Chapter Text
Marinette watches as the de-akumatized butterfly flies off, waiting as Chat Noir’s form is overcome by the black smoke of the negative energy leaving his body. She waits for her dear friend to return, but when the smoke clears, Chat Blanc still remains.
“What—But I got the akuma!” He watches her breathing quicken as she starts to panic, and he can practically hear her working through the problem, looking for the solution. She braces for him to attack again, but he just stands there, defeated.
“I’m sorry, Marinette,” he practically whispers. “I think it’s been too long…”
“Too long? But… how long were you akumatized?”
“I don’t know. A long time. I lost track. I don’t think I can really go back, m’lady.”
“But—" She’s cut off by another of Bunnyx’s portals opening behind her.
“Ladybug, you did it! Now let’s get you—Oh.” Bunnyx steps out, letting the portal close behind her. “I could have sworn everything was fixed. Why is he just standing there?”
“I got the akuma, but…” She searches for the words. “Can you tell how long it’s all been like this?”
She thinks for a moment, looking around with a faraway look on her face. “Oh.”
“Well?”
“….A long time.”
“I’ll fix it! I think I just need to get back to whatever I did that revealed my identity. Chat Noir?”
He gives her a puzzled look. “When you dropped the gift off in m—" Bunnyx’s frenzied motions to stop catch his eye. Of course, she grabbed this Marinette before Adrien had a chance to confess to her, before it all went wrong. “…in Adrien’s room. It just kind of spilled out from there.”
“Of course, that’s what the eraser is for! I signed my name on the gift. He must have put it together and told someone who told someone else. I’ll just go back and erase my name, then release the miraculous ladybugs. None of this will happen! Bunnyx—"
“Wait!” Chat Blanc grips Ladybug’s wrist hard, too hard, enough to leave a mark, but he’s desperate. “Love, please don’t—"
“Look at what happens! I told you, our identities have to stay a secret, even if that means you don’t get to be with me—"
“That’s not why! I just, I don’t—"
“I’m sorry Kitty, we have to—"
“I don’t want to die!”
Bunnyx and Ladybug stare at him in stunned silence, not having thought about it that way. And why should they? He was the villain of this story, the one they had come to rid the world of, why should they care about his fate?
Tears flow down his cheeks as he completely loses his composure. “I know I fucked up, but please! Marinette, I want our love to exist somewhere, I want to make up for the things I’ve done!” He falls to his knees before her, hugging her waist. “Please, I don’t want to die. I can’t, not without atoning, I can’t die yet.”
Ladybug looks down at the eraser again, hoping her lucky charm will hold the answers. He may be different, broken in a way Chat Noir isn’t, but Chat Blanc is still a version of her dearest friend, and his pleas kill her in a way nothing else could.
Bunnyx watches her young friend, knowing that to leave Chat Blanc behind would kill her, and that could affect the future in ways no one could predict. Who knows what that would do to her current relationship with Chat Noir, her relationship with her Ladybug mantle, how she choses miraculous holders in the future…. She makes a choice and hopes it doesn’t blow up in her face. Only time will tell, but no one, no one else must know.
“I’ll find a place for him,” she says, shocking the other two. “Somewhere he won’t affect the balance of time, somewhere safe.”
“Are you sure that’s safe?” Ladybug asks, but it’s an obvious farce. “We don’t want any ripples that could ruin the future.”
“I’ll figure something out, Ladybug, but we have to get going.” As if on cue, her earrings beep. Why can’t time ever be on their side? She opens a portal into her burrow, urgency hanging unspoken between them all.
Ladybug helps Chat Blanc up, gently wiping the tears from his face. “Trust Bunnyx; we’ll find a place for you Chat Noir.”
“Chat Blanc,” he insists. “I’m Chat Blanc now, love. Forever.”
“Whatever your name is gonna be, we have to go,” Bunnyx urges. “Now.”