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She would have liked to believe that deep down, Gabriel Agreste was actually a good person. Largely because his designs once covered her walls, standing out in collages she made of her dreams, of people she would like to be and places she would like to see. He was a hero to her but, the worst part of growing up was figuring out that all of those people you considered heroes were actually villains in someone else’s story.
And in this case, that someone else was Adrien, her new dream if you were getting technical about the placement of his pictures on her wall. Her friend and the best person she’d ever met, someone who never failed to make her smile.
Someone who sat alone in his room on one of the most cheerful nights in Paris, told to stay there by his father. Bastille day was raging outside, and Adrien was told to sit in his room. Meanwhile, his father was giving interviews on television, surrounded by models and influencers at one of the more exclusive parties.
Gabriel was most definitely not a hero.
But just because he couldn’t be a good person, just because he wouldn’t do the right thing, didn’t mean that she couldn’t.
Which is how, right before fireworks were meant to start, Ladybug ended up dangling off the side of the Agreste mansion, knocking gently on a window, almost falling off the building when just a few windows down, another one slammed shut, a heavy breath escaping a young man as he snuck into his home.
If she had looked just a moment sooner, she would have seen who really closed that window, but instead she was peering through a much larger glass fixture, waiting.
And then, his face fully alight and a pair of sweatpants Marinette had never seen him wear before on his hips, Adrien appeared.
She couldn’t help the way that her mouth fell open ever so slightly whenever he entered the room. The young man bound up to the window beside her, throwing it open with a nervous smile, Ladybug reflecting in his eyes.
And she went through the same excuse that she had rehearsed a million times before, almost screwing it up but somehow powering along. “Hi, um, I’m out and about today, keeping an eye on the citizens of Paris, and I couldn’t help but notice…” She trailed off. She couldn’t exactly say that she noticed him in his room, since that wasn’t where he was, but she wanted to all the same.
This was the kind of thing Chat would do, she knew. The kind of risky, stupid behavior that he lived off of. But she couldn’t help but think that, so long as it was Adrien, it was worth it. She wondered if Chat could say the same about her, Marinette.
“It’s just me all alone,” Adrien reassured shyly.
But it didn’t have to be, not really. “I know, I’m just out here, looking for…” an excuse, “—a partner,” she internally winced at the statement. “I thought maybe Aspik would like to roam free for the night.” Because, you know, it didn’t totally not make sense for her to be patrolling without Chat Noir, her actual partner.
Adrien didn’t seem to buy it either. In fact, he seemed borderline confused, which probably made sense. Truthfully, all of Paris knew that she would be watching the fireworks with Chat Noir, she’d promised him. But Adrien…
“It just seems kind of depressing,” she admitted, “for everyone to be out there, and you to be alone in here.” It wasn’t something she had the right to worry about, she knew, especially since he didn’t technically know her, not like this. But Marinette cared about him. She wanted him to be happy.
He only nodded at the statement, his face making that sinking feeling in her stomach drop even lower.
“I just thought,” she said, her voice soft, “that maybe, even though I’m supposed to be the pillar of justice here and everything, for one night, I could break the rules.” Like Chat would, like Chat always would when Marinette was upset. “I wanted to get you out of here. I know that’s probably not the best thing to do but, I heard you were going to be here and…”
“That’s not a bad thing,” he said in response, his lips moving ever so slightly upwards. “I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all, Ladybug.” There was something unspoken there, something she didn’t understand, that she couldn’t even try to comprehend.
“I just want you to be happy,” she said, almost so lightly that he couldn’t hear it. Because at the end of the day, she could save Paris and be a role model all she wanted, but she was still Marinette; and all Marinette wanted to do was make Adrien smile.
“I can’t go,” he said sadly, shaking his head. “Not tonight.” He edged towards the pan of the window, closer and closer to the edge. “But just knowing that someone cares makes me happy,” he admitted.
She could have cried, because in those words sat something so much more, a sort of loneliness that she couldn’t understand. Maybe she’d never understand.
Because she couldn’t put into words how much she cared, or tell him all the ways that she wanted to change his life and break him out of the cruel fate he’d been gifted… She did the closest thing to it.
Marinette leaned forward, the cable of her yoyo sounding above her, and pressed her lips gently against his cheek, pouring all of the love and affection that she wished she had the courage to tell him about outside of her supersuit into one small kiss. “Someday,” she promised both him and herself. Someday she would get him out of there.
Someday she would save him from Gabriel Agreste.