Adrien?" No response.
It didn't matter, she knew he was here, this was where he usually ended up when he was feeling overwhelmed and this was one of those moments. The stairwell at the back of the school was usually fairly quiet and thus the perfect place to hide, or in some cases transform.
As she uttered his name again, she heard a soft whimper under the stairs. There huddled up away from sight was poor little Adrien Agreste, she slowly scooted over and wrapped an arm around him as his hunched from melted in her embrace.
And the morning had started so well.
Adrien had arrived into class only to be met with a huddled mass of people and others glaring at him, as he headed closer he was shocked at what he saw. It was Lila, with what appeared to be a serious cut on her lip and a black eye. Before he could ask what the hell happened he was met with hostility from everyone around him.
"Wait, you can't possibly think that I did this!?" exclaimed Adrien, he looked around for some assurances that these accusations weren't being believed, but to no avail. He reached out Nino who backed away like he was on fire, Adrien was seriously at a loss here, he felt the walls closing in as the glares and yelling became too much to bear. He suddenly felt Kim scruffing his shirt collar about ready to deck him before he managed to break free and dash out the door.
Only to run into Marinette who clearly saw the fear and betrayal in the poor boy’s eyes.
"What the hell is going on here" Marinette exclaimed
Then she saw Lila's face and was visibly shocked. Sure she didn't like the girl but no one deserved this sort of treatment. Alya recapped what Lila had told them all through tears, turns out after their photoshoot last night Adrien made an advance on Lila, as she explained to them she wasn't willing to take it that far and he didn't seem to take that too well.
"You dodged a bullet there Marinette" exclaimed Alya with a look like she was going to kill someone.
Marinette honestly couldn't believe what she was hearing, there was no possible way Adrien would do this. The boy honestly didn't have a violent aggressive bone in his body. But then like always, Lila looks at Marinette and asks if she believes her.
Marinette was really starting to have a gutful of this girl and her crap, but right now things were incredibly hostile and questioning her would get them nowhere, instead, she got down to Lila's level and sympathetically replied "Of course I do, in fact I believe we need to tell the principal right away, we need to get the authorities involved. Something like this can not go unpunished."
She knew her classmates would be all on board with that, she also knew that Lila would start panicking and offering excuses like "Oh no I really can't" and then start blaming herself with statements like "maybe I gave him the wrong idea" that guaranteed that her classmates would all assure her that she wasn't at fault. Marinette used this moment to sneak out of the classroom to look for her poor friend.
Admittedly things hadn't been the best between the two the last few months regarding the Lila situation but she still held a soft spot for the boy and refused to let him get thrown to the wolves.
Which leads her to here, underneath the staircase holding him like an infant. Adrien finally perks his head up and she gets a good look at his bloodshot eyes and the look of fear on his face. She knew that here was not a safe place for him so she asked him for his phone, immediately dialled his bodyguard and before they knew it they were being escorted out. Sure, she would have to explain later why she ditched school but right now her only concern was Adrien.
Adrien had been eerily quiet the entire drive, only to finally utter two words.
"I'm sorry"
Marinette stared at him, did she actually hear that correctly.
