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“What’cha up to, my lady?”
Chat Noir’s jovial tones drift over to Ladybug, where she sits on a chimney at the meeting spot they had agreed on for patrol that week.
“Just working on a little project, chaton.”
“Oh, a project? Well, cats tend to be the curious sort you know.” Ladybug giggles in response and makes room for him on her perch so he can see what she’s doing. “Is that… fabric?”
“Yup!”
“What are you doing with it?” Chat asks, cocking his head.
“Well, I was approached with this idea to maybe do a small scale akuma prevention project of sorts. I thought it’d be nice for people to have something positive to distract them from a bad day! Apparently Alya and her friend Marinette had come up with it, and Alya approached me to see if I wanted to help. They’re starting with just their own class for now, since so many of them have been akumatized at some point. I agreed to help out and I told Alya I’d pass the message on to you also!” she replies.
“I’d love to help! Just tell me what I have to do, my lady!”
“Well, Marinette is actually doing most of the work, but essentially these little fabric hearts have words sewn inside describing each person that their classmates thought were positive qualities about them. Alya wanted us to each sew in our words in our own special colors so the students will know the heroes of Paris think highly of them. That’s what I brought them on patrol tonight to do.” She picks up one of the hearts with a zipper sewn around the outer edge so that it resembles a sort of change purse, but could still be opened completely to read the words sown within. “These are just the insides, Marinette will be sewing an outer design onto them to cover up the thread from the words on the other side of the fabric. Do you know how to sew or do you need me to do it?” she asks.
“I’m not a master, but i know the basics! I think I can handle it.”
Once again, Chat Noir is blown away by his friends’ kindness and resourcefulness, it’s such a clever idea and so incredibly kind. Leave it to Alya and Marinette to think of something like this, and of course his lady would invest the effort to sew in each word personally, despite having a whole city of fans- she was just incredible like that. And this explains why Marinette and Alya had been sneaking around all week and not-so-casually asking their friends opinions of each other.
“Okay so you can start with this one, it goes to a boy named Nino. He’s the one with the red cap that helped us for a bit during Anansi.”
With that, Chat Noir gets to work sewing in his compliments. He’s pretty grateful that they’re doing his own class, as he genuinely loves all his classmates and thought very highly of them. He tries to put as much consideration as possible into each word and pour all the gratitude he has for each of them into his additions, which was a difficult task to accomplish when allowed only one word. He’s touched to see that Alya and Marinette had even thought to include Chloe and Lila, knowing that at least one of the pair wasn’t the fondest of either girl.
His heart stops when he checks the label of the second to last heart and finds that it’s addressed to none other than Adrien Agreste. His breath catches in his throat as he carefully unfolds it, very gently as if he’s worried it might disintegrate in his hands. He takes in slow, steady breaths as he reads each word held delicately in his hands. Kind. Smart. Helpful. Hilarious. He feels tears prick at his eyes as he moved his thumb to uncover the word underneath it. Sewn in red thread was the word ‘Brave’. Ladybug’s thread. He smiles down at it for a moment before shifting it in his hand and realizing there was a small flap on his heart that had not been included on the others. With trembling claws he lifts the delicate little flap to reveal, written in baby pink thread, the word ‘Loved’.
The tears Chat had been desperately trying to keep at bay finally spill over and drip silently onto the roof below. He lifts up his arm to try and wipe them away, but it’s as if the first tear had broken some kind of dam and he can’t stop. He wipes frantically at his wet face hoping Ladybug hasn’t noticed, but he’s not quite that lucky.
“What’s wrong, chaton?” Ladybug asks, concern creasing in her spotted mask.The last thing Chat had wanted to do was worry her, but he can’t seem to stop the tears overflowing from his eyes.
“It’s nothing, my lady,” he replies in a surprisingly steady voice. “These are just some really amazing friends, that’s all.” His words are spoken reverently and quietly as if they hold some hidden meaning he knows others wouldn’t understand, and Ladybug knows much better than to ask. He may not know for sure who was responsible for his specialized alteration, but he has a bit of a hunch.
Ladybug puts the last heart she holds down on her lap and rests her head on his shoulder comfortingly. He knows better than to read anything romantic from the gesture, no matter how much he’d wish it were, but he’s deeply grateful for the unconditional support and it makes his eyes water all the more.
They stay like that for a few minutes, Chat wiping at his face occasionally until his tears have slowed. Ladybug doesn’t know what set him off and she doesn’t say a word, just draping her arm across his back until she’s sure he won’t crumble again if she were to pull away. Chat lifts his head off hers and notices the final heart she had set down, and startles suddenly when he processes that it’s entirely blank.
“My lady, why is the last heart blank?” He asks dumbfounded.
“Oh, that...” she murmurs. She sounds a little like she was hoping he wouldn’t notice that. “That one’s Marinette’s. She, uhh… didn’t do any sewing on her own since it would, you know, ruin the surprise and all.”
“What? That isn’t right! If anyone should get a heart full of compliments it’s her!” he insists. Ladybug looks pinker suddenly in the low light from the city below, he absent mindedly hopes she isn’t getting too cold.
“Oh… Right! Of course!” She pauses for a moment like that thought hadn’t occurred to her. “Ummm, that’s why I have it! I’m supposed to get the list of words from Alya and sew Marinette’s myself but, silly me, I think I forgot it!”
Chat looks deeply troubled now.
“Well that’s not good! Marinette definitely has to receive one!” he exclaims and suddenly goes from troubled to determined. “Hand it over to me, my lady! I can take care of everything! Marinette will receive the greatest fabric heart that any old, no good cat could sew!”
Ladybug giggles despite her surprise at his proposition.
“Are you sure Chat Noir? I can really handle it myself!”
“Absolutely! No worries, my lady!” he says, pushing himself down off the chimney and back onto the roof under them. “And I should probably be headed home right about now. You look like you’re starting to get a bit cold and cats need their beauty rest, you know.”
She giggles again (since when did she find Chat Noir this funny?) and gives him a little wave, pushing herself off the chimney and onto the roof to stand beside him.
“Good night, chaton, try not to go overboard on your little project, okay?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it!” he assures her. “I only want to give Marinette the gift she deserves! I’ll see you later this week for Friday’s patrol.” To his concern, he sees her cheeks seem to redden again from the cold, so he figures he better get going so she can get home and warm up.
“See you, you silly cat.”
And with that, Chat Noir reverently tucks the small fabric heart into his pocket, and takes off over the rooftops of Paris into the horizon.