Marinette was trying to have a good day, she really was. First, her and Alya had gone through with their plan of revenge on Chloe. Let's say it involved a hairdryer, purple paint, and a cat and leave it at that. That was the only highlight of her day. From then on, it only grew worse and worse.

First, Adrien had suddenly begun to treat her as some sort of "acquaintance" instead of the friend that she had become.

Then, Chloe had sworn, yet again, to get back at her for what she'd done. But this time, there was a certain sincerity to her voice, as if she really did mean it.

And to top it all off, she had gotten into an akuma fight.

And Chat hadn't shown up.

Yep.

The cat had abandoned her.

She slipped through her window silently, cursing as she landed on the floor, pain flying through her back. Word of advice: unless you're freaking Batman, don't fight an akuma without backup. It's not easy. And you will probably end up with several injuries. From what Marinette could tell, she had two wounds on her arm, one on her knee, a black eye and a massive bruise forming on her back.

Lovely.

Exactly what she needed right now.

Her transformation disappeared and immediately the pain hit harder once Tiki wasn't absorbing some of it. The teenager clutched the desk for support and stumbled her way into the bathroom.

"That was risky, Marinette." The kwami said in her concerned tone. "You could have gotten much worse than a couple cuts and bruises. Ladybug isn't supposed to fight alone, you know that."

"Yeah," she pulled her shirt over her head and threw it onto her bed, noticing the blood stain on her sleeve. She would have to fix that. "Well, my partner seemed to have taken a day off."

Marinette turned around to glance at her back in the mirror, and what she saw made her cringe. A huge black and blue blob was indeed forming right over her spine. And by huge, I mean bigger than a dinner plate. She couldn't do anything about it though. A bruise was a bruise; she couldn't fix that.

But her other injuries were another matter.

"That's pretty nasty, Marinette." Tikki said, concern still evident in her voice. "You sure you don't want to get it looked at?"

"I'm sure Tikki. I'll be fine. Chat Noir on the other hand…"

Shaking her head, she applied pressure to the cut running down her arm and let out a low his. Even if she was a little irritated, she couldn't be mad at Chat. He surely had a reason and she had taken the villain down. True, she had gotten hurt much worse than usual, but evil was gone for the day, leaving her with an evening of homework and relentless thoughts.

Slipping into a tank top and pajama pants, she collapsed into her desk chair with a great huff. Glancing at her backpack, she sighed heavily. School was a jerk.

She was halfway through her history homework when her phone buzzed, the screen lighting up with a text notification. Marinette glanced over and her cheeks warmed up a notch or two. It was from Adrien.

Sorry about my distance, today. I'm going through some stuff.

Well, at least someone was explaining things to her.

Marinette couldn't keep the smile off her face as she immediately texted back. No problem. I get how it is. You wanna talk about it?

Almost instant reply, sending the girl into a mess of giggles. Actually, I wanted to ask you something.

Curiosity spiked. Yeah?

Would you want to hang out sometime?

Marinette chuckled, quickly typing back. Adrien, we hang out all the time.

I meant, like, just the two of us.

Was he saying what she hoped he was saying? You mean, like a date?

Yeah. A date.

Marinette's heart rate sped up by at least three thousand beats and her face became very, very hot. Was this real? Was Adrien Agreste actually asking her out on a date? She looked back down at her phone and re-read it. Yep. This was really happening.

She squealed. I would love to go on a date with you, Adrien.

You have anything planned tomorrow evening?

This was a dream. A fantastic, unreal, wonderful dream. Nope. I'm free.

Can you meet me at the coffee place that's just around the block from school around 8:00?

Marinette had died and gone to heaven. She was officially dead. Gone. Poof. Yeah, I think I can manage that ;).

Cool! See you then!

"EEEEEEEEEK!" Marinette slid down in her chair and buried her face in her hands, cheeks exploding with heat. Beside her, Tiki shook her head and giggled.

"Well, looks like things are looking up for you after all, Marinette." The small creature said.

Her blush deepened. "Yeah. He asked me out, Tiki. Adrien Agreste asked me out. Me! Oh my gosh, this is a dream come true! Oh, I have to tell Alya!" Her fingers were flying across her phone in seconds. "Alya?"

"Sup girl! What's up?"

"You'll never believe what just happened."

"Really? What?"

"I was just asked out."

Marinette could almost hear the smirk in her best friend's voice. "Oh? By who?"

"Adrien."

Le skip again…

"Chloe, what the heck are you doing with my phone?"

Adrien was not in the mood for this. Today was not his best day and he did not need Miss Princess making it worse.

Chloe blinked, giving him a sickly sick smile. "Oh, nothing, Adrikins. Just looking."

"Yeah, well, you can stop looking and give it back now, thanks. My ride's here."

She gave it back all to willingly, setting Adrien on edge. What did she do?

When he arrived back at his house, Adrien fell onto his bed, exhaustion taking over his body before he could protest. He sighed, flipping on his computer. Immediately, a notification from the Ladyblog appeared on his screen and he clicked on it, eyebrows furrowing in concern.

When he read the title of Alya's newest article, his heart dropped.

Ladybug Alone?

The words cut through him like a knife. As he skimmed the article, his guilt only multiplied. She had fought an akuma on her own. She had succeeded of course, but at what cost?

There was a video of the fight and as Alya commented at the scene, Adrien's concern grew steadily. Ladybug was a brilliant fighter. Smart, witty, strong, brave; the perfect hero.

But she wasn't invincible. That much was clear.

Because man, she got hit. Bad.

When the fight ended and Alya got a good shot on the heroine, Adrien's heart was lead. He could spot blood beginning to seep through her suit at the arm and she was cringing. Her walk was unsteady and she looked like she was about to throw up. Waving away the reporters and cameras, she quickly exited, disappearing behind the chimneys of Paris.

The video ended, leaving Adrien with so much guilt he could probably fill a lake with it.

He thought that it was better this way. He couldn't get it the way. He couldn't mess her up. He couldn't be an inconvenience.

But she had gotten hurt.

Ladybug was hurt, and it was his fault.

It was his fault!

He blinked the tears out of his eyes.

"You had better not be blaming yourself."

Adrien glared at Plagg, gesturing at the computer screen. "Are you kidding me? I'm supposed to be her partner! We are partners and when she needed me I wasn't there! Plagg, she's hurt because of me!"

The kwami rolled his eyes. "Calm down. Marinette can patch herself up just fine."

Adrien's eyes widened and his heart constricted in a very painful way. The two-day old revelation that Marinette was Ladybug still had to sink in.

Marinette was hurt because of him.

One of his best friends was in pain because of his stupidity.

Adrien fell to his knees, head in his hands. "Oh, Plagg, what have I done?"

"Oh, get over yourself! So you made a mistake! She'll be fine!"

The young boy felt anger course through his veins and suddenly his temper flared. He turned to the small creature, eyes flaming. "How can you say that? It's not like you understand what I'm feeling!"

Plagg's look of oh my gosh, this kid is an idiot disappeared in a flash. It was replaced by a guarded, cold stare. "Watch what you say, Adrien. You might find out that I understand much more than you think."

"Are you kidding? I LOVE her! And she got hurt because of me! It could have been worse-!"

"But it wasn't!" Plagg seethed, eyes suddenly misting over. "It wasn't worse. You don't get it, do you kid? I understand more than you ever will because I have seen worse. I have seen Ladybug bloody and broken. Hell, I have watched her die." The creature narrowed his eyes, his voice dripping with venom. "You know nothing."

Adrien's anger dissipated and he hanged his head. "I-I'm sorry Plagg; I wasn't thinking. Please forgive me. Of course you understand. I-I just… I don't know what I would do without her. I can't lose her, Plagg."

His voice was pleading, even he could hear it.

The kwami sighed, his fury also fading. "I know, kid, but you didn't. She's going to be alright, just like you. Don't worry. Everything's going to be okay."

But as Adrien glanced up again at the article, he realized that Plagg was wrong. This was his fault, and everything was definitely not okay.

Sorry for the wait guys! Like I said before, school is being a little jerk and I'm barely getting decent sleep, let alone time to work on things like this. If you liked it, please don't forget to leave a review! We authors need it!