Work Text:
Anybody who knew Ladybug’s civilian alter-ego knew that being on time wasn’t her strong suit. Much less being early. Yet here she was tonight, sitting on rooftop and watching the sun set, nearly a half hour early before she was due to meet Chat Noir for patrol.
For company, all she had was one of those Chinese finger traps. She’d gotten the cheap toy years ago at some fair or something. It had ended up on her desk after she’d cleaned her room last week, amongst a pile of things she’d found and didn’t quite know what to do with. It had been a last-minute choice on her way out of her skylight tonight to grab it—something to distract herself with while she sorted through her anxieties.
Something Alya had said after their last Akuma fight—about how Chat Noir had seemed a little off during the battle—kept running through her mind. It had been a few fights in a row since Alya had been given her Miraculous on a permanent basis where Chat Noir had arrived a little late to the scene, only to find that Ladybug and Rena Rouge had almost completely taken down the Akuma already. Ladybug didn’t blame him for that—she knew from experience that complications in their civilian lives sometimes made it hard to get away and transform. And she trusted that her partner would always do his best to come help out as soon as possible, so that wasn’t what concerned her.
What did worry her was that as soon as the comment had come out of Alya’s mouth, Ladybug had been filled with an overwhelming sense of guilt. Because it was obvious as soon as Alya had pointed it out. Chat Noir had been different lately. He’d been making far fewer puns than usual and had practically stopped flirting with her. And Ladybug had been so busy with her own life that she hadn’t noticed.
Everything had been so hectic lately that she hadn’t had the time to check in with him. To talk to him.
She missed that.
So tonight, she was excited to see him. She’d already decided she didn’t feel much like patrolling. She just wanted to hang out with her partner for once. To make sure he knew how much she valued him. But what if he didn’t want that? What if he was mad at her for the way she’d treated him? What if...
She wasn’t sure how long she’d been sitting there when the sound of feet landing on the roof behind her interrupted her musings. “Good night Buginette. Fancy seeing you here.”
“Chat Noir!” She leaped up from her seat at the edge of the roof and launched herself into his arms. He seemed surprised at first, growing stiff for a moment, but then he wrapped his arms around her and returned the hug.
“You seem happy tonight,” he said when she finally let go. “Did you secretly take down Shadow Moth without me?”
She felt a new twinge of guilt at his question. She knew he’d meant it as a joke, but there was an edge to his words too. Did he really think she’d exclude him from something like that? How could he possibly think she’d ever be able to do that without him by her side?
“Of course not, Chaton. I’m just happy to see you.”
“Really?”
“Is that such a surprise?”
“I don’t know? You’re just not usually so...enthusiastic about patrols I guess.”
“Actually...I thought maybe instead of patrolling we could just hang out tonight. We haven’t really gotten to spend a lot of time together lately, and I thought it might be fun.”
“Oh.” He smiled. “I’d really like that.”
They sat down cross-legged in front of each other, and within seconds they’d fallen into the rhythm of easy conversation. There was a lot they couldn’t share with each other without giving too much away about one another, but they’d discovered they both had similar tastes in Anime and often discussed that, or they sometimes talked about particularly challenging or ridiculous Akumas and Sentimonsters they’d fought. Tonight, they mostly chatted about the former topic, since Ladybug wanted to keep things light.
They’d been talking for maybe ten minutes when Chat stared at her with questioning eyes. “What’s that?”
“What’s wh—Oh.” Ladybug had almost forgotten about the toy she’d brought along, though she’d been playing with it absentmindedly for the last few minutes. “It’s a Chinese finger trap.”
“A what?”
“A Chinese finger trap.” She tilted her head to the side, studying him. “You’ve really never seen one?”
He shrugged. “I had a sheltered childhood.”
In the grand scheme of things, missing out on Chinese finger traps wasn’t really...well it wasn’t really missing out on anything. But still… “It’s basically just a silly little kids toy,” she explained. “You put two fingers inside and pull.” She demonstrated the technique. “Then the thing tightens, and you can’t get your fingers out.”
His eyes lit up, and she really had to wonder...How dull had his childhood been if he was so excited about this? “Can I try?”
“Of course, Minou. Here.”
She handed it over, and he wasted no time placing his fingers inside, the way she’d shown him. He pulled, grinning when the toy trapped his fingers inside. He tried it about ten more times before his faded smile faded.
“Um...M’lady...How do I get out of this?”
Ladybug laughed. “Just relax, Minou. If you pull too hard it won’t let you escape. You need to ease your way out."
He tried a few more times, before looking back up at her with his lip stuck out in an exaggerated pout.
“Don’t worry,” she said, still laughing through her words. “You’ll figure it out soon. It’s not hard.” He seemed unconvinced, so she added, “If you really can’t get out, I’ll help you. Or you could always use your Cataclysm.”
“No. That’s cheating.”
“Suit yourself.”
They fell back into their earlier conversation as Chat played with the trap. Ladybug couldn’t work herself up to bring up the issues she’d wanted to talk about at the beginning of the night, afraid of disturbing the fun they were having, but maybe this was enough. Spending time together would surely help to remind him of how important he was to her.
Eventually, Ladybug yawned. “I think I need to call it a night now Chat. I’m pretty tired, and I’ve been trying really hard not to be late to school lately. I’ll help you with the trap before I go though.”
“No!” He pulled away from her when she reached a hand towards him.
“Chat, come on. How are you going to get home?”
He shrugged. “I’ll manage.”
They both stared stubbornly at one another for a while.
Ladybug broke the silence first. “Just let me help you!”
“I can do it myself,” he protested, and something in his voice kept her from arguing any further.
“Alright. Just...get home safe then, ok?”
“Yep.”
Something in her heart clenched as she started to swing back towards her balcony, and she worried that she’d failed to make things any better between them.
***
“Adrien,” came Nathalie’s voice through his door as her knocking registered through the haze of sleep. “Please get up. You’re going to be late.”
He sat up in a panic, realizing he’d forgotten to set his alarm, because he’d been too distracted by the stupid Chinese finger trap. The stupid toy that was still stuck on his two index fingers, even though he’d spent hours last night trying to free himself. He must have fallen asleep at some point during his attempts.
“I’m awake! I’m awake! I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
“Alright. Breakfast is waiting for you. I have to go to a meeting with your father now, but I’ll email you your schedule for the day.”
“Thanks Nathalie,” he shouted, as he heard her footsteps retreating down the hall.
He dragged himself out of bed, thankful at least that he hadn’t changed into his pyjamas before he’d gone out to meet Ladybug. There’s no way he would have been able to put a shirt on like this.
He walked into the bathroom and winced at the sight. His clothes were terribly wrinkled, and he’d forgotten about the sauce he’d spilled on his shirt at dinner last night. He splashed a little water on it now, but he was probably too late to make a difference. Brushing his teeth was hard, but doable. He decided to forgo washing his face for once—if he ended up with a pimple or two then whatever. He didn’t have any photoshoots scheduled for the next week. The only real mess he couldn’t solve was his hair. It was terribly mussed up, the product from yesterday having made it clump together weirdly in his sleep. He tried to drag a comb through it, but he was fairly sure he only succeeded in making it worse.
Plagg, who was hovering above his shoulder, snickered as he abandoned the comb and started frantically pressing down on his hair with his joined hands.
“Couldn’t you help ?” Adrien asked.
The Kwami shrugged. “You could have sucked up your pride and used your Cataclysm last night. Or accepted Ladybug’s offer for help. This is on you, kid.”
Adrien gave his Kwami a glare, but he didn’t exactly have an argument. This was his fault. First he’d been defeated by a stupid toy, and then because of a ridiculous need to prove himself he’d turned down Ladybug’s help. Now he didn’t have time to do anything about it, because he needed to go eat so he could get to school on time.
It was almost lucky, he thought bitterly as he struggled to eat his breakfast, how little attention his father and Nathalie payed him. He knew if they’d seen the state of him this morning, they’d have freaked out, and he didn’t want to have to explain to his father on top of Ladybug that he was too pathetic to free himself from a stupid toy.
As he got into the car so the Gorilla could drive him to school, the trajectory of his thoughts was noticeably more negative than usual. He felt like a failure, and he knew he looked the part. He felt incompetent. Inadequate. Inept.
What’s more, was that he’d meant to talk to Ladybug last night about what had been bothering him recently. He’d wanted to ask about why Rena Rouge now seemed to be a permanent member of their team. He’d wanted to know if he’d done something wrong. Why he wasn’t good enough.
Of course, all it had taken was one hug and the sight of Ladybug smiling for him to forget about all that. For him to be convinced that it didn’t matter, if only he still got to spend these moments with her.
Now, he knew he’d been wrong. Stolen laughs on rooftops where he was the butt of the joke weren’t enough for him anymore.
He ended up walking into class about a minute before the bell rang. Everyone else had already taken their seats and most were engaged in various conversations amongst each other, so most people didn’t notice him come in, save for Marinette, whose brows furrowed when she noticed him walk through the door, no doubt taken aback by the state of him,
Then she caught sight of his hands, and her eyes went almost impossibly wide.
“Adrien,” Marinette said as he walked up to his desk. “Where did you get that?” It was a strange question, and there was something odd about her voice—aside from the lack of her usual stutters—that he couldn’t place, but he was too disgruntled to try and figure it out.
“A friend from work gave it to me last night.” He tried to awkwardly shrug the strap of his messenger bag off of his shoulder and onto the desk, but it was caught on something. Marinette sprung up and grabbed the bag, setting it on the floor beside his desk.
“A friend from...work?” she asked, before he could say thanks. Her voice sounded even stranger now, and he noticed that Alya and Nino were staring at the pair of them, watching whatever weird interaction was taking place. Marinette blinked a few times, then shook herself. “And you’ve been stuck in it this entire time?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Adrien grumbled, slumping into his seat beside Nino. Somehow Marinette—sweet, supremely talented, awkward yet charming Marinette—knowing about his failure made his mood plummet even further.
“Adrien, I can hel—” The bell rang, cutting off Marinette’s words. She scurried back to her desk just as Mme. Bustier walked in.
Class passed in a blur for Adrien. He gave up on trying to take notes after a few botched attempts at holding his pen, and he couldn’t ignore the snickers he’d heard emanating from various corners of the classroom. He knew they were directed at him, and it just made him pull harder at the stupid trap each time, which of course made the thing resist.
He heard the bell ring for lunch, but he didn’t really register what it meant, even as his classmates started packing up their things and emptying the room. He remained seated at his desk fiddling with the stupid trap, feeling more and more frustrated as the seconds passed. He didn’t even notice when Marinette slipped into Nino’s empty seat until a laugh escaped her.
“You really can’t figure that thing out, can you?”
“It’s not funny,” he snapped. He regretted his tone immediately when he glanced to the side and saw Marinette’s face fall. “Oh, Marinette, I’m sorry.”
“It’s ok,” she said, her face now full of concern that he didn’t deserve. She wrapped her fingers lightly around his wrist, and the feeling caused a wave of some unidentifiable emotion to rush through him.
This was too much. He just wanted the stupid thing off. He wanted Ladybug to realize how he felt—which he knew wasn’t fair if he hadn’t even tried to tell her. She couldn’t read minds. Still, he felt like nobody in the world really knew him. And now one of his good friends was here trying to comfort him even though he’d practically just bit her head off.
“It’s not ok,” he whispered, embarrassed to feel tears burning the corners of his eyes. He closed his eyes tightly, trying to keep them from falling, but a single hot tear slipped down one of his cheeks anyways. “I’m really sorry, Marinette. I’m just upset, because of some stuff that’s been happening with my...friend. And I guess this stupid trap was just the tipping point. But I shouldn’t be taking things out on you. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“This friend...She’s your friend from work?” Marinette’s voice shook.
He nodded, cautiously. He didn’t remember having said his friend was a girl, but he supposed that as a model, it would be expected that he’d have a female partner. “It’s just that we used to be a lot closer,” he explained, “but lately she...I’m sorry. You don’t want to hear about this.”
Her grip on his wrist tightened reassuringly. “I do. You can always talk to me, Adrien.”
Adrien didn’t remember making a conscious decision about what he wanted to say, but one second he was opening his mouth and the next second everything was tumbling out.
“It’s just that...she and I used to work together really closely. We were partners. But a while ago something happened, and she ended up having to take on a whole bunch more responsibility, and I wanted to help her with that, but...I couldn’t. But I guess over time it just put this big distance between us. At first it was just a few little things, like she’d have less time to spend with me. But then she started forgetting when we’d made plans, and then this other girl started working with us pretty much all the time—and the other girl’s cool. She’s super good at her job and we get along well. But it just made me feel like...maybe I wasn’t really needed anymore.
“So then last night we were hanging out, and she brought this thing” —he held up his hands to show off the trap— “and I didn’t know what it was at first, so she showed me how it worked, and I tried it, but I couldn’t figure out how to get it off. And at first I was having fun. She thought I was ridiculous and it was just so nice to hear her laugh, and see her look so carefree. But then it was an hour later and I still couldn’t get out of the dumb thing, and she was still laughing at me every time she saw me struggling, and I know she wasn’t trying to be mean—she offered to help me get out of it—but I just didn’t want her to think I was too stupid to figure it out on my own, so just I told her to go home before she realized how useless I am and—”
“You are not useless to me,” Marinette interrupted, her voice firm. When he glanced at her, there were tears in hers eyes. “I’m so sorry I made you feel like you weren’t needed.”
Adrien scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. “What? I didn’t say...You didn’t do anything, Marinette.”
“I did though, Chaton. This is all my fault. And I’m sorry I didn’t realize how you were feeling sooner.”
“You—M’lady?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh.” Adrien fell into a stunned silence. He didn’t know how to feel about this. During his little rant, he’d started to realize just how upset he was with Ladybug. He’d been avoiding talking to her, because he was afraid that if they argued it would just push them even farther apart. And now he had told her everything, but he hadn’t realized who he’d been talking too, and he’d said it all wrong. And then... “Oh, God. I can’t believe I gave away my identity over a stupid finger trap. I know how you feel about our identities and now I—”
“Shhh, Minou.” She released his wrist and instead started rubbing light circles across his back. “I’m not mad. You couldn’t have known I’d be in your class and that I’d put the pieces together. And also...I’m really happy it’s you.”
“You are?”
She ruffled his hair. “Of course. Finding out that my partner who I trust more than anyone is also one of my best civilian friends? One of the kindest, sweetest people I know?” She laughed, and this time it was a giddy sort of sound. One that soothed him instead of making his insecurities run rampant. “It feels like Christmas.”
Adrien didn’t know what to say to that.
“I guess it’s a little surprising that I’m Ladybug,” Marinette continued when Adrien didn’t respond. “I mean I trip over my own feet multiple times a day, so I wouldn’t blame you if it took you a little time to get used to the idea.”
“That’s not...I don’t know how I feel exactly. I’m not surprised though.” He frowned. “Well...I am a little bit, because of the whole Multimouse thing, but before that I was already pretty sure you were Ladybug, so...it makes sense. But I just...I think I’m still a little upset with you.”
“I understand,” she said sadly. Then her eyes glanced over the desk and she let out a small gasp. “Hey, look! You did it!”
He looked down to see that while he’d been talking, one of his fingers had slipped from the trap. Excitedly, he tried to pull the trap off of his other hand, but it resisted as soon as he yanked on it.
He groaned. “I still can’t get the other side.”
“Can I help?”
He almost said no again, reflexively, but when looked back towards her the look in her eyes was so open and caring that he found himself nodding. Gently, she grabbed his hand in one of hers. He couldn’t help but tense at the contact. There was something electric about her ungloved hand holding his, now that he knew...
“Just relax, Minou,” she said. He let his hand go limp in hers, and with her other hand she gently eased the trap off his finger. “There. We did it. You and me against the world...and Chinese finger traps.” She smiled at him, and something inside him melted. Obviously he’d realized before that Marinette was beautiful, but...wow.
“You know,” she continued, “sometimes it’s ok to admit you need help, Adrien. I mean I…”
“What is it?” he asked, noticing her hesitation to continue.
“I told Alya,” she said, regarding him worriedly. “I told her that I’m Ladybug. A few months ago. I just couldn’t deal with the pressure of being the Guardian on my own, and it was destroying me, so...you remember the day we faced off against Gang of Secrets?” He nodded. “Yeah. Well, that was because of me. A bunch of the girls from school came over because they were worried about me, but they almost found the Miracle Box, and I freaked out and shouted at them to leave me alone, because I just couldn’t take it. They all wanted to help, but I couldn’t tell them the truth about what was going on.”
“I’m sorry, Marinette. I never realized…”
“It’s not your fault, Chaton. We all make mistakes. I’ve certainly made my fair share.” She shrugged. “I guess part of growing up is learning to live with that. As long as you learn from your mistakes, it’s ok. Anyways, after Gang of Secrets, the girls came back over and I apologized. I just told them I’d been upset about my break-up with Luka. Which was part of it, but definitely not the whole story. And then Alya stayed behind, and she knew there was something else I wasn’t saying. And she said it was ok if I didn’t tell her, but...she was just there, and she wanted to help, and I just...I couldn’t deal with it alone anymore. Not on the civilian side of things. So...I told her everything. And that’s why I gave her her Miraculous permanently.”
“Rena Rouge,” Adrien said, realizing.
“Yeah. Maybe I shouldn’t have told you that, but...Shadow Moth knows anyways. And I don’t want to keep secrets from you anymore.”
“And you’re not worried...that it’s dangerous? That he knows her identity? That we know each other’s now?”
“Of course I am. I’m pretty much always worrying about something. All day every day. But I...I think it’s going to be ok. That is...as long as you and me are going to be ok.” She gave him a probing look.
He grabbed her hand again, anchoring himself to her steadiness amidst the sea of turmoil raging on in his mind. “We’ll be ok,” he said simply, and he knew it was true, somehow.
They had a lot to talk about. And probably a lot to learn about each other, now that they had all the pieces of the puzzle available to them. But they also had each other to help them navigate the storm, and for the first time in months, Adrien didn’t feel so alone.
Marinette blushed, and he realized he’d just been holding her hand and staring at her quietly for some time. He felt his cheeks warm up, and he released her fingers with a gentle squeeze.
“H-how about...w-would you room w-with me for lunch like to come?” She shook her head. “I mean, My house! Do you want me? No! That’s not...Ugh.” The sound of her familiar stutters made him smile warmly at her. She was Ladybug, but she was still Marinette. And he wasn’t ever going to let himself lose either side of her if he had anything to say about it. She took a breath, and tried again. “Do you want to come over for lunch? I can introduce you to the rest of the Kwamis. I know they’d love to meet you.”
“That sounds lovely,” he agreed. Then he glanced warily at the finger trap, still sitting on the desk. “But I’m not touching that thing again.”
She laughed, then got up, taking the trap with her. She walked over to Mme Bustier’s desk and dropped the toy in the garbage bin beside it. “Don’t worry, Chaton. I’ll keep you safe,” she teased.
He grabbed his bag and walked over to walk out with her. “As will I, M’lady. As will I.”