MariChat: Soul Link (SoulMates AU)

Ladybug versus Chat Noir

Ladybug watched the city-scape for she didn't know how long. An hour? Two hours? Three? It didn't really matter one way or the other. Her thoughts had her totally occupied, about Chat. About the Miraculouses. About Spite. About... Everything.

She knew it was all true. She knew it. Chat Noir had never lied to her before, and he wouldn't make up something so convoluted just to trick her. She knew him far better than that, and she knew for a fact, he was an amazingly honest person.

But when she had tried to tell him that... She wasn't herself. It was like she wasn't Marinette anymore. Like seeing him was... Like flipping a switch that made her a different parson altogether. Someone filled with hatred... Filled with contempt for Chat Noir... For Adrien.

Yes, she knew who Chat Noir was behind that mask... Whatever she become whenever she saw him. She couldn't even begin to explain it, but she had never felt more alone in her entire life. It was like... Like someone else was driving a car, and she was the passenger, she thought was the best way to describe it. She could scream, she could protest, she could try to wrestle control back... But she never could. Not even Tikki was able to figure out that she was like a prisoner inside her own body, even when merged.

She missed Chat... She missed Adrien... Those horrible things she had said to him... They hadn't even been words she had wanted to say... Words she never would have dreamed of saying. Not to Adrien. Not to him. Not after everything they had gone through to get to where they were... She would have cried were her body really hers to command. Stood here like this, she thought about all those horrible things she had said... And how much she desperately wanted to take them back.

"Marinette."

Hearing that voice, that familiar voice... Her body turned, though not really part of her own will, but she would have turned anyway. When she saw Chat Noir, that feeling in her heart, that aching and love for him was right there, and were she able to, she would have run up to him, hugged him as tightly as she could have done, and repeated she is so, so, so freaking sorry for everything she had said, even though it wasn't her fault.

"I thought I told you to stay away from me."

'Nooo...' She internally cried at the words that weren't her own. That was the last thing she wanted...

"If that's what you really want, I'll stay away from you, but only when you're actually you, Marinette."

For the first time in the last few days... Marinette felt a real sense of hope. Had Chat figured out what was happening to her? That he knew?

"Is that your ego talking? The pretty girl doesn't like the alley cat, so you got the idea in your head that it's because she's cursed, because god forbid, someone doesn't like the alley cat."

"That's not... I'm trying to help you, Marinette. I don't want a fight."

"What if I do?"

'No, I don't!'

"What if I've been wanting to fight you for years now?"

She'd never wanted to fight Chat... Even before she knew he was Adrien, he had been her friend. Never - Never - Had she wanted to ever fight Chat Noir.

"You haven't."

"Well, I do now!" Her body moved on its own, moving the strike the cat-themed Hero, with serious deadly intent.

'Chat!'

Backflipping off the roof, across the street, and onto another roof, Chat Noir managed to dodge the swing of Ladybug's yo-yo, aimed for his jugular vein. He didn't want to think about what would happen to him should that manage to catch him. He could only imagine it would be less than fun.