The Price of One || Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty-Three: Chosen Love

The full-length mirror seemed to mock Emma, shooting back a version of herself she barely recognized. She had gotten noticeably smaller - unhealthily so, her bones prominent against her pale skin. Emma frowned, meeting her dull eyes in the mirror.

"I'm getting worse, Cia." Her frown deepened as she pulled up her sleeve, revealing a trail of bruises that she hadn't made. "Maybe I should just go back to the future. Spend whatever time I have left with the people there." She admitted, sitting down on her desk chair as she pulled her knees to her chest.

Cia's mouth tugged into a frown, a shadow of guilt coming over her face. But it had gone as soon as it had come, causing Emma to wonder if it had been there at all. "The Emma I know wouldn't give up so easily." She said, her voice accusing.

Emma looked up at her kwami. "I've been here for almost half a year now - and there's been no change." She sighed. "But I can't give up now, can I? Bunnyx is counting on me - everyone in the future is counting on me."

The truth weighed heavily on her shoulders. An entire city was depending on her - a fourteen year old girl who couldn't even manage taking care of her pet hamster.

"You aren't alone, Emma." Cia's voice was quiet as she gently floated towards her. The charcoal kwami's eyes were shining a bit more than usual, but she gave no sign of feeling upset. "It's going to be alright. You're parents will fall in love again because the kind of love that they share is inescapable - it's destiny. It's just a matter of time, you'll see."

Emma nodded, though her lack of belief in Cia's statement was shown clearly on her face. "Ok." She said quietly, because while Emma was an avid optimist, there was only so much hope left.

- - -

Tikki

Marinette sat in her room - torn by her three choices between her screensaver, guitar pick, and a pressed rose; though it was obvious that those weren't the three things, or rather people, she was trying to choose between.

Tikki watched her holder apprehensively. Ever since Emma had come clean to her and Plagg about who she really was, and what she was doing in the past, she had this feeling of overwhelming trepidation. Something terrible was going to happen - she just knew it.

But even with her kwami-senses buzzing irritably in warning, she had still agreed to help Emma, sensing it had been the right thing to do. It was obvious that Marinette and Adrien belonged together - even if they were completely oblivious about it. But tip-toeing the thin line between their identities and their love and the reveal had always been tricky.

"Marinette, you need to stop worrying about this." She advised, floating down to her holder, who was currently banging her head against her desk in agitation. The girl groaned loudly, sitting up straight to face Tikki. "But I used to have a plan. It was so simple - to let Adrien and Kagami have their happy ending and I would let Luka dazzle me with his musical talent. But now, I'm still torn between them, and that alley cat somehow wormed his way into my situation."

While Tikki knew that Adrien and Cat Noir were one and the same, Marinette was still blissfully oblivious, and remained thinking that her heart was still split between three boys when it really had always belonged to just one.

She wanted to just blurt it out and tell her - that there really was no competition, and that the boy she had crushed on for years and her beloved partner were one and the same. Instead, Tikki gave her holder a grim smile. "Love is complicated, Marinette, but it will find you. You'll feel it."

"But I have felt it - with all three of them!" She protested. "This is a disaster!" Marinette cried out, letting her head fall back onto her desk in defeat.

Guilt blossoming in her chest, Tikki wrapped her arms in a small embrace around Marinette's head, resting her cheek in soft midnight locks. "Just be patient - and trust yourself. Somewhere deep down inside, you know you've always known the answer."

- - -

Plagg

The cat-eared kwami sighed for the umpteenth time as he watched Adrien mutter to himself, stuck as he stared between his three computer screens, each showing different images of three different girls.

He himself had never been a romantic - love was just too complicated, and in all the thousands of years he had been alive, he still couldn't manage to understand it. But Tikki was his best friend, and when you were alive for as long as them and spent time together as long as them, rest assured that there was nothing in the world they wouldn't do for each other.

Which brought him to his current predicament - trying to make certain his holder chose the right person, and considering that two of his 'choices' were one and the same, Plagg was hoping that the 66.6% would win out over Kagami's so he wouldn't have to get involved as matchmaker.

But when you were a black cat - the very essence of bad luck, fortune always seemed to frown in his favor.

"Why can't this be easier? If I could just fall in love with Kagami and Kagami alone, then I wouldn't even be in this mess!" Adrien complained, turning to his kwami before Plagg had the chance to hide.

He swallowed. The kwami had never been very wise - Atlantis and the extinction of the dinosaurs as evidence. He didn't want to say the wrong thing and have Emma be the next victim of his naivety.

"Why don't you just choose Ladybug - the same girl you've been obsessed with for forever?" Plagg suggested.

He'd said the wrong thing.

Adrien sighed, flinging himself on his bed. "That's just the thing - I've been obsessed with her for years. And she's never shown any signs of liking me back. At least I know Kagami likes me back - what if I just pine over Ladybug forever?"

Why is my holder so oblivious?

Plagg bit back the retort, flying back towards his owner. "Look, kid. I'm no 'love' expert, but take my advice: just go with your gut. I've been your kwami for a few years now, and I know that you know who you like. You're just too afraid to admit it."

"What's that's supposed to mean?" Adrien asked - both offended and taken aback by his kwami's forwardness. Plagg rolled his eyes. "It means that you have to choose. It doesn't matter what anyone else wants - or what will make someone else 'feel better'. Who do you like? That's the person you belong with."