BlackLynx17: I'm confused. Is Marinette and Adrien in college or not? Because in some episodes they are, and when you look online it does say college students, but in other episodes it says she's in middle school which I don't like because we already have enough children super heroes. I want a college super hero, I'm in college, that's cool to me!

Scratching The Surface.

Chapter 11.

She knows what Tiki said, she knows what Tiki told her, but honestly she doesn't care what Tiki told her! She misses her best friend and Marinette doesn't possibly see a better way to stop him from running away from her as she tries talking to him then now! While the two of them were locked up together in this room while the latest akuma runs around wild and free outside!

"Stand back, I'm going to try a Catacysm."

No! If he does that he'll have to leave straight after or else she'll find out his identity!

"Don't! I can't handle this bad guy alone; if you do that you'll have to leave, right?" Lady Bug asks holding her hands out.

Chat Noir blinks and looks at her, "is the Miraculous Lady Bug actually admitting that she would be nothing without me?"

"Well, I wouldn't say nothing," Lady Bug pouts and huffs at him.

Chat Noir starts laughing and it surprises the both of them. She smiles brightly seeing his carefree face, not being able to remember the last time she's seen it on him. It would be a lie if she said she missed the constant flirting and winks along with the unnecessary touching, but she did... not miss... feel like her day was a little empty-no boring-no different! Without it... without him.

"Chat Noir, are we alright?"

Chat Noir completely freezes at the question.

"I know you said we are, but this is the first time we've actually talked and when I've tried to before you usually run away. If we were okay we wouldn't have to be locked up together in a room, you know? So something has to be wrong with us."

He looks for an escape, but can't find a single one in sight.

"We're fine Lady Bug, fine, never better."

Lady Bug glares at him, "that isn't true and you know it isn't."

"Listen, this really isn't the time we should be talking about this. We should be focusing on getting out of here-"

"Do you swear that you won't run away after we save the city?" She asks.

Chat Noir whistles as he looks away from her gaze.

"See?! If not now, then when? I don't like this Chat Noir! I don't like our relationship right now! We're no better than strangers."

"Well what did you expect," Chat Noir mumbles to himself.

"What was that?!"

"Nothing, we need to leave this place."

"Talk to me first! Tell me the truth!"

"I already did! We're fine!"

"I don't believe you!"

"What do you want me to say Lady Bug?!" Chat Noir yells back at her, feeling backed into a corner.

"The truth!" She screams back, narrowing her eyes as she stares at him.

"You broke my heart!"

Lady Bug finally pulls back.

"You broke my heart Lady Bug! And it hurts being around you! It hurts fighting crime next to you knowing that you don't feel the same way and that's fine! You're entitled to your own feelings, but it hurts that it looks like you don't even care! Like my confession didn't even matter to you! Like it didn't phase you at all because that just makes me feel like you've never felt something like that towards me! Haven't you've ever got your hard broken before?! Do you have any idea how hard it is to be around that person when they don't care at all?!"

"Cha-Chat Noir-"

"Catalysm!" Chat Noir yells out breaking the door down.

He leaves without her, Lady Bug still standing in the room all alone clutching at her chest.

Seriously Marinette, you should have left things alone. What did you think was going to happen when you asked?

"Oh Tiki, it hurts." She whispers.

You're just feeling bad, but you didn't do anything wrong Marinette.

"He's my friend though."

How can you make this better Marinette? Do you love Chat Noir? Are you going to return his feelings? That's the only solution. What about Adrien?

She never wanted to hurt him. Chat Noir is someone irreplaceable in her life, someone she does hold close to her heart, but the one who ultimately holds it is Adrien. She can't be with him, but her heart is hurting so much right now for hurting him she doesn't know what's right and what's wrong anymore.

Marinette, we don't have time for this. Chat Noir's ring is about to go out and if that happens we'll be alone.

"I- I-" Lady Bug sniffs and rubs her eyes, hardening her mind and body.

She doesn't have time to be feeling this way, especially with so many lives at stake. She races outside to join Chat Noir in the fight, struggling a little bit before their teamwork effort finally captures the akuma and set it free. She expects Chat Noir to run away from her like he always does, especially after the fight they had earlier, but he stays behind.

"Lady Bug... I'm sorry." He mumbles sighing out.

"No Chat Noir, I should be apologizing-"

"No, you shouldn't. I'm the one who confessed to you and made everything this awkward in the first place. I expected too much from you and just... I couldn't stand another day not knowing if you loved me or not, not knowing if we could be together already if I simply took the first step and dove in."

Lady Bug gasps and covers her mouth.

"I... I'm not sorry about confessing, your rejection helped me open my eyes and it finally put my wondering and heart at rest. I'm sorry about avoiding you though, which isn't a cool thing, so I'm going to start being better. I'm getting over my heartache, it's just going to take some time. You can't instantly fall out of love with a girl like you. We can't go back to what we use to be right now, but one day in the very near future we will Lady Bug. See, here's the first step to that."

Chat Noir gives her one of his playful grins and holds his fist out to her.

"Friends?"

Lady Bug doesn't say anything, simply staring at his fist stretched out to her. His ring starts beeping making him laugh a bit.

"Can we hurry it up? I'm about to run out of juice here."

"Maybe... if it hurts to much... maybe it's better if we work separately?" She asks.

Chat Noir's face falls, "you can't mean that."

Adrien! Our time is really almost up! If you don't leave now she's going to find out who you are!

"You can't- I have to- we're friends! We'll always be friends Lady Bug, I'll always be your partner." Chat Noir tells her.

He walks up and grabs her hand, balling it into a fist and bumping them together. Lady Bug looks up at him and he looks right back down at her before running off, escaping from the roof top. Her heart is hurting even more than before now; she crumbles down to her legs and sighs out.

Marinette!? What were you thinking?!

"It hurts to be around me. I don't want to hurt him anymore Tiki."

That's just a broken heart! If you still listened to him you were have heard him say that he'll get over it soon enough and everything will be better again!

"I don't want to hurt him anymore Tiki!" Lady Bug screams out, "I... I've already hurt him enough."

Marinette... you silly girl. He wants to stay friends.

"Yeah right, if he wanted that then he would have confessed."

I can tell you a millions things Marinette, but if you don't want to feel better about this then they won't work. What do you want me to say?

Lady Bug doesn't say anything. She simply stands back up on her feet and starts to make her way home, Chat Noir running all around her mind. Everything would be better if he would have never confessed. If he would have just be happy with them fighting crime together. She wouldn't have to worry about him or feel this way at all, at home, during school, with Adrien, none of these feelings would be happening right now.

Because how can she be so positively happy with everything in her life now that she has Adrien when Chat Noir is absolutely miserable because of her? How could she get the love of her life when Chat Noir couldn't get his? He's a great guy! Strong! Athletic! Extremely handsome! He's funny when he's not flirting, nice when he's not annoying, he's a real charmer and playboy and he's not a bad guy! He really isn't! He's just not the guy she's been chasing after.

He's not the one she's fallen in love with.

So where does that leave them now? She's going to fight crime without him? Ignore him like he's ignored her before? No, that won't get them anywhere. That's the problem they had before and she's still going to have this pain in her chest if she does that to him.

Does she really have to simply wait?

Not do a thing? Is she really so useless? Not being able to fix this one bit? There's nothing she can do, nothing she can do. She can't even be there for her friend and consul him since she's the one hurting him! What is wrong with her?! Why did- why did-

"Tiki... am I a bad person?"

No Marinette. If you were a bad person you wouldn't be caring about this as much as you are now. You're a good friend.

She takes a small breath and sighs out, "what should I do Tiki?"

Like I said before, wait. He's going to get over it, you're going to get over it, one day the two of you will forget about this. Just be there when he needs you to be like a friend would. You heard it, he wants to be friends.

Lady Bug sighs out and looks up at the clouds. She knows she shouldn't be saying this, she's already an adult and in college, but still she can't help it.

"I'm too young to be going through this."