It had been two weeks. Two weeks had passed since Kagami's world had been torn apart and her life had become nothing more than a lie. She sat on the bench of the school gymnasium and wondered why she was even there. She had a choice now, if she didn't want to be here she didn't have to. She didn't have to be anywhere she didn't want to go. She no longer had to be the perfect student, have the perfect hair, or the perfect boyfriend … She was free to be herself.
She looked at the ring placed on her finger and twisted the silver metal as it glistened and sparkled in the sunlight beaming down from the window. She was alone at the moment, nobody else was here. Alone. She was always alone.
Standing up she walked over to her bag which she'd discarded to the side when she entered the locker room, anger over powering her motives causing her to launch the bag into the corner. No one was here to see it though. Nobody ever was.
Picking up the bag, Kagami made her way back to the bench and began to rummage through it, looking for one specific item. Finding the dark glasses in question, she picked them up and studied them. Oh how she wanted to break the stupid things. How she wanted to destroy them exactly as her mother had done to her life, how Tomoe had used her own greed to put Kagami in this position. She squeezed them hard in her hand before stopping herself. That would be the easy way out, the easy way to stop her from feeling these terrible, awful things.
She placed the glasses back into her bag and reached for her phone instead hoping she'd gotten a message from Adrien. It had been a week or so since she last heard from him, since she'd last heard from most people. Perhaps they saw her as a monster now, as someone they don't want to be around or near, after all that's what she was wasn't she? A monster?
She knew her friend had got it worse than she had, after all, it was his parents that had started this whole mess to begin with. Without Gabriel's need for complete control and power they would all still be going about their day to day lives like nothing was different, like they weren't made of nothing more than a feather.
1 new message: Marinette
Kagami sighed, of course it was Marinette, who else would message her? The girl was non stop since the news came out, and as much as she loved her friend, sometimes Marinette's overactive positivity grated her down. There was only so much she could take from the raven haired girl asking her questions about it all.
Where's your feather?
Do you feel any different when you're wearing your maman's glasses to when you're not?
Does taking your ring off change anything?
Why the girl was so inquisitive, she didn't know? And to be honest she couldn't be bothered to find out. So what if she'd been an amazing support to Adrien? Who cares that she'd been spending time with Chloè, regardless of their less than friendly relationship? Who cares, who cares, who cares?
Without realising Kagami had made her way over to a locker and started to beat her fists against it before everything got too much. She slammed her fist one last time before allowing the tears to fall. She never cried. Her maman always told her she couldn't, so she wouldn't, but it looks like now she was free to let them fall. Free to cry as much as she wanted too.
She pulled her knees into her chest and let every emotion out. She cried and cried and cried, until she couldn't cry any more. Nobody ever came to check up on her, nobody cared. They all had their 'other halves' to help them, whilst she had nothing.
Burying her head in her knees she closed her eyes, maybe she should just break the sunglasses. Wouldn't everything be a lot easier that way?
"No," a voice sounded around the locker room and she realised she'd spoken out loud. She wasn't quite sure of the voice, but something in her longed for it to speak again. It settled her soul. Calmed her down.
"I don't know who you are, but I suggest you go. I'm not good company."
"Why would I go when I've spent most of the day searching for you?"
Searching for her? Who would be searching for her? She had two friends. Two friends, who at the moment, were too busy being adorable, love sick teenagers to care about her, and they deserved it. They were made for each other after all.
"Why would you search for me? Are you on a monster hunt?"
A laugh sounded around the room and gripped onto her heart. The noise held her tight, giving her a little piece of hope, but she knew better than that. She knew what she was and she was dealing with it in her own way. She didn't need anyone else.
"You missed the unmasking."
Unmasking? Suddenly she was curious, she wanted to know what this was actually all about. Who was unmasking?
"Unmasking?" She lifted her head and met eyes with a stunning blue. "Luka? Why are you here?"
Out of everyone who might have been searching for her, he wouldn't have even made the top one hundred on her list. They'd spoken a couple of times when she'd been to 'Kitty Section' practice, or when he was with Marinette, but she was nothing to him as he was to her, so why was he looking for her?
"May I sit?" Luka pointed to the space next to her against the lockers, to be met by a nod from Kagami. He made his way into the space and sat beside her, mirroring her position by pulling his long jeaned legs into his chest and looking over to her.
"You've got rips in your jeans. You should buy new ones."
He smiled at her and looked down at the fray over his knee, using one of his fully ringed hands to mess with the stands of cotton. He turned his head to look at her, only to see she was staring intently at where her mother's glasses lay.
"Everyone's worried about you," Luka said, keeping his eyes firmly on the girl next to him. "The boss has a search party out for you."
"Yeah well, where else would I be at three in the morning?"
Kagami had broken into the collège, she needed somewhere to go that felt familiar and gave her some sort of ease and peace. This was the only place that that happened, this was the only place she had a little freedom, a little of the real Kagami. Fencing had been such a break from her normal perfect life, and although she strived to be the best, being beaten by Adrien was seen as acceptable. She was allowed to be second best here, she was allowed to make mistakes.
"Tell Marinette -"
"Ladybug," Luka broke Kagami's sentence, inputting the correct name into the story.
"Ladybug?"
Luka sighed. Yes, Ladybug. She had them all out. Each holder to a sentibeing helping them transition into their new lives. She'd been working non-stop on how to try and incorporate their feathers into their hearts and she'd finally found a way to break the attachment from feather to human, Adrien being the first.
"Yeah, she's been working with Adrien, and … she's amazing, you know, what she can do is something truly special."
Kagami huffed out a laugh.
"Do you have a little crush there? Because if you do let me stop you, you'll never win her heart, not over Chat Noir."
Oh, and didn't he know it? "I used to have a crush, yes, but they're made for each other. I'm over it."
She looked into his eyes and, yes, he most certainly was.
"So why has she got a witch hunt after me in the early hours of the morning?" Kagami asked, crossing her legs and dropping a little of her defensive wall.
"You never came to the grand 'unmasking'."
"And you know about that because …"
"Sometimes I can be a little bit snake-like." His eyes glistened with humour. So he was her partner for the take down. Ladybug said she'd paired them together for their yin yang compatibility. Who knew it would be Luka? They couldn't be more opposite; apart from their love for the arts, and music, and maybe even the way they hold on to feelings for too long when really they should let go?
"Well, I didn't feel like it, I'm part of the problem, I shouldn't have been included in the solution."
"Well, if that were true we'd have to say the same for Adrien."
Kagami laughed, full belly laughed. "Adrien, a hero? Yeah right! Could you imagine, Hawkmoth's son part of the superhero squad." She continued to laugh before stopping abruptly. Why wasn't Luka joining in? She stared into the blue eyes of her companion and it was as if she could read his mind.
"Which one was he?" She didn't really need to ask the question, the image of her two friends suddenly coming clear in her mind. Now it made sense why Marinette was asking so many questions.
Like magic, it was as if Luka understood where her thoughts had come and gone too. He nodded with a 'can you believe it' smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.
"They're worried about you, Kagami."
"So, can she help me?" Kagami's voice was small, and suddenly she found she couldn't stop shaking. The adrenaline and the emotion in her body sending it spiralling out of control.
"She can."
"She's fixed Adrien?" Kagami asked.
"He wasn't broken, but I think it's fair to say that he is whole now."
Kagami wiped under her eyes and began to stand up, before her knees buckled underneath her. She began to fall to the ground only to be caught by Luka and helped to her full height. He shrugged his jacket off and placed it over her white blazer, intent on helping the physical shaking he could see coming from her body.
"Come on, she's waiting for you." Luka walked to her bag and zipped it up, placing it over his shoulder, as he wrapped an arm Kagami's, pulling her into his side and allowing her to use him for support.
"I'm not usually this overdramatic," Kagami said, moving alongside Luka.
The blue haired boy smiled down at the fiery girl next to him, as she stopped to study his face. There was something about him. A mystery waiting to be solved. As he guided her out of the building and down the steps she couldn't help wondering if when all this was said and done, maybe, just maybe, they'd have their chance to question their yin and yang. Who knows, maybe she might have a second chance at life?