Until Next Time, My Lady

A Powerful Storm

She watched as the lightning cracked the night sky outside her kitchen window. Her body automatically tensing up as she prepared herself for the loud crash of thunder to come. She'd been up watching the rain for the last couple of hours. The overanalyzing of her thoughts were waking her up every 30 or 40 minutes; so she'd decided that it would be a better idea to stay awake than to force sleep.

Adrien's snores echoed from the bedroom above. Somehow she'd managed to talk him into using her upstairs office for his homework after dinner last night. When he came down to sleep on the couch; she'd already been there passed out. His strong arms jolted her awake as he attempted to pick her up. Instead of going upstairs herself, she insisted that he sleep in her freshly-made bed. He didn't argue with her, which was shocking.

The faint sound of babbling water ceased, catching her attention as the coffee pot finished its task. She pulled a teacup out of the cupboard, placing an oolong tea bag into it. The water from her coffee pot wasn't as hot as she'd like it to be for her tea, but she didn't want to wake Adrien with her teakettle's whistle. Marinette poured the hot water over the tea leaves, then turned her attention back to her laptop.

The furniture site she'd been stalking for the last hour was starting to make her brain hurt. On the bright side, she'd found two different bookshelves that she'd fallen in love with. Her upcoming Christmas bonus from Gabriel would cover almost the full amount of either of them. She couldn't decide between the large open bookcase or the huge library one with a ladder; so much for her finding some new furniture for Adrien. She had no idea what she was looking for since he still hadn't told her what he needed.

Although, he could use new small accessories for the tiny balcony area. She clicked on the patio furniture tab but realized that everything she found for him would be useless by the end of next month. Every day would be wet, cold or both for the time following. Maybe she should look for something for the bedroom instead.

She scanned through some bedside tables; saving the ones she liked into the cart for later. This process for her was becoming slightly frustrating. Marinette wanted Adrien to pick out his own furnishings, but knowing him, she would need to give him a push. Procrastination seemed to be one of his favorite pastimes, except for when it came to his schoolwork.

Taking a sip of her tea, she closed her laptop, reaching over to snag her sketchpad and pencils from the other side of the counter. The Chat Noir-themed jacket stared back at her as she opened up to it. Her fingers gently traced the lines of its detailed outline. The tiny little paw print stitches made her lips twitch into a small smile. How could something as simple as a jacket make her happy, but also so sad?

Maybe she could put these feelings into her work. Turning the page in her pad, she started to draw a long-sleeved navy blue shirt with white wisps covering the entire spread. Her mixed emotions about Adrien and Chat Noir left her pencils as she drew red twists entwined around the white. Everything she'd been dealing with the last few days had been bundled up way too long. The colors were expressing her emotions; blue for the sadness she felt, red for the love she had in her heart for the both of them and white for finally understanding of what it meant to do so.

Marinette turned back to the page to look at what she thought would be her salvation. Her eyes studied the leather jacket for a long time. Tears started to prick into the sides of her eyes. As she felt them come, she blinked them away.

This wasn't the time to feel sorry for herself for losing him. She'd wanted this, not him. Everything that happened in the past seven years was her fault. She should've told him to stay, should've told him that she loved him and should've dropped her transformation the second after he kissed her. Their identity protection wasn't needed anymore. Hawkmoth was gone. Why couldn't she have just dropped her disguise?