Ladybug sat on the Eiffel Tower and waited for her partner to arrive.
It had been such an underwhelming day. The final showdown, the fight between good and evil, had been rather anti-climactic. Hawkmoth was dead. And with him, fear and surprisingly, given the horrible akuma designs, a fashion empire was crumbling.
That's right. Hawkmoth had been Marinette's biggest role model. Gabriel Agreste was her worst enemy.
She was pretty distraught about it, but nowhere near the same about that Chat had been. When Agreste's mask tell of, Chat was devastated. It seemed like he had suffered a personal betrayal.
Maybe he was having a rough day to begin with. Or maybe Chat was just that big of a fan of Gabriel Agreste.
Either way, she would find out tonight.
One more day. That's all they were given. One day and then they had to return the miraculous.
They swore to meet up and share their identities.
Finally, Marinette would get to know the boy behind the mask.
Her best friend. Her partner. Her boyfriend. She would meet him.
It was surreal.
If only he would show up to meet her.
...
She waited for hours. At least, it felt like it. After a while, her eyelids grew too heavy, and she laid down.
A quick nap. That's what she had promised herself. She would lie down for maybe an hour, just until Chat arrived.
They would celebrate together and reveal their identities.
He had promised.
Together, they would go to the police and talk about the end of Hawkmoth.
They'd ensure that the citizens of Paris didn't need to have fear.
She promised that it would be a short nap.
But she wasn't the only one breaking promises that night.
...
When she woke up, she had an unfamiliar blanket. And no partner.
It was soft, but itchy. Cold, but warmer than nothing.
And it was the last thing that her partner had given her.
It was blue, like her eyes, a knitted blanket.
She Sat up, but Chat was nowhere to be seen, even though he had clearly visited her.
Instead, of a partner, sitting in front of her was a little plastic box.
She opened it and found two things.
A note, that simply said, "I'm sorry," and a cassette tape.
She wanted an explanation, but only got more questions.
...
If that wasn't the most frustrating, confusing way to get a message across, Marinette didn't know what was.
Cassette tapes were practically dead. No one used them anymore.
It would've been much simpler for Chat to record his message as an mp3 file. To give her a usb... assuming that he had a computer.
Most people did.
But...
Maybe it was supposed to be a grand gesture. She would go out of her way to find him and meet him and they'd fall in each others arms and smile.
He'd get down on one knee and propose and she's say yes.
But just maybe.
She hoped it was something with romantic intent, not just Chat being nervous about giving her a message.
She wasn't annoyed, even though it was difficult to listen to.
She would've been annoyed if she didn't have a friend like her best friend's boyfriend, Nino. Nino, reliable as always, had a collection of music, old and new. He had vinyl records and cassette players galore. He even had some CDs. Nino, made the best spotify playlists.
Marinette was a only a little frustrated. Apparently, Nino had lent his cassette stuff to some other friend, Adrien, for a project. Turning a spotify playlist into a real playlist on a cassette or record.
Nino tried to get her to listen to some of the songs. He said it was some deep stuff. She'd probably like it. It was about heartbreak and regret. Nino was impressed by his friend's project though.
Screw projects. She needed to talk to the love of her life.
She had to swear on her life that the cassette player would be returned safely to Nino.
He asked about the sudden interest and she clammed up. Froze. She admitted that a guy, who she was somewhat dating, had mysteriously disappeared and left her a cassette tape.
Her boy, Chat, was blonde. Just like Nino's friend.
Vivid green eyes.
Recently used cassette tapes.
They were pretty similar, but could be the same.
She told Nino this, and he asked what her boy's name was.
Marinette didn't know.
Nino shook his head. "I'm sorry Nette. He's breaking up with you."
She didn't understand what Nino meant. There was no way she was given a breakup letter. And despite being similar, her partner couldn't be Adrien. She had met Adrien a couple times, but she would have recognized if he was Chat.
It had to be something lovely.
Just like Chat.
...
She closed her eyes and turned on the tape player.
It had been so difficult to find one, but she wanted to hear Chat's message.
She needed to hear it. Whatever it was, it was so important that he couldn't even tell her directly.
Taking a deep breath, she pressed play, and was confused by the music that started to blare out.
It was an older song, one she didn't recognise at first, but that she knew.
But she didn't understand what it meant. At least, she didn't want to.
Someday, love will find you
Break those chains that bind you
One night will remind you
How we touched and went our separate ways
If he ever hurts you
True love won't desert you
You know I still love you
Though we touched and went our separate ways
Pressing pause, she rolled her eyes. Chat had always had a flair for the dramatics. Leave it to him to have an apology note that was actually a breakup playlist.
Marinette blinked, realizing that she had tears streaming down her face.
She had lost her first boyfriend, the love of her life.
And he didn't even tell her why.
She wiped the tears and threw the tape in a box. Ugh. Nino was right.
She almost wanted to break the cassette player but she had sworn to keep it safe.
She wouldn't break it, but she couldn't bring herself to use it either.
Maybe someday she would listen to all of that, but at the moment, it was a bunch of unnecessary emotions.
She was struggling enough with her first heartbreak. She didn't need any more emotional distress.
Of course, we don't have time to unpack all of that.
...
They both went their separate ways.
But that didn't mean that their paths would never cross again.