A Miraculous Reveal - Rings True

Post Season Five - Angst w/ a very happy ending

Summary: Ladybug hits send on her text to Chat Noir, telling him who Monarch is. She tells Adrien a very different story. Adrien doesn't know what to make of it, but he thinks he deserves the truth. Thanks to @coffeebanana, @wackus-bonkus-maximus, and @nemaliwrites for the beta read. This hits just a bit harder because of your input.

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A Miraculous Reveal - Rings True

I figured out who Monarch is. He’s Gabriel Agreste. Meet me at the Agreste Mansion . 

Chat Noir stares at the text and then glances up once again at the imposing statue erected in his father’s honor. Because his father apparently sacrificed himself to help Ladybug defeat Monarch. 

He shivers in the winter morning air. 

Both of those realities can’t be true. 

No Regrets

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There were akumas, and then there were akumas that haunted Marinette’s dreams for years after the fact. And it wasn’t the ones where she almost lost her miraculous that gave her nightmares. It was the ones that stole her partner from her that had her bolting awake, gasping for air.

The times when he became a mindless soldier, or faded from existence in her arms.

Those instances were unfortunately becoming more common because something had shifted in the last year of Shadowmoth’s attacks. The man was clearly becoming more desperate – his akumas more violent and brutal.

The memory of the first time her partner took a fatal hit and didn’t fade from existence had fueled her nightmares for months. She had held his lifeless form in her arms. His chest was still, his cheeks were cold, and his green eyes - still open - were lifeless and dull.

She hadn’t been able to move from his side, hadn’t been able to think or fight. Only her team had saved her and Paris that day. She had been inconsolable afterwards. It had taken hours for a revived Chat Noir to calm her down.

It took almost as long for Chat Noir to soothe her from her nightmares each time she relived the event in her dreams.

That day had been terrible - the worst day of her life up to that point.

Today was somehow worse.

A Miraculous Reveal: An Unintended Confession

When Marinette left her house this morning, she had no intention of confessing her love to Adrien. None at all. She had given that up months ago. 

Not her feelings! Never those! Adrien’s mere presence could still twist her into a blushing bag of mixed up words when he caught her off guard. 

But she had given up on the idea of confessing because she couldn’t act on any feelings she had. Her whole fiasco with Luka had more than proved she couldn’t actually date anyone - at least, not while she had to keep half her life a secret.

But Adrien had looked so sad, and completely dejected when she found him. His words alone would have broken her heart. She had to do something.

And confessing definitely had not been her first idea, but like, her brain and her mouth weren’t connected. Not when within a two meter radius of Adrien Agreste. 

She had found him slumped on a park bench next to what had obviously been a photo shoot that was in the process of being torn down.

“Adrien, are you okay?” she asked, taking a seat beside him. 

He started, jumped a good ten centimeters off the bench before his wide green eyes landed on her. His whole form relaxed when he recognized her. 

“Hi Marinette,” he said, flashing her a smile as bright as the sun. 

And she realized in that moment that he was really good at faking smiles. Which made sense with him being a model and all. She just hadn’t ever thought about it in those terms before. 

How many bad days had she missed? 

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