Miraculous Short Stories

I Can't Tell You Why

Almost a year to the day after Chat Noir deserted Ladybug to join Hawk Moth, the two meet again on a Parisian rooftop, a rose in Chat's hand. Written for the Miraculous Fanworks Discord

Ladybug swung out from her balcony and began to make her way to start her afternoon patrol. She would be alone tonight with most of her more trusted team members away enjoying their summer break. As much as she loved patrolling with Rena, Viperion or Ryuko it wasn't the same. She was alone, even with one of them with her, because they weren't him. It had been a year since that final night in the rain. One year since her Chat Noir had told her he could no longer stand by her side. One year since he had betrayed her to join Hawk Moth.

She didn't understand what had happened. For two years they had been an unstoppable team. One day he was making puns and sending her flirty winks, the next he was standing beside the akuma, telling her, no, begging her to surrender her Miraculous. When she saw him that night, they exchanged angry words before he fled into the darkness, her shattered heart left in his wake.

Since that night he had been at every akuma fight, and yet she could tell his heart wasn't truly in it. More than once he had still jumped in, as he had always done, and threw himself between her and danger. She could have taken his Miraculous then. It would have been so easy, yet she never did, and each time the Miraculous Ladybug's would bring him back she could see it in his eyes when he looked at her, the same unspoken questions there between them.

"Why did you save me?"

"Why didn't you take it?"

Neither of them ever verbalised those thoughts. When the fight was over Chat would give her a low bow and disappear into the horizon, and she let him go knowing he would be back again the next time.

He had changed from the carefree boy she had once known. His eyes no longer sparkled with mischief, his lips never curled up into a cheeky smile, and not a single pun or joke would pass his lips. It made her heart ache. Subconsciously she would look for him when she was on patrol. She never saw him and yet she sensed him there. Somewhere in the darkness she felt his eyes watching her from the shadows. It was comforting in an odd way, knowing he was there, even though they never acknowledged each other's presence. At times she would stop her rounds and lean her back against a chimney and imagine that maybe he was on the other side. If she held her breath and closed her eyes, she believed she could hear him breathing, his head resting on the bricks on the other side of her, his hand only inches from her own, but she dared not reach out to find it.

She shouldn't feel this way about him. He had betrayed her, and joined their sworn enemy. He had promised her he would always protect her, and yet he left her to fight alone. Yes she had ally's she could call on, but it wasn't the same, because they weren't him, they weren't her Chat Noir.

Stopping to catch her breath, Ladybug hadn't realised how long she had been running through the city for. The sun had already begun to set in the sky and Ladybug wiped away a stray tear that had come to her eyes. She missed him. She missed that stupid cat more than she ever thought she could, more than she would have ever admitted to. She missed his lame jokes and his joyful smile, she missed late night talks and running chasing each other in the moonlight and it wasn't just because she missed her best friend. He meant so much more to her than that. She should have told him that then. Maybe if she had, he never would have left.

Looking out over the landscape below her, Ladybug's breath caught in her throat. Sitting there on their secret hidden rooftop, the one they used when they wanted to escape from the crowds and glare of the media, was Chat Noir.

Creeping across the rooftops, Ladybug silently slipped down behind a chimney and watched him as he sat on the edge of the rooftop. Her heart betrayed her in her chest, beating faster as Chat gazed up at the full moon rising, his face illuminated by the soft glow and his blond locks dancing in the breeze. Ladybug had seen him many times since his betrayal, but not like this. His face was serene, but his eyes were sad. No longer was he the Chat of the old days, when they would share cookies and their dreams after a long patrol. It felt so long ago... it felt like yesterday... but the young man sitting on the edge of the roof wasn't the boy she knew then. He seemed to have grown so much older over the last year.