That Night

Chapter 10

Alya's eyes widened to the size of saucers and her mouth dropped open. She blinked with a blank expression. "What?" she breathed.

Marinette shrugged her shoulders like she was trying to hide in them. "I'm Ladybug and-"

Alya interrupted her. "This whole time my best friend has been Ladybug, my idol! Oh my gosh!" She paused after each of the last three words.

"Yah, that's me..." she trailed off, very shy about this topic. "But not really... This is the real me." She gestured to herself.

"Of course, and I love you just the way that you are. But every time that you disappeared right as an akuma.... Of course. No wonder you were never there to cheer on the heroes – you were one of the heroes!" She was rambling, going on and on about how she had never realized and how obvious it should have been. Then suddenly she paused as a thought came to her. "What about earlier today?"

Marinette quirked an eyebrow in question, "what about it?"

"The akuma attack," Marinette remained silent, so Alya continued. "There was an akuma attack, but you were so sick when I left to catch it on video." She looked at her best friend expectantly.

"Well, I didn't get much better when I had to fight off that poor girl under the influence of Hawkmoth. Didn't you think that something was off with Ladybug? That's because there was something off with me; even as Ladybug I couldn't suppress that much sickness." She shrugged.

"Oh my gosh girl! You had to fight off villains when you were so sick?" She jerked as she realized something. "You fell, are you ok? Is the baby ok?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine." She waved her hand, brushing off her friend's concerns and gently rested her hand on her stomach. "It wasn't that bad of a fall, Louis will be just fine." She smiled softly at her bulging belly.

"Louis?"

Marinette blushed. "Yah... I've always loved that name, I think that's what I'm gonna name him." She grinned a wide, toothy grin.

Alya bounced a little on her chair. "Oh my gosh, I love that!! How cute? Louis is going to be the cutest baby ever!" She paused, "but we still have a serious matter to discuss." She looked at her friend and refused to break eye contact. Marinette leaned back a bit, trying to distance herself – unsuccessfully. "Ladybug had sex with Chat Noir? I thought she was always rejecting him."

Marinette looked guilty. "Well over the years we've gotten closer. We always talk before and after patrol and after an akuma battle. One time there was this really difficult battle and after it we were talking and we had a moment, and..." she trailed off then shrugged.

"Oh my gosh," Alya muttered. "I should have known you guys were closer, I'm like your guy's biggest fan, but I just trusted old news that you guys will never get together. You have to get together now.

"No," Marinette interjected quickly. "Our relationship isn't like that." She grimaced. "It was a one-time thing and I don't want to have to relive it with Chat."

Alya sighed. "Come on girl, he deserves to know about his son. And look at you guys, you would obviously make a good couple; you just have to trust him, I know you have it in you."

Marinette slumped in defeat. "You're right, I'll try to tell him tonight at patrol..."

Alya nodded sagely, but then a realization hit her, "you're going on patrol, cause you're Ladybug! Oh my gosh! My best friend in Ladybug!" she continued gushing throughout the night until Marinette fell asleep, then she also laid down to sleep, a smile on her face as she thought about her best friend and the secrets that she had trusted her enough to share.

- - -

The next night Marinette stood on her balcony and transformed into Ladybug. She took a deep breath and looked to her best friend for courage. She pulled her shoulders back and swung her yo-yo, making her way to the Eiffel Tower to meet her Kitty before they began patrol.

She gracefully landed on one of the higher beams of the Tower and looked over at her partner. She was feeling kind of shy, but she was determined to tell him. She would do it after patrol to be sure that her news wouldn't distract from them protecting the city.

"Hey Chat," she gently laid her hand on his shoulder. "I have something to tell you, can we meet back here after patrol?"

"Of course, M'Lady," he purred, "anything for you." She chuckled and he smiled in reply. "See you in a little while." He winked at her before he used his staff to propel him across the city. Ladybug followed suit and began her patrol of the city.

- - -

Chat was deep in thought as he headed back to the Eiffel Tower after he finished his patrol. Ladybug seemed much better today than she was yesterday, and she was definitely more open. What was different? What was it that Ladybug wanted to talk about?

He landed at the Tower and sat near the top with his legs dangling in the open air. It wasn't long before Ladybug joined him sitting next to him on the beam. He noticed that she sat closer to him than she had been for a while, back to how they were before that night warped their whole relationship.

"Hey there Bugaboo." He smiled at her expectantly, but she didn't reveal her message quite yet. Rather, she appeared to suddenly get nervous. She was holding her hand near her face and he could see fear in her eyes. He decided to ease her into the conversation with other topics. "How was the city?"

"What?" she jerked back to the conversation. "Oh, yah, the city. Umm, well everywhere that I checked was good - only the normal activity. How about you? Everything look good?"

"Yup, everywhere was doing fine." After a little more silence Chat made an observation. "You seem to be feeling a lot better today than you were yesterday."

She smiled at him softly. "I am, I'm feeling a lot better." She took a breath than continued. "I haven't been feeling well for a while, but today is good day." Her grin widened.

Of course he had noticed that something was wrong with His Lady recently, but he was still worried about her. "Are you sure you're ok?" She nodded. "Would you be willing to tell me what it is that you've been experience with this sickness?"

"Oh," she looked a little surprised, but shrugged and told him. "I'm always, always nauseous, I get these back aches, and I'm so tired all the time, not to mention always having to pee." She whispered the last part, but Chat heard it.

All these symptoms were rolling around in his head. There was some diagnosis that he knew involved all that Ladybug was experiencing, but what was it? He sat there for a moment, staring off in the distance deep in thought, not even seeing the beautiful view. Then an idea hit him. He slowly turned to look at his partner, "are you..." he spoke breathlessly then looked down at her stomach. He looked back up at her to see her shrugging a little and giving a guilty smile, as if to say you caught me.