Running from the Night (A Ladybug and Chat Noir Fanfic)

Chapter 8

"Ladybug," Chat said with a small smile and a polite nod. The red and black superhero had just landed softly beside him. The sky was dark, the moon covered by dark clouds threatening to rain over the peaceful city.

"Chat Noir," she replied with the same stiffness. Chat had been painfully aware of the thick tension that had settled between them since she had left, her return had lessened his heartbreak but the damage to their relationship wasn't fully repaired. Truth could be a relief but it was also a burden, one that had weighed on Chat since Ladybug told him about Chat Blanc.

In the small moments of peace he couldn't help but wonder how Ladybug saw him. Did she harbour resentment for his deeds in a timeline he could have never known existed. Her mask hid her identity and the emotions that churned underneath. Was he a monster to her?

"It's been quiet," Chat observed leaning on his baton.

"It has," she replied evenly. She shifted her weight looking into the distance. Chat turned his head towards her for the first time since she had appeared. Even if they were distant, he knew when her mind was busy with troubled thoughts.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked unsure if she would even answer.

"That sentimonster, not that she should even be called that," she said with a hardness to her voice.

"Oh," was all he could think to say, he hadn't thought about the amuk Ladybug in a while. It still made his heart hurt when he remembered her being snapped out of existence. Something about the pain that had played out on her face in the moment before she was gone was so human it was heartbreaking.

"What if Hawkmoth made a sentimonster of himself to trick us," the crack in her voice drew Chat's attention back to her. Her eyebrows were furrowed as she looked to the horizon, "what if anyone we thought we could rule out because we saw them during an akumatization was a sentimonster to trick us."

Chat opened his mouth to rebut the thought process but nothing came out.

"What if Mayura made a sentimonster of hawkmoths civilian form and then he akumatized it to throw us off his tracks, we would have no idea that we had ruled him out."

A long silence settled between them, Ladybug was hugging her arms to herself while Chat felt the meaning of her words sink in. His mind raced with every akumatization and the fact that even subconsciously he trusted the victims of akuma's more than anyone else because they couldn't have been Hawkmoth. That idea was falling apart the more he thought about her words.

"We can't trust anyone," she broke the silence with a firm conclusion.

"B-but Ladybug, we have to, I mean you've handed out the Miraculous' before when we needed help."

"Well I can't anymore, what if I trust the wrong person and give a Miraculous to Hawkmoth, that could be a disaster."

"What are we going to do if we can't beat an akuma by ourselves?"

"We don't have the luxury of failing!" Ladybug yelled, forcefully standing up and looking at Chat for the first time since she had arrived. Chat's eyes stretched wide from the outburst. He noticed the redness in her eyes and even under the effects of the Ladybug miraculous she looked pale.

"Are you okay?" He asked in a soft voice, something about his question shocked her and he barely had the time to see tears well up in her eyes before she turned and fled. He watched her swing away with her yo-yo, he was dimly aware that he should be following her to make sure she was okay. Instead he let himself sit on the roof and stare after her with a distant look in his eyes.

He didn't get to chase after her anymore, not since she told him he could be the destruction of the world and everything had gotten so complicated between them.