mistkitt | (It Wasn't) Meant to Be

Originally Posted: 03/11/16
Enemies AU Part 1

~*~

The first time Marinette meets Adrien, she misunderstands him. He’s a rich kid, a model, friends with Chloe Bourgeois, signing autographs for his new classmates like any other big-headed celebrity. But there’s something sullen about him, too. She sees it in the way he withdraws during class lectures and free periods, never once making friends. Others are attracted to him, but they never get close. He is a rainy day under the guise of a sunburst, and Marinette can’t help but feel sorry for him, though she isn’t sure why.

The first time Ladybug meets Chat Noir, she’s just cleaned up an akuma victim’s mess. She casts her yo-yo, ready to find a safe place to release her transformation, when her feet are swept out from under her. She falls on her back. A silver staff swings towards her and she knocks it aside.

“Not bad,” says a teasing voice. She leaps to her feet and seeks out the source, eyes landing on a masked blonde boy in a black leather suit. He flips the staff,–now the size of a baton–into the air and catches it. “But how much longer can you keep it up knowing your transformation is about to wear off?”

She barely manages to lose him before the magic fades.

According to Tikki, Chat Noir has always been Ladybug’s partner.

“Maybe someone ought to tell him that,” Marinette says bitterly.

The logic is simple enough. Ladybug can purify an akuma, but Chat Noir is not akumatized. Their powers are evenly matched. With Ladybug’s Miraculous, Hawk Moth will obtain power enough to bring Adrien’s mother home. And doesn’t he miss his mother? Doesn’t he want her back more than anything?

Adrien stands in his father’s shadow as Gabriel Agreste releases another akuma into the city. Of course he wants his mother home. But why do innocent people need to get involved? Why his classmates? They seem nice enough, if only he had the courage to talk to them…

“The faster we capture Ladybug,” Gabriel says, “the less people we hurt.” He stands in front of Adrien and smiles. “Make me proud.”

Chat Noir is drawn to Ladybug. Even as he slips from shadow to shadow, waiting for an opportunity to strike, he can’t help but admire her. She’s confident where he is not. She stays behind to reassure his father’s victims. She is so genuinely good and kind and merciful that he finds himself wanting to be comforted, too.

But when she looks at him, her eyes go cold. Then Chat remembers his objective, and his emotions are lost to the howling void inside of him.

The turning point happens suddenly.

She’s tired. She’s injured. She’s locked in a freezer with him and there’s no way out.

He thinks of his mother. How close he is to seeing her again. How she’d smile at him and stroke his hair and call his name softly like she used to. The longing is so powerful that it consumes his broken heart.

And then he just… stops.

He looks at Ladybug, sees the anger and fear in her blue eyes. A cataclysm swirls in his right hand. He pulls his arm back, lunges at the girl in front of him, and strikes the wall behind her. A hole opens large enough for her to escape.

Ladybug stares at him in disbelief. His ring beeps. “Take care of the akuma victim,” he says.

She stands on shaking feet and backs towards the hole. Then she grits her teeth, grabs his wrist, and drags him out with her. He’s too shocked to do anything more but be pulled along. Her hand is warm, and he realizes how long it’s been since someone has touched him. When she gets to the roof, she casts him away from her and he lands on his feet, several yards of concrete between them.

She eyes him warily, bathed in moonlight. His green eyes glow in the darkness. His ring beeps again and Ladybug turns, hesitates. “You’d better find somewhere to detransform,” she says before swinging off in pursuit of the akuma.

Gabriel is furious. He lashes out at Adrien with his cane, striking his son across the face. “You almost had her,” he bellows. “What were you thinking?”

Adrien was thinking that maybe he was meant to be with Ladybug. He was thinking the idea that they were two halves of the same whole felt right somehow. He was thinking that perhaps he was on the wrong side.

“I’m sorry, father,” he says, cradling his bruised cheek. “It won’t happen again.”