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“I think some people don’t deserve forgiveness.”
“That doesn’t sound like you at all.”
Ladybug called him. She called him which she doesn’t often do, and he found her running across the city until her legs gave out. Like she forgot he was supposed to meet her.
So he helped her up, and she collapsed into his arms.
“I don’t know who to tell first,” Ladybug says. She pulls out her yo-yo, and inside of it, paper. “I don’t have good luck with letters, but I had to try.”
Three envelopes. Adrien. Chat Noir. Scarabella.
Oh. Isn’t that ironic?
Adrien kneels, sets them both down to sit on the roof. Ladybug’s legs already gave out.
“I understand me,” he says. “And the friend you trust, but why Adrien Agreste?”
“…if I answer, we can never go back.”
“We’ll find a way.”
Ladybug takes a deep shuddering breath.
“I’m his girlfriend,” she says. “And I’m keeping a huge secret from him.”
Oh.
“Open your letter,” Ladybug says. “Please. I can’t— I was supposed to tell him first.”
He takes two of them from her hand. He opens Adrien’s first.
Adrien…
I’m sorry.
What comes next is lies, horrors. Ladybug hides her face in his chest, and he thinks she doesn’t realize what he just did. They can never go back. Marinette’s relationship with him is public.
Even if he wasn’t—
I’m Ladybug…
Your father was Monarch…
You mother made you…
Not your fault. You’re perfect. I love you. I’m sorry.
Once upon a time he sat as Marinette confessed her feelings to “buttercup”. Buttercups kill ladybugs.
A dozen days, he saw Marinette jump at the slightest sound, and Ladybug cry and look away from him.
He wants to be angry, but he can never stay mad at her.
Chat Noir’s letter apologizes for choosing Adrien over him, it apologizes for not being able to do it alone. It tells him the world ended when he found out who she was. Adrien remembers being curled up in a cell and thinking it was his fault for being weak. He remembered nightmares of killing everyone he loved. He thinks…
Marinette looks up. How did he not recognize those ocean blue eyes?
“You should be angry, by now,” she says. “You— why did you open Adrien’s letter? Chat Noir, how could you—”
“How could I?” Adrien asks, and oh, there’s the anger. They’re standing again. Her in panic, him in anger. “How could you? How could you lie to me and still pretend to care. Not tell me I’m a—”
“What?” Marinette asks. “I— what?”
He killed his parents. She used him like his father did. She didn’t mean it. He loves her—
“…it doesn’t matter, anyways,” Marinette says. “It’s over, Kitty. As soon as Rena gets here to deliver the Miraculous of the Ladybug to Scarabella, it’s over.”
He figures that out, suddenly.
“I’m sorry,” Marinette says. “I’ll disappear, soon.”
Some people don’t deserve forgiveness.
Adrien holds Marinette in his arms, and Rena cradles the rings in Marinette’s hands. She saw how high up they were and panicked.
“I was too late,” Alya says. “I tried to find the truth.”
“So you didn’t know,” Adrien says.
“No,” Alya says. “You’ll deliver her letter to Adrien?”
“She’s a coward,” Adrien says. It’s more bitter than he feels. He could never stop loving her.
“Sometimes,” Alya responds. “And other times, she’s the strongest, and she’s there for whatever you need, and so smart, and I…”
“You need to deliver those earrings to the new guardian,” Adrien says. “I’m taking her home.”
“Of course.”
She wakes up when he sets her in med.
“Hmmm…?” She asks. She looks up at him. Gasps and stumbles back. Hits her head. Marinette. His Marinette. “Who are you?”
“My name is Chat Noir,” he says. “I’m a superhero. We have those here in Paris, now.”
“…now?” Marinette asks. Her eyes dart around. “What happened to my room?”
“You were caught in a monster attack,” Adrien says. Something clarifies in his mind. “Ladybug - our leader. She sacrificed her life to save you. But there was… an accident. You lost your memories of the past year.”
“WHAT?” Marinette asks. “Why would she do that for someone like me? And I’m… I’m 16 now?”
“Because you’re special to a lot of people,” Adrien says. “And because she was a hero, she’d do it for anyone.”
He turns away. It feels so familiar.
“But that’s not fair!” Marinette exclaims.
“She wouldn’t want it any other way,” Adrien says. He turns. “Take care, princess.”
She blushes.
Oh unnamed Kwami of love, they always chose each other.
“I-I…”
“You deserve to be happy,” Chat Noir says.
I think some people don’t deserve forgiveness.
Chat Noir watches a sunset alone with two letters crumpled in his hands.
“You never gave me a chance, did you?”
That’s the part he can’t forgive.