"Chat… I miss you." Ladybug said, taking a slow step towards him.
He stood near the edge of the building, spine stiff and unmoving. His muscles were locked in place, his blonde locks falling into his eyes. His teeth bared.
"Don't say you miss me when it's your fault I'm gone." He growled.
Ladybug flinched, her mouth opening with no sound coming out. She reached towards him, her fingers grasping at the open air. The air was freezing. It rattled in her dry lungs and swirled in her empty stomach. Chat Noir wasn't just her partner. He felt like home. She knew that. But that home never used to feel this cold. She met his eyes for only a moment, and in that brief contact she saw it. The pain, the heartbreak, the fury all brimming in those big eyes. She forced herself to look away, her chest squeezing tightly.
"You know what?" He stared at the street below them, bent over the railing. He was speaking to the lights below. "I'm not sorry. I don't take it back."
"I thought we were just gonna be friends." Ladybug tried again, taking another step. He visibly clenched the railing tighter in his gloved hands. His muscles flexed and he refused to look at her.
"I can't handle it!" He cried out, voice shattering into a million pieces. The sound fell as he continued. "I can't keep my feelings all bottled up like you. Can you honestly tell me you feel nothing for me?"
Ladybug felt her heart sting as she squeezed her eyes shut, "Chaton-"
"Stop. Just… Stop." He shook his head. "I can't do this. I can't."
Chat Noir was clinging to the railing like his life depended on it. As if when he let go, he would go flying off into oblivion. His eyes shimmered in the city lights with tears.
"I can't help it. I-" Chat finally managed to bring his eyes up to meet Ladybug's. "I can't stop loving you. No matter how much I try."
"I never meant to hurt you, kitty." Ladybug met his gaze as best she could. "I'm sorry, Chat, please. You mean so much to me. I love you, Chaton. I love you, but not the way you want me to. And I'm sorry-"
"Who." Chat interrupts with ice. "Who is it?"
"Chat-"
"WHO?!" Chat bellows with such force, Ladybug is left stunned. His tail flicks back and forth behind him. His ears are slicked back.
"Adrien… Adrien Agreste." Ladybug murmurs.
Chat stumbles backwards, his walls instantly crumbling. Ladybug moves towards him, but he stops her with a raised hand. He's grabbing his chest and coiling in on himself. His voice is thick and full of pain as he speaks.
"You love Adrien?"
"Yes. I really do, my kitty." Ladybug says as softly as she can.
Chat gives a choked sob, sending jolts through her chest at her partner's agony.
"What… What does he have… That I don't?" He asks.
"It's not like that-"
"Answer me." Chat snaps.
"I-I met him, and at first, I thought he was stuck-up like Chloe… But I learned how truly kind and open-hearted he was. And I fell in love with him for who he was." Ladybug watched as Chat's eyes danced across the rooftop, unable to focus.
"He's better than me, is that it? Is that why you chose Adrien over me?" Chat asked quietly.
"Chat… No."
"I'm done." His voice was hauntingly hollow. "Plagg, claws in."
Ladybug slammed her eyelids shut as a green flash exploded before her. She felt her stomach drop as two hands grasped her forearms.
"Chat Noir, please don't do this... " Ladybug begged.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't good enough." His voice was so gentle and broken.
His hands took her own, opened her palm and dropped something cold and small into it.
"Even though you broke my heart… I will never stop loving you." He whispered in her ear, before his hands left her skin and nothing was left but the howling wind over Paris.
"Chat?" Ladybug called into the night, her eyes still closed.
By the time she opened them, her partner had disappeared. She reluctantly looked in her hand to find his silver ring left in it.
