"It's been a pretty uneventful day, huh, my lady" Chat Noir said to his partner in justice as they sat atop a skyscraper, looking down on Paris as the lowering sun drenched it in a warm glow. "I dare say uneventful enough for, a date perhaps?" He leaned in closer to Ladybug's face who just gave him a joking eye roll and a light shove. "Oh kitty, how could I even think of dates while evil is still out there. Besides, how could we date while fighting crime?" she joked.
"Me-owch my lady! Your words hurt like the thorns of a rose!" What a drama queen Chat Noir was, ladybug thought to herself.
"Don't be so dramatic. Besides, I already told you that…" she paused for a moment, her eyes looking outwards. "my heart already belongs to someone. Once Hawkmoth is defeated, maybe I'll finally have the courage to tell him my true feelings." She was wistful, thinking of all the times she could have told Adrien how she truly felt. She knew that Adrien liked Ladybug, but he had dated Kagami. Maybe his heart would be opened to loving someone other than her own second personality.
These words of hers hurt Chat Noir, but not in a way Ladybug could see for herself. He always knew that she was already in love with someone else. Once Hawkmoth was defeated, would he lose Ladybug? He just couldn't get it out of his head that she would fall into oblivion.
"My lady?"
"Yes, Chat?"
"Listen. What if, and hear me out, when we defeat Hawkmoth for good. What if we revealed our true identities to each other?" He looked at her with his deep green eyes, all the seriousness he could muster in his goofy heart coming up front.
"What? That' absurd Kitty."
"But you said yourself that you wouldn't even let yourself date until Hawkmoth was defeated. I'm not asking for a date, just a little…" he trailed off. "Just a little trust." He finished. "If I can't win your heart as Chat Noir, let me try as the person I am when I'm not wearing the mask. Besides, you're the Guardian! You can make whatever rules you want!"
Ladybug looked into his eyes, and then looked away. "I'll…I'll think about it." She had thought about how nice it would feel to raise the veil of lies. "But who's to say that you'd like who I was without the mask? What if…what if I were some clumsy ditz who couldn't even talk like a normal person to someone she liked."
Chat Noir saw that a shadow of sadness had washed over her face, the glow of the falling sun now declining as well. The two were in a hazy darkness with the lights of Paris as their only light.
"You're still you, even without the mask. Whoever you are behind the mask isn't gone when she puts it on. It's always just you, my lady!" He chose his words carefully, realizing that she had fallen into a melancholy.
She sighed. "You're right Chat Noir, and I'm sure you're the same flirty goofball behind the mask." The two laughed together before standing up to call it a night.
"A great job today M'Lady. And listen, anyone would be lucky to have you. Don't you forget it!"
She gave him a tender smile, something he would hold onto for the rest of the night.
"Pound it!"
The two split ways to return home. As Ladybug jumped across the tops of the buildings, she saw someone down below. A girl crying alone in a street. She went down to see what was going on. The girl has lost their way to their mother's house. She was visiting but her phone had died so her GPS was gone as well.
"Serves me right for trying to enjoy the nightlife before visiting! Thank goodness you're here to help Ladybug!" She cried.
"Anytime! Do you know the street?"
The girl told Ladybug the street name, and immediately she knew where to go! The street was the same on that Agreste Manor was on. She still had a good amount of charge to her Kwami and the street was actually quite close, so she offered to take the girl over there. The girl thanked her, and Ladybug yo-yoed away, but not before a thought passed her mind.
"A peek…a peek wouldn't be so bad? Just to see if Adrien's getting his 8 hours of sleep. Yeah!" She justified to herself as she jumped to Adrien's window to get a look at her dream come true. "No…this is a serious breach of privacy Marinette. I just need…to go!" She turned herself around before actually peaking through the windows. But before she could jump, she heard through the window -
"Plagg, Claws off!"