(A/N: This is a quite long one, but I hope you all enjoy it! x3 - I got nothing else to say xD - Be sure to check out the fanart of the previous chapter! :3)
"What are you drawing, Nath?" Inarii poked behind Nathaniel's shoulder, while looking down on the sketchbook to see a drawing of himself as Vulpino and Ladybug together, while Chat Noir was sulking in the background.
The red haired artist got totally startled by the sound of his little partner, not expecting the kwami to be done with his food so soon. He prepared some rice for him minutes ago, so while Inarii would be eating he will draw something.
Inarii was actually not done eating yet, but he got curious to see what his friend was doing. He seemed to be so concentrated that he just wanted to see what was going on. So the little god decided to take a look before finishing his lunch.
Nathaniel quickly covered the drawing with his upper body, using both his arms and his head to cover the drawing. It was like he was protecting the drawing with his life, while feeling the heat growing in his cheeks till his ears. "I-it's nothing!" That was the dumbest reply he could give. Of course he wouldn't be drawing nothing, that would be stupid. And he already knew that Inarii wasn't someone who would buy that.
"Aww, come on buddy. No need to be ashamed, it's a beautiful drawing after all~ Though Chat Noir can't see this drawing. Ah, I do know that Tikki loves those kinda stuff." He chuckled as he could imagine her giggling and totally approving it. He could still remember how she loved love stories and always supports her partners with their love life.
"Tikki?" Nath looked up, at the kwami who was now flying in front of him above the drawing. There were still a slight pink color on his face, but he seemed to calm down a bit because of his curiosity.
"Ah yes, Tikki is the name of Ladybug's kwami. She's really sweet and cute~ I'm friends with her, well, actually with all the kwami's. Tikki always gives her support to everyone. Then there's Plagg, Chat Noir's kwami. I love that guy, he could be a troublemaker, but it's always fun to hang out with him~"
He talked happily about his good friends, thinking back about the times they were able to spend time together with their miraculous wielders. It didn't happen often, as the identities of the heroes should kept a secret. But once they were able to hang out, he sure treasured the time. He missed them a lot, sometimes he just wish that the whole secret identity would just disappear.
He glanced at the drawing, as he saw that his partner didn't cover the drawing anymore. He smirked and wanted to talk about that again. After all, he wanted to know more about his partner. "But hey, this seems to be a romantic scene. A kiss between Ladybug and you as Vulpino, how cute~ You really love her, don't you? Well, I could've already guessed when you were flirting with your 'angel' yesterday night." He chuckled as he thought back about it. He never knew his partner could be such a smooth talker with the mask on. And he was actually proud of him, after all, that meant that he got more confident in himself.
The artist seemed to have turned into a tomato, as his face was burning red out of embarrassment. He didn't expect that Inarii would know what he had done or said as Vulpino, though it did make sense that he would know about it. He wanted to run to his room and cover himself in his blankets, not wanting to see the fox's face for a while. But instead, he just nodded with his head. There was no turning back anymore, he couldn't really hide his feelings when his kwami saw a drawing of Vulpino and Ladybug sharing a kiss together.
"You know, you can ask me for any love advice~ All of my previous miraculous wielders got a happy love life in the end and I would make sure to give you one too." He grinned, having some ideas in his mind. He already loved the tomato boy, he was so adorable that he just want to see him happy.
"Previous miraculous wielders? What were they like?" He got quite curious about it. He heard from Alya on the Ladyblog that Ladybug could be very old. After he found out who the girl behind the mask was, he figured it must've been a Ladybug in the previous generations.
"Well, everyone was different. Girls, boys, young or quite old. It's actually not quite often to have a miraculous wielder of you age. But the guardians always looks at the heart of people and if they're suitable for the job, they don't look at the age. The guardian regularly keep some people in his mind before choosing them, meaning he already researched on the possible wielder. But aside from that, you asked what they were like. They were all different actually, but they do have a few things in common. They have an creative mind, they were all dreamers. Some took actions to live up their dreams, some didn't. I supported those who needed a little push."
"Like me…?" Nathaniel felt like the fox miraculous actually indeed suits him. He did have a creative mind, being an artist and all. He was also a dreamer, he actually draw them in a comic, already knowing they wouldn't come true. But now, things have changed. He did become a hero and even become more confident in himself, though that would only happen when he wore the mask.
"Yes, just like you. Not everyone accepted to be a hero right of the bat. It's understandable, taking the path of a hero is dangerous after all. But most of them did a great job." He smiled proudly, happy to actually talk about his previous partners.
Nathaniel actually wanted to ask why it was most of them and not all, but he could kind of guess what happened to the others. They might have used the power for evil like Hawk Moth does, or they didn't… He shook his head, wanting to think about something else.
"So… Now it's time to talk about you~ What do you love about Ladybug?" The little fox asked excitedly, planning to help the shy artist out.
"I-I…" Nath could feel the heat growing on his cheeks, wondering how it was even possible to blush so many times. He swept his bangs up with his left hand and leaned on it, while staring at his drawing. His lips curled upwards as he placed his right hand on the drawing and traced over Ladybug with his index finger.
"She's sweet… She's brave, beautiful, cute, kind, confident and selfless… She's… She's sometimes clumsy, but that's also a cute part of her. I-I… I just love everything of her. She's just perfect in my eyes."
"Even though you don't now the girl behind the mask?" Inarii tilted his head to one side, while wondering how he knew Ladybug so well.
"With or without the mask, she's the same person. And I… I actually fell for both of them. Ladybug saved me and it was then I fell for her. After knowing she was actually the same person as my first crush… Everything made sense. I've been watching Marinette so many times, drawing her from head to toe. Then… after Ladybug saved me, I started drawing her many times. And I realized… a lot of things. Marinette changed since Ladybug appeared, she was able to talk back to Chloé. She… has become brave and selfless, even lovelier. And her being Ladybug made it even more impossible for me not to love her..."
He sighed and looked dreamy at his drawing, tracing his finger over her eyes. "Her eyes are so dazzling, her laugh sounds like music in my ears and then not to mention her lovely smile. She's… like the light. Shining so brightly like the sun on a clear day. While I'm-"
"Fantastic, artistic and brave too. You're a hardworking guy who will achieve your dream. You are someone Paris should be proud of to have. Don't even think about belittling yourself. Stop comparing yourself to others, instead of thinking that you're less great that them, admire them and learn from them. You are great on your own way and they feel the same. Everyone got someone they admire, some belittle themselves too, but there's no need for that. It's like comparing the speed of a jaguar with the intelligent of a dolphin. You can't compare those, because their abilities are different. Just like you and any other person, everyone is different."
Nathaniel gently pulled Inarii towards himself, hugging him softly against his cheek. "Thank you, Inarii. You're right. I should really stop doing that."
Inarii was firstly surprised that he suddenly got pulled, though it was gently done. He was glad to see his boy cheered up again. He loved to see smiles on people's face, mostly of his partners. He hugged the shy artist with his tiny arms and chuckled. "I will help you out with your love life, Nath. Don't worry."
xxx
Suddenly he felt all nervous again, he couldn't help but doubt himself when he was standing on the roof of the north tower of Notre-Dame. He was ten minutes earlier than the meeting time, so the great heroes of Paris didn't need to wait for him. He walked around in circles, playing with his fingers nervously. Once in suit, he remembered again that Chat Noir saw him as love rival. He hoped that wouldn't stand in their way for saving Paris.
His fox ears twisted up as he heard the sound of a swinging yo-yo. He looked at the direction where the sound came from and saw the lady in red jumping towards his direction. He looked around in panic, blowing on the flute to make a mirror of his size appear in front of him. He checked at himself, looking if he didn't look weird or anything. Well, weird was not the right word, he was wearing a fox suit for fox sake. So he checked if his hair was alright, if he wasn't looking bad and in all honesty, he looked quite cool in his hero suit.
He heard the sound of the yo-yo coming closer, so he quickly made the mirror disappear. It would look strange if Ladybug would see him checking himself out in front of his own illusion mirror. He cleared his throat and leaned on something like a thin pole on the top of the roof.
As soon as Ladybug landed on the small roof and walked towards the fox, he was biting his lips a bit while smiling, enhancing the size and fullness of the lips and made the smile appear more sexy and playful, a quite flirtatious smile.
"Good evening, sweetheart." He was actually glad that the roof was so small, now that space between them seemed to be closer. He could feel a tingling feeling in his stomach as she was walking even closer to him.
"Hey Vulpino." She smiled at him, a smile that shined like the stars in the sky, with no bright city lights to dim them. It was like the moon appeared behind the cloud, to just shine on her. She held her hand out, making Vulpino stop staring at her like she was some angel. He looked questionable at the hand, but shook it anyway. "This is a bit late, but welcome on board."
The red fox was surprised at first, but then he smiled genuinely at her. "Thank you, Ladybug. I will do everything I can to give you support."
He stared in her beautiful bluebell eyes, still holding her hand. There was a silence, but it wasn't an awkward one. Ladybug stared back at his turquoise eyes and noticed that even though he smiled genuinely at her, a smile that was similar to the way Chat Noir smiled at her, it was those eyes that shined the most. It made her feel the irresistible impulse to smile back, because of those eyes as they showed the most sincere and pure emotion. She knew that those eyes would never lie, her instinct told her that she could truly trust this new hero.
Suddenly there was a loud scream coming to their way. Vulpino turned his head towards the spire, the direction where the sound came from. He saw a black kitty jumping towards them, making Vulpino and Ladybug take a step back out of surprise as he landed between them on his hands and feet. He stood straight up and saluted with two fingers as he also winked at Ladybug. "Hey there, my lady." He turned his face towards Vulpino and glared at him. "Vulpino."
He turned his face back towards his lady as he was having a big grin on his face. "What a beautiful night, don't you think?" Somehow Vulpino could see him shining brighter than usual, as if Chat was pretending that his interruption didn't happen.
The lady in red with polka dots facepalmed herself as she was already feeling tired of her partner. She didn't want them to fight each other like yesterday, just thinking back about it made her sigh loudly. "Look, you two better get along with each other. I will patrol alone, I will take the right side and you two take the left. If anything happens, call me. This is your chance to get to know each other better and hopefully get along. No fighting, understood? I really don't want to deal with this when we have to fight against an Akuma."
"Alright. But can I ask something before you leave?" Vulpino asked carefully, seeing how annoyed and tired Ladybug looked. She nodded, gesturing that he could ask whatever was on his mind.
"Can we change the meeting place? Notre-Dame is a famous building, so there are always people around here. Though that would be less in the night, but as you can see, light shines on this building. If people would look above from afar, they might spot us easily. This is of course a nice building, with its height, but too risky if we don't want people to see us."
"Well, excuse me for choosing this building. Got any better building in mind?" Chat said, sounding offended as he was crossing his arms. He had to convince his lady to take this building as meeting place, as she didn't want to meet at the Eiffel Tower. He wanted to have a quite romantic place to meet up, but now that a new guy appeared, it wouldn't matter anymore.
"…Well, how about a school building? That's the most place people want to avoid, after all." He hated school, so at least for him it was right. There was nothing fun for him at school, so he wouldn't really want to go there out of free will.
"That's a good idea. I wonder which school would be good… How about the Collège Françoise Dupont? It's near the Eiffel Tower, so we would be able to go to the tower when something would happen and we need a better view on it." Ladybug agreed with the idea, though she had to be more careful in the future. She lived close to the school after all and she didn't want one of them to see her coming out of her room. Though she could use the excuse that she just happened to jump there.
The redhead seemed to be surprised by her suggesting their school. Of course he and she knew where it was, so that would be no problem. Also he could bet that Chat Noir would also know where the school was as there were a lot of akumatized villains there. But the school was still close to Marinette's house, the place where Ladybug lived. She could be spotted going to her own house, revealing her identity. But maybe she got some ways to get out of that situation or else she wouldn't have suggested it, she was a smart girl after all. She wouldn't be the one to make such a huge mistake.
"Sounds good to me." Vulpino answered and the kitty agreed, though he could still feel some anger boiling inside the feline guy. The fox hero really felt uncomfortable when he was staring daggers at him and it even made it more awkward when Ladybug left, not wanting to deal with the jealous cat.
After some staring, the cat took his staff and made it grow longer as he was jumping to the opposite direction of where his lady went. "Let's go, foxy."
That was a surprise. Vulpino actually expected some fight with the cat or a declaring his love for Ladybug, but instead, he jumped to the other roof, leaving him dumbfounded.
"Hurry up! We don't have all the time." The kitty yelled at the speechless boy, making him shake his head and follow Chat quickly. Seemed like even though Chat wasn't very fond of the fox, he still took his hero job seriously. Vulpino couldn't help but slip out a chuckle, feeling less tense than before.
As they were jumping on every roof, looking around if there was some crime going on, Chat shoot sometimes a glance towards the fox. He still didn't trust him, but he knew that his lady does, so that left him not many choices but to just accept him in the group.
"Fire." Vulpino suddenly said, standing on the rooftop, looking towards the direction of the smoke. Chat stopped on the rooftop too and looked towards the direction where the fire was. "What are you standing there for then? We got to go there!"
Chat Noir dashed towards the building that was on fire, while trying to call LB. Vulpino quickly followed the feline hero, feeling some excitement and anxiety inside of him. This would be his first hero job, but he didn't know what to do.
When they were close to the fire, they saw that the whole building was on fire. It seemed to happen recently as people were still calling the firefighters. Some people were still able to run out of the building, but they were all injured. Chat Noir already called Ladybug, she seemed to be on her way, however they can't just stand there waiting for her to save the day. Chat Noir was already planning to dash inside to see if there were still people inside.
Vulpino just stared at the building what was on fire, his whole body was trembling out of fear. He panicked as he didn't know what to do to help. Maybe he was able to create firefighters illusions, but those were illusions. It might not work if the water would also just be an illusion.
"The ability of Fox Fire…it has no burn effect on opponents…. It can neutralize fire."
The voice of Inarii suddenly popped in his head as he started to remember that he still got his special power. "Fox Fire could neutralize fire, of course!"
"Fox Fire!" He shouted as he held his flute up with his right hand. The flute turned into some hot blue fire, flying above his right hand. He could feel the warmth of the flame, but it didn't burn him.
"Wait, what is that? What are you planning to do?" Chat Noir asked as he stared at the fire. He got a bad feeling about it. Just when he saw the smile on Vulpino's face, his mind told him to stop that fox, but his body didn't move.
Vulpino didn't hear the kitty as everyone was screaming out of pain or panic. He could do something right and he really believed it would work. He threw the blue fire ball towards the building, the blue flame became bigger, covering the whole building. He looked at it with a smile of amazement on his face, he even saw that the people who just got out of the building appeared with a blue flame around them. Everyone was screaming in panic and fear as their mind thought that they were burning alive. Vulpino wanted to tell everyone that the fire wouldn't hurt them. However, before he got the chance, someone suddenly grabbed him by his collar and pushed him against a lantern. The fox groaned out of pain as he hit his head against it.
Chat Noir saw that Vulpino was still smiling, even when people were on fire, the blue fire he created. Something inside of him snapped, he couldn't take it anymore as betrayal and anger overwhelmed him. He dashed towards the fox, grabbing him by his collar and slammed him against the lantern. He saw that the flute appeared in his right hand, so he grabbed it out of his grip and threw it away.
"I knew it! You are a bad guy after all, trying to deceive me and my lady with your filthy lies! I've enough of you sly foxes!"
"C-chat? Wha-" Vulpino tried, tried to understand what was going on and tried to say something to the angry cat. But it didn't work. He was too scared to say another word and it would make things only worse anyway.
"SHUT UP! So that was your special power? It wouldn't destroy something like mine does you said? Hah, what a lie. You killed people! You put them on fire! If that was really your special power, than we just have to wait till you detransform so I can hand you over to the police!"
"Chat Noir, what are you doing?!" Ladybug screamed, as she jumped to Chat Noir. She wanted to put her hand on his shoulder, to pull him away but he slapped her hand away.
"I'm sorry my lady, but stay back! This guy is dangerous. He is just like Volpina, a nasty liar! He tricked you, us!" The first beep was coming from his necklace, making Chat look at it. "Ah right, if I take this necklace of you now, you would detransform right away. LB, are there police around? I need to hand them this fox over, so they don't need to go on hunting when he gets free."
"Chat, what are you talking about? What is going on! Explain this to me first!" Ladybug screamed angrily towards the cat, what made him startle. She saw that Vulpino looked very scared, she couldn't just stand by and watch how her partner attacks him like that. This was really unusual of Chat, seeing him rage in anger like that never happened before. He was always able to keep his cool.
"Don't you see?! This guy burned the building and put people on…fire?" As he turned around to face his lady, he saw that the building wasn't on fire anymore, nor are the people. There was no trace left of the building, as if it was never on fire. It even looked like the building was new, as if the blue fire repaired everything that was burnt. He looked at the people, looking strangely at their bodies as they realized that the fire wasn't even that hot and healed all their burns, like they were never there in the first place.
"What's… going on?" He let go of Vulpino's collar, making the red fox fall down on his knees. Somehow he got so scared that his legs gave him away. He was really scared that the cat would rip off his necklace and made him detransform in front of the girl he loves. He looked at his necklace, there were only two out of five stripes left.
"I have to go." Vulpino said weakly as he was walking towards his flute and grabbed it. He looked at the confused black cat and opened his mouth to say something, but got interrupted by his last beep of his necklace. He quickly blew on his flute, making wings appear on his back. He thought about himself flying away as fast as possible and that happened. He never got to experience flying, but his mind didn't let him get impressed by it. He got to go to his house before the transformation would wear out after all. However, he was too late. Just like his suit disappeared, so does his wings.