I'm doing this guys. What I really love about this lil love square is how their relationships with each other could all vary depending on the development of a single combination. I started with Marichat, so the other three will be a continuation of that, but what if I'd begun elsewhere? So many possibilities. Enjoy
The light of a pastel sunrise kisses against the skin of Paris' brightest gem.
A heroine slumbering deep in the catacombs of newfound love, a bliss that blankets her being like softest down.
In her mind she recalls bejeweled eyes and promises that tasted like miracles on her tongue.
But she wakes alone and knows it will be a while yet before limits turn to glass and shatter.
When Ladybug dons her spots- onyx spattered over bright ruby- everything changes. Her feet are off the ground, a pastel backdrop beneath her as she soars on wings made of gossamer joy. On the days in which it shines with peace there is pride within her at the knowledge that her efforts make all of the difference. And that the calm, she thinks a bit guiltily, allows for her to flex strength and agility without any great need.
Shops and homes whisk by in a whorl of color as Ladybug takes leaps and bounds that make her breath come in quickened puffs of exilaration. Her muscles begin to ache familiarly, prompting a rest before the remainder of the daytime stroll (disguised as patrol) can be brought to its end. The roof she touches on with nimble feet will do nicely, she supposes, lithe legs dangling prettily over the edge of it as she stops to relax. To smile.
Her heart is so full.
So much so that she sees with it instead of her own azure eyes, realizing all too late that she's made a perch of the Agreste estate.
"Ladybug?"
The lucky insect is ensnared by the question, glancing down at its castor. It's Adrien Agreste himself- all gentle demeanor and spring-meadow eyes and feathery blonde hair. Marinette seeps through with the decency to be embarassed, cheeks pinkening before she smiles and replies, "Hello there, handsome boy."
He laughs. "You've been calling me that for a long time now. Can I not graduate to 'man' yet?"
The heroine flips gracefully onto the platform of the ample terrace that holds him. "It isn't quite as endearing that way."
"Is there trouble? Why are you here?"
Her hands wave in the negative, assuring him that there is nothing but serenity, thick and hearty like butter seeping into fresh warm bread. They laugh. Her heart pitter-patters, a habit she's never managed to outgrow.
Adrien murmurs that she might become a Lazybug if she isn't careful; if there'd been a drink in her mouth it would have errupted from her like a geyser in true Marinette form. Was he always this cheesy? How sweet.
"It's half past noon, you know," he begins as she leans against the filigree pattern of the railing, "and I'm sure even superheroes have to eat. Would you like to join me for lunch?"
Well, that's a new one.
"It's roast beef with asiago on sour dough today, I think. And salad."
"But what about everyone else?"
"I eat by myself most days. And they always make way too much." Adrien professes suddenly. His smile becomes a facade as she sees the honesty beneath it, forlorn and perhaps even lonely. A wide-eyed begging pup. Ladybug concedes.
"As long as no one can see us!"
He promises to uphold her privacy with a sweeping bow that reminds her of someone else.
They wander into a vacated room that opens up from the very same terrace. His bedroom, she realizes with a jolt. A haven her younger self would have endeavored to explore from top to bottom. A very simple table is adorned with a pristine white tablecloth and two chairs- one, she thinks sadly, for the guest that probably never comes. Cups of dark wine await them alongside their meal. They begin to eat in companionable silence until Ladybug's first bite sends her into a fitfull squirm.
"Something wrong?"
Her head shakes frantically as she swallows and groans. Heavens. They feed him oh so well.
"S'delicious!" She murmurs through another bite, forgetting her poise as the pinot noir sings in her veins. Adrien seems to stare for a moment before chuckling, prompting her to ask, "What?"
"Nothing. You just reminded me of someone, that's all."
The look in his eyes is familiar- secrets, adoration, freshly blown bubbles gleaming in the sun- as he grins. Oh. That has to be it.
"You look like someone in love."
Adrien nearly collapses. "W-what?"
"That look on your face," the heroine clarifies, "just looks like the goofy face that people in love have."
"Like the one you were making earlier?" He counters saucily. A red as rich as her costume stains her cheeks.
"I have no idea what you mean."
And he goes on to surprise her by confessing rather than teasing: "I am. In love, I mean."
It's a strange moment, and her only solution is blurt out, "I am, too."
Their eyes meet cautiously, laughter spilling over like foaming waves lapping at the shore. The current pulls them towards the black shag rug that adorns the foot of his bed, the pair of them laying in opposite directions; mismatched koi fish dragged out onto an inky sea.
"What is she like?" Ladybug asks as warmth churns in her belly. She's in love, and so is he, and together they can croon of it in the same molten language. Adrien tells her that he won't give the woman away. That she is pure wonder. A diamond in the rough surrounded by sand that seeps through his craddled hands. That she'd been there all along, and so he adores her as a bird might the air; a need he didn't realize he had.
"And him, Ladybug?"
She toys with a thread beside her until it nearly unravels as she weaves her longing all around them. He's a velvet mystery. An untouchable thing, a wish that she knows and keeps but can see only by starlight. That he, too, had been beside her for longer than she had ever envisioned and was there to catch her when she finally fell.
"I liked you for a long time." Adrien says up at the ceiling. "But I think I can say that now because who I want is so different. She isn't miles away, or saving me from danger. She saves me from loneliness instead. There's no mask, no secret. I know her face... I think I love it more than anything."
Ladybug cannot say the same, but finds that it does nothing to quell her emotion.
"I'm surprised it wasn't you and Chat Noir who wound up together. But you seem to find him annoying, huh."
"No... he's actually quite wonderful, but I'd never tell him that."
Something about the sigh in her lilt makes silence reign over the moment. Adrien coughs. "Is that so?"
"Y-yes. He's been my partner for a long time. He means the world to me. Maybe more than that. But he's the type to let that go to his head..." she giggles softly.
"Hm. Go figure."
"I know. It's odd, isn't it? When what you never knew you wanted is suddenly... there?"
"Definitely."
The tide begins to pull low.
"The food was amazing." Ladybug regards gratefully. "Will you be eating with her soon?"
Adrien stretches lazily, shirt riding up but no hint of the meal to be seen on the planes of his abdomen. "I hope so. And what about you?"
"It's complicated, just like everything else about being a hero."
"Tell me about it."
"What?"
"You'll have to tell me about it." Adrien laughs quickly.
Lady has a sudden realization that this is perhaps the closest she has ever gotten to a civilian when in her transformed state. Something about laying beside Adrien feels soothing and warm. Safe and nostalgic. They are honey and warm milk on a cold autumn night.
She loved him once, too, but can never say so.
Doesn't have to, because it's been tempered to a friendship that is both distant and close in all of the best ways.
But still... there'd been shrieks and yelps and longing. Hopeless gazes, light touches, and unspoken want that had died upon her tongue. Ladybug thinks back to all that ever was, can and will be, and her heart aches to kiss the past goodbye at long last. So she does.
Because she needs to.
She wants to.
She can.
In a silent shift of limbs she holds herself above Adrien and presses supple lips to his forehead with a tenderness that twists at his deepest self. It tugs at her too, splitting, because the wholeness they've achieved still leaves an incurable wound behind.
"She had better cherish you, handsome boy." Ladybug stares into green eyes so deeply that they both nearly drown. No room is left for reply as she heads for the terrace. For home. For him.
"Why did-?"
"Because I cherished you once myself. And you deserve even more."
She doesn't look back as she goes. Ladybug can't quite decide wether she's running from something... or to it. There's a shift in the wind- and her heart and her soul- that wracks her to and fro. An urge to laugh and cry and mourn overwhelms her like nothing before it.
There's a marrow-deep sensation that she's left something irreplaceable behind.
Perhaps she has.
Two more sides to go :)