It all started with Peonies

Chapter 1

Notes are going at the beginning this time and you'll see why in a moment. This was written for my sweet sister Angel. It was meant to be fluff but it changed itself while I was writing. I have a challenge for anyone reading this. Every sweet, fluffy thing that's said in here, every bit of advice, pretend that it's about you. Thank you to my wonderful betas Buggabae, Ever_Lore, the-Ladybl0g, and one more that chose to remain anonymous! Enjoy!

Ladybug was sitting on the roof of Notre Dame, swinging her legs and humming Fur Elise. Chat was late for patrol tonight which was rather worrying. He didn't usually forget about things like this.

Sighing, she stood up, preparing to swing away and start patrolling by herself.

"Leaving already, M'lady? Patrol just started."

She turned around to face her black-clad partner leaning against one of the identical towers. In his hands was a huge bouquet of pink and white peonies.

Noticing her looking at them, he held them out to her. "Here, these are for you."

"You were late for patrol because you were getting me flowers?" She gaped at him.

"Uh, y-yeah." He stuttered as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I was, uh, just on my way here when I saw them and thought of you."

"I love them!" she exclaimed, stroking one of the petals lovingly. "How did you know they were my favorite?" She looked up into his eyes and smiled.

He still looked shocked at her response but cleared his throat. "Uh, lucky, guess?"

"Why are you so nervous? I'm not mad."

His ears perked up at her words and his eyes shimmered like emeralds in the sun."Really?"

"Why is that hard to believe? I'm not that mean." Her eyes widened and she clapped a hand over her mouth. "Am I? I didn't mean to be so—"

"Wait," he tried to get her attention.

"—bossy. You should have said something. You shouldn't let people bully you. You deserve to be respected. And if I'm not respecting you, do I even deserve a miraculous?"

Spiraling, she turned away and held up her yoyo to swing away, her head hanging low.

"I keep wondering if maybe I'm not the right person to be chosen. It isn't like this is the first time I've screwed up. Maybe Paris and my own partner would be safer if I returned-"

"No!" He grabbed her wrist and turned her toward him. "Listen to me." He softened his voice. "Hey, come on,"he said, tilting her face up so she could look at him.

"You do respect me. And you do deserve your miraculous. And you have never, not onceI, bullied me. But you also need to respect yourself. If you can't even love yourself, how can you love that boy you're always talking about?"

She gaped at him once again as the corners of his mouth lifted in a sad smile.

He was actually acknowledging Adrien's existence. It filled her up with a warmth that she only felt when she saw how sweet her partner was under all the jokes.

He is so perfect. She thought as she smiled at him.

She froze when she realized what she had just thought. Wait, what?!

She saw him tilt his head to the side as he examined her expression, his green eyes looking at her curiously

"What is it?"

Ladybug scrambled for something acceptable to say. Surely anything other than 'I just realized that you mean way more to me than I thought and I hurt you repeatedly for absolutely no reason.'

"Uh . . . nothing" is what she ended up saying but in her heart, she knew that it wasn't nothing. That it was the opposite of nothing she . . . just didn't know what it was yet.

She had an idea of how she could get a little time to work through her feelings.

"Why don't you start patrol without me? I'm going to drop these off at my house and put them in some water. They won't survive if I keep them with me while we patrol." She held up the nearly forgotten bouquet of peonies.

"Okay, call me when you're done and I'll tell you where I am."

"Perfect, see you in a bit."

They went their separate ways and Ladybug made sure that he wasn't following her before landing on her balcony and entering her room. She filled a pale blue vase with water and arranged the peonies on her desk.

She sighed and sat in her desk chair. This whole thing was so confusing. Were her feelings for Chat platonic? Or were they something more . . . romantic? Was she in love with Adrien? Or Chat Noir? Was it possible for her to love both of them? She thought about how she felt around Adrien, how she acted around him, and compared it to how she was around Chat.

She didn't stutter around Chat but that could be because of the mask. Sometimes, she had caught herself blushing at something clever he had said. The fact that she didn't freeze up every time she had seen him had to be a good thing. But what about the puns? Adrien didn't joke very often, so she didn't have anything to compare them to. He teased her occasionally, but that wasn't the same.

She thought back to every time she'd ever heard him make a pun in the middle of a battle or on patrol. The first few times, she was annoyed with him for not being serious about it but eventually, she realized that maybe he was just trying to diffuse the tension. Maybe that was his way of keeping himself relaxed. Of not freaking out when they were trying to subdue an akuma.

She still felt bad about that.

Both of them were sweet and generous and handsome and would do anything for her.

If she had to compare them to figure out how she felt, then maybe she was in love with both of them.

She let her head fall backward so she was looking at the ceiling and groaned.

Ugh! Why does everything have to be so complicated?

Tikki piped up, interrupting her lamenting. "Isn't Chat still waiting for you for patrol?" she squeaked.

Marinette sat up, patrol having been temporarily forgotten. "Yeah, I guess," she said and climbed up onto her balcony.

"SPOTS ON!"

Taking her yoyo, she prepared herself to swing towards the Eiffel Tower when she spotted Chat leaping across the rooftops at top speed.

She froze as she put two and two together.