Thirty-Two: Paying the Piper

Author's Note: Chat and Ladybug reluctantly meet with Alya, putting off their own discussion about their future in order to salvage their reputations with Paris.

As the hour approached for our meeting with Alya, I found myself perched on the railing of Marinette's rooftop patio atop the Dupain-Cheng Bakery. I was still a fairly regular visitor to the Bakery as Chat, since Sabine was constantly crafting care packages for us. That brought a cryptic smile to my feline visage, for the original stated reason had been that I could get back and forth far faster than Marinette, given my abilities when transformed. Now I finally understood how Marinette had been able to, quite literally, "swing by" the Bakery on her way home from time to time even though her office was halfway across the city.

I cocked my head, listening intently for Marinette to rise from the residence below; she was putting the finishing touches on her evil plan for our friend. And evil it was; given my admittedly earned reputation for destruction, what she had planned paled in comparison to anything I'd ever turned to ash. I'd had a small part in the drama myself; I patted a costume pocket to ensure I still had the items I'd borrowed from a rather surprised Nino a bit earlier. I rarely dropped in on him as Chat; doing so that evening had allowed me to (slightly) misuse his superhero worship to our benefit.

After all, I was a black cat, and not above a little deception every now and again.

My eyes narrowed in delicious anticipation at what was to come; I rarely allowed the basal feline impulses out, but tonight I was looking forward to chasing this prey. I loved Alya as a friend, but had to admit to feeling a slight bit of betrayal. It hadn't helped that one particular shot of Ladybug and I had hit more than a million views on her blog; while my alter-ego might appreciate such notoriety, as Chat, I was cringing at how my very private life had become public fodder.

Neither of us had anything against the media; far from it. But Alya was a friend, both to the personas in the mask and out. That's probably why it was something of an open wound. Or, purrhaps, why my feline instincts were turned up to ten on the dial.

An ear flicked and I turned to watch Marinette appear from the skylight. She was obviously older now than when I first started to appear on her rooftop, but age had only served to make her far more beautiful. Gracefully, she slipped out and walked over to me, holding out a small package. "Hang on to those, too, kitty?" she asked. "I need to change into something a bit more appropriate."

She paused for a moment before tapping me on the nose. "And stop grinning so lecherously."

I laughed. "I'm sorry, Milady. I'm just not used to being able to watch you transform. And it really is something to behold."

"You've yet to return the favor, kitty," she smiled.

"Oh, I will," I replied, returning to my (slightly) lecherous grin.

One transformation later, the two of us took the long way around the buildings ringing the park beside the Bakery; it wouldn't do to give up another secret should Alya have been keeping an eye on our rooftop aerie (she wasn't, I'd been paying attention while studiously not watching my girlfriend call on her kwami). Ladybug dropped down to the sidewalk on her yo-yo with the ease of many years of practice; I couldn't help a rather showy loop on one paw around a lamp post into a double barrel roll to standard crouch beside Milady.

"Really?" she said.

"Keeping in shape for the Olympics," I smiled.

"I didn't know they had a kitty division."

"Of course they do," I grinned. "Besides, who wouldn't want to watch an athlete in skintight-"

"Chat," Ladybug sighed. "Let's stay on point, shall we?"

"As you wish, Milady," I chuckled as I stood.

The two of us casually walked through the gate to the park, which at that late hour was bereft of patrons. The only activity was, predictably, the small setup Alya had arranged by the fountain: two lights, two cameras, and three chairs arranged for the interview. She was already seated in the one chair that was set against the remaining pair, flipping through her notebook and trying hard to look like she wasn't impatiently waiting for us.

Twirling my tail in one paw, I felt a dangerous smile appear on my face. "Alya."

The brown-haired journalist looked up and smiled. "Chat. Ladybug." She gestured to the seats in front of her. "Please, have a seat."

I leapt onto the chair and perched, boots and paws against the cushion. Ladybug raised an eyebrow but had known in advance I'd be doing it and instead demurely took her seat and crossed her legs. "No crew?"

Alya held up her smartphone. "I can control everything from here," she said. "And I figured you'd prefer a bit of privacy."

I raised a masked eyebrow. "But this will be streamed live?"

"Yes."

"Are you absolutely sure you want to do that?" I said, my voice low and borderline growly.

"Yes."

I glanced at Ladybug and saw her nod her head so subtly I was sure Alya hadn't caught it. "All right. We're here. Let's get to it."

Alya tapped something on her phone and the two lights burst into life; I blinked a bit at the sudden brightness as Alya turned to look into the camera she'd placed behind us. I shifted slightly on my chair.

"Good evening," she said. "I'm here with the Heroes of Paris – Ladybug and Chat Noir – with an exclusive interview..."

I kept my masked eyes firmly planted on Alya as she proceeded to recite something of an essay to explain to her viewers why we were all there. As I watched her, I snuck my tail up behind me and poised it just over the illuminated paw print on my baton. Or where I thought the paw print should be; despite how many years it had been carefully stashed at the small of my back, it had still taken a few minutes of practice in front of my bathroom mirror to get the position just right.

Glancing at Ladybug, I saw her shift the position of her hand against her arm. Ready? she was asking.

I dipped my head forward at an appropriate point in Alya's soliloquy, effecting to look chastened. Yes, was my response.

Ladybug tapped her finger. Ok.

"...so they've agreed to speak to me, on the record, to help straighten out this situation." Alya turned to me. "Chat, isn't it true that you are actually in a relationship with someone else?"

I looked up. "Yes," I said simply.

Alya looked a bit nonplussed, as if she'd expected me to protest a bit. Regrouping, she continued. "And... and how did she take it, finding out you were cheating on her?"

It took an amazing amount of willpower not to smile. "Better than I expected," I said, dipping my head again, allowing my unruly bangs to fall forward. I knew it made me look vulnerable having used it multiple times over the years in my modelling. "In fairness, my girlfriend was well aware of my history with Ladybug."

Alya pounced on what sounded like a juicy story. "So... you do have a past together, then?"

"Yes," Ladybug said. "But after you published that photo of us kissing atop Montparnasse, we had to make the tough decision and break up."

"You - wait, what?"

"It was tough, actually," I said, looking up. I'd managed to get teary eyed and dramatically caught my breath. "We were in love, even back then, but your photo proved to us we couldn't be together."

Ladybug leaned over and put a hand to my bicep. "It's okay, Chat." She looked up to Alya. "It was hard, but we knew for the good of Paris, we could never be together."

I let out a sob and even more dramatically turned away, wiping a tear from my eye with a claw.

"I thought – you said you had no memory of what happened!"

"We needed a cover story," I said, tears flowing down my mask now. "It was the best we could come up with on such short notice." I looked lovingly at Ladybug. "We've had to live with that decision for years, now, haven't we Bugaboo?"

Ladybug's mouth quirked. "Yes, kitty," she replied, taking my paw into her hand. "I'm sorry. I didn't know until recently how much it hurt you – it hurt me."

That was my cue. As I continued to look into Ladybug's eyes, my tail quickly tapped a sequence into the baton; a chirp only I could hear told me the cellular/Wi-Fi disruption function had activated. Our assumption was that Alya was livestreaming using her mobile phone as a hotspot, but just to be safe, I'd gone for a broad-spectrum shield. With luck, the three of us were now very much alone.

"Ladybug, what I did – what we did-" I said, giving my partner her cue.

She nodded subtly. "It was a one-time thing," she said softly. "My significant other – like yours – has seen the pictures and we've had a long, long conversation about it."

I felt my mouth quirk slightly, for we'd done far more than talk. I continued to look at her, and knew that Alya was paying rapt attention to our discussion; enough that she didn't see my other paw slowly unzip my costume pocket. "He forgave you?" I asked, knowing the answer.

"After a fashion," she replied. Now.

In a blur of motion, I had the items from my pocket out and vaulted into a standing position in front of the camera. "By the way, we have some photos to share, too."

"Chat - what are you-"

"Here's Alya with – gosh, isn't that the famous model, Adrien Agreste?" I said, making a show of examining the photo. It was the two of us at a party years earlier; she was laughing and hugging me, much like friends do, but... "Wow, Alya, I had no idea."

Ladybug put a gloved hand to her mouth in shock. "Wasn't that after you were engaged?"

Alya snatched the photo out of my paw. "This isn't what it looks like," she said.

"Or this one?" I said, holding up a photo of her sharing a bed with Luka Couffaine. "That looks cozy."

"Where did you get these?" she cried, snatching that one from my paw. "We were on a-"

"Wow, look at this one, Ladybug," I said, voice dripping with irony. "The most romantic place on Earth-"

"Give me those!" Alya cried as she dove for the fistful of photos I had in my paw.

Deftly, I leapt up and away from her, landing on the upper tier of the fountain. "I don't think so," I said. "The public have a right to know all the facts."

"At least," Ladybug said, "based on what you told us, Alya. No matter how private. Isn't that right?"

"Those are different!" she cried, glaring at me. "Those are personal moments!"

"Exactly," I said coldly. "Just like the one Ladybug and I shared on that rooftop."

"That's not the same-"

"Now, let's talk a bit about how you got those photos," Ladybug said. "How did you get on that rooftop Alya?"

"What?" Alya said, flushing slightly. "I took the elevator."

"Ah," I said, tail twisting. "You mean the one that was offline for maintenance?"

"Oh, no – I took the stairs, that's right."

"Really," Ladybug said as she nodded to me.

I unzipped my other pocket and tossed to Ladybug the small Miraculous box and photo she'd asked me to hold. "Oops," I said. "Where did that come from?"

Ladybug flipped the photo over; it was an action shot of Rena soaring through the air. Marinette had cropped out the other three of us from the photo, making it appear that Rena was leaping to a rooftop. "That's quite a shot."

"Yes," Alya said, but her eyes were on the box.

"I see you've noticed what I'm holding," Ladybug said.

"What... what is that?" she asked, trying to play it cool; but I could tell there was a slight tremor in her voice.

"This is a Miraculous Box," Ladybug said. "I'm not sure I should be showing it to you, or your fans," Ladybug added, playing to the cameras, "for they are a closely guarded secret. I'm not sure everyone knows the level of trust required for members of my team. Holding a Miraculous, even for a short period of time, is a serious responsibility."

Alya swallowed.

"I don't select members lightly," she continued. Ladybug looked back at me and, after a long moment, tossed the box up to me.

Alya visibly relaxed.

Ladybug stood and stepped over to Alya. "Much like the photos, you can see that context is sometimes needed for certainty. Wouldn't you agree, Chat?"

"Absolutely," I nodded.

"Without context, you could be forgiven perhaps for drawing conclusions that aren't correct."

"Indeed," I smiled down at Alya.

Ladybug leaned down to her friend. "I am very upset at what you did," she whispered. "Whatever you thought you saw, whether what we were doing was right or wrong, it wasn't for you to judge." Ladybug snatched the photo of Alya and Adrien back. "As you can now see, photos can be read in many ways. By many people."

I pulled out my baton and disabled the Wi-Fi blocker as I dropped back into my seat. "So while I love Ladybug," I continued as if nothing had happened, "I am deeply in love with my girlfriend."

"As am I with my boyfriend," Ladybug said sweetly. "Well, I think that about does it. Unless you had anything further, Alya?"

"No," Alya said quickly. "Thank you – thank both of you for your time."

"Chat?" Ladybug said as she took my paw. "Shall we?"

"After you, Milady," I bowed and then we leapt up into the air.

I helicoptered to reach a nearby roof, landing next to Ladybug as she dropped out of the sky. Together we slowly jogged side-by-side until we were well away from the park and Bakery, stopping by prearrangement on an angled set of tiles facing the lit Eiffel Tower.

"Well," I said as I settled in next to my girlfriend. "What do you think?"

Ladybug leaned into my shoulder. "We bought some time," she said. "But she'll be back in the hunt for another scoop sooner than later, I fear."

"That's what I thought, too," I said. "Especially when she realizes we essentially deleted the middle part of her exclusive interview." I turned slightly. "I thought you were going to relieve her of her Miraculous?"

"I was," she said. "But I felt like a warning was more in order. For now."

"Lovely," I sighed.

"Don't fret, Chat," she said as she ran a finger around the metal accent on my arm. "Marinette is going to visit Alya tomorrow – after seeing the interview, of course – and ensure Alya got the point."

"Do you want-"

"No," she smiled. "I can do this myself. Now," she said as she stood, "I could really use a drink. You?"

"I could have used one before the interview, Milady."

"I needed you to have your wits about you, kitty," she laughed. "Come on, let's go home. We've got a lot to talk about ourselves."

"That we do," I said, kissing her. "That we do."