Water streamed down his face. Of course it did; it was raining, after all. His body shook, but it wasn't out of the cold. No, it was out of laughter. Chat Noir and his partner had just defeated a rather gruesome and tough opponent, and everything had gone according to Ladybug's plan. Even if she hadn't shared all of it with Chat Noir, he knew it would work out how she wanted it to. It had been an ingenious plan, and had it been anyone else to come up with it, Chat would have just laughed it off as something ridiculous. But the seriousness of his lady combined with all the he knew she could do… That's what made him go through with it.
His voice trembled from his laughter when he said, "Well, my lady, it looks like your plan worked. And how could it not? It went flawlessly. I just wish you told me what you were going to do." She didn't respond, but he looked at her, saw the smile on her face. His arms hung freely until he pulled Ladybug into an embrace. He winced a bit, having been hit enough times to be bruised and broken in many places. He tried not to register the pain, but he couldn't lie about it either. He'd never lie to his lady.
"I might have gotten a bit banged up in the process. If I had followed your exact plan, I'd be okay. I can still be okay." Her arms didn't return the hug, but it didn't phase him. He released her and sighed. "You know, my mom used to tell me that, whenever I'm not okay, just say the letters 'LBOK' and… well, it works. Because saying them is like saying 'I'll be okay' and it applies to you in this case, too, LB." He turned away from her and wiped at his face; the rain was trying to be obtrusive, trying to get under his mask. His turning away meant he didn't see the slight nod of her head. Didn't see her eyes watching him from where she was.
He finally decided to keep his arm on his forehead, to keep some of the rain from falling into his eyes. It worked, for a little while, but he still kept getting blinded. Blinded by the water that stung his eyes. It was time to face the facts, really. His soft laughter that had still fought to escape him grew silent, pummeled down for their falsity. He looks to the sky and is lost in thought for several minutes, replaying the battle in his head over and over. He did this at the end of each battle, when the villain was vanquished and him and his lady fist bumped.
That didn't happen this time though. Not on her part, anyways. Chat Noir, of course, had held his fist out, yipping a little 'Punch it!' to her. When no gentle touch of her fist cam, he looked over. She had just stood still, staring at the space where the akuma had resurfaced into the world. That was odd behavior, especially for her, and he tried to grab her attention. "Bug? Bugaboo, what's wrong? Cat got your to-" he said, words stopped in his throat when she did turn towards him. The smile she gave him, the way her eyes pierced his very soul. The way the rain fell down her face in amazing, pink-tinged droplets.
"His eyes had focused in on her even more, then. Raindrops weren't pink, water wasn't pink, so he didn't know why the ones on her were. In hindsight, it was obvious. He could remember seeing Ladybug execute hr parts of the plan in his peripherals. But at the moment, his mind was blank, and he frowned at her a bit. He watched her a moment more, still mystified, until he saw some other detail he'd completely overlooked. She was shaking, violently. It was clear to anyone that she tried to keep herself from doing it, but she lost her grasp and it became worse. And Chat noticed. He rushed to her then, breaking from his frozen state, just as her knees were giving out. He laid her on his folded legs, and brushed the hair from her eyes. She stared up at him, her face falling when she saw the water drip down his face and onto hers. They could both easily blame it on the rain, but that only served as a lie. He was crying, crying for her, but he made no sad sounds. That made her smile again, because that meant he would be alright. It meant that he understood and that he was trying to be strong for her and himself just then. The smile stayed on her lips as the rest of her stilled, as her eyes kept staring at Chat Noir, without their normal spark and glimmer, without their joy and their caring and their understanding and their-
A shrill beep sounded from Ladybug's earrings. It snapped the cat out of his trance, out of his flashback. His eyes glanced down at them for the first time. And it was at that moment when he noticed why the rain had been a rosy color, why his lady no longer had the rhythmic beating of a heart in her chest. A finger traced the a long mark that spread from one ear, around the back of her skull, and up it near the forehead. The cut was too deep, too severe, and he was surprised Ladybug has made it in the fight at all, had still been standing for a moment after it. Hadn't she used Miraculous Cure though? He tried to think back, his head already shaking. No, she hadn't used it. She hadn't used her lucky charm, either, because she couldn't find the time to. The earrings rang clearly once again. Three more minutes.
Three more minutes until he saw the face of the masked heroine that captured his heart many times. He would undoubtedly break down when he found out, but it was up in the air in regards to how he would break down. Would his body shake once again from the laughter, from the irony he hoped wouldn't be present? Or would his entire frame be wracked with grief, pain, and uncontrollable sobbing? However it would go down, those three minutes… no, two minutes now. They were the longest moments of his entire life.
Her body below him jostled with every move. Sometimes it would look like she was still alive, like her head was moving up and down, side to side, leaning back to look at the sky. His voice when he spoke next was so low, so quiet, that if any person were to stand right beside him, they wouldn't hear a word. "My lady… I know why you did this, why you chose this road. But my heart cannot stay strong without you. Why did you do this to yourself? Why you and not me? You should have shared your plan, maybe the outcome would have changed." In the silence of these spoken words was power; his questions spoke legions, and he was sure that if there ever existed such a place, his words would shake the very world of the deceased. He knew the answer to them, though, as everyone in his position would. He thought of them, as the ring let out one last shrill cry. One more minute. Just enough time to answer himself and think of the plan she had concocted.
If any detail of the plan had changed, it might have cost Chat his life. There was always the chance both Ladybug and Chat Noir would die that day, but of course she always thought of him first. Of course she did, just as he always thought of her. And so she let her own life get taken, and she gave him a reassuring smile that kept him from freaking out, from being thrown into the world of akumatization.
His own ring started to beep; he had forgotten he was still Chat Noir, still half of the hero Paris needed. He let go of his own transformation, but couldn't even look at his kwami. Plagg, who was lazy and caustic, held no trace of humor or sarcasm in his features. He floated nearby without complaint, giving Chat Noi- no, giving Adrien as much comfort and sympathy as he could convey in a single pat. It didn't help, though. Red began to bubble over Ladybug's features, her red cloak diminishing into Marinette's normal attire. Her kwami was thrown out of the earrings, and she landed on the ground. Not only was she too weak to float or really move, but her tiny body shook, tears that were too big for the small creature oozing from her eyes.
Adrien couldn't look at her right away, for his eyes landed on the maskless face of the brave girl that sat behind him every day in class. He spoke to her at least once every weekday, and although she always had a stutter around him, he had known she was kind and caring. She is a great leader… no, she was a great leader. She wasn't one any longer, because if she couldn't even breathe, then how could she lead? Adrien's body shook once again, in a horrifying mixture of laughter and sobbing.
"Marinette, Marinette, how did it come to this," he asked her, knowing he'd never get a response back. Tears rolled down his face and splattered onto her pale complexion, and his arms tightened around her in a protective manner. He wouldn't let her get hurt again. Never again. With Tikki left unattended to by Adrien, Plagg floated to her and encompassed her in a hug. They knew this could happen at any time; it was a risk all Miraculous wielders faced, one they all knew about. But it was a rare occasion when one actually met their demise, and it was certainly nothing that the kwamis could get used to.
As the day moved by slowly, Adrien's sorrow did not lessen, but his mind did see things with more clarity than before. For instance, when he met Ladybug as Adrien once, and she had froze to stare at him. Just like Marinette would. When Marinette took charge of situations, becoming their class president, braving the furious creature that was Chloe. Just like Ladybug would. Or, when Ladybug smiled over at him in their current location, her body trembling. Her smile had reassured him, for sure, but there was something else behind it. He could see that much. He thought of the way her eyes looked at him, how they stared back into his soul. He was sure, then, that she had already known who he was. She was very intelligent, and it was no surprise she would have figured it out before him.
Minutes that took millennium passed, and turned into hours that took an eternity. Eventually, the police came, and with them the news crews, ambulances, medics, the fire department, their classmates, and, perhaps worst of all, the parents of the two children, drenched from the rain that was stained pink. They tried to separate them, but Adrien would only hunch over further and grasp Marinette like his life depended on it. And to be fair, that's exactly what it felt like. If he let go of her, he might very well die. At least, the Adrien everyone knew and loved would. His mind would collapse under the stress of the situation and the lack of contact with her, and he tried to convey this to the medics, to his father, to Marinette's heartbroken parents, to Alya and Nino. To anyone that approached or refused to get close. Unable to get him to release his hold, Adrien was lifted onto a medical gurney in the backside of an ambulance.
The sirens blared, and it reminded him of his kwami, as well as ladybug's. Looking around, he didn't see them, but he did feel a gentle motion in one of his pockets, and was sure that it was them. Content with them being near, he returned to his own little world that consisted of him and his lady alone. It used to be the brightest world in his life, but now the colors were muted and lacked any luster or life. It was dark and dull, but it was still his world. It was still their world. And that's where he would want to stay, and would continue to stay, for weeks after the event had passed. Even after he left the hospital himself, all he could manage was staying in his room, laying in his bed. He cared for the two kwamis as well, but they were more focused on comforting each other, and he couldn't bring himself to look Tikki in the eyes. Not after how he had failed her partner. Not after he had failed his partner.
Paris was recovering from the loss of not just one hero, but two. They hadn't even connected the dots that Marinette was Ladybug; not with the tale Adrien had told them. As far as the city knew, Ladybug and Chat Noir were gone, without a trace. An akuma came every now and again, but no one stepped in to intervene. They weren't that dangerous anyways. One was a student that turned things into gossip after having been told her newspaper stories weren't real or factual. Another was a dog walker that could call dogs to them with their whistle, akumatized only after being fired from watching and walking the dogs he loved. Nothing very serious, and certainly no reason for Chat Noir to come back. The city had already stopped hoping for its heroes anyways.