To The Keeper of Worlds: Don't worry, everything gets explained eventually. And Alix unfortunately doesn't get more than a passing mention in this story. I started writing this before I'd seen "Timetagger" or "Chat Blanc," so Bunnyx doesn't show up at all. But I am thinking about ways to incorporate her in future stories…

To Speckleflower: Yep, they fought off (at least) one invasion of Earth in the next 6 years. Supposedly aliens and magic and the like all actually exist in-universe but just haven't shown up in the series yet. And we will revisit the pregnant future-Marinette in a few chapters; the next couple chapters are with the present-day Marinette, who is definitely not pregnant!

Present Day

Ladybug crouched next to Cat Noir, their school bags hidden behind a trashcan. "Do you realize this is the first time we've really fought together since—"

"Since my father, yeah." Cat Noir fell silent, a cloud over his face.

"It's okay, Kitty," she said, pulling him in for a quick hug and kissing his cheek. "Your father couldn't tear us apart, and neither will these guys. We beat him, so we can beat anyone!"

"It's just… I worry about you," he told her, looking her in the eye. "I'm not always there to watch your back."

"You don't have to worry. I'm always right here with you." She stood up, pulling him up with her. "Take the back while I go in the front."

"You got it, Milady."

Cat Noir ran down the alley and disappeared around the corner. Ladybug spun her yo-yo, looped it around a drainpipe, and swung herself up onto the roof. Quietly she made her way across the roof to the front of the diamond exchange. She could see a car idling outside, but this early in the morning, before most of the businesses opened, the foot traffic was light: all she saw was one woman standing on the other side of the street, looking into a storefront. She looped her yo-yo around a chimney and swung off the roof, spinning herself around to face the store and bracing her legs a moment before the impact.

The glass shattered as her feet made contact, and she landed in a crouch. She stood up to see a trio of men wearing ski masks and holding pistols on the far side of the store. They had all turned to face her at the sound, though one still had his gun pointed at the terrified clerk standing behind the counter.

"You know, it's common courtesy to make an appointment when you go ring shopping, boys," Ladybug told them calmly, pushing herself to her feet. She held her yo-yo loosely to one side, as if she hadn't a care in the world.

"Who–?"

"You mean you don't recognize me?" Ladybug smirked. She kept her eyes focused on the robber who appeared to be in charge, even as she saw a flash of black in her peripheral vision when Cat Noir slipped in from the back. "I know I haven't been out as much since Hawk Moth's defeat, but I'd think you people would recognize the Hero of Paris when she's standing right in front of you!"

"Ladybug?" All three robbers pointed their guns at her chest. Cat Noir crept down the hallway from the back storage room and quietly pulled the clerk to safety.

"In the spandex," Ladybug replied, holding her arms out. Cat Noir stood less than a meter behind the robbers, all of whose attention was focused on her. "So we can do this the easy way, where you come quietly and I don't have to string you up with my yo-yo like a side of beef. Or we can do this the hard way, where you try to fight and I make you look silly. Which way is it going to be?"

"It's just one chick in a stupid costume!" shouted the leader. "We can take her."

One of the robbers started taking a step toward her, only for all of them to freeze in their tracks when Cat Noir said, barely above a whisper, "What makes you think she's alone?"

Ladybug grinned at the looks of terror on all three robbers' faces as they heard Cat Noir's voice. Before she could react, however, the robbers erupted into motion. Two turned to face the new threat behind them, while the leader instinctively pulled the trigger.

Ladybug stumbled backward as pain blossomed from the middle of her chest. She fell to the ground, cradling the spot where she had been shot. Despite the ringing in her ears from the gunshot, she could hear Cat Noir's scream over the pandemonium.

"Ladybug!" Her heart broke at the utter despair in his voice. Suddenly the tone of his voice hardened.

"Cataclysm!"

The floor beneath her trembled and shook, and she blacked out.

[break]

As she came to, Ladybug heard a sound that reminded her of her mother tenderizing a cut of meat. She quickly jumped up but almost immediately regretted the motion when her broken ribs shifted. She looked around wildly. She was in a deep depression with shattered glass, walls, whole window panes, and even a wide assortment of jewelry, strewn around the pit. A few meters away, Cat Noir crouched over a trio of unmoving forms, mechanically punching them.

"Cat?" She called, stumbling toward him. He made no move to acknowledge her. "Cat Noir?" she called again. He continued to beat on the robbers as though she wasn't there.

"Lucky Charm!" she shouted, throwing her yo-yo into the air. A bullhorn landed in her outstretched hands. She threw her yo-yo and tied it around his arms and chest before screaming into the bullhorn, "CAT NOIR! STOP!"

"L-Ladybug?" Cat Noir slowly turned away from the prone forms in front of him to look up at her. His eyes, which had looked dead, quickly gained new life as his expression changed to confusion and shock. His jaw dropped open and he stared at her as though he was seeing a ghost.

Ladybug fixed him with a withering glare, so intense that he winced. "What were you thinking?" She enunciated every syllable, eyes narrowed and teeth bared.

"My-Milady…"

"You nearly killed them." She gestured to the slowly-stirring bodies lying in front of him. "You Cataclysmed the entire block apart!" She waved her arms, taking in the scene around them: the deep pit they were in, the jewelry store debris around them, the clear sky above them. The Cataclysm had torn the entire building apart, showering several blocks with flying debris. Bystanders stood at the edge of the pit, staring down at the destruction. "Explain!"

"Milady, I-I thought you – that you were – dead." He looked up into her eyes as tears began to form. He moved an arm to reach for her, but the yo-yo string prevented him. "Could you let me go?"

Ladybug didn't release him. She fixed him with a withering glare. "You thought I was dead, and your reaction was this?"

"I-I couldn't think—"

"No kidding you weren't thinking!" Ladybug screamed. "I never would have wanted you to do this – and because of me! How could you!? How dare you!?"

"Milady I—"

"This is never okay!"

"Milady—"

Ladybug's eyes welled up with tears. The anger in her face cracked a moment before she turned away from him, cradling her ribs. "I-I-I can't look at you right now. I need to go home. Goodbye, Cat." She climbed out of the crater, reeling in her yo-yo as she did so. When she reached the ground level she threw the bullhorn into the air and shouted, "Miraculous Ladybug." The debris began swirling around and repairing the Cataclysm's destruction.

"Ladybug! Please!" Cat Noir shouted behind her.

Ladybug walked out the newly-formed front door without a backward glance, ignoring the looks of shock on the bystanders' faces. She didn't stop until she was several blocks away, when she ducked into an alleyway to de-transform.

As Marinette walked back to the bakery, she couldn't believe what had just happened. Although her suit had stopped the bullet, her ribs still ached from the impact. There was going to be a bruise there, even though Miraculous Ladybug had healed the cracked ribs.

Cat Noir had nearly killed those robbers. Had she not acted, Cat Noir – Adrien – would have killed them! A part of her, she was ashamed to admit, had wanted him to do it; getting shot hurt! But she could never have forgiven him – never forgiven herself – if he had done that because of her.

She felt her face burning at the shame of what had happened. Getting shot was bad enough. Adrien's reaction was bad enough. But to top it all off, they had fought. Publicly. The bystanders passing on the sidewalk had watched her restrain him. They had heard her scream at him. They had stared at her in shock as she walked away from him after fixing the building. What did they think? What did they think of her after she screamed at her partner? After the Hawk Moth fight enough people had seen Ladybug and Cat Noir holding hands outside the mansion for them to let Alya announce their relationship on the Ladyblog. So what did they think of her screaming at her boyfriend?

Before she knew it, her steps had led her home. She pushed open the bakery door to find her parents talking animatedly behind the counter. Her father broke off what he was saying the moment he caught sight of her, and her mother immediately ran around the counter to wrap her up in a hug.

"Marinette!" her mother cried, holding her tightly. After a moment Marinette returned the hug, resting her forehead on her mother's shoulder and allowed the tears she'd been holding back to fall freely.

"I'm sorry, Mama," she sobbed. "Can I just stay home? I can't handle school today."

"Of course, dear," her mother said soothingly, sniffing back her own tears and patting Marinette's back. "It's all right. We understand. I'll call the school. You go upstairs and I'll bring up some hot cocoa."

Marinette nodded, squeezing her mother tighter. She slowly made her way up to her bedroom, crawled up the ladder to her bed, and pulled the covers over her head. Tikki flew out of her customary place in Marinette's purse, phased through the blanket, and sat down on the pillow next to Marinette's head.

"Marinette," Tikki began, pushing a strand of hair back from Marinette's cheek, "what's wrong? What happened?"

Marinette shook her head and sobbed. She couldn't face Tikki right now. She heard her mother push the trapdoor open, walk over to the bed, and slide a tray up onto the shelf next to her bed. A moment later her mother's footsteps receded and the trapdoor dropped shut again. Tikki left Marinette and phased through the blanket to check out the plate of cookies. Marinette didn't touch them.

Before lunchtime, Marinette sent Adrien a quick text. Then she rolled over, closed her eyes, and fell asleep.

Marinette woke up hours later to the sound of her trapdoor creaking open. "Marinette?" a familiar voice called out. "C'mon, girl, I know you're in here. I've got homework, and I've got treats. Take your pick."

She groaned, bleary-eyed, and pushed the blanket away. Then she looked over at her alarm clock. Four in the afternoon. She'd slept over four hours. That explained the headache – that and the morning's events. Marinette pushed herself up, ignoring the sandwich tray next to her bed, and looked down to see her best friend staring up at her, a plate of cookies and two mugs in her hands, Marinette's school bag on the floor by her feet.

"Alya? What are you doing here?"

"What do you think I'm doing here? You're miserable, so I came to cheer you up." Alya pulled down the previous tray, replaced it with the cookies and cocoa, and climbed the ladder to sit next to Marinette on the bed. She reached across Marinette and grabbed a handful of cookies. One she put into her own mouth and another she gave to Trixx, who'd just poked his head out of her pocket. Alya tossed another cookie to Tikki, who caught it in midair and floated down to sit on Marinette's shoulder.

"Alya, I'm fine," Marinette protested, only to have Alya stuff two cookies in her mouth.

Alya scoffed as she started listing on her fingers. "You missed school this morning. You had a public fight with your boyfriend – thanks, by the way; the Ladyblog hasn't had this much traffic since I announced your relationship. You haven't eaten anything since breakfast. You've spent the whole day in bed. And you got shot. You're a lot of things, girl, but 'fine' isn't one of them."

Marinette chewed on the cookies and forced herself to swallow. As the sweetness of the cookies sunk in, she sighed, allowing her lips to curl up into something approximating a smile for the first time since that morning. She closed her eyes and focused on the taste of the almonds and vanilla in the cookies. She reached out for a mug and took a few sips of her mother's hot chocolate. Finally she opened her eyes and looked at Alya.

"You're right, I'm not fine," she said, frowning. "I'm angry. I'm in pain. I'm embarrassed in a way I've never been as Ladybug before. At the moment I never want to see Adrien again. I just – I can't believe what he did!"

Marinette buried her face in Alya's shoulder and sobbed. Hours of stress and frustration and anger poured out in a torrent. Alya put her arms around Marinette's shoulders and let her cry. Marinette's shoulders were wracked with sobs. After what seemed like hours, Marinette's tears slowed and finally stopped. She looked up at Alya and groaned before leaning back against the wall.

"Thanks," she told her. "I didn't realize how much I needed that. The worst part is, I'm not even sure why I'm so upset about this!"

"Considering that you watched your boyfriend nearly murder a bunch of criminals out of revenge for your 'death,' I'd say you are justified!" Alya told her, arching an eyebrow. "If I knew Nino was capable of doing something like that, I'd be upset, too."

"The thing is, I've always kind of known that Cat Noir was capable of terrifying things – he destroyed the Eiffel Tower about a dozen times to stop Akumas!" Marinette replied, a look of confusion in her eyes. "But it's one thing to know that he can do those things and another to know he would do those things – and that he would do it because of me."

"I understand," Alya said, rubbing Marinette's back. "You are afraid that if this is what he would do if he just thought you were hurt, what would he do if you really were hurt?"

Marinette thought about it and nodded.

"Do you still love him?"

"What?" Marinette was shocked at the question. Of course she still loved Adrien. He was her partner, her best friend, her other half. She couldn't imagine facing the future without him by her side. She would do anything for him. "Yes, of course I love him."

"Do you still like him?"

Marinette furrowed her brow in confusion. What kind of question was that? If she loved him, then of course she liked him, right? But the more she thought, the more she realized that she didn't particularly like Adrien – not today, at least. She had seen a dark side of him that morning, something that she had only seen hints of before. That, she knew she didn't like. Even when he turned on her and tried to take her miraculous, he hadn't shown that level of rage – he'd been closer to despair at that time. If anything, today he had behaved more like Hawk Moth than he had like Cat Noir.

"I-I don't know," Marinette finally answered. "The things I've always liked are still there, but there was something else today, and I didn't like it. I don't know if I can look at him again without seeing him demolishing that building."

Alya nodded. "Give it time, girl. You've spent so much time together the last couple months, maybe you both need a breather. I'll be here for you whenever you need me."

Just to avoid any confusion, in this universe the Miraculous suits themselves can't be damaged except by miraculous-based magic (as stated in "Milady"). However, their resistance to blunt force is just that of whatever material they mimic. Consequently, Ladybug getting shot is the equivalent of getting punched in the chest at 1000 mph: The suit stops the bullet, but she still feels the impact.