Continuing Tales

Smoulder

A Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir Story
by MidnightStarlightWrites

Part 28 of 35

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Something was wrong.

Aside from the fact she'd barely heard anything from Adrien that day (she'd managed to reason that he was probably spending time with his father), Chat didn't greet her the way he normally did for their patrols.

There was no cheerful wave, no playful wink, not a flirtatious comment in sight. Instead, Ladybug was greeted with the sight of Chat Noir's back. With a growing sense of unease, she placed her yo-yo back on her hip and padded over to Chat, who was perched on the side of the rooftop, legs dangling down as he seemingly stared out into nothingness. She swallowed thickly. Maybe he hadn't noticed her yet?

They'd made rules, set boundaries, on what they could deny as romantic to any lurking paparazzi. Kissing in any way was off the table, apart from Chat's hand kisses as he'd been doing those for years. Still, Ladybug couldn't help but feel as though rules were made to be broken in special circumstances.

She was probably being silly, but she needed to kiss him, even if it was just a brief peck on the cheek. She needed reassurance that she was just imagining things.

"Hello handsome!" she chirped, the false cheer grating even to her ears. "Ready to go?"

Chat didn't look at her. If anything, he shrunk away from her kiss, the tender brush of her hand on his shoulder.

"Chat?"

Ladybug stepped backwards when Chat stood up abruptly, and he inhaled as though the mere notion of breathing pained him. This wasn't right. Had something happened with his father? He usually became distant if the pair had fought. Even so, this was more extreme than usual.

"Chat if you don't want to patrol tonight, it ok" she reassured, finding strength in reassuring him. Though he was making her nervous, though she hated not knowing what was wrong, she needed to let him know she was there for him. "If there's something on your mind that you have to go deal with-"

"No."

Ladybug's head snapped up, only to find a hollow-eyed gaze and a forced smile on her partner's face. She clenched her fists. The smile made her angry for reasons she didn't quite understand, but she forced the anger to one side for the time being.

Chat sighed again, running a hand through his messy hair and glancing at a spot on the horizon. He looked so conflicted, so sad, that Ladybug's anger vanished before she'd needed to deal with it. All she wanted to do was hug him, even if she was growing increasingly worried the more time she spent in the dark. What on earth was wrong?

"I promise I'll talk to you later ok? I'll tell you- I'll tell you what happened but for now I just want to patrol with you. I want things to be normal, I- can't we please just patrol like we always do?"

His voice was rough, shaking as he tried to sound cheerful- for her- she realised. He was trying to put on a brave face for her.

It was a funny feeling, to have your heart throb painfully even though your mind had no idea why. That was how it was for Ladybug, standing opposite Chat Noir, the night air separating them. It was ridiculous, after all he could be upset for any number of reasons. But her mind wasn't clear, and her instincts were screaming at her. Her throat grew tight.

"Chat you're scaring me," she admitted, wrapping her arms around herself. "I want to be patient, I want to give you time but- but…" she didn't know quite how to express herself without sounding demanding, and so her words petered out pathetically and she stared at her feet.

The instant she'd finished speaking, however, Chat startled her by grabbing her wrist and yanking her towards him, wrapping his arms around her in a desperate embrace that did nothing to ease her fears.

"Oh, god I'm so sorry. I'm being an idiot," he mumbled, burying his lips in her hair. Somehow, Ladybug found herself smiling, wrapping her arms around him too as they clung to each other for dear life. "I don't ever want to scare you."

Ladybug had to fight every impulse in her, the bad ones which made her want to yell and demand him tell her everything right this instant- to soothe her worries. Instead, she kept her mouth closed, settling for burying herself further into his chest. She could hear his heartbeat and, despite the fact that it wasn't enough to calm her own racing heart, she knew it would have to do for now. Whatever had happened between the time she saw him the previous night, thoroughly kissed and bodies newly explored, and tonight was something he needed her reassurance about.

But, she suddenly came to a stark and rather jarring realisation, that perhaps she wasn't worried for herself, worried what his fear might mean for her- but was instead feeling his own sadness reflected in her own heart? It was confusing, dizzying, and altogether totally new. Is this what her father meant when he told her 'their pain is your pain' so many years ago, when the notion of love was a far-off fairy tale to her? Indeed, the emotions were rather alien to her, not born from herself but rather from seeing her lover so out of sorts. He was hurting, and she didn't know why, and she wanted to fix it because damn it he didn't deserve to hurt.

"It's ok," she repeated in a hushed tone, letting her hands run up and down his back in what she hoped was a calming way. "I just want to know that you're alright, that's all. We can patrol and leave whatever's troubling you here for now, if that's what you want."

It almost killed her to say those words, but she would do it. She would wait for him no matter what, she wouldn't push

Gently letting her out of his rough hold, Chat stepped backwards and placed a needy hand onto her cheek. Only then did she notice how watery his eyes, his smile, was. He looked at her like she was the only thing he had left in the world, like she was the moon and the stars were fading into nothingness around her. Ladybug's chest tightened and she had to bite her tongue in order to not burst into irrational demands. She hadto be patient, just like Tikki always said. She had to wait. But she wanted to know- what could have made him look like that?

"I'm leaving Paris."

And now it was her turn to watch the world crumble around her, to watch the stars crash to Earth and decimate everything in their path- except for the horrible words Adrien had said. It was too late to take her wishes back. Chat may have looked at her like she was the moon, but he was the sun and he was going away. He was leaving.

She didn't have time to react further before she was pulled straight back into Chat Noir's embrace. Only this time, she didn't hug him back. Her arms hung uselessly at her sides and she stared unblinking, unmoving, unfeeling.

Chat was shaking, of that she was aware, but it was like she had stepped out of herself. What was once a dream, was now a nightmare she was being forced to witness.

"You know how I got that missed call from my father last night? It was that he wanted to talk to me about- but I went to talk to my dad this morning and decided I wanted to tell him and I did. I told him- I told him about us. I was so happy because…because he was actually supportive. He wants to meet you, he remembered your derby hat and everything," Chat's voice croaked, the bitterness in it stung, reached through the iciness of Ladybug's skin and something inside her began to crack. "I should have known-" his hold on her tightened- "I shouldn't have trusted him. He was probably just saying it to placate me, like he always does, so that I wouldn't be too upset when he told me- told me that we were leaving."

"How long?" Ladybug startled herself by speaking. Her words sounded muted, like she was speaking underwater. "Why?"

Chat's head moved from the top of her own to bury into the crook of her shoulder, his cheek pressed against hers. How was he so warm when she felt so cold?

But there was a dampness on her cheeks now, one which wasn't there before.

"There's something wrong with the new London headquarters. I didn't really listen to what he said, but he doesn't trust someone and it's not going to plan. So, he wants to move out there for a while, and seeing as I'm supposed to be shadowing him this year he says that I need to go too. He said it might be for a few months but at most it'll be for a- a… year. I thought about telling him why I can't go… about who I really am. But I couldn't bring myself too. B-besides he needs to know I take our agreement seriously, that I'll work hard or else I might never get free enough to live the dream we talked about," his voice became shakier, more distressed as he carried on. "I have to do this- I… I have to do it. I don't want to do it but it's for us. It's…it's for us."

It was these words which finally shattered her and her arms crashed around him, holding him as tightly as he was holding her. She remembered the summer before, how Adrien had gone to Italy, how Chat had gone away too (yet another thing she hadn't correlated in her mind at the time). She remembered the lonely patrols and the harder-than-ever akuma battles without him. He'd not been gone for very long, but it had been long enough.

The idea that he'd could now be gone for an entire year…

A wave of panic hit her harder than any villain ever had. Suddenly she was the fifteen year old rejecting her miraculous all over again.

"I can't," she felt a retching sob escape her, screwed up her face to fight the onslaught of tears. "I can't do this without you for that long. I can't, Chat. I can't. Hawk Moth…"

"Hey," Chat pulled away from her, resting both his hands on her shoulders and staring at her with all the love and adoration he could muster. "That's not true. I know you can, and you know you can too. I… I don't want to leave you though," Chat glanced away, his forehead crinkling and his jaw clenched. The hands on her shoulders slacked. "Not now, not when we finally-"

"If you think this changes anything between us you're wrong, we can make it work no matter what," Ladybug declared firmly, holding his chin and gently tilting his face back to meet her determined gaze. "And maybe I can find it in me to do this without you, but I don't want to. If you're really gone for a year we have to be realistic Chat, people are going to notice. Hawk Moth is going to notice. What if he uses that fact to come after me because he knows I don't have a partner to back me up?"

Chat ran his hand through his hair again, his eyes screwing shut as angry tears fell out of his eyes. He kissed her then, rules be damned, and she returned it with fervour. It was the worst kiss they'd shared so far, desperate in all the wrong ways, mingled with their joint tears.

So much for having all the time in the world, Ladybug thought bitterly, so much for taking things slow.

"What are we going to do?" Chat whispered, resting his forehead on hers.

Ladybug was thinking the same thing. The fact that neither had a solution, yet both wanted desperately to reassure the other, was absurd in every way- so dumb- so them.

She had at least one answer though.

"Master Fu."

Chat Noir blinked down at her as Ladybug wiped her eyes on the back of her gloved hands. The panic had gone now, and the dim spectre of the future loomed in its stead. She sighed, resigned and hating it, irrationally despising Gabriel Agreste and his stupid company in London.

"We should go speak to Master Fu about this, as soon as we can," she elaborated, already feeling a bit of relief, a bit of the burden removed for now. "He'll know what to do I'm sure of it."

Chat nodded slowly, reaching up to caress her face, fingertips tracing the lines of her cheekbones. Ladybug closed her eyes and leaned into the touch. He said nothing else, his loving touches spoke volumes of his faith in her.

Patrol was cancelled that night.


"Hmm, this is a difficult situation indeed."

Master Fu sat across from them, nursing a tea in his hands as was customary when Marinette met with him in his home. Behind them, the phonograph hiding the miraculous box sparkled in the sunlight which lazily pooled into the room.

Fu hadn't been at all shocked to see them appear together, but rather a calm smile had graced his aging features as he'd ushered them inside. Sometimes Marinette wondered how Fu seemed to know everything, but she supposed it was probably a guardian thing. Even Wayzz, who was currently ignoring the fact that he was utterly adorable when sipping his own thimble-sized tea, seemed more mystical than the other Kwami.

"But it's something that can be overcome, right?" Marinette's voice shook and she glanced at Tikki worriedly. Adrien, who was kneeling on her other side, squeezed her hand in his own. She fought the urge to rest her head on his shoulder.

The Guardian of the Miraculous set his tea down on the small table which separated them, settling instead for running his fingers over his moustache. His eyes twinkled and, Marinette didn't know why but the twinkle gave her hope.

"We can find a solution, of course," Fu reassured and Marinette almost melted into the ground in relief. Now that she'd had a few days to come to terms with Adrien's sudden move (their exams had prevented them seeing Fu straight away), she knew the things which worried her. Their relationship becoming long distance was something she hated, but something which they could work around. After all there were many couples that made long distance work, and it wasn't like Adrien was the only one of their peers going to a different country (Nathanael himself, was even moving to the same city Adrien was). She had faith their relationship could sustain itself, after all what was a year compared to a lifetime?

The lack of a partner, however, had her up late with a tired Tikki trying to soothe her fears.

"I'm glad you two came to me with this issue, especially that you did so together," Fu interrupted her inner musings with a proud smile and Marinette flushed happily.

"There must have been times where this happened before, Sir, surely?" Adrien politely prodded, sitting perfectly still whilst Marinette fidgeted and tried her best to get comfortable, but she couldn't deny the pins and needles prickling her feet.

"Oh yes, of course. There have been many Miraculous wielders who have had to quietly withdraw from battle for a span of time, for a number of reasons. Some took time off if they suffered a loss, if they had to move or if their families were growing suspicious. Other miraculous holders were separated through wars and famines," Fu's hand stilled on his chin and his lips curled into a grin that might have been described as cheeky on a younger man. His eyes flickered down to Marinette and Adrien's joined hands. "And of course, some had to take time off due to pregnancy."

The speed at which Marinette and Adrien dropped hands should have been studied by scientists. Both staunchly refused to look at the other, but the heat pooling from both their faces was enough to make the already warm room several degrees hotter.

"Ah p-pregnancy," Marinette stammered, having no clue why she repeated it, or why her tongue felt ten times too big in her mouth.

"Yeah," Adrien coughed, "seems like a totally valid reason- totally… totally valid."

Plagg snorted.

"Relax you guys geez," he cackled. "If all humans were like you two, they would have gone extinct by now."

"In any case," Master Fu halted Adrien's outraged retort with a quick wave of his hand, and Adrien settled for scowling at his Kwami instead, "the situation with you two is quite unique. Now I may be past what some may describe as 'youthful' but I do know that the world is a lot more communicative now than it has ever been."

"You mean social media?" Tikki asked with a head tilt. "I didn't really think of that. Whenever one of my bugs have had to step away from being Ladybug, they didn't have the world watching them as rigorously."

"Indeed," Fu nodded, "it is quite a tricky situation. Back in olden times, a miraculous holder might have been able to take time off and have most of the world, and our enemies, be none the wiser. But the world doesn't miss a beat nowadays, so it would be hard to conceal a period of long term absence- and should Hawk Moth hear of it…"

"That's what we're afraid of, Sir," Adrien sighed, running his hand through his hair, "I know My Lady is strong-" he glanced lovingly at Marinette and Marinette couldn't help but return the gesture "-and that she can handle herself without me, but if Hawk Moth knows I'm going to be gone for a long time-"

"-He might push me harder, attack my weaknesses, because he knows that Ladybug and Chat are a team and one of us can't reach our full potential without the other," Marinette finished, reaching her hand up to her earrings for reassurance. "He could try anything to get his hands on my miraculous."

Fu stood up, sharing a silent conversation with Wayzz. He padded over to the phonograph and stared at it, his arms linked behind his back.

Adrien and Marinette looked at each other with matching worried frowns.

"What do you think we should do?" Marinette asked Fu, her voice quiet, and she played with a threadbare on the hemline her dress.

Fu still had his back to them, but was now trailing a wrinkled hand down the horn of the phonograph, humming to himself.

"I have a few ideas," he replied.


It was late in the afternoon by the time they left Fu's place. Neither of them had exams the next day, they only had their history presentation, which they'd fully prepared for. So they both decided to take a stroll to a nearby park.

Neither said anything, too wrapped up in their thoughts as they held hands and strolled down the sunlit path. Marinette admired the way the trees created a dappled light effect, how the leaves gently hissed in the breeze.

Adrien glanced at her, loving the way the light made her hair shine and her eyes sparkle. Summer suited her, and it was a fact that made his heart ache in both good and bad ways.

He was going to miss her so much.

Without saying a word, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Marinette looked up at him and he turned his face away shyly.

When he felt her hip deliberately bump into him, his eyes flicked back to her with a start, meeting her challenging smile.

He grinned back, bopping her side and trying not to laugh as she stumbled a little. She scowled, the tip of her tongue poking out, and bumped into him with more force than she had before. He countered, she retorted, and on and on it went until they were both laughing too hard to concentrate- uncaring that they were attracting stares from fellow park-goers.

Marinette marched a few steps ahead of him, spinning on her heel so that she came face-to-face with him. Like a young child dealing with their first crush, she grabbed him, giggled, kissed his cheek, then took off running between two trees, sprinting out into the open field.

Adrien laughed, giving chase, his heart lifting higher than it had done in days, all because of her. He delighted in her surprised squeal when he finally caught up to her, wrapping his arms around her waist and letting them both tumble to the ground. Though, of course, he made sure to hit the grass first.

As Marinette chuckled breathlessly, snuggling into his side and hugging his arm, he realised how incredibly lucky he was to have her. When he'd first heard of his father's plans, he thought his world had ended. He'd panicked, thinking Marinette might even change her mind about dating him (to which Plagg had actually hit him around the head), his mind racing over all the worst-case scenarios.

He should have known really, that Marinette would be upset but resilient- determined to the core to make it work. Adrien smiled, kissing the top of her head. What a beautiful woman, he mused, inside and out.

The months without her would suck, but they would end, and they still had time together before he left. They still had many moments left to share, many dates, celebrating leaving school, the wine and cheese festival Adrien had promised to take Plagg to, and countless plates of cookies. Better still, was that Adrien knew, now more than ever, that whatever trials they came across they could work through together.

"So," Marinette broke their comfortable silence by rolling onto her stomach and playing with the wild daises surrounding them. She began to pluck them, forming a small chain. "A new miraculous holder."

Adrien placed his hands behind his head, staring up at the cloudless sky and trying to ignore the twisting in his gut.

"Yeah," he replied with a non-committal sigh. The breeze ruffled his hair and he closed his eyes. When was the last time he'd done something like this?

After a few minutes of quiet, Adrien felt something tickling his head, and he opened his eyes to see Marinette placing the newly made daisy crown around his head, kissing his nose as she did so.

"You're not worried, are you?" she teased.

"No!" he replied, sitting up too quickly, and Marinette raised her eyebrow at him. He looked at his lap, ashamed.

And he was ashamed, to be feeling worried about being replaced. He couldn't call what he was feeling jealously, he trusted Marinette with his life and his heart infinitely. Still, the idea of Ladybug running around the rooftops and hunting down Akuma victims with someone else, with a new partner, upset him in ways that had him inwardly growling at himself.

"Because if you are worried," Marinette's voice was smooth, gentle with a knowing lilt to it which made him shiver in the best of ways, "it would be fine to feel that way. I'd be worried, if it were me. I wouldn't want somebody taking my spot by your side."

Adrien didn't trust himself to speak, choosing instead to nod glumly, the daisy crown on his head went lopsided.

"But, you know nobody can replace you." Marinette continued, reaching up to adjust the flower crown, her hands lingering in his hair as she shuffled closer to him. She came to rest in front of him, kneeling and he leaned forwards, his ears becoming increasingly red from her loving touches. Only then did he realise she was wearing a matching daisy crown to his, her hair falling loosely to her shoulders and her nose a delightful shade of pink to match her dress, her freckles darkening from the sun and her skin glowing from the sun screen she'd recently topped up.

It took everything in him not to stare, to actually listen to what she said next. But good god he could've stared at her all day.

She reached down to hold his face, similar to the way he often did with her, and he was mesmerised, spellbound by a simple gesture.

"How could you ever think I'd want anyone else to be my partner, that I'd consider anyone else to be mine?" she whispered, her eyes deeper, and bluer than he'd ever seen them. His heart leapt into his throat. "This new miraculous holder may be a colleague, for the time being, but YOU'RE my partner. You'll always be my partner. We could be surrounded by a whole universe of Miraculous users and I'd want you to be my partner every time. If all the Chat Noir's that had been, and will be, were lined up and I could choose any one of them, you'd still be my Chat Noir. So, don't you forget it mister."

Once she said her piece, she made to move away, but Adrien was having none of it. Grabbing her wrists, he gently tugged her towards him, until she was on settled comfortably on his lap-

And then he kissed her. He kissed her deeply, lovingly. Letting all his feelings for her out in one, simple gesture. It wasn't enough, he mused as his lips moved against her and he heard her sigh in content. He could spend a lifetime holding her, kissing her, touching her, and it would never, ever be enough to convey just how much he cared, how intense and eternal his feelings were.

But he would still try.

"I love you."

Marinette's eyes widened, her lips parted into a faint little 'o' of surprise and god help him, Adrien had to kiss her again.

"I love you, Marinette," he repeated, his voice low and breathless, his kissed her over and over again, "I love you my Princess-" kiss, "my love-" another kiss, "my Lady" and still another.

"Adrien," Marinette pulled away from his embrace, her chin wobbling and for a second, Adrien was struck with fear. Oh, god, had that been too much? He'd let his emotions get the better of him, but she'd been so kind, so passionate with her declaration that he'd completely lost himself.

He needn't had worried. As soon as he even thought to begin apologising, Marinette launched herself at him and the fell back onto the grass. She wrapped her arms around him tightly, peppering him with butterfly kisses all over his face.

"I love you too," she replied, beaming so brightly that Adrien was flabbergasted that she hadn't yet outshone the sun.

It took a few moments for her words to sink in.

"What?"

She laughed, playfully tapping his nose.

"I said I love you too, silly cat," she repeated, kissing where she'd tapped.

Adrien smirked.

"Sorry I didn't quite hear you, what was that Bugaboo?"

Marinette rolled her eyes, facepalming on his chest.

"I love you and you're hopeless," came the muffled response from somewhere inside the folds of his t-shirt. Adrien hummed in content, wrapping his arms around her.

How bleak his future had seemed not too long ago, and now he had this. It must be her. Whether it was through her outlook, or just the natural Ladybug luck which followed her, every negative situation they faced they seemed to pull through in the end- stronger and better than before.

"Again, Mari, I'm sorry, I guess my ears are blocked. You're going to have to repeat that for the rest of our lives," he replied, running his hands up and down her back.

"You're so earritating," she grumbled and Adrien couldn't help but laugh uproariously at that. Her puns were like gold dust to him.

"Yeah but I'm also earresistible and you love me anyway," he countered, still unable to believe the words they were exchanging were actually true. It seemed to good, to amazing, too perfect.

Marinette huffed, resting her chin on his chest and sticking her tongue out of him.

"You're lucky I do," she said, wrinkling her nose, though there was no trace of malice there.

Adrien playfully squeezed her around the middle, until the nose-wrinkle vanished and a smile formed on her lips instead. He didn't need to say anything in response.

They spend the rest of the afternoon there, laughing and exchanging vows of love. The turmoil they'd experienced days before had all but been forgotten as they mused on which poor, unsuspecting Parisian would be next in line for a miraculous.


"Ah, my love, if your mother keeps spoiling me with her dinners, I'm going to get fat," Louis complained as he pushed the door open to his student apartment. He titled his head, balancing his phone on one shoulder as he used his free hand to close the door and put his keys in the messy bowl his housemates shared.

"That's only because she loves you, and your mum is no different!" Nathanael whined from his phones receiver, and Louis couldn't help but chuckle at that. "She really wants you to come over tonight because she made extra by accident and doesn't want it to go to waste."

"Fine, fine. The things I do to keep your heart," Louis sighed. "You must promise that you'll love me even when my backside swells to the size of Switzerland."

Nathanael's laughter shot through his soul as Louis dodged around the messy piled of books and odd assortment of potted plants, until he reached the living room arm chair.

"I promise," Nathanael giggled.

"Good, because this is definitely a thing which will happen of that I can assure you," Louis stated firmly as he flopped backwards onto the arm chair, promptly leaping up again when his lower back hit something small and hard.

"Lou? Is everything ok honey?" Nathanael's voice was distant, and only then did Louis realise that he'd moved the phone far away from his ear. He quickly placed it back to his mouth as he inspected the cause of his sure-to-form bruise.

"Yes, everything is fine," Louis replied picking up the unassuming wooden box, "I think Tina's been leaving things around the house again, looks like an old jewellery box. She's out though, so I can't ask her."

Just to be sure it was his roommate's, he opened it…

…Only to get the fright of his life when a bright light lit the room.

"Louis?!" Nathanael cried. "Lou?"

As the light began to fade, Louis' mouth fell wide and he stumbled backwards, slipping on the living room rug and hitting the floor hard.

There was something floating above the jewellery box now. Something orange and fluffy and staring right at him.

"Lou?" Nathanael repeated and seemed like he was about to say something else- but Louis beat him to it.

"My- my love- I'm going to have to call you back."

Smoulder

A Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir Story
by MidnightStarlightWrites

Part 28 of 35

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