Chapter Text
Waiting for Ladybug almost kills him.
Not literally, he wields a ring that can cause destruction against the strange magic that Hawk Moth uses, but how can he possibly sit still after the incredible day he’s had? Yesterday was amazing when he slid the ring on, when he gained powers and a new friend (god? Plagg primarily wanted to eat and sleep rather than talk to him, but that still doubles the amount of people allowed into his room), but today... today was just wow.
Not only did he make a friend, and someone as stupidly cool and laidback as Nino who was willing to give him advice to avoid more gum incidents and how to fix it, but they actually stopped the supervillain this time! Apparently, Ladybug also has a secondary power and they have a special combo power together that can fix everything that got broken!
This is amazing. Honestly, hands down, the best day of his life. Ladybug seemed to have a bit of a freak out considering how long it took her to arrive today, but then she stepped up to the large vision of Hawk Moth and wow. Wow! Just- he’s a superhero! With a superhero partner!
All of Paris is his to run and jump around! Anything he isn’t allowed to do, that isn’t a problem anymore. Sure, beforehand Adrien just wanted to see what it was like to buy food from the street or see if he can find Andre or even just see if he can spot the tourists. But now he just saved the city! His city!
And no one even knows who he is! Father can’t get mad nor can the cameras follow him to constantly nitpick him. It’s just him in the city with his partner and no one can stop him because he has a ring of destruction!
Laughing, Adrien does a backflip. Which, now that he’s a superhero and everything, is just so simple. He should do something crazy. Something super cool and something that he’d never, ever be allowed to do outside of the perfectly crafted life that Father has given him.
Like, like jumping off the Eiffel Tower! It defies all logic and reason and is stupidly dangerous- but not for a superhero! Not for him!
Grinning, Adrien backs up for a running start. He takes a deep breath and then a step, another, another, faster and faster, and he almost can’t believe that he actually can do this but keeps going because he can do this. Because there’s nothing that he can’t do.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Startled, Adrien stumbles and falls to halt his momentum. It doesn’t hurt at all, his body moving and absorbing the impact in ways that it never has before, and he jumps up to officially meet his new partner without the supervillain making things all tense and serious. Ladybug. His new superhero partner. How amazing.
“Just got a little bored waiting.” Adrien grins and throws his baton over his shoulders. It’s a careless pose that Father would never allow and Adrien’s relishing in not having to worry about the brand. “So, do you think we should test our abilities? Maybe a race? Sparring? Or maybe we can-”
“Is this some sort of joke to you?” Ladybug scoffs, eyes unyielding, and shakes her head at him. “Did it somehow not click that there’s a supervillain bent on terrorizing Paris for these... these miraculous things? That he could have easily killed someone with that poor kid today? Are you happy that this happened?”
He was. About five seconds ago. Now he can feel his ears drop and that all dies inside him at the harsh disappointed glare Ladybug’s giving him.
“Well, I, it’s...” Adrien swallows. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt, of course not, I just-”
“Then maybe you should act like it!”
“I am!” Adrien gasps, hurriedly defending himself. “I was there! I will be there! Every time!”
Ladybug flinches back at that, gasping before starting to scowl, and Adrien puts his very limited social skills to use.
“Look, this is a huge opportunity for me.” Nino’s honesty advice has worked well so far, and that seems like a much better plan than how business deals work. “I don’t... I can’t really get out much and do anything when... when I’m normal. But I can do things like this. I can help people like this. Yes, this is incredibly exciting to me, but that all takes a backseat to how serious this is. I just thought... when we don’t have to save the day, can’t we also just enjoy this?”
Adrien won’t let anyone get hurt. Adrien won’t. He can use this to prove how he can be a good person, a good son, who’s capable of handling this world. He… he isn’t the snobby rich kid or naïve son or perfect model. Sure, Nino’s looked past some of that, considering they didn’t even know each other only a day ago, only twelve hours ago, but this just isn’t on that level at all.
This is complete freedom. A complete escape from his schedule. It’s the best of both worlds: he helps people and saves the day while getting to leave the pressures of his life and be free to speak to Ladybug. He finally gets to do something with his life, something that he can be proud of, that wasn’t penciled in ahead of time. That isn’t meant to push the company into a better light.
“I...” Ladybug sighs, “You’re right, of course you’re right. I just, this is just so big. People can get hurt if we don’t do a good enough job. We can get killed.”
Adrien smiles at her. “Not going to happen.”
“What?” Ladybug blinks at him. “How do you know?”
Adrien strikes a heroic, confident pose and winks at her. “It's just a gut feline I have.”
Ladybug scoffs, not quite a laugh, but he sees a twitch of the lips there.
“Oh, sorry.” Adrien switches, bringing up his arms and flexes. “I’m still working on the poses. Is this one better? I purr-mise that I’ll get the hang of this.”
Ladybug giggles, “Oh god, I get the partner who loves bad puns.”
Yet she keeps smiling at him, and Adrien just about melts that he was able to do that. Him. No one else had to help him along. His reputation not creating some type of bias or intimidation. Not smiling because she wants some autograph or something else from him. There’s no situation or event where polite smiles are necessary. It’s just him. Nothing but him, and his chest gets all light and fuzzy watching her smile.
“The puns are all part of the charm, I assure you m’lady.”
“At least there’s some respect in there.” Ladybug sighs, and her smile steadily falls after it. “I just, do you think we should have some sort of plan or something? Something more than just, ‘let’s hope we notice in time and sneak away to transform and get there fast enough and manage to come up with a plan on the spot’. Surely we can do better than that?”
There was such raw desperation in her voice, and Adrien flashes back to when Mother first starting falling ill. Overhearing Father talking to the doctors.
“We need more information.” The knowledge in the baton was... limited, to say the least. A brief overview of what the transformation did to his body, what happens when he calls cataclysm, how to destroy the connection the magic Hawk Moth uses to enslave his victims, and that he can sense destruction caused by magic. “I thought about every myth I know and none of them seem... right.”
“No kidding.” Ladybug sighs, “And now I'm wondering if all those heroes are real. If they felt just as overwhelmed as we are. Never thought I’d ever think a myth could be as nervous as I am.”
“Well, one day, when they write stories and legends about us, we’ll look just as confident and awesome as they do.”
She huffs, “Assuming we win.”
“Which we will.”
“Thank goodness our kwamis had some idea of how we could use our powers. The manual was sorta vague.” Ladybug sits down, swinging her feet as she looks out over the city. “We would’ve failed already if it weren’t for that.”
Adrien sits down next to her, and the city looks so... open to him like this. “We didn’t. And now we know the power of holding hands can fix all the damage of the akumas.”
“And that it isn’t enough to release the akuma and separate the person from the magic. We need to purify it.”
Adrien nods. “See, we got this. Once I get the hang of this more, I’ll be able to do that without us needing to weaken the connection by destroying the akuma object. Then that butterfly will be just be forced out and boom, day saved.”
Ladybug nods too, slowly, but that’s better than the anguish from before. “And I’ll get better at thinking about what we need before I call my power.”
“See, we totally got this.” He holds up his fist.
Grinning, they pound it.
Adrien’s chest swells up as she smiles at him. He’s got a partner. An amazing, kind partner that’s determined to fight despite being scared and can stand up to a literal supervillain while managing to use a thought-intensive power in the middle of a battle. He’s really an incredibly lucky guy.
Then she frowns at him. “Okay, so, because that freak out did not last as long as I thought, I’m pretty sure I heard that you... have feelings for me from some news later today. Care to, uh, well, explain that?”
“Why would I not love you?” Adrien grins at her, because his chest is all swollen up with glee by just being around her and she’s just so amazing that he couldn’t imagine this feeling being anything else. “You’re amazing and awesome and just brilliant and-”
“You don’t-” Ladybug’s mouth is slightly ajar- “You don’t even know me that well.”
Adrien waves that aside. He feels so much that it can’t be anything else. “I can’t help what I feel.”
She frowns at him. “Are you sure there’s nothing else getting confused by that? We had a lot of things happen to us recently.”
“Pawitive!” He grins wider, forcing it to stay up when she doesn’t smile at that. Still though. He proved that he can make her laugh, and she makes him feel amazing- on top of the world, invincible even! What is that other than love?
“No, wait.” She shakes her head. “You said you didn’t get out much, right?”
“...yeah?” She isn’t going to make fun of him, right? He got a few looks and laughs today at school at his behavior. Nino was thankfully there to guide him, and even told a few of them to knock it off (for practically a stranger too! Nino really is awesome), but he can’t be here for obvious reasons to help him with Ladybug.
Besides, even if Nino has no bias against him, which is basically impossible, then it still doesn’t change the fact of everyone else. People might ask Nino to ask Adrien for autographs and the like. There will undoubtedly be pictures of him on the internet swirling around randomly because his fans want to say they saw him. When he’s a civilian, he can’t ever escape the Agreste name.
Not like this though, Ladybug can only like him for him.
But she raises an eyebrow at her. “I think you’re mistaking what you’re loving here.”
“No offense, m’lady, but I only see you.”
“No, kitty.” She sighs, but she doesn’t sound mad. It must take a lot of love for her to be upset and him and control her anger. It must mean she already cares about him too. “I think you just love being allowed out and doing all these... miraculous things.”
Adrien frowns, and well, considers that. Thinks about what makes him feel worse, losing her to someone else who’s Ladybug or losing the ability to be Chat Noir. And while he doesn’t want Ladybug to get replaced, one of those feels a lot worse than the other. “That... that... actually makes sense.”
“Hey,” She gives him a friendly punch. “As far as I’m concerned, anyone who can talk me out of one of my spirals is already a friend.”
A friend. One on his own. One that he can be confident has nothing to do with the Agreste name. That’s still an amazing feeling. He can barely... even despite all that happened it just still doesn't seem real almost.
But it is. Against all odds and even reality. It is.
He bursts into smile, “Hawk Moth is so going down. Doesn’t he know that the power of friendship defeats all?”
She just chuckles and rolls her eyes, and despite all the risks and danger of being a superhero, Adrien wouldn’t ever want to give this up for anything.