Miraculous Reveals and More (A collection of One-Shots)

Breaking News pt 2 (One-Shot, 3313 words)

(This is not a continuation of the other 'Breaking News' but just a reversal of what happened in that fic. So in this one, Mari believes that Chat is dead due to a news story. Enjoy!)

The thoughts of the weekend buzz through the crowds of students at Francois Dupont high school. Many have plans to meet up with others, while half have plans for a chill weekend to decompress.

Marinette is somewhere in between. She plans to work on some designs she drew up earlier in the week, refine them and maybe even make some prototypes if she has time. She makes a mental checklist of tasks she wants to hit as she stands at her locker, putting folders from her previous classes away.

She's about to close her locker when her phone beeps attentively, the same sound echoing through the halls from everyone else's devices as well.

She tenses up, the akuma alert effectively silencing any joyous chatter that had been going on. But when people open their phones to watch Nadia, something in her demeanor is off. The normally professional look in her eye, the neutral set of her jaw, is gone. Instead, her eyes are slightly glassy, her lips turned down ever so slightly. Marinette knows she can't be the only one to notice this; she unconsciously prepares herself for a very different news alert.

"This just in. Several reporters are coming in with the news that... Chat Noir has passed away."

A few gasps sound out across the school, the rest's jaws drop at the news, staring wide-eyed at their screens. Mari stops breathing, her shaking head almost imperceptibly.

"A close acquaintance of Jack Garnier, the real name of Chat Noir, came to several reporters this afternoon with the news." A school photo of a blond boy with brown eyes appears on the screen, "The acquaintance wanted the world to know what Jack did for Paris, and for him to be remembered as a hero after the unfortunate accident that led to his passing earlier today.

"Paris will mourn the loss of our hero Chat Noir, but will also mourn the loss of the brave Parisian boy who brought Chat Noir to life even more so." Nadia closes her eyes solemnly as the camera pans and fades to an 'In Memoriam' of Jack with the same photo as before.

Marinette stares into the eyes of the boy behind the mask of her partner, not wanting to believe it's true. She never met Jack Garnier before, his face is foreign to her but she searches for any sense of Chat in him. Maybe it's the way several muffled cries start to ricochet around the building, building off each other, or maybe it's the way her hands are practically vibrating holding the frozen picture of her partner's true face, that she lets herself slip into despair.

"Can you believe this crap?" Plagg chides, watching the transmission end on Adrien's phone over his shoulder. "People will make up anything to get famous these days."

Adrien had just finished at his locker when he got the alert. When Nadia stated that Chat was dead, he backed himself into a side hallway while everyone else was still as statues.

Adrien hopes this wasn't a prank, just a misunderstanding; definitely hoping that the young man, Jack, hadn't actually passed away to lead to this rumor.

At the end of the story, he pockets his phone, "We gotta straighten this out" he walks swiftly back to the main hallway. All around him, people are gathered with their close friends, either shock or tears on their faces. He shifts his gaze towards the exit, but his eyes stop on Marinette across the way, looking a little woozy.

He crosses to her just as her phone slips out from her fingers, her knees buckling for a split second. Adrien snags her phone before it cracks against the linoleum and steadies her with his other hand, holding her elbow. "Marinette?" He asks, concerned, looking into her far-away eyes, rimmed with tears.