To Anon2018: I finally figured out how I wanted to show the wedding!
To Lyger 0: I'm not saying Felix got drunk the night before the wedding… but I'm not saying he didn't!
Nino let out a breath, wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, and stepped back from the counter, drying his hands on the dishtowel. The stack on the counter next to him still hadn't shrunk. "I thought the plan was for you to do the dishes while I was on patrol," he complained, giving Alya a half-hearted glare as she plopped another stack of plates and cups into the sink. "And where did you get these from?"
Alya's cheeks flushed slightly. "The office," she admitted. "And the bedroom." Nino quirked an eyebrow at her, and she groaned. "It's not an easy habit to break!"
"And again, my point: I thought you were going to clean while I was out on patrol." He rolled his neck and turned back to the sink, grabbing a handful of silverware and running a cloth over them.
"That was the 'old us'." Alya arched an eyebrow at him. "But what about the nights that neither of us is patrolling? Or when we're patrolling together?" she reminded him. "The way we were doing it wasn't really working, was it?"
He frowned, looking down at the pile of dishes. When Mylène and Nadine had come over last week to spend a full day cleaning with them, the pile had been three times as large. "Not especially."
"So, it's time for a change. I'm not going to ask Mylène and Nadine to help us again," Alya told him.
"Marinette and Chloe next?" he suggested wryly, ducking the washcloth she threw at his head. "Okay, okay. Truce!"
She smirked. "That's what I thought. And besides," she mused, wagging her eyebrows and giving him a meaningful look. "There are some… benefits to working together…"
He quirked an eyebrow. "Oh? And what might those be?"
Slipping her arms around Nino's chest, Alya rested her chin on his shoulder. One of her hands drifted a little lower, and he sucked in a quick breath. "There's more where that came from," she murmured. "If we have time after finishing the dishes."
"Well with that as an incentive…"
Thirty minutes later, Nino pressed a kiss to Alya's temple, transformed, and slipped out onto the balcony, crawling the familiar path up to the roof and jumping across to the next apartment building, looking out over the city for a long moment before beginning his patrol run. Summer hadn't quite ended yet, though the sun was starting to set earlier and earlier. Soon enough, there would be a chill in the air and the leaves would start to turn colors. Their miraculous suits kept them warm enough on patrol – the physical exertion definitely helped – but the suits couldn't quite counteract the frigid air, or at least not without the ice power-ups. But that was still a few months away; for now, it would remain warm through most of the evening. Carapace grinned, spinning through a backflip as he jumped to the next rooftop, making his way toward the river partially on autopilot. As he ran, he could feel the exertion from the evening fading away, his energy returning. For as much as he enjoyed his work during the day – interning at Crooked Pebble Records and picking up DJ gigs on the side – far too often he ended up sitting behind a computer most of the day. And when university started in a few weeks, that wouldn't change all that much. These days, most of his exercise came from the Heroes of Paris. And especially with Adrien and Marinette away on their honeymoon for the next couple weeks, that meant even more for him and Alya and Chloe to do in picking up the slack.
Not that he minded the chance to do more.
A kilometer or so away, he could see the bright pink form of Miss Pinky, racing in his direction at a slight angle from the river. Pulling his shield off his back, he held it up in a greeting, jumping across a narrow street as he did so. She gave a quick head bob in acknowledgment and adjusted her route toward the center of the city. With a nod, Carapace did the same.
"Good evening!" Miss Pinky greeted him, grinning brightly, as she landed on the roof of a small office building and rolled to her feet.
Jumping down to land in front of her, Carapace grinned back. "I suppose it is a good evening," he agreed, stifling a laugh. "How's your night been, dude?"
She shrugged. "Jules and I watched a couple episodes of that new Knightowl and Sparrow cartoon after dinner. Nothing too exciting. You?"
He smirked. "Alya made jerk chicken for dinner, so we had a lot of dishes to clean up afterward. But once we finished, we had some… dessert before I left."
"Oooo, That sounds nice!" Miss Pinky cooed, clasping her hands together. "Juleka and I might have some ice cream after we get done – she and Kagami were also talking about trying to bake a cake tonight, but…"
Carapace grimaced. "My condolences on the mess they're going to leave you!" he joked, moving to follow Boulevard de Sébastopol north, away from the Seine.
Matching his pace, she giggled. "We'll see. Though I won't complain if they leave the spatula for me!" For another couple minutes, they raced along side by side, scanning the streets below, pausing as they passed a row of bars, watching a small trickle of tipsy customers leave. But after sprinting across the lines above Rue aux Ours, Miss Pinky glanced over at Carapace sidelong. "So it looked like you and Alya were enjoying yourselves at the wedding," she mused, raising an eyebrow. "There was no way Jules and I could have kept up with your dancing!"
"Yeah," he agreed slowly, glancing over the side of the building, watching a group in professional dress enter a hotel. "It was so much fun. Really was a lot of work for them to plan out, though – even just watching Adrien and Marinette the last two weeks…" He shook his head ruefully. "It felt like Alya and Chloe did at least half the work, and Mar and Adrien were still exhausted by the time they left the next day for the honeymoon!"
"I bet," she observed, planting her rake on the edge of a roof and vaulting over the gap to the next building.
"Alya pretty much passed out as soon as we got back to the apartment," he continued. "A little too much dancing. Maybe one too many glasses of champagne. Still was fun, though."
Miss Pinky arched an eyebrow at him. "Enough fun for you to do the same thing?" she asked. "Have a ceremony here after getting married in Angola?"
He frowned, thinking back on their conversation from the night after the wedding. "Alya def wants to," he allowed. "My mom really wants it, too. But I don't know. Part of me liked just having the simple celebration in Angola – the ceremony with just us, plus the party after ward with friends. Maybe we'll do something more… but probably not until next summer. Hopefully by then things will have calmed down some."
"Or things will get even more busy," she pointed out.
Carapace hummed humorlessly. "Or that." He glanced down at her hand, concealed though it was by her gloves. "So speaking of weddings…"
"Next May, two weeks before we leave on tour," Miss Pinky told him firmly. "That way we can go away for a week and still be back for Ivan and Mylène's party. Marinette's making our dresses. You're providing the music." He cocked his head to one side, but she cut him off. "Alya already put it on your calendar."
He blinked. "Of course, she did." Her eyes widened anxiously, and he grinned. "I'll absolutely do it for you dudes," he assured her.
She grinned. "Good."
They were just turning onto the next street when a flash of light from a block to the east caught Carapace's attention. Glancing to the side, he could see Miss Pinky's eyes narrowed in concentration, focused on the source of the light. Silently, he signaled for her to continue north another block and move past to flank. Miss Pinky nodded and peeled away, as Carapace slowly crept closer. Who could it be? Elementa might be out. Amun-Vatar? Or could it be some new criminal? Two buildings down from where the light had originated, Carapace stopped, crouching lower to avoid being silhouetted by the streetlight below. Looking down, he could see four men surrounding a slight-framed woman with short-bobbed dark hair. The woman's arms were pulled in close to her chest, and she seemed to tremble with fear. But on the ground in front of the woman, a large green serpent lay coiled, slithering toward the closest man.
Straightening his back, Carapace blinked. "Huh."
One of the men lunged toward the woman's side, only for a yellow cat to leap off her arm and swipe at him. In front of her, the serpent drew back its head and lunged, driving the man in front of it scrabbling away on his back. The woman clenched her fists, just as one of the men leapt at her from behind, baring his teeth.
"Hey!" A rake slammed down on the man's shoulder blades, and he dropped to his hands and knees, whirling around to face Miss Pinky. "Why don't you leave her alone!"
Gritting his teeth, Carapace jumped down to join them, landing next to the fourth criminal and bashing him across the face with his shield in the same motion, knocking him to the ground as blood spurted everywhere. Whirling around, the woman yelped on seeing the two heroes, her eyes going wide. The last two criminals looked at each other and down at the semi-transparent creatures in front of them before turning and sprinting away. Carapace put his foot on the chest of the man in front of him, glaring him into submission. Meekly, the final two raised their hands.
Miss Pinky turned to the woman and raised an eyebrow. "I think Bengalia mentioned running into you a couple months ago. You seem to have a habit of getting into this kind of trouble," she observed.
The woman shrugged noncommittally as the serpent slithered up her leg and the cat leapt back up to melt into her shoulder. "Hazard of the job. I get off late, and I couldn't find any better neighborhood to live, so… Thanks, by the way. I appreciate the assist."
"Happy to help out whenever we can," Carapace replied. "Although you might want to find another route home. Or look for somewhere better to live. Even if you can protect yourself."
She looked away. "Can't afford anywhere better. And I'm not going to change the way I live, just because these men keep trying to assault me." Her mouth set in a thin line. "I'll just… keep doing what I'm doing."
Miss Pinky's eyes widened. "I hope nothing bad happens; we won't always be on patrol were you need us to be," she warned her.
"I can take care of myself."
Carapace sighed. "Well, if you ever want to do more with this power than just defend yourself, we're always open to new heroes!"