Where Does the Red String Go? -Miraculous Ladybug AU Soulmates

Chapter 9- Gone

Marinette's POV

The rain pours down my face as I look at the casket. A boy once lived there.

The priest begins his speech about him as I continue to look at the casket. How could I have missed the signs? His scratches, his aloofness. How did anyone miss the signs?

Me and Nino used to play together when we were small. We always talked about our soulmate strings.

"Mari! Hi!" Nino calls as he meets me at the park. "Guess what? I think I might have found my soulmate!" He beams excitedly. I grin. "Who is it?" "I met her at the store today, she's going to the same high school as us next year!" his eyes perk up as he points to a girl with ombre hair. "Look! That's her. Our red strings match!" He is giddy with excitement.

I push him over to her. "Go tell her!" I say. He gets up to walk over to her, but before he can the girl bumps into Kim, the school bully. The school bully lets her fall and walks away, but the girl is transfixed on him. Nino reaches her and begins to talk, but I run to him and pull him away. He stares at his soulmate string, broken and floating in the breeze.

"W-What happened? She was my soulmate just minutes ago!" He says, tears filling his eyes. I bite my lip. "I'm sorry Nino, it looks like she got a knot in her string." Tears fill my eyes too. Nino had been dreaming of his soulmate since he was 7. "W-What does that mean?" he asks.

"She's not your soulmate anymore."

If Alya didn't get a knot in her string, would Nino still be here? Was his loneliness the reason why he was gone? Did it pain him to see her love another man when he knew she was his the whole time? Of course, it did. Deep down, I knew this was the reason why he was gone.

The priest concludes his speech and the rain pours harder, blending in with my tears. The people begin to disperse and Luka grabs my arm, squeezing it tighter as he drags me away.

I hoped Nino was in a better place.

Alya's POV

I was too late. Always too late. Too late to save him, too late to save my parents, too late to save my future.

We all knew there was something up with Nino lately. Those scratches were not as he had claimed. We all saw them. Yet we did nothing. I did nothing.

I felt him die before I saw it. Why a knife? After every death there was to choose, why a knife? Did he feel that he deserved such a brutal end?

If I didn't see the blood, he would have been missing, not dead. The trail of crimson that led to his demise. His broken body and his beautiful face ashen and gray. I felt something deep within me break, splinter into a thousand pieces, and wash away by the wind. A connection, a string, a bond, severed. He had entered a realm in which I could not reach. A realm in which he was alone.

Why did I have this bond with him? Why did it break more than anything else in the world? More than my parents, more than my future. He was just a classmate. But why did I feel more?

Every time he hits me, kicks me, and scratches me I still love him. He's my soulmate, after all, my precious Kim. The person that's right for me. But when he yells at me for caring so much, kicks me for crying, and slaps me for grieving, for the first time I felt something.

Anger.

Who was he to dictate my life? Who was he to prevent me from crying for a boy I love? Who was he to me anyway? For a moment, my love for him vanished. For a moment, I hated him with every fiber of my being.

But that moment went away.

After the funeral, the questions will begin. Why did he do it? What caused him to do it? Did anyone see him do it? Of course, there will be no answers.

The months will go by and people will move on. The months will turn into years and the years will turn into decades, and he will be forgotten. Erased. Just another tragic event that happened in history.

Will they ever know how much my heart is broken? Will they ever know how my soul is shattered? Somehow, I can't live without him. Somehow, I can't move on.

I'll tell my friends and Kim and they'll look at me confused. Why do you care so much? He was just a classmate.

He was just a classmate.

He was just a classmate.

He was just a classmate.

He is just a classmate. A classmate committed suicide for unknown reasons. A classmate whom I had kept at arm's reach. A classmate who is dead.

I'll awaken one night, many years later, and remember his name. I'll call out to the darkness for him and whisper for him. But he won't answer.

Because he's dead. Buried. Forgotten.

Gone.