Chapter Text
“Oh my god, now is when you show up?” Ladybug exclaimed, clearly exasperated at her dear partner, Chat Noir, and his entrance to the battle while she was purifying the akuma.
He held up his hands in surrenderance as he walked towards her releasing the purified akuma in the sky in the middle of the wrecked street. “I know, I know. I’m sorry, M’lady. I was in the middle of something and couldn’t really find an excuse to leave. It seems you got it all handled though, right?”
She grunted in frustration as she set her lucky charm free to fix the damages of the aftermath. “It would have gone much faster if you were here. There were too many close calls, and now I’m going to be late for an event I had to be at an hour ago.”
Chat sighed. “I’ll make it up to you… somehow.”
“You said that last time.”
“Well, it’s kinda hard to try to fix things when we only see each other when there’s danger. We rarely patrol anymore, either. Especially now with your fancy job.”
Ladybug sighed. He was right. It was getting harder and harder to find the time and excuse to fight the battles. It wasn’t like high school, where she could excuse herself with little to no consequences. Now she’s 22 years old with a full-time job and adult responsibilities. She even has to move around her schedule just to hang out with Alya and the rest of the group.
Chat continued. “Though, I guess it’s not really an excuse. You’re able to get here in time with a job and your presumably busy civilian schedule. I’ll really try to make it. I swear. I don’t want you getting hurt because I couldn’t be here.”
“It’s okay, Chat,” she said as she placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll admit, I’m lucky I have a job that gives me flexibility. The last thing I want is for you to jeopardize your real life’s reputation for this. I can handle it. Don’t worry.”
He didn’t seem totally satisfied with her statement. “I should be there for you. I don’t not want to be Chat Noir. Getting my miraculous was the best thing to have happened to me. I just—I wish there was a way for me to be in the know in case I’m not nearby, you know? If I had known this akuma fight was going on sooner, I could have slipped out when I had the chance. It wasn’t like how we were younger.”
Ladybug tried to come up with a solution on the spot. There had to be a way around this issue. With the akumas stronger than ever before, she needed her partner by her side. Luckily, she had managed to get the more manageable akumas when she was on her own, but who’s the say that won’t change? It had been happening more and more often lately. That is, one of them usually picks up the slack of the fight on their own until the other shows up. There has to be a way to communicate with each other without letting the other know of their identity.
“Do you have time to meet up tonight?” She asked.
“Err, I think so. Why?”
“Meet me at our usual spot. I’m going to figure something out to try to make this easier on both of us. I just need a bit of time.”
“Oh, yeah, of course. See you at 9?”
Ladybug nodded. “That should be good.”
“Perfect,” Chat said with a wink. “I’ll see you then, bugaboo.”
Then off he went. Probably to wherever he was trapped prior to the battle, Ladybug assumed. But now, she had a new project to work on, on top of all the designs she needed to finish before her deadline.
When Marinette reached back to her apartment after the fight, she immediately called out for her roommate and best friend, who just so happened to be tucked away in her room.
Alya had quickly opened her door that led straight into the living room, which is where Marinette had hopped through the window too. She gave a pleased smirk.
“I saw the fight on the news and was wondering when you’d be home. We were supposed to be at Luka's party an hour ago."
Tikki raced to the kitchen to munch inside the cookie jar as Marinette sighed loudly, collapsing onto the couch. “I need help.”
“Oh, no. What’s up?” Alya asked as she walked over and sat at the other end of the couch.
“Chat was late again but even more so this time. He missed the entire battle completely again. This is, like, what, the fourth time this month? Not saying I’m even better, but it’s even worse for him.” It was at this moment that Marinette was forever grateful that Alya knew of her alternate identity as Paris’ superheroine. She definitely would have exploded by now if she was still restricted to only her thoughts and Tikki’s all-too-optimistic and ancient mind. “I need help figuring out a way to communicate to Chat in his civilian form in case I need him or he needs me, but without knowing his identity. You’re good with that stuff; I figured you could help me come up with something?”
“Hmm,” Alya hummed and she leaned back onto the gray couch cushions. “What about just giving him your phone number? I mean, it’s a pretty small chance you already have him in your contacts, considering how big Paris is.”
Marinette shook her head. “I don’t want to take the risk. What if I meet him in the near future and we exchange numbers, and we find out?”
Her best friend chuckled. “Imagine you already have him in your contacts and you just don’t know it.”
“I doubt it.”
“Mhm. What about going old-schooled and getting you two pagers?” She said with a teasing smile.
“Who the hell carries pagers anymore? It would just give me anxiety if I saw anyone walking around with a pager on the street.”
“Hey, I’ve seen one or two people with pagers in my life.”
“Exactly my point.”
Alya rolled her eyes and continued humming through that brain of hers. “Anonymous emailing?”
Marinette thought about it. That could work. Though, how easy was it to trace back emails? She’s sure Chat wouldn’t go snooping through the origin of her email, but don’t you need to attach personal information behind it?
“Maybe,” she ended up saying, “but I don’t know how secure and efficient that would be.”
“I think it’s the best idea we could come up with. You could easily write behind a made-up email address and don’t have to worry about it being connected to yourself as long as you don’t put any of your personal information along with it.”
This was a solid plan. She could do this. The more Alya reassured her it would work, the more Marinette felt confident in her plan. This would make communication a whole lot easier than having to wait for the other to be transformed to send a message via their accessories.
Marinette called over Tikki, who was finishing the last cookie in the jar. Her red kwami beamed over toward the two girls on the couch.
She went over the plan that Alya had come up with to Tikki for her opinion. Tikki nodded when she was finished. “That sounds fine! Very formal in today’s society.”
“Chat would probably use it to send cat memes,” Alya said with a light laugh, to which Marinette rolled her eyes at.
“How have past holders communicated without revealing their identities?” Marinette asked.
“Hmm, I know one of them had sent letters since modern technology wasn’t really a thing. I doubt that’s what you were looking for, though.”
“Oh!” Alya blurted out as she shot up straight and stridden towards her room. Marinette furrowed her brows at her roommate as she came out with her phone in hand and sat right beside Marinette on the couch typing something.
“Uh, what are you doing?” Marinette asked.
“Shhh. I have an idea.”
Marinette and Tikki shared a look. “Would you like to share with the class?”
A few more seconds of Alya doing whatever she was doing on her phone had passed until she finally flipped her phone over for Marinette to see the screen. “Nino was telling me about this texting app the other week that he uses to talk to some of his DJ friends. This could be better than emailing! You make an account, and your screen name can be whatever you want. It’s literally texting, just without the use of phone numbers.”
Marinette scanned Alya’s phone screen with the picture of the app and the description of how it worked and looked. This seemed quicker and, overall, a better route to take compared to the email idea. This would really work.
“That’s a great idea!” Marinette exclaimed as she slid her phone out of her back pocket and began downloading the app. “I’ll see what it’s like, set an account up, and tell Chat to get it tonight.”
Alya clapped her hands together in excitement that she had helped. “Perfect!”
It was 9:09 P.M. when Ladybug arrived at their usual roof spot. Chat Noir already sat at the edge of the building with his feet dangling down and his eyes staring up at the moon. Ladybug had to admit, he looked pretty good under the moonlight. Especially nowadays, she could really tell he’s grown up. His cheekbones and jawline were more defined and his build was broader and stronger than when she had first met him as a teenager. It was hard to believe 6 years had flown by.
Once she had landed on the roof, Chat turned his gaze toward her.
“Sorry I’m a bit late,” she opened up. “I was caught up with something.”
She was working on some last-minute designs, not paying attention to the time when she realized she was going to be late to meet up with Chat.
“No worries, M’lady. Nothing I’m not used to,” he joked.
She took her normal seat beside him, already enjoying the cool breeze that Paris brings in the cool fluttery night. Car lights and tourist streets were lit up and twinkled all around the Eiffel Tower. She loved living here.
“So, did you figure something out in that beautiful brain of yours?”
Ladybug rolled her eyes at the flattery and pulled out a small folded piece of paper. “My friend actually helped me out with this one.”
“The Scarabella girl?” he asked as he took the piece of paper from her hands. “Haven’t seen her in a long time. How is she doing?”
“Er, yeah. She’s doing good. Still close as ever.”
Chat smiled. “Glad to hear that.”
She had no idea why, but just the genuinity of Chat’s comment made her smile a bit warm. It was a weird feeling, but she shook it off.
“Anyway, that piece of paper contains the name of this texting app. It’s completely anonymous, so you can download it, make your account with no attachments to your personal life, and communicate with me outside our suits. I included my username on the paper too, so you can add me once you’re done.”
Her partner skimmed through the words on the paper and nodded his head. “Brilliant as always, M’lady. I’m surprised we didn’t figure this out sooner within our superhero careers.”
“Yeah, it would’ve been nice to have this before, but hey, better late than never. Make sure not to have your phone screen on the messages if you’re going to leave it somewhere. We don’t want anyone reading our texts. Also, this is for emergencies only. No jokes or puns. I can only deal with you for so long.”
“I don’t know if I can agree to that last one,” he said as he tucked the piece of paper into one of his pockets.
“ Chat .”
“Fine, fine. Whatever you want, bugaboo, but you’ll miss me.”
“Oh, whatever will I do,” she responded as she rolled her eyes and a grin that was impossible to hide.
Chat laughed, then quickly grew quiet. “Though, imagine we defeat Monarch tomorrow. Then we really would have been late to this idea.”
“Highly doubt that would happen, but it’s a possibility.”
Chat fidgeted with his ring as he turned away and went back to facing the beaming moon. “Are we ever going to defeat him?”
Ladybug pursed her lips at his sudden comment. “Of course we are Chat. We haven’t lost yet.”
“It’s been six years,” he said quietly, “He clearly hasn’t given up on whatever he’s trying to accomplish. We’re not exactly closer to finding out his identity. He’s been pretty careful with that, from what we can tell. Just how long is this going to go on?”
She sighed. So desperately did she wish she had the answers to all of Chat’s questions. Because they weren’t just Chat’s questions, they were also her’s.
“I wish I could answer them all for you, Chaton. Maybe this new form of communication can help us further our progress. We can keep each other updated on what we find in case we don’t have to transform for a while. Fewer secrets can be kept between us. This is a good thing, kitty. Let’s put it to good use, okay?”
Chat peered over at her with hopeful eyes and a small smile appearing on his lips. Ladybug hoped her words were enough for him. She wanted to be enough to comfort him. Who else did they have?
“Okay.”