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"Chat," Ladybug said, reaching for his arm but thinking better of it.
What could she possibly say to him? She had seen everything in the Gift given to him by Darker Owl—
(Really, Ladybug thought, Monarch isn't even trying with the names anymore)
—It was, by all means, an unthinkable invasion of Chat's privacy. The typical discomfort she felt when reminded of Chat's crush on her didn't even cross her mind.
And then there was the Cataclysm. Ladybug regretted not talking to Chat more about him using his Cataclysm on Monarch. The power of Destruction was a heavy burden to bear, and now it was clear that that little event had fucked with the wires in Chat's head.
"Do you…want to talk about it?" she asked him. He hadn't moved since M. Damocles left. "The Gift, I mean."
He shook his head. "It was…god. It was so intense. I was so…so angry when…" He shook his head again. "No, I don't really wanna tell you about it."
Ice water poured down Ladybug's back. He didn't know.
"Chat, I…I saw it," she said slowly.
Chat's eyebrows crept up to his hairline. "No. No, no, no— You were locked in your own fantasy, weren't you? Weren't you?"
Her heart was heavy, and she just said, "I'm sorry."
Chat's expression crumpled. "Oh, fuck," he breathed, and buried his reddening face in his hands.
"I'm not angry with you," she said helplessly.
"Why didn't you just look away?" Chat groaned. "You saw all of it?"
"I was locked in, just like you were," said Ladybug. "That's why I had to snap us both out of it, with the alarm clock."
Chat's brows knitted together. "Doesn't that mean it was your Gift, too?"
What? "No."
"Yeah, it does," Chat continued, his voice emboldened and fractious all at once. "When Juleka got her Gift, we could see it, but we weren't locked in."
Ladybug's brain ground to a halt. What? What?
"It was your Gift, too," Chat said again. It wasn't accusatory or smug. Rather, it was as though he was inviting her to laugh at their shared pain.
Ladybug was not inclined to accept the offer. "We don't know how this new way of Monarch using the miraculouses works," she rambled. "Maybe the rules have...changed, somehow, and he… Maybe the…vision was the way it was because he was trying to hurt you."
It was a kindness, in a way. Chat had been thoroughly humiliated by this whole ordeal, and she would not share in that humiliation, but she did want to alleviate him of it.
"Or confuse me," she continued.
Chat was thoughtful for a few seconds. "Yeah," he agreed. "Yeah."
They stood around in silence, and then their miraculouses beeped.
"I have to speak to Soqueline," Ladybug said, readying her yo-yo to zip away.
"Okay," said Chat. "See you at patrol."