LadyNoir 2021

Day 2 - Masks

"Pound it!" Chat Noir, Ladybug, and Rena Rouge yelled while fist-bumping. They just defeated a supervillain who makes cakes appear out of the ground after the Dupain-Cheng Bakery took away all of their customers.

Rena Rouge gestured towards Chat Noir and then put a hand on her forehead making a subtle fainting motion. Ladybug rolled her eyes and blushed. Chat Noir crossed his arms and smirked in amusement. Rena then made a model pose and then made a superhero motion, putting one finger up on one hand and two on her other hand. Ladybug shook her head.

"Ahh," Rena said and nodded like she knew the answer to a really hard problem. "Guitar then!"

"Rena!" Ladybug yelled and looked like she was about to cry. Rena started to giggle a little, making Ladybug look even more like she was about to cry. "That's not even funny!"

"You didn't want a superhero or model! The guitar was the only other option!" Rena cried back and put an arm around Ladybug, then remembering that Chat was there. "You see, you're lady here--"

"Wants to make sure that she can still trust her superhero friend." Ladybug glared at Rena and then looked at Chat Noir with a smile and headshake like she couldn't believe what Rena was doing, even though she could. "Anyways, that villain was a tough one. Good thing we all refilled before meeting up again. Or we'd all be toast!"

"I personally ship LadyNoir." Rena looked at her nails, completely ignoring all that Ladybug was saying. Chat smiled brightly at her and Ladybug looked like someone said that the world was going to end. "What?! LadyNoir, Ladybug and Chat Noir."

"I know what it means!" Ladybug yelled and crossed her arms. Chat looked at her with his eyebrows raised. "I just think that you are crazy to think that Chat and I would fall in love, date, get engaged, married!"

"Alright, you brought on the marriage topic!" Rena leaned against a wall, happy with the outcome her topic change brought. "I didn't say anything about having to marry the guy! I just think that you two are the cutest thing."

"Yeah, she never did mention marriage." Chat then started to blush and looked at Ladybug, smirking in his teasing way. "Do you want to marry me?"

"No! If anything, I don't want to marry anyone!" Ladybug cried and looked away from the pair in front of her. Ladybug started to get a little overwhelmed by the topic of the conversation and looked towards the Eiffel Tower lit up. She then turned towards Chat. "Do you ship LadyNoir?"

"Of course! Who wouldn't?!" Chat looked over at Ladybug, who was now using the angry pout that he loved so much. He smiled and gestured at her face. "How could I not when you have the best and cutest angry pout out of all of the angry pouts?"

"Charming." Ladybug rolled her eyes and pulled out her bug phone, starting to go through her Instagram feed. Rena and Chat started whispering, Ladybug eyeing them for a few seconds before she gets the courage to ask the question she has been meaning to ask. "Rena, are you like our matchmaker? That's a ridiculous thought."

"Yeah! You could think that!" Rena looked over at Ladybug and then Chat, deciding to go into the dangerous territory. Rena walked over and saw Ladybug looking through Adrien Agreste's Instagram barely noticing the actual model poses, just the smart little notes he makes on them. Rena took the bug phone away, giving Chat a look at the phone, making him go pale for a second. "Let's use some hypotheticals. Ladybug, what would you think, honestly, if you and Chat ever started to date?"

"Honestly?" Ladybug asked and when Rena nodded, she stopped leaning against the wall and grabbed her phone from Rena's hand. "I think it would be the most ridiculous idea in the history of ideas. Like, we wouldn't even be able, to be honest with each other! Which would end it quicker than, um, you-know-who and me! Also, we would have to lie to each other! I would never be able to introduce him to all of my friends because we can't know each other's identities! And then comes to the heartbreak that comes when both of you realize that you can't be with someone where you can't tell much about yourself because if you do, then it will be ruined forever!"

"Bugaboo--" Chat tried to butt in, but he got interrupted by Ladybug.

"Also, it comes with the scary truth that if you get together, you might cause the nightmare to happen that has been haunting you for the last decade! One of us might get akumitized and then it would be all over for the duo that we have created!" Ladybug said through the tears that are going down her cheeks. Chat put his arms around her and she cried into his chest. She looked up at Rena and Chat, pulling herself together to make it through the next sentence. "Because, at the end of the day, it is better to keep thinking that the feelings that you have been harboring don't exist. If they keep everything the same between you and one of the most important people in your life, it's not worth taking the risk."

"That's not true!" Rena put a hand on Ladybug's arm, as she cried into Chat's chest. Chat whispered into her ear and stopped so Ladybug could hear Rena but put his head on the top of her head. "It's not your fault that guitar boy pressured into making you share something so personal! And it's not your fault that Bunnyx made you go fight Chat Blanc!"

"What?!" Chat Noir asked and looked between Ladybug, who was looking at him now, and Rena who smiled sheepishly. "Can someone please explain everything that is going on?!"

"I will later, Chat." Rena nodded to make him understand that there was only going to be later, and no now. "Ladybug, please say a reason that makes sense for anybody who doesn't understand everything that you are saying."

"Our masks. The masks on our face and the figurative masks that hold us back from being ourselves with each other." Ladybug then escaped from the hug of Chat Noir and jumped off into the night. "Bug out!"

"That was sudden." Rena Rouge said with a shrug and then turned towards Chat Noir. "Now I can explain what Ladybug was going on and on about."

"Great." Chat Noir braced himself, because he had never seen Ladybug get that emotional, and he thought he had seen every side of her. "I guess now or never."

"Let's start with the music-loving boyfriend, and then we can talk about Chat Blanc." Rena sat down and Chat followed, ready to start hearing a long story before he goes to sleep that night. "Ladybug had a boyfriend who she loved very much and he loved her very much..."