Author's Note: Wow. It has been a while since the simple blue and white format of fanfiction has graced my eyes. Would've been sometime in 2020 since I've written something. Anyways, enough of the formalities. Welcome to my newest series, "Too Close" I hope you enjoy your time!
Marinette stared at herself in the mirror. She had just gotten out of the shower, so the room was filled with steam bringing her skin to goosebumps. A light pink towel was neatly wrapped around the top of her breasts, covering her lower body in the process. Slowly, Marinette loosened the towel; making it drop to the floor with a quiet 'thud'. A nasty scar crawled from the right side of her belly button all the way up her body, stopping a quarter way through her left boob. The scar was about half an inch of thick, salmon-coloured, and fully healed. Even though she had only got it 2 weeks or so prior.
This scar was given to her by a powerful reakumatisation of DarkBlade and Riposte.
Darkblade had received a powerup. Previously, his ability was knighting anyone would make them his loyal soldiers. In this scenario, his sword was near indescribable, and if the blade came within contact of any living being it would be completely under his command. His reakumatisation had a primary colour of dark pine green, that colour was mixed with a seemingly light shade of black. His sword's pattern was unpredictable, as if the two colours had been poured together and frozen immediately.
Riposte was very similar to her previous akumatised form, except the blade was shaped differently, it was longer, sharper of its edges... And instead of the metallic silver that reflected beams of light over the streets of Paris way back in season 2, had become a gorgeous, bright gold. Glistening constantly in the Spring sun cast over the smooth cobblestone road.
While Chat Noir was duelling DarkBlade she was overwhelmed by Riposte then hit by her sword. She dropped her lucky charm and tumbled backwards onto the sidewalk. Thanks to her miraculous suit, it didn't cut her in half. But it sure as hell was painful. The suit repaired itself, but the indescribable pain still rushed through her entire body.
Not long after seeing this, Chat Noir went psycho.
He single handedly fought DarkBlade and Riposte while Ladybug lay on the side of the road groaning from the excruciating pain. She watched with mixed emotions of horror, awe and admiration as he roared with rage. Pinning both the villains to a nearby wall by forcing their heads into a brick building behind them. They escaped by kicking themselves forward off of the wall. To which Chat Noir grabbed their ankles just before they could escape, pulled them back, then used his physicality boost to smash their heads fully into the sidewalk at their feet. That move lodged their heads inside their own respective pavement potholes, trapping their valuable cranium for however long Chat Noir wished.
An ominous gold blade law awkwardly bent beside Riposte. It's base was around the same size as a full camembert wheel;
He grabbed Riposte's blade, which also happened to be her arm, and snapped it with his bare hands. No akuma appeared. Chat then moved over to DarkBlade, who in hope of saving the akuma, sunk his sword deep into the ground and held onto it tight. Instead, Chat kicked it. Snapping it instantly. Chat ran over to Ladybug, cradling her as she winced. "M'Lady..."
Ladybug moaned, "Go get the akuma, quickly before it multiplies."
Chat nodded and scanned the air for a butterfly. Once he saw the ominous purple glow he launched himself off the ground. "CATACLYSM!"
He crushed the butterfly, turning it into dust. He landed perfectly with one knee on the ground and his head down. He turned his head and rushed over to Ladybug, blood oozing through her suit. Chat picked her up, holding her head close to his shoulder in a bridal carry. The red Dao sword spotted with black lay in her almost lifeless hand. Chat held her hand high above her torso.
"All you need to say is the words M'Lady..."
Nothing happened, Chat felt her pulse. Weak
He put his hand in front on her mouth and nose to feel her breathing. None
"No. No NO NO! LADYBUG!"
He scanned the area, there were only five people around. "PLEASE! Can anyone help her! She just needs to regain consciousness!"
Alya handed her phone to Nino at her side. She bolted over, using her fingers she cleared the hair out of the way. "I know CPR! I'll help you!"
"So how do I do this Alya?!" Chat pleaded
"As if I'm letting you do that."
Alya started chest compressions, Alya did 30 chest compressions. Still nothing.
She leaned over and performed a rescue breath, nothing again. Then another breath that resulted in, you guessed it, nothing.
Alya started chest compressions again, Chat Noir fumbled his hands worryingly. "I want to help! I'll do the breaths and you do the compressions!"
Alya actually laughed at that, "Ladybug will kill me if I let that happen."
After the third rescue breath, Ladybug awoke and coughed out a disturbing amount of blood. She then threw her Dao weakly into the sky and yelled as loud as she could, "Miraculous Ladybug..."
A glowing tsunami of tiny insects that were red with black spots engulfed the surrounding area. Sweeping all the mess of hero work into non-existence. Leaving a confused fencing teacher with his prized pupil sitting on the sidewalk to his left. The two shared a look, both had being in this situation, or seen it, a countless amount of times. It had dawned on the fencing duo that they were not able to control their feelings and temporarily destroyed the city for a dumb and irrelevant reason.
Thanks to the miraculous ladybugs returning all damage done by the akuma had been completely erased and repaired. Or at least she thought it was. This was the first time she had witnessed a permanently damaging attack directly inflicted by a miraculous.
For example - If Chat Noir were to cataclysm a human being to a pile of black ash, it wouldn't matter if a lucky charm is active or not, the ash would turn back into a human. That person would be dead every single time. The same was with Ladybug's enormous scar. It was given to her directly by Hawkmoth, or in this case Hawkmoth's ability to akumatise had affected her.
Instead of staying open, the wound had healed to the best of its ability for the condition it was in. The same would be so if Carapace's shell broke Hawkmoth's ribs when he was hit on heroes day. Not even the miraculous of creation can cheat death, however it is the most powerful miraculous obtainable, so it comes pretty close.
In present time, Marinette had been picking a small scab that had appeared in the middle of the pink river of flesh. Small trickles of blood flowed down slowly, instead of stopping it, Marinette let it flow right down to where her crotch began.
Eventually, she pulled baby wipe from a nearby packet and cleaned the streak of blood.
Hot tip for everyone - Baby wipes are not only for babies, they are the tissues for intellectuals. They are antibacterial, structured to pick up and soak liquid substances, smell nice, and clean way more efficiently than tissues do. You might be made fun of for using them but they are very beneficial in the long run. You should listen to me, I am top of my class and the guardian of the miraculous.
Marinette got dressed into her usual pyjamas; white singlet with pink spots and pink tracksuit with a floral pattern. She decided that tonight she would keep her hair down, she wasn't in the mood to wake up with that weird feeling in your hair when you sleep with it tied up.
In her normal routine Marinette would acknowledge the present of the 16 immortal rodent-like gods living inside the red egg 3 feet to her right, but she didn't feel like going from night shower mode to kwami babysitter mode. Marinette only had the patience and the state of mind to deal with Tikki, the only responsible one of the bunch. You'd think there would be more from ultrapowerful, very ancient, very wise, very secretive beings. But nope. Marinette's life wouldn't be interesting if everything was perfect for her. Tikki was already occupied doing whatever the hell kwamis do in their special dimension that is the miracle box.
She slowly made her way across her room into her bed, she lay awkwardly with her arms spread out wide. The pictures she had of her celebrity crush, classmate and friend were scattered all over the wall. He was Adrien Agreste. He was not only one of the few people in the world that was both breathtakingly hot and adorably cute, but he was also a model, a fencer, multilingual, a nerd, a gamer, the son of a fashion extraordinaire and a famous actress.
Even he couldn't brighten up the shocking mood Marinette was in, it was as if a ball and chain weighing a ton was holding her spirit captive. She sat up in her spot and stared at her new cork bulletin board that she had recently put up. On it was a picture of Luka teaching her guitar, a photo of her and Adrien dancing in the moonlit sky, the picnic that was held on heroes day, a photo of her and Kagami drinking orange juice, and space for an extra photo.
She smiled at her collection. Her favourite thing about her life was not the miraculous, not the city she lived in, not the school she went to, not the food she ate, but it was the relationships she had developed over time. Not just with Adrien, but with Alya, Alix, Rose, Mylene, Juleka, Chat Noir, Chloe and even Hawkmoth. In a weird way, a very weird and twisted way, she admired Hawkmoth. For whatever reason, he had dedicated his life, sanity and soul to trying to get the miraculous to make a wish. The amount of confidence, mental strength and hope that he sustains amazes her. After failing as many times as he had she would've given up.
Tucked to the side of her mattress was a small screwdriver, her mother had found it before and was so confused to why it was there she forgot it again. Its purpose was to remove the cork part out of the frame. Marinette would normally spend time with her tongue out trying for 10 minutes to remove 4 screws, but for a weird reason when she was tired and mentally drained she could do it as easy as a professional could.
Once the screws were out, a flat piece of cork fell onto her bed, behind it was another sheet of cork. This sheet had photos of her life as Ladybug, with plenty photos of her with Chat Noir, as well as each of the heroes that she had time to take pictures with. The only photo that was an odd one out was a nude man with a well done photoshop of Adrien's head onto it.
She smiled slyly and removed the photo from it's spot, she stared at it for what could've been 10 seconds or 10 minutes. But she was jolted back to reality when she heard a loud bang combined with a hollow echo coming from above. Her eyes widened as she realised she had at a maximum of half a minute before she could leave her room or else someone might end up entering.
She dropped the photo of Adrien onto her covers, picked up the cork sheet with her civilian photos and put screwed the nails in faster than anyone in existence. The second she finished she heard a shy knock coming from the balcony door, Marinette crawled over and opened it to find Chat Noir kneeling down in front of her. He winked at her and Marinette smiled.
"What the hell are you doing here Chat?" She laughed quietly. "It's like 2 in the morning."
Chat Noir grinned, "I could ask the same thing to you Mari, you have school tomorrow you shouldn't be awake."
Marinette stood up and lifted herself out of her room, "Couldn't sleep. Not even a warm shower could fix it."
Chat Noir's eyes widened as the beauty that was Marinette Dupain-Cheng climbed graciously up the ladder in her in her pyjamas, "In that case, I would recommend listening to some-"
Out of the far corner of his eye, he saw the picture laying on her bed. His face immediately turned red. Marinette noticed he wasn't paying attention and followed his eyes, meeting at the same location. There was a moment of sheer shock, embarrassment and awkwardness between the two.
"Fuck." Marinette mumbled.
Chat Noir was trying to contemplate how the hell she got that photo. Yet all that came out was a strange series of stutters and slurs. "Why? Why do- do you- Wateuwu... wittickicke, whewhe, hoo? H-h-how do you even have th-th-that-t?"
Marinette grabbed his collar and judo flipped him onto the stone floor of her balcony, "Tell anyone I have that photo and you die, got it?"
"Why couldn't you be a Snow White kind of princess, why are you reminding me of Rapunzel with her ninjitsu and frying pan?"
"Rapunzel wasn't a ninja dummy," her glare hardened to a medusa level, her clenched fist covering half her face. "Do we have a deal alley cat?!"
Chat waved his hands in desperate surrender. "Yes yes! I won't tell anyone you have Adrien Agreste's nu-"
Marinette's eyes bloodshot, her voice was monotone with a mix of mysterious torture and raspy metallicity. "NOT SO LOUD!"
Chat was going to reply, but he decided to get off the floor first. He stood up, towering over her skinny figure. That didn't stop the waves of fear crashing down on his brain. "I promise I won't"
Marinette exhaled deeply, as if she had held her breathe during that entire conversation. She smiled cheerfully, "Great!"
Chat went back to the important question; how. "Real quick, how'd you get the picture anyway? It'd be awesome if my princess was given an 18+ model picture of the great Adrien (insert as many middle names as you want) Athanase Agreste."
Marinette did a business back single-person handhold and bowed whilst leaning forward, she took a step putting her face to stomach with Chat Noir. Their eyes met as she brought her lower have back to her torso and stood on her tippy toes, putting them face to face. She put her mouth to his ear and said, "It's photoshopped dummy."
Chat Noir developed a light blush. 1: Marinette had a picture that from afar looked identical to him naked, 2: There are pictures of him naked.
"Anyway, what's really keeping you up Chat?"
Chat Noir scratched the back of his neck, looking around for solutions. His eyes settles on a wooden crate and a pink and white hammock chair. "Mind if we take a seat?"
Marinette assumed it would just be family problems as usual, but this seemed a little different. She offered the proper chair but he insisted to take the crate, Marinette wasn't one to complain but she felt bad. Chat sat down, instead of beginning his rants immediately, he was tapping his feet and whistling a weak mellow tune. Marinette put her hand on his knee, "What's wrong kitty?"
"I'm embarrassed about this, so don't tell anyone."
Marinette nodded, Chat took a deep breath.
"This is gonna sound real dumb but hear me out. For the past 16 days I have wet my bed 14 of them and it's-" Chat didn't stop talking because Marinette interrupted. It was because Marinette's cheeks were inflated and her eyes were twitching. "Just get it out already."
Marinette didn't want to be too rude, so she let off the most non-embarrassing form of humour expression.
"pfffft."
Marinette quickly bit her lip to stop herself by roaring with laughter, she sat still and waited for him to continue. "I'll pretend that was genuine. I've been wetting the bed because of my nightmares. Every night, over and over. I see Ladybug get slashed in half and I go crazy like I did 2 weeks ago. This time I lose and I fall victim to Hawkmoth, I try to fight it but I fail. I destroy everything and I see myself in solid white, doomed to be alone forever. I know it sounds crazy but- WHAT THE?! Marinette?!"
Marinette couldn't help herself, she was crying. In TV shows this is the moment where the characters face would go blue in fear. Soundless tears echoed in the night, silencing the background noise of crickets and late nighters. Chat Noir stood up and shook her shoulders, trying to break her from her trance. Forced memories of her fight that felt so unreal and lost in time overwhelmed her brain. Marinette made no noise, all that moved was her endless rivers of thick tears and Chat trying to help her escape her nightmare. "Marinette! What's wrong! Say something!"
In the dead of the night, she managed to utter only 2 words. Ones that shook Chat Noir to his core.
"Chat Blanc"