Somedays, age old suspicions and worries melted away with the keening of a teapot and a gentle smile that always provided a listening ear, and though any friendship took its time to grow and to flourish while hardships and doubts and distrust were fought tooth and nail to be overcome as you truly came to know the other, she felt safe in his presence, as if this great wall of all that Ladybug has to be, all that she is, and all that she was can just melt away like sugarcubes in a cup of tea.
"I'm sorry." She wasn't supposed to visit so much, and though she knew that and limited visits nowadays, it felt better to come here when she worried that there was a split between Ladybug and Marinette and that somewhere in the fray, she'd lost herself.
"Come in." Master Fu leaves the doorway and walks naturally to the teakettle, already prepared as if he knows that when she holds the teacup in her hands, softly as if it became a gentle anchor of sorts for every wild thought and theory that spilled out, unbound, once she'd gotten over that bump of worrying that Adrien Agreste was Hawkmoth. She'd come to trust Master Fu even when she held her cup despite how hot the tea was or that it sometimes burned her fingers or the fact that sometimes the mostly still liquid provided a quiet distraction to keep her from externally plummeting off the deep end as much as she felt inside.
"I hope that I didn't interrupt anything." She mumbled as if nerves found their voice among wobbly veins and worried scars that never seemed to go away. Cat Noir could be here one day when she arrives; she was sure that he knew of Master Fu by this point or at least the little hints that became glaringly obvious facts.
"I visit Cat Noir, Ladybug." And somehow, her superhero title provided a sense of warmth and escape even while not suited up, even without wearing her mask. She loved how at ease, she always seemed to feel here nowadays.
"Okay." Marinette knelt down by the table, already wondering how boiling water that will eventually become tea makes her belly rumble in eager anticipation. She had never been aware that she liked tea beyond how it seemed to miraculously cure stuffy noses and sore throats at her own home. Tea helped give you energy to face whatever life's next biggest challenges were after all.
"So what brings you here, Ladybug?" It's quiet, but not accusatory, and she can imagine this as if it were one of her first trips here, as if tea time hadn't become an escape away from everything else that held her back. Tea time invoked a kind of honesty that Ladybug craved. An honesty that dual identities blocked off from pretty much everyone else.
"I-..." The words wouldn't come, not without the steady warmth of a teacup in her hands or without the distraction of liquid that is deceptively dark for how light it often makes her feel in just a sip.
"I'll get you tea." There's something almost fatherly about it that she doesn't question anymore. Master Fu is so different than her dad that she doubts that anyone else will understand how at ease he puts her nowadays, how daughterly he makes her feel, as if he's always ready with advice and gentle care. Maybe tea does fix a lot of ailments rather miraculously despite how easy it is to think that it only cures one thing or another.
She waits in the quiet amid inner confusion; today, it was harder to keep her identity a secret from Cat. He hadn't asked for it, hadn't mentioned it, and she wasn't suddenly in love with him, but she had a million temptations regardless. He's her best friend, and a certain side of your nature is only revealed when your life is on the line. Cat Noir knows that side of her so well now, and sometimes he's there for the silly moments when they can just be kids again or teenagers and crime is just a distant memory and Hawkmoth is just a figment of their shared imaginations. Those moments are crucial though they never last long even when she wishes that they could go on forever and be there entirely.
When the tea is poured into her cup, is when the magic happens. A layer of superhero problems drift away like dust and the pain of them is numbed as she reaches out for a full cup to just hold until it eventually cools enough in her hands to drink. The heat that irritates her hands is well worth it and so familiar as one of her favorite forms of distraction that she doesn't really mind.
"What brings you here, Ladybug?" It's softer now, and Ladybug can breathe, even though she's Marinette right now, even though both sides of her, mask or not, are equally who she is.
"I wanted to tell him who I am." The 'him' needs no other explanation, really; Master Fu knows who she means. "I just wanted him to know, not from logic or help, just to know me a bit better." She sighs, and it leaves like a gust of well forgotten air. Just to breathe, to feel the steady heat of the teacup, and to quietly wonder what needs no words to be wondered about, just images and memories and feelings as she adjusts and deals with them.
"And why didn't you?" He doesn't tell her what to do, and she revels in that unspoken realization.
"I couldn't risk the fall out. Everything has a fall out, and to deal with my identity is a burden that he doesn't have to carry right now." Marinette shrugs, feeling the weight and the pain and the almost regret roll down her shoulders like waterfalls. She spills some tea on her fingers, and it's hotter than the cup, but she only tries to flick it down and out and away, just to clear her mind and focus on something other than heat that is completely heat.
"Do you not trust him with it?" Master Fu is so soft and gentle and insistent that his voice often feels like her conscious.
"No, I trust him." It's the solid truth, raw and real and just there.
"Okay." He answers softly, "It's good that he doesn't know yet."
"I know." Marinette answers, feeling all the more like Ladybug and not at all like Marinette. "I guess, it's like keeping my best friend in the dark. He just knows me and he doesn't. There's no place that feels perfectly right for him to fill." It's hard to think about, but this sort of secrecy, not secrecy, places Cat Noir in a strange place, both as her best friend that knows her and as a stranger. She doesn't really like the mix.
"It will be worth it after Hawkmoth's defeated, and we have the Butterfly Miraculous back." She trusts Master Fu to tell her point blank the truth without censoring it for her sake, and that's what she hears in his voice. There's so much that he won't tell her, because she's so young or she's not ready for it; Marinette knows that and hates it too.
Her tea cools in her hands, and she ends up regretting bringing it up to her lips. It's still much too hot, but the scalding heat draws her mind elsewhere like a gentle flick in the opposite direction.
"It's easier to keep it from my other best friend now, though Rena makes it difficult. I don't like the added weight of carrying other identities with my own." It doesn't matter that Queen Bee is known by all of Paris for who she is, but Ladybug feels the weight of her identity, of Rena's, of Carapace's, and sometimes they press down on her like added weights, flattening her to the page like a dried flower.
"I know." He doesn't say anything else, but his tea must have finally cooled down enough to drink as she witnesses him take a sip, and no grimace on his face. Ladybug wants that too, even though she's wary as she lifts that cup up to her lips for a second time, but the heat is more endurable now.
She doesn't know what else to say, because Ladybug and Marinette have blended together once more, like they always have, like Master Fu brings out in her when she doesn't even pause enough to notice it. Ladybug doesn't care that she's technically Marinette right now, that her Kwami is playing with Master Fu's Kwami, because she is Ladybug regardless of the suit.
"Does it ever get easier?" Finally comes to her though she almost regrets the sudden question.
"In a way, but never really." Master Fu shrugs, and somehow tea time is nearly over, so she takes another sip. It tastes almost bitter, but within the bitterness lies a kind of hope that she clings to. Ladybugs don't like the bitter cold, but the heat and the warmth often sustains them while the cold of winter leaves their wings, frozen useless.
She's grateful that her suffering unlike a regular ladybug's actually means something as she counts her sips and considers them blessings. Maybe one day, her Spring will come back again, much fuller and full of more life than even the one before held. Being Ladybug changed her, but it never stopped her from being Marinette too.
As tea cools on tongues and cups feel very warm in hands, eventually, they both know, that they'll need to clean off the table, clean up the kitchen, and bid each other goodbyes that feel more like a promise to see each other again soon as if he were her uncle that she visited or her grandfather or even her dad. She always found a level of comfort in their honesty that felt different somehow than Tikki's.
Marinette knew that somewhere along the way that Ladybug was Marinette and Marinette was Ladybug, even when the days made that harder to realize and even when many others only knew one of her names to call her. Master Fu's house was a safe haven, a home away from home, that she'll always remember to return to when identities twist and tear, and she needs a good ear and gentle words that always tell her the truth as much as she can hear of it just yet.