Miraculous Ladybug Fanfic- Adrien Agreste: Marinette's Bully

better

(ADRIEN POV)

The talk yesterday went so much better than I expected. The whole situation was far from over but it felt like it was finally getting better. A wound turning into a scar. Never to disappear completely but maybe to fade.

Now that all of that was finally settled though, it was time to talk with Master Fu again. Neither of us had spoken with him since the actual fight. Marinette was still healing and I was. Well, I spent the past week either wasting away on my bed or having long talks with police and social workers as they tried to figure out what to do with me. So, not really up to talking.

Nathalia had legal guardianship over me until they figured something else out. I didn't really see her much though. She was in charge of my dad's company until I was an adult and was now scrambling to figure out what to do after his death. And when I did catch a glimpse of her, she was completely closed off, betraying no emotions. I would've thought she was glad he was gone if not for her reaction right after finding out.

Thankfully, her absence made it ten times easier to sneak away over to Master Fu at the time of our meeting.

Marinette was already sitting there and talking with him as I walked in.

"Hey, Adrien!" She called out brightly when she saw me. I still have no idea how she managed to forgive me that easily. I mean, it wasn't like everything went entirely back to normal. I sat through several incredibly long and detailed threats from every single one of her friends right after I left her house yesterday as well as a very long conversation about boundaries earlier today. But I would go through every second of it ten times over though as long as it meant I never hurt her again.

"Hello to you both," I said, waving before sitting down.

Master Fu smiled and began speaking after I was sat. "Well, now that everyone's here. Let's get right to it. Hawkmoth is gone. Adrien, I'm sorry. I wished it could have gone another way but it was always meant to end with death." I looked away, instead choosing to focus on the floor, as he continued. "But now that he is done, we can finally return to peace. Your miraculous' stay with you until you find another worthy of it being passed onto."

"YEP! Sorry to break it to ya' but no return policy on me," Plagg flew right in front of me, chewing on yet another piece of cheese.

I rolled my eyes but could still feel a smile forming. " I hope you realize this means you're stuck with me as well."

Plagg shrugged. "As long as you give me cheese, I'm okay with this."

Tikki sighed, "You guys really can't take anything seriously for five minutes, huh?"

Plagg and I both grinned. "Nope." At that, Marinette started laughing. My chest tightened at the sound. She was adorable. I fell in love with Ladybug but sitting here in front of her, I felt like an idiot for not falling just as hard for Marinette.

And...there was that too. I was really hoping my crush would disappear after everything that happened but it only grew. Now on both sides of her as well. It was ridiculous and I was well aware it was unrequited, but that didn't stop my heart from racing just at the thought of her smile. I was so incredibly fucked.

-----

Coming back to school was one of those things that while I knew it would happen, I also really really didn't want to think about it. It had been three weeks of excused absence up until this point. Nothing had really changed from the first week. My daily schedule was basically spend hours at his bed, doing nothing but drowning my own guilt, until I was called for another meeting about the funeral or the future of the company.

Throught it all, there was only brightside: Marinette.

They both agreed to take their new friendship slow. So, it wasn't like I could see her everyday. Just once or twice a week and always with another person. It was a bit awkward at first but slowly, it started to click back together. It felt like the first time I had every really gotten to know her. No more stuttering and blushing when I was Adrien (Still a bit confused on that one- not even gonna lie) or life threatening danger making her serious as Chat. Just normal Marinette. And she was easily the most wonderful person I had ever met.

But anyway, going back to the whole school thing before I spend three hours ranting about her. I was not ready for it at all.

I had basically ignored any and all texts from people asking how I was over the past three weeks. I even had to block Chloe after I got tired of the constant spam calls.

I did talk to Nino though which was a small victory. He had stopped really being my friend after everything with Chloe and Marinette initially went down. He tried several times to get me to stop but it didn't work. So, eventually he just gave up. The apology seemed to have kind of fixed things between us though. It still needed a pretty decent amount of work but it was better. And better was all I needed.

As I walked through the doors of the school for the first time in three weeks, I instantly regretted it. Because of course right when I walked in, was a waiting Chloe.

"Adrien! I am sooo angry at you righ-"

"Chloe, I stand by everything I said. You are a manipulative physcopath that wouldn't know what empathy was if it smacked you in the face. Now please for the love of god, just stop talking to me." And with that, I walked away. I refused to start screaming again. I just wanted to have a peaceful day back goddammit.

And for the most part, it was. No one really bothered me after that. Marinette and her group talked to me a couple times and Nino and I spent a while catching up after all of those months separated which were basically the only good parts of the day. Other than that, it was mostly just people staring at me as I walked through the halls and whispering god knows what. Not the best but far from the worst way this day could have gone.

Either way, the second I was home and had eaten, I was ready to completely knock out. I still had to spend a couple hours catching up on missed work but after that, I fell asleep immediately even though the sun was only just starting to set.

At first, it was just the usual nightmares. I had more or less become accustomed to them. It didn't make it any less terrifying but it was normal. But then, it turned.

I was standing at my father's side. She was on the floor. Somone was laughing. Someone else was crying. There was blood. Why was thereblood? There was so much of it. Marinette. No, Ladybug. I was the one laughing. She was crying. I was betraying her and there was as spear in my hand and she was bleeding. shewasdeadnonononononoNONONO-

I shot up. I couldn't breathe. Plagg was trying to calm me down but it wasn't working. Without thinking, I reached out for my phone, fumbling in the dark.

It rung once. Twice. Then-

"Adrien?" I breathed out a sigh of relief. She was okay. "It's like 2 am." A yawn. "What happened? Are you ok?"

It was?

Oh god I felt like an idiot.

"I uh... Sorry. It's just I had a dream and you were dying and it was. I had to make sure you were okay. I'm sorry for waking you up. I'm sorry." Fuck. FUCK. Why did I have to call her?

"It's alright, Adrien. Nightmares suck. I get them sometimes to. Here, we can stay on call as we sleep. So you know I'm alright. How about that?" Her voice was soft and comforting and I could feel every worry I had slowly dripping away as she spoke.

"Yeah. Yeah I'd like that." I was smiling wider than I thought possible and it was like the nightmare had never even happened. It was just soft and safe and it was okay. It felt selfish to have this but I couldn't help it. Things really were better.

(A/N: sorry for any mistakes in this chapter- my wifi is out so this chapter was super rushed in the one hour of wifi I had lol. please point out any issues u see tho!! this was literally not read over at all- I'm straight up just publishing the draft akhsakf hope its alright!! )