I Still Want You - A Miraculous Story

New Beginnings: Prologue pt. 2

A wave of guilt passed through Adrien as he thought back to what had happened just minutes before.
When Marinette had told Adrien that she loved him, he had been so shocked that he was momentarily rendered speechless, and the only thing he could think to say was "I'm sorry." What a lame response. He didn't even get to explain himself before Marinette ran away crying, making him feel like a huge jerk. He never intended to hurt her feelings; she was one of the first friends he had made when his father finally allowed him to go to school and thus was very important to him, but his heart already belonged to someone else. He loved Ladybug, and even though she didn't love him back (yet), he wasn't ready to give up on her.

Thinking about it now, he wondered how he hadn't seen the signs beforehand. It would explain why she always acted so weird and suddenly got super shy around him. He'd assumed it was because he made her uncomfortable, but he was relieved to find out that this wasn't the case. Though whenever he begun to suspect that she liked him, she would always deny it, so she didn't exactly make it easy for him to figure it out.

"Why the long face, Adrien?" Adrien's kwami Plagg asked.
Adrien sighed, his shoulders drooping. "I feel like such an idiot. I had no idea she felt that way about me. And I think I may have broken her heart." A sudden breeze passed by at that moment, and Adrien shivered, hugging himself to keep warmth in his body."But I had no choice, Plagg. You know I'm in love with-"
"Ladybug, yeah yeah I'm aware," Plagg said. "I'm telling you, you wouldn't have this problem with cheese!" He made a show of this by devouring a slice of Camembert.
Adrien rolled his eyes. "Do you ever think of anything other than cheese?" he grumbled.

Just then he heard a faint thud, followed by a scream.
"Marinette, no!" A voice yelled.

At the mention of Marinette's name, Adrien's eyes grew round with apprehension, and his stomach knotted and turned. He wanted to believe he was just hearing things, or that he was just assuming the worst, but he couldn't push the words out of his head.

Following the voice, Adrien drew closer to where he heard the sound come from to get a closer look, stopping near a bush a few feet away to not draw attention to himself. Now that he could see what was going on, his heart fell to his feet as his fears were confirmed.

As he watched it became more and more obvious that Marinette was akumatized, and was now currently threatening to make everyone's day unlucky, starting with Adrien Agreste. Luka was also there, most likely trying to talk her out of it, but she just swatted him away as if he was mosquito buzzing around in her ear.

"Wow, Adrien, looks like you've already made a new enemy!" Plagg joked, and Adrien felt every muscle in his body tense.

Way to go Adrien, he scolded himself. You're officially the biggest douche on the planet.

"Plagg," Adrien said, his tone suddenly serious. "Marinette's in trouble, and I feel like it's my fault.  I didn't know she'd react this way; I must have hurt her really badly..." Adrien's voice trailed off, as he was forced to remember how she ran off crying earlier that day, and the feeling of guilt deepened, swallowing the blond whole. He shook his head, bringing himself back to the present. There was no time to feel regretful now. He had to fix this, or he would never forgive himself.

"We need to help her! Plagg, claws out!"

In just seconds, a green flash appeared and Adrien became his messy haired, black clad alter ego.

"She's been akumatized, stay back!" Chat Noir yelled as he ran towards the scene, placing himself between "Miss Fortune" and Luka. He glanced back at Luka, who seemed to be frozen in place.  "Let the heroes take care of this," he said with a wink. 
Luka nodded, and started walking away, although slowly. He was still worried for Marinette and wished he could do something, but he knew it was best to let Chat Noir and Ladybug do their job and not get in the way.