Ghosts Of Adrien's Past

Chapter 13: backwards really fast

"I wish we could go backwards. Just back, really fast. To when we were teenagers"
Adrien sighed and stared at the ceiling, holding Marinette close to him.

He hated the sound of her breathing. He hated how slow, how uneven it was. How it hitched and gave him a heart attack when he couldn't hear it.
"We can do this all day, kitty"
He closed his eyes against that voice. It wasn't real. She wasn't real. None of it was. The only thing that was real was his partners horrible breathing.
"Don't call me that"
He hissed, and a beautiful laugh flowed from her lips. Strong slim fingers gripped his chin and he opened his eyes, facing cold blue ones.
"Who killed me, Adrien? Who did it?"
He gritted his teeth and looked away from her. Ladybug sighed and stood up, frowning down at the Marinette that Adrien held in his arms. The room around them was cold and run-down and broken, the butterflies flapping around sadly. A blinding light flowing in from the huge window.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
16 hours earlier
Marinette groaned and swallowed the pills, gulping down the water with them. Adrien drummed his fingers on the bench and watched her. She glared at him.
"Stop looking at me like that"
"Like what?"
"Like I'm an old woman and about to collapse"
He stood up straight.
"You literally just died for a few seconds"
"So? I've been through worse"
He scoffed.
"Like what?"
She pretended to think.
"Like being thrown half way across Paris one minute from de-transforming"
"That's different"
"I don't care"

He backed off and fixed her with an angry look.
"What happened to your arm?"
She lifted it up.
"I don't know. I just woke up and it was like that. But my best guess is the cataclysm working at its slowest rate"
He closed his fist. The edge of the ring biting into his finger.
"How do we stop it?"
She shrugged at his question.
"I don't know"
"You don't know?"
"No, Adrien, I don't. Believe it or not I've never seen this before"
"No need to snap at me"
"Yes there is! You did this to me!"
He rolled his eyes.
"Come on, it's not like I got you pregnant or anything"
She lifted her hand as if to hit him, but screwed up her face and decided against it. He'd already gotten ready to run.

On the bench the kwami's we're discussing the matter, whispering to one another. Plagg seemed to have suggested something, and tikki began to ignore him. Adrien slightly narrowed his eyes.
"What did you just ask her?"
Tikki cut in before plagg could answer.
"It doesn't matter. We're not doing it"
Marinette suddenly became very interested in the conversation.
"Tikki? What is it?"
The little red kwami looked up to her holder with small tears in her eyes.
"I can't do it again. I won't. I refuse"
Plagg pulled her close to him as she sniffed.
"Sugar cube, it's the only way. She'll die if-"
"She'll die anyway! And don't call me that!"
His tail began to swing from side to side.
"Last time we were young. Naive. We cant lose a holder this young, there is no one else. We have no choice"
"I hate you and your stupid logic. I'm supposed to be the smart one. I'm supposed to protect her. I'm not supposed to fail like this"
He hugged her.
"You didn't fail"

Marinette and Adrien looked at each other with equally confused expressions. Whatever had happened between the two ancient kwami's had happened a long time ago. Obviously, they had tried to bury it. Obviously, it didn't work.
Marinette and Adrien lapsed into arguments again, chasing each other around and getting angrier by the second. Things were thrown, glass was broken, and she hadn't even heard about what he'd done the night before. He prayed she never found out.

Down the hall, in the other room, luka was busy waking up all the groomsmen and getting them as sober as possible. He dragged them all into adrien's bed and scrubbed at his face with a wet towel.
He still couldn't focus on anything for too long without feeling sick and dizzy.
He checked the time on his phone and scoffed.
"What's taking him so long"
He locked the door behind him and strode down the hall for marinettes room, but she wasn't in there. Next he checked alya's room, but the door was locked. He went to knock, but stopped when he heard shouting.
"I should never have come back! I knew you would ruin my life again somehow! Just like in Shanghai!"

He knew that voice. He'd know it anywhere. It was Marinette. She was screaming and sounded angrier than he'd ever heard her be. Adrien began arguing back, luka pressed his ear to the door.
"Shanghai wasn't my fault!"
"Oh, really?"
"I didn't ask you to stay! I didn't ask you to crawl back into my life and change everything again!"
She seemed to go quiet for a little.
"Oh, I changed everything for you? You made me believe that you actually cared about me, that you wanted me in your life again. And then as soon as you get what you want you leave before sunrise and never call me again!"
"Who said I got what I wanted? Sure, we had fun, and sure, we both liked it. But who said I was in it for the long run?"
Luka could practically see Mari throw her hands up in the air.
"What the hell was I, Adrien?! Some cheap one night stand?!"
"You know damn well that's not all it was. We saw each other exclusively for weeks before we slept together."
"Oh and do I get to have that? Do I get to keep the memory that the great Adrien Agreste only saw me for a few weeks before disappearing?"
"Well at least I get to know that I'm better than poor luka, he bought you a drink and you jumped him"
"At least he was there the next morning!"

Adrien laughed.
"Yeah? Well he wouldn't even be interested in you if it weren't for me"
"Really? How do you figure that?"
"You know that little bet we talked about? I bet that luka couldn't get you into bed before the wedding and keep you. he bet against me that he could. And guess what? I lost the first half, got a victory in the second."
Luka went stiff all over, freezing as he leant against the door. When she spoke again she was very quiet.
"What were the stakes?"
Adrien paused for a second.
"If I won I got his miraculous. If he won, I boosted his career"
She laughed, but it was low and hard to read.
"You two bet on me? On whether I was easy to get into bed? You're both pathetic. You're a disgrace"

Luka barely had time to back away before the door swung open and Marinette stormed out. She stopped when she saw him, her eyes red rimed and glassy.
Her hand raised and came down hard on the side of his face, pain slicing through his jaw and cheek. He gritted his teeth and looked back at her, expecting her to shout and scream and hit his chest. But her voice was calm when she spoke.
"I expected better. So much better. I was wrong in going into that room with you. You're not the same boy I knew. Not even close"
She walked past him and before he could stop himself he grabbed her arm.
"Mari I can explain. I swear, I never meant to hurt you. I just wanted-"
"What? Something to brag about? A rebound from your ex-fiancé?"
"No! I wanted an excuse to try and make something work between us. There was too much time between us, I thought you'd turn me away after so long. I just- I wanted an excuse to try"
She narrowed her eyes, a muscle flickering in her jaw.
"Not good enough"

She hissed, and tore her arm out of his hand.
"If you come near me again I will do more than take away your miraculous"
With that she walked away, leaving Adrien standing in the doorway and a struck stupid luka frozen in the hall.
His hands began to clench in on each other, nails biting into his palm.
"This is your fault"
He whispered, and turned his head to Adrien. Adrien slightly straightened, as if realising exactly how angry luka was.
Luka tore his miraculous from adrien's wrist and glared him in the eye.
"If you hadn't-"
He was cut off, everything suddenly faded away for him. His mind went dark.
Adrien screamed marinettes name and sprinted for her as a dark butterfly sunk into luka's miraculous, still in his hand, and a purple outline appeared before his face. By the time Adrien reached Marinette and she turned around, it was too late.

There was a familiar villain standing in the hallway, silencer, staring at them oddly.
Hawkmoth was back.