Chapter Two

Adrien, 1st person POV

To say I was heartbroken would be an understatement.

Not at first, though. Our nightly patrol had started as usual, with some pleasant exchanges between me and Ladybug. Of course, I was madly in love with her. But that didn't change the fact that we were best friends. Those years we had shared together, the battles that we had fought side by side. It connected us, and strengthened our bond to almost complete trust. I felt so comfortable sitting next to her on the roof, helping her with her chemistry homework. I could almost pretend that she wasn't wearing that mask when we sat there under the stars. And I wanted to tell her there, again, how I felt.

It wasn't the first time I confessed.

The first time I had told her was when we were both entering high school, and I had demanded to know who she was underneath her mask. She asked for a reason, and I told her exactly how I felt, no jokes, or puns. It took far too long for her to give me an answer, but when she said shyly that there was someone else, a small piece of my heart broke off.

Throughout the course of high school, I confessed a few more times, becoming more and more persistent with each confession, asking her why, and how, and what else could possibly stand in the way of us being together.

But tonight's rejection was the hardest of all to bear. When she looked at me like that, and spoke so angrily of me, it made me feel like a nuisance, or an annoyance. Kind of the way I felt when my father told me he wanted me gone, or out of his sight. Just like that, I was a useless little kid again, devasted by my father's hurtful words. And they came from her, the girl I had so easily fall in love with.

Yes, to say I was heartbroken was an understatement. And when she swung off, I had no reason to follow her aside from the emptiness and cold heart I felt when she left me standing there. That was enough for me to stagger helplessly to a dark alleyway, and rest my head on the cool metal of the fire escape.

"I'm sorry," a voice whispered quietly. Her voice. No one else could have picked that up, but my cat hearing was enhanced, thanks to my suit, when I heard her. Along with my cat vision, allowing me to see the girl through the darkness of the alley.

Detransformed.

It was all I could do not to gasp in surprise. Marinette? Marinette started to leave, but I couldn't find the energy to follow her. After all this time, Marinette was there. The love of my life, Ladybug. And I had known her the whole time as my classmate, innocent and easily flustered.

All of those patrols, and Akuma attacks, it was her. There, in the suit. Ladybug in the flesh. How could I have been so stupid? Was it really her all along?

And then another memory surfaced. Her confession to me, as Adrien, all those years ago, in middle school. "Um, Adrien, I was just wondering..." she put her head down and asked quickly. "Would you like to go out with me?" And I had rejected her, because I was honestly in love with someone else-or so I thought.

And the night before, when I had confessed. I'm in love with someone else, Chat. Tears threatened to spill from my eyes as I realized the tragic irony of my situation.

It was agony, to think that we could have been together, if I hadn't messed everything up, if I hadn't rejected Marinette all those years ago. My curse, destroying everything I touched. I was so trapped in my own predicament that I didn't recognize the faint purple light around my eyes, and the deep surge of power I felt in the dark.

"Hello, Chat Noir. I, as you well know, am Hawkmoth. I can make her yours, you know, but for a price."

"Yes, Hawkmoth. Give me your strength." I said confidently, as my mask transformed into a bright white suit, so clean it stood out in the dirty alleyway.

"Go, Chat Blanc. Take what is yours, and you can give me what is mine. Return the miraculous to me!"

At Hawkmoth's words, I leaped off of the rooftop to a certain bakery I was all too familiar with. I would get the miraculous, and with it, my deepest desire. To take what was mine, what had always been mine. My Lady and my Princess.

Get ready, Marinette.

And I'm going to finish the chapter there...yeah, it was a short one, but I'm trying to alternate POVs by chapter, and I want to show Marinette's reaction rather than Chat's as an akuma (also because akuma victims aren't in their right state of mind during an attack).

Please leave a review and let me know what you thought of this chapter! I've been having trouble with this fic, working on deciding a few things as I continue. Plus school starts in less than a week xP. Hopefully I'll update again before I am again thrown into the hell that is high school...

Thank you all for reading my story! :)

~ladynoirshipper