Shattered (A Chat Blanc Fic)

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She heard sobbing...from somewhere...so far...yet so near...

But she could only see pitch blackness all around her.

Where was she?

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Sabine continued to sob as she stroked her daughter's palm softly. Tom sighed, rubbing his forehead and glancing at what was left of his once happy, cheerful ray of sunshine.

"Honey...why?" Sabine asked, quietly. Tom turned around and walked toward his wife, soon enveloping her in a soft hug. "Don't worry dear...Marinette will be okay soon, I promise...all we have to do is stay strong for her until she wakes up..." he whispered, softly.

They sat in silence for a few moments, which soon followed up with a harsh cough from Sabine. Tom looked at her with worry as soon as she had pulled her hand away from her mouth.
"Blood...again..." she whispered, wiping off the dark red liquid onto a handkerchief. The problem of hers had started about two weeks ago, and it didn't seem like she was getting any better. Tom looked at her despondently. "Honey...I've been telling you over and over, you need to be checked out by a doctor...please, let me just call a nurse, okay?" The woman placed a hand over her chest in pain before weakly nodding. The nurse arrived shortly, asked Sabine a few questions and led her out of the room.

Why was everything going so damn wrong for both him and his family? Sitting down on a chair near his daughter's hospital bed, he sighed in frustration.

Unknown to his family, the landlord had threatened to evict the family if he failed to pay the rent that was due for the past six months. He didn't even know how to come up with enough money, because business in the bakery at an all-time low, and to add to that, his beloved wife and daughter's hospitalization fees would only add to the number of expenses.

A small tear fell onto his shirt before he had even realised it, and he broke down, sobbing silently while trying to take deep breaths to calm himself down. The small hand that gently gripped his shoulder startled him, making him turn around only to see Alya, Nino and a small group of Marinette's classmates eyeing him sadly. Quickly brushing the tears on his cheeks away with his arm, he stood up to greet them with a forced smile lining his lips. "A-Ah...good evening Alya. Do you want to see Marinette?" he asked, moving aside a bit.

"Well...yes, but we don't mind if you're in here with us too," she responded, smiling sympathetically. The older man responded with a small nod of the head before making his way over to the visitor's bench of that particular ward. His elbows rested on his knees as he held his head between his hands. The voices in the background seemed to fade into silence as his own thoughts clouded his mind once more.

Time seemed to pass by in a blur, and soon he was at home.

A once jolly and hardworking man reclined against his couch, accepting his new lethargic and downcast lifestyle. He threw his head back to stare at the roof absentmindedly. 

Their home was awfully silent; a silence he was not comfortable with at all. The lack of Marinette's loud rambling and his wife's constant supply of encouraging words made him wonder if this place was truly his home. 

No. This wasn't home. It was just a house. A building. A structure that supported itself no matter how bad things got. And here he was, wallowing in his depression, unable to even get on his feet to get chores done. Another saddened sigh left his lips. Shaking his head, he decided that he would try to get his mind off everything by turning on the news. It couldn't hurt to try, could it?

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".....and in further news, it appears that Ladybug and Chat Noir have both mysteriously vanished from Paris. Witnesses have also made several accounts of a new akumatized villain roaming  the streets at night, which only seems to make the current situation worse than it already is." The woman stopped to take a shaky breath. "Who...will save us now?"

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His teeth gritted, he turned the television off and threw the remote away. Getting up, he dragged himself over to the fridge and grabbed the bottle. He knew this wasn't the right thing to do. He knew the consequences of the actions he was going to undertake.

But nothing else....or no one else was going to help him.

A/N: Hello everyone! I want to apologise for the short length of this chapter; it had been lying in my drafts for a long time and I wasn't quite sure how to continue, so here you go! (⁠；⁠^⁠ω⁠^⁠）

It's been ages since I last updated this fic because I dropped Miraculous Ladybug quite a long time ago but I might sit down and try to complete this book some time soon!

Thank you for all your love and support on my book, because without it, I wouldn't be looking at 8k+ reads and 100+ votes!

I hope to see you all soon in the next chapter!
— Erys