"Good evening, Bugaboo," Chat Noir greeted at patrol the next evening. "Watery doing tonight?" Her heart skipped a beat at the sound of his pun. She knew that he punned with Marinette every time he came over, but he had been so distracted last time they had patrol that he hadn't even noticed her puns.
Ladybug was standing among the highest beams of the Eiffel Tower when he landed, looking over their city while she waited for him. "I figured that this patrol, we'd head east following the seine toward Notre Dame, take a rest around there, then hit the north side of the city." He nodded in agreement.
"Sounds like we shoald get started then," he responded. Ladybug rolled her eyes, just like Chat expected her to do, but he didn't see the smile that spread across her face that matched the smile that would usually find its way onto Marinette's.
Silently, Ladybug wondered how Chat still had fish puns in him after all the ones he had used on her balcony a few days before, but Ladybug shouldn't have known about all his puns at Marinette's the other day. She also wondered if she could tell him puns as Ladybug, or if he would get suspicious about her suddenly making jokes with him.
"Shore," she said, "let's get started." Chat Noir was surprised by her making a pun and was stuck in a state of shock for a few minutes as she took off in the direction of Notre Dame. She followed the flow of the river, hooking her yo-yo wherever she could as she moved through the city.
She heard the occasional 'clink' of Chat's baton making contact with the ground as the two of them made their way across to Notre-Dame. Nothing seemed to be amist as they moved, no villains, not even any petty crimes for them to put an end to. It had been a few days since the most recent akuma, but it wasn't the first time there'd been a break between villains.
Ladybug swung up to the roof of Notre-Dame and Chat landed a few seconds after her. "Buginette?" he asked, clearly surprised, "did you mean to make a pun?" A blush colored her cheeks, but she didn't look at him when she nodded.
"Yeah," she said quietly. She contemplated what she should say, knowing that he was probably expecting an explanation from her. "I… The buoy I like, he likes puns, but I'm pierty out of practice. I didn't think you would mind if I joined you in making some jokes with you tonight. If that is a problem, though, please let me know."
"I have no fishue with it at all," he responded. "I'm just happy for the opportunaty to be around when you're able to relax a little bit, Bug. I can teel that you've been pretty stressed lakely. If you need to talk about things oar just hang out and goof around for a while, please let me know. I just want to be here for you."
"Thank you for the offer, Chaton," she said with a soft smile on her face. After how much she usually called him minou when she was Marinette, she had to make sure that she was calling him a different nickname. "So, how are things going with Marinette?" She didn't really know why she asked, she probably shouldn't have been trying to get information from him through her alter ego.
He let out a long, deep sigh and ran a hand through his hair. "They're going swimmingly. She's wonderful, Bug," he admitted quietly, "I just… like spending time with her. He looked out at the river running through the city. "She makes me inseinely happy, but I still haven't told her how I feel yet." She watched his shoulders drop and felt her heart crack.
"You should tell her," Ladybug encouraged, feeling her heart pound in her chest. After weeks of spending as much time as she was with Chat Noir, she was confident about the fact that she had developed feelings of her own for him. She didn't look at her partner, nervous that he would be able to see the selfishness behind her request.
"I kneau," he sighed, "I've already waded to tell her for so long. I mean, I spend as much time with her as I can and I still have no idea if she likes me or not. I'm just… not wanting to ruin the friendship that we have if she doesn't feel the same way about me." She was glad that Chat Noir cared that much about their friendship, but she was really hopeful that he'd just tell her by now.
"Whale, I have a feeling that things will turn out for the two of you if you tell her about your felines," Ladybug added, running out of water puns. He chuckled at how far she'd managed to get into the exchange with him before she gave up and he couldn't help but smile at the girl who was genuinely the best partner he could've asked for.
"I'll tell her soon," he assured, "I just need to take a shad longer to ponder how to tell her. I mean, obviousea my confessions to you never worked. Anywaves, even if they did, I can't just re-use confession attempts of something. She definitely deserves something nicer than a repeat love confession."
Ladybug's heart was practically pounding in her chest and she couldn't help the blush that overpowered her. "I'm sure she'll appreseaate that, Chat. I hope the two of you live a crappie life together." She said the words and her jaw dropped. She immediately covered her mouth with her hands and Chat just looked shocked and confused at her.
"Dam it," she muttered, removing her hands from her face. She shook her hands in front of her, as though trying to wipe the words she'd said out of the air around them. "I forgot crappy was a word. I just knew it was a kind of fish and I thought I could use it instead of 'happy' because you deserve to be happy and so does Marinette. You both should be happy because you're both great and cool and nice."
At the sound of Ladybug's explanation, Chat couldn't help but burst out laughing at how bad her mistake ended up being. She finished trying to correct herself and just stood there, blushing and flustered by the fact that she just fished a crappy life onto herself and her partner.
"Wow," he reacted once he was finished laughing. "What a basstard of a mistake for you to make." He wiped a tear of laughter from his eye as he spoke. "If you purromise not to say anything like that ever again, I'll purromise to dew what I can to tell Marinette how I feel as soon as I can." He extended a hand for her to shake and she did.
"Deal," she agreed, "now, back to patrol. I'm getting more tide than usual tonight." He gestured in the direction of their next stop for the night and she leapt off the roof a few seconds before he flowed after her.
what are we, should, sure, amiss, boy, pretty, issue, opportunity, tell, lately, or, swimmingly, insanely, know (eau is the French word for water), waited, well, feelings, tad, ponder, obviously, anyways, appreciate, happy, dang/damn, wished, bastard, promise, promise, do, tired, followed
