Chapter Text
Being the one who set Marc and Nathaniel up came with certain benefits. And those benefits came in the form of early comic drafts.
Ever since Marc and Nathaniel began their comic book series about Ladybug and Chat Noir, Marinette had been entrusted as their beta reader. The term was used lightly, of course, as Marinette’s critique was often soft and unsubstantial; it really just meant that she got the first peak of each upcoming issue.
“Please, Marinette?” Alya begged, batting her eyelashes and pouting her lip at Marinette, “Just a peak?”
“Who are you? Manon?” Marinette giggled, shoving the notebook that Nathaniel had handed her into her bag. She made sure to speak quietly enough that Nathaniel couldn’t hear— he was in the classroom, after all. “The answer’s no! I don’t want to betray Nathaniel’s trust.”
“Yeah, yeah, but you realize that this is like… my two biggest interests wrapped up into one, right?” Alya huffed, “Comic books and Ladybug and Chat Noir. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say they were made specifically with me in mind.”
Marinette opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by a sweet, angelic voice. “Did you say Ladybug and Chat Noir comics?”
Marinette couldn’t help the squeak that escaped her mouth. She inexplicably straightened up in her seat, staring wide-eyed at Adrien… whose attention was, thankfully, on Alya and not her. How long had he been there?
“Uh huh,” Alya said, leaning forward and turning her attention to Adrien. Sometimes it amazed Marinette how easily Alya spoke to him. “Nath and Marc are making them.”
“Marc?” Adrien repeated quietly to himself, the gears clearly turning in his head. His eyebrows shot up. “Oh! Reverser, right?”
“Yep!” Alya grinned and glanced briefly at Marinette, the look on her face so self-satisfactory that Marinette just knew that she was planning somethi— “Mari set him and Nath up to make the comics together. They’re awesome, and without her, they wouldn’t exist. They even let her beta read for them.”
“Really? That’s awesome!” Marinette could feel her face flush beet red as Adrien’s eyes looked to her. She could feel her heart racing, her legs trembling, her palms sweatin—
Alya gently elbowed her in the side, bringing Marinette back into the present. “O-Oh! Yeah! It was— It wasn’t anything! Nothing, in fact. It was nothing! I didn’t even… I didn’t do anything it wasn’t a big deal it’s fine! You’re fine. I mean, it’s fine. I mean…”
Thankfully, Alya was quick to cut in and cover for her. “The comics are awesome! There’s like, five issues so far. Marc does all the writing and Nath does the art. They print out a bunch of copies of ‘em and keep them in the art room for anyone who wants one. If you wanna read them, you should ask Nath.”
“That’s so cool, I’ll definitely do that!” Adrien said, the excitement radiating off of him like the ray of pure sunshine that he was.
As Ms. Bustier entered the room and started to take attendance, Marinette added ‘comic books’ to her mental list of ‘things that make Adrien happy’. Some day, she’d make good use of that list.
Lunch break rolled around and Marinette was sitting at her dining room table, scooping peas into her mouth as she turned the pages of the comic book that Nathaniel had given her.
With her pink gel pen, she marked in some ‘critiques’, though they were pretty few and far between. The comic was still a rough draft and done in simple pencil sketches, but Marinette still couldn’t help but revel in how beautiful Nathaniel’s art was. She had marked a hand that seemed to be drawn backwards and a couple talk bubbles that she wasn’t sure the order of which to read and continued to skim through the comic.
Ladybug, Chat Noir, Mightillustrator, and Reverser were fighting a villain atop the Eiffel Tower. The action was well drawn and well paced, and the dialogue between the characters flowed naturally. It was fun to read— although, Marinette had to admit that reading Ladybug’s lines felt a little bit weird. She couldn’t help the voice in the back of her mind muttering ‘would I really say that?’, though it wasn’t a result of poor writing so much as her own self-doubt.
Reading Chat Noir’s puns always made her laugh, though. But she’d never admit that.
The villain pushed Chat Noir off of the tower just as Ladybug and Mightillustrator ripped the akumatized object off of the villain’s person. Ladybug ripped the scarf in two, purified the akuma, and threw her Lucky Charm (which was a boot) into the air.
Reverser went to catch Chat Noir… but he wasn’t fast enough. Chat Noir hit the ground.
Marinette dropped her fork, the comic reeling in her full attention. She quickly turned the page and audibly gasped at what she saw.
Ladybug and Mightillustrator made their way to the ground. They gathered around Chat Noir. Ladybug started screaming. She got on her knees and shook Chat Noir, begging for him to wake up. There was a large shadow of graphite drawn under Chat Noir’s form, and it took Marinette only a moment to realize it was meant to represent blood.
Reverser said “he’s gone, Ladybug” and Ladybug cried into Mightillustrator’s shoulder.
End Issue 6
…
WHAT .
Marinette’s jaw hit the floor. She gawked at the issue, her eyes skimming over the panels in some attempt to convince herself that she had just read it wrong or misinterpreted it.
But she hadn't.
Marc and Nathaniel killed off Chat Noir.
Her hands shook as she grabbed the pen she hadn’t realized she’d dropped. Part of her (the part of her that was actually personally close friends with Chat Noir, no doubt) wanted to cross out the entirety of the last few pages and write a little paragraph in the margins about how Chat Noir shouldn’t die.
… But she couldn’t. It wasn’t her place. This was Marc and Nathaniel’s comic, and they could do with it what they wanted. Marinette had also always made a special effort to never add critique to the writing of the comic, as she knew Marc was very sensitive. It just wasn’t worth it, especially when it had drawn her in and gotten her attention…
Instead, she opted to draw a crying little frowny face next to the last panel.
“Marinette, it’s time to head back to class,” her mother gently reminded her. Marinette nodded, shoved the rest of her food in her mouth, packed up her stuff, and headed back to school with a new feeling of heaviness in her heart.
She couldn’t believe it had gotten that dark.
The rest of the school day went by without too much of a hitch. There was a pool of unpleasantness resting at the bottom of Marinette’s gut throughout the day, but she luckily managed to ignore it and focus on the lessons at hand. She really shouldn’t have been stressing out about a comic book. It wasn’t that big of a deal.
After her last class ended, Marinette bid goodbye to Alya and headed for the art room to meet up with Nathaniel and Marc. As she approached the door to the art room, however, she heard a voice that made her stop dead in her tracks.
Adrien!
Marinette let out a quiet gasp and pressed her back to the wall beside the art room door. She peeked into the room and saw her suspicions confirmed— Adrien was in the art room. Since when did Adrien ever go in the art room!? Was he joining the club? How would she be able to focus on her designs if Adrien was with her and oh god what kind of art would he do and how would he fit this into his already hectic schedule and would he hate her if she—
“Here you go, Adrien!” Nathaniel’s voice rung out, effectively reminding Marinette that she was an idiot. Adrien was picking up the comics! “When you’re done with them, tell me what you think, okay?”
“I will!” Adrien cheerfully said, “I have to get going now, but thank you again! I’m excited to read them.”
As Adrien left the room, he met eyes with Marinette. She felt like she could melt into a puddle right then and there.
“Hey, Marinette!” Adrien greeted and shot her a sweet, genuine smile as he continued to make his way to the entrance of the school. She stuttered out a hello, waved at him, and then hurriedly slunk into the art room.
After a moment of fumbling with her bag (it was ridiculous how much Adrien had an effect on her... he basically just said hello, and her heart was already racing), she pulled out the rough draft of the comic and set it on the table Marc and Nathaniel were sitting at.
“Hey, Nath. Hey Marc. I finished reading the comic…” Marinette said, fidgeting with the strap of her purse. “I marked a few things, but it was basically perfect.”
Except for the fact you killed Chat Noir, she thought with the bite of her lip.
“Awesome, thanks Marinette!” Nathaniel beamed, putting the draft into his own backpack. Marc smiled nervously at her.
She couldn’t help it. She had to say something. “Is… Is Chat Noir going to be okay?”
Marc and Nathaniel both grinned and shared a Knowing Look with each other. Marinette held her breath, the unpleasantness in her gut only growing.
“No spoilers.”
That night, Marinette laid awake in her bed, eyes glued to her ceiling as her mind raced.
They couldn’t kill off Chat. They couldn’t. Maybe they would scrap the concept before the comic reached the inking phase. Maybe they’d rewrite the whole thing, keep him alive, keep him safe… Chat Noir didn’t deserve to die, even if it was a fictional version of him. Fictional Ladybug didn’t deserve to live with the guilt of having failed him…
How would she react to Chat Noir’s death? Would she scream, like Ladybug did in the comics? Would she cry? Would she even believe it was real?
… Then again, Chat Noir had died on her before. During Timebreaker—
“Marinette, are you okay?”
Marinette turned to look at her kwami who nestled up against her cat pillow. She looked concerned, and suddenly Marinette felt incredibly silly.
“I’m fine, Tikki,” Marinette yawned out, rolling onto her side and pulling the covers over herself, “Just… thinking.”
“That’s okay,” Tikki said, a small smile on her little face, “You should get some rest, though. It’s getting late.”
“You’re right.” Marinette closed her eyes, “Good night.”
It was probably just a cliffhanger, anyways. Chat was probably fine… surely they wouldn’t actually kill him off.
Right?