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Ladybug swung into a smooth landing beside her partner who was already waiting for her.
“Sorry I’m late, Chat. Got a little held up.”
He smiled. He could just picture her meticulously stitching together the materials for that new project she was excitedly telling him about just earlier that day. She had mentioned wanting to work on it after school and she had probably got caught up and lost track of time, bless her heart.
“No worries, m’lady. I’m sure it was important. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have kept your favourite cat waiting, right?”
“Oh. Um, listen. I have something to tell you.” She turned to him, concern in her eyes. Those beautiful blue eyes. Of course only one girl in all of Paris, nay, the whole world, could have eyes as gorgeous as hers. He had no idea how he’d never made the connection before. But then again, even before he ever found out, he sometimes caught himself wondering what it would be like if it really was Marinette behind the mask, and it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to imagine. Now, his dreams had come true.
“What is it, m’lady? You know you can tell me anything.”
“Yeah. I know. But...” She took a deep breath, bracing herself. “I really don’t want to hurt you with this, Chat. I know you have feelings for me. But I have to be honest with you. I have a boyfriend now.”
“Oh? Is that so?” It was hard for him to bite back the smile that wanted to creep up on his face.
“Yes. I know you’ve always hoped we could be something more one day. But now I really can’t be in love with you. I’m really sorry, Chat. But I think it would be a good idea for you to not flirt with me anymore. My heart belongs to someone else.” She looked at him with sincere sympathy in her eyes. She truly did care about him and did not want to hurt him.
To her surprise, he smiled. “So…” He leaned on his staff playfully. “Lover boy finally opened his eyes and saw what’s been in front of him all along, huh?”
Ladybug blinked. “Uh… I guess so? Wait. You’re not upset?”
Chat chuckled. “Ladybug, I told you. Your friendship is a gift all on its own. If I never get to have anything more than that, I’ll be just as happy as if I got to call you mine. And well, your happiness means more than anything to me. So, as long as you’re happy, so am I.” He looked at her with sudden seriousness. “You… are happy, right?”
She sighed with content. “Yes. I am unbelievably happy, Chat.”
The smile returned to his face. “That’s all I need then, m’lady.” He retracted his staff with a flick of his wrist. “But hey, if he ever treats you with even a little less than the absolute perfection you deserve, you’ll let me know, right? So that I could set him straight.”
Ladybug giggled. “Oh, Chat.” She surprised him by giving him a hug. “Silly kitty. But… thank you.” She looked up at him. “I’m glad you’re in my life, you know. I’m happy I get to call you my friend.”
He had to force himself to remember that he currently wasn’t Adrien in order to resist the urge to kiss her. He hugged her back instead. “Having you say that makes me happy, m’lady.”
They hugged for a little while before pulling away and heading off to patrol with the lighthearted banter that has become their normal.
“So, bugaboo. Why don’t you tell me a little bit about your boo?” Ladybug cringed at the awful pun. Still, she clucked.
“Chat, you know very well that we-“
“-can’t know anything about each other, yes, yes, I know.” He landed on the rooftop behind her as they took a break. “I don’t mean tell me who he is or anything. I mean like…” Ladybug looked at him expectantly as he pondered how to properly word what he wanted to say. “I guess tell me what you think of him?”
Being in on the secret identities certainly had its advantages and he was looking to exploit. Not that he didn’t trust Marinette, of course, but here he had a golden opportunity to listen in to what she thinks of their relationship as a third party. If he had no idea that Marinette even liked him all along then maybe there were other clues that he could be missing that could help him be the best boyfriend to her that he could possibly be.
Ladybug sighed. For a moment, Chat worried. What if he’s actually a terrible boyfriend and she changed her mind about him but was too nice to tell him? She just told him that she was happy, yes, but what if she was exaggerating? What if…
“He’s amazing.” She snapped him out of his train of spiraling thought. “It’s… well, it’s still hard to believe, actually. He’s way out of my league.”
Chat snorted. “Someone out of your league? I find that hard to believe.”
Ladybug shot him a look. “Oh, trust me, you wouldn’t be saying that so easily if you knew who he is. And especially not if you knew who I am.”
He bit his tongue to hold back from saying something compromising. Oh, how he wanted to tell her that beyond a shadow of a doubt she was still Ladybug through and through whether she wore the mask or not. And how he had really known it all along, even if it took some time and a (rather direct) nudge to explicitly snap the pieces into place. But was he at all surprised when it was finally revealed that his classmate and friend Marinette, the one who went far out of her way to help anyone around however she could and was always the first to stand up for what was right, was the same person as the beloved Ladybug, Paris’ protector of justice and righter of wrongs? He was more surprised it took him so long to connect the dots. He had called her the class’ everyday Ladybug, for heaven’s sake. Forever he would cringe at the irony.
“Anyway,” Ladybug continued. “It’s not even that, really. I’d kinda started giving up hope that I'd ever have a chance because I’d get so nervous that I wouldn’t be able to string together a sentence that made any sense around him.” She looked at Chat’s blank expression and laughed. “I know, right? Imagine Ladybug being like that. But it’s true.”
Adrien had always thought that making strange sentences was just… Marinette being Marinette. But thinking about it, had he ever seen her acting the same way from afar, when she wasn’t interacting with him? He realized he hadn’t. Not since he first met her, actually.
Oh…
He also realized that she hadn’t done that anymore since they started dating. That was a good thing… right?
“I never would have expected him to feel the same way I do. I thought I was dreaming, really. But it’s been everything I could have ever imagined. And more.” She sighed dreamily. At this point she was sitting on the edge of the rooftop, chin propped in her hands. When she noticed Chat drop down to sit next to her, she suddenly remembered with a start where she was and who she was talking to. “But… er… I’m sorry. I’ll stop now.”
Chat looked at her. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Well…” She shifted slightly. “Here I am, talking about my boyfriend and how great he is, while you still have feelings for me. That’s not very fair to you.”
He smiled. “I asked you about it, didn’t I? Besides. It’s not your fault you’re in love with someone. As your friend, it’s my job to listen to you with whatever you want to talk about.”
Ladybug looked at him carefully. “But… you’re not upset?”
He shrugged nonchalantly, trying not to give anything away. “Honestly, what’s most upsetting is that it took him so long to see what was right in front of him all along.” That was no lie.
Her face softened. She reached over to give him a hug for the second time that day. Not that he minded in the slightest, of course. “Thanks, kitty,” she whispered. “Thank you for always being there for me.”
He hugged her back, smiling. “Always.”
Later that night, after patrol was long over (ended abruptly by Ladybug excusing herself, saying she had a date to get to, not knowing it was him who asked her in the first place) and ice cream was shared with Marinette, Adrien laid in his bed, happy as a cat who caught the mouse.
“Oh, Plagg,” he sighed. “She’s so amazing, isn’t she? I’m so lucky.”
Plagg floated up next to him, arms crossed. “Sure, Adrien, but that won’t change the fact that this whole thing still stinks like a big pile of rotten Camembert. Too much even for me. Makes me uneasy if you ask me.”
Adrien rolled around to pat the kwami on his head. “Oh, come on, Plagg. Don’t be such a downer. What could possibly go wrong?”