Despite the Originals | Ninjago and Miraculous Oneshots

Non-Binary Adrien pt. 2

Adrien's POV

"Miraculous Ladybug!"

As soon as LB called out her famous line, the city went back to normal. It wasn't a difficult akuma to beat, but it was well into the night, so both of us were exhausted.

"Hey, M'Lady?" I said before she could run off. "Can we talk for a second?"

She groaned. "If this is about our secret identities again, I swear to gawd--"

"It isn't, I promise! I mean... I guess it is kind of about an identity, but not a secret one."

She sighed. "Fine. Let me recharge and I'll meet you up there?"

I looked up at the roof where she was pointing. I nodded, then we both ran off to feed our kwamis. Plagg gave me a quick pep talk, then I transformed again. Before joining LB at the top of some random building, I stopped by a small shop to grab a pen and some paper. The shopkeeper let me have the stuff for free; perks of being a superhero.

"Is everything okay?" LB asked one I met up with her.

"Yeah, yeah, everything's great. Just, uh... how do you feel about grammar?"

"What?"

"You know, like conjugation and stuff. How do you feel about it?"

"Chat, you better not have dragged me up here to talk about the French language."

Okay, so maybe this wasn't the best approach to take.

"Heh, not the whole language, just... my name."

"Your name?"

"Yeah. I kind of wanted to change it."

"What's that have to do with grammar?"

I took out the paper I borrowed earlier, and wrote my superhero alias with a very slight change.

Chat Noire

"See, the genders are miss-matched," I explained. "Chat is masculine but Noire is feminine. So it's like... both."

Ladybug looked at me funny. "Are you sure everything's okay? This is weird, even for you."

I laughed nervously, and felt my face start to get warm. I better not be on the brink of another anxiety attack.

"Chaton?"

"I... can you give me a minute?"

I turned around, covering my mouth with one hand, desperate not to hurl. I could feel my heart churning rapidly. There were akumas in my stomach, each of them fluttering violently. It was hard enough to come out to Plagg, but to Ladybug? I didn't know anything about her beliefs. Maybe this was a bad idea. F*ck, I couldn't do this. Abort mission. Abort!

"Chat, you're scaring me," Ladybug said, walking around to face me. She placed her hands on the sides of my arms. "What's the matter? Please, you know you can tell me anything."

I blacked out for a second. 

"I think... I'm non binary," I finally said.

"Non binary?"

I gave a shaky nod, my pulse racing like I was about to die. I had the sudden urge to run away, to pretend this never happened, but LB pulled me in for a hug before I could go anywhere.

"Thank you for telling me," she whispered, her arms still wrapped around me. "Does this mean you'd rather use different pronouns?"

I returned the embrace, and nuzzled my forehead into her shoulder. "I think they/them. But I wouldn't mind some she/hers thrown in occasionally."

"How long have you known?" she asked once we broke away. 

"Not long. Although, I guess I always knew? I just didn't have the words until recently."

"Can I still call you Chaton?"

"Of course, M'Lady," I said, my confidence returning. 

She grinned, then kissed me lightly on the cheek before starting to head off.

"I'll see you soon, Chat Noire. And that's Noire with an E!" 

My heart swelled. I smiled the whole way home, dreaming of the day everyone else would see me the way I saw myself.