Miraculous SHORTS

Nightmares...

The night was dark and silent, with beams of moonlight throwing the streets into shadow. Deep in the heart of Paris whimpered a sleeping girl in her bed.

'Marinette?' whispered the red kwami, whose concern for the for the slumbering girl was etched across her petit face.

'Marinette?! Please wake up!' wailed Tikki, attempting to shake Marinette with her tiny hands. The black haired girl was clammy and cold, her eyelids scrunched up as she groaned. Tikki feared for Marinette, whose nightmares she was told were rare but painful. Marinette had never told her what she saw in those nightmares.

Rain fell down in silent waves and slid down the grey allyway, mingling with dark sickly blood.

'Please, Marinette!' cried Tikki, trying in vain to wake the nightmaring girl. 'Help,' Tikki cried softly. 'I need help!'

Little did the little kwagmi know that her pleas were heard by the blackest of creatures as he patrolled the neighbourhood. He heard the small distraught voice through the window of the building he had swung by and frowned.

'Marinette..' cried Tikki one last time, as the sweaty girl shuddered loudly then moaned in her sleep.

'No,' she cried, falling slowly to her knees. Her bloodstained, leather clad knees. The rain pounded against her head but she took no noticed as Ladybug gasped at the body at her feet.

Chat Noir peered through the window, feeling uneasy. It was unusual for him to find someone who needed help this late at night...

Tikki jumped as she spotted a face looking through the glass. Chat Noir! What was he doing here?! Sick to the stomach, unable to help her closest friend, Tikki hid beneath Marinette's bed as the figure in black leather slipped silently into the room.

Chat Noir stepped with trepidation towards the girl crying in her bed. She was asleep, but apparantly in a nightmare... He wasn't sure what to do. Chat Noir wasn't trained to help groaning girls trapped in a dream they couldn't escape. He hesitated then sat on the edge of her bed, watching the moonlight play on her sweating face.

Her tears mingles with his blood as Ladybug pulled him close, sobbing as she felt the knife in his chest. She was too late.

'Marinette?' whispered Chat Noir, shocked to see his classmate so vunerable. She didn't wake up but continued to shudder, forced to see things she didn't want to see. The boy behind Chat Noir's black mask broke a little and he reached out one clawed finger to wipe a tear off her chalky face.

Chat Noir didn't know how to fix this, but he felt a throbbing deep in his chest as he watched his friend weep in her sleep. Her pain was his pain and without ordering his limbs to do so, Chat Noir shuffled closer.

He placed one claw carefully on her shoulder and lightly shook her, holding his breath. She groaned and her head rolled forward.

It was all her fault, all her fault... she wept into the lifeless body as rain fell silently on their entwined bodies.

'Wake up, princess...' Chat Noir muttered, using both his hands to shake her. She didn't. A knife of grief stabbed through him as his princess wept still.

Chat Noir followed his instincts - Instincts were a cat's best friend after all. He half-sat and half-laid beside her and put an arm beneath her neck. 'Please wake up, Mari,' he croaked, his eyes watering slightly.

Chat curled up beside his princess before Marinette turned to him and clutched him like a life-line.

'Chat...' she murmured, still shuddering. Chat Noir froze, his heart rate speeding up before he realised she was still asleep.

Chat Noir's wasted body bled beneath her and Ladybug held him close...

'I'm sorry...' Marinette groaned, fat tears squeezing out her eyes. Chat Noir watched in shock and wonder as the sleeping girl spoke. He was frozen in her embrace.

He shouldn't be here - It was wrong. Slowly, he began to move away from the girl whose tears stabbed through him like a sword.

'Don't leave meee... Chat...' she cried.

'Shush, Princess... I will never leave you,' whispered Chat, returning Marinette's tight embrace. He wasn't sure she heard him, but hugged her close nonetheless.

'Chat...' Marinette murmured, rubbing her lips against the hollow beneath Chat Noir's neck. She groaned as spasms of imaginary pain rolled through her.

'I'm here, Mari. Don't cry,' Chat said, his voice breaking. His breathing rate increased as Marinette's lips trailed up his neck.

The rain fell upon them still and the moment was frozen as Ladybug pressed her lips against Chat Noir's cold skin.

'I ... love... love you,' Marinette sighed, as the hero beside her exploded with burning passion. Chat's green eyes were wide, curious and slightly fearful as his princess shuddered herself awake.

She bolted up, her eyes opening instantly and breathed rapidly. She could feel the icy sweat trickle down her back and neck and felt the last dregs of the dream fade inside her. Only when her breathing calmed did she notice the arms around her.

'Ch-Chat Noir?' she whispered, wide eyed and terrified. But before she could turn towards him, his dark shadow slipped outside the window and only the ghost of his arms on her skin.

'Only a dream...' she sighed into the empty, moonlit room and lay back down on her twisted sheets. Unaware that a certain black-wearing hero clinged to the wall beside her window, his heart racing and head pounding as all of a sudden, he realised...

'Ladybug,' he whispered into the silence of the Paris night.