Faceless

Chapter 1 - One too many

Betas: Khanofallorcs, Agrestebug, Lady Elaine, Myimaginationflows, Lots_of_free_time, Malauu-Ladynoir, Etoile-Lead-Sama, and Rosehealer02

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc, TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Written for the Miraculous Big Bang event.

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"It's okay to be sad. You don't owe anyone a performance of being okay when you feel like you're falling apart."

Daniell Koepke

"Let someone love you the way you are - as flawed as you might be, as unattractive as you sometimes feel, and as unaccomplished as you think you are. To believe that you must hide all the parts of you that are broken, out of fear that someone else is incapable of loving what is less than perfect, is to believe that sunlight is incapable of entering a broken window and illuminating a dark room."

Mark Hack

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The akuma wasn't a difficult one. They had just broken for lunch after Mlle Bustier's lesson, when a worker at the local cinema had been akumatised because someone left a popcorn disaster under one of the seats. Ladybug and Chat Noir found themselves fighting against a giant popcorn machine that turned people into popcorn, and a sentimonster-hovervac that sucked them up. But the giant popcorn didn't move very smoothly, so it wasn't very difficult for the heroes to defeat. When they landed atop Montparnasse Tower to debrief before heading back to school, they still had a couple of minutes left on their timer.

That's when Chat Noir bowed in front of Ladybug and skillfully presented her with a single red rose. "Voilà. A beautiful rose for a beautiful Lady."

"Oh, Chaton," said Ladybug as a sad smile curled her lips. She picked the rose in her hand, and looked at it with a sad frown. She tried to hand it back to him, but he wouldn't take it. "You know I can't accept it."

Chat Noir's ears drooped and his smile faded into a pout. His throat clenched over as a sour taste filled his mouth. She had told him that so many times and, from the way that she had treated him recently, there was no way her heart had changed.

He had sighed and cried into his pillow at night as he thought of how useless he had been in the last few fights, how his presence hadn't even been needed, how he was always the last hero to arrive on the battlefield. Like it had happened when they had faced Optigami and he had arrived after the akuma had been destroyed. He had discussed it with Plagg to no end. His little black friend had advised him against it, but he had to give it a shot.

She cupped a hand to his cheek. "We can't, Chat Noir. Papillombre would use it against us." She clenched her fists holding the rose in her hands more firmly. "I do love you; you know that, right? You're my partner and my best friend with the mask. But I can't love you the way you want me to. I told you so many times that you should stop flirting with me, Minou. If you keep doing what you've always done, you will always get what you've always got. Why do you continue to hurt yourself? We can't be together, you should know that by now. Instead, you keep presenting me with roses that I cannot accept!"

He mulled on it for a very long time, his gaze locked into hers. "You're still in love with the other boy?" he eventually asked, after having slouched his shoulders and sighed.

She moved towards the bannister and gazed down at the city underneath them, full of movement and life. "It's not that," she admitted. But when Chat Noir's ears perked up again, she paled and her eyes opened wide. She continued quickly, "I still can't accept, Chaton. I don't feel like being in any relationship at the moment."