The moment Hawkmoth had been revealed changed everyone's lives. The whole Miraculous team was up in arms after Gabriel Agreste had the butterfly stripped from him and his face revealed to the world, but nobody took it worse than Adrien.

His life changed in a matter of moments. From hero, to son of a villain, to orphan, and his life crumbled before his eyes. He was broken … forever broken and he couldn't be fixed. There was no way he could ever be fixed. He'd changed a lot since that day, his carefree and soft attitude had hardened and he'd become a cold exterior of himself.

He had no love for Ladybug, for his remaining family, friends or his life. To be honest he wanted to get away from everything. So when Marinette appeared at his door, a present in hands, a declaration of love from her lips he could only do one thing, he turned her away.

"Marinette, I'm so sorry." She sat besides him on his couch, hand in hand as tears ran down her cheeks. She'd spent hours discussing this with Alya and yet here she was offering her love only to have it handed back to her without a care in the world.

"I should have known," she wiped the tears from her cheeks as Adrien squeezed her hand.

"Marinette, don't, it's … I just can't …"

She nodded, accepting his words even as her heart broke into thousands of pieces. She'd put so many years into Adrien, to have him break her heart was unbearable. Even though she knew there was a chance he wouldn't accept her, she never thought he actually would say a straight up no. He'd accepted Kagami a couple of years ago, so why didn't he accept her.

"It's me, isn't it! You can't love me. I'm sure if I was prettier, or - or more confident, you'd be fine being with me."

"Marinette, you're getting hysterical. I just can't deal with you at the moment -" Adrien's eyes widened when he realised what he'd just said but it was too late, Marinette had already yanked her hand out of his and moved her way off the couch.

"You can't deal with me? Me?"

"Marinette, please, things have been hard. I just need time -"

"Time to find a nicer way to let me down. I get it." She made her way to the door and swung it open, the sheer force sending excruciating echoes about the area. She stormed out of his room and began to make her way down the stairs. His words bounced around as she walked, the pain shooting right through her heart.

She'd spent years devoting herself to Adrien, to loving him from the sidelines and he didn't even have the decency to let her down nicely.

I can't deal with you at the moment.

She could hear him shouting her name as she ran out of the mansion, away from Adrien Agreste. She understood everything with his father had affected him, but the words he said hurt. They hurt so bad.

He caught up with her at the bottom of the steps outside the mansion and turned her around by her shoulder.

"Marinette, my father is a villain. I am dealing with so much at the moment and you come along, throw that on me and expect me to give you a straight up answer. I thought you had more sense than that. I'm going through hell, I need the support from friends, not love declarations and relationships."

"I get it Adrien, I do, I'm sorry, I just wanted you to know."

They stood staring at each other for a moment neither showing any signs of feelings. Just a blank canvas and a look of unsureness.

"I'm going," she finally said.

"I think it's best that you did," he looked down at the floor, kicking small rocks with his orange sneakers watching them bounce around.

Sniffing one last time, Marinette turned around and stalked out of the grounds of the Agreste mansion wanting to get as far away as possible for her heart to try to heal.

She walked down the street and headed towards the Trocadéro. Once she was there she could finally breathe and think. Her life had just been distorted by a boy … serves her right really, she shouldn't have based her life off of Adrien, or anyone to be exact. She should be living her life for herself, she was Ladybug for crying out loud and Ladybug didn't need a male in her life.

Finally, the steps came to view and she approached the top, taking a moment to look out at the Eiffel Tower and really think things through.

Adrien didn't want her … what did that leave her with? Luka? No, she tried with him and there was nothing there apart from friendship. She couldn't imagine waking up with him each morning, or even kissing him, it just seemed wrong.

Chat Noir? She sighed as she thought about her precious kitty. Chat's personality after the defeat of Shadowmoth was scary. He'd become rebellious and unpredictable, and nothing like her sweet soft kitty. They worked well as partners and unfortunately that's where it would stop. There was nothing left for them to share. They rarely spoke anymore, all that would pass was a couple of words between them on patrol.

Kagami? She sighed as she thought about her friend. After Gabriel had been revealed, Tomoe had taken Kagami back to Japan, away from her friends and from Marinette. The crush she had on Kagami was unexpected but powerful. Marinette had never really liked girls that way until she started to get closer to Kagami, and the love she had for the fencer made her heart swell, almost as much as her heart did for Adrien. She missed Kagami everyday, she missed the close friendship and the way Kagami made her feel.

Letting out a deep sigh, she began to make her way down the stairs to the flat ramp leading towards the Eiffel Tower. She found a bench and sat down, head in her hands. In her grief, Marinette was oblivious to everyone around her including the shorter girl who'd halted her skating, to move forward and comfort her heartbroken friend.