A/N~ Before we get into this chapter, I just wanted to thank you guys so much! I am overwhelmed by the support and enthusiasm that you guys have been showing and it's just amazing. This story wouldn't be the same without all of my amazing readers to cheer me on.
~MiraculouslyyPanda
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Marinette screamed in horror at the sight before her. Tears began to fill her eyes and she ran towards the body. Laying in a pool of his own blood was Chat Noir. His usually glowing green eyes were dull and glossy. Marinette fell to her knees next to him and held his head on her lap.
"No, no, no! This is a dream or something. This can't be real!" She cried as she rubbed her thumb across his face.
"Chat, I'm so sorry. I love you, kitten. Please, please, you can't be dead. I love you, I love you, please..." She begged. However, he did not reply. Marinette longed for one of his terrible puns or hopeless romantic lines. She wished nothing more than for him to flash his charming smile at her. But he did not comply.
"This can't be real..." Marinette cried. "This has to be a dream... It's an illusion... My kitten..." Marinette trailed off and dug her face into his still chest and wrapped her arms around his unmoving body. She didn't know how long she stayed in the cold of the night weeping. She didn't care. She didn't care that her clothes were stained with his blood. She didn't care about anything but the lifeless boy laying with her on the balcony.
~
Chat Noir's eyes widened as he saw Reaper reach a bony finger out and strike Ladybug. Her eyes went black and she began muttering under her breath in fear and anguish. Chat Noir was alone in this fight now. He leaped to a nearby roof and pulled the noose off his belt and looked at it. There had to be something he could use this for. He stared at the reaper, who was now slowly reaching forward to retrieve Ladybug's earings.
"No!" He yelled before realizing what he had to do. He repositioned the noose in his hand and held it firmly as he ran forwards. He extended his staff and pushed the villain away from his lady. While the Reaper stood a few feet away now, Chat flung the noose forward and successfully wrapped it around the akuma's scythe. He tightened the noose and pulled it towards him. The akuma began rushing towards him, but it was too late. Chat Noir snapped the scythe against his knee and a black butterfly flew out. Chat grabbed Ladybug's yo-yo and did his best to copy what she did when she captured the akuma.
"Bye-Bye little butterfly," He said as he, surprisingly, released a white, purified butterfly. He smiled to himself with pride as he watched it fly away. He couldn't, however, enjoy his moment of victory for long because he became aware of his surroundings. He grabbed the noose and flung it into the air and it exploded into thousands of tiny ladybugs and pink sparkles, which swarmed around Paris. The Reaper disappeared in a cloud of black and Chat saw a young boy laying on the ground. Chat helped him up and instructed him to go home before he looked around for Ladybug. He saw her laying against a wall sobbing, but her eyes were back to their normal blue color.
~
Marinette suddenly felt the body in her arms begin to fade. She opened her eyes and looked around. She was no longer on her balcony, she was in an alleyway laying on the ground. She looked through her blurry eyes at her hands and saw red and black spots. Her eyes stung from the tears but she didn't care. She couldn't stop picturing Chat's dead body in her mind. She pushed herself towards a wall and pushed her knees to her chest and continued to mourn, even though she knew it wasn't real. She cried for about a minute before she felt strong arms wrap around her. She looked up as a perfect teardrop trickled down her face.
"Chat!" She exclaimed before wrapping her arms around him, now on her knees. She took a deep breath, trying to stop herself from crying. She felt safe in his warm embrace. "I thought..." She whispered between breaths. "I thought I lost you."
He hugged her tighter and whispered back, "You will never lose me, M'Lady." Normally she would have groaned or rolled her eyes at his nickname, but at this moment, she loved that name. She could have stayed in his embrace forever, but it was soon interrupted by a beeping in her ear, notifying that she only had one minute before she would change back. She didn't move, not wanting to leave his arms, but Chat knew that she couldn't reveal her identity to him, so her unwrapped his arms from her and pulled her to her feet.
"It's okay, Bugaboo, I'm here. But for now, you need to go detransform." She nodded, wiping away the last of the tears from her eyes and reaching for her yo-yo. She looked around anxiously for it, and Chat laughed. "Sorry, I had to use it earlier." He handed it back to her and she immediately flew off. She landed in a nearby alley and was engulfed in pink sparkles just before she hit the ground. Tikki flew out of her earings and took a deep breath.
"Are you okay, Marinette?" Tikki asked sympathetically as she hugged Marinette's cheek. Marinette nodded and rubbed her eyes.
"I'll be fine, Tikki. What about you? You must be worn out." She replied with a breath.
"I am, but it's okay. I grabbed a cookie before we left, so I'll eat that and be fine." She smiled before flying into Marinette's bag.
Marinette nodded and began walking back towards her home at the bakery when her phone began to ring. Marinette jumped, startled, but pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at the screen. It was Adrien. She took a deep breath and answered.
"Adrien, hi! I almost -" She began.
"Marinette! Are you okay? I hope that akuma didn't get to you! It was terrifying and really dangerous and I don't want you to be hurt or scared or anything." Adrien rushed with worry in his voice.
"Adrien. Adrien!" She stopped him. "I'm okay. It, uh, it didn't get to me." She lied, a stray tear rolling down her cheek. She heard him let out a long breath that he had obviously been holding in.
"I'm so glad. I heard that the akuma got to Ladybug and it was really bad. I didn't want you to go through the same thing." He explained lovingly.
"I'm on my way over, assuming you still want me to. If not, I can-"
"Oh! Yes, yeah! I'll see you soon, angel." He replied.
"See you soon." She said before hanging up. She quickly wiped away the tear and turned around, walking towards the Agreste manor.
Adrien paced nervously by the front door. He knew it was the right thing to do, but he was still terrified. He jumped when he heard a knock at the door. He rushed towards it, trying to calm his nerves on the way, and opened it. Marinette stood there with a smile on her face, but her eyes were puffy. She walked inside and Adrien immediately picked her up and twirled her around, planting a kiss on her lips. When he set her down, he gave her a stern look.
"You lied to me didn't you." He scolded.
Marinette was mortified. He knew about Chat Noir! He called her over to yell at her for cheating. How did he know? Maybe he doesn't.
"Wha- What do you mean?" She asked. She tried to sound innocent but failed miserably.
"You said the akuma didn't get to you!" He explained with worry in his eyes and seriousness in his voice. Marinette tried not to show her relief.
"I- uh, I didn't want you to worry about me. I'm fine, really." She lied. It seemed to work because his face softened.
"I'll always worry about you, angel. I love you." He replied gently. He leaned in and pressed his lips softly to her forehead.
"I'm okay, I promise." She whispered. She hoped she sounded convincing. "Anyways, did you call me over here for a reason or...?" She wondered, desperate to change the topic.
"Oh, I uh, heh, yeah, I ah, hm," Adrien stammered. Marinette tilted her head at him.
"What is it?" She asked, kind of worried about him now.
"I ah, I wanted to, um," He took a deep breath. "Follow me." He grabbed her arm and led her up the marble stairs and into his room. Once they were alone, he let go of her arm and looked down at his feet.
"Adrien... You're scaring me. What's wrong?"
"I promise, I love you. No matter what, I love you so, so much." He babbled.
"I love you too... What is going on with you today?" She asked him seriously.
Adrien opened his mouth to say something but he closed it again. He was losing his nerve. He reached over and held Marinette's hands in his. "Don't be mad, okay?" He asked carefully.
"What is it? Seriously, Adrien."
He mumbled something under his breath that Marinette couldn't quite catch. A green light exploded in the room and Marinette closed her eyes to shield herself from the light. Once she didn't see it through her eyelids anymore, she opened them and gasped.
"Chat?! I- I- What?" She exclaimed. She looked down at her hands and saw that she was no longer holding Adrien's hands. Black leather gloves were now folded around her's. She backed away, forcing away his hands. Chat Noir let a worried frown show on his face.
"What do you think?" He asked.
"What do I think? What do I think?" Marinette burst, her face turning red.
"Yeah?" He answered, scared.
"You- You-" Her face turned serious. "You asshole!" She yelled in anger. She turned away from him, not wanting him to see her expression. He wiped her eyes, refusing to let any tears fall. Once she collected herself, she turned back to face him with double the fury.
"I was planning to come here today and break down. I was going to apologize and beg for your forgiveness and tell you that Chat Noir had been coming to my room at night and making me cheat on you! I was going to tell you that I'd never do it again, that I feel like the worst person on the planet!" She yelled. Chat's ears went back and he shrunk down.
"I-" He started.
"No, you don't get to speak," Marinette informed him. "No, no, it's my turn. You make me feel like this terrible person, you get me caught cheating on Adrien. Then you just leave with no defense. Then you ask me over here and expect me to just fall into your arms and forgive you for making me feel like I'm scum." Tears streamed down her face.
"Princess, I-"
"Don't 'princess' me. No more. No more 'princess,' no more 'angel,' no. I don't even know how to process all of this, but I hope you are aware of how pissed I am." She yelled. She stormed over to the other side of his room and sat on his bed. Chat wanted to go over and comfort her and apologize. He stood in silence and watched her as she puffed to herself angrily.
After a while, she looked up at him. In a quiet voice that pierced through his ears, she asked, "Who else knows about this?"
He slowly shook his head. "Nobody. You're the only person I've told." He explained quietly.
She nodded her head. "Good. You shouldn't have even told me. Don't tell anyone else."
He nodded.
It got silent again. Marinette didn't know what to think. She let an angry expression rest on her face, but she wasn't all angry. She was so happy, happy that the two people she loved were the same person. But she was angry, angry that he let her believe that she was cheating on him. Angry that she had let herself. Marinette pulled out her phone and opened the pictures that Alya had sent her a while back of her and Chat. As she looked through them, a tear landed on her phone and she wiped it away. She got to the one that she was looking for and held out her hand, motioning for Chat to come to look at her phone.
Chat looked down at the phone in Marinette's palm and winced. It was the photo of the night she had sent him away, the night she had the most painful expression on her face. He looked back at Marinette and saw the same expression.
"You let me go because you loved me, didn't you?" She asked, still looking down at her lap. He was surprised to hear how soft her voice was.
"You let me send you away because you wanted me to be happy."
Chat nodded.
"And then, once I was, you came back anyway."
Chat nodded again, ashamed.
"Why? Why did you come back as Chat and mess everything up?"
He looked away. "I- I don't know." He admitted.
"Why?" She looked up at him, forcing him to meet her gaze.
"I, I wanted to make sure you loved both sides of me." He confessed.
"How could you ever doubt that? How could you doubt that I loved both you and Chat? That's why, whenever you would come through that damn window, it tore me apart."
Once more, silence filled the air. Chat used this silence to detransform back into Adrien, and even Plagg stayed silent, simply flying away to go eat cheese in the other room. Adrien looked at his feet and broke the silence.
"Do you still?"
Marinette blinked away the last of her tears. "Do I still what?"
"Do you still love me?"
Marinette let out a breath and looked into those green eyes that she drowned in every time she met them. "Of course I do. I'm still pissed, but I could never stop loving you." Her voice softened down to almost a whisper, but Adrien still heard it. He stepped closer to her, searching her eyes for permission. Before Adrien could do anything, Marinette leaped up and wrapped her arms around his neck and brought her lips to his. Adrien melted into her and he felt whole again.
Marinette's eyes opened and widened. She quickly pulled away from the kiss and gasped. "Oh, God. Oh my God!" She exclaimed.
"What... What is it?" Adrien asked, worried that he had done something.
"I've... oh my God!" She exclaimed again.
"What?" He asked, still scared.
"You little brat!" She yelled as she rushed towards him and kissed him again. He was taken aback, but he accepted it. When she pulled away again, he tilted his head.
"What was that? And are we okay, now?" He asked cautiously. Marinette shook her head. Adrien frowned and looked at her apologetically.
"Before everything is okay again, we both need to be honest." She explained. He tilted his head, confused.
"At least I already know that you love both sides of me, you little brat." She laughed.
"What?"
Marinette mumbled something under her breath and quickly pressed their lips together. She smiled against him as she saw his eyes squeeze shut as pink light flooded the room. When he opened his eyes again, he gasped and fell backward onto the floor.
"Marinette? You're- Oh my God!" He exclaimed. Ladybug laughed and helped him up.
"Don't be mad at me?" She smiled.
Adrien laughed and picked her up bridal style. They pressed their foreheads together and let out a happy breath.
A/N: Man, this is hard to write. This is the last chapter of An Unlikely Intern. There will be an epilogue coming soon, though. But after that, this book will be completed. I hope you guys enjoyed this story. Thank you guys for all of your support once again. I loved writing this and am sad to see it come to an end, but luckily it's a happy one. I am going to begin writing another Miraculous story soon, so stay tuned. Love you all,
~MiraculouslyyPanda