Between Us

Italian Ice and Sunsets

"I got to hand it to you, Kitty, you had me worried for a second," Ladybug said, her feet swinging off the edge of the top portion of the Eiffel Tower, one of her arms propping her up as she leaned back. "You had me thinking you were starting to get too busy for this superhero work."

"Too busy for you? Impossible," Chat said, his legs crisscrossed right next to her. "I guess I was just... caught up with something."

She hummed in agreement. "Ah. Me too."

There was a pause of silence as Ladybug took a bite of the Italian ice she and Chat bought after purifying the akuma at a nearby stand. The owner insisted it was on the house. It was a change of routine since they normally went to André Glacier's ice cream vendor.

Chat was abnormally quiet. He had already finished his Italian ice, staring off into the horizon. That itself wasn't unusual, but he typically threw out a pun or flirt here and there. Not that Ladybug minded the comfortable silence. She just couldn't help but feel like something was on his mind.

Nonetheless, she took another bite of the lemon-flavored ice, sucking some of the flavors off of the wooden spoon that came with the small container. She should go to that Italian ice stand more often. Maybe she could take the girls over after a movie one day. It was close to the movie theater they usually went to.

"I was on a date," Chat blurted out, his gaze still facing forward.

Ladybug turned to him, her wooden spoon still in between her lips. "A date?" she muttered through the melting ice and utensil in her mouth. Though, it was more like a blob of words.

Thankfully, he understood what she said and nodded his head. "Yeah. A date," he repeated, his voice soft and warm.

Well, that made one of them. Sure, Ladybug was also on a date, but did that really count? It was fake, after all, and photographed for the tabloids to run with in order to get Adrien's father and ex to shut up. And now, Chat had met someone. Someone he liked enough to ask on a date.

This shouldn't have bothered her as much as it did. Admittedly, she had a crush on Chat Noir a long time ago. But she pushed those feelings down since she knew for sure nothing would come of it. At least, not as long as Monarch still had the butterfly miraculous. Love just wasn't on her agenda. So, she moved on. Just like how she tried to do the same with Adrien, but look how that's going.

Now, it seemed like Chat had moved on too. Or maybe he was just messing with her to make her jealous. He did that often. It wasn't that long ago when he made a joke that he was actually married with kids after dropping a flirty pick-up line. She merely rolled her eyes in response to it. Of course he was kidding. Yeah, it was probably another one of his flirtatious jokes he always pulled after a fight.

"That's nice. Is she pretty?" Ladybug asked, playing along to his joke.

But this time, he didn't give her that teasing ha-ha smirk he always gave her. All he did was tilt his head back with a soft smile. "She's stunning. Always has been. Just adjusting to seeing her in a different light, I guess."

Okay, he was getting good at his sarcasm. She was waiting for a punchline, but it never came. Was he not going to finish it? "Is this another tactic at trying to make me jealous?" she asked, just wanting a plain answer.

This finally got him to turn and look at her, his expression unchanging. "While that'd be a plus, M'lady, I am serious for once."

Oh. He wasn't joking.

He really was on a date.

Ladybug didn't know what to make of this information. She was happy for him, of course, but she couldn't help but feel... left behind. As selfish as it sounded, she liked that he was always hers, despite him knowing her heart belonged to someone else. Even when she told him that it would be possible for her to love him, she couldn't allow herself to. Not while they both had a responsibility to keep Paris safe.