Work Text:
Ladybug screamed. Again. Once again, he had taken the hit for her. Once again, he had died in front of her very eyes. Once again, she could only watch helplessly as he fell into the river of boiling lava.
"You will get me back, M'lady," he had said, his lips still curled into a smile as his body was wrapped by the fire and disappeared. Ladybug just screamed. The akuma in the distance laughing without a sound of regret.
How dare it laugh? How. Fucking. Dare. It. Laugh? LAUGH? As her chaton was burned away by lava?
Ladybug closed her eyes, clenching her fists as she pursed her trembling lips. Her small frame shook with the biggest adrenaline rush she had ever experienced.
The akuma laughed again. Ladybug's eyes opened wide, tears streaming down her cheeks. Her fists shook at her sides, and a growing sense of oppression built into her chest. Without waiting another second, she turned on her heel, killer bluebell eyes glaring at Hawkmoth's latest victim.
"Your stupid partner has perished, Ladybug," said the villain with a smirk. "But don't you worry. No need to cry. You will join him very soon!"
A deep growl erupted from her lungs. "You won't insult Chat Noir, or it will be the last thing you do!" She didn't care any more whether the akuma was a victim or not. She had lost her ethicality and her feelings for the 'poor unfortunate souls that got abused by Hawkmoth' the second his partner had been burned alive. She lost all restraints, all self induced obstacles... and plunged forward.
oOoOoOoOoOo
Rena Rouge stared at the scene unfolding in front of her. A devilish looking Ladybug attacked the akuma like a single-handed storm of fighters. In less than three minutes, she was holding it by its neck, breaking the akumatised object and freeing the butterfly.
"I hope someone took a video of this and has sent it to the Ladyblog," she whispered to Carapace. "I can't believe that the one time Ladybug goes berserk, I can't film it."
"Remind me to never make Ladybug angry, dude," whispered Carapace back.
As the polka dotted heroine released her Miraculous Cure and the flock of little ladybugs flew around, Ladybug's eyes were trained to the spot her partner had fallen from. The second he reappeared, she ran. She ran to him as if nothing else mattered in the whole world. Pouncing on him, they fell to the ground in a blur of red and black while she hugged him with big tears streaming from her eyes.
"NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!" she roared and Rena smiled. Carapace smiled. Chat Noir beamed under the orange rays of the setting sun. From their position, they couldn't hear what he said, but it mustn't have been the answer she was looking for, because she started hitting his chest like a drum. "I SAID NEVER! NEVER EVER DO IT AGAIN CHATON! I CAN'T KEEP LOSING YOU! I CAN'T!"
Rena smiled as she glanced quickly at her communicator, connected to the Internet. She could see a video being posted of the fight to the Ladyblog just now, and immediately the comments started to flow. She sighed, hoping that one day her best friend would realise just how much she loved the black clad superhero. He wasn't just her partner as Marinette thought, and fights like this demonstrated it clearly. He was her rock, her support, and most importantly, he was her catalyst.
Four years had gone by, both Ladybug and Chat Noir had faced thousands of akumas and had risked death on hundreds of occasions. The only time that Ladybug could focus so sharply and defeat an akuma in just seconds like today, were always when he had died for her. No friendship, no simple partnership could create a bond so strong. Rena couldn't really put a finger on when it had happened, she had seen Ladybug's reactions to her partner's death becoming stronger and stronger as time went by. But as of now, Ladybug was the only person, in the universe, thought Rena, who would still be in denial and fail to admit that she loved Chat Noir.
He was only her partner—my foot, thought Rena. Marinette loved him, and one day. One day Rena would prove it to her. One day, her ship would sail.