Chasing Ladybug 📸 (A Miraculous Ladybug Fanfic)

A Retelling: 2 | The Bugs' Warnings

Ladybug's eyes widen. "You're in love with Marinette Dupain-Cheng?!" She shrieked, her voice loud at a higher pitch than usual.

Cat Noir leaps forward and clams a hand over her mouth. "Why don't you just tell all of Paris, including Shadowmoth?!"

A nervous smile grows on her face. "Forry," She mumbles into his gloved hand. With him being so close, and their chests only inches apart, brings a blush under her mask and akumas in her stomach. Cat Noir's in love with me?!

He lowers his arm and steps back. "Sorry, I didn't meant to get in your personal space."

"It's okay," Ladybug said. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng... yeah, I remember her. She was an exemplary holder of the mouse miraculous."

Cat Noir nods. "Exactly. I think she'd make a great ally to our team."

She crosses her arms. "But I thought you preferred it when it was just the two of us?" She teases with a playful grin.

A nervous laugh escapes the cat. "I had a change of heart?" He offered.

Ladybug rolls her eyes. "Cat, do you really think this is safe—"

"Yes, I do," Cat Noir interrupts. "Marinette's identity was only revealed to us, so she's safe from being a target from Shadowmoth. Besides, she's trustworthy. Strong. Incredibly brave. She's... exceptional."

She bites back a smile.

"I will train with her personally and help her get comfortable in her powers," The cat adds, hoping to sweeten the pot and Ladybug's decision. "Then we can be the bug-cat-and-mouse team!" He shouts, excited.

Ladybug scratches her arm, unsure. "Cat, I don't know..."

Cat Noir didn't understand the complicity—or the irony—of the situation at hand. Marinette wasn't just Multimouse; she was Ladybug, too. How could she be two heroes at once and keep her secret identity safe?

He rests a hand on her shoulder. "Months ago, you told me you wanted me to shoulder more responsibility, to help out more, and you said so yourself that you were going to trust me more."

"I did say that," Ladybug agrees.

"So trust me now. Let me prove to you that I can be the partner you deserve."

She smiles. "You don't have to prove anything, Cat Noir." She grabs her yo-yo. "But you're right. I did say I wanted to trust you more and I'm going to keep my word."

Cat Noir's eyes widen. "Really?"

Ladybug opens her yo-yo and accesses the miracle box through a special portal, reaching her hand inside to grab the mouse miraculous. "Here, you should give it to her." She drops the necklace in his extended hand.

"Thank you—"

"But remember, Cat Noir, you have to be careful. If Marinette's identity is revealed—especially to Shadowmoth—she'll become a new target."

Cat Noir rests his right hand over his heart, promising, "Milady, I would never let anything happen to her." She's too precious.

Ladybug smiles. "That's good to hear, Kitty."

Down below on the sidewalk, Theo Barbot stands with his camera raised, zooming in on Cat Noir's hand. A miraculous? He thought to himself. Ladybug is trusting this idiot with a miraculous? He could lose it!

He takes candid shots as his love starts moving, waving to her partner as she ran and jumps off the roof. "Beautiful as ever, Milady."

Theo looks back at Cat Noir. "Who are you giving that miraculous to?" He asks himself, putting his camera back in his bag.

He starts his motorbike up and follows Cat Noir, careful to keep a safe distance as to not get caught, but close enough to stay on the cat's trail.

Ladybug swings across the city as she races home, trying to beat Cat Noir there. She knows he would go see, well, her, immediately. She throws herself up in the air and drops through the skylight she had left open from earlier, closing it as she lands on her bed.

Marinette falls back as her head sinks into her pillow. "What did I get myself into, Tikki?" She worries out loud.

"Why did you give Cat Noir the mouse miraculous?" Tikki asks as she enters her holder's line of sight. "How can you be Ladybug and Multimouse at the same time?"

Marinette rolls on her side and brings her pillow close to her chest, wrapping her arms around tight. "After Cat Noir said he loves me, like me-me, I wanted nothing more than to say, 'Spots off' and reveal my identity to him," She admits, staring up at a picture of the hero she had pinned to the board above her bed. "But I know it isn't safe—at least for now, it isn't. I let my emotions get the best of me and I have to admit, I'm curious to see how this will all play out. Besides, is it really so bad, Tikki?"

The red kwami glares at her. "You don't even realize how complicated this situation is, Marinette! This is going to backfire!"

The pig-tailed girl rolls her eyes. "How bad could it be, Tikki?"

A soft knock echoes from her skylight.