"Save Me" | a Ladrien heart-warmer

Hands

It was only the fourth time Adrien spoke with Ladybug that he was not, in any way, in distress.

He'd gotten onto the roof, made sure to secure a safe way down, winched his telescope up after him, made sure the telescope had a safe way down, and had set himself up quite nicely for a couple hours of stargazing.

That didn't stop Ladybug from crashing his party (if it could be considered crashing when all he really wanted from his life was to spend every moment of it with her) and fixing him with a look that failed to be hard or long, given that she couldn't look him in the eye for more than two seconds at a time.

Well, it wasn't like he was doing much better.

Hot stuff.

What even—?

"I have a way down," Adrien said, desperate to rescue whatever shreds of his lost dignity he could manage, and leaned away from the telescope to show her the rope ladder and the pulley.

"...O-oh. I see."

Awkward silence.

Hot stuff.

"So," said Adrien, too loud into the dead night air. He cleared his throat and tried again. "How's Paris?"

...Well, there went any dignity he'd managed to salvage by not being completely helpless.

"Paris is good!" she squeaked. "It's, um. Safe, I mean. No robbers or criminals or akuma or-"

She clamped her mouth shut, her face so red he could see it even this late at night, and sighed. "Paris is good."

Adrien found himself trying not to laugh, his own awkwardness forgotten. God, she's adorable like this.

"I'm glad."

She seemed to catch the hints of suppressed mirth in his smile because she shot him an unimpressed look, though it was hampered somewhat by her heavy blush.

He put a sheepish hand behind his head in apology, privately thinking the look failed to make her any less adorable, or any more intimidating.

It was kind of like being glared at by a kitten still learning how to pounce, actually — about as threatening as a cream puff.

Apparently sensing his utterly unrepentant thoughts, she huffed, turning back the way she'd come. "Well, I see that you're okay, good citizen, so I'll just—"

"Wait!"

She looked over her shoulder at him, blinking, and Adrien found he'd grabbed her hand in his rush to get her to stay.

"Sorry," he mumbled, feeling his own face heat and dropping her hand like it had burned him. "Just— y-you said Paris is safe, and..."

I want to spend more time with you.

She waited for him with wide starlit blue eyes, her blush slowly fading.

"D-do you, um."

She tilted her head, and Adrien swallowed hard, wondering what it was about Chat's mask that made it so easy to just come out and say things like this.

"Stargaze with me?" he said on the tail end of an exhale, chest aching with how hard his heart was pounding. He nodded towards where he'd set up the telescope and the few astronomy books he had in his collection on a blanket.

"I... really should be patrolling..."

Of course.

That was the answer every time he'd tried to ask, either patrolling or identities or simply that she didn't have time.

(It sucked that that was all he really wanted from her — a little of her time.)

(Kisses and dates and love were the stuff of his fantasies, sure, but most of the time he really just wanted to have some fun with a person whose smile could power a small country.)

One of those very same smiles snuck up her face. "But..."

Huh?

"I guess Paris could look after itself for a while."

"Really?!" Realizing that he sounded like an overexcited puppy, he coughed and tried again. "Really?"

It was her turn to laugh at him. "Really. I'd love to stargaze with you for a bit."

Adrien tried not to melt too obviously through the roof.

The staff probably wouldn't appreciate having to chisel their charge off of the stone.