"姻緣紅線. (Yīnyuán hóngxiàn). Also referred as the Red String of Marriage." - Wikipedia

☾ ☽

Chat Noir sprawled on the roof while gaining a ray of confusion. His thread was gone; Ladybug's thread was gone. Was it possible for him to think was he was thinking?

He remembered when Ladybug pushed him aside, saying that she had to find an Akuma before it was too late and ran away, tear stricken. His heart hurt because he saw his Lady in pain. She was fragile and weak in his arms; easy to crumple like a sheet of paper. A weak side he's never seen before. But what could he have done in that moment? It wasn't possible for him to bring back the red string... Right?

Chat raised left pinky towards the sky, which was void of a red string. Ladybug said that she cut the string because it was someone she didn't want. "A good friend, a loyal partner," she had said, "but just wasn't who she was expecting." And now she had lost her string as well. Chat knew. He very well knew. He simply didn't want to accept it.

He didn't want to accept the fact that Ladybug didn't want him.

His chest tightened, and a sob swelled up in his throat.

It was impossible to cut the string, so the legend had said, and yet she managed to do it anyways. Was their relationship so frail that even an ancient legend could be broken? These questions kept stabbing him in the back of his mind. His false hopes of even the slightest chance with Ladybug disintegrated. He swallowed down his sob, trying to hold it back. It shook in his chest, aching to be let out. The sob pounded at his rib cage with its fists, begging to be released. He wanted to cry, oh, how he desperately wanted to. But he was out on a mission: to take down the Akuma, wherever it was.

Chat Noir was confident. He was proud, sarcastic, and flirty. Poised, a bit clumsy, but nevertheless determined to earn his Lady's affection.

His confidence started to crumble. His proud, poised, sarcastic self began to fall away to the ground. The feelings of rejection now seep into his system. Yet before the first tear could trickle down his cheek, the loud sound of an explosion reverberated from across the city of Paris. Chat blinked away, hoping the tears would disappear before heading into the battle. His claws tightened around his baton, and he took off into the clearly sky of Paris.

The smell of smoke filled the air. Chat Noir coughed as it filled his lungs while he launched towards the scene. He covered his face with his arm, careful not to inhale more. As soon as his two feet landed onto the ground, the smoke dissipated, revealing the Champs-Élysées. Not a thing was broken, on fire, or disintegrated. Chat slowly removed his arm away from his face, and carefully took a breath of air.

Nothing was wrong.

He scratched the back of his head, obviously embraced in confusion. "There is no way I could've imagined that..." Chat muttered under his breath while taking a hesitant step forward.

A blur of red and black landed by his side, and Ladybug's yo-yo returned to her hand. He blinked, realizing that she just arrived onto the scene. "What happened, Chat Noir?" She asked, refusing to make eye contact with the leather-clad superhero. "Did you already finish the job?"

He stared at her for a while. The corners of her eyes were still red. "No, My L-, Ladybug," He stopped himself. She wasn't his lady; she didn't want to be. He picked up his pole and gestured at their surroundings with it, "Everything disappeared as soon as I got here. Strange, isn't it?"

"Oh?" The girl turned to him, "No puns or jokes today?"

"What?" Chat crossed his arms to try and act casual, "Do you think I need a purr-amedic? No puns would be a cat-astrophe!"

"I instantly regret asking that question," Ladybug sighed, leaning her head into her hand. Before the thought of asking Ladybug about her string crossed his mind, another loud BOOM shook the ground. She held up a red index finger, "The Eiffel Tower! Let's hurry, Chat Noir!" Ladybug wound up her yo-yo and tossed it as far as possible. Within seconds she was already flying through the sky.

His eyes followed her, watching as the distance between the two grew. A question he regretted thinking of slipped into his mind: why was she the one crying? If she didn't like him to begin with, why should she be the one to cry over the broken string? It should've been him; he should be the one to cry. He should be the one being held. Chat had already lost someone important to him, and now the love of his life literally cut off the ties in their relationship.

He ran his claws through his hair, immediately patronizing himself after that thought. He shouldn't be selfish. Right now, there were lives that needed to be saved. His silver pole extended, and Chat began to launch into the air once again, leaving any negative thoughts and ideas behind.

☾ ☽

"There!" Ladybug shouted, "The Akuma should be there!" She tossed her yo-yo into the smoke. Chat Noir swung his baton blindly; the baton unable to hit its mark. There was a loud, metal clang; probably from him hitting the side of the Eiffel Tower. Once again like before, the smoke began to disappear as soon as the two arrived, although it seemed to take some sort of route this time. After the smoke had billowed out around the two superheroes and revealing the tall monument, it accumulated and compressed into a small orb.

"What in the world..?" Chat mumbled as the small, smoke ball took off.

"We've got to follow it!" Ladybug swung away, chasing down the orb like a game of cat and mouse.

Chat heaved a heavy sigh that was stuck in his chest for a while. He didn't know how much longer he could stay by Ladybug's side before his accumulating feelings would go into overdrive. He leaped onto the roof of a building and ran on all fours, like an animal. "Where to, Ladybug?" He asked as Ladybug zoomed by him.

"We're going to hope that this strange object is going to lead us to the Akuma," She explained; her dark bangs whipped into her vision due to the wind. "Once we find the Akuma, we destroy the item and purify the butterfly. Solid plan?"

"Sounds purr-fect," He winked, causing the spotted girl to roll her blue eyes.

She didn't even notice that he stopped calling her "My Lady".

They stopped, staying perched on top of someone's balcony. The two watched as they saw the orb enter through an open window. "Delete, delete, delete," They heard someone say, "Explosions are to cliché, aren't they? What do you think?" Sounded female and young; at most someone around their age.

"The Akuma?" Chat whispered, and Ladybug held her finger up to her lips, telling him to be quiet.

"Yes, I know I'm supposed to get their Miraculouses. But do you know how cool it is to have a superpower-, wait, never mind."

Chat tilted his head, "This one sounds a little different than the rest."

"Nevertheless, we must capture it," Ladybug began to swing her yo-yo once more. Chat grabbed her arm and she froze.

"What are you thinking? We can't just enter someone's house unsolicited."

She brushed him off with her hand as if he was dirt. "Would you rather we barge in unintended, or have the lives of Paris be at stake?" Without waiting for an answer, Ladybug jumped off the roof and landed on both feet in the room. Knowing that there was no possible way of convincing her, Chat himself followed her through the window.

The two held their signature poses with their weapons on front of them. "Give up, Akuma!" Ladybug yelled, "Hawk Moth, we will not allow you to harm any more people!"

A black chair was in their view, with the two unable to see who was sitting in it. Loud, typing sounds came from the chair, and the female voice spoke again. "Hm, seems that my computer's facing a bug. No matter; I'll simply have to clean up the virus." As soon as she uttered those words, a large broom appeared behind the two superheroes and began to sweep with clouds of dust fogging up their vision.

"Chat!" Ladybug shouted, and Chat Noir swung his baton like a baseball bat. The broom broke into pieces and fell back towards the chair.

"Who are you?" He demanded, pointing his baton toward the chair.

"Who am I?" The girl said, "I should be asking you that. You two came in without permission." She swirled around, and Chat Noir was expecting someone in another ridiculous costume that most Akumatized people wore. Surprisingly, her outfit was a lot more relaxed; she wore polar bear pajama bottoms and a red Lion King sweater. Draped over her shoulders was a fuzzy Scooby Doo blanket. Her hair was black, short and cropped. The only thing strange about her was the mask she wore; it was one of those strange theater masks with a line down the middle; one half with a smile and the other with a frown.

"Do you recognize her?" Ladybug asked, and Chat shook his head no.

A purple outline of a butterfly appeared in front of her face, and she rubbed a black rubber bracelet between two of her fingers anxiously. "Yes... Yes..." She swiveled back around, typing a few things into what Chat Noir assumed to be a computer. Suddenly, something that looked like the shadow of Stone Heart appeared out of midair. The creature roared, and Chat immediately covered up his ears.

"Whenever she writes something, her words are brought to life!" Ladybug exclaimed while somersaulting aside as the shadow Stone Heart made a fist-sized punch through the ground.

"Ah, an author, is she?" Chat blocked one of the Stone Heart's attacks with his pole.

"Wait," The girl said. The monster paused in its tracks; Ladybug and Chat stopped in confusion. "Delete," She said, clicking a button on her keyboard. Stone Heart transformed into an orb like the smoke previously did and went into the computers, disappearing as if it never existed. The hole in the floor was also gone. "Stone Heart is one of the lamer Akumas," She swiveled around in her seat with her feet in the air, as if she was on a roller coaster. "Let's see if I can remember a better one."

"The Akuma must be in her computer," Ladybug murmured, "We've got to find a way to get break it before she can get another word in." She threw her yo-yo at the girl, only to have her jump up and kick it away.

"Wow, I'm ten times more athletic than I'll ever be," She flipped over her hands like she was examining herself. "Thanks, Hawk Moth." The butterfly outline appeared again, and she winced as if she was in pain. "Alright, alright. I got it. No need to yell; someone needs to take anger management classes."

"Let me ask you again; who are you?" Chat Noir demanded while holding out his baton again. "And why are you doing this?"

The girl stopped her exaggerated movements. Her head drooped like a dying flower. "Why am I doing this..?" She asked, almost directing the question to herself. The smiling half of the mask crumbled into small, plaster pieces into her lap revealing a purple iris. The edges of her eye were veined with red, like Ladybug's earlier. "I didn't want to do this," She answered herself. "I didn't ask for pressure. I didn't ask for insults. I didn't ask for hate," The girl leaned back in her seat. "But I got it anyways."

Ladybug tapped her foot impatiently. "What are you saying?"

She looked up, anger seeping into her veins. Her face flushed with rage. "People are greedy," She said, pointing at the monitor, "People are rude, insensitive, and only think for themselves without knowing that the person on the other side is a human being too." She then moved her finger towards the clock hanging on the wall, "I write in my own, free time. I do as a hobby and in the pleasure of knowing that someone out there is enjoying something that I wrote. All I wanted was to simply post at my own time and pace." The girl pounded her fist against her chair, "But when people began telling me that I am the one being selfish, that I am the one who is biased, and that I am the one that is, what did they call me again, butthurt, the emotions piled."

Her voice cracked.

"Then came the stress. I wasn't being paid to write; I was doing it out of my free will. Yet these people expected me to do the impossible; write Romeo and Juliet out of thin air in under a minute." The girl began to pop her knuckles, "I am the Cliffhanger. Alternatively known as Trash Can, although Hawk Moth wouldn't let that one slide. And I am here to get revenge on those who discarded my emotions."

Discarded emotions.

Those words resonated inside Chat Noir, and he knew he didn't want them to. Ladybug threw him and didn't care for his end of the string. His emotions were left out of the idea.

"Chat, focus!" Ladybug's voice rang through his ears. He slapped the side of his face to return back to reality.

"Once I get your Miraculouses, Hawk Moth will help me extract my revenge on each and everyone one of them!" The short haired girl stood up from her seat, ready to protect the device in which she could write on.

"And may I ask how exactly will you do that?" Ladybug questioned, swinging her yo-yo in preparation.

The girl laughed maniacally, "As my name states, I'll be holding you over the edge of a cliffhanger!"

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warning if you are easily scarred.

this comment began a revolution.

may you be forever blessed with this amazing work that rivals Da Vinci by fl4nn3l_stuck

xoxo,

arisa