start notes—
Adrien realizes it's incredibly easy to fall when there's a beautiful trapeze artist available to catch you.
(or, a close-enough shadow of a 'greatest showman' au.)
my tellonym: milkisande
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circus
all i want is to fly with you,
all i want is to fall with you.
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WHEN Nino suggests that Adrien invest in the circus, he is, understandably, hesitant.
"I'm just not sure it's a good idea long-term, Nino," he starts, a hesitant expression on his face. "Does anyone even go to circuses anymore? Father's really counting on me to expand our business venture, and I can't take any risks that would disappoint him."
Nino only shakes his head, putting a carefree arm around his best friend's shoulders, and pulling him closer. "Dude, you weren't there. I thought I'd hate it, but I was so wrong. Their performances were almost… magical."
Adrien only laughs. "Magical? I've never heard you use such… romantic words."
A playful bump on the shoulder. "Shut up, man," he only responds, an unimpressed expression on his face. "Look," Nino starts, retrieving a ticket from his pocket. "They have a show tonight. Alya couldn't go, so I have an extra ticket. I really think you should check it out."
"And if I don't?"
Nino shrugs. "It's your loss. Besides, it's just onenight. What do you have to lose?"
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It's called the Miraculous Circus.
Adrien thinks it's a corny name, but ultimately decides to continue on anyway. After all, he's driven almost an hour to get there, and it is, frankly, a waste of a ticket.
(Though the ticket itself doesn't cost a lot— which doesn't do much to heighten his expectations for what he's about to see.
Why is he doing this again?)
The ticket line is unsurprisingly small. Outside of a few kids and their families, Adrien starkly feels like an outsider in his absurdly overly-formal business suit and lack of company. He's only too glad that the line moves quickly, allowing him to take a seat at the very back of the tent.
An old man, almost struggling to walk with his cane, enters.
Adrien's first instinct is to run down and help him out.
Is he the ringmaster of this whole affair?
The stranger coughs, then speaks with surprising strength, his clear voice echoing throughout the stands. "Welcome to the Miraculous Circus, everyone! We are extremely happy to have you here." He scans the audience, then smiles. (Adrien almost thinks they make eye contact, as he winks. Maybe he imagined it?) "My name is Master Fu, and I've been lucky enough to work and become a family with this amazingly talented group of performers. But that's enough with introductions."
Master Fu's eyes shine, then to Adrien's complete surprise, throws up his cane.
The curtains open as he does so, and he watches with surprise as the ringmaster moves with surprising agility and grace, to introduce the show.
"Now for something truly magical."
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Magical isn't enough to describe what took place before him.
From the horse tamer who seems to transport from place-to-place in mere seconds, to the monkey-like acrobat who can contort and move his body in ways one could never imagine, to the fox-like magician who creates illusions from smoke, Adrien found himself completely enamored with the performance.
He was confident that Nino was making a big deal out of nothing.
As it turns out, Nino wasn't making enough of a big deal at all.
It's almost two hours of pure magic, when Master Fu announces their final act.
Adrien thinks he's seen it all, and that nothing could quite top what he's watched already.
As the day has proven, however, Adrien, in fact, gets many things wrong.
Which is all-too-clear when the final performer walks upon the stage, dressed in a vibrant red outfit that seems to draw everyone's attention. She also wears a mask upon her head— the same color as her clothes, with a fanciful black feather decorating the top.
It's no different from the rest of the performers, who also wear masks, but Adrien finds himself deeply wishing that she would take it off; to see her more clearly.
The woman— Ladybug, Master Fu calls her— is a trapeze artist. She carefully stands upon the edge, almost nervous, before she takes a deep breath in. Then, her expression makes a complete switch.
A confident smile upon her face, Ladybug simply takes a step forward, holds on to the ring, then let's go.
And she's flying.
With ease, Ladybug jumps and moves her body in a way that Adrien can only describe as mesmerizing. She looks almost at home in the air, as if she were born with wings— navigating through the sky with evident ease and comfort.
Adrien doesn't blink for a moment.
Scared that he'll miss something, carving every moment he sees of her in his head.
For a moment, she swings his way, and he swears that they make eye contact.
Swears that he sees the playful look in her eye, and her lips curved upward with the tiniest sliver of a smile.
She swings back just as quickly, but it's in that moment of split-second electricity Adrien becomes settled on his decision:
He's going to invest into a circus.
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It's a challenge, at the very least, to convince his father that working with the circus is a good idea.
But after hours of negotiations (mostly on Adrien's part) and the promise that this is a good investment— where he'll take all responsibility should it fail or even be worth even the smallest fraction less than what he told him it'd become, Gabriel Agreste finally relents.
And it's been a long time since Adrien's been so happy about anything at all.
After speaking with Master Fu, the arrangement is set.
He's to start working with them the following day.
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Adrien meets the performers the week after.
They all use their stage names in introducing themselves to him, something Master Fu had warned him of in advance— a lot of the performers had identities they'd prefer to keep secret, and this sense of anonymity was much respected within their community. Unlike in common society, asking for someone's name there is to ask for them to share their deepest parts of themselves to the other person.
Rena Rouge, Viperion, Carapace, Queen Bee…
"So, what's your name?"
After a moment of thought, he smiles. "Chat Noir."
Adrien fits right in with them.
He asks for Ladybug, and Master Fu tells him she's the most mysterious one of them all; only showing up when she's due to performance, and never any longer.
The hours seem to take forever while he's waiting for her to show up.
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She arrives at the act before hers, already fully-dressed in her costume and makeup.
They only have a few minutes to talk, maybe even less so, but Adrien's determined and makes it a point to introduce himself.
"Ladybug, right?"
"Ah, you must be Master Fu's new business partner?" She says the words a little too dryly, maybe even almost unimpressed, but he decides to shake it off and push forward.
"Yes. We're working together, and I'll make sure to bring this circus to new heights—"
(He hopes Ladybug gets the pun. It's either that she does not, or that she chose to ignore it completely. With the unimpressed expression on her face, Adrien assumes it's the latter.)
She turns to him. "Look, I'm not sure why you're here, but leave us alone, okay? Miraculous is a family, and my home." Her glare turns sharp. "And I'll destroy anyone who tries to take that away from me."
Her tone indicates that she's done talking, but he, understandably, isn't.
"I think we have a misunderstanding," he tries speaking up. "I'm not trying to take the circus or anything, I just want to help it grow— to have more people experience the magic that I experienced while watching everyone here," he pauses. "You, especially."
A smile teases the edge of her lips.
"So I take it you enjoyed my performance?"
"Enjoyed wouldn't be a strong enough word to describe how it made me feel."
Ladybug leans closer to him, and he can feel himself explode into a shade of red he never thought possible.
When their lips are only centimeters apart, she smirks.
"Sorry, I'm only interested in performers." She looks down at his tuxedo and business-casual suit. "Someone more… fun."
Vaguely, Adrien registers the voice of Master Fu calling Marinette to the stage.
She smiles.
"See you around, kitty."
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The next day, Adrien goes around asking different performers if they could teach him some of their tricks.
Ladybug watches from the sidelines, evidently entertained.
He's a bit cute, actually.
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After a few weeks of almost choking on knives, getting bitten by a lion, and burning himself, Adrien tries out his last and final circus activity.
To both his and Ladybug's surprise (though it's more to her absolute horror), Chat Noir has an innate talent with doing trapeze work.
Master Fu announces that she start teaching him the ropes. (Chat Noir looks hopefully at his now-partner, because the ropes, haha get it because that's what we mostly work with, but is only met with a flat look.)
"Alright then. If we're doing this, then we're doing this properly, got it?"
"Yes, milady. The two of us together will make a meowvelous purrformance."
She rolls her eyes, but can't quite hide the smile on her face, either.
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Chat Noir adjusts his earpiece.
"Can you hear me, bugaboo?"
"That depends, what are you going to tell me?"
"Hmm… well I guess, don't worry."
"What do you mean?"
"I won't let you fall."
"You bet you won't let me fall, we've practiced this routine enough times that…"
"Because the only time you'll fall is when you fall for me."
"..."
"Ladybug?"
"..."
"Aw, didn't your heart jump for joy when I said that?"
"You really are corny, aren't you?"
"But you love it anyway."
"Maybe I do."
"Wait, Ladybug… what did you—"
"Now let's introduce our final act! The one you've all, and even I have been anxiously waiting for…"
"I couldn't hear it properly through the headset. Ladybug, tell me what you said…"
"Get the routine down perfectly tonight, and I'll say it again. So, are you sure you're ready for this, alleycat?"
Adrien smiles.
"Pawsitive."
"... the debut performance of Ladybug and Chat Noir!"
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end notes—
ngl when i think of the circus i think of clowns and therefore of clownery as in how i act when i try getting into relationships with people who clearly don't care about me at all ;u; did this become too personal ? Yes . do i care ? mAybe but i think y'all are getting used to my overly-chatty author's notes at this point :^))
but really this was fun to write ! it's loosely based on greatest showman (a terrible movie, but a stellar musical), but written really terribly from the pov of someone who has no idea how trapeze artists actually work. :-) anw i hope you still enjoyed it ! pt2 of aladdin tomorrow so look forward to that hahshs3
(this fic is also dedicated to uchi for being the best clown ik : here's to Manifesting an irl chat noir to fall in love with us asfks) but yes!
thank you for reading! ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～