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Ladybug stood out in the cool of night, looking over the city with a hum and leaning comfortably on the balcony he’d found to wait. Chat, for some unknown reason was late for their nightly patrol, but it still wasn’t too late in the night. Ladybug just had to worry for his partner who hadn’t messaged or called mentioning being held up.
“What’s wrong m’lady? You look sad.” A voice appeared from behind him, and Ladybug whipped his head around, seeing the prideful form of Chat Noir, holding a present.
“Concerned, more or less, for a friend. I thought he might be in danger.” Ladybug put his hand on his hip with a snark, restraining from laughing at the way Chat’s ears dropped.
“Ah- well this friend… I hope you forgive him- them.”
“Depends, might make him owe me for worrying.”
Chat sighed, walking almost shamefully to stand next to Ladybug and presenting the gift with newfound guilt. “If it helps anything, I was out getting you something before coming here… and then I got caught up in an interview. Insisted I must be buying this gift for a special lady.”
Quickly, Ladybug swiped the gift, hesitating to tear into it but smiling at the spotted wrapping paper obviously done hastily. It was a soft gift though, which prompted Ladybug to smirk and look at Chat with an inquisitive yet playful brow raise. “Chat, were you late because you were out buying me a bra?” The gift was obviously much bigger than a bra, the inside joke still stood all the way from 2 years ago when thanks to the fact Ladybug had enough pec for them to think he was a she and asked what bra Ladybug wore to keep everything from moving around. Hence the reason Chat called him “m’lady.”
“As if I’d be so bold!” Chat gasped as if he were offended, despite obviously not being so. “Oh god- please, imagine me getting caught walking out of a Victoria’s Secret. They really are looking for any scandal they can get nowadays and that one could headline. No, uh- open it!”
Ladybug shook his head before tearing into the gift, taking out a hoodie with a little black cat pocket on the front. It was one of the fall pieces for the Sanchez clothing lines, and Ladybug remained silent, just looking it over. The main fabric was a impossibly soft pastel orangey-peach. “Do you like it?” Chat asked, not quite being able to figure out the look on Ladybug’s face.
He nodded, looking to Chat with a smile. “You remembered me talking about this? That was like a month ago!”
Chat shrugged with a laugh. “Well I know how much you adore that Lance Sanchez model, and you sat there staring at it with these sad eyes when it was first released on one of our nightly patrols… so I got it for you. Extra big so it’s baggy.”
“Thank you so much-” Ladybug pulled him into a hug. Chat sighed in relief and hugged him back.
“I’ll have to get you more of his stuff then.”
“Well,” they parted, Ladybug stepping back to look at him but still staying close to him, “that shouldn’t be too hard for you.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Ladybug hummed, getting close- closer, until all Chat could see were the caramel eyes that were behind the mask, head tilted down just a bit to meet them. “Ladybug?” Chat asked, face fully flushed thanks to the closeness. That’s when with only the blink of an eye, Chat found Ladybug’s lips on his, and he’d be lying if his heart stayed on Earth.
The kiss remained for only a few seconds, not even enough time for Chat to really react to it before Ladybug stepped back with a smile on his face. “I know who you are, Lance.” Ladybug whispered, and Chat’s head was suddenly reeling. Ladybug knew who he was, and he had no clue in the slightest how he might’ve found out.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Three soft knocks came to Matt’s door, pulling him from the scrolling hell he’d gotten himself into. He checked the time before getting up, and it was 2 am for christ’s sake! Who in the hell was knocking at his door right now? Matt climbed out of bed reluctantly, walking to the door and opening it. “Chat?” He immediately recognised his partner out on the balcony.
“How’s it going, Purrcules?” Chat smoothly uttered, but Matt frowned, seeing how sad he actually looked.
“You know I hate when you call me that…” Chat tilted his head with a smile, and Matt sighed. “What… what happened? Are you okay? You usually refuse to show up after midnight unless something is seriously wrong.”
Chat looked down, the hurt in his eyes suddenly worse. “Nightmare coupled with insomnia… I just needed to get away from home for a bit. You’ve kind of become my second, better home…”
Matt looked at him with understanding eyes, pulling Chat into a tight hug. “Come inside so you don’t get cold, we’ll talk, okay? You can stay as long as you’d like.”
“Are you sure I’m not keeping you up? You have class tomorrow morning, I don’t want you to be tired.” Chat mumbled in a weak protest, full well knowing how many shits (0) Matt gave whether he was tired or not the next morning.
“I was up anyway. My sleep schedule is fucked anyway and I want to make sure you’re okay. You have a life too outside of being Chat Noir, you shouldn’t have to be tired for that because of a nightmare.” Matt sat him down on the edge of his bed, then sitting next to him. “Now tell me what’s up.”
“The ceiling.” Chat weakly joked. Just from Matt’s expression he clearly wasn’t amused. “Sorry, sorry… I- okay, I had this nightmare about confessing to this guy who I really, really like… and in it he rejected me which is bad enough on it’s own but- hell in the dream he keeps going on about how I’m not good enough as a hero and I’m letting down everyone and I should quit and I’ll never be good enough for him I-” His voice fell as all the words just came out of his mouth like vomit. “I’m supposed to be this confident suave guy, you know, everyone thinks of me like that except for you who knows what I’m actually like!”
A problem with finding himself comfortable with Matt and so stressed out from the nightmare was tapping out a pattern on his thigh- one his brother Marco and him made when he was little to try and combat his mind wandering off and instead calm him. One Matt recognized… one only Lance used. He’d had his suspicions of Lance being Chat before, but… that practically confirmed it. His best friend and crush was also his partner in stopping crime, and that was something he’d be thankful for. “Come here, Chat…” Matt refocused on the situation, pulling Chat’s head against his chest and stroking his hair. “It’s okay- we’ll get through it-”
~~~~~~~~~~~
“I’m- what no I’m not Lance!” Chat looked away nervously, hand at the back of his neck. “Why on Earth would you think that?”
Ladybug laughed, reaching up and grabbing his cheeks. “I’m quite a big fan of Lance’s, you said so yourself. Of course I’d recognise him after spending so much time around him.” He grabbed Chat’s hand, which was starting to nervously fidget in the pattern again. “Nobody else knows but me, your secret is safe. I promise to keep it, scout’s honor.”
Chat sighed, looking at those eyes that practically held galaxies in them. Two years of fighting next to Ladybug and there was no reason not to trust him. “So… do I know you then? Outside of superhero duties?”
“I don’t know, do you?” Ladybug snarked, and Chat frowned. “Tell you what, if you can figure out who I am I’ll give you that date you keep asking for. However, I won’t be giving any hints.”
“Well,” The offer certainly grabbed Chat’s attention, “hard work for the ultimate reward. Get ready to be swooned on a date with me, m’lady.”
Ladybug laughed as he bowed, pulling the hoodie over his head and jumping to another building. “C’mon! Stop playing around! We have a patrol to do!”
----------
Ladybug’s offer was fresh on Lance’s mind as he sat in class. He had a total of two suspects (in his class at least) of who reminded him of Ladybug. A random kid he’d never spoken to before by the name of Adrien and then Matt, who was currently sitting in the back of the room with a soft expression and doodling in his notebook. It was cute to say the least.
But on the top of his suspicions, Matt had walked into class today wearing a pastel orange-peach and black cat hoodie from his fall line. The orange suited him though, he was certainly cute, and if it truly was Matt then he couldn’t complain. Their professor mentioned a pair project, and Lance figured that he’d take his chance picking one of them. Some part of him (his heart), probably caused by his years going to Matt’s house at night as Chat, decided that he’d hope it was Matt and choose him, by just so casually walking up to his table and setting his hand in front of him. “Wanna partner up?”
Matt looked up at Lance, a bit surprised. “Uh- sure! Did Hunk partner with Shay again?”
Lance looked over, and sure enough he had… so there was a decent excuse. “Yup. So then uh… are you busy after class? We could probably get this done today and not have to worry about it if we really work.”
“Yeah I’m free. Have a seat and we can get an early start on this.” Matt gestured to the chair next to him. Lance took it, setting his bag down and grabbing his computer out. He looked up to Matt watching him, not noticeably, but just enough that Lance could see his eyes. The same ones he’d seen last night looking up at him. Lance set his computer on the table and Matt looked away, but it was enough that if Lance had anyone he thought could be Ladybug now, it was Matt.
They worked through the final minutes of their class, both intending to head to Matt’s apartment to continue working on the project. Lance was stuck leaning on a wall outside while he waited for Matt, who was asking their teacher a hell of a lot of questions. Lance was pretty sure though that Matt was Ladybug as he spent the time on the wall thinking about how many things Matt and Ladybug actually had in common. He was pretty certain- at least he really hoped.
“Alright- sorry I made you wait so long… but I now know everything I wasn’t paying attention to.” Matt apologised as he walked next to Lance, readjusting his bag.
Now or never, right? “Ah, well it’s no problem m’lady.”
Matt’s head snapped up looking at Lance with a pout, before he just started laughing. “Wow- I was that obvious, huh?”
Lance stepped forward, wrapping an arm around Matt’s waist and pulling him in for a kiss. It was an odd way to tell, but aside from everything else, including the confession just then but… “Not entirely… I had my doubts. But your lips feel the same.” He stepped back with a smirk, beginning to make his way out of the building as Matt just had to stand there, a flustered mess at that comment. Lance got half-way down the hall before turning back to see Matt still standing there. “You coming with?”
“Y-Yeah!” Matt called, running after him as Lance laughed.