12. The Darkest Heart (Dark Cupid)

The forever rose sat on Marinette’s trembling lap. It stared at her, judging her nerves. She couldn’t blame it.

Taking a deep breath, she pried her eyes away from her gift and focused on her comprehensive set of notes on how this day was going to go.

Step One: Buy Chat Noir a Valentine’s day gift. Check. She’d done that. Once upon a meeting, Chat Noir had gotten her a yellow forever rose to symbolise that they’d forever be friends and partners. Now she’d gotten him a red forever rose. She hoped he get the meaning but that led on to her second step.

Step Two: Figure out what to say to Chat once she saw him later. If the piles of paper littered around her room were anything to go by, she’d at least attempted it. She had… something. Anyway, Marinette figured she’d ruin what she meant to say anyway. Tikki had told her to speak from her heart. But it wasn’t her heart she was worried about, it was her stupid tongue and the way it got tongue-tied whenever she attempted to talk to Chat about her feelings.

But this was it. She had a feeling. They’d been partners for two years already. She was in her final year of school before going off to university. She was eighteen, grown up now, not some silly sixteen-year-old with a crush on her slightly older partner. They were, and had always been, equals anyway.

Two years of pining after Chat Noir was long enough. If she had to hide it any longer, she felt like she’d explode.

Step Three? Well that was up to Chat, and truth be told it made Marinette want to throw up whenever she thought about it.

The time on her desktop read 7:00am. Marinette yawned and rubbed at her eyes. It had been impossible to sleep the night before and she was thankful that she was confessing with a mask on her face. It would cover the bags under her eyes.

School was even more torturous than usual. When she arrived, she’d been assaulted by a flurry of red confetti. Love hearts were plastered everywhere. Trying not to roll her eyes, Marinette stomped her way to her first class of the day and collapsed in a seat next to Alya. Leaning forwards, she flopped face-first onto the desk and let out an almighty groan.

Alya laughed. “Now that’s a mood if I ever saw one,” she said, batting some confetti out of Marinette’s hair, which she’d put in a high ponytail in anticipation of the confetti. The ponytail had betrayed her. Not a good omen for how the rest of her day would go. If her simple hair-style plan had gone awry, how would confessing to the LOVE OF HER LIFE go down?!

It was a long day.

The final bell was a brief balm on the burning anxiety which riddled every inch of her insides. As predicted she hadn’t been able to focus on anything her teachers had been saying, in any lesson. Even the ones she really liked. Every time she tried, the teachers’ words got garbled somewhere between Marinette’s ears and her brain, so it sounded like they were mocking her. “Look at you! You think you can confess? You?!”

Ugh.

Suffice to say, her nerves were shot. But at least she had Alya as a companion to her misery. As the pair of them slung their heavy bags over their shoulders, Marinette caught Alya throwing one last longing look in the direction of the object of her affection. Her heart went out to her friend. “Don’t you think it’s time to end that stupid agreement you two have?” She asked gently as Nino gave them an awkward wave before hurrying out the door. Usually he stuck around and hung out with them after school. Today was different, and Marinette couldn’t blame him for running off. Even from the back of the classroom, she’d spotted the pining, the overwhelming sadness, in Nino’s eyes.

She’d never understand the position her two best friends had put themselves in. They were both so obviously in love with each other, both of them knew it too.

“Studies come first girl, you know that. Nino and I both decided that a long time ago. Feelings get in the way,” Alya replied through gritted teeth, her fingers digging into the strap of her bag.

Marinette wanted to argue that feelings wouldn’t get in the way, that those two were crazy to willingly keep themselves from each other. They loved each other far too much for that love to do anything but lift them up, rather than drag them down and distract them like they were both worried it would. She sighed, wishing that she was as lucky as Alya. If she knew that Chat loved her back…

She shook her head, trying to rid those thought from her mind. It was an argument she’d had with Alya and Nino far too many times and today wasn’t the day for it.

Wrapping her arm around Alya’s shoulder, the pair of them strolled out of the classroom. They were halfway down the hallway, Marinette in the middle of tempting Alya with thoughts of a huge but definitely-not-heart-shaped cookie when they were roughly shoved apart. Being the clumsy girl that she was, this caused Marinette to stumble to the ground.

“HEY! WATCH IT!” Alya yelled at Kim’s retreating back, scowling. Kim didn’t turn around. “God, what’s got his goat?” she grumbled, helping Marinette to her feet…

Only for Marinette to tumble to the ground again when someone slammed full-bodied into her. “OW!”

Alya swore loudly. “First Kim, now you too Max? What the hell is going on?” she grabbed both Marinette and Max’s hands and yanked them both to their feet. Marinette rubbed her shoulder with a frown. Great. That was definitely leaving a bruise. At least later it’d be covered up by her super-suit.

She recovered quickly, however, when she saw how distraught Max looked. His eyes were wide, pupils shrunk in panic, his chest was rising and falling heavily. His glasses were askew. He’d never look so unkempt. “Kim? You saw Kim? Where did he go? Did you see?”

“Hey, hey,” Marinette soothed, placing a comforting hand on Max’s shoulder. “Is everything okay?”

Max’s chin wobbled. He looked like he was about to cry. “No. No everything isn’t ok. I think- I think Kim was going to- to ask me to be his Valentine. But he saw me and Toby from the other class- and he thinks- oh my god.”

It was then that Marinette noticed a Valentine’s card in Max’s hand, only it had been ripped in half. She spotted Kim’s untidy scrawl poking out from Max’s ring finger. She assumed Kim had the other half, or had thrown it away, and that Max was right. The card was for Max, from Kim, and he’d intended to confess.

Alya and Marinette shared a look, both of them unsure how to handle this. They’d never seen Max so frantic. Usually he was so put together. Sure he could be a bit tetchy or nervous at times, but never like this. As it stood, he was giving Marinette a run for her money, and that was really saying something.

“So…” Alya tried. “Are you and Toby-”

Max didn’t let her finish. Burying his head in his hands he cried, “No! No, we’re not! Not ever! He confessed to me and then kissed me without even asking if it was ok! But Kim saw and ran off before I could explain and now I’ve really messed things up.”

“Of course you haven’t,” Marinette said, squeezing Max’s shoulder a little tighter.

“Marinette’s right, Max,” Alya nodded. “You two have been crazy over each other for ages now. You know what Kim is like. Just let him cool down and then talk to him. Tell him what happened. He’ll get it. Just make sure he doesn’t see Toby for a while.”

Max still looked like he wanted to cry.

“Hey, why don’t you come back to my house with us? There’s a big cookie with your name on it just waiting for you!” Marinette smiled. Max looked up at her, before staring down at his feet. He nodded.

Yikes, Marinette thought as the three of them made their way to the bakery. So much drama today. She hoped that maybe the amount of drama happening in the first part of the day, meant that the last part of the day (and her confession) would be relatively drama free.

Hah. A girl could dream.

Chat Noir frowned, scanning the city block with narrowed eyes.

Without fail, the past two years had seen Valentine’s-related akuma show up. This day really did bring out the worst in people and Hawkmoth, whoever he was, loved taking advantage of that.

Seriously, that guy needed to get laid or something. If anything, it would get him to stop picking on people.

It was late afternoon, and he had a report due tomorrow. Evil professor scheduling an essay due date they day after Valentine’s- Chat would be annoyed if he had anyone special to share the day with. Sure, he was going to meet up with Ladybug later anyway. Even so, now he was here, hunting another akuma instead of studying. This one was some lovelorn guy with an evil cupid theme, shooting black arrows into the citizens of Paris and turning everyone- as Plagg delicately put it- “into assholes.”

He couldn’t do much until Ladybug got here, and he’d narrowly missed those black arrows a few times. But he could distract the akuma victim from inflicting damage on anyone else.

“Hey! Guess what else I love!” Chat cried, popping out from behind a car when he spotted the Dark Cupid. “I love croissants! They’re the best! They fill my heart with such warmth and joy!” he smirked, elongating his words as he swooned over croissants like a lovesick fool. It seemed to annoy Dark Cupid whenever he talked about what he loved.

An angry growl from the possessed younger man meant he was successful in his distraction and he leapt away from the car, deftly dodging a string of black arrows. He threw his head back and laughed, which only enraged Dark Cupid further.

Dark Cupid gave chase, but Chat was too quick even with the absence of the wings which Dark Cupid had strapped to his back, that should have given the villain the upper hand. Ha-ha.

He ran around the corner, losing sight of Dark Cupid enough to hide. Hopefully, Chat thought, he’d be able to ambush Dark Cupid when the latter came looking for him, and wrestle the akuma away. Then it would be a waiting game until Ladybug showed up to cleanse it. He was pretty sure the akuma was whatever torn up piece of paper was held in Dark Cupid’s hand.

“There you are!”

Chat turned around, and his face burst into a smile to see Ladybug standing before him. Great! Now his plan would be even easier! “Glad to see you Little Lady, so about the a-”

She pressed a finger to Chat’s lips, and his eyes widened. For some strange reason, his heart skipped a few beats, but he shook it off when he noticed her finger was trembling. She looked so nervous. Was she ok? Was she ill?

“Ok, before you say anything please let me talk okay?” Ladybug said. Tucked under her arm was a small, white box. He wondered if it had any of the cookies she sometimes brought him in it. But no that didn’t seem right. She wouldn’t be like this over cookies. What was going on?

He nodded and Ladybug let out a sigh of relief. She released his lips from her finger’s hold and Chat felt weird. He kind of missed the feeling of it being there. But had no idea why.

“Good. Ok. That’s- that’s good,” Ladybug coughed, clearing her throat. She brought the box forward, holding it in both hands as she stared at it. Chat stared too. “So, umm… we’ve been together a long time now. I mean! Not together- together. You know, like, together. Partners! We’ve been partners for a long time and I wanted to give this to you and tell you”- she began lifting the lid of the box, Chat felt his whole body tense in anticipation- “that I- I- CHAT LOOK OUT!”

Ladybug’s expression turned from one of sincerity and nervousness, to one of horror. The next thing Chat knew, he was flung off his feet as Ladybug crashed into him, sending him skidding to the floor. Ladybug landed on top of him.

Just in time to see it disappear, Chat caught sight of a single, black, heart-shaped arrow land on Ladybug’s shoulder.

His heart dropped.

Dark Cupid laughed and flew away.

“Ladybug?” he whispered, reaching up to her. His hand hovered over her shoulder, his breath caught in his throat. They’d never been so close before. She was so warm…

And she’d just taken an arrow for him. She was silent, unmoving. Chat prayed to every deity he could think of that her miraculous hadn’t been corrupted. He knew his could, it had been several times. But if her heart had turned dark…

No. It couldn’t have happened. It couldn’t have. He placed his hands on her shoulders, softly pushing them back off of him, so that he could check if she was ok. “Little Lady?”

Ladybug’s shoulders began to shake. At first, Chat was worried she was crying, that she’d been hurt by the fall. But that made no sense. They’d taken far worse hits and she was strong, stronger than him even. Only when a low, cold, cruel sound escaped her lips did Chat realise. She was laughing.

“I’m not your Little Lady.”

Chat’s eyes widened as Ladybug got up, straddling his waist as her face came into full view. Her lips were twisted into an icy grin which froze him into place. Her eyes, so often reminding him of an ocean in midsummer, now looked glacial. Her lips were as dark as the pain now wrenching Chat’s gut, as the deadly reality of their predicament sunk in.

Ladybug’s miraculous was corrupted. She was under Dark Cupid’s spell.

“Ladybug,” his voice was faint, terrified, as he tried to reason with her. He smiled, hoping it would reach something inside her. He knew she was still in there. He knew it. “Ladybug…snap out of it.”

His words fell on deaf ears, for Ladybug rolled her eyes. A pointed fingernail scratched the bottom of his chin, digging in just enough to hurt, and Chat swallowed. Despair lingered in the corners of his mind. This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t happening.

The gloved fingernail dug into the soft part of his chin harder, forcing him to look up. Ladybug sighed. “Little Lady, Little Lady, Little Lady. Do you know how sick I am of being called that? How sick I am of you calling me that? I might be Ladybug, but it’s you that’s the annoying little insect, always getting yourself into trouble, always having to pick up your slack.” The smile dropped from her face and she glared at him so hard that Chat’s heart cracked. He tried not to listen. He tried not to let her words in. This wasn’t her. This wasn’t Ladybug. This was the curse.

Wasn’t it?

His limbs were stone-like, lifeless and unable to move an inch. All he could do was watch in horror as Ladybug lowered herself closer to him, so that they were almost nose-to-nose. Her glare deepened, and she looked at Chat like he was the most disgusting thing she’d ever seen. “Ladybug,” he whispered, still hoping, still wishing. “Please…”

“Shut up,” she snapped. “God! You’re so annoying! How I put up with being your partner for so long is beyond me. Well”- she sat up, reaching behind her for her yo-yo- “Time to fix that for good!”

Chat ducked his head out of the way just in time. The yo-yo slammed into the ground where his head had been moments before, leaving a large dent in the ground below. A second attack came and he shifted, this time fighting against his very nature as he pushed Ladybug off of him with all the force he could muster. She fell backwards, allowing him time to escape. He leapt back to his feet, grabbing his baton and bringing it in front of him. “I don’t want to fight you. We’re friends!”

“Blah blah blah,” Ladybug replied, swinging her yo-yo in what was surely preparation for another attack. Her black lips glinted in the late afternoon sun. He needed to leave. Fast. He need to de-transform. He needed Plagg’s help, and to not fixate on the fact that Ladybug had just tried to kill him. It’s part of the curse. You’ve done similar things to her. Don’t let it affect you, he tried to reason with himself. “Friends? You really think I could be friends with someone as arrogant and patronising as you? I was LYING all those years ago. That friendship rose you gave me? I threw it away. It meant nothing to me. You mean nothing to me.”

Chat couldn’t stand hearing anymore. He called out a cataclysm, striking a nearby wall so that it collapsed in a sea of black dust and rubble.

By the time the dust cleared, and Ladybug looked up, he was long gone.

Ladybug placed her yo-yo back onto her side. How troublesome. Now she was going to hunt him down like the rotten stray he was.

She walked towards the battered white box, which had been tossed to one side during the fray and opened the lid to reveal the red forever rose. A short laugh escaped her lips. What had she been thinking, giving a rose to Chat?

The only rose she wanted to give him was a black one. Preferably at his funeral. God, she hated him. She hated him so, so much.

In a few short, violent bursts, Ladybug tore up the forever rose, leaving the shredded petals to dance along the breeze, falling into the gutter. It was where they belonged.

Then she went hunting.

 Chat Noir barged into a shop. It looked like some kind of bakery. He didn’t have time to check however. The delightful scents of pastries wafting in the air were wasted on him. Scanning the empty room, he leapt behind the counter, his back pressed against the cool stone as he de-transformed. “Plagg!” he cried, barely giving his kwami a chance to breathe. “It’s Ladybug! She’s-”

“I know, kid, I know, jeez don’t get your underwear in a twist,” Plagg grumbled, rubbing his face. “I’ll admit it’s a tricky situation.”

“Tricky situation?!” Adrien spluttered. “She hates me, she wants to kill me! How are we going to cleanse the akuma like this?!”

“If you don’t calm down, I’m going to hide camembert in your closet and let it rot. Then we’ll both be miserable,” Plagg warned in a tone the told Adrien he better be quiet. He snapped his mouth shut. Plagg shot him a withering look before continuing, rubbing his paw against his head in thought. “It’s difficult, and annoying, when Ladybug’s miraculous gets corrupted. But it happens, and we can break the corruption before destroying the akuma. We just have to figure out a way to snap her out of her hissy fit.”

“I think it’s a bit more than a hissy fit, Plagg,” Adrien replied. “You have hissy fits, Ladybug she- she really hates me right now.”

You mean nothing to me.

I was LYING all those years ago.

I’m not your Little Lady.

Adrien’s hands curled into fists. Everything felt wrong. Ladybug hating him, looking at him with such contempt. It wasn’t right. She was the light to combat everything dark in the world. She was hope and beauty and light and lo-

“Of course she doesn’t hate you,” Plagg sighed, “it’s the curse talking. So don’t take it to heart. Do you see her taking it to heart all the times you took a metaphorical arrow for her and ended up fighting her as a result? No. So suck it up. Your partner needs you.”

They stared at each other for a while and Adrien sighed, slumping lower onto the ground. It was a weird day. He wasn’t used to Plagg being so serious. “Ok,” he frowned. “But how? It’s not like I can kiss and make it better!”

Plagg bobbing in mid-air. His eyes glinted.

Adrien’s jaw dropped. “Oh no. No, no, no. NO.”

“Umm, how about yes?” Plagg cackled. “It totally makes sense! What beats hate? Love! You have to kiss her! Like in all those gross old stories. True love’s kiss.” He was laughing fully now, and Adrien’s face felt as though it was bursting into flames. “You have to kiss Ladybug!”

“But it’s not- we’re not- we don’t love each other like that,” Adrien whined, burying his head into his knees.

“Adrien,” Plagg said, his tone so grave that Adrien actually looked up to see what had caused his sudden shift in tone. Plagg’s stare went straight through him. “No offense, but you’re the dumbest little shit I’ve ever met.”

“Screw you, Plagg!” Adrien cried, crossing his arms in a sulk. “I know I’m right, besides I’m not going to kiss her without her consent.”

“You know I’m pretty sure you didn’t consent to her straddling your waist like that,” Plagg shot back, causing Adrien to blush even harder. Great. Now he had that image in his mind.

This was crazy! He shook his head, like his brain was an etch-a-sketch. He didn’t see Ladybug in that way. She was just a friend. He was older than her anyways. She was on the cusp of starting university and he was already second year, well into his studies. She was about to dive into a brand-new life of fun and freedom and who was he to get in the way of that? She deserved better.

“And that makes it right?” Adrien argued. “No. No way. I won’t do it. I’d never be able to face her again.”

“So fine, don’t, and let her remain the way she is as the whole of Paris burns around you. That’s great hero-ing!” Plagg shrugged then sighed once more. “Look, kid, I’m not saying this is the best situation, and it’s kind of wonky in terms of morality I’ll agree. But it’s the best solution I can think of right now. It’s what my instincts tell me you should do. Just don’t make it weird, and apologise for it afterwards. I’m sure she’ll understand. It’s part of the akuma’s curse. It doesn’t mean anything.”

Adrien dragged a hand down his face. This was rapidly turning into the worst Valentine's day he’d ever had. “Can I not just settle for a friendly handshake?”

Plagg snorted. “You can try, if she doesn’t chop your hand off first.”

A short time later, Chat Noir ran through the now even more chaotic streets of Paris. Leaping over rooftops in search of Ladybug. He tried to make himself easy to spot.

It didn’t take long for Ladybug to find him, which was a relief. Over and over, he thought of how terrible this plan was, how wrong it felt. If he was going to kiss Ladybug, it should have been when they were both fully conscious enough to both agree to it and enjoy it.

Wait, what?

“Finally!” Ladybug groaned. “You know you don’t make anything easy. In fact, you make life so much harder for me. You always have.”

Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it, he thought. “I just want to talk.” Maybe he could still reason with her.

“Yeah I’m sure you do,” she snarled, cocking out her hip and glaring at him again. “But I’m done with that. Done with you.”

She leapt towards him, and Chat dodged her fist. So, no weapons huh? Well it made things slightly easier.

He made no moves to hurt her, he couldn’t bring himself to no matter how hard she kicked him. Every move he me made was one of defence. But Ladybug was relentless, backing him up more and more until his back was flat against a chimney. He was stuck. But still he couldn’t. He wouldn’t-

Ladybug gripped his neck tight, squeezing his throat and lifting him off the ground.

The pressure was unlike anything he’d ever felt. Ladybug lifted him higher, her hold on him tightened, and his head began to swim.

It was strange, how dying brought up things he’d denied for who knows how long.

 “Ladybug, don’t, please,” he choked. “I love-”

“SHUT. UP!” her voice wavered slightly as Chat’s vision blurred. His throat burned. But his heart lifted. He felt a crack in the curses hold. It was almost as if, even under the curse’s control, she couldn’t stand to do this to him.

He knew it. He knew she was still in there.

“Just stop talking ok? I hate you,” her limbs began to shake as Chat wheezed and gasped for air. “I hate you!”

Sensing her sudden weakness, Chat found the strength to bring one arm up, slamming it against the arm which Ladybug was using to choke him. Her hold on him broke and he felt warm, blessed air fill his lungs once again. His fingers dug into the brick wall as he supported himself, as his head cleared again.

But Ladybug wasn’t done. She grabbed his collar, slammed him back into the chimney. “I hate you!”

It was then he noticed the tears pouring down her face, and his heart leapt even as it broke at the sight of her in pain. She was so strong, she was trying to break free, which is more than he’d ever done when he’d been in her situation.

But she needed help. She couldn’t do it all on her own.

He cupped her face, brushing the tears off of her face, and smiled at her. “I know you do,” he whispered.

Then he leaned down, closed the small gap between the two of them, and kissed her.

Ladybug was aware of a few things.

The first was that she had no idea where she was.

The second, she had no idea how she got there.

The third was that Chat was screaming at her.

“I’M SO SORRY! I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY!”

“Huh?”

She looked down. Chat was by her feet, on his knees like a monk admitting he’d committed a grave sin. His arms were wrapped around her legs and his face was lowered, so she could only see a mop of blonde and two black kitty ears. To say he seemed distraught was a gross understatement.

What the hell had happened? The last thing she remembered, she’d been nervously trying to confess to Chat. Then she’d seen Kim in his akumatised form, ready to attack an unsuspecting Chat. She’d pushed him out of the way and then…nothing. She couldn’t remember anything after that.

Oh.

Oh no.

Oh god no.

“What did I do?” she gasped, the realisation that she’d been the one possessed by an akuma for a change slowly dawning on her, shaking her to her core.

“What did you do?!” Chat cried, almost sobbing. “What did I DO?!”

“I don’t know, what did you do?” Ladybug asked, not enjoying the great big chasm where her memories of the past couple of hours should be.

“I’ll tell you what I didn’t do! I didn’t do the honourable thing is what I did!”

“Wait. So, you did do the honourable thing or you didn’t?”

“I didn’t!”

“You didn’t?”

“I’m a DESPICABLE HUMAN BEING!”

“Chat you’re not making any sense-”

“Don’t even look at me I’m DESPICABLE!”

He got to his feet, and was about to turn tail and run away. Although Ladybug’s head was spinning with the sudden onslaught of borderline gibberish coming from her hysterical partner, she still had the sense to grip his wrist and stop him from leaving. Her lips tingled. Huh. Weird. She pressed them together.

Chat’s eyes flicked down to her lips and she blushed, looking away. A whine escaped his throat and his cat ears flattened against his head, but he remained where he was. “Ladybug. I did something bad, and judging from the way I usually feel after I’m possessed, you probably don’t remember it do you?”

Ladybug shook her head, suddenly worried. A million thoughts assaulted her at once, making her panic. What had he done that was so bad that it seemed as if not even her miraculous cure could fix it? “Whatever you did, I’m sure you had the right intentions.”

“I did, I swear!” he nodded, shuffling awkwardly. Why did things feel so…strange all of a sudden? “So, you got possessed and you hated me. Like super hated me, and my kwami told me that the way to reverse it was to- to-”

He mumbled the end of the sentence, so quietly that Ladybug had to lean in closer. “Chat what was that?”

“KISS!” Chat bellowed, hysterical once more. “KISS! I HAD TO KISS YOU! I KISSED YOU WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION! I DON’T DESERVE YOUR FORGIVENESS! I’M SO SORRY!”

Chat continued to ramble on about how sorry he was, but Ladybug heard none of it. Everything around her turned to white noise. Her lips tingled more than ever. She reached up, touching them. Kissed?

Chat had kissed her? She’d hated him? And he’d broken through her hate by…kissing her.

They’d kissed.

He’d kissed her.

“What the ever-loving HELL?!” she yelled. Chat winced at her reaction and she scrambled to explain herself. Oh my god, she was going to die. The guy she loved kissed her and she’d been possessed! Her dreams came true and she missed them?! What kind of shitty fate was that! Wasn’t Ladybug supposed to be lucky?! DAMN IT! “I mean! I’m not mad at you! It- it worked didn’t it? And I- I would’ve done the same.” She coughed, feeling as if she was about five seconds away from spontaneously combusting.

“Wait, you’re not mad?” Chat gawked, hardly daring to believe it.

Ladybug shook her head. “You did what you had to do, Kitty-Cat. I appreciate you doing it, even though it made you uncomfortable and was definitely a grey area. But I’m giving you my consent to it after-the-fact. I’m not mad. I promise.” That was a lie. She was livid. At her rotten luck though, not at Chat.

Still, if kissing her had caused him this much distress, in a way she was glad she missed it? Ugh, this was way too complicated. She wondered where her forever rose had gone…

Chat stared at her, tears in his eyes, as he seemed to deflate in relief. He opened his arms, looking up through his eyelashes and damn it that wasn’t fair. “Is it bad if I ask if I can I have a hug?” he asked, sounding so wounded that she couldn’t help but step into his embrace.

“Silly kitty, you never have to ask for a hug,” she whispered, closing her eyes and letting herself pretend, just once. Her heart was a mess.

But the hug was just what they both needed. They stayed that way for a while, until Chat truly understood that she wasn’t angry with him.

“We should probably go get that akuma, he has a complicated situation to fix too. I know, he’s a friend of mine,” she mumbled.

“Yeah,” Chat replied, pulling her closer, and burying his head into the crook of her neck. Alarm bells went off in Ladybug’s brain. This didn’t mean the same thing to him. It didn’t.

Still. Neither of them moved.

Ladybug pulled back a little, tilting her head up to look at him. He smiled weakly at her, and she returned the gesture. He sighed in relief. “I like that smile better,” he mumbled. “Than the one you gave me when you were under the curse and hated me I mean.”

“Oh,” Ladybug said, then, “I didn’t say anything really horrible, did I? If I did, I’m sorry, you know I didn’t mean it.”

Chat was silent for a little bit, and Ladybug couldn’t help but notice that his smile no longer met his eyes.

“No,” Chat said. “You didn’t say anything.”

Later that evening, when the akuma had been cleansed and Max and Kim had sorted out their emotional issues, Marinette stood on her balcony, the chilly Valentine’s air whipped through her loose hair. The high ponytail had been banished from her fashion choices. It was a bad omen.

She stared out at the city lights until they blurred into one silvery-gold blob. A blob which remained unseen by her, because she wasn’t really focused on it. She stared straight through the lights, lost in thought.

Maybe it was about time she put her feelings for Chat to one side. For good. Everything felt so…complicated. And strange. She should just be happy to have such an amazing person in her life, right? Things were fine the way they were, right? Anyway, judging by how horribly he reacted to kissing her, he hadn’t enjoyed the idea. Did she really want to be with someone who hated the idea of kissing her that much?

She wiped her eyes. Was it too much to hope that one day, Chat Noir would show up and confess his love to her and they could live happily ever after?

As if that could happen. He didn’t even know Marinette. Aside from the time he’d pushed her out of harm's way back when they’d first become superheroes, he’d never even come into contact with that side of her. So the chance of him showing up to romantically sweep her off her feet were slim to none.

No. She should just give up. It was too much, too difficult, too painful to go on any further.

Yet… she couldn’t let it go. She couldn’t forget the way her lips tingled, and brought her fingers up to touch them…

Unaware that somewhere, on the other side of the city, a blonde supermodel was staring out of his own window, thinking and doing the exact same thing.