Work Text:
Ladybug could hardly think, hardly breathe.
He knew. Chat knew who she was. It was terrifying.
It had happened fifteen minutes ago: she had just landed in an alley to detransform after a particularly difficult akuma, not realising that Chat had followed her. And he’d seen her let her transformation drop, shades of pink lighting up then fading away to reveal a very exhausted Marinette, and a worried Tikki. She had only noticed he was there when she heard his startled intake of breath and stumbled step backwards, boot scraping against concrete.
She had turned, shock dripping from both of their expressions before she called on her transformation again and took off.
So here she was, running and running and running. Shards of white hot betrayal sliced in her chest, heart breaking into more and more pieces with each gasping breath.
How could he? He knew how much keeping their identities a secret meant to her.
A hand on her shoulder, a body collided with her own. They fell, tumbling together as they crashed onto the floor.
“Please. Please, Marinette. Please don’t leave me. Don’t let go of what we have.” A rasping voice echoed in her ear. She wrenched herself away from him.
“No. You stay away! You broke my trust and now you have to deal with the consequences.”
She stormed off, feet pounding against the hard roofs as the tears fell.
She didn’t hear his broken whisper of ‘I’m sorry’.