Author's note: Continuing down the path of updating all of these previous chapters. If you're reading this in 2021, welcome back to 2016! Hope you enjoy the throwback.
Marinette was tucked into her bed, fast asleep, when Tikki shook her awake.
"Marinette! Marinette, wake up!"
Marinette groaned and put her pillow over her head, refusing to listen to her small ladybug friend.
"Marinette, seriously, I think it might be urgent!"
"Tikki," Marinette grumbled through her pillow, "what is so important that it couldn't wait until morning? You said it yourself earlier, I need to rest up."
"But Marinette, it's Chat Noir. I can tell that he's trying to reach you, why would he do that if there wasn't an emergency?"
With that, Marinette shot up in her bed, immediately waking up. "Trouble? Tikki, transformez-moi!" in an instant, Marinette was now Ladybug, clad in her red suit and jumping out her window, running across the rooftops of Paris while trying desperately to get in touch with Chat Noir. Eventually, he finally picked up the video chat.
"Chat Noir!"
"My lady! How are you this fine evening?"
This made Ladybug stop in her tracks. It certainly didn't sound like there was a battle or an akumitized villain anywhere around him.
"Chat Noir, what's the matter?"
"What do you mean?" he replied.
"What I mean," Ladybug replied, exasperated, "is that I got a message from you, and I assumed there was some grave emergency that you needed my help with, so I transformed as quickly as I could to come help you. So, given that our superpowers are for saving the city of Paris from evil and harm, I can only guess that there must be some villain for us to fight?"
Chat Noir stared back blankly until finally sputtering out "I mean I thought we had patrol tonight and I was wondering where you were. It's Friday, no?"
Ladybug immediately remembered that in fact, it was Friday, and they normally had patrol late Friday night, every Friday night. "Oh god, I'm sorry chat, I totally spaced. It's been a long week; I had just assumed that we wouldn't go on patrol tonight after everything that happened."
Chat's face immediately dropped, obviously disappointed. "I mean if you're tired my lady, I wouldn't want to keep you out. A princess needs her rest after all."
Ladybug could tell that he was trying to be his cocky and charming self, and so she gave him an eye roll for good measure, but she couldn't help but notice how genuinely sad he looked at the prospect of missing patrol. Maybe this is what he needed to deal with the hard week they'd both had: some noncommittal patrol time with a friend, goofing off over the city streets of Paris. She sighed, realizing that she couldn't say no to that face, no matter how many puns she would have to endure that evening.
"No no, it's fine, crime never rests, after all," Ladybug replied, and she watched as immediately Chat's face lit up like a Christmas tree.
"Great! I'll meet you in two minutes at the top of the Eiffel tower!" Chat exclaimed.
"No, wait, aren't we patrolling the-" But Ladybug was cut off as Chat hung up the video call, leaving her no choice but to meet her feline companion at the tip of the Eiffel tower. "Great," she said out loud to herself, "I can already tell there isn't going to be a lot of patrolling happening tonight." And yet, she wasn't all that disappointed. Tikki was right, she deserved a break, and what a better way than some quality time with her partner in crime, or rather, in crime fighting.
Chat Noir sat perched on the viewing gallery of the Eiffel Tower, looking over the city of Paris, when he was startled by a voice over his shoulder.
"Isn't Paris beautiful at night?" Ladybug stated more observationally than as a question. Chat Noir, not expecting her to be there, jumped at the sound of her voice, and just about fell over the side of the railing. He would have too, if Ladybug hadn't grabbed him by the back of his collar and pulled him back up, saving him, as per usual.
"Sorry about that cheri," Chat replied as suavely as one can after almost dying, "I can't help but fall for you every time I see you." Ladybug rolled her eyes and scoffed at this remark, as she settled herself down beside Chat on his perch.
"Really though, isn't it lovely?" Ladybug asked again, this time with a bit more sincerity. However, Chat Noir couldn't focus on Paris, despite the obvious beauty it held, especially at this height. Instead, all of his attention was on Ladybug, and the way her hair rustled in the night wind, and how the lights from the Eiffel tower hit her stormy blue eyes, bringing them to life.
"Beautiful, more like it," he replied, still staring intently at Ladybug.
"Sometimes, I wonder," Ladybug started, her eyes still gazing over the city she had somehow come to protect.
"Wonder what?" Chat replied, eyes still focused on Ladybug. He started to study the curves of her neck, and how they moved seamlessly into her jaw, and from her jaw to her round button chin. He had spent countless hours memorizing the lines of her face, but he couldn't help but blatantly stare now, with the light of the moonlight lighting her silhouette perfectly.
"I wonder, what would life be like if I weren't Ladybug, and you weren't Chat Noir? Would I be asleep in bed right now?"
"Would we still know each other?" Chat asked back, and attentively waited for the answer, honestly curious as to her answer.
"I suppose we'll never know," Ladybug replied, her eyebrows furrowing, like she was contemplating the scenario for the 1000th time in her head, still with no answers, only more questions.
"I mean," Chat started nervously, "we could know each other, you know."
"Of course we know each other. We fight side by side every night mon petit chat," Ladybug replied, finally tearing her eyes away from the Parisian skyline only to punch her friend playfully on the shoulder.
"You know what I mean," he replied, almost forcing Ladybug with sheer force of will alone to look him in the eyes and see what he was feeling.
"Chat, you know we can't tell each other our true identities, it wouldn't be-"
"Wouldn't be safe I know I know, and I'm not saying we do. I'm just saying, we could know each other. Without the masks." The two superheroes looked at each other watchfully, trying to read the other's mind and figure out what they were thinking. Was it possible? That they actually knew each other in the light of day? That they'd interacted without the charade but didn't know it?
"What difference would it make?" said Ladybug, finally breaking the silence that had enveloped the darkness between them, moving her eyes off of Chat and back to the city. She looked as though she were patrolling for danger, but seemed too distracted to be doing so in any meaningful way.
"I don't know, I never said it did make a difference," he replied, obviously slightly disappointed, but with a shadow of hope underneath. "All I was trying to say is that we could be friends in real life, without the costumes, so really it would make no difference, if I weren't Chat Noir and you weren't Ladybug. I'm sure we would've found each other, somehow." Chat paused, awkwardly, his emotional side a little too close to the surface for his comfort. He added for good measure: "we're too good of a team for that not to be the case. The best of friends." Chat groaned internally at that last part.
"The best of friends. Yea, because that's all you want. Stupid cat."
This did cause Ladybug to look back over with a smile that made Chat's heart dance in his chest and leap up to his throat.
"Yea, you're right Chat. We would have found each other, I'm sure."
This remark gave Chat Noir more than just a glimmer of hope. Maybe she felt the same way, maybe she also wanted to get to know him, without the mask, maybe they could—
"Besides," Ladybug interrupted through his stream of consciousness, "even if we do know each other, we probably don't have time to interact much, anyway. I don't know about you, but my schedule is packed. I don't really have time for much these days." She chuckled as she said the last part of this, and Chat Noir looked on, stunned.
"What? What's the problem?" Ladybug asked, starting to become genuinely concerned, "Is there a spider behind me or something? What is it? Cat got your tongue?"
He still sat there, speechless.
"Oh come on, so you're allowed to make bad puns and I'm not? Just spit it out."
"Uh, n-n-nothing." Chat Noir stuttered out, shaking the thought from his mind. It was way too strange that he'd seen how similar Ladybug and Marinette were yet again; that was twice in one day. Maybe it was just because he spent more time with Marinette than usual, and gotten to see a side of her he normally wouldn't see, but god, the resemblance was uncanny in that very moment.
"Chat, I can tell it's not nothing, please, you can tell me anything, you know that."
At this thought, he froze again, taking in what she'd just said. He can tell her anything. It was true, he felt it too, he could trust her with anything and not have to fear. She was really his best friend, really one of the only friends he'd ever had, and he didn't want to ruin it by pushing her away. So what if he didn't know who she was beyond the mask? He didn't need to know. He had everything he needed, right here, with her, in this moment, and he couldn't be happier. With that thought, a huge smile wiped across his face that he couldn't control.
"Okay, now you're really starting to freak me out," Ladybug said, shaking her head at her friend who might just have lost it altogether, "What's the matter? Really?"
"Nothing," Chat said again, this time with confidence, "everything is just perfect as is."
"Ooooookay then, weirdo," Ladybug replied, grabbing her yoyo and hooking onto the lower bars of the tower. "Last one to the lookout spot we're supposed to be at right now is a smelly cat!" she shouted as she took off flying into the night, a black cat grinning at her back. Finally, he shook himself out of his state and extended his baton out into the darkness, trying to catch up with the most miraculous girl he had ever met.
Author's note: and that's chapter three updated! Hope you enjoyed xx