“Someone’s quiet tonight.”
“Mm,” Chat Noir grunted, staring down at the city below, arms crossed and brow knit as Ladybug…or rather Marinette…lightly bumped into his side.
“Cat got your tongue?” Ladybug chuckled, smile dropping a little as Chat gave an all too perfunctory laugh that never really reached his eyes.
“Something like that,” Chat said, doing his best to avoid his partner’s gaze as she stepped around the front of him.
“Are you…okay?” Ladybug asked, raising an eyebrow as Chat finally brought himself to look at her, doing his best to appear as casual as possible.
“Fine,” Chat said with a dismissive wave. “Just having trouble…digesting something. Bad cheese, I think.”
“Oooh,” Ladybug winced, taking a step back from Chat. “Well…if you need a bathroom break, don’t hesitate to speak up, okay?”
“Sure,” Chat said, flicking his baton out as Ladybug lassoed a nearby gargoyle, pulling herself up onto the building across the street. He watched her for a moment, chewing on his lower lip before vaulting after her, lingering a few steps behind.
“Does your partner know?”
The question caught Marinette off guard, nearly causing her to choke on her bubblegum as Adrien slid into the seat across from her.
“Kn-Know what?” Marinette coughed, glancing around the mostly empty library as Adrien pretended to study next to her.
“What you told us yesterday,” Adrien murmured softly, glancing up with what he hoped was a casual, curious expression. “Just…something I’ve been wondering about since you told us. I mean…if you told us, he must know, right?”
Marinette fidgeted under Adrien’s curious gaze, guilt bubbling up and gnawing at her stomach. “He…w-well we kind of agreed to, uh…keep things professional, y-you know? So, uh…so no, he doesn’t.”
“Oh…sorry. I, just assumed you would have said something to him after yesterday,” Adrien said, trying very hard not to let the hurt edge into his voice. He was just a curious friend; not a slighted or hurt Chat Noir. “I mean…you told Alya, Nino, and me so, I just assumed-”
“It’s…it’s more complicated than that,” Marinette said, tapping her pencil’s eraser against the desk as she stared thoughtfully into the space behind Adrien’s head. Sooner or later, she was going to have to come clean to Chat that she had been the first one to break her own rule…she just didn’t know how. There was no earthly way that he wouldn’t take it badly once he found out that she had willingly spilled the beans to three people who weren’t him; she just needed some time to collect her thoughts before letting him know.
And once she told him…well, the cat would be out of the bag as well.
“Is it?” Adrien asked, fidgeting with his ring. “I mean…if you told us then-”
“I’m sorry,” Marinette said with a shaky laugh. “Can we just…work on the history project right now? I-I’m kind of behind for a lot of different reasons and-”
“Oh, right,” Adrien said, scratching the back of his neck. “Sure…forget I said anything.”
He offered another well practiced smile before returning to his own book, glancing up every few minutes as though he was waiting for some kind of explanation.
At half past eleven, a soft rapping came against Adrien’s window, pulling his attention away from his trigonometry homework to the red and black figure dangling from her yo yo string outside.
It’s open, Adrien mouthed, nodding at the large latch-style windows that Ladybug pushed open with the ball of her foot as she swung herself inside, landing beside his bed with unerring grace.
“Well this is a late surprise,” Adrien chuckled, fetching a long pole from the side of the bookcase and pushing the window shut again as Ladybug paced back and forth, clutching what appeared to be a plain white bag against her chest. “Although if those pastries are for me-”
“They aren’t,” Ladybug said, dropping the huge bag of pastries on his desk as she paced past it. “I-I mean, if you want one, you can have one, but I….”
Even in his raw, wounded condition, the sight of Ladybug (Marinette) in such an obviously agitated state cut through his own irritation.
“I….I was going to meet Chat tonight o-or at least try to meet him since I don’t really have any way of getting a hold of him,” Ladybug rambled, twirling her yo-yo from one hand as though she were trying to fight off the mounting wave of panic. “I wanted to explain what happened a-and clear the air with him b-but I figured he might be upset s-so I wanted to bring him a pastry or something to kinda soften the blow, or whatever, but-”
Ladybug took a deep breath, turning to face Adrien with a humorless and slightly manic laugh. “I…I have no idea what kind of pastries he likes!”
“So…you brought all of them?”
“A-Almost all of them,” Ladybug said, accidentally knocking over a pencil cup with her yo-yo as she paced. “Because I was just…standing there staring at a case full of pastries, trying to remember which one my partner of two years liked…and I couldn’t do it. I-I don’t know if I ever asked and just forgot or worse if I never cared to ask in the first place, b-but the fact is I…I don’t even know what my partner likes to eat! I know what Chloe’s favorite pastry is-”
“Lemon blueberry scones,” Adrien nodded.
“-but not…not Chat’s,” Ladybug said softly, sitting down on the edge of his bed, pressing her forehead into her hands as Adrien quietly crossed the room and sat beside her. “I’m sorry…I shouldn’t be dumping my superhero baggage on you. I just…I’m scared.”
“Of Chat?” Adrien snorted, trailing off when Ladybug turned her distraught gaze towards him.
“He’s…he’s wanted to know who I am for the longest time,” Ladybug said softly. “And I…I thought it would be better for neither of us to know who the other one was. And I know he’s had chances where he could have peeked but he didn’t. And now…now I have to tell him that I trusted three people he doesn’t even know with my identity…and not him.”
Ladybug trailed off into silence, the tick-tock of the clock on the wall providing the only sound for a long moment, until Ladybug broke the silence. “Is there…any chance he’s not going to be devastated by this?”
“No,” Adrien said quicker than he ought to have, turning himself towards Ladybug who was glaring at the floor, jaw clenched, and blinking rapidly. “I mean…if it was me…and I thought that someone I trusted with my life didn’t trust me back…yeah, I’d be pretty upset.”
And he was; the wave of disappointment and disillusionment that came from Marinette’s reveal still left him a little bitter. Still, he reached out, turning her shoulders to face him and tilting her head up until her watery gaze fixed on his.
“But…you need to tell him,” Adrien said firmly. “Better now than risking him finding out some other way, right?”
“I guess,” Ladybug mumbled, hands clenching her yo-yo for support. “We’ve just…had such a good partnership…and I’m worried h-he’s not going to trust me anymore…”
Adrien slowly pried her fingers apart, unclenching her fists and lacing his hands through hers. Any other day, Marinette might have turned red from such close contact, but now she was just grateful for the small bit of comfort to ground her.
“I think…after all you two have been through,” Adrien said carefully. “He’s not going to ditch you over this; no matter how upset he might be. I think…it might take him a little bit to get over it but…I’m sure you didn’t do this to hurt him.”
“I didn’t,” Ladybug insisted. “I…I was just so worried that Alya thought I didn’t want to spend time with her, so I…I thought explaining my sudden, inexplicable absences would patch things up.”
“To be fair, I think you managed to solve that problem well enough,” Adrien laughed, squeezing her hands gently. “She’s been practically vibrating hasn’t she?”
“I don’t even think I need to get her a Christmas present this year,” Ladybug laughed, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “I just need to deal with Chat now…”
“Hey,” Adrien said, drawing her attention back towards him with a small smile. “You’re gonna be fine, Lady-nette.”
“Do you…think I should tell him who I am?” Ladybug asked.
“I…” Adrien bit his lip. “You don’t have to…but I would make it clear that you trust him. If not that, then I’m sure you can think of something else.”
“Right…” Ladybug nodded, slowly getting to her feet. “I should…see if I can track him down before it gets too late.”
“Maybe try circling back towards the other end of the city?” Adrien suggested, mentally calculating how long it would take to intercept her once she left. “If that fails then…I don’t know; break out the catnip?”
“If it were only that easy,” Ladybug laughed, picking up the bag of pastries on his desk and rifling through them for a moment before producing an apricot Danish. “Thanks for the pep talk.”
“Anytime,” Adrien said, waving off the pastry. “You should save that for Chat.”
“It’s your favorite, though,” Ladybug clucked.
“Might be his too,” Adrien shrugged, shooting Ladybug a lopsided smile. “For all you know.”
“Right,” Ladybug laughed, dropping the Danish back in the bag with a small, steadying sigh. “I’ll…see you tomorrow?”
“Good luck,” Adrien said, waving her off as she lassoed the window open, and darted out into the night. He watched her go for a moment with a long sigh, fingering his ring as he pressed his free hand against the window. There was more he wanted to ask her, but it was a conversation that Chat needed to have with Ladybug. A long, profoundly uncomfortable conversation that pastries might make marginally better. But every relationship had growing pains, he told himself, and he could only hope their partnership would come out of it stronger for it.
“…you couldn’t have asked for a cheese Danish?” Plagg sniffed, poking his head out of Adrien’s collar.
