The sky was lavender tonight. Pale clouds drifted above Paris lazily.
Luka lay stretched across the flat, gravel coated rooftop of an apartment building just high enough to overlook the cobbled veins of the city below. His arms were folded behind his head, body utterly relaxed, eyes trained on a modest bench tucked between two quaint lamp posts.
The city atmosphere was quiet beneath me.
Paris was beautiful from above. Even from the cracked concrete of a forgotten rooftop, the winding roads shimmered under the golden streetlights. Somewhere below, lives a, fractured. And tonight, I'd be the the deliberate crack.
My eyes slid toward the bench three buildings away.
There she was. Right on time. Still waiting.
Aurora.
She was seated exactly where I'd told her to be, posture slowly unraveling from confident expectation to hesitant uncertainty. Her foot tapped in a nervous rhythm, her fingers fidgeted with the end of her jacket sleeve. Her eyes flicked from her phone screen to the horizon, to her phone again. But no one would come.
I smiled faintly.
Aurora, the first person I'd ever "saved." A poetic choice. But one made on whim just because it suited my plans better. When she'd been akumatized months ago, her rage had been honest. Raw. According to her, I understood it in a way most people wouldn't. When she fell to its power it wasn't because she was weak, it was because she had been desperate to be seen. And tonight, she would be.
I'd stumbled on her fan page by accident when checking out Alya's new Queen Bee video. She had another persona online, hidden behind a layer of anonymity separate from her cheery weather reports: a page dedicated to me. Or at least, to the mysterious stranger who had pulled her out of the storm.
That was free leverage. Leverage I'd put to use with a single message:
'I was the one who saved you. Let's meet.'
She'd agreed almost instantly. Eager. Grateful. A little starstruck.
That was four hours ago.
And she was still waiting.
Beside me, resting as i if was a loyal pet, was the jar. The akuma zoomed inside, restless in its glass prison and a target so nearby. I tapped it once with my knuckle, amused by how responsive it was. It was nearly time.
I sat up slowly, pulling my phone from my jacket pocket and typing a message:
'yo alya could you meet up at this address in an hour i have to talk to u about something important'
I hit send without hesitation.
Alya would come. She always did when the story was good enough. And tonight, it would be.
I lay back down, letting the silence blanket me once more.
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Aurora's POV
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sharp click of my heel against the metal benches leg cut through the silence, a steady rhythm of frustration I couldn't seem to stop. I folded my arms tight across my chest, only to let them drop a moment later. My fingers twitched with the urge to check my phone again. I resisted. For all of five seconds, then gave in and lit up the screen.
Still nothing.
No missed calls. No texts. Just the same blank notification bar that had been staring back at me for the last two hours.
Two whole hours.
There had to be a reason. Traffic. An emergency. Something unavoidable. People flake sometimes—life happens. But that kind of reasoning was already starting to rot at the edges. Deep down, I could feel it. That low, hollow ache growing in my gut wasn't uncertainty anymore. It was something that felt all to familiar.
Abandonment.
And still… I stayed. I don't know why. Pride, maybe. Stubbornness. Or maybe—I wasn't ready to admit I'd been wrong about him. If it really was.
I tilted my head back and stared at the overcast sky, looking for some kind of explanation. A sign. But the clouds didn't care. They just hung there, grey and indifferent, mirroring the emptiness of the roads stretching out in front of me.
No footsteps in the distance. No apology ringing.
I exhaled slowly, then let my eyes drift shut.
God, I remembered that night too vividly. The fury. The wind screaming between the buildings. The way everything around me blurred, like I was slipping through the world without anyone noticing, or caring. I'd been a storm waiting to burst, aching to break something.. anything, just to make someone look.
Stupid competition. And then he was there.
He looked at me Like I mattered.
That terrified me more than anything else. But it also… stayed. In a way nothing else had.
His voice had echoed in my thoughts for months, no matter how hard I tried to shove it down. I'd replayed the moment over and over, sometimes angry at myself for caring, sometimes desperate for it to mean more than it probably did.
And then he messaged me. Out of nowhere. Said he remembered me. Said he wanted to talk. Said he finally wanted to explain.
And I—idiot that I am—I showed up.
Didn't even hesitate.
But now?
Now the confidence I'd walked in with, Layer by layer, no longer showed. I could feel it cracking like glass beneath my skin. And in its place, that old, familiar question rose again like a bruise resurfacing.
Why?
Why call me out here if he never intended to show up?
Why say he remembered if I was so forgettable?
Why did I think I was worth the truth?
I hugged my coat tighter around me, as if it could shield me from the answers I didn't want but couldn't stop asking. My teeth sank into my bottom lip, trying to hold back the sting in my eyes.
I didn't want to cry. Not here. Not on this empty sidewalk in front of nobody but ghosts and streetlights. But I could feel it, something inside me starting to shake loose.
And the worst part?
It wasn't just about him not showing up.
It was about the fact that a part of me actually believed he would.
That I still wanted him to.
Even now.
Even after three damn hours.
---------------------
The sun had all but disappeared.
I stood slowly, brushing dust from my jacket as I reached for the jar. My fingers curled around the lid, twisting, then lifting it just slightly.
'Fly away, my akuma... and evilize her.'
I always wanted to say that.
The butterfly shot out like an arrow, silent and purposeful, disappearing into the dimming sky. I could already feel the shift in the atmosphere.
So this is what it feels like, huh, Hawkmoth?
Except I'm not an idiot.
From my vantage point, I watched it descend and began hoping to the next further building.
Aurora never flinched. She didn't even blink when the butterfly landed against her umbrella she'd always carried. Like she had already accepted it. Maybe she had.
A gust of wind exploded outward, a purple cyclone devouring the quiet street. Her body lifted from the bench, arms limp at her sides as the storm consumed her.
Dark clouds devoured the sky, blackening the world in an instant. Lightning cracked, followed by a roar of thunder.
She emerged from the storm taller, cloaked in violet and shadow.
Stormy Weather was reborn.
My phone buzzed again.
Queen Bee.
Looking up I saw her appearing from the location I had ser for her down the long road.
I watched her arrive with flair, flipping off her transport with practiced ease, heels landing hard on the fractured pavement.
"Tsk, tsk," she called. "Someone's a little moody today."
Stormy Weather didn't waste words.
She raised her hand, the wind obeying like a trained beast.
In a heartbeat, a blast of vertical air slammed down, tearing the street like it was paper. Asphalt split and cracked for what seemed like miles, sending debris raining into the sky.
Queen Bee leapt back, acrobatics clean, but even she looked surprised.
"She's strong," I murmured.
Good.
The battle unfolded beautifully. Glass shattered in buildings. Cars flipped from their parking spots. The storm was a living, breathing force now.
And still, I stayed hidden.
This wasn't my scene. Not yet.
I watched the battle from below, eyes sharp, watching every movement.
Queen Bee darted through the debris, lashing out with her venom strike, but even with point blank shots it barely fazed Stormy Weather. Her eyes glowed with something raw, something deeper than her previous akumatization. A different pain and rejection.
Perfect fuel.
I needed her to feel unstoppable.
Then I would show up.
And when the dust cleared, I would have everything.
My own mask.
My own power.
My own Miraculous.
But only after I have proved myself.
I leaned against the edge of the rooftop and smiled as the city tore itself apart.
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Authors Note- Had two split the chapter in 2 sorry they both will be upload today though, around 3k words.