Sweet Kisses, Tender Moments

Chapter Eight

    The two superheroes made it to an alleyway before realizing they'd been cornered. There was nothing for Ladybug to latch onto with her yoyo, and Chat was busy fending off the attacks. It gave Ladybug a chance to think. How were they going to get out of this one unscathed? While thinking, Ladybug noticed that about half the villains had separated from each other and were nowhere in sight. Like a light switches, she understood what was going on. They were distracting her and Chat until they were ready. Hawkmoth was baiting them with a meaningless fight until it was too late to help whatever the villains were doing.
"Chat! We need to get out of here and find Hawkmoth! He's trying to distract us from something!" Ladybug shouted, suddenly frantic. In one swift move, Chat backed up from the fight, picked Ladybug up by the waist, and ascended to one of the rooftops above.
"What happened?" Chat asked as he and his Lady sprinted back towards where they had seen Hawkmoth.
    Ten minutes later Ladybug and Chat Noir were crouched behind a counter in what used to be a restaurant. Hawkmoth was pacing at the other end of the room, scraping his walking stick against the ground as he walked. All around him were unconscious civilians strewn about. There must have been more than a dozen hostages at the mercy of Ladybug's nemesis.
"What do you mean you've lost them?!" Hawkmoth growled seemingly to himself. His voice seethed with anger and impatience. The purple-clad villain had been lunging for their Miraculouses since the very beginning.
"Chat, I need you to get Hawkmoth away. Distract him while I get the hostages out of here." Ladybug whispered. Chat nodded immediately and started to pull away. Ladybug stopped him by placing a hand on his shoulder. In her eyes, Chat saw a desperation, and a smoldering warmth. She wanted him to be careful, and to come back to her safely. He grinned at her with a false confidence and bent his head towards her.
    Their lips met to the sound of thunder, and a flash of lightning. Chat cupped her chin with one hand, and placed his other gently on her stomach. It was both a warning and a gesture of love. The kiss was short and sweet. As much as they wanted to linger together, there was no time. With one last look of shared worry and love, they separated. Then Chat was gone.
    Chat kept around the counter and outside, making sure to lead Hawkmoth away from Ladybug.
"Hawkmoth! I thought maybe you missed me earlier? Let's go grab a coffee or something." Chat yelled from the street in a mocking tone. His whole demeanor was a challenge, a tease. He wanted to draw his enemy out.
    After both Hawkmoth and Chat had gone on a chase down the street, Marinette rushed to the hostages. A young girl, a woman holding an infant. There were so many of them. What could she do to help them? For now, she could get them to safety. The building looked to be about to collapse, so she needed to drag them to safety.
    As she dragged the last hostage across the deserted street to a safer building, a laugh rang out behind her. She placed the hostage gently to the ground and turned to face the person behind her. Lady Wifi hovered twenty feet away from her with a sneer covering her face.
"I'll finally find out who's behind that pretty little mask. Then I can dispose of you once and for all." Lady Wifi snarls across the space.
"I beat you once. What makes you think I won't beat you again?" Ladybug didn't smile or laugh. There was nothing is her voice but resigned sadness and determination. This girl was her friend, and Alya didn't deserve to be Akumatised again. It was her fault. She let her friend get away, she didn't get a chance to apologize for keeping secrets. She didn't want to fight, she wanted to make amends.
    In the time that Ladybug took to think about that, Lady Wifi had already thrown one of her holographic pause buttons. The blue-eyed girl dove to the ground and rolled into a fighting position a few feet away.
"Ugh! It looks like we've got a bug problem." Another, high-pitched voice calls out behind her. Stormy Weather shoots a crack of lightning from her staff. Before Ladybug can do anything to evade it, the raw energy pierces her back. Then she falls to the ground, the world fading to black.
"Adrien, honey, what do you think of this?" Mari called from her office, holding a long elegant wedding dress up to the light. Her fiancé entered the room with a grin on his perfect features. He wrapped his arms around Mari's waist as he took in the long white dress.
"I just want to see you in it." He purred into the girl's ear, kissing her until she was senseless enough to drop the garment.
    Marinette's heart was beating so fast she thought it might jump from her chest and run far away. Her eyes stayed glued to the long white carpet as she walked down the aisle, a wedding march playing in the background. Her white dress clung to her body in a flattering way, a single red rose in her hand and a ladybug pin in her dark hair. She looked up, thinking only to glance but instead her eyes were captured by the deep green pools of her almost-husband. She faltered mid-step, thinking for a moment that she might fall down, then wondered if it were possible for her to sprint the rest of the way. She quickened her pace, holding her breath until her shaking fingertips met his. In a few moments, they would be joined together forever. She wanted to kiss the daylights out of him, and judging by the way his mischievous green eyes slid over her body, he was thinking the same.
"Aah!" Marinette shrieked, clutching onto her husband's hand with a bone-breaking ferocity. A baby's wale entered the world a moment later. A beautiful baby girl with night blue hair and bright, cattish green eyes. The infant looks into the eyes of her parents with an intelligence unnatural in a child so young.
"Oh Emma... You are so beautiful." Adrien sighs as he watches his wife, his whole world, hold his newborn child. Tears fall from his thick blonde lashes, his heart brimming with joy.
    An old couple sits in a rocking chair on the porch of an old house, their hands twined together. The woman's head rests atop her love's should, her salt and pepper hair falling into her wrinkled face. The old man kisses her gently, his eyes etched with laughter lines. This woman, this lioness that had loved him for years, was his life. The quiet afternoon was warm and lazy, and he felt again the feeling rightness that came from being with his wife.
    Two lovers occupied a deathbed meant for one, their white-haired heads resting together. Their fingers curled together, a contented smile dawning both faces. A machine beeped in the corner, slowing every second.
"Adrien." The woman speaks with a genuinely happy tone.
"Yes, My Lady?" The man answers in a charming voice. He was trying to be happy for her sake, but his sadness seeped at the corners.
"Thank you. F-for everything. You saved my life more times than I can count. You made me a wife, and gave me a child. You make me so happy and... I love you so much." A single tear trailed down her wrinkled cheek.
"Princess, it's me that should be thanking you. I love-" The man was cut off by a sharp, long beep from the machine in the corner. A sob hiccupped from the depths of his chest as he clutched onto his world's hand for the last time.
He watched as his love's life faded, and his as well faded soon after.