Miraculous Short Stories

Visions in the Night

Miraculous Fanworks Discord Anniversary Prompt - Hurt by Ladybug's distrust and empty promises, like his father's, Chat becomes disillusioned. Things take a dramatic turn one night when Sandboy returns and brings with him Ladybug's nightmares of Chat Blanc.

Adrien spun his fork around and around with his finger on the table while resting his cheek against his fist. He had been waiting a good twenty minutes now for his father to come and join him. Nathalie had said he would be coming for dinner tonight, he had promised. It had been at least three weeks, maybe more, since Gabriel had shared a meal with his son and Adrien had been hopeful, but he cursed himself for it. He should have known better.

It was just another disappointment in a long line of disappointments, both as Adrien and Chat Noir. It started about a month ago when he couldn't get away from a photoshoot to transform. By the time he had arrived at the fight, Ladybug had already gotten Vesperia and Polymouse to come and help and the battle was all but over. She looked annoyed and told him she had waited longer than she should have for him to come before she had to get some help.

"I do have a life outside of being a superhero you know." He reminded her, not caring that the other heroes were listening. "There was no way I could leave without compromising my identity, and since you don't want to know it, I'm not about to expose it to anyone else."

"I'm sorry Kitty." She apologised, her eyes searching the ground. "I shouldn't have been so harsh. I'll try to find a way to keep you in the loop, I promise."

Chat had let out a long sigh. "It's okay." He said, his ears pinned down to his head. He really wanted to believe her.

Then last week Ladybug's Lucky Charm told her that they needed Viperion and Purple Tigress for the fight. She started mumbling to herself about how long it would take to find both of them because she knew Viperion was on the other side of town. Chat offered to go and get Viperion instead, forgetting that it was Adrien who knew about Luka being Viperion and not Chat.

"No, I can't tell you who he is. I'll have to go myself." She bit at him.

Chat had frowned at her. "But I know about Max being Pegasus and that Kagami is Ryuko. What's wrong with me knowing about Viperion?"

"That was different." She tugged on her pigtails in frustration. "I can't do this right now, alright. You know how important identities are, just let me do my job."

"You don't trust me, that's it isn't it?" He snapped back, folding his arms. "What was that the other day about keeping me in the loop when you don't even trust me with the identities of our allies? You're just like everyone else in my life, nothing but empty promises."

He took off to keep the akuma occupied while Ladybug left to get the others. The rest of the fight had been frosty to say the least, and Adrien knew it was obvious he had been taking his frustrations out on the akuma. Once it was over he did the obligatory "pound it" for the sake of Viperion and Tigress, and then left, not looking back and leaving the others to deal with the victim.

Since then he had kept all talk relevant to the akuma and nothing else. He knew that there had been a few times Ladybug had tried to approach him, but he didn't think he could take any more empty promises from her. She had someone she could talk to, since she felt it was okay for her to share her identity with a friend, but he had no one. Even on patrol he kept conversation to the weather or other mundane topics, just enough to keep up appearances for the public, but the change in demure hadn't gone unnoticed and there was speculation in the media that the relationship had fractured.

As Adrien continued to play with his fork, what was really eating him up was Marinette, or more specifically the way he had treated her that day. After having to dodge questions about his relationship with Ladybug, a tedious photoshoot with Lila and his father chewing him out over the quality of said shoot, Adrien had started the morning in a bad mood. He had been paired with Marinette for a chemistry experiment which normally he would have enjoyed, but today everything was getting on his nerves. In hindsight Adrien realised Marinette had been tired and distracted, but when she dropped the beaker, spilling their work on the floor, Adrien had snapped at her. It wasn't like him at all as he would normally be quite patient with Marinette and her clumsiness.