come forth into the storm
Marinette’s love for Adrien was a lightning strike, but Ladybug’s love for Chat Noir was thunder.
Read on Ao3
Words: 2596, Language: English
Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Categories: M/F
Relationships: Ladynoir
A white day present for @caseverything for the @miraculous-valentine-exchange White Day exchange! This is kind of a loose interpretation of the prompt, and it’s a few days late, but, well. Hope you enjoy it anyway <3
Marinette had only fallen in love once before. She fell hard and fast, moving from unaffected to hopeless as fast as she could blink, the feelings assaulting her in the milliseconds her eyes were closed.
She accepted it and charged forward. She pursued Adrien in the way she did everything: with a single mindedness and determination that bordered on bullheadedness. She let nothing stop her, even when she became a puppet pulled into flailing movements by strings of anxiety and nerves.
Everything that happened with Adrien seemed to be a lightning strike, an unmistakable flash of light that seared impressions into her vision and left her blind to the world. She looked on even as spots danced in her vision and thought that this must be the only way to love. But she was so busy being dazzled by the electricity of her first love that she missed the quiet, steady rumbling of the after effects of the bolt.
That was how she let herself fall in love with Chat Noir.
She never even understood it was happening. She was so used to dealing with lightning that she forgot about thunder. But though the thunder may be slower, low and rolling and deep, it is just as powerful.
It happens like this:
“You know, I think I’m experiencing deja-moo,” Chat crows, already laughing at his punchline as they raced across the rooftops in pursuit of the akuma victim.
She knows she shouldn’t ask, but she does anyway. “…Excuse me?”
“You know, deja-moo. The feeling that you’ve seen this bull before.”
Normally, this is where she would roll her eyes, or groan. Instead, she smiles, an amused burst of air escaping through her nose. Chat seems to notice a difference, glancing back at her with wide eyes when he sees the smile on her lips. But she doesn’t notice, and she’s left confused as to why he shoots her a smile that makes warmth seep through her chest.
Chat holds out his fist to her, and she looks up at him with a triumphant expression. In the millisecond before her fist meets his, she looks at him, and maybe it’s for the first time, because framed in the late morning light, chest heaving and hair askew, she finally sees that her partner is beautiful. The honeyed light plays off of his golden locks and she thinks she can almost see a halo, her boy a beautiful clash of gold and black, dark and light.
But then her fist meets his, and the moment is left behind as just another moment. There was a revelation there, maybe, but it was really information she knew all along, wasn’t it? She doesn’t think about it again for a while.
It takes her two minutes to figure out what to do with her lucky charm. In those two minutes, Chat Noir ends up across the banks of the Seine and even as she sets her plan into motion, she takes a moment to pray he is able to read her mind in that way that is so accurate it almost scares her, because no one has ever known her so intimately before. But it’s only almost, because in the end, their seamless partnership is essential to moments like this.
She takes a deep breath and waits until another blast of water shoots by her face, but this time, instead of dodging, she takes a swan dive off of the bridge she’s standing on. In the weightless moment when she’s falling, she thinks she hears Chat scream something, but her thoughts on the matter are dashed as she hits the river and her world is swirling darkness and rushing water. She curls in on herself at first, eyes squeezing closed as she tries not to think about what exactly is in the water jerking her about. The beach ball in her hand pulls her up before she can right herself, and she just has enough presence of mind to keep it in her arms before its buoyancy rips it away. She breaks into the open air, letting herself take one gasping inhale before she’s diving below the water again, this time propelling herself towards the akuma victim, beach ball bobbing after her.
Once she’s beneath the giant amoeba-like akuma victim, she manages a glance up and sees Chat diving at the akuma victim, cataclysm activated. Ladybug takes another deep breath and uses the distraction to press herself into the outer membrane of the monster. As expected, it gives, and then she’s underwater again, except not in the water of the Seine, but the body of the akuma victim. Again, she tries not to think about it too much, and angles the beach ball so it’s pulling her up through the body of the amoeba, to the water gun floating in the center, previously inaccessible. With the speed of the beach ball trying to shoot to the open air, she almost misses it, but she has snagged and broken the gun before she even breaks the surface on top of the monster.
The akuma doesn’t seem to know how to fly underwater, but Ladybug doesn’t know how to throw her yoyo underwater, either. They both end up struggling until purple courses over the body they’re in and it’s gone, and they’re both floating in the open air- and then the akuma is flying, and Ladybug is falling. Her yoyo snaps out and purifies the akuma before it can get too far, and then she’s in the Seine again.
Before she can do anything else, a warm body envelops hers, and Ladybug looks down to see Chat, clinging to her. He’s soaking wet and shaking, so she just wraps one arm around him and kicks her way to the shore. She pulls herself out and Chat follows, but even as she throws the beach ball in the air he doesn’t let go.
“I thought you- and then- you were falling and I didn’t see come up,” he finally manages, and it clicks. Ladybug wraps both her arms around him in silent apology and tucks her head into the crook of his neck. She murmurs reassurances against his skin that she knows don’t do nearly as much as her warm body against his, proof that she is there, unharmed.
If her heart beats a little faster than normal when his strong arms pull her even closer in his embrace, well, it’s hard to tell with all the adrenaline still coursing through her veins.
“Yes, it’s really important to us that civilians evacuate during an attack, as soon as possible. We want to keep everyone from getting hurt, but we can only do so much.”
“But you can fix everything that happens during an attack, can’t you?”
Ladybug fixes the reporter with a stern look. “I don’t want to experiment with the safety of Paris’s citizens. If there’s an attack, seek shelter as soon as possible, if possible. No more questions, please.” She turns away from the camera crew with one last smile, eyes seeking her partner as a respite from the media.
She spots him crouching near a little boy who’s wrapped in a shock blanket. She can’t hear what he’s saying, but the little boy laughs and smiles, flickering to life again in the presence of his spark. He stands up and ruffles the boy’s hair, and when he looks around and catches her gaze, she realizes she’s smiling. She winks at Chat and waves, and then she’s running off, wondering why she never considered if Chat would be good with kids, and then wondering why she’d wonder that.
“Chat!” she calls, freezing where she stands. Her hands shoot up in front of her, feeling around in the pitch blackness as her ears strain to hear anything.
A warmth envelops her hand and she instinctively grabs onto it. “Can you see anything?” a familiar voice asks from a foot to her right, and she shakes her head, knowing that he can see even if she can’t. “Then I’ll be your guide for tonight, my lady,” he continues, smile evident in his voice. His hand shifts in hers until he’s gripping her wrist and she’s gripping his, and then he’s pulling gently. She follows carefully, feeling vulnerable in her blindness even though she trusts Chat to guide them out.
As if sensing her fear, he squeezes her wrist. Just a simple, comforting gesture, but calm seeps from their point of contact through her entire body.
A moment later, she squeezes back.
“I still don’t think hide-and-seek is an appropriate way to use our patrol time,” Ladybug chides, but her eyes are already closed and she’s ready to count.
“We’re honing our search and rescue skills!” Chat replies, voice already several rooftops away.
Ladybug rolls her eyes, despite the fact that her eyes are closed and Chat is too far to see anyway. As soon as her countdown is over, she’s off like a shot, eyes darting around with determination. But soon she’s realizing that finding a boy in a black suit amidst the layers of shadows that blanket the Parisian rooftops at night is a lot harder than she first assumed.
She stops, looks around, and decides to change tactics. Several well placed swings later, she’s standing on the tallest building in the area and scowling down at the surrounding roofs.
A moment later the light sounds of footsteps alert her to someone else’s arrival, and she’s throwing her yoyo before she has even turned around. By the time she’s facing behind her, Chat is on the ground, surprised and completely caught in the string. She laughs and sits next to him, looking down at his wide eyed form. “I win.”
“I thought you gave up,” he whines, though he’s still smiling despite his position.
“No, I was just trying something else. You have a stupid advantage in this game, you know.”
“The stealth and grace of a cat?”
Ladybug raises one eyebrow, deliberately looking up and down Chat’s prone form, limbs splayed at awkward angles where they’re caught in the wire. She doesn’t verbalize it, but the denial in the look is obvious. Instead, she plows on, “Black suit versus polka dots. Who blends into the night better?”
“Well, obviously, my lady. I am simply a shadow, and you belong in the spotlight.”
She looks at him for a long moment, and then shakes her head and flicks her wrist. Chat rolls away as the yoyo releases him. “You’re a ridiculous person,” she finally says, instead of trying to complete the half finished thoughts clouding her head.
“Ah, but I’m your ridiculous person.”
A pause.
“Yeah?” she asks quietly.
He sits up, tiling his head slightly as his eyes roam her face. His expression softens slightly, his eyes clearing up just a little as he replies, just as quietly, “Yeah.”
She smiles. Not a wide, aching grin. Just an earnest, content smile.
Ladybug is always looking ahead. Literally and figuratively. She’s always planning their next move, and she never has to look behind her, because she knows that Chat has both of their backs. So she looks ahead, and charges forward.
But once, standing on a rooftop at sunset, she looks back. She doesn’t think anything about the action until her sweeping gaze catches on her partner’s face, and she’s suddenly hit with the realization that she’s never bothered looking behind her before. She couldn’t have, because she would remember this look. Chat’s entire expression is relaxed, and his eyes are softer than they have any business ever being while they are supposed to be looking for criminals. But his eyes aren’t trained on the streets below them. They’re looking at her. For a moment, his lingering gaze has her convinced that they couldn’t be looking at anything else, because in this moment nothing else exists.
Then his smile slides from quietly content to lopsided and teasing, and the moment is over.
But his eyes don’t change. She’s suddenly unsure if they ever do, when looking at her.
Marinette almost lets loose a vicious curse as the world around her explodes. She’s really not in the mood for an akuma attack, right now. But obviously Hawk Moth doesn’t care about her emotional well-being, because an akuma attack is happening anyway, and she really has no choice but to vault behind a table and transform.
Chat Noir shows up within minutes, beaming at her as usual, but she can’t really summon up the energy to do more than nod at him. They make quick work of the akuma, and Ladybug is about to run off when Chat catches her arm.
Ladybug bristles at the pity she expects to be showered over her, but Chat surprises her when instead he just asks, “Do you want to cancel patrol tonight?”
The concern is still implied, but he’s not bothering her with the same question she’s gotten all day: Are you okay? It’s a nice break, and she relaxes just a little, smiling up at him tiredly and patting his hand on her arm. “No. It’s just been a bad day for me, nothing major.”
He looks like he’s about to add something else, but the tension still in her face and frame keep his mouth shut, and he leaves her with a remark about how he’ll see her tonight.
Marinette slogs her way through the rest of the day, and by the time patrol rolls around, she’s in an even fouler temper than before. She bounds across rooftops, trying to let the day fly away on the wind that whips her hair behind her, and it works a little. But she can still feel the dregs of annoyance and frustration as she stops on a rooftop to wait for Chat.
He shows up a handful of minutes later, excitement pouring off of him in waves and any other time it would be an annoyance at most, but after the day she’s had, she’s not sure she can deal with a hyperactive catboy tonight. She’s about to say as much when Chat holds a box out to her, and she takes it on reflex, even before she registers that it’s a gift.
Her eyes flicker down to the package, and she realizes it’s a box of assorted chocolates.
“I wasn’t sure what kind of chocolate my lady prefers, so I thought options would be nice. But sometimes something sweet is needed to salvage a bad day.” He beams at her, and she looks between the box and Chat several times before she feels a warmth blooming in her chest and on her face.
“Oh. Thank you,” she says numbly, trying to figure out how her beautiful mess of a boy could turn her day on its nose with one thoughtful gesture.
And then he smiles at her, and she thinks, Oh. That’s how.
And then, Huh. I’m in love with my partner.
And finally, Yeah… I might be in trouble.
Maybe, if she had been paying attention, she would have heard the thunder and hidden herself away, guarded herself against the storm.
Maybe, if she had known who he really was, she would have expected thunder to follow lightning.
Maybe, if she had known Chat first, he would have been the lightning strike.
Maybe, or maybe not. But it happened how it happened, and Ladybug was in love with Chat Noir while Marinette was in love with Adrien.
But of course it would end that way. After all, you can never have lightning without thunder.
