Little White Nightmare

1

"It has always, always, been about trust between us," Cat Noir said to Ladybug as they stood atop of a building that looked over all of Paris and their civilians. A constant meeting spot for the two heroes to watch other their city and friends and keep watch for Akumas. Shadow moth had been quiet the last few days yet their nightly watches never ceased. 

Alya had been a great help keeping watch as well in other parts of the city but she was given the night off considering how limited Akumas had been showing up as of late.

It was just the two original heroes who sat together and talked in hushed voices in case civilians happened to be up and about on this quiet weekend. 

"And it always will be, Chat. I don't know why you're worrying so much," Ladybug said in reply as she looked at her friend's face and saw the void in his eyes.

"Worrying? You said yourself that we can never reveal our identities to anyone or each other, yet you allowed Carapace and Rena Rouge to know theirs?" Ladybug went still. "I get you are the guardian and get to call all of the shots, but that's a bit hypocritical, don't you think?" 

Cat noir was angry, it had shown all over his face as he stood from the ledge of the building where his feet once dangled. "What?"

"Don't play dumb, Milady." Cat noir gracefully stepped away and Ladybug followed. Her heart raced in her chest, confused as to how he would even know that let alone even find out without her making a mistake and she made sure she had made none with her intricate planning with Alya late into the night-

Alya

Oh no

Who did she tell?

"It really isn't fair. Don't you trust me? Don't you trust me, Marinette?"  Marinette felt her heart drop to her stomach and shatter as she heard her name fall from his lips in a whisper. She covered her mouth as her eyes widen in absolute horror.

"You- You aren't supposed to know, Cat, you know this!" Ladybug exclaimed. "We could jeopardize our positions and Shadowmoth could use that against us!"

"But it doesn't matter if Alya and Nino know theirs? If Shadowmoth found out? Now that's just cruel." Ladybug found her lips trembling as she failed to find the right words to say, the right ones to keep Cat Noir's emotions in check.

She couldn't let him get Akumatized. Never.

"It's different for us, Kitty. Our miraculouses are the most powerful in existence and we were trusted to use them and protect them. It was my mistake to let Alya and Nino know but in that situation I had no choice." Ladybug took a few more steps forward towards her kitty. She reached out to him in ways she didn't know how, just as an attempted to get him to understand why she did these things. She tried so hard to be perfect in every way possible, but it seemed she failed with the very friendship that stood in front of her.

And her heart broke because of it.

"You just don't trust me," Cat said, facing Ladybug with all of himself before her. She couldn't understand it. She couldn't figure out why of all the times he could understand her this was a moment where he couldn't and it broke him just as much as it shattered her. To see her best friend and the only person she could be herself around now be lowering himself and her off of that pedestal he so proudly put themselves on. So confident that nothing could ever stop or come between them. No matter how much he had loved her, no matter how many times she rejected that love for their own safety, he always, always, held her above everything else.

"Of course I trust you. Don't you understand that? Don't you know that? I wouldn't be standing right here if I didn't trust you."

"Then why am I always the last to know anything? About Rena Rouge- no excuse me, Alya. She gets to know your identity but I didn't? I've been apart of the business since day one like you have yet a rookie hero with only weeks of experience is the candidate?" He was getting angrier. It was only a matter of moments until his emotions and mentality might endanger him and all of Paris.

And the world.

"You know who I am now, so you should know that Alya has been someone that I've been able to trust since day one. It's not fair to pin her as the villain. Go ahead and hate me, then. It's hard being the perfect villain you picture me to be." And at that, the tears spilled.

"I've never seen you as the villain nor will I ever. But I can't keep doing this anymore," Cat Noir gripped his chest. "Every times I feel like my heart breaks more and more with everything that you don't tell me, with everything you can't trust me with. I can't do it anymore, Milady," Marinette grimaced, cried. Ladybug stood tall, and reached out to her friend.

"Cat, Please,"

"You deserve a Kitty that you can trust through and through. Not one that you have to wheel around and hide things from," He held both hands in front of him, stared at them before he reached for the delicate ring on his finger. Time stopped then for Ladybug. The horror continued for Marinette. She tried to reach out, shout, do anything to stop him from sliding that ring off his finger, anything to stop him from detransforming and showing the whole world his identity.

Tears slid down his face as the ring slowly slid up the base of his finger to the fingertip.

Just then did that Akuma appear and merge itself with the miraculous that never got to be taken off. 

In both ways she would've lost.

And there he was.

The very thing that haunts her nightmares every night with the same dream that plays on repeat until poor Marinette awakes drenched in sweat with nothing but horror and fear filling her soul.

Just a dream she whispers to herself. It isn't real she thinks as she looks at her sleeping Kwami dreaming of sweets and cookies. 

Her heart breaks, cracks, just a little bit more as she rolls herself over after kicking off the bedsheets.