Chapter Text
“You’re like a dream” He cooed as he ran his fingers through her hair.
Marinette sighed watching the personification of sunshine himself gaze at her, at HER, as if she were the only girl in the world.
“Adrien” She hummed. She reached out her hand and delicately touched the collar of his white shirt, savoring the soft material that was finally tangible instead of far away in an image on her wall.
Adrien.
They lay face to face on her bed in the early afternoon. She nudged her forehead against his and sighed. It felt so familiar and comfortable. She couldn’t believe there had ever been a time before him. She felt his foot brush against hers and it tickled a bit. She didn’t mind. So long as he stayed close to her.
They always spent time like this together– staying close and enjoying each other’s presence.
It had only been a few months since they’d started dating and yet it felt like they’d known each other for a lifetime. Like they’d known everything about each other when in reality, they knew nothing at all.
Adrien.
Adrien Adrien Adrien Adrien.
Her heart beat to the sound of his name.
“Yes?” He moved his fingers against her jaw, her neck, her nose and then back to her jaw, lifting her chin before planting a soft kiss to her lips.
Could he hear her thoughts or had she been voicing his name all along? Probably the latter.
“Nothing I just… love saying your name. I love looking at you. You’re my whole world.” She couldn’t believe she was talking to him this way after so long. After all the pining, all the plans and the stuttering. He was hers and he was right in front of her.
Adrien.
“And you’re mine. I’m so happy Mari. I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy just existing.” He whispered so close to her she could feel his words against her face.
Mmmm
She only squeaked and fluttered her eyes at this, enjoying yet another soft kiss.
And she felt it too.
The happiness of simply existing with him.
That was the last time she saw him in person. The last time she could call him hers.
That was the day before Monarch unmasked himself as Gabriel Agreste.
The day before Adrien Agreste vanished from her life.
—------
No one expected Monarch’s reign to end the way it did.
Sure, there were several outcomes that could have played out.
The most popular scenario being where he crouches to the ground in defeat and hands over his miraculous beneath the triumphant grins of the Bug and Cat team.
Maybe the two saviors of Paris would even reveal their identities to each other and be real friends.
That would have been nice.
No one expected the villain to collapse mid battle, remove the brooch from himself and throw it into the Seine before them.
It had been the middle of the night. Monarch was attacking relentlessly. A darkness loomed over the entire city blinding nearly everyone with a thick cloud of smoke. They fought until they approached the river, the fog clearing just enough to see the scene right in front of them.
The clouds apparently had been the result of an illusion he’d created with the fox miraculous.
Why had he wanted this fight to be hidden?
Had he planned to unmask himself this way?
A loud cough erupted from the broken man.
“Please, don’t let my son know. Let him remember the father he deserved. Let him-” he was cut off by his own death.
The smoke cleared suddenly.
Revealing a lifeless Gabriel Agreste, blackened from the neck down.
“The Cataclysm” A voice said. It took a minute for Cat Noir to register that it had been his own voice. Cold. Hollow. It didn’t even sound like it came from his own mouth.
They were the only words he spoke for the rest of the night.
The cataclysm.
A sob sounded from somewhere next to him.
“Oh god, Adrien!” He heard her say. For a second he thought she had been addressing him. It became evident that she had no idea that Adrien had been standing right next to her. She’d merely been crying for him.
For Adrien.
The son of the man they’d just discovered to be a villain. Leaving poor innocen t Adrien without any parents.
It was almost touching that she cared for his civilian self. Almost.
He willed himself to look at the girl beside him, at his partner. He saw her lift her hands to her mouth as she cried. He saw her bend down to the man- to the corpse - muttering meaningless pleas of desperation.
He saw her attempts at checking his pulse. She checked his neck and then his wrist.
“Oh god Adrien!” Her shoulders shook.
He really wished she would stop saying that.
His father’s fingers were still decorated with the new rings of the miraculous. Because he was Monarch.
His Father.
His enemy.
Monarch monarch monarch.
He’d been Hawkmoth.
He’d been Shadowmoth.
He saw his lifeless face and imagined the evil grin that had been plastered there just minutes before.
He saw his cold eyes bearing into him as they fought through the smoke.
He saw his father sitting beside him at the piano, laughing.
He saw his father’s proud face when he walked his first runway.
He saw the countless victims of Monarch screaming in pain.
He saw him flipping pancakes in the kitchen that morning.
He saw the destroyed buildings of Paris.
His father’s silver eyes.
Monarch’s sinister smile.
And then he saw nothing at all as his tears clouded his vision.
He had to get away.
Get the fuck away from there.
And so,
He ran.
—----
“Cat Noir what are you doing?!” She shouted, her voice cracking with anguish as she watched her partner run from the scene.
Shit.
The cataclysm.
‘Ladybug you have to fix this!’
He blamed himself.
‘I know he’s the villain were fighting against but theres still a real person underneath that mask’
Oh kitty.
Oh god kitty.
Her heart ached for him.
Despite her love for Adrien, she still held a deep connection to her partner.
A connection that often felt much stronger than platonic, though she’d chosen to bury that feeling deep down when they’d decided to remain friends.
Even tucked safely away, it still managed to float to the surface a little more often than she would admit. Suddenly she felt it: A pang if emotion hitting her in the chest. She also felt a pain she knew wasn’t hers— he was hurting.
She cried harder though she didn’t think it was possible. Before she could do anything else, she grabbed the rings off of her boyfriend’s fathers fingers. Her boyfriend-
Adrien
“Oh god Adrien” She wished she felt even slightly triumphant. This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen.
Cat Noir wasn’t supposed to feel like a murderer.
Adrien wasn’t supposed to be orphaned.
She had no idea what to do.
‘Please don’t let my son know’
She straightened herself up. If she could spare one thing, it would be Adrien’s sanity. She knew he would be crushed if he ever found out. She could hear the sound of Sirens approaching. Lights began to flash around her and she panicked.
“Ladybug! What happened? Where is Monarch?” A reporter shoved a microphone into her face. A crowd had formed around her.
They didn’t know. They didn’t see anything.
EMT’s began putting Gabriel Agreste onto a stretcher. She placed a shaking hand to the microphone in front of her. She couldn’t talk. Not now. She pushed passed the reporters towards the lights.
“The bruising is severe. We’ve never seen anything like this before.” One of the medics began.
Bruising.
They didn’t know what it was.
There were so many lights.
The Police. She needed to talk to the Police. Officer Roger stood beside an ambulance. He’d taken his hat off.
“He’s really dead? Oh my god how did this happen? My daughter goes to school with his son. This is… a tragedy.” He shook his head in disbelief.
A tragedy.
They really didn’t know.
Ladybug approached with numb legs. “He died saving Cat Noir and I.”
A gasp sounded in the near distance.
“He died saving us from Monarch.” She finished.
Reporters must have overheard. They began repeating her words in a frenzie.
“Where is he? Did you take his miraculous?” The sounds of cameras drowned out her racing heart.
Breath.
“He-” A pause. “He ran off. I didn’t see his face. The miraculous fell in the river. We have to find it- we- we have to look for it” She numbly pointed out towards the Seine where he had thrown the jewel.
Where she should have been looking all this time.
She’d lost it again.
And it would be years before she’d find it again.