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It started with a gift basket.
A fucking gift basket.
Then it was a bouquet of flowers, then a thing of chocolates, then even a new gun with a couple boxes of bullets. All from a certain Bug who claimed the gifts were all apologies for what had gone down on the train in Kyoto.
The present Lemon had woken up to today was an actual teddy bear, like Lemon was some girlfriend and not an experienced wetworker who had tried killing Ladybug multiple times. Even worse, all of the gifts had been accompanied by letters. Lemon had read the first one out loud to make fun of it with Tangerine, but quickly stopped when the reality of how heartfelt they were started to make Lemon too flustered to even think about them. He’d also taken to hiding them when Tangerine shredded a letter that had made a passing comment on how Lemon was “devilishly handsome”. Which was unfortunate, as Lemon really would’ve liked to keep that one.
That was the thing, too. Lemon had expected to react badly to the fact Ladybug was sending him apology gifts, but it was actually quite the opposite. He looked forward to whatever the blonde would send next and mulled over the notes so many times he practically memorized them. Tangerine had even gotten on his case that whenever they had jobs the same week as Ladybug's gifts, Lemon was all spacey and distracted, a stupid smile on his face.
He could not believe that Ladybug out of all people was the one making him act this way.
“He’s lucky he’s attractive.” Lemon grumbled under his breath as he tossed away the confetti that’d been stuffed into the envelope.
“The fuck are you doing thinking the bastard’s attractive? He fucking shot me!” Tangerine scolded him from the couch, his attention briefly leaving the sports game playing on their T.V.. Internally, Lemon scolded himself too.
Ladybug was a lot of things. He was grossly optimistic, over trusting, a bellend at times, but he was not stupid. Surely, the gifts had some type of second meaning. Lemon couldn’t let his guard down.
“I’m not blind, bruv. He’s annoying but he’s pretty easy on the eyes.”
Tangerine made a retching noise and threw a couch cushion at Lemon, who batted it out of the air and to the ground.
“What’re you doing talking to the bastard still? Tell him to buzz off.”
“I just wanna know what his endgame is with all this.” A blatant lie. But one that Tangerine humored enough to accept.
“He’s showin’ you he knows where we live! Probably gonna finish you off some night.”
“Why me? You’re the idiot he should be killing.” Lemon tossed the cushion back to its rightful place on the couch, the fact it smacked Tangerine in the back of the head being completely by accident of course.
“Maybe cause you’re an easy target? I’ve had to hear you ramble on about this idiot for the past month. You’d probably open the fuckin’ door for him.” Tangerine growled. It didn't have any real anger behind it, but still succeeded in causing irritation to bubble up in Lemon.
“Whatever, bruv! I’m not even gonna keep any of this shit anyway!” He threw the bear in the bin. Although Lemon couldn’t see Tangerine’s face, he just knew his brother was rolling his eyes at him.
The teddy bear in the garbage can looked up sadly. It’s soft fur and velvet ribbon looking completely out of place with the take out boxes and bloodied clothing in the trash.
“Sorry, Bug.” Lemon sent a good thought to Ladybug, hoping he’d get a semblance of it. As he began to close the lid of the trash a piece of paper peeking out from the bear’s ribbon collar caught his eye. He moved the bear’s fur a bit out of the way so he could actually read the text.
In a scratchy handwriting that just seemed to fit Ladybug perfectly, a string of numbers was written on the tag of the bear. It was accompanied by a note that said: “Feel free to call if you ever want to talk! I'd love to meet up :)”
He checked to make sure Tangerine was still focused on the television and quickly snatched the bear back out. He cramped it in his jacket as he hurried to his room. Only once the door was shut and the lock triple checked did Lemon let the bear back out.
Looking it over caused a warm feeling to wash over his entire face as his heart rate steadily increased. His phone was in his hand before he even thought to grab it, the number on the piece of paper being typed in with shaking fingers. A deep breath was all it took to steady himself as he pressed send and the dial tone began to ring. From the living room the sound of the sport's newscaster was overpowering. But still Lemon felt he had to keep his voice quiet to ensure this would be a well kept secret. The call was picked up, a shiver rolled up Lemon's spine as he began to talk.
“Ladybug? It’s Lemon.”