After All This Time | Miraculous Ladybug

Two | The Guardian

Alya grabbed a water bottle from the fridge and joined Marinette on the sofa. "So you gave him a keychain you bought for him in tenth grade. What's wrong with that?"

"It had a butterfly on it, Alya," Marinette whined. "A fricken butterfly."

"Big deal," Alya shrugged. "Not like you get him one that said, 'My dad's in prison,' on it."

Marinette groaned. "You're not helping,"

"Okay, okay," the brunette shook her head. "Sorry. Keep going,"

"I apologized and he said it was okay," Marinette sucked in a breath, sighing as she let it out. "But when I tried explaining more to him, he cut me off and he hit his hand on the table."

When Alya didn't respond right away, Marinette continued. "Maybe I overreacted by leaving cause of that yesterday... But I was already so nervous,"

"I know, girl," Alya pondered, scooting closer to Marinette. She handed the raven-haired girl the water bottle and began rubbing her hand up and down her back. "I'm sorry. If I knew something like that was gonna happen I would've never left you alone at the table with him."

"No, no. It's okay," Marinette meekly smiled. "I'm trying not to take it personally. Besides, it helped me get over my crush on him,"

"Pfft, if you say so."

Marinette was glad Alya bought it, because she began to doubt the phrase the second it left her mouth.

Alya laughed and checked the time on her phone. "Listen, I gotta go pick up my sisters from school but text me if you need anything, okay Marinette?"

Marinette hummed and followed Alya to the door. "See you,"

Sitting back on to the sofa in her apartment, Marinette sighed as loneliness settled in.

Last night, Marinette had a dream about Chat Noir for the first time in a while. Fortunately, it hadn't been a nightmare like the other times he'd entered her mind as she slept. Despite this, she woke up abruptly, unable to hold back tears.

"Marinette?"

"Yea, Tikki?"

"You might want to listen to the voice mail you left him in the middle of the night," the kwami grimaced apologetically.

"What do you- oh,"

Marinette called on her transformation, and reluctantly opened up her yo-yo. Sure enough, there had been a message left on her behalf at exactly two in the morning.

"Chat, why did you leave me?" She heard herself sob. "Why did you have to go? I can't do this without you,"

Marinette cringed. It wasn't the first desperate voice-message she had left her partner— if she could even call him that anymore. Surely, her sob reckoned message had truthfully been accurate in regards to how she felt, but she couldn't just leave it at that whether he'd actually listen to it or not. In attempts to redeem herself, Marinette clicked on the paw print icon on her yo-yo. She knew it wasn't going to, but she held her breath anyway, anticipating for it to ring before his familiar pre-recorded voice came through the line.