Hey everyone! Lila got akumatized. Are we surprised? No, no we are not.
Thanks to everyone for the reviews, favs, and follows! Melty Camembert Hearts to everyone!
Also, I do not own the characters, just the plot!^-^ Enjoy!
Everyone was staring up at where Lila was standing on the upper roof, glaring down at them with a wicked smirk on her face.
"I am Nightmare. You still think you won't regret your decision Adrien?" She taunted, lifting her hand as a purple sphere formed in the palm of her hand as she held it out towards them. "Have a taste of this!"
The purple sphere flew from her hand and he moved instantly, grabbing Marinette and pulling her out of the way with him. They watched as the sphere collided with the ground with a loud pop, sending a glittering purple dust into the air.
"You can't protect her forever! I'll give you no choice but to love me! I'll make you watch as that good-for-nothing turns into your worst nightmare!" Lila called out angrily.
She started quickly shooting more of those purple spheres towards them. It didn't seem like it was taking any time for her to recover before sending more spheres down in succession. Students were scrambling in a panic after the first shot, trying to avoid being hit in the haze of dust clouds forming around the commons. He and Marinette remained Lila's main targets, but it was obvious she didn't care about anyone she was catching in the cross-fire.
They tried to get away from her long enough to transform, but they couldn't shake her without finding their way blocked by another dust cloud.
Adrien frowned to himself. Running like this wasn't working, and the dust clouds were closing in on them from all directions.
They heard yelling start through the lingering dust as they ducked underneath the staircase when visibility became almost zero.
"Oh please, you really think anyone likes that god-awful-trash you call music?" Alya said angrily.
"Oh and you, miss check your facts?" Nino responded just as angry, "You couldn't see Lila's lies from a mile away even if you tried."
"We aren't both going to be able to get away," he whispered as Marinette said it in a similar low tone, "We'll think of something."
He whispered it back to her, "You go. I'll hold her off for as long as I can and try to get her away from where she can infect more people."
"You can't just expect me to leave you here to,"
"I'll be right behind you." He said confidently, giving her a small wink. She hesitated but started to step back, "Don't do anything stupid. I'm coming back to get you out."
He smiled at her, "As m'lady commands."
She flashed him a small smile before taking off in one direction while he took off in another. Nightmare was on him in seconds the way he knew she would be as soon as she saw him, "You really thought you could run?" A purple sphere was already waiting in her hand as he told her, "I'm pretty fit. I think I could outrun you for sure."
The people who had been in the commons were already arguing with each other or were off to find the person they wanted to yell at. He knew most of the classrooms would still be empty because of the lunch break, but he had to draw her as far from the cafeteria as he could. That was no doubt where most of the students would still be.
She growled out at she threw another round of spheres at him, making him have to duck behind a bench to avoid the unrelenting shots. Her shots followed him all the way to an empty classroom on the opposite side of the school from the cafeteria. He threw the door shut and went straight towards the window, opening it quickly as Plagg warned him, "You need to transform dummy."
"I can't as long as Nightmare is my tail Plagg. I trust my lady, we just need to," Plagg ducked into his shirt quickly.
"You aren't going to get away!" Another shot flew past his ear as he turned around in surprise.
Nightmare took deliberate slow steps towards him, her hand poised at the ready as she aimed at him. He watched the purple sphere come to life in front of her palm as she told him triumphantly, "Now you'll be mine, whether you want to or not."
"You really want me to yourself that much?" He asked simply.
Nightmare huffed, "It has nothing to do with you. You are as big a pain in the neck as that goodie-goodie Marinette. I just don't want her to have you. She's been after you for years. If it wasn't for me keeping her in check all this time, her little attempts at telling you the truth about her feelings may have actually worked."
He felt a hiss building in his throat, "I'm not the same person I was a few years ago." It was taking every conscious effort to cage the animal instincts building inside of him, and warned her as evenly as he could, "You need to be very careful with what you are implying."
Nightmare smirked, a dark sparkle in her eyes, "Is that right? You think you've grown up enough to play with the big girls? What do you think you can do?"
She lowered her hand, the purple sphere shrinking in size before disappearing, "Stop me from taking scissors to the hand-made sweater she made you for Christmas last year? Or make sure your Valentine's gift wasn't smashed into the millions of little pieces it was meant to be? Or how about stop me from taking credit for the VIP tickets she had gotten you for Jagged's concert for your birthday?"
She was taking a step closer to him with every act against Marinette she was admitting to, "Or my personal favorite, taking that sickeningly obnoxious love letter she had written for you and swiping it from her bag before she could give it to you?"
She laughed a hard sound, "You never noticed a thing. You are just a blind little boy who doesn't have a clue."
He asked hard, "Where is the letter?"
She smirked, "Oh that's in a safe place don't you worry. You'll see it soon enough. The whole school will. I warned her what would happen if she didn't stay away from you."
He heard the familiar zip of a yo-yo and said it smirking, "Well, that's going to be hard, seeing as the first chance I get I'm going to ask her to be my girlfriend."
Nightmare raised her hand to attack him just as a familiar yo-yo string wrapped around him. He smirked at her, giving her a small wave before he was being yanked back out of the window. He was caught by familiar red and black arms before he was being carried off away from the school. They didn't go far before Ladybug was setting him down in silence, asking low, "You okay?"
He nodded, "Fine. She didn't manage to hit me."
She turned away from him, taking a few steps towards the roof's edge, "If you are going to transform, this would be the time."
He walked up to her, turning her back around as he stared into her eyes, "Claws out."
Their gazes never faltered as the green magic swirled around him. She looked away first by turning back to the school, saying it quickly, "We have an akuma to catch Kitty."
"Lead the way M'Lady." He said easily, even knowing that there was still a lot they needed to talk about. Despite having kissed her, and her kissing him back, that wouldn't be enough to fix what he had done.
They raced back towards the school, but found Nightmare laughing as she threw purple spheres towards people in the streets, fighting and screaming erupting with every new blast. "That's right! Face your worst nightmare in the eyes of the person you love most. Let them see you for who you truly are inside!"
"You don't have the right to make that choice for them." Ladybug said sternly, her yo-yo twirling at her side.
He placed his baton over his shoulders lazily, smiling tauntingly, "Yeah, if we let you choose, it would really be a nightmare."
Ladybug shot him a hard glance but he only smirked. They quickly dodged the stream of sphere's Nightmare was throwing at them with a vengeance as she asked with a hard sneer, "What did you do with mister and misses perfect-for-each-other?"
Chat said it hard, "Marinette is safe."
"And Adrien is out of your reach." Ladybug said in the same hard tone.
Nightmare lunged at them but they moved out of her reach, playing a game of untouchable tag. As they hid behind a car to try and catch their breath, Ladybug told him, "I think the akuma is in her bracelet. Do you think you can get to it if I get you the opening?"
He nodded, "How are you going to do that? We can't get close to her without her trying to nightmare us."
"I think we add a little more luck to the mix." Ladybug told him with a small smile.
"I'll cover you." He moved out from behind the car and kept Nightmare's attention on him. He heard the familiar call, "Lucky Charm!" Nightmare suddenly smirked as she saw the opening he did, the opening he and Ladybug both knew was there. He was moving before his mind could tell him not to. The lucky charm fell into her hand, and the sphere slammed into his chest. He flew back as Ladybug screamed out, "CHAT!"
He could feel her power rippling inside of him as he grabbed his stomach, trying to keep it down. He felt a hand on his arm and she told him softly, "Fight it, fight it Kitty please." He groaned, knowing he as in a losing battle. He whispered it to her longingly, "I love you."
"Chat," she whispered, making him look up at her angrily as his hold snapped, "Ladybug." He swung at her with his baton but she flipped back out of the way.
His voice was hard, "What's the matter bug? Afraid to get too close?"
Nightmare was cackling above them, "Grab her miraculous Chat Noir!"
He twirled his baton, "With pleasure." He went towards her, saying it angrily, "You don't deserve your miraculous. You are supposed to be strong and fearless, and you couldn't even do something simple like tell the boy you love that you love him!"
She blocked him as best as she could, trying to use his momentum against him as she told herself, 'This is the akuma talking. Chat doesn't think these things. This isn't him.'
He kept taunting her, "All you had to do was say something! Instead you left me in the dark, thinking I wasn't good enough, that I would never be good enough!"
She couldn't help herself, "That's not true! I tried! I tried to tell you!"
"NOT HARD ENOUGH!" He caught her middle with the baton and sent her flying back into the air. She threw her yo-yo to catch herself, but didn't move fast enough. A purple sphere slammed into her back, causing her to roll forward as she hit the nearest rooftop. She groaned, feeling the akuma's magic invading her mind.
She stared at the lucky charm still in her hand, it was a baton, just like Chat Noir's. A switch flipped in her mind as the pain disappeared and she stood slowly, extending the baton like a sword. Chat Noir dropped in front of her, shifting into a fighting stance, "You really think you are a match for me?"
She smirked wickedly, "I know I am. You are nothing more than a blind child who can't see the truth that's right in front of you."
"And who's fault is that?" He snarled.
Nightmare's laugh didn't affect either of them as they fought. Ladybug's voice was hard, "All I wanted was for you to see me! Just once! That was it, that was all I had ever asked and you couldn't even do that!"
"You think I didn't want to! I spent the past year talking myself out of falling in love with you! Do you realize how torn up I was? Your constant rejection, watching you walk away, I felt like I was willingly tearing out my own heart!"
"You think I had it any easier? Going day in and day out hearing how much you only loved half of me?" She blocked his swing to her right before telling him, "I can't do it anymore! I hate that this has happened! I wish I could take it all back!"
Chat flinched but matched her tone, "Then let's just take it back and be done with it! If this is how it is going to be, I wish you had never told me how you really felt!"
They said it together, "At least that way I could love you the way you deserve!"
As if subconsciously, they both turned with batons in hand, throwing them straight at Nightmare who had been standing there more than amused to see the hero's fighting each other. Ladybug's baton caused Nightmare to dodge, but put her right in the path of Chat's baton, who hit the bracelet at her wrist with amazing accuracy.
The akuma flew free and Chat caught Lila before she could fall to the ground. Ladybug caught and purified the akuma, watching Lila return to normal before calling out for the Miraculous Ladybugs. The ladybugs swirled around her and Chat Noir. She instantly looked over at him, seeing him blink a few times before looking at her.
She ran over to him, tears in her eyes as she said it throwing her arms around his neck, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
He hugged her tightly, burying his face in her neck, "Please don't apologize. It was all my fault. You were right in front of me, and I was an idiot for not realizing it sooner."
"I should have never asked you to wait. I should have been brave enough to let you see without putting that burden on your heart."
"I should have opened my eyes, to see why I had to fight so hard to push down what I was feeling. If I had just accepted it the way you had, none of this would have happened. I'm so sorry bug, I'm sorry for everything."
Her eyes closed as she stood there in his arms, her earrings beginning the tell-tale count down of her time running out. Chat pulled back, telling her softly, "You need to go."
She looked over to see Lila getting to her feet as she nodded, "Soon Kitty." She caught Lila's eyes and told her, "You know, one day Hawkmoth is going to make you go too far, and you are going to regret it."
Lila rolled her eyes, "Think what you want."
Ladybug heard the beeping sound again and shook her head before taking off. Chat Noir was right on her heels. They went all the way to her house, both of them dropping onto her balcony before Chat asked her, "M'lady, can we talk?"
She turned back to him with a nod, "We need to, don't we?" Her transformation fell and she opened her trapdoor, "Come on."
He followed her inside before calling off his own transformation. They stayed sitting side by side on her bed. Tikki sat on her knee, while Plagg sat on Adrien's, neither of them saying a word as they munched on the macaron and camembert their holders had given them.
Adrien made sure to keep his hands to himself, but the urge to grab Marinette's hand was overwhelming. She was feeling the same way, but didn't have Adrien's restraint. She grabbed his hand firmly in hers, saying it again, "I am sorry. I'm sorry I didn't have the courage to tell you how I felt."
He squeezed her hand, shaking his head, "Marinette, don't ever apologize for that. I should have never pressured you like that as Chat Noir."
"You weren't pressuring me. You were such a prince about the whole thing." She said, a blush forming on her cheeks, "I should have given you the chance to cope with the fact that it was me underneath, without jumping to the conclusion that you had never felt anything for me." She looked up at him and asked, "Did you really, fight down your feelings for Marinette because of Ladybug?"
He glanced at Plagg who simply raised an eyebrow at him. He told her the truth, "That was part of it, the part I kept telling myself, but my feelings for Ladybug weren't the only reason." Plagg cleared his throat, staring at him hard. Tikki shushed Plagg who didn't look the least bit remorseful.
"Then, why? Why did you push me away?" She asked sadly.
His heart leapt into his throat and he turned to face her more evenly, grabbing her face in his hands as their kwami's flew up into the air at the sudden move, "I was scared, more than I had been about anything in my entire life."
She frowned and he tried to explain, "Do you not realize how wonderful you are? How beautiful you really are, inside and out? When I realized that my feelings for you had changed into something more, my hands shook, and my stomach filled with butterflies. I thought I was going to cry, and yet all I wanted to do was laugh. You made me feel so many things all at once, it scared me how much those feelings overwhelmed me."
He put his forehead to hers, "The next time I saw you, I nearly blurted it out without thinking. Instead I ended up standing there like an idiot not able to get out a real word as every negative thought I could have crossed my mind. What if she didn't return my feelings? What if I lost her as a friend because of this? Would someone as beautiful as her even fall for someone like me? Do I even deserve someone like her in my life?"
She put her hands over his, "Oh Kitty,"
He closed his eyes, "I know it was stupid now, but all those thoughts kept me from saying anything. When you told me how you felt that day, I had this awful bitter taste in my mouth. All I wanted to do was cry in shock because you actually loved me back, me, for me. It was the same strong surge of happiness I felt when Ladybug told Chat Noir that she loved him. I love you Marinette, both sides of you. Please, please believe that."
Marinette pulled away from him, keeping his hands in hers in her lap. He saw her staring down at their hands, her voice cracking, "I love you Adrien. I've always loved you, and I'll always love you."
He touched under her chin lightly, lifting her eyes up to meet his, "With your permission m'lady."
She didn't hesitate for a second as her lips made passionate contact with his. He melted against her, letting go of everything as the wall that kept them apart all this time, finally crumbled.
Thanks for reading! You didn't think I'd really end it here, did you? It is VALENTINE'S DAY my darlings! Fluff is NECESSARY! Well, I almost ended it here, but my beta kicked some sense into me^-^(We were on the same page about needing just that, something, more. You know?) SO more is coming soon so don't fret!
Feel free to leave a comment or review if you want!
Au Revoir for now!