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Multimouse hadn’t known what to think when Viperion had specifically requested a patrol with her.
A couple of weeks earlier, she and Chat Noir had created a new system where the temporary holders would have their miraculous more often, though still not full-time. They were both buckling under stress at the time, and keeping up with patrols and immediate responses to akumas just wasn’t working for them anymore.
Chat had, unfortunately, been abnormally insistent that Multimouse be part of this system, despite the fact Polymouse was the one who was clearly more interested in having another go-around. It’d taken a lot of arguing, and a bit of carrying messages between Polymouse and Multimouse (as Ladybug, because yes this is what her life has come to), but eventually she’d cleared up any possible bad blood between the two options, and had begrudgingly added Multimouse to the system. That had also included involving Aspik, which was difficult, because after the trauma that it had been the first time around for Adrien, he’d insisted that he didn’t want to be included, and for some reason Chat had decided to listen to him that time around. (Just in case there was any doubt about Chat picking favourites. He’s not really that vocal about his dislike towards Adrien, but she’s definitely noticed it before.)
There were more rules than that, of course. She didn’t want to risk creating a muddled mess between anyone who were dating as civilians, or god forbid accidentally make someone confused about crushing on someone they didn’t know they were already dating, so groups such as Polymouse and Minotaurox, or Tigress and Pigella were banned from occurring, just in case.
But, uh. Back to the point, dang it.
Why’s it so hard to keep herself from getting distracted as Multimouse? Seriously. It’s annoying! This never happens as Ladybug (she thinks to herself, like a liar).
Viperion touches down at their starting point a few minutes after Multimouse, a prominent frown on his features.
He doesn’t know who Multimouse is, but Multimouse knows who he is and has no idea what could’ve happened to make him want to talk to her, of all people.
When he catches her confusion, though, he releases his soft smile. “I needed to ask you a question, Multi.”
She winces on instinct, before forcing herself to collect her confidence, and responds, “What is it?” In what feels like a mostly steady tone.
He shrugs, casually, and manages to keep steady eye contact as he asks, “What’s your plan with this?”
Multimouse tries not to let the spike of fear that shoots through her show. “Plan with what? The patrol? Because I was thinking that we follow the normal routes, maybe split up a bit, but I’m pretty sure Ladybug and Chat want us to bond, so—”
“I know who you are, Ladybug,” Viperion shrugs, making her startle for real. “I’m pretty disillusioned with the glamour at this point, and I figured there had to be a reason Multimouse was replaced with Polymouse, especially after Chat Noir sang your praises.”
Multimouse takes in a deep inhale, and exhales with only the tiniest underlying shriek. “What do you mean you’re disillusioned with the glamour?”
Viperion winces.
Goddammit. He doesn’t know something, does he? What if he knows her identity, or Chat’s? What if he knows both, and the next time he gets akumatised Hawkmoth—
“I know a few identities,” he says vaguely. “And from there, it’s unfortunately easy to figure out the rest, though I’ve been forcing myself not to.”
“This is bad,” Multimouse blurts, reaching back to pull at her pigtails, only to meet the pink ribbons of her buns instead, tugging on those until her hair begins to come loose. “This is really, really bad. If Hawkmoth akumatises you—”
“He won’t,” Viperion says confidently. Multimouse darts her stare up at him, not even having realised before that she’d been looking down in her panic. “We already know that it’s possible for someone to refuse an akuma. And I’ve got an anti-akuma charm on top of that. Worse comes to worst, I… might have told Jules that I’m afraid of being akumatised. So she’ll give me her charm, as well, if she’s there when it happens.”
Multimouse shakes her head, still yanking on her ribbons. “That’s not enough. We know the charms aren’t enough, they’re just boosters, they need to be charged, they won’t work forever—”
“I’ll be fine, Multi,” Viperion says, taking a careful step forward while reaching out. He grabs her arms, slowly guiding them away from her ribbons. They lock gazes, and he reiterates, “You have nothing to worry about.”