I Didn't Want It To Be Like This (MLBug Fanfic:10)

Chapter 10

Marinette’s hospital room could have been mistaken as a florist’s shop. It seemed like every Parisian came to pay their respects to their heroine and offer condolences to her parents, both of whom were relieved to know that their sweet little girl had returned to them. But at the same time they couldn’t help but wonder at what cost. What price was paid so that she could return to them?

Whenever they could, Tom and Sabine would visit Marinette in the hopes that she would awaken and they could wrap her in safe and loving arms. At every visit, it looked like she was on the brink of fluttering open those sapphire blue eyes and give them a bright warm smile like she always did. But each time she didn’t, their hearts chipped away. But they refused to give up hope. And so they continued to visit her as the week crept on.

“Is Marinette going to be okay Mommy?” Manon asked her mother, tucking in the Lady Wifi, Evillustrator, Robocop, Ladybug, and Chat Noir dolls Marinette had made for her months ago. She pressed Chat Noir’s face to the sleeping teen’s face, wiping her tears and nose with her free hand. “I don’t want another babysitter. Marinette’s the best in the world.”

Manon’s mother bit her bottom lip and stroked her daughter’s pigtails.

“I don’t know sweetie.” She confessed. “According to the doctor, they don’t even know what’s going on.”

“But she’ll be okay. Right?” Manon cried, moving to hold Marinette’s cold hand. “She promised to make me more dolls! She said that we were going to play together some more! That I would win the game next time!” Manon climbed fully into Marinette’s hospital bed and laid her head on Marinette’s chest, which raised slowly up and down with every intake of breath. “I can feel you breathing Marinette…” She sobbed. “Wake up… I know you can…”

Manon’s mom choked back a sob and just allowed her daughter to stay close to her sister figure. She couldn’t bear to tell Manon that it could have just been the machine making Marinette breath.

***

The next day, Sabrina replaced the dried sunflowers with a new batch while Chloe stood awkwardly at the doorway, staring at Marinette’s sleeping form. She drew herself in and wrapped her arms around herself.

“Adrien told me something not too long ago.” Chloe whispered.

Sabrina turned to look at her over her shoulder with a raise eyebrow. For the first time in all the years they’ve known each other, she had never seen Chloe look so small and so crestfallen.

“That I was the reason why at least half of the people we knew became victims.” Chloe explained, bowing her head. “And now I’m the reason why my hero was hurt. Why this whole mess happened in the first place.”

Sabrina picked up the dry sunflowers and walked over to Chloe, placing one hand on her shoulder.

“Well…” She began with hesitation. “Everyone makes mistakes.”

Chloe snorted and her face to on a look of sheer disgust.

“And with every word out of my mouth I’ve caused Paris to go into chaos.” She retorted, smacking Sabrina’s hand away. Chloe stomped over to Marinette’s side and hunched her shoulders. “Daddy could have been thrown out of office because of me. Did you know that he wanted to become president? Can he still become one now?”

Sabrina rubbed her stinging wrist on her back and held the flowers close, unsure of what to say. This was unlike Chloe. She was always so full of confidence and every stride was taken with purpose for better or for worse. She always knew what she wanted and she never stopped fighting for it no matter what the consequences were. And now…

“How can I even go to school?” Chloe whispered, bending down and laying her forearms on Marinette’s bed rail. She pressed her forehead against her arms, her voice coming out muffled. “If, no, WHEN she wakes up, how am I going to face her? Sorry can’t possibly be enough and there’s no way we can just sweep this under the rug like we did in the past. And as if I can just let her borrow my favorite dress and makeup and be BFF’s like everything’s fine and peachy…”

Sabrina, despite being pushed around and pushed away so many times before, laid a gentle hand against her friend’s back and just stood there with her, allowing silence and tears to fall.

“No matter what happens,” Sabrina finally said with a soft whisper. “I’ll always be with you.”

Chloe let out a loud sob and her whole form crumbled as she fell to her knees.

***

One week turned into two. Every day felt like agony for three particular students when their friend didn’t return to her seat with a sweet, awkward smile and frazzled bedhead, apologizing for her tardiness with silly excuses. It was like the cycle began all over again, only this time with two cruel ironies.

Hawkmoth, in the blurriness of the chaos, had slipped away once again, far out of the reaches of justice and the chance to take away his Miraculous.

And Marinette, Ladybug, had returned to them. But now she was in a comatose state with Tikki, her ever loyal friend and companion, tucked in the crook of her neck and her hair. And not all of the cookies in Tom and Sabine’s bakery could cajole Tikki from her spot, whether the owners themselves tried or if Marinette’s other friends tried. Plagg, however, didn’t bother trying to make her leave.

“It’s like losing a part of her body.” Plagg explained as Adrien, Alya, and Nino rode in Adrien’s limo towards the hospital. “It’s very common for the Miraculous holder and their kwami to have a close bond. More often than not, it extends to the point of where they consider each other to be family.”

Alya pursed her lips and tapped the side of her phone.

“So…now what?” She asked, glancing at the hollow faced model.

When the ambulance arrived to take Marinette away after the final battle, Adrien all but shoved himself in there with her, begging to not be separated from Marinette again. During the whole ride, he never released her hand. When they arrived at the hospital, some of the medical workers had to pry his fingers away before transporting her to the emergency room.

This time, Natalie and Gabriel didn’t bother with making Adrien work. They both agreed that he had been under enough strain and he should be given as much time to recuperate as possible. Even if it took months or years.

“Well, what did the doctor say happened to Marinette?” Nino asked, stroking his chin. “We know that she’s in a coma, but they couldn’t find anything else?”

Alya nodded, scrolling through old pictures of her and her best friend, breathing in and out slowly in order to control the tears that wanted to fall.

“According to the doctor, all we can do is wait. Mr. and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng tried doing some research of their own and they said that it could also be a good thing to just keep visiting, talking to her, and keep it nice and peaceful.”

“So just…doing what we’ve been doing.” Nino concluded with scrunched eyebrows.

Alya held up a finger and smiled at her boyfriend.

“I have one idea.” She held up her phone and clicked on the music app, scrolling until she came to the playlist titled, “Memories”. “I mean, it could work. Right?”

Nino glanced at Adrien, who had shifted to look outside the limo, waiting to arrive at the hospital.

“I hope so.” Nino whispered, fidgeting with his headphones. “I hope so.”

About ten minutes went by in silence. It wasn’t awkward and it wasn’t comfortable. It was just…there. But finally, they did arrive at their destination. Adrien shoved the limo door open, not bothering to wait for Gorilla to perform his duties. Nino and Alya weren’t too far behind him as they power walked to keep up.

The middle aged female receptionist with a loose bun, who was already familiar with the trio and their frequent visits, greeted them with a sympathetic smile and nod at the heroine’s friends and her partner.

“Go on in.” She said with a soothing voice, perfect for the environment she worked in. “No one’s there right now, so take as much time as you need.”

The teens mumbled a grateful thanks in return and followed the same corridor, passing by the same nurses and doctors, passing by the same patients being escorted back and forth through their rooms. When they arrived at Marinette’s room, feelings of hope and fear swirled inside them.

Adrien extended a trembling hand towards the cool metallic doorknob, praying that his friend would already be awake and sitting up in her bed. He longed to see her. No, that was an understatement. He couldn’t stand going another day without her being by his side. Even if he didn’t know it, Marinette had always been with him and she had become an essential part of his existence. At this point, that wasn’t an exaggeration for him. He needed her. Even if she hated him in the end for not protecting her from being under Leto’s control, Adrien had to take the chance. Though the price may be a broken heart, he had nothing to lose.

He opened the door with a heavy arm.

She was still lying there, the heart monitoring beeping evenly, indicating that there was still a measure of life in the girl on the bed.

With nary a sound, Adrien, Nino, and Alya entered the room and stood by Marinette’s bed, Adrien on one side and Nino and Alya on the other. Nino crossed his fingers as Alya flicked to her “Memories” playlist. Adrien, too afraid to take a step closer to the fragile looking girl, stayed rooted in place.

Alya pressed the play button. Instantly, the song, “Part of Your World”, the reprise version played out of the phone. Then the Nightcore version of “Super Hero”, Nickelback’s “Hero”, and other songs followed. Every so often, Alya would hum along with the songs and stroke Marinette’s hair, careful to not disturb the sleeping Tikki who nuzzled into the sleeping patient’s loose locks.

Plagg, having remained silent, popped out of Adrien’s over shirt and gently flew over to Tikki’s side, kissing the top of her head. Then he sat down next to her at a respectful distance and with loving, sad eyes.

“This is always the toughest part.” Plagg whispered just over the dean of music. Adrien’s ears perked up to listen, but his eyes remained stuck on Marinette’s sleeping face. “We love, care, and fight together so much. And then we get scared of losing them. It never gets any easier.”

Adrien’s heart twisted and ached, tears now cascading down his cheeks. He took one step, then two, and wrapped his larger hands around one of Marinette’s smaller ones, hating how cold they felt.

“That’s not going to happen.” Adrien rasped out. “It won’t happen.”

Finally, the song played a recording of Tom and Sabine’s lullaby. By now, it had become an anthem of sorts in honor of Ladybug’s departure and now Marinette’s bittersweet return. There was hardly anyone in Paris who hadn’t heard of it.

And still…Marinette did not stir. And the songs continued their loop.

“What is it going to take to make you wake up?” Adrien whispered, more tears falling. He was sick and tired of crying. When was he going to laugh after Marinette made a face at his terrible puns? When is he going to smile when Marinette greets him at school? When is this stupid drama going to end?

Suddenly, when Marinette’s lullaby played again, Adrien felt a twitch. He jolted up and stared at the hand he was holding.

He felt another twitch, this time with her fingers jolting.

Warmth and energy surged through him much like the time he first found Marinette not too long before she became Leto’s Harlequin. He felt heat rush through his cheeks when she saw Marinette slowly move her head back and forth across her pillow, shaking Tikki from her slumber.

“Oh! Oh my gosh!” Tikki cried, bolting up in the air with a grinning Plagg.

“Ha ha!” Plagg cheered.

Tapping sounds from outside came rushing towards the hospital room and Tom and Sabine burst through the door, their eyes wide with concern after hearing the cries from the kwamis.

“What’s going on?! What’s wrong?!” Sabine cried, stopping short when she saw her daughter’s moving head.

Tom’s jaw dropped, eyeing the way Alya’s phone continued to play the lullaby they had recorded not too long ago.

“Is this… Is this really…?” Tom stammered, following his wife to Marinette’s bedside.

Adrien shifted to make room for Tom and Sabine, but he never wandered too far from Marinette.

Finally…finally…Marinette opened her eyes. She blinked once, twice, and looked around her room with a blank face. Whether the many perfumes of the flowers bothered her or not, her face never indicated. One hand shifted and her fingers brushed against Alya’s phone. She grabbed it with a shaky hand and lifted it up, staring at the song title, “Always There” from the old Land Before Time movie she watched when she was little.

“Mari? Darling?” Sabine called out quietly, looking at her daughter with eyes shining with hope.

Marinette, still laying down, turned her head to shift her gaze to the woman who called out to her.

Time seemed to come to a standstill. One heartbeat. Two.

Finally, Marinette’s blank face slowly shifted to a tired, but happy smile.

“Hi Mom.” She turned to look at a teary eyed Tom. “Hi Dad.” Then she turned to look at Adrien, visibly shaking in his spot. “Hi Alley Cat.”

Everyone cried in joy instead of the despair they had been feeling for the past couple months. They enveloped their beloved girl with tight embraces and countless kisses were peppered on her face.

It would take another couple days for the doctors to clear Marinette to return home. It would take another week for them to allow Marinette to return to school, deeming her healthy enough for her routine, although they advised her to steer clear of her Ladybug duties until she felt up to it.

When she first got ready for school, she didn’t know what to expect. Whether they were going to blame her for Leto’s attack or they were going to treat her as usual, she didn’t know. But when Adrien arrived at the bakery without his limo with ruffled hair and shortness of breath, having run all the way from his home to see her, Marinette’s heart nearly stopped.

The bright green eyes that were always so lively now looked at her with pure relief and guilt. His smile was shaky, and then it crumbled as he bit his bottom lip until it bled. In a split second, the hands that were wrangling his bag strap moved to wrap themselves tightly around Marinette’s form.

“I’m sorry…” Adrien whispered in a broken voice. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

Slowly, Marinette wrapped her arms around Adrien’s quivering shoulders.

Nothing was going to be fixed overnight. It would take a while for the wounds to heal and it would be a while for resolutions to be found. Hawkmoth was still out there and there were surely going to be more victims to save. But for now that was okay. Taking one step at a time together, maybe that was all they needed.

As long as they were together.