Chapter Text
Chat held his tail, running his thumb over the leather as he stared out at the city below. Paris was beautiful this time of day. Right as the sun was going down, its pink essence soaking into the scenery around it. Ladybug inched closer, touching knees with her partner. She loved spending time with him like this.
No fighting, no pressing matters pulling them away. Just the two of them, sitting on a rooftop, spending time as friends. She eyed him, watching as he seemed to mull over his thoughts. “Cat got your tongue?”
"Hm?” Chat startled. “Oh,” He smiled, finally computing her joke. “I guess. Just thinking.”
“About what?”
He deflated, hands going back to fiddle with his tail. “You ever think about what comes after?”
Ladybug nodded. “After Hawk Moth?” Not a day went by where she didn’t.
“Yeah, ” he affirmed. “What– What’s next?” His eyes slid over to her. The green hope she saw caused her chest to tighten.
“Well,” Marinette swallowed. “I think, when this is all over,” She held his hand, squeezing gently. “We celebrate.” She felt her lips quirk at the thought. “We finally get to introduce our partners to each other. I’m sure they’ll get along great.” She added. “Then, we get a big pizza, maybe some croquettes,” Chat cracked a smile. “Throw a huge party with both our families.” She could easily see her dad meeting Chat and crushing him in a bear hug. “Then… well, I guess we’ll take it from there. Day by day.”
Chat bumped his shoulder to hers. “That sounds nice.”
“Yeah?” He nodded. Though she still couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Chat was sensitive, as much as he tried to hide it, she still knew. “What’s your plan?”
He hummed, eyes going back to the view. “I don’t know. Your’s sounds pretty good to me.”
“Psh,” She smacked his arm. “That’s a total cop-out. What do you want to do?”
His ears twitched, almost like he was nervous. “I– I don’t know.” The blond lent back, his eyes tracing the darkening sky as if searching for his answer. “Is it selfish for me to want things to stay like this?”
Was it? “Maybe a little…” He cringed. “But I don’t blame you for it.” With times like these, how could she? “Right now, well, I wouldn’t trade this for anything.” Her head rested on his shoulder. Although she couldn’t see his expression, the purr that vibrated through him gave her a pretty decent idea of how he was feeling. His head came to rest on hers. Slowly, Ladybug’s eyes closed, soaking in the moment.
Yeah, she wouldn’t trade this for the world.
Marinette groaned, the sun blinding her through the shades. She closed her diary, tired of reading the old entries. She’d stayed up all night reminiscing through old things, and she was really starting to regret doing so right about now. Seeing Adrien after all these years had brought her back… Back to things she’d desperately tried to move on from.
And now he lives next door! She scrubbed at her eyes, no doubt smearing her old mascara. Why did life hate her? This had to be some sort of hellish karma biting her in the ass. Marinette set the book into its box before putting it back in her nightstand drawer. What was she supposed to do?
She wasn’t Ladybug anymore. Hadn’t been for a long time. Even so, she wasn’t naive enough to think she still deserved to be in Adrien’s life. After she’d hurt him– well, she made the right call, taking a step back. She’d taken the rings to Felix and took a strategic break. A break that hadn’t really ended.
Sure, Alya knew if there was a big issue, she could call on her, but so far that hadn’t happened. Without a villain, Ladybug wasn’t really needed. Alya and Nino handled the day-to-day stuff. The public loved them. But without Chat Noir… she just couldn’t bring herself to play hero anymore.
She wasn’t a hero.
That title belonged to him.
Her eyes burned at the thought. After she’d taken a step away… looked at the facts logically, the only possible explanation for Chat leaving was of his own free will. As much as that pained her… if he wanted to be here, he would. Not to say that she didn’t still look for him, she did, every day.
Every new person she met, it always crossed her mind. Was it him? Could it be? But at the end of the day, it never was. After pushing him away for so long, maybe he’d decided to do the same. Maybe he and his girlfriend were out there living their best lives, far, far away from the tragedy that was Monarch’s reveal. She’d like to think so. At least he’d be happier than she was.
Did she still run a few facebook groups about where he might’ve disappeared too? Maybe. But could you blame her? His disappearance was still weird. It was out of character, even if there were no possible threats to them at the time. So she still looked… just not as frantically as she did at fifteen. If Chat Noir wanted privacy, then she’d grant him that. But if he was secretly in danger, she’d track him down and stuff him in her flat for life.
Marinette unplugged her phone from its charger. A few missed calls from Alya popped up, no doubt about Adrien. She’d call later. Secretly, the designer still hoped that Chat kept a flame burning for her. God knows she couldn’t get hers to die down, no matter how much she tried to smother it. Date after date had proved fruitless.
Seeing Adrien, the only other boy she’d loved– cared for – again was tough. Okay, if she were being totally honest, she’d loved Adrien. But that wasn’t a love she deserved anymore. Her love for her partner had won out over anything she’d felt for Adrien. That was blatantly obvious over the course of his trial.
Marinette still felt something for him– but he deserved someone who trusted him wholeheartedly… and as much as she tried, that just wasn’t her anymore. He may have been released… but, teenager at the time or not, she couldn’t bring herself to fully trust him.
There’d once been a time when she’d thought Adrien didn’t have one bad bone in his body. But with Chat’s disappearance, and the Agreste family’s involvement with the miraculous– there just had to be something there she was missing. But for the life of her, even after six whole years, she still couldn’t see it. Honestly, that’s probably the only reason she had issues with Adrien at all.
He’d always been so kind to everyone around him when they were kids. But he’d also repeatedly bent over backwards to please Gabriel. Marinette stood from her bed, pulling her hair into a loose bun. She leaned against her wall, using her hand to peek through the curtain at the driveway across the fence. The sedan was still there. Maybe Adrien would be more open to saying something now.
Adrien sighed, finessing the covers. Sleep was a lost cause at this point. The light cut through the curtains. His eyes welled, staring at the rays. God, what was wrong with him? He wasn’t even sad, and he was still having a meltdown. “Pull it together.” The cushions gave way under his fists as they tightened their hold. He wasn’t even there anymore; this was so stupid.
Pulling himself into a sitting position, Adrien scrubbed harshly at his eyes. Maybe if he just pushed hard enough, the tears would go away. That was probably a lost cause too. His blurry gaze took in the room around him. The small sunrays cast a golden hue over the room. How long had it been since he’d woken up to something like this? He couldn’t even remember. The six years he’d spent in that room had felt like eternity. Hell, it had been.
Yesterday had been horrible, to say the least. He’d met with the therapist, per court order, but it about damn near killed him. All the old man had wanted to talk about was that day. The day he’d ruined his entire life and killed his whole family. Which, of course, was like crack for a therapist; they could practically sniff out a sob story.
Even if he wanted to talk about it… He'd never really gotten his alibi straight. Honestly, he’d forgotten what he’d told the cops all those years ago. So trying not to recriminate himself was tough. They’d expected him to remember every detail of that day, which, yeah, he did, but not as himself. He’d remembered everything he’d done as Chat Noir. But as Adrien? Well, he just couldn’t seem to keep his notes straight.
There was no point going to the appointments if he couldn’t even be honest there. They knew he was lying– he knew he was lying – what was the point of it all? He didn’t want to do it again. He didn’t want to be here. He just– fuck, he didn’t know what he wanted. If only Bunnix were here. Honestly, he couldn’t help but resent her a bit.
Was this how things were supposed to go? Was this really the best case scenario? He knew black cats had bad luck, but my god, when was it enough?
He’d lost everything. Everything he’d ever cared about. Gone in the blink of an eye. His family. His friends. His humanity– his bodily autonomy . Everything had been taken from him. So yeah, he was bitter. The therapist had been more than happy to note that.
He was bitter. Angry. Mad. Downright furious. But he was also so– god there was no way to even describe it. The hole in his life would never be filled. He’d missed so much of his own life sitting in that stupid cell, being treated like scum. Could he even be mad though? His actions, his decisions, had put him there.
Felix had even given him an out, and he’d– he’d pushed it aside for the slim chance of finding Plagg. At the time, he’d thought he’d had a solid lead to finding the god, but that had also turned into a pile of bullshit. He’d risked his freedom to find that fucking ring, and what happened?
Surprise! It didn’t pay off. The ring was still lost, and the soap-licking dickwad had lied out of his teeth. Whoever Reddy was didn’t fucking exist. Wow! Who would’ve thought?
Adrien forced himself from the bed, slipping on his slides and waddling down the hall. Felix was already on the couch, typing away at his computer. “You were up late last night.” The man glanced over his shoulder. “Get any sleep?”
“Yeah,” Adrien nodded. Felix already worried too much; he didn’t want to add more to his plate.
The cousin’s eyes narrowed, but he dropped the issue, much to Adrien’s relief. “What are you working on?” What did Felix do now? He couldn’t really picture him in any certain career. Maybe insurance… he seemed like an insurance guy.
“Your resume, actually.”
Adrien perked in surprise. “What?”
Felix huffed. “You need a job now, in case you forgot. Figured I’d save you the trouble of having to type it all out.” That was oddly nice of him. But Felix had been oddly nice for a while now.
“Oh…” His hand ran through his hair, breaking up the tangles. “That’s nice of you. Thanks, Fe.”
Felix shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.” He smirked, setting the computer aside. “You’re the one who has to job hunt.” Adrien cringed. Pretty sure they could both imagine how that’d go. “You have a month to find one.” Felix reminded. “That’s not a lot of time, so I’d suggest you start today.”
Great.
His cousin’s eyes momentarily softened. “Let me know how it goes. Worst-case scenario, you can work for Kagami. I’m sure she has some project you could help with.” Yeah, he’d really rather not do that. Even if it was just to save his pride. Like it or not, Adrien gave Felix a short nod of acknowledgement. “Resumes should be on the printer in the office. Let me know if you need to print more.”
“Alright.” He turned to the coffee machine, pulling it out to add water and grounds. At least he knew how to make this from all his long modelling sessions. He didn’t love the taste, he leant more sweet than bitter, but it’d do for now. Besides, by the time today was over, he’d be wishing for more, no doubt.
As Adrien worked to fill the machine, his sleeve slid down, bandages catching his eye. He’d have to find a decent professional outfit to cover them. Quickly, he pulled the sleeves back up, making sure Felix was still facing the other way. He didn’t need him worrying all over again. The conversation they had in the car was tense enough. There were only so many emotionally charged conversations a guy could take, and Adrien had already reached his limit for the week.
For the month.
Maybe for the whole damn year.
He scooped the grounds onto the filter, adding an extra scoop for luck. Lord knows he needed it.