Miraculous Ladybug: The New Holders

Ladybug and Volpina: Part Seventy-Three

Chat Noir and Jade Turtle had come back, and with some fast food.

"You see, we stopped at a grocery store, but those don't really have anything ready to eat." Chat Noir said, placing the bags of food on the floor. "So we just picked up a bunch of fast food."

Volpina dove into one of the bags and snatched up a burger in a plastic/cardboard container and a box of fries. "Finally! I'm starving!"

Ladybug and Jade Turtle took the food out and organized it out over a cloth they had found.

"Hey, SP, don't you want something to eat?" Chat asked her.

Steel Peacock lifted her head and noticed all of the food set out. "Uhh... I suppose now would be a bad time to mention that I'm actually a vegetarian."

Volpina blinked. "Huh. What are the odds?"

Chat Noir dug through one of the bags. "Here! I was gonna have this, but I'll just have one of the burgers." He handed her a container with a Caesar salad inside.

"Thanks." Steel Peacock accepted it awkwardly.

"You look tired, Steel Peacock." Ladybug noted. "Why don't you get some rest? You already went on a quick patrol earlier. We'll keep an eye on Queen Bee for you."

"I will sleep when I am dead, Ladybug. And I already came back from kicking the bucket today, so no thanks. I'm gonna be awake when she gets up."

"Eh, fair enough." Chat Noir said, taking a bite out of his burger.

Steel Peacock turned back to Queen Bee. "I hope she's okay... She's been out for a while."

Volpina swallowed her mouthful of food. "SP, come on, you've been hovering over her for the past I-don't-even-know-how-long, maybe you should at least eat a bit, so you don't pass out from exhaustion too."

"I'm not hovering, I'm just-" A deep growl from her stomach interrupted the retort.

"Uh..." Steel Peacock reddened. "Okay, fine, I'll eat something."

The others laughed at her blush, and Steel Peacock looked down, embarrassed, poking at her salad.

"W...wha...t's... s...so funny?" A voice rasped.

Steel Peacock jumped and scrambled backwards to the origin of the voice. "Queen Bee!"

Jade Turtle gasped. "She's okay! Thank goodness..."

Volpina looked at the discarded salad. "Well that lasted long." She glanced up at them, smiling. "I'm really glad you're okay, though."

Chat Noir grabbed a box of fries and walked over to her. "Glad you're back! Next time, let us know when you try to revive the dead. After all, that's kind of how we got here in the first place."

Queen Bee's eyelids parted, and she blinked away her blurry vision. She saw Steel Peacock's beautiful face right above her, grinning and sobbing with relief.

"Don't cry." Queen Bee reached and brushed away a stray tear from the corner of Steel Peacock's eye. "We're okay."

Steel Peacock held Queen Bee's hand in hers, clutching it to her chest. "I can't stop crying. Or smiling."

"I'm so, so happy you're back." Queen Bee felt tears welling in her eyes.

"Oh my god, you two are so domestic I might get diabetes just looking at this." Volpina's exasperated loud remark interrupted the two.

"Excuse you, Volpina, I just came back from the dead, I'm allowed to have a moment with my-" Steel Peacock paused and looked at Queen Bee. "We're dating now, right?"

"Are you saying we weren't before?"

"-with my girlfriend." Steel Peacock finished.

"Oh jeez..." Volpina groaned, but she was smiling as well.

"So, you guys are..." Queen Bee coughed weakly. "I mean, you're friends now?"

"I'd say." Ladybug laughed a bit.

"We have a plan." Chat Noir began. "Once you've completely recovered, Steel Peacock's going to lead us to Hawkmoth and help us defeat him."

"Oh yeah." Volpina's eyes lit up. "You promised you would tell us who Hawkmoth is once Queen Bee woke up."

Steel Peacock nodded. "Right." She turned and stared at Chat Noir. "Hawkmoth is Gabriel Agreste."

After a moment of silence, Ladybug stood up and backed away from Steel Peacock. "That's not true! You're lying!"

Steel Peacock blinked in shock. "How could you even accuse me of that?!" She looked hurt.

Volpina whipped her head around to face Ladybug. "Stop it! Why would she lie?"

Volpina recognized the expression on Ladybug's face, and washed over her eyes. It was something she'd seen from Marinette, and it wasn't anything good. It was that denial, that stupid denial. Volpina knew why her denial would show up now, she couldn't deal with the fact that her idol, and Adrian's father was actually the villain she'd been fighting all along.

"She's making it up!" Ladybug stammered. "There's no way."

"You-" Volpina couldn't hide her fury anymore. "You insensitive idiot!" Volpina stood to her feet and snatched Ladybug's wrist in a steel grip, pulling her outside.

Ladybug had absolutely no right to feel torn up about this. Actually, Volpina was far more concerned about how Chat would react to learning his father was the one he'd been fighting against all along.

But for now, she had to knock her friend off of her high throne of preconceived notions and false fantasies.

Once Volpina had pulled Ladybug onto the roof of the warehouse, she shoved Ladybug on her back. Ladybug looked up at her in surprise.

"Ow! Why'd you bring me up here?"

Volpina sneered. "You're up here to listen to me, Marinette Dupain-Cheng." Ladybug stiffened. "Yeah, I know who you are. I also know a lot about you. Like your not-so-subtle crush on Adrian Agreste."

Ladybug's eyes widened, but she looked too scared of Volpina to speak.

"You are living in a world of denial. You do not love Adrian Agreste. You only love your fantasy of him. You can fantasize all you want about how adorable your children would be, but you never bother to wonder if he actually wants it. And you wrongly use your Miraculous to protect your precious, defenseless Adrian Agreste. You're so protective of him, you don't care about anyone else, and you end up hurting others just to get to him. This is caused by your denial and fantasies of Adrian Agreste." She paused, and then continued.

"I'm here to smack it into you that you have no right to feel upset over this. You shouldn't accuse your comrades of lying just because of a stupid fantasy crush. Now, if you actually took the time to get to know Adrian Agreste, then you might be a slight bit more justified. But you need to think and ask yourself what you really know about him, or his father, for that case? And then ask why you have any right to preach about how Gabriel Agreste cannot possibly be Hawkmoth, when you don't know the first thing about him or his son?"

Ladybug's look of denial was replaced by slow realization. "I... I'm sorry... I messed up big time."

Volpina shook her head. "Don't apologize to me, you apologize to Steel Peacock. You called her a liar. And lastly, don't throw away my words. Actually think about them. If you really love Adrian Agreste, you need to love who he really is, not who you think he is."

She offered her hand to Ladybug, who took it after a moment of hesitation.

"Who are you, Volpina?" Ladybug asked, awed and stunned.

"Just someone who seeks the truth." Volpina offered, before walking back to the others.