It's So Nice To Finally Meet You

Chapter 1 - The Death of Chat Noir

A/N: Okay, so this one is a post-death reveal scenario. Hope you enjoy :)

All Marinette can see is blood.

She's afraid to leave her bed because the walls bleed thick red drops of it, and the floor all around her is an ocean of the shining ruby liquid. She fixes her gaze to a part of the wall that is the least soaked in blood, but it doesn't help – nothing helps.

She drowning in it – drowning in the blood and drowning in her own grief – and she can't find the will to fight it within her. She doesn't want to fight anymore, and she doesn't believe she can without a partner by her side to support her. She can't—

she wants—

she needs—

—Chat Noir.

But he's— gone. He's gone. He's gone and there's nothing she can do. She couldn't save him. She'd tried – she'd tried so goddamn hard – but the bleeding wouldn't stop and it should have been her on the ground, but instead it's his blood soaking into the ground around him and his blood saturating her Ladybug suit. His blood follows her everywhere and it flows in streams in her room and she knows it isn't really there but it scares her because it's his blood and he won't stop bleeding. He'd been stupid – reckless – careless with his own life – and now he was GONE.

Marinette knows that her mother thinks she is sick and has been so for two weeks now. Sabine delivers breakfast, lunch and dinner to Marinette's room in the hopes that she will eat something, but each meal leaves her room with barely a nibble out of them. All Marinette can do is keep staring at the walls and hoping that the blood will go away but he bleeds and bleeds and bleeds and bleeds and it won't stop. She thought she could wait out the hallucinations and then begin to grieve the heavy loss weighing down on her heart but he just keeps bleeding.

He may not have died in her arms – as an ambulance had taken him away before he had reached the end of his short life – but he may as well have for all the guilt, grief and sorrow she felt at seeing the fear on his face and the life draining from his eyes. She had felt some hope that maybe doctors and nurses would be able to help him – save him, please, save him – but not two minutes after the ambulance had left a black cat-like kwami hugging a silver ring to his tiny body had found her and informed her of Chat's death.

Chat is dead. She had felt broken—heartbroken—when the news had been delivered and the kwami had zipped away until she couldn't see him. She still was broken—heartbroken.

She had thought that if she just stood still in time that she would be able to over come her crushing grief, but doing nothing for the past two weeks had made her feel worse than before, and she was slowly being suffocated from overwhelming feelings bottled up within her. She hadn't wanted to go to school and pretend like nothing was wrong with her, because something was very, very wrong and she couldn't hide that. But school sounded better than what she was currently doing.

She would have missed half of her classes already today, but if she can't handle it then at least she won't have to wait it out. It's probably better this way. She gathers up Tikki – who hasn't spoken much in the past two weeks because she wanted to give Marinette some time to herself – and wades through the rivers of blood in her room (which doesn't leave so much as a spot of blood on her.) She kisses her mother's cheek in goodbye and exits through the bakery door.

Walking across the street so she can get to school is painful. She has barely moved in two weeks and it has taken its toll on her, but she also keeps looking over her shoulder and expecting Chat to be there, grinning at her with his stupid grin while he makes stupid cat puns that annoy her until she wants to just kiss him to make him stop.

But that will never happen again. Because he's gone.

When Marinette enters the classroom she gets a few unusual looks, but she thinks it's because of her appearance (which she knows is less than put together). But she feels the somber mood that blankets the room and she can't quite get a grip on the thoughts of her classmates. She decides to let it go and trudges up to her seat beside Alya.

Marinette hasn't seen Alya in two weeks. She knows that Alya tried to visit her but her mother turned her away because she thought Marinette was sick. Marinette feels like she can barely look at Alya, her best friend— one of her best friends— the only one she has left…

"Hey," Alya whispers as to not be noticed by their teacher. "You feeling better?"

Marinette chokes on her breath. She has barely spoken a word, barely even moved, since the incident— since the— since— "Not really," Marinette manages to whisper to her friend.

Marinette's gaze shifts to the seat in front of her where Adrien usually sits. It's empty. She thinks that maybe this can distract her from her grief—from her broken heart—so she quietly asks Alya, "Where's Adrien?"

Alya looks surprised, and then hesitant. "Haven't you heard? Mari… Adrien died. The other night Ladybug and Chat Noir were in a fight again, and Chat Noir got hurt and died… and apparently Adrien was Chat Noir all this time…"

Just like that, all the pieces that Marinette has been able to hold together within her heart shatter. And all she can feel are the salty tears tracking their way down her face.

And all she can think is: he's gone.

A/N: I'm sorry, sad things are my jam. I'll try to aim for something happier in the future :)

You can find me on tumblr at: birdsalwaysflyaway .tumblr .com