The finale is here! Thanks for everyone for being so patient, I’ve been a...a really bad funk, but I’m getting better. I hope you enjoy the ending of the Liar vs. Liar series!
Liar vs. Liar: 1 2 3 Fluff 3 Angst
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~
“Life is unpredictable,
It changes with the seasons,
Even your coldest winter,
Happens for the best of reasons,
And though it feels eternal,
Like all you’ll ever do is freeze,
I promise spring is coming,
And with it, brand new leaves.” ~e. h
------
White, there was so much white. It surrounded them, the pair curled up together underneath the weakening umbrella, blanket staving off the nipping coldness. Odd white things fluttered down from the sky, caressing her home in in a sea of cold, encasing it. What was all this? Why was it so cold?
“Mama, what is this?” She questions, gazing back to her mother as they curled up on her balcony’s lawn chair. Her mama decided to come up here but she didn’t know why, it was too cold in her opinion.
Her mama hums softly, carefully tucking her cream scarf more snuggly about her, “This is snow, my little love, it means Winter is here.” The clouds were thick above Paris, almost darkening the city if it weren’t for all the lights all around. “A lot of plants and animals sleep during winter, so the snow tells them it’s time for bed.”
Marinette nods, reaching out a hand to catch a snowflake, cradling it gently as she inspected it. “It’s so little.”
“It is, but even small things can be dangerous. But the cold won’t last forever, spring will always come.”
“It will?”
Her mother nodded sagely, her expression gentling, “All the love and happiness we build up over Winter, from being together with family and friends, it warms up the world and Spring comes. Love is a very strong thing, my little love, it can warm a frozen heart.”
~
Cold brought her back to the moment, away from that distant memory of her first memory of cold, a gasp escaping her as a cool, gloved finger brushed away a tear from her cheek, icy eyes gazing down to her. “Adrien….”
“What are you doing here?” His voice was gruff, angry still from the earlier confrontation, eyes narrowed in at her, yet his fingers gently moved to cradle her cheek; the cold may have shocked her earlier, but she leant into the touch now, tears gathering in her eyes. “You weren’t supposed to be out here.” He didn’t draw away his hand. Didn’t seem to want to.
“I came looking for you,” She admitted, gazing up to him, her heart aching for him. ‘I hurt him, I never meant to. Damn you Hawkmoth, you deserve the coldest parts of Hell.’
As if coming back to himself, he drew back away, stalking away from her with a low growl, “Why? You don’t want to deal with me,” his expression twisted in pain at the flicker of a purple mask, but waved away the voice to glower down to her, “deal with a liar.”
“Adrien-”
“Frost. Prince.” He snarled, crowding her back against the wall, “I am Frost Prince. Adrien is gone. Remember that, little lady.”
He frowns, taking in her trembling form. It wasn’t from fear, as he somewhat hoped. She wore no coat, had no weapons. She was cold. ‘Hurt her, she hurt you,’ A voice whispered in his ear, ‘Nothing but a problem in the scheme of things, she is the cause of this. Freeze her now, Frost Prince.’ God, he wanted to run her through with his blade, watch that familiar warmth seep away from her as she was frozen solid.
But…But another part wanted to guard her still, guard his princess. Protect that look in her eyes.
He turns his face from her, needing to break the eye contact, “Tch.” He lifted her, ignoring her squeak as he jumped up to a building before taking off for the Eiffel tower, eyes set on the glimmering structure.
Marinette gasps, tightening her arms around his neck, his skin freezing but no less comforting to her; what was she going to do now? Oh Kwami, Tikki was probably going nuts.
He set her down on a viewing platform, adjusting his sword on his hip, movements jerky, as if uncomfortable, “Stay here, I better not see you gone.” He couldn’t gaze into those enrapturing sapphires, he’d be held under her spell like he had been before, when he was weaker.
“You’re going to try and find her…aren’t you?” It may have come out as a question but she knew damn well who he was going to hunt for, her hand reaching out to his coat, most of his armor having fallen off earlier during their battle. “Adrien, please,” if she could maybe talk sense into him, her kitty, “please you don’t need to do this, this isn’t you.”
He jerks out of her hold, turning on her in a flash, an icy blade close to kissing her neck, eyes wild even as he attempted to hold the illusion of control, “Do not,” his gaze burned into her own, both trying so desperately not to react to the others’ expression, “Do not touch me.”
Defiant as ever, she took a step forward, closer to the feel of cool metal frosting over her skin, “Threatening me now?” Chin raised in challenge, getting that determined glint in her eyes.
He snarls at her, closing the distance between them, “Promising you. The moment I shatter that Liar’s entire being, right in front of you,” he towered over her, eyes narrowing upon her, “I will pierce that heart of yours and watch you become your own version of Sleeping Beauty, in your kingdom of ice.” His gloved fingers grasped her chin, gaze stilling the breath in her lungs, “You’ll freeze for me. You’ll feel the chilling loneliness I did the moment I knew you were gone.”
She didn’t hear him leave, only her shaky gasp, hand trembling against her chest. She needed to calm down, she needed to think, maybe Tikki had some-wait! Tikki!
Marinette reached down, meaning to pull her purse clasps open but nothing but air met her hands. Great, great, she was a bug without her kwami. That’s fine, perfectly fine, not like they needed to purify the akuma or battle Adrien or anything. Nope, not like they needed to do |that|.
“Fuck.”
‘Think Marinette, think. You know Adrien, and you know Chat Noir, now just…merge them. What would their akumatized item be.’ The least she could do is maybe find a way down and search for her purse? If she did and knew what the item was, it would mean an easier battle. ‘He had his armor before, but most of that has shed by now, maybe because he less need for armor without people trying to fight him? Or I knocked it off…. No more helm, all he has is his sword which would make sense. Alya with her phone, Nino with his bubbles, both were the weapons. But I couldn’t break that with my Yoyo and I don’t have Chat’s cataclysm to destroy it.’
This wasn’t her sweet kitten, this wasn’t the boy who made her a bracelet or ran around Paris with her so he could watch a movie. That boy tried and did good, saw good in others, never made her feel bad for being a nervous Nessy around him.
‘I’ll bring you back, Chaton.’
“Let me go! Let me go! Help! Someone stop him! I didn’t do anything wrong!”
Whipping around, she found the sight of Lila dropped onto the frigid metal, Frost Prince just behind her as he callously smirks down to her trembling form. The smirk the same as the one in the classroom before she was revealed.
“Oh but you did, you caused us pain and suffering all for your precious little ego.” Like a cat with a rat, he circles her, cutting off her exit points any time she hoped to escape, “Now I can show my dear Princess your punishment.” He growls, aiming his sword at her before a icicle sliced through her jacket, driving her back to a metal beam. “And you can’t do a damn thing about it.”
“Adrien!” Marinette darted forward, freezing as the sword aimed towards her, his gaze freezing her in place. “Stop this, this isn’t what needs to happen. She got caught, you set that up so she would, b-but,” She tightened her fists, attempting to still the shaking, “but this is between us. Y-You got akumatize because of me, because of my words. Not because of her.”
Scoffing, he turns his dispassionate gaze towards the trembling teen, watched her try and jerk herself out of the hold of the ice. “It’s all because of her. She’s the reason you left me, she’s the reason we were made to be outcasts, as if we did anything WRONG.” Smirk returning, he gazed over his shoulder back to Marinette, “And now she’ll freeze and break for me, break into nothing.” He sauntered his way to the crying girl, grinning as his sword glistened with power, “She deserves that much for hurting you.”
“No!”
He expected an attack, expected to feel a yoyo or a random object to crash against him.
Instead he felt her warmth.
“Please! Adrien, don’t do this, this isn’t you.” The arms around his waist were a shock to the system, warmth nearly overwhelming him. “P-Please, come back to me.”
He could feel the tracks of tears slip down his face, glaring at the target before him, the trembling Liar so utterly close, “Why should I? She did this, she deserves this, deserves to break like the piece of cheap plastic she is.” His sword felt right in his hands, felt good. ‘Strike her through. Strike her through. Break her heart. Shatter her when she becomes ice.’
Her hands clenched at the attire he wore, some small part of him worrying over her pale hands on his icy clothing, “Because the one I love wouldn’t do this. This is wrong and I’m, I’m so sorry.”
‘She’ll freeze her fingers.’
“I love you, I’ve loved you since you gave me that umbrella, since you reached out to me as a friend.”
‘Her tears will hurt her cheeks.’
“You’re an amazing and kind person, you aren’t this. You’re not what Hawkmoth wants you to think! He’s twisting you into something you’re not, you’re not evil, you never have been. P-Please, I could never hate you,”
‘Silence her! Frost Prince, freeze them both and find me the Miraculous!’
“I love you.” She sobbed against his back, her arms only tightening around him.
‘No!’
When ice gets into contact with warmth, the first sound you’ll ever hear are distinct little cracks in their being, fractions seen all along the surface. Such was the case with a frozen heart.
His body hunched over, trembling sobs escaping him as he held her hands around him, his skin fracturing, white lines snaking all over, his heart warming once more, “I love you too.”
His sword broke of its own accord, Adrien returning once more as a delicate white butterfly flutters away. She turns him then, cradling his face gently before drawing him back to her, clutching her precious kitten close.
~
“So you know I’m-”
“I do.”
“And you’re-”
“Yep.”
“Well,” he sighs, hanging his head, body resting against the railing of her balcony, “we’re blind.”
Marinette hums softly, her body leaning against his. Comforting. Warm. Loving. “I wouldn’t say that, Plagg and Tikki said it was all due to the magic of the Miraculous.” She was silent for a moment or two, gazing out to the city returned back to its warmer weather, with not a lick of ice anywhere except for Andre’s cart, “How are you feeling?”
His leather ears would’ve been pressed to his hair were he transformed, but instead he curled a bit more into himself, just not enough to shy away from the contact they had, “Lousy. I’m…fuck,” he turns to her, “I’m sorry. I, my mom taught me this…habit and it’s something I try not to do on those I love and care for. You…I never wanted to lie to you unless necessary, but, but I should’ve talked to you, about the Lila thing. I just didn’t want you to think I’m like her, with the whole lying thing.”
“Chaton…,” Hand cradling his cheek, his face instinctually leaning into the touch, her expression softens with the love so evident in her eyes, “I’m sorry I made you feel as if I hated you. I could never hate you, I was just hurt from everything, overwhelmed. I just needed some time. I was planning to talk with you come Monday but twelve hours later is fine too.” Her smile was teasing, coaxing one from him as well.
“It’s at least Saturday, it’s okay to be up at two in the morning,” he half jokes, pressing a kiss to her palm. “Come on, I’ve been dying to curl up with you and know you’re safe.”
Marinette let herself be led down to her bed, smiling as she found herself gazing into gentle green eyes. They would need to talk more about their roles as superheroes, what would need to be done at school, but for now…for now they could simply enjoy each other’s’ company.
As their foreheads pressed, hands clasped together, she knew they would be okay.
After all, the power of love was always so strong.
~
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