Heels Over Head

Chapter One - "Head Over Heels"

It might just be a part of the gig, but Adrien has had the worst luck as Chat Noir in the past week.

  The streak started with an akuma's lucky hit right in the nose, making it bleed nonstop for a good five minutes. It's hard for anyone to take you seriously when you have a couple of tampons a good samaritan offered you stuck up your nostrils.

  Next was a ninja star grazing his arm and cutting straight through his catsuit. That one definitely left a scar.

  And finally, the worst of luck:
  Fighting an angry clown is all fun and games until someone gets a bugle horn right to the eye.

The Miraculous Ladybugs help prevent any permanent damage from happening after the fight, but they still leave a scar that someone has to explain later. That someone would be Adrien, and he's had to make excuses all morning about why his eye (among other things) is bruised. Sure: one injury is easy to cover for, but three very obvious ones... not so much.

  "Dude, so you never told me what happened to you." Nino corners Adrien by his locker after class.

  What excuses can he come up with this time? Car crash is too serious. Falling out of bed makes no sense.

  "Oh, um," He clears his throat, "I don't really wanna talk about it."

  "Was whatever happened that bad?" Nino grows increasingly concerned for his friend.

  "No, no, I just-"

  "Cause that kind of injury doesn't just happen from falling out of bed," He says, quoting back the obvious excuse Adrien has made more than once, "Has someone been beating you up or something?"

  Just as Adrien's about to deny it out of pride, he considers that it might be the only plausible excuse he has left in his arsenal, "Uh—yeah, that's it..." He answers reluctantly, "It's, um—someone from fencing is just being a bully."

  "Just being a bully?! Bro, this is serious stuff!" Nino grabs his friend's shoulders and shakes him a little, causing Adrien to flinch from the cut on his arm. "Does your dad know?"

  "No!" He says a little too passionately, then clears his throat, "No. And please don't tell him. I don't wanna lose yet another reason to get out of the house."

  Nino drags his hand down his face, "Fine, whatever. But you need to stick up for yourself! You lift at the gym enough to take someone down."

  "I don't fight," Adrien says, laughing to himself at the irony, "I'll just deal with it." He starts putting his books into his bag.

  "I won't tell your dad, bro, but you need to do something about this. Why don't you have someone teach you self defense?"

  "Someone like you?" He smirks towards his friend as he closes his locker.

  "No, I'd totally get you killed: I don't know jack about fighting," Nino looks across the room, "But Marinette does."

  Adrien can't stop a chuckle from escaping his lips, "Marinette?" He says in disbelief. Not only is she the least coordinated person he's ever met, but she barely even comes up to his shoulder and is maybe 50 kilos soaking wet.

  "Dude," Nino starts wildly talking with his hands, "You totally wouldn't believe me, but I'm not kidding. You can never sneak up on that girl. I tried to once, and she took me down in like two seconds flat. She told me she takes jiu jitsu or something like that."

  "But... Marinette??" That's all he feels he needs to say.

  "I'm just saying, man. Nobody else could teach you like she could. She's a beast!"

  "As cool as that is, I think I'll pass on getting beat up by a girl."

  "Did you forget to drink your 'respect women juice' today?? Man up!" Nino smacks him on the back of the head.

  "Fine, fine," He raises his hands in surrender, "You're right. I'm going." He starts walking in the direction of Marinette and Alya.

  "Holy shit, Agreste," Alya immediately pipes up when he approaches them, "What happened to your face?"

  "I fell out of bed," He answers sarcastically.

  "Wow, your bed sure has a mean right hook," The girl snickers.

  "Eh, you should see the other guy," He scrunches his nose at her, "Can I just talk to Marinette alone for a second?"

  The girls exchange quick glances, "I shall allow it," Alya says, narrowing her eyes at the boy.

  Marinette yells to her friend as she walks away, "Love you!"

  "I know, darling. I know," She says in a silly accent before turning the corner.

  "So," Marinette returns her attention to Adrien, trying to look nonchalant by crossing her arms, "Do you need something?"

    "Well, maybe," Adrien seems to drop his voice to a whisper, "Nino says that you know how to fight."

  "Uh," Not what she was hoping the conversation would be about, "Yeah, kind of."

  "Okay, cool, because he won't get off my back unless I ask you for lessons," He gives her a grimacing smile.

  "Fighting lessons?" She raises an eyebrow.

  "Yeah. Can you please say no so I have an excuse to give him?"

  "Wait wait wait, why does Nino want you to take lessons so badly?"

  He lets out a big sigh, "I might have a problem with a bully." Yep, telling that lie is going to continue to be a hit in the pride.

  "That's why you look like that? Someone's been beating you up??" Marinette asks in the tone of a concerned mother.

  "Not so loud!" He shushes, "I don't need everyone thinking I can't stand up for myself."

  "Listen, Adrien," She likes being able to coherently say his name these days, "As much as I'd like to help, I'm not that great of a teacher."

  "Oh thank goodness," He breathes a sigh of relief, "No offense, but learning how to wrestle with a girl would just be—um—embarrassing."

  Marinette purses her lips, "No offense, huh? What's so embarrassing about a girl being able to take you down?"

  He doesn't wanna be a jerk and say women are weaker, cause he knows Ladybug could kick his ass, but that's all he can think, and Marinette can tell.

  "Do you really think women are weak?" Marinette tests.

  "Well, I... uh."

  "Oh my gosh! You do, don't you?!"

  "Not weak! Just weaker." Adrien mentally facepalms himself. He diplomatically places his hand on Marinette's shoulder to help ease the conflict, "You understand where I'm coming from since we're friends, right?"

  But before he can blink, Marinette grabs the arm on her shoulder, twirls around, and flips his entire weight over her back, leaving him in a heap on the floor, "Of course, Adrien," She gives him a sweet smile as he tries to process what happened, "See you in class."

  He lays on the ground for what feels like another 5 minutes after she leaves, trying to figure out how he ended up like this. But now all he knows are two things:

One, he's never going to hear the end of this from Nino.

Two, Marinette is now on the growing list of women that could kick his ass any day.