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Nobody had ever mentioned this. Master Fu, on the rare occasions he ever saw the man, had never hinted at such a thing happening let alone being possible. Ladybug hadn’t said a word either, but with her love of keeping their identities secret it wasn’t a surprise. If she even knew. Not even Plagg had given him a heads up.
That wasn’t exactly a surprise either. But this could be a potentially huge problem. The identity revealing kind.
Adrien Agreste could purr.
Not Cat Noir - his civilian self.
Outside the suit.
“If I purr as Adrien, people are going to put two and two together, and this time they won’t get five!”
Plagg flippantly waved a tiny forelimb. “It’ll be fine, the masking magic will just make everyone think you’re weirder than you already are,” he said.
“Yeah, my father will love that,” Adrien muttered.
“You humans get hung up on all sorts of things. You’d enjoy life more if you stopped caring so much. Find the right cheese for you and stick with it, that’s what you should care about,” the Kwami advised.
Adrien rolled his eyes. Getting advice from the Black Cat Kwami was hard enough. Trying to decode that advice was always a hit or miss affair. Did it always have to be cheese related? It would be so much easier without the cheese.
Although life sure would be a whole lot more boring without Plagg and his never-ending demands for camembert.
He’s the only one that had ever made an animalistic noise, even in the suit. Surely the Black Cat wasn’t the only one able to do so. The next time the heroes met up, Cat Noir was going to see if they could make noises no human could realistically make. The Miraculous had to be based on animals for a reason. He would help them walk on the wild side and tap into that.
He got his chance an hour later when he went on patrol.
Ladybug was at their arranged spot, along with Purple Tigress. Obviously they were going to show the ropes to one of the newer heroes. Excellent, Tigress should be able to make some noise. The Tiger Kwami couldn’t be called Roarr for no reason, right? Right.
“Dear kitty relative, I must teach you the ways of the feline,” he said after a minute.
“What?” Tigress asked.
“I don’t think chasing a laser pointer is a necessary skill,” said Ladybug.
Cat Noir put a hand on his chest. “Bugaboo, you’ve heard me purr, right?”
Purple Tigress perked up. “Purr? Really?”
“Yes…” Ladybug answered slowly.
“Why have none of the others, including you, made noises of your Miraculous animal? You should totally try!”
“Yeah, this doesn’t exactly seem like a necessary skill,” said Ladybug. Her tone was rather snarky. “Besides, you’ve only purred once by total accident.”
He grinned widely, showing off his perfect teeth. A rumbling noise began, loud enough to catch the attention of his companions. Purple Tigress looked shocked and strangely intrigued, while Ladybug raised a brow at him. All three stopped on the next roof. His belt-tail swayed in contentment as he continued to purr loudly.
“How did you…?” Ladybug asked in shock.
“Cool,” muttered the other feline.
“Want to give it a try?” he asked, offering his hands, palms up, beseechingly.
Purple Tigress nodded somewhat shyly, shadowed eyes flicking up to meet his own green ones.
Ladybug scoffed. “How is this supposed to help us fight any bad guys?”
“Not everything about the Miraculous has to be about fighting, does it?” he asked, tilting his head to one side. “I mean, why would I have the ability to purr if it didn’t serve some purpose? What if it’s just an extension of some communication abilities between those that wield Miraculous?”
“What, like some sort of secret code?” Ladybug asked sarcastically.
Cat Noir shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Can you teach me?” Purple Tigress asked. She stood there, looking unsure, but eyeing him hopefully.
“Sure!” he eagerly agreed. “The noises are buried, so you have to go looking for them. Close your eyes.”
“Seriously?” said Ladybug.
“Not like it’ll hurt to learn, right?” he cajoled.
The insect-themed heroine sighed but waved them on. Cat couldn’t help but beam in victory, especially as Purple Tigress closed her eyes trustingly.
“You know how to access your main power, how it feels and how the sound of your voice activates it,” he began. “Try bringing that power to your voice instead, letting them merge together.”
Purple Tigress frowned, evidently concentrating.
“Once you think you have it, let the sound out!”
After a long moment the tigress opened her mouth. A deafening roar burst forth, making Ladybug and Cat clamp their hands over their ears. The sound faded after a few seconds and Cat applauded, smiling from ear to ear.
“Yes, that’s it exactly!” he said, purring in excitement. Purple Tigress chuffed, making Cat purr louder.
She blinked, evidently startled, but then smiled proudly. “Wicked,” she said.
Ladybug chivvied them onwards so they could finish patrolling, but Cat would let loose little bouts of purring here and there, which was always followed by a happy chuff from Purple Tigress. Cat Noir desperately wanted to hear what Ladybug would sound like, but she never tried, too focused on her hero work to play around like the felines.
That was okay, he could always try again when he taught others. Surely there were more heroes that would love to make animalistic sounds. Hopefully Carapace would agree - he really wanted to know what kind of sounds a turtle could make.
The days went by, and Adrien kept an ear out for anyone that roared or chuffed, hoping to learn Purple Tigress’s civilian identity. Either she wasn’t around him as a civilian, she was being very careful, or she hadn’t learned to produce those sounds out of the suit yet. It had taken him a while after all.
Whatever the reason, he still found the outcome disappointing.
He just needed a wider pool for better chances!
About two weeks after his first lesson with Purple Tigress, Cat got the perfect opportunity when Ladybug assembled Purple Tigress and Rena Rouge at night in a park. He jumped up just as Ladybug opened her mouth.
“Who wants to learn to make their animal noises?” he said somewhat loudly.
Purple Tigress only grinned but Rena jumped up and down on the balls of her feet, one hand waving in the air as though overeager to answer the teacher in a classroom.
“Can we really do that?” asked Rena.
Cat started purring and Purple Tigress gave a rumbling growl. Rena looked excited although Ladybug seemed less than thrilled.
“Again, Cat? Really?” asked the spotted heroine.
“Aww, c’mon Bugaboo, you gotta be curious too,” said Cat. “I know being a hero is a serious duty, but you are allowed to have fun with it sometimes. Let that inner Ladybug out!”
“My inner ladybug wants to hit you upside the head.”
“No, no, listen! You can even make these sounds outside the suit!” he said enticingly.
Ladybug merely frowned and crossed her arms. “That sounds like a recipe for disaster if you ask me.”
“Why? You know everyone’s identity anyway and I know a few.”
“Ugh, fine! But don’t come complaining to me when you’re forced to give up your Miraculous because you got caught.”
Cat grinned in victory and began coaching Rena through the process, with Purple Tigress adding her own tips here and there. He made sure to keep some of his focus on Ladybug, finding her paying attention to the lesson. Good, she really did need to loosen up more sometimes. Ladybug was wound tighter than Marinette, and that was saying something.
If only he could reveal himself to his girlfriend and purr all of her worries away.
All the more reason to beat the bad guys and reclaim the Miraculous of the Butterfly and Peacock.
A yippy bark of excitement broke the silence and Rena was thrilled, eyes shining, and hands clasped together near her chin. Ladybug rolled her eyes but gave a small smile before a high-pitched chirp escaped her lips.
She froze, stunned, but Cat broke into applause, and a purr, congratulating them both on their success.
Rena snatched Ladybug’s arm with a rushed, “Patrol buddy!” and left the two felines behind to their own devices.
Cat stared at the tigress and shrugged, flicking his belt tail and leaping away. Patrol for them quickly devolved into a game of cat and mouse, with a tigress hunting a kitty cat. Cat Noir was elusive prey, although his blond hair was fairly easy to spot and gave him away more often than not.
An hour passed quickly, and the two felines met up with the others at the agreed rendezvous point, panting a little and flushed with the thrill of the hunt. It was something he was sure Ladybug, no matter how amazingly awesome she was, would never truly understand. She could come close, he was sure, but never quite cross that line.
Both groups made their reports, noted the current lack of Akumas and Sentimonsters, and agreed to go home for the night.
Things progressed like this for the next two weeks and, despite multiple attacks by Akumas and Sentimonsters, Cat Noir never got the opportunity to teach anyone else. He silently suspected this was on purpose - he was sure Ladybug had decided it was too much of a security risk to let it go any further than it already had. To be fair she wasn’t wrong, but it did put a huge damper on his fun.
He had heard Ladybug, Rena, and Purple Tigress all making some noise at some point during the battles though. To him, that was a victory Ladybug couldn’t take away or schedule around.
He took solace in hanging out with Marinette, who was his rock, his anchor, amongst all of the crazy things that happened in his life. Adrien wanted nothing more than to tell his girlfriend his biggest secret. He did not, under any circumstances, want a repeat of what happened with Kagami. Lies had driven them apart and he didn’t want this relationship to end up the same way.
Luckily for him, Marinette seemed to be very forgiving and understanding of his odd absences and sometimes lacklustre and hasty excuses. Plagg had called her, “The best cheese for his palate.”
Usually he just called her Pigtails and Adrien wasn’t sure if the cheese-related comparison was an upgrade or not.
He would take it as a compliment. There was nothing Plagg liked more than cheese after all.
They were currently in her room, cuddled together on the chaise while she showed off her latest designs in her sketchbook. Adrien loved every single one and was thrilled that this talented girl was sharing them with him. It took immense effort not to purr while cuddling.
It almost took more willpower than he possessed.
Almost.
He absolutely did not want Ladybug to take away the ring of the Black Cat because he accidentally revealed himself to a civilian - even if that civilian had wielded a Miraculous before. Ladybug was great, but the Cat and Mouse team sounded too awesome to pass up. Oh well, he knew Ladybug had her reasons…
Marinette flipped a page and there was Cat Noir and Ladybug, staring up at him from the page in amazing formal wear. The heroine sported a beautiful black gown with red layers in the skirt part, and a red sash and choker, all spotted with black. The Black Cat was living up to his name in a smart black tuxedo, lined with bright green piping and a green pocket kerchief. There were even tiny paw print shaped cufflinks, also edged in green.
“Wow Marinette! You’ve outdone yourself with these designs! I bet Cat Noir and Ladybug would love to own these. You are gonna make them, right?” he gushed out, nearly all in one breath.
Cat Noir definitely wanted that tuxedo, and he’d love to see Ladybug modelling his girlfriend’s gorgeous dress design.
Marinette looked stunned, and embarrassed, so he gave her a small squeeze for comfort.
A high-pitched chirp escaped her lips.
She froze.
He blinked.
Then he blinked again.
“Oh, that was just… my new alarm! Yeah! You know how I run late to things or forget stuff, so I set a bunch of alarms. Some are probably just random that I set when I was super tired and yeah, just ignore it-”
Then he purred.
She blinked.
He purred louder.
“Oh my god… Cat Noir? YOU, Adrien Agreste, are CAT NOIR?!” she whisper-shouted.
Honestly, yelling while whispering was impressive.
Adrien grinned like the cat that caught the canary. “And you, My Lady, are truly My Lady.”
Marinette - clumsy, awkward Marinette - really was their Everyday Ladybug. He’d been comparing the two to each other! Oops! The fact that they were one in the same hit him then.
His girlfriend and celebrity crush were one in the same! Life couldn’t get much better for him now!
“So, Bugaboo… when do I get to see you in that dress?” he whispered in her ear, just audible over the rumbling in his chest.
Marinette’s reply was a chirp.