Marinette took a deep breath as she stepped out of the cab. Standing as tall as ever, her mother and father's bakery. Alya wanted to join her, begged even. But Marinette turned her down, knowing this journey was one she needed to make for herself.
Her hair, no longer shoulder-length and pig-tailed, blew freely in the wind as she paid the driver through the window.
The lights were off as Marinette unlocked the door. She turned the lights on one by one, choking back a sob as her parents' life's work came to life once more.
Her parents gave up the bakery in their old age, no longer able to work the long hours necessary, but they never could force themselves to sell the building and move. So, the bakery sat, an unchanging shell of what it once was.
Marinette ran her fingers along the glass display, the register, the counters. A tear slipped as she noticed the leftover flour residue on her fingers.
She turned the oven on and got to work. Memories flooded through her mind as she took out the still good ingredients from the cabinets and fridge, leftovers for whenever one of her parents felt like baking for themselves or family.
She worked the pate a choux until it was ready to form macaroon shells, smiling when she had enough ingredients to make the passionfruit flavor she used to make nonstop in her youth.
"I can't believe Adrien never wondered how I knew his favorite macaroon flavor, Tik..." Marinette said, the sentence dying on her tongue when she realized she was talking to herself.
The shells baked in the oven, and Marinette pulled them out, humming to herself as she did so.
When the cookies were cooled and filled, Marinette put them on a plate to take them up to her childhood home.
Her heart grew heavier with each step of her old home until it fell to her stomach at the sight of her old room. The sewing box where she held the miracle box, still sitting on the corner of her desk. The paint had faded except in the places where her countless pictures of Adrien, later on pictures of all of her friends, hung on the walls.
She looked at her loft bed, remembering the countless hours crying, researching, just chatting with the kwamis about her day. Her knees hit the ground when she remembered the hours spent talking to her friends, the time Adrien came over to play video games. Their first kiss when he finally learned who she was.
'Push forward', she thought to herself, forcing herself to stand and climb to the terrace. 'You can do this, Marinette.'
Marinette closed her eyes as she held onto the metal bars, the wind caressing her cheeks like it was his hands. She sat on their blanket, shocked that it still smelled like him after so long, and ate his favorite cookies.
Tears finally fell as she recalled their last night together.
"Marinette, I can't stay," he said, looking at the breathtaking view of Paris instead of at her.
"Why," she asked, touching the back of his shoulder.
"I know who you are. And you'd never love me if you knew who I really was."
"That's not true, Cat. Give me a chance," Marinette said, clutching the necklace he had given her for her eighteenth birthday.
"I'm sorry. I graduated high school; Hawkmoth is gone. I just need to get away. From Paris. From superheroes. From all of it."
"That's not fair, Cat. I love you, all of you," Marinette said, turning him around to look at her.
"You don't know all of me, Marinette," Cat said, caressing her cheek as tears fell down his own.
"You deserve so much better. Someone who doesn't have to lie to you because danger will always exist. Someone who isn't so messed up."
"I don't want anyone else. I want you. No one but you, Cat."
Those words echoed through her mind. Playing over and over and over. When she found the cat miraculous on the potted plant outside of her family's bakery, she rushed to find the one who left it.
To her surprise, and heartache, that person was none other than Adrien Agreste. And for one last time, she failed to tell him how she really felt.
It turned out that when someone had enough money and absolutely no desire to be found, they could hide anywhere. Marinette, Alya, and eventually Nino spent the first year of his disappearance searching the globe. Marinette, naturally, was the last person to give up hope of seeing her soulmate again.
The phrase time heals all wounds, it turned out, was the farthest from the truth. At least, it was for the spotted heroine.
"I miss you so much, you know," Marinette said, speaking to the stars as they began to light up the sky.
"But at least I hope you're happy. Wherever you are," Marinette said, standing as she wiped her eyes.
Marinette looked all around her, a view she had taken for granted for so much of her life. How much would she remember, after all was said and done?
Marinette didn't expect to find the perfect replacement Ladybug when she started teaching design to kids after classes. But, when she watched the young girl help her fallen classmate, her heart sung. The more she taught the girl, the surer she became.
Alya thought Marinette had lost her mind when she brought it up to the fox holder. But, when Marinette invited Alya along to teach photography, Alya saw it too. The confidence, the sense of justice, the heart. It was like looking back in time. And, when Marinette found the feisty brunette who was ready to take on four guys his senior just to recover a poor lady's purse, she knew she had found her spotted heroine's leather-clad partner.
After weeks of training both of them, checking the chemistry and giving them all the advice she had accumulated during the years of fighting, Marinette knew it was time to finally pass the torch.
"Are you sure about this, Girl," Alya asked.
"Alya, they're perfect. You said so yourself," Marinette said, sipping her coffee from their cozy couch in Manhattan.
"They are. Doesn't mean you have to give up the role of guardian."
"Claire can handle it."
"You didn't."
"She's stronger."
"You'll lose your memories, Mar. Are you sure this is what you want."
"All I see is him, Alya," Marinette said, eyes welling with tears. "I can't eat, sleep, breathe without thinking about him. I want to move on with my life. And I can't do that without letting him go."
"You can let him go and keep your memories."
Marinette shook her head. Alya never understood how deep their relationship went. How, even without their memories, they found each other time and time again. How their love had once destroyed the world. How they had fallen in love with each other in every form possible. How he left because he couldn't bear to let her see what she had, unbeknownst to him, fallen in love with day one.
When Marinette's parents passed, wrapped up in each other's arms, she knew it was time. And the journey lead her here. To this moment. Reliving every electrifying moment her miraculous had given her. And the ultimate price she would pay to keep its secrets.
Marinette took the lucky charm he had given her so many years ago out of her purse. She took the necklace off of her neck, the ladybug and cat pendants shining as bright as the day he had given it to her. She tied both of them to the balcony, kissing the pieces of fabric and metal as they blew in the wind.
"It was nice knowing you, my Chaton. My Adrien. I loved every second," she said, tightening the scarf around her neck as she climbed down to her bedroom.
She turned the lights off one by one, and she ended her journey with locking the bakery doors. And, as she hailed her taxi to take her to the hotel, she had hope. Hope that they would find each other again one day. Without magic, superheroes, or secret identities. Just two adults, free from the burdens that tied them together but never let them see the truth.