My Prince #9
Just for you, Nonny Non! I went with a Chat Blanc aftermath on the alternate timeline, so it turned out kinda sad, but ya knowwwwww the ending is kinda hopeful
Read on AO3
Chat gazed out over the city, now restored from its previous wreckage. Flashes of memories flooded his mind, reminding him that the battle wasn’t over yet. His father was still Hawkmoth. His mother was still sleeping. There was work to do.
His boots clanked against the sidewalk at the base of the Eiffel Tower, his transformation dropping a moment later, but he paced over to his father without hesitation. Hawkmoth and Ladybug were both still disoriented after being ash for so long, so he barely put up a fight as Adrien ripped the Miraculous from his shirt.
“Adrien…what-” Gabriel blinked, stumbling over as he attempted to crawl after him.
“It’s time for this to stop, Father,” he said, offering a hand to help Ladybug to her feet. “You’ve gone too far.”
“Adrien, I was only doing this for your mother! We can be together again-”
“Save it,” Adrien said, his voice clipped and cold. He hadn’t forgotten the careless way his father had attacked him. How he’d akumatized him without a second thought.
“Adrien, what happened?” Ladybug said, rubbing her head.
“You saved me,” he said, pulling her close. “Like always.”
“But-”
“How can you do this, Adrien?” Gabriel growled as police sirens grew closer. “How could you betray your own father? Sacrifice your mother? Our happiness!”
“You sacrificed our happiness when you chose to become a supervillain,” Adrien said. “You betrayed me.”
Gabriel’s face hardened in a way that used to scare Adrien when he was young, but the past few days had proved to Adrien just how little his father cared. What kind of parent would blackmail his son’s girlfriend into breaking up with him just so he could akumatize her? What kind of father would push his own son to the brink just so he could use him? A more naïve Adrien would have believed there was still good left in him, and a part of him still wanted to believe that there was. But there wasn’t, so he didn’t.
Adrien barely batted an eye as the police handcuffed his father and took him away. He told himself it’s what he deserved, but watching the cars pull away still made his stomach churn. If this was a nightmare, he was ready to wake up.
“Adrien,” Ladybug said, slipping her hand in his, and he ripped his gaze from the fading red and blue lights.
“Sorry. I just-”
“It’s okay.” She cut him off with a smile. “I’m here for you whatever you need.”
Adrien searched her expression, open and warm, a direct contrast to the steely indifference he was used to from his father. Ladybug had always been there for him with arms open. She proved that despite everything, there was still hope left for him, and they could be happy.
“Take me away somewhere, m’lady. Just us,” he whispered, and she wrapped an arm around his waist without hesitation.
The rooftop she picked was just as good as any other. Neither one really paid attention to where they were going. Ladybug just went. They swung for several blocks before touching down, and when Ladybug kept him close, he let her.
“It was Bunnix,” he said after a while. “She brought you – a past you – from before you and I knew. You saved me.”
Ladybug caressed his cheek with a gloved finger, and he leaned into her touch. The shock wore off, and she pulled him close as his shoulders shook.
“I’m so sorry, my prince,” she breathed, tears spilling over her mask.
She kissed him once, soft and meek, but Adrien didn’t want to think. He pulled her in for more, clinging tightly to the one solid foundation he had left. His father was Hawkmoth. His mother was likely dead. Everything in his world was crumbling down, but Ladybug didn’t run from the wreckage. She wasn’t afraid of being crushed. Like always, he was her top priority, and she’d stay until the last brick fell then help him rebuild the pieces. She would always be his partner.
One day this would all be a painful memory, but for now, he sat on a roof, tangled in her embrace, tongue moving in time with her own. She was safe. She was his. She was home.
