Miraculous One-Shots (ON HOLD)

Replaced {Part 3}

"Marinette, wait! Please!" I struggled to catch up with the bluenette girl who was quickly making her way down the sidewalk.

Ever since I told her my superhero identity she'd been making it a point not to make any kind of interaction with me. She would never accidentally run into me and stutter out and apology with a cute blush like she usually would've.

She wouldn't even look at me. It was as if she just erased me from her memory.

Though, I probably would have done the same if she'd hurt me like I did her.

Marinette was running now, not even bothering to check both ways as she dashed across the street and took off to the park, with me running behind her.

'I need to tell her.'

It happened months ago, yet I was still plagued with grief. I'd been having nightmares almost every night since Marinette left and Volpina became the head of our duo.

I barely ever spoke to Volpina anymore, though I can't exactly blame her. It's my fault that everything went haywire. I hadn't even noticed how distant I was becoming from La-Marinette. 

But finding out that she was Ladybug somehow snapped my brain back into place. It made me realize what I'd done. 

Actually, it was when she looked up at me with tears streaming down her face and look of betrayal in her deeper than ever blue eyes.

I had hated myself this whole time, slumping in and out of grades, ignoring Nino and just everyone in particular. Though I know Marinette has had it worse out of both of us. 

Knowing her, she would keep up a calm facade while she was actually screaming inside. To be honest, I don't know how she manages to keep it up, but it's one of things I admire about her.

I almost lost site of Marinette when she jumped into a large crowd of pedestrians hanging around the jungle gym at the park, but then I caught site of her light pink bag, and hurried to catch up with her.

"Marinette!"

I reached forward just as she turned her head around, her blue eyes wide with shock as I grabbed onto her hand and tugged her back to me.

She yelped a bit and I felt bad for making her stumble a little, but her eyes never left mine.

Parents and their children seemed to part a bit as they walked past us, though In reality I knew that my mind was just ignoring the way their arms bumped into mine.

I broke our gaze and looked down at our hands, standing still for a few second with my heart beating wildly in my chest before intertwining out fingers together and looking back up.

She was staring at our clasped hands with a far away look in her eyes, and my gaze softened a bit as I reached up with my other hands and touched her cheek.

She blinked and her eyes flicked back up to me, realization pouring into them as she quickly pulled away from me.

I kept my hand in hers, desperate not to let her get away.

"Marinette, please! I want to talk to you!"

"I don't care!" I heard her sniffle. "Leave me alone, I want nothing to do with you!"

"Please! I-"

"No, Adrien!" She turned back to me and yanked her hand out of mine. "You don't understand! I'm in love with you! I'm so in love with you, or at least I thought I was!" She frowned, her eyes beginning to water.

"You-"

"Do you know how long it took me to come back?" She met my gaze with furrowed eyebrows. "Do you? You have no idea how much what you and Volpina did hurt me. Every day I would come back from school and break down-every day!"

"I never meant to hurt you-"

"Well, you did! You and Volpina both! Whatever happened to 'I'll always be there for you, M'Lady?' Well, you know what? I don't care! I don't care anymore, because I've had three months to get myself back together and that's just what I did! I don't care about being a heroine of Paris, I don't care about Volpina replacing me, and I certainly don't care about you!"

She was breathing heavily, glaring at the brown mulch beneath our feet as if she wanted to throw it in a fire and watch it burn. Her fists were clenched at her sides and my eyes widened when I saw a single tear roll down her cheek.

She ducked her head so that her bangs covered her face, and I felt my heart skip a beat.

'I did this to her.'

Taking a deep breath, I yet again brought a hand up to her face. She either didn't notice or didn't care, because she allowed me to lightly place a finger under her chin and lifted her head up.

I brushed away the tear with my thumb before leaning over and placing a kiss against that same cheek. 

I heard her gasp and she went still, before I let my hand fall and took a step back.

"You're right." I gave a sad smile as she stared at me in shock. "It is my fault. And I'm not even going to try and blame Volpina, because I never did anyway. I was a jerk, and I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you, and I know that I did, but I want you to know that I didn't want to. I'm not sure what was going through my head those days, but you can hate me all you want, because I'll love you anyway."

"Wha-" She began, but I cut her off with a sudden smile and a small wave.

"See you around, Mari." 

And I turned to leave. I got about five feet away from her-almost to the swing sets-when I felt someone slam into me from behind, and Marinette's arms wrapped around my stomach.

"Mari?" I asked after a few seconds of only hearing her sniffling into the back of my shirt, most likely staining it with her tears, but I didn't really care.

"I forgive you."

The End

A/N~ So...that wasn't too crappy, I hope?

Yes, that was the end of Replaced, sorry it took so long for me to get back into the swing of things. These last few months have been hard on me, and to be honest I wasn't sure if I'd ever come back.

But, here we are! Thank's for your patience, I really appreciate it!

~Zee :)