THERE WERE SOME PEOPLE WHO SHONE BRIGHTLY COMPARED TO THE AVERAGE PERSON, people who held grace & power & used it for good to conquer the forces of evil. Those were the types of men & women reserved for poetry & art, who had their tales told for centuries to come & would never be forgotten for their brave deeds, for their heroic actions that allowed people to live - no, these heroes would never been forgotten so long as their sacrifices were not in vain, no matter how many came before them & no matter how many were left to come.
All of his life, Shoto was told he would be one of the stars & he would be up there in the skies with those people, with the kind & the strong & the warriors & the fighters who didnât know how to give up or when to give in. However, heâd always known that to be a lie his mother told to give him strength, to protect him from the abusive father who had marked him as a masterpiece. However, her lies fell apart as quickly as they were built.
She had promised him safety someday but that promise was broken when he was only six, boiling water over his left eye & his own screaming. The memories of that day had never left him, nor had the undeniable fact he had been faced with at a young age: his mother was dead & gone. That day, part of Shoto died too.
He had been raised by his father only. His siblings were not allowed to see him, they withered under his gaze â Toya was the first to leave, cursing Shotoâs name as if he had wanted this life, & Natsuo soon followed with apologetic gazes & not a care for his estranged siblings. Fuyumi, too, eventually left, with a sad smile & the hope he would be safe â but it didnât matter, because Shoto did not miss her, did not dare to let his stone heart beat lest the emotion be beaten out of him.
Cat Noir came in the form of a distraction, of a ring entrusted to him by an elderly man with a sad shake of the head & a promise that perhaps he could one day save himself from his own fate. He hadnât understood at first, not until he put it on & met Plagg, not until he saw the bright attitude of the kwami & wanted it for himself, wanted to feel the type of joy that radiated from him.
However, it was Ladybug that made him keep the miraculous, that stopped him from casting it away out of jealousy & fear that his father may find out. Ladybug with his radiant grin & reassurances that everything would be find & the type of presence that Shoto could only view as comfortable â Ladybug, who forced his frozen heart to work once more, who broke down every wall of Shotoâs until there was nothing but who he wanted to be. However, perhaps that wasnât quite true, because Shoto had not changed at all. No, Cat Noir changed from distant & distrustful to bright & vibrant & colourful & matching everything Ladybug was, but Todoroki Shoto was still cruel & cold & callous & just like his father.
Today was a bad night, heâd decided. On these nights, he would often sneak out as Cat Noir, making his way to his favourite rooftop â opposite the bakery his classmateâs parents owned, Midoriya Izuku if he recalled was his name â & carefully removing his box of comfort items from the shadows he stored it in, thankful to find nothing was missing. It was waterproof & contained few things â in specific, a sleeping mat, a blanket, a pillow & some of his favourite snacks & drinks. He hadnât told anyone it existed, not even Ladybug, not wanting his peace to be taken away much like every other good thing in his life.
He had been there little over a half hour when he heard Ladybugâs footsteps, looking away from the stars heâd been gazing at & setting his eyes on the other, lips quirked into a small smile. âNothing amiss, I hope, mâlord.â He murmured, shifting slightly & inviting him to sit next to him, humming to himself. âTo what do I owe your presence tonight?â
( & as much as he wanted to, cat noir was aware ladybug was never there to see him. even if i wanted him to be mine he would never agree to that. )
         izuku midoriya had always wanted to help people. it was a dream of his, & he wasnât shy about his fantasies. his room was filled with superhero memorabilia. he always wished that he had been born with some kind of power so that he could rescue those who needed saving, but that just wasnât how the world worked.
         until now.
         izukuâs life had been normal. he went to school, & he worked with his parents in the bakery at the bottom of their apartment. he loved it, & it made him happy, but he had always wanted more. everything changed when he was given his miraculousâ a pair of earrings that transformed him into everything he wanted to be.
         in his costume, he was no longer a clumsy wreck, & his luck was astounding. he was overjoyed ! he could finally help people. along with that came chat noir, his charming partner in crime. izuku wondered if he would have fell for him if he wasnât already madly in love with a cute boy named shoto from his class. he had fallen so hard, so quickly, & now he felt as if it was irreversible.
         one night, izuku had transformed into ladybug as he often did. even though there were no akumatized victims in the city at the time, as far as he knewâ sometimes he just liked to roam the city. he crawled up the ladder to his balcony & stopped in his tracks when he noticed someone familiar on the roof across from him.
         chat... ?
         izuku very quietly crawled out, making sure not to draw attention to himself as he used his yo-yo to fling himself to a building in the distance. he then arrived to the roof that chat was on & landed behind him.
         â hello, chat, â izuku said softly, before plopping down next to chat noir & crossing his legs against the roof. â i was just roaming. itâs nice out here at night. â he looked up to the stars. things were much calmer without an akuma on the loose, & it gave him a sense of calming. â what about you ? â
