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"No one can rewrite the stars.
How can you say you'll be mine?
Everything keeps us apart,
And I'm not the one you were meant to find.
It's not up to you,
It's not up to me.
When everyone tells us what we can be.
How can we rewrite the stars?"
***
"Is everything okay Chat Noir?" Ladybug asked, forcing him to stop in his tracks in the middle of a rooftop.
He turned to face her and raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"You haven't stopped fidgeting with your ring since we've started patrol," she explained, clearing his perplexed thoughts. "Is something wrong with Plagg?" she asked, her expression deeply concerned.
Chat Noir glanced at his Miraculous, staring at it with a half-smile. "No, everything's okay with him. In fact, he’s the only one with whom everything's going fine," he replied sadly.
"Huh?" Ladybug eyes grew wide in response to her partner's behavior.
The feline raised his head and crossed his partner's astonished gaze.
"You're smart LB. Don't make things more difficult for me," he declared, clenching his fists.
"I don't understand, Chaton. What do you mean?" she asked, taking a step closer to him and reaching out to grab his hand.
When her fingers touched his gloved hands, he quickly withdrew his arm back.
"Our partnership isn't healthy anymore. That’s what I mean, Ladybug. You're lying to me, you're always keeping me out of the loop, you haven't even noticed that your behavior was breaking me a little bit more each day," he confessed, his words bitter on his tongue, almost burning his mouth.
"What—"
He abruptly interrupted her. "Don't try to play the denial card. Stop lying to me. Stop lying to yourself."
"Is it because other superheroes often help us? You know that Shadowmoth is more powerful than ever, I've no other choice, Chat Noir—"
He stopped her again. "I know who Rena Rouge and Carapace are," he blurted out.
She faltered, not hiding the shock his words brought. “You could have told me who they were a long time ago, and instead I ended up figuring it out on my own,” He said, “You knew the identities of the other holders before they were revealed, and yet still, still, you kept it from me. It’s always secrets and more secrets, why? WHY?”
"I…” she hesitated, her voice shaking, “I… I didn't share the other's identities with you to protect us, Chaton… I don't want you to try to find my identity because of who I entrusted with the Miraculouses," she explained.
She just made things worse without even knowing it.
"Is that how little trust you have in me? You really think I'd do that since I already had many opportunities to discover your face behind the mask?" he started counting on his fingers. "Dark Owl, Heroes' day, New-York…" he continued like this a few times, knowing he was proving his point.
"I can't believe you’d try to play the ‘protecting me’ card, when I suspect that Rena Rouge knows your identity!" he finally shouted. "You wound me, Ladybug!"
The spotted heroine stared at him, tears forming in her bluebell eyes, unable to say anything.
"I'm right, aren’t I? She knows…"
His shoulders slumped, tears also forming in his feline eyes.
"You kept telling me that we must protect our secret identities at all costs… when the Lady blogger knows yours… and I know that Rena and Carapace had shared their identities too."
"How?" she sobbed.
"How, isn't the question here, but, why? Why are you doing this to me? Why don’t you trust me anymore?!"
Unshed tears tightened around his throat, but the underlying hurt refused to stay silent.
"My Miraculous has always been a freedom for me… As Chat Noir I could feel useful and free to be myself, far from the line everyone wants me to follow…" he confessed. "But now, I'm chained to a life filled with lies and hurt feelings. The truth is that you don't trust me and I can't bear it anymore, Ladybug!"
"I do trust you, Chat Noir! It's just that I had to go with the flow these last few months. It wasn't easy for me. I didn't want to keep you out of the loop!" she exclaimed with a stern look. "Please, calm down, I don't want you to be akumatized. It's too dangerous!" she almost begged, trying to move forward to get closer to him.
Chat Noir stepped back, hand on his ring.
"I know it could be dangerous! Don't worry about my Miraculous LB! It will be safe, since I'm gonna give it back to you! If I'm akumatized it won't be a problem. I'm sure I would be an Akuma that is as easy to defeat as a partner who is as easy to replace!" he shouted, his jaw clenched and his voice full of venom that was spitting on Ladybug's face and deep in her heart.
The hero grabbed the silver ring and a hand immediately stopped him from removing it.
"Please, don't do that! You're irreplaceable, Chaton," she sobbed, tears rolling down her eyes along her spotted mask. "What happened to you and me against the world? " she asked, eyes shining and lips pursed into a thin line.
His feline irises caught the wet bluebell eyes. A glimpse of sadness glistening into the cold green. "I’m not the one who broke that promise. You are."
The heroine gasped loudly, the sound echoing in the sunset sky.
Before she could reply, a huge explosion made the orange sky instantly become smoky gray. The scent of something burning filling their nostrils.
"There's an Akuma," he declared in a monotonous tone.
As soon as that said, he turned his back to her and jumped down to the street below.
At the end of the fight, Ladybug didn't even get the time to see her partner disappear.
One moment she enquired about how the akuma victim was doing, the next she just heard a whispered "I love you…" ghosting at her back. When she turned around, Chat Noir wasn't anywhere in sight.
She tried to call him a lot —about 50 times— but he wasn't transformed anymore. Her eyes were glued to her Bugphone, waiting for any sign of life, or worse, another Akuma…
Ladybug hadn't even thought about her kwami, with the patrol, the fight, the post-fight trying to reach Chat Noir, she had spent almost 4 hours inside the black polka dotted suit.
And she didn't mind at all since now, a black lighting spot came inside her room through her windows, dragging all her attention on him: Chat Noir's kwami. With a black and green ring between his little paws and a dreadful expression stuck on his cat face.
"Ladybug," he greeted her, his gaze quickly becoming fully astonished.
Oh yeah, this small detail, she was still transformed, laying on her chaise lounge, looking like she'd seen a ghost.
"I can't believe he did it…" she whispered, grabbing a cushion and holding it tight against the overwhelming pain in her chest.
"He told you he would…" Plagg answered bitterly.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't want to hurt him. NEVER!" She sobbed. "I've tried my best to protect both of us from Hawk Moth, Mayura, and then Shadowmoth!" she tried to explain.
"I’m not the one who needs to hear that. Even if you wounded me too in the process!" he glared at her. "This kid is sweeter and better than any Camembert in the world, and I can tell you that he was giving me the best cheese I ever had!"
"I'm sorry, Plagg," She mumbled. "I've ruined everything."
"Yes, you did, and you better fix all this mess as soon as possible! He won't last long without his freedom and… without… you," the kwami groaned his last word.
"I don’t even know who he is, nor how to get in touch with him…" she scolded herself for having chosen to keep their identities secret after becoming the new Guardian. "I don't know who he is," she repeated, hiding her face in her hands.
All of a sudden, she lifted her head, eyes shining with tears but also a deep determination.
"Plagg, who is he?! Please, tell me who Chat Noir is?!" she begged, falling to her knees.
"I can't! Remember? Miraculous magic! I don't want to spill bubbles. The taste is disgusting!"'
Ladybug shook her head. She needed to know.
"Spots off," she quickly whispered.
A flash of pink invaded the room and Marinette caught an exhausted Ladybug kwami between her bare palms.
"Tikki, who's Chat Noir?!" she asked, her voice and hands shaking, while she was giving a cookie to her little companion.
"You know that I can’t, Marinette… the Miraculous magic forbids me to pronounce Chat Noir’s real name," she replied, greedily eating her snack.
"So that's it? I'll never know?!" she shouted, sobbing the pain out of her body.
Marinette then remained motionless, still kneeling to the ground, silent cries shaking her whole body.
Plagg then started to fly near her before clearing his throat.
"Nice pictures, Pigtai—" he started, pointing to her wall, before Tikki grabbed him firmly by the tail.
"We need to talk about your chosen! Now!" she lied, using this as a distraction and dragging him through the window to reach Marinette's balcony.
Once outside, the little Ladybug kwami glared at her companion. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"He’s my friend! The best Chat Noir I ever had! She must know and fix their friendship or relationship, whatever they would want to be after the reveal."
"You can't do that, Stinkysock!" Tikki protested. "She made a mistake and she has to learn by herself who's the boy she'd hurt. With their proximity, hopefully she will understand quickly."
"They have been sitting in the same classroom for more than a year and she's never been suspicious at all!" the kwami cat shouted. "She's as dense as emmental!" he added, disappointed.
Plagg cat's ears then dropped on his little head. "I'm worried for my kid, Sugarcube."
"I'm worried too, Plagg. Chat Noir is a kind and wonderful boy. But I also deeply believe in my Ladybug," she replied, rubbing the back of Plagg's ears who began to slowly purr.
"I hope you're right…" he whispered. Then the little cat shook his head and stopped purring, a stern look painting his face. "If she doesn't understand before the end of the week. I'll point out to her all these pictures stuck in her walls!"
"Trust me," Tikki told him, before entering the room again.
When they both came back inside, Marinette had fallen asleep on the ground, her Chat Noir doll tightly kept between her arms and against her heart.
Marinette ran across the hallways of the collège. She was late.
When in her rush she bumped into someone, she fell on her backside.
She raised her head to apologize when her gaze met familiar green eyes : Adrien.
The boy looked awful, his usual smile was completely gone, his eyes were swollen and the skin around them was red. If she hadn’t known as well the care he had for the clothes created by his father, she would have sworn that he had slept with his shirt on him because it was totally wrinkled. In fact, there was no other plausible explanation for such an untidy look. Adrien had slept with his clothes from the day before on, which he wore again that day. It was obvious.
She shook her head when she saw a hand reached before her eyes.
"I'm sorry, Marinette. I was distracted, I didn’t sleep very well," he apologized. "Don't worry, Miss Bustier isn't here today. She needed to rest for the baby. You aren't late," he explained, grabbing her hand in his and helping her to stand up.
Marinette glanced at their intertwined fingers and blushed to the roots of her hair, before all the blood in her cheeks was drained straight to her heart, which was beating pretty fast. She froze on the spot, her gaze was focused on Adrien's hand and she was now as white as a sheet of paper: Where was Adrien's usual silver ring?
"Marinette, are you okay? Have you been hurt when you fell?" he asked, his eyes filled with concern. "I'm sorry if I've hurt you. I can't do anything right," he sighed.
"You're okay! I mean… I'm okay!" she quickly shouted. "Worry don't, ugh… don't worry!" she stuttered. "I haven't felt…ugh… slept well, either. Sorry for the incident, Adrien."
"It's okay," he replied, squeezing her hand. "Come with me, I was rejoining the others in the locker room."
He dragged her into the hallway, not letting go of her hand in his. Marinette couldn't help it but look intensely at Adrien's empty ring finger.
Adrien was always wearing it. She'd never seen him without it. She still could picture his hand reaching out toward her when he had given her his umbrella. The silver ring adorning his finger… the Miraculous adorning his finger... The Black Cat's Miraculous. Of course, because there was no way that Adrien had removed or lost it exactly at the same time as Chat Noir had given it back to her. It was too much for a coincidence.
The deep sadness she'd seen in Adrien's eyes before then struck her like lightning: She was the cause of it. Adrien was Chat Noir and he'd renounced his precious ring and his freedom —Which made much more sense now for Marinette— because of her.
She felt his hand slipping out of hers and he opened the locker room's door, he turned to her and gave her a half-smile, full of pain and discouragement, which twisted her guts.
Marinette had to deal with the revelation and the consequence of her mistakes for the rest of the school day. She'd even caught Adrien wiping tears from his eyes and cheeks when he came back from his lunch break at home. She'd felt a vice tightening around her heart when she saw how much she'd wounded him.
When in turn she came back from school at the end of the day, she was exhausted, sad and deeply mad about herself.
"Tikki?" She murmured, opening her purse and collapsing on her chaise lounge. "Tikki, I know who Chat Noir is… I know it's Adrien." she confessed.
"How did you figure it out?" Inquired the little ladybug, yawning and stretching from her nap inside her little cocoon.
Marinette was getting ready to answer her kwami when a black lightning spot came between them.
"She's maybe not as dense as she looks," the kwami cat muttered, glaring at Marinette sternly.
"It's okay, Plagg, I get it. I made a huge mistake and I'm an idiot." she admitted, lowering her head. "What should I do now? Chat... Adrien, will never forgive me…"
"Be honest with him, Marinette, but also, and above all, be honest with yourself." Tikki warned her.
The little spotted kwami hugged the girl's cheek.
"You're right. I can't continue to hide myself behind lies forever," she admitted. "I'll go see him at the patrol hour and give him back his Miraculous as well as all the truth."
"How do we rewrite the stars?
Say you were made to be mine?
Nothing can keep us apart,
'Cause you are the one I was meant to find.
It's up to you,
And it's up to me.
No one can say what we get to be.
And why don't we rewrite the stars?
Ch anging the world to be ours."
***
Adrien was laying on his bed, absent-mindely glancing at his phone's wallpaper: Ladybug…
The boy sighed and turned off the light of his screen when he heard a knock at his window.
Well, speaking about the devil, or rather, the Ladybug…
He didn't rush to open it for her. No, he took his time, slowly approaching the window with a questioning look stuck on his face. He stopped before the glass, ready to ask her what she was doing there without opening the window when he saw that it was raining outside. He saw her all wet and, eventually, he quickly opened it to let her slip inside his room.
"What are you doing outside in such bad weather, Ladybug?" he asked, closing the window behind her. "Have you lost your cat?" he then questioned, more bitterly than he thought.
He saw her lowering her head and closing her eyes.
"You're right. I've lost mon Chaton, my partner…" she sadly replied. "That's why I'm here."
Ladybug grabbed the yo-yo on her hips and opened it, extracting from her weapon a black and green ring.
Adrien gasped and clenched his fists.
"Adrien Agreste, here's the Miraculous of the Black Cat—"
He couldn't believe it. She had already made her choice to replace him. She'd been fast! But then, he realized that she was replacing him with him. He swallowed empty. He couldn't accept, because at the very moment he would transform, she would see the truth. Besides, he had made his decision. As hard as it had been, he couldn't bear anymore to be kept out of the loop and hurt… But deep inside him, he had to admit that he was curious to know… why had she choosen Adrien?
"I can't accept what you're going to ask me, Ladyb—" he started.
"...and I want you to take your ring back, Chat Noir," She told him at the same time he was trying to refuse.
His eyes popped out of his head then Plagg rushed to him.
"You told her, sneaky kwami!" Adrien mumbled, disappointment glistening through his eyes.
"I wanted to. But… I haven't said anything. She understood by herself, like a big girl."
That said, Plagg quickly flew to his camembert's hiding place, leaving his chosen alone with his —former/actual/future?— partner.
"Plagg's right, I discovered it by myself today," Ladybug eventually admitted. "I'm so sorry, Adrien. I've made the worst mistake of my life and I can't bear the fact that I've hurt you so much."
"The pain is done, Ladybug. Your apologies won't change what happened," he exclaimed.
"Apologies alone no. But maybe the whole truth would help to rewrite the stars," she replied, her voice full of determination. "I love you, Adrien. I always have," she blurted out. "You were the other boy for whom I tried to keep Chat Noir as far as possible from my heart, and I've completely failed, " she confessed, blushing. "When I lost you yesterday, I understood that you'd already won the other half of my heart for a long time. You always had all my heart, Minou, without me even knowing it."
Adrien tried to say something but she interrupted him.
"Let me finish or I will never get this out. There have been too many times that I've tried to confess my feelings to you," she admitted. "I have tried for a long time but there's always something in the way: An Akuma, a friend or my cowardness… I may be lucky but it looks like your black cat's bad luck always kept my own luck away," she nervously chuckled.
Adrien frowned and glared at her.
"Uh, it wasn't funny, sorry," she immediately apologized. "What I’m trying to say is that you and I form a balance," she corrected herself. "And as much as you have always been sincere in your feelings for me, as much as I have never been…" she exclaimed, her voice trembling. "Balance is also communication and sincerity, and I missed it."
She took a deep breath and he felt her hand slip inside his.
"I fell in love with you when you gave me your umbrella," she whispered, looking at him straight in the eyes.
Adrien gasped and his hand tightened around hers, "Marinette…" he breathed, then he drew her into his arms and hugged her.
"I'll need time to heal… but thank you for being sincere with me," he murmured in her ear.
"I'm sorry, Chaton. I had a huge breakdown and that's why I told my secret to Alya," she confessed. "I was ready to renounce everything, being Ladybug, being the Guardian… My memories… It was too much… I should have told you that someone knew my identity and that I was doing badly trying to handle it all on my own. I should have said something to you first and I'm so sorry… Forgive me, Adrien, " she sobbed into his shoulder.
He gently pushed her from his arm to be able to see her face.
"It's okay. You've tried your best. I may have been a bit rough with you and my decision. I'm—"
"No! Don't be sorry for anything! You were right to be mad at me!" she protested. "I'm mad at myself too!" she added, gesturing at her.
Adrien took a few seconds to scan her features. He had seen Marinette tired all day. She looked sad and worried and now, it was worse than what he'd seen before even with her mask on her face.
Her cheeks and eyes were red, almost crimson. No doubt she'd cried a lot before coming to him. No doubt it was as hard for her as it had been for him. No doubt that she was totally sincere when she wanted him to be back by her side.
He grabbed her hand and opened her fingers, taking his ring from her palm and quickly placing it back to where it had always been. Where she wanted it to be.
He smiled for the first time since the previous day and she smiled back.
"Claws out!" A flash of green light instantly enveloped Adrien's body.
"I maybe know how to heal our wounds faster, m'Lady," he tried to sound as flirty as Chat Noir usually was.
The truth was that he felt more like a scaredy-cat right now.
He cupped her cheeks with both of his gloved hands, his fingers shaking.
"When I told you yesterday before I… disappeared that I loved you, it was true. But it's even more true now."
He gently rubbed his thumbs against Ladybug's already wet skin.
"You've always held a special place in my heart, Marinette. More than you could imagine and now, I understand why. I was blind by my feelings for you, Ladybug, and I haven't seen the whole you," he confessed.
His face had moved forward hers without even him noticing it. He was drowned in his feelings for her and in her shining bluebell eyes. And now, he was intoxicating by the scent of her sweet perfume filling his nose and her breath warming the skin of his lips. So much that he needed to keep his promise and show her that they could heal their wounds faster and together.
"May I?" he whispered, his mouth almost already brushing hers and his eyes imploring for her permission.
He didn't have to wait for words, because she closed the last distance between them, kissing him softly.
And just like that, when the carnal contact struck him like an electroshock, sending shivers down his spine, he knew that he'd forgiven her. He knew that the balance was reset. He knew that as long as they were sincere towards each other, they could overcome everything.
They would only be able to rewrite the stars one way: together.
The end.