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soc_puppetFandom: Miraculous Ladybug
Summary: Ladybug talks to Carapace about relationships and secret identities.
AO3 link: Right over here
Wordcount: 2699
Notes: For![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
pod_together 2021, with podfic by alexseanchai (who also made cover art and other art available at the AO3 link!), and beta read by ![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
podfic-chicklet
Fic: Workplace Romance and Other Safety Hazards
Nino had only been working on his latest mix for a few minutes when his concentration was interrupted by knocking. He pulled back from his computer, settling his headphones back around his neck, and glanced at his bedroom door; while he usually left it open when he wasn't studying, his mom would still knock to get his attention. The doorway was empty. Shrugging it off, Nino turned back to his computer.
The knock came again; this time, Nino looked out the window and caught a flash of black-spotted red. He quickly closed the door to his room. Moments later, Ladybug slipped in through his window. "Ladybug, dude!" Crap, I am seriously no good at that! "Uh, I mean, ma'am. Miss?" Ladybug chuckled, and Nino rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Deciding it was okay to let the name thing drop for the moment, he forged ahead. "What brings you over here today? Did something come up on patrol? Do you and Cat Noir need my help?" He'd picked up the heroes' convoluted patrol schedule from Alya's ramblings, figuring it would be useful to know now that he was a hero himself, and from what she'd observed, Ladybug and Cat Noir didn't usually go for house calls.
"Something like that," Ladybug said. "Cat Noir has been really busy lately, so I told him to take the day off." She smiled fondly and shook her head. "He made me promise that I'd take a day off myself sometime soon, but he agreed. Anyway, if you're done with everything tonight, I was hoping you could fill in for him."
Nino answered immediately, eager to help, "Of course, dude! Um, Ladybug. My homework's been done for ages, so I've got the rest of the day free."
Ladybug eyed him shrewdly, seeming to sense that his answer would have been the same regardless of the state of his homework, while Nino sweated guiltily. Then, with a decisive nod, she held out her hand: In her palm was the Turtle Miraculous. "You know the drill," she told him.
Nino grinned and put on the bracelet. With a flash of green light, Wayzz appeared in front of him. "Wayzz, my dude! Long time no see, little buddy!" Nino said.
"Nino!" Wayzz exclaimed. "It is very good to see you!" Nino held his fist out and Wayzz joined him in their traditional hand jive greeting.
"You ready to help Ladybug out?" Nino asked.
"Of course, my friend!"
"Cool! Shell on!" With a flash of dark green, the kwami zipped into the carved jade on the bracelet, and Carapace's costume materialized over his skin. "Man, that never gets old," Carapace commented.
"I know how you feel," said Ladybug.
Carapace looked at her in surprise. "Really? You've been doing this for, like, way longer than I have; you still get amazed by transforming?"
She grinned at him. "Any time I spend more than five seconds thinking about the fact that I'm a superhero I get a little blown away. Ready to go?"
Carapace grinned back at her. "You know it! Lead the way, dude! Uh, Ladybug."
Flashing him another smile, Ladybug took off in the direction of the Eiffel Tower. With a mighty leap, Carapace followed after. Over the next few hours, the two of them did their best to be as visible as possible, stopping for photos with citizens and tourists alike, catching a runaway dog, and even waving to the passengers of a low-flying plane. Still, Carapace couldn't shake the thought that Ladybug had other goals for their outing—until the thought was chased away by Alya flagging them down. Ladybug took one look at Carapace's goofy smile, chuckled, and leapt down to meet the reporter.
"Ladybug, hey!" Alya said enthusiastically, holding her phone up to catch the two superheroes on video. "What brings you out today? And is Cat Noir with you?"
"Alya, good afternoon," Ladybug responded with a smile for the camera. "Cat Noir had some other business to attend to today, so we thought it would be a good opportunity for Paris to get to know one of the other superheroes who help us out from time to time. Ladyblog viewers, this is Carapace."
Carapace waved awkwardly. "Uh, hey! Good to meet you, Paris!"
Alya's eyes twinkled as she focused the camera on him. "And what can you tell us about yourself, Carapace, was it?"
He laughed nervously. "Yeah, that's me! I'm just a regular old guy—except when Ladybug and Cat Noir need me for backup, of course! As you can see from my shield here, my specialty's defense. Oh, and I really love music! I think that's about it?"
"Like our other superheroes, I'm sure there's much more to you than meets the eye," Alya teased, her expression one of barely concealed mirth.
"That's definitely the case," Ladybug cut in, and Alya pulled her phone back to get both of them in the picture again. "But just like Cat Noir and me, we have to be careful about what we share with the public. I know things are different in other countries, but Hawkmoth has shown he's not afraid to target heroes directly, or their loved ones, should their identities get out."
Carapace shook his head in disgust. "Dude's just got no sense of respect, I'm telling you," he said, then bit his tongue as horror washed over him; he'd let a 'dude' slip again. "A-all the more reason to be careful about that stuff!" he half-croaked in conclusion, glancing at Ladybug out of the corner of his eye to see if she'd caught his slip. From the way her smile had gone slightly pinched, he was guessing she had.
"Thanks for checking in with us today, Alya," Ladybug said, her expression as cheerful as ever as she drew the camera's focus back to herself. "We've still got a few things to take care of before we're finished for the day, though, so we'll have to say goodbye for now."
"You've got it, Ladybug. Good to meet you, Carapace. And say 'hi' to Cat Noir for me!" Alya said. With a final wave, Ladybug launched her yoyo out, caught the roof of a nearby building, and zipped away. Fumbling with his shield, Carapace waved to Alya as well, and made it to the roof half a breath after Ladybug had landed.
"I'm sorry," tumbled from his mouth as soon as he landed. "I know I—"
Ladybug shook her head, and indicated a roof farther on. "Let's head over there, first; it's better not to talk at the first place we stop." With a jump, she was off again, and Carapace raced after her, his heart in his throat.
Ladybug held up a hand when she'd finally judged they'd gone far enough, and Carapace stopped gratefully, leaning over and bracing his hands on his knees. The superpowers he got when transformed were pretty fantastic, but his brain still insisted that he couldn't possibly be doing so much running and jumping around without getting winded. "This roof has good privacy," Ladybug explained. "Cat Noir and I sometimes come here to decompress when patrol gets stressful, or make plans when something gets complicated. It's blocked on three sides, there's no nearby windows, and it's easy to watch the entrance and the sky for anyone who might be getting too close."
Carapace nodded. "Gotcha, d-Ladybug." He winced again. "Dammit, I did it again. I can't stop calling people 'dude'. I even did it with Hawkmoth during the interview!"
Ladybug patted his shoulder. "Hey, it's okay; I get it. It's hard to switch things up like that and keep your identities separate. If you're worried about the interview, we can text Alya; she's gotten amazing at editing video, and she can take that out with no trouble at all. But..."
"But I still need to work on it," Carapace finished glumly.
Ladybug sighed and looked out over the city. "I meant what I said, about the possibility of endangering our loved ones, and you and Alya are already cutting things a little bit close. The two of you have been closely entangled since you made your debut to save Alya, and having to give the two of you your Miraculous at the same time on Heroes Day didn't help anything. If you manage to get a handle on your 'dude' problem, that should keep the general public from figuring things out, but there's still the problem of Hawkmoth.
"I'm not going to make you two break up, or even pretend to; that would get messy fast. It's probably too late anyway, since Hawkmoth already knows how much you care about each other; he's already tried to take advantage of that, and he may try again in the future. And that's not even getting into other villains who might crop up..."
Ladybug trailed off, and Carapace thought about what she'd said. He knew Rena Furtive was hiding the fact that she was still active for her own safety, and that could easily protect herself if she were caught. She was no slouch as a civilian, either, able to think in circles around most supervillains Hawkmoth threw at them. That said, if Hawkmoth put her in danger in either guise, Carapace would be hard pressed not to rush off into whatever trap the villain had set up. "Is that why you and Cat Noir aren't dating?" he asked.
Ladybug's head whipped around so fast her pigtails smacked her ears. "I—What? What do you mean by that?"
Carapace shrugged awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head. "I mean, you've been pretty adamant from day one that you're not dating him, no matter how obvious it is you like each other like that. If it's because you're worried about Hawkmoth taking advantage of that, I get it." He frowned. "Unless you don't actually like him like that? I mean, you know you best, of course, but I just got the feeling that..."
Ladybug bit her lip and looked down. "Of course I have feelings for him," she confessed. "I might even l-love him! We've spent the past two years fighting side-by-side, saving and being saved by each other, and he's such a goofball but he's always there for me when I need him, and he's believed in me so much since day one, and—and how could I not start to fall for him, after all of that? But—" Her voice cracked, and Carapace took a worried step forward. He reached out and hesitated for a moment, his hand hanging in the air, before settling it on her shoulder and squeezing gently, trying to reassure her.
Ladybug opened and closed her mouth a few times, searching for the words to continue. "I don't know how many of the other superheroes you know about yet," she finally said, voice choked with anxiety, "but one of them, Bunnyx? She can travel through time." Carapace's eyes widened, but he he managed to swallow back whatever astonished noise he would have made; he couldn't interrupt now. "She can see the different futures that might come to pass, and it's her job to prevent the bad ones. She showed up on the day I was planning to confess to a guy I like, a civilian, and...
"Carapace, it was—it was so bad. Cat Noir, he'd found out my secret identity somehow, and he got akumatized; Hawkmoth was gone, but so was the Ladybug from that timeline, as well as half of the moon! Paris was flooded. He'd been alone for so long, for years, and he told me, 'Our love destroyed the world'. I can't risk that, Carapace! I can't let that happen to him, let alone Paris!" Tears were streaming down her face, and Carapace drew her into an awkward hug. "That's why it can never happen," she said, sniffling into his shoulder, "at least not before Hawkmoth is defeated and we get the Butterfly Miraculous back safely."
Carapace patted her back soothingly while his mind reeled. Alternate timelines? An akumatized Cat Noir? He and Rena had been akumatized on Heroes Day last year, and that had been bad enough. But Ladybug's partner, who wielded the power of bad luck and destruction?
At the same time, this was Ladybug. If anyone in Paris deserved happiness, wasn't it her? (Well, he added privately to himself, anyone besides Alya.)
"So here's the thing, d-Ladybug," he said at last, drawing back enough to look her in the eyes. "I haven't been a superhero as long as you and Cat Noir, or even as long as Rena, but I feel like I know a thing or two about protecting the people I love. I mean, that's why you picked me, right?" He smiled reassuringly at her, and she smiled weakly back. Progress! he thought. "The other thing is, my best friend? His family is way over-protective. Like, so over-protective that he hardly gets to do anything at all! And you can probably guess that it's not helping him very much."
Ladybug sniffled a bit and wiped her eyes. "Yeah, I think I understand that."
"So, I'm not gonna say that you have to confess to Cat Noir or anything, but even if it's too dangerous for you two to swap secret identities or date or whatever, I still think it would be a good idea for you to tell him about this alternate-future-timeline business and what's making you hold back. Everything I've seen, everything Rena's told me and Alya's written?" he continued, taking care to name his girlfriend twice, "Cat Noir treats your boundaries seriously. He's not the kind of d-cat who would push you to do something that would make you feel unsafe, just because it might make him happy. And it seems like something it'd be important for him to know, you know? Just... even if you sometimes gotta have secrets from each other, trusting each other is important, too."
Ladybug chewed her lower lip, eyes downcast. At last she let out a breath and met Carapace's gaze again. "I get what you're saying. And... I think you're right; it's time I talked to him about this. I need to be able to trust him, and he needs to be able to trust me, too. I'll try to find a way to tell him."
Carapace smiled with half of his mouth. "Cool," he said, thumping her lightly on the back. "So what else have we got to do for patrol today? Mom said supper was supposed to be around 19h."
Ladybug grinned wolfishly back. "I was thinking we should see if turtles really are as slow as they say," she said, then took a running leap off the roof. "Race you to the Arc du Triomphe!" she called over her shoulder.
"Hey, no fair!" Carapace shouted back, and jumped after her.
Half an hour later, Ladybug finally dropped him back off at his window. She didn't rush him when he took a few extra minutes to say goodbye to Wayzz—"Bonding with your kwami is important," she told him when he finally handed the bracelet back, and Nino saw Wayzz smile gratefully at her—and she congratulated him on learning how to hover with his shield. "Don't forget your secret identity practice," she reminded him from the window ledge as he sat back down at his computer.
"And don't you forget about talking to Cat Noir," Nino told her in turn. "You gotta trust the dude, dude."
Smiling at him one last time, Ladybug took off and vanished into the city.
-----
Ladyblog Special Update!
Spring is in full sway in the City of Love, and it seems that superheroes are not immune! Yesterday evening, our own Ladybug and Cat Noir were spotted cuddling on a rooftop! Whether it was platonic or romantic, it's always good to see these two strengthening their relationship with each other.
(Attached is a photo of Ladybug and Cat Noir from behind, sitting side-by-side on the edge of a roof, leaning against each other and watching the sun set.)
--fin--
Summary: Ladybug talks to Carapace about relationships and secret identities.
AO3 link: Right over here
Wordcount: 2699
Notes: For
pod_together 2021, with podfic by alexseanchai (who also made cover art and other art available at the AO3 link!), and beta read by Fic: Workplace Romance and Other Safety Hazards
Nino had only been working on his latest mix for a few minutes when his concentration was interrupted by knocking. He pulled back from his computer, settling his headphones back around his neck, and glanced at his bedroom door; while he usually left it open when he wasn't studying, his mom would still knock to get his attention. The doorway was empty. Shrugging it off, Nino turned back to his computer.
The knock came again; this time, Nino looked out the window and caught a flash of black-spotted red. He quickly closed the door to his room. Moments later, Ladybug slipped in through his window. "Ladybug, dude!" Crap, I am seriously no good at that! "Uh, I mean, ma'am. Miss?" Ladybug chuckled, and Nino rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Deciding it was okay to let the name thing drop for the moment, he forged ahead. "What brings you over here today? Did something come up on patrol? Do you and Cat Noir need my help?" He'd picked up the heroes' convoluted patrol schedule from Alya's ramblings, figuring it would be useful to know now that he was a hero himself, and from what she'd observed, Ladybug and Cat Noir didn't usually go for house calls.
"Something like that," Ladybug said. "Cat Noir has been really busy lately, so I told him to take the day off." She smiled fondly and shook her head. "He made me promise that I'd take a day off myself sometime soon, but he agreed. Anyway, if you're done with everything tonight, I was hoping you could fill in for him."
Nino answered immediately, eager to help, "Of course, dude! Um, Ladybug. My homework's been done for ages, so I've got the rest of the day free."
Ladybug eyed him shrewdly, seeming to sense that his answer would have been the same regardless of the state of his homework, while Nino sweated guiltily. Then, with a decisive nod, she held out her hand: In her palm was the Turtle Miraculous. "You know the drill," she told him.
Nino grinned and put on the bracelet. With a flash of green light, Wayzz appeared in front of him. "Wayzz, my dude! Long time no see, little buddy!" Nino said.
"Nino!" Wayzz exclaimed. "It is very good to see you!" Nino held his fist out and Wayzz joined him in their traditional hand jive greeting.
"You ready to help Ladybug out?" Nino asked.
"Of course, my friend!"
"Cool! Shell on!" With a flash of dark green, the kwami zipped into the carved jade on the bracelet, and Carapace's costume materialized over his skin. "Man, that never gets old," Carapace commented.
"I know how you feel," said Ladybug.
Carapace looked at her in surprise. "Really? You've been doing this for, like, way longer than I have; you still get amazed by transforming?"
She grinned at him. "Any time I spend more than five seconds thinking about the fact that I'm a superhero I get a little blown away. Ready to go?"
Carapace grinned back at her. "You know it! Lead the way, dude! Uh, Ladybug."
Flashing him another smile, Ladybug took off in the direction of the Eiffel Tower. With a mighty leap, Carapace followed after. Over the next few hours, the two of them did their best to be as visible as possible, stopping for photos with citizens and tourists alike, catching a runaway dog, and even waving to the passengers of a low-flying plane. Still, Carapace couldn't shake the thought that Ladybug had other goals for their outing—until the thought was chased away by Alya flagging them down. Ladybug took one look at Carapace's goofy smile, chuckled, and leapt down to meet the reporter.
"Ladybug, hey!" Alya said enthusiastically, holding her phone up to catch the two superheroes on video. "What brings you out today? And is Cat Noir with you?"
"Alya, good afternoon," Ladybug responded with a smile for the camera. "Cat Noir had some other business to attend to today, so we thought it would be a good opportunity for Paris to get to know one of the other superheroes who help us out from time to time. Ladyblog viewers, this is Carapace."
Carapace waved awkwardly. "Uh, hey! Good to meet you, Paris!"
Alya's eyes twinkled as she focused the camera on him. "And what can you tell us about yourself, Carapace, was it?"
He laughed nervously. "Yeah, that's me! I'm just a regular old guy—except when Ladybug and Cat Noir need me for backup, of course! As you can see from my shield here, my specialty's defense. Oh, and I really love music! I think that's about it?"
"Like our other superheroes, I'm sure there's much more to you than meets the eye," Alya teased, her expression one of barely concealed mirth.
"That's definitely the case," Ladybug cut in, and Alya pulled her phone back to get both of them in the picture again. "But just like Cat Noir and me, we have to be careful about what we share with the public. I know things are different in other countries, but Hawkmoth has shown he's not afraid to target heroes directly, or their loved ones, should their identities get out."
Carapace shook his head in disgust. "Dude's just got no sense of respect, I'm telling you," he said, then bit his tongue as horror washed over him; he'd let a 'dude' slip again. "A-all the more reason to be careful about that stuff!" he half-croaked in conclusion, glancing at Ladybug out of the corner of his eye to see if she'd caught his slip. From the way her smile had gone slightly pinched, he was guessing she had.
"Thanks for checking in with us today, Alya," Ladybug said, her expression as cheerful as ever as she drew the camera's focus back to herself. "We've still got a few things to take care of before we're finished for the day, though, so we'll have to say goodbye for now."
"You've got it, Ladybug. Good to meet you, Carapace. And say 'hi' to Cat Noir for me!" Alya said. With a final wave, Ladybug launched her yoyo out, caught the roof of a nearby building, and zipped away. Fumbling with his shield, Carapace waved to Alya as well, and made it to the roof half a breath after Ladybug had landed.
"I'm sorry," tumbled from his mouth as soon as he landed. "I know I—"
Ladybug shook her head, and indicated a roof farther on. "Let's head over there, first; it's better not to talk at the first place we stop." With a jump, she was off again, and Carapace raced after her, his heart in his throat.
Ladybug held up a hand when she'd finally judged they'd gone far enough, and Carapace stopped gratefully, leaning over and bracing his hands on his knees. The superpowers he got when transformed were pretty fantastic, but his brain still insisted that he couldn't possibly be doing so much running and jumping around without getting winded. "This roof has good privacy," Ladybug explained. "Cat Noir and I sometimes come here to decompress when patrol gets stressful, or make plans when something gets complicated. It's blocked on three sides, there's no nearby windows, and it's easy to watch the entrance and the sky for anyone who might be getting too close."
Carapace nodded. "Gotcha, d-Ladybug." He winced again. "Dammit, I did it again. I can't stop calling people 'dude'. I even did it with Hawkmoth during the interview!"
Ladybug patted his shoulder. "Hey, it's okay; I get it. It's hard to switch things up like that and keep your identities separate. If you're worried about the interview, we can text Alya; she's gotten amazing at editing video, and she can take that out with no trouble at all. But..."
"But I still need to work on it," Carapace finished glumly.
Ladybug sighed and looked out over the city. "I meant what I said, about the possibility of endangering our loved ones, and you and Alya are already cutting things a little bit close. The two of you have been closely entangled since you made your debut to save Alya, and having to give the two of you your Miraculous at the same time on Heroes Day didn't help anything. If you manage to get a handle on your 'dude' problem, that should keep the general public from figuring things out, but there's still the problem of Hawkmoth.
"I'm not going to make you two break up, or even pretend to; that would get messy fast. It's probably too late anyway, since Hawkmoth already knows how much you care about each other; he's already tried to take advantage of that, and he may try again in the future. And that's not even getting into other villains who might crop up..."
Ladybug trailed off, and Carapace thought about what she'd said. He knew Rena Furtive was hiding the fact that she was still active for her own safety, and that could easily protect herself if she were caught. She was no slouch as a civilian, either, able to think in circles around most supervillains Hawkmoth threw at them. That said, if Hawkmoth put her in danger in either guise, Carapace would be hard pressed not to rush off into whatever trap the villain had set up. "Is that why you and Cat Noir aren't dating?" he asked.
Ladybug's head whipped around so fast her pigtails smacked her ears. "I—What? What do you mean by that?"
Carapace shrugged awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head. "I mean, you've been pretty adamant from day one that you're not dating him, no matter how obvious it is you like each other like that. If it's because you're worried about Hawkmoth taking advantage of that, I get it." He frowned. "Unless you don't actually like him like that? I mean, you know you best, of course, but I just got the feeling that..."
Ladybug bit her lip and looked down. "Of course I have feelings for him," she confessed. "I might even l-love him! We've spent the past two years fighting side-by-side, saving and being saved by each other, and he's such a goofball but he's always there for me when I need him, and he's believed in me so much since day one, and—and how could I not start to fall for him, after all of that? But—" Her voice cracked, and Carapace took a worried step forward. He reached out and hesitated for a moment, his hand hanging in the air, before settling it on her shoulder and squeezing gently, trying to reassure her.
Ladybug opened and closed her mouth a few times, searching for the words to continue. "I don't know how many of the other superheroes you know about yet," she finally said, voice choked with anxiety, "but one of them, Bunnyx? She can travel through time." Carapace's eyes widened, but he he managed to swallow back whatever astonished noise he would have made; he couldn't interrupt now. "She can see the different futures that might come to pass, and it's her job to prevent the bad ones. She showed up on the day I was planning to confess to a guy I like, a civilian, and...
"Carapace, it was—it was so bad. Cat Noir, he'd found out my secret identity somehow, and he got akumatized; Hawkmoth was gone, but so was the Ladybug from that timeline, as well as half of the moon! Paris was flooded. He'd been alone for so long, for years, and he told me, 'Our love destroyed the world'. I can't risk that, Carapace! I can't let that happen to him, let alone Paris!" Tears were streaming down her face, and Carapace drew her into an awkward hug. "That's why it can never happen," she said, sniffling into his shoulder, "at least not before Hawkmoth is defeated and we get the Butterfly Miraculous back safely."
Carapace patted her back soothingly while his mind reeled. Alternate timelines? An akumatized Cat Noir? He and Rena had been akumatized on Heroes Day last year, and that had been bad enough. But Ladybug's partner, who wielded the power of bad luck and destruction?
At the same time, this was Ladybug. If anyone in Paris deserved happiness, wasn't it her? (Well, he added privately to himself, anyone besides Alya.)
"So here's the thing, d-Ladybug," he said at last, drawing back enough to look her in the eyes. "I haven't been a superhero as long as you and Cat Noir, or even as long as Rena, but I feel like I know a thing or two about protecting the people I love. I mean, that's why you picked me, right?" He smiled reassuringly at her, and she smiled weakly back. Progress! he thought. "The other thing is, my best friend? His family is way over-protective. Like, so over-protective that he hardly gets to do anything at all! And you can probably guess that it's not helping him very much."
Ladybug sniffled a bit and wiped her eyes. "Yeah, I think I understand that."
"So, I'm not gonna say that you have to confess to Cat Noir or anything, but even if it's too dangerous for you two to swap secret identities or date or whatever, I still think it would be a good idea for you to tell him about this alternate-future-timeline business and what's making you hold back. Everything I've seen, everything Rena's told me and Alya's written?" he continued, taking care to name his girlfriend twice, "Cat Noir treats your boundaries seriously. He's not the kind of d-cat who would push you to do something that would make you feel unsafe, just because it might make him happy. And it seems like something it'd be important for him to know, you know? Just... even if you sometimes gotta have secrets from each other, trusting each other is important, too."
Ladybug chewed her lower lip, eyes downcast. At last she let out a breath and met Carapace's gaze again. "I get what you're saying. And... I think you're right; it's time I talked to him about this. I need to be able to trust him, and he needs to be able to trust me, too. I'll try to find a way to tell him."
Carapace smiled with half of his mouth. "Cool," he said, thumping her lightly on the back. "So what else have we got to do for patrol today? Mom said supper was supposed to be around 19h."
Ladybug grinned wolfishly back. "I was thinking we should see if turtles really are as slow as they say," she said, then took a running leap off the roof. "Race you to the Arc du Triomphe!" she called over her shoulder.
"Hey, no fair!" Carapace shouted back, and jumped after her.
Half an hour later, Ladybug finally dropped him back off at his window. She didn't rush him when he took a few extra minutes to say goodbye to Wayzz—"Bonding with your kwami is important," she told him when he finally handed the bracelet back, and Nino saw Wayzz smile gratefully at her—and she congratulated him on learning how to hover with his shield. "Don't forget your secret identity practice," she reminded him from the window ledge as he sat back down at his computer.
"And don't you forget about talking to Cat Noir," Nino told her in turn. "You gotta trust the dude, dude."
Smiling at him one last time, Ladybug took off and vanished into the city.
-----
Ladyblog Special Update!
Spring is in full sway in the City of Love, and it seems that superheroes are not immune! Yesterday evening, our own Ladybug and Cat Noir were spotted cuddling on a rooftop! Whether it was platonic or romantic, it's always good to see these two strengthening their relationship with each other.
(Attached is a photo of Ladybug and Cat Noir from behind, sitting side-by-side on the edge of a roof, leaning against each other and watching the sun set.)
--fin--
