Chapter 3

Dinner that evening was quiet. Quieter than Marinette had ever remembered dinner being. She had preferred the silence in her workplace, but it felt odd in her home. She picked at the stewed vegetables on her plate trying to think of a topic of conversation that would permit her to have a normal conversation for once. Nothing came to mind.

"How is your new job?" Sabine asked, looking up at Marinette with her big eyes.

"It's good," Marinette said, putting her fork down. Work was something she could talk about without having to think much about it. "I've done a lot of designing and they trust me to put together many of their designs for fashion week."

"You haven't been overworking, have you?" Tom cut in, his protectiveness coming out in full force.

"I'm fine, Papa," Marinette assured, telling him the same lie she had been telling everyone for the past month or so. It was easier to tell everyone she was fine than to deal with their questions and pity when she told them she wasn't.

"Do you want more bread?" Sabine asked, moving the basket of unsold baguettes closer to Marinette's spot at the table. Marinette noticed the way her mother looked her over as she said it, so to ease her mind, Marinette took another chunk of the bread and placed it beside her plate with a mumbled thanks.

"How is Alya doing?" Sabine continued, satisfied now that Marinette had a mountain of food on her plate and several chunks of bread beside it.

"She's been doing well from what I gathered during our lunch date," Marinette provided, looking up. "She seems to be a rather valuable journalist."

"You said Nino was there as well?" Tom asked. Marinette knew her father was fond of the boy since they would often watch Chris while Nino was out. Tom had a bleeding heart and Nino had often been on the receiving side of Tom's affection, even if it was just a free croissant every once in a while.

"Yeah," Marinette admitted. "His and Alya's relationship seems to be getting stronger every day."

"Perhaps you'll have to make room in your busy schedule to make a wedding dress then," Sabine commented with a twinkle in her eye.

Marinette knew she should have agreed with a laugh or commented on how excited she was for both of her friends and their escalating relationship. She should have told her mother that she had come up with designs for Alya's dress already, but instead of doing any of this, she burst into tears. Bottled up emotions from all day boiled over and she wept openly at her table.

"Oh, Marinette."

That was all her mother said. That was all her mother and father said for the rest of the night. Dinner was forgotten, and the three of them moved to the couch where they could sit more comfortably. Perhaps it was hard to be home all the time, but Marinette did find it comforting to be able to mourn without having to explain anything. Her parents already knew everything that she was feeling, even if she hadn't explained it all. They knew because they knew her.

She curled up next to her father and felt his strong arm wrap around her. Not for the first time, she marveled how much she felt like a child.

ooo

She hadn't been the one to stop Hawkmoth and Mayura. Ladybug hadn't been the one to save the day and she hadn't fixed everything with her miracle ladybugs. For the first time since putting on the earrings, Marinette hadn't won a fight against Hawkmoth. No one had.

The akuma was merely a distraction from a different plan to take hers and Chat Noir's miraculous. She had noticed there was something off about the akuma. The enraged hairdresser had been easy to beat and she hadn't seemed to be as intent on trapping Ladybug or Chat Noir as much as she was leading them all around Paris. Their fight brought them to an underground parking area, and she had trapped them all inside to narrow down the fighting area.

Chat Noir had been full of mirth throughout the fight, but Marinette had been annoyed. She was desperate for the fight to be over so she could go back to working on her application for an internship with Gabriel Agreste. The man had proven to be a harsh man, but he was a famous fashion head nonetheless, and his approval of her designs as a fourteen-year-old made her confident that she could get his attention once again.

The lucky charm hadn't even been necessary in ending the fight, so Marinette had thrown it up quickly so she could fix the minimal damages made to Paris and move on with her day. Chat Noir's ring beeped for the third time, and Marinette had bumped fists with him quickly.

"You're going to detransform," she had pointed out.

"I should probably go," the boy laughed, rubbing his neck. "Which is unfortunate. I always enjoy getting to spend time with you."

She had promised him that he could spend time with her the next time there was an akuma since they had been more and more prevalent lately. The only thing that she could be grateful for was the fact that Mayura hadn't made many appearances. Fighting both Akumas and sentimonsters was hard and Marinette's life had gotten even more complicated after graduating.

She had been so focused on getting the confused hairdresser home that she hadn't noticed Hawkmoth or Mayura. She hadn't been expecting an attack, so she nearly had been buried by the crumbling roof above her. If Chat Noir hadn't seen it, she would have been crushed.

But he had seen it. And being the gallant hero he was, in and out of costume, he had pushed her and the previously akumatized hairdresser out of the way. It would have been fine if he was still Chat Noir—their suits kept them relatively unharmed after fights. However, his time had been close to running out at the end of the fight. There was no way he would have been able to fuel his kwami and get to them in time.

Nothing else seemed to register in Marinette's mind at that moment. Her partner was under the rubble. He had pushed her and an innocent civilian out of the way and took the brunt of the cave in. Once that shock had worn off, her logic kicked in. He was untransformed—and there was no movement.

She had thrown herself at the rubble, digging furiously, desperate to find a green-eyed, pun-loving boy beneath the rubble. However, there were no cat ears attached to the boy beneath the rubble. No black mask hid his features from her, and she was horrified to find a familiar face beneath it.

"Ladybug," Hawkmoth had greeted, his voice dripping with disappointment. "I see that once again your partner has saved you."

Marinette hadn't paid the man any attention. Everything was sinking in all at once. Adrien had pushed her out of the way. Adrien, her best friend from her school days. The supermodel who always seemed to disappear when she did. The one who could hardly hang out because of his father. The one who was allergic to feathers and had often hinted that his life was less than desirable behind the black mask he wore while parading around Paris as a superhero.

"No," she had gasped, panic welling up in her chest. "NO! ADRIEN!"

The screams had echoed around her, and even Hawkmoth had fallen silent. There was no response from the blonde boy beneath her, and Marinette began to desperately try to get him to wake up. She was so focused on trying that she hadn't realized that Hawkmoth and fallen to his knees beside her.

"Adrien?"

At that point, Marinette was able to tear her eyes away from Adrien. They locked on Hawkmoth and rage consumed her. He had dropped the roof in on them. He had lured them here and had gotten Adrien hurt. All of her pain and hurt and concern came from the man beside her.

There were a million things she wanted to do. She wanted to scream at him or to throw him across the parking garage with her yoyo. She wanted to fight him and to make him suffer, but deep inside the most logical part of her brain knew none of that was necessary. The man was distracted completely and entirely by the boy buried in the rubble. She didn't have time to think about why.

She had grabbed the brooch, and the man barely seemed to notice. As his transformation fell, Marinette finally understood why. Gabriel Agreste sat beside her, looking lost and broken. He reached out to touch Adrien's still form and Marinette lost it.

For years, Adrien had defended his father against the mean comments she or their other friends would say in passing. They would tell how he treated Adrien unfairly or how his neglect was uncalled for, but Adrien would always assure them that his father was trying in the best ways he knew how. Now, as Marinette clutched the butterfly brooch in her hand, she knew the truth.

Gabriel Agreste was Hawkmoth, and he didn't have a good bone in his body.

The fact that Hawkmoth had her best friend in the whole city of Paris's father filled her with blind rage. She launched into attack, screaming insults, and pinning blame on the man who had dropped a warehouse roof on his son. She probably would have hurt him much worse than was able to if Mayura hadn't stepped in. Marinette went flying away from the rubble and she hit hard. A sob choked her, but she got to her feet despite the grief that was pouring over her.

No fight she had ever fought was as desperate as this one. She had thrown everything she had at Mayura and Gabriel, but she wasn't able to get past the Peacock holder. Eventually, the police showed up, probably having been called by the hairdresser that had disappeared shortly after the roof cave in. Their arrival had given her the chance to snatch the peacock brooch as well, revealing Nathalie underneath it all.

Marinette didn't remember much more from that moment on other than being restrained by an officer while they arrested Gabriel and Nathalie while she sobbed. Adrien had trusted Nathalie. He had cared about her and worried about her for years. As soon as the man and his assistant were in the back of the police car, the police had finally released her. The fight seemed to leave her as the car pulled away and she had collapsed by Adrien's side, her sobs becoming uncontrollable.

She had remained there as paramedics tried to help, but she wouldn't let them drag her away. She sobbed over Adrien, wishing she had told him all that she felt about him. Guilt consumed her as she thought about all the times that she had rejected him as Chat Noir and all the times she had tried to convince herself that she wasn't falling for his superhero alter ego. It wasn't until she tried to scream the two words that granted her a gift from who-knows-where that she realized she had already used her miraculous cure. Her earrings beeped once, reminding her that her five minutes were up—and they had been the longest five minutes she had ever experienced.

No one could pry her from her partner. She was attached to his side, apologizing, confessing her love for him, taking the blame, and doing anything else she could think of to bring him back. Light flashed, but she was hardly aware of it until she heard the gasps from behind her. In that moment, she realized that her transformation had dropped and all of Paris was watching an unimportant fashion designer from the bakery in town sob over the broken body of supermodel Adrien Agreste. She didn't care about her identity.

Tikki had eaten quickly, and convinced Marinette to transform to try her miraculous cure once more. Marinette had done as she was told, but this time her call for the charm was weak and broken. She received an exact replica of her own lucky-charm beads that she had given to Adrien ages ago, though this one was spotted in red and black. She threw it up and ladybugs swarmed the area. Not much changed, but Marinette didn't look away from Adrien's still form.

He remained unmoving, but Marinette didn't dare breathe just in case there was a chance her partner moved and she missed it. The ladybugs disappeared and Marinette pinched her brows together. The paramedic took a pulse with shaking fingers, and after a moment, looked up at Marinette, her expression full of sorrow. It seemed there were some things that even her magic ladybugs couldn't fix.

One cop, who Marinette was pretty sure was Sabrina's father, had tried to comfort her, but she wouldn't be consoled. She ripped out her earrings, only catching a glimpse of Tikki's concerned expression before the Kwami was sucked into the earrings and disappeared. Marinette shoved both brooches and her earrings into her purse at her hip. She would deal with them later.

She cried for what seemed like hours. The police didn't try to move her, either because they were afraid of how she would react or because they were letting her properly mourn her partner. Either way, she was grateful they didn't try since she wasn't sure how she would have reacted if they had.

It wasn't until she had seen her own father walking down the street, his face full of grief and concern that she allowed herself to be led away. Her father had carried her home in his arms that night, cradling her like she was a little kid again instead of the adult that she was supposed to be.