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“Hey Chat?” Ladybug asked on a cool autumn night, laying on the rooftops with her partner.
“Yeah?”
Ladybug sighed. “Can I spill some tea?”
Chat sat up and grinned. “My lady, you always know I’m down for some sippy sippy. Spill it.”
“Chat! What--” Ladybug sat all the way up and burst into laughter. “What the fuck does that mean? ”
“Come on, Bugaboo! Sippy sippy!” This only made Ladybug laugh more.
“Fine! I’ll spill so you can have your sippy.”
“No, Ladybug, there’s two. Sippy sippy. They come in pairs.” The cat smirked one of his devilish grins that could only mean he was up to something.
“Fuck, okay, sippy sippy,” Ladybug chuckled. “So, my tea. Well, you know Alya, right?”
“Of course, she runs the Ladyblog, how could I not?” The two heroes fell back onto the rooftop, resuming their comfortable positions.
“Well, I have a problem that involves her. Not like she’s mean or I don’t like her! She’s amazing! The problem is, she’s one of my friends outside of the mask, so every time there’s an akuma attack I get barraged with ‘did you see what Ladybug did today?’ Like, yeah, I was the one doing it.”
“Ooh, sippy sippy,” Chat responded.
Ladybug snorted. “But it’s getting kinda hard to act like I don’t know what’s happening, and I feel like I’m gonna accidentally reveal myself every time I talk to her, y’know?”
“LB, that is some serious tea.” Chat paused for a second, thinking of any useful advice he could give. “Well, um, I guess just… become a Ladybug fan?”
Ladybug turned to face him. “What do you mean? How deep do I go?”
Chat turned to meet her gaze. “Well, there are definitely some good fanfics out there. Share some with her, you read some, and you can connect over the fanfics instead of your daily activities. That way she can still talk to you about Ladyblog stuff, but it’s also something that you feel more comfortable connecting to.”
Ladybug turned back towards the sky. “Y’know, I was about to punch you, but I see where you’re coming from. Something that kinda concerns me, though…” Ladybug faced Chat once more and smirked. “...you speak with such authority on the subject of fanfiction! Care to explain that, mister?”
Chat held up his hands in protest. “You have to do your research when you’re a hero! Who knows when a fan’s story becomes real with Hawkmoth’s powers?”
Ladybug nodded. “You’re right, that’s some serious sippy sippy.”
Both heroes laughed at the stars until they parted ways and went home for the night, not knowing yet that they would be seeing each other for the next several days.
A week later, Marinette had managed to wake up early for a change. Okay, maybe that was a lie and she just stayed up all night, but she was struck by inspiration at two in the morning. She didn’t have any control over when her creativity sparked, and so she sketched all she could before she forgot any of the ideas. Trudging into class that morning, coffee in hand, it was clear that she was exhausted.
Ladybug and Chat Noir had continued their new tradition of spilling the tea, and had made a new rule that stated that whenever tea was spilled, the one receiving the tea was obligated to say “sippy sippy.” Chat had spilled tea along the lines of his family life: how his dad was an awful person, his job that took his free time from him, his extracurriculars, and his love of physics (despite his absolutely awful teacher). Ladybug’s tea was always a continuation of the same story: the fanfiction she read about herself and how she and Alya discussed it. Each and every time, the other would reply with “sippy sippy” before providing an actually useful comment.
Marinette became lost in her thoughts, her mind wandering and her eyes shifting in and out of focus. Every time she blinked, she felt as if she were going to--
“Mari!” Alya yelled, jolting Marinette out of her slump.
“I’m awake!”
Alya shook her head and chuckled. “Yeah, I know. But girl, I have some serious tea.”
Nino and Adrien walked into the classroom then sat down at their seats in front of the girls.
“Oh? Some tea?” Marinette prompted, resting her head on her palm.
“Yes. Some tea indeed .” Alya cleared her throat. “I happen to be upset about something today. That something is a suspicious lack of Carapace merch.”
Nino choked. “O-oh, I noticed that too.”
“Yeah. There’s merch of the other heroes and stuff, there are even cosplays, but I have yet to ever see a Carapace cosplay with my own two eyes. And there are shirts! There are shirts like ‘Ladybug is my girlfriend,’ ‘Chat Noir is my boyfriend,’ ‘Rena Rouge is my girlfriend,’ heck, there’s a Queen Bee one. But you know what I haven’t seen?”
Marinette grinned. “What?”
“A freakin’ Carapace shirt!” Alya threw her hands up in the air. “I can’t find anything official, it’s only fan designs, and even then, there are probably three.” Alya stood up and took a bow. “And that, my friends is the tea.”
“Sippy sippy,” Marinette responded, then stopped. Adrien had said it with her. She turned to face him as he turned to face her seat a row back. Marinette stared at the blonde and everything clicked into place.
Adrien could only stare and choke out syllables. “I- Wha- You- We-”
Marinette pointed at the boy in front of her. “You’re…” she didn’t complete her sentence, but Adrien nodded.
“And you’re…” he didn’t finish either.
Marinette groaned and rubbed her eyes. “Oh my god, we are idiots .”
Alya turned to face Nino. “Do you understand any of this right now?”
Nino shrugged. “I was about to ask the same thing. What the fuck is happening?”
“If I explained it, you wouldn’t believe me,” Adrien sighed.
“I barely believe it myself,” Marinette added. Of all of the possible ways they could have revealed their identities, this had to be the stupidest of them all.