A quick note from me:
Thinking of all you readers during this crazy, historical and scary time. I'm praying it brings out the best of us: love and compassion even though we are kept apart. I pray that we find joy in the small things, that we remember what is really important in our lives. That we are thankful for every day. That we never let go of hope.
For me that means this world is not my home. I believe God has something better in store for us beyond this life, but that does not mean this life and this world does not matter. We must do the best with the time and place He has given us. We must love.
Just know that even though we are separated, you are not alone.
Hopefully this silly little story provides a momentary reprieve from this world for those who need it.
Message me any time if you need to talk. Praying for all of you out there.
~Tanya
PS. Another short chapter because I just needed to post already. What is a chapter count? Just throw that out the window. Half of this one is just pure guilty pleasure. I have a soft spot for superheroes in their civvies. Bring on the tropes.
Evergreen
~.*~*~*.~
Her
~.*~*~*.~
One great thing about kwami magic was the ability to store an endless amount of supplies and not even feel the weight.
Ladybug had probably ten pounds worth of food in her yo-yo, just in case. Not to mention the thermos of hot chocolate she snuck away to surprise Chat Noir with later.
But there was still the problem of getting back to Paris and an akuma to defeat. From her balcony they were able to see a small cottage on the edge of the vineyard. It sat secluded by the foot of what she assumed was the part of the Alps that bordered France, if they were that lucky. If they were still in Europe at all.
"Ugh," she groaned. "I'm so done."
"What's wrong, LB? Running out of stream?"
She rolled her eyes over to Chat Noir who shot his two finger salute to where a river forged its way through the woods.
She let herself swing to a stop. "I think I've had enough stream to last a lifetime," she groaned, visualizing the bacteria that were probably swimming in her stomach from her drink that morning. Dangling on her yo-yo string, she lowered herself down to the tree Chat Noir was lounging against.
"Snack break?" he asked, looking way too hungry for someone who had stuffed his face only two hours ago.
She gave a nod. "We should probably let the kwamis refuel."
"Ugh, I hate being blind."
"I have a solution for that." Ladybug slid a finger over her yo-yo and it lit up, opening to the bright abyss inside.
Chat Noir watched her with wide eyes while she pulled out an array of fabric. "Is that from Marinette's?"
"I commissioned her to make us some gear in case something like this ever happened again. They're missing a few features, but luckily she was mostly done."
She unrolled a pair of hooded sweatshirts, complete with matching masks. "The seams on the ties are reinforced and there's a place to attach them inside the hood so they can't be removed easily."
Chat Noir looked like a kid on Christmas as he took the mask she'd made from her hands.
"Leather?"
Ladybug gave a nod. "It's already been broken in. Should be pretty durable."
"A Chat Noir fangirl's dream come true," he chuckled. "This is purrfect."
He held the mask over his magical one. It was a bit wider, completely covering his forehead and the majority of his nose. She had stitched a bright green paw print in the corner for flair and it matched his cat eyes spot on.
Propping an elbow onto the tree trunk, he leaned into a ridiculous pose, like some over-the-top model with fish-face.
"What do you think?"
"You look ridiculous," she told him.
With a laugh, the pout pulled into a big cheesy grin. He put a claw on the pawprint, pointing it out. "This is pawsome. She totally hand-stitched this. Marinette is the best."
Ladybug tried not to let him see her blush. She shoved the matching hoodie into his hands and had started to pull out some food and the mug of hot chocolate from her yo-yo when she heard him give a long drawn out awwwww.
"Are these"—he sounded absolutely giddy—"cat ears?"
"Just put it on."
Instead, he leaned over her shoulder to see the red spotted hoodie in her hands, all smiles.
"No she didn't! Antennas?"
Ladybug rolled her eyes even though she was pleased by his reaction. She tugged on the hoodie and gave a pose. She had made it oversized, puffy and hanging past her hips. The less of her showing the better.
Chat Noir seemed absolutely smitten. "Doesn't she know I can't handle this amount of cute?" He batted at the hood's antenna just like a kitten.
"Knock it off and put yours on," she said, giving his hand a half-hearted smack. "I want to see if it fits."
"As you wish." He turned around theatrically and slung his armored suit through the sleeves, tucking in his claws. "Just don't be surprised when I'm too adorable to take."
"Good thing I'm more of a dog person."
"Meow-ch!"
She gave the Chat Noir hoodie a tug, frowning at the way it drew tight around his chest. She had meant to make it baggie and had obviously underestimated how much he'd grown. Maybe it would be looser without the suit.
"Can't be-leaf how good it looks on me, can you?"
With a roll of her eyes, she turned her back to him and put the leather mask up to her face. "I'm going to detransform, okay?"
And suddenly there was a moment of silence between them before Chat Noir let out a quiet affirmation and turned away.
"Spots off."
The magic spun around her, slipping in pieces from her skin until her clothes reappeared beneath the hoodie and the leather mask was touching skin. She held it tight by the string.
"Oh, wow, that looks great!" chirped Tikki.
"Thanks," said Marinette. Then, realizing she needed to take a little less of the compliment for herself she added, "Marinette did a good job on them. Definitely an upgrade from the banana suit."
There was silence behind her and she let out a nervous chuckle. "Chat Noir?"
His voice came back quiet. "Claws in."
"Ah!" Plagg sang, swirling into her vision. "Finally. Please tell me you have cheese this time."
Marinette reached down to grab the array of food she'd pulled from her yo-yo before transforming. She held it out for his inspection.
"Camembert! You are truly the best Ladybug there ever was, M-URP!"
"Plagg," Tikki chided even though her little mouth was already full of macaron.
"Are you still looking the other way, Chat?" Marinette asked.
"Mmhm."
"I'm going to help you with your mask, okay?"
"Okay."
She couldn't understand exactly why he sounded so soft and subdued when they had been joking around mere moments before. She tried not to let it get to her: how badly he wanted to know her.
She turned to find a boy with slim-fit jeans and Gabriel Agreste sneakers (seriously?!) huddled beneath the hoodie she'd made.
"Let me take my other jacket off first," he said suddenly, already pulling it off before Marinette could turn back around.
She froze, watching his bare fingers slide under the hem of the sweatshirt and pull it over his head. And even with the mussing of his hair by the hood it was neater than she'd ever seen it. Styled and tame and coming to a peak on the back of his neck, so unlike the wild mane of Chat Noir. When his arms slipped out of the sleeves of the red bomber jacket he had let her borrow, she quickly turned away, heart pounding.
"Okay I'm ready," he said too soon.
Marinette gave a deep breath. "Don't turn around until I say."
"As you wish," he said again and she could hear the hint of a smile through his tone.
She turned to face him. The hoodie was back on and that weirdly neat hair stuck out like a sore thumb against the back of his neck. She tried hard not to think too much about it.
"New catchphrase?" she asked.
"As you wish?"
She gave a light laugh. "Someone's been watching Princess Bride."
"That movie never gets old," Chat Noir chuckled. She watched him lift his arms to press the mask on his face, pulling the strings taught around the back of his head. She took a step forward and grabbed the ends from his fingers and found hers shaking. With a deep breath she pulled them through the loops in the back of the hoodie until they were secure.
"Okay?" she asked.
"Mm."
Marinette pulled up the hood. Even without his suit or jacket beneath, it fit snug. She had to clear her throat to find her voice. "Can you do mine?"
"As you wish."
She shoved him in the back. "Oh my God, Chat Noir. Just fix me."
"Impossible," he breathed.
She turned around, lifting the mask to her face. "Okay."
Leaves crunched under his sneakers as he turned and then his fingertips slid over her ear. The hairs on the back of her head tingled as he lifted her pigtails over the string. He lingered there for a long moment before she had the ability to ask him what was wrong.
"The loop?" he managed to choke out.
"Oh, I put—I had Marinette build it into the seam of the hood. Just lift the flap."
His knuckles grazed the back of her neck, warm against her skin. When he was finished he pulled the hood over her head and gave the antennae a playful toss. The silly action gave her just enough courage to face him.
"Wow," he said, but she was the one who felt her heart skip a beat.
Chat Noir's eyes were a bright natural green, the pupil round as it danced over her and she could make out long blonde lashes, gracing the tops of the holes in his mask.
"Your eyes are really green," she blurted.
He chewed on his lip and his hand slipped behind the hood on his head, mussing up the neat blond hair poking from beneath. "Yeah. You didn't notice when I was Mister Bug?"
She did, but she hadn't had the time to really look or notice how they made her heart beat in a familiar rhythm.
"And her eyes are really blue, who knew?" Plagg droned before throwing another piece of camembert into the air to devour.
The boy who was Chat Noir smiled, peeking out of the mask Marinette had made.
She tugged at the strings of her hood, pulling it tight to hide her face from his view.
"Didn't take you for a poet, Plagg," he said.
"Don't make me gag."
"And he didn't even know it."
Tikki came into her vision, hovering under Marinette's lowered head. She looked at her with such sympathy that Marinette went red all over again.
"Do you two have a plan, Ladybug?" she asked.
Marinette took a deep breath and forced herself to stand straight, looking at Chat Noir dead on. He looked so different this way, without the ears and messy mane and reflective eyes. She took a deep breath. Gabriel Agreste's clothes must make all boys look like models.
"Nn," she started, and found her tongue had tied. "The hottage—I mean cottage! The cottage. We're going there. To the win—sin—vineyard!"
Chat Noir stared at her with those green human eyes and her knees went weak.
She beat her chest to clear her throat and tried to will down the heat running rampant in her cheeks. "Oh, God, kill me," she moaned under her breath when Plagg started snickering.
For a moment Chat Noir kept staring, his mouth set open, and she swore she was going to storm over and shut it for him before he squatted like he always did, knees poking out to the sides. He had to adjust his jeans so he could get low enough to rifle through the snacks littering the ground and the whole thing looked so silly that Marinette almost burst into hysterical laughter.
He was still her Kitty after all.
"Let's hope they have wifi," Chat Noir said, snagging a pastry before Plagg could get to it. He took a big bite. "Or a phone." He spit crumbs into Plagg's face. "You know, if you had put some satellite tech in our weapons, it would save us a lot of trouble right now."
"Hey, you're lucky there's tech at all. We've been out of commission for a century," grumbled Plagg.
"There have definitely been a few upgrades in the technology department since our last owners," agreed Tikki.
"Even satellite phones don't work everywhere," Marinette muttered. She balled the ends of her sleeves in her fists before joining Chat Noir on the ground. She scooped up the thermos of hot chocolate and poured out a capful, careful to avoid his gaze when he lit up like a kitten served a saucer of milk.
"Aw, my fave! You're the best," he told her, giving the steam a blow.
Marinette tried to will away the blush that had yet to recede from her cheeks. "For stealing hot chocolate from the Dupain-Chengs?"
"For remembering how much I love it."
She snuck a sideways glance at her partner. He looked like the epitome of comfort even though he was sitting on the hard cold ground. Steam rose from the cup into the hood of his sweatshirt as he leaned over his knees.
She couldn't quite get over the way his blonde lashes graced the leather mask. Their suits covered all those details. Even their eyelids were masked when they blinked. It was so strange to see his tanned skin flutter over white and green.
It took her nearly a minute to realize she was staring, when he pulled the cap of hot chocolate from his mouth and licked it from his lips.
She immediately drank her own and choked.
"Are you okay?" asked Tikki, fluttering onto her knee.
Still hacking into her fist, Marinette shook her head. Chat Noir patted her back, his bare hand thumping gently between her shoulder blades. She forced herself to stop.
When he seemed sure she wasn't about to choke to death, he returned his hand to his mug, but he kept his eyes fixed on her. A soft smile slipped over his face.
"You know, I was wondering...when we were at the Dupain-Cheng's…I've been meaning to ask you something."
Marinette's mind immediately jumped into hyperdrive, coming up with a million things he could have noticed that could have given her away and a million lame excuses for them all. Her eyes flashed to Tikki, wide and fearful. For once, she listened to the shake of her kwami's head and didn't speak. It also probably helped that she was still trying to keep hot chocolate from coming out her nose.
"Do you think your ladybugs will put back all the food we ate?"
Immediately the softness of Chat Noir's smile slipped into a shit-eating grin and Marinette started hacking all over again.
"Absolutely not," Plagg chimed in, scrounging over the snacks. "The food in my belly is off limits."
"The ladybugs know how to distinguish damage inflicted by an akuma from other things," said Tikki. "They don't erase everything that happened."
When Marinette kept coughing, Chat Noir's hand returned to her back. "Breathe, LB."
She swore she wanted to smack the mask right off his sweet, stupid face. "Wrong pipe," she managed to wheeze out after a minute. She stood just so she could escape his concern and paced, still trying to clear her throat.
Chat Noir flexed his ungloved fingers. "Not just the akumas, though, right?" he asked Tikki even though Marinette could feel his eyes on her. "They fix my cataclysms."
"Yes," Tikki said. "Any damage done by a miraculous wielder counts. Thank goodness."
Finally dropping his eyes, Chat Noir took another sip of his hot chocolate.
Marinette turned to wipe the heat and tears from her watering eyes as a breeze swayed through the evergreens.
His next words hit her in the back.
"Do you think we'll ever be as good as Hawkmoth?"
"What?" she rasped, swinging back around to face him. "What do you mean as good?"
"I don't mean he's good, like successful, obviously." He gave a snort, fingers tapping on the cap in his hand. "Just, you know, it'd be nice not to lose our transformations everytime we use our powers."
"You'll get there," said Tikki, landing on his wrist. "You both have grown so much already."
"It doesn't feel like it."
Marinette took a deep breath and sat back beside him. "You were Snake Noir," she said, trying to sound firm even though her voice was still a wreck.
"She has a point," Plagg drawled, still chewing. "Not everyone can wield two Miraculous at the same time."
"But how do we get there sooner?" If Chat Noir had his tail it would be twitching. "We lost the other miraculous holders. We can't use them now that Hawkmoth knows their identities and he still has Mayura." He went quiet for a minute, but she could tell he wasn't done and then it came, the thing they hadn't mentioned until now: "I still can't believe Chloe turned on us."
Marinette scoffed. "Seriously?"
Chat Noir seemed to droop a little and she immediately felt guilty for her tone. "I thought she had changed."
"Change isn't easy," Tikki said, still perched on his wrist. "Most humans ebb and flow."
He gave her head a rub with his finger. His eyes scrunched a little, a sort of curve of affection that made Marinette's heart beat a little faster.
"Yeah," he said softly, "you're right about that."
"That's why kwamis are so much better," Plagg said, looking nearly twice his size from the cheese he'd consumed. "You humans think too much."
Marinette wondered exactly what Chat Noir thought about when he was alone with his kwami, at home with his family. A long time ago she would've cracked a joke about his puns, but it didn't seem right to do it now.
"I had hoped she would change," she said instead, turning back to her own cup of cocoa. "Mrs. Bustier, her teacher, I mean, she believed in her. Way more than I did. But I thought maybe, she had changed, at least a little…" Marinette swallowed, feeling the weight of the battle with Miracle Queen. "Is it my fault, Chat? For leaving her in the dark for so long? You were right. You told me to talk to her and..."
She could feel Chat Noir's eyes on her for some time and every second brought a weight over her shoulders. His affirmations were all that kept her going in her moments of self-doubt and if he held it against her...
"Of course not." His voice was so tender. "We might all be influenced by our environment, but ultimately our choices are our own. Chloe is Chloe's responsibility, not yours."
Marinette gave a quick nod as her eyes welled. "I'm not sure that makes me feel better."
"It's okay to make mistakes."
"Good." She laughed, rubbing the sting from her nose. "Because I've made a lot of them."
"Hey…" His knee bumped into hers and the cocoa in their cups splashed at the force. He flicked drops from his hand, making Plagg give an irritated hiss. "Don't be so hard on yourself."
Sniffing, she gave a light chuckle. "Says the pot to the kettle."
"You're both doing all you can," said Tikki from her perch on Chat Noir. She gave them both smiles. "Right now just focus on the task at hand."
"Right." Marinette wiped her eyes, careful not to loosen her mask. And then their situation and Treehugger and Hawkmoth still at large came surging on her all at once. "We're totally failing right now!"
Tikki swept into the air until she was in front of her face. "That is not what I meant!"
"I know, Tikki, this is just ugh!"
"I don't know, this has kind of been a nice break." Chat Noir stretched his legs straight, showing off his scuffed Agreste sneakers and leaned back onto one arm, taking a long drink of cocoa. "I've been meaning to take some leaf."
"Chat, no."
"C'mon, LB, I know you've been pine-ing for some wood—OW!—Puns! Wood puns! I didn't mean—you didn't let me finish!—The sentence! God that's hot. HEAT hot! I swear, Ladybug! Please don't!"
Marinette only felt slightly guilty about the hot chocolate stains spreading across the hoodie she'd made.
At least it was black.
