Chapter Text
Marinette gasped loudly as she opened her eyes and the bright light of the sun between the clouds welcomed her back after what she thought had been her death.
Lying down in the middle of a Parisian street she heard the screaks from car’s wheels, honks and people whispering around.
She bent her arms and pulled herself up and give one look around where she lied down. This place didn’t look like it did five seconds ago as she was falling from the rooftop.
The echo of Chat’s scream was still ringing on her ears, but he was nowhere to be found, and that was what set up the panic.
Ladybug stood on her feet like a spring and started to look around her, trying to catch a glimpse of black, the shadow of the akuma or something that could erase the bad thoughts that were appearing in her mind.
People around her and the honks of the car started to get louder, instead of trying to help her, a person in a superhero suit that looked obviously lost, they were taking their phones and snapping pictures as they gushed around.
She had to come up with a plan, but the stress and uncertainty of the situation were mashing her brain, letting only fear to take over her.
Trembling and panicking, unusual behaviour for her she started to walk backwards, trying to stay away from the camera flashes and the shouts. She bumped into a car and almost lose her balance.
Marinette blinked fast and rubbed her eyes. There was something wrong and she didn’t know what, but it was making her freak out.
The high pitched sound of her earrings beeped, making her come back to herself.
That was her cue, she had to leave.
Unsure of where to go, in this strange version of Paris she could not go wrong whichever direction she chose to go. So she took her yoyo, wrapped it around a pipe on the building on her right and flee out of the middle of the street and found hiding in an alley only a few meters away from where she initially was.
Tikki dropped out of the earrings and swirled around as she usually did but landed in her hands more heavily than ever.
“Tikki are you okay?”
Tikki shook her head and closed her eyes, “Too tired.”
“I don’t know if I have cookies, I’ll go find some immediately!”
“No,” The soft voice of her kwami was barely heard, “Sleep.”
Marinette did not ask further. She opened her bag and put her kwami inside it, petting her just before closing it.
Now, it was for her to deal with this alone until Tikki was strong enough to help her.
She walked down the street, hugging herself and repressing the upcoming sobs that made her jaw quiver and shivers go up and down her spine.
There was something so different about this Paris that it made her feel nauseous.
Standing at the edge of the alley, she looked around, deciding what to do next.
The alley was silent in comparison to the city so it was impossible to not notice the sudden sound of footsteps behind her.
Her blood chilled and a knot tied in her throat.
She put her hands in fists and took a deep breath. Whoever it was, she was not going to put an easy fight.
But then, the stranger talked.
“Marinette,” Hearing her name was as terrifying as relieving.
She spun on her heels and followed the man’s voice. When her sight stumbled with him she let out a loud gasp.
He was smiling, his expression was so warm, he stood in front of her with so much calm, and she couldn’t help but smile.
She knew him. That was a familiar face, the face of someone she loved.
“Oh!” Marinette choked before continuing the phrase and started crying, throwing herself at the tall man that stood in front of her, wearing black leather and cat ears. His arms were open and ready to catch her and when she was between his arms, she started crying.
The calm she was feeling that had made her let go and lie on his shoulder disappeared when she realized that her feet were not touching the ground.
Marinette backed down a little and studied Chat Noir one more time. Before she had seen him in a blur, the ecstasy had not helped her to see things clearly but now she noticed little details about him that made her doubt about who this really was.
Marinette pushed him away and landed back on the floor. The superhero didn’t complain and stayed right where he was, a soft smile decorating his lips.
“You’re taller,” She said, it was a simple phrase but since she was considering this might not be her partner it was a safe way to start investigating.
“I am,” He nodded, “Welcome to the future, baby-bug.”
Ah.
What? The future?
Stupid akumas, they would be the death of her.
“That explains a few things.”
“My incredibly enhanced dashing looks?” Chat asked, flicking his hair.
She laughed. He was still the same and because of that, she was not about to make his ego grow even more by telling him the truth. Yes, he did look very handsome, there was something extremely attractive about his hair being styled shorter than usual, and all the baby fat around his jaw had disappeared making it look so sharp it might cut something at any given moment.
Marinette got her words ready to go, ready to tease him when she realized something wasn’t right.
Chat was keeping his distance, he never did that. That worried her, this was the future, what could have changed?
The thought appeared so fast, that the question left her lips before she could think it over, “Are we still friends?”
He tilted his head and bit his lip in an adoring way.
“Yes, the best.”
Marinette’s smile could have brightened up the whole city.
“Of course, forever and always,” She said mostly to herself.
But Chat heard and his sight dropped, so did his smile.
“What? I know that face, you might be older but I know what that face means,” She pointed at him, “Tell me.”
“Always so bossy,” He chuckled but it died down quickly, “ Now we’re inseparable but… we weren’t friends for a while,”
“What do you mean?” Marinette felt like the air was escaping her lungs, “How could we not be friends,”
Chat closed the distance between them cautiously, he placed his hands on top of her shoulders and squeezed tenderly.
“Breathe, don’t freak out.” His voice was so smooth and it was the perfect thing to hear when panicking. She closed her eyes and focused on his reassuring words and soft caresses. “C’mon, we’ll talk about this somewhere else, somewhere better.”
Marinette nodded.
She did not need him to tell her to know that he was about to carry her. Wrapping her hands around his neck and standing on the tips of her feet to make him easier for him, she felt at home while being years away from it.
xx
The sun was setting down which made a thousand of shadows appear on the roof, creating a path that Chat Noir followed.
From above, Marinette could still recognize almost all of Paris, as different as it was but it was hard to tell exactly where they were going, the only thing she was sure was that they were arriving at a more residential part of Paris.
“We’re here,” Chat announced as they landed on a small balcony and put her down.
He walked to the window and opened it with his claws, “C’mon Nette,”
At the sound of the nickname, the penny dropped.
“You know who I am,”
Her partner laughed, “Of course, dummy. Did you just realized that now?”
“Yes,” She pouted.
He kept laughing and ruffled her hair. “You’re adorable. I’m sorry, I know it must be shocking. I know that you still don’t know and don’t worry I won’t tell you either. You’ll get to experience that with younger-me.”
“Okay,” Marinette did not ask for more, the reveal of their identities was not bothering her. Him telling her that there was a period of time where they weren’t friends was.
She followed him inside the room, her hand on his as he guided her to the center of the room and turned on the lights.
Marinette looked around. The room was tidy and smelled like lavender, but it missed cozy and personal details, it was like the room had been wiped clean just a few hours before because she could see the marks on the walls where frames should be.
“Where are we?”
“My house, more exactly, my room.”
“Did you do something to it?”
“Always so clever,” He smiled as he walked to the nightstand next to the window and put his watch on top of it, “You’re in the future so I wanted to make the space as neutral as it can be so you don’t get… uh, spoilers ?”
Marinette giggled.
“Good idea. Let’s keep the timeline as it is.”
“Yeah,” He nodded.
“So, if it doesn’t mess up the timeline too much, would you tell me about us? Like you said we weren’t friends for a while and I would like to know.”
“You are not going to let that go, uh?”
“Nop,” The ‘p’ popped in a funny way that made Chat laugh.
“I suppose I already spilled, so a few stories won’t hurt. I’ll try to leave the most important details out so we don’t break the course of time or anything,”
“Fair,”
“Sit down,” He tapped on the bed and she did as he said.
“We are friends now, as I said before, but after…. uh... after we revealed each other’s identities, we lost contact,” It was a strange thing to hear him go straight to the point, but he was older, he had matured. “It was like we had never been friends.”
“Oh.” That didn’t sound good, not at all. Had they hated each other behind the mask? Had he been disappointed in her? Had she been disappointed in him ? “Why?”
“We both had lots of things to figure out, me more than you but… we gave each other time and then suddenly, we weren’t talking,” He sighed, “That went for a very long time. I can’t explain why we did it, we just did. We moved on and never tried to look for the other, we never casually ran into each other and sometimes I would hear about you but I did my best to ignore it because it hurt too much. You did the same, or so you told me.
“My life was a mess but I was trying my best to fix it and at some point, I got married. I was young and living life recklessly. I was in a bad place, and I met this girl. She was gorgeous, funny and she made me feel good -and all the things a good therapist would have given me- and because of that I married her, however, it ended as well as you can imagine, one year and four months later I filed for divorce.”
Marinette did not know what to say, he was throwing a huge amount of heavy information at her that she was barely processing, so she only said the obvious thing she thought she should say.
“I’m sorry,”
Surprisingly, he laughed, “I’m not. Divorcing her was the greatest thing that happened to me. She was a gold digger and a pathological liar. Hear me out, little lady, you know that they said that if something looks way too good it probably isn’t? Well, she was unbelievably too good but I was an idiot.”
“I’ll keep it in mind,”
“After that, this cat finally got himself into therapy! Life got brighter again and I started talking to all the people I had cut out of my life, I got into university, I got a part-time job and picked up on most of my hobbies,
Marinette smiled.
“And then…” He made a dramatic pause. She couldn’t help but roll her eyes when he clapped on his kneecaps like a drum.
“And then I searched for you.” Chat finally said, a sparkle on his eyes as he looked at her, “I got the address of where you were working. I put on my best black clothes, messed up my hair a little and bought flowers, roses . All just in case you forgot my face or just if you saw me walking down the hallway and wanted to run and hide.
“That’s considered,” She squeezed his hand, “But I didn't run, did I?
“You did not. I don’t think you really thought I was there until I reached the middle of the office. But then when you were finally convinced, you met me halfway down the corridor, looked at me with those same gleaming eyes and threw yourself at me so I could catch you in a hug. It was quite a show, your colleagues don’t let you forget it.”
Chat pressed his hand against her cheek, ran his thumb across it and cleaned up the tears that were falling.
“I’m sorry, I just… can’t imagine my life without you and hearing that we weren’t friends and that you were going through a dark time makes me really sad.”
“It’s okay, we found our way back, we did have some rough patches as we tried to be friends again, but we are as tight as we were before, maybe even more. I’m happy, you’re happy. We’re the happiest.”
Marinette cried louder, “These are tears of joy, I promise.”
“I know, I can tell,” Chat said mid-laugh and caught her in a hug.
“So,” She sobbed, gaining back some control she cleaned her tears, “For what I gather, we do not fight together anymore… did you still run around rooftops and all? I find hard to believe we didn’t collide into each other’s lives for ‘so long’”
“We gave the miraculous and our kwamis back,” Chat said, looking at the floor, “We visit them every now and then--
“But you’re transformed,” She interrupted.
“Special occasion."
“I saw you running on the rooftops and since I was having lunch with ‘future-you’, she remembered this happening and we decided that the best solution was to ask permission to use Plagg and the ring again and keep you safe until past-me can figure this thing out.”
Tears reappeared on her eyes. She did not like the idea of leaving Tikki away from her, the kwami was part of her now.
Chat looked at the clock on the wall.
“I think we still have some time, it took me a few hours to figure out how to use the lucky charm you left behind.”
“Tell me more then.”
“Of me?”
“Yes, I want to know. You look so serene, it warms my heart.”
“What can I tell you?” He tapped his bottom lip with his finger, “I work on social services.”
“Really? What do you do?”
“I’m a psychologist. I treat kids that lived in negligent or abusive homes.” The way he said it made her believe there was a big story behind it, but she rather not ask. It seemed personal, and she was sure she would know about it later in life.
“That’s amazing Chat.”
“Yeah, you think so,” He grinned. “Well, since I told you about my failed marriage, I want to make sure that you know that I did not give up on love because only three years later I married the love of my life."
Marinette’s eyes grew wide open
“That’s amazing. How did you meet her? Blind date? A friend of a friend? How did it all work out? Oh my, do I like her?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, you like her.”
“Good,”
“I already knew her. She was… I met her at school,” Chat said, a goofy smile on his lips. “Actually, she was the person I should have married from the very beginning. I did a detour but she was always the one .”
“That’s so sweet.” Marinette elbowed him softly, “Even when you were in love with me?”
They laughed.
“Yes. I loved her even when I pretended not to.”
“What about her?”
“As if she loved me back then too?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, she did, she is more clever than I am and realized we were meant to be before I did.” Chat threw his head back, “She waited for me. I never understood why. I didn’t deserve it…. I… I but I think now I know why she waited and I owe her my life because, without her, I’m nothing.”
“I'm sure that’s not true.”
“It is. We complement, encourage and love each other. I don’t want to live in a world where she doesn’t exist.”
“I'm so glad to hear you’re happy.”
“We are.”
“For how long have you been married?”
“Five years.”
“Amazing! What is she like? How is like living with her?”
“Great, amazing, the best thing in the world.” He said, “That answers both questions.”
“Cool!"
“But I can add to the living question. It has not been only the two of us for a year and a half.”
“Only? What do you mean? Who else liv-- Oh god, you have a child?”
“A little girl,” He nodded, “And, we are expecting another girl. My wife is at the beginning of her second trimester.”
“Oh my, congratulations! But isn’t it a bit quick?”
“We want to have them young, she has all this plan in like an excel board" He chuckled, “I told her to slow down that she should focus on her career, and you know what she said?”
“What?
“That she could multi-task,”
“Okay, I really, really like her.”
“I would be surprised if you didn’t.”
Chat stood up and walked and sat at the other side of the bed, close to the backrest. He opened the drawer of the nightstand and started to make some noise as he moved objects inside of it.
Marinette looked at him stranged, “What are you looking for?”
“Something for you before you leave.”
“Am I leaving?”
“I’ll give it a minute or two," He shrugged.
“You shouldn’t give me anything, we don’t want to break the timeline, remember?”
“Oh, a piece of chocolate won’t hurt no one,” He said, showing the pink bar of chocolate.
Marinette crooked a brow, “I’ve never seen that chocolate before.”
“Becuase it hasn’t been created yet. I’ll give it two years. But, take my word for it, you’ll love it,” Chat sat down beside her again and lent her the candy bar. “You love this chocolate brand so much that I usually carry one with me to give it to you if you have a craving.”
“Oh, that’s so sweet of you.”
“Only the best for my lady, baby-bug.” He pocked her cheek, “Open this one with me on May twenty-three. We’ll both need it.”
“Something bad happens?”
“That’s for you to live through, princess.” He said and smiled but it did not reach his eyes, “Also, give Tikki this and transform. You don’t want the world to know who you are.” Chat gave her one toffee candy.
Marinette nodded, took the candy and opened the bag, taking Tikki out of it.
“Tikki,” She whispered and poke her tiny belly.
The kwami opened her eyes and fluttered her eyelashes for a second.
“I have food.”
“I’m sorry it is not cookies. My daughter really is out there putting a fight to win your title of most-cookies-eaten-in-an-hour,”
Tikki giggled softly, and Marinette felt her heart warm up.
The kwami accepted the candy and swallowed it quickly, way too quickly for a toffee candy, but the switch of the atmosphere was palpable. There was not much time left.
When Tikki felt ready, Marinette transformed.
Chat Noir took her gloved hand on his and admired it.
“I’ve not seen you in spots for so long, I really forgot how adorable you were,”
Their eyes connected, it was a bond full of nostalgia that she felt it didn’t belong to her.
The moment was interrupted before she could figure out what the radiating feeling coming from Chat was. A blue sphere opened in the middle of the room and like a tornado started to try to suck everything in.
“It’s time,” They said at the unison.
Marinette hugged him.
“Thank you, minou. It wasn’t as strange as it could have been and it is all thanks to you.”
“No problem. You always can count on me.” He kissed her cheek. “No matter how ridiculous something can be, I’m always there for you.”
“I know.”
“And because of that, follow my advice and tell Alya to buy the blue dress, not the red one.”
“What?”
“Just do it, okay?”
“Okay?”
“And, bug,” He fidgeted on his spot.
“Yeah?"
“Just remember. I never stopped loving you, not for a second. Even when I was an idiot, you were always in my heart,” He marked the last words with extreme care.
“Alright. I’m sure I've always loved you too.” She said tenderly.
“And most important: It was not your fault.”
“What wasn’t?
“It never was, it never will. This is on him and only him.”
He hugged her
“You’ll have to be more specif--
xx
Marinette felt her heart stop and restart in less than a second.
Her eyes were open and the sky was blue but there were black and white spots all over and she could not see clearly where she was.
But she could feel it. Strong arms wrapped around her and the thickness of magic leather rubbed against her cheek. And if that didn’t give it away, he talked to confirm it.
“Oh mon dieu, you’re alive, you’re alive! I thought I’d lost you!”
He squeezed her so tight that she felt like she couldn’t breathe but as uncomfortable as it was, she felt joyful.
“Oh, kitty,” She whispered in his ear, hugging him back and leaving a trail of kisses on his cheek.
It was so good to see him again.
After listening to his older self tell her all about them, she would make sure to appreciate moments like this more.
“I was so scared,” He whimpered.
“It is okay, I’m okay.” She brushed pieces of his hair as she nuzzled her nose against his neck, “You made sure of that.”
“What?” Chat backed down a little. He cupped her cheek and rubbed his finger on her cheek. “It took me forever to figure out how to use your lucky charm. You can be mad.”
“It wasn’t so long for me,” Marinette assured him.
“But--
She put one finger on top of her mouth, “Shut up. I’m back and fine. And you know what?”
“What?”
“I love you.”
His eyes grew so big she was sure they were about to pop out of their sockets. Then a goofy smile appeared on his lips.
“I love you too. Forever and always.”
Marinette’s lips quivered. The use of the words made her talk with future-Chat echo in her head.
At some point, an upcoming point, in the future they would not be friends, they would not be around each other, they would not even get a glimpse of the other, and that was going to hurt. She had been warned and still couldn’t wrap her mind around it.
The possibility of telling him was right there at an arm’s reach and as much as she wanted to spill all, his older self had trusted her, and he looked so extremely happy that she could not mess up and ruin his life.
Marinette had never seen him glow like the few hours she was in the future. Maybe they would hurt, they would be apart, but they were going to find their way back to each other, and she would look forward to that when it happened.
Also, the phrase made her remember what he last said: he never stopped loving her.
So, instead of giving him a warning she pressed one long kiss on his cheek and whispered.
“I know.”
“Good,” He said, smiling even brighter than before, “Hey, what’s that in your hand?”
Marinette looked down and saw the chocolate bar. She laughed.
“I’ll tell you about it later.”