So before I say bon voyage to Tumblr, I thought I’d post my ridiculously detailed outline for an AU where Adrien really is their child and ends up being cursed with immortality. I spent a ton of hours on this so I hope you enjoy it!
Upon becoming queen, Rapunzel is eager to use her gift to heal all the sick and injured people in her kingdom, but - because all of her hair has been cut - she can only do so by crying over her subjects. When Eugene sees the toll it’s taking on her, he begs her to stop, but her compassion is unwavering. After much discussion, they finally agree to limit the use of her magic to one day a year, dubbed “The Day of Weeping”. On this day, any of their subjects may come to seek healing from the queen and offer her tokens of gratitude. When the weeping is over and everyone has been cured or mended, the kingdom celebrates with dancing and a magnificent feast.
Things change when Rapunzel becomes pregnant, though. On the next Day of Weeping, she is well into her third trimester, and the stress of healing quickly proves to be too much. Concerned for the well-being of his child, the king announces that the Day of Weeping must be postponed for another month.
Unfortunately, the wife of a certain wizard does not have another month. After scouring in vain to find a spell or potion that can save her from dying, the desperate man regards the Day of Weeping as his final hope. He screams in outrage and fear as the guards close the gates, but to no avail. The crowd slowly dissipates until he and his wife are all that’s left. He falls to his knees in defeat, holding tightly to her afflicted body as the life in her eyes begins to slip away.
That night, in the royal bedchamber, Rapunzel and Eugene are startled awake as the balcony doors fly open. There, standing in the moonlight, is a broken man hungry for revenge. Eugene immediately draws his sword, but with a flick of the wizard’s hand, it disintegrates. The man states plainly “My wife is dead because of you,” and lifts a hand towards Rapunzel, preparing to return the favor.
Eugene steps in front of her, “We just wanted to protect our child.”
This seems to give the man a twisted idea. “Then by all means… you shall have your wish.” He reaches out both hands, pushing the young king to the side with one and manipulating Rapunzel’s magic with the other as he mutters a curse. “Sunshine, flower, hair, and tears. This child will live for endless years. Aging placed upon the shelf, until true love reveals itself!”
Then the man is gone, never to be seen by Rapunzel or Eugene again. They remember him though. They remember him when Adrien is born. They remember him when the next Day of Weeping arrives. And they remember him when Rapunzel becomes pregnant with their daughter. But as time passes and their fears go unfulfilled, they begin to remember him less.
Adrien grows into a handsome and heroic young boy, the perfect combination of both his parents and a devoted older brother. On his fifteenth birthday, he and all the subjects of the kingdom release a floating lantern into the night sky, as is tradition. But then, something strange happens. All the paper lanterns - every single one - suddenly drop out of the sky, their lights extinguished. In the same moment, Prince Adrien falls to the ground, unconscious. As the royal doctors examine him with clueless expressions, Rapunzel holds his fallen lantern in her lap, anxiously tracing its unique design as she wonders anxiously why her magic could not fix him.
All of a sudden, his lantern begins to flicker, but Rapunzel’s attention is stolen by the exclamations of relief coming from Adrien’s bedside. He’s awake!
A few hours later, Rapunzel notices that his lantern is still lit, now bobbing up against the high ceiling. She figures they can just wait for it to burn out on its own. But it never does. The lantern stays lit for days, and when they finally retrieve it, they discover that neither blowing on the flame nor dousing it with water will extinguish it. Eugene is the first one to realize what it all means: the curse has come to pass. Sure enough, weeks and months and years go by and the prince neither grows nor ages.
By the time he turns eighteen, Adrien has come to terms with his fate and decides to relinquish his place on the throne to his younger sister. She agrees on one condition – that he return and take his rightful place as king as soon as the curse is broken. So Adrien leaves the kingdom to find his “true love”. It’s not as easy as his parents’ story made it seem. Over the decades, Adrien kindles affection for many a girl, only to have his heart broken every time as they grow up and move on without him. He always keeps the lantern with him, hoping one day the light finally go out. What does “until true love reveals itself” mean anyway? Eventually he gives up on the idea.
Fast forward to the year 1991. Adrien has lived in most corners of the Earth, save for France, and decides to settle into the little town of Annecy. He’s used to being alone now and doesn’t mind being ignored. Personal relationships seem to be a luxury he can no longer afford and those who learn his secret either don’t believe him or try to exploit him. Then he meets a boy his age who absolutely refuses to ignore him, offering his camaraderie daily until Adrien finally concedes. Of all the friends Adrien has ever made in his expansive lifetime, Gabriel is certainly the most stubborn. But also, the most loyal. Their friendship quickly becomes unbreakable, even when Gabe learns his secret.
Years later, Gabriel moves to Lyon to study fashion design at ESMOD and Adrien becomes his roommate. Their similar physical appearance allows them to masquerade as brothers, and most of the time, it doesn’t feel like a lie. The two also befriend a remarkable young woman, named Emilie, who is studying fashion business. She learns about Adrien’s curse accidentally, but proves herself to be trustworthy by swearing herself to secrecy. Gabe quickly develops feelings for her, and often vents to Adrien about how perfect she is and how nervous he is to confess his love. The forever-fifteen-year-old has both witnessed and experienced this all before and, acting like a sage wingman, develops a plan to get those crazy kids together. It works almost too well. When Gabriel and Emilie start making plans to move, marry, and work together, Adrien fears he will get left behind. Part of him already knows it’s inevitable. One day, Gabe comes home, excited to tell his “brother” about this nice apartment complex he’s found in Paris that’s perfect for the three of them and how it has two single-bedroom vacancies right next door to each other and – Adrien is gone. All he leaves behind is a note that says “I have to go. Thank-you for the past eight years. Best of luck to you and Emilie.”
Adrien moves to a crime-ridden city and takes up vigilantism for the next decade. He already knows that he can’t die (a voluntary discovery) and saving people gives him a sense of purpose without requiring him to get hurt by lost relationships. One day, he’s in a scuffle with a criminal and gets shot in the chest. He falters backwards and it hurts for a moment, but ultimately he’s fine.
Later on, word gets around in the criminal underground that this hero is invincible. A group of villains who specialize in magic end up capturing Adrien and interrogate him about his immortality, hoping they can attain the same longevity. He manages to escape before they can test him, but they are determined to find him and use him to their advantage. If anything, they can brainwash him and use him to do their dirty work.
While on the run, Adrien decides to stop by Paris to check up on his old friends, but ends up staying longer when little 8 year old Chloe Bourgeois discovers his secret and black mails him into being her only friend (to be fair, she does let him stay in one of the unused hotel suites and brings him food). One day, she follows Adrien to a small fashion expo where Gabe’s work is being featured. When she learns about their history, Chloe demands that her father sponsor the Agreste fashion business, practically throwing a tantrum in the process. While Adrien still finds her methods kind of annoying, he does appreciates her help, especially since the Agrestes have been struggling to get their business off the ground. Not long after that, Mr. Bourgeois meets with Gabriel and Emilie to discuss business and asks them how such a talented pair happened to find each other. Gabriel recounts, with a sad smile, how they owed it all to an old friend who helped them get together. As Adrien spies on the conversation, he realizes that after all these years, they still miss him too.
That night, he works up his courage and goes to visit them at their home. Gabe and Emilie are shocked and overjoyed to see him again, and the three stay up all night catching up. Adrien tells them stories of his crime-fighting, and the Agrestes talk about the unexpected struggles of starting a business… and starting a family. After an uphill battle with infertility, the baby room in their home was converted into a rarely-used guest room.
A few weeks after the reunion, the Bourgeois hotel becomes completely booked up for the summer, and Adrien finds himself in need of a place to stay. He hesitantly asks his friends if he can use their guest room for just a week or two, and they welcome him with open arms. Gabriel even seems excited, claiming “it’ll be just like our days at university”. As the weeks turn into months, though, Adrien begins to worry that he’s overstaying his welcome. The Agrestes try to assure him that they love having him live with them, but Adrien still insists on at least helping them with administrative work to “earn his keep”.
Christmas rolls around and the three celebrate together, happily exchanging what few gifts they can afford with their slowly growing business. Then, at the end of the night, Gabe pulls out one last gift for Adrien - a glossy red folder with a silver bow on the front.
“You’re not making me work on Christmas, are you boss?” Adrien asks.
Gabe laughs. “No, just open it.”
Adrien has trouble reading their expressions. Do they look excited? Worried? Maybe a mixture of both? When he opens the folder, he understands. They’re adoption papers. A wave of emotion rushes over him, overwhelming joy quickly followed by devastating resignation. His face falls. “This will never work.”
But Gabriel is as loyal as ever. “We’ll make it work. We really want to, Adrien. We’ll do whatever it takes to protect you and your secret. We could try surgery or hormones to make you look older, or we could create a fake medical condition to explain why you don’t. Heck, I even know makeup artists who can make models look 10 years older than they actually are. The point is… we want you to have the opportunity to live a normal life again, to have a family.”
With tears in his eyes, Adrien accepts their offer.
For a few months, life is practically perfect. Business is really picking up and the Agrestes couldn’t be happier. Then, unfortunately, the group of criminals track down Adrien’s location. They see how happy he is with his make-shift family and decide that a simple kidnapping will not suffice for what they have planned. If they want to successfully mold Adrien into a criminal, they’ll need him feeling broken and betrayed first.
They contact Gabriel and offer to pay him 1,000,000 euros in exchange for giving up his “son”. Gabriel refuses, but over time, he receives more calls and the offers turn into threats. As the situation escalates and strange accidents start occurring at work, he starts acting more overprotective of Adrien and tries to keep him inside. When asked about his weird behavior, Gabriel remains very vague about his reasoning, knowing full-well that Adrien will leave in a heartbeat if he thinks he might be endangering his family. Tension continues to rise in the Agreste home as Gabriel runs out of excuses and tries to use his “fatherly authority” to keep Adrien home. It does not go well.
After a heated argument, Adrien leaves the house and crashes with Chloe, who is quickly becoming infatuated. Emilie feels frustrated with her husband and interrogates him about his behavior until he admits the truth. She can hardly believe that criminals have been targeting Adrien and blackmailing Gabe for months, but at the same time it explains so much. She comes to understand and accept her husband’s behavior - even though she hates it - and convinces Adrien to come back home. As the threats continue, Gabriel hires a body guard, installs a high tech security system, and practically forces Adrien to stay inside, distancing himself and pouring himself into his work to lessen their old buddy-buddy relationship.
As for Emilie, she can’t bring herself to take the same cold approach. Although she stands by Gabriel’s security measures, she still tries to be there for Adrien. One day, he tells her about his real mother and how she was also forced into isolation because of her magic.
“Like mother like son, I guess.”
“Adrien, we’re only trying to protect you.”
“That’s what Gothel said too.”
This stuns Emilie into silence. Adrien apologizes for incriminating her and explains that he’s just frustrated. He feels like the curse is once again ruining everything for him and everyone around him. Emilie promises to help him break the curse (at one point theorizing that Chloe is Adrien’s true love, much to his chagrin) and asks him if there’s anything he’s interested in doing or learning in the meantime. He admits that he misses sword-fighting, so Emilie appeals to Gabriel to let him take fencing. As time passes, he also takes up piano lessons (he already knows the basics but wants to really master it) and Chinese lessons (he’s already learned a dozen languages but none with a different alphabet).
Adrien spends the rest of his time trying to stay entertained in his room. At least, until Gabriel hires Natalie as an assistant. Despite Adrien having well over a century’s worth of knowledge, the unaware assistant insists on him receiving a “proper education” and tutors him regularly. As much as Adrien doesn’t love his circumstances, he tries to tell himself that having one and a half parents, a bratty friend, and an emotionless assistant is better than nothing.
In the meantime, Mama Agreste is working over time trying to uncover the curse and find a solution. After a lot of research, she discovers the miraculous book and tracks down Master Fu, begging him for the Ladybug and Chat Noir jewels to break the curse on her adopted son. He tells her that the pair of miraculous were never meant to be used by the same person, and that a curse can only be broken as it was intended. However, when Master Fu sees how distraught this makes her and how genuinely worried she is, he entrusts her with the Peacock miraculous so she can defend Adrien from any attackers. She accepts it but uses the power somewhat aggressively, going after the criminals and sometimes battling them in order to keep her family safe. When Gabriel finds out, he is outraged (mostly because he is scared for her) and tells her to stop endangering herself. When she argues with him, he takes away her peacock miraculous and the book and locks them away so she won’t be tempted to fight again.
She storms out, furious and, unfortunately, defenseless. The gang of criminals capture her and tell her husband that he’ll only see her again when he changes his mind about giving up Adrien. Gabriel still can’t bring himself to do it so the villains immobilize Emilie with magic and keep her imprisoned at their base of operations in Tibet. Heartbroken and guilt-ridden, Gabriel becomes a much darker version of himself and vows to fix everything, even if he has to take extreme measures. He uses the peacock miraculous to try to defeat the criminals. It doesn’t work. He tracks down the lost butterfly miraculous and uses it to produce an army to try to defeat them. That doesn’t work either. Finally, he uses the butterfly miraculous to become a villain himself, called Hawk Moth, in order to obtain the Ladybug and Chat Noir miraculous. He figures that the only way he can save his wife is with that ultimate power.
Meanwhile, Adrien is struggling with Emilie’s disappearance and Gabriel’s constant absence. One day, he manages to convince his “father” to let him attend a photo shoot and finds himself spending more time with him in that one day than he normally does all week. Attending photo shoots together becomes a somewhat regular thing and, although his “father” isn’t exactly back to normal, Adrien enjoys watching him work. Then one day, a model quits in the middle of a photo shoot and the photographer tries to rope Adrien in to take his place. Gabriel refuses at first, knowing it would be risky to publicize photos of an immortal kid, but Adrien is so desperate be involved that he’s forced to reconsider.
“Look, I know it won’t be easy, but the day you adopted me, you said we could make this work. You promised! I know this thing with mom disappearing is horrible and difficult and you just want to bury yourself in your work, but… I feel like I’m losing you too. So please, just… let me be a part of it.”
Gabriel finally concedes and lets him do the photo shoot, which is followed by a second the next week, a third the next, and many more after that. The unexpected fame from Adrien’s modeling is a little worrisome, but it benefits the business so much that Gabriel is committed to making it work.
One day, Adrien has a photo shoot in the park and gets distracted by a group of teenagers who are hanging out nearby. After spending so much time surrounded by models, moody adults, and… well, Chloe, he forgot how funny and friendly most people “his age” can be. He starts thinking about what it would be like to have friends like that and for the first time in at least a few decades, he wishes he could go back to school. After a lot of arguing and reconsidering, Gabriel finally allows Adrien to go, but only because the butterfly miraculous allows him to keep an eye on him.
When Adrien receives his own miraculous, he can hardly contain his excitement. This ring is his ticket to independence, even if it does come with a rather snarky kwami. (Plagg understands what it feels like to be immortal, but he doesn’t sympathize much with his chosen one because he’s still thousands of years older.) Adrien eagerly hops right back into the life of fighting crime, grateful for the anonymity the masks brings. Above all else, though, he is completely mesmerized by his partner, Ladybug. Never has he met anyone so determined and honorable and breathtakingly gorgeous. At first, he agonizes a bit about his feelings for her, but when Plagg explains that a miraculous can extend the lifespan of its holder, he allows himself to hope.
Time passes and Adrien and Ladybug grow closer. Sometimes, she’ll come by unannounced just to see him. It’s on one of these nights that the two end up talking into the early hours of the morning, both too distracted by their affections to remember that they have school the next day. In a spur of the moment decision, Adrien asks Ladybug if he can tell her a secret.
When she agrees, he leads her to the back of his huge walk-in closet and kneels down in front of a mysterious black chest. He enters a code and lifts the lid to reveal hundreds of pictures, papers, souvenirs, and memories from throughout his life. Among them is a paper lantern that has been glowing for the past century and a half.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
Ladybug blinks in confusion as Adrien takes out the lantern and turns off the closet light to admire it’s warm glow.
“My mother and father gave this to me on my fifteenth birthday.”
“But… I thought your mom was missing?” Ladybug asks.
Adrien looks down. “My adoptive mom is missing. Gabriel and Emilie Agreste aren’t my real parents.”
“Really?” Her eyes grow wide. “So where are your real parents?”
“I uh… I haven’t seen them in a long time.”
“I’m confused. You said they gave this to you for your fifteenth birthday, and wasn’t that just a few months ago?”
“Not quite.”
“Oh… so are you sixteen? Seventeen?” she guesses.
Adrien sighs before he answers. “One hundred and eighty one.”
“What?”
Adrien sits down with the lantern in hand, nodding for Ladybug to sit across from him.
“Almost two hundred years ago… while my mother was pregnant, a vengeful sorcerer placed a curse on her to make me immortal. Growing up, everything seemed fine, but then on my fifteenth birthday, I fell unconscious. From the moment I woke up, both my life and this light have been inextinguishable.” Ladybug watches as Adrien blows on the lantern flame. It dances but never dies. “See?”
He releases the lantern, letting it float to the ceiling as he retrieves a few other items from the trunk. Ladybug stares in shock at the historic mementos, still trying to process the difficult truth. “I’ve traveled to a lot of places over the years and met a lot of people… but nothing lasts. Not people, not buildings, not even memories. Just me and that lantern.”
“Is there any way to break the curse?” Ladybug asks.
Adrien closes his eyes and repeats that words that have haunted him since his childhood: “Sunshine, flower, hair, and tears. This child will live for endless years. Aging placed upon the shelf…” He pauses and pulls back to look at her. “Until true love reveals itself.”
Ladybug gives him a look of confusion tinged with hope. “True love? Are you saying that-”
“I love you,” Adrien says with complete conviction. “More than anyone I’ve ever met in the past 181 years. And… I’m pretty sure you love me too.” A guilty smile flashes over her face. “But I need to know who my true love is.”
Ladybug touches her mask absent-mindedly as she realizes what he means.
“But… what if you don’t love the other part of me?”
He places a hand on her cheek. “I promise you, that’s impossible.”
Ladybug smiles gratefully and leans in to kiss Adrien. While their eyes are closed, she slips the miraculous earrings out of her ears and a flash of red washes over her. Adrien opens his eyes and leans back to take in the familiar freckles and shy smile. His eyes widen as he realizes blissfully that his true love is one of his dearest friends. He breathes out her name and leans in to kiss her again when suddenly the two are engulfed by darkness. The ancient lantern slowly drops to the floor, finally extinguished. The curse is broken.
…
One year later, Adrien and Marinette team up with Gabriel, Chloe, Alya, and Nino, each with their own miraculous, to defeat the villains in Tibet and save Emilie Agreste. Upon their success, true happiness is restored in the Agreste family once again and, as in all fairy tales, everyone lives happily ever after.
I hope you enjoyed my last hurrah!
Tagging everyone who commented on the original post, since I thought you might be interested. Anyway, I’m going to go log out of Tumblr forever BYE!
Hey everybody, I just wanted to let you know that this is my last day on Tumblr. I’ve had a lot of fun blogging but I’ve started to neglect what’s really important.
Anyway, as a parting gift, I wanted to give away all the art, fanfiction, and songs that I started but never finished. You can feel free to use ANY of this content or the ideas as you please. For example, it’s fine with me if you want to record my songs, steal lines from my fics, or use my art ideas. I’m not actually deactivating my account, so you’ll still be able to see content in this post and all my other posts even after I log out indefinitely.
Thank-you so much for your follows and your friendship! I hope my blog brought you some enjoyment while it lasted. Love you guys ❤
SONGS:
(Lyrics are in the Sound Cloud descriptions.)
Never Feed a Stray - Click Here to listen in Sound Cloud
A song about Marinette reluctantly falling for Chat Noir.
I Will Stay - Click Here to listen in Sound Cloud
A duet between the oblivious love birds, Adrien and Marinette.
ART:
(If you have ArtRage and want the .ptg file let me know!)
Mattress Surfing Comic
Basically the mattress surfing scene from Princess Diaries 2 but with Miraculous Ladybug characters. Unfortunately I never got around to drawing the third panel - Gabriel majestically gliding down the stairs on a mattress in his PJs (I added versions of the panels without words under the cut.)
Seven Eleven
So what if Seven from Mystic Messenger and Eleven from Stranger Things went to 7-Eleven? I feel like they’d talk about their crappy childhoods and bond over Slurpees and Honey Buddha Chips. Clearly I didn’t get very far with this one but I still like the idea. (Version with just Eleven under the cut.)
(Other versions of my art and unfinished fanfiction under the cut)
FANFICTION
Pursuit - In this Miraculous AU, Adrien is the sole miraculous holder and Marinette is a civilian who becomes a self-imposed vigilante. The love square and their personalities are sort of flipped so Adrien is a socially awkward mess around Marinette and Ladybug is flirty with Chat Noir.
(I didn’t even finish writing the first chapter…)
She should have stayed inside. The rain was falling harder now, bringing with it a frigid sensation that washed over Marinette’s paralyzed body. The glowing pause symbol hovered before her, a taunting reminder of the menacing evil that had overcome her best friend. But that had been hours ago.
“It’s been too long,” Marinette kept thinking. “Something’s wrong.”
She was beginning to fear the worst when suddenly a familiar wave of green light shot through the sky, one of its rays swimming through the air in her direction. As it surrounded her, the pause symbol disappeared, releasing its death grip on her muscles. Marinette fell to her hands and knees on the wet pavement, her body shaking violently as it fought to regain heat.
“He did it.” She realized in relief. “Chat Noir did it.”
She trudged through the storm, each unavoidable puddle soaking through her shoes and biting at her toes. The only warmth provided her was a burning envy for those who passed by with umbrellas. She waited at a street corner, trying to avoid the waves of water that shot towards her as cars sped by. When the crosswalk signal finally turned green, Marinette stepped onto the slick street, distracted by thoughts of home.
What she would give right now to be inside and safe and warm and dry and wrapped in her parents’ arms. Unfortunately, the latter would not be possible until tomorrow, as they were both in Strasbourg for the annual Festival de la Boulangerie. Maybe she could spend the night with Alya. She would probably appreciate the company after what happened today… Through her thoughts and the tumult of rain around her, Marinette suddenly heard a desperate screech of tires and a blaring car horn. Still in the street, she froze as her eyes caught sight of a black vehicle hydroplaning in her direction.
There’s no time.
A powerful force slammed into the Parisian girl’s body, catapulting her through the air and onto the pavement. But it wasn’t the car.
“Are you okay?”
Marinette could feel a pair of arms releasing her. She looked up, relatively unharmed, to see a pair of glowing green eyes staring at her from beneath a black mask. She was speechless. Chat Noir gently pulled her to her feet as a small crowd gathered round. The people applauded and cheered, some shielding their phones from the rain as they recorded the moment, but the hero paid them no mind. His gaze was transfixed on Marinette in concern. Her face was pale with shock, her skin freezing cold, and her unsteady legs looked like they might give out at any second.“We need to get you home.” He placed an arm around her back and scooped her up, vaulting effortlessly from the ground to the roof of a car. Marinette gasped as they rebounded off an awning and landed on the roof, where the wind was strong and numbing. The hero looked around, then set her down beneath an eave which blocked the rain.
“Where do you live?”
Poor Marinette’s brain still hadn’t quite registered that Chat Noir, savior of Paris, was kneeling right there in front of her. Surely, she was hallucinating from hypothermia. He tentatively placed a hand on her shoulder and immediately the electricity jump-started her senses. “Oh! Uh, t-t-twelve Rue G-gotlib!” Marinette practically winced at how screwed up her speech was. A raspy voice and chattering teeth were hardly attractive. But Chat just smiled.
“So you do talk after all.” A soft laugh escaped her lips. For some reason she had imagined Chat Noir would be dark and brooding, not… charming. “What’s your name?” he asked curiously. A flicker of warmth ignited in her chest. “Marinette.”
…
Chat Noir already knew Marinette’s name. He even knew where she lived. He visited her family’s bakery practically every week just on the off chance that he might see her outside of school. But that was without the mask, when he was just… Adrien. Despite the way he was pictured in most magazines and ad campaigns, the model was far from suave in everyday life. A practically friendless childhood left him with crippling social anxiety around those his age.
As a result, his first few days at Collège Françoise Dupont, a little over a month ago, were a nightmare. He accidentally introduced himself as “Adrigen Areste" in front of the whole class and found himself tripping over things on a frequent basis. The excitement of having a “famous model” for a classmate quickly dissipated. His deskmate, Nino Lahiffe, seemed sympathetic but struggled to maintain conversation with the new student. Adrien was accustomed to a professional and practical form of dialogue so when the Moroccan said, “Dude, have you heard the new Jagged Stone album? It’s totally lit!” …he was lost for words.
Then there was Marinette. On his second day, Adrien caught her hanging flyers all over the school hallways. They featured one of his more recent model shots, defaced with a uni-brow and captioned “Adrigen Areste”. There were hundreds of them. It wasn’t until after school that he found out they were really Chloe’s doing.
“I was only trying to take them down.” Adrien looked past his locker door to see Marinette standing a little ways off, her face a mixture of guilt and compassion. “I know what it feels like to be the new kid and… well, I’m sorry we haven’t been very welcoming.” She reached into her pocket. “Here.” Marinette held out a colorful beaded bracelet. “This is my lucky charm. My mother gave it to me when I first came here and I thought… it might help you.” Adrien was shocked and completely overcome with gratitude. He accepted the gift and admired the bracelet in his hands as if it were a priceless treasure. He looked back at her sheepishly.
“Thank-you…uh-” he faltered.
“Marinette.” It was such a beautiful name. Almost as beautiful as Marinette, herself. Of course, Adrien didn’t have the courage to tell her that at the time. But now… on the roof and under the mask, he had a second chance. When she introduced herself to Chat Noir, he smiled affectionately.
“That’s a pretty name.”
Cataclysm - Chat ends up confessing his feelings to Ladybug in this unfinished first chapter. I imagined him getting akumatized (into “Cataclysm”, not Chat Blanc lol) after being rejected by her and vowing to destroy the one who stole her heart. When he finds out it was actually his civilian self… well, I don’t know. I didn’t really plan out this plot, but I hope you enjoy!
It was a quiet night. Ladybug and Chat Noir strolled along the rooftops of Paris, planning in tandem as they patrolled the city.
“All the akumas have been striking within the same 5 kilometer radius,” Ladybug said. “If we can just figure out where they’re coming from, we can find Hawk Moth and stop him.”
“You know,” Chat added, “we might not be able to survey the whole city on our own, but-” he tossed his baton up between two adjacent chimneys. “-we do have quite the fan following. Maybe they could help?” He sprang up on the stick and began walking it back and forth like a tight rope. Ladybug paced beneath him.
“That’s not a bad idea. We should talk to Aly- uh that Ladyblog girl. If we can rally enough Parisians to report butterfly sightings on her website, we might be able to narrow down our search area.”
As Ladybug strategized, her nose scrunched up in a way Chat Noir couldn’t help but find adorable. He crouched down, smiling at his smart little bug as he gripped the pole with his claws. “Hawk Moth will be de-miracularized and behind bars in no time.”
Ladybug smiled back at Chat, but a thought caught at her mind. She swung her yoyo around the pole, fashioning it into a swing, and sat with her eyes fixed on the horizon.
Chat swung forward so that he hung upside down beside her and asked with concern, “What’s wrong?” He elbowed her playfully, hoping a joke might bring back that elusive smile. “Cat got your tongue?” But there was no smile, no laugh… not even an eye roll.
“No, I was just thinking…” Ladybug looked down at her yoyo. ”What will we do after he’s defeated?”
Chat dropped to the ground and stood up. “What do you mean?”
“When Hawk Moth is gone, there’ll be no more akumas to capture.” Her foot brushed back and forth against the ground anxiously. “Paris won’t really need us anymore.”
Chat had never considered this.
The thought of losing his newfound freedom was unnerving. The thought of losing Ladybug was even worse. Even if Paris didn’t need her, he did.
“Hey-” Chat lifted her chin gently, “Forget Paris. I happen to remember a certain set of hieroglyphics that prove the world has needed Ladybug for thousands of years.”
Ladybug raised an eyebrow curiously. “The world?”
“Yeah, doesn’t that sound great?” Chat squeezed himself next to Ladybug on the yoyo swing and wrapped an arm around her, much to her chagrin. “You and me: travelling the globe, defeating evil-” the corners of his mouth crept upward as if to warn Ladybug that he was about to say something cheeky, so she interrupted.
“You and me, huh?” She stood up and released her yoyo so that Chat fell on his tail. “And what if I decide to go solo, hmm?” She said with a hint of sass.
Chat was undeterred. “Then I’ll become a villain just so I can see you again.”
“Gag,” thought Ladybug, rolling her eyes. She could understand playful flirting, but Chat’s incessant romantic flattery was starting to bother her. Maybe she wouldn’t mind it as much if she thought it were genuine, but his coquettish behavior towards her civilian alter ego had proven otherwise. She took the banter a bit farther with a flair of dramatic indifference. “Eh, I think I’ll save my energy for bigger threats…”
Chat hopped up feistily and crossed his arms. “Okay, Spots, let’s go then! Right here, right now.”
Ladybug raised an eyebrow. “You’re joking right?”
“Not at all.” He held up his fists. “I’m one hundred purrr-cent serious.”
She considered the opportunity. “Alright then, but if I win, no more puns for the rest of the month.”
He pouted. “Harsh, but I’ll accept it. If I win, though, you have to laugh at my puns for the rest of the month.”
“Good thing I know I how to act,” Ladybug said. “Not that I’ll need to.”
“Because I’m hilarious?” Chat smiled.
She took her fighting stance, “Because I’m going to win!”
Ladybug charged forward, swinging her yoyo in Chat Noir’s direction. He dodged it by ducking swiftly, but then again, Ladybug hadn’t been aiming for him. As the yoyo wrapped around his silver baton, she tugged it forcefully, bringing both back in her direction. Chat swiped towards the gadget as it flew over his head but missed by a few inches. His partner waved it teasingly in the air. “You want the stick?” She tossed it off the roof behind her. “Go fetch!”
Chat squinted at her. “Uh…yeah, cat’s don’t do that.”
She shrugged “Suit yourself.”
“Just to be fair though-” Chat pounced towards her, a clawed hand reaching out to bat away the yoyo. Ladybug jolted backwards, leaving her leather-clad opponent once again swiping at nothing but air - and also falling into her. With a tumble she was down, the clumsy cat draped over her. Shoving against the ground, she flipped the two over and pinned Chat by his shoulders. “Give up yet, Kitty?” she smiled.
“Not a cha- ah- ah-” Circumstantially, one of Ladybug’s pigtails had brushed his nose in the tumbling. “CHOO!” Ladybug reeled back to avoid the sneeze, and Chat - rebounding from the reaction - pulled his legs in and kicked her off. “Pardonne-moi, mademoiselle!“
Ladybug leapt to her feet, calculating her next move.
“You’re going to pay for that!”
Chat Noir smirked, calculating his next pun.
“Oh darn, I don’t have any euros on me.”
For another half hour, they chased each other around the city, competitiveness ever growing as they tried to force one another to surrender without causing any significant pain. It was good training, they realized, considering the duo had to do the same with akumatized villains. But this battle seemed like it would never end. The two were so equally matched, so well-balanced, and so familiar that neither seemed able to hold the upper hand for long. That is, until Ladybug bent the rules a little.
“LUCKY CHARM!”
As Ladybug activated her power with a swing of her glowing yoyo, Chat Noir groaned and shouted, “Hey, c’mon! No powers!”
“Sorry, chaton!” she returned as a red and black fabric fell into her hands. “A sheet?” she muttered. “What can I do to him with this?”
Chat’s cheeks burned at the cheeky response that popped into his head. Behave yourself, Agreste! She is a lady!
Ladybug settled for waving the red sheet in a matador fashion “Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty! Come and get me!”
“You sure are terri-bull at understanding cats, milady.”
“And you’re terrible at understanding girls, Chat” she thought in response.
She disappeared down the side of the Eiffel Tower. Chat Noir paused before pursuing her, punching a fist into the air as he shouted,
“CATACLYSM!”
(I didn’t write this transition. Oops!)
He fell right into her cat-trap, the corners of the sheet wrapping around him and closing at the top as ladybug’s yoyo tightened around it. Chat kicked and clawed about inside but the material didn’t tear. “Game over, Chat!” Even from within the dark confines of the trap, Chat Noir could guarantee that Ladybug was just below him, hands on her hips and smiling smugly.
“Be careful milady. You just might let the cat out of the bag.”
“Huh?”
(He extends his baton, breaking open the trap, and falls on top of Ladybug. He somehow manages to roll her up in the sheet and is kneeling over her)
“Well, aren’t you snug as a bug in a rug?”
“Fine, you won. Good for you.”
“With that charm, my lady, one day you just might get lucky.”
Ladybug blushed uncomfortably. “Ugh, Chat stop.”
“Why?” He grinned and leaned closer to her face. “Am I bugging you, beautiful?” Something snapped in Ladybug then. By then she had freed one hand and used it to push Chat out of her face. “Seriously, can you quit it?” She squirmed out of the sheet and brushed herself off. “The puns are one thing, but do you have to be so obnoxiously flirty?”
“Woah, woah!” Chat held up his hands defensively, trying to reassure her. “Calm down. I was only-”
“Only what, alley cat?” Once she got started, it was hard for her to stop.
“I…uh…” Chat’s face burned with embarrassment, beads of sweat forming on the back of his neck.
She jabbed a finger at his chest. “Look, Chat. If you want to be an egotistical flirt with other girls, that’s fine by me, but I’m your partner. I’m not some mouse for you to chase, so just stop!”
A wave of dejection fell over his face, and Ladybug realized she’d gone too far.
“Oh. Um… I’m sorry, my la- uh Ladybug.” He rubbed at his arm. “I’ll leave you alone.” He took a few steps back before turning and running off.
Ladybug reached out her arm. “Chat, wait!”
He bounded way without so much as a glance back at her. Ladybug bit her lip anxiously. She had only been trying to stand up for herself - just like Alya taught her - but maybe in the heat of the moment… she had misjudged him. Ladybug pulled out the tracker on her yoyo.
She found Chat sitting on a bench beneath the Eiffel Tower. He was arched forward with his elbows on his knees and head resting on the heel of one hand. When she landed a few yards away from him, his black ears twitched and he closed his eyes with a sigh. Ladybug crept forward, wringing her hands nervously. “Chat? I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. I’m sorry.” He didn’t respond. Ladybug sat down beside him. “Really, uh- Eiffel Tower-bly about it.”
Chat opened his eyes in surprise and he finally looked over at Ladybug. She smiled apologetically at him and he gave in.
“I’m sorry too. I thought maybe…” he trailed off and shook his head. “Forget it.”
“Chat, please…” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “I misjudged you because… I don’t really know you. I need you to talk to me.”
Chat took a quick glance up at her eyes and seemed to find the reassurance he needed. He took a deep breath.
“Well, growing up, I was… pretty isolated. I was home-schooled for most of my life and I always felt this pressure to act and talk a certain way. I had no freedom… and no friends… until the day my miraculous showed up. All of a sudden, I had this freedom to be whoever I wanted to be, but I didn’t really know what to do with it. Like I said… I haven’t had much experience socializing – especially not with… girls – so I’ve been basing a lot of my behavior on… um, anime.”
“That actually explains a lot…”
“It seemed to work for Tamaki-
“Yeah, but Haruhi fell in love with Tamaki despite his flirty and over dramatic nature, not because of it! Was he even paying attention?”
“-so I thought I’d uh… try it on you.”
“Haha, well you clearly chose the wrong guinea pig!”
“What? No, Ladybug, you’re not a guinea pig. I… I love you.”
“Really?” “Chat, I had no idea you felt that way…”
“Well, now that the cat’s out of the bag… you don’t happen to have feelings for me too, do you?
“I uh-”
“And once again, curiosity killed the cat…”
“Chat, I just don’t think it would be a good idea to date when so much is on the line.” She pulled at one her pigtails nervously. “We have responsibilities and-”
“Ladybug, you don’t have to lie on my behalf.”
“I do like you, Chat. Really. I mean, maybe not when you’re imitating cartoon characters, but… beyond that, you’re smart, brave, selfless… you’ve sacrificed your safety for mine on more than one occasion! You’re the best partner I could ask for… but the thing is, I… I’m already in love with somebody else. And who knows if anything will come of it, but-” she bit her lip. “I can’t change the way I feel. I’m sorry, Chat.”
That’s it! Again, feel free to use ANY of this! And if you do, send me a message so I can check it out if I ever come back by Tumblr in the future :) BYE!!!
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