Chapter Text
From her vantage point in her window seat, she could look over the street below, fog clouding and blurring the headlights of the cars which droned by. Wiping her glasses, as if that would bring the clouded road into focus, she stared out idly at the city as it began to quieten for the night. A single copy of tomorrow’s homework lay neatly completed on the desk across the room, her own name written neatly at the top.
Sabrina smiled. Nino had insisted, after a few cancelled dates, that the homework situation with Chloe had to stop, and thankfully, Adrien had backed him up against Chloe’s backlash. Unfortunately, coaching Chloe was proving nearly as bad as just doing the work herself; despite her and Adrien’s best efforts, any attempt to encourage Chloe to find the answers herself were still met with blank looks, or worse, haughty disdain.
So every evening, Sabrina’s phone buzzed every minute or so instead, as Chloe demanded each answer as Sabrina worked them out, interspersed with complaints about Nino, Marinette, her father, one classmate or another… Recently, though, Chloe’s ire had been focused on Carapace, the turtle hero and newest addition to Paris’ superhero line-up. It seemed he could do no right in Chloe’s eyes; he was ‘a wimp’, ‘even worse than Chat Noir’, ‘detracts from the team, he should just let Ladybug and Queen Bee get on with it…’.
Sabrina wasn’t fazed. Chloe rarely had anything good to say about anyone, save herself and sometimes Ladybug. Before Carapace, it had been Rena Rouge who was ‘useless’. Oddly enough Queen Bee had been spared the third degree, in fact Chloe seemed reluctant to even discuss the bee heroine at all. She had plenty to say about the others, but would fall strangely silent when Queen Bee was mentioned, though Sabrina could see she was still listening intently.
If she didn’t know better, Sabrina might have suspected Chloe was Queen Bee.
Sabrina paused. Chloe had started wearing that one silver comb in her hair constantly, and had deflected all questions about it, although it looked very different from her normal accessories… and there had been a definite smell of honey in Chloe’s room last time Sabrina had been over… and Queen Bee did look a lot like Chloe…
Her mind went almost imperceptibly hazy for a moment, and when the fog cleared from her thoughts, the idea was suddenly laughable. “Come on!” Sabrina berated herself out loud. “Chloe could never be a superhero.” She glanced around, as if Chloe might materialise from the shadows in her room, and then put a hand on her hip and affected a mockery of Chloe’s haughty tone. “Ugh! Me, jumping around on rooftops? No way! What if I broke a nail?!”
She snorted at her joke and turned back towards the window.
A masked face was staring at her, right on the other side of the glass.
Sabrina shrieked and fell off her seat, backing away from the window. Her first thought was akuma!, but as she looked again, she recognised Carapace. He had his elbows resting on the outside windowsill, but as she watched he raised a hand and tapped on the window, looking almost… sheepish, though it was difficult to tell with the shadow his hood cast over his face.
When she didn’t move, he tapped again, more insistently. Suddenly worried- Dad’s working late tonight, what if there’s been an attack and he’s hurt?- she slowly approached the window, unlocking it and pushing it open without really thinking. Carapace yelped as the window knocked his arms off the windowsill and he fell out of sight.
“Oh no, I’m sorry!” Sabrina stuck her head out of the window. “Are you-” She squeaked in surprise.
She’d expected him to be on the pavement below, but he was hanging by the tips of his fingers from the windowsill, his face peering up at her. His hood had fallen back, revealing short, dark hair. Recovering herself, Sabrina offered her hand and he grasped it, scrambling untidily onto the ledge.
“Thanks, Sa- civilian.” Carapace coughed, settling himself. “I didn’t realise the window opened outwards.”
“Is something wrong?” Sabrina asked urgently. “Is there an akuma? Is my father ok?”
Carapace glanced over her in the dim light. “Oh, yes, you’re Officer Raincomprix’s daughter. I recognise you now. No, there’s no akuma, and as far as I know your dad is fine. This is just a routine patrol.”
Sabrina was momentarily relieved, but then frowned. “So why were you looking in my window?”
She thought his cheeks might have darkened, but she dismissed it as the shadow from his mask. “I- uh- saw you staring out of the window. I was just coming to ask if you were ok.”
“Well, I’m fine, thank you.” There was a long pause.
“Glad to hear it.” Carapace shifted the shield on his back awkwardly, before looking back out of the window. “Hope this fog clears up by tomorrow, it’s super cold.”
Great, small talk. “Yeah,” Sabrina said uncomfortably. “I think it should have lifted by the morning. It’s supposed to be sunny tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I heard that too.” Carapace nodded, and they trailed off into uncomfortable silence again.
Sabrina felt like she should be more excited- one of the heroes of Paris, right there in front of her!- but she couldn’t think of anything to say. They had exhausted talking about the weather, what else could she-
“Your room is nice,” Carapace forced out.
“Thanks.” Another silence. “You’re in it.”
“Oh! Sorry, did you want me to go?”
“No, it’s ok.” Sabrina fumbled through her thoughts. “Since you’re here can I, uh, get you a drink or anything?”
“Well, since it’s so nippy out there I wouldn’t mind a hot chocolate?” Carapace ventured, before backtracking. “If you’re cool with that, I mean.”
“I’ll go and see if we have any.” Glad for the chance to escape and recover her thoughts, Sabrina darted out of the door and down the stairs. To her dismay, a quick search of the cupboards revealed no hot chocolate. She made a cup of tea and headed back upstairs. When she opened the door, he was sitting on the window seat, watching the street. He looked up, and his face crinkled with a grin.
“Sorry, it’s tea,” Sabrina said. “We don’t have any hot chocolate.”
“No problem, tea is my third favourite hot drink,” Carapace replied. He stood up and came over to claim the mug, and Sabrina averted her eyes again nervously only to end up staring at his lean torso. Blushing, she looked back at his face.
“Third favourite?” she asked.
“Hot chocolate is second,” Carapace added, sipping the tea. “This is nice, thanks.”
“Well… what’s first?” Sabrina pressed.
Carapace narrowed his eyes. “I guess I can tell you, but if I see this in a magazine I’ll know it was you.”
“I won’t tell,” she insisted, curious now.
“I… love those gingerbread latte things the coffee shops make in autumn,” Carapace shrugged. “I’ve always been super into ginger things.”
Sabrina said nothing, just blinked at him, and Carapace’s eyes widened. “Like ginger biscuits, ginger cake, ginger… uh… pie?” Are there ginger pies? He coughed. “But your hair is… nice too.”
“Nice save,” Sabrina observed drily. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell the press. Wouldn’t want you pelted with ginger biscuits everywhere you go.”
Carapace laughed uncertainly as he drained the last dregs of tea. “Well, I- I should be getting back to my patrol. Bee will be wondering where I’ve run off to, and she isn’t exactly patient.”
“Oh, ok.” Sabrina watched him climb back out of the window. As he was about to leap from the sill, she called, “Carapace?”
He turned to look at her and she shuffled her feet. “I- I wouldn’t mind if you’d like to stop by every now and then after your patrols. I’ll get some hot chocolate tomorrow.”
Carapace smiled, much more sincerely this time. “I’ll definitely hold you to that, Sabrina. I like marshmallows in mine.” The sill creaked and he was gone, leaping away across the rooftops. Sabrina watched him until the cold fog began to sneak in through the window, and she hurried to close it. As she clicked the handle back into place, something occurred to her.
“Wait… he never asked me my name…”