MariChat: Chat Out Of The Bag

Where We Stand

"Twenty-Three... Twenty-Four... Rrgh, Twenty-Five!" Adrien grunted, dropping his grip strength booster from his right hand onto the bed sheets just in front of him, his breath slightly ragged after the strenuous exercise. He was already seeing the effects on his forearm, which bulged slightly more with muscle.

He had been given grip-strength boosters as a gift from the hospital staff, who said that he was allowed to use them if he wished to, since the injuries to his arm were gone. There wasn't really anything else for him to do.

Sitting up in his hospital room, he sighed. He had been here for two days, while the doctors did final checks for toxicity levels in his blood, and to allow other cuts to heal. the boredom was absolutely unrivaled. He had been bored out of his very skull for the last few days. He had been thinking about so many things, longing to get out of this room and just... do anything. He wanted to see Marinette of course... But he was eager to just being able to walk at this point. Being stuck in this room however, he had had time to think.

He had been weak when he fought Overgrow. He wanted to become stronger.

"You know that over doing it won't help, right?" His Kwami partner asked.

Adrien looked at Plagg. "What else do I have to do in here? I'm not exactly allowed visitors. The only one who can come see me is Ladybug. There's no television reception, no games system... This is pretty much all I've got to entertain myself."

"We could order a cheese buffet!"

Sighing, Adrien took his grip-strength boosters, and began his reps on his left hand. Reaching his forth, he asked, "Hey Plagg... How are you even still here? I thought Ladybug was looking after your miraculous for me? Wouldn't you have had to go with her?"

"I won't disappear unless she puts the ring back into it's original storage space. The box you found my miraculous in." Plagg explained, hovering around the room. "It felt safer to give to her, you know?"

"She said she was going to pass it on to Marinette." Adrien said with a nod. "You made the right choice, Plagg, thanks." He sighed, performing his tenth rep on his booster. "I wonder what she thinks of me now that she knows I'm Chat Noir..."

"Maybe she'll think she'll become a celebrity!" Plagg suggested with enthusiasm, albeit unhelpfully.

"That's sort of what I'm worried about." The human sighed. "I mean, people are gonna want to avoid me to avoid all the media backlash, aren't they? I don't want Marinette exposed to how brutal those guys can be." He shuddered. He had had many run ins with the media in his lifetime. He looked at the ceiling, and in doing so, marked his sixteenth rep. "I want to see her..."

"Really, Chat? Again with the boosters?"

Turning his head to the left, he saw Ladybug standing in the doorway with a bemused yet worried smile on her face. With her, she was carrying several bags for the teenage boy, all in reused carrier bags. mostly bits of food and some fresher clothes.

"M'lady." Adrien said, nodding his head with a smile. "Good to see you again, Ladybug." She had been visiting him at least twice a day, once in the early morning, and once in the afternoon. One day, she had visited him in the evening, just before he went to sleep.

"Good to see you too. Marinette says hello too." Ladybug said with a smile, placing her bags on the nearby table. She had made a habit of bringing Adrien things to pas the time with, often times food, or sometimes a board game, and sometimes, a message of some description. Her visits made this hell all that more bearable. She had recently learned of Adrien's and Marinette's relationship - Well, Chat Noir and Marinette's relationship, and extended her total support, something the blond Parisian greatly appreciated.