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When Ladybug returned to the spot where Chat had been, she was shocked to see one of her chosen heroes for that day - Viperion - in his place, his back turned to her and his head facing the rooftop below him. She blinked in confusion, certain that she’d sent the other heroes - including him - off to detransform, yet there he was as if waiting there for her.
Dropping down behind him, she called in concern, “Viperion?”
His head rose at her voice, wordlessly telling her that she’d been heard.
“What are you doing here? Where’s Chat?” she asked.
He turned around to face her and she gaped at how visibly upset he looked, his brows furrowed and his fist tightly closed at his side. She’d rarely seen him in such a state before, and especially not when she was Ladybug. The only thing even remotely comparable was when they’d been facing Bob Roth together.
“What happened…?”
“I’m sorry,” he told her. “I know you trust my intuition, and I—” He paused, shaking his head. “—I knew something was wrong when Chat Noir showed up, so I stayed behind. I saw everything.”
“Oh.” She replayed the conversation in her head, now imagining Viperion nearby to hear it all. “Then you…”
She trailed off as his closed fist rose up to be level with her chest. He glanced at his hand, then her, a pained expression taking over his face as he uncurled his fingers.
An involuntary gasp left her. The cat miraculous was resting on his palm, his fingers twitching as if he were forcing himself to maintain some semblance of calm.
While she could only stare in shock, he explained in a low tone, “Chat Noir - Adrien - abandoned you. Us. The team. Paris.” His gaze darkened at the ring in his hand. “Everyone.”
Seeing the miraculous without a holder was already a shock to her system, but the name that she hadn’t expected to hear made her freeze up like she’d been hit by Venom.
“Chat—A-adrien…?” She blinked rapidly, her eyes flickering from the ring to her surroundings as she processed what had been said. The image of Chat and Adrien switching back-and-forth between each other overtook her mind, making no sense to her emotionally and yet she knew that Viperion wouldn’t lie to her about something like this.
Two colors that didn’t go together clashing, perhaps doing well enough separately but making for an awful combination together. Deep down, it made sense in a way she couldn’t quite fathom yet.
She winced as she heard the other heroes she’d called ringing in her head, all concerned and wondering where she was or what they should do with their miraculouses. Her own miraculous was also beeping at her, urging her that she didn’t have time to stand here and do nothing.
“I’ll take responsibility for it.”
She raised her head to look Viperion in the eyes, the unprompted statement bringing her back to reality. “H-huh…?”
He averted his gaze from her, hiding the ring from the world again as his fists clenched at his sides. The brows of his mask furrowed, his teeth grit in his frustration at what she could only guess was the whole situation.
It occurred to her a second later that he must’ve been thinking several steps ahead. Paris was curious about Chat even if he wasn’t around, and thus there’d be an uproar when they heard that he’d quit. They might even question if he quit at all or was “fired,” though that still didn’t explain why Viperion…
“Wait.” She snapped out of it, her internal clock as a hero ticking at her. Turning away, she pulled out her yoyo and held her other arm out to take the ring back, explaining, “I-I’m about to detransform. We’ll have to—”
“I know.”
She reeled her yoyo back in preparation, but stopped as she caught the abnormal inflection in his tone. Suspecting something, she glanced over her shoulder at him and noted the guilty expression on his face. Even though he wasn’t facing her fully, his eyes were staring at her apologetically.
“He’s…” He exhaled through his nose, his lips pressed together in a tight, thin line. “He’s done more than just this.”
In the end, Ladybug couldn’t even find her voice to respond. She still had miraculouses to return and there was simply no time to keep standing around and talking about what had happened.
After recharging and giving Tikki a quick update on what was going on, she returned to being Ladybug in order to retrieve everyone’s miraculouses. Intentionally, she saved Viperion for last, allowing the two of them to return to her house to talk further. They sat down on her chaise side-by-side, all of the kwami watching from afar while she stared down at the ring in her hands.
Luka went into as much detail as possible, starting with their fight with Wishmaker where he first learned hers and Chat’s identities. She’d vaguely remembered the details, but she’d had no idea that Chat had given in to getting hit by the akuma. Neither of the two boys had told her, and though she did feel a little upset with Luka at first for keeping things from her, she understood why he’d done it.
After all, they’d broken up because of her identity. He must’ve known at that point - that she’d wanted so badly to tell him, but couldn’t - and how awfully it could’ve gone for her emotionally if he’d revealed what he’d known on a day where she was already unsure of herself. So many things had gone out of her control, from first getting the miraculous and then to becoming guardian, and this was just yet another thing she didn’t have a choice in.
And through it all, she could see how Luka was affected by the whole thing. He was upset, throwing his arms out whenever he emphasized the most distressing parts of the situation and occasionally running his fingers through his hair as if he had a headache. He was angry with himself, but she could sense that he was also angry on her behalf for how everything had gone down.
“I-it’s not your fault,” she offered, silently wondering how many things she didn’t know about Chat—Adrien, that even Viperion wouldn’t be aware of. Even if Viperion had told her that he’d known, she might’ve simply let it go and nothing would’ve changed.
Especially because, as she was quickly realizing, she would let Chat get away with far more than she maybe should’ve, simply because he was Chat. He would refuse to work with her or neglect putting full effort into battles, and she’d accepted it because he was her partner who’d been there since the very first akuma.
As for Viperion knowing her identity, Alya already knew too. Marinette also knew that - at least in the future - Bunnyx was aware of her and Chat’s identities. When it came to time-based miraculouses, perhaps it was inevitable that they’d know her identity eventually, but…
to think that it was Chat Noir who caused Viperion to know. In fact, she distinctly remembered the Bunnyx of the future as well, saying that Chat had Cataclysmed her miraculous in his recklessness. She even wondered to herself if the Ladybug of the future had been around to see it.
Would she have been told if she wasn’t?
“Thank you,” Luka said, though he didn’t sound reassured. He dropped his gaze to his pants, fidgeting with the two strings going across the rip on his knee. “But you don’t have to comfort me. I should’ve seen it back then. I heard the first verse and should’ve known that the next one would go just as badly, or even worse. I thought I was doing the right thing by not saying anything, but he—” He sighed in exasperation, clutching his head as he added, “I was just protecting him without realizing it.”
“What do you mean?”
He looked at her, a mix of emotions in his conflicted expression that were difficult to pin down all at once. “Even after I knew, I supported you with Adrien. Maybe I even let it slide because it was Adrien, but I was just putting you in danger.” His grip on one of the strings tightened, the tugging motion he made snapping it. “If he’d pulled a stunt like that again when I wasn’t there, who knows what could’ve happened. He wasn’t just putting himself over his job; he was putting himself over you.”
Her gaze softened, her mouth lost on what she could say next. He genuinely wasn’t asking for her pity or sympathy, his words only showing that he cared about her and hated that she wasn’t being cared for. It was almost bizarre seeing someone think about her to such a degree, when she’d been under the impression that it was her who had to think about everyone else.
“Marinette,” Luka began, his hand reaching to take hers but stopping before he could hold it. After hesitating, his hand simply closed, like he didn’t feel worthy to touch her. “I promise, I won’t keep anything from you anymore. What I did was wrong and you have a right to not trust me.”
She paused to take that in, looking from his guilt-ridden face to the closed hand still awkwardly hovering in the air. Luka being Luka, she believed him, knowing that he wouldn’t say anything he didn’t mean in his heart.
After contemplating to herself for a long moment, she reached over with her free hand and placed it over his. When his eyes met hers in confusion, she smiled at him.
“Thanks, but I do trust you, Luka. I know you did it for me because you’re always looking out for me, and I can’t be mad at you over one little mistake you made. I kept giving you the snake because I knew that, if you ever learned my identity, you’d keep it safe and wouldn’t use it to take advantage of me. At the end of the day, you still did that. You didn’t even have to tell me everything you knew, but you did. You were still thinking of me, even if how you went about it before wasn’t right.”
His lips parted at that, thoroughly touched by her gesture. Though he struggled at first for a reply, he managed a strained smile, half-serious and half-playful as he replied, “I don’t think it’s something you can call a little mistake.”
She giggled at the lightening atmosphere. “We can talk about it later. There’s enough negativity right now and I don’t want either of us getting akumatized.”
He chuckled in return, not exactly back to his usual self but agreeing with her nonetheless. “You’re right.” Then, looking pointedly at the miraculous in her hand, he asked, “So, what do you want to do about that?”
She followed his gaze to the ring, tilting her hand and watching it roll around on her palm. “Well…” She paused, knowing the answer was obvious but also feeling the weight of her words. “I guess I’ll have to figure out how to get a new cat.”
At that, a voice suddenly rang out from across the room, “What?!”
Her eyes darted towards the source, Plagg flying over to hover in front of her. He looked upset, continuing, “You think you can just get new cheese after leaving the other one to go bad!?”
Completely oblivious, she blinked. “…Cheese? I didn’t have any cheese in the first place?”
He groaned, frustrated. “I mean Chat Noir! He’s in love with you, and you going around with other cheeses broke his heart!” He spread his arms out for emphasis. “Instead of embracing the beauty of the cheese you had, you went and mixed cheeses together when four-cheese has to be done delicately!”
She raised a brow, completely lost and only able to tilt her head in confusion. Of course she knew that Chat Noir was in love with her, but what did that have to do with—
“You’re saying she cheated on him?” Luka interjected.
She glanced over at him in surprise, seeing him stare at Plagg with a dark skepticism. Whatever she’d missed, he seemed to have caught it.
“C-cheating on—” She looked back at Plagg. “Chat Noir and I aren’t dating?”
Plagg flinched backwards at the sudden tag teaming, then straightened with a dismissive wave of the paw. “I…I didn’t say that! Chat was upset because of—”
“The other heroes. I heard you,” Luka cut in again, the warmth drained from his voice. “Is that why he didn’t show up today?”
“What?” Marinette gaped at him, stunned by the blunt accusation. Yet, if it was Luka making it… “Plagg, is that true?”
The expression on Plagg’s face made her feel incredibly stupid. He was glaring at Luka, having apparently thought that whatever he’d been trying to do would’ve been much easier.
“He—” Plagg swallowed. “He tried! I told him to prove that he was the best—”
“So you’re saying he had to be convinced?” Marinette pressed, both able to keep up with the conversation now and also not liking it.
Luka chimed in again, leaning forward to ask Plagg, “You think that she was excluding Chat on purpose?”
“No!” Plagg insisted, his eyes darting back and forth between the two. “But she completely forgot about him!”
Marinette, feeling wholly offended at this point, reached into her pocket for her phone. Pulling it out, she set the miraculous aside so she could navigate to her contacts with Alya, scrolling for a particular conversation and then rightfully shoving it in Plagg’s face.
It was when she’d had to go away and leave the ladybug miraculous to Scarabella, even detailing to Alya how to deal with Chat Noir in a way that’d make him happy.
“Chat Noir is my partner. I know that,” she said, promptly stashing her phone away, “and I pick other heroes for some akuma because I know they’ll get the job done as quickly as possible. I’m not doing it to spite him or make him feel bad.”
“You didn’t see it!” Plagg accused. “He was miserable the whole time when you kept doing things without him!”
“What was I supposed to do!?” she asked, genuinely baffled. Throwing her arms out, she added, “I’m doing my job to keep Paris safer! Shadow Moth is reakumatizing people and I know how to deal with them. I can’t wait around for Chat Noir to show up when I can’t even know if he’s coming!”
“…Marinette,” Luka spoke up suddenly, as if something had occurred to him.
She glanced over, though she could see Plagg almost seeming to take some sort of little victory out of the corner of her vision, like he believed that Luka talking to her directly meant that he was about to critique her.
Luka, in actuality, directed his gaze in Plagg’s direction and asked, “Did Plagg already know your identity?”
“Yes?” She followed his eyes to Plagg. “Why?”
“Then doesn’t that mean that he could’ve come to you at any time?”
Plagg recoiled in response, his ears arching backwards like a cat that’d been trapped.
Luka continued without pause, “It’s not Marinette’s fault for your holder not opening up to her, and she would’ve listened to you if you’d come to her saying that there was a problem.” He glared accusingly. “Maybe you’re the one who let the cheese go bad.”
That seemed to rile Plagg up further, though Marinette couldn’t bring herself to care at this point. Luka was right: Chat had not only said nothing to her at any time, but she would’ve happily heard Plagg out if he’d showed up to talk to her. No matter how much she personally might’ve been concerned about a kwami flying around Paris, Wayzz had done it before to contact her when Fu was still around and Plagg certainly didn’t seem like the type who’d care about things like safety.
Her hands tightened into fists on her lap. Had Luka not been there to argue with Plagg’s strange metaphors, she wouldn’t have had nearly as much to think about concerning Chat Noir. Plagg wasn’t just guilting her, he was disrespecting her.
Meanwhile, the back-and-forth between Plagg and Luka went on.
“Chat Noir has been around since the beginning!”
“That doesn’t mean that he’s more important than Paris, and everyone brings something to the table.”
“You don’t know how it feels to be the only cheese on the platter until everyone else starts wanting more!”
“A band doesn’t bring in more people for no reason, and if one of them isn’t happy unless the other is giving him special attention, then—”
“Adrien is special! And—”
Marinette stood up abruptly, towering over the kwami, “Plagg.”
Said kwami looked up at her, backing away slightly for comfort but also not breaking their eye contact.
“I know that I haven’t been guardian for a long time, but I am the guardian. Even Su-Han acknowledged me and let me keep the Miracle Box.” She placed a hand to her chest. “You need to respect me if we want to get anywhere like this. I wasn’t neglecting Chat and I can’t give him special treatment just because he’s my partner. My duty is to Paris first, not him, and if I can make Paris a little less miserable by bringing in other heroes to speed things up - even if I don’t need them - that’s what I’m doing.”
Plagg maintained his stare for a few seconds, then finally averted his gaze, looking off bitterly at nothing in particular.
Mentally brought back to the matter at hand, she took a breath before announcing, “I will find a new cat.”
His ears flicked up at that. He looked back at her in shock, protesting, “But—!”
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes,” she admitted, “but I won’t make another one by giving the cat back. Even if I didn’t know Chat’s identity, he almost let himself - did let himself during Second Chance - get hit by an akuma and revealed himself to Shadow Moth. He refused to show up for a fight because he didn’t feel special enough. He left the ring—” She brought her hands up to clutch her head, the mental image vivid in her mind and giving her a thorough amount of anxiety. “He left one of the miraculouses Shadow Moth wants on a roof! Do you know how dangerous that was!? If I hadn’t come back - if Viperion hadn’t been there - who knows what would’ve happen to it and where it—you—would be right now! How am I supposed to trust someone who does something like that?”
“I can fix it!” Plagg insisted, clearly bargaining with her at this point. “Just give me the miraculous and I—”
“No.” Her voice was firm. “I can’t do that, Plagg, I’m sorry. I can’t. Chat Noir quit and I can’t trust him not to do it again, just like I can’t trust you not to bring it back to him. I’m the guardian and there were too many things about him that I didn’t know.” Feeling something bubbling up inside her, her eyes shimmered. “Honestly, I’m almost jealous! I’d love to be able to quit whenever I want to without worrying about my memories being taken away, but I’m still here because I’m taking responsibility for what I did and because I care about what happens to Paris! I already have enough responsibilities, I can’t be responsible for Chat’s feelings too!”
Silence followed, Plagg opening his mouth almost instinctively to retort but nothing coming out. There was a part of her that felt genuinely bad, certain that Plagg was attached to Adrien if he was resorting to such cheap arguments, but she couldn’t change her stance. Emotions and attachments, for the most part, had brought her nothing but trouble ever since she became Ladybug, and this was her chance to finally take charge of things.
She waited for a full minute to see if Plagg would say anything else, given that he kept hovering there as if he were staging a silent protest, but then he turned away from her and flew off to hide inside one of her drawers.
Almost instantly, her legs felt like jelly, a gentle hand on her arm being the only thing keeping her stable. She looked back at Luka, who gave her a look of sympathy mixed with pride, and she wordlessly lowered herself towards him. He moved in sync with her, arms outstretched and surrounding her as she climbed onto his lap and buried herself against him.
“You were amazing,” he whispered. “I hope your new cat is someone who puts in just as much effort as you do.”
“Thanks.” She breathed in his scent, feeling her nerves calm. “I have to rethink a lot of things first. The new cat might not really be needed all the time, but I definitely need someone permanent. Having the other miraculous Shadow Moth needs for his wish is…”
“Yeah.” He understood without further clarification.
“I’ve been trying to follow the old guardian’s rules and my rules at the same time, so I haven’t been very consistent about it. Just—you guys are my friends, and it’s not your fault that this all happened.”
“No one’s going to be mad if—” He paused, then added lightly, “Wait, no, Chat Noir.”
She snorted, finding it mean to laugh but unable to help it. She could sense Luka smiling in triumph even though she couldn’t see his face.
“Anyway…” His hands slid up to rub her shoulders. “No one should be mad if you want to switch up their miraculouses to keep them safer, or maybe not give them one at all. I can speak for myself at least.”
The comment reminded her of something, her head raising to look at him. “Luka, you know you don’t have to feel guilty about what happened, right? Or throw all the blame at yourself just because Chat quit?” Her gaze softened. “If anyone had to know without me knowing, I’m glad it’s you, and I don’t want you to live in guilt forever.”
He seemed surprised that she’d brought up the topic again, but smiled at her. “Thank you, really, but still. I don’t want you having to deal with the backlash over what happened.”
“No, I want to tell Paris the truth,” she insisted, “and anyway, sure, maybe you messed up, but nothing happened. We were both there when Chat quit.” She sighed, but in relief as she laid her head against his shoulder once more. “I’m just glad there wasn’t a huge fallout from it. I’m used to everything going wrong with me…” She trailed off, a thought coming to mind. “…with us.”
Luka let out a low hum, his arms going fully around her to hug her again. It was almost strange just how comfortable she felt, as if she was in one of her mother’s meditation sessions. Her mind wasn’t clear, her legs weren’t in the right position, yet she felt at peace anyway, even with the burden having been put on her.
Even with what they’d been through.
“…Maybe that’s not the problem after all,” she murmured idly to herself.
“Hm? What isn’t?” Luka wondered aloud.
“Oh, I was just thinking,” she replied, “about how I’d have to find a new cat who wasn’t in love with me, because being a hero and being in love didn’t really seem to mix. I kept rejecting Chat, over and over, and I guess it only made him more upset.” She stroked the fabric of Luka’s jacket with her thumb, enjoying the feel of the denim. “But me and you didn’t have that. We don’t have problems like that, and we’re still friends, right?”
“Of course.”
She giggled at the speed of his confident answer, but hesitated to say what she really wanted to, half-afraid that it might be too soon to ask. Memories of her goals for the future flashing through her mind, she tightened her hug on him and asked for clarification, “Best friends?”
His grip on her went slack at first, worrying her, but then it tightened just as quickly, pulling her further against him.
“I hope so,” he whispered.
She smiled, humming contentedly at the embrace. In a way, Chat quitting was a blessing in disguise. Perhaps the knowledge of him being Adrien and what he’d done could put some control back into her civilian life. Maybe she could find a partner that really worked for her and who believed that romance should come secondary in heroism.
And, staring up at Luka, she was looking forward to seeing where things would go from there.