Chapter Text
The older Adrien got, and the longer he was Chat, the less he liked modeling. His father had accepted the muscled, lithe form that puberty and years of secret parkour had gifted him, so Adrien’s public image became that of a muscle bound sex-deity. Adrien himself had, on the other hand, developed a more unique sense of personal style in line with his scholastic interests. He had, eventually, arrived at an acceptable (but according to his father, utterly unmarketable) nerdy-chic. The glasses he needed outside the mask helped, but didn't stop the Gabriel team from forcing him into contacts for shoots. And, as his private image drifted further and further from his billboard persona, his disdain for the latter grew.
Result being, he eventually started avoiding the finished products entirely. Which was difficult because every new campaign always seemed to go up right on their patrol route. And, since they still hadn't done the “here's my real name in case you ever can't find me or I'm dying or something” (much to Chat’s protestation) he didn't have a good excuse for just why they had to change up their entire patrol route on a day’s notice.
Especially today, because she seemed determined to see the new billboard. The whole team of heroes were running on adrenaline. It had been two weeks since the last akuma battle, and nothing had been heard or seen of Hawkmoth since. Paris enjoyed the reprieve; Her heroes had all spent the two weeks growing increasingly frantic, waiting to see what exactly Hawkmoth was planning. As the weeks dragged on, tempers flared. Normally, indulging his Lady’s fixation with his public persona was a fun private joke, but today it grated on his already frayed nerves.
“Why does it even matter to you so much?” He asked as they landed on a roof across the street.
Ladybug blushed and sputtered. “Gee Chat I don't know, have you seen the thing?”
“Purrrlease tell me you're not another of his fangirls, Bugaboo, I don't know if we could be friends anymore.”
“Really? Eight years of working together and you're gonna suddenly get all professional just because I appreciate a model’s good looks? You've got to be kidding me, Chat.”
“I’m serious! How do you even know he's not a complete asshole? A rich kid who's only famous because his dad runs a fashion company so he models to get a slice of the limelight? You used to hate the Bourgeois chick, what makes Adrien any better? I mean come on,” Chat gestured toward the billboard, “you have to admit he looks like a jerk.”
“Oh you think so?”
“Yes, I do. Frankly it's pretty disconcerting to find out you're so shallow.”
“Oh I'm shallow am I? Well guess what, alley cat? You're wrong. Yeah, I thought Adrien was a stuck up rich kid with a silver spoon up his butt when we first met. He was a friend of Chole’s and as far as I was concerned anyone who could stand to be near her couldn’t possibly be good news. And you know what? I was wrong. Adrien Agreste is the brightest ray of sunshine in the entire City of Lights, and you will never convince me otherwise. Life has given him nothing but rough break after bad hand, and he has every right to be the bitter jerk that judgmental people like you always assume he is. But you know what? He's not. He could be going to university for a business degree and just ride his father’s coat tails and live off his trust fund for his entire life but he's not. He didn't stay friends with Chloe because he's an equally disgusting person, but because he's just that nice. I totally hated him for existing when I first met him, but rather than write me off as a judgemental bitch that was never going to see him as his own person, he went out of his way to be better. Adrien Agreste is the fucking best person on this entire planet, and it’s judgemental assholes like you that make him feel so bad about his job that he can't even look at these billboards.”
“Oh yeah? Well-” Asked Chat, somewhat unsure of how to respond but sure that he had to somehow.
“I’M. NOT. DONE.” Ladybug’s rant was a freight train with no scheduled stops. “You, furthermore, have a lot of nerve trying to shame me for a celebrity crush. You knew me for how long before proclaiming your undying love for the new protector of Paris? Yeah, real original, Chat. I bet you think I'm some sort of magical unicorn outside the mask. Well guess what? I am a walking Parisian cliche. I could not be more stereotypical if I had stormed the Bastille myself. I grew up in a bakery. I'm a fashion student. I was bullied for years in school, and up until the day I became Ladybug, I could count my friends on one hand. Like two people liked me before the mask, but everybody loves the Miraculous fucking Ladybug. So take your judgmental attitude and throw it at a mirror Chat, because the only one of us with a shallow celebrity crush is you!”
Chat knew how to shut up and let a woman vent when she was frustrated, but he drew the line at anyone disparaging his adoration for Ladybug, even Ladybug herself. “Hold up. Before you get all high and mighty about how wonderful Ladybug is, I’ll have you know you made a horrible first impression. You came screaming out of the blue and knocked me right off my staff. You’d have killed us both if you hadn't been so bad with your yo-yo that you tied us up before we could break our necks. Sure, I was having fun and flirting at first because real-life-magical-girl-anime-is-magic. So sue me. But that all stopped after you challenged Hawkmoth. I have spent my life bending to the will of more powerful people in my life, but, even after a day of failure and a horrible dry run, you stood your ground, laughed in his face, and told him where he could shove his butterflies. And even through all that ironclad stubborn strength, you've never once bowled over my opinions, even when we disagreed. You've always heard me out. You've never stopped caring about the people in this city, even when the responsibilities of being Ladybug have been crushing you. You are the strongest, most kind person I have ever met. And furthermore, don't give me that shallow ‘you wouldn't like me if you knew me’ shit. Because, guess what? I think I just figured out that I do. So there.”
“Oh yeah?” Challenged Ladybug.
“Yeah.”
“Then prove it big shot.”
“You're Marinette-Fucking-Deupen-Cheng.”
The look on her face said it all.
“Fuck. Yeah.” Chat fist pumped. “But you know what I still can't figure out, even though I know who you are?”
“What?” Sputtered Ladybug, knowing full well the question was rhetorical but refusing to be silenced.
“I don't get how you can know Adrien so well and still be so excited for the billboard that you know represents everything awful about his joke of a life.”
“Because he’s wearing his fucking glasses.” Answered Ladybug. “He's worn glasses since we were fifteen and they have never once shown up in an official promotion. Gabriel is a brilliant designer but a fucking awful piece of shit father, and do you know what those are? Those are Gabriel brand glasses. Those glasses are the first thing Gabriel Agreste ever made for Adrien, and Adrien could not love them more. So yeah, someone I’ve loved for years might be starting on the path to getting the one thing he wants in life and I’m happy for him. I'm clearly a terrible friend that I want Adrien’s father to be less of a steaming pile of shit.”
That, for the first time all evening, shut Chat up. Not for long, but he was quiet for the moment it took him to blink away his tears. “Awww, Maribug, you love me?”
Ladybug paused. Gears turned, and suddenly the penny dropped. “Shit. Shhhhhhit. Fucking--NOPE.” Yo-yo out, and she was off in a blur of pink.
Or she would have been, if not for some quick thinking and polework on Chat’s part to tangle her string up. “Ladybug” he crooned, pulling her toward him. “I think we have something we need to talk about.”
“Nope. Let go of my string Adrien you piece of--I have had enough talking and sharing our feelings for one--shit.” Ladybug’s eyes widened.
Chat winked as he continued to reel her in. “So, bugaboo, when were you planning on telling me about your crush on me?”
“Oh you know, right at the intersection of every day since middle school and absolutely never.”
“Aww, but I think we’d be purrrrfect for each other, don't you?”
“I take it all back. You're a shitty asshole and I want nothing to do with you.”
“Maaaa~riiii?” Chat sing-songed, employing Adrien’s signature pout. Years of experience had demonstrated that Marinette was absolutely powerless against it.
“Oh no you don't.You are not allowed to use Adrien's kitten eyes in Chat’s leather suit.” Ladybug was only a few feet away. “Absolutely. Against. The. Rules.” Each word was punctuated by a reluctant step, until she stood nose-to-chest with Chat.
“So you do like how I look in the suit then?”
“Please, I've spent even longer ignoring your suit than I have suppressing my feelings for Adrien, you have no power here.”
Chat’s head tilted. “Why didn't you ever tell me?”
Ladybug looked off to the side. “I tried. Back in collegé. But the four of us had a good thing, I didn't want to make things awkward. Eventually, I accepted that you weren't interested. ”
“I wish I had known. I would have been.”
“Would have been what?” Ladybug looked up.
“Interested.” Chat answered, brushing her bangs away from her eyes. “I've never not noticed you, Marinette. I still remember walking away in the rain that first day. I didn't realize what I felt for you until later, but Plagg. He made fun of me for falling in love twice in one day.” Chat blinked slowly, pausing before adding, “I’ll probably never live down that fact that he was right, so what's one more thing?”
Ladybug only had time to begin to ask what he meant before she found herself, for the second time in her superhero career, kissing Chat Noir. Her surprise only lasted a moment before she kissed him back, dropping her yo-yo to wrap her arms around her partner.
For a moment the world was silent, and nothing existed outside of the two of them and their love.
Then a wolf whistle shattered the night.