Chapter Text
“Voyage.”
Marinette’s bed has given out from under her.
She blinks rapidly, cold wind rushing around her. Her eyes snap open fully, sleep jolting from her body.
It’s not just her bed. Losing her bed would have been the least of her problems, because she’s not in her room at all – she’s plummeting downwards, hundreds of feet above Paris, and if she doesn’t do something fast she’s going to be speared on the tip of the Eiffel Tower.
She can barely breathe through the wind, but she has to. Tikki is here, too, and she’s saying something, but Marinette can barely hear her over the noise. She has to breathe. She has to think.
Morning light is cresting over the horizon.
“It’s Monarque!” She screams to Tikki, limbs flailing wildly, as if it’ll do anything at all to slow her descent. “He used the Miraculous of the Horse!”
“That doesn’t matter right now, Marinette!” Tikki yells back. She’s so delicate and sweet, with big blue eyes shining in the moonlight, furrowed with concern. “You have to transform!”
She can’t. Even if this means the end, she can’t transform. There’s only one reason Monarque would pull a stunt like this, and it’s to find out if she’s Ladybug.
Marinette shakes her head the best she can. “I can’t! He’ll know! My earrings!”
The tower is fast approaching below her. There are people milling about on the ground below.
She pictures a Paris without its heroine, and frantic tears prick at her eyes. But they’ll find a way.
“People can see,” Marinette says pathetically.
Maybe Chat Noir would save her. She has a few seconds left, still. Maybe he could pluck her out of the air, weightless, and carry her away on his baton to safety.
“Your life matters more than your Miraculous, Marinette!” Tikki pleads, and it vaguely registers in the back of Marinette’s mind that Tikki is starting to cry, too.
Chat Noir isn’t coming. There isn’t time.
She thinks of her parents hearing the news. Her grandparents. She thinks of Alya, and the rest of her friends.
She thinks of Adrien, losing his mother and his girlfriend in the same short time.
She thinks of Chat Noir, who’d have to play the little cat on the roof forever, since he would never know what had happened to her. He’d have no idea where to look.
Marinette squeezes her eyes shut.
“Okay!” She nods. “Okay, fine! Tikki, transform me!”
There’s a flash of pink light, and Ladybug finds her bearings. She hurls her yoyo around the tower, and uses the momentum of the fall to swing herself around it, landing hard on the Trocadéro Square below. Then, she falls to her knees.
“I didn’t have a choice,” she sobs, to no one in particular, pressing her face into the red of her costumed hands. A crowd gathers around her, and the sunrise strengthens, casting her and the onlookers in a warm haze. “What am I going to do?”
“Ladybug’s sad,” a child’s voice points out, interrupting her.
Ladybug glances up through her tears, to find August’s mother clutching the handle of a stroller. Baby August clambers out, and tentatively steps toward her.
He crawls into her embrace, as tears spill out of her uncontrollably.
The rest of the crowd follows suit. Ladybug is drawn into the arms of Paris, and the day begins anew.
—
Adrien wanders into class with his hands shoved in his pockets. One holds his phone in a death grip, and the other grasps at the individual beads of Marinette’s lucky charm one-by-one, like a lifeline.
Schoolmates mutter in the halls about the news from this morning, and he tries and fails not to eavesdrop.
“Did you see what happened this morning? A girl fell from the sky and turned into Ladybug!”
“She was too high up for anyone to see who it was…”
“The videos of the group hug are so moving. I hope she’s okay!”
Ladybug had given a statement at the scene, after she’d wiped the tears from her eyes and pulled herself to her feet. She’d used her yoyo to fly up onto the Palais de Chaillot, and spoken to the people of Paris with grace and diction.
“Even if Monarque has discovered my secret identity, Chat Noir and I will never stop fighting for you. We’ll always protect you. Our love for this city is what motivates us to fight, and he can never take that away from us, even if he knows who we really are under the masks.”
“Who’s gonna protect you, Ladybug?” Manon Chamack had asked her, clutching the hand of her mother.
“That’s why there’s two of us,” Ladybug replied, wiping her eyes one last time and smiling blindingly bright, before carrying herself away on her yoyo.
The crowd had cheered for her, and that’s where the news report Adrien had watched upon waking this morning had ended.
Guilt tugs at his heart. He hadn’t been there. That’s why there are two of them, but he wasn’t there to keep her safe this morning.
He’s about to put his head down on his desk and avoid the eyes of the world for a while, when Marinette flails in through the door, tripping over herself.
There’s eyeliner smudged all down her cheeks. She’s still in her pajamas.
Her chaos cracks a soft smile onto his face, but she’s clearly not okay, so he shakes it away. He stands to help her up, and treads to where she’s crash-landed into Mme. Bustier’s desk, peering down at her with careful eyes and extending a palm for her to take.
“Good morning, Marinette,” he breathes softly, “Need a hand?”
He feels Plagg snort where he’s hidden in Adrien’s jacket, and a smile quirks at his lips.
Marinette looks up at him like he hung the moon, and all of a sudden he feels a little more sure of himself. Ladybug is right. Adrien loves this city, and it gives him strength.
“Y…” Her bright blue eyes flicker down to his hand, and she blushes, pink and lovely. “Yes.”
Her hand fits into his easily, warm, dainty and soft, and he tugs her to her feet. Someone wolf-whistles in the background, probably Nino, and Adrien ignores it with a smug half-smile that he can’t stop from worming its way onto his face.
Marinette clutches her bookbag in her hands and bends down to pick up the school supplies that have spilled out. Adrien sinks down with her, and finds her eyes, looking into them deeply.
“Go to your seat, Marinette,” he tells her. “I’ve got it.”
Her irises dart around the room, likely spotting the faces of their classmates inevitably staring at them. “But–”
“I’d like to.” It’s true.
She bites her lip, tugging it between her teeth, shimmery pink lip gloss and all. He wonders how she remembered to put on her makeup but failed to remember to change out of her pajamas. He doesn’t know. He loves that she makes no sense, like that.
“Okay,” she concedes. “Thank you, Adrien.”
He painstakingly collects all of her various pink and polka dotted items, as well as her textbooks. One of her spiral notebooks flipped open to a random page in the fall, and there’s a drawing of him in a beautifully detailed suit that he tries not to look at too hard in order to preserve her privacy. Then he carefully deposits them on her desk, where she’s whispering something to Alya, both of their faces obscured.
When Marinette pulls away, Adrien sees that they’re both crying. Something surges in his chest.
“Marinette?” He asks, diving into her space to wipe a tear from her cheek. No wonder her eyeliner was so smudged, today. Her eyes widen, and she tenses a little under his palms – Adrien remembers himself and pulls away, fitting his hands behind his back. “What’s going on?”
“It’s just the Ladybug thing,” she answers quietly, smiling sadly and pressing her hands into her lap, gaze flicking downwards to stare down into it. “I don’t k-know what’s going to h-happen. It’s… scary.”
“Ladybug is strong because she loves Paris,” he explains simply, resisting the urge to draw her into his arms. He glances at Alya next to her, who’s watching with eyes wide. “And you’re our everyday Ladybug, Marinette. All you have to do is keep being yourself and loving the world around you, and you’ll see that it’s not that scary anymore.”
Adrien swears that Marinette’s eyes sparkle as she slowly looks up at him, and his heart starts thudding in his chest. Her lips are parted ever-so-slightly. Her shoulders are bare except for the thin straps of her pajama shirt, pale and beautiful. He clears his throat awkwardly.
“Thanks, Adrien,” Marinette says finally, breaking into a gentle smile. “Again.”
There’s so much love in her eyes that it threatens to spill over with the rest of her tears, and Adrien can feel it ricocheting between the two of them. He’s on the precipice of forgetting himself entirely and leaning in to kiss her, when a sob tears out from the girl seated next to them.
They both jerk to look at her, and Marinette immediately reaches to tug her best friend into a hug, but Alya’s running out the door before she can touch her.
“I’m sorry,” she cries, wiping her face in her elbows. “I can’t– I can’t..!”
“Alya!” Nino calls after her, skidding out from his seat at his desk and sprinting after her. “Come back! What’s wrong?”
Adrien glances at Marinette, who’s frozen in place, eyes locked on the door her friends just disappeared through. Adrien reaches for her hand and takes it, pulling her gently until she’s standing.
“Come on,” he tells her. “Let’s go see what’s up.”
Marinette nods weakly, shellshocked, and with that, Adrien coaxes her into a run. The two of them follow their best friends out the door.
—
By the time they reach the boiler room, Alya has become Ladyblogger, an apparent rebrand of Lady Wifi. Nino is frozen in place, reaching out toward her with his eyebrows furrowed in concern. There are inverted black-and-red spots on her new costume, and somehow, she’s still crying.
Marinette stops in her tracks as soon as she sees. Adrien hears her gasp, and his heart breaks.
He needs to get her to safety, so he and Ladybug can resolve this.
“Marinette,” Ladyblogger croaks, sniffling. “Just hold still. Let’s get this over with already! You’ve worked hard enough!”
“Alya!” Marinette cries, snapping into action. She tries to step forward, but Adrien knows better from months of fighting to think it would be that easy. Before her shoe hits the floor, Ladyblogger has shot several pauses Marinette’s way.
Adrien spots an old plastic pipe on the ground and dives for it, parrying one of the pauses and avoiding the other two by knocking them both to the ground and rolling for cover. Marinette trembles underneath him as he hovers over her, and he squeezes her shoulder softly, hoping it’s some small comfort.
“Alya, please–”
“I’m not Alya! I’m Ladyblogger!” Ladyblogger laughs as she sobs, crazed, taking measured steps toward the table Adrien’s hidden them both under. “And I’m your biggest fan in the world, so just let me help you, La–”
“This isn’t helping!” Marinette argues, wriggling out from under Adrien before he can stop her. He gasps as she maneuvers, dragging a French flag that Nino hung up for their Resistance meetings off the whiteboard, and throwing it over Ladyblogger’s head to yank her backwards with it.
“Adrien! Get to safety!” Marinette shouts, frantic. “I’ll be right behind you!”
Adrien takes the opportunity for what it is, and sprints for the door.
He turns back to her and nods as he runs, meeting her gaze. He should be protecting her – but there isn’t much Adrien can do that Chat Noir can’t do a hundred times better, when it comes to fighting, especially. Marinette will be safer if he transforms. He’ll return as Chat Noir in just a few moments.
So Adrien fits himself into his school locker. Plagg is scarfing down a piece of camembert when he flies out of Adrien’s shirt.
“I have to help Marinette,” he tells him.
“And Ladybug,” Plagg adds, looking bemused and profoundly sad at the same time. There’s no time to parse that right now.
“And Ladybug,” Adrien agrees, thinking of this morning. If Monarque knows her secret identity now, this is could be one of the hardest battles they’ve ever fought. “Plagg, transform me!”
It’s the two of them against the world. They can handle it.
Chat Noir barrels through the boiler room door on all fours, only to find it empty. Both the Ladyblogger and Marinette are gone. There’s a deafening crash in the main hall of the school, and he immediately runs to meet it.
A brand new gaping hole rests in the floor of the school’s common area. He swoops in to save a few students and staff from falling to their doom, depositing them safely in a nearby classroom.
Ladybug is here, now, arguing with the supervillain, but Marinette is nowhere to be found. She must have found a place to hide. Good, he thinks, relieved.
He watches as Ladybug deftly maneuvers to dodge each attack Ladyblogger throws her way, flying between the railings of each walkway. Everyone who’d been standing in the open is frozen in place, now.
He knows that look in Ladybug’s eye – she’s panicking. Time for him to step in, then.
“Need a hand, my lady?” He shouts, vaulting himself upwards with his baton and catching her in his arms princess-style. She clutches him tightly, and now he knows she must really be panicking.
“Get us out of here!”
“On it,” he coos, and extends his baton to break a hole in the windowed ceiling. With that, he escapes with Ladybug, Ladyblogger in quick pursuit.
“She was talking to me,” Ladybug tells him, shaking. “I mean– to me. He knows.”
“We can worry about that when she’s not attacking us,” Chat Noir tells her, hustling to dodge the myriad of pauses Ladyblogger is shooting at him. He launches himself and arcs upside-down over the Pont Des Arts, jabbing at the supervillain with his baton only for her to tug it from his hands and throw it aside.
“Eek!” He shouts, making a face. “Ladybug, I’m sorry, but you’re up!”
Her gaze darts around, and she spurs to action, grabbing him by the waist and hooking her yoyo onto a building a ways away. Then she reorients herself behind him, pushes the small of his back with both her feet, and launches him forward at the perfect angle to catch his baton midair, just before it splashes into the Seine. He lands easily on the bank of the river, and immediately goes to vault back toward her.
“Clout!” Ladyblogger shouts, and oh, how thoughtful of Monarque. He’s given her the power of the Miraculous of the Tiger. No wonder she’d been able to destroy the school so thoroughly.
Chat Noir jumps, just in time for her to completely eviscerate the concrete walkway he was just standing on with her fist.
“Lucky Charm!” He hears Ladybug call, swinging her yoyo into the air as she lands on the pavement on the bank of the river. There’s a bright flash of light, and then a long, red-and-black beach ball is falling into Ladybug’s hands.
“It’s not summer vacation quite yet, buguinette!” Chat Noir calls, as he lands next to her. He shoves her to the side when she’s too busy thinking to dodge, and bats several hits away from them, freezing three lampposts and Andre the Ice Cream Man in place in the crossfire.
“Don’t–” Ladybug grumbles, shaking her head. She rolls out of the way just in time to avoid a padlock , which would have bound her to the wall she was leaning against as she got her bearings.
“You heard it here first, from the Ladyblog,” Ladyblogger says as she attacks, livestreaming with the camera function of her akumatized phone. “Ladybug’s still fighting, even though it’s safer to give up. Even when it’s better for everyone in Paris if she gives up. Because she’s stubborn, and selfish, and kind–”
“I think you’re a little confused about what kind of message you’re trying to send, there!” Chat Noir calls, as he makes a jab for the phone in her hand.
“Alya, it’s not better if I give up! It’s safer this way!” As Chat Noir turns to look at her, he catches that spark on Ladybug’s face out of the corner of his eye – the one that means she’s figured it out – and a grin breaks out on his face. “Ugh! It doesn’t matter! Chat Noir, I need your belt!”
“As you wish, my lady!” He unclips it and throws it to her in a spiral, which she catches effortlessly.
“When I say so, cataclysm the base of one of the lampposts.”
“Got it!”
Chat Noir helps Ladybug lure Ladyblogger onto the Pont Des Arts with a few expertly timed and placed attacks, until Ladybug jumps backward, balancing on the railing. She spins her yoyo with one hand, warming it up, and holds his belt and the beach ball in the other.
She watches with a careful eye as Chat Noir backflips several times to narrowly avoid getting paused, until something seems to click, and she yells, “Now!”
“Cataclysm!” He shouts, and power surges in his body, concentrating in his hand in a swirl of energy. He slams his palm against the base of the nearest light post, and the foundation creaks as it disintegrates.
The post falls with a crash, breaking through the bridge and forcing Ladyblogger to lunge backwards to keep from tumbling down into the river, clutching her cell phone in her right hand.
Ladybug takes the opportunity to toss the beach ball to him, and he leaps to catch it midair.
“Clout!” Ladyblogger shouts, but it’s pointless, as Ladybug seamlessly restrains her body with her yoyo, and her arms with his belt.
“I just wanted to help you, M–” Ladyblogger starts, wailing, but Ladybug interrupts her before she can finish.
“Chat Noir, her phone! The ball!”
Chat Noir glances at the ball, and understands what he’s meant to do.
He spikes it hard at Ladyblogger’s palm, and with the impact the phone smacks out of her hand and flies into the Seine. With the phone broken, fried in the water, the commands dissipate, and all the civilians in the area stir with life.
Ladybug dives into the water to retrieve it, leaving Chat Noir alone to keep restraining Ladyblogger, holding her tight to the railing with his belt.
"You loved her twice, so you of all people should get it,” Ladyblogger spits, big red eyes filled with tears, fist pulsing with energy. “I did everything I could to protect her, and it was never enough. So it’s time for her to just stop before anyone tries to hurt her for real.”
“What are you..?” He asks, trailing off, because he isn’t exactly sure what he’s asking. He’s saved by the sound of Ladybug resurfacing from the river, dripping wet with the Ladyblogger’s phone safe in her hands. She drops the phone to the ground and steps on it, cracking the screen with her heel.
“No more evil-doing for you, megakuma,” she announces, as she catches the sparking insect in her yoyo. “Bye-bye, little butterfly.”
She reaches for the beach ball as the butterfly flutters away, and throws it into the air. “Miraculous Ladybug!” She exclaims.
Chat Noir blinks, and when he opens his eyes, the damage to the riverbank is fixed, and Paris looks as good as new.
“Good game,” he offers, and she bumps his fist with her own. He puts a hand on her shoulder, and squeezes softly. “For real, Ladybug.”
“Ladybug..?” Alya interrupts with a whisper, coming to. Ladybug rushes for her, caressing her face.
Chat Noir whistles and looks away, tapping his foot awkwardly. He doesn’t want to intrude on their moment.
“I’m just so worried… I don’t think you should keep it…”
“But you were found out so quickly, and I’m more experienced than anyone. I don’t think I have a choice…”
He turns to watch them, now. So Ladybug wasn’t planning on giving up her Miraculous..?
Part of him, selfishly, was happy. He wouldn’t have to lose his first real friend. But he was sad, too, and worried. Was he supposed to stay in the dark as to her secret identity? What was the plan?
He watched as Ladybug pulled Alya into a tight hug, and followed as she took her back to the school. Then she caught Chat Noir’s wrist, just as he was about to pull away.
“We need to talk,” she tells him, staring down at the floor. “I have a little time before I detransform.”
“I’ll follow you anywhere, my lady,” he assures. And it’s true.
—
They find themselves on the Palais de Chaillot, where it’s just starting to rain. Chat Noir doesn’t bother with the umbrella in his baton, and lets the water soak into his hair.
"That was way easier than I thought it'd be," he comments lightly.
For a moment, Ladybug smiles wistfully. Then a hard look comes over her face, hurting, determined and sad.
“No matter what,” she starts, and he breathes in in anticipation. “No matter what, I can’t find out your identity. It would be too dangerous.”
“The rules aren’t changing, my lady,” he agrees, nodding, which makes her start crying. Which isn’t what he meant to do, so he puts both of his hands on her shoulders, peering into her eyes. “Hey, what’s wrong? I didn’t–”
“Oh,” Ladybug whispers, and she’s not quite looking at him. She’s looking behind him, and there’s horror in her eyes, as her lips slowly fall open. “Oh, no.”
Chat Noir snaps around, to find a head made of butterflies floating in the air in front of the Eiffel Tower. It’s covered by the Miraculous of the Turtle’s power, and the symbols of the Miraculous surround it in a circle. Just like the little performance he’d given a month or two ago, when Ladybug had lost the Miracle Box.
The rain beats down against them in earnest now, and it thwacks against the Protection shield around the butterflies, too.
“Ladybug,” Monarque calls, where all of Paris can hear him clearly, in a condescending sing-song. Chat Noir steels himself, swallows a gasp. “Or should I say, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”
His heart falls in his chest. Thunder claps in the distance, lightning striking the ground in streaks across the sky.
Marinette..?
He turns to Ladybug. She’s backing away slowly. There’s fear in her eyes, and her earrings are beeping.
“I hope you enjoyed the little taste of what’s to come,” Monarque says. “I will akumatize each and every one of your loved ones, Marinette. I will make your life a living nightmare, every single day, until you give me your Miraculous.”
Ladybug is…
“I won’t,” he watches her whisper, though it’s barely audible. She tries again. “I won’t! I’ll never give you my Miraculous!”
Chat Noir can barely breathe.
Ladybug is Marinette. Marinette is Ladybug.
The girl who broke his heart countless times is the same one who sewed it back together.
“I’ll keep fighting!” Ladybug is shouting, now. “I’m the one who won’t stop! I’ll save all of them! The people I love are strong, and they’ll fight back. And Chat Noir and I will protect them! We’ll save them every single time!” Her tears are mixing with the rain, and she’s so, so beautiful. He doesn’t understand how he never saw it before – that their beauty was one and the same.
The beeping gets louder. She’s going to transform back in seconds. He’s got more time left. He’s got to get her out of there.
“I’ll never stop protecting Paris. I love this city with all my heart. You could never understand that, and that’s why you’re going to lose!”
There’s a wash of pink light, and Chat Noir’s eyes widen. He’s frozen in place. His heart is in his stomach and his chest and his throat, all at once.
Marinette Dupain-Cheng stands before him, with her smudged makeup and pajamas, getting soaked by the rain.
She is the most amazing girl he’s ever seen.
“I’m Marinette! And I’m Ladybug! And I’m not alone. We, the people of Paris, are going to win!”
“Ladybug–” Chat Noir gasps. Marinette steps wrong, too close to the ledge. Her kwami startles, meeting his eyes and opening her mouth to speak.
Marinette stumbles.
“Marinette!”
He acts before thinking, catching her quickly in his arms, holding her to him so tightly he can barely feel her against him. He vaults away with his baton, her kwami following close behind.
“We need– You– You need to transform,” he coughs, out of breath.
“Chat Noir, are you okay–?” She asks, before shrieking as lightning strikes only meters away from them, hiding her face in his neck.
Monarque is still monologuing behind them, but that doesn’t matter. Not right now. Chat Noir ducks into the sewers, and deposits her in her usual spot, before taking his place on the opposing wall.
“You need to transform. Please. You can’t be out there in the pouring rain on a rooftop when you’re not Ladybug.”
“I know, I’m such a klutz,” Marinette says defeatedly. His girlfriend is dripping with rain, in her pajamas, shivering on the floor in a sewer. Monarque is going to pay for this. He’s going to pay for putting her in danger like this.
“I don’t have food for Tikki, Chat Noir,” Marinette adds, after a long moment. “I just have myself.”
“I have something,” Chat Noir breathes. “Detransformation.” He slides to the floor, his face in his hands, and he bites his lip, holding back tears.
After he’s caught his breath, he uncovers his face, to find Plagg inches from his nose. He’s holding a piece of camembert cheese in his paws. “Go share with her,” Adrien tells him.
A nod, and he’s on his way. “Oh, sucrette..!” Plagg sings, buzzing around the corner.
It’s silent for a few moments, as Adrien reorients his entire understanding of his life. His girlfriend is Ladybug. Ladybug, who he’d been hopelessly and irrevocably in love with for months. Ladybug, who can solve anything with one of her incredible plans. Ladybug, who broke his heart when she didn’t trust him. Ladybug, who’s trying to build that trust back up. Who flirted with him, and made him reject her. Who got a boyfriend recently that she really, really likes. That she’d liked for a long, long time.
And Ladybug was his girlfriend – Marinette Dupain-Cheng. The everyday Ladybug. Boy, he’d had no idea how right he was when he’d coined that particular phrase. The everyday Ladybug is so shy, she could barely get a sentence out to him for months. She kissed Chat Noir, and cried when she had to stop. She makes countless gifts for her friends, and can’t stop planning things out in advance, and has a messy room, and keeps photos of him on her wall.
It’s impossible to process. But he knows one thing, if nothing else: Adrien loves her, and he’s never going to stop.
“What are you doing?” He croaks out, resisting the urge to peek around the bend.
“Making my very last post on social media,” she replies, sniffling. She must be crying again. Adrien wants to hold her, but he can’t, and it hurts somewhere deep in his heart. “What do you think, guys?”
“It’s beautiful, Marinette," her kwami compliments.
“I’ve never read anything like it, Ladybug!” Plagg chimes in.
Marinette giggles softly, wetly. “Do you think it’s good enough to post?”
“I’ll post it if you won’t! This needs to be seen by everyone in the world, let alone these chumps in Paris!” He hears Plagg say, and then there’s a squabble over the phone.
“You’re a lot nicer to her than you are to me,” Adrien calls, feigning petulance because he has no idea what else to do. “What’s up with that, Plagg?”
“Chat Noir, it’s Marinette. ” Plagg pauses, then adds, “Duh?”
And, well, fair point.
It is Marinette. Adrien wants to see her, look at her. It doesn’t feel real, yet – even if now, in retrospect, there isn’t anyone else Ladybug could have been.
“Marinette, don’t turn around,” he says. “Trust me, okay?”
“Okay, Chat Noir,” she calls back. “I trust you.”
His heart warms, and he carefully treads over, peering out from the corner to get a look at the three of them.
He watches as Marinette stops waffling over the post button, and he watches her stab at it with her pointer finger with a dramatic flair, tears streaming down her face as she smiles. Both kwamis are pressed to her cheeks, cuddling her.
Adrien presses his lips together to suppress a grin. Plagg isn’t usually the cuddling type.
Then he watches as she rips out her phone’s SIM card, and crushes it on the ground with her ballet flat. She watches her screen carefully to make sure that it’s really disconnected, and when she seems satisfied, she turns it off and slips it back into her pocket.
“I have to go into hiding,” she says simply, voice breaking. “If I don’t, he’ll get to me too quickly.”
“I’m coming with you,” he answers instantly.
“Chat Noir, you don’t have to do that–”
“I do,” he tells her truthfully.
“What about your life? Your family? Your girlfriend? They’ll all be so worried about you!”
“This is more important,” he replies. There was no way she could get him to leave her. He needed to keep her safe, in every way he could.
Marinette sobs softly, hugging herself, and tears well in Adrien’s eyes.
“Fine. We have to go into hiding,” she amends, curling in on herself further. “I wish I could just give the earrings to someone else I trust, but I can’t. Scarabella and Black Minette were found out the first day. I can’t take that risk. And I can’t give it to someone who’s never wielded a Miraculous before, either. Not when things are this… crazy!”
“You’re very brave, Marinette,” Tikki says, caressing her holder’s cheek ever so softly. Adrien wishes he could do the same. “You’re making the best choice you can.”
“I’m trying my best,” she laughs pitifully, and Adrien can barely think. He can only clutch at the concrete and metal of the sewer wall, holding himself back from rushing to her side.
“The kwamis are finished. Let’s go deal with Monarque’s dramatics topside, and find a place to rest. We don’t know how often he’s going to try akumatizing people, so let’s take it when we can get it.” she declares. “Okay, chaton?”
“Alright, Marinette,” he agrees, and takes one long last look at her, drinking her in as much as he can. He watches as she wipes the tears from her face a final time, and straightens her back, standing tall. He hopes he can find her something warm to wear by nightfall. He hopes he finds a real bed for her to sleep in. She doesn’t deserve any of this.
He ducks back to rest against the wall, and Plagg flies over to him.
“You ready, my lady?” Adrien ventures. The endearment sounds a little strange, now that he knows who he’s really calling that, but it doesn’t sound wrong.
“Yeah. Ready.”
Adrien takes a deep breath.
“Plagg, transform me!”
“Tikki, transform me!”
—
They make quick work of Monarque’s floating head, and Ladybug releases a parade of white butterflies back into the morning sky, just as the sun breaks through the clouds. She tells the people of Paris that she’ll come back whenever she needs them. She tells them not to lose hope. She bumps Chat Noir’s fist.
And then they find themselves in space.
Astrochat hovers next to her as she ponders, deep in thought, gloved hand resting against her helmet where her chin lies under it. The earth is beautiful from this high up.
“You’re sure you’re coming with me?” She asks, peering into his eyes thoughtfully. “You can back out.”
“I’m coming with you,” he repeats. “It’s us against the world, buguinette.”
He looks at her as if she hung the moon, and every star in the sky. He hopes she understands that she’s everything. The earth’s beauty pales in comparison to her. It’s them against the world.
Cosmobug tears up, eyes squeezing shut as she laughs. “Do you understand why I hate that so much now? It sounds way too close to my real name!”
“Huh,” he replies, taken aback. “I suppose it does, doesn’t it?”
“I don’t mind it anymore,” she tells him honestly, shaking her head rapidly as if it’ll rid her of her tears. The moon is just behind her, and it paints her with a halo, surrounding her already-glowing form. “Astrochat?”
“Yes, Cosmobug?”
“Even if you come with…” She starts, then trails off. “You can’t… I still can’t know your secret identity. Because if I know, Monarque could force it out of me, and then… And then he’d come for your loved ones, too.”
He already has. “I understand,” Astrochat says anyway.
“I’m sorry,” she adds, bumping her shoulder to his. “It’s not very fair, is it?”
“We’re working with what we have,” he assures. “I don’t blame you for any of this.”
“I do,” she says wistfully, staring down at the earth. He resists the urge to pull her close to him. “But I’ll keep moving forward. I’ll keep working as hard as I can.” She pauses for a long time, thoughtful, and her eyelashes shimmer in the lights from her suit and the moon. “I hope they know I love them.”
“Who?” He asks carefully, treading lightly.
“My mom, my dad, my grandparents…” She starts. “Alya, my best friend. All of my friends. Kagami, Luka…” She bites her lip, and stifles a sob. “My boyfriend, Adrien…”
Astrochat doesn’t know what to say to that, so he offers, uselessly, “Adrien Agreste?”
“Yes,” she nods, sniffling. “Gah, I can’t stop crying! Maybe there’s a trick for it. Counting sheep is for sleeping, but–”
“He knows,” Astrochat interrupts, pulling her into a tight hug. The moon is behind both of them, now. “All of them do.”
“I wish I could have said goodbye,” Cosmobug mutters, squeezing him tightly. “I never even told Adrien that I love him–”
“He knows, my lady,” Astrochat whispers, pouring emotion into every word. Believe me, he thinks. Please, trust me, believe me.
“You really think so?”
“I’m never wrong. Could someone with a face this beautiful be wrong?”
And then she’s laughing, which is better. Astrochat resists the urge to press a kiss to her head, resists the urge to never let go of her again. Instead, he releases her, and shoots her the best smile he can manage.
“Okay, kitty,” she grins back, after she’s gotten her bearings. He follows her eyes to gaze down at the blue expanse beneath them, and they both seem very, very, small, with the earth as their stage and the moon as their backdrop.
Cosmobug glances back at him, and her smile makes him feel a little bit braver.
“We’re on a trip, aren’t we? So where to, first?”