This was originally written for PRPR March but I missed like all of my deadlines... So I hope you enjoy it.
Summary:
The storm hit at just the worst time, and now they were stuck on the other side of Paris, in an abandoned building, with only each other for company, and oh yeah, she hated him. Great.
The (not so) Perfect Storm
Perfect, just perfect.
Ladybug stared out of the broken window of an abandoned building and watched the rainfall. It was getting worse; he could just tell without even looking for long. And it probably wasn’t going to let up any time soon. So here he was, stuck with Ladybug, watching the rain.
“I can’t believe Hawkmoth had to just send an Akuma out who chose running away as the best tactic,” Ladybug said.
“Yeah, he’s just the worst,” Chat Noir added glumly.
He wasn’t exactly overjoyed at having to spend the extra time with Ladybug, with Marinette. They’d accidentally stumbled upon each other’s identities in the changing rooms at school, and whilst Marinette was probably the best person he could think of pulling off Ladybug, she clearly didn’t share that opinion of him being Chat Noir.
“I-I’m going to slow to glass, go to pass, class! Bye!” she had said before she ran out of the room. He hadn’t even been able to say anything to her.
He still hadn’t.
Who was he kidding though? She’d barely said two words to him all year anyway and even when she did it was only when it was necessary for her duties as class president. And with their revelation, her avoidance of him increased tenfold. Clearly, she hated that he was Chat Noir. He’d never get a chance to talk to her without it bearing bad news. Best to avoid it and keep at least a peaceful work relationship then.
He rubbed his arms at the chill from the windows and looked around to see if there was some way he could stop the cold from reaching them. He spotted the curtain tied back and went to pull it over at least part of the window.
And great, it had holes in it to match the window, yay!
Ladybug helped him adjust it so that it got as much of the window covered as they could though. It surprised him that she helped even that much, though he guessed as they had worked together all day fighting the Akuma she still felt like being a team.
Oh no, did she even still want him? She hadn’t said otherwise, but maybe she was trying to find a way to break it to him gently. Maybe this storm is the perfect situation to break the news to him and then she’ll take his miraculous and leave him stranded in the cold on the other side of Paris. He’d have to call Natalie and get Gorilla to pick him up and then he’d have to explain why he was all the way on the other side of the city and at the site of the Akuma. That might expose his identity. But by then it wouldn’t be his anymore.
Ladybug wasn’t talking, she’d gone to the other side of the room.
What if she just left him? She could just up and go, grab his miraculous and run. No, he’d put up a fight. For Plagg. He turned and faced the window, determined not to let her get his miraculous. His other hand covered the ring. It wouldn’t be easy for her to take it, sure. But she was the guardian, maybe she had special guardian powers, like that time Master Fu took it from him in his sleep.
She would warn him first though, right? Ladybug always gave a chance to the Akuma, she’d do the same for him, right? Even if it was to hand it over willingly, right?
A hand was on his shoulder. A hand. Ladybug. No.
He jerked his shoulder away from the touch and raised his arms ready to defend himself.
“Chat?”
He blinked, and Ladybug’s hand was in front of him, still outstretched to where his shoulder would have been. He stepped back and dared to look at her face.
She was… confused? Why was she confused? Surely, she’d expect him to defend himself, protect his miraculous.
“Chat, is everything alright?” She took a step towards him. Her face told him she was worried about him. His back hit the curtain as he took another step away from her.
This was all that she needed, and she took another step towards him. His back pressed even further against the curtain; he could feel the cool wind coming through its holes. Move your hands, Adrien! Call for cataclysm, something, anything, stop her! He didn’t move, he couldn’t move. Her hands chased him.
He squeezed his eyes shut and apologised to Plagg in his head.
Cold. Cold face? Her hands were on his face.
He blinked his eyes open and stared at Ladybug’s eyes as they moved frantically across his face. She hadn’t reached for his miraculous. Her cold hands were cupping his face, her thumb wiping a wetness over his mask, just trailing to the edges of his cheek.
“Adrien,” she said. A frown decorated her lips.
“Please, don’t take Plagg away from me,” he interrupted. Maybe she’d take pity. As if his word had any say in the matter. Stupid.
“Plagg? What Chat, why would I take Plagg from you?” Ladybug dropped her hands from his face.
“Why wouldn’t you?” he mumbled. He knew she would.
“No, Chat, no. Plagg is yours unless you’re siding with Hawkmoth,” she paused, her nose scrunching up in confusion. “You’re not siding with-“
“No! No, I’m not, never, my lady,” he rushed out, his hands automatically coming up to grab hers and assure her of his sincerity. He would never. Her hands squeezed his fingers. He dropped them in shock. He hadn’t meant to hold them, that’s far too close to his miraculous. Control yourself, Agreste.
“Then you don’t have anything to worry about, chaton.”
He has plenty to worry about, thank you very much. Marinette hadn’t spoken a word to him in days, Marinette didn’t like him, and the girl in front of him was Marinette. As if hearing his thoughts, Ladybug dropped her transformation.
“Hey kitty, look at me,” Marinette said. This time she didn’t try to step closer to him.
He looked up, regardless of how scared he was, he wasn’t about to disobey a simple command. She was crying, and it registered that he was crying too.
“I don’t know what is going on right now. Kitty, I’m sorry for whatever I have done or not done or said that’s hurting you but let me tell you one thing. Plagg is yours, and you are my Chat Noir, the only Chat Noir I will ever want.”
He wanted to believe her, he really did. He wanted to be Chat Noir, and keep Plagg, and keep fighting Hawkmoth. He wanted the tears in her eyes to go away, to be able to hold her like he used to after a tough battle. But she was Marinette right now, and as much as he could probably convince himself to hug Ladybug, this was the most Marinette had spoken to him in days, and he just couldn’t do that without her permission. To get that permission he needed to talk.
“Ladybug- Marinette, I don’t-“ he sniffed, stared at the ground, wrang his hands out in front of him. “This week has been the hardest week of my life. And you were you, and that’s amazing, you’re amazing. Every day I woke up thinking, today’s the day, she’ll talk to me, and we’ll be back to how things were before, best friends, fighting crime, side by side. Except you didn’t, and I didn’t know what to do. It felt like you hated me, hated that I was Adrien. I hated that I was Adrien.” His hands shook the more he spoke. “I just- I may be Chat Noir but I need to know, do you hate that I’m me?”
He was scared to look up, maybe she’d decide he wasn’t worth the mess he was. Tears flowed down his face and snot-filled his nose and his shoulders shook.
“No! Adrien, no, absolutely not,” She exclaimed immediately.
He looked up. She was crying almost as much as he was.
“I don’t hate you, I could never hate you. Adrien-“
Her body moved forward, one hand stretching out towards him. His hand stretched out automatically and grasped hers. Her other hand came up and pointlessly wiped away tears from her face, only to be replaced with more as she continued.
“- I am so sorry. This is all my fault. If I had just been honest with my own feelings. Adrien, you are so much more than I could ever be, I thought you would hate me, so I ran. I was selfish, I didn’t even consider how that would affect you, and I promise never to cut you off again. I am so sorry.”
The curtain smacked into his back with a gust of wind.
That was it, his body moved forward of its own accord. His arms circled her body and pulled her to him in a hug he had so desperately missed. She shook in his hold, and he could feel her tears against his neck as she burrowed into him.
“I could never hate you, my lady,” he mumbled into her hair. Even when he thought she was going to take everything from him, he couldn’t hate her. “You are the only person who I would want to be Ladybug.”
“And you are the only one who I could want to be my partner.”
…
In the end, being stuck on the other side of Paris in the middle of a storm gained him his partner back. Despite the cold and the wet, both outside and on their faces, this storm was perfect. He’d have to thank Hawkmoth later.
@wolfstarmicrofic July 27 - prompt 27: Fix-It [word count 851]
In the end it hadn’t been love. It hadn’t been James’s voice, strained from the war but still asking him how he was. It hadn’t been his mother cooking his favourite meals each time he visited her. It hadn’t been Lily’s smile, tired but still there despite all. In the end it had been an argument. And not even the logical one, between his fear and his conscience, but one he had eavesdropped on late one night, scurrying in the shadows on the streets after two who still called him friend.
Even the Dark Lord didn’t really trust werewolves and he especially didn’t trust Black renegades, so he had ordered Peter to follow them. At first they had only walked, not even holding hands as he was so used to seeing them do back in Hogwarts. Then, as they were crossing an empty park, Sirius stopped.
“Please tell me it’s not you,” he blurted out.
“What?” Remus turned around frowning.
Peter had stopped in a flowerbed nearby, half-burying his rat frame under the most scented flower there. He knew Remus retained some of the wolf’s nose even in human form. But even from there he could see Sirius’s pleading look in the lamppost lights. For the first time in months, he felt sorry for him.
“Please, Moony. Please tell me it’s not you.”
Remus’s eyes widened.
“You think I’m the spy?”
“You’re away most of the time… With Greyback’s pack.”
“Yes. On Dumbledore’s orders,” Remus’s voice was cold.
“You don’t even look at me anymore!” Sirius shouted. “You don’t touch me, or kiss me, we haven’t fucked in Merlin knows how long!”
“And you can’t stop talking about your family!” Remus shouted back. “Since the beginning of the war it’s been about what have your parents been up to, or your brother-”
“Don’t talk about Regulus.”
Peter buried himself further under the flower. Like Sirius, he only knew Regulus was missing and presumed dead. But what he knew and Sirius didn’t was the fit the Dark Lord had thrown when the Black heir had disappeared without a trace.
“Or even your bloody cousins you’ve hated your whole life!” Remus went on. “You went from ignoring their existence to talk about them every single day!”
“Wait… You think I’m the spy?”
There was a moment of silence, each of them staring at the other.
“I left my family! I ran away because they would’ve killed me!” Sirius was screaming now. “I spent my whole life distancing myself from their beliefs!”
“And I spent mine making sure the people I love knew I’m not a monster!”
“You really think I would betray everything I have, everyone I love to go back to my awful family and the wrong side of the war?!”
“You think I would join a pack of werewolves who are at that side’s beck and call?!”
They were panting when they stopped screaming, and Peter could see tears glisten in Remus’s eyes. Sirius was openly crying by now, his sniffles the only sound in the whole park.
“I’m sorry,” they chorused.
“I know the missions are taking a toll on you, I’m so sorry, Moony, I…”
“And I know there’s no way you would fall back with your family, I’m sorry, Pads…”
“None of us is the spy,” Sirius took Remus’s hand in his. “It’s this bloody war.”
“We’re exhausted and on edge,” Remus nodded, getting closer to Sirius. “None of us is the spy, it’s as ridiculous as if we were to think Prongs or Pete were.”
Peter’s whiskers twitched.
“I love you, Remus Lupin.”
“And I love you, Sirius,” Remus smiled. “And as soon as this war ends I’m marrying you so you will never have to use that surname anymore.”
They were still kissing when Peter scurried away, his tiny heart beating faster, his mind wondering if rats could cry.
So in the end it had been an argument. It might have been love as well, to be fair. Not that it mattered now, as he was facing Voldemort himself, doing his best not to tremble.
“The McKinnons, Wormtail,” Voldemort said slowly. “I want them dead. All of them. Starting with Marlene McKinnon.”
Peter couldn’t stop a shiver running down his spine at the order and the use of his nickname. Wormtail was the brave little soul doing his best to help a friend in need every full moon. Wormtail would live on in the Marauders’ Map they had left in Hogwarts on their last day. Wormtail would never have done what Peter had done. Wormtail would never do what was being asked of him. He took a deep breath.
“No.”
Voldemort narrowed his eyes.
“What did you say?”
“You heard me. You will never win this, and it’s high time I got out before I can’t turn back.”
How fitting his last words were the only time he felt as brave as James. As he slowly fell on the floor, the reflection of a bright green light in his eyes, his last thought was for him.
Please, never let Prongs find out what I almost did.
