Author's note: MR: Would you look at that! I CAN write fluff! Who knew that Ladybug announcing her engagement to her fellow superheroes would out her civilian identity.
Lyra: No one even got hurt. I'm shocked. (Other than my heart…)
Ep: No one in the *story* - I'm with Lyra, though. There's a Miraculous Support Group meeting every Tuesday… I think I'm gonna have to join after this one.
Ic: Hi, I'm Icarus, and I'm a miraculer.*sniffles* I've just been crying a lot from the fanfiction lately.
Reveal: Marinette/Adrien/Alya/Nino/Luka/Alix
It had been several years since Hawkmoth had been defeated, but new menaces had arisen and terrorized Paris in his stead, and the expected revel had yet to happen. Ten years since Ladybug met her partner, Chat Noir, and they've shared so much in that time. They are best friends, and nobody can imagine a world without the two of them. Over the years, they added four other permanent team members: Rena Rouge, Carapace, Viperion and Bunnix, but Chat and Ladybug, would always be seen as the city's saviours.
Ladybug and Chat developed a close bond as the years wore on, sharing more details about their lives with each other than they probably should have, although names have always been disallowed. They know each other better than almost anyone else, have shared love and loss, and talked over all the major events in each other's lives, happiness and heartbreak. They had a long talk two days ago, resulting in tears, the happy kind, pouring down both of their faces.
The six superheroes rarely gathered together all in one place, not wanting to draw too much attention to themselves, but for something like this, Ladybug felt it was necessary. She was the first to arrive, having shown up early, with a box of treats from everyone's favorite bakery, that nobody needed to know that she'd baked herself for the occasion.
One by one, the others arrived. Bunnix unsurprisingly was the first, and she gave Ladybug a knowing smile, all of her travelling through time had shown her much of what the present holds, and she radiated the feeling that she knew why the heroes were gathering on this roof.
Chat arrived next, all restless energy and smiles. He, too, knew the reason for the gathering. Rena Rouge and Carapace arrive together, surprisingly still great friends; the years since their breakup only cementing their friendship, as both have moved on to other things. Rena storming her way through an investigative reporting internship, while Carapace prefered to spend his time behind the camera.
Finally, Viperion arrived, all quiet smiles, radiating calm and tranquility, hiding the energy that coiled, snake-like inside. Needing an outlet, he strummed absentmindedly at his lyre, the soft notes a soothing background for the gathering.
What had started years ago as Ladybug and Viperion meeting up after an intense battle, so that he could vent to her about the horrific things he had witnessed before using Second Chance and abandoning those timelines with less than favorable outcomes, had quickly become a form of group therapy, where they would meet in twos and threes to talk about things that were bothering them, whether on the battlefield, or in their personal lives, knowing that they would always have an understanding, non-judgemental ear to listen to them. Viperion and Bunnix, the two heroes that dealt with time, were usually the most in need, having witnessed things that nobody else remembered, and soon set up ways to contact each other if they needed to talk about time-sensitive matters.
As they all took up comfortable positions around the roof, Rena launched into a lecture about her topic du jour, her latest passion project. Bunnix smirked as Rena talked, and Ladybug shifted restlessly as she waited for her turn to share. As the fox hero paused to take a breath, Ladybug blurted out, "I'm getting married!" Her face blushed bright red, but her smile was lit from within, happiness radiating off of her in waves.
Totally forgetting what she'd been ranting about only moments before, Rena sat there open mouthed. Her eyes flicked back and forth between Ladybug and Chat, causing Chat's smile to grow larger, and his eyes to twinkle, but Carapace was the first to break the silence. "Congratulations, Ladybug. We're very happy for you, but isn't this a little, uh, sudden?"
Chat snorted. "Eight years." He turned to Ladybug for confirmation, and continued at her nod. "Eight years is hardly sudden."
Rena's eyes were practically bugging out of her head. "You two have been together for eight years, and you never told us!" Ladybug made frantic calming motions in order to quiet her friend's screech.
"Yes. I've been with my fiance for eight years." Ladybug glowed at the word. "But no, it isn't Chat. We're partners and best friends. I do love him, and thanks to our miraculous, we will always be linked, but we've never been romantically involved."
"So… tell us about him." Bunnix grinned mischievously, the twinkle in her blue eyes growing teasing. Ladybug looked around the loosely formed circle, receiving enthusiastic agreement from Rena and Carapace, a wide smile from Chat and a quiet nod from Viperion.
A pink blush shaded her cheeks, but her eyes were sparkling with happiness. "He is wonderful! He has an amazing spirit. I feel so much more creative when I am with him, but at the same time, I feel grounded and safe. He is patient, I mean, with me, you really have to be, and talented, and he is the calm to my crazy. I couldn't imagine my life without him."
"Does he know about this? Did you tell him? Will we ever get to meet him?" Rena asked, unable to hold back her questions.
Ladybug's eyes dropped to the ground before she looked around the group. "Yeah, he knows. He figured me out fairly early on in our relationship. He didn't tell me he knew for a long time, and the guilt over ditching him at every akuma attack really ate at me." Her eyes were firmly fixed on the ground. "For a while there, I was fairly certain that Hawkmoth was targeting us whenever we went out on a date."
The group chuckled appreciatively, all of them had dates spoiled by akuma attacks, but how their date reacted was a pretty good indicator as to whether they should keep seeing someone or not.
Bunnix was flat out smirking when she asked her next question. "So… what does Mr. Wonderful do? Or is that too personal? Is he famous?" She drew out the last word in a sing-song voice.
"Bunnix!" Viperion growled from beside her.
"'Rion." She mocked him, dropping her voice to mimic his tone.
"Can we meet him? Please at least point him out to us! Are we invited to the wedding?" Rena begged, part of her mind cataloging the interaction between the Time Twins, as she had mentally dubbed them. 'Looks like Viperion's got a soft spot for the Bug.' she thought. Then mentally rolled her eyes at herself. Everyone had a soft spot for the bug.
They'd all grown up since getting their miraculous, but Ladybug in particular had matured from a pretty girl to a stunning young woman, luminous blue eyes, silky black hair, still pulled up in twin tails, and an athletic, feminine body, that her suit failed to disguise. There had been a few fights about it in her later teen years, where there were inappropriate comments thrown at her, and the other miraculous wielders had jumped to her defense.
Ladybug smiled again. "Well, that's another part of why we're here."
Rena whipped her head around, obviously expecting Ladybug's fiance to step out from behind something up there on the roof. Ladybug laughed out loud at Rena's eagerness.
"You see… he has to leave town soon for a little while, which is why we're getting married now, before he goes." She looked around, making eye contact with everyone, as the blush started to creep up her neck. "So, we'll have one less team member to lean on while he's gone."
Chat, Rena and Cap started at that news, eyes trained on Ladybug's face, her grin turning mischievous now. She smiled at everyone, Bunnix smirking back, her delight in everyone else's shocked reactions just as obvious as Ladybug's.
A throat clearing snapped everyone's head around. "Yeah, so I have this work thing that is taking me out of Paris for the better part of a year. We've talked about it, Bug and I, and there isn't a good way for me to be able to stay a part of the team while I'm gone. Maybe when I come back." He shrugged. "I've got a few months before I leave, but, yeah, this is the official goodbye."
Every eye was on Viperion as he made his little speech, so nobody noticed the quiet pride radiating from Ladybug as he bade his teammates goodbye. They had decided that he would just slip away one day, so that nobody would connect Viperion stepping down with Luka going on tour. Rena smiled to herself, thinking 'Guess it's more than just a soft spot for her. They hid it really well. I would never have suspected.'
Chat's head was turning back and forth between Viperion and Ladybug, the shock etched on his face much deeper than it should be at Viperion's quiet revelation. He'd known that his partner had been dating someone quiet and steady, and she'd told him about the proposal a few days ago. What truly shocked him was who he now saw when he looked at Ladybug. "Marinette?"
The strangled whisper seemed to echo around the roof as the others all turned to look at Ladybug. She turned to her partner, color draining from her face. "Wha-?"
He smiled at her and started to laugh. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng? All this time?"
Bunnix sat back, watching the entertainment play out, while Viperion, so quickly nobody saw him move, stepped to his fiance's side, putting an arm protectively around her.
Rena was reeling. If Marinette was Ladybug, which she had to be, all the pieces fit perfectly, then that meant that Viperion was Luka, and he was leaving to go on tour. That also meant, "Oh my goodness! I'm going to Ladybug's wedding!" she squealed, quivering with excitement.
Carapace was focused on what was going on in front of him. Chat didn't seem threatening in any way, but he had been very unpredictable for almost a year after Hawkmoth's defeat, swinging from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, with very little warning as to which side was going to show. Ladybug could defend herself, he knew, and with Viperion at her side, he wasn't really needed, but Chat's behavior was worrying him. Just how had he figured her out?
Ladybug must have been thinking along the same lines, because she choked out, "How?"
Shaking his head, Chat managed to control his slightly manic laughter. "Because of Viperion. I was there when you gave him the miraculous that first time. After I failed you."
"You never fai-'' She broke off, and sucked in a breath, realization dawning in her eyes. "Adrien?" She asked on an exhalation. When he nodded, she finished her original thought. "You never failed me, Kitty. I needed both of you. I couldn't be Ladybug without Chat Noir… and that is why we didn't succeed."
"If we're going to do this properly, do you want to move the festivities to our place?" Viperion asked, referencing the apartment that his alternate ego shared with Marinette. When she nodded, he looked at her quizzically. "Does everyone know the way?" When she nodded again, he stepped to the railing, pausing when he heard a voice behind him.
Rena was holding the box of cookies reverently. "You baked these, didn't you, Ladybug? I'm eating cookies baked by Ladybug!"
Before she could start squealing with joy again, Ladybug said flatly, "You've eaten treats that I've baked for you on a very regular basis for the past 10 years. All of you have. These are no different."
Shaking her head, as everyone else chuckled, they all left the roof and headed along separate routes for Marinette and Luka's top floor apartment, landing on the balcony off of the small living, and heading inside. Marinette was the first to arrive, dropping her transformation and heading to the kitchen to gather more snacks for hungry friends and kwamis. She laid out a platter of everything from cookies to camembert, eggs to eclairs, and was setting the plate on the table as Viperion dropped in.
He shed his transformation, and put his arms around Marinette, dropping his forehead to rest against hers, his hands settling at her waist. "Are you ok with all this, Mari?"
She took a shuddering breath and nodded. "Secrets can't last forever, and it will be nice not to have to be quite so professional in the suits." Waggling her eyebrows at him, she grinned as he barked a laugh, even as the blush stole up his neck. He'd just leaned in to kiss her, when Bunnix landed, calling out, "Get a room you two!"
Swatting at her half heartedly without looking up, Luka mumbled, "I've got a room. You're standing in it."
Laughing as she danced away from them, she plopped down on the couch. The others arrived in rapid succession, and made themselves at home, somewhat more nervously than they had in visits as their civilian selves to the apartment.
"So, as some of you know, I am not only Ladybug, I am also the Guardian of the Miracle Box. If you see kwamis flying around here, don't worry. That's normal. They know to hide whenever we have guests, but when they sense the presence of other kwamis, they are often curious, and want to say hello to friends they miss."
Luka flopped into an armchair, and dragged Marinette down to sit on his lap. She looked around at their living room full of superheroes, and then at her fiance. "I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel a bit underdressed."
Everyone laughed, and Chat grinned up at her, the tension in the room broken. "Well, I guess since you already know...:" His transformation dropped and Plagg dove straight for the cheese tray, scooping up a large chunk of camembert, tossing it into his mouth.
Any remaining tension in the room dissolved, and Rena looked around. "I promise that none of this is going on the blog." She grinned and released her transformation, and her kwami sailed over to the plate, snatching at his favorite foods, before Trixx disappeared into the other room, promising to fetch the other kwamis. Carapace dropped his transformation with a shrug and a smile, and reached over and hugged his best friend, the black cat.
After much back thumping and promises to talk later, all eyes turned to Bunnix. She sat, perched in the other armchair like a queen surveying her territory. Grinning, she shrugged. "What? I'm mysterious!"
Marinette rolled her eyes at her. "Yeah. Except you forget that Chat and I know who you are. And that Fluff is going to be pissed if you don't let her out to play with the others."
Adrien snorted a laugh at Bunnix's exasperated huff. "Fine. You guys win." She dropped her transformation with a grin, and Alix sat there as Fluff flew off to join the others. The six friends sat and talked late into the night, about weddings and tour dates, memories and how they should have guessed who the others were.
One by one they headed home, to lives and lovers who knew nothing of their super-suited antics, knowing that they would always be welcome in Ladybug's home, as well as the homes of others who knew their secrets.
Once they were alone again, Luka turned to Marinette, pulling her close, and kissing her temple. "Are you sure you're ok with this?"
She nodded against his chest as she cupped his cheek. "I wouldn't change a single thing."