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“For whatever it’s worth,” Kagami says, placing a hand on her shoulder, “I’m sorry.”
“I know.” Marinette looks at the casket, closed, for Adrien’s body had been…destroyed. “I know. But that can’t change anything about what’s…here.”
“Maman?” Emma asks. “If Papa isn’t in the box, why can’t we see him?”
“He doesn’t want to be looked at,” Marinette answers.
“Will he come out of the box?”
Marinette shakes her head. “We won’t be seeing him again.”
The casket is lowered into the ground.
Marinette chose to keep the funeral small — Alya, Nino, Kagami, the Gorilla, her, and Emma. Kitty Section was still out on tour, but they canceled a show, to Marinette’s knowledge.
There are many people who would like to mourn Chat Noir. There are many who would offer their condolences to her and Emma, who would try to expunge their sorrow. So she chooses privacy, to avoid their pity.
Kagami squeezes her hand. Marinette wasn’t even aware that they were holding hands.
There will be many offerings at the grave. And it will be up to Marinette to clean it all up, take home the flowers and whatever else they’ll leave behind.
Adrien Agreste. Father, savior, lover. 2002-2025.
***
Everyone knows that Ladybug and Chat Noir were married for four years, and that Ladybug once got pregnant and handed off her Miraculous to him.
It’s only obvious, after the news reports on the death of Adrien Agreste (who used to be Chat Noir) that Ladybug is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, his wife.
Kagami stays with Marinette, after the funeral. She uses her stony glare to drive the reporters away from Marinette, too wrapped up in her grief, and takes care of Emilie where she can.
Marinette fades away from the world for a bit, dulling in color and personality. It puts stress on her family and her relationship with Emma.
Emma asks Kagami what happened to her mom. And Kagami has to hold back tears, and when asked why she looks so sad, Kagami can’t say that she’s lost two friends instead of one.
How much does she have to lose? How much more can she lose before she crumbles?
***
Marinette frets over funds and makes sure there’s always food on the table, that Emma can always come home to somewhere solid
Marinette frets — because a lot of the Agreste funds were handed over to the government when Gabriel was arrested for being the first Hawk Moth, and Adrien couldn’t play the “I’m Chat Noir” card to get them back at the time. Kagami has some left, but she and Adrien have always had to struggle to get what they need, and her firm isn’t doing as well anymore, since she’s been neglecting it in her mourning.
There’s not much left for her.
What is she going to do? How is she going to support Emma? She can’t just uproot their lives and move somewhere else in France — so much of her life is here, despite the expenses.
Marinette doesn’t know what to do. She doesn’t know how they can keep their lives here without her spiraling quickly into debt. And welfare is for the weak — it isn’t for people like her, people who can drag themselves out.
If she just chooses to.
If she just chooses to get out.
***
Marinette looks…tired coming up to Kagami.
“I’m going to be out for tonight and I need you to put Emma to bed.”
“That’s fine. You’re not going to do anything reckless, are you?”
Marinette shakes her head. “I’ve been planning this for a long time. It’s far from reckless.”
“I know that perhaps I can be a little bit…reckless myself, but you need to be careful.” Kagami doesn’t have firsthand experience in the kind of consuming grief that she knows Marinette’s experiencing.
“I’ll be safe. And I won’t get caught.”
Kagami…hopes Marinette isn’t implying that she plans to commit suicide. Well, she’ll check on her after she puts Emma to bed.
***
She takes out the Miracle Box — she hasn’t touched it since she put back her own, Adrien’s, and the Butterfly.
Marinette takes a deep breath, and takes out the ring of the Black Cat Miraculous. It’s the best for stealth, being all-black, and Lady Noire isn’t as recognizable as Ladybug or anyone else.
Plagg comes out of the Miraculous. “Hey, little lady.” She’s torn between smiling and crying at the reference to what Adrien used to call her as Chat Noir. “What are you doing?”
“We’re going to commit some crimes,” Marinette says, solid in her conviction. This is how she pulls herself out. This is how she can save herself. Besides, she knows what she plans to steal, and pawning it off will get them enough money to last for a while.
“Good.”
“Plagg, claws out!”
The costume looks a little different. For one, the leather is a little less shiny, and the suit isn’t as skintight — it looks fairly normal, aside from the mask over her face. It’s still leather, but a little more…classy.
And then, just as she’s about to duck out of the window, Kagami walks into the room.
“Marinette, what are you doing?”
She uses the baton to vault out of the window.
***
Kagami has witnessed a lot of strange things, but she doesn’t know what Marinette is going to do.
Well, she can follow Marinette, or she can stay and wait for her to come home.
She doesn’t know what to do.
So she waits, sitting on Marinette’s bed. She’s tempted to sniff Marinette’s pillow, but that would be weird.
An hour passes. Kagami feels like she’s going to fall asleep, but she’s not going to. She refuses to fall asleep until Marinette comes home.
Until Marinette comes home.
Until…
***
Marinette comes in through the window with the stash. She’s prepared to sell it whenever she can, and she hopes she didn’t get caught. She covered her tracks well, did a lot of the preparation in advance…
But she can’t say exactly that she absolutely would not be caught. The Miraculous left no fingerprints, and she didn’t (and would not) use Cataclysm at all — the ashes were recognizable, and it leaves behind destruction in its wake.
Kagami is asleep on her bed. Oh, did Kagami attempt to stay up to see her come home? That’s…sweet. Kagami has been vital to her survival.
Maybe that means something.
“Plagg, claws in.” She places the ring back in the box. Marinette picks Kagami up carefully, taking her to her own room to sleep.
A weird feeling swells in her chest.
***
Kagami wakes up in her bed. She must have fallen asleep watching for Marinette. And Marinette must have taken her back to her bed.
There’s not much else that it could be.
It’s sunrise, so she hasn’t slept much, she doesn’t think. But she’ll get started on breakfast, because Marinette probably isn’t awake right now because she went to bed late too.
She gets to the kitchen and takes out eggs for an omelette.
***
The scent of food cooking wakes Marinette up. It’s 7 AM, so she isn’t too late, but she needs to wake up Emma ASAP.
She gets out of bed and goes towards the bathroom, brushes her teeth, and heads to wake Emma up.
“Good morning, Emmabug,” she says, the nickname foreign in her mouth. That was what Adrien called her — maybe she can restore a little bit of normalcy, get them both to move on. Or maybe she’s projecting onto her own daughter, and Emma’s already moved forward.
Her daughter rolls over, and asks for her father.
“Papa’s not here,” she says. “He’s not here.”
“Is Auntie Kagami here?”
“Yes, she’s cooking breakfast right now. Go get your teeth brushed so you can eat,” Marinette says, smiling for Emma’s sake.
“Okay!” Emma practically jumps out of bed, running to the family bathroom to brush her teeth.
Marinette enters the kitchen. “Morning, Kagami.”
“What was last night about?”
“Cutting to the chase, I see,” Marinette answers, not quite playful but not quite scathing either. “It isn’t any of your business.”
“We’re living in the same household.” Kagami’s voice is hushed, but Marinette knows that she’s closer to angry than she seems. “I should know about your activities.”
Emma streams into the room. “What’s for breakfast?” she asks, and Marinette just smiles at her. She turns back to Kagami.
“We’ll talk later.”
Marinette sits down next to Emma.
***
“Now.” Kagami says, after Marinette comes back from walking Emma to preschool. “We talk.”
“I need to grab something from my room first.” Marinette goes to her room. Kagami doesn’t hear the shutting of the door, which is a good sign for the likelihood that Marinette was telling the truth after all.
Kagami takes a deep breath.
Marinette comes back in and sets a bag down on the table gently.
“What is it?”
Marinette wordlessly opens the bag. “This is what I’m doing.” There’s…a variety of food products inside, most of them nonperishable.
“There are…places we can go for this.”
“I don’t want to take away from the people that need those places.”
“And if you’re struggling, I can help you.”
“How you can help me is by coming along. By watching my back. By making sure Emma’s safe. I’m keeping us all in the clear.”
Kagami isn’t fond of it, but she would do a lot for Marinette. She would do a lot, and this isn’t one of the things that she’ll go against Marinette for.
Love has always been her ruin.
Marinette steps closer to her.
“Stay with me, Kagami,” Marinette breathlessly whispers.
“I’ll stay.” Kagami can’t tell what she’s supposed to do, how she’s supposed to feel. “As long as you need me.”
She pulls Marinette in for a kiss on some more feral instinct.
Love, it seems, will continue to ruin Kagami. And she will let it.