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Not a lot of things have been denied him when he was growing up, Adrien knew that. He hadn’t been spoiled the way Chloe had been, but he’d still had everything he could imagine wanting.
Except for going to school and having his own friends. But he’d done all he could and he’d achieved that as well.
He hadn’t thought that another dream, to be with the girl with the bright blue eyes and formidable presence, would turn out to be even more impossible.
At first, it hadn’t felt like that. He’d felt determined to win Ladybug over. But he’d quickly seen it wasn’t working. When the reason for this became apparent, that other guy, the invisible rival he had for her heart, he’d felt defeated.
It had been a hard lesson to learn - that he couldn’t make someone else fall in love with him. That their heart could be already taken and there was nothing he could do about it.
But he still didn’t give up. However, her heart being taken wasn’t what made this truly impossible. She’d said again and again how dangerous it was for them to reveal to each other. But the truth was that he’d become vulnerable to Hawk Moth the moment he’d fallen in love with her.
He hadn’t intended to put her or himself in danger like that. He hadn’t considered how prudent it was to show his affection for her so openly until it was directly used against them.
But even this wasn’t enough. He felt something different. A strange kind of fear in her that he couldn’t explain. She was never the one targeted by Hawk Moth since she didn’t really have feelings for him that could be used against her. Then why was she so afraid?
Sometimes she looked haunted, as if something couldn’t leave her alone and one look at him was all it took to make her clam up even more than usual. It was as if he was scaring her, which didn’t make sense. He’d never done anything to even remotely threaten her. How could he, he loved her!
There was a lot he couldn’t understand, but he knew enough to see that it was almost hopeless. How all this didn’t manage to totally crush him and make him give up on her, he didn’t know.
Unattainable, impossible, forbidden. This was his lady. But he still couldn’t stop loving her.