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It has been 4 years since his father died.
How can that be right? Time was a funny thing sometimes. 1 day can feel like 4 years, and 1 year can feel like 4 seconds.
Adrien contemplated the phenomenon of time as he calmly continued packing his bags. He tried to ignore the sounds of crying coming not even 5 feet away from him.
Time was a strange concept, but so was this numbing feeling he couldn’t shake off ever since…
Another idea he couldn’t grasp was the thought of Marinette betraying him. He could understand the idea that time was man-made and maybe that was why it felt so strange, he could understand that his father wasn’t actually a hero considering he has put his life in emotional and even physical distress too many times to count.
Adrien can even process (well it would take some time to accept that he was a senti-monster that he and Ladybug used to snap out of existence as easy as breathing, which further explained her 180 behavior towards them overnight) that he’s not exactly human considering it explained the whole identical-twin-cousin thing.
But what he couldn’t understand was her lying to him again. It was ironic that Marinette claims to hate liars but has no problem lying to her boyfriend multiple times. Maybe he doesn’t know her as well as he thought.
“Adrien, please,” she pleaded, her mascara streaking across her face now. There was a time her crying would’ve been the worst sight to see. Now it’s the memory of her eyes shifting guilty, away from him whenever he mentioned his father. “Talk to me.”
Adrien sighed and picked up his bags. As he leaned down, the infamous lucky charm she had given him all those years ago fell out of his pocket.
”Uh, actually, you know what? I’ve got a secret.” She whispered with her hand behind her mouth, wholeheartedly believing what she’s about to tell him is top secret information.
“ This is why I win.” Marinette proudly held out a rather normal looking charm.
Adrien scoffed. “Are you messing with me?”
She smiled and continued to hold out the charm. “Try playing a match with it.”
And Adrien felt as if he had never been lied to before. All those times his father lied to him about finally having dinner with him, didn’t matter. Because he knew she would never lie to him. Especially after his gaming skills improved immensely after that day.
Adrien had decided that he couldn’t leave her without the magical power of the lucky charm, so he made her one.
And maybe by the look on Marinette’s face when he gave it to her, she felt he would never deceive her either.
Or…
“How could anything bad happen, with my “Marinette lucky charm?”
Or…
”I lie so that I can be with you.You lie because you don’t want to be with me.” It wasn’t true, he lied because it was the only way he could be with Ladybug. So he and Kagami had more in common than she thought.
Or…
”How can you trust someone that’s lied to you?” Kagami asked as she handed him Marinette’s lucky charm.
Or even…
“Morning, Marinette.” He grinned, unbearably happy as he grabbed his lucky charm the same time she did.
It was once a symbol of truth for them. There are so many memories of genuineness attached to this simple charm that he can’t even bear to look at it.
Adrien grasped her hand in his and placed the charm in her palm. “It seems your lucky charm wasn’t the only secret you kept from me,” he said, with no emotion present in his voice.
Marinette clutched the charm in dismay, still unable to believe he is leaving her.
“Adrien, I don’t want to leave us like this! Please, let’s just talk this out,” she pleaded with him.
“I was planning on leaving for school anyway. This way, we can have a break from each other,” Adrien sighed, her display didn’t dissuade him.
Marinette’s sobs invaded his ears all the way to the elevator. It had no effect.
“Kid…we were just trying to protect you.” Plagg tentatively peaked his head out of his shirt pocket. Adrien remembers the surprised look the kwami gave him when he opened his shirt to him before leaving. Adrien wasn’t quite sure why he brought Plagg with him. He technically lied to him too. Maybe Adrien was holding onto his old life. Something to remind him of her.
“I don’t want to hear it, Plagg.”
Adrien finds himself not even noticing all the things that used to bother him about walking through Paris. The pity and admiration in civilians' eyes. The old modeling ads he can never seem to escape. After his father died, advertisers insisted it was good for business to have anything Agreste related. The disgust he feels now that he knows the truth is unimaginable. His father's statue that never felt quite right (and wow, does that certainly make a lot of sense now). Things that won't matter once he finally leaves.
Adrien finally makes it to the train station, his head still reeling from everything. But mostly, he finds it difficult to forget about Marinette. He desperately hopes that will change once he’s out of this city. For good.
He told Marinette he wanted a break, not a breakup. There was some masochist part of him that wanted to leave them open for the future.
Even if someday, she’s moved on from him and is with some other guy, he will have a flimsy excuse to come back and just see her. Adrien could picture her head thrown back in laughter as another man tells her his own puns at the coffee shop they used to go to every Wednesday. His heart clenches in his chest at the thought so he closes his eyes and thinks of what he will do in London.
Adrien thinks about what his new home would look like, his new school, and all the new friends he could make. But when he tried to picture the possibility of falling in love with someone else, he comes up blank. That should’ve been his first clue that Marinette was Ladybug since he easily fell in love with her after he “got over” Ladybug.
He sighs and gives up on the thought and continues to wait for the train to take him away from it all. All the lies. All the pity. Just everything.
“Adrien! ”
Adrien’s eyes snap open. He blinks in shock at the sight of a frazzled Marinette in all her beautiful glory running to him like they were in those cheesy rom-coms he can’t help but love. She, of course, manages to trip right before she catches up to him. He can’t help his lips twitching in fondness.
“I’ve come-” she gasps for breath, “I’ve come to stop you!”
Marinette has her hands on her knees, still attempting to catch her breath. Adrien holds his hands out to steady her when she begins to fall from exhaustion.
“Woah, Marinette, take it easy.”
To his surprise, she yanks herself away from him in anger.
“Don’t you dare tell me to “take it easy” when you walked out on us! I will never “take it easy” when it comes to us! Don’t you get that?! My life has literally been turned upside down from the moment I met you, ever since we got tangled up with my yoyo! I know I messed up by keeping things from you, Adrien but also keep in mind that I was 14 years old when your father dumped all your crazy family drama on me! And by the time I was old enough to understand it all, I realized it was too late.” Marinette finished her rant with a huff of breath.
Adrien was conflicted. He understood that they were way too young when all this started and that it would be hard for anyone, let alone a 14-year-old to process but he still couldn’t believe she lied to him. After everything they’ve been through with Lila, it was just too much.
“Too late to tell me that I’m not a human Marinette?! I don’t think there’s ever a good time for that. If you had told me this any time in those few months, I would’ve understood.”
Marinette flinched back as if he slapped her. She took in a shaky breath.
“You’re the most important person in the world to me and I couldn’t imagine being the person to shatter everything you know to be true.”
Adrien ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.
“I just don’t get why you would tell me now. After all this time?”
Marinette’s bottom lip trembled. “You’re leaving. I couldn't let you leave for good without knowing the truth, even if it meant we were truly over. And don't you dare try to tell me we're just taking a “break”! You never would've taken Plagg away from Tikki if that were the case.”
Adrien started pacing the train platform. He carefully avoided the other travelers bustling around them, oblivious to their turmoil.
“But Marinette, how can you expect me to stay with someone that is lying to me? After everything with Alya, making me feel like I wasn’t even your partner anymore? And then Lila! We were tortured by her lies. You hated her for the same things you’re doing to me!”
Marinette starts to cry in earnest. She now seems to be lost for words.
“I just…need some time okay? I’m not even sure how long I’ll be gone. That's why I took Plagg. I'm not sure. I just know that I need to be away from all the secrets. It's something I put up with my own family but I’m not doing that with you.”
People around them start to grimace in sympathy at the scene. Marinette continues to cry. It breaks something in Adrien a little. It’s still not enough.
“But Adrien, I love you!”
Adrien inhales sharply at that. He feels his resolve begin to weaken, and he hesitates. But then he remembers what it feels like to have someone say they love you and their actions say the opposite.
“I love you too…but this was the reason I felt my father didn’t truly love me. After everything he kept from me, how could I feel loved?”
Marinette shakes her head in desperation and takes Adrien’s hands in hers. “But Adrien, I’m not your father! That’s why I told you these things.”
Adrien shakes his head in anger. “But after 4 years Marinette?! My father died before he could tell me the truth so who knows how long it would’ve taken him. Maybe longer than you, maybe not, either way, I just can’t take it anymore. I’m sorry.”
Adrien feels himself start to get choked up as well when he sees the determination go out in Marinette’s eyes. He feels her hand slip out from his and he feels incomplete. Like someone carved out a piece of his heart.
Marinette seems to finally realize the magnitude of what she has done and begins to walk away. Adrien doesn’t notice the other passengers looking at her back in melancholy.
Adrien doesn’t know what to do. Numbly, he walks onto the train and continues to watch her leave. He begins to picture his future without her and feels hollow. He hasn’t felt this way even in the vast emptiness of his old bedroom.
What was he thinking?
He jumps off the train and only now does he notice onlookers are holding their breath to see if he’ll go after her. He internally shakes his head. He thinks even if he wasn’t Adrien Agreste, people would be captivated by the scene before them.
“Wait! Marinette!”
She freezes and slowly turns around. The hope returned to her eyes. Life returned to her eyes. They were truly hopeless without the other.
Marinette runs to him and when he feels her collide with his chest, the hollowness is gone. Not his anger, of course, but anything was better than what he just felt when she let go of his hand.
“That felt…” he trails off.
“Awful? The worst thing you ever felt in your life?”
He laughs wetly at that, tears streaming freely down his face now. “Yeah, that.”
They continue to embrace and he hesitantly separates from her.
“This doesn’t mean things are okay between us. I really didn't have a plan beyond getting out of Paris indefinitely. But…the problem is, I realized I can’t picture my future without you in it. So if you promise to work on this with me, I think we’ll be alright.”
Marinette nods in determination. “I will do everything in my power to earn your trust back. Starting with any questions you may have about that day…I will do my best to answer them.”
Adrien blinked in confusion. “That wasn’t everything? Me being a senti-monster? That was already too much…”
Marinette shakes her head and gently grasped his hands in hers again. “There is much more. I want to tell you about the alliance rings, your mother, every fear I’ve ever felt regarding your akumatization, and everything in between. I am so sorry I thought you couldn’t handle these things. I just hated always seeing you so…sad. I didn’t want to give you anything more to be sad about. And when you moved on from your father's death we were so...happy. I was selfish, not wanting to give that up. But I realize now that what I really needed to do was just be there for you. So that you could feel everything you were meant to feel. And then to be free of all the burdens your father left you. I promise you through every new heartbreak I uncover, I will be there every step of the way.”
Adrien swallowed in apprehension for everything his father or Marinette could’ve kept from him all this time. Him…akumatised? He shuddered internally at the thought. He always liked to think because they were Ladybug and Chat Noir, the villains could never touch them. Not really. But he supposed Marinette almost getting akumatised multiple times proved that to be wrong. They were human, just like every other victim they helped. And maybe that was part of the problem all along. He thinks Marinette must’ve seen him as this larger-than-life image that could never be touched by imperfection. Even more so after finding out that he wasn't, in fact, human. So she shielded it from him. And no matter how terrible it was that she lied to him, he understood that.
He used to see Marinette as larger-than-life too.
When he only knew her as 2 separate people, somehow it never occurred to him that Ladybug and Marinette would have struggles. Ladybug was this perfect superheroine who could do no wrong in his eyes. Ladybug saved people every day. She was charming and confident behind the cameras and never let the fear of gossipers or his father get to her.
And Marinette was the girl every guy in their class had a crush on, the girl who could design and make beautiful clothes, the girl who baked wonderful macaroons, was amazing at video games, was their class representative, and so much more.
But then Ladybug had turned out to be Marinette. If he thought these 2 women were amazing when they were 2 different people, he was utterly insufferable when he found out she did it all. He felt that he truly knew her. And he does, but maybe not quite how he thought before.
Because now he understands Marinette’s past pleading to see that she wasn’t perfect by any stretch of means. He did come to terms with it over time, of course. The longer he was with her, the more he loved her imperfections. The way she was hopeless with a guy she had a crush on. The way she can blow up on you if you so much as breathe in her direction if she was working on a design. The way he comforted Ladybug when she had a panic attack over losing the miraculous to Felix. The way Ladybug made him feel like he didn’t matter when she started confiding in Alya after allowing herself to reveal her identity.
You see, Marinette was as human as they come, where it truly mattered. And despite recent revelations, the same could be said for him.
Adrien could be socially inept (he will never truly be rid of Alya’s teasing with how oblivious he truly was over Marinette’s crush) with all those years he spent in isolation. He was a bit easy to walk all over, people like Chloe proved that. Chat Noir could be pushy when it comes to his advances with Ladybug. He has put her in distress many times in the lengths he would go to sacrifice himself for her.
There are many flaws, as anyone has, but there is also much more to love.
This is why he had to get off that train, and never leave her. Because anything was better than never seeing her again. It was simply…unfathomable.
They had to try. That was the thing about humans. If they believed in something, they will never give up on it. He believed in Marinette, and she believed in him too. When they stop fighting for each other, they stop being themselves.
Stopped being Ladybug and Chat Noir, the hero couple everyone loved to gossip about. Stopped being Marinette and Adrien, the couple who simply loved being together with the people they cared about.
Adrien, and evidently all of Paris, just couldn’t imagine that.
He snapped out of his reflection when he heard her crying again and she whispered, begged, “Please, Adrien. Please believe me.”
“Shhh,” he comforted. “I do, Marinette. I do. We will get through this. Together,” he whispered as he pulled her into an embrace. “As always.” She breathed back. Adrien kissed her forehead.
Marinette shifted a bit, she seemed to be pulling something from her pocket, but she struggled since she didn’t seem to want to part from him. His heart warmed at that.
It was the lucky charm.
”I know you said we’re technically taking a break but please can you take your charm back? It would feel wrong to have it now. It’s yours, Adrien. And it always will be.”
Adrien nodded but then he realized Marinette couldn’t see him since her face was still buried in his chest.
”Yes, Marinette. I’m sorry I gave it back.”
He felt her smile and said, “I forgive you, as long as promise to never do it again.”
He tightened his embrace. ”I promise.”
And then he heard clapping.
Marinette is crying freely in relief now and laughs. “Please tell me no one was watching us.” He chuckled and kissed her head again. “Okay, I won’t.” She just groaned and buried her face further into his chest.
Adrien smiled and thought people were absolutely crazy for being captivated by love like theirs. For yearning for a love like theirs.
If they only knew …
(And they did come to know, many years later when Adrien was finally content with the fact that Marinette would tell him anything. The press had deemed their relationship the most tumultuous relationship they’d ever seen. But also the most amorous. Adrien didn’t know how to feel about that. He was just glad he could finally call her “my lady” and “bugaboo” without Marinette’s disapproval, lest people become suspicious. Marinette was just trying to get Alya off her back about “love square” details she never divulged. Marichat and Ladrien in particular. Marinette was not budging. It was a whole thing.)
But then again, Adrien supposed they were absolutely crazy, too.