Chapter Text
A darkened Parisian skyline. The golden Eiffel Tower in the distance. A fresh, crisp breeze blowing through his hair...
What a beautiful night for patrol.
As soon as he was close enough to the Eiffel Tower, Chat Noir realized that Ladybug had beaten him there for once. He could make out her bright red suit pacing back and forth on the beam where they always met up.
She was flustered about something. It immediately put Chat Noir on high alert, ready for whatever was threatening his lady this time. Without hesitation, Chat Noir extended his baton and scaled the tower as quickly as possible. The second he pulled himself onto their usual beam, Ladybug spun on him.
“Finally! Chat Noir, I know who Hawkmoth is.”
Chat Noir immediately perked up. “What? Hawkmoth?” he sputtered. “Who? How?”
She didn’t respond right away--just shook her head and dug her fingers into her hair, more frazzled than Chat had never seen her. She returned to pacing up and down the narrow ledge, seemingly without a worry for the sheer drop.
“Do you know him? In real life?” he asked slowly, watching her feet as she paced near the ledge. Ladybug could take care of herself, but flustered as she was at the moment, he didn’t want to risk her falling.
“Adrien.”
“What?” Chat responded automatically, thinking she was calling his name.
“Adrien Agreste is Hawkmoth,” she said, turning suddenly and shaking Chat by the shoulders. Her eyes burned into him. “Adrien. FUCKING. Agreste. Is Hawkmoth.”
“W-What?” Chat said again. He just about choked on his spit. “That… that model guy?”
“So, the other day I stole this book from him. Borrowed, more like,” she started saying, resuming her pacing as she gestured in the air. “My kwami saw it and freaked out . She said I had to get my hands on that book, no matter what. It was this encyclopedia of superheroes. Of miraculous holders, like us. And so I dug it out of the trash after that lying jerk Lila threw it away, then I brought it to Master Fu, and get this. Hawkmoth stole that book from Master Fu!”
At this point, Ladybug was talking so fast that Chat could hardly keep up. Especially when he was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that Ladybug thought that he, Adrien, was Hawkmoth.
“Why else would he have that book? Coincidence, I thought at first,” Ladybug went on, more than capable of holding a conversation by herself when she was this worked up. “Because Adrien is the sweetest, kindest boy I’ve ever met. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. I never seen Adrien during an akuma attack. That time with Volpina, he was an illusion all along--it explains how he disappeared from his room when we thought Volpina took him. And right around the time of that first akuma attack, Adrien enrolled in my school. And then he akumatized the rest of our class! He needed new victims, and he knew that school would be the perfect place for it. Adrien and I are the only ones in my class who have never been akumatized. God, how did I never see it before? I sit directly behind him in class, and I never once suspected...”
It was like getting hit by multiple trains in a row. All slamming into his head before he could hope to catch up. “L-Ladybug, hold on a mewment. I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation…”
“And to think I liked him! I’ve been crushing on him this entire time. I wrote him a Valentine’s Day card and everything. God, I wrote Hawkmoth a Valentine’s Day card! I have photos of Hawkmoth’s face plastered all over my bedroom wall!”
Ladybug stopped suddenly, dropped to the ground, curled into a ball, and hugged herself with a look of utter panic on her face. “I’m in love with Hawkmoth.”
After everything she had uttered in the span of 5 flustered minutes, those were the words that left Chat Noir gaping like a fish. Ladybug was in love with Adrien Agreste.
News like that seemed secondary to her belief that his civilian form was also Hawkmoth.
“I have to go. I have to burn everything he’s ever touched.” Without further preamble, she flung herself off the tower and yo-yoed away.
Chat Noir plopped down and watched her go, completely spent and emotionally drained. “How the heck am I going to talk myself out of this one?”