Cat's Eye (Lukadrien)

Volume 2, Chapter 3

It's late when he comes again. Hours and hours have passed since Adrien had charmingly left through Luka's window, after leaving carnage in his wake. On Luka's poor, gay little heart, that is. His room was fine. Or, well better than fine really. It smelled like Adrien. So, Luka had definitely not been having a gay panic of trying to write a song about a boy, whilst his room constantly distracted him with gay, gay thoughts about him.

His strumming is interrupted by a series of resounding knocks, that sounded suspiciously like they were made against glass. He and Adrien had come up with a secret rhythm for knocks, so that Luka would know it was Adrien coming in. Luka's heart leapt at the recognition, sounding out against the thumping of rain against the ship. It sank when he remembered that Adrien shouldn't be here. Rather, he had a meeting with Ladybug, and then was supposed to go home for a well-deserved nights rest. Hopefully nothing was wrong.

Even if something was, worrying about now it wouldn't do Adrien any good. Pushing down his anxieties, Luka slides the windowpane to the side, opening to reveal a rain drenched Adrien, looking the spitting image of miserable. A quip dies in Luka's mouth, and he ushers the smaller boy in. Something was wrong.

"Hey, hey," Luka outstretches a hand, gently taking Adrien's smaller shaking palms in his own, "It's okay, you're okay. What happened? Talk to me."

"I-I spoke to Ladybug. About... you know. Feeling untrusted." Adrien shudders and forces a weak smile, "She- I don't know". He pauses a while, and Luka rubs a soothing rhythm with his thumb. Not trying to coax anything out of him, but there to listen to what Adrien wanted to say. "What's so frustrating is I know why she refused."

"How so?" Luka gently wraps a towel around the smaller boy.

"She- when she broke the rules to make the heroes team to fight against Scarlett Moth, she revealed Rena and Carapaces identities to each other in a hurry." Adrien winces, "And, whilst it was fine for a while, knowing each other's identities was exploited by Hawk Moth"

"The Matriarch Mystery Incident." Luka murmurs quietly. He remembers that day well – mysteriously a woman had been akumatised and began to attack the city, only for Hawkmoth to deakumatise her before Ladybug and the team could even start properly fighting with her. Her Identity was never discovered. The very same day, there was a flash of light in the sky above the city that all Parisian saw, as Ladybug became the new Guardian of the Miraculous.

"Right." Adrien rubs his hands together, still ice cold from the rain. "He never found out their identities, but whilst Matriarch was akumatised, Ladybug went and got the Fox miraculous for Rena from the Guardian at the time. Rena was in her civilian form with Carapace in civilian form when Ladybug came to her, and since it was some important day they pleaded that Carapace get a miraculous too. I don't know what the actual event was of course, since Ladybug didn't want to compromise their identities."

"But as Ladybug went off again to get the Turtle miraculous from the guardian, Mayura had secretly made a sentimonster called Snifferdog, which followed her to the Guardian's location. Shadow Moth and Mayura waited till later in the day, when they attacked." Adrien fiddles with his thumbs.

Luka can fill in the blanks from there. He doesn't know exactly what happened that day, but something bad happened to the old Guardian, and Ladybug became the new Guardian. "So, she blames herself?"

"Exactly," Adrien nods, lips pressed taut and nose flared, "So I get why she's such a stickler for the rules but sometimes it just does more harm than good." He rolls his eyes, "I just wish she could get out of her own head and listen to me when I say that."

"I get you," Luka sits down beside the smaller boy on the bed, placing a comforting arm round his shoulder, "It's frustrating."

"You know" Adrien wipes his face with the towel, laughing bitterly, "I thought she would try and meet me in the middle a bit. I thought... you know, that'd she care about how I felt." His face downturns, "I guess I was wrong."

"What are you going to do?"

"Nothing, really" Adrien sighs resignedly, "We have to keep it together. At the end of the day, I can be upset, but I won't let it affect the job we need to do. I mean – Shadow Moth is more powerful than ever. We can't afford a fissure in our relationship at a time like this."

Luka nods. Appraising the frustration on blonds face he wonders whether a distraction might be in order. Adrien had been winding him up about his selection of card games earlier in the day. Luka had taken his sarcasm a little too literally, much to Adrien's amusement, and offered to teach him. "Do you want to vent about it more? Or I could teach you how to play Split like we were saying earlier?" He nudges the boy good-naturedly, channelling the chaotic energy that Adrien had been abundant of when they last spoke.

Adrien breaks a small smile, wiping a tear from his eye, "I'd like that."

~

Ladybug is not used to sneaking.

She realises this only now, in the aftermath of her spat with Chat. She wasn't worried - assured the boy would get over it. He always did. At the end of the day, he'd realise she was right, and they'd continue on with their working relationship as always. She'd already compartmentalised her hurt about the Master Fu comment. He'll do the same. No harm no foul.

She does now, however, realise that Chat's immediate distress is now a major inconvenience to her. She had been intending to ask him to deliver the Bee miraculous to Chloe himself. The Chat miraculous granted better night vision than the Ladybug, not to mention the fact that his suit was black as opposed to bright red, which of course meant he was far more suited to travelling discretely than she was. The whole point of giving Chloe the Bee miraculous again was that nobody would know, and a huge flash of red on her windowsill might raise a few suspicions.

It has also brought to her notice the horrific stench in the Parisian backstreets, something Chat had always complained about. She'd not really taken him very seriously on it, but she could admit that she had misjudged the severity, maybe just a bit. See! She's not a control freak! She can admit when she's wrong. She just, rarely is wrong.

Tikki makes no comment.

She pushes aside her worries about Chat for now. He'll be fine. He always springs back. She understood he felt distanced, but it had to be that way. Ladybug had promised herself she would never make that mistake again. She had placed her trust in others, taking risks on behalf of their feelings, and... Master Fu had paid the price.

Irregardless, Ladybug wraps a black bin bag around her person, before continuing through the alleyways until she reaches her destination – Le Grand Paris Hotel.

As she lands softly on the balcony, she removes the binbag lining from her suit, placing it softly behind the railing to use when she leaves. Chat always complains she doesn't get her hands dirty like him well, he should think again. She should send him a photo in the binbag to prove her point. Ladybug ignores the small twist in her stomach when she remembers that it would currently not be received well. It'll be fine, he just needs a day.

Knocking gently against the glass, she hears a soft, "ridiculous pigeons," from within the room. She knocks again.

There's a rustling within the room, that grows closer to the window, before moving away, and back again. There's a long pause, long enough that Ladybug is tempted to just leave, before the window creaks open.