Chat Noir dropped across the rooftop from Ladybug. He was still hesitant to see her again as Chat Noir. He knew she must be furious at him for disappearing without giving her the heads up...or even worse...even more disappointed in him than ever. That thought above all had nearly made him reconsider the return of Chat Noir altogether.
At least he had Shadowcat to fall back on if she couldn't forgive Chat Noir...but Shadowcat's costume felt a little too tight, and didn't quite fit right. It was like he was holding his breath the whole time, trying to keep the freedom loving Chat Noir bundled up inside. Maybe Ladybug really meant what she had said about needing Chat Noir. Maybe Shadowcat wouldn't replace him after all.
He bit his lip, and fiddled with the end of his tail, uncertain how to approach her. This shifting of his feet, such a slight movement, caused his bell to make a soft 'plink' that made Ladybug's ears perk up immediately in response.
She jumped up with a surprised expression on her face.
"Ladybug, I..." Chat Noir tried to say, but even his cat-like reflexes couldn't react fast enough to anticipate Ladybug running straight at him, grabbing him up in her arms till she had actually lifted him clean off his feet!
"My Kitty!" she sang out enthusiastically, squeezing him tightly against her chest.
"La...Ladybug! I ushh...can't breathe!" Chat Noir wheezed with her pressing her arms around him.
Her eyes widened, and she replaced him back to solid ground. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I was just so relieved to see you! Shadowcat really did find you!" Then she started to inspect his face, arms, and poke him in the chest. "So you're not hurt? You're really okay?"
Suddenly self-conscious of her turning him this way and that to apparently evaluate his wellbeing, he held up his hands and said, "No, really, I'm fine. I'm sorry I worried you."
"Worried me?!" Ladybug wacked him in the shoulder with a pout. "You scared me to death!"
"I didn't think you'd miss me all that much," Chat Noir said, not able to look her in the eye. "I thought you'd be better off with a stronger partner that didn't get in your way." His eyes flickered to Ladybug's face, and her expression was heartbreaking.
Her eyes welled up, and her chin quivered. "How could I ever let you go? Don't you know how much I care about you? Can't you see how broken I'd be if if you weren't in my life!"
"I really am sorry," Chat Noir's voice shook with emotion.
"I'm the one who is sorry. When I thought you were gone, I realized how much I care about you," Ladybug said softly moving forward and putting her arms tenderly around Chat Noir. This time her embrace wasn't an enthusiastic squeeze...it was soft and warm, like she had gathered up all the pieces of him that had been disconnected for so long and was slowly putting him back together.
Chat Noir sighed deeply against the curve of her neck.
His warm exhale of breath made her shiver deliciously. It was like a bolt of lightning had shot thorough her, all the way to her toes.
"There is something I need to tell you," Ladybug clenched her fists, and stepped back with a determined frown.
"You can tell me anything Ladybug," Chat Noir was stirred by the serious tone in her voice. Was she mad at him after all? Did she still trust him?
"I should've figured it out before. I mean for you...well, you always had no problem saying exactly how you felt...I just don't think things can be like they were before...you need to know..." Ladybug paused to steady her racing heart. Here it was. This was it! Adrien still didn't see her as any more than a friend, that was clear after this afternoon...but Chat Noir. She hadn't really planned a confession, but seeing him again...she didn't want to miss another second of her life missing out on loving him!
"Uh, yes?" Chat Noir quirked an eyebrow and he stiffened. She stood there like she was frozen. "I need to know what?!" Chat Noir urged her.
Ladybug took a deep breath "Chat Noir, I..."*CRASH*
Interrupted by a jarring crash, they were deafened, and the then the next moment a ringing in their ears brought their hearing back to the sound of blaring car horns. More screams, crashes and gunshots cut through the duo's reunion.
"Looks like you'll have to tell me later Mi'lady," Chat Noir snagged his baton from the small of his back and held it in front of himself. "It looks like Hawkmoth is throwing me a homecoming party!"
"Wait! I've got to tell you!" Ladybug held on to his forearms.
"Not to worry, we'll have time to 'chat' after we save the day like usual Mi'Lady!" Chat Noir said cheerily. (Maybe he could prove before they talked again that he could be the perfect Chat Noir. Then she wouldn't want things to change between them. He had to prove that he could stay focused!) "Your partner won't get distracted from our mission this time!" he assured her, and bolted towards the edge of the building where the commotion was coming from.
"Hawkmoth is the absolute worst!" Ladybug shook her fist at the sky in frustration. She had come so close!
"You coming?" Chat Noir called back to her, when he turned around to realize she wasn't right behind him.
"Yeah, yeah...let's do this," Ladybug responded, and trotted over to his side.
An all too familiar black and white akuma victim balanced himself on a open book-shaped glider. His face was set determinedly, and he shot a passerby with a paper airplane that immediately changed their calm demeanor to one of complete rage. Lieutenant Roger Raincomprix was shooting his gun in the air, and man with red hair had just crashed his car into a building. André the ice-cream maker was shouting out names of all the couples who were doomed for heartbreak. Chloé Bourgeois was dancing in the street throwing rose pedals into the air. Everything was in chaos with people acting the polar opposite to their nature! Marc had once again been akumatized by Hawkmoth!
"Oh no!" Chat Noir sighed. "Not Reverser!"
"What's wrong Kitty?" Ladybug looked at him surprised. "We've beaten him before."
"And I distinctly remember running blind off the Eiffel tower with nothing but a make-shift kite strapped to my back!' Chat Noir pointed out. "It certainly wasn't my favorite memory..." Then Chat Noir gave Ladybug a signature smirk and added, "but it sure was UP there!"
"Hey, everything worked out didn't it?" Ladybug raised her hands.
"True," Chat Noir admitted, and then looked at Ladybug with admiration. "Even though you lost all coordination, you still managed to save us all."
"I can't imagine how scary that must have been," Ladybug touched Chat Noir softly on his shoulder, "but your trust in me was even stronger than the fear Reverser struck you with. Don't we make a great couple?!"
"You mean team?" Chat Noir replied shakily. Then he cleared his throat, and struck his patented Chat Noir attack stance. "Come on Mi'Lady! Just like old times!" Then he jumped into action.
Ladybug had to rush to keep up with him. He kept just ahead of her, as she swung her yoyo, tethering it from one anchor to the next. Ladybug watched Chat Noir twist as he arched himself through the air in front of her. She stared a little too long, and ended up swinging herself right into a billboard featuring Gabriel's latest fragrance line!
Chat Noir glanced over his shoulder, and circled back around to check on Ladybug.
"Mi'Lady! You didn't get hit did you? He didn't make you accident prone again?" Chat Noir called out to her in concern.
"No, naw, that was all me..." Ladybug picked herself up, rubbing her shoulder. "I uh...guess I wasn't really paying attention."
"Well, heads up, because it looks like he's headed our way!" Chat Noir called, dropping down beside her.
"Cat!" Reverser spat. "Ready to have your world turned upside down?!"
"Oh, you're a little late! Mi'Lady already does that for me!" Chat Noir grinned back at the villain defiantly.
"That's right. Last time making you a scardy cat wasn't enough!" Reverser hovered ominously overhead. "You think blind faith in your precious Ladybug is healthy..ha! You are a fool Cat! You'd walk through fire for her, but she doesn't even love you!"
"Yes! Yes I do!" Ladybug shouted back at Reverser.
Chat Noir looked back at her startled, but Reverser roared with laughter.
"Yeah, sure you 'love' him," Reverser used air quotes. "But everyone knows you don't love him like he loves you! Look at your pet! Even he knows it's true!"
Chat Noir's ear's flattened, and his shoulders dropped. Reverser was right. Then with a serge of loyalty he braced his feet, and rolled back his shoulders. "You want to switch things up Reverser?!" Chat Noir challenged. "How about we turn the tables on Hawkmoth, and give up messing with people's lives! What if he comes out and faces us himself for once? Ladybug always wins in the end, and will free you from this akuma Marc. You talk about love?! Well, stop this to save the ones you love!"
"The ones I love!" Reverser snarled. "I trusted them, and how did they repay me? Tossed me aside, left me out of the loop! Trust! Pft..." Then Reverser paused, and he smiled cruely. "But what if you...loyal pussycat... lost the trust in the one you love?!" he said, forming a paper plane with his hand methodically.
"You stay away from him!" Ladybug braced herself in front of Chat Noir, with her yoyo spinning.
"Ha! He loves you with everything and you couldn't care less! All you care about is using him! You're just like Nathaniel!" Reverser yelled.
"Marc! Nate would never treat you like that! He cares about you!" Ladybug pleaded with the boy somewhere inside the black and white mask.
"What do you know? You've never loved someone so much that he's all you think about! Well now you'll know how it feels! I'll make you so obsessed by love, that you can't focus on anything else!"
Reverser weaved around them peppering them with blacken paper airplanes. Chat Noir and Ladybug stood back to back, spinning their weapons as a shield against the curse thrown their way. Reverser was clever though. He was able to pin them down with their back literally up against a wall.
"Enough!" Chat Noir shouted, and used his baton to catapult himself straight at Reverser, knocking him off his akumatized glider. Reverser was knocked flat on his back, and Chat Noir stood over him, with his baton pointed at his chest. "Enough of this game Reverser!" Chat Noir growled.
"Oh, love isn't a game!" Reverser smiled up at Chat Noir.
"Cat Noir! Watch out!" Ladybug called desperately, running up behind him; she had seen what Chat Noir had not! Reverser still had a hidden paper airplane at his side.
"Mistrust!" Reverser snarled at Chat Noir, and swiftly jabbed Chat Noir's ankle with the paper plane in his right hand.
"You tricked me!" Chat Noir instantly reeled back, scrambling over himself to clear a distance between himself and Reverser.
"Blind love!" Reverser called out and threw a rally of paper airplanes at Ladybug. Chat Noir was still trying to pull himself to his feet, so didn't realize that Ladybug had been able to dodge each one!
Ladybug charged Reverser, swinging her yoyo, trying to bind him. Reverser took this chance to jump onto his glider, and lift out out of reach of Ladybug's retaliation.
"I'm coming back for you as soon as I track down Nathaniel and his best friend, Alex!" Reverser shouted over his shoulder.
"Not if we find you first!" Ladybug shouted after him. Then she noticed Chat Noir still on the ground frowning up at her.
"Kitty! Oh, Kitty are you okay?" she kneeled down at his side, rubbing his back.
"What do you care?" Chat Noir shot back suspiciously.
"You know what Reverser said before, well it's not true. I really do care about you! I've always cared about you! I lov..." Ladybug confessed on her knees.
"Don't you even say it! ugh! I can't believe Reverser hit you with a curse to make you fall all over yourself for me. Where was this before!" Chat Noir grouched, shaking off her hand, and picking himself up on his own. "What a sick joke! The worst curse he can think of is to make you love me!" He shook his head misreably.
"He didn't get me!" Ladybug protested.
"Clearly he did! This isn't you!" Chat Noir crossed his arms, glaring at her.
"Seriously, he didn't! This is me...your Ladybug...your Lady...Your Bugaboo!" Ladybug tried to reach out to him.
"Now you're just teasing me," Chat Noir turned his back on her.
"Oh, my Kitty! Look what he's done to you. You don't feel like you can trust me right now, but I'd never lie to you," Ladybug implored.
"Lier! How many times have you hidden the truth from me! Well, I'm finished!" Chat Noir shook his head, and refused to even look at her.
"Okay, you're right, there have been times I couldn't tell you everything, but that was to protect our identities."
"Oh, was it?!" he replied sarcastically. "It wasn't just to protect yourself from actually facing what was between us?!"
"You know what! You're right! Okay!" Ladybug shouted back, and then she shook her head, lowering her voice back down, and earnestly implored him, "I want to find a way to prove to you that my eyes have been opened, but right now Reverser is on his way to attack Nathaniel and Alex. I know you don't feel you can trust me right now, but can you tap into some of that Chat Noir bravery and help me save the day here?"
Chat Noir poked his head up, still evaluating Ladybug's closeness. "Fine...I'll be the hero...but I still don't trust you!"
"We'll work on our trust issues later. For now let's deal with Reverser!" Ladybug said, throwing her yoyo in the direction Reverser had gone. Chat Noir crossed his arms as Ladybug set off in pursuit of Reverser. He looked hesitant for a moment, but decided to follow Ladybug anyway.
They both caught up with Reverser at the Louvre. He had broken through one of the windows in the ceiling, and had tracked Alex to the Denon wing, room 6. They saw Reverser's handiwork; Alex's father was already defacing priceless works of art. Chat Noir and Ladybug actually saw him drawing a mustache on the Mona Lisa herself!
On the other end of the gallery Reverser had Alex trapped.
"Nate is my friend! You're my friend too! Why would I ever get between you two?!" they heard Alex try to defended herself.
"You're always so sure of yourself! Always so confident! What if you had a dose of insecurity!" Reverser yelled, throwing a paper airplane at her.
"No!" Ladybug and Chat Noir yelled, but they were too late.
Alex flopped down on the floor with her knees up to her chin and muttered, "What's the point?!" You're going to win anyway. Why should I even try?"
"Now to track down Nathaniel!" Reverser declared, as he flew past them knocking them out of their way. "One more wrong reversed, and then I'm coming for you too!" he laughed down the hall, toward the entrance.
Chat Noir and Ladybug launched themselves up to the roof to try to cut Reverser off from above. "I think it's time for a Luckycharm!" Ladybug called out. A long coil of red and black spotted bungie cord dropped into her hands.
"There is no way I'm trusting you to throw me off this building with nothing but that bungie cord tied around me!" Chat Noir glared at her.
"You might not be able to trust me right now Kitty, but I trust you!" Ladybug declared. She tied one end of the bungie rope securely around her ankles, and handed the other end to Chat Noir meeting his eyes.
"You're crazy! You have no idea what you're doing!" Chat Noir protested.
"Well, that never stopped us before!" Ladybug kissed him on the cheek, and Chat Noir's eyes widened. "Don't let me go!" she said running to the edge.
Chat Noir shook his head muttering, while he attached the loose end of the bungee to a vent, and quadruple knotted it...still not trusting it would hold, he braced his legs against a pipe, holding onto the cord tight.
Ladybug jumped off, straight down onto Reverser as he flew out the front door. Ladybug grabbed Reverser around the waist, and then the bungie cord retracted back up to where Chat Noir was waiting.
"Cataclysm!" he called and released the black akuma into the air.
Ladybug made swift work of capturing and purifying the wayward butterfly.
Marc was back, looking wide-eyed at the heroes standing before him. "What happened?" he asked. Lowering him down to ground level, it didn't take long for Alex and Nathaniel to appear through the emergency exit doors, and race over to him. "Oh Marc! Are you okay?" they both asked in unison.
"I...I...thought you wanted to just hang out without me," Marc whispered, looking up at them through his fringe of black hair. "I thought you didn't want me around any more."
"Just because I love spending time with Alex, doesn't mean I don't care about you too!" Nathaniel put a hand on Marc's shoulder.
"I'm sorry, I guess I was feeling left out and totally overacted," Marc admitted bashfully.
"Alex and I were just finishing up our art project, but after we're done how about we catch a movie?" Nathaniel suggested.
Marc beamed up at them, and gave a nod.
"Pound it!" Ladybug and Chat Noir celebrated a reunited victory with their classic fist bump. Then they gave the friends a wave, and leapt to the rooftops.
"Another win for the Cat and Bug team!" Chat Noir cheered.
"I'm glad your faith in me is back!" Ladybug smiled.
"Yeah..." Chat Noir watched her carefully, twisting his baton in his hands. "...I guess everything is back to normal."
"Yeah...normal..." Ladybug rubbed her shoulder and a dusting of pink rose up under her mask. "Chat, I..."
"And just like always, there is just never enough time Mi'Lady," Chat Noir nodded at her insistent blinking spots on her miraculous.
"What if you were right before, and we shouldn't let these masks...these secrets separate us?" Ladybug looked up at him uncertainly.
"Shadowcat told me you almost gave up your miraculous the other night because you had thought I'd given up mine" Chat Noir looked at her sadly. "I don't want to be your weakness."
"But you said knowing could making us stronger together! Maybe you're right!" Ladybug took his hand in hers with her eyes glistening. "I don't want to push you away again!"
"That was my choice, Mi'Lady. A rash, emotional choice," Chat Noir drew his hand from her mask to her cheek. "I should never have made you think you had choose between your convictions, your own heart...and having me stand at your side." He shook his head.
"What if I don't want to wait any more," she whispered, trembling before him.
"One day I hope there will be no more secrets between us Mi'Lady, but I have to stop thinking only with my heart. I trust you...I'm your partner...your defender. I will protect you with everything I am...and right now part of that is protecting your secret."
Chat Noir jumped away from her as her earrings let out one last beep, and her transformation dropped away. She watched him go, her feet rooted where he had left her. He didn't look back, he just kept pushing himself further and further away.
ooooooo
Recap/foreshadowing: Chat Noir and Ladybug reunited, but now a key part of their relationship has 'reversed.' Ladybug is now the one feeling trapped by the secrets between them, and is trying to express to Chat Noir that she really loves him. Chat Noir, on the other hand, has resolved that the only way he can be there for his Lady and prove he is a equal partner is to protect their secret identities at all costs...even at the cost of his own heart. Marinette is still determined to prove to her Kitty that her love for him is true (with maybe a few puns thrown in) and Adrien just recently discovered that Marinette has been pulling up some research on a certain 'pawsome' cat! Oh yes! That's right folks, Marichat is up next!
Thank you so much for reading my story so far! I appreciate all of you who have taken the time to like, follow, or even leave encouraging reviews to keep me writing!
