Chapter Text
It was particularly cold that evening. With spring right around the corner, one would think the weather would get warmer but with the cold wave earlier that month, it seemed that the quiet chill in the air wouldn’t be going anywhere soon, even in a city such as Istanbul. That was partially why Ladybug was being especially sloppy with their landings that night. They’d already tripped and almost fallen 2 times but they did not want to run or swing in this chill anymore. “At least I’m moving around instead of sitting on my ass and getting even colder”, they thought to themselves casually. They looked at their surroundings. In the dark, it was harder to discern where the meeting spot was, and they made sure to silently curse their teammate with the Black Cat Miraculous for somehow always coming in late even though he had perfectly functional night vision. It was then that they spotted it: The high apartment building with a white roof and smokestack. They had made it.
They could already hear the voices of chatter up ahead, behind the apartment. They counted one, two, finally three voices. All of them were there. They quickly made their way over to their partners, pleased that all of them were there somewhat in time, even Grimalkin, but not so pleased that they were the last one to arrive.
The reason they had deemed this place their casual meeting stop was 1. This building was one of the few with a flat roof around the area, so that everyone could walk and sit casually without the risk of falling. 2. Despite the fact that it didn’t have that many floors, this area was most probably built on a hill, so they had a clear and beautiful view of the city. Specifically the Bosphorus and one of the three bridges that connected the two continents. This kind of view was much easier to get on the European side of course, but none of them wanted to travel all the way there almost every night. And 3. The building next to their spot was fairly recognisable if you knew what you were looking for, with the smokestack and white, tileless sloped roof, even at night.
The sight that greeted Ladybug’s eyes was unconventional, but familiar. Juno, the cheery and energetic Peacock Miraculous holder, was talking Oberon’s, the aloof and reclusive Butterfly Miraculous holder’s ears off and off to the side; Grimalkin, the cat, was perched on high ground watching the scene and occasionally commenting on it. Mostly snide remarks to Juno, to which the peahen bit back to, but thankfully nothing seemed to be escalating. Ladybug wondered quietly how those two haven’t eaten each other alive yet as they finally sat on some concrete mound and got the attention of the others.
“Would you look at that, the bug finally arrived!” Said Grimalkin, his tone dripping with sarcasm as Ladybug tried to evade a hug from Juno to no avail. Oberon went straight to the formalities:
“So?,” He questioned. “Anything strange around the islands?” Ladybug shook her head. “Nope. Lots of seagulls though.”
“There are always lots of seagulls around the islands,” Juno butted in.
They almost always assigned Ladybug to island duty. To be fair, she was the one with the most mobility options, along with Grimalkin. And he was needed in the sketchier parts of town, so island duty it was. At least the view was nice when they rode on top of the ferry at night.
“Anything new with you guys?”
“Uuh. No, not really. School and stuff you kno-“
“The patrol, Juno.”
“Ah. Heh, no not on the patrols either.”
“So everyone’s clear then?”
Murmurs of approval filled the rooftop.
“Well then. What’s actually new?” Ladybug said and with that, the yapping session had begun. The heroes were kindly filling each other in on the gossip from their superhero and daily lives (while being extremely vague of course) and also just talking and joking with one another. They did this ritual of theirs once every two nights. Someone always suggested they bring snacks the next time but when the day came, all of them forgot to bring anything. And by the time the regular meeting rolled around it was too late to buy one because all the stores were closed. No matter; there wasn’t anything they could do about it. There was, however, a little something they could do against Oberon’s rising self confidence.
“So why didn’t you name yourself Radiance?”
“What?”
“Y’know. From this game Hollow Knig-“
“I know what Hollow Knight is Grim.”
“That one moth ruler who takes control of people’s minds through their dreams?”
With that, a laughther of disbelief and amusement shot out from Juno. Oberon immediately tried to recover:
“ Ok- Ha ha ha, very funny. Okay-“
“You really should’ve named yourself Radiance. Major missed opportunity, in my opinion.”
“Im not na- Im not naming myself after a character from a video game!”
Right then, Ladybug also decided to join the fun:
“Bold words from someone who named themself after a character from a theater play, Oberon.”
“It’ Shakesperian, that’s different!” Oberon tried to argue but the other three were already laughing. Juno fell to the floor.
It was thus that they spent the rest of their time tohether that night. When the time came to part ways -earlier that time because it was a school night- the heroes bid each other farewell and dissapeared into the night, off to their respective houses. Ladybug’s house was a bit far from their meeting spot but they could scale half the city in minutes so it didn’t really matter. They always walked the last couple of minutes to their flat at night to detransform in an abandoned alleyway on the way (no cameras, they checked).
It was as they were making their way to the alley that something happened. Something that they couldn’t explain, even with months of dealing with weird shit on their belt. Something… unnatural was the only way they could describe it, really. Downright uncanny, Ladybug thought as they gazed at the thing that maybe once was a human. Like it was badly pretending to be one. It just stood there, not moving a single muscle. Because everything was so dark, Ladybug couldn’t see a single thing. Even in their agitated state, they made sure to curse their black cat companion once more. Ladybug would’ve thought the thing was a discarded mannequin if not for the sound. As soon as Ladybug’s ears were burdened with the horrible, guttural sound the thing made they knew they would not be sleeping that night. It was a like the figure was gurgling something- no. No, it was breathing. Or, well, trying to breathe.
It was breathing, Ladybug thought, which brought with it the terrifying idea that it may have been alive once. That possibility itself was worse than anything the creature could do right now. At least that’s what they thought until the thing moved. If one could disgrace the word by calling what the thing did with its body moving. As they watched the being… shift, Ladybug was reminded of maggots, for some reason. The way they moved, crawled with their body and the force moving up and down their disgusting little frame as they flailed around- Ladybug, as any sane person in their place, could not take it anymore. They instinctively backed up a few steps, fight or flight instinct kicking in but they had to abrubtly stop with a cold, dreadful afterthought. They would have ran for their life, if they had the privilege but just the idea of a powerless civilian coming across the thing made them sick. They did quick work of the creature by utilising their ranged weapon -thank literally everything- and hitting the thing to knock it off its feet and sending it flying into the nearest dumpster. They had to hold in their vomit and compose themself for a second because of how the being’s body reacted to the kinetic force of the yo-yo. Not for long, though, because apparently the urge to get away from the damn place as fast as possible outweighed the urge to spill their insides on the pavement.
Needless to say, Ladybug covered the rest of the way from rooftops. When they finally reached their flat after what seemed like hours, they detransformed in a somewhat secluded spot, got in the building and took the elevator. She had told her parents that she was going to come home late that evening because of a study group for the upcoming french exam, so all she could do as she opened the front door as silently as possible was hope that none of her family members were awake. Surprisingly, by some merciful twist of fate, all of the residents were asleep. She celebrated silently before going quickly to the bathroom, changing, writing down a quick report to her patrol log and finally, finally getting on her bed. As soon as her head touched the pillow, her eyelids turned to lead and her body started to weigh heavy. Her last thoughts before falling asleep was that she hoped she was wrong about the nightmares.