A/N: Warning! Character death and massive amounts of angst! You have been warned.
This song is "Kiss It Better" by He Is We. I highly suggest listening to it if you haven't before.
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The world reeled when they heard the news. The trial was swift and public, an absolute circus of media and lawyers.
He hardly remembered any of it.
He sits in his cell,
And he lays on his bed.
Covers his head and closes his eyes.
It was all a blur after the fact, because none of it mattered. None of it needed to be remembered.
But the beginning of it all? That was something he would never forget and the clarity of that night in his memory made him wish that anything, anything at all, had gone differently.
He'd been walking Marinette home from a fashion show he'd invited her to. How he regretted inviting her now.
He could still feel the gentle fall breeze on his face and see the world illuminated in starlight. Her smile was huge as she talked animatedly about the lines that would be coming out in a few more months, expounding on the one she loved and shrugging off those she was less keen on.
She made him laugh with her impression of the overly-pompous host and he made her giggle with his exaggerated runway strut.
Then a shadow detached itself from the building wall and a man was demanding their wallets. Before he knew what had happened, Marinette had stepped in front of him and begun to say something, but too late. The already nervous thief had pulled the trigger.
He remembered his own scream, because it hadn't sounded like his voice at all.
"Marinette!"
He sees a smoking gun,
And the coward he ran.
"Marinette!"
She was trying to say something as he gathered her up gently, tears choking him. He leaned in.
"I need you… to take my… earrings."
He jerked back, eyes wide.
"What? Marinette, what are you talking about?"
Her grip was weak, but she grabbed for his collar anyway, pulling him closer again as she whispered.
"Find Chat Noir. He'll… need to know… what happened… give them… to him."
"Marinette?" he whispered, eyes gone wide and terrified.
No, no, no. She couldn't be. She couldn't be his lady. Because if Marinette was Ladybug…
"Marinette, stay with me!"
"Tell Chat…" she whispered. "Tell Chat… I'm sorry."
And then, he did cry.
"No! No, my lady, you can't! You can't die! You can't leave me! Please! Please don't leave me! I love you!"
And in his arms is the bleeding
Love of his life.
"Chat?"
"Yes, my lady, I am your Chat. Please, please don't leave me. Not like this."
She was smiling weakly now, tears in her own eyes.
"All this time?"
He took her hand and kissed, pressing it to his cheek and almost unable to see for the tears.
"Yes."
A sob escaped his lady.
And she cried,
"Kiss it all better,
I'm not ready to go."
He leaned down and kissed her tenderly as his tears ran down her face. She stroked his cheek weakly as he pulled away.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered.
"It's not your fault, love,
You didn't know, you didn't know."
"I love you."
"I love you, too."
Her hand slipped from his face.
Her hands are so cold,
And he kisses her face
And says, "Everything will be all right."
Even though he doesn't believe it. How can anything be all right ever again? His lady, his love, his best friend, his beautiful, talented, perfect Marinette, is gone.
Then, he looked up.
He noticed the gun,
And his rage grew inside.
He said, "I'll avenge my lover tonight."
He gently lay her body down and stalked to the gun.
"Plagg…"
"Adrien, no!" the kwami cried. "Don't—"
"Claws out!"
No one stalks prey better than a cat and her words rang in his ears as he followed the path of the man who was still running.
And she cried,
"Kiss it all better,
I'm not ready to go.
It's not your fault love,
You didn't know, you didn't know."
The man was shaking by the time Chat caught up to him, cornered in an alley. He fell to his knees when he saw the gun, pleading, crying, but Chat could hear none of it. All he saw was Marinette's face. His lady's blood. Felt the last of his love's breath leave her.
Because of him.
He brought the gun up.
The man tried to dodge around him and run again.
He fired.
They found him hugging Marinette's body to him, rocking back and forth. He didn't resist arrest, he didn't deny what he'd done.
It didn't make any difference. None of it mattered anymore.
Now he sits behind prison bars,
25 to life and she's not in his arms.
He couldn't bring her back with a bullet to the heart
In the back of a man who tore his world apart.
Silent tears streaked down his face now as he sat up and wrapped his arms around his legs, trying desperately to keep himself in one piece. It felt as though he would shatter soon.
He closed his eyes again and focused on her. Just her, smiling at him, as beautiful as she was that night and every day before it.
He holds on to her memory,
All it is, is a memory.
It's painful, thinking of her, but it's the only thing he felt any longer.
Slowly, as a new snow fell outside, he cried himself to sleep, thinking of her sitting there with him, running her fingers through his hair and whispering sweet nothings.
He cries,
Stay with me until I fall asleep,
Stay with me.
Stay with me until I fall asleep,
Stay with me.
Stay with me until I fall asleep,
Stay with me.
Stay with me until I fall asleep,
Stay with me.
"Kiss it all better,
I'm not ready to go.
It's not your fault love,
You didn't know, you didn't know."