Chapter Twelve: Accidentally More Successful Than Ladybug Was Expecting (It Was An Accident Because Chat Noir's Still A Dummy)
Saturday's afternoon joint patrol was fairly normal, and by now, that was fairly odd. Ladybug maintained her previously normal distance away from him. She didn't touch him. She didn't compliment him. She didn't bring him anything she'd sewn or baked for him, or tell him jokes, or smile at him every time he looked her way. She didn't even spend the patrol with him, really.
They were far enough apart that it was like two solo patrols side-by-side instead of a joint one. And after the closeness of the last few weeks, it kind of stung. This was what it had been like before, before Ladybug's list of odd behaviors was longer than he was tall, before she started having problems with the other boy again. Chat Noir didn't want to go back to that.
But after last night's disastrous game of hide and seek, maybe this was better.
That line of thinking was shot to pieces less than 60 seconds after it entered his mind. Ladybug stopped on a balcony, stood tall and proud on the stone railing, hands on her hips, watching the people walk by below, making sure everyone was safe. A breeze tousled her hair, letting a few strands caress her face, and he wished he could, too. When he touched down next to her, she took one look at him and leaped away.
The separation between them was agonizing. What had made him think he couldn't handle himself last night? He could handle anything if it meant he could have her attention and touch again.
As the afternoon dragged into evening and she still ignored him, he filled the time alternating between how he could ask her to be closer to him (without sounding needy and creepy), and trying to convince himself that she wasn't really ignoring him and it wasn't personal.
All the while, a quiet doubt grew. What if she was back to normal because her life was back to normal? Maybe she was over what had been bothering her and didn't need him anymore. He chucked that terrible thought away as fast as it could whenever it surfaced. She did need him. She did.
He landed next to her again, this time on the roof of a parked city bus, she shrieked and jumped away, landing in a heap next to the bus stop sign.
"Are you okay?" he asked desperately, peering down at her.
"Perfect!" she yelled. "Great! Why wouldn't I be!" She tripped as she ran down the sidewalk. Away from him.
It was the first time in his life that he'd felt relief that she'd lied to him.
With ten minutes left of their patrol, Ladybug's not-okay-ness started becoming more apparent. She glanced over at him more than she had in the entire first hour, always with a frown or a pull of her pigtails. When she looked away, her mouth would twitch, like there was something she wanted to say but couldn't think of the words. Once, she scrubbed her hands over her face, and he swore he heard a muffled scream.
With five minutes left of patrol, she opened the screen of her yoyo to check something, only to snap it shut when he peered over her shoulder.
With two minutes left, she took a sharp detour, only stopping to make sure he was following before cutting across two side streets.
"Oh, look," she called as they soared parallel to the river and past Andre's cream-colored cart. She stopped on a nearby roof, flat and easy to watch the couples waiting in line, all of them hand-in-hand.
"Do you want some ice cream?" She stretched, like she wasn't watching Chat Noir carefully. The peek out of the corner of her eye gave her away, though. "Seeing Andre reminded me I haven't had any in a while."
"Sure," he said. Anything to spend more time with her, especially of the "sitting together and talking" variety after the "strained and distant" variety he'd experienced all afternoon.
"Great!" She turned to him and smiled, one that was wide enough to show all her teeth, and then clasped her hands together in front of her. And then clasped them behind her. "How about tomorrow?"
"What?" he said. "Why not now?"
Her hands jumped in front of her again. "R-right now? But I need to get ready! Well, I mean, yes, I would love to, sure, yes, now. I mean." She ran her hand through her hair, only to get her fingers caught in her pigtail and nearly yank it out. "Andre's right there. Of course, if you want to. Sure, right now! I would love to!"
Chat Noir gaped after her as she hopped off the building and marched toward the cart that was parked by the river's edge, just to the right of the bridge. What was she so nervous about? Getting ice cream? It had literally been her idea. How did you "get ready" for eating ice cream?
Ladybug took her place at the end of the line and waved him over as the people ahead of her turned and stared.
Chat Noir closed his mouth, shook his head, and followed her.
Author's note: The next chapter is the pinnacle of his stupidity. Have fun!