Twenty-Nine: Complications

Author's Note: Chat and Ladybug have a bigger problem on their hands when Alya becomes aware of their actions.

I leapt toward the building a fraction of a second behind Ladybug, who appeared to be far more upset than I was over the actions of the Ladyblogger. I was unhappy, to be sure, for in some ways my friend had invaded my purrsonal space; even allowing for the fact that Ladybug and I were such public figures, it was a boundary that Alya had not crossed before now. What troubled me more was the possibility that Marinette might learn of my actions through Alya, who admittedly had a vested interest to protect her friend. I couldn't blame her, for my own guilt weighed heavily on my soul.

Alya had apparently seen our reaction to her capturing our unguarded moment and had vanished from where she'd been hovering over the edge with the phone that had caught my attention. The physical activity of hitting the side of the building, claws out, and then leaping from ledge to ledge drove all thoughts of what had happened with Ladybug to the periphery. Higher and higher I leapt, focusing on driving my claws deep into stone and trying desperately to keep up with my motivated partner.

I curled over the edge and landed in my crouch side-by-side with Ladybug, and watched with some awe as Alya transformed on the spot to Rena Rouge; it was an amazing breach of Miraculous protocol, one with ramifications that went well beyond what she had done. Nevertheless, as Rena, she proceeded to vault over the far edge of the roof and landed just out of sight on the building beyond.

"You let her keep her Miraculous?" I asked incredulously as I leapt into the air to get a bit of a jump-start so I could land on serious run.

"Yeah," Ladybug said as she pulled even with me. "Carapace has his, too, now. They've been part of the team so long, I felt like I could trust them with it."

"Thanks for keeping me in the loop," I snarked.

"I would have told you," Ladybug said defensively. "But it's a recent development and we've both been a bit busy with the holidays. Besides, I hate keeping secrets from you, kitty."

"You have a funny way of showing it," I said as I leapt over the edge of the roof and landed on the building beyond. "I think we now have the answer for how she's been getting those exclusive photos of us."

Ladybug landed next to me and we dashed after Rena who was now barely twenty meters ahead but, with the enhancements the Miraculous provided, maintaining her lead. "You aren't surprised she's Rena," Ladybug observed.

"No," I said, my tail flapping behind me as I kicked into a higher gear and incrementally gained on our teammate. "She's never been able to hide her feelings around Carapace," I added as we hurdled a skylight and gained on the fox. "It's gotten worse since their marriage."

"I know, right?" Ladybug said humorlessly.

"Are you going to kick her off the team?" I asked.

"I'm debating it," she said as we gained on Rena.

"As angry as I am with Rena, the circle is pretty small; It's just us," I reminded her. "Even assuming Carapace knows, the fact that you've given them their Miraculous means they are perfectly capable of defending each other. And I hasten to add she's not the only one making creative use of their time as a superhero."

"I highly doubt she's hanging around the house as Rena with Nino," Ladybug said as we hopped over another alleyway and climbed the side of third building. Rena had slowed as a result of her difficulty climbing and was now within shouting distance.

"Rena!" I yelled, allowing a little of my anger into my voice. "This is madness! We know where you live."

The fox's bushy tail slipped over the edge of the roof without comment.

I leapt sideways to catch a ledge, then sideways again to gain height. Ladybug cheated and rose up on her yo-yo; by the time I'd made it to the roof, she was standing in front of Rena, twirling her yo-yo a bit menacingly, betraying her anger much like my tail would. Opting to let Ladybug lead, I leapt to her side but stayed in my cat crouch, cocking my head upward to see how this played out.

"Explain yourself," Ladybug said hotly.

Rena crossed her arms. "Ladybug—"

"Explain yourself," Ladybug demanded. It was forceful enough that my ears flattened.

"Fine," Rena said. "But you should know I've already uploaded the photos to my Instagram."

"You what?" I growled. "You had no—"

"I had every right," she said. "I'm a journalist and it's a big scoop, seeing as though at least one of you is ostensibly seeing someone."

That made me stand up. "Rena, you didn't do me any favors when you published those photos of my trip with Marinette this summer. Posting what you think Ladybug and I were doing on that roof—"

"Think?" Rena laughed mirthlessly. "You claim to be in love with my best friend, Chat," she said, her eyes flashing as she whirled on Ladybug. "And you! Miss all-high-and-mighty making a move on Chat like that. So much for your superior moral ground."

"Making—!" Ladybug fairly spluttered. "I did no such—"

"The photos beg to differ," Rena said grimly before looking back at me. "Not that Chat didn't appear to be a willing participant. All this time," she said more softly as she turned back to Ladybug, "I had the two of you on some sort of hero pedestal. I can't believe what I saw – and what I might have seen if you'd managed to yank that bell zipper down."

I felt my face color a bit at the memory of Ladybug's touch at my collar and – yes – her rather urgent tugging at the bell. I thanked Plagg silently for keeping my costume intact. "Whatever happened between Ladybug and me is, frankly, between us," I said firmly, folding my arms. "And we both have to face the consequences with our significant others. Maybe you had the right to publish, maybe you didn't, but you've made a difficult situation for us far, far worse."

"This isn't on me, Chat."

"Rena," I said as I stepped toward her. "You have to know me well enough to know that my first instinct is to rush home to Marinette and spill my guts to her, no matter the consequences. I presume Ladybug feels the same," I added, glancing to my partner who was nodding. "I'd have preferred not having my girlfriend find out about this from anyone other than me."

"You should have thought about that before you kissed Ladybug, Chat," Rena said.

"This cat isn't going to cry over spilt milk," I replied. "But tell me honestly: if you had stepped out on Carapace, would you want him seeing it on social media?"

That made her pause for a number of reasons. "I'd never do that," she said after a moment.

"Before this afternoon, I would have said the same," I said. "I have no excuses," I added as I looked at my partner once more, "and, clearly, I have some unresolved issues with respect to my feelings for Ladybug. And, purrhaps, she does, too."

"Yes," Ladybug said softly as she caught my eye.

"I've already posted," Rena reminded us. "Even if I agreed to take down the photos, they're out there now."

I felt my feline ears wilt, for the one-two punch of my own actions and Rena having committed it to posterity finally hit me. Leaping into the air and helicoptering away from everything felt like a wonderful option, as marvelously unrealistic as it was. Wandering over to a pony wall, I hopped up and perched on the stone and felt very much like I was a bumbling fourteen-year-old, not a successful twentysomething who had (until recently) a loving relationship with my soulmate.

Rena paused, and for the first time my friend's righteous anger at what we had done – what I had done to her friend, rather – had been replaced with a bit of sadness. Whether it was over our actions or the crumbling of her vision of the two of us, I couldn't be exactly sure. "The damage is done."

"All right," Ladybug said quietly as she stowed her yo-yo and went to sit atop a skylight. While we'd been talking, the moon had finally come out and the sky was twinkling with stars – stars that seemed much happier than the three of us on that roof were. I could smell the first faint chill of the evening on the breeze and recognized it as the portent it was. "I don't see a choice, then. Give us a day or so to deal with our personal relationships, and then we'll do an exclusive interview with you to explain to Paris what happened."

My mane snapped toward Ladybug. "An interview?" I mewled, my masked feline eyes wide in shock. "You think that's going to fix anything?"

"No," Ladybug said. "But it might start to repair our reputations with Paris."

I stared at my partner. Airing my humiliation live on the internet hadn't even remotely been on my to-do list. "As you wish, Milady," I said as I turned back to Rena. "Do we have an agreement?"

Rena looked at the two of us. "Do I lose my Miraculous?"

"We're going to have a long chat about using it for personal reasons," Ladybug said. "But no."

"Good," Rena smiled. "Since Chat—"

"Don't push it," Ladybug growled. Impressively, it was close to my own.

"Okay. You'll be in touch?"

"Yes," Ladybug said.

As much as we wanted to carefully work through what happened, both Ladybug and I knew we needed to get home to our significant others and try to assess the damage we had just wreaked upon our respective relationships. The following evening was a normal patrol night for us, but we agreed to meet up an hour earlier to compare notes and decide how to proceed with Alya... as well as deal with the cross-species relationship we'd stumbled our way into.

And, to be honest, I was ready to get away from Ladybug for a while. Just thinking about the rooftop brought heat to the exposed sections of my masked face.

I made my way home through the early evening, reluctant to return to my sanctuary and face Marinette. At the same time, I knew I needed to get to her before the effect of the photos had settled in for her; I was long past worrying about whether she'd seen them, knowing that, like me, she was automatically notified when the Ladyblog had a new post on Instagram. Pausing on a rooftop, I tried Marinette for the fourth time using the Cat Phone and started to worry that her not picking up the phone was a signal as to how she was taking the news.

Landing on my balcony, I slid the door to my bedroom open and carefully entered, feline ears twitching to see if my girlfriend was home. One step into my room, though, my night vision saw her sitting on my bed, cross-legged, her phone in her hands and her tablet on the comforter. I didn't need to look at the screen of either to know what was glowing there, almost mockingly.

That she was even in my room was unusual, for up to that point, we'd treated each other's suites as sacrosanct – no entrance unless invited. Granted, I'd been inviting her into mine more and more frequently, but that was beside the point. I was thankful I'd not dropped my transformation as I'd landed; that would have been one additional complication I was nowhere near ready to deal with.

My heartrate ticked up as I stowed my baton. "Princess," I said carefully, my masked eyes searching hers for any indicator of how this conversation was going to go.

"Chat," she replied quietly. "We need to talk."