Me and You - Adrienette/Ladynoir/Ladrien/Marichat

Chapter fourteen: Claws out! (Timebreaker)

"I'm coming for you now Chloe!" Timbreaker exclaims as she skates towards a fleeing Chloe.

"No! I'm scuffing my new heals!" Chloe's scream echoes through the Trocadero as Timebreaker drains Chloe, causing her to fade away.

Timebreaker cackles, "That's what you get for breaking my watch," Timebreaker turns to the rest of her classmates that are cowering in fear, "You are all going to suffer for what you did to me!" and with that remark Timebreaker skids towards her next victim: Rose.

Adrien widens his eyes and hides behind a large bush to get ready to transform...that is, until he realises that his kwami is nowhere to be found. "Plagg? Plagg?" Adrien calls out into his shirt trying to find where his kwami is, "Where has he gone too?" however, it is too late now; all of Adrien's classmates have been frozen in time so that Timebreaker has the chance to go back in time to the moment where her watch was broken.

She just needs to find Adrien.

"Adrien Agreste!" Timebreaker slowly calls out, pronouncing every vowel in Adrien's name to just make it sound even creepier. Usually, akumatized villains like Timebreaker would not frighten Adrien but that was because he had Plagg there to turn him into Chat Noir (even if he was a pain). Now, on the other hand, Adrien has no kwami there to give him the powers to save Paris and he has no Ladybug to count on when he is in dire need for a saviour. Where has that kwami gone?

"You can do this, Adrien. You don't need your powers to be a hero – what would Ladybug do?" Adrien encourages himself, thinking back to his dear Ladybug and how disappointed she would be if this villain would cause havoc to the whole of Paris. Adrien nods his head at himself and rises up from his hiding spot to face Timebreaker. She gives him an eerie smile and skates off towards him shouting his name. Adrien reacts instantly and sprints off into the streets of Paris, wondering what on earth he is going to do because (unlike Ladybug) he has no plan on how he is going to get rid of Timebreaker without Plagg.

Then it hits him.

Literally, his lost (and foremost, hungry) kwami crashes into Adrien just as he runs into an alleyway. Good timing, I guess. "Plagg!" Adrien begins, "Where on earth were you? Timebreaker could've gotten me and then Paris would've been destroyed – especially without Ladybug around!"

"I was with Ladybug." who knew that one sentence could change someone's expression as quickly as it did for Adrien; the blonde hero is showing trillions of emotions right after another. Anger at Plagg going AWOL, shock at the news of Plagg knowing that Ladybug is alive, joy that Ladybug is alive; glee that he won't have to fight this villain alone and now the boy is ready to drop everything to go see her. "You can't see her." Plagg tells him after asks for the billionth time. You can almost see what Plagg would sound and look like if he ever becomes a mother – like he would want children, anyway.

"Why not? I haven't seen or heard from Ladybug in months – I'm her partner and I must know if she's okay." Adrien persists.

Now, this is the tough decision that Plagg has to make. Plagg knows that Ladybug won't be able to remember Chat Noir or even Adrien for that matter or will she be able to transform so if Adrien sees her then he will find out that Ladybug is in fact Marinette – what would happen then? They have too much on their late with Timebreaker loose, in the city, trying to change the past and Plagg needs to have Adrien in the right mind set. Love destroys all the Chat Noir's – Adrien included. On the other hand, if Adrien doesn't see Ladybug then he won't be able to think straight. A decision has to be made – quickly.

"Because...because Ladybug has amnesia." Plagg blurts out, knowing right after by the look on Adrien's face that this was the decision. What's done is done and Plagg must now live with the consequence.

"Th-That's why she's been g-gone for so long." Plagg nods as Adrien rests his back on the brick wall and slides down it, his head in his hands.

"Adrien," Plagg says Adrien's name softly, keeping his distance from him at the start but now he is moving closer to him and trying to give him some comfort, "I was told that if I ever found out the true identity of Ladybug then I would keep it a secret from my holder. I also made a vow to never keep a secret from my holder..." Plagg's eyes start to well up and as Adrien's head rises, Plagg wipes away the tears and continues, "I was never good at keeping vows. I have a lot of secrets that I have never told you and right now I'm going to start with one...because, I think you deserve to hear this..." Adrien's eyes widen as Plagg takes in a deep breath before letting out three words that will change Adrien's life – forever, "Marinette is Ladybug."

It's like the whole world just stopped in time so that Adrien can process those three words.

Marinette. Adrien's best friend, his soulmate, the girl he kissed in the park, the girl who gave him that tingling sensation, the girl he can count on.

Is.

Ladybug. Adrien's partner, his crush, the girl who nearly kissed him, the girl he thinks about before he goes to sleep, the girl he can count on.

No one could have gotten Adrien prepared for something like this. In this moment he doesn't know if he should be relieved that Marinette didn't actually get kidnapped or runaway; if he should be angry that she kept this from him for so long (although he did the same); if he should be happy that he finally knows why he feels this way for both those girls. But he's just a mess of feelings that he can't comprehend and all he wants to do is curl up in a ball and cry his eyes out – he doesn't do that.

Anger has always been one of Adrien's main emotions – Marinette knows that (well, she did anyway, before the accident). Anger, hatred, rage, resentment, fury. All of these were feelings that filled Adrien's heart before Marinette came into his life. Her smile, her eyes – her everything – they washed all that away and replaced them with joy and bliss. Adrien is who he is now because of her. Now she has no idea who he is, and she probably never will, and all that rage is bubbling inside of him ready to explode.

And he knows one way he can let it all out.

"Plagg..." Adrien rises up to his feet, feeling the fury burning him – it's nothing like the fire he feels when he holds Marinette – and with two simple words, he lets himself explode: "Claws out!"