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cakemousse · 2 years

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sunset; sunrise

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: 3636, 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 have 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??”

“I can stop—”

“Don’t you dare!”

#mesfics #miraculous ladybug #fanfic #ml fanfic #ladynoir #ladybug #chat noir #clownbug #simpbug #simpnoir #gift fic #sunset; sunrise

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