[the day off]

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Paris was a place of many surprises, as the civilians of the city could obviously confirm. With the constant brainwashing and ancient superheroes suddenly appearing out of nowhere, locals and heroes alike have learned to expect the unexpected. Usually in the more negative sense.

This scenario however, wasn't something the great Ladybug and Chat Noir was expecting to expect. Considering, it worked out favorably for Paris' favorite duo.

It was only a matter of time honestly; the Papillion certainly wasn't a figure to control very strong minds, part of why neither Ladybug nor Chat Noir's secret identities had been akumatized with his technique. Yes, it was true that the villain typically went after those who were feeling 'slightly disgruntled' at worst, so really, it shouldn't have been a surprise to see an akumatized local willingly break out of their vengeful trance.

Some people just can't hold grudges.

This tiny little man certainly couldn't. After having his favorite exotic greenhouse park be closed down, a nasty little butterfly and a certain villain promised revenge against those stubborn government officials. A few moments later, nearly half of the district was amassed in all types of plants and flowers. Which, doesn't sound that terrible, but when those long vines of Kudzu and poison ivy start piling up and trapping people ten feet under, that's when some concern was sure to be shown.

Chat Noir was having a rather harsh debate internally at the time; he knew that his cataclysm could easily free these trapped government bodies, but the poor boy for the life of him couldn't decide when and where to use it. There was just too much foliage, and Ladybug was having enough of a struggle of her own as she tried tracking down the Akuma in the maze of plants and flowers (ones she might add that she had certain allergies to).

But then? After the tension was near its all time high?

Poof.

That little mouse of a man was sitting right where Ladybug's eyes were set. His silly outfit and enraged eyes gone as if they were never there. He sat shyly in front of the heroine, guilt coating his expression as he caught a glance at the chaos he induced.

"I-I'm sorry…I shouldn't of done this," he stammered, finding it difficult to look into Ladybug's blue eyes, "I was just so mad, I mean that place has been with my family for decades and they just shut it down! I was just…angry. But, look at what I did. I'm sorry Ms. Ladybug."

Ladybug meanwhile couldn't even find a word to reply with. She stared at the man like he had a second head growing out of him. "Wait a second–"

She doubletaked back to the mess behind her and blinked at the man before her feet. Her mouth gaped open. "CHAT!"

Chat Noir hearing his name being called, rather intensely at that, came flying over with his staff. He landed right next to her, "You called M'lady?"

His eyes being glued to the girl with practical hearts in them, he felt his chin being pointed down at her feet. More specifically, to the de-akumatized man.

"Oh cool you already snatched the Akuma," Chat grinned, densely, "I always knew you could–"

"I didn't do this." Ladybug said.

Chat stumbled over the last few words of praise. His cat ears perked in confusion, "Huh?"

"I never got his Akuma. He just popped in front of me, exactly like this!" she exclaimed in bewilderment. "How do you think this happened?"

Chat stared at the quivering man with curiosity. "The cat's got my tongue this time." Ladybug's eyes nearly rolled to the back of her head at the inevitably, inappropriately timed pun. He perked up though, a smile finding its way to his lips, "Hey freebie though! How cool is that?"

"You don't think that's a little weird?" Ladybug questioned, testingly, "How could he just break his own Akuma?"

Chat Noir looked back to the man and studied him, his appearance and behavior and all. "Well…he doesn't look all that angry anymore. Maybe he just got over whatever he was mad about, and the spell broke on its own?"

Ladybug debated his theory, but something just didn't feel right about it. She felt a weight on her shoulder then and saw her partner staring up to her with those bright green eyes of his, "Oh c'mon Ladybug, we have to have something go our way at least once right? Let's just finish this and get it over with."

A pout found her lips that could have matched her partners, but after a moment of internal conflict, she sighed out in defeat. "I suppose. Might as well take the free day while we can, right?"

Chat beamed at her and cheered. He stood back and let her reset all the chaos that was settling over Paris, all of the plants and flowers disappearing right into thin air. Soon enough everyone was helping each other up from the random places they found themselves and returned to their daily activities.

"Boy am I glad I didn't use my cataclysm when I was about to," Chat sighed, strolling up next to the heroine.

Ladybug felt an unusual sense of relaxation as she watched the busy lives of civilians surround her, "Yeah. I didn't even get to use my Lucky Charm."

Her sights were broken into as Chat tugged her away from her view, their eyes suddenly connected with an alarming amount of space between them, "Hey! Neither of us used our charms! That means our suits aren't gonna go away until we want them to!"

Ladybug realized this and understood why she felt so relaxed before. Usually it was just a race to get out of sight before her suit dissolved and her secret identity was revealed, but now she didn't have to run out at the last second. She had no rush, no plans or people to save, not even as Marinette did she have somewhere to be.

It felt weird for something crazy not to be happening in her life. And Chat Noir couldn't seem more ecstatic that he could stay his superhero self for a little while longer.

"You know we've never really had a second to ourselves, what do you say we hang out a little?" He asked, a glimmer of hope filling his eyes, "You know it wouldn't hurt to get to know more about your partner, considering we trust our lives with each other every other day."

Ladybug couldn't help but giggle. It was painfully obvious, even to her, that he liked her just a little more than a crimefighting teammate, but she found it flattering nonetheless. It was even sort of cute sometimes how much he seemed to adore her.

"I'm not revealing who I am, if that's what you're asking." Ladybug smiled, with a hand on her hip.

She felt an arm around her shoulders as a chuckle sounded beside her, "Never, M'lady. Until you're ready."

Ladybug twisted knowingly out of his reach and sighed as she stared out at the view again. The day was nearly over, the sun was just beginning to set, casting pink and orange hues in the sky, and she decided, as her view was yet again interrupted by a big pair of gleaming green eyes, that she should just relax for a day.

It wasn't often that she could sit and have a nice chat with…Chat. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't curious to know more about him, despite the two second laughs they usually got during a chase of an Akuma. She just worried she might spill something that would reveal her identity.

"Oh alright," she rolled her eyes comically. Chat Noir cheered and grinned wider than the heroine had ever seen before.

He had his pole in his hand, shooting straight up before she could even ask where they were going.

"So…"

Ladybug felt a nudge on her shoulder. She looked over to Chat Noir, raising an eyebrow. "So…?"

It was quiet. Not necessarily in an awkward way, but more in an 'new territory' kind of way. The atmosphere wasn't quite what the kids were used to, there wasn't the heart pounding exhilaration or the race against time anymore, there was no need for quick one liners because they had time to finish a sentence now. They had so much time actually, that they didn't know what to do with it.

It was even a weird feeling with Chat Noir, to be unsure of what to say now. Usually when he put on this costume, he became the person he truly felt he was. He loved being able to be who he was without worrying about what he father thought or how his reputation would take it, that was why he felt so unimaginably happy that he could stay being Chat, just a little while longer. Especially with the girl that he had fallen so hardly for, he just couldn't imagine a more perfect day.

Even he'll admit now it was difficult to keep the conversation alive. There wasn't much to talk about, considering their conversations usually consisted of Akuma-talk. But, he didn't really want to talk business, neither of them did. And it wasn't as though they could share personal stories either…

Eventually though, a thought crossed that Ladybug felt comfortable enough to say out loud.

"Do you ever think about the future?" She had asked, after a long while of silence between the two.

She found her eyes caught in his as she glanced over to her partner, as he was already staring at her. He looked peculiar, "What do you mean?"

Ladybug leaned back on her hands, as she swayed her feet back and forth over the edge of a rooftop. Her foot accidentally tapped Chat's next to her. "I mean with all of this. Saving Paris and all, do you ever think about how it'll be in the future? Once we get older?"

Chat took a moment to think on this. He took too long apparently, because he found his thoughts interrupted by Ladybug's own.

"It's insane to think that I've managed to balance both my lives this far. I definitely didn't expect to stay hidden for so long, I was sure I was bound to mess up at some point." She admitted, this catching the boy's attention. It was weird to hear any type of self doubt come from the great Ladybug's lips. "Definitely didn't expect to make it this far either. Would you believe me if I told you I gave up my earrings once?"

Chat nearly fell off the roof, perking up wildly, "You what?"

"On our first mission, with Ivan." she explained, staring at her feet hang over Paris, "After I didn't catch that Akuma and everything got so terrible, I sort of…gave up. I even tried giving my earrings to my friend, at one point. She seemed like she would've been such a great Ladybug."

Hearing a scoff, her blue eyes connected with green ones. "No way! You're the best Ladybug there is, no doubt. A lot of people wouldn't be here if it weren't for you."

Ladybug shrugged modestly, "I know, but…it was just scary at first. You wouldn't get it."

Chat Noir, despite utterly falling in love with the woman because of her confidence, found his heart thumping rather erratically at seeing her like this. He felt something warm inside him flourish at the thought that even Ladybug doubted herself sometimes, that she wasn't perfect in her own eyes, even if she was in his. It made her human, and he found himself feeling awfully grateful that he had this spare time to get to see these different sides of the woman he had fallen so harshly for.

It was fascinating to him.

"Why wouldn't I get it?" He asked, with an amused chuckle.

"Because!" She huffed out, and he felt a sense of envy begin to radiate off of her. Her voice lowered to a mutter and she refused to meet his eyes, keeping them on the streets below instead. "You don't get scared. Even on our first day, when you were fighting against Ivan with no idea what you were doing, you looked like you were having so much fun because you knew already that you were going to win. And you never worry about saving people, like when Volpina had Adrien hanging off the Eiffel tower for Christ's sake, you didn't have a doubt in your mind that everything would be okay."

She huffed out, blowing a hair from her face, "I just…wish sometimes I could be like you. In both my lives. More the other than this one, if I'm being honest."

Chat Noir stared at her, quietly, and found himself saying something he didn't think he would ever really admit before. "Well sure I get scared."

Ladybug nearly whipped her eyes up to his, finding a solemn gleam crossing those green eyes. He shrugged a bit, timidly, yet trying to seem casual. "Granted I didn't show it as much as you did, but I do. It's true."

He couldn't even remember how many times his gut was twisted in such anxiousness during a battle. The majority of times being when he never thought he'd see Ladybug again, but he decided to leave that part out.

"I just think, for you, when we started this whole superhero thing, you weren't sure you wanted to stick with it. That's why it was so scary for you, but for me? I knew right away that this was what I wanted to do." He smiled at the girl brightly. "You weren't sure you wanted to give up part of your life for Ladybug, but I think for me, I was waiting for Chat Noir to come and take up my life."

Ladybug stayed quiet as she listened, and bit down on the inside of her cheek. He had practically hit the head of the nail on that one, but something about how he explained how he felt, just didn't sit well with her.

She didn't like how willing he was to get an escape from his life.

"It's not so great back home, huh?" she asked, softly.

Chat Noir gazed at her as she kept her eyes to her feet, and scoffed a laugh. He leaned back on his own hands, copying her pose. He looked out to the red sun halfway beneath the horizon.

"No," he murmured. "It's not."

It felt weird admitting that to someone other than himself.

He felt something rest on his shoulder then and turned to see Ladybug a few spaces closer to him, her head leaning on his arm. He couldn't see her face, but the warmth that pooled in his stomach was enough comfort him a while though. He had never felt so…intimate in a conversation before.

Not since his mother, anyways.

"I'm uh…sorry. To hear that, I mean. I just…yeah," he heard her stammer. He half smiled at it, it was obvious in her tone she didn't quite know how to console him. He decided to let her know it was okay, in his own way of course.

"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" He joked, immediately earning a jab to his stomach.

He laughed as she huffed and sat up off him, "Can't you make it one conversation without saying one of your dumb puns?"

He snickered, "If I ever do then I've probably been duplicated again."

Ladybug rolled her eyes visibly, yet she couldn't argue that point. She crossed her legs now and stared at the horizon again. "How long do you think we'll keep this up?" She looked back to him with amusement in her eyes.

For some reason, Chat knew exactly what she was referring to. This double life of theirs, saving Paris day and day again.

He sighed and stretched his back, hearing a satisfying crack, "Well I don't know about you M'lady, but I'm hoping I'm in it for the long haul."

Ladybug couldn't help but smile. "Me too."

He seemed surprised at this answer, "Really? You don't want to get out at some point? Go and work on that 'other life' of yours?"

She shrugged a measly shrug, "Whether I like it or not, Ladybug is a part of me now. Luckily for me though, I just so happen to love every part of being her. Maybe one day something will have to change, but for now, I'm pretty happy living in the now. I guess the future isn't something I have to worry about, eh?"

Chat Noir saw her look through her lashes up to him, and he swore he would never get used to those swarm of fluttering Akuma's that seemed to bubble up inside of him. She was truly something so wonderful that he couldn't even begin to explain how amazing she was. He saw a blush begin to form on her cheeks at how deeply he stared at her.

"Well, for however long you're Ladybug, you can count on me to be right there beside you, all of the way." he promised. His lips lifted up into a soft grin, "No doubt about it."

She smiled gently at him. "I wouldn't be able to do it without you anyways."

Chat was the one feeling embarrassed now, and Ladybug reveled in the vague pink that had shown on his cheeks. She said nothing about it though, and scooted right back by his side again, resting her temple on his shoulder and knocking her knees into his, as she let her feet hang off the rooftop.

She stared at the horizon one last time.

"I'm with you till the end."

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Just something quick, I thought it'd be cute :)

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