So this chapter is pretty long. A lot of dialogue. It took me a while because I really just want to skip to all the good stuff but as always, this story needs to keep its steady pace. Due to that, it took me a bit to et this out and a good portion of it is just pure laughs. But as always, the tears you may shed, might not only come from laughter. After all, it's me.
Ah, tabloids. How entertaining they could be. Always claiming to have the know of celebrity's inner lives and deepest secrets. What was this week's hot topic you ask? Why, Ladybug and Chat Noir of course. But the cover of Paris's most popular magazine wasn't covering just any old topic revolving around the pair. Oh no. This cover was announcing Ladybug and Chat Noir's newest and completely unintentional achievement. Paris's very own couple of the year!
Lucy chuckled to herself as she flipped through the pages of the magazine. The article included a handful of photos of the pair in out of context situations. It was cheesy, and exactly what she would expect from a writer that claimed to have an inside source.
"What are you reading Lucy?" Alya asked as she and Nino approached her. She currently sat crisscross on the concrete half wall the lined the stairway that led to the school entrance while waiting for Adrien to finish talking to his fencing instructor.
"Just a magazine." She answered. "What are you two doing here still? I thought you would have gone home by now?"
"We were doing so research in the library for a project." Nino told her as Alya took the magazine from Lucy's hands.
"I was reading that." Lucy pouted, crossing her arms.
"Hey Alya!" Marinette called, jogging up the steps. "I got your text, are you ready to-?"
"Ladybug and Chat Noir couple of the year?!" Alya read aloud with raised brows, while Nino peaked at the article from beside her.
"WHAT?!" Marinette shouted snatching the magazine from Alya and scanning through the article herself.
"You have got to be kidding me! Ladybug and Chat Noir are not a couple!" She seethed.
Lucy raised a brow at her. "You really don't like that ship huh?"
"What Ship?" Adrien's voice alerted his friends of his presence.
"Chat Noir and Ladybug," Lucy answered. "They were named Paris's couple of the year."
"Seriously?" Adrien asked in surprise. "But they aren't- I mean... I didn't think they were together...like that."
"Because they aren't!" Marinette fumed, tossing the magazine back to Alya who rolled her eyes.
"They even mentioned you a bit in this Lucy." Alya commented, pointing out the small image of her on the bottom right corner of the left page to the two boys reading from over her shoulder.
It was Lucy's turn to roll her eyes. "Yeah, I know. Just a friendly reminder to everyone that there was a point in time that people thought we were in some kind of weird thruple."
"Good grief." Marinette muttered, crossing her arms. "What a load of crap."
"Maybe." Lucy said with a lazy shrug, making Adrien's eyes shoot over to her.
"Wait, do you really think Ladybug and Chat Noir are dating?"
The blonde girl gave another shrug. "Not really, but who knows?"
The group of teens gave Lucy a raised look. "If anyone would know, don't you think it would be you, Lucy? Alya asked. Lucy squinted at them.
"Uh, no?"
"Are you seriously trying to tell us that you don't talk to Chat Noir anymore at all?" Nino questioned.
"I didn't say that." Lucy defended. "But not that it's any of your guy's business what we talk about, his love life isn't usually a topic of conversation."
"So it wouldn't bother you at all if Chat Noir and Ladybug were actually dating?" Adrien inquired. Lucy gave him an unamused look.
"Such little faith in the girl you've decided to date Adrien."
"What? No!" Adrien shook his head. "That's not what I meant! I just-"
"I know what you meant," Lucy spoke with a small smile. "But to answer your question, No. It would not bother me if I found out Chat Noir was dating Ladybug or anyone else for that matter."
The way Lucy took his hand in hers; Adrien was sure her words were meant to be comforting, and reassuring. She was trying to tell his that she has moved on from her feeling for Chat Noir and that her heart was entirely focused on him. If Adrien had been anyone else, it would have worked. But he wasn't anyone else. He was Adrien, and he was Chat Noir.
"So, what you're saying is you'd still love me if I was Adrien Agreste? Or I suppose, would you still love Adrien if he was me?" He grinned and Lucy rolled her eyes.
"Of course, I would still- gah! What am I going to do with you?" She huffed, sitting up and crossing her arms.
He wondered how true her words were.
OoOoOoOOoOoOo
It seemed a lot of people had read the magazine and seen their title as couple of the year, for everyone they saved seemed to want to congratulate Chat and Ladybug. In retrospect, their assumptions didn't really bother Chat. As someone who was used to having articles written about him and his family, Chat had grown rather immune to taking such things to heart. People would believe what they wanted to believe. Speculations of him and Ladybug being a couple happened long before their "couple of the year" nomination, and the speculation would carry on long after the article was forgotten about.
People want to know the intimate and personal details of people of whom they admire from a distance, and when they can't, they fabricate those details in their own minds. In general, people thinking he and Ladybug are a couple was harmless. It wouldn't put them in anymore danger than they already were. There were far more horrific things people could assume about them, both together, and individually.
Ladybug, did not seem to share this perspective, as she made a point to correct every person who felt the need to refer to the article. Andre the ice cream man was already akumatized when another civilian commented on their relationship status. The giant ice cream monster shot at them while ranting about how their relationship didn't match what the ice cream had predicted.
"That's because it is a bunch of bologna!" Ladybug shouted, dodging the ice cream shots. "That article is just a bunch of pictures taken out of context!"
"I don't know M'lady, maybe the people are on to something! Perhaps we have just been ignoring the magic right in front of us this whole time." Chat joked. Unfortunately, Ladybug did not find his words even remotely funny. In fact, they seemed to enrage her even more.
"Ugh, enough! Why don't you take a little cat nap?!" She yells, taking hold of Chat and tossing him to the nearest trash bin. "And as for you, you big two-legged ice cream cone, hand over that akumatized scooper right now!"
Chat watched from the inside of the bin as Ladybug continued to take on the Akumatized ice cream maker on her own. A moment later, he was being tossed around from inside the bin until it was kicked over, sending him tumbling out no longer in the park but on a roof top with Ladybug glaring at him with her arms crossed.
"I'm guessing I'm not your favorite cat at the moment?" He said, smiling apologetically. Ladybug let out a huff, and turned away making Chat sigh.
"I was only joking M'lady. You know that, right?"
"I do." Ladybug answered, snapping her head back toward him. "But clearly no one else does! And you're not helping."
"Hey, I'm sorry, alright? But I don't see why it's such a big deal. There will always be people who believe we are together. They would even if we screamed from the roof tops that we weren't."
"Maybe so," Ladybug said. "But I don't want to add fuel to that dumpster fire of an assumption."
Chat couldn't help but be mildly taken back by that statement. "Do you really find people thinking you're dating me to be that awful?"
Ladybug's irritated face softened from the guilt that nibbled away at her.
"Chat it has nothing to do with you personally. I wouldn't want people to assume I was dating anyone that I wasn't, not just you. Our personal lives are our own, and I just wish people could respect that. We are an amazing team, and amazing friends. Why can't that be enough?"
"It will never be enough." Chat answered. He knew such long before he became Chat Noir. A perk, he supposed, that came with being born into fame.
"Well, that's stupid." Ladybug spat. "It's stupid that people can't just accept that two people can work closely together and not be dating. It's stupid that people can take the smallest out of context things and turn it into something it's not. It's stupid that people can't mind their own business!"
"It is stupid." Chat sympathized, but Ladybug wasn't done with her rant.
"I mean, what do they want Chat? Long term? For us to just come out and be like wow, you guys sure figured it out! Yup! We're dating! Then what? Hm?"
Chat opened his mouth to speak but instead only lifted his palms, not having the answers, nor really knowing if she was expecting him to.
"I'll tell you what, then it will be, when is the wedding? Public ceremony or private elope? What's that? News just in! Ladybug pregnant? How will this affect the fight against Shadow Moth?!" She went on, placing her left hand by her ear as if getting the information from an ear piece while the other pretended to hold a microphone.
"M'lady I..."
"Hate to break it to ya' Paris! But this just in! Ladybug and Chat Noir are not dating!" She shouted into the open air, though no one was really around to hear it. "What's that? Why? Well, I'm so glad you asked Nadia! Maybe because they are two SUPERHEROES AND CAN'T KNOW EACH OTHERS IDENTITES!" She yelled out, startling some pigeons that had been sitting nearby.
"I mean, I just don't get it Chat," Ladybug mused. "Feelings aside, how can people just jump to that conclusion? Honestly? Even if we were madly in love, it would never work out! Why?"
"Because we can't know each other's-"
"Because we can't know each other's secret identities, yes exactly!" Ladybug beamed. "C'mon people. We can't even have romantic relationships outside of our hero personas. I tried it. It blew up in my face because all I felt like I was doing was lying to him all the time. You tried to date a civilian as Chat Noir and that blew up in your face because you realized she would have a constant target on her back!"
Chat watched as Ladybug slowly but surely calmed down from her small burst of hysteria, deflating before him as she sat down on the roof top and hugged her knees. "They don't know it," She muttered. "But their assumptions about us...it just kind of feels like salt in the wound. We can't have what they want us to have. Not with each other, and not with anyone else. Not while Shadow Moth is still a threat at least. But even after that...who knows? We got a glimpse of the future when Lucy...or we'll Bunnix came remember? It never really ends."
Chat frowned and squatted down beside his partner. "You can't think that way." He spoke, almost scolding her. "Just because things didn't work out the way you hoped they would this time around doesn't mean they won't eventually."
"Oh, is that what you're hoping?" Ladybug snapped. "That eventually things will just magically work themselves out between you and Lucy?"
"Wha...no, I mean, yes- or...I don't know!"
"Chat, I know this isn't what you want to hear, but I saying it as your friend. Let it go. You have to have found out by now that Lucy is seeing someone else. I have seen her around and she seems very happy. I know you had it in your head that sharing your identity with her would be a good idea and I don't know if you rethought that but-"
"I-"
"No, no! I can't know! I don't wanna know! That isn't the point. The point is, she is in a good place with someone who can give her a safe and normal life, or at least more normal than anything a superhero could provide her."
Chat could feel himself getting frustrated and got up from his crouched pose. A part of him didn't really even understand why. Although Ladybug didn't know it, she was claiming that Lucy looked happy with him. One would think that would fill him with some kind of pride. Instead, he found himself irritated. Not because he isn't glad that Lucy looked happy with him from outside sources, but because Ladybug was implying that he couldn't make her happy as Chat Noir.
"You gotta let her be happy Chat." Ladybug spoke, pulling him from his thought. "Even if it's without you."
There were a lot of reasons Chat chose not to argue with Ladybug, but the main one was the way her voice trembled a little as she spoke her last sentence. A passerby wouldn't have noticed it, but he definitely did. And it was in doing so that Chat was reminded that it wasn't just his situation with Lucy that Ladybug was talking about. She had someone to whom she needed to let go of too.
"I believe there's a hand that guides us," Chat spoke, just as Ladybug's earrings began to beep. "It isn't always a gentle one or even one that seems fair at the time. But I try to trust in it now. When I find myself overthinking everything that could go wrong, I just try to trust in it. Because at the end of the day, what else can you do? Choice only gets you so far. Reasoning and planning too. The rest... it's up to something else. Where we end up, who we know, what happens to the people we love... we don't have a lot of control over any of it."
"Maybe not," Ladybug said, standing and pulling out her yo-yo. "But Chat, we are superheroes. We can't just hope everything works out. The people we care about deserve more than that."
Chat sighed as Ladybug zipped off before he could get another word in.
At home, Adrien sat at his computer desk, hunched over on his thighs as Plagg snagged a piece of cheese. He thought about his conversation with Ladybug, going over it repeatedly in his head.
"What if Ladybug is right, Plagg? What if my relationship with Lucy is as doomed as it was the first time?"
Adrien clearly had yet to tell Lucy that he was Chat Noir, and was still trying to figure out if it really was something he should do. Almost every part of him screamed yes. Tell her, tell her, tell her. He felt it in his bones every time they were alone together. But then he thought about the danger. If Shadow Moth ever found out Lucy knew his identity, he would target her relentlessly. She would have to go into hiding, or move away. What if she was akumatized again? After all, it had happened more than once.
What if...? What if she broke up with him? Not even because she didn't want to be with him but because she is more reasonable than he is and would see just how dangerous it would be for them to be together. Just like last time.
OoOooOoOo
The next day Adrien couldn't snap himself out of his funk. When Lucy greeted him in the morning with her sweet smile and a kiss on the cheek all that could surface in his mind was how much he hated how his only choices seemed to be lying to her or putting her in danger. Lucy quickly caught onto his mood and asked what was wrong.
To add to his guilt and frustration he only offered her a tiered smile, claiming he was fine and that his father had had him up a little late the night before practicing his Chinese. Something about the way Lucy looked at him gave Adrien the impression that she didn't believe him. But rather she did or didn't, Lucy chose not to question him further. In fact, after that, she seemed to distance herself from him for the remainder of the day. Adrien found himself both relieved and bothered by it.
By the afternoon, he couldn't manage to put any real effort in his fencing class. Jacob, Lucy's ex...whatever they were, had been gone over the summer. Lucy explained one night when he inquired about him after seeing a Snapchat notification from the guy appear on Lucy's phone. Apparently, while visiting family in Tuscany, the curly-haired boy had met a dashing stranger, and what had been a casual coupling much like his time with Lucy, had grown into something more serious.
An occurrence that surprised Jacob himself even more so than Lucy. After all, he wasn't the commitment type. But alas, the development led to what Adrien assumed was a very nonchalant conversation terminating any future canoodling. When summer ended and school went back in session, Jacob returned. He and Lucy still spoke, their friendship clearly not stifled by the change in dynamic.
It was he who Adrien ended up facing in the current match. Although Jacob, in comparison to most of the more serious fencers, moved more fluidly and even carelessly, he was usually a fun opponent. More often than not Adrien gained the upper hand on Jacob, but they both hair their strengths and weaknesses.
Their dance would last only a matter of minutes, but on any other day Adrien found Jacob to be one of his more entertaining opponents, other than perhaps Kagami, even if for completely different reasons.
Today, however, the match between him and Jacob ended as quickly as it began when Jacob moved to strike him without much of a fight. As Adrien stalked away, not at all bothered by losing, Jacob lifted his helmet and raised a brow before turning to Kagami who then lifted hers as well. "What the hell was that?" Jacob muttered, but a moment later, another student was placed in front of him, leaving him no real choice but to put his helmet back down and ready his stance.
At the end of fencing practice, Jacob and Kagami waited in the locker room while Adrien changed out of his uniform in the changing area.
"Me defeating you is normal, but letting Jacob defeat you worries me. If you have a problem, let me help you."
"Let us, help you." Jacob corrected, flicking Kagami's shoulder. She shot him a side glare as Adrien lifted his bag to his shoulder.
"No one can help me guys." Was all Adrien said as he walked past the pair, leaving them even more concerned than before.
"Well, if that's how he is going to be, then he has left me no choice. I'm telling." Jacob said, crossing his arms as he glared at the door Adrien left through.
"Telling who, what?" Kagami asked, getting up from the bench she had been sitting on.
"His old lady of course."
"His mother is dead and you're an insensitive idiot," Kagami replied, earning a wide-eyed look from the taller boy.
"Old lady doesn't mean-! Lucy! I'm telling Lucy!"
"Lucy is not an old lady." Kagami deadpanned.
"It's an American term of endearment that guys use in reference to their girlfriends and wives," Jacob explained.
"Calling the woman, you're in a romantic partnership with an old lady doesn't sound very endearing to me."
"I didn't make it up Kagami, it's just, ugh." He groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers. "You make this so hard."
"I'm just saying if you're going to tell Lucy just say that instead of adding a coat of stupid to your statement."
"Okay." Jacob snapped, walking away. "I'm going to go have a chat with Lucy, have fun with...whatever it is your mom has scheduled for you."
Kagami quickly made her way past the boy with a quickened stride.
"Actually, I have 36 minutes of free time, and since I'm the one with wheels, I'll just take the lead on this one. I suppose you could tag along if you want, but it's better I do the talking. Delicate topics such as this should come from a friend, not some guy who finger-banged you when studying for a history test got boring."
Jacob froze momentarily as his mouth fell open at Kagami's words.
"She told you about that?" His look of shock was quickly replaced with a sly grin as he picked his pace back up to catch up with the Asian girl. "I bet you asked, didn't you? What other stories did she share with you? Kagami, Kagami you dirt dirty girl! Is that what is in all those books you're always reading? Like a little something spicy?"
"I will leave you here."
OoOoOoOoOo
Lucy perked a brow when she picked up her phone after hearing it notify her of an incoming text. It was from Kagami and simply read. "Come down." Peeking out her living room window, she could spot the little red car that Kagami was sure to be in, sitting outside her apartment. After putting on her shoes, Lucy made her way down to the ground level and walked the short trip to the street where the car waiting for her opened.
"Kagami, what is- Oh." She paused, noticing the curly-haired Italian boy. "Hey, you. This is an interesting combo. I didn't know you guys were really friends."
"We're not." Kagami clarified.
"You told her we finger banged." Jacob cut in.
"A story among others." Lucy smiled as Jacob gasped and placed his hand over his heart.
"What happened to don't kiss and tell?"
Lucy rolled her eyes playfully. "Don't act like you were sworn to secrecy."
"Perhaps, but I am a gentleman." Jacob countered, sticking his nose in the air.
"But, I'm not."
"Clearly!"
"This is not what we are here for!" Kagami snapped at them both.
"Well, don't keep me in suspense any longer, what pray tell is this about, exactly?" Lucy questioned, still smirking.
"Adrien," Kagami answered. "Something is wrong with him." Lucy's smile vanished at that.
"What happened?" She asked, this time Jacob answered.
"We don't know. We tried to ask. Offered to help, but he blew us off. Has he said anything to you?"
Lucy shook her head. "No. I knew something was wrong when he came to school this morning, but when I asked, he brushed it off and gave me some crap about being tired."
"Ah, the old, I'm just tired line." Jacob said, shaking his head.
"It's never the kind of tiered people think it is." Lucy said, crossing her arms and sinking into the leather seat of the car.
"Whatever is bothering him is obviously serious. I think it would be best for you to take an equally serious course of action Lucy." Kagami spoke.
Lucy let out a small sigh. "I was trying to give him some space. Figured he needed time to process whatever it was that was bugging him and that he would tell me when he was ready. Clearly, he still doesn't want to talk about it. Not even with me."
It bothered Lucy more than she cared to admit. Adrien was never the closed off one between the two of them, and for the most part it felt like they had both become very comfortable around one another. Enough to share their problems and come up with solutions together. It wasn't that she expects Adrien to come running to her the moment something bothered him, but she figured it wouldn't take long until he did eventually. Knowing something was affecting him so negatively and that he felt the need to keep it from her, stung. What problem could be so terrible that Adrien couldn't talk to her about it?
That is, unless the problem was her. Maybe in the short amount of time they had been together, Adrien realized that their relationship didn't measure up to the one he had imagined in his head. Maybe he realized he wasn't as in love with her as he thought he was, and was now trying to figure out how to tell her.
"I don't think a pep talk is going to work this time." Kagami interrupted her thoughts.
"Huh? Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but pep talks are about all I got."
Kagami shook her head. "Nonsense. I think it's time you, as they say, bring out the big guns." Lucy narrowed her eyes at Kagami.
"I'm not following."
"You need to have sex with Adrien." Kagami put it simply and Lucy's eyes shot open as well as Jacob's.
"I need to what?!"
"KAGAMI!" Jacob hollered.
"I've done extensive research on the topic," she said, holding up a manga titled Ten Count Volume 6. "And if there is anything I have learned from these spicy romance stories-"
"I KNEW IT!" Jacob pointed, but Kagami continued to ignore him.
"It's that a person's woes can be wiped away almost entirely if their love interest peruses them sexually."
"Alright, um," Lucy muttered, rubbing her eyes. "That was a lot to unpack. But, listen, I'm not going to fuck the depression out of Adrien."
"Why not?" Kagami asked.
"I also would like the answer to that." Jacob chimed in and Lucy found herself glaring at the both of them.
"Because that's not a healthy coping mechanism!"
"I'm sorry, what was the grounds for this..." Kagami asked waving her finger between Lucy and Jacob, "Again?"
"That is not the same thing."
"It's kinda the same thing." Jacob objected, only for Lucy to hold up her palm to him.
"Can you zip it? The grownups are talking!" She snapped before turning to Kagami. "It is not the same thing. And even if it was, which it definitely is not, I was not dating Jacob, we were just-"
"Two good buddies." Jacob interrupted. Lucy rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, two good buddies."
"The best kind of buddies." Jacob drawled on.
"I don't see why it matters. You're dating Adrien, I assume that means you find him attractive. You want him to be happy, this is a guaranteed way to accomplish happiness. If you were willing to let that," Kagami said pointing to Jacob again. "Touch you, I would think it would be no problem to let Adrien."
"I'll have you know that most people find me super-hot!" Jacob barked. "In fact, I bet you find me super-hot; you just have to much of a pole up your butt to admit it! Listen, had you come to me a few months ago, I would have let you take a test ride, but now your out of luck. This stallion is off the market for the time being."
"I'll keep the pole, thanks."
"Please let me out of this car now!" Lucy shouted, tugging on the handle. A timer going off on Kagami's phone caused her to narrow her eyes and hit the unlock button sending Lucy tumbling out of the vehicle.
"You know, I-" As Lucy was about to share her annoyance her phone began to ring in her back pocket. Pulling it out, Marinette's face appeared on the screen. "Hello?" She answered, only to pull the phone away from her ear as Marinette screeched into it. "Marinette! Chill out, I can't understand you! Adrien what? At the park? Oh Marinette...hold on I'm on my way." She sighed putting her phone back in her pocket.
"I assume Marinette has run into Adrien and taken note of his sad boy demeanor. This isn't good. She's sure to try and come up with some out-of-pocket plan to cheer him up only for it to end in disaster." Kagami claimed.
"More out of pocket then your plan?"
"Adrien has a tendency to be very weak, I mean sensitive. Fix him, Lucy." Was all Kagami added before the door shut and the car pulled away. Only a moment later it returned, paused, and then pulled away again, this time leaving Jacob behind.
"Guess it's you and me kid!" Jacob said with two thumbs up.
Lucy shook her head gently with a light hum. "Oh goody."
OoOoOoOo
A bit earlier, Adrien found himself trying to find some peace in the park. After feeling like he was going to burst into tears on his way home from fencing practice he asked his bodyguard to pull over. Fortunately, the man obliged and Adrien was free to take a breather. He found himself on a park bench. The park bench he like to consider his and Lucy's. He was trying not to over think things, but Ladybugs words kept ringing in his head over and over again. Once again, he felt like he was in a cross roads. One that would force him to choose between Lucy and his ability to be Chat Noir.
From above, Marinette stood on her balcony, arguing over the phone with a man about the giant billboard in front of her house that displayed Ladybug and Chat Noir in close proximity. The image was the same one that was plastered all over Paris, as well as the cover of the Magazine. It was a captured moment where Chat happened to be holding her bridal style, probably after she had just been tossed around by an Akumatized villain. The pair's faces were only a few inches apart while Chat looked down at her with his flirty grin while she was looking back at him with a small smile and her eyelids drooped down, probably about to say a witty comeback to whatever ridiculous joke he had said only a second before.
If it had been anyone else, Marinette was sure she would get ideas seeing it out of context to. But it was her and Chat, and she knew the truth.
"I don't call that a monetizing informational space, sir, I call it visual pollution!" She shouted into the phone. "How much would it cost to get that poster removed? That much? Can I pay in thirty-five hundred installments?"
It was then out of the corner of her eye she spotted Adrien sitting in the park looking unusually sad. "Adrien? Uh— Yeah, but um... go ahead and leave the poster there. Bye! Love ya— Uh— I mean, goodbye!" She scolded herself. Why am I like this? "Tikki! Adrien is at the park looking sad! Operation bye-bye blues is a go!" She shouted, running into her room and opening a chest that harvested a number of presents she had stored away for Adrien.
"Marinette?" Tikki called out as she flew to her owners side. "I thought you weren't going to pursue Adrien anymore?"
"I'm not!" Marinette clarified, still digging for the girt she was looking for. "I bought or made these gifts way before trying to set up Lucy and Adrien. What else am I supposed to do, just toss them away? I put a lot of thought into them! Besides, a friend can give another friend a gift when they are feeling sad."
As she continued to dig, Tikki flew into the chest and pulled out a large red and gold wrapped gift. "Is this it?" She asked. Marinette smiled and took hold of the box.
"Yes! Perfect!"
Plagg sighed from inside Adrien's shirt pocket. "I don't get why you don't just talk to Lucy. You know doing so will make you feel better. You don't have to tell her exactly why you're sad, but-"
"No, Plagg." Adrien replied. "If I talk to Lucy, I am just going to have to lie to her like everyone else. That's a big part of the problem in the first place. The difference is she already let it go once when I brushed it off, if she sees me like this again, she's going to know that I'm not being honest with her and that will cause even more problems." He groaned, running his hands in his hair. "Why does this all have to be so complicated?"
In his lair, far below his home ShadowMoth smiled as he felt a wave of negative energy nearby.
"Ah, love is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. Perhaps I can unburden this-" ShadowMoth pauses as the image of the distressed person becomes clearer in his mind. "Adrien."
Releasing the Akuma from his hands, ShadowMoth detransformed, reversing his Akuma. No. Gabriel Agreste would make a pawn out of anyone in Paris in order to get a hold of Chat Noir and Ladybugs miraculous, but the one person he would not use was his son.
(Clearly, we know that there are two separate scenarios where Gabriel does in fact akumatize Adrien, however, in those scenarios, he does so after he finds out Adrien is Chat. Now, in most cases Gabriel is made to look like a giant A-hole just for the fun of it, so it does please me a little to see that Gabriel wouldn't go out of his way to Akumatize his son without a second thought. Does that makeup for all his crappy personality? Nope, but I think it says something to see Gabriel choose to let that one go.)
Pulling out his phone he dialed the bodyguard. "Your job was to drive Adrien home immediately after his fencing class. Go get him. Now."
"Caring about someone isn't complicated," Plagg said, leaning against his owner's chest. "It isn't easy. But it isn't complicated, either. I imagine it's kinda like lifting the engine block out of a car."
"What do you know about cars?"
"Nothing and that's exactly my point."
Marinette's presence distracted Adrien as she strutted by with a large gift in her arms.
"Oh, Adrien! Fancy seeing you here! And you look so sad, that's good! I mean, no, of course, it's not. It's sad that you're sad but I just happen to be out shopping and have with me by an incredible coincidence the perfect thing to bring back your smile. So, umm... gift!" She rambled, holding out the box to him.
Adrien was taken by surprise to say the least but Marinette walking around casually with a gift with the sole purpose of giving it away to someone just because they looked sad was somehow very on-brand for her in Adrien's eyes.
"Wow!" Adrien says, opening the gift and finding a hamster cage. "I've always dreamed of having a hamster! How did you know they were my favorite animal? You know me so well Marinette."
Marinette pushes a strand of her hair behind her ear and smiles bashfully. "You see I...well, I was in love you, Adrien. And I wanted to know what things made you happy. I know that you don't feel the same, but your friendship means a lot to me. You mean a lot to me."
Adrien puts down the gift and stands up from the bench, taking hold of Marinette's hands. "Oh Marinette. You mean a lot to me too. And I want you to know, that if me and Lucy ever break up, I would totally come to you to mend my broken heart."
"That's what friends are for." Marinette replies dreamily before she suddenly caught herself. "Wait no..."
"A hamster wheel!" Adrien exclaimed in excitement. It wasn't a regular hamster wheel but the kind you would use for clay sculpting. Adrien had never dabbled in sculpting, but perhaps if he had this lying around his room, he would use some of his free time to make use of it. Ah yes, he could see it now. The superhero whose power is destruction...creating. Beautiful irony.
Marinette panicked. Not only was she still having weird fantasies when it came to Adrien, but the gift he was holding also was definitely not the one she had planned. In her distress, she snatched the gift and tossed it into the trash.
"Oh! No, this was just in case they ever remake that movie! You know the one-uh-never mind. That wasn't the perfect gift at all." She pouts.
"That's a shame. A cool gift like that could be useful." Adrien said, looking to the trash.
"It's not cool or useful! The garbage can is the perfect place for useless stuff that you can just forget about!"
The memory of Ladybug tossing him into the trash the day before pushed to the forefront of Adrien's mind.
"The garbage can. Right." In the distance, Adrien could see his bodyguard signaling him it was time to leave and stood from the bench. "I have to go. Bye Marinette."
Marinette threw her head in her hands. "I completely messed that up. He looks even sadder than before!"
"Maybe you should call Lucy," Tikki suggested. "You know, his girlfriend?"
"Already dialing," Marinette said in a deflated tone while making her way back to her house.
OoOoOoOoOo
Gabriel awaited his son's arrival almost nervously. He had felt the negative emotions of a number of people during his time with the Butterfly Miraculous. Usually, when their pain washed over him, it almost was enough to make him temporarily forget his own. He relished in it. But not this time. No, Gabriel was thrown off entirely by the echo of Adrien's distress. It wasn't that he thought his son was always content, everyone has disappointments from time to time, but this was different. There had only been one other occasion when Gabriel had been hit with Adrien's pain in such magnitude, and that was when his mother had officially been declared dead.
He remembered it well. This pain, seemed to fall in step, though its source was different. Adrien had always been so good at leveling his emotions that Gabriel could sometimes forget he needed to check-in. As Adrien walked through the door, Gabriel stood a little straighter.
"Ah, Adrien, I wanted to speak with you."
"As you wish father."
Gabriel hesitated and it was in that moment that is occurred to him just how long it had been since he had last asked. "Is... everything alright?"
"Yes. Father." Adrien answered dully. Gabriel could feel his jaw tighten. Adrien was not being honest with him. He could tell that much. But what was he to do? He couldn't force Adrien to tell him what was wrong.
"Good." He said, watching his son reach for the door. "Adrien, since your mother disappeared I... I must have been distant but-"
"I don't blame you, father." Gabriel didn't know if Adrien's words held complete honesty, but a part of him prayed that they were.
"I want you to know...If you need to, you can talk to me."
"If I needed to, father, I would," Adrien answered, leaving for his room.
Gabriel closed his eyes and let out a heavy breath. He turned and made his way over to the painting of Emilie and frowned. "I've never seen this side of him, Emilie, which makes sense because people reveal different parts of themselves to different people. I don't know why I could never see that before. How I was with you isn't how I am with Adrien, and how Adrien is with me isn't how he was with you." He looks at the photos he has of Adrien on his wall.
"Time doesn't heal all wounds. It's complete nonsense; it comes from people who have nothing comforting or original to say. But I wonder if others keep up with this lie because they don't want to speak the harsh truth. The wound never closes and the pain remains, always piercing, always burning, always suffocating, always bleeding."
It was tragic to think about. His wife, though being kept preserved, was as good as dead. And he was the worst kind of alive. There's this kind of zombie he had become now: the one who has lost everything—his brain, his heart, his light, his direction. He wanders the world, bumping into this, tripping over that, but keeps going and going. That is life after death.
"He's getting older. Before we know it, he'll want to leave and there will be nothing I can do to stop him. I have him now, and I still can't throw on a smile that doesn't feel like a lie. I can't even will myself to talk to him about it. Grief is complicated enough without wondering how someone else is handling their own shade of it."
His eyes turn back to his wife's portrait. Like always he was aware of insane he would look to any passerby. Talking to a painting as if it would reach out an offer him some sort of solution, some sort of comfort. He thinks about the way things were before. The way the three of them walked through the ups and downs of this life together. His frown deepened.
"I'm sorry." He apologized. "Please don't be mad at me for reliving all of it. History is all you left me."
OoOoOoO
"So, you gave him a gift, and then took it away and threw it in the trash?" Jacob summarized as he lounged in the pink patio chair on Marinette's balcony. Marinette hung her head in shame as she leaned against her railing. Lucy rubbed her eyes before running her fingers through her hair and then down her neck as she took in the story Marinette told them.
"I'm not proud," Marinette admitted. "But you didn't see him, Lucy! He looked so sad! You have to do something!"
Lucy sighed. "You know if he wanted my help, you would think he would have just talked to me."
"It's probably just his pride!" Marinette theorized. "Guys are weird when it comes to asking for emotional support. He probably just sees it as a him kind of problem."
"Or maybe he won't talk to me about the problem because the problem is me." Lucy countered, crossing her arms.
"What?!" Jacob and Marinette shouted together. Jacob scoffed.
"Oh please. Whatever Adrien's problem is has nothing to do with you."
"That's just silly," Marinette agreed. "Why would you think that?"
"I don't know," Lucy shrugged. "Maybe because up until now Adrien seemed totally content and perfectly cable of telling me when something is bothering him, but now all of a sudden, he has too much pride? It doesn't make any sense."
Jacob opened his mouth to speak, only to pause and tilt his head to the side, sending Marinette a glance. "You know, that is a little suspicious."
"Hush you!" Marinette scolded the taller boy. "Lucy, Adrien is crazy about you, okay? There is no questioning that." She affirmed, walking over to the blonde girl, taking hold of her shoulders. "Communication is key is any relationship, and if Adrien is struggling with that concept right now, all you can do is give him the nudge he needs."
Lucy smiled at her pigtailed friend, only for her admiration to be quickly replaced with annoyance.
"You know, for someone so keen on giving advice on communication, you sure are pretty crap at it." She glared. "I know you still haven't talked to Luka,"
Marinette quickly jumped away from Lucy, crossing her arms and turning away from her.
"We are talking about you talking to Adrien right now. Now me talking to Luka. It's not the same thing!"
"You have to talk to him Marinette!"
"Luka?" Jacob pondered, tapping his finger against his chin, "Luka, Luka, Luka- Oh! So, you and Guitar Hero finally got together huh?"
"They did, until she broke up with him for undisclosed reasons." Lucy replied flatly. Jacob snorted.
"Well, that lasted for all of about five minutes."
"I am not in a good place to be romantically involved right now!" Marinette argued.
"Ah, the old, it's not you, it's me ordeal, is it?"
"And now she's ghosting him."
"Aw, now that's not very nice."
"Zip it! Both of you." Marinette scolded. "It's my business."
Lucy raised a brow and placed a hand on her hip as her eyes narrowed at Marinette. "You know how you called me over here because you were concerned about your friend Adrien, knowing that he might feel better if I talk to him? Well, I'm concerned about my friend Luka, and know he might feel better if you talk to him."
Marinette groaned. "It's not like I don't want to. I just don't know what to say to him. I'm afraid being around me would be too painful and awkward because I know he is still in love with me and I-"
"Love him too." Jacob finished, placing his hands over his heart.
"Can't be a good partner to him right now." Marinette corrected. "It will be so awkward."
"Maybe at first." Lucy said with a shrug. "But it's only as weird as you make it."
"I make everything weird." Marinette pouted, making Lucy snort.
"That's fair. Maybe you should practice."
"Like in the mirror?" Jacob asked. Lucy shook her head.
"No, I think a real person might be better for this one. Here," She took a seat on the wooden chest near her table. "I'll be Luka. Just talk to me."
Marinette blinked at her, shifting her weight from side to side, looking like she was trying to use her imagination, but before she could get a word out her shoulders fell. "I can't do it."
"Come on Marinette."
"I can't! I'm trying to picture you as Luka, but you look too much like Adrien!" It was Lucy's turn to stare at Marinette blankly, processing her words.
"I look too much like...?" She shook her head. "I do not look like Adrien!" She snapped her head to Jacob. "Do I look like Adrien?!"
Jacob paused, and for a moment, looked as though he was going to protest until his eyebrows shot up. "I... I never really thought so but now that she has said that I can't unsee it."
"Why?! Because we are both blonde? If that's the case, Chloe looks like him too!"
"You also both have green eyes." Marinette pointed out, earning a nod from Jacob.
"I have dark blonde hair, and dark greenish blue eyes. He has golden blonde hair and vivid...grassy green eyes."
"Grassy green?" Jacob laughed. "My god you should write poetry."
"Screw you both." Lucy pouted.
"It's not a big deal, Lucy," Marinette went on. "A lot of couples tend to look alike. Even Alya and Nino look a little alike."
"Why, cuz' they're both brown?" Lucy shot back irritated, making Marinette's eyes widen and her lip purse. Jacob let out a loud and obnoxious laugh, practically falling out of the lounge chair. As he wiped the tears forming at the corners of his eyes, Jacob reached out to Lucy.
"Oh! Oh god thank you." He said between laughs. "Thank you for inviting me here! I needed this!" Lucy rolled her eyes.
"I didn't invite you anywhere."
"Listen!" Marinette exclaimed. "The point is when I look at you and try to picture a boy, I end up seeing Adrien! That's all there is to it!"
"Then use Jacob."
"I don't want to use Jacob!"
"Aw, come on. I'm very usable." The boy pouted. The two girls gave him an unimpressed look.
"You can't use Jacob."
"I can't use Jacob."
"Well, there has to be somebody you can practice with. Ask Alya to come over or something." Lucy suggested.
"I can't, she's busy with her siblings today." Marinette stated, scrolling through the contacts on her phone. "No... no... Maybe...no...that would be too weird...no." She groaned in frustration. "This is impossible! How am I supposed to find anyone to practice with?!"
"What is Chat Noir doing?" Lucy suddenly asked. Marinette shook her head still looking through her phone. "How should I know? I don't have his personal number."
"No," Lucy snaped. "Over there. What is he doing?" Marinette looked up to find Lucy pointing at Chat Noir who stood in front of the large near her house.
"Chat Noir!" Marinette exclaimed. "Perfect, I can use him! Chat Noir! Oh, Chat Noir! Here kitty, kitty! She waved before Lucy could object.
Chat Noir, who had decided to take out his frustration by destroying all of the billboards in Paris that showed he and Ladybug as "Couple of the year". Heard Marinette's calls and leaped over.
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Is everything alright?" He asked, his eyes moving past her to see Lucy and Jacob in the background.
"Yeah, perfect timing, actually! I need a boyfriend! Well, ex-boyfriend technically."
Chat knitted his brows together after her words were processed. "What? Marinette, I can't be your boyfriend. Oh, no, no, no! I'm done with all that lovey-dovey stuff! I'm not in love with anyone, and don't plan it on anytime soon." He huffed, crossing his arms moving his eyes from Marinette, back over to Lucy and Jacob who both sat with their eyebrows raised.
"No!" Marinette spoke again, earning back his attention. "I don't need you to be my actual boyfriend. You see, I just went through a breakup with my boyfriend a while ago and things have been super weird since because anytime I think about talking to him, I get all awkward and avoid him, and so I need someone to practice on that doesn't remind me of anyone else so that maybe I can talk to him and we can be buddies again! And I figured since we don't have any weird history and have never been in love, I can practice without worrying if I'll hurt your feelings or make the situation over all worse because I have a habit of-"
"Marinette!" Lucy called out, grabbing the attention of the pigtailed girl who hadn't seemed to notice the lost and overwhelmed look of Chat Noir's face. "You're rambling."
"Right..." She cleared her throat and smiled at Chat nervously before regaining her composure and slowing down her thoughts. "I have an ex-boyfriend who I really need to talk to, but I need to rehearse what I am going to say first so I don't make it worse." She explained more clearly. "I can't take it seriously with these two," She gestures to the pair behind her. "And I figured since you have never been in love with me-"
"Correct." Chat confirmed. "Never been in love with you. Not even in love with anyone at this moment. Completely happy living the single life."
"Oh my god, he's so transparent," Jacob muttered to Lucy who only nudge him in response.
"Exactly..." Marinette clarified. "I figured since you have never been in love with me it might be easier to talk to you as if I was talking to him without overthinking it."
"Oh. Uh, yeah...I guess I could do that?" Chat agreed awkwardly.
"Great!" Marinette pulled up a stool and pushed Chat Noir onto it. "You sit here and I'll come in." She pulled out a piece of paper from her back pocket.
"You wrote him a letter?" Lucy asked.
"Sorta? I told you; I've been trying to work up my nerve to talk to him but keep backing out. I've always found it easier to put my thoughts down on paper." Marinette explained.
"I guess that makes sense. Hello, by the way, Chat." Lucy greeted him, not having done so properly yet.
"Hi, Lucy," Chat said before nodding to the curly-haired boy to her left. "Jacob."
"You know my name? Have we met?"
Chat opens his mouth, hesitating before answering. "Lucy has mentioned you before."
"Aw, you talk to Chat Noir about me?" Jacob cooed with his hands over his heart. Lucy rolled her eyes. "You are not my favorite person today."
"To be fair I don't think I have ever been your favorite person."
"Excuse me! I am trying to do something here." Marinette barked. The pair zipped their lips and Marinette cleared her throat again before beginning to read.
"Dear Chat Noir, I know things have been a little weird between us. And I know that's probably mostly my fault. But Chat, I need you to know I-"
"I'm sorry, Marinette," Chat interrupted. "I know you're not talking to me, but when you keep saying my name it kinda feels like it and I don't know..."
"Oh, you're right." Marinette agreed.
"What's your boyfriend, er, ex-boyfriend's name?" Chat asked, though, he supposed he already knew the answer.
"That's private!" Marinette scolded.
A sigh came from Chat. "That doesn't make things easier."
"Okay, fine-"
"Blue Man Group!"
"Dory!" Jacob and Lucy shouted out. Marinette ignored them.
"Buddy."
Chat couldn't help but chuckle. "Buddy, huh?"
"No!" Marinette hissed. "It's a code name! Just sit down!" And so he did.
"Dear Buddy, I know things have been a little weird between us. And I-" She glared as Chat Noir fought to hold in his laugh.
"I'm sorry. It's the Buddy thing, carry on."
"Get it together! This is serious! Dear, Buddy, I know things have been a little weird between us. And I know that's probably mostly my fault. But Buddy, I need you to know I- ugh. What? What is with that face?" She asked as she looked at Chat's scrunched look.
"This is my serious face?"
In the background, Lucy and Jacob giggled. Lucy was leaned over the table, shaking with her head down while Jacob sat looking at them with his hand over his mouth.
"You know, you two can leave anytime!" Marinette shouted.
"You couldn't pay me to miss this," Lucy argued. "Please, carry on and tell Buddy how you feel."
Marinette's narrowed eyes shifted from the pair behind her, back to Chat Noir. "Be serious but not like you're trying to solve a math problem. Dear Buddy, I know things have been weird between us. And I-"
"I'm sorry, but what kind of face should I be making?"
"Who cares!?"
"I don't know, you're the one who was saying—"
"I know! It doesn't matter how you feel right now, I'm the one training here! Just act like you're a little interested in me! It's good to be interested in other people now and then, you know? Always me, me, me! Again! Dear Buddy! I know things have been weird between us. And I know that's probably mostly my fault. But Buddy, I need you-"
"That was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard!" Chat beamed.
"What? I hardly even said anything?!"
"I know, but the way you open your mouth was just so moving, it was like the skies after the storm, like a rainbow sweeping my heart!" Marinette glared at Chat as hackling once again abrupted from behind her.
"You're over doing it."
"You think?"
"Yes, really! Just sit!" She said, knocking him back onto the stool. "Dear Buddy!" She said, her tone aggressive as she tried to get through the words. "I know things have been weird between us. And I know that's probably mostly my fault! But Buddy, I need you to know-!"
"Uh, well," Chat interrupted again. "if you don't mind me saying, now it sounds like you're mad at me instead of trying to make amends with me."
"I'm not mad!" Marinette growled. "I'm trying smooth things over, isn't it obvious?!
"Let's just say it could be more obvious."
"Alright, since you're so good at this, show me how it's done. I'll be you, and you'll be me. Come on." She switches places with Chat Noir and glares at him as she takes her seat.
"Oh yes, do that." Jacob agreed from behind, making Marinette make a zip it motion at him.
"Dear Buddy," Chat read. "I know things have been weird between us. And I know that's probably mostly my fault. But Buddy, I need you to know that I never wanted it to be this way. I'll never understand how time can make a moment feel as close as yesterday and as far as years!" He clutched his heart dramatically.
"People are complicated puzzles, always trying to piece together a complete picture, but sometimes we get it wrong and sometimes we're left unfinished. Sometimes that's for the best. Some pieces can't be forced into a puzzle, or at least they shouldn't be, because they won't make sense."
Chat's dramatics faltered as he continued reading. "I know my silence may have hurt you. What you don't understand, Buddy, is silence is sometimes better than someone speaking before they're ready. That is how lies slip out. And I don't want to lie to you anymore. That's how we got here in the first place..." He trailed off a little, going over the words in his head, hesitating to continue. "Marinette..."
No one spoke for a moment, and Marinette felt three pairs of eyes looking at her intently. She swallowed before getting up and snatching the paper away from Chat.
"Do I sound that corny when I'm saying it?" She joked lightly.
"Maybe it's time for a break." Lucy suggested, standing, Jacob following suit. "Maybe we can-"
"You, need to go deal with something else now." Marinette interrupted with a small smile. Lucy let out a breath from her nose and nodded.
"That I do. You sure you don't-? But Marinette shook her head.
"It's fine." Lucy gave one last nod, sending Chat a glance before climbing down the hatch in the floor. Jacob smiled awkwardly, pointing to the hatch.
"I'm just gonna-"
"Goodbye, Jacob." Marinette said. She let out a sigh, feeling a hand on her shoulder.
"Lucy is right. Let's take a break. Movie?" Marinette smiled.
"Movie."
OoOoOoOo
The pair had rid the bus to the theater. A number of pedestrians took note of them but specifically Chat Noir. The goal was to try and get both their minds off their troubles, but sitting in the back of the bus, trying to figure out a movie to see only made Chat think of Lucy more. This wasn't so bad. Going out to a movie with a friend. He wasn't getting bombarded with questions and Marinette wasn't either. It surprised him, and he wondered if it surprised Marinette too.
He had always assumed if he had dated someone as Chat Noir, he would have to be sneaky about it. Mostly because of ShadowMoth, but also partly due to people just being...people. Yet, no one really bothered them. Chat wondered if he had chosen to try and be in a relationship with Lucy as Chat Noir, how long it would take for people to really take note of it. It seemed like it happened in a blink before with Nadia's interview, and since most of Paris was now totally unsure if he and Ladybug were together or not, why was no one asking? It's not that he wanted his outing with Marinette to turn into the next big gossip tag but he couldn't help but wonder. Did nobody actually care who he dated, if who he dated wasn't Ladybug?
The movie they had chosen was called "Sharktank vs. Mechatiger". They had no idea what it was about but steering away from superhero films and romantic comedies, it seemed like the best possible option. Unfortunately, it seemed they had been wrong.
"Sharktank, don't die! I've always loved you!"
"Me too, Mechatiger, but it's impossible! We've sworn enemies!"
Both Chat Noir and Marinette stared at the screen in mild annoyance.
"But they don't even have mouths! How are they supposed to kiss?" Chat asked, only for his question to be answered immediately after. The two robots slammed their metal faces together.
"Uh, it's been written in advance, so everything's planned out. But in real life, you have no idea how it's gonna go. Just because you tell someone how you feel doesn't mean the other will accept your words just like that!
"Tell me about it. If only love could be so easy." Chat replied, a slight bitterness to his tone.
"That's why it's so scary to tell someone how you're feeling. Even saving the world seems easy compared to it. Well, I suppose it is. I mean, just look at you! When you have to save the world with Ladybug, you just bulldoze ahead, you don't think about it! A couple of jokes, and bam! Cataclysm, Lucky Charm, Miraculous Ladybug! And everything's back to normal. Easy as pie."
"Yeah, that's the short version, but it sounds about right." Chat replied with a small smile.
"But telling someone you love them? If it doesn't work out, it's your heart that gets cataclysm-ed, and no Miraculous Ladybug can repair that." Marinette said quietly. "That's why I never get anywhere with boys. When things are really important to me, I get so scared that it won't work out that I can't help trying to control every possible outcome! I do it hoping it will help, but so far, it's only made things worse."
Chat empathized with the girl sitting beside him, but sadly, he wasn't sure there was anything he could say to make it better. Although his problems with love differed from hers, he could relate to feeling like your best efforts weren't getting you the results you were looking for. When the movie ended, the rain started to fall. Pulling out his staff, an umbrella emerged, protecting them both.
"You have an umbrella function in your stick?"
"Well, yeah! Cats don't like water." He grinned at her. "You know it's funny, there has been all this talk going around about me and Ladybug, but as I stand here in plain sight here with you, no one is batting an eye. Lucy and I never really got around to going on a real date. I wonder if it would have been this easy?"
Marinette matches Chat's leisure pace from under the umbrella as she takes in his words. "Do you wish you would have tried harder? To be with her?" She asks, stopping as Chat does. He pauses a moment, seeming to think on his answer.
"I don't know." He replies quietly. "I think that people commenting on our relationship would only be one on a list of problems. Ladybug called me out today. Said that I was holding on to something I couldn't have. Basically, that Lucy was better off without me."
"She didn't say that." Marinette spoke as if she was simply having a hard time believing him, but really, she was having a hard time accepting that that was what he had heard.
"Not in those exact words, but in an essence, yeah, it was. She was already in a bad mood. I wasn't taking the whole couple of the year situation nearly as seriously as she was. I made a joke about it and she literally threw me in the trash today." He reminisced.
Marinette pursed her lips. She did do that, didn't she?
"I'm...sorry." Chat shrugged. "Not your fault. Ladybug has her own personal problems she is dealing with."
"Still," Marinette insisted. "She...she probably shouldn't have done that."
"No, she shouldn't have." Chat agreed. "But I also shouldn't have been pushing her buttons over a topic I knew she was upset about. Everyone has bad days Marinette. Even Ladybug. Even me."
"I'm sure you guys will figure it out." The two smiled at one another and continued on with their walk, unaware of the very confused ice cream maker watching them with utter confusion.
By the time the pair had gotten back to Marinette's house, the rain had stopped. Chat Noir, lifted Marinette with his staff and landed her on her roof with a smile. "Thanks for flying Cat Noir Airways. We hope you'll be fe-lying again soon."
Marinette lets out a small laugh. "Thanks! That was nice."
"My pleasure." The two, feeling comfortable enough with one another to feel like they had formed some kind of friendship gave friendly kisses to each other's cheeks. As Chat is about to make his leave he remembers why he had been with her in the first place.
"Oh, wait! Your training!"
"Oh, shoot! I forgot about that!"
"Quick! Back into position." Chat says, taking his seat by her railing. "You can totally do it this time! I just know it!"
Marinette nods. "Dear—"
"You two are not supposed to be together! My ice cream never lies!"
"Again?"
"No, no, no!" Marinette tried to de-escalate the situation. "We're not in love, it's just practice!" She says, but Glaciator ignores her, shooting his ice cream at them. Chat Noir scoops up Marinette and puts her to safety in an alley, telling her to stay there.
"Glaciator re-akumatized? But that's impossible! You gave Andre a magical charm earlier, didn't you?" Tikki asks.
"Oh, no! I was so annoyed with that whole Couple of the Year thing that I totally forgot to give it to him! Tikki, spots on!"
OoOoOoOo (Just under 11,000 words in and I am allllmost done. It's like 9:30pm and I have been up since 4:45am but I am determined to get this fucking finished.)
It didn't take long to de-akumatize Andre. The perk of the whole ordeal being they both got to drive a super cool set of wheels, being that Ladybug's lucky charm ended up being a car. When it was over, Ladybug handed Andre his charm, explaining it would help him from getting akumatized again. Ladybug offered her fist to Chat Noir who smiled and bumped it with his own before turning to make his leave.
"Chat, hold on."
"M'lady, I really have somewhere to be." Chat said, his tone apologetic.
"This will only take a minute." She assured him. "I wanted to apologize for the other day. I was upset and I took my anger out on you and I shouldn't have done that. Even if you were being a pain in my rear."
Chat offers a grin. "Apology accepted. But Ladybug?"
"Hm?"
"I know you have some form of a wild storm going on in your heart right now. I get it, believe me. But please try to remember that it can't rain forever."
As he leaped away, Ladybug smiled and pulled out her yo-yo. After all, she knew where he would be going.
On her rooftop, Marinette held her paper in front of her while Chat sat in his designated spot in front of her.
"Dear..." She paused, almost going back to the name Buddy, but as she looked from her paper to Chat, and ran through all the things they had shared together that afternoon, it didn't feel all so private anymore.
"Dear Luka,
I know things have been weird between us. And I know that's probably mostly my fault. But Luka, I need you to know that I never wanted it to be this way. I'll never understand how time can make a moment feel as close as yesterday and as far as years.
People are complicated puzzles, always trying to piece together a complete picture, but sometimes we get it wrong, and sometimes we're left unfinished. Sometimes that's for the best. Some pieces can't be forced into a puzzle, or at least they shouldn't be, because they won't make sense.
I know my silence may have hurt you. What you don't understand, Luka is silence is sometimes better than someone speaking before they're ready. That is how lies slip out. And I don't want to lie to you anymore. That's how we got here in the first place...
It's been rewarding to be this honest lately. I'm determined to stay this honest, as if lives depend on it, which I guess they sort of do. No one will die if I lie, but lives can grow and be fuller when I tell the truth. The thing is, love doesn't make sense anymore, and I feel fooled. Love isn't this ultimate power that can make me feel unbeatable and all-conquering, but instead powerless, and that terrifies me.
I'm sorry, and I miss you, and I wish things could have been different. Maybe someday they will be. It's going to sound stupid, and I wouldn't ever say this out loud, but the way you and I came to be together was sort of like getting caught in a thunderstorm. Storms can suck when they're knocking out power and ripping apart houses, no doubt. But other times the thunder is a soundtrack to something unpredictable, something that gets our hearts racing and wakes us up. If someone had warned me about the weather, I might have freaked out and stayed inside.
But I didn't. And in it I found you. I hope I don't lose you in it as well.
Love, Marinette".
She looked up from her paper, to Chat whose expression was somewhat hard to describe. He had a small smile on his face, but his eyes read something sadder.
"Marinette," He spoke. "I may not know the details of yours and Luka's relationship or why it ended but...it's all gonna work out."
Marinette sighed and crumpled up the paper in her hands, surprising Chat. "What are you doing?! That was-"
"I'm never going to say all that to him." She admitted.
"I think you should talk to him."
"I will," she said with a sad smile. "Eventually. But it doesn't matter how much I practice, whenever I get around to facing him, it's not going to come out the same way."
"You could have given him the letter?"
She shook her head no. "These things are better-said face to face. If I just give him a letter, I'm not actually taking the steps to talk to him. It's not the same."
"Well, whenever you're ready to face him, whatever you say, will come from your heart, even if it's not as articulate as your letter. And however you say it, I'm sure he will understand you just fine.
"I'm afraid he might hate me," Marinette admitted quietly.
"He doesn't hate you."
"How do you know?"
Chat lifted his shoulder and the dropped them. "I just do."
OoOoOoOo
When he arrived home again, Adrien quickly tossed Plagg some cheese, and headed for his bed. Falling down onto the bed he groaned. Today has been exhausting from start to finish.
"Uh, Adrien?" Plagg called out with a mouth full of cheese.
"What's up, buddy?" Adrien chuckled to himself. Heh, Buddy.
"You might want to come look at this." Adrien saw up and looked to see Plagg at his desk, floating over where he had left his cell phone. Picking up the phone, Adrien could feel the panic rise in his chest as he saw the handful of missed calls and texts from Lucy.
Lulu
Hey you, I know you said it was nothing
earlier, but I can't help but feel there is
something you're not telling me.
Call me when you get this.
Sent 15:37
Lulu
I'm trying really hard not to feel like
I'm being ignored. I get if you're busy, can
you just tell me you're getting my texts.
Sent 16:45
Lulu
So, I thought me and Nathalie were cool,
but I just tried calling your house since
you're not picking up and she basically
told me you were in your room and
if you're not answering your phone that
you must be busy.
Sent 17:15
Lulu
Really? Nothing? Cool.
Sent 18:52
Lulu
Alright, well, I have officially called
14 times in the past 3ish hours.
clearly, you have something wayyy
more important to do or simply don't
want to talk to me. No problem.
Sent 20:10
Fuck, Fuck, Fuck.
Adrien quickly hit the call button on his phone. It rang six times before going to voice mail. He quickly hung up and dialed again and got the same result. Going in for a third try, he hit dial again. This time it rang three times and went to voice mail. Adrien curse. She had rejected his call. He hit dial again, three rings, voice mail.
"Come on. Pick up." He muttered trying again. "Pick up, pick up, pick up." This time no rings came, instead straight to voice mail. "Fuck!"
Me
Lucy! Hey! I'm so sorry!
I got caught up in something,
I'm just seeing these texts now.
Please pick up.
Sent 20:40
He drummed his fingers on his desk as time seemed to slow down while he waited for her to respond. The little bubble on the text never changed from unread. She wouldn't even read it.
Me
Lulu, please answer me.
I wasn't trying to ignore you
I promise.
Sent 20:45
Another few minutes passed, this time, his texts changed to read. Still, however, no reply. Adrien couldn't take the way she was ignoring him. The stress of it was giving him high blood pressure. He could tell by the way his ring got tighter around his finger. He dialed again, this time six rings, but no answer. Desperate to get back in her good graces, Adrien did the only thing he thought would work. A part of him felt guilty, but it was nothing compared to the part of him that ached at the idea of Lucy continuing to ignore him. Thus, he played the only card he had left. The sympathy card.
Me
Alright, I'll let you be.
Truth is, I got in my own head
and hurt my own feelings. So much so
that I felt stupid for it later. You
had asked me what was wrong, and
I couldn't tell you I'm just an idiot.
I'm sorry, hopefully you will talk to
me tomorrow.
Sent 20:52
He waited, and waited, and waited. Message read.
Lulu
You didn't need to tell me
you're an idiot,
I already know.
Sent 20:59
Me
I'm sorry.
Sent 21:00
Read.
And then his phone rang.
"Lucy!" He greeted, thanking the universe that he didn't actually have to wait to corner his girlfriend in the school hallway in order to get her to talk to him. Though he was pretty sure if he did that, she still wouldn't have.
"What happened Adrien?" She asked gently through the line.
He didn't want to lie to her. But he couldn't tell her the whole truth. Instead, he settled for a half truth. One he hoped would be enough for her.
"It's...about Chat Noir." He said sheepishly.
"Chat Noir?" The surprise in her voice was evident. "Why were you upset about Chat Noir?"
"It's not really him specifically, and more so what you said about him." There was silence for a moment, and Adrien assumed Lucy was probably trying to think about what she could have possibly said about Chat Noir that would upset him.
"What are you talking about?"
Adrien sighed. "You said that you wouldn't be bothered if Chat Noir started dating someone."
"And that upset you...why?"
"Well, it's not that it upset me, I just-"
"Adrien for fucks sake stop dancing around the issue and just tell me what it is." Lucy scolded.
"When did you know you were over Chat Noir?" He then asked. Another pause.
"Thats...a strange question to have you in such a mood."
"Just answer me please."
Adrien could hear Lucy sigh through the phone, "Honestly?"
"Preferably."
"I'm still working on it." This surprised Adrien, while somehow giving him hope.
"But, you're not completely yet?" He clarified.
"Adrien, please don't be-"
"I'm not mad." He cut her off. "I'm not."
"You're not? Because I would be." She admitted.
"No, I'm not. I'll never be mad at you for your feelings."
"Then why have you been so upset?"
"I just thought...you expressed to me that you cared very deeply for Chat Noir. Maybe even loved him..."
"Umhm."
"And even though you said you didn't care if he dated someone knew, I just felt like you were only saying that for me. So, I wouldn't be bothered by it bothering you. I just...don't like the idea of you feeling like you need to hide how you're feeling from me."
"I wasn't lying." Lucy clarified. "Chat moving on wouldn't upset me. I want him to be happy. Like I'm happy. I feel the need to explain to you, that just because a part of me still loves him, doesn't make me love you less."
Warmth spread across his body at her words. He couldn't help the giddy feeling in his soul. Even if she didn't say it directly, Lucy had claimed that she loved him. And she had done so while also proclaiming to love his other half as well. It was different from any other time she had said it to him. It wasn't the platonic love she carried for all her friends. No, she meant it the same way he did. He could feel it.
"I'm sorry I didn't just talk to you."
"Well, like you said. You're an idiot."
"But I'm your idiot." He could hear her snort from the other end of the line.
"And don't you forget it."
He promised he wouldn't.
OKAY its now 5 to midnight, Im exhusted and I hope you like this damn chapter!
Few things I wanted to point out. First, Gabriel. I gave him a little moment there, because as always, I am trying to make him a better bad guy. One you can sympathize with, even if only a little. The gave just the smallest sprinkle of caring dad in this episode, but I wanted MORE.
Secondly, I wanted to poke fun at something that has come up a small handful of times and that is Lucy's resemblance to Adrien. Especially in early chapters where I was first trying to character design her, I would get comments like "she looks like girl Adrien," or "They look like siblings" these comments didn't really offend me. After all, I am an armature artist working with a character I chose to base off a person with similar features. Over time in later work I have tried to make her features, such as her hair, eyes, etc, differ so that it was less of a resemblance, but at the end of the day, people are probably still going to make the connection.
None the less I wanted to poke fun at it.
And 3rd. I once again had Marinette/ Ladybug apologizing for being taking out her anger on Chat. She has a habit of doing so and then just brushing it off and never addressing it like, hey man. You did this, but my reaction was unbecoming. I di get why Ladybug is upset in this episode, and I do see how Chat Noir continuing to push it made her snap at him a little, but as always it was a bit much and as always she didn't own up to it. So my version of her did!
Anyway! Remember to comment and let me know what you think!
