Chat Noir POV:

"It's made me realize I love you."

The words came out of Ladybug’s mouth and buried like a knife in his heart. He was in shock, it felt like the entire world had suddenly… stopped. After all this time he had waited, hoped, and dreamed that she would love him and now she had finally returned his love. 

The worst part of it all was that he couldn't return her feelings. He couldn’t be with her.

As much as he wanted to... god he just wanted to kiss her, hold her, let the world know that she was his as he was hers. That he loved her. So much. but he couldn't. He had Kagami. He had a girlfriend. 

Meaning he knew what he had to do. He had to break her heart. He couldn’t bring himself to do it...NO he had to. In order for her to be happy, to move on, to get the love she deserved, he had to let her go. 

Chat Noir tried to prepare himself, but he knew that he would never be ready for the words to leave his mouth. The words that changed everything.

He wanted to close his eyes, but there was something about her stare that made him look into her bluebell eyes as he said what he had to say.

"I. Don't. Love. You."

He said the words slowly, each one delivering a blow to his heart that he was sure would never heal.

He watched in agony as her bluebell eyes filled with tears and she began to cry.

“I will never love you Ladybug...never again.” He said as the actions of his words hit him harder.

He had done it... he had done what needed to be done. He could feel his heart breaking, the pain was unbearable. 

He watched her turn away as a violent sob racked her body. 

He stood there trying to hold himself together, stop himself from reaching for her, telling her it was all a lie, that he loved her with everything he was and nothing could ever change that... but as he watched her fall apart, he could feel her slowly, painfully slip away from him.

And it was only until she had disappeared into the night that he too, allowed himself to fall apart. To cry. 

Big ugly sobs racked his body, and he wished with everything he had that he could take the words back, undo everything that had happened and be happy with her.

But he couldn't, and he would never be able to. 

Two hearts broke that night. 

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Ladybug POV: 

"I don't love you"

“I will never love you”

“Never again” 

The words were more painful than she ever could have imagined.

Her heart felt like it had been shattered into a million pieces and her body ached. She never knew that she could ever feel so much pain, so much heartbreak. 

She tried to hold herself together but she couldn't help the violent sobs that shook her body. Marinette clutched onto herself, trying to hold onto something, anything. 

This wasn’t her Chat Noir. This wasn’t her friend, her partner, her love. But Chat wasn’t hers anymore. 

He was gone

He was a stranger 

What had she been thinking. Why would he ever love her back? After all this time she'd just rejected him, belittled his feelings and how awful, it did feel. 

She turned away, unwilling to face the boy who she had loved. Who she still loved.

She couldn't bear to look at his perfect face, couldn't understand what she had done to deserve this suffering.

Her head was spinning, the pain unbearable.

She wanted to crawl into a hole and hide from reality. She didn't want to live anymore.

She felt as if she was in a horrible nightmare and as much as she screamed, cried, and begged to be set free she was trapped. There was no way out. 

Ladybug didn't bother to hide the tears streaming down her face. It didn't matter how he saw her anymore, she had already been humiliated enough.

She couldn't take being near him anymore, she needed to get away from him.

Ladybug swung off  into the restless night, not knowing where to go.

She didn't want to go home, her parents would be confused and worried to death  if they saw her crying.

So she landed in a quiet park, and transformed back into her civilian form.

Marinette’s knees wobbled and she couldn’t hold herself up anymore, she didn’t have the strength. 

She suddenly collapsed in defeat onto cold, hard ground. 

Marinette wordlessly handed Tikki a biscuit as the tears kept falling down her pale face.

"Why did I do it Tikki?" she sobbed, the tears beginning to fall faster as the droplets shattered against the concrete. 

"Oh Marinette" Tikki said, in despair not knowing what to say to help the poor girl.

"I d-don't know if I can g-get through this alone.” she said between sobs as she braced her trembling hands against the hard ground. 

Tikki noded, hugging Marinette’s heaving chest, feeling extremely sorry for her. Trying to comfort her. But there was only one person who could make all this pain and sorrow go away. 

"B-but I have nowhere to go!" She wailed, the tears streaming down her face.

"That's not true Marinette, you've got lots of friends that care about you" her kwami told her.

"I'll do it as L-Ladybug, p-people will be c-confused if it's M-Marinette crying in the middle of the night" the girl said.

"T-Tikki Spots on" she said, transforming into the familiar spotted costume.

Ladybug took off into the dark night, feeling more lost than ever as the pitch black enveloped her. 

She didn't know who to go to, Alya would ask too many questions, and she wasn't very close with Nino. She thought of Luka, but seeing him right now felt wrong. 

She continued debating where to go until she realized she was standing  in front of the Agreste mansion. "Why am I here?" she thought out loud.

Adrien was her good friend, and since she was over her crush on him… she blinked back tears, stop thinking about crushes Marinette! It hurt too much. 

She noticed that the window of Adrien's room was left open. 

The curtains blowing in the cool night breeze, and bright light spilling through, illuminating the gloomy night. 

She didn't think before swinging into his room. 

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Chat Noir POV:

After crying for what felt like an eternity, Chat Noir decided to head back to his house.

His eyes had run out of tears and he felt numb. He trembled as he stood from his shaky knees and never looked back as he made his way back to his empty, lonely house. 

Once he got back to his house he'd used some concealer to hide his puffy eyes. No one could ever see him like this. 

When his father had first given him make-up for modeling Adrien had claimed he would never use it, but when he'd become Chat Noir, it was helpful to cover the dark shadows around his eyes that didn't seem to disappear.

After hiding his pain and heartbreak from the cruel outside world Adrien sat down on his bed, willing himself to disappear when the girl of his dreams jumped through his window.

Her eyes were puffy and red, and there were still a few stray tears leaking from her beautiful bluebell eyes. Her hair was a mess and her face so pale you'd have thought she'd witnessed a murder. His poor lady. 

But she was still beautiful. The most beautiful girl he had ever seen. 

He jumped off his bed and enveloped her in a hug. He held her close, and he felt her tears dampen his shirt, but he didn't care.

He was with his lady, his love, and that was all he cared about. 

Even if it was just for tonight, he would take it, just to be with her, hear her soft voice, see her beautiful face, touch her, made him feel alive. 

Why did he do this to her? She didn't deserve to be treated this way, she deserves someone who could love her unconditionally. 

He then realized that he was Adrien and that he was supposed to be confused as to why Ladybug was in his bedroom at this late hour.

"What's wrong Ladybug? Did something happen" he asked her, knowing the answers to both questions.

"It's just this stupid thing, there's nothing to worry about" she muttered into his shoulder. “I just...wanted to see you.”

Adrien felt a surge of rage, how could she refer to her feelings as stupid when they were the exact opposite of that!

"I'm sure it's not stupid Ladybug, why don't you tell me about it" said Adrien,  as he soothingly rubbed circles on back. "If you feel comfortable talking about it of course." he added, not wanting to force her to tell the story. Right now he was just an ordinary civilian who happened to have his window open. 

Besides, he just wanted to comfort her. Be there for his lady.

"N-no it's okay I need someone to talk to it about" Ladybug said, looking off into the distance.

"So you know my partner, Chat Noir" she began, tears filling her eyes again. "Well he's got this g-girlfriend" she said wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. 

"S-sorry I don't mean to be s-so w-weak" the dark-haired girl stated, looking at her feat.

“Hey” Adrien said softly lifting up her head up so he could look into her eyes. “You're not weak m’la—ladybug. Your amazing” he said lightly caressing her soft cheek. Wishing he could take away all her pain. 

"An-anyway ever since he got a girlfriend he's been… different" she paused blushing,  waiting to see if he had any questions.

"Different how?" Adrien asked in genuine curiosity, wondering what bugaboo thought of his recent behavior.

"Well he used to flirt with me all the time and he called me his lady and bugaboo and stuff." she mumbled, her cheeks turning red.

"I'm sorry you probably don't want…" she trailed off.

"No it's fine keep going" The blond boy told her, reassuringly squeezing his hand in hers. 

"Well I never expected him to stop and he did and I… I didn't realize how much it all meant to me" she said, her cheeks turning a dark shade of red. Adrien attempted to hide his blush by hugging her. 

Maybe he just wanted to hold her again…

Ladybug pulled away from his comforting embrace, giving him a faint smile as she continued her story. She couldn’t let herself get lost in his embrace and melt into his arms. 

"So then I realized that I loved him, and I made up my mind to tell him how I felt and tonight I told him and..." Ladybug's sobs returned and Adrien pulled her into his arms yet again.

He couldn't help himself, there was something about his lady that made him want to hold her and never let go.

"H-he t-told me he-he doesn't l-love me" Ladybug wailed, her sobs becoming even more violent. “That he would n-never love me.” she said as pain ripped away at her. 

"I'm really sorry Ladybug" he said, trying to pull himself together. “I’m so sorry.” He whispered faintly, his voice soft, almost fragile as his words got caught in his throat and he tried to swallow down the burning pain. 

Reaching out hesitantly, the soft pads of his fingers lightly brushed a stay strand of midnight black hair away from her face as his warm palm cupped her rosy cheeks. 

He couldn’t help feeling that he was not only trying to comfort her, but himself. 

Stop it Adrien it'll be weird if you start crying, he told himself, desperately trying to restrain himself.

But thankfully Ladybug didn't notice the few tears that he couldn't prevent from falling, as he clutched onto his lady tightly wishing he never had to let go.