Chapter Text
~Bridgette~
Bridgette collapsed on her desk, looking over the bulletin board she’d prepared. Officer Fortin’s text said that Phillipe Voland was first spotted near the Premiere Patinoire, a quick google search indicated that he was the head figure skating instructor at that establishment, and the website page indicated that it was open until 2:30 pm, meaning, he was just getting off his shift when he was corrupted. With three akuma attacks with known corruption points, it was possible to draw two red lines connecting ‘Frozer’ (as the news was starting to call him) to Pyromancer and Mr. Pigeon. It was a simple construction, but Bridgette now had a little bit more information on the butterflies in Papillon’s control. For starters, by following it back to him (assuming that’s where it was headed), the search radius decreased significantly. It was possible it was using evasive maneuvers and leading her astray, but since the butterfly led her within the drawn triangle, she doubted that. The other thing she was able to do was measure the distance she followed it. Since she began following it with two minutes left, she could determine an approximate rate the butterflies traveled at, meaning Valeria could use that data to develop a better model for narrowing down Papillon’s approximate location. Tikki materialized beside her, rolling an apple over to her, Bridgette smiled softly and took a bite of the apple, enjoying the fresh crunch, her energy restored.
Hopefully her math quiz would be easier than this, she never would have thought algebra and trigonometry would be the key to saving the world. Bridgette leaned back in her chair and looked at the clock, she felt like she was forgetting something… Bridgette frowned upon remembering that she had to meet up with Chat Noir. As if on cue, a loud thump sounded from the balcony. Bridgette raised an eyebrow at Tikki, who nodded to confirm her suspicions.
“Send him off quickly, we have to get over to the Eiffel Tower before he suspects anything.” Tikki said, crossing her arms in annoyance. Bridgette chuckled at the action, Tikki really hated Chat Noir. She could accept it since he was a handful, but she wouldn’t say he was all bad. Bridgette climbed up the ladder to the balcony, propping open the door to find a gloved hand extended toward her. Brigette looked up to see Chat Noir smirking down at her, evidently trying to help her up, Bridgette rolled her eyes and got up by herself, watching as Tikki wrinkled her nose at Chat Noir.
“Can I help you, freeloader?” Bridgette asked sharply, crossing her arms. Chat Noir sighed and sat down on a tabletop situated in the center of the balcony before unzipping his pocket to produce €40, €20 from what he owed her, and another €20 from what he was going to ask for. Bridgette forced herself to look away, that was a lot of money for some pastries. “Ok, fine, how may I help you?” She asked, ignoring Tikki’s stink eye. Chat Noir smiled at last.
“That’s more like it. I am a returning customer, you know.” Chat Noir leaned forward slightly, exposing some of his collar bone, Bridgette hadn’t really realized as Ladybug, but Chat Noir was pretty toned… focus! Bridgette shook her head, glaring at him. Chat Noir continued, pretending to be oblivious to her gaze. “I’d like an assortment of some cute sweets. Cookies, brownies, macarons, the works. If anything’s dark chocolate, or strawberry, add that mademoiselle.” Chat Noir said, winking. Bridgette scoffed, rolling her eyes, he was always a flirt. Despite his claims that he was in love with Ladybug, he acted like this with her. The least he could do was have some standards. Before she went downstairs, Bridgette snatched the money from Chat Noir’s hand and stuffed it into her jean pocket to make her way into the bakery. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you. She thought as she angrily prepared his order.
Bridgette returned to the balcony with Chat Noir’s order, handing him the bag.
“Can you go now, I have school tomorrow.” Bridgette crossed her arms over her chest, watching Chat Noir sniff the bag tentatively before looking over at the flowerpot balanced on the railing.
“Are these roses?” Chat Noir asked, nodding toward the container. Bridgette blinked back her surprise, she didn’t expect Chat Noir to care for flowers.
“Yes, I had to replace them since I threw the tulips I had at you last time.” She said easily, Chat Noir smiled softly at them, touching a red one gently… before ripping it out of the vase. “Hey!” Bridgette yelled, before Chat Noir vaulted off her balcony once more. “What is that cat thinking!?” Bridgette groaned, looking around for Tikki. Tikki shook her head solemnly.
“Pesky as always. Shall we?” Tikki asked, extending her arm to Bridgette warmly. Bridgette smiled.
“Let’s.” Bridgette double checked her surroundings before saying the words, “Tikki, spots on.” With a flash, and a rush of confidence, Ladybug was swinging across the Parisian night sky to meet up with her partner. This had better be good.
~Félix~
Chat Noir knelt down on one knee and extended a rose out.
“Ladybug, you are the light of my life. My reason, my purpose for going on. You are my luck, my lady. Would you do me the honor of…” Chat Noir grimaced at his words and stood up, spinning on his heel. “Ugh! Why is this so hard!? Get yourself together!” He yelled, grabbing his head. He’s flirted with Ladybug for so long that he had forgotten to give her a proper confession. Despite receiving countless confessions and love letters as Félix, giving one of his own was hard. Even Bridgette, the klutz, was able to confess to him, she couldn’t even stop stuttering in front of strangers, but her confession was authentic and brave, despite being the biggest coward he knew. Chat Noir shook his head and double checked the arrangement he’d prepared. There were some lit candles, the pastries from Ladybug’s go-to bakery of choice plated elegantly, and the rose in his hand. Of course they would talk business too, but this was important to him.
“Chat?” Ladybug’s voice rang out from somewhere above him.
“Down here.” Chat Noir yelled out, shaking out his nerves. Relax kid, you're so jittery that I’m beginning to get nervous. Shut it Plagg. Ladybug lowered herself onto the internal beam easily, seeming to float down as her yoyo string extended. Chat Noir took a deep breath and knelt down on one knee, extending the rose to her.
“Ladybug, I love you, truly.” Chat Noir said, his ear folding back. Ladybug crossed her arms and looked over her shoulder.
“This is another ploy to get a kiss, right? I’m not stupid.” She said flatly, Chat Noir felt his heart shatter. She really didn’t trust him. He had lied to her in the past, but he felt different now. He did still want a kiss to break his curse, but even having the ability to take the ring off wouldn’t mean he’d suddenly disappear on her. That’s the reason he was still fighting by her side. If it was purely for selfish reasons, he would’ve given up long ago. But her smile, her strength, her confidence were like a magnet drawing him in. It was impossible to not love her. Chat Noir frowned sadly.
“That’s not it at all, I’m trying really hard!” He said, gesturing to the scene he’d laid out. Ladybug looked up, observing it silently before sighing and sitting down on the steel beam.
“Look, it’s okay if you have nefarious intentions, since, at the end of the day, you keep risking your life to help me. I really can’t do this alone.” Ladybug said, gesturing with her chin to the city skyline. Chat Noir forced his gaze to look away from her, noticing for the first time the gentle light being cast from inside the city's windows, the silence of the night as a peaceful landscape settles. Crime has been down since Ladybug and Chat Noir started fighting supervillains, regular criminals feared being targeted as either akuma victims, or by Ladybug and Chat Noir themselves. Chat Noir took a gentle breath and looked down at the rose in his hand. If it was her wish… he would help her accomplish it.
“I understand you don’t trust me, my lady. But…” Chat Noir turned to look Ladybug in the eye, her beautiful eyes that shone like jewels , as he leaned forward slightly. “...that’s not going to stop me from pursuing you. I know it’s fate that we met, and we’re meant to be together, you just don’t know it yet.” Chat Noir said, taking her hand gently to raise it to his mouth before kissing her knuckles gently. Ladybug blinked back her surprise, a light flush appearing on her cheeks. When Chat Noir let go, she turned away a little too quickly, clearly embarrassed. Chat Noir chuckled at her demeanor, so she did get shy at times, it was cute.
“I-I thought you had something important to discuss.” Ladybug said, still looking away from him. Chat Noir tilted his head, a stutter, how odd.
“Yes, it seems Papillon… thinks we are students at Collège Françoise Dupont, according to Phillipe’s testimony.” Chat Noir said hesitantly, he couldn’t say ‘knows’ since that would verify he went to school there himself, and he and Ladybug already agreed to avoid prying into each other's real identities for security. Furthermore, if he took that statement to be true, then that might mean he knew who Ladybug’s civilian identity was. Would that be lucky or unfortunate? Félix suppressed the thought, preventing the fantasy from unraveling. Ladybug nodded slowly as she processed the information.
“That’s fine. I’ve sent Valeria some information, but my rough estimate means that we’ll be able to narrow down Papillon’s relative location to four blocks. We might have to start nightly patrols to look out for any suspicious figures since we’ve identified a problem area, and enough time has passed that the mine might make a reappearance.” Ladybug said easily. Chat Noir nodded, so she was tracking the direction and speed that Papillon’s butterfly traveled in, that was probably some of the data she was referring to. How clever.
“And about the mime’s akuma location?” Chat Noir asked, partially reminding Ladybug, partially probing for his own sanity. Ladybug looked over at him, an unreadable look in her eyes.
“I’m working on it, I have a source I can query, I just need to arrange a meeting that’s not overly suspicious.” Ladybug explained. Chat Noir nodded and unzipped his pocket to show the business card that Valeria’s agent gave to him. Ladybug took it and scanned it quickly.
“Valeria’s agent showed up at the scene with the other medical personnel and handed this to me. It basically just has that agent’s contact info. Her name is Colette Ley, she’s a data analyst.” Chat Noir explained, turning to look at Ladybug as she pressed the business card to her nose and sniffed hard. He tilted his head, what was she doing? Ladybug looked up at him and held the business card out in front of him.
“Does this smell like lemon to you?” She asked urgently. Chat Noir blinked back his surprise by obliged, it did have a hint of lemon, he could barely pick it up with his heightened senses, no wonder she handed it over.
“I would say so.” He managed before Ladybug took the card and held it over the flame of one of the candles he had set up for their evening. She was careful to prevent the card from burning, but ran the flame underneath the entire area of the card. “What are you doing?” He asked after several minutes. Ladybug’s mind was a mystery to him, and she was undoubtedly brilliant, but it was hard to follow what she was thinking when she stopped communicating. Ladybug smiled and held the card up, running over to him quickly.
“Le Sort - Agent, 4444” Ladybug read aloud next to Chat Noir, who saw the text for an instant before it began to fade. “Simple invisible ink is just lemon juice, one way of seeing it is heating up the surface it’s on.” Ladybug explained quickly before handing him the card back. “I think Fate is our last contact, they sound like an undercover field agent, which makes sense. So that’s an analyst, agent, and executive who are helping us out from the government, the smallest task force possible to keep this under wraps.” Ladybug reasoned. Chat Noir nodded, tucking the card back into his pocket, incredible as always. Valeria knew Ladybug would be able to figure it out quickly,
“Perfect, I’ll save the numbers on my end. Let’s start doing nightly patrols once Colette runs those calculations.” Chat Noir reasoned, Ladybug nodded enthusiastically.
“Sounds good… and, I’ll think about a kiss once all of this is wrapped up.” She chuckled, a sound like pure joy made Félix’s heart feel warm.