SO, I LOVE fanfiction, it is my main source of entertainment and joy in life, especially in these troubled times.
And I read a variety of fandoms and pairings
I also WRITE fanfiction; usually inspired by an episode/part of the book/movie not going the way I would like it to (usually in respect of my OTP of choice)
Now, I don’t write for every fandom I read, but I have written something in most of the fandoms I have become invested in.
HOWEVER, whenever I start to write something that is getting lengthier, something I am really starting to feel proud of, its like I run out of steam. I, along with my readers, am DESPERATE to know what happens next (or sometimes, I have the end all mapped out but am stuck between here and there). BUT I AM TOTALLY BLOCKED AND HAVE NO WAY TO GET THERE!
Way back when, LJ used to be the place I would go to beg for assistance from the relevant community, but its so desolate and forgotten now. And although I LIVE on AO3, there is no facility on there (that I am aware of) to ask for assistance beyond maybe leaving a Note on the story itself (which I have done on some)
Currently, I have about a dozen fics of varying lengths in a variety of fandoms; some of which I don’t even read anymore, but I CAN’T bring myself t orphan or abandon the fics because I am proud of them and I really want to see them finished; I just need a little help and/or inspiration.
I am begging for assistance/guidance/ANYTHING. If anyone is interested in helping or has any ideas where I could/should go for help, please PLEASE let me know.
First of all: Deep breath. Most writers who work at longer lengths (here suggesting 40K+ as a general starter/target length) have been where you are right now. It’s not an inescapable dead end. At worst it’s like being a Roomba banging repeatedly head-first into a corner.
What needs to happen for you here is for you to get yourself un-cornered at least once, so that you’ll know by experience that it’s possible. After that you’ll be able to carry that certainty along with you to free up other stuck works.
So let’s take this step by step.
(1) First of all: assess the spread of works that you’re most desperate to get going on. Identify the one that you’re most desperate about; the one for the sake of which you’d gladly murder someone to get it going again and completed.
(2) Put that one aside. There’s too much energy bound up in it, and if the tactics to follow don’t work for you, you might lose heart.
(3) Pick the one that came up second to that work as the one you’re most desperate to complete. This is the one you’re going to operate on. I use the term both advisedly and with intent to indicate what’s going to happen.
(4) Identify, in advance, a period during which you’ll have a quiet… afternoon? (or similar period, judging by what you know to be a comfortable reading speed) to read through what you’ve got of that work in prose form (not your notes, but the actual written work). The pieces do not have to be connected.
(5) On the day you’ve chosen, take the work out and read it top to bottom. No rewriting. You can take notes if anything useful occurs to you, but otherwise, leave it alone.
(6) Now put it away for a week. NO PEEKING. Go do something else, be something else, read something else. Anything else. Lots of anything else but not, under any circumstances, that.
(7) After a week, take it out again. Your dealings with the work in this pass are going to be strictly diagnostic. You have three questions to ask yourself about this work, and answer. If you can’t find answers to them all within a day or two, put the work aside and come back a week later and have at it again. The questions are these:
(a) What is this story about? (Boil it down to the most prominent trope. “Love will find a way.” “Sometimes you have to suffer.” “Your first choice could be wrong: don’t be afraid to change your mind.” Etc.)
(b) Regarding the overall arc of what story you’ve got: Who does it hurt? (Meaning: who is the person, and what is the situation, to or from whom/which most of the pain [and therefore the drama] in this story flows?)
(8) What you’re allowed to do now is some light editorial. Use the answers that come up to questions (a) and (b) as a guide toward cutting out at least some, if not all, of those unnecessary elements. You may be shocked at how much stuff you lose at this stage. That’s perfectly okay. After a session or two of editing in this mode, no more than three, put it aside again for a week, and once more go do/be other things.
(9) Now comes the stage where so often the magic happens if you know what question(s) to ask next. …My experience with stoppages of this kind in the past has shown me that routinely there is a motivational element or plot problem that you haven’t sufficiently thought through. Most often of all, like 85% of the time or better, this takes the form of character business that hasn’t been sufficiently resolved. Once you get it resolved, the stoppage routinely comes undone.
So you need to find a couple of chairs. One of them is for you. One of them is for one of your characters. Because routinely there will be an important character who needs to have a conversation with you – one who has something important to share with you about why this isn’t working. It might be something they want to do and can’t, or want to say to another character and haven’t, or a situation that they can’t find their way out of and need help (from you). No telling what.
You get to “sit” that character down in that chair and say to them, “What do you have to tell me that you haven’t told me before?”
And then you wait.
You may not get anything back right away. This is normal, because this technique routinely freaks everybody out (including experienced psychiatric professionals, like yours truly). Keep your butt in the hot seat and keep theirs there too. Wait for an answer.
Routinely you’ll get something back within an hour or so. It may take longer. The exigencies of life do often impinge, and you may have to get up and go do something else. But every day, you need to sit in the chair and sit them down and ask them again, “What have you got to tell me?”
The answer will routinely surprise you. It may turn up in the middle of the night. It may come to you in a dream. It may come up in conversation with someone real. But it will arrive.
When it does: (a) write it down, FFS. And then (b), consider what to do with it. But again, routinely, a way forward will suddenly appear. May indeed seem obvious. Resist the urge to bang your head against the wall.
Then start writing again, using what you’ve learned.
So: give that a shot and see how it works for you. If you need more assistance, you know where to find me.
Misterbug’s plan was simple: head over to the empty apartment and snooze his head off.
Now if Lady Noire would just stop leaving her sleeping spot and getting into his…
Rating: T, Words: 2870, Chapters: 1/1
Read on AO3
my first only one bed fic and contribution to only one bed: a miraculous challenge
thank you so much @chocoluckchipz and @kasienda for beta-reading! your suggestions and comments have been very insightful and valuable to me 💕💕
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Last few jumps.
Just a few last jumps and Lady Noire and he can finally crash into soft, warm beds and sleep the remaining night away.
The frequency of battles happening dead of the night has skyrocketed as of late, and they both concluded that Hawkmoth is trying to wear the whole Parisian population down, driving them to madness at the superheroes’ inability in getting rid of the pest who’s made a hobby out of disturbing everyone’s lives.
Disrupting Parisians’ days alone isn’t enough anymore, he had to meddle with their nights too.
And to be honest, when Misterbug and Lady Noire are out and about as civilians, they have witnessed Parisians getting dissatisfied with the superheroes.
Made worse by the fact that there are people on the internet scattering lies and controversies over the matter.
Luckily for them, there have been numerous very kind-hearted civilians who had offered up their spare rooms and apartments for the heroes to sleep in whenever their battles got too late into the night. Friends, family members, and acquaintances of the heroes themselves—people that would never sell them out. Still, Misterbug and Lady Noire haven’t actually used those apartments to sleep in.
They never had a reason to.
Not until now.
The battle starts on the outskirts of Paris. Once it is done and dusted, the next one begins. The area suffers damages during the few minutes the superheroes take to feed their Kwamis, and while this second battle is insanely difficult to deal with, they manage to stop the Akuma.
They always do.
But even before Misterbug releases the purified butterfly from his yo-yo, another Akuma appears and Lady Noire’s growling in frustration.
“Hawkmoth’s really having the time of his life, huh? To have this many Akuma appearing in the same place at the same time!”
Misterbug can’t disagree with her. He’s only glad that at least they don’t need to rely on food to recharge their Kwamis anymore, although the immediate energy boost that comes with feeding them would be amazing at this moment.
But he’s running out of macarons, and if there are more Akumas, it’ll severely impair his ability to fight.
“I’ll go first!” is the only thing he hears Lady Noire huffing before she’s gone from his sight.
When he arrives at the scene, Lady Noire is showing no mercy against the Akuma. Hopefully, she has some food left to feed Plagg to gain back the energy she’s lost.
After countless consecutive battles into the next day, both of them are excessively tired. Misterbug is trying to stand as tall as he can on the rooftop for a lookout for Akumas, and Lady Noire is sitting beside him, leaning her whole body against his leg.
He concludes that that was indeed their last battle and thanks his lucky ladybugs because they only had to fight one Akuma without a recharge.
He thanks them again when Lady Noire sleepily tells him that there’s an empty place nearby they can sleep in before heading back home.
Misterbug’s too tired to care about the implications, he just wants to crash. So he reaches down for Lady Noire. With her cheek in his palm, he gently lifts her head off of his leg as he squats. He holds onto her shoulder and softly taps her cheek to wake her up and get her to climb onto his back.
He once again thanks his lucky ladybugs.
On his back, Lady Noire groggily directs him to their destination and he lands clumsily on the balcony.
He opens the heavy balcony door to the room and immediately looks for a bed, only to freeze in his place from the realisation that there’s a problem with the whole setup.
The fluffy and comfy bed that everyone climbs in at the end of the day—there’s only one.
Misterbug sits heavily on the bed, unwrapping Lady Noire from him to get her to lie down before searching the apartment. The cold hits him on all sides and every ache in his body protests. He misses her warmth so badly that he just wants to abandon the chore that his brain thinks he should do. He turns around, ready to snuggle beside Lady Noire, but when he sees her unmoving figure and peaceful face, he forces himself back to the task at hand.
The faster he completes the task, the faster he can sleep. Misterbug bounces to his feet, which proves to be a bad idea as he feels the whole floor wobbling. He grabs onto the wall nearby to steady his balance.
He runs his hands down his face and gets to work.
It isn’t a very huge apartment, so he knows with one look that there are no other beds. He does find a sofa in the living room, though, and he decides that he can and will be sleeping on that. He just needs to check on Lady Noire one last time to make sure she’s nicely tucked into bed before he crashes once and for all.
He returns to the bedroom to see that she has shifted from the position he had left her in. She’s now upside down with half her body off the bed, stretching in a way that has Misterbug blushing and rooted to the ground. How is it possible for him to feel hot, but cold at the same time?
“Oh, the bed is so comfy, Buguinet,” she purrs and continues stretching, “Do you want to lay down and sleep with me for a bit?”
Misterbug clenches his fists. He wants to. He desperately wants to. He just wants to lie down somewhere to stop the pounding in his head. And what better way to spend the night other than in his Lady’s arms?
His headache will go away too.
Now, that’s an added bonus!
Lady Noire looks so welcoming he just wants to lay down and cuddle against her warm kitty body, bask in her scent, and sleep the night away.
Pain burns the sides of his face before he can fully comprehend that he had slapped both of his hands on his cheeks.
The exhaustion is messing with his mind.
And probably hers too.
Misterbug steps towards her and kneels on the bed. Lady Noire is smiling ever so sweetly at him that he almost gives in. His thread of reasoning almost burns away with how warm he’s feeling, but he quickly grabs the sides of the blanket and wraps her into a burrito, lifting and flipping her over so that her head is on the pillow. Lady Noire is too stunned to move but now that her head is right side up, she thrashes as much as the burrito allows her to.
“Wh–What the hell are you doing?!” she hisses.
He leans in to kiss her forehead before pointing to where he’ll be sleeping, “You can take the bed, I’ll sleep on the sofa. Good night!”
Misterbug leaves the room without bothering to answer her question. She’s too fatigued to understand him anyway.
He plops onto the sofa as soon as he gets there. Even though he’s sleeping next door with windows closed, slight chills crawl up his spine. He’s so tired. Misterbug tries his best to ignore it—it’s just a minor itch after all—and shifts around until he gets into a position comfortable enough to fall asleep with ease.
Just as he’s about to fall into Slumber’s embrace, his ears pick up on soft whines.
“Misterbug, release me!”
He blinks multiple times to consciousness, and he hears her soft pleas again.
“Buguinet, please! I can’t sleep like this.”
Lady Noire’s pull is amazing. Misterbug is drawn to her; she sounds just like a little wet kitty begging for his attention, but he can’t risk it. He knows what she’s capable of, and now that her filter is completely gone, Misterbug isn’t sure he can handle it.
Who is he kidding? He could never resist her even if every fibre of his being is screaming at him to do so. If she mewls one more time, he’ll go to her.
But the next mewl never comes. The apartment is deadly silent now.
Misterbug rolls over, about to leave the sofa when he feels warmth descending upon him.
Lady Noire has gracefully made herself at home on top of him and her cheek is pushed against his own. She is attached to him from head to toe.
He is too tired to do anything about their current position, and besides, the weight pressing down on him and her warmth against his skin are really welcome. She’s like the weighted blanket he has at home and he couldn’t be happier.
Misterbug swiftly drifts to the edge of snoozing when she starts purring, and he can’t help but chuckle.
“Lady Noire.”
“Oh, sorry.” She shakily stands up—her left top cap hitting against the floor so heavily a loud thud resounds around him—and lifts his arms awkwardly to wrap them around herself, so she can snuggle into his chest. “Ah, you’re so warm.”
He laughs. What did I expect? Misterbug looks down to see her constantly shifting.
“Chaton. I’m trying to sleep.”
Her shifting continues. “Well, so am I.”
Misterbug exhales, amused at her tactics.
Oh, his poor needy kitty.
He knows that she wants him to hold her, but he lets go and strokes her head instead.
Lady Noire looks up from his chest with a pout. “Why don’t you want to sleep with me?”
His hand stops. “It’s a small bed. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable. Besides, you don’t know what you’re asking for.”
She pushes her face into his chest again and shifts some more.
“My Lady…”
“I’m not uncomfortable, and I want to sleep with you beside me.” She slowly peeks at him again, “Unless… you’re… you’re not comfortable sleeping with me?”
Misterbug can’t believe that she would even come to that conclusion. He wants to squeeze her pouty cheeks, chiding her for arriving at that deduction, but mainly because she looks so cute.
And very wrong.
Lady Noire can’t be further from the truth.
He tightens his arm around her waist. “Why wouldn’t I be? I like having you around.” He scratches her under the chin, “You’re my favourite kitty.”
Lady Noire purrs, as though very content with him, reminding him of his feelings for her. The soothing sound goes on for a while. Until she, Misterbug deduces, remembers that she’s supposed to be angry with him for not wanting to sleep with her. Because she suddenly bites him.
She chomps his index finger. Misterbug’s too tired to pull his hand away in time, so he allows her to continue nibbling on it until she’s satisfied, letting go and snuggling into his chest even more.
She’s such a kitten.
He should carry her back to the bed because there is no way she is letting him go now and there’s more space there for them to have a good night’s rest.
Her legs wrap around him when he sits up, and she clings onto him like her life depends on it when he stands.
Lady Noire locks her thighs behind his waist and curls her tail around his left leg as he stumbles towards the bed.
“I’m not going anywhere, my sweet kitty.”
“No.” She secures her arms around his neck even tighter, pushing her face into his neck. “You’re gonna put me on the bed again and wrap me into a burrito and then go back to the sofa and leave me—”
“Purrito.”
“What?”
“Wrap you into a purrito.”
She loosens her hold and raises an eyebrow at him. “Wrap me into a purrito and then go back to the sofa and leave me all alone on the bed again.” Her face is back at his neck again. “But this time you’re gonna make sure you coil your yo-yo around—”
“I’m not going to do that.” He chuckles and climbs onto the bed. “Even though I should.”
Lady Noire whines as her back lands on the bed, but she stops when she sees the blanket draped over them.
“You’re safe, my Lady.” Misterbug gently pries her arms away from his neck so that he can give her a forehead kiss. “Now, sleep, mon Chaton. We really need it.”
He turns away, moving as close to the edge of the bed and as far away from her as possible.
He said he did not care about the implications of sleeping in the same apartment together, but in the same bed? Now, that’s scandalous. No one must know—not that it matters. Literally no one else is there nor has seen them in the dead of the night.
The public can’t know.
The bed covers rustle before he feels two hands wrapping around his waist.
He must’ve used too much of his lucky ladybugs’ magical powers earlier because nothing seems to go according to his plan ever since he stepped into this apartment!
“Er, Lady Noire?” he wheezes. This is too much contact. Her whole body is pressed against his back and he’s enjoying it too much for it to be considered appropriate. “What are you doing?”
“Hug the bug.”
“What?” He has enough air to expel from his lungs? How is he still breathing? His insides should’ve melted by now.
“Hug the bug,” she explains, as though repeating the same sentence would get him to understand her. “I saw it online: your fans use ‘hashtag-hug-the-bug’ to show their gratitude to you. And I’m your fan too.”
He swears he’s having a heart attack right now. “B–But isn’t that inappropriate?” he squeaks.
“Hmm, you’re right.”
Misterbug’s sure she’ll release him, and he’ll be able to breathe again and go back to sleep. Instead, he releases the most unrestrained squeal when Lady Noire squeezes him tighter.
“I’m not just a fan. I’m your friend too! And friends sleep together!”
Hhhhhhhhggggggggggggnnnnnnnnnnhhhhhhhhhhhh!
He should’ve listened to every fibre in his being from before. Lady Noire is actively trying to kill him.
“N–No?”
“Yes.”
“What? No!”
“Yes! I sleep with my friends all the time!”
Misterbug has never flipped around so fast in his life.
Even in the face of death.
“What!”
She can’t be serious.
Lady Noire releases her hands and snuggles into his chest once again. “I sleep with my friends all the time.”
He grabs her upper arms and shakes “No, no, no! My Lady, look at me! What do you mean? With who?!”
A frown etches itself onto her mouth as Misterbug once again pushes her away from his chest. “Argh, let me sleep!”
He hugs her against his chest and asks again, “Lady Noire, what do you mean you sleep with your friends?”
She looks up at him and smiles. “You know? Sleep and cuddle in the same bed together, like… like a— a sleepover! Yeah, that’s the word! I have sleepovers with my friends all the time!”
Oh.
A sleepover. That’s what she meant.
Misterbug releases a sigh of relief. Yeah, that’s normal, something he knew people his age do all the time.
But wait.
“You mean with girl friends and guy friends?”
His eyes widened as soon as she replied without hesitation.
“Yep!” She buries her head into his chest as though she’s too shy to admit it.
No way. No freaking way!
He understands she has her own life outside of superheroing, but to have another guy snuggling with her? Before he even has the chance to?
Unfair!
She peers at him again. “Oh wait, no I didn’t. Only with girls.”
YES! He’s the first!!
No wai—
“But you’re my favourite, Buguinet.”
Misterbug quickly flashes her his teeth. “I’m your only Buguinet.”
She pushes her face into his neck and giggles. “My favourite Buguinet in the whole wide world!”
He smiles fondly as she circles her arms around his neck, bringing herself impossibly close to him. In response, he wraps his arms around her too and feels the vibrations of her soft purrs with his touch.
Misterbug plans, really plans, to leave the bed as soon as Lady Noire falls asleep. But after learning that he can be the first guy she sleeps in the same bed with? He isn’t strong enough to ruin his own opportunity like that.
She has also been pretty adamant about sleeping with him, even though he has tried his literal best to prove that she’s not thinking straight—to no avail.
So, he’ll just go with it for now and settle for cuddling and snuggling with her for the rest of the night. He has waited long enough for this to happen. His future self can deal with what could possibly happen later.
Because for now, Misterbug will just embrace his Lady and have this very platonic sleep with her. With her hands around his neck, his around her waist, and her on top of him, weighing him down like his weighted blanket on this cold quiet night. Except it isn’t a quiet one anymore with her purring so contently, but that’s like a lullaby pulling him towards sleep.
Ladybug and Chat Noir are tucked into blankets on a rooftop, enjoying each other’s company like any other midnight rendezvous they have had.
Totally what partners frequently do together!
Rating: T, Words: 1276, Chapters: 1/1
Read on AO3
@ladynoirjuly , 4 months later?
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“How’s the Chouquettes, mon Chaton?”
“Excellent!” he chews on another. “How’re the roses, my Lady?”
She has been sniffing the flowers ever since Chat Noir gave them to her once he lands on the rooftop. “Sweet, I’m going to hang them by their feet!”
The one Chouquette that’s being catapulted into his mouth almost missed its destination.
“What?”
She giggles. “What?”
“Why would you hang them!!” He whines and crawls over from his spot of blankets and pillows to hers, coming right into her face.
What a kitten. Ladybug wonders if he’s like this when he’s not Chat Noir.
She really wants to know.
“So that they last forever, silly,” she boops his nose as he pouts.
“But you’re supposed to admire their beauty!”
“That I’m doing Chaton. They haven’t exactly left my face the moment you gave them to me,” Ladybug wiggles the roses a bit in her hands, “but I prefer to still have them a few years down the road.”
He plops right beside her, grumbling, “But Buguinette, they won’t look fresh anymore.”
She scratches his chin, “Trust me Chaton, they might change a little, yes, but they’ll still be as beautiful as before.”
Chat Noir purrs, closing his eyes at the sensation. “Show them to me once you’re done hanging them by their feet.”
She runs her fingers through his hair, “Of course!”
Chat Noir moves in and rests his head on her shoulders. He takes a piece of Chouquette from the packet and brings it to her mouth aimlessly, and Ladybug moves to bite it from his hand.
“You're planning to share that right?”
He looks down into the packet.
“Er…”
“Chat Noir!”
He takes shelter from her as Ladybug starts raining down soft blows on him with her pillow. “Shh! My Lady, it’s past midnight, keep it down!”
“Nobody sleeps past midnight in Paris, now come here!”
They continue their pillow fight, except it isn’t exactly one when Ladybug is chasing Chat Noir and hitting him with her pillow while he runs away and protects himself from her harmless swings. Both having fun and not really caring how loud they get as they laugh at the top of their lungs, and that’s when Ladybug finally catches him.
They end up on Chat Noir’s section of the makeshift blanket bed, Ladybug sitting on him while he protects his face with his arms from her attacks.
She throws her pillow beside his head and takes her yo-yo, reaching in to pull out another packet of Chouquettes.
Chat Noir stares at her hands, wide-eyed. “We went through all of THAT, only for you to already have another packet?!”
Ladybug smirks as she rolls off of him, plopping into the spot next to him, “You’re telling me you'd rather not play?”
He puffs his cheeks and immediately tries to steal the packet from her again.
“Chat Noir! NO!” Ladybug hurries to shove as many Chouquettes into her mouth as possible.
He seizes the packet, “Oh no you don’t!”
They continue wrestling until the remaining Chouquettes fall onto the blankets.
“Now wef nouere to sheep!” she crosses her arms and munches aggressively to get all the food down.
“Ue do,” Chat Noir grabs Ladybug to get her to stand somewhere else, and he gathers the ends of the blankets and starts shaking the crumbs off, all the while chewing. He then flips it over so that they have a clean area to sleep on. Once the blanket looks like how they first were, he swallows, “et voilà !”
“Ew.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, my Lady. What do you mean ew? May I remind you that we nap together after Akuma battles? After we actually sweat?”
Ladybug sticks her tongue out at him and returns to the blankets, easing herself into them. “I’m gonna sleep, nights.”
“Hey!!” Chat Noir dives into the blankets, coming face to face with her, “who sleeps this early in Paris?” he grins.
She groans and tosses the blanket away, taking her flask and two cups from their picnic basket situated beside their sleeping spot. “Okay, fine, here,” Ladybug pours the contents of the flask into each cup, “have your hot chocolate so you’d feel tired.”
“What am I, seven?”
Ladybug raises a brow at him.
Chat Noir grumbles and leans against her, drinking his hot chocolate. “Miam, this feels so homey!”
She lightly hits her cups against his, “cheers!” and leans into him as well, taking sips from her cup. “Mhmm! This is delicious!”
“Share the recipe with me?”
“Sure,” Ladybug replies as her hand absentmindedly travels into her hair to pull the twin ribbons off.
Chat Noir starts rubbing his head against her shoulders and she looks at him, brows raised.
“Tie your hair ribbons onto mine?”
Ladybug bursts out a laugh, “You’re very needy aren’t you, mon Chatounet.”
“What can I say?” he flips his hair and grins, “Kittens are very needy creatures.”
She sets her cup down and turns around to see Chat Noir already lying before her on his belly and his head on his pillow.
Ladybug chuckles at the sight and moves to his side, allowing herself to be closer to him to work on his wild mop of hair. She takes just enough to tie circles around his hair, giving him a pigtail that is similar to hers, yet all the more shorter. The tiny amount of hair sticking out from the ribbon resembles a bunny’s tail, and it’s too cute of a sight to ignore. Ladybug gently tugs at them, much like how an unsuspecting victim would run their hand over a cat’s tail.
Chat Noir shifts slightly, but she pays him no attention as she wonders how it’d feel like to run her bare hands into his hair. Would it be as soft as a kitty’s fur? She wouldn’t stop running her fingers through them if that were the case. They are the softest things she has ever had the pleasure of laying her hands upon, and now she’s just hoping his hair is as soft as those are.
They better be!
But with how easily she’s combing his hair, Ladybug knows that that would be the case.
Tying hair ribbons shouldn’t have taken this long, but Ladybug’s so engrossed with running her fingers through his hair that she still has yet to tie the other half of his hair. The soft purrs that reverberate around the open space and the lightweight now present on her thighs bring her out of her trance.
Chat Noir has the left side of his face pressing against her thighs; the side of his hair not yet done up is left exposed for her to do her magic. Ladybug should’ve been upset at him for messing up her work, but she finds herself not bothered by that fact. Not when she is free to stare at him for as long as she likes.
The purrs that she loves to listen to have stopped since she came out of her daze, and Ladybug continues to pet his hair, once again wishing that she could remove only the hand area of her magical suit to feel his locks against her palms.
His purrs fill up the air around them again, and Ladybug finally works on tying the rest of his hair into the pigtails she’s frequently associated with.
Now that she’s done, Ladybug has all the reasons to push him off of her lap. But even with the possibility of suffering from leg cramps after, she finds herself not minding that one bit.
Not when she gets to be this close to him and gaze at his beautiful blissful face uninterrupted.
They agreed to remain as friends, but the feelings continue to linger…
Rating: T, Words: 880, Chapters: 1/1
READ on AO3
this is literally just my writing when my brain’s empty and my heart filled with emotion. i really need to get it out, if it doesn’t make sense, im sorry. also i can’t believe my confidence in writing is at an all time low but i still decided to post this. the lovesquare sends me crazy i guess exaltation spoilers ahead
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They both sit on a rooftop, gazing towards the city but also at nothing at all.
Ladybug shifts her eyes towards Chat Noir, her head still facing forward, to see him as still as ever. She slowly turns towards him and raises her hand, moving it to the back of his neck, and she knows that he sees what she’s doing, because he doesn’t jump when her fingers slowly come into contact with his nape.
“What’s gotten you so stiff, Chaton?” scratching his neck lightly, hoping to ease his shoulders.
She feels him leaning slightly into her palm, and if she listens very closely, paying all of her attention to him and only him, she would’ve heard his soft purring at her touch.
Chat Noir directs his attention to her, “Oh I was stiff? Haha, I didn’t notice…”
He visibly arches his back, bringing his hands above his head to stretch his whole body.
And her hand falls from where it was so comfortable being.
“Thank you, my Lady, for always looking out for me.”
She smiles at him, then continues staring into the blank space from before, crossing her arms over her knees and tucking her head into them.
Ladybug is not expecting the breeze that’s flowing through her hair to be as calming as this, and she can’t help but close her eyes at the ease it brings her.
That is until she feels something pushing her bangs out of the way to reveal her eyes.
She blinks, then stares at black gloves before moving her eyes to see his greens.
“What’s gotten you so sad, my Lady?”
Sad?
Well, lots of things, and mainly one. But she doesn’t want him to feel responsible for it, she’ll never do that to him.
Ladybug smiles again, “Sad? Oh no, you must have mistaken it for tiredness, I did sleep later than usual last night, so don’t have to worry your pretty—”
Both of their eyes widened.
“I-I mean… don’t have to worry your head over me. Just need a couple more hours of rest and I’ll be fine!”
“Speaking of which,” Ladybug slowly stands up, “I should go before I look any more tired huh?”
She’s looking up now, Chat Noir has risen to his feet together with her.
Something is lingering behind his eyes too.
Ladybug waves, “see you soon, Chat Noir,” and reaches for her yo-yo, only to feel his hands on hers soon after.
“Ladybug, we’re still friends right?”
Ah.
She drops her hand and grabs his. “Yes, of course! Why wouldn’t we be?”
“You’re not… letting me help you…”
Ladybug bites her lower lips, “Of course I am! You enabled me to know how I truly am feeling! That’s plenty of help—”
“Buguinette.”
If she has any other lingering thoughts to share, they all disappeared when he uttered that nickname.
She lowers her head and releases her hold on his hands, gently running both of her hands up his palm, waiting to see if he’ll move away from her, waiting to see when he’d grab her forearms to ask what the hell she’s doing.
Chat Noir does none of that, instead, he lets her trace her palms to his elbows, and she moves forward, bit by bit, slowly lifting her hands away from his arms, and steadily circles his waist.
Ladybug carefully steps into his embrace, worried he’ll pull back anytime.
Again he remains rooted to the rooftop.
When she’s chest to chest with him, it brings back memories of how tightly he had hugged her a while back.
She looks away from him, blinking, and fails to notice his sudden hitch of breath.
“It’s… complicated…”
Ladybug feels his arms shifting, circling them around her shoulders.
She blinks even more.
Chat Noir tucks his face into the space beside her neck, “I’m always here.”
Ladybug shakes and Chat Noir pulls back, not too far, but just enough to look at her.
“I understand Ladybug, it may be difficult now, but know that I am always here for you.”
She gazes at him, and he gazes back. And slowly, she sees that he’s leaning into her as if he’s so shy to do so.
Ladybug continues looking, and Chat Noir doesn’t stop, until he places a cheek kiss on her.
Her breath gets stuck in her throat before she focuses on him again.
“I—”
She places a hand on his cheek and caresses him while smiling. “Thank you, mon Chaton.”
The smile she shows must be a genuine one, because Chat Noir shares a grin of his own, “Anytime, my Lady.”
Ladybug pulls back, her hand still lingering on his as her other hand reaches for the yo-yo. “I’ll be going, see you soon.”
“Yeah, see you.”
But their hands are still connected.
She shifts her fingers slightly, and so does he, stroking each other’s hands as gently as possible, afraid that too much force would yank them apart.
It’s as if they wanted to hold onto each other a while longer, and she believes that to be the case because she definitely wants to.
But she slowly retracts, and he stops his caress.
She takes a step back, smiles at him, and throws her yo-yo, swinging back to her house, never looking back at him.
A little bug on a roof, languishes without her kitty.
Except, there is a kitten by her side, always.
Rating: T, Words: 4713, Chapters: 1/1
Read on AO3
Noodles @ladyofthenoodle i'm so sorry for the late bday gift 😭😭 i hope you like it though!
thank you so much Lisa for beta reading this! 😊💕
and special shout out to the friend who inspired all of this and allowed me to write about it fsklf
━━━━━━
“What…” Ladybug breathes as she sees the Akuma fluttering away from the akumatised victim.
She throws her yo-yo at the Akuma, scanning the area to see what damage has been done to the city.
Besides the victim being in a place that they shouldn’t be, everything is just the way it is.
Huh?
Ladybug knows that she’s late—unforeseen circumstances have led her to break her impressive track record of showing up to battle on time—but surely some action should have taken place during her absence?
And where is Chat Noir?
Is that why no destruction has taken place?
She heads towards the victim, hearing their endless iterance of apologies for succumbing to the powers of Monarch. Ladybug reassures them that it wasn’t an issue and asks if they had seen Chat Noir, only to be slightly dejected with their answer. She knows it’s normal for them to not remember anything after an akumatisation, but still, having some information would be nice.
Cheers for her saving the day once again erupt as she leaves the scene. Ladybug prefers to claim credit only where it’s due, and this is certainly not one of those situations.
She does have a naggy feeling at the back of her head though, that something is a little weird with the state of affairs. And so, she hangs around and searches the area for a little while more, trying to find something, anything that could put her at ease or at least explain that feeling.
Again, she finds nothing out of the ordinary.
With no choice but to move on, Ladybug returns home, taking detours before landing in her own house and releasing her transformation. Marinette goes about her day as if the Akuma battle had never happened in the first place, before allowing her head to hit her pillow.
━━━━━━
Being swamped with work has made Marinette forget all about the bizarre event that happened just two days prior.
With a cup of tea in her hand, she’s about to leave for work when she sees a cat by her window. He’s just observing her as though he has never seen a human before. If that’s true, though, his reaction to her is somewhat peculiar, as a cat that was unfamiliar with humans would normally bolt away if it ever encountered one. But this cat continues staring at her, and Marinette has never seen such a pretty cat in her life. His eyes are so big that Marinette can’t resist taking a picture.
She sends it to Alya, and she receives an enthusiastic reply instantaneously. The cat remains fixated on Marinette as she texts Alya, and after she has finished her conversation with her, she walks over to the window where the cat is and takes a closer look at it.
No collar… it’s a stray… better keep away from it.
But she notices his wide, curious, green eyes, and his jet black fur reminds her of her Chaton.
Where is he anyway? He normally texts her random stuff with the communicative devices that come with their suits, something she secretly loves—especially when it’s done out of the blue—but he hasn’t done that since the last Akuma. She misses him but she figures she’ll see him during their patrol tonight.
Marinette leaves her apartment and heads to work, far more focused on spending time with Chat Noir in the dead of the night than she is on anything she does at work.
Ladybug sits at the edge of a rooftop, waiting for Chat Noir to show up at their meeting spot, but he is again, nowhere to be seen. She starts swinging her legs as more time passes, until she sees a black cat in her peripheral vision.
She watches the cat as it approaches her, and her eyes widen as she recognises him to be the one by her window earlier that day. Ladybug feels her heart pounding against her chest until she remembers that animals can’t speak and thus, can’t expose truths.
She slumps from her previously stiff posture.
With her knees now under her chin, she takes her bugphone and calls Chat Noir, but to no avail. Ladybug would give it another try if it isn’t for the pressure she feels against her calf. Her eyes leave her yo-yo to see the black cat encircling her and rubbing himself all over her.
Ladybug thinks that there is no harm in caressing him, so she reaches down to his head. She scratches the back of his ear, and he starts purring, leaning into her hand.
Chat Noir also likes ear scratches.
“Since Chat Noir isn’t here, he’ll be missing out on ear scratches, and I’ll be giving them to you instead, er, Chaton Noir.”
He continues purring. The black cat pushes against her hand and Ladybug relaxes her legs over the edge of the building once again. He must’ve seen that as an invitation because he climbs onto her lap straight away, his head now pushing into her stomach.
“You’re really attached huh?” Ladybug has one hand under his chin while the other thumbs his ear. “This will be our little secret, okay?”
The constant purring soothes her, but her mind drifts to Chat Noir’s purrs when she gives him scratches, something she likes to do right after he does something impressive, or whenever she feels like it—which is most of the time.
Ladybug misses her Chaton. It’s been a while since she last saw him, and she really hopes to see him soon.
No, she yearns for it.
A meow brings her out of her thoughts and the cat is now grabbing her arm with his little bean paws, rubbing his head against her, and Ladybug can’t help but think how cute he is.
“You’re so affectionate, I wonder if my Chaton would be jealous if he sees you rubbing against me so intensely,” she chuckles.
Chaton Noir meows in response and Ladybug stares elsewhere, willing that Chat Noir would appear soon with her magical ladybugs.
The cat jumps off her lap and onto her chest, startling her in the process. He clings onto her shoulders as he rubs his head against her neck and Ladybug’s hands land behind her to steady herself.
“Are you trying to mark me?”
Chaton Noir continues doing what he has been doing all this while and her fingers wrap around the cat, pushing him away from her and putting some distance between them.
“Alright, that’s enough. Only one cat is allowed to do that, and sadly he’s not here.” She stands up and puts Chaton Noir down. “I’m sorry, but see you around I guess.”
She takes off towards her apartment, throwing glances at her back to make sure that the cat isn’t following her.
━━━━━━
The next morning, everything’s the same as usual.
Except.
Marinette sees the black cat at her window again.
“Oh la la, you shouldn’t be here, Chaton Noir,” she says as she takes out her phone to snap a picture of him.
He gazes at her with those big familiar eyes and they remind her so much of a certain cat.
Or maybe she’s just projecting again.
“It’s not gonna work. And I have to get ready to leave as well. See you later.”
Marinette continues preparing for her day and as she exits the door, she sees the black cat just by her stairs.
“Erm.” She begins walking down the stairs and Chaton Noir walks with her, and she has to take a photo again, this time sending it to Alya.
Marinette: the little cat came to see me this morning!
Alya: gurl he’s escorting you
Marinette: absolutely! he was waiting for me outside my door, and we walked out together!
By the time she finishes texting Alya, she realises she’s a few metres away from the entrance to her workplace.
Marinette sees the cat sitting at the foot of the staircase and she feels the need to thank it, so she returns to the cat’s side—his pupils have definitely enlarged—and she pets his head a few times, before rushing to work.
━━━━━━
Marinette sends a picture of the cat outside her window to Alya again.
Alya: You saw him again!!
omg he’s meowing
Marinette: yea, he really wants to come inside
Alya: LET HIM IN
KEEP HIM
Marinette: NO or i’ll have to take care of him for the next 15 years lol
Besides, she already has a cat in her heart, not that Alya needs to know.
Alya: but he’s so cute!!
HE HAS CHOSEN YOU
Marinette: he’s adorable not gonna lie
i’m sure if i open the window one day, i’ll find him in my kitchen
━━━━━━
And another.
Marinette: look who welcomed me home after work
Alya: HE'S ASKING YOU TO KEEP HIM
we really should give him a name
Marinette: chaton noir!
Alya: but don’t you already have a chaton noir?
Marinette: no, that's chaton
this is chaton noir
Alya: and what is—
nevermind
chaton noir it is
━━━━━━
Marinette’s texting Alya the same topic again, but now, it’s for a different reason.
Marinette: omg alya
this morning I opened my window to let some air in, went to the toilet, and when i came back, he was on my desk
Alya: HAHAHHAHA
Marinette: alya please help me, this is not the time to be laughing at my misery
Alya: what? this is a blessing! he’s a stray looking for a home, and he really wants you.
Marinette: ALYA!
Alya: ok ok erm
don’t feed him any food, i think he’ll leave eventually
and maybe don't pet him too
Marinette: i didn't do any of the above, but he’s still coming to me!
She may or may not have forgotten about petting him. A couple of times no less.
Alya: awww
mr handsome cat liking a pretty lady
makes sense
Marinette: aww thanks
BUT NO!
━━━━━━
Her hand reaches into her yo-yo. This is probably a bad idea. She knows that it’s a bad idea, however, she can’t help but feel bad about how she’s treating Chaton Noir. He merely wants a home, but she isn’t able to give him one.
The kitty in her heart has already taken up too much space to let another in.
Ladybug continues putting some other snacks and toys into her yo-yo. She won’t play with him as Marinette, but it doesn’t mean she can’t play with him as Ladybug.
She makes sure that the cat in question is nowhere to be seen before she leaves for her meetup with Chat Noir.
Well, if she can even call it one at this point…
Her heart squeezes at that thought. She understands that Chat Noir has only missed one patrol, but that’s one too many.
He never misses patrol.
And she really wants to see him again.
Ladybug makes sure to bring the snacks that Chat Noir loves too. Yes, she’d be angry at him for his absence, but that doesn’t mean she can’t offer him food.
She descends upon their usual meeting place, and sure enough, the black cat is waiting for her, tail swaying like the waves of a calming ocean.
Ladybug feels like she should be scared of the cat—he seems to know the entirety of her schedule, and not even Alya knows that!—but nothing about the cat sends any malicious vibes towards her.
Maybe he’s just really really really affectionate.
“Hello, Chaton Noir,” she runs her fingers through his fur as he climbs onto her lap and makes himself at home, tail curling around her forearm. “Is there a reason why you fancy me so much?”
Chaton Noir peers into her eyes again, with those big green kitty orbs, and she longs to see her Chaton. She misses the way he lays his eyes on her, as though she hung the moon and stars in his sky. “I’m sorry for treating you like that as Marinette, I’m making it up to you as Ladybug now.”
She yanks out a small ball of yarn for him to play with, but Chat Noir’s favourite snack falls out of her yo-yo in the process, and Chaton Noir immediately jumps at it. Ladybug tries to snatch it back but he’s too fast, and the snack is now clutched in his paws.
“Oh no!” Ladybug cries as Chaton Noir rolls onto his back and savours the snack, oblivious to her internal dilemma. “That’s for him…”
She retracts her hand as she sees how happy Chaton Noir is. “You’re lucky you look so cute.”
Ladybug hugs her knees as she watches the blissfully ignorant kitty lay on his back as he munches on the snack. “I miss you, Chaton, where are you?”
All of a sudden, Chaton Noir is by her side, rubbing his head against her thighs. Ladybug mindlessly caresses his head, “Thank you for comforting me Chaton Noir, but it just isn’t the same without him, you know?”
Her gaze focuses on him and realises that the snack he was holding onto was gone. There’s no way he could’ve finished it in such a short time. Chaton Noir couldn’t have gobbled it down, it’s too big for his tiny mouth. She scans her surroundings and notices that the snack is slightly smaller in size now, and it registers to her what he had done.
Ladybug carries him into her arms and snaps a picture of him. She rubs her cheeks against his, “Thank you so much, Chaton Noir.”
━━━━━━
She should’ve bought the fan when she saw one.
She really should’ve, else she wouldn’t be in this situation right now.
And there’s a really simple solution to solve all this.
Marinette just has to open the window to her apartment, and that’ll allow the precious and cooling air to enter and ventilate her room.
But she knows that once she opens the window, he’ll be there.
He’s become a permanent fixture in the view from her window now.
And it’s… kinda weird now that he’s not there.
Still, should she risk it? Marinette knows that he’ll appear out of nowhere—he always does—but her neurons are melting in the heat and the solution to it is quite literally right in front of her.
She sighs and makes up her mind. She’ll be sure to buy a fan on her next trip to the department store.
But for now, she’ll open the window.
Marinette walks towards it and her knee knocks against something hard. She looks at the object, only for a smile to etch itself on her face.
She proceeds to fold said object and carries it over to the window. Making sure that the coast is clear, she opens her window and places the huge piece of cardboard horizontally against the opening. It covers half of the window, but it still allowed the wind to enter her apartment. Marinette sits back and relaxes as the cool air gushes in her face, finally relieved that she wouldn’t have to bake to death.
But of course, it doesn’t last long.
Marinette hears the cardboard being nudged aside and she opens her eyes to see Chaton Noir trying to get into her house through that small opening she left at the side of the window.
At first, she wonders why he didn't just jump over the cardboard. Marinette knows that cats are more than capable of jumping to insane heights, but her pondering got interrupted when Chaton Noir began to scratch the cardboard.
She scrambles to her feet to grab the handle of the window. However, she trips and falls in the process—her entire body weight pushing against the window—slamming it shut. She didn’t mean to, but the force of the slam startles even her, so she makes sure to check that Chaton Noir is scared away. What she sees instead, is him still trying to push the cardboard aside.
“It’s impossible, Chaton Noir,” she takes out her phone, “shutting the window has locked it in place. I’m so glad you don’t have Cataclysm to break it down.”
Marinette snaps a photo of Chaton Noir’s attempt, snickering at how cute and dumb he looks.
“Gotta keep this for memories’ sake.”
━━━━━━
Marinette’s phone rings beside her.
Alya: hey just a thought
Marinette: ?
Alya: could chaton noir be chat noir?
Marinette: chaton noir and chaton are different
Alya: yea no i mean like think about it
chaton noir is black and has green eyes
chat noir disappeared one day
and there haven’t been any akuma attacks since then
and then there is this random cat that appeared out of nowhere and is like so super overly attached to you for some reason
a cat that you have never seen in your life might i add
Marinette: OMG
could it be that they got his ring?!
Alya: omg gurl calm down
if they did, wouldn't they be more relentless in getting yours too?
anyway
why not try calling him chat noir and see how he responds?
Marinette: er, what if he’s just a regular cat?
me calling him chat noir is like i’m projecting my feelings onto him, not that i have any
Marinette knows very well what her feelings are.
Alya: just try and who knows, he might be by your side all along
Marinette: …
okay…
━━━━━━
Pacing around at the top of the Eiffel Tower with a few sweat drops on her forehead, Ladybug ponders as to exactly what to do with the suggestion Alya has thrown at her.
On one hand, it’s ridiculous, so so ridiculous. Because there is no way in any universe possible that Chaton Noir is her Chaton. It’s just— Ladybug believes that she would’ve known if that were the case. She knows that it isn’t logical but she can’t help but believe that she would know if it was him.
On the other hand, ever since Alya planted the seeds of possibility in her mind, Ladybug has been playing her carefully created moment of truth in her mind on repeat, even though it goes against all that she stood for. She feels guilty for wanting Chat Noir to be Chaton Noir, but if it really were the case, that means she’ll finally be able to see him again.
Not to mention, even though her heart belongs to Chat Noir, she has really been enjoying Chaton Noir’s company as of late.
Is she cheating on him if she feels this way?!
Her hands fly into her hair, who is she kidding, she’ll feel guilty either way, it’s a fucking mess now.
Ladybug sits down on the platform and takes deep breaths. She doesn’t know what to do! Just address him as Chat Noir? What if she calls him Chaton Noir instead of Chat Noir? Habits die hard. Also, Chaton Noir has always been responsive to her regardless of what she said, like he doesn’t understand human language and just looks at her curiously and with all his attention. That or he has been looking at her exactly like how Chat Noir focuses on her when she speaks…
Which is it?!
She’s officially going mad.
She needs to jump off the Eiffel Tower. It’s dangerous enough to preoccupy her mind, she’ll think about the others later. Ladybug drags herself across the platform, and steps off of it, plummeting down straight to the base of the structure. She needs to act fast if she doesn’t want to smash into the metal that is already beginning to curve outwards. Ladybug throws her yo-yo, and she hastily retracts the wire so that she doesn’t smack face down onto the ground—she still needs to find her Chaton—and Paris still needs her as their protector.
After being flung into the air again, she soars across the bridge, her trajectory that of an arc, attaching her yo-yo to lamp post after lamp post before reaching her destination. She gracefully lands on her feet at the top of the Trocadéro, adrenaline pumping through her veins from the novelty of doing something that crazy. Ladybug finally looks back at the Eiffel Tower, trying to imagine how she looked when she was speeding through the route she had just taken.
Her mind was definitely not thinking about the Chaton Noir situation as intensely as before, and now she has to deal with it.
But first, she has to find him.
As she reaches for her yo-yo again, the meowing of a cat catches her attention, and Ladybug immediately whips her head in the direction where it came from. She sees an orange cat and is relieved but sad at the same time. She really needs to find him!
Another meow of a different octave catches her attention and she sees the cat that has been in her dream for a while now.
Ladybug dashes to him—the cat alarmed at the speed she is approaching him—and snatches him in her arms. She throws her yo-yo and zips away, with Chaton Noir screaming and meowing at the top of his lungs.
Once they land on a rooftop, she gently places the now shaking and shivering black cat down, and proceeds to sit right across it. Chaton Noir shakes his head and blinks a few times before approaching her.
“Stop,” Ladybug thrusts her right hand towards him, and he looks at her before sitting back down on the spot where he barely moved, ears drooping.
“Chaton Noir,” and immediately his tail moves and curves.
She audibly smacks her own head, of course it was impossible to call him Chat Noir, but the movement of his tail gave her an idea to work with.
“Stop moving your tail.”
Chaton Noir stops and lays it flat on the tile, ears still droopy, but head tilted nonetheless, still staring at her with those wide green eyes.
“I’m going to need you to cooperate with me,” Ladybug physically cringes at what she’s saying. “Move your tail.”
And she sees him tapping the end of his tail against the tile.
“Stop.” And it relaxes again.
Okay, I can work with this. He understands me perfectly well. Here goes…
“Chato— ChAT Noir!” He wiggles his tail again, and Ladybug physically jumps on her spot, blood coursing through her veins as she has finally found him!
“Chaton Noir, it’s really yo—”
Her heart beats faster as he keeps wiggling his tail. He’s not Chat Noir?
Think! What can she do right now?
“Carapace?” He continues moving his tail, albeit less than before. Until it finally stops.
“Please help me here,” she pleads, “move your tail when it’s you and don’t when it isn’t.”
“Carapace.”
His tail immediately lies flat.
“CHAT NOIR!”
The black cat rises on all fours and runs towards her, tail swivelling behind him as he crashes into her open arms.
“Chat Noir!” she cries as she rubs her cheeks against him. “I’m not crazy! I’m not crazy!”
“Oh my god!” she suddenly drops him as she stands up with unwavering clarity. “You know my identity! Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!”
Ladybug starts pacing around in circles on the rooftop again, hands in her hair, and Chat Noir follows close behind, meowing loudly to gain her attention. She eventually feels a weight on her shoulder as something bumps against the side of her face.
She turns to her left with wide eyes and remembers that she has a more pressing issue to deal with.
“Oh my god! How can you become human again? This is a nightmare!!” Then she faces forward. “Unless… Lucky Charm!”
And Chat Noir fell off her shoulders at the gesticulation she had just busted out.
A plate of spaghetti falls into her hands, drips of tomato sauce landing on her face in the process.
“The heck am I supposed to do with this?!” Ladybug asks out loud as she glares at the messy plate of spaghetti. “Gah!!”
Chat Noir climbs her figure once again, stopping beside her shoulder and licking her face—to get her to calm down or to lick the tomato sauce off her face, Ladybug does not know. What she does know is that doing so has formulated a new idea in her mind.
“Ha, there’s no way,” Ladybug places the plate down on the roof and grabs Chat Noir from her shoulder, enabling her to face him directly. Her cheeks begin to redden and her arms begin to tremble, “There’s no way this is going to work but let’s try anyway.”
Ladybug brings Chat Noir closer, she sees his tail wiggling endlessly, and she knows straight away that he has been waiting for this moment since forever. That makes the two of them. She angles her head to the left, nuzzling her cheek against his squishy ones, just to tease him. But it wasn’t as much of a tease as she would like it to be, going by the purrs he releases. She pulls back and eyes a certain spot, making sure she would not miss it before closing her eyes, lips pressing against the cute forehead space between his eyes.
The effects are immediate. A cloud of magic surrounds the black cat as she feels herself losing her grip on him. She lets go when she sees the silhouette of a human.
Her hands clutch themselves close to her racing heart, recalling the list of things she can do once human Chat Noir appears. She can finally tackle him into a hug, run her fingers through his hair, press herself against him, enjoy the feeling of his arms around her, and on and on it goes.
Ladybug gasps as she sees a face that she recognises, a face not concealed by a black mask, a face that isn’t her Chaton. Instead, she sees— “Adrien?!”
She witnesses Adrien’s look of adoration directed at her, eyes that make her heart beat even faster than before she’s becoming dizzy from it.
Even so, before she could succumb to the dizziness, she blurts out, “But— But you’re not Chat Noir!”
Adrien takes a step towards her with a face so soft and so in love. She can’t take it anymore.
Where is her Chaton?!
“No, no. Wait, how are you a black cat? I could’ve sworn that you’d be an orange cat if you ever turn into one. Where is my Chaton!” she cries, hands grasping the side of her face.
Her light protest of asking him to stay where he is must not have been clear enough, because Adrien is now wrapping his arms around her, pulling her in and removing her hands from her face. Ladybug’s eyes grow wider at this, and she directs her attention to him, desperate to ask what he’s doing but he beats her to it.
“One,” he starts, bright green eyes still admiring her, “I am your Chaton, my Lady. And two, aww, you thought about me turning into a kitty before.” He teases her as he boops her nose.
Ladybug wonders how her eyes have yet to pop out of her sockets.
“WHAT?!”
“Plagg, transforme-moi !”
It’s Chat Noir’s hands that are around her now. Adrien’s lovely and heart-racing smile is Chat Noir’s. He has been by her side this whole time. Chaton Noir is Chat Noir. Everything that she has ever said to Chaton Noir, Chat Noir knows. And Chat Noir, in other words, Adrien, her first and only love, has heard all the embarrassing declarations she has made about him.
Ladybug feels hot as her cheeks flush red. “Cha— Chaton?”
He flashes a beautiful smile. “My Lady.”
Ladybug buries her face into his neck, hitting her fists against his chest. “How dare you… You heard… everything…”
Chat Noir places his hand on the back of her head and pulls her closer, his own face nuzzling her hair. “You’re every bit as crazy as I am about you.”
Ladybug jumps onto him so suddenly Chat Noir loses his balance and they both fall onto the rooftop. “Ah—”
His breath hitches when soft lips land on the side of his face. “You better make it up to me for disappearing on me for so long,” she says as she plants a kiss with each word uttered. Chat Noir cups both of her cheeks to bring her lips over his own.
He licks the corner of her mouth that’s covered with tomato sauce, “With pleasure.”
Reminder that the OTW election is coming up and if you are eligible to vote you should vote.
I am voting because there is a person running who in the chat transcripts really concerns me because it is anti language and I do not fucking want that anywhere near the board.
Tiffany is clearly very new to all of this and I think she is very VERY inexperienced in fandom places and fandom in general and doesnt seem to understand what the OTW is doing/what fandom really is/ how AO3 works, and why. She has no place on the OTW.
So of four total chats with the board members, she participated in two. Here are a couple of her answers for the other chat.
“I have an idea to make the site better! We’ll require all users to have a VPN and have specific access to various parts of the site put behind administrator approval!”
Literally her response to “tell us about a time you had to develop active listening skills” was to say there was a girl at her school who tried to kill herself, and it was “a crisis that required immediate attention,” so Tiffany had to learn active listening skills. THAT ISN’T AN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION.
Also, she can’t seem to decide if she’s in school or if she’s already graduated and is working as an IT specialist. 100% this girl is lying.
The OTW Board elections are coming up, and one of the candidates is someone named Tiffany who is both pro-censorship and believes that AO3 should be “cleaned up” to present a better “public image.” Not only does censorship go against every single thing AO3 stands for, AO3 was not created for the “general public;” AO3 was created by fans, for fans. Tiffany’s answers are alarming, inconsistent, and confusing. Either she is very new to fandom spaces (and thus shouldn’t be on the OTW board until she becomes more familiar with the intricacies of fandom), or she’s anti-AO3 trying to secure a place on the board with intention to disrupt and change everything about the site (and thus most definitely should not be voted onto the board). I encourage every person who uses AO3 and enjoys fandom to read the transcript; it is long, but these are the people who run, and/or will run the site we all know and love, so it’s best to be informed.
Have you ever heard a four-year-old run out of breath before she can finish her thought? I edit a lot of sentences that work the same way. You need a noun, you need a verb, you might need an object. Give some serious thought to stopping right there.
Sentences are building blocks, not bungee cords; they’re not meant to be stretched to the limit. I’m not saying you necessarily want a Hemingway-esque series of clipped short sentences, but most writers benefit from dividing their longest sentences into shorter, more muscular ones.
2. Paragraphs can only do one thing at a time.
A paragraph supports a single idea. Construct complex arguments by combining simple ideas that follow logically. Every time you address a new idea, add a line break. Short paragraphs are the most readable; few should be more than three or four sentences long. This is more important if you’re writing for the Web.
3. Look closely at -ing
Nouns ending in -ing are fine. (Strong writing, IT consulting, great fishing.) But constructions like “I am running,” “a forum for building consensus,” or “The new team will be managing” are inherently weak. Rewrite them to “I run,” “a forum to build consensus,” and “the team will manage.” You’re on the right track when the rewrite has fewer words (see below).
(If for some insane reason you want to get all geeky about this, you can read the Wikipedia article on gerunds and present participles. But you don’t have to know the underlying grammatical rules to make this work. Rewrite -ing when you can, and your writing will grow muscles you didn’t know it had.)
4. Omit unnecessary words.
I know we all heard this in high school, but we weren’t listening. (Mostly because it’s hard.) It’s doubly hard when you’re editing your own writing—we put all that work into getting words onto the page, and by god we need a damned good reason to get rid of them.
Here’s your damned good reason: extra words drain life from your work. The fewer words used to express an idea, the more punch it has. Therefore:
Summer months
Regional level
The entire country
On a daily basis (usually best rewritten to “every day”)
She knew that it was good.
Very
(I just caught one above: four-year-old little girl)
You can nearly always improve sentences by rewriting them in fewer words.
5. Reframe 90% of the passive voice.
French speakers consider an elegantly managed passive voice to be the height of refinement. But here in the good old U.S. (or Australia, Great Britain, etc.), we value action. We do things is inherently more interesting than Things are done by us. Passive voicemuddies your writing; when the actor is hidden, the action makes less sense.
Bonus: Use spell-check
There’s no excuse for teh in anything more formal than a Twitter tweet.
Also, “a lot” and “all right” are always spelled as two words. You can trust me, I’m an editor.
Easy reading is damned hard writing.
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
Chat Noir couldn’t help but notice that Ladybug hadn’t really been her usual self since Strike Back.
And then on one random day, he got punched so hard he flew across the city.
Rating: T, Words: 2100, Chapters: 1/1
Read on AO3
lisa @ladynoirist im so sorry this is so so late 😭😭😭 but i hope you enjoy this and have a good day ahead :tikkieyes:
thank you so much to Noodles for helping me and beta reading this! 😭❤
━━━━━━
Chat Noir has never felt as relieved as he did the moment he sees the Miraculous Ladybugs rushing towards him.
What an achievement, he thinks. He’s pretty sure he’s the first person to ever get punched by a holder of the Tiger Miraculous.
Clout was never used for evil before, after all.
Chat Noir can’t tell exactly where he’d landed, he just knows he’d crashed violently into a building, based on the individual bricks falling and landing near his head. The world is upside down, the pain erupting everywhere in his body, and he is physically fighting to pull air into his lungs, even though he can’t move a muscle. The metallic taste that flooded his mouth is something he isn’t familiar with.
He doesn’t understand how he is still alive.
A feather-light sensation that he feels all over his body brings him out of his head, and he sees the Ladybugs encasing him. They use their magical powers to heal the heavy blow he had sustained from the enemy and undo the damage he had suffered after being propelled across the city. The healing process is painless and Chat Noir is back on his feet again, feeling as upbeat as he had before the start of the battle.
Once the Miraculous Ladybugs have done their job, they proceed to scatter in all other directions, and all Chat Noir wants is to be by his Lady again as soon as possible. He heads towards where he last saw her, hoping that she’s at least in the vicinity and not somewhere else. He can’t fathom the thought of her being punched like the way he was.
That’s when Chat Noir notices that the Ladybugs are still flying around, restoring the city to its former appearance.
Was their battle that extensive?
He’s getting more worried by the second and he quickens his pace.
As he nears the area, he sees Ladybug comforting the rescued akumatised victim, paying no attention to the magical Ladybugs that surround her briefly. One of her hands is on the victim’s shoulder, while the other is clenching onto her yo-yo.
She isn’t usually this impatient to leave after a battle…
“That was another job well done, My Lady!” He comments as he lands right next to her, holding his fist in midair. She whips her head towards him, eyes wide and darting between his own pair of eyes. Ladybug seems to be reaching out to grab his arms before she suddenly retracts them. She bites her lower lip, lowering and clutching her hands before she raises one to fist bump him softly.
Her eyes never leave his, as though she’s searching for something.
Chat Noir hears the crowd approaching, and that’s their cue to leave. He readies his baton, but he feels a tug on his belt.
“Chaton, wait!” She swallows and clears her throat. “Your injury. Let me see it.” Ladybug lets go of his tail.
“It’s gone. Your Miraculous Ladybug can heal, remember?” He says as he turns to face her.
She isn’t looking at him now, she’s fixated on his rib area, where he was punched. She moves closer, hands extending to his “wound” before she decides to put them on his arm. “You can never be too sure.”
Chat Noir sends a smile. “I’m feeling superb, my Lady!”
Ladybug lifts her eyes, eyes shinier than what he remembered, and peers into his, tugging at his arm this time. “Please.”
It’s only then that he realises her insistence is more than her desire to look at and treat his non-existent wound. She wants to be closer. Ladybug has always been close, be it physically or in his mind. But since the fallout of the battle against Strike Back, she has been clinging onto him like he’s her lifeline.
Chat Noir really doesn’t have a problem with her wanting to be close. That much attention on him? Who is he to complain?
Her change in behaviour is getting a bit worrisome. They aren’t bantering as much as before, like she’s too afraid of offending him with her sharp tongue.
As if sharp words would be enough to drive him away after they’ve been through so much together. He has seen her at her worst. Besides, bantering is his favourite pastime with her.
Ladybug has since then, begun giving him a pat-down on his body every time, making sure to check that zero injuries are left on him before she lets him go. She isn’t as rough as she used to be with him, as though she thought Chat Noir would just suddenly disappear without explanation if she manhandled him too much.
The beeping of their Miraculouses catches his attention, and Ladybug looks like she’s about to cry at the sound.
Chat Noir surveys the growing crowd before facing her again. “Okay, let’s get away from this place and recharge, then you can have me.”
Her eyes light up immediately, and she pulls him along, heading to another rooftop far away from the crowd.
They stand at opposite sides of a giant pillar and call off their transformation. Adrien feeds Plagg his beloved Camembert silently—the Kwami takes his time to savour that disgusting cheese—and he thinks about what to do to comfort her once they are suited up again.
Ladybug was already worried as heck when he got Cataclysm-ed the last time, even though he could still move around and fight.
He doesn’t know how to put her at ease. How does one calm their partner down when one doesn't even know what has happened?
It was all a blur, all Chat Noir knew was that he felt a heavy impact on his ribs, and then, he could hardly move and breathe anymore.
Plagg finishes his Camembert, and Adrien suddenly remembers that Plagg can feel whatever Chat Noir feels.
“Plagg, are you okay?!”
“After my beloved Camembert? Definitely! Now let’s go!”
Adrien exhales, amused. Plagg will always be Plagg. He calls for his transformation and is immediately tackled to the ground by something.
That something?
Ladybug.
━━━━━━
Pain flares in her hands with the force of her tackle as they fall onto the rooftop. But she couldn’t care less about that right now. Not after what he went through.
“Buguinette?”
Ladybug wraps her arms around him, refusing to let go. She tries hard not to remember the sound that could be heard from his ribs when Clout was used on him. She tries not to think about how far he flew away from her when it happened. She tries not to imagine how messed up his body was after that.
She tries, but they keep replaying in her mind.
Ladybug tightens her arms around his waist and presses the side of her face into his chest.
Sturdy.
Warm.
Healthy.
A beating heart.
“I’m so glad you’re okay, mon Minou!” she cries.
Chat Noir wraps his arms around her and rubs his hand along her back. “I’m okay, My Lady. I’m still here.”
“Will you stop being so reckless?”
“And give up the opportunity for you to tackle me every time? Never.”
Ladybug lifts her head from his chest with furrowed brows, her hands reaching his cheeks to squeeze and pull.
“Ow!” His hands rush to her forearms and quickly tighten around them.
“I’m serious, Chat Noir,” hoping that her face shows how stern she is now that she’s up close to his.
He chuckles, messaging her arms to coax them into releasing him. “Will you stop being reckless too?”
Ladybug looks away and releases her hold on his face. “I can’t, the Miraculouses…”
Chat Noir rubs her arms. “Then you should know that I can’t either.”
Ladybug stares back at him, wanting to be angry at him for his response, but she’d be a hypocrite if she did. And it’s unfair for her to react like this, because she knows that this is affecting him as much as it’s affecting her.
It’s her and him now. The ever-present weight of the world falls on their shoulders, not just hers anymore. A weight they can only share with each other.
Yes, she has Alya to support her too, but she wants to be able to support Chat Noir too. She doesn’t want him to be alone again when they are fulfilling their superhero duties.
Never again.
Ladybug surges forward and circles her arms around his neck, placing her chin on his shoulders.
“At least be careful. Promise me you’ll be extra careful from now on.”
Chat Noir wraps his arms around her, bringing her closer to him. “I promise.”
Despite his word, Ladybug still doesn’t feel at ease. She buries her head into his neck, trying to be as close to him as possible.
Being this close to him, feeling his warmth and his heartbeat against her own, lessens her worry a bit. So she continues laying on top of him. She has plenty of time before she detransforms again, after all.
It’s so nice and cosy being this close to him, with his hands rubbing soothing circles on her back, and him being okay with enveloping her in an embrace. The light of the day drains away as time passes, painting their surroundings with the soft colours of lavender and pink before dark blue descends upon them. Ladybug knows it would be a sight to witness, especially with him by her side, but all she sees is gold.
His hair tickling her face should’ve encouraged her to move away, but she needs to feel all of him against all of her, even that tingly sensation. She moves to breathe in his scent, and now, all her senses are filled with him.
The more she breathes him in, the more she loves his scent. But Ladybug really hates her brain sometimes, because the moment she thinks of something as enjoyable, her brain will steer her away from the pleasure and present to her the worst-case scenario.
What if she’s never able to smell his scent again?
Memories of her Chaton in white, cold and distant, flood her brain. Chat Blanc was still Chat Noir deep down, but she couldn’t recognise him at all.
Ladybug couldn’t even get close to Chat Blanc. She realises now that she took for granted how easy it was to be close with Chat Noir.
“My Lady.”
The recollection sets her heart racing again and she pushes her nose into his neck, nuzzling and inhaling him as deeply as she can. She’s so focused on the act that she didn’t even notice Chat Noir’s hands have stopped in their tracks.
“My Lady.” He starts to pull back, but isn’t able to move far with the grip she has on him. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing.” She speaks and she feels her own lips vibrating against his neck, causing him to suck in a gulp of air. “Just enjoying your scent. Partners do that right?”
“I—”
“Partners bathe in each other’s scent when they hug and cuddle and get cosy, right?”
Ladybug doesn’t move, waiting for his answer, hoping it’ll be permission to continue… whatever she’s doing. She doesn’t want him to push her away. Not now, not ever.
She feels herself sinking as Chat Noir exhales, realising that he’s been holding his breath for who knows how long. “Yeah.”
His voice is so close. Ladybug shivers as she remembers how Chat Blanc had called to her. How desperate he was to get out of that place of loneliness that he was willing to fight her.
And as though that memory wasn’t painful enough, her brain reminds her that she’d pushed him away a second time, to the point where he left his Miraculous with her.
He was gone just like that, like a part of her vanished, and no way to reach it. She was just extending her arms aimlessly, hoping to grab onto something that was long gone.
It awakens memories of how distressed she was when he wasn’t around. But Chat Noir is right here with her now. Words can never describe how thankful she is to be able to be in his embrace like this.
Ladybug feels a hand at the back of her head, just above her nape, pushing her against what she now recognises as his neck.
“I’m still here, My Lady.”
And she feels her own tears leaking from her eyes, completely unaware that her vision has been blurry for a while now.
“I'll always be here, My Lady.” His arms circle her once again, but tighter this time. “By your side, till the end of time.”
Ladybug felt it the night Chat Noir held out his hand to her on the Trocadéro.
The instant the thunder cracked above them.
She knew what it was.
But getting the Miraculouses back was her top priority.
And so, she decided she was going to keep it professional.
in other words,
Ladybug chooses to be a clown again.
Rating: T, Words: 3635, Chapters: 1/1
Read on AO3
heyyyyy Emsy @emsylcatac i'm so sorry it took so long but here's my belated birthday gift fic to you! 9 days later xD i hope you enjoy this and that you’re having a good hiday ❤
thank you so much Noodles for beta reading this! ❤
━━━・❆・━━━
Ladybug felt it the night Chat Noir held out his hand to her on the Trocadéro.
When she thought she was all alone. After she convinced herself that she was the worst Guardian that ever existed.
Her heart responded immediately when he addressed her with her favourite nickname from him, relieved that he still called her that. She first looked at his outstretched palm, then lifted her eyes, and it happened in the moment she saw his soft eyes and pleasant smile directed at her.
The instant the thunder cracked above them.
She knew what it was. The realisation flooded her entire being and washed away all the previous feelings of failure and regret, like they’d never been there in the first place.
There was only him and her.
And as though he understood exactly what she needed at that very hour, Chat Noir pulled her into a hug, comforting her. Ladybug shouldn’t have been surprised, because deep down, she already knew that’s who he is. Always trying to help, always kind, always loyal to her. Always been there together with her.
From the very beginning.
It was embarrassing how long it took for her to see something so blatantly obvious.
Ladybug was not oblivious to what she felt in that moment. But this was Chat Noir, and getting the Miraculouses back was the top priority in their current predicament.
She couldn’t mess up again. That would be equivalent to letting her Chaton down, and she can’t do that. Not when he’s been there for her time and time again, been her best friend, been her strongest rock, been her best supporter. Even when she’d let him down before.
Ladybug doesn’t want to put him through that again.
And so, she decided that she was going to keep it professional. No slip-ups, no room for error, no nothing. Defeat whatever-the-fuck-name-he’s-going-to-call-himself-from-now-on, and get back on track with her life. So that she can start dating again, and start appreciating the people she loves. For real this time.
It’d be a piece of cake, she told herself. After all, she had more pressing issues than to stare at Chat Noir and admire him in all his beauty…
How gentle he is…
How he has also been with her, and there for her…
...
Ladybug had to keep it professional.
No exceptions.
━━━・❆・━━━
She has seen Chat Noir smile plenty of times. In fact, she would go as far as to say that’s when he looks most handsome even. She can stare at his face forever and ever.
And Ladybug’s pretty sure she’s seen his smile at least a million times by now.
When he’s talking to rescued akumatised victims, when he greets anyone, whenever he’s bantering with her, whenever his eyes light up as he sees her approaching the scene.
God, that last one makes the good butterflies flutter in her stomach. Since when did she start having butterflies around Chat Noir?! He would have loved the pun if she said this out loud, she believes.
Ladybug is the reason why Chat Noir looks so elevated in battles. She’s seen video clips—no, she did not seek out their Akuma battles on the Ladyblog to watch, who has time for that?—where he looks so thrilled in situations when he shouldn’t be. In situations where she isn’t even sure that she could save him and restore everything to how it once was. Chat Noir trusts her so immensely. He has more confidence in her than she has in herself. That thought is exhilarating and terrifying by itself.
She knows he’s also happy whenever they have their downtime together, just hanging out and patrolling and making sure that Paris is safe. Those are the times when it made more sense for Chat Noir to smile, when there wasn’t any immediate danger. She thoroughly enjoys that time spent together, too. Seeing him share that same emotion with her, brings about a sense of floatiness within her chest.
And as she’s said, there are many many smiles. She sees them almost all the time when she’s with him.
But when had it gotten so beautiful?
They just defeated an Akuma. And now, it’s their first fist bump ever since the last hug on the Trocadéro.
The tip of her knuckles touching his feels funky, but it isn’t enough to distract her from the sheer brilliance of Chat Noir’s smile.
Those upturned lips, sweet squishable cheeks, and the soft but still energetic green cat eyes that gaze at her. His face grips Ladybug’s attention so tightly she could hardly breathe. Her heartbeat picks up pace.
Chat Noir lowers his hand. “Nothing can beat the Cat and Bug team, My Lady!”
Ladybug brings her knuckles up to her face to scrutinise, she imagines a band magically materialising over her ring finger, just like how her magical suit comes into form, and cups her other palm to her reddening cheek.
She knows what this feeling is—
“Buguinette?”
—but she has to keep it professional.
“Hmm?”
Chat Noir tilts his head and regards her expectantly, as though waiting for her to say something.
“Did you hear what I’ve said?”
Shit! Whatever he had said went completely over her head.
Ladybug moves the hand on her cheek to her back while she brings the hand she was inspecting to her mouth and coughs. “What?”
“Nothing can beat the Cat and Bug team! Don’t you agree?”
Ah! Easy. He’s looking to banter. She can definitely do that.
“Y—You mean the Bug and Cat team?”
Ladybug wants to die in a hole.
Chat Noir raises an eyebrow and she’s overcome with the immediate urge to flee.
“You ok—”
“Shoot! I left my oven on! Gotta go, see you soon, mon Chaton. Bye!” And she swings away, hoping the wind would clear her mind, and cool down her pinkish hot cheeks.
━━━・❆・━━━
“… was blushing. There’s no way—”
“Who’s blushing?”
“My Lady!” He has a hand on his chest. “Don’t scare me like that!”
She takes a seat beside him and waves her hand, dismissing him. “Not my fault you’re so lost in thought you didn’t hear the yo-yo, it is pretty loud.”
Chat Noir grumbles even more.
“So, who’s blushing?”
He leans back, placing his hands behind him. “Ah, a very close friend of mine. But anyway, how was your day?”
Ladybug stares at his outstretched hand that is just a few centimetres away from her own, “Eh, the usual.”
Has his hand always looked like that?
She has always been aware of how big his hands are—that is to be expected, given that he’s taller than her—but there’s something about them that she can’t put her fingers on. Maybe it’s the aesthetics? The roughness of the outline of his hands makes them look hard and bony. Which is such a contrast to his personality. So kind, so warm, so giving, so understanding. And somehow, his large and generous hands fit that quality of his as well.
Ladybug decides that it’s the duality of his hands that attracts her, and she finds her own hand edging towards his.
Though, it’s such a shame for his hand to be covered. Hers too. She so desperately wants to know how it feels to be touching skin to skin, but she convinces herself that touching his warmth is still way better than having her hands on the cold, dirty rooftop.
She glimpses at the area where Chat Noir sits to see him facing forward, not paying her any mind. Ladybug follows suit, hoping to deflect any suspicion rising from him, but she makes sure to glance back at the spot where their hands are every 5 seconds or so, to see if her hand has reached his.
All the while, Ladybug continues sliding her hand closer and closer.
It’s a good thing the distance between their hands isn’t that far, because she doesn’t know what she’ll do if it takes her longer than a few moments to touch his hand.
A peek at him, and he’s still focused on the scenic view before them.
Good.
She moves her hand in further.
Almost there…
“It’s been a while since we last saw the sunset together huh, my Lady?”
She halts the moment he speaks and gazes at him when he calls her.
“It’s beautiful and calming, isn’t it?”
As much as Ladybug wants to confirm the beauty of the scenery and acknowledge his words, she finds herself captivated by his wistful, shining eyes.
In fact, she doesn’t even want to look at the scenery now, because she’s sure there’s no way the sunset is more gorgeous than his look of awe. She doesn’t want to look at anything else now that she’s focused on him.
The beautiful golden hue paints him in colours that she would associate with feelings of happiness and warmth. His eyes sparkle brighter than any jewel she has ever seen, and the sun reflects such a pleasant colour off his cheeks that she just wants to touch them. But she keeps her hands to herself. Ladybug’s glad that she was interrupted before she could hold his hand. What has she been thinking?!
Touching him was tempting, but just like touching the sun, it’s far too dangerous right now. It was safer to stay at a distance and admire.
She wishes she had a camera with her though, so that she could witness this moment forever and ever. The lovely colours of the golden hour picture added to her room, hung on the walls full of pink and green would be so cute!
Green…
Wait.
Green?!
Ladybug finally catches on that she was so deep in her admiration for Chat Noir that she didn’t realise she was staring at him. Her cheeks burn fiercely. She uses both hands to cover them and looks elsewhere.
“L—Ladybug?”
No no no don’t call her that! Call her by the nicknames!!
“H—Hey,” he scoots closer, “are you alright? Is it too hot here?—”
Stupid.
“—We can always find shelter.”
Cat.
“Yeah,” she quickly stands up and faces away, a hand on her yo-yo, “that’s probably a good idea!”
She hates how high-pitched her voice is.
Ladybug hastily throws it in a random direction. She doesn’t even know where she’s going—the heat within her face is frying her brain—but with her luck, the yo-yo always manages to latch onto something.
And off she goes.
Forget Chat Noir being her best friend. The wind has knocked him off of his rightful place and is now her best friend.
She hears the sound of his baton extending behind her, and she looks back, only to see his brows pinched and his nose scrunched up.
Shit shit shit!
At least he’s following her. That’s got to be something, right?
Marinette plops into her bed face down the moment she enters her room from the skylight. She doesn’t care if she hasn’t showered after that patrol. She doesn’t care if she’s dirty and sweaty and that she’s lying on a newly changed, clean bed lining.
She just wants comfort now.
“Tikki Tikki Tikkkkkkkkkkkkiiiiiiii~” she whines.
“What’s wrong, Marinette?” Tikki’s voice appears right by her ear.
“Didn’t you see? Chat Noir, he—”
“No.”
Marinette grabs the pillow and shoves her head into it more. “I think he hates me now and wants a new partner. I mean, did you see the look on his face?!”
A pause. A pause that goes on for longer than she’s comfortable with. She lifts her head from the pillow to look at Tikki.
It was getting hard to breathe.
“Again, no.”
Her head hits the headrest again. “Oh là là !”
“Marinette, are you done?”
She squirms. No, no she’s not. Marinette wants to scream. How did it end up like this? Everything was fine! She was going to keep it professional! She—
She’s in the process of a breakup and she can’t deal with it! Not again!
A particularly painful impact collides with her temple, and she moves her head to see Tikki’s unimpressed face. “Why would he want a new partner?”
“Because I rejected his offer to help once again!” she cries.
Marinette didn’t think that Tikki’s face could go beyond what she’s displayed to her before, but just then, it did. And a tiny part of her is impressed that such a small creature can convey so much emotion. But she’s mostly offended that Tikki is so done with her.
Tikki then looks at her dead in the eyes, makes sure she has her entire attention on her, and Marinette really thought Tikki was about to gobble her up whole, when she suddenly has the sweetest smile on her face and says, “You need help.” Before floating away to munch on her delicious cookies.
Marinette watches her go with wide eyes. “Hey! What do you mean! Tikki! HEY!”
━━━・❆・━━━
How did she survive this back then?
Just. How?
Okay, she admits—only to herself—this is not a piece of cake. She gives up! It has happened before, why did she think she can be composed a second time?
Ladybug’s sure all Chat Noir sees right now is a blob of red, with black dots everywhere else except the top, which is where her jet black hair is. Her cheeks are set ablaze and she’s dying, but she really needs to get that cursed Akuma so that she can put an end to this.
Well… one part of this, not the other.
Not the part where his hands are on her.
Ladybug does not hide what she truly likes; she’s a woman of her words after all.
It seems that the Akuma really hates her today. The aggression towards her never stops and Chat Noir has to dive in to rescue her a couple of times. The force of his body pushing them away from the scene sends them rolling on the ground together each time, arms around each other, and they come to a stop with her on top of him, or vice versa. Either way, her face is always beet red whenever it happens.
She’s sure Chat Noir notices, there’s no way he doesn’t. But she’s thankful that he says nothing each time.
Anyway.
It’s not because Ladybug isn’t paying attention to the battle, it’s because her own efforts to dodge all the attacks are turning futile and Chat Noir has to step in. And even with him coming face to face with the Akuma to defend her, Chat Noir is left totally unscathed.
A Chat Noir fan, perhaps?
They eventually come up with a brilliant plan to make sure Ladybug doesn’t get hit too.
And it works like a charm.
Yes, even for her, though she’ll never admit it to his face.
They still have to evade the attacks, but it’s less intense now that she basically has her body attached to his.
Literally.
Chat Noir carries Ladybug around like a doll. He piggybacks her at times, and the way his claws dig into her thighs as they swerve the Akuma’s attacks has her squeaking.
Other times, his hand snakes around her waist, pulling her as close to his body as possible, for some reason Ladybug wasn’t paying attention to, because she’s busy trying her best not to die from how close their bodies are pressed together.
This time, she is trying to figure out her Lucky Charm. And she’s looking at it intently, but nothing’s coming to her mind. Not when she’s being bridal carried. They found a spot and hid from the Akuma, and Chat Noir is on the lookout while he gives Ladybug ample time to figure out how to win the day.
“Chaton, you can put me down now,” she squeaks.
Guess that’s how she sounds now.
He holds her tighter, and her heart skips a beat. “No, it’s too dangerous. Nothing can happen to you.”
Despite how it looks to others with him carrying her around, his touch is always featherlight and tender.
He has always been so gentle with her, since the beginning.
The observation sets her heart racing. Ladybug’s going to combust if this goes on any longer.
“C—Chat Noir, I—I need you to put me down, so that I can figure out how to use the Lucky Charm!!”
And as though he realises her abashment for the first time since the Akuma attacked, he lets her go, and she falls onto the ground.
“Ow.”
“My Lady!” He kneels beside her to help her up. “I’m so sorry!”
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” she holds onto his hand and rubs her bottom, “just, stop touching me for a second.”
Never stop touching her.
“Just g—grab me when you need me,” Ladybug retracts her earlier statement and goes to the fallen Lucky Charm, putting some distance between them and trying to get her mind to work again.
She needs this to end fast.
No she doesn’t. She needs to get back to him fast.
━━━・❆・━━━
Maybe she only has herself to blame for this.
Her own greed landed her in this situation. Not that she minds, but she’s so hot she can basically cook an egg on the top of her head.
Ladybug isn’t sitting too close to him at first, she sits at a respectable distance from him—enough for her to throw secret glances at him once in a while. But then there really isn’t much to do during patrol. So she decides to just scoot closer to him. And she didn’t do it discreetly like the last time; she just stands and plops herself down beside him.
Chat Noir eyes her when she makes the move. She senses his eyes on her even as she sits down. What started as a curious gaze shifts into a mischievous smile when she looks at him again after getting comfortable.
Then, it was his turn to make a move. He first lays his head on her shoulder, which she really wasn’t expecting at all, so she flinches at the contact. He then starts rubbing his head against her, his hair tickling her chin—that, she had to get him to stop, lest he discovers her weakness.
“Chat Noir, what are you doing?”
He stops and looks at her with that same grin again and stands to walk to a wider, open space behind her.
“Oh nothing, just stretching, you see?” He proceeds to stretch one of the most exaggerated stretches she has seen in her life.
“Silly Chaton,” she giggles and faces forward again.
He continues his bizarre stretching and she pays him no attention. Ladybug would love to look at him as he stretched, but she’s too scared of doing so. She got caught once, she’s not going to get caught a second time.
Chat Noir starts counting out loud and her curiosity gets the better of her. Ladybug is about to turn her head when she feels hands on her shoulders, and Ladybug's breath hitches.
“C—Chato—”
He places his chin on the crown of her head, sucks in a deep breath, and whines.
“Patrol is soooooo boooring!”
He swirls her body along with his and she feels her head heating up. He lets go of his hold and stands beside her, taking her hands in his and pulling her to stand.
“Come dance with me, my Lady!”
Chat Noir leads her to the place where he did his stretches, with a softer, brighter smile now sitting on his face. His hand is on her waist once they arrive at the middle of the open space, and he starts guiding her around in calculated steps. His touch is so gentle again, and Ladybug does not know how she has not turned into a puddle of goo yet.
They continue gliding along the rooftop, Chat Noir twirling her around a few times, and she lets him, because why the fuck not? She's getting a dance she didn’t think she would get in the first place and she’s enjoying it, of fucking course she’s not going to stop him.
She keeps her eyes on her feet, anxious that she might step on him, but he does a great job at making sure she doesn’t. The footwork he sets isn’t hard to follow. And when she’s confident enough to leave her feet to their own accord, Ladybug lifts her gaze to him, and she realises that he has been staring at her the whole time. Those eyes, so full of love directed at her, and her mind is hazy with heat again.
“Ladybug, are you okay?” His voice is warm and soft. “You’re really red.”
This aggravating cat!
“I—I’m fine.”
“Really?” Their dancing has stopped this time, and he touches her forehead before cupping her cheeks. How has she not fainted yet with him touching her so tenderly is beyond her.
“Buguinette, you’re really hot. Are you sure you don’t want to end the patrol to go home and rest?”
She wants to. She so desperately wants to. She doesn't think she can take this anymore.
Ladybug looks down and circles her arms around him, hugging him close, one ear on his chest.
It’s so soothing to listen to his heartbeat that she practically melts into him. She thinks this must be enough to show him what’s going on with her all this while.
It has to be.
And just like how he always manages to read her like a book, he shows her his way of understanding now, too. His arms wrap around her as tightly as she remembers their embrace back on the Trocadéro. She pushes herself deeper into him.
“You’re so clingy.”
“You came into my space and started up a convoluted plan to get me to hug you??”
Letting yourself write the “wrong” WIPs can give you the breath of air you need to write whatever project you’re “supposed” to be working on, sometimes.
Adrien finally gets to experience comfort again after a few years of being in the cold. But this time, from another beloved.
Rating: T, Words: 2396, Chapters: 1/1
Read on AO3
Warmth, a flowy and heartening sensation he constantly feels around and within him now. And he’s forever grateful for it to be back in his life once again. He knows exactly what it is. After all, it had etched itself onto him for most of his life.
But just until sometime before this, it was always cold. Warmth is always there, but it was far removed from him—like how he would desperately reach out to grab the brightest dazzling star hanging in the vast dark night, only to realise that it was impossible to do so in the first place. He could only yearn hopelessly for it.
It was stripped away from him after a major shift within his life, and he felt so cold and hollow. He didn’t think anything was capable of destroying such a powerful and lovely emotion. But he was wrong, and those were a lonely few years. They were painful too.
And as though warmth knows that he’s thinking of the terrible past again, it envelops him once again, bringing him back to where he truly belongs.
He smiles.
Yes. It’s brighter now, and that’s all that matters.
Adrien woke up to a pleasant sunny day, and given how infrequent such weather could happen, he was sure that the rest of the Parisian population would flock out of their houses to enjoy the sunshine too.
For once, he’s thankful for the mansion he lives in…
It’s so warm and cosy, and Adrien really cannot get enough of it. The amount of joy he experiences by just lazing around under the sun is incomprehensible to him.
The grass patch against his back—though regularly trimmed and voided of the colourful dots he often sees in gardens that scatter across the city—provided him with enough cushion not to get uncomfortable after lying on it for so long.
The tender sun rays kiss his skin as he basks in the sunlight. It’s a rare sight to see him in shorts, but it’s a deliberate choice to still be in his pyjamas. He wanted as much contact with the toasty daylight as possible.
The light breeze that flows around him, and the sound of the gentle rustling of leaves from above remind him that he still has his face under the shade. And as much as he loves the sunbeams, he still prefers his current position, especially when it feels so soothing.
The soft and delicate fingers that thread through his hair and massage his scalp every now and then bring about such blissfulness he can’t help but release a deep rumble behind his throat.
“Adrien, Chaton is showing.”
Did he mention how comfortable he is whenever he rests on her lap?
He opens his eyes to gaze at Marinette’s blue glinting ones.
… and how very fortunate he is to be with her, just the two of them, in their own bubble of happiness.
He purrs again. “What is showing?”
Marinette leans down to plant a kiss on his lips, and he smiles against her lips.
“Try again?”
“Hmm, try what?”
And Marinette leans in to press her lips against his forehead this time. “Now you’re just doing it on purpose to get more kisses.”
“Can’t blame me when you have such sweet lips, my Lady.”
She blushes. He decides he wants more of it.
“Not to mention how masterful your massages are, you’re so good at it, Marinette.” he praises.
She flushes a lot more, and Adrien loves seeing her bashful beams over such simple but truthful words. They are so precious to him.
Marinette leans back into the tree and covers her cheeks. “You can’t just spring that on me out of nowhere, mon Chaton.”
Adrien sits up and wraps his arms around her, bringing her down to lie on the grass patch with him. Their faces centimetres apart as they face each other.
Marinette’s eyes widen and pink floods her entire face, she quickly hides behind her hands.
He doesn’t know how he can still breathe with his Lady looking so adorable.
Adrien encircles his fingers around her wrists and brings himself closer to her. He nuzzles the back of her palms to coax her into lowering them.
She does.
“But it’s the truth.”
Her blush is so endearing he leans in to kiss her cheek. “I wish you could look this pink all the time.”
They are so warm too.
She laughs and intertwines their fingers together and squeezes. “I'll faint constantly if I look like this all the time.”
“And I'll be there to catch you every time.” he chuckles.
“Besides,” she pushes him onto his back and lies on top of him. “seeing it so sparingly makes it more special, no?”
Marinette rounds her other arm around his neck, bringing herself impossibly close to him.
“I—”
“But I do agree that seeing it all the time has its perks too.” Her blush is fading, replaced with a confident smirk—the smugness she always has when she knows she’s about to win the fight, but the rosiness is still there. “You look so cute in pink too, Adrien.”
By then, he’s sure that crimson has dusted itself onto his cheeks, probably onto his ears and neck as well.
Enough teasing for now.
He brings his free hand to the back of her head and pulls her down until their lips connect. Both eyes flutter close, getting lost in euphoria, all the while clutching onto each other’s warm hands.
It’s cold again, but nothing out of the ordinary. It's just the weather fluctuating and Adrien feels physically cold. He’s out in the open right now, there’s no way he can feel warm with how the winds are scraping through his skin.
Wintertime is always beautiful in Paris. The lights that are scattered throughout make the city bright and cheery. It’s also a time of joy and love, and Adrien knows in his heart that he now has both, and that he will never feel that feeling ever again—that cold feeling he once was friends with is long gone and dead.
But still, he’s reminded of it.
And just when it’s starting to feel as though the cold could really come back and freeze him over, the warmth that surrounds him as he enters the bakery makes the cold as useless as he remembers it to be.
The bakery is warm, the ambience is warm, the two hugs he received are warm, the walk up isn’t really but he soon gets a small, cute pink cup of hot ginger tea and it feels warm again.
Everything associated with her is warm.
And just to make sure that the cold is down and beaten, Adrien cuddles with Marinette in her bed after a few mouthfuls of delicious pastries and a cup (pink again!) of hot chocolate.
He loves cuddling with her whenever, but especially so when he’s in her room, on her bed. Everything around him is just so Marinette he can literally drown in happiness.
Adrien loves the contact they share whenever they snuggle together. Of them just squishing their bodies as close to each other as possible, feeling her heartbeat just beside his. It’s so intimate.
He squeezes her just a little closer and buries his nose into her hair, inhaling her scent. He could never get enough of it.
She’s so warm too.
But…
Will she still be this close and warm even after what he has done?
Marinette shifts in his arms, her ear directly above his heart.
What if he sounds too cheesy? Worse, what if he sounds too clingy? Will she leave him? Will she be disgusted with him? Will whatever he has right now just fizzle up into nothing? Into that thing he so despises, the worst time of his life. He made sure everything would be just fine. No secrets, everything about him laid bare for her to see, for her to use, for her to take. Did he overstep a boundary?
Will she hate him?
Adrien shut his eyes. He can’t even phantom such a thought because he would die even before he can experience it. Will she—
“Minou, are you okay?” She looks up from her spot on his chest. “Your heart is beating so fast.”
Really hard too, he can hear the thumping in his ears.
“U—Uh, yes!” Adrien’s face feels hot. Was it from him being caught? Or from her looking so damn cute, with her chin on his chest and her cheeks looking so squishy all he wants to do is pinch them. He doesn’t know, both are equally plausible. “I was just thinking…”
“Thinking…?”
“I have s—something to— I mean! C—can you teach me how to doodle?”
She fixates on him.
He blinks at her.
She raises an eyebrow. “Is… Is that why your heart is beating so wildly? You’re… you’re worried that I won’t teach you?” She pauses, as though waiting for him to correct her, but he didn’t. She clasps his hands in hers. “Uh, sure! Just let me get some pens and paper.”
And she left his side.
Just like how she would after he presents to her what he has done.
He’ll be left in the cold again, never to feel the constant warmth in his life ever again.
Adrien clutches the paper in his pocket.
Maybe he shouldn’t—
He feels two soft hands cupping his cheeks. He lifts his eyes to see her sad ones.
“Adrien, is everything alright?”
The pens and papers are set aside, no, chucked aside. And he’s reminded of how he can’t hide anything from her. Always so attentive to his needs and wants. Something he didn’t have when he—
Maybe he shouldn’t be afraid. Maybe she’ll accept his gift willingly. But… But what if he’s wrong.
He has to be, his life is constant bad luck after all.
And she just has to make this harder for him than it already is, with the care and concern she’s giving him. Adrien really wants to cry. All this will be gone really soon, the care and tenderness, the warmth, a loving home. Everything.
A soft brush against his cheek brings his attention back to her again. “Adrien?”
He smiles. “Not really, but teach me how to doodle?”
There’s no use lying to her. Marinette could always tell.
She returns with worried eyes. “But—”
“I’ll explain after I learn how to doodle?” Maybe this would suffice as their last day as a couple together…
Who is he kidding, it never could.
Marinette peppers kisses all over his face. “Mon Chaton, you’re really scaring me.”
Adrien takes her wrist and places a kiss on the back of her hand, holding her hand like he always has been doing since the very beginning. Her bare hand. And to think that there was a time when all these were nothing but a distant dream to him. “Please?”
Marinette blinks rapidly. “What do you want to doodle?”
He brushes her skin under her eye. “Us? As our civilians and superhero selves?”
She stares at him. “A doodle isn’t enough to show how beautiful you are, Adrien.”
What a way to lift the mood. He laughs and winks. “Oh come on, doodles have their own beauty too. Besides, I can’t draw.”
“Then I’ll draw for you!”
“But I really want to doodle! At least create something of my own.”
They partake in a staredown, and Marinette proceeds to gather her materials again. “Fine.” She hands them over to him.
“Oh, I have my own piece of paper, I just need a pencil.”
“Alright,” she lies next to him, ready to doodle. “First you need to…”
Ten minutes later, Marinette doodled them perfectly, while Adrien resorted to doodling a cat and a ladybug for their superheroes selves. Doodling two humans is more than enough work for him.
“How cute!” Marinette giggles as she focuses on his paper. “Look at those big heads and small bodies!”
Adrien shifts the paper towards her. “Want a closer look?”
“Yes!” She picks it up and admires them, only to see handwritten words behind the doodles. Marinette shifts her gaze to him, sees him nodding, and moves to flip the paper open.
My Buguinette,
You made buttercups grow inside of me in places I didn't know were still alive.
Your presence made my life a lot brighter and every millisecond spent with you is filled with joy and love.
I never knew I would find a love that is so pure and kind. You are both and so much more (which I can’t write them all down, else you will be receiving more than 10 pages of paper).
You gave me hope in my worst moments, and suddenly the world becomes so much more magical.
My Lady, I shall love you eternally and agelessly, and no amount of time will change my admiration and adoration for you.
Many hugs and kisses and love,
Adrien
So many things happened within those few seconds. Adrien was bracing for her screams of him to get out of the house, but that never came. One second he was receiving multiple soft hits on his right shoulder—to the point of being pushed onto his back—the next second, Marinette was lying on top of him and raining down kisses on him.
“This was what you’re afraid of?” Each word is punctuated with a kiss. “You’re afraid of giving me a love letter?”
“I was—” It’s so hard to explain himself when she’s kissing him like that. And he’s thrilled that she loves his gift! “I was afraid you would find me too clingy.”
She stops her kissing, but her face is still right by his own. “Mon Minou, have you seen me?”
“Well, yes—”
“I have your next 35 birthday gifts planned out!” She sits up and glowers at him. “You are not clingy. Even if you are, I don’t mind! Let’s be obsessed with each other!”
“But—”
Adrien can’t speak anymore as his lips are busy moving against her sweet lips. He cups her cheeks to deepen the kiss.
As much as he wants her to know his reason for feeling down earlier, he tells himself that that can wait. He won’t interrupt her, not when she’s giving him so much attention.
