Back to basics with this one, guys. Hope you enjoy dat angst :p Sorry for disappearing on you all like that! Finding inspiration has been hard :c

Hopefully this makes up for me being gone! uwu

Ladybug's POV:

It was easy to fall in love with Adrien Agreste.

He had that air about him that meant you just couldn't help liking him. He was funny, sweet, handsome, kind, caring, attractive, and everything else a good person should be.

How could Chat Noir ever compare to that?

It wasn't something I'd wanted to tell him, but he just kept asking me out. He kept pushing and pushing, asking why I couldn't love him, and I finally reached my limit. I couldn't take anymore.

So I told him.

"I'm in love with someone else!"

It was like time had stopped. He had stared at me as I tugged at my pigtails in frustration, frozen in shock at my declaration.

"S-someone else?" He finally choked out. "Who?"

I shouldn't have said anything. That would have been the right thing to do. But I was just so angry and tired of dealing with this from him that I didn't think of what was right, or logical. I didn't think about what the consequences of telling him would be, too caught up in my frustration, and so I lashed out, not even considering the idea that telling him the truth might be a hint at my identity.

"Adrien Agreste. I love Adrien Agreste." The world was so silent, you could have heard a pin drop.

"Adrien Agreste?" Chat practically choked out the name, looking at me with wide, angry eyes. "You don't even know him!"

"That's not true! I know him better than most people!" I argued back, hands balling into fists as I stepped towards him.

His eyes narrowed to slits as his tail lashed behind him, ears pinned to the back of his head. "No, you don't. You know why?" I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could fire off my retort, Chat shouted, "Plagg, claws in!"

I froze as, before my eyes, Chat Noir's transformation dropped. I'd never properly watched someone transform back before, so even though I knew I should shut my eyes, I was transfixed to the spot. Horror turned my blood cold and shattered my bones as green eyes met mine again, because this time, it was no longer Chat's eyes staring back at me, but Adrien's.

"No," I gasped out, looking at the model's eyes I always fantasized about staring into. Never had I ever seen them look so enraged, "no, it can't be."

"But it is! Ladybug, I thought...I thought you were different," he said, jabbing an accusing finger at me, "but clearly I was wrong. I thought if anyone could see through this disguise," he gestured to himself, "it would be you, but no. No, even you fell for the mask I'm forced to wear every day. Even you! This isn't me, Ladybug. Chat Noir? Chat Noir is me! You know me no better than anyone else if you prefer Adrien over me."

"No," I whimper, stumbling backwards.

How could it be? How could I have been so blind and missed the signs right in front of me?

"I thought I loved you, but I can't. I can't love someone who doesn't even notice the real me when I'm pining for them."

"And what about the real me?"

That was still the wrong thing to say. "You never gave me the chance to get to know her!"

Again, I stumble backwards like I've been struck, reeling closer and closer to the roof's edge behind me. "I-I'm sorry."

"That doesn't cut it. Now I understand why you behaved the way you did...and I don't want you anymore."

I acted on instinct, words fluttering out of my mouth almost unbidden. "Tikki, spots off." The words hung in the air as tears pricked at my eyes.

As the transformation dropped, I ripped the earrings from my ears, even as Tikki cried for me not to and Adrien's eyes widened. He stretched out a hand, mouth forming to say my name, but before he could react, I shoved the earrings into his hands. Stunned, he froze, and that was all it took.

With one last step back, I careened off the building.

It was easy to fall to the pavement below and greet the cold darkness that followed right after, far easier than facing the reality of the situation right in front of me.

And that's all I have to say about that. Yup. Say bye bye, Mari ;)