AN: So…remember how I said early on that there was, like, no down time in this story? Yep, we've officially hit that point! Buckle up, because another action-packed chapter is here! (It's also double the usual length!)
Chapter 9: No More Evildoing
Ladybug panicked as Cat Noir approached, his gloved hands getting closer and closer to her earrings. What could she do to prevent this from happening? She couldn't allow Cat Noir to get her earrings! The consequences of that one simple action would be too great! Unfortunately, though, she was cornered. Her kitty had snagged his prey, the poor grounded ladybug! There had to be something that she could do. If nothing else, Ladybug knew that she needed to buy herself some more time until she could think up a more solid plan! Think, Ladybug, think!
Then, Ladybug remembered that she hadn't yet used her Lucky Charm. She'd figured out what to do with it, but she didn't have a chance to put it to use before Cat Noir had activated his Cataclysm and slammed the power of destruction into her poor chest. Now, where had the Lucky Charm gotten to? Ladybug wondered. When her partner had raced at her with Cataclysm in hand, Ladybug had been holding the Lucky Charm lip balm in her closed fist. It was probably most likely that she'd dropped it when the Cataclysm made contact with her ribs. Hopefully the tube of lip balm hadn't rolled away. The last thing she needed was for the lip balm to have rolled off the roof and down onto the sidewalk. She knew that it wouldn't be possible for her to find enough strength right now to get down to the sidewalk to grab the lip balm tube if it had rolled down there.
Trying to hide her actions from her partner, Ladybug discreetly felt around nearby, hoping her fingers would brush against the lip balm tube somewhere. Hopefully she would find the lip balm tube in a place where Cat Noir wouldn't notice it; he would definitely recognize the spotted ladybug pattern instantly. Please, luck be on my side again! Please let it be here somewhere!
Cat Noir was right on top of her now and his hands were almost to her earrings. His smirk told Ladybug everything she needed to know about what he was thinking right now. He figured that he'd won. Ladybug was defenseless, in too much pain to flinch away or defend herself with her yo-yo (and he wasn't wrong, unfortunately). In less than a minute, Cat Noir knew that he would claim victory. He would have the earrings and he would know Ladybug's secret identity. She couldn't let that happen!
Ladybug closed her eyes, bracing for the inevitable. As she did, though, her fingertips brushed against a small object. Even without seeing it, Ladybug knew exactly what she'd found underneath herself. Yes! My Lucky Charm! Quickly, she grabbed it and balled her fist to hold onto it once again. Now, she could put her plan into action and she prayed that it would work because she didn't know what she would do if it did not.
Snapping her eyes open, Ladybug looked to her sinisterly happy feline partner. "Wait, Cat Noir!" she told him, effectively stopping him in his tracks. "I—" she started, fumbling a little for the words that she could use to bait Cat Noir into going along with her plan. "You're right, Cat Noir," Ladybug started again. "It was never fair to you for me to hold your feelings hostage like that. I feel so bad, Cat Noir, and I want to make it up to you, if you'll let me."
As Ladybug watched, she saw Cat Noir's eyes widen. Good, he's considering my offer. Then, another one of Hawk Moth's glowing masks appeared over Cat Noir's face. Just like before, Ladybug could pretty much guess what the supervillain was saying to her partner. Don't be fooled, Cat Noir. She's trying to set you up; it's a trap! She could see Cat Noir grappling with this possibility. No, she couldn't let him fall again to the pressure of Hawk Moth. Ladybug knew that she had to continue talking, keep Cat Noir gripped to her words instead of the lies that Hawk Moth was feeding to him. "Cat Noir," she spoke softly, grabbing her partner's attention once again. "You're right and you've helped me to see the error of my ways. It's just as you said. We can't be together, as a couple, as long as we have the responsibilities that come with our Miraculous."
Ladybug paused to judge how Cat Noir was reacting to her words. So far, so good! she observed. He was still hanging tightly to everything that she was saying. Time to turn it up even more! she decided. Hopefully he would be too ecstatic by her change of decision to realize how fake this all was, everything that she was telling him right now. "It truly is amazing, Cat Noir, how you know me so well. You're right about my feelings about being Ladybug. I've actually been thinking for some time now about renouncing my Miraculous, giving up being Ladybug. I never knew how to tell you that truth, Cat Noir, but it seems that you already knew anyway."
Cat Noir seemed to recover from his shock at hearing the words that Ladybug was speaking. He gave Ladybug a small smile. She could almost fool herself into believing that it was genuine, but, no, that was not his normal soft smile. This one was still too twisted, darkened by the taint of the akuma within him. "Allow me to help ease your burden, M'lady. Without our Miraculous, you and me, we'll be free finally." Again, Cat Noir slowly reached his hands toward Ladybug's earrings.
"No," Ladybug told him softly, keeping her voice calm to prevent Cat Noir from seeing through her lies. She reached up to gently grip her partner's wrist, just behind the cuffs of his gloves. "I want to do it. I want to be the one to remove my earrings."
These words seemed to startle Cat Noir, but he recovered quickly enough. "As you wish, M'lady," he obliged with a bow.
Ladybug tried to make a show of reaching up toward her earrings. However, her plan faltered just a tad as the motion of raising her arms shifted her chest; she felt the movement in her broken ribs and shuddered a little from the pain. She'd hoped that Cat Noir wouldn't notice, but, like always, nothing made it past him.
"Are you sure about this, Ladybug? I can see that you're in pain. Let me get the earrings from you."
"No, no," Ladybug tried to reassure him. She grimaced through another wave of the pain. "I'll be fine. I want to do this." Clenching her fist tighter, Ladybug felt her Lucky Charm there, giving her just a little more strength and confidence in her plan.
"There is, though, something that I want to do first, something that I've wanted to do for a long time," she told Cat Noir. Ladybug gave him a smile and she hoped that he wouldn't notice the fakeness of her facial expression. "Can you help me to stand up?" she asked, reaching out her left hand—the one that wasn't clenching tightly onto the Lucky Charm lip balm—to Cat Noir.
If he'd noticed that Ladybug had reached out to him with her non-dominant hand, Cat Noir said nothing as he took Ladybug's hand. Carefully, he helped her to shift into a standing position. Ladybug was amazed that, even while akumatized, he gently braced her chest area with his hand, keeping it from being injured further. Maybe subconsciously he remembers the day that Miraculer did this to him? Ladybug wondered.
By now, Ladybug was certain that she knew where the akuma was hiding. This entire time, ever since the moment she'd come to him here on this roof, Cat Noir hadn't once pulled his stick from his back. Ladybug knew the value that Cat Noir placed upon his weapon of choice. Like Ladybug with her yo-yo, Cat Noir never went into a battle without drawing his stick and having it at the ready, just in case. Even though Cat Noir had been facing off against her, the girl that he loved, Ladybug couldn't imagine that he would not draw his stick to match head-to-head with her yo-yo…unless the akuma was hiding there! He wouldn't want to take the chance of the stick getting broken and releasing his akuma!
"Before I give you my Miraculous," Ladybug began to say. She took in a breath and it stung all the way down into her lungs. "There's something that I want to do, that I've wanted to do for a long time now." Ladybug tried to give Cat Noir a smile, but she was certain that the pain in her chest turned her facial expression into more of a grimace. "If you'll let me," she continued. Of course he would, she already knew. This was what Cat Noir had wanted since the day they met, for Ladybug to show even just an ounce of romantic affection for him.
"Ladybug?" Cat Noir seemed confused. This new interest in showing love to him had caught him completely off-guard.
Good, Ladybug told herself. Keep him surprised. It'll make it easier to pull off the plan. If there was any resistance from Cat Noir, any at all, then all bets would be off. Injured as she was, Ladybug's only hope was to take advantage of Cat Noir's one weakness, his intense love for her.
Carefully, Ladybug opened the tube of lip balm, making sure to keep it covered so Cat Noir wouldn't notice the ladybug design and realize that she was using her Lucky Charm. Applying the balm to her lips, Ladybug was pleased to find that it tasted like bubble gum. That was an excellent flavor choice, very kissable, perfect for her plan. "I can never thank you enough, Cat Noir," Ladybug told him. "You helped me so much today. Because of you, I've seen the error of my ways. I've realized that I no longer love the other boy that I would always tell you about. Trying to love him was like chasing a dream and I was foolish to look right past you, the one who has always been by my side and loved me all this time." Ladybug carefully stepped even closer to Cat Noir. Now there was no distance between them. If her ribs weren't broken, Ladybug could have reached her arms around Cat Noir's neck and pulled him to her in a tight hug. It would have helped her plan, but Ladybug wasn't willing to deal with that pain; the plan would work just fine without a hug, she was sure of that! "Finally, you've made me realize that renouncing my Miraculous is the best solution for me, for us. I'm so sorry that it took so long to realize all of this, Cat Noir. Let me make it up to you." She carefully rose up on her tiptoes and then, before she could change her mind again, pressed her lips to her partner's.
She could feel Cat Noir's breath hitch just a little. He hadn't expected this move, but he didn'treject her. In fact, he closed his eyes and deepened their kiss. Ladybug hated to admit that she actually kind of liked kissing Cat Noir. He was a surprisingly good kisser and he put so much emotion and love into the simple move. If she hadn't fallen first for Adrien Agreste, Ladybug knew that there would've been nothing stopping her heart from falling in love with Cat Noir.
Just as Ladybug had hoped, her kiss with Cat Noir helped to dissipate all of her partner's negative emotions. With nothing left to fuel its wicked desires, the akuma flew out of its hiding space. It had concealed itself within Cat Noir's stick, just as Ladybug had guessed earlier. Cat Noir broke the kiss and sank to his knees as the dark magic bubbled over him, visually showing that he'd returned back to normal, to Ladybug's loyal friend and partner once again.
"Huh?" he started, opening his eyes. "What happened?"
Ladybug smiled as she heard her partner's soft gentle voice, free of the harshness and taunting that it had held while he was akumatized.
She would've been happy to linger in the pleasant reminder that Cat Noir, her friend and favorite partner, had returned to normal, but there were still things that needed to be done first. The akuma needed to be purified or it would happily cause more chaos and, as Ladybug had learned on several occasions now, the second time was always much worse!
However, with her ribs still affected by the Cataclysm earlier, Ladybug knew that this was a time when her Miraculous Cure would have to come first. She was never happier that this Lucky Charm was so small and light. How lucky, indeed! Tossing the lip balm tube up in the air, Ladybug yelled, "Miraculous Ladybug!"
Ladybug hated to admit that she would kind of miss that lip balm. She'd really liked its bubblegum flavor, but the feeling of having her ribs magically healed helped her to get over the loss. Maybe later she would go buy a tube of bubblegum-flavored lip balm, as a reminder of today and how important Cat Noir is to her.
There wasn't much that the magical ladybugs needed to fix after this akuma battle. In fact, Ladybug was pretty certain that her ribs had been the only things that had been damaged during this fight. For that, she was a little relieved. Even though she, herself, had been injured badly, Ladybug was happy to know that nobody and nothing had gotten caught in the crossfire this time. The power of destruction that Cat Noir wielded was extremely powerful and could be very dangerous if not used responsibly. Ladybug had known that before and she'd definitely been reminded of it today.
Once the magical ladybugs cleared the skies, Ladybug knew what to do next. The akuma had already flown high into the sky but it wouldn't get away from her! "No more evil doing for you, little akuma!" Ladybug opened her yo-yo and swung it around a few times to gain momentum before throwing it out toward the dark butterfly. "Time to de-evilize!" The open yo-yo reached the purple and black butterfly, closing around it and successfully capturing it. Pulling her yo-yo back, Ladybug smiled. "Gotcha!" A second later, she reopened the yo-yo, releasing a pure white butterfly. "Bye, bye, little butterfly!"
One last task remained and Ladybug knew this one might be the hardest that she would have to face today. That was definitely saying something after she'd just faced the toughest akumatized victim that she'd ever fought. She walked over to Cat Noir, who was still on his knees, and offered him a hand to help bring him back up to his feet. Ladybug could see her partner's hesitation as Cat Noir accepted the help.
Together, Ladybug and Cat Noir stood facing each other. Neither really knew what to say. Before they could speak, though, Ladybug heard a frantic beeping close to her ear. She was running out of time before her transformation would fall. Now would definitely not be the time for an accidental reveal of her secret identity. The Bug and Cat team needed to build back up their trust in each other first. It was not broken completely, but Ladybug knew that it was definitely fractured, wounded in the way that her ribs had been after the hit from Cataclysm—not enough to be life-threatening, but definitely very painful!
A frantic beeping also sounded from Cat Noir's ring. Ladybug watched silently as he looked down and noticed that two of the pads had now disappeared. Even though he'd activated his Cataclysm much longer than five minutes ago, it seemed that the dark magic of the akuma had kept his transformation intact. That kind of made sense though, especially since the akuma had been hidden in his stick. If the stick had disappeared with his costume, the akuma would've been gone too. Cat Noir wouldn't have been akumatized as a civilian. That kind of made Ladybug wonder what would've happened if that had occurred. Just like with Cat Blanc, too, where the akuma then had been in his bell, what would've happened if he'd detransformed and then called upon his transformation again? Would he have still been akumatized? The akuma, would it have still been there, in its object, waiting for the next transformation?
"I used my Cataclysm?" His voice sounded so broken that it hurt Ladybug to hear him speak so sadly. "I remember that, but not much else. I was hoping it was a nightmare."
It was, Cat Noir, Ladybug told herself silently. Fighting you has always been one of my worst nightmares. She pushed this thought aside, though. Right now, Ladybug needed to be strong for Cat Noir because she could definitely see him starting to break down already. "I want to talk about this with you, Cat Noir, but we're both minutes away from transforming back. Let's go take opposite sides by that chimney so that we can detransform and feed our kwamis. Then, we'll meet back out here when we're both ready and transformed again. Does that sound okay?"
Cat Noir just nodded in response, as if he didn't quite trust himself to speak yet. Ladybug gave him a small smile, hoping to convey through the soft gesture that everything would be okay. Then, she ran to the far side of the chimney, ducking behind the structure just before the final beep sounded and her transformation fell, returning her back to her civilian form, that of Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
A few chapters remain to tie up the loose ends…because…I mean, Cat Noir is pretty torn up over what happened. I can't just leave the story with him feeling that way! I love him too much! Hopefully you all enjoyed this "double chapter"!
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