Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ladybug groaned in irritation as she watched the akuma take over Chat Noir’s mind. He’d once again taken a hit for her and was once again losing control of himself. That boy never moves faster than when he’s rushing to protect her. She should consider herself lucky that for some reason he never moves that fast when he’s forced to fight her. She braced herself in a fighting stance as Chat Noir turned to look at her while cackling darkly.

“You’ve had this coming, Bug.” He growled, gripping onto his baton and shifting his feet to match her stance.

“Here we go again.” She sighed, before the two of them launched at each other. His lunges and swings at her were as predictable as always, and she was able to incapacitate him pretty quickly before shifting her focus back on to the akuma.

After defeating the akuma and cleansing it, Chat Noir walked up to her in a tired haze.

“What happened? Was I controlled again? Did I hurt you?” He mumbled, making no real attempt to disguise how sad he was.

“It’s fine, kitty. It was the same as usual. You get mind-controlled, I kick your butt.” She teased, giving a playful punch to his shoulder. His expression shifts to relief and he offers her the sweetest smile she’s ever seen, save for Adrien.

“Glad to hear it, Milady.” Before either of them could continue, both their Miraculous’ beeped and they were forced to part ways.

Once transformed back into Marinette, she quickly found Alya on her way back home from the site of the fight, looking over footage she had taken. The young reporter seemed to hear her approaching and glanced up, grinning as she recognised her friend.

“Marinette! I got some awesome shots of Ladybug being a total warrior queen! We have to go over it as soon as we get back to mine!” Alya exclaimed enthusiastically. Marinette smiled and nodded warmly at her best friend, glad that she was secretly making her this happy.

Alya wasn’t exaggerating; the shots of Ladybug made her look awesome. It looked as if she were fending off the large, mind-controlled men without breaking a sweat. If she were being honest, it really was that easy, but seeing how small she was compared to them made it look a thousand times more impressive than it felt like at the time.

“Ooh, we’re coming up to the fight with Chat Noir. This bit is excellent!” Alya commented, bouncing in her seat. Marinette watched as the akuma charged their power and aimed it at a clueless Ladybug. There was a dark blur across the screen, and right before the blast hit Ladybug, Chat Noir had thrown Ladybug out of the way and taken the hit.

“It’s clear he has a stealth advantage over Ladybug. I’m surprised he never capitalises on it when he’s fighting her.” Marinette remarked, watching as Chat Noir lunged at Ladybug. Alya giggled.

“Look! He’s leaving so many openings for Ladybug to take advantage of. What is he doing?” Alya critiqued, nose scrunching up as she pointed at the screen.

“Catboy is dancing.” Marinette yelped at the sound of the voice behind them. Whipping her head around, she saw Alya’s older sister crouching behind them looking at the screen.

“What?” Marinette asked. Nora, or Anansi as she preferred, let out a deep chuckle.

“By dancing, I mean he’s following choreography. Fight choreography, but still might as well be dancing. You see it all the time in wrestling. They have a set of moves that they perform so that it looks like they are attacking but it gives the opponent time to counter and not get hurt. Gives wrestling more of a narrative than a real fight. That’s why I prefer boxing. No drama, just punching!” Anansi explained, flourishing her words with mock fighting.

“Are you trying to say he’s intentionally being predictable so that Ladybug can beat him?” Marinette questioned. Anansi nodded confidently.

“Anybody with good fight training would be able to tell. It makes sense considering how he usually marks his hits in every other fight.” She stated. When she was met with confused looks from the teenage girls, Anansi sighed.

“When you mark a movement, it means you’re not going full out. When you look at your closer footage of their fights, you can see a physical difference in muscle tension between when he is blocking something and when he is attacking. Here, I’ll show you.” Anansi hipped at Alya, bouncing her out of her office chair and sitting down, ignoring Alya’s protests. After a few clicks, Anansi opened two more videos side by side. One video, a car had been thrown and was speeding toward the camera, until Chat Noir jumped between the camera and the car and braced as it hit, feet skidding on the ground as he pushed back against the vehicle until it grinded to a halt. Anansi rewound the footage and paused right before the car stopped moving. She then hit play on the other video, which was footage of Chat Noir in close combat with an akumatised victim. She paused the video as he lunged away from the camera.

“Okay, look here. You can see his muscles tensing through his silly spandex suit as he’s blocking the car, right? That’s full muscle engagement from his deltoids and triceps right there! But when you look at the other video, you can barely see them. He’s practically relaxing in comparison!” Anansi explained further. The two teenage girls examined the screen, looking carefully at the differences she had described. Alya gasped.

“Oh my god, you’re right! Why would he phone it in during a fight?” Alya thought out loud. Anansi shrugged.

“He’s probably got martial arts training. They drill it pretty hard into your head not to do more damage than necessary.” She guessed. Marinette sat staring at the screen. Everything Anansi was saying made sense, except for one blaring detail.

“Why would any of this carry over to when he is mind-controlled? I mean, sure he clearly doesn’t like the idea of hurting people. But shouldn’t that go out the window when he’s lost control?” Marinette questioned. Alya paused to think.

“Actually, it makes sense if Chat Noir doesn’t lose full control. Think about it, girl. How many times has he been mind-controlled by an akuma? A lot. How many times did he tell the akuma his real name, or hand over his Miraculous? Never. He must retain some control otherwise that wouldn’t be possible. Which means that Nor- I mean, Anansi’s theory that he’s making himself easier to beat is very possible! Thanks big sis, this is going to make the forums on the Ladyblog go nuts! Can I get an official interview with you as a fighting expert?” Alya ranted, getting more and more excited as she spoke.

“Lil’ sis, I’ve been waiting for you to ask that for way too long!” Anansi said back just as enthusiastically. Neither Cesaire woman noticed the serious and thoughtful expression that lingered on Marinette’s face.

“Alya, please don’t post about this online.” Marinette spoke softly, but loud enough to snap Alya’s attention fully to her.

“What? Are you kidding? This is a big insight to who Chat Noir is as a person-”

“Exactly. If you post this, you’re revealing a potential weakness to Hawkmoth. If he knows Chat Noir hates harming people, he’s going to force him into situations where he has to do it to break down his spirit. Chat Noir is a huge motivator for Ladybug. How long do you think it would take for Hawkmoth to beat them if their spirit and will is broken?” As Marinette explained her plea passionately, she saw the flash of realisation in Alya’s eyes.

“Y-you’re right. If I post this, Hawkmoth and any akuma is going to know that Chat Noir is holding back and will fight for more control over him. I can’t put them in danger like that.” Alya whispered sadly.

“God, you kids are dramatic. Lighten up will ya?” Anansi commented, giving them both a thump on the back.

Chapter Text

It had been a week since talking to Anansi, and Marinette found she couldn’t stop thinking about what she had potentially learnt about her partner. She was pretty convinced at this point, but there was still a chance they were reading too much into it. Figuring the best way to confirm the theory would be to see if he had received any martial arts training, she decided to ask him during their next patrol while they were resting in between rounds. That’s how Ladybug ended up sitting atop the Eiffel Tower watching the sunset side by side with her partner.

“Kitty, do you have any fight training?” Ladybug asked, swinging her feet over the edge as she looked out at the Parisian skyline.

“You mean outside of all the akumas we have fought?” He checks with a joking tone, a playful grin stretched over his face as he synced his own legs with hers. She rolled her eyes before gesturing for him to go on.

“I’ve had training in karate and fencing.” He answers nonchalantly.

“Cool, just like Adrien.” Ladybug thought out loud. Chat Noir froze.

“What?” His outburst forced her to realise she had spoken, resulting in a quick wince she attempted to cover up with a neutral expression.

“Uh...you know, that model guy? Everyone knows he does fencing and his Wikipedia page said he used to take karate as well.” She explained, hoping she sounded disinterested, like she was stating random facts.

“Why were you looking at m- his Wikipedia page?” He questioned, sounding weirdly nervous.

“UH...I spiraled! You know how sometimes you’re doing an assignment about carbon dioxide and half an hour later you’re reading about pygmy falcons and you’re not sure how you got there? It’s like that!” She rambled out a lie. She watched his expression intently, noticing it move from mild fear to consideration, then acceptance.

“Okay, I’ll believe you...for now.” He commented with a smirk. Ladybug fought back a sigh of relief and chose instead to look back out at the horizon.

“Why did you want to know about fight training, anyway?” His question got her to look back at him, his satisfied smirk having now been replaced with a serious, yet curious expression.

“Someone I know with experience pointed out that it looks like you’re holding back during fights; like you’re trying to do the least amount of damage to get the job done. They said it was a very “martial arts” attitude, so I guess I was curious.” She explained, careful not to give away any telling personal details. If she had said “my best friend’s sister who is a champion boxer”, it probably wouldn’t take Chat Noir long to narrow down her identity. It also took her a lot of strength to not include how he fights her one on one. His eyes narrowed as he examined her face.

“I get the sense that there is more you want to ask about.” He guessed, serious expression not dropping. She supposed there was no holding back on this one. Ladybug sighed as she turned away.

“Why do you hold back when you are fighting me?” She hated how meek she sounded.

“I wasn’t aware that I did, Bugaboo.” Chat Noir commented, a hint of his playful tone returning.

“Come on, Chat. Now that it’s been pointed out to me, it’s super obvious. You can’t pretend like you don’t mark your attacks, or that you don’t intentionally pick bad strategies for taking me on.” She continued, unable to conceal her frustration. It was quite the hit to her ego to find out he was effectively letting her win, after all.

“LB, I wasn’t kidding. Whenever I get mind-controlled by an akuma I can’t really remember anything that happened during that time. I never watch footage from those fights, either. The idea of watching myself try to hurt you... I can’t...” As Chat Noir spoke, his voice grew shakier, until it was too strained to continue. She turned back to him to see that his eyes had gone shiny with tears threatening to break free, accompanied by the slightest tremor of his lower lip. It really didn’t occur to her until now just how scary it would be to have your mind taken over and then have no idea how close you were to hurting someone you care for. He always played it off coyly when he came to, but seeing him now it was all too clear just how much it bothered him. She shifted closer, ignoring his flinch as she put an arm around his shoulder and pulling him in.

“It’s okay, Kitty. You’ve never done anything too bad. You seem to have a certain amount of secret control that you hide from the akumas, like your will to do no harm overpowers their magic just enough to force yourself to move slower and use less accuracy. I mean, the two times you got close to using Cataclysm on me, you were moving far slower than I know you can, like you were allowing time for something to stop you.” She reassured. His face cringed at the mention of his power, but he also seemed to be considering what she was saying.

“Plus, none of them ever got you to give up your Miraculous or identity, so if that’s not a testament to your strength of will I don’t know what is.” She continued, squeezing his shoulder gently and offering a loving smile. His eyes widened in an expression of wonder, mouth hanging slightly open as if he were dazed, before he shook himself out of it and gave her a warm, soft smile with still glistening eyes.

“Thank you, Milady. You don’t know how much your words mean to me.” He thanked, tone gentle and genuine. She was a little bit shocked to see such a vulnerable reaction. To be honest, she was expected him to beam with pride and jokingly brag to try to break the serious moment. His expression twitched as he looked at her, probably reading her confusion. He let out a big sigh and turned his face away from her, not unlike how she had done before.

“In my civilian life, people are always praising me and going nuts over every tiny thing I do. But as Chat Noir, I seem to either be the butt of a joke or a complete after-thought. Then there’s when I mess up and everyone starts questioning if I’m even worthy of being your sidekick, let alone your partner. I can’t help but think that all those people who are nice to me as my civilian self don’t really believe what they are saying and only care about sucking up to my father.” He admitted, emotional tone shifting through insecurity to bitterness. Just when he was tensing up, he suddenly relaxed and looked back at her, eyes sparkling with love and hope.

“But nothing that they say about me matters; not if you believe in me.” He proclaimed. She could see the confidence in him that helped inspire her to stand up to Hawkmoth for the first time, and she heard the same determination in his voice that he had when she had her doubts during Heroes Day that gave her strength to keep fighting. She knew then that she got her strength from him and he got his from her. Their bond was perpetual motion and showed no signs of letting up.

“You and me against the world?” She quoted with a smile. It shouldn’t have been possible, but his face lit up even more. Without warning but at no shock, he pulled her into a full embrace, burying his nose between her neck and shoulder as his arms wound securely around her waist. She brought her resting arm to join the other around his shoulders and returned the embrace with just as much enthusiasm. In that moment it didn’t matter if they were in love or not, just that they loved each other.