Amnesia [MARICHAT]

17

There he was. Sitting next to her hospital bed, head in his hands. 

Her parents were sitting in chairs, near the door. Every day this week she had woken up to the three of them, looking more and more depressed. And every day this week, they had asked her if she remembered them, and she could only say that she knew Chat Noir. 

Marinette didn't know why she only recalled him and her identity as Ladybug. She had no idea why she had woken up without memories so many times. And she wasn't sure why today was different. 

But the moment she moved to sit up, all three heads whipped to where she lay. There was no hope on any of their faces. 

"Mama? Papa?"

Her parents' eyes widened, and tears began filling them. "Marinette...?" Her mom slowly stood.

Tears began filling her own eyes at the hope and sadness in theirs. "I'm so sorry, Mama. I remember."

Tom and Sabine Dupain-Cheng rushed to her bedside, Chat Noir moving out of the way, and squeezed their daughter so tight she was sure she was going to break. "I'm so sorry," she said again. The family cried together, and Marinette had never felt so guilty in her life, even if the strange loss of memory wasn't her fault. 

These people had gone for months with a child who didn't know them. She couldn't imagine what that must have felt like. 

It took twenty minutes to explain to the doctor what had happened, and what, exactly, it was that she remembered. Truth was, she could recall almost everything except for missing patches of memory the night before. This confused the doctor and the entire hospital staff. They had never seen anything like her before, and made sure she included every detail. 

When her parents finally paused their weeping, she turned to Chat Noir, to say something - anything - but he was gone. 

Her parents brought her home by evening, when the sun was beginning to dip behind the horizon. She even managed to persuade them to give her sweets - which they usually prohibited at night. She smiled at her mom and dad who had missed her so much and ran upstairs to her bedroom.

It felt strange to be back here, with her memory returned. Knowing how her and Chat...

She quickly shoved him out of her mind. Yes, she loved him, but she never wanted to see him again.

After - after everything. After she had told him to leave - after that akuma that had almost defeated him and his panic at the lack of his partner -

No, she couldn't handle anything like that again. It was too dangerous. He could be harmed - or his miraculous stolen by Hawkmoth. 

And it hurt. It felt like a stab in the heart and suddenly she wasn't as hungry as she was a moment ago. She realized...that she couldn't ignore that part of her that yearned for him. Not when what she just went through - how she could forget all the good parts in a moment. She wanted to remember him - the Chat Noir that made her laugh, the one that held her when she cried, just him. All of him.

No, she wouldn't ignore it or try to push those feelings away. Marinette embraced them, because they meant everything to her, because they made her smile and cry and look at the world in different ways. They made her feel everything at once - so strongly. 

They were what made her, her. So she would love him, because forgetting him... Forgetting him was so much worse than staying away.

She never wanted that to happen again. 

"Marinette, are you okay?" asked Tikki, whom was hovering over her shoulder. Marinette wiped her eyes and nodded.

"I'm fine, Tikki. Just sad."