What happens when the ladybug’s chaton runs out of lives to live; but Ladybug isn’t ready to give him up yet.
Chapter 1 tumblr/ FF
Chapter 2 on FF
Thanks for looking it over @xhookswenchx!
Chapter 2 : The Gamble
When the butterfly stopped she found herself in what she'd probably have thought to be an abandoned building if it were not so clean. A large window let a cold light into the room and Papillon was waiting for her. She stiffened at the sight of him, trying to ignore the voice in her head telling her to run, the one that sounded too much like him.
"Did you bring his miraculous?"
"Tell me how it works," she asked suspiciously.
"We turn back the clock, using the power of that ring we can-"
"How do I know you won't kill him again, when he is without his powers?"
"You don't."
"It is your fault that he is- and you expect me just to trust you?"
For a moment she thought he might attack her and her muscles tensed to defend herself, then there was a flash of light, and Papillon melted away leaving behind-
"M- Mr. Agreste?" For a split second she forgot why she was there, forgot about Chat, her jaw dropped and she simply stared at her childhood idol… at Adrien's father.
She stiffened.
"Your own…" she stammered, very quietly, rage making her voice shake. "You killed your own-"
"I didn't know," Gabriel interrupted, his voice suddenly thick with emotion and all too human. "I didn't-"
"And that's supposed to make it okay? We've been fighting you, he's been fighting you for years and you never knew? Of course you never knew," she said bitterly, "Adrien could have sprouted a second head and you only would have noticed when he didn't fit into your new line of dress shirts."
"Ladybug, please," Gabriel cried, "his miraculous. I can bring him back, you just need to give me his-"
"So that's it? I give you the miraculous and he comes back to me, we go back to fighting you but this time I don't let you kill him?"
Gabriel winced. "It is not quite that simple. This sacrifice will allow me to turn back the clock, but it's not just his miraculous you must give up. You must give up Chat Noir entirely. Adrien's memories of Chat Noir will be taken and you cannot allow them to return. "
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"If he remembers his life as Chat Noir, you risk undoing the magic that has saved him."
Marinette's heart sank, How was she supposed to do this without her partner?
But if she refused… she lost him anyway.
"Why are you doing this?" Marinette asked. "Why are you attacking Paris, attacking us! Your son loves you, in spite of everything. Is your heart so full of darkness that-"
"There's no time for this Ladybug. Every moment we spend here this becomes harder to reverse. Very much longer and it will take both your miraculous and his to turn back the clock. If you wish to save him, for both of our sakes… give me the ring."
Her hand shook when she held out his ring, but if there was a chance, any chance at all-
Everything went black.
When she opened her eyes she was back inside her own apartment in her own bedroom and a wave of mingled relief and fear washed over her. Then she ran, nearly slamming into a wall in her haste to get to- here. She hesitated at the door, afraid to open it and see him- She summoned all her courage and pushed open the door.
Adrien was laying on the couch still and her heart sank through the floor.
"Adrien- no-"
"What is it now?" he replied, sitting up.
She gaped, then threw herself across the room and into his arms, tears pricking at her eyes as she fought to keep them from falling. He stiffened and pulled away.
"The hell are you doing Marinette?"
She pulled away confused, but she couldn't remove the smile from her face, however hard she tried. It was just so good to see him.
Sirens wailed past her window and her eyes flicked towards the door. She was back. Back before the fight that had taken him from her. This was the last moment she had seen Adrien, before he became Chat and- But this time she was on her own, no Chat Noir. This time he would be safe.
"I... I have to go, we'll talk later?"
Adrien rolled his eyes, and a bitter chuckle twisted his face. "Sure we will."
"Adrien, I'm sorry," the sirens grew louder. She had to go, she was needed, Ladybug was needed. "I just have-"
"Last minute fabric sale? Emergency at the bakery?" He scoffed and stood up, "Doesn't matter Marinette, I've got a shoot in 15 anyway." He grabbed a messenger bag from next to the couch and was out the door before she could say another word.
"What's going on Tikki?" she sighed.
"Everything's changed, Marinette," Tikki replied, "but you're still Ladybug."
"You're right, Tikki. Spots on"
By the time the magic of her lucky charm faded, she wanted nothing more than to collapse on the spot and sleep. She'd a deep gash on her stomach where she'd only just managed to dodge the blow that had taken Chat from her the last time. Even knowing it was coming, it was almost too fast.
Everything took three times as long without Chat… God, she missed him. She missed his stupid cat puns and blatant flirtations. She missed having someone to watch her back and support her plans no matter how ridiculous they seemed at first. She missed their celebrations as the butterfly flitted away. She missed spending their last few minutes before they de-transformed watching the sunset over the roofline of Paris. It all seemed so silly now. So many beautiful moments cut short so she could hide from him something he already knew.
She missed her best friend.
The sun was setting when she got back to the apartment and for the first time in years the sight of a light inside brought foreboding rather than comfort. It never occurred to her that how well she and Adrien fit might be lost without Chat. Adrien no longer understood when she disappeared constantly, her excuses rang hollow and she'd seen the pain in his eyes from so many years of being lied to and abandoned mid-conversation. After so many years of being ignored in his family home... they'd created a new home in which he was just as neglected. It tore Marinette's heart to shreds.
What could she say? How could she fix what he could no longer understand?
She put a jacket on over her blouse to block the sight of now partially dried blood and pushed open the door to the apartment.
"Adrien?"
"Here," a tired voice called back. She followed the voice into the kitchen where Adrien stood at the counter.
"How was your shoot?"
He glanced up in surprise before responding. "Strange, actually. My father showed up."
Marinette stiffened, "what did he do?"
"Nothing. Just showed up, stayed for a few minutes and then left. Probably sizing me up for his latest designs."
She wanted to tell him. Everything. She wanted to tell him about Ladybug, and his father and the life he once shared with her, but his father's words echoed in her head. If she told him, she could lose him again. She couldn't lose him again.
"I'm really sorry about earlier."
"Please don't lie to me Marinette," his eyes fell and his face took on the resigned look of someone who'd had this conversation too many times before.
"I am though, sorry. Can we just… start over. I mean not over over. I don't miss tripping over my words and acting like an idiot whenever you look at me and-" she giggled nervously and for the first time since she'd met this new Adrien… he smiled.
"I miss you, Marinette."
"I missed you too. Adrien, I missed you so much."
"Then why? You're a terrible liar, Mari, and yet every day. Every day you lie to me, disappear, make up stupid stories that neither one of us believe. Is it-" he looked down, "Have you... found someone else?"
Her jaw dropped and she shook her head vehemently "No, Adrien there is no one else. I know... I'm kind of flaky but there is no one else for me, you have to believe that."
"I just wanted you to trust me-"
"I do trust you-"
"Then stop lying to me."
"I… I can't."
He opened his mouth to retort and then closed it, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "You're… you're actually telling me the truth this time aren't you?" She just nodded.
"Are you in danger, Mari?" she hesitated and her hand must have flinched towards her stomach because he looked down and his eyes widened. "Marinette, are you hurt?" She glanced down too, realizing too late the haphazard bandaging she'd done had allowed a small line of blood to seep through her jacket.
His gaze grew darker, and for just a moment she swore she saw Chat in his eyes. "Who did this?"
"I'm just a klutz, you know that." The lie came easily, but she winced at the result. It was like watching a wall come back up over his eyes. He nodded gloomily and headed towards the bathroom to where they kept a rather extensive first aid kit.
Most of the time their injuries were healed by the magic of her lucky charm but she'd learned long ago that some injuries remained. She thought it had something to do with how they were inflicted. Injuries received directly from the akuma's magic would vanish without a trace but damage caused by non-magical weapons seemed to linger.
It's probably why Chat hadn't- she shook her head as Adrien dumped their kit onto the table.
"Can I at least see it?"
She unzipped her sweater and gingerly pulled up the bottom of her blouse revealing the gash. He winced and reached for the gauze, dabbing away the blood gently. He patched it up quickly and Marinette watched in fascination. This Adrien had no reason to be such an expert on caring for wounds and here he was, patching her up as though he'd done it a hundred times. Had he? Had this version of Adrien often been exposed to her inexplicable wounds or was this something else… Muscle memory from cleaning up one too many of his own?
"I hate this, Marinette," he interrupted her train of thought. "I hate the lying and the running off and the awful stories you make up but this... I hate this most of all." He packed up the first aid kit and left the room before Marinette could bring herself to make up another story.
The akumas continued to come, apparently Adrien's father still wanted Ladybug's miraculous for some purpose but what could she do? She could hardly just walk into his mansion and announce that he must stop. If Marinette did such a thing she would not be believed. If Ladybug tried he'd simply send more akumas after her to keep her too busy to spill his secret.
So she continued to fight each one, hoping that one day he would realize that stealing her miraculous was not worth whatever he hoped to gain from it. But without her partner each fight only left her exhausted and occasionally wounded. She tried to keep it from Adrien but he always seemed to notice. He never asked anymore. Until the day she didn't come home at all.
An akuma with the power to create earthquakes had caused tremors all over town. Even managed to bring down several buildings with his fury. Ladybug had cleared the area so there were few injuries so far but then she disappeared.
Paris did not panic until the tremors had continued for a few hours and still no sign of their heroine. The damage to homes and shops, the injuries from car accidents and falling debris spanned the entire city and Ladybug had not even bothered to show up?
The Ladyblog was in an uproar, spinning wild rumors of Ladybug vacationing in London to fight the spread of Akuma's there, but in his heart Adrien knew that was no more than grasping at straws. He missed two photo shoots joining the rescue parties, both dreading and desperately hoping to find Marinette among the injured but night fell and Marinette did not return and Ladybug did not show.
It would explain so much, a voice whispered in the back of his mind. The lies, the sudden disappearances, the injuries that she could never explain. Or she's just left you for good this time, mate.
He couldn't sleep so instead he waited up, parsing his way through the Ladyblog.
During the anti-bug affair there's been an emergency at the bakery; The vanisher... that day had been a deadline for a design competition that he knew for a fact did not exist. Pixelator... she'd told him Alya needed her, but judging from the content of the blog Alya had had no crisis that day. On and on. Every time Paris was attacked, Marinette would vanish and how… how had he not seen this before?
He closed out of the Ladyblog and leaned back in his chair. Was it possible? Was it possible that this is what she was hiding all along? And if so… what kind of mess had she gotten herself into now? He pulled out his phone and called Alya.
"Did she come home?" was asked in lieu of a hello.
"Not yet."
"Adrien I'm so sorry. I know we'll find her-"
"Alya I need your help."
"Anything."
"I need to know exactly where Ladybug was last seen."
There was a pause and then Alya spoke, "OOOOHHH, of course. If we find Ladybug she can help us to find Marinette. Of course."
"Something like that."
"It's near where the first building went down. We all thought she was going to face this trembler guy but I lost sight of her and she never showed. I'll text you the address. Want me to meet you there?"
"No, just send me the address. It's just a hunch, I'll tell you if I find anything."
The taxi dropped him off a couple blocks from his intended address, unwilling to go further. The whole area was nearly vacant due to the series of aftershocks that regularly rocked the streets.
"Mari?" he called, tentatively at first, then louder. "Marinette?"
He weaved through the collapsed rubble, dodging the occasional falling plaster or stonework, calling her name until suddenly…His ears strained to pick out her direction but it was so quiet so-
"Adrien?"
"Marinette! Where are you?"
"Here, Adrien how- Never mind how, I'm here!"
He followed the sound of her voice until he came to a pile of rubble in what had once been a corner of a room. He began to pull it away desperately when another rumble shifted the earth.
"GET BACK ADRIEN," Marinette cried. "It's too unstable for that. I just need… Listen, I know this is going to sound crazy but I just need something to eat. Do you have … cookies or something?"
"Cookies?"
"Please, Adrien, just trust me."
He dug around in his bag, finally finding a pastry that someone had offered him earlier while he was with the search party.
"Yeah, but how-"
"Just pass it through. Don't touch anything or this whole pile might- Just be careful, okay?"
He did, pushing it through the cracks in the pile of debris until he heard Mari cry out "Yes, got it! Okay I need you to move away."
"Mari-"
"Just um… go get help, okay?"
He hadn't managed more than a few steps when he heart the rumble of shifting rubble and he let out a cry of despair. He turned and watched in horror as the rubble collapsed in on itself. He looked up and saw Ladybug swinging from a portion of the roof that still stood. Mixed relief and horror surged through him. What if he was wrong, what if-
Ladybug dropped in front of him "Ah, um, Marinette and I were trapped together and I'll just go ahead and take her home-"
"Trapped together," his heart sank as he processed the words. I was wrong. "Oh god, Marinette," he sprinted past Ladybug, or tried to, but Ladybug reached out and grabbed him, holding him back from the unstable rubble.
"Marinette is fine," Ladybug said, laughing awkwardly. "I put her up on the roof, I can take you to her just-"
"There's no roof left!" Adrien spat. "MARI!"
Ladybug didn't release him, "Adrien you can't go over there, it's too unstable. I will get Mari out and bring her to you, you just have to trust me." He stopped trying to pull past her and looked at her, really looked at her. A red flush crept across her cheeks as she looked into his eyes and and it was all the confirmation he needed.
He stopped trying to pull away and hugged her tightly. "Mari..."
"Adrien I-"
"Stop. Just stop, no more lies."
He felt her nod slightly and she murmured 'spots off' under her breath. There was a flash of light and Ladybug was gone, leaving Marinette in his arms and God, it was true.
"Why didn't you just trust me? I wouldn't have told anyone your secret-"
"I do trust you Adrien, I'm only trying to keep you safe."
"And who keeps you safe?"
"There was someone, once. But he's… he's gone now."
AN: All those notes and almost nobody comes to say hi!? Oh well, here's chapter two anyway. But if no one comes to flail with me I might get upset and get akumatized. You don't want a thing like THAT on your conscience do you?! :P
