AN: Longest chapter thus far! Also thank you again to those leaving reviews! They mean so much to me! I do appreciate the follows and favorites but reading your thoughts/feedback always makes my day.
A bit of a warning for those of you who have yet to see the MLB Origins/finale episodes – I incorporated a tiny itsy bitsy canon element towards the end from it but not enough to be a shocker.
Also this is where things go downhill as the story goes.
You'll see.
Listen to all the sad music in the world. LOL.
Happy reading~
La Tristesse
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"Vroom!"
"Vroom!"
"Vroom!"
"Beep! Beep!"
Marinette softly made car noises as she played with a small plastic car on her ever growing stomach. She noticed that she had gained some weight but not enough where it was super visible and obvious.
Over time she grew fonder of her little one as Tikki would keep her in check with how the baby was doing. She peacefully sighed, enjoying the quiet Sunday afternoon alone in her room. Her parents were out shopping for more flour, sugar, eggs, and other supplies needed in the bakery. Marinette was free to lounge around in just her neon green panties and a black lacy bra.
Part of her was missing her Kitty but she had given him the night off telling him that she would patrol alone. She didn't know much about his personal civilian life but he must be a hard worker. The droopy panda look suited him but he kept yawning during their recent patrols.
She decided he needed the reward of a good night's rest even though she knew he would probably break his promise of sleep. They had been searching for an escaped akuma for a good two weeks. The only leads they got was that she was a burglar, a total kleptomaniac skilled in the arts of stealth and hiding from authority.
Marinette felt a light breeze as Tikki flew up; tilting her head on her propped pillows, she silently questioned Tikki knowing that all too familiar expression on the little kwami's face: a message was coming through from Chat.
"What is it, Tikki?"
"Chat wants to meet right now. He said to meet him at the Palais"
Marinette shot out of bed, "The Palais? But that's a public place, Tikki!"
"He says he knows that and in order to respect your wishes, he'll be wearing a grey long sleeved dress shirt, black vest with a green tie, dark jeans, dress shoes and a black masquerade mask"
Marinette frowned, falling back into bed. She was not very keen on this idea. "We'll draw too much attention, especially in masks!" her throat felt like it was tightening, closing in on her, her hands beginning to get clammy, and her heart rate sped up.
Tikki hovered in front of Marinette's face, her small hands placed on her nose as she leaned down and kissed it. "Shh, easy. He says to please trust him. I know that part of your anxiety is due to your heighten hormones. Everything is going to be okay, Marinette"
Marinette closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, slowly nodding and getting up heading to her closet. Her Kitty wanted to meet at the Palais Royal Gardens of all places and although it was one of her favorite gardens in all of Paris, she just didn't know how they wouldn't stand out in such a grand place.
"This better be important" she muttered to herself, oblivious to the little sneaky smirk on her kwami's face. Tikki found this amusing.
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Marinette wanted to die.
Her legs felt weak. Her hands shaky. And her nerves were in a jumbled mess.
She really didn't like the idea of meeting without the power of their kwamis. Her mind kept going back and forth from caution to curiosity. On one hand, she had already given her Kitty both her body and heart so what was the point of keeping their secret identities anymore? She threw caution to the wind years ago! And then on the other hand she desperately wanted to know who her mysterious lover is, after all she was carrying his child now.
Child.
Marinette sighed, that's right, she needed to tell him about that soon. As a Cheng woman, she knew her pregnancy wouldn't be as obvious as most because all the women on her mom's side were all petite women at her age but then again she's the first to be pregnant at seventeen. At least her mother had the decency of turning eighteen first.
"Are you ready?" Tikki asked from inside Marinette's new handbag.
Snapping out of her constant racing thoughts, she nodded to the little kwami and patted off the imaginary dust on her red pinafore dress. She decided to wear a white long sleeved lacy chiffon blouse, a red pinafore dress with black tights, black and white mary-jane pumps, and her hair in two buns with heart shaped red rhinestone hair clips.
"Marinette, your mask!" Tikki reminded the nervous girl, pointing to her eyes.
"Oh, right! Thanks, Tikki!" Marinette thanked her companion and quickly searched for the red and black polka dotted masquerade mask in her handbag. She felt so naked without the pink one she had personally made, it was like her security blanket but she opted for a white Chanel tote bag instead wanting to match her outfit's colors.
In a way, this new bag was almost like a second security blanket as she had received it as a birthday present just recently from her parents. She knew that they couldn't afford such luxuries but one look into her father's eyes and her mother's wide smile made her grateful for them. Her parents loved to see her happy and to see them happy was more than she could ever ask for.
With wobbly legs, not the kind she was accustomed to, Marinette made her way to the gardens of the Palais right in the center. Raising an eyebrow, she felt confused. It was a beautiful breezy Sunday afternoon and no one was even here. The Palais was usually a very busy place, especially the gardens.
"A-A-Are you sure he said the Palais, Tikki?" Marinette asked, feeling faint as the panic rose in her throat again.
Before Tikki could reply and comfort her, Marinette felt a pair of soft lips on her bare neck. Eyes turning wide under her mask as goosebumps slowly rose on her arms as she turned stiff.
"The gods have truly blessed me with your gorgeous existence, my Lady" a husky voice feathered lightly against her skin.
Marinette immediately calmed down as she tilted her neck for him as he snaked his arms against her waist. She fell slightly back into his toned chest and moaned, closing her eyes and forgetting where they were.
They stayed content in that perfect moment for a few minutes. He made sure not to leave any love bites on her despite fighting a great urge to. She was glowing and radiant and he had never seen her outside of their costumes powered by their kwamis.
Her hair in twin buns instead of in her regular ponytails had him soaring over the moon. Not to mention her fashion sense, being born into the fashion world, he hated to admit that he knew far too much about the industry. His Lady is kind, good hearted, humble, and beautiful beyond compare and apparently a very stylish fashionista.
Adrien was taken away from his thoughts as he felt his Lady take his ungloved hands into hers on her waist. It always felt good to touch her, to fully feel her skin with his without the restriction of leather clawed gloves. She raised his hands a bit higher on her body, sitting just slightly above her belly button.
"My Lady?" he softly asked as she hummed and leaned further back into him.
Marinette couldn't begin to describe just exactly how she felt in that very moment. She was only eight weeks pregnant and although there were no kicks quite yet, she reveled in the moment of having both of her loves with her in that moment. The one slowly growing inside of her and the man she was hopelessly, madly in love with.
Ladybug tilted her neck that was resting on Chat's shoulder, tiptoeing to gain an inch she marveled for a moment at the face of her masked lover. Unlike their magical costumes that couldn't be removed, she could easily take this one off of him. Biting her inner cheek, she stopped herself from having such thoughts and quickly kissed him on the cheek.
"So, why did you ask me out here? And why is there no one around?" Ladybug asked her Kitty, stepping away from him and turning around to face him. She asked partially due to wanting to know and the other to distract her nagging in-heat mind.
Chat Noir sheepishly chuckled, running a hand through his unruly messy golden sun-kissed hair.
"Well… You see.." he started.
Without noticing it herself, Ladybug stepped closer to him wanting to hear his reason for calling her to such a public place - during the daytime no less.
"Well?" she urged as his Adam's apple bobbed, gulping, "Ihavethissuperannoyingcousinstayingwithmeforanextendedamountoftimeand I don't know when I'll get to see you on joint patrols" he finished.
She caught the last bit but from the rest she only heard the word "cousin" in all his jargon.
"Um, what?"
"I have this super annoying cousin staying with me for an extended amount of time and I don't know when I'll get to see you on joint patrols" he frowned at the last part, he knew sacrifices had to be made while he had guests over but this was the hardest thing for him to give up.
She nodded her head, understanding the situation as he continued on.
"He's perfectly perfect in every sense of the word but he's as exciting as watching paint dry on a wall. My father constantly pesters me to be more like Felix but I can't, I'm fun, dammit!" Chat complained as he paced around, continuing on with his rant "My father is constantly talking about Felix and praising him. Sometimes I'm tempted to suggest to him that if Felix is so perfect then maybe he should just marry him! I can't say adopt because then he'll really consider it. I needed to escape that hell hole. I needed to see you. You're the only sane thing that makes sense in my life. I'm really sorry for inconveniencing you, I made arrangements this morning to have this place private for just us for at least an hour"
Marinette was about to tease him about this cousin of his named 'Felix', but she couldn't as no words came out of her mouth. He had turned her speechless. While appreciating a nice hotel bed from time to time compared to the cold soot and gravel of Paris roofs, which was really more than enough for her but for him to block out an entire building for her?
Adrien was transfixed on his Lady's stare, waiting for her to get annoyed with him or to playfully smack him but it never came as he readied himself with closing his masked eyes. Instead he felt her soft lips on his as her teeth lightly grazed over his lips, pulling them apart, begging for a deeper kiss. He happily obliged as his tongue clashed with hers, the intensity of their budding heat causing her to take a step back.
"More!" she moaned.
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One second she was crying and blubbering loudly that Alya couldn't hear and had to put the French subtitles on their movies whenever they'd hang out after school.
The other second she was ridiculously upset at her parents for not having cookies or sugary sweets and she couldn't tell them why it upset her so much despite their confused expressions.
Then the next second she was bouncing up and down in joy and laughing at every little thing, finding amusement in things she normally didn't find that humorous like her fellow classmate and Alya's boyfriend Nino's lame jokes and hardly believable outrageous stories.
And right now Marinette was drooling over Adrien.
As Ladybug, Marinette had her Kitty – her boyfriend, but as Marinette she was 'single'
As her emotions continued to take her over and under and spiral this way and that way in an endless roller coaster, at nine weeks pregnant, she didn't care who it was, hell she'd even take Nino if Alya wasn't crazy scary when mad.
Marinette's sex drive was intensified and at this moment, all those fantasies and dreams she had at fourteen about the young tall blonde model had resurfaced from some deep dark crevice of her long forgotten memories in her heart.
Marinette sat on a bench waiting for her turn to dunk a basketball into the hoop as both females and males participated in coed activities. The girls were just dunking balls and the boys were actually playing basketball.
She crossed her legs again, biting her bottom lip and pretended to be focused on the game between Adrien and Nino passing the ball between each other but she was really just staring at Adrien. The way his shirt rose every time he jumped, aiming for the hoop, and the way his loose baggy shorts desperately clung onto his waist. She wanted to desperately cling on to his body minus the intrusion of clothes.
Her eyes traveled further down south, her eyes were glued onto the one thing she shouldn't be thinking about. Just one tiny sentence, more of phrase really - that's all it would take to have Tikki transform her so that she could send her Kitty a message or just ask Tikki to send him one.
That's all it would take for her needs to be satisfied. To sneak out of the class with the silly excuse of needing to use the restroom and go into that empty building. To take her Kitty by surprise and jump him.
She would jump just about anyone at this moment no thanks to her heighten emotions and strong sex drive which she read varied in every female and was unfortunately one of those that felt that enough was never going to be enough.
Marinette sighed dreamily as she settled for replaying a fond memory in her head. The coach - the fencing instructor Mr. D'argencourt blew his whistle as the teams switched, Adrien decided to stay on the court with Nino as Alya made her way back to Marinette. She passed Alya a water bottle and hand towel, going back to her memories with a big smile plastered on her face.
Alya thanked her and noticed Marinette's unfocused eyes and goofy smile stuck on her face. She followed the direction of her best friend's unfocused glazed over eyes and found Adrien at the end of it. Grinning, she knew that her gut feeling was right all these years. Marinette may have told her time and time again that she no longer had a crush on Adrien Agreste but she never bought into it.
"I'm sure Adrien's clothes will catch on fire with the intensity of that stare" Alya teased as she watched Marinette snap out of her daze with wide eyes.
"Alya! W-W-What s-stare?! I wasn't staring at anyone! Certainly not A-Adrien!" Marinette stuttered, bouncing in her seat like a ticking time bomb, ready to go off and fall off the bench any second.
"Giiiiirl, please. I knew that you still had feelings for him. I don't blame you, he's not a little boy anymore, Mari. Just look at that body" Alya's voice dropped, teasingly trying to sound seductive.
Marinette rolled her eyes, "He probably has a secret girlfriend"
"Who, you?" Alya stuck her tongue out at her with a playful wink.
Marinette's face flushed, just the thought of Adrien and her, doing the things she's been doing with her Kitty. Especially ending up pregnant by him.
Her fourteen year old heart soared but they were no longer children. She was no longer playfully growling at every front page of a magazine with Adrien's face on it. No longer getting excited over every single full spread article with interviews he's done. No longer rummaging through his trash and trying to find things he's touched. No longer accidentally entering the boys restroom every time she tried confessing her 'love'
She just wasn't into him anymore.
"So… Who's winning?" Marinette asked, hoping to switch gears and directed the conversion to something not involving herself.
Alya checked the scoreboard and frowned, "Well it's definitely not Nino's team that's for sure"
"Oh" Marinette replied, cringing a second later as Kim stole the ball right out of Max's hands and dunked for his own team, the one opposing Nino's.
A moment of silence passed as Alya continued to cheer and yell words of encouragement to her boyfriend and his fellow teammates.
Marinette was about to start daydreaming again when the teacher, Mr. D'argencourt blew his whistle signaling a break time.
"Hey Mari, go give the guys a drink!" Alya shook her by the shoulders and shoved two water bottles into her hands and lightly pushed her off the bench causing her to jump and start walking into the guys' general direction.
Nino was signaling Alya for water as he pretended to choke himself and wheezing from not having anything to quench his thirst.
It all happened suddenly as Marinette found herself in the middle of the court.
Quickly handing Nino one water bottle, he thanked her as she turned to face Adrien and gulped. This was the first time in a long time that she's been anywhere near touching distance to him. She tried to not think too much about it, after all it was her stupid overly hormonal brain making her feel this way about a boy she had all but lost interest in years ago.
"H-H-Here y-you g-go, Adrien" she stuttered and mentally wanting to kick herself for it as she held out her hand with the water bottle to him.
Wiping his sweat drenched face with a face towel that he had on his shoulders, green eyes met blue as he reached to take the bottle from her hand.
"Thanks," he started and paused, his body felt jolted by electricity as he made skin contact with her. Briefly staring down at their touching hands, he felt confused and quickly took the bottle and finished, "M-M-Marinette"
He stuttered.
Adrien Agreste stuttered.
For the first time in his life.
Why did he stutter?
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Marinette warmly smiled at him and turned to walk back like a robot to her seat. As she made her way back to the benches, Mr. D'argencourt blew his whistle to resume the game. The resumed game lasted a good five minutes before there was a loud bang, an explosion in the distance, the scent of smoke faintly making its way into the school's court and a small earthquake like vibration in the ground being felt.
Acting on instinct, both Marinette and Adrien made excuses to leave. Adrien yelling at Nino to stay calm and run away, Marinette telling Alya to follow after Nino to the nearest exit. Both set of friends didn't question why they both weren't coming along with them as the chaos arose in a matter of seconds.
A dark and wickedly familiar chortle filled the evacuating school and instantly they knew this was it. This was the akuma that kept escaping their grasps for far too long now.
Adrien ran off into the nearest classroom while Marinette hid under the stairs to transform.
"Plagg, claws out!"
"Tikki, spots on!"
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Faint.
Iron.
Two things that lead to a massive concussion. Ladybug felt dizzy as the smell of her own iron filled blood invaded her senses as the blood dripped from her head. Ignoring the warm liquid sensation coming from her head, she knew she had to get to her partner.
Chat Noir laid unconscious on the ground.
The smoke was thick in the air but she could make out his body in the dark.
The constant chortling had her at this point, slowly going insane as this kleptomaniac femme fatale drank in all the distress and hell around them. She watched and patiently waited for Ladybug to find her but Ladybug was nowhere to be found.
Marinette extended her arms out to feel her way around the court when she noticed skin instead of where a red suited arm with black spots were supposed to be covering her entire body. Panicking, she instinctively touched her ears and felt that one earring was missing.
"Tikki!"
"Tikki!"
"Tikki!"
Marinette was hyperventilating. Her heart rate rose as she could feel every pulse and every moment of feeling light headed like the stress was going to consume her whole and drag her deep into a hole.
Without her earring, there was no Tikki and without Tikki there was no Ladybug.
Kneeling down, she frantically searched for her missing piece of magically infused jewelry and if she found Chat along the way - hey, that was an added bonus.
As she searched, she could hear coughing in the distance knowing that it was her Kitty stirring from his unconscious spell.
At this point, she could care less if he discovered her secret. Finding Tikki was her top priority.
"M-My," he roughly coughed, "L-Lady?" Chat Noir wheezed as the smoke filled his lungs. Despite having enhanced vision with his powers, the thick smog created by this particular akuma had handicapped him.
"I'm fine! Don't worry about me!" Marinette called out, coughing herself.
But Chat Noir was worried, is worried. The akuma was dangerously quiet in all this mass hysteria she had created. Her stupid laugh would be sure to haunt him in his dreams for weeks to come because that's all he heard from her. Not a single peep of a word besides that distinct laugh of hers. Most akuma would try to taunt them or at least threaten them about handing over their miraculous.
Marinette felt around the bumpy ground not too far from where she previously had stood. Her slender fingers thought they had found her missing earring but when she brought it up to her eyes to see, it was just a single tab from a soda. The next piece of trash she picked up was a bottle cap. "C'mon, Ladybug strength please kick in!" She desperately chanted to herself, finally picking on something pointy.
Seeing the thing in her hands, she had found her earring. Getting up she silently celebrated. "Ah-ha! Gotcha!" She cheered and placed the earring back in place in her right ear.
Her cheer was cut short when her transformation to summon Ladybug back again was interrupted.
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A pang.
A crack.
A bloodied cry.
Marinette reverted back, back arched as a metallic wrench hit her from the back.
"You superhero types are pathetic. Do-goers such as yourselves make me laugh!" The akuma triumphantly laughed out loud.
Chat Noir felt confused and useless. He couldn't see, couldn't help out, and couldn't do anything but hear a deafening sound of flesh meeting metal.
"LADYBUG!"
"LADY!"
"MY LADY!"
He cried out, running in circles swinging his staff around in hopes of hitting this akuma. He heard the akuma speak for the first time and heard that noise that terrified him.
His Lady wasn't responding and the only thing he could see was a little distraught red glowing light zooming around the smoke.
Seconds and minutes had gone by.
That devious laughter never seeming to cease.
And if anything, the smoke seemed to get thicker.
"Marinette!" Tikki sobbed as the little red kwami floated up to Marinette's forehead.
She could sense that Marinette was still alive and breathing but something was wrong.
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Another few minutes passed and the clashing of metals could be heard. Chat Noir had found their opponent and was currently in a heated battle. Staff and wrench met and met, continuously as clangs could be heard and slight sparks could be seen from the impact of each and every hit.
The akuma had managed to cut Adrien's cheek but the small stinging burn wasn't as nearly as painful as knowing that an akuma had managed to hurt his Queen.
The head wound Marinette received earlier had already dried up but that wasn't Tikki's main concern as she carefully watched over her unconscious partner. Slowly stirring from the painful impact, Marinette coughed up blood and felt a lingering discomfort in her abdomen and lower back. Hastily rubbing her stomach, Marinette shot up from the ground. Her knees were shaky and weak like a newborn calf as her shaking hands continued the rubbing motion.
"Tikki- the b-baby, Tikki. The baby, Tikki! The baby!" Marinette cried out, her voice hoarsed from the smog. She chanted the same sentence while rubbing her stomach, silently pleading for any signs of good news.
Tikki frowned and looked down. She couldn't face Marinette and look into her eyes telling her what she probably already knew. "I'm… I'm sorry… I'm really, really sorry, Marinette" she squeaked out, barely in a whisper.
Marinette's heart stopped in that moment.
She dropped down on her knees again, still rubbing her stomach as her lips quivered and her eyes filled with fresh hot tears. With blurry vision, she ignored the on going fight in the distance, the air was thick with smoke, Tikki barely a faint glow in front of her.
"N-N-No!"
"Nonononono!"
"NO!" Marinette wailed, caressing her stomach.
Her baby was gone.
The product of her love for her Kitty, made with pure genuine love was gone.
Her little kitten was gone.
Marinette had lost her baby and it was all her fault.
The walls around her had turned dark and bleak as a thud echoed in the distance.
Her name being cried out in excruciatingly pain slow motion by two very familiar voices.
"LADYBUG!"
"MARINETTE!"
Marinette had collapsed.
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Done! To be continued.
DUN. DUN. DUUUUUNNNNNNN.
As Cpt. Jack Sparrow once said, you see this? This long chapter, I will not be doing that again. LOL.
Well honestly who knows? This chapter took me a while to sort out and finish.
I know that Mr. D'argencourt is Adrien's and basically the school's fencing teacher but in one episode I saw him take the entire class to gym/P.E.
I'm not entirely familiar with French high school schedules and curriculum so I left it as a vague as possible.
Umm… so yeah, that's all I really have to say for this chapter. Like I said, this is really the breaking point of things going downhill BUT not entirely as you'll see in the near future. I decided to get it over with (Marinette's tragic and unfortunate miscarriage) than to drag it on and on into further chapters or having Chloe be the cause of it.
I also left the akuma as vague as possible because I'd rather have you guys as the readers imagine how sinister or playfully evil you want them to be. Them = if I include and write more in the future.
And before I entirely forget - I did mention Felix as Adrien's cousin. I know that most fans make him his older brother but I personally see him more as a cousin figure/type instead. Will there be a Bridgette? Who knows!
So ya know the drill! Tell me what ya think! ;D
Remember to R&R! Plz & Thankies! :]