Work Text:
Alya is at the end of her rope.
Literally. She’s dangling off the edge of a building, hanging on to the end of a rope for dear life.
The Ladyblog is her life, and she has the slightly horrifying realisation that, at this moment, it may well also be her death.
Falling off the building was the fault of the akuma she was chasing, trying to get some footage of the fight, or, even better, a post-fight interview with Ladybug.
She’s lucky that she managed to catch hold of this rope, keeping her from meeting the same fate as her phone, currently shattered on the footpath below.
Her fingers are starting to ache, and she can feel her grip slipping. She scrabbles her feet, trying desperately to find a foothold, or a ledge, or anything that could keep her from falling.
She finds nothing. Her sandshoes slip across the building's facade without catching on anything. And the rope begins to slip through her fingers.
Alya wants to scream, to shout for help, to be rescued. But the panic in her chest has locked her throat up, and her terror stays locked inside her. And then, from the corner of her eye, she sees a flash of red.
“ALYA!” Ladybug yells, as she swings full speed towards her. Alya tries to swing herself around to face the hero, but she doesn’t have the time before a strong arm catches her securely around the waist and she’s pulled along in Ladybug’s swing.
Her palms burn as the rope drags through her fingers, and the wind whips her hair into her face as they fly through the air. Travelling by yoyo is fucking exhilarating. She can feel Ladybug breathing quickly, an almost panicky edge to the movement of her lungs.
Ladybug has her tucked firmly against her side, and the warm solidity of her body, as well the fearless confidence with which she swings them through the air at terrifying velocities, has Alya feeling oddly warm inside, and kind of bubbly. It’s a little bit like the way she feels when Marinette loops an arm around her, or leans into her to whisper in her ear in the middle of class, or…
shit
Alya turns her head to the side, and finds her face pressing into Ladybug’s shoulder. One of her pigtails brushes across the side of her face as she turns her head, and this close, Alya thinks she can feel Ladybug sharply inhaling a little.
It does nothing to tamp down the bubbling warmth that Alya can finally recognise as the crush she’s had on Ladybug for probably a while now. The pair swing through the air in silence. Alya would normally be ecstatic at this opportunity to talk to Ladybug, and maybe even the chance to ask for an interview. But she can’t muster the courage to break the silence between them.
Not to mention her phone is still shattered on the ground behind them.
She feels less panicky by the time Ladybug lands solidly on the ground. She hardly has time to feel the jolt of their landing before Ladybug is releasing her from her grip. Alya barely has time to mourn the loss of the contact before Ladybug’s hands are racing out to her and starting to check her over. Her eyes are wide, and panicky, and so brilliantly, vividly blue. Alya gets caught in them for a moment, before the panicky edge to Ladybug’s expression sinks in.
“Ladybug,” she says, as gently as she can muster. “Ladybug, are you okay?”
“Alya.. I thou- I thought… You could have died, Alya.” The hands checking Alya over are confident or sure. They flit over her, as though their owner cannot decide where to put them. “You scared me.”
Alya catches Ladybug’s hands in her own rope-burned ones. The idea of Ladybug being scared, and the fact that she was scared for Alya’s own safety, is making her feel all twisted up inside. The guilt at causing Ladybug any kind of distress is mingling with an odd kind of hope.
“Hey, look at me. I’m still here, I’m okay. You saved me, I’m fine.” Ladybug’s eyes are very wide behind her mask, and her cheeks have gone a little pink at the edges of her mask. Cute , Alya thinks, and then fuck it . Might as well go for it, while she’s got the chance. “How could I be anything else, when my knight in shining armour was right there to rescue me?”
Ladybug flushes a bright, beautiful red, and her hands in Alya’s flex and stutter. Before Alya can do, or say, anything else, Ladybug lifts her chin, and then raises one of Alya’s hands to her lips.
Those same lips curve in a sly smirk, and Alya watches, transfixed, as Ladybug presses a kiss to the back of her hand, and then says, with gentle reverence, “Always, my lady.” And then her face screws up as she seems to process what she’s just said, but Alya can’t muster any response over the way she feels skewered by the words, her face hot with a blush that she prays isn’t showing too badly on her skin. And then Ladybug giggles , and Alya prays for strength, as she says “Well, more like my lady- blogger .”
Alya can’t help it, she laughs too. It comes out a little shaky, but the way it makes Ladybug’s face light up is worth all the rope burned palms and terror in the world.
And Ladybug is still holding her hand .
And then Chat Noir is landing on the rooftop behind Ladybug. She watches him glance between the pair of them, and the situation he's found them in, and then he grins.
“Buginette,” he says, and Ladybug jumps. “You know I’m all for rescuing your crush from the danger they find themselves in, but do you think we could deal with the akuma before you keep romancing the Ladyblogger?”
Ladybug’s blush, which had started to fade a little, returns in full force.
“Just a minute, Chat,” she calls over her shoulder.
“Of course. You and your lady must bid fond adieus to each other, though. The akuma’s at the Arc de Triomphe, last I checked.”
Ladybug winces. “That was fast.”
Chat's gleeful grin lets Alya know that Ladybug probably won’t live this down, ever. “You were distracted, clearly. I’m not very good at being the responsible one, so I thought I’d come fetch you. It looks like I'm going to have to practise being the responsible one a little more from now on though.”
Ladybug rolls her eyes, and turns to face him. “Go find where the akuma’s ended up now. I’ll be right behind you.”
Chat laughs, and twirls his staff. “Last to the akuma has to give an interview to Nadja Chamak!” he says “Although that looks like it won't be the only interview you’ll be giving today!” He waggles his eyebrows at the two of them, and then leaps off the rooftop.
Ladybug’s fond grin belies the dramatic roll of her eyes. “Sorry about that,” she says. “I have to go, though.” She seems reluctant to let go of Alya’s hand, although the worried crease has returned to her forehead as she glances in the direction of the Arc de Triomphe.
Alya doesn’t want to let go of Ladybug’s hand either, but she has to. The moment has already shattered, and she doesn’t want the akuma rampaging through the city to go undefeated any more than Ladybug does.
“Come see me later,” she says, and then, mustering her courage once more, she leans forward and kisses Ladybug on the cheek. “If you want to, that is,” she says as she steps back.”
Ladybug looks a little breathless, and Alya can’t help but feel a little smug at producing that result. It doesn’t last long though, because Ladybug is stepping towards her and pressing their lips together. The kiss is short, but the tenderness has Alya blushing all over again. “I do want to,” she says as she pulls her yoyo out. “I’ll see you tonight, Alya.”
And with that, she leaps off the rooftop and flings her yoyo out into space. Alya stays and watches as she swings away, before turning to find a way off this rooftop. It looks like she might have to sit this akuma battle out.
She needs to find her phone, and tidy her room, and if she gets her blog post on today’s akuma started now, she’ll be all free this evening.
She can’t wait.
Epilogue:
Later, when Alya is at home in her bedroom, she hears a knock in her window. She almost trips in her haste to open the window. Ladybug’s smile when she sees Alya is wide and happy, and she is carrying a bunch of flowers in the hand that isn’t holding the string of her yoyo.
“A little birdie told me these are your favourites,” she said. She’s right, sunflowers are her favourites. Alya takes the armful of blooms, and grins.
“Thank you.” She extends her free arm out the window. “Won’t my gallant knight come in, and stay a while.”
Ladybug laughs, and takes Alya’s hand. “As my lady wishes.” She steps inside, and once both her feet are firmly on the carpet of the bedroom, she pulls Alya in for a kiss. This one is longer than their first, sweet and deep. Alya feels herself swaying towards her Ladybug as gloved hands rest on her jaw, cradling her face gently.
And as she kisses back she thinks, the superhero and the journalist, huh. It couldn’t have been more perfect for us if I’d tried .
The End