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Beau and the Beetle	By : Cat_Eyes Category: +M through R > Miraculous LadyBug Views: 3721 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous Ladybug. Miraculous Ladybug is the intellectual property of Thomas Astruc and released by Zag studios. No profit was made writing this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Prologue: Alya
- 2-Adrien
- 3-Felix
- 4-Bridgette
- 5-Adrien
- 6-Sabine
- 7-Bridgette
- 8-Alya
- 9-Adrien
- 10-Felix
- 11-Sabine
- 12-Bridgette
- 13-Alya
- 14-Felix
- 15-Adrien
- 16-Alya
- 17-Felix
- 18-Bridgette
- 19-Adrien
- 20-Sabine
- 21-Felix
- 22-Alya
- 23-Bridgette
- 24-Adrien
- 25-Sabine
- 26-Adrien
- 27-Felix
- 28-Alya
- 29-Bridgette
- 30-Adrien
- 31-Sabine
- 32-Bridgette
- 33-Felix
- 34-Alya
- 35-Adrien
- 36-Felix
- 37-Sabine
- 38-Bridgette
- 39-Adrien
- 40-Felix
- 41-Adrien
- 42-Felix
- 43-Adrien
- 44-Adrien
- 45-Adrien
- 46-Epilogue
- 3
- 4
- 5
When Bridgette had first heard of Marinette’s disappearance, she’d cried for days. She loved her second cousin dearly, and had received equal amounts of love in return. They had spent holidays together, playing, whispering, and were almost inseparable. Bridgette thought of Marinette as a sister, keeping in close contact even after her family moved to another city.
The ache in her chest had not lessened at all since the time of her disappearance. Some days, she found she had to take a moment to just breathe, the yawning chasm where her heart used to be nothing more than a painful void.
Bridgette couldn’t imagine how Sabine and Tom felt. They had so desperately wanted a child, and Marinette had not been easily conceived. Sabine and Tom went to many doctors, fertility clinics, even a witch specialising in childbearing, and spent huge sums of money on IVF treatments. They’d agonised over every failed attempt, but their desire for a child kept them going.
After Sabine successfully carried a child to term, the whole family had celebrated – those who lived in France, anyway.
Sabine had moved out of China to get away from her wealthy and influential, but overbearing parents when she was younger, her cousin, Bridgette’s mother, following shortly after. They were both disowned by their parents, who accused them of disloyalty and cut them off from the family fortune after they married local men.
Bridgette’s extended family had never acknowledged her or Marinette, and pointedly did not celebrate their births, instead denouncing them both as abominations.
Bridgette had not been told of her family’s drama, as most of it happened before her birth. She overheard a great amount after Marinette’s disappearance though, when her parents had thought she was tucked up and asleep.
She pondered long and hard after that. Her mother never had any difficulties conceiving children. She’d birthed Bridgette, and her younger brother, without complications.
In the wee hours of the morning, Bridgette made the decision to visit Sabine and Tom, to help them in any way she could.
Her own parents didn’t need her for anything, and they still had her brother to dote on. So, the following morning, she had packed a bag, and caught the train to Paris. She knew her aunt and uncle had been struggling with the workload in the daily running of their bakery. She was only going to stay until they hired an assistant, or managed to get their bearings and cope with just the two of them. Then, she would return home, knowing she had done all she could. It was infuriating how little that was.

Bridgette wheeled her suitcase along behind her as she walked down a barely familiar street. It had been years since she had visited her aunt and uncle at their home. Family reunions were typically held at her place, as they had the bigger house.
She pulled a scrap of paper from her pocket and checked it again. The bakery’s address was scribbled down in pink pen, a crude map sketched below. Bridgette looked at the building to her immediate right. The numbers above the doors were getting closer.
Confirming she was heading in the right direction, she nodded once and kept walking.
The bakery finally came into view. It was quaint, and the designs painted on the windows were new. They were new to her, anyway. Something about them left her feeling sure they had originally been created by Marinette. Bridgette pushed the door open, and walked inside.
It was smaller than she remembered, but the smell triggered a torrent of memories – of her and Marinette pilfering warm pastries from the kitchen, running away and giggling with wild abandon before they were caught. Sitting with Tom and Marinette on high stools in the large kitchen as Tom taught them how to knead bread dough. Marinette’s enthusiastic and bright smile when she successfully accomplished a task, and her enthusiasm for sewing, which sparked Bridgette’s own interest in the field of fashion design.
Tears stung Bridgette’s eyes as the door closed gently behind her. She wiped them quickly, before Tom or Sabine saw.
‘Hello?’ she called. ‘Aunt Sabine, Uncle Tom?’
Sabine emerged from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel. ‘Bridgette, Dear. It’s so nice to see you again. How are you?’
Bridgette stooped to Sabine’s height to give her a hug. ‘It’s good to see you, too. I’m fine, what about you?’
Sabine let her go and stood back, subtly wiping her eyes. ‘Oh, you know. Coping. How was your trip?’
Bridgette let her change the subject. ‘Uneventful. Though, I suppose that’s what you want, when travelling, so I guess it was good.’
Sabine’s answering chuckle was empty. ‘Indeed, it is. How are your parents and brother?’
Bridgette filled her in on the family gossip as she followed Sabine into the kitchen. Tom was out picking up supplies after their deliveryman had taken ill, but would be back soon. Sabine had been left to fulfil the tasks of three people on her own while he was gone.
In times past, Tom would have baked, Sabine would have managed the storefront, and Marinette made herself useful however she could, whether it be restocking shelves, sweeping, decorating pastries, or performing any of the hundreds of cleaning chores inherent in shop ownership.
Her expression falling, Bridgette picked up a cloth and began to wipe down the tabletop.
‘You don’t have to start right away, Dear,’ Sabine murmured. ‘You can take your things upstairs and settle in first.’
Bridgette looked over her shoulder at the suitcase she had left in the doorway. ‘I’ll take my stuff up, but then I’m coming right back. This is why I came, after all.’
Sabine’s face eased into a tired smile. ‘As you wish. Thank you, for coming Dear. We appreciate it.’
Bridgette nodded, then caught the handle of her suitcase. She hauled it upstairs, and nudged open the living room door with her hip. Taking a step inside, she paused. Swallowing, she glanced up the stairs to Marinette’s room, but the lump in her throat only bobbed painfully. She took a hesitant step toward the closed trapdoor, then stopped.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she turned away, and left her bag on the floor beside the bannister.
It didn’t feel right to go into Marinette’s room without Sabine’s explicit permission. It had been reluctantly agreed upon that she would stay in Marinette’s old room for the duration of her stay, but it didn’t feel right to impose.
Bridgette drew in a deep breath, and turned her back on the room. She would focus on helping Sabine for now, and deal with her sleeping arrangements later.
- 3
- 4
- 5
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Beau and the Beetle