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“Great job, Chaton,” Ladybug stood proudly after their customary fist bump on a top of the Eiffel Tower, her sight focused somewhere in the city, a soft smile playing on her lips. Yet it didn’t reach her eyes for some reason, her mind obviously occupied by something else, something way more important than her lovesick partner by her side. Even her fighting today was a little distracted, Chat noted. Something was definitely bothering his Lady. Maybe, he should…
“I have to go now,” Ladybug added, breaking his train of thought, her eyes still focused on the place Chat Noir suspected he knew very well. “Would you take care of Nino?”
“Sure.” Chat tilted his head to a side. A light smirk played on his lips as he wondered, “What’s the rush, my Lady? You didn’t use your Lucky Charm on your second transformation. Stay. We’ll get rid of him—“ he playfully glanced into Nino’s direction, “—and will hang out for a while. Paris is especially beautiful at night, you know. Not that it compares to you in any way but-”
At his enthusiasm Ladybug only rolled her eyes and prepared to depart. “As much as it’s fun to hang out with you, Chat, I have a boyfriend with whom I need to talk today. Just take care of Nino and I’ll see you at the patrol tomorrow, okay?”
“Yeah, sure. No problem. You go. I’ll take care of everything,” Chat sadly sighed, looking after her disappearing into the night figure. “But your boyfriend isn’t home, my Lady,” he added almost silently. “He’s here, watching you fly away-”
“Dude!”
Chat froze and spun around. Nino! He forgot about Nino! Nino who could hear everything he said in the silence of the top of the Eiffel Tower.
“Dude, seriously???” the boy frowned. For a moment he thought he was mistaken in his assumptions from those few words that slipped from Chat’s lips but the reaction he’d gotten from the Parisian hero was all the confirmation needed.
“It’s complicated.” Chat’s shoulders slouched as he turned around to face his friend, crossing his arms over his chest. The air all of a sudden got really thick.
“What’s so complicated about it, bro?” Nino’s hand landed on Chat’s arm as he stepped closer. “Tell her. If she is dating your civilian persona, she shouldn’t mind him also being her hero partner.”
“You think so," Chat asked yet his voice gave no indication of a question. It was more of a bitter statement than anything else. He looked Nino into the eyes for a moment, pursed his lips and confessed.
“I tried to win her over for years as Chat Noir and she never gave in. Yet one fortunate encounter with my civilian self, being stuck in a closed environment for a few hours, and random but frequent make out session began,” Chat paused to let Nino’s whistle die away. “Not that I am complaining. Plus, she agreed to be my girlfriend two weeks ago. My civilian self’s girlfriend. It’s just…”
“You are not planning on telling her?” Nino raised his eyebrows in a surprise.
“How can I, Nino?” Chat sighed and plopped on the steel beam under him. “Isn’t it obvious by now? She doesn’t like Chat Noir. Not how she likes civilian me, at least. Once she finds out, she’d dump me. In her eyes, I assume, Chat isn’t as awesome as the other me.”
“What are you talking about, dude?” Nino’s hands flew in exasperation. “Who could be more awesome than you? Have you even seen yourself in a mirror? You are totes cool and amazing and funny and handsome. I have yet to meet a person who hasn’t gotten a crush on you at some point or another. I mean, what’s not to like about you?”
The way a deep blush covered Chat’s face made Nino pause. “Um… yeah,” he bit his lip looking to the side. “The point is, Ladybug would totally be fine with you being you ‘cause you are an awesome dude.”
“Th- thanks?” Chat tried to smile, not even fighting the blush away. It was kind of pleasant to hear his friend say those things if he’d be honest. Adrien had long known that Nino liked Chat Noir since as civilians they did discuss the issue a couple of times. Not that the model/part-time superhero needed an occasional confidence boost but sometimes all those constant Ladybug rejections just hurt a little bit more than before. The boy, it seemed, just didn’t realize how much Nino admired Chat Noir.
“Look,” he mumbled eventually. “That’s very nice of you to say and I know you are trying to help but if Ladybug was okay with me being Chat Noir why hasn’t she reacted to my flirting all these years? I legitimately tried every trick in the anime- I mean, in the book. Let’s face it. The answer is simple – she doesn"t like Chat, not romantically anyway.”
“So you’ll continue dating her as a civilian?”
“I don’t really have a choice, Nino,” Chat whispered into the night. “I love her.”
“All the more reasons to tell her the truth, dude." Nino sat beside him. “If you won’t, you’ll never be able to have a normal relationship. So what’s the point of this whole mess then?”
Chat’s eyes snapped to Nino. Almost shockingly he stared at him for a few moments wondering – was he reading his mind or was it that obvious?
“But what if she dumps me?” Chat repeated, his gaze locking back on his house. Somewhere there Ladybug was waiting for him. Somewhere close to his house the girl he was crazy about was looking at the dark windows of his house wondering where her perfect Adrien was at such a late hour. Somewhere there was the girl he wasn’t ready to give up yet. “I don’t know if I am willing to sacrifice what little I can have with her now for a chance that might not exist,” Chat quietly added.
“So you are saying you’d rather be in a relationship based on a lie with no viable future than trying to build a healthy one?” Adrien almost flinched. Since when was Nino’s voice so worry-filled yet strict, he wondered. Since when was his best bro so straightforward and perceptive?
“There is a future…” he protested weakly.
“Dude.” Nino almost laughed. “I respect you and all for saving Paris, all of us and Alya all the time but what future are you talking about?”
“The one where…” Chat bit his lip nervously, his mind scrambling for the logical and honest answer because no matter how much he denied it he often wondered himself if there was one indeed. Was there really a future for him and Ladybug? She didn’t want to reveal her identity and he was not going to do the same for reasons he voiced earlier.
Would their dates, no matter how heated and heavy they were, be always confined within the walls of his bedroom and maybe a few random roofs when she was willing to take him out? Would he be satisfied with this arrangement when he would want to take her out on a real date? He already did, wanted to take her out so much, yet so far it wasn’t a workable option. What would he do when he would want to propose? He can"t marry a "Ladybug". There has to be a name behind it, the name she didn"t trust him with. What about a more intimate relationship? Would he be satisfied to never see her beautiful face without the mask? Would he be willing to miss out all the time on the way she looked at him when he pushed her over the edge because there would always be a blindfold covering his eyes? Would he?
Would he be even willing to continue all of this with the woman who he loved with all of his being yet who seemed to not trust him enough when it came to the serious things? Would he be willing to tolerate this all for the one who probably didn’t love his Chat side just as much as his famous, rich and supermodel one, who didn"t love all of him, his sillier habits included?
Stop it, Chat shook his head in a desperate attempt to snap out of the destructive train of thoughts. Stop sabotaging yourself. Stop creating a problem where there is none. Stop projecting your insecurities onto your relationship and putting words into her mouth. Stop doubting her. It all will work out somehow. You love her. She loves-
“You are both idiots,” Nino’s voice cut through his maddening self-beating. “You. And your Ladybug isn’t better at all if she plans to continue dating you as Ladybug.”
Chat stared at him in confusion for a moment, then sighed, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. How often had he thought the same thing?
“Yeah, I know. It’s pathetic.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Using the side of us the other likes to get what we want. Pretty idiotic.”
Chat slumped all over again, almost curling in on himself. “Somehow it seemed like a good idea at the start. Or maybe we weren’t really thinking back then but now I know it’s not right. I just can’t… I don’t want to change anything right now…”
“Okay, listen,” Nino’s arm wrapped around Chat’s tense frame as he tried to find the right words. “I am no expert at this stuff but I see things around me. For example, my friend Marinette-“
“Marinette?" Chat frowned. What did Marinette have to do with this?
“Yeah, Marinette.” Nino nodded. “She has this huge crush on my other friend Adrien-“
“A crush?” Chat squeaked.
“To the point where her desktop, phone gallery and walls are covered with the guy’s pictures and she can’t function properly around him,” Nino smirked, completely missing the stupor on Chat’s face. “That’s all cute and stuff but the thing is – she likes him so much that she doesn’t see anyone else around her yet she’s never told him. It’s been years, Chat,” Nino sighed. “Honestly, it’s getting really hard to look at her. If—” Nino bumped Chat’s chest with his finger, “—she’d confess already, she could have a chance with him but she wouldn’t so she is stuck in this damned closed circle crushing on the guy, ignoring others because of him yet never uttering a single word. Do you think this is normal?”
“Are you sure it’s fine with Marinette to let out her most intimate secrets like that to a complete stranger?” Chat ignored the question, voice getting an octave higher at the shocking realization that Marinette did in fact not disliked him or was intimidated by him at all.
“Pfft,” Nino snorted. “Believe me, Chat. That is not a secret. She is hardly subtle about it.”
“I didn’t know!” Chat squeaked again. What was wrong with his voice today?
“That’s because you aren’t in our school, dude,” Nino devised. “Because everyone who has ever seen Marinette around Adrien knows she’s got it bad ever since he came to school. But that is not the point, bro,” Nino paused, considering something. He stretched his arms above the head, settled more comfortably and asked: “Listen, what if your Ladybug is just like Marinette?”
“Huh?” Chat’s eyebrows knitted into a confused frown. “What do you mean she is like Marinette?”
“What if she has it so bad for your civilian self that she doesn’t see you superhero style?”
“That-“
“Might be a possibility, right?” Nino wrapped his arm around Chat’s shoulders as the latter was seemingly lost in thought. “She obviously likes you alot if she is willing to make out with whoever’s under this mask of yours. Tell her the truth now, Chat, lay a strong, healthy foundation for your relationship or you are risking losing it all someday.”
“But what if she dumps me?” Chat whined, the thoughts in his head now madly rushing around with all the what-ifs. There was too much at stake – their relationship, their partnership, the whole dynamic.
“Then she isn’t worthy of you, Chat!” Nino"s fist bumped Chat"s arm. "You are a cool dude and any Ladybug who doesn’t get that isn’t worthy of a guy like you.”
“Aren’t those words a little bit cliché even for you, Nino?” Chat chuckled.
“They are but they are also ridiculously true.” Nino yawned. The day was ending rapidly and as much fun as this was, he needed to get up early tomorrow and preferably not looking like a zombie. “So, dude. Tell her. I am telling you as a friend. If she rejects you, then she"s at a loss but if she doesn’t you"ll have a real girlfriend with a relationship full of possibilities. In any case, she won"t be able to hold this—“ he motioned to the Chat’s suit, “—against you when it comes out. And it will come out one way or the other.”
Turning his gaze back into the direction of his house, Chat nervously bit his lip. Too much at stake but… wasn’t it all already in danger? Hadn’t it always been? Ever since they started this little affair of theirs there were always questions, uncertainties and doubts. There was always this gut wrenching feeling at the back of his mind. Was it even ever as innocent and safe as the two of them seemed to think?
“You know what?” Chat whispered. “You are right, Nino. I will tell her. It’s better to tell her but,“ he paused and turned to Nino with a glint in the corners of his eyes. “If that backfires I know where you live.”
“Wait, what?” Nino blinked in surprise. “How?”
“Um- I- I mean, you are going to tell me now when I’ll drop you off at home, no?”
“No.” Nino frowned. “Drop me off at the bottom of this thing and I’ll walk the rest myself.”
“It’s night and I am not letting you walk home, Nino,” Chat insisted. “It isn’t safe plus Chat express is much faster.”
“What am I a middle school girl or something?” Nino scoffed at the smirk Chat gave him with his last sentence. “Drop me off and go home. I can totes take care of myself. Isn’t there a girlfriend waiting for you anyway?”
“There is,” Chat nodded. “And she won’t have to wait for longer than needed if you would just tell me where to drop you off without a long argument.”
“Fine," Nino growled, giving up the staring contest we realized was pointless after a few minutes.
“Good,” Chat smirked. “Let’s go?”
That night Nino could barely sleep. The next day was promising to be even more exciting. Hopefully, everything would go well and soon LadyNoir would be a reality. Bragging to Alya about his role in the development of the things would definitely be one of his favorite pastimes from now on.
Yet, morning came and, instead, he was doomed to listening to how Alya played a crucial role in her Adrienette ship finally sailing by making Marinette swear and promise on everything alive, stopping short of blackmailing her, to finally confess her feelings to Adrien.
Apparently, yesterday evening Marinette had run into Adrien and finally confessed. Apparently, the blond was just as smitten with her. He was just too shy to admit it out loud. Today they walked into the classroom holding hands, happy smiles and a light blush covering both of their cheeks. Surprisingly, Adrien winked at Nino at the first chance and whispered, “Thanks for the advice, Nino! Worked like a charm”, while just behind them Marinette interrogated Alya trying to find out the name of the traitor who had told Adrien about the shrine dedicated to him in her bedroom.
Nino sighed and braced himself for the fury called Chloe surely soon to come. Hopefully, LadyNoir news would distract her a little… He paused. Or it might make everything just a tad bit worse. A low chuckle escaped his mouth. This was going to be an interesting day.