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At long last, on an ordinary Saturday morning, Sabine Cheng was akumatized.
With the bakery being swamped, the inevitable infuriating customer (or ten), losing half a bag of flour to a case of the butter-fingers, and a persistent headache pounding at the back of her skull, it was just one of those days.
Usually Sabine would keep her cool and go about things in as composed a manner as possible. But usually two of their workers didn't fail to show up on one of their busiest days. Usually they had full bags of flour when they needed them. Usually she could pull Tom aside for a quick breather instead of both of them having to hunch over their work without break for hours on end. Usually-
Usually, Sabine got through it without getting akumatized. But it was just one of those days.
“I'll set everything to rights,” Standstill called from the streets. She didn't look much different when she was akumatized, except that her clothes had turned an ashy gray and her eyes were nothing but unblinking whites. Oh, and she was floating. That was also concerning.
She waved a staff in her hand – a glamorized, weaponized baker's peel – which emitted a white ball of light that settled over a row of cars in traffic like a suffocating blanket. The cars silently halted. Inside, the drivers were sitting as usual, with their hands on the wheels and eyes on the road, unblinking, breaths held. True to her namesake, Standstill was bringing everything around her to a halt, pulling Paris into an eerie, uncharacteristic silence. She even halted the birds flying overhead. They dropped to the ground like stones, wings outstretched.
“Peace and quiet,” she murmured. “Now, all I need is Marinette to complete the picture.” She'd frozen Tom in their bakery and fixed his arms so it looked like he was kneading dough by the kitchen window. There was less she could do about his gobsmacked expression, but it was fine. She just needed Marinette. Marinette would complete the picture of their perfect, peaceful family. Marinette...
“Don't you run from me!” Standstill called. She didn't shout, but her voice carried in the silent streets nonetheless. She could see Marinette backing up against a bike-rack bathed in white. None of the bikes budged, even when Marinette knocked into them.
“Maman, this isn't you!” She called, desperately biding for time or a way out. She'd been manning the register when Sabine had been akumatized in the kitchen. She'd only heard the exclamations of her father and glimpsed her mother's form bathed in sickly purple before squeezing her way out of the bakery – and right on time, too, as white light licked at her heels. It was morbidly fascinating to watch a line of ants grind to a halt at her toes, but she'd had to bolt off right after. Standstill could float, which meant she could fly, and she was a very fast flier. Her speed and the fact that she didn't have to cover ground meant that she caught up to Marinette effortlessly.
As Standstill closed in with the ease of a predator cornering prey, Marinette squeezed her eyes shut, willing the tears down. It was incredibly unnerving to see her mother, their family's rock, be an akumatized, greyed-out version of her usual warm self.
“Maman,” she tried again. “Don't.”
“There are so many things I wish I could protect you from,” Standstill said softly as she inched closer. “So I will. It'll be perfect, Marinette. Perfect, peace and quiet. You'll see.” She raised the staff and Marinette pushed back into the rack, willing herself to melt into it. What do I do? Should I just transform? But then Hawkmoth will find out! And at this distance, even if I transform she'll still be able to pause me and then I'll have revealed myself for no reason and then she'll know to grab my earrings and oh my God I'm so screwed –
And then she was whisked off the ground so fast that the world spun. It took a few disorienting seconds of her scrambling to realize that Chat had shot in and picked her up off the ground, right as Standstill shot a beam of light at the ground where she'd been half a second prior. Marinette clutched onto Chat's shoulders as he used his baton to propel them up and over a building, fast enough to make her squint against the wind.
“Caught you right on time,” he said, and she could feel his words as he spoke them. “Do I deserve a standing ovation?”
“Please don't,” Marinette groaned, though she couldn't deny that she was relieved. Chat always had good timing when it mattered most. The relief jumped out of her, though, when she looked over Chat's shoulders and saw Standstill hot at their heels, lifting her staff.
“Swerve!” Marinette yelped. Surprisingly, Chat obliged without a second thought, and they narrowly dodged another blast of the white light. They went on like this for at least ten minutes, with Chat speeding across rooftops and around chimneys to no avail. It was clear that they couldn't outrun Standstill, nor could they hide. They were running out of options, and Chat's breathing was beginning to get heavier.
Then Marinette had a thought.
“Chat,” she shouted over the wind, leaning up so he could hear her. “I have an idea, but I'm not sure if it's a good one.”
“Marinette, at this point, any idea is a good one,” he replied, panting the slightest bit. She sucked in a breath.
“Okay. Throw me off the building.”
She felt a dull thud against her hand, the one pressed against Chat's chest. Then he ground to a halt, hard enough to kick up dust on the rooftop with his boots. Standstill, pursuing them in full speed, shot right past and Chat took the opportunity quickly to wind his way down, to the right, onto another rooftop and behind a partition.
“Are you crazy?” He finally hissed when they were fully hidden. His voice was laced with a frantic edge, knowing that Standstill was bound to come back any moment. “You want me to what?!”
“Throw me off the building,” Marinette repeated.
“You want me to throw you off the building,” he echoed. “Okay. What – why?”
“Because what Mam – what Standstill wants is for me to be part of her perfect picture,” Marinette explained, trying her best not to jumble the words up in her haste. “So she'll protect me. If you throw me off she'll focus on catching me, and that's when you can go in and break her staff. That's where I think the akuma is, by the way. The baker's peel.”
“I –“ Chat closed his eyes and shook his head. “What would stop her from just pausing you in midair and then coming after me?”
“She can pause things, but the laws of gravity still apply,” Marinette pointed out. “Look at the birds.” The streets were now littered with birds, mid-flap and many with their beaks open in various stages of startled squawks. If Standstill wanted to protect Marinette, she wouldn't be able to just pause her midair – she'd have to actually catch her.
Chat clenched his jaw. He was still holding her, so she swayed with every inhale and exhale of his. She could feel his heartbeat thudding against her hand. He opened his mouth a few times before finally saying, “And what if she doesn't? What if she doesn't catch you?”
“She will,” Marinette assured him with all the confidence she could muster. “And if she doesn't – which won't happen, by the way – then I'll still be fine in the end because of Ladybug, right?” Except instead of the Miraculous Cure fixing me, it'll be me transforming so I don't turn into a pancake, Marinette did not add on. Same thing.
“Ladybug hasn't shown up yet,” Chat pointed out. Marinette resisted the urge to wince. “Don't count on her as a reason to jump off a building!”
“Marinette,” Standstill's eerily calm voice called out from a short distance away. They both tensed. “Come to your Maman, Marinette.”
Marinette turned her face up to him. “Do we have any other choice?”
“You – “ Chat looked like he wanted to argue for all the world, but after a second he squeezed his eyes shut and reopened them with newfound vigor. He gazed into her eyes with startling intensity, making it hard for Marinette to look away. “I'm trusting you on this because we have no other choice. But you'd better be alright in the end.” Slit eyes boring into hers, Marinette could do nothing else but stiffly nod.
Standstill rounded the corner of the partition, staff raised. “There you are. Give me my daughter, you stray cat!”
“Sorry, but we aren't here to stand around!” With one sharp, super-powered kick, Chat sent chunks of the partition flying out at Standstill, giving them enough time to shoot off again with a head start. Chat sprinted across the rooftops, Marinette in tow, as Standstill burst out of the rubble and continued her pursuit. When the distance began to close, Marinette tugged Chat's arm. “Do it now.”
He kept running, brows furrowed, and ducked as a beam of light shot above, pausing a billboard on a Gabriel ad. “Chat, she's catching up!”
“I –” He stopped and gritted his teeth. “I can't – I just – how am I supposed to –”
Marinette grabbed his chin and forced him to look into her eyes. “I'll be fine, Chat. Hurry!” Standstill raised her staff, the serenity of victory settling over her features.
His hands tightened around her for a split second, gaze flickering between her eyes, and in that second, Marinette thought that he wouldn't do it. That he'd try to run off with her again and find some other impossible way to beat the odds.
Then, he let her go.
The difference between his body, warm and firm in holding her, versus the open air at her back was shocking even though it had been her idea. Despite herself, she reached out with one hand, eyes fixed on Chat. He looked horrified, as if he couldn't believe he'd let go, and began to reach his hand out too.
Marinette's fall was broken by Standstill's small but strong frame hurtling through the air. The breath was knocked out of her lungs as she was enveloped in her mother's embrace – but a convoluted, wrong version of it, because Standstill had cold grey arms that lacked any warmth when they circled her.
“Maman has you now,” she murmured, and Marinette had to choke back a sob and focus on the matter at hand. The staff, she gasped. It was within reach now, tucked between her own body and her mother's, but she knew she wouldn't be able to overcome Standstill's grip on it. Her mother peered down at Marinette with those lifeless marble-statue eyes, not noticing the way her daughter shivered. To Marinette's horror, she began shifting the peel so its face was level with her face.
“You've ran long enough,” said Standstill. “Don't make this so hard for your Maman.”
“Maman – wait!” Marinette struggled, but she was right – Standstill was too strong as an akuma, and without a transformation, Marinette couldn't hold a candle to that super-strength. “You have me right here! You don't have to freeze me!”
“You get into too much trouble,” she said, in a way that could be called chiding if it wasn't so monotone. “This will help you.” The peel began to glow with the white light and Marinette squeezed her eyes shut. How would it feel to be frozen? Would she be aware of being stuck in time? Or would it be a Sleeping-Beauty, time skip sort of thing? She really hoped not, because she'd never liked the idea of waking up a hundred years later and –
“Cataclysm!”
–luckily, it looked like she wasn't going to have to find out any time soon.
Chat crashed into them midair, hand landing squarely on the peel. Marinette felt her heart drop in relief as the white light was first fractured, then snuffed out by the black cracks of Chat's power spreading across the peel. His momentum sent all three of them hurtling toward the ground, but he grabbed onto them and managed to use his baton as a grounding point to send them spinning round and round till finally, finally, her shaky legs met sweet earth.
Dear God, Marinette thought as she resisted the urge to kiss the filthy street, I think I'm going to throw up.
“Wha...?” Marinette whipped around as Sabine groaned in confusion, lightly touching her head. “What happened? Marinette, what are we doing here?”
Marinette jolted. That was right – the akuma. Swerving frantically, she barely caught the edges of purple wings vanishing around a building. I have to catch that!
“U-um, sorry, Maman,” she blubbered. “Chat Noir will – can you please, um, clue her in? I have to go – check. On Papa?” She cringed. She was really digging herself into a hole, but she had to catch the akuma before it slipped away and she couldn't afford to waste a single second. Everything around them was still at a standstill, and she needed to cast her cure. Preferably as soon as possible, so she could put this whole nightmarish situation behind her.
“Wait, what?” Chat asked, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. “What's there to check on? Everything's still frozen and Ladybug hasn't come to cast her cure yet.”
“Right,” Marinette laughed nervously, inching away from them. “Um. Bathroom. I have some high-altitude stomach issues. It's why I hate airplanes. Yep. Okay bye!” She darted off even as Chat called out, facepalming all the while. High altitude stomach issues? Seriously?
Luckily, after that point, nothing embarrassing or awful happened. Marinette was able to discretely transform into Ladybug just long enough to catch and purify the akuma. Calling on a Lucky Charm just to use it for the cure right away was quick work too. All in all, it only took a minute, but Marinette was still jittery with anxiety as she ran back through the now-active streets (full of thrashing and squawking birds, to boot). Please still be there. Please be there. Please...
She caught sight of Chat and Sabine and sprinted, barreling into her mother. Sabine took it in stride without so much as a gasp, hugging Marinette back tightly.
“Chat Noir explained everything to me,” she murmured into Marinette's hair. “I'm sorry, Marinette.”
“It's not your fault,” Marinette breathed back. She was just relieved her mother was back to normal. She pulled back. “You should take the rest of the day off. Go somewhere with Papa. The bakery can stand to close for a day.”
Sabine jolted. “Oh, my! The bakery! There must be hordes of people in there still. I'll go tell Tom about closing up.” She got up and brushed dust off of her clothes. Then she patted Marinette's cheek. “You, too, Marinette. Take a break. You've been busy all morning.” With a nod to Chat Noir and a kiss to Marinette's head, Sabine hurried off, leaving Chat and Marinette in the street. Marinette found herself awkwardly staring at the sky (wasn't a cloudless sky just fascinating?), the buildings, the trees – anything, really, other than Chat Noir sitting on the ground right next to her.
“Um, I saw Ladybug for a second,” she explained to her shoes, twisting her fingers. “She says sorry for not being able to help because she was caught up in home business. She cast the cure, though. I mean obviously.” Marinette giggled too high and loud, internally screaming at herself to please stop talking! “Um. So, yeah!” She meekly extended a fist. “I guess, pound it...?”
Chat looked between her fist and her face. For a second, Marinette felt incredibly stupid as her fist hung in the air. She cleared her throat and began to retract her hand. “Or not. I guess that's a thing for you and Ladybu – oof!” She was cut off when Chat lunged forward and pulled her into a bone crushing hug. Her heart leapt and she almost forgot to breathe as his arms tightened around her once more, all-encompassing and warm and firm as always. Her hands hovered over his back for a second, unsure, before settling on his shoulder blades.
“Um...” Her voice was muffled from her face being pressed into his shoulder, but she spoke anyways. “Are you okay?”
He shuddered, an action that reverberated through both of them. “I never want to do anything like that again.”
Marinette tentatively patted his back. “I don't think you'll have to. It's not often that Ladybug is gone, so I'm sure you won't have to throw any more people off buildings –“
“You don't get it,” he said, pulling back and placing his hands on her shoulders. He stared into her eyes as if trying to convey something that couldn't be said. “I'm supposed to protect you, Marinette. Not chuck you four stories in the air to the mercy of an akuma!” He shook his head. “If Ladybug were here, she'd have been able to actually do something.”
Marinette's eyes narrowed. “You did do something. You got us out of a sticky situation and destroyed the akumatized item all in a few minutes.”
“I had to throw you off a building,” he muttered. “That hardly qualifies as heroic.”
“You did what you had to,” Marinette countered. “And for what it's worth, I'm sure Ladybug would agree that you did the best job that could have been done.” She softened. “Please don't beat yourself up over this, Chat. I'm all fine now. Maman is fine, too. You did a great job.”
“I...guess. If you say so.” His hands slid down to her elbows. “You sure have a way of getting yourself into trouble.”
Marinette had to snort at that. “Says you. I don't have to bring up every time you did something reckless, do I?”
“You remember all of them?” A smile finally cracked through his face and Marinette grinned back before being interrupted by a beeping. Chat's ring was already down to its last two pads. “Oops. This cat's gotta go. Will you make it back on your own fine?”
“Sure I will,” she replied, taking Chat's hand when he offered it to help her up. “Thanks for the save today, Chat.”
“Of course. But for the record...” He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her knuckles, looking up at her through his lashes. “I'd rather not have to let you go like that again if I can help it.”
He pulled back and extended his baton, seemingly not noticing the way Marinette was gaping. “Catch you later!” He paused. “Actually, I'd rather not have to. Catch you, that is. Don't be falling anymore.” Another beep interrupted him, as if impatient. “Alright, bye now for real!”
Marinette stared off into the distance long after Chat had vanished, still gaping and face utterly on fire.
What the heck?! It wasn't like it was the first time he'd kissed her hand. He wasn't even flirting that time. So why couldn't she stop thinking about what he said?
I'd rather not have to let you go –
“ALRIGHT I'm not thinking about that!” Marinette laughed a little too loudly, not noticing the way a mother was pulling her child away nearby. “That's. Hm. I'm being stupid. That's nothing,” she mumbled as she walked off. She was being stupid. It was just the adrenaline from the fall rushing out of her body which was making her shake and burn in the face and be unable to focus. Adrenaline. Because she'd fallen.
She stopped.
Fallen.
Oh, no.