Work Text:
dear mari,
how's it going?
-nathaniel
dear mari,
marc's dead too. i found his plaque today.
i don't know what i was expecting.
-nath
dear marinette,
remember how we used to play together on the playground? me and you and nino. we pretended to be knights, fighting dragons that were sometimes our parents and sometimes the mean kids. i'd say that maybe the real dragon was growing up, but that sounds too cliche.
and then i started to play with alix, and you and nino didn't have much in common anymore, and then you became friends with rose, and then rose met juleka, and then we all split apart.
you always said i was better at things than i thought. better at writing, maybe? this is the millionth version of this letter i've written. maybe you were wrong.
maybe your best friend at one point,
kim.
dupain-cheng,
my leg's gone. so's a third of paris, probably.
i'm sorry. i should've been nicer.
doesn't mean much when i say it now, does it?
chloe bourgeois
marinette,
it's juleka. remember me?
i just...
i realized the other day that i never thanked you. for so many things, really, but i'll start at the beginning.
i'll thank you for the best day of my life. ninth grade. i was in the class picture for the first day of my life, imagine that! you made me feel like i almost belonged.
you know, i always wanted to be your friend, but i could never really get up the courage. maybe because my brother was in love with you. maybe because i'm just like that.
marinette, after your age got out you were classified as a child soldier. (why not us? we were akumatized. i was fourteen. our emotions, our memories were twisted and we were forced to hurt people. i hurt rose! maybe because they think we don't remember. i remember more than they think).
gabriel agreste was arrested and given a life sentence for everyone he akumatized, on the grounds that it ruined their lives (it did). maybe that should make me feel better. it doesn't.
you were a good hero, marinette.
juleka.
hey, girl.
god, i miss you.
you're (are) a ray of sunshine, you know that? you light up the room.
i used to call adrien sunshine, and he (is), but not like you.
you help people. help them heal, help them grow. you sure helped me.
your plaque on the eiffel tower says "all that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good people do nothing." you didn't do nothing. i hope you know that.
i haven't touched the ladyblog since, well. it feels wrong, i guess. a whole blog dedicated just to you. then again, you deserve it. all of paris - what's left, agrees. you and adrien. against the world, as you said.
when i found out, all i could feel for a while was jealousy. why didn't you bring me and nino (didn't you trust us)? why didn't you tell me?
you're closer to him than you'd ever be to me.
why?
then i realized maybe it wasn't your fault. destiny, right? maybe all those soulmate theories on all the damn ladyblog forums had something going.
maybe.
but i'm still jealous, in a way. why couldn't it have been me? the world needs you. paris needs you.
I NEED YOU.
there, i said it. god.
what to say...
juleka and rose are together. took them long enough, right? and of course they're the cutest damn couple on the planet.
lila claimed she was rena rouge. sorry for not believing you. i'm glad it didn't tear us apart.
i love you, mari. you're the best.
love,
alya.
p.s. nino asked me to marry him. i said yes. i know we're young, but i love him too. he's helped keep me together.
say hi to adrien for me.
***
in honor of Marinette Dupain-Cheng
also known as the superhero Ladybug
2007-2023
killed while defending Paris against the supervillain Hawkmoth
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good people do nothing."
may she rest in peace.
END