A/N: Honestly, this one could have easily been a 10-15K word oneshot but I cannot be arsed so take the snippet instead fellas. Without further ado, enjoy!


"I wanna just dance, but he took me home instead
Uh-oh, there was a monster in my bed
We French-kissed on a subway train
He tore my clothes right off
He ate my heart and then he ate my brain"

Monster - Lady Gaga

Pairing - Ladynoir, Adrinette and Ladrien

Prompt - 'Protect'


~(x)~

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"How...how could you?"

His icy tone was laced with venom and sheer betrayal, clawed fingers digging into his trembling palms in a white-knuckled grip and teeth clenched to the point where his jaw was close to clicking out of place. "How could you, Ladybug!?"

His partner clad in red remained rooted on her spot, standing tall and unflinching despite their close proximity and the way he towered over her with his larger frame. Her stormy eyes continued to hold resolute and lacked any regret whatsoever, driving the feline hero absolutely insane. This time, raw desperation clouded the fury within his eyes and his hands shot to her shoulders, his grip firm enough so that she couldn't run away without a word.

But not hard enough to hurt her.

Never would he go out of his way to ever hurt his Ladybug.

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"I saved you, that's what I did." She finally answered, her voice unwavering and cool and confident, baby blues gleaming like blistering ice under her mask and shadowed dangerously by her long lashes. It made her look apathetic and incredibly cold and Chat Noir absolutely hated it beyond comprehension. "Is that it? Can you let me go now? I have work to do back home," She shrugged off his hands effortlessly, not even acknowledging the bafflement plastered on his face.

"That's it? No, no, no! You should have saved that civilian! Why did you choose to push me away from the akuma instead!? Mon Dieu...there was so much blood and-"

"And?" Again, her curt, hardened answers were like blades tearing through his veins, making the flood of words in his mind dissipate instantly. "Besides, the cure fixed everything. No one got permanently hurt. Why is this such a big deal?" The lack of sympathy in her voice transitioned to one of pure fatigue and Chat Noir couldn't help but bring his hands back on her arms once more, pulling her closer towards him so that he can lean his forehead on hers.

"Ladybug..." His emerald eyes were pleading yet full of confusion and tender concern. "Our job is to protect Paris and its citizens. It always has been. You should prioritise them over me, always!" Finally, a sharp gleam of anger flickered in her eyes and turned her blues into an inferno of rage, burning down the ice-cold front she wore seconds ago.

"Who are you to say this to me!? Especially after all those times that you have sacrificed yourself in order to save me-"

"That's different!" Chat Noir snapped, eyes now watery. "That's different...because not once have I endangered a citizen like that. So tell me, why? Why are you acting like this? Why are you being so overprotective of me? Why are you being so reckless? What's going on!?" The distress and concern for the love of his life took over and the tears finally seeped down his mask, his shoulders trembling and his fangs digging into his bottom lip.

For a split second, all that Ladybug saw was white and the moon shattered in pieces.

She averted her gaze, not even budging when her partner slumped his head on her shoulder and brought her into his tight embrace. Her fists remained clenched against her sides, her mind flooded with nothing but blue and white and white and blue.

"I'm selfish, that's why." Her quiet answer had the boy dart his head back to face her, eyebrows furrowed under the mask and emeralds glittering from shed tears. His heart tightened from the fatal storm he witnessed within her eyes, observing the harsh pain and suffering that dwelled deep within her soul. "I'll try my best to make sure no one else gets hurt again...but if I have to make a choice,"

Her next words made and broke him all at once.

"I'll always choose you. Always."

~(x)~

"Wow...this character is so much more intense than I thought he'd be," Adrien mused out loud, placing the book he was reading down on the grass and shuffling further against the tree trunk so that he could fully relax. He flashed a silly, goofy little smile at his quiet companion who paused from working on her homework to glance at him with a soft grin of her own.

It was just Adrien and Marinette who sat under the shade of the generous tree during their lunch break, the former more than pleased to have spent some one-on-one time with the latter even if it was just lounging in comfortable silence. The boy couldn't explain it in words (he didn't think that there were any in all the dictionaries in the world that could sum up his feelings) but her presence was just so comforting and just so peaceful and he couldn't help but unwind around her with ease.

He hoped that the feelings were mutual for her with him but judging by the distant, cheerless look in her eyes as she observed their surroundings in the park and the lack of energy in her tiny frame, she was not loosening up at all. He could only internally pray to whatever reliable gods or higher powers out there for an inkling of an idea or advice or anything he could do to alleviate her deep bereavement and get her to smile that sweet grin she used to wear in what felt like centuries ago.

"Hey, Marinette~?" He tried to act charming and cute, resting a chin on her slim shoulder and fluttering his long lashes. A playful smirk was quick to play on his lips when she raised an amused (and very attractive) brow at him. "How far would you go for the person you love?" He gestured towards the book, indicating that the ruthless main character inspired his bizarre question.

He expected a pretty blush and her cheeks turning to that beautiful sakura colour whenever she was quite flustered around him. He expected a ramble of words, perhaps jumbled up together in a soup which often had him have to use his brain to decipher (well, the remaining brain cells that weren't occupied by her adorable features). He even expected a quippy, sassy response or even an endeared roll of eyes.

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He didn't expect the melancholy to come back by tenfolds, her baby blues dimming and her skin ashen. Adrien lifted his head back up, not knowing what else to do other than place his hands on top of hers and willing to give her an ounce of comfort with all his might.

"Who knows...maybe I'd destroy the moon and flood the entire world," Marinette whispered as if she just spilt the biggest secret of her entire life. When she met his gaping, bewildered expression, she forced a smile back on her face and squeezed his hand. "Got you~ that was just a joke, Adrien. You should have seen your face,"

.

Though he wore a matching grin to put Marinette at ease, the boy couldn't help but internally decipher that her answer was the key to her sadness...

~(x)~

"No!"

Chat Noir snapped out of his brooding, forlorn state on the abandoned rooftop, misery immediately replaced with attentiveness by the sound of a familiar(very, very familiar) voice of raw defiance.

First, he saw a horrified Marinette speeding across the tiles on the roof a few buildings away from him.

Then, he saw her encased in a bright light of brilliant red and white.

ZOOOOOOM!

And then her yoyo snatched the despicable yet sneaky dark butterfly right in front of his face, the tool almost grazing his nose.

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All that the boy could hear was his own heartbeat pounding intensely within his shivering frame, a high-pitched ringing insistent within both sets of his ears as he observed his Lady purify the terrifying butterfly with a rage so mighty, he could feel the fire radiating from her as if she was the sun.

"Chaton! Hey! Chat Noir! Hey!" She pulled him down to her height by cupping his face desperately with both of her strong hands, her frightened blues glittering with absolute concern and fear for her pouvre partner. "Who hurt you!?"

Chat Noir remained mute, severely overwhelmed to the point of buckling to his knees and falling into her open arms with his whole body shaking and shivering and trembling.

"Oh, mon Chaton. I'm so sorry, so, so sorry. I couldn't protect you and your smile, oh," All he could do as she sobbed into his golden hair was silently grip her body tight towards him and cry wordlessly in the comfort of her chest where all he could hear was the beating of her heart of gold.

~(x)~

Thirty-nine butterflies.

Ladybug had caught and purified at least thirty-nine butterflies that cold, bitter night as Adrien continued to soundlessly break down within her arms on her balcony, his hands clawing at her suit and his tears soaking her neck and hair.

The heroine did everything she could to tame the brutally ferocious, outraged dragon within her, the shrieking monster wanting nothing more than the blood of Le Papillon splattered all over her hands and the delicious shatter of his bones beneath her feet and his vile head rolling on the floor. To bring him back to life and then kill him over and over and over again in the most torturous and excruciatingly painful ways no mortal would be able to comprehend.

How dare he go after her beloved partner?

How dare he continue to send his treacherous insects after him one after the other?

And...

How dare he choose to terrorise the world over protecting the one person he should love as much as she does?

"Marinette...I'm okay now...I'm so, so sorry for breaking down like this and not being strong enough-" Adrien's sombre words were halted by his partner kissing his tears away tenderly and her hands lovingly stroking his messy, dishevelled hair and her fingers soothing the tense muscles on his stiff shoulders.

"You did nothing wrong. You never did anything wrong, mon Minou. You're too good, too precious, too wonderful for this world," She pressed a searing kiss on his forehead, bringing him as close as possible on her lap so that she could pepper more comforting kisses on his face. His tears continued to stream down his face as she kept vigilant for any more akuma butterflies that dared to make their way towards them again.

Her mind was a maelstrom.

Chat Blanc was making more and more sense and the burning, agonising fury against her Chaton's horrific excuse of a father was a hellfire that coursed within her veins. She needs to destroy that monster. She needs to tear him apart. All so that her partner never has to experience such pain ever, ever again-

"Hey, I'm okay now," He pulled back much to her dismay, slipping off her lap and taking all the soothing warmth away with him. However, when he flashed a genuine smile(albeit timid and small), the affection came infusing back into her system. "Can you detransform? Please? I want to see you, Marinette," He held onto her hands protectively, bringing them to his chest.

She unravelled her transformation wordlessly only to let out a quiet grunt when he pulled her into his arms in a manner that made her believe that he was never going to let her go (and she definitely didn't mind if that were to be the case). She couldn't help but melt into his touch as he stroked her hair with his fingers and inhaled her scent greedily.

"As hectic as today was, I'm so, so happy it's you," He murmured happily into her dark locks, lips trailing from the midnight strands to her supple cheek. "You're the silver lining to all of this," His satiny soft lips then paused at the corner of hers. "Thank you,"

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She met him halfway with her own lips.

~(x)~

One snoozing Adrien was gently tucked into her bed, Tikki sweetly snuggled next to him so that she could keep an eye out for any more butterflies waiting to attack him in his sleep. Marinette delivered a tender peck on his peachy pink lips, lightly smiling to herself when his body fully relaxed after her touch(both of them sporting kiss-bruised lips from their spontaneous and very enthusiastic kissing not too long ago).

She stepped away from her now peaceful Chaton and nodded to Plagg, the little God more than aware of what plans were being concocted within her head.

"This ends tonight. He shall never hurt him again," Marinette vowed, earning a pleased nod from her tiny companion.

"Say the words kid. Let's go and give that monster hell."

"Plagg! Transforme-moi!"

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~(x)~


A/N: And stinky crusty old Gabriel Agreste did not live happily ever after~!