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This was the end.
It was the end, and they didn’t have enough time.
Shafts of light burst from the ground, an amalgamation of glowing colors that were much too breathtaking for the circumstances.
Marinette could only watch helplessly as the world fell apart at its seams.
Beneath her were slowly-growing cracks in the very fabric of reality; approaching her was an inevitable end.
The wall of light that was steadily closing in had taken almost everyone from her in mere hours—her family, her friends, the Justice League—their faces as they faded from existence, lost in an aurora of shimmering pastels, were forever burned into her mind.
“Please.”
Marinette’s voice was choked with emotion, tears streaming down her face as she struggled to hold the green barrier in place. Her arms were extended before her, trembling under the weight of a crumbling world.
And as if she just realized she might not make it out, the heroine opened her eyes to look at the vigilante beside her.
A soft pink glow illuminated his concentrated face, making him look more radiant than usual, and the lambent silkscreen around them reflected off his ice-blue eyes like glass.
Tim’s fingers stopped flying over the screen of his holographic watch as he felt Marinette’s gaze burn into him, and the furrow of his brow evened out as he met hers.
Her eyes were filled with such pain and desperation, and he understood.
Three years of yearning and heartache, one month in a relationship—it wasn’t enough.
Of course he cherished every moment with her, of course he was glad they had anything at all, but why couldn’t they get more time?
But he spoke not a word of his thoughts, because he knew she understood nonetheless.
He grabbed her hand, intertwining their fingers, and shot her the same soft smile that had her falling again every time. It was full of warmth, just like the hand in hers, stealing her breath and tethering her to reality.
The overwhelming emotion of love hit her like a freight train, and silent tears flooded down her face even faster, leaving a damp trail in their wake.
She’d give anything in exchange for more time.
As she struggled to accept the reality that her wishes would be naught, Tim squeezed her hand one, two, three times, grounding her in the way only he could.
She swallowed thickly, and though her vision was blurry, his face was crystal-clear.
Marinette glanced at the opalescent lights through her green force field, and Tim followed suit. Their ineluctable end was only minutes away.
As it glided closer, she turned to Tim with a half-smile on her face, trying to carve these last moments into memory even through her leaky tears.
He did the same, looking at her with such heartbreaking tenderness that she wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all.
But all rational thought fled her memory as he pressed a sweet kiss onto her lips, pouring into it the passion of every moment they wouldn’t get.
And as the lights ascended, he made a promise to them.
“In another life.”
“In another life,” she echoed.
They were in one another’s arms when the end arrived.
Seconds later, they were born anew.