Thirty: Found

Author's Note: Chat and Marinette have a long-overdue heart-to-heart.

Special Note: Just a reminder, Chat and Marinette are age-appropriate, consenting adults in the timeline for which Roommates takes place. You've been warned.

If there was ever at time that I would have found myself wishing for an akuma to suddenly appear, it was while I was standing a half meter from the love of my life, who was deliberately flipping through photos of my dalliance with Ladybug. And there were photos – from what I could tell, albeit upside down, Alya had been on the roof far longer than either of us had realized, and more than one of them left very little to the imagination of what the two of us had been about. I resisted the urge to slide the baton up and fake an akuma alert, though it was far tougher not to give myself over to my feline instincts for self-preservation and bolt back through the still-open slider.

Swallowing, I tentatively took a step forward. "Princess," I said softly.

"There are hundreds of these," Marinette said as she continued to swipe. "How long was she up there?"

"Longer than I realized," I replied. "Clearly, I'm not good at illicit romance," I laughed nervously. "Rooftops are apparently a bad spot."

"No kidding," she said as she looked up again. She'd pulled her hair back into the twin pigtails that had been one of many things that had endeared me to her in the first place and I choked up; while she didn't seem to look hurt or betrayed, I was feeling all of those on her behalf. "I'd recommend a number of other places that are more private," she continued. "Even the Eiffel Tower would be a better spot."

I already knew my face was on fire, though she was unlikely to see it given her tablet was the sole source of illumination in the room. "I'd take that under advisement, were there to be a next time," I said so quietly that I wasn't sure I had heard it.

Marinette looked at me, and slowly got up from the bed. "Are you honestly telling me there won't be a next time, kitty?" she asked as she stood in front of me. "That you won't be tempted by that vixen in a skintight red-and-black-polka-dotted suit?" she continued as she tapped a finger against a pectoral.

"Is it skintight?" I squeaked as I stepped backwards. "I hadn't noticed."

"It is," she said, tapping me harder. "Much like yours."

"Princess—" I started as I took another step backwards. My baton bumped up against the fixed glass of the slider, inadvertently making me realize she'd cornered me. Marinette emphasized the point by putting a hand over my shoulder, palm on the window and close enough to my exposed cheek I could feel the warmth from it.

"Answer me, kitty," she said as she narrowed her blue eyes at me. "Can you honestly say you wouldn't look twice at Ladybug?"

"No! I mean, yes—!" My breath caught, for I'd not immediately noticed where the other hand had wound up until it made itself known in an extremely sensitive area. I gasped again as she made another quick pass.

"Now that I know I have your attention," she said with a devious gleam to her eyes, "care to try that again?"

"Marinette," I growled a bit of a warning. "This isn't—" I gasped again, and this time had to close my masked eyes to try and steady myself. Multiple competing impulses were coursing through me, confusing the issue entirely.

Wasn't I supposed to be apologizing to her? This wasn't how I expected the conversation to go. At all.

"I'm waiting, Chat," she said as she tapped my bell with her finger.

Swallowing again, I tried to put my fuzzy thoughts in order. "I love you, Marinette," I said weakly.

Seriously, Chat? That's the best you've got? You've had pithier responses to akumas.

Her eyes darted down quickly then returned to mine. "I know," she said.

My face felt like it was radiating as if it were a supernova in progress. But I couldn't take my eyes off of her, even though I could see something dancing in those deep blue eyes. Did it emphasize how much trouble I was in, or was there some sort of wicked delight there? Her actions were making it insanely difficult to focus.

"You know how much – whoa – Ladybug means to me," I said, trying and failing to ignore how she was drawing little circles around the metal accent on my shoulder. Her touch was like fire, which was something given I was still transformed. "I… oh, wow…" I started to say before she managed to get on her tip-toes to nibble at a spot just above my collar.

"You, what, exactly?" she asked, and I could feel her breath against my skin as she nibbled again.

"I… uh… Mari, look," I said somewhat urgently. "If you want to get—oh, dear kwami!—full sentences from me…"

"Really?" she said sweetly. "Am I distracting you?"

I took a deep breath. "Most… defelinely," I breathed, squeezing my masked eyes shut again. My feline brain was starting to overload.

I felt Marinette pull back slightly. "Okay."

Taking another deep breath, I re-opened my masked eyes. "I'm sorry," I said simply. "I didn't realize how I felt about Ladybug, still," I continued. "I love you, Mari," I said emphatically. "That hasn't changed."

She looked at me. "But?"

I sighed as I wriggled a paw out from behind me and put it on her shoulder. "I still have feelings for her, too," I said quietly as I looked away from her. "I don't know how it's possible, but I seem to love two women."

My eyes caught the outfit she'd given me for Christmas, folded neatly on my dresser ready for use that weekend. It had been such a thoughtful gift, allowing me an additional set of weekend attire so Plagg could get his much needed downtime; the fingerless gloves were set just to the side, purrhaps the best gift of all, as they'd allowed me to physically touch her, something I'd never be able to do as Chat. A rush of shame and sadness quelled for the moment the raw impulses Marinette had been drawing out of me.

"I do," Marinette replied softly. "I understand."

My mane snapped back, ears askew and caught her gaze, blazing with the affection I'd long enjoyed. There was also a slight flush to her cheeks which hadn't been there before. "You… do?" I said, the confusion clear in my voice.

"Yes," she said, shaking her head a bit sadly. "It's my fault, actually. I've let this go longer than I should have."

"I don't understand," I said. "How is any of this your fault? I'm the one in the photos with Ladybug!"

"Oh, kitty," she said, smiling the smile that only I saw. "I absolutely adore how oblivious you chose to be."

"Oblivious?" I echoed. "What do you – ohmygodohmygodohmygod-!" I breathed, for Marinette's hand had shot up to a feline ear and started to gently rub the tip between her fingers. It had long been my Achille's heel with her, as it typically laid waste my ability to deny her anything. And, given how high my emotions were running, the sensory overload nearly overwhelmed me. "Ma—Mari—"

She slowed but didn't stop her ministrations, and instead leaned as close to my feline ear as she could, tip-toes and all. "I know you love me, Chat," she whispered. "Both of me."

"Both-?" I started, barely capable of cracking open one masked eye. What I really wanted to do was another thing altogether. "What do you mean—"

The pink kwami floating in my line of sight was wearing a bemused expression. "Hello, Chat," she said with that sweetly melodic voice I'd only heard a few times before. "It's nice to see you again."

My masked eyes snapped wide open and shot to Marinette's blue ones. She was wearing a broad smile and nodding slowly. "Hello, kitty," she said. "Now you understand."

And I did.

All of the little signs I'd seen over the years, the near misses; the small comments that, if I'd been paying attention, could only have come from someone who I saw in both guises. The face. The voice. The intelligence. The amazing body. The eyes.

Oh, those eyes.

I'd refused to see what was hiding in plain sight. Or had I? Some part of my feline brain simply clicked a button, almost like a shrug, really, that the reality had finally caught up with me. But now that I knew-

I looked back to Tikki, urgently. "But I can't know!" I cried, suddenly worried. "She'll have to give it up! I can't – I won't take that from her!"

Tikki continued to smile at me. "We've talked it over extensively, Chat. It's not terribly unusual for the Cat and Bug holders to become romantically involved – I've seen it happen many, many times, actually. But the two of you are different. You share a bond far deeper than any pair Plagg and I have worked with over the millennia."

The tiny Kwami of Creation flew to Marinette's shoulder. "I believe strongly you're both capable of handling the responsibilities of being holders, and the unusual dynamic required to pull off a successful, personal, loving relationship." Her tiny eyes looked back at me. "That you've both managed to stay together for as long as you have, and successfully kept your identities from each other this entire time proves my point."

I felt as though I were a fish out of water, gasping for air as my world reordered itself around me. I ping-ponged between Tikki's perpetually kind expression and Marinette's expectant one, my feline brain processing the enormity of what had just transpired as fast as it's seemingly dated CPU could. In a whirl of thoughts, I realized I pretty much agreed with Tikki's assessment. The two of us were perhaps the only possible combination, really.

Or, I thought as a smile crept onto my face finally, was that the four of us?

Suddenly, I felt like I wanted to laugh maniacally at the insanity of just how we had wound up here.

"Milady?" I finally said, once I felt like I'd gotten my feet underneath me. "Does this mean I don't have to apologize now?"

"Maybe," she said with a sly smile. "But there is one thing you are defelinely on the hook for."

My masked eyes widened with worry. "What's that?"

In blur of motion, Marinette called for her transformation, temporarily blinding me with her red flash of magic. Before I had a chance to react, Ladybug had easily tossed me down upon my bed and quickly straddled me, much as she had back there on the rooftop. "You finally have to make good on all of the innuendo."

As I stared up at the masked face of my partner – no, I mentally corrected, my soulmate – I smiled in response. "The things I do for Milady," I purred as I reached up and pulled her down to me.

I awoke a little bit before sunrise with Ladybug snuggled into me, sleeping soundly with her head resting on one arm, my other wrapped around her possessively. It was a position I had fantasized about regularly as a teenager – oh, hell, if I were truly honest with myself, right up until I started dating Marinette seriously. They sometimes say that dreams are often better than reality; I felt I now had a compelling argument to the contrary.

What had awoken me, though, was the worry about how we went forward from here. For while I now knew who was beneath the Ladybug mask, we'd not quite gotten around to the other side of the equation. Back while we were attending University, there had been a moment when I thought Marinette had connected the dots behind the Chat mask, but she'd somewhat incredibly thought our mutual friend, Luka Couffaine, had been keeper of the Cat Miraculous.

At the time, I'd laughed at my good fortune and redoubled my efforts to obfuscate my true identity, having conveniently forgotten the multiple occasions Chat and Luka had been with Marinette at the same time. But now, leaning into my girlfriend and running a clawtip through the ribbon tying her hair, it dawned on me she'd known all along.

Part of me wondered if I should be angry that I'd had to keep up the charade when she had, in fact, divined who she'd moved in with; then again, it had also resulted in us keeping our relationship off the radar (for the most part, that is), something that would have been nearly impossible to do had Adrien been her boyfriend. And it wasn't lost on me that she seemed to prefer me in black leather during our more intimate time together in the apartment (her knitted hoodie notwithstanding).

Ladybug stirred, having felt my movements, and flipped around so she could face me. "Hey, kitty," she said sleepily. "This is a first for me, in case you're wondering."

I felt my face flush in the darkness. "Uh—" I choked.

"Sleeping transformed," she said quickly with that adorable smile. "But I should probably let Tikki out."

I smiled. "You get used to it," I replied, "though you never stop feeling guilty about what it does to the kwami."

Ladybug pushed herself up. "What does it do?" she asked, eyes wide. "Are they hurt?"

"Plagg says no, so long as we don't use our superpower. He can hold the transformation indefinitely, but to be honest, he gets kind of bored with nothing to do."

Her eyes widened more. "I never thought about that," she said.

"Hence my guilt," I smiled. "And endless purchases of Camembert."

Ladybug leaned up and kissed me. "I should go."

"Where?" I smiled crookedly. "Unless things have changed more than I realized, we, uh, live together. Still."

"True," she smiled wider. "But it's the first day after the holiday. At least one of us has to go to work. And the other, if I'm not mistaken, has a meeting with his competitor today."

My masked eyes widened. "I do? Today?"

She tapped my bell with a gloved finger. "Yes, my love. I'll have those new sketches for the Spring Show for you. The one you promised to model for me, if you recall."

I nodded slowly, my smile widening. "So, you do know, then."

Flipping off of my bed and alighting in my doorway, she smiled back at me. "Of course I do. I'm Ladybug," she said, as if it were self-evident.

"Since the party?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied. "But I have to give you credit; even during our little lunch this fall, you didn't give yourself away."

I tapped my chest. "Black cat," I reminded her. "Good at stealth."

She rolled her eyes. "Right."

"Milady," I said, vaulting up to her side, "what exactly do we do now? You didn't move in with Adrien. It's going to look a little strange if I suddenly pop up here. Especially to my Father."

Ladybug nodded. "I know. We'll figure it out. For today at least, let's keep up appearances. We'll talk more tonight."

"Talk?" I asked, a mischievous smile on my face. "Or talk?"

"I don't understand," Ladybug replied, a frown appearing on her face.

I explained it to her by scooping her up with a shriek and landing the two of us back amongst the bedclothes.

"Kitty!" she cried out as I kissed her along her collar. "I have to go to work!"

"Chat's Air Express is operating this morning," I said as I started to work my way toward other spots, eliciting a bit of a gasp from my girlfriend. "Don't worry. You'll be on time."