Talk to Me, Princess | Marichat - Miraculous Ladybug

Chapter Thirty Eight - The Way I Am Without You Now

I completely lied, I'm not ready to take everything head on yet. After getting home from the hospital, it's just been catching up on school work and getting lots of rest. If I didn't have that to focus on, I would really be losing my marbles right now.

I try to shove all the thoughts out of my head, to no avail. Laying in bed as I stare up at my ceiling, I bet it's going to be another sleepless night.

Everything has been eerily calm all week since Gabriel Agreste has been arrested. He's being held on a 1.5 million dollar bond until his court hearing next month.

Despite paying for the best lawyers Paris can offer, it looks like they're going to try to charge him for a slew of things. As it stands, Gabriel might be doing a minimum of 8 years in prison.

Nathalie has been promised a lesser sentence since she fully complied with the police and offered a ton of assistance in capturing Gabriel. We really won't know how things will turn out until her court hearing in a few weeks.

Adrien's bodyguard has been released, having found no evidence that ties him into Gabriel's crimes. Lila, on the other hand, has a court trial scheduled next month as well, and is likely to be tried as an adult. Adrien's lawyers said she probably won't be doing any prison time though, since she could be considered another victim of Gabriel's manipulation. At least, in my opinion, that's how I feel she'll try to spin it.

They did say Lila will likely be on house arrest for a while, and then probation for years to come. So at the very least, she will be served some justice for the crimes she committed.

Since everything happened earlier this week, I've let everyone keep their Miraculous' for now. Adrien has continued to stay here in our spare bedroom while things settle, but neither of us returned back to school.

All of our friends keep swinging by to visit, but the only people we haven't turned away are the ones that fought alongside us throughout these last few weeks. Thankfully, Alya and Nino have been coming by to give us our school work.

Today is Saturday, and come Monday we'll be expected to return back to school. The part that scares me the most is that everyone knows our business.

Adrien is the son of Paris' notorious villain, and will surely receive some comments here and there when people see him. Thankfully, his identity as Chat Noir has been kept a secret.

I wish I could say the same for myself.

Just like Adrien predicted, the news hasn't been reporting on my identity since I'm not 18 years old yet. However, it began to spread on social media. I'm not sure who leaked it, whether it be any of the investigators or officers that worked our case, or someone who overheard.

It could have been Lila, considering she is walking free still. Albeit, she isn't supposed to be out and about. Her access to social media isn't restricted at this time, so I wouldn't put it past her to spread my identity.

Alya asked me if I wanted her to try to do some damage control, but there's no point. Especially when it comes to Gabriel's trial, I'm sure we'll have to show the video we recorded that time we collected evidence. It'll get out eventually that I'm Ladybug.

I refuse to go online ever since everything happened, too scared to see the opinions of all the people who hated Ladybug. Now they all know who I am, and their hate can become even more targeted.

My parents keep saying that through all hours of the day, the bakery is filled with people begging to meet me. Either they want to ask questions or spew hate, but regardless I refuse to go down and speak to anyone.

If I could, I would never leave my room again.

Looking over at the clock, it's just past 1am. All I can think about is how heart broken Adrien has been all week, and how either of us are supposed to handle going back to school in just 2 short days.