Noir Spots

Little Ladybug On A Roof

Consider me posting this a goddamn Christmas miracle

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Ladybug wasn't seen swinging home that night.

She hadn't been spotted whooping and cheering as she swung from building to building. She wasn't seen flying or running across the rooftops with a grin on her lips and her partner at her side.

Instead, the red spotted hero released her transformation and collapsed to her knees. The impact shattered her resolve and a choked sob wrenched itself from her raw throat. Marinette tilted her head to the sky, tears blurring the stars together in an obscene rendition of its original beauty.

Marinette shook violently, the sky above glaring down at her. The scream that had been trapped in her throat since the fight--it had only been a few hours but it felt like a century--crawled up her throat, itching and begging to be released into the cool October air.

So she complied.

Marinette squeezed her fists tight, slamming them against the gravelly roof. She screamed and screamed until her throat begged her to stop.

Her throat was raw and her fists were scratched  and bloody. The buzzing adrenaline in her body wanted to roar and cry out until the sun came up and washed away the pain. It wanted her to curse the clouds and spit at the moon, to tear her skin and rip out her hair.

Her body was trembling--whether from anger or exhausting, she didn't know.

Marinette wanted to sleep and sleep and sleep until her body was finally rested for the first time since she first donned the mask. She hadn't eaten all day and wanted to devour her parents' bakery. She wanted to drink a fountain of water and curl up in the middle of the street and fall into the ocean and shave her head.

She wanted to see Noir.

She wanted to see the one person who had never criticized her, the person that made her feel safe when trapped in a cage of thorns and with enemies on all sides.

How did she fall for a stranger so pathetically and hopelessly?

The thought did nothing to dissolve the tension in her shoulders and helplessness in her heart.

Marinette looked up once again at the moon, the shining, glowing, beautiful and tragic moon.

She was tired. And angry. Sad. Empty.

Tikki, who had been screaming right alongside her, fluttered to the ground breathing heavily. Marinette wanted to collapse to the ground and sleep for an eternity--but she didn't feel like she could yet, she wasn't done yet.

There was so much to do; defeat Hawkmoth, keep Paris safe, protect her partner. And on top of that she had homework, school, babysitting, and bakery work.

She was only one person, she couldn't do it all.

But it was expected of her, as Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Ladybug, hero of Paris. Is was her responsibility, her duty, to protect the innocent citizens of Paris, make sure that the croissants are with their owner before three, finish her homework and take care of Tikki and smile for every agonizing second of it.

It was too much for anyway, but it was still expected of a teenager who already held the weight of the world on her shoulders and the weight of a god in her purse.

Marinette stood up on weak legs, her muscles protested and her lungs cried, but she stood.

The hero glared at the moon, clenching her fists and spreading her legs in a fighting stance--even if there was no evident danger.

"What do you want from me?" Marinette screamed. "What could I possibly do to save the world?"

"I'm just a teenager! I don't know how to do most of my homework, much less defeat some creep in a poorly designed jumpsuit!"

The roof seemed to swim under Marinette's feet, but she didn't notice. "I'm only seventeen!" Marinette screamed.

She paused, glancing out over the city--her city. Hers to protect.

"I'm only seventeen," Marinette whispered, voice hoarse and cracking like the mirror she must have broken in her past life to have this much bad luck.

It was ironic, really. The holder of the Ladybug Miraculous, the most powerful good luck charm, having bad luck thrown at her from every direction.

"Mar--" At the sound of Tikki's voice, Marinette spun around to look at her Kwami.

And in the process, she fell off the roof.

The reality of what was happening to her hadn't hit yet. She blinked wide-eyed at the moon laughing and mocking her, at the stars whispering insults.

Marinette didn't even remember that she should be screaming as the air whipped at her clothes and hair.

She could faintly hear Tikki trying to follow her as she plummeted. The ground was a mouth in the ground ready to swallow her up.

For a moment, Marinette thought that maybe she should let herself hit the ground.

For a moment, she considered letting the broken street below be her last memory before the fog of death filled her head.

Marinette felt her eyes slip closed, knowing even if she wanted to live, Tikki wouldn't get close enough for her to transform and yo-yo to safety.

This was how it ends.

Thinking back, Marinette should've known she would die in such a way. She had always assumed it would be as Ladybug, fighting Akumas. But realizing now that she was going to die alone, in the cold, in the dark.

Seems about right.

Marinette wasn't sure if she even wanted to die, she had certainly thought about, had certainly imagined different endings for Ladybug, and even for Marinette Dupain-Cheng--but in the present, staring down at the cracked sidewalk with Tikki panicking above her, she realized that she didn't want to die.

Not today, not like this.

Not until she killed Hawkmoth, not until she told Noir how she felt, not before she talked to Chloé again and thanked her for the night she helped her feel alive for the first time since Stoneheart roared.

Not before she finished what she was made Ladybug to do.

Kwami, she didn't want to die.

Go faster, Tikki! Please! I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to--

Warm, leathery hands grabbed her from the air.

Marinette inhaled deeply, smiling at the feeling of being protected for once rather than the one protecting.

Her partner had come to save her.

She kept her eyes closed as they landed, comfortable in the arms of her partner.

Something felt off about Noir--but seeing how the day went, it was understandable. But Marinette couldn't shake the feeling that perhaps she wasn't as safe as she thought she was.

"I know I'm amazing, but are you trying to catch my attention?"

Marinette went rigid. She opened her eyes to stare into poisonous green.

This wasn't her partner.

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Happy holidays homies

Boom alliteration

--Lemon