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“Chat, this is getting a little ridiculous,” Ladybug laughed as she tripped over the third rooftop that evening.
Her partner helped her back to her feet. “Well, maybe it would be less ridiculous if you had just let me carry you.”
“Or you could just let me take off this blindfold,” Ladybug suggested hopefully, immediately stumbling once again.
“And ruin the surprise?” Chat exclaimed, “Not a chance.”
Gripping his arm for balance, Ladybug finally made her way across the rooftop. “Right, your mysterious surprise. Why’s it so important anyway?”
She could practically see his smug shrug. “I guess you’ll have to find out.”
Ladybug sighed, taking another shuffle-step forward.
“Stop!” Chat’s command echoed off the rooftops.
She froze, foot hanging in midair as she turned her head to ‘look’ at him.
“You’re about to walk straight off the roof,” he explained, gently grabbing her hand and guiding her back to the center of the rooftop.
Ladybug groaned. “How much farther is it?”
Chat’s voice turned sheepish. “Three more blocks.”
She sighed. “You know, I think I might be up for that bridal carry after all.”
If anyone asked, Ladybug certainly was not enjoying the way Chat’s strong yet gentle arms clutched her to his chest as they leapt over the rooftops.
His heartbeat pounded beside her ear, racing at a thousand kilometers a second.
“Nervous, kitty?” she teased, poking him between his ribs.
“A little,” he admitted, sounding so genuinely anxious that her heart turned to mush. “I really hope you like it.”
She couldn’t justify teasing him anymore after that.
Finally, they came to a halt.
“We’re here,” her partner murmured, his voice so close to her ear that it rippled the tiny hairs on the back of her neck. She shivered.
Gently he placed her on the sharply angled rooftop and stepped behind her to unknot the blindfold.
“Are you ready?” he asked as the blindfold began to slip.
Ladybug nodded, and the fabric finally came loose and dropped to the shingles.
A checkered picnic blanket was sprawled across the roof with mismatched balloons congregating on each corner. A gigantic pile of junk food was stacked in the center like a feast for kings, surrounded by a mass of pillows. Dozens of tiny fake candles struggled to illuminate the entire set up in the final rays of a magenta sunset.
“I decided to leave the real candles at home,” Chat admitted, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “I- uh- Happy Birthday?”
Ladybug giggled, feeling as though she were floating. “You say that like it’s a question.”
“Well, it kinda is one,” Chat pointed out. He wrung his hands anxiously. “Do you like your surprise?”
Turning back to the picnic, she pretended to consider it.
Chat’s face twisted from mild concern to anxious agony.
“Are you kidding?” Ladybug exclaimed, unable to let him feel nervous for a second longer. “Of course I love it! You’re the best, Chat!”
She pretended not to notice his sigh of relief as he bounded over to the blanket. He pulled a giant silver platter from the pile of snacks. “I also brought some treats for the kwamis, if you want to let them out.”
Ladybug settled beside him, sliding her yo-yo open to free the kwamis. “You thought of everything,” she commented, grinning up at him.
A starburst of pink erupted along the bottom edge of his mask. “I had to bribe Plagg with three different wheels of cheese for him to tell me all their favorite treats.”
Trixx’s eyes widened the instant they materialized in a flash of orange. “Food!”
Sass dove in front of the mass of kwamis before they could descend on the platter and tear their individual snacks to shreds.
“Don’t you dare,” he hissed, teal lightning slithering along his tail in a clear threat that would allow no protests. “Chat Noir has been kind enough to gift us these snacks. The least we could do for him is at least enjoy them on a different rooftop and let the two of them have some peace and quiet.”
The kwamis deflated as one.
“Good,” Sass grinned. “Everyone grab the edge. We’ll lift it together.” He glared at Mullo as the kwami attempted to reach for a slice of mozzarella. “If anyone tries to snitch, I’ll be happy to give them a second chance.”
Mullo slowly brought their hand back to their side and grabbed a corner of the tray.
The kwamis struggled to lift the tray, immediately almost dumping half the treats over the edge. Wayzz created a shelter, to stop the treats from falling off one end- only for the tray to drastically tilt the other direction.
Ladybug chuckled, turning back to her partner. “They’ll get it figured out eventually.”
“I hope you’re right,” Chat laughed, extending his staff to right the tray before a precariously stacked pile of seaweed could fall to the streets below. Turning back to her he pulled out a CD. “You up for watching Frozen 2? ”
“Obviously,” she grinned, grabbing a bag of chips from the stack and sprawling back across the pillows. “ Frozen 2 is iconic.”
She finished an entire bag of chips while Chat struggled to figure out how to make the projector work. After five minutes she finally got up to see what was wrong.
It turned out that he had been trying to put the disc in the wrong slot the entire time. Eventually they got it figured out.
They dove into the pile of pillows as Queen Iduna began her lullaby. Ladybug attempted to sing along (and completely and utterly failed to stay in tune.) It took her a moment to notice Chat’s gentle tenor voice join hers.
She cut herself off right as they hit the bridge.
Chat stopped singing and glanced at her nervously. “What?”
“You can sing? ” Ladybug exclaimed.
Chat flushed. “I mean, so can you.”
“Not well,” she pointed out. “You actually sound amazing.”
“I think you might be overselling it a little,” her partner protested, turning the same adorable shade of red as earlier.
“That’s not overselling it at all,” Ladybug laughed. ”If I was it would be more like ‘oh my goodness Chat Noir-” she dramatically placed the back of her hand to her forehead and swooned as she fell into his arms- “You never told me about your glorious voice. You should quit being a superhero immediately and pursue a career in the music industry. Please, sign my chip bag so I have some way to prove I recognized your talent first.’”
Chat Noir shoved her off and into a pile of pillows as she giggled.
“Shhhhh!” he pretended to scold. “You’re distracting me! We’re going to miss the next song! I bet we can duet it!”
He didn’t respond.
“You and me against the world, right?” she prompted, reaching over for their customary fist bump.
Chat wasn’t looking at her.
“Hey,” she nudged him with her foot. “You alright?”
“Huh?” he glanced up, finally spotting her waiting fist. “Oh, yeah.”
He reached up and brushed his knuckles against hers, eyes locked blankly on the screen.
Ladybug opened her mouth to ask if he was doing alright when she thought better of it.
If Chat wanted to talk about whatever was bothering him, he would.
Still, she couldn’t resist edging a little closer and pulling him into a gentle hug.
Throughout the course of the movie they only seemed to get closer and closer together.
Ladybug felt any motivation to move draining as her limbs began to feel heavy. Neither of them had attempted any sort of conversation since the ill-fated fist bump apart from scattered laughter at the occasional joke.
She glanced down at her partner who was currently leaning his head on her shoulder. His cat ears tickled her neck as he stared at the screen, transfixed.
Forcing her arm back to awareness, she ran her fingers delicately through his hair.
Chat Noir froze and glanced up at her right as a tiny purr escaped.
“Did you just-”
“Don’t you dare mention it,” he interrupted, cheeks tinted an adorable red.
“Alright,” she smirked as she ran her fingers through his hair again. “So it won’t matter if I do this then, right?”
For an instant, every muscle in Chat’s body relaxed as he let out a long contented purr.
He tensed, his entire face glowing the same color as her suit when he realized what he’d done.
“Should I stop?” she teased, playing with the tips of one of his locks.
Chat coughed. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind it if you continued but if you want to keep going I’m not going to fight you or anything.”
“Alright” -she grinned smugly- “I guess I can keep going.”
The two of them curled up together once again, Chat’s purrs that he kept attempting to quench proving a gentle soundtrack to match the movie.
She really did love him.
As Elsa dove into the frigid waters, Chat suddenly sat up.
“Ladybug?”
She craned her neck to get a better view of his troubled green eyes.
“Yeah kitty?”
“What would you do if your father was Hawkmoth?”
She wanted to laugh at the question. The mere idea of Tom Dupain terrorizing Paris was hilarious. But his troubled expression yanked her back to reality.
“He’s not,” Ladybug reassured him. “He’s been akumatized before.”
That was probably a safe statement to make, right ? After all, her father was one amongst hundreds- or was it thousands by now?
Chat resettled besides her and there was no laughter in his gaze.
“Yeah, but hypothetically, what if he was?”
Ladybug shrugged. “I don’t know. Try to reason with him I guess?”
Chat wrung out a pillow impatient. “Okay but what if that doesn’t work?”
“I’d probably try to take his miraculous,” she tilted her head. “What’s prompting all these questions?”
Chat shrugged. “Just curiosity, I guess.” He let out a long breath. “Okay, but what if he couldn’t be reasoned with and you can’t take his miraculous because he never takes it off because he can’t trust you after learning your secret identity and the only way to convince him of your loyalty was to do something you really didn’t want to do to save someone you thought was gone.”
“That’s a very specific question,” Ladybug mumbled, struggling to listen through the unrelenting fog of exhaustion forcing her to sleep.
“Yeah,” Chat sighed. “I suppose it is.”
He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead as she curled up in his arms. “Goodnight, bug.”
“Goodnight, Chat,” she grumbled, slipping off into a contented sleep.
The first whispers of dawn were caressing the early morning sku as Chat Noir gently peeled his lady’s arm off his shoulders and placed it beside her.
“I’m sorry, bug,” he murmured, pressing a gentle kiss to her hair. “But I have to do this.”
He slowly slid away, his shoulders slumped when Ziggy tapped on his shoulder.
Chat Noir clamped his hands over his mouth before his yelp could reach the ears of the city below.
“Where are you slinking off to?” Longg hissed.
Chat Noir sighed, not at all in the mood for any kwami games.
“I have to do this,” he said finally. “To protect her- and all of Paris.”
“Why not tell her what you’re planning,” Ziggy pressed, tiny hooves brushing his shoulder.
Chat Noir sighed, fingers brushing against the sheet of paper tucked into his pocket. “I can’t drag her into this. Paris needs its Ladybug.”
“And a Ladybug needs her Chat Noir,” Ziggy insisted.
Plagg’s holder didn’t respond to that.
Longg drifted down until he was at eye level “We aren’t going to try to stop you.”
“We aren’t?” Ziggy exclaimed.
The dragon shrugged. “I doubt we could without destroying the whole city. He’ll just run and make this even harder for her.”
Ziggy drifted a little lower, considering the point.
“Are you absolutely sure you’re making the right decision?” Ziggy said finally.
Chat Noir chuckled. “The right one? Hardly. But the one that’s best for her and Paris? I certainly hope so.”
Longg rested a tiny claw of his arms. “Then I wish you the best of luck.”
Plagg’s holder smiled wryly. “I doubt my miraculous was designed for that. Still… thanks.”
He turned to leap off the rooftop- freezing at the last moment.
He pulled the piece of folded up notebook paper from his pocket and held it out to them. “Could you give this to her when she wakes up?”
The two kwamis squinted at the page.
“Are you sure this is what you want to leave her with?” Longg asked. “This looks like a bunch of random letters to me.”
“She’ll figure it out,” Chat Noir said. “She always does. Just tell her to Trust Me.”
Hours later, after the sun had scorched a trail to the center of the sky, Ladybug awoke surrounded by a swarm of concerned kwamis.
The only hint to the location of her partner was a single slip of paper and the birthday den he had left behind.
Vs Kads,
Bs ygu yhvu smz wuad yghx, h qhkk akwuads bu fmlu. Smz’wu nwmbabks nwuyys cmlezxud ald znxuy ald allmsud- ald smz izxy dhd ygay czyu yghlf qguwu smzw lmxu fuyx akk qwhljkud bucazxu smz’wu nwuyuldhlf ym bu allmsud qghku ywshlf lmy ym kazfg. Imjux axhdu, h xuwhmzxks dml’y gapu a yml me yhvu ym urnkahl whfgy lmq bzy h cal yukk smz yghx: yguwu awu nhucux ay nkas smz dml’y zlduwxyald. Gaqjvmyg gax nkalx qu cmzkdl’y upul bufhl ym hvafhlu ald ygu mlks qas h cal juun smz xaeu hx ym kuapu. Gu’x fmhlf ym vaju vu xas yghlfx h dml’y vual ald dm yghlfx h dml’y qaly ym dm. Bzy ay kuaxy smz’kk bu xaeu. H cal nwmyucy smz ewmv vsxuke. H yghlj. Wufawdkuxx me qgay gannulx, akqasx wuvuvbuw hyx smz ald vu afahjxy ygu qmwkd ald h qhkk akqasx kmpu smz.
Smz vuq-pmkmzx nawyluw,
Cgay Lmhw