A/N:
this was originally posted on ao3, under the same user underratedum but i'm in a writing slump so decided to give ffn a go
this is some ladynoir fluff to hopefully brighten up your day since there's been so much ladynoir angst floating around on my tl lol
meet me in the pouring rain (kiss me on the sidewalk)
"You're early," Ladybug chirped, sitting down cross legged on the roof next to him. Chat flashed her a smile, before turning back to watch the sky.
"I wanted to watch the sunset," he replied, his ear twitching. "Although, I see now it wasn't worth it today. Looks like it's going to rain soon."
"Should we cancel patrol?" Ladybug asked, furrowing her eyebrows. "I know how cats hate the rain."
"Ha ha, very funny," Chat rolled his eyes, snorting. "Nah, a little rain won't hurt us."
Ladybug eyed the gathering storm clouds warily, giving Chat a look. "It doesn't seem like there's going to be a 'little rain', kitty."
"We can take it," Chat said, before giving Ladybug a quick look. "However, I'm not going to force you to patrol if you don't want to, M'Lady."
Ladybug's gaze softened, and she gave him a small smile. "I'm fine, Chat, don't worry. We should take individual routes so this goes quicker, and hope we don't get caught in the rain."
"Sounds good to me," Chat agreed, grabbing his baton. "See you in a bit, M'Lady!"
"See you, Chat!" Ladybug yelled out after him, smiling affectionately. Thunder clapped, and Ladybug flinched, grumbling under her breath. "Ugh—This was a stupid idea."
—
She should've known it would have rained eventually. She just didn't know it would've rained so abruptly. Ladybug shivered, rubbing her arms briskly. A part of her was annoyed at Chat for going through with the patrol, but the more rational part of her dismissed the thought, reminding herself that she told Chat not to worry.
Speaking of Chat—She hoped he wasn't getting sick because of the rain. Oh, why hadn't she brought her umbrella? Ladybug sighed, dropping down carefully onto the cobbled streets and ducking under the Eiffel Tower. She pulled out her yoyo and quickly dialed Chat, mumbling under her breath for him to pick up already.
"Hey, M'Lady," Chat greeted, his face appearing on the screen. His hair was soaked, and he had a look of concern—And was that guilt?—on his face. "I'm so sorry about patrol, you should've—"
"Hey, hey, it's all right," Ladybug quickly cut him off, smiling softly. "I told you not to worry, it's my fault too. Come meet me under the Eiffel Tower in five."
"Hours or minutes?"
"Chat."
"I'm kidding, see you in five," Chat gave her a last smile before cutting the call. Ladybug hugged her legs tightly, looking up to make sure there wasn't any rain getting through the Eiffel Tower base. Lightning lit up the sky, and Ladybug bit her lip in worry. Why did she let Chat and her patrol?
Five minutes passed, and there wasn't any sign of Chat on the rooftops. Ladybug's eyebrows furrowed, and she checked her yoyo for any messages from him. Maybe he's just taking shelter, she told herself.
Or maybe he's hurt.
No. Ladybug covered her face with her hands, scrunching her nose. She was not going to think about that—She was going to assume that Chat was taking shelter from the rain, like she was. "Oh my gosh—If he's hurt, how am I supposed to find him in this weather?" Ladybug said in horror to herself, before shaking her head quickly. "No, snap out of it Ladybug, he's not hurt."
She glanced at her open yoyo compact, and her finger hovered over the Call button. It wouldn't hurt to give him a call, right? She quickly pressed the green button, and bit her lip nervously. After a few rings, Chat's voicemail tone played out, and Ladybug sucked in a breath.
He didn't pick up.
"Oh, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do—" Ladybug dropped her yoyo, tugging at her pigtails. "You idiot—Why didn't you just listen to me and come under the Eiffel Tower and I don't know where you are or whether you're safe—"
"If you wish to listen to your message again, press one. If you wish to erase your message, press two. If you wish to save your message, press three."
Ladybug squeaked, scrambling to grab her yoyo. She'd messed this up once, she wouldn't mess it up again. She jabbed her finger down on the number two, and sighed in relief.
"Message saved. Goodbye."
"What?" Ladybug shrieked, looking at her yoyo in disbelief. "I pressed two! Oh no, now he's going to think I'm mad at him…"
If he sees it.
"Stop—Weird voice in my head, stop saying mean things." Ladybug said, before slapping her forehead. "I'm going crazy."
Grabbing her yoyo, Ladybug quickly checked the time. 4 minutes past the time she'd arranged for Chat to meet her. "What am I doing here," she muttered, stretching her arms out. "I should be—"
"You should really wait the rain out," a voice lightly said. Ladybug froze for a second, before turning around to face behind her. It was Chat, and he was okay.
"Chat," Ladybug breathed, before her face contorted into an angry expression. "Chat! Where the heck where you? You'd better not have been buying snacks for yourself or—Oh."
Chat stepped forward swiftly and thrusted a dark green, weighted blanket in her hands. Ladybug took a second to admire its material, before shaking her head. "What's this for?" she asked, and Chat smiled sheepishly.
"Well, that's the reason I'm late," he replied, scratching the back of his neck. "I figured we could wait for when the rain calms, and I brought the blanket for you so you wouldn't get cold."
Ladybug's mouth dropped into an 'o' shape, and she looked up to really look at Chat. He was smiling at her, his cheeks tinged pink from the cold. His eyes were warm and inviting, and his hair was drenched in rainwater. There were droplets all over his face and body, and while some may have said that Chat looked messy—To her, he looked ethereal.
"So, are you mad at me?" Chat asked, and Ladybug resisted the urge to laugh. He was really being serious, he actually thought she was mad at him.
"No, Chat, I'm not mad at you," Ladybug replied, sending him a quick smile. "And thank you, for this. It's really sweet."
"Your welcome, Bugaboo."
"And you just ruined the moment." Ladybug sighed, pinching her nose and smiling.
"What? What moment? We were having a moment? Ladybug!" Chat whined, shaking his head to get the droplets out.
Ladybug snorted, opening the blanket up. "And I thought that was a dog thing," she remarked, and Chat shot her an offended look.
"How dare you compare me to a dog?" he laughed, sitting down next to her. He suppressed a shiver that didn't go unnoticed by Ladybug. She gave him a disapproving look.
"Chat, despite what you think, it's not actually cool to pretend you're immune to the weather." Ladybug said flatly.
Chat grinned at her, his teeth chattering. "It isn't? Well, thanks for clarifying, Bug."
Ladybug sighed, draping the blanket over the two of them and huddling closer to Chat. "Silly kitty," she mumbled, and Chat smiled softly at her.
"Thank you," he said, grabbing his side of the blanket. "So. The first thing I did today was feed Plagg his camembert. He was being annoying about it, as usual, but he deserves it. After all, he helps me to be right here sitting next to you."
"What are you doing?" Ladybug asked, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. Chat smiled teasingly at her, raising an eyebrow.
"Buginette, did you learn any manners? I'm telling you about my day, of course." he said matter of factly, and the corners of Ladybug's lip raised in a smile.
"Continue," Ladybug said, and Chat smiled at her, going on to talk about how his Father's assistant had woken him up very early today. It was times like this when Ladybug wondered how high class Chat's family was. This wasn't the first time he'd said something about having a bodyguard, (Which Ladybug raised an eyebrow at the first time it had slipped out. Chat had flushed and said for her to, "Just ignore that.") and his Father having a personal assistant.
"—And then I went to eat breakfast alone, since Father was too busy as alwa—I mean he was busy that morning." Chat's smile faded for a second before he put on a strained smile. Ladybug caught his words before he hastily changed them; "as always." Was Chat always eating breakfast alone? He didn't seem that he wanted to talk about, so she didn't touch on the subject, but made a mental note not to push him away when he seemed lonely.
"The first thing I did today was snooze my alarm for 15 more minutes," Ladybug said, breaking the silence. Chat shot her an amused smile, and she shrugged. "I treasure my sleep."
"Then, I gave Tikki a chocolate chip cookie from the jar I have in my room for her," she continued. Chat listened intently, and Ladybug smiled at his actions. "I brushed my teeth and washed up, then went down to have breakfast with my parents. I was running late to school, though, so all I got was a croissant."
"I have a friend that does the exact same thing," Chat snorted, and Ladybug shot him a look.
"Well, I think I'd get along quite nicely with your friend," Ladybug huffed, and Chat laughed.
He has a nice laugh. Wait, what?
"I think you would," Chat said, huddling closer to her. She hoped he couldn't hear her heart beating. Or feel it. She didn't even know what was wrong—She'd been in an even closer proximity with Chat in akuma battles, and had never reacted this way before.
The atmosphere's different, though.
Oh. That's why.
They stayed like that for a while, just exchanging remarks about their day and playing little games on their baton/yoyo. Occasionally, they'd film a video or two about how boring rainy days were, and send random pictures to each other. But most of the time they spent waiting out the rain was sitting huddled under the blanket, talking about random things to each other.
It was… nice. And, she'd like to do it again.
To her disappointment, the rain had started to settle down after 20 minutes, and they no longer had an excuse to stay together.
"It looks like the rain has, um, settled down," Ladybug said, trying to keep the disappointment from showing. "This was nice, Chat. Thank you."
Chat grinned at her, giving her a side hug. "I loved it, Ladybug." he said, and Ladybug felt warmth spread in her insides. She carefully folded the blanket, and handed it over to Chat. "Keep it." Chat said, placing his hand over hers. "It's a gift."
"Chat, I can't possibly—" Ladybug's eyes widened as he chuckled, before grabbing his baton and preparing to leave.
"It's rude to turn down a gift, M'Lady," he replied, before extending his baton and leaving. Ladybug smiled, biting her lip and looking down at the dark green blanket.
"Thank you, Chat," she whispered, hugging it close to her.
What was this feeling?
Love, a tiny voice whispered, and Ladybug flushed. "Nope, nope, not love, it's friendship. And—And happiness. Yeah."
Maybe if she told herself that she could convince her heart.
—
It rained the next day as well. Marinette checked her timetable to see if, by any chance, there was a patrol scheduled. Of course, even if there was one, Chat would just cancel. He wasn't that foolish to willingly go patrolling in the rain. Tikki would giggle at her actions, sending her taunting smiles whenever she caught her looking at what she dubbed, 'The Chat Blanket'.
"I don't love Chat Noir." Marinette sat at her desk, staring at two pictures on her desk; One of Adrien and one of Chat. She had scribbled 'Love of my life' in the corner of Adrien's picture, and 'Best friend I'd trust with my life' in the corner of Chat's. "I love Adrien. He's just a…"
"She's just a friend."
"… Friend. Right? Right?" Marinette groaned, her head slamming onto the table. "Just a friend. It worked for Adrien."
Tikki gave Marinette a sympathetic smile, patting her head soothingly. "It… worked for Adrien. He sees me as just a friend, but Chat doesn't. Chat sees me as the love of his—Um, yeah. That." Marinette blushed, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. "Adrien probably will never date me, but Chat wants to. I want to date Cha—Wait, what? No. I—I want to date Adrien, right? Right, Tikki?"
"Um," Tikki shrugged helplessly, and Marinette lifted her head up to see the pictures again.
"Love of my life," she said, pointing at Adrien. "Adrien is the… love of my life."
So why did it feel so wrong to say it?
"Best friend I'd trust with my life," Marinette said, pointing at Chat. "Chat is my best friend."
People marry their best friends, a voice in her head said. It sounded a lot like Alya, actually.
"Nope! No, I'm not going to marry Chat," Marinette laughed forcefully, slamming her hand on the desk. "Why is this so hard?"
"Trust yourself, Marinette, don't force your thoughts. Say the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of love." Tikki said consolingly, and Marinette closed her eyes.
Chat Noir.
"Chat Noir," Marinette whispered, and her eyes flew open. "Chat Noir?" She shrieked, falling out of her chair. Tikki flew over to where Marinette was splayed on the floor, looking at the ceiling.
"I love Chat Noir," Marinette voiced, and Tikki bit back a laugh. "Oh my gosh—I love Chat Noir!"
"You've said that," Tikki sniggered, and Marinette shot her a glare.
"You've never been so annoying," Marinette grumbled, sitting up. "Oh my gosh, I have to take all these pictures of Adrien down."
Marinette groaned, falling back to lie on the floor. "Life is so hard," she mumbled.
—
The akuma attack was too soon for Marinette to sort out her feelings. Way too soon. And, to make it worse, it was in the rain. Swinging over to where the akuma was rampaging, she kept an eye out for Chat. After realising her feelings for Chat, Marinette had worked to start talking to Adrien normally. Alya and Nino gave her incredulous looks when she told Adrien that he looked nice without stuttering over her words, and Adrien had a pleasantly surprised look on his face.
For once in her life, Adrien Agreste's smile didn't cause Marinette's brain to short circuit. For once in her life, Adrien Agreste saying one word to her didn't make her want to jump up in excitement and squeal. And it felt really good.
"So, what's the briefing?" Chat landed next to her, giving the akuma a worried look. His hair was as damp as it was the night before, his face as wet. "Are those people… fading away?"
Ladybug grimaced as Chat's hand fell through a fading person, not touching anything. "You think it's Timebreaker again?" she asked, and Chat frowned.
Play it cool, Marinette. Don't lose focus!
"—bug? Ladybug?" She blinked, and suddenly Chat was waving a hand in front of her face. She yelped, swatting it away as Chat snorted. "Where'd you get off to?"
"Just thinking about the akuma," Ladybug lied, twiddling her fingers. "Sorry, what were you saying?"
Chat gave her a questioning glance but didn't touch up on it, and went on to talk about what he'd seen before transforming. "I don't think it's Timebreaker, unless she got a costume change. This person seems to be more on just… removing people. She shoots rays from her spray bottle, and if you get hit you fade away." Chat said, looking around to see if the akuma was near.
"Looks like the akuma might be in the spray bottle," Ladybug nodded, grabbing her yoyo and tossing it out. "Let's go get her."
Finding the akuma was the easy part. She was yelling quite a lot about "Saving the Earth!", and Ladybug picked up on her saying a few words like, "Removing you all so you can't harm the Earth anymore!" and, "I am Mother Nature!". The hard part was trying to get near her without getting hit by her rays.
"Okay, so she's like the evil version of Mother Nature," Chat said conversationally, and Ladybug snorted. "You want to summon that Lucky Charm of yours?"
"It looks like we need a plan," Ladybug agreed, tossing her yoyo up. "Lucky Charm!"
To her utter annoyance, a rubber band fell into her hands. Chat stared at it incredulously, and Ladybug felt like flinging it away from her.
"Seriously," Chat said flatly, and Ladybug groaned. "What are you going to do with that, fling it at her?"
"Actually," Ladybug said, a smirk forming on her lips. "That's exactly what I'm going to do."
—
"Hey, Mother Earth! Aren't you supposed to be all kind and loving?" Chat called out, and Mother Nature turned around in fury to face him.
"How dare you insult me? I am our last hope to restoring our beautiful planet to the way it was!" she shrieked, grabbing her spray and mass shooting at Chat, who dodged them all. "Stay still, you annoying cat!"
"Well, I can't argue with that," Ladybug said quietly to herself, laughing. She was hiding behind a building, waiting for the right moment to fling her rubber band at Mother Nature. It was a simple plan—Fling it where it would hurt, make her drop her spray, break it, set everyone free, then use the magical Ladybug cure. Nice and easy.
Well, it seemed like an easy plan.
Mother Nature's attention caught on the building Ladybug was hiding behind, seemingly looking at the plastic water bottle ad.
"Plastic bottles ruin the environment!" she yelled, zapping a ray at the building. Ladybug yelped, rolling out of the way quickly to avoid fading away. Unfortunately, Mother Nature seemed to notice this and fixed Ladybug with a glare.
"You! You're trying to stop me!" she said, and aimed her spray bottle spray at her. Ladybug's eyes widened, and as she twisted her upper body to try and roll away, her foot snagged on a piece of broken debris.
"No, no, no, no," Ladybug mumbled to herself, tugging at her foot desperately. She watched as Mother Nature pressed the trigger on the spray bottle, and a ray of light came rushing at her. This was the end of Paris, and all because of a stupid snag. Ladybug shut her eyes tightly, waiting for the hit to come—But it never did. She opened her eyes cautiously, and clapped a hand over her mouth in shock.
Chat Noir was standing in front of her, a lopsided grin on his face. "You'll fix everything," he said, and Ladybug whimpered, grabbing his face as he slowly faded away. She slammed her hand down on the floor, and kicked the debris away with her other foot.
"You'll pay for that," Ladybug said darkly, clutching her rubber band tightly in her hand. Adrenaline pumped throughout her body, and she twisted her rubber band and flinged it—Directly at Mother Nature's face. Mother Nature shrieked, dropping her spray bottle as she rubbed her forehead furiously to relieve the pain.
Ladybug ran, sliding under broken debris and grabbing the spray bottle. She snapped it over her knee, successfully releasing the akuma.
"No more evil doing for you, little akuma," she quickly purified the akuma, waving to it as it flew away. She walked over to where a teenage girl sat, eyeing the empty streets around her in confusion. Ladybug grabbed the rubber band, tossing it into the air and yelling, "Miraculous Ladybug!"
And now all she could think was where Chat Noir was. She'd done the cure, everyone should be back, so she had to find him. She spun around, her eyes flicking from different buildings to see if he'd appear near her. And then there he was, brushing nonexistent dust from his suit and looking up to smile at her. And she wanted to cry, because she'd watched him disappear into oblivion and now he was here smiling at her.
She choked, running forward toward him. She didn't care what anyone thought about her at the moment, because he was here, and he was alright. She grabbed his face and slammed her lips against his, shutting her eyes closed. Rain mingled in with the taste of his lips, and as she opened her eyes, leaf green stared right back at her. She pulled away, resting her forehead against his and sighing.
"Don't you dare do that to me ever again," Ladybug said hotly, her hands on his cheeks as she pulled back to look him in the eyes. Chat smiled softly, resting a hand on her cheek.
"I can't make any promises, M'Lady," he replied, sighing. "Also, does this mean you like me now?"
"You idiot, of course I do." Ladybug laughed, pressing her forehead against his and sighing.
She loved him, and he loved her, and everything was right.
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— chesta