Does he remember?

Chapter One

Marinette stared at the ceiling as she lay in bed, wide awake at the hour of 2 in the morning. She heard Alya and Nino laughing at a movie they were watching from down the hallway.

Marinette couldn't sleep. Too much runs through her mind as soon as her head hits the pillow. She often wondered what happened to Hawkmoth when he suddenly disappeared and hasn't been around for nearly 5 years. She also wondered how if things were different, if she had changed little things in her teenage years, how they would effect where she is at right now.

Marinette shares an apartment with Alya in Paris. Alya is a full-time blogger and has been pretty successful, even though Ladybug and Chat Noir haven't been around in 5 years. She blogs about other things, like her daily life or just random things going on in the city of Paris.

Marinette, on the other hand, hasn't been as successful as she had always wanted to be. Now, she works with her parents in the bakery. For a while, Marinette was still living in her bedroom above the bakery with her parents. She felt that she had to at least move out into her own place so she felt some kind of change and movement in her life.

For the longest time, Marinette had desired to be a fashion designer. It had been her dream forever. Although, being 18 and heartbroken can twist the mind and lead you in the wrong direction. Marinette knew that better than anyone. Her being heartbroken at 18 made her believe that nothing else had mattered, causing her to lose her aspirations and motivations in life, including the grasp of her own dream.

Marinette threw the covers off of her and jumped out of bed to silent her running thoughts. She had to do something productive that would keep her mind from constantly telling her that she's a failure.

Marinette found a box under her bed that was filled with random things she had forgotten about. She found old photos of her and Alya from their teenage years, her old pink purse she always carried around when she was younger, old sketches and designs, friendship bracelets she had made with her friend group, and-

Marinette paused in her place, staring at the object she held before her eyes. 

It was a ring. A proposal ring. The one that Chat Noir had given to her when he proposed, and she had said yes.

Then why weren't they together? Why weren't they married?

Marinette always often wondered that herself. She couldn't quite understand anything that happened between them. Maybe it was because she was young and didn't know any better. Maybe it was because he left before she could even say goodbye.

She remembers it all. She can replay everything in her mind, but she always chose not to.

Chat Noir had proposed to her, and she had screamed and hugged him so tight on top of the Eiffel Tower one evening, where the moon was full and the stars hung high, glistening in the air. 

Marinette remembers the first fall of snow, right after Chat Noir had left her. She remembered walking in the streets of Paris in the early morning after many sleepless and long nights alone. The first snow of the year had her look up into the sky, allowing her to forget her worries for just a minute. A moment of peace.

She didn't take her ring off of her finger for almost an entire year after their ending, she couldn't bring herself to believe that it was over.

But the proposal was where it all began to feel different, something in their relationship seemed to drift. He became more distant; not visiting her as much, never calling her, stopped calling her princess, and never told her he loved her anymore.

It felt one-sided and Marinette never knew how she could go about fixing it. She thought maybe something was going on in his personal life that he couldn't quite share, or maybe he had fallen out of love for her somehow and the thought of being proposed to her suddenly freaked him out.

He left. No warning, no goodbye. Almost like he just disappeared altogether. Marinette hasn't seen him since their fall.

Their fall was when Marinette couldn't be patient anymore with him being so distant without any explanation. She had waited for him to come to her about his problems but instead, he just didn't speak at all.

She tried to understand him, tried to understand why he didn't seem to even want her anymore. He left in a rush. Marinette was upset after the fight, but she was determined that she could fix it and everything would be normal again. She never knew that it was the last time she would see him.

He hadn't called her for days upon days after the fight, hadn't tried visiting her or anything. Her, on the other hand, left thousands of text messages, voicemails, and even emails, asking where he was and why he was leaving her hanging like this.

Not one message, not one voicemail, and not one email did he respond to. Months went by, and Marinette was sure it was because he was kidnapped and didn't have access to his phone or something. She continuously made excuses for his absence, and continued to wear the ring he gave her. During his absence, though, was also around the time that Hawkmoth disappeared as well. She lost so many things around the same time; Ladybug, her partnership, her fame, and the love of her life.

After about a year, Marinette accepted defeat. She would transform into Ladybug almost every night and go searching for him under the possibility of him being kidnapped. At the end of the year, she was left hopeless, heartbroken, and lonely. 

After that, she decided to take a gap year and not go to college quite yet, even though she had scholarships. She decided to work for her parents during the gap year to get ahold on her life and figure out her direction.

But the more that time went by, the less motivated she was. It was to a point where she completely stopped doing anything related to fashion design. Marinette had lost herself completely, becoming a numb, emotionless person that no longer knew her direction.

It was blurry to her sight, and she ended up choosing more and more wrong paths.

She continued to work for her parents, even after the gap year was up. Marinette was also a party animal and often got drunk at parties at houses she didn't even know. Finally, Alya got her own place. In hopes of helping her best friend at least a little, Alya invited her to stay with her.

Marinette accepted. She didn't want to be 23 and still living with her parents.

Although, Paris and life itself just didn't feel the same to Marinette anymore. Sure, Hawkmoth was a pain in the ass and It was a lot of awful work, but she really missed flying around on her yo-yo with Chat Noir by her side and defeating evil itself. Paris would buzz with joy after every akuma attack. It would be all over the news, all over Alya's blog, and millions of people thanking Ladybug and Chat Noir, the best partners in the world.

All of that had swept away the day that Chat Noir disappeared. She saw Paris for what it really was. It felt dull and dark to her now that she only had memories to look back on. Paris was now just a normal city again, and it didn't feel as exciting as it used to be.

Her world with him that was once light and colorful now looked black and white.

But as Marinette stared at the ring, she couldn't help but let her mind go back to the very beginning of her and Chat Noir. She let the memories take her in, the warmth of them keeping her from breaking apart once again...