you're taking her side!"
"Someone has to," Adrien seethed, taking out his phone and texting Nino. "I've told Nino to get the principal. Don't move, Lila."
Lila glared at them. Then, suddenly and much to Adrien's amazement, she started messing up her hair and tugging at her clothing. His jaw dropped as she actually ripped her the hem of her shirt. He couldn't figure out what the hell she was going until the door opened again and Principal Damocles hastened in, followed by Nino and Alya. Lila took one look at the principal and burst into fresh tears, throwing herself at Principal Damocles just like she had at Adrien.
"Marinette attacked me!" she wailed. "I was just sitting in my seat and - and - she started yelling at me for working too closely with Adrien and then the next thing I knew she pushed me to the ground!"
"That's not true!" Adrien said furiously.
"You weren't even here!" Lila cried.
"Is that true, Adrien?" Principal Damocles asked, looking over at them. He was frowning, and Adrien suddenly realized how it looked: he was holding Marinette like they were a couple, which was making Lila's story about Marinette's jealousy look true.
"I - well yes, but -"
"I think that Miss Rossi, Miss Dupain-Cheng and I need to have a talk," Principal Damocles said, cutting Adrien off. "Immediately."
Adrien's mouth hung open uselessly as Marinette pulled out of his grasp. She kept her eyes on the ground as she walked quietly over to the door. Alya and Nino stepped aside to let the three pass.
"Wow," Alya said once they were gone. "That was crazy."
"Right?" Nino said.
"I knew Marinette was jealous about Adrien, but -"
"Are you kidding me?!" Adrien yelled. Both of them jumped.
"Dude!" Nino said. "What's your problem?"
"You! This whole class! We've known Marinette for years, but as soon as Lila comes around you guys start taking her side without even questioning her. You," he said furiously to Alya, "are supposed to be an investigate journalist! What kind of journalist just blithely accepts whatever she's told without asking questions? And you!" He turned on Nino. "You've been friends with Marinette since you were kids! You should know her better than any of us!"
He stormed up the steps to Marinette's desk, where her bag was, and grabbed it. Alya was just starting to sputter a response, but Adrien didn't want to hear it. He stomped past her and headed towards the front of the school. He would only get in trouble if he went to Principal Damocles's office to show his support for Marinette. He recognized now that he should've kept his mouth shut until a better moment, when he could've told his side of the story. Now it would only look like he was making things up to get Marinette out of trouble, instead of telling the truth.
But he wasn't going anywhere until Marinette came out. She needed to know that someone was on her side, and Adrien needed to know how things had gotten this bad. He doubted that Lila had just spontaneously attacked Marinette. There had to be build-up. Signs he'd missed. Things Marinette had suffered through alone. Adrien wanted to know everything Lila had done so that she could be paid back twice over for each transgression.
"You know," Plagg said. "I would go along with it if you wanted to Catacylsm her."
"Don't tempt me," Adrien muttered, sinking down onto the front steps. He set Marinette's bag beside him, keeping it tucked beneath his arm.
"I'm just saying. It's an option. She would just disappear. No body, no muss, no fuss."
"It should concern me that you seem to know that for a fact, but honestly it's just making me want to pay that bitch a visit tonight," Adrien said. Plagg just chuckled darkly and disappeared back into Adrien's pocket.
It was a full half hour before the door opened behind him. Adrien leapt up just in time to see Marinette walk out. If he'd thought she looked bad before, it was nothing compared to now. Her face was streaked with tears and her chin was covered in dried blood, though at least it seemed like her lip had scabbed over. She stopped when she saw him, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks. She covered her lower face with a shaking hand.
"I've been suspended for the rest of the week," she said brokenly. "Principal Damocles believed her... just like everyone else." She started to sob then, her whole body shaking with the force of it.
"Oh, Marinette." Adrien closed the distance between them, pulling her into a hug. She clung to him, crying into his shoulder.
"My parents are gonna be so mad at me," she wept. "Principal Damocles called them... he told them I attacked Lila... he said they needed to get me under control."
Adrien's heart broke for her. "No. There's nothing wrong with you. It's Lila who has the problem. I'm so sorry. I never should've told you to ignore Lila."
Marinette just shook her head. "What difference does it make? Everyone hates me anyway," she whimpered.
"I don't hate you," Adrien whispered. Actually, right now he'd happily committ murder on Marinette's behalf.
He was keenly aware of the fact that they were attracting curious glances from the handful of students still around, but Marinette seemed too distraught to do much more than stand there and cry. Adrien made an executive decision and bent, sliding an arm behind her knees. He lifted her up with a little more effort than he would've expected; Marinette was small, but compact. But he was Chat Noir, and increased strength followed him into his everyday life.
It was a sign, he thought, of how overwrought Marinette was that she didn’t react, just kept crying against him. He wanted to soothe her, but thought it was more important to get her home. He paused to grab their bags and then kept walking, carrying Marinette out the school gates; they crossed the road and headed down the street towards the bakery as quickly as Adrien could move.
A customer saw them coming and kindly held the door open for them. Adrien thanked her with a polite smile and nod. Marinette’s mother was standing behind the counter. Her hands flew to cover her mother when she saw the state of her daughter.
“Marinette!” she cried. “Oh, Adrien, thank you for bringing her home. This way.” She ushered them both upstairs to where Marinette’s father was waiting.
“Oh, my Marinette,” her father said, his face falling. He held his arms out. Adrien hated to hand Marinette over, but it wasn’t like he could keep her. He gently passed Marinette into her father’s arms and watched as her father carried Marinette out of the room.
“Thank you,” Madame Cheng said again, touching Adrien’s arm.
“It was no problem,” Adrien said, setting Marinette’s bag on the floor. “Madame Cheng –”
“Call me Sabine, please, dear.”
“Sabine,” Adrien repeated awkwardly. “What happened today, it wasn’t Marinette’s fault. She got the blame for it, but please don’t be angry at her. This is all Lila Rossi’s fault. And… it’s mine too.” He lowered his gaze, ashamed. “The only person who hasn’t done anything wrong is Marinette.”
Madame Cheng was quiet for a moment. Then she sighed. “I appreciate you telling me that. I think my husband and I need to have a very long chat with our daughter.”
“Oh, right,” Adrien said, realizing that was his cue. “Would you, um. Would you tell Marinette that I… that I’m sorry? And that I want to help her?”
“Of course I will.” She patted his arm. “Please help yourself to anything you want from the bakery on your way as our thanks.”
Adrien nodded, but he knew he wouldn’t take anything. He didn’t deserve it. He quietly slipped out of the Dupain-Cheng’s apartment; his last glimpse was of Madame Cheng heading down the hall where her husband and daughter had gone, her expression filled with concern.