Seeing butterflies

Miracle Queen; Aftermath.

"Oh my Nathalie, there are no words to express how sorry I am." Gabriel sighed softly as he set her down in his car. He gently caressed her face to make her look at him.  "I've failed yet again and you've used up every last bit of strength... for nothing." 

"No.. not for nothing." Nathalie looked up at him with a smile. "There is a deciphered version of the grimoire stored on the guardian's tablet. Now.. We can fix the peacock miraculous."

Gabriel smiled for once taking the small victory for what it was. They might not have won yet but he could be patient. Gabriel's racing mind distracted him from the outside world. He could see nothing but his mistakes and his future plans. They would win in the end and that was a fact.

Natalie's voice reached his ears, it sounded important. His mind was too busy to comprehend it. Vaguely he realized he was standing in the middle of the road. He idly wondered how he got there before his thoughts promptly ended with a flash of excruciating pain. If he hadn't been so distracted, he might have heard the bus coming. Perhaps it honked, he wasn't sure. Everything was vague and foggy. His last thought before everything faded to black was how he should have paid more attention. 

-------

"I order you both to fight again!" 

The words echoed through Chloe's head. She had regretted the words the second they tumbled out of her mouth. "Why did I say that?" Chloe whispered as she curled in on herself. All she had wanted was to have a normal family. To have two parents who loved her and each other unconditionally. 

Now that Chloe had calmed down, the shame and regret hit her at full force. She had willingly assisted a known terrorist. "And for what?" She questioned herself as she wiped her tears away. For the attention of someone she had looked up to. She had wanted to be a hero again. Instead she became another villain. Chloe cursed herself for taking one step forward and a thousand steps back. She hugged her knees to her chest and reached for her phone. With her hazy tear filled vision she dialed a number. 

"Sabrina?" She sobbed softly as the person on the other side picked up. "I.. I fucked up Sabrina." Chloe gasped for air. "I didn't mean to.. I just... I just wanted another chance. I got greedy again. Sabrina.. I need help. Please help me? How do I be nice?" 

"Chloe?"

Chloe stiffened, that exhausted mumble didn't belong to Sabrina. She blinked her tears away and looked at the contact information. "Du.. Dupain-Cheng!" she shouted. "You didn't hear anything you hear me!" Chloe moved to hang up on the other girl. Dupain-Cheng was the last person she wanted to hear from right now. 

"Wait Chloe, I can help?" Dupain-Cheng sounded just as surprised as Chloe felt.

"You.. Why would you help me?" Chloe wiped her cheeks clean as she buried her emotions. "Not to mention, how?"

"Well... You've bullied me for years..." 

Chloe cringed slightly. Another thing Ladybug had to be disappointed about. No wonder the girl hadn't liked her. 

"But I... Ladybug gave you a chance to be a real hero, Chloe. You were making progress. You're bound to relapse, you're still young. But I believe we can work on your attitude." Dupain-Cheng sounded confident. 

Chloe wished she felt as confident in herself as the other girl. "Did you not see the news? I.. I aided.. H- Hawkmoth!" She cried out. 

"And clearly you feel a lot of regret right now. With Hawkmoth praying on our emotions like he is and your home situation..." Dupain-Cheng coughed awkwardly. No doubt she was thinking of how her mother had been planning on taking a random girl with her to New York. How her mother kept forgetting her own daughter's name. For a second Chloe felt angry for getting pittied by Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

"You're not exactly in a stable mindset, Chloe." Dupain-Cheng continued. 

Chloe blinked her anger away. "What do you mean?"

"Well... You were emotionally compromised. I can't imagine how lonely you must feel. Especially  since Sabrina has been hanging around Lila more than you lately... I.. understand why you would  do anything to get Ladybug's attention at this point. " She mumbled softly. 

Chloe touched her own cheeks, they were wet again. "I... It doesn't excuse my actions." She argued. 

"Maybe not. But you're not beyond redemption, Chloe. You're only fifteen. Please let me help you?"

Chloe nodded. After a moment she realized the other girl couldn't see her. "Ok Dupain-Cheng. What do I do?"

"Marinette."

"what?"

"Call me Marinette?"

"Oh... Ok Marinette." Chloe wondered why she felt like crying again. 

"Let's start with apologies." Marinette started to explain to her what she wanted Chloe to do. Chloe was quickly starting to regret asking for help.

"Do I have to?" She whined softly.

"Chloe..." 

She heard the disappointment in Dup.. Marinette's voice. Chloe was reminded of the disappointed look, Ladybug had aimed at her not more than an hour ago.  "Ok ok. I'll.. practice." Chloe sighed softly. Tomorrow was going to be a disaster.

------

Chat Noir was doing one last round around the city. Hawkmoth and Majura couldn't have gone that far. His right ear twitched as he registered the sound of sirens in the distance. Chat Noir went in the direction of the sound wondering what could have happened. Ladybug had just released her cure after all. Everyone should be fine again. He landed on a roof not far away from the scene. Chat Noir didn't want to distract the paramedics from their job. 

He used his baton to zoom in on the people below him and instantly regretted it. "Father..." Chat Noir paled as he looked at his father's bloody face. Chat's throat tightened, he needed to get away from here. Get out of Paris. Right now he was in danger of akumatization. Hawkmoth could have set this entire thing up. Chat Noir hesitated for a couple of seconds as he gazed down at the ambulances below him. Maybe he could do something to help, screw the rules. His muscles tensed as he got ready to jump down. He glanced down at the organized chaos once more and choked.

Chat ran as fast as he could, not looking back. He didn't know where he was going, all he could see was his father's bloody face. He couldn't loose him. Not now, not ever. Chat stumbled and fell off the roof. He blinked up at the orange sky. How long had he been running? Chat didn't know. Clearly it was already getting dark. It had been a hell of a day.

Adrien released his transformation as he laid there on the floor of a dirty back alley in Paris. He sobbed quietly. He didn't want to go home. Not to the house that would only remind him of his parents. Plagg had opened his mouth to complain, probably about wanting cheese again. He closed it as soon as he saw the state Adrien was in. Plagg simply hid in his shirt pocket and curled up against Adrien's chest. 

Adrien quietly appreciated Plagg's silent comfort. He watched as the stars came out, his phone had been dead since that afternoon. People were no doubt worried about him. Adrien could care less. Suddenly the sky got replaced by someone's face. He stared up at their gorgeous bluebell eyes. Their face framed beautifully with blue hair as the light of the moon created a halo behind them. 

"There you are." Luka Couffaine smiled down at him. 

In that moment, the older boy stole Adrien's breath away. Luka gently helped him up and tugged him out of the alley. "Come on Adrien, I'm sure my mother won't mind if you spend the night with us." Once they got to the boat Luka would send a few texts to everyone, assuring them Adrien was safe.

Adrien gave him a sad but grateful smile as Luka stole him away.