Safe House • Marichat

Chapter Twenty Four

"Marinette!" Even though Marinette could hear Adrien's sneakers slapping against the concrete behind her, she didn't slow down. It wasn't until his hand wrapped around her thin wrist, pulling her back into his chest did she finally stop. His fingers dug into her side as he fiercely spun her around.

Glaring down into her bluebell eyes, Marinette's heart dropped to her stomach as his green eyes met hers, reflecting every emotion he was holding in them. The most dominant ones were relief, sorrow, and rage. He gave her a rough shake. "I have never met anyone so dense, Marinette! Chat's not here!"

"He is here! You wouldn't know!"

"I would know Marinette!" Marinette felt Adrien's grip turn bruising as he pushed her away to arm's length. He continued yelling. "I know because I am him, god dammit! So stop acting ridiculous! We need to get out of here while we still can!"

Marinette's eyes widened, quickly followed by Adrien's as realization dawned on him. While she watched him pale quickly, Marinette felt her mouth go dry. In her foggy mind, only two things remained clear to her. One, Adrien Agreste and Chat Noir were the same person. And two, how could he let it slip that easily?! After all the trouble the duo went through to keep his identity secret, he just lets it slip when he's yelling at her? Of all things?

It made sense, oddly. Whenever Chat Noir was around, Adrien wasn't, and vice versa. Though Chat acted completely different when compared to the model, he still held all of the positive traits that had made them, them.

Marinette felt her cheeks flush as she remembered that her first, second, and third kiss had been with Chat Noir, who was coincidentally also her long time crush Adrien. All those late night cuddles, swimming at the old safe house, his emotional story about Proietille Velenoso, all of that had been Adrien. Her dorky Chat Noir, was her prince charming Adrien.

The feeing of relief surged through her body. He was with her the entire time. He never once abandoned her, he just had to use his other identity to protect her. She could have thrown her arms around his neck and hug him, and she probably would have too had she not seen the group of men storming their way with presumably loaded arms.

Acting on pure instinct, she pushed Adrien to the side along with her, the two breaking through the swing doors into an open and bare room. They barely missed the bullets that had been shot at them, one skimming past Adrien's knee and another scraping Marinette's forearm. Thanks to the extreme adrenaline coursing through her veins, she could barely feel the laceration as she was quickly pulled up by Adrien.

"Come on, we need to get out of here Marinette!" She nodded in affirmation, the two gearing towards the second door only to stop as another group of men barged in through it, the others moving in from the door behind the duo.

Marinette and Adrien were back to back, glaring down the enemies. It took her only a second to recognize the feeling of Adrien's hand slithering down from her elbow to her wrist until he finally intertwined their fingers, holding onto her tightly.

"Hey, brats." Erich casually greeted as the men cleared way to make an opening for their new leader. He scowled as his eyes met Marinette's who smirked as she remembered spitting on his face. With the twitch of two of his thick fingers, a few of his comrades advanced on the duo, one reaching out to grab Marinette's arm. That was when Adrien acted.

His elbow reared back into the obese man who had his hand outstretched's face, causing the bigfer guy to stumble back a few steps. As the others reacted, the blond teen dipped under their swinging arms, his arms encircling Marinette's waist as he pulled her down with him before kicking out his foot, clipping the two males calves and knocking them to the ground before rearing to his full height. Marinette was too stunned to be of any help as she watched in awe as Adrien continued knocking opponent after opponent down.