Half A Miraculous

Half a Miraculous

Characters: Felix Agreste and Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Pairings: Adrien X Marinette (post reveal), Bridgette X Felix (post reveal)

“Wait a minute…just…where are you going?” 

The words came out desperate and needy. Marinette couldn’t help the fragility in her voice as she watched Felix’s retreating back, the way a vice squeezed at her heart until she felt her whole body might seize up in fear.

She almost breathed a sigh of relief when he stopped. Almost.

But then he turned around to face her and the darkened expression across his features gave her no hope, no comfort, and definitely no reassurance. His eyes were spotlights on her and she was overcome with stage fright. Her jaw clenched shut as she waited for his response.

“Away.”

Marinette took a split second to marvel at how one word could cause such a wave of panic in her. One word. One single, solitary word had slipped from his bloodied lips and that was all it took for the breath to leave her lungs.

“No,” she choked “Felix you can’t. You’re ok now, we’re ok. We can still do this together, save Adrien and Bridgette together!”

He looked angry then, his face scrunched up and his brows furrowed. But he wasn’t directing his anger at her. No. She knew he never would, despite their short time together, and Marinette didn’t know what was worse; the fact that it was her fault he felt this way, or the fact that he blamed himself for becoming an akuma before.

“I almost killed you Marinette, I almost killed us both!” He spat, the venom in his voice, his disgust, ripped a hole through Marinette’s gut “I let my fear for Bridgette consume me until I became the one thing I swore I’d never be. I almost killed you, you, a civilian, Chat Noir’s girlfriend. And what’s worse is I should have never let you tag along with me to start with! I know you love Chat, I know you can handle yourself in a fight, but I put you in danger,” He moved towards her and Marinette suddenly gained the urge to shy away, to wither and wilt under his glance, beat him to the punch his next words would bring. When had she become so weak?

She knew the answer to that really- the moment her true partner had been ripped from her side. The moment they’d gotten themselves tangled up in this alternate-universe mess. The moment Felix’s Hawkmoth had decided if he couldn’t have the Miraculous’ in his world, he’d look to other universes instead.

Felix placed a hand on her shoulder, gripping it tightly, too tightly. The look in his eyes was desperate. 

“Felix,” She trembled, feeling her head shake from side to side “I have to tell you-”

“No Marinette. You have to go home is what you have to do. Wait for me there. I promise I’ll find this world’s Ladybug. I’ll make things right. The next time you see me will be with your Chat Noir. I’m so used to making a mess of things, but I give you my word, and I hope you might forgive me enough to trust in it.”

Before she could respond he placed an arm around her shoulder and yanked her towards his chest. The finality in the gesture crushed her. In the short time she’d known Felix, even as Chat Noir, he was far more aloof than Adrien ever was. They’d hardly shared a handshake. Yet now, as his arms circled around her, Marinette realised the meaning behind the hug. It felt like the coils of an icy snake wrapped around her, ready to squeeze every last drop of life from her frostbitten body.

She whimpered.

“Take care of yourself, and get as far away from me as you can.” 

Before she knew it, he was leaving again, the gap between them widening. She clenched her fists. His footsteps echoed across the abandoned home, unsettling the dust and disturbing the dappled light. Although she found it hard to breathe, something about being left alone again, losing another partner, another friend, made her snap. She stepped forward.

“I’m Ladybug!”

Felix jutted to a halt so quickly it was as if he’d been slammed against an invisible wall. Closing her eyes at the sound of the silence, Marientte willed herself to calm down. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.

“What?”

She opened her eyes to find Felix stood before her, his own green ones large and disbelieving. 

“I’m Ladybug,” She repeated, stronger this time “I’m sorry it’s taken me all this time to tell you. I was scared, and stupid, and more scared. You told me you weren’t to be trusted, that it was your fault this happened in the first place. I didn’t know what else to do. E-everything else I told you was true. I give you my word.”

Felix’s arms dropped to his sides limply, he stumbled backwards, gripping the door frame he was halfway out of to steady himself. She knew what he was thinking.

“I told you Felix, we’re ok. You didn’t hurt me. We survived, and I knew we would or I wouldn’t have let you strike us with that Cataclysm. But don’t you see? I can’t do what you said. I can’t go home, I can’t stay and wait. Not just because I’m Ladybug, not just because I need to be there to rescue my partner too…”

She lifted her hair away from her ears, revealing one lobe adorned with a dark blue earring. The other lay bare.

“…But because your Hawkmoth has half of my Miraculous.”

( @feed-the-chat, @miraculousdays angst as promised!)