What Is Shared

A scolding had been expected by Adrien for having the defiance to deviate from his path straight home to take care of an abandoned cat. He'd expected it, for absolute certain, and had also been completely aware that his father wouldn't have had time to do it, so he'd had Nathalie do it for him. Gabriel Agreste, not even the free time to scold his child. Adrien wasn't sure what depressed him more, the fact he was being talked down to for doing the right thing, or that his father couldn't even be bothered to do it himself.

To her credit, Nathalie had made sure it was swift and relatively painless, since she seemed to understand that Adrien was only trying to do the morally correct thing, but had to meet with the compromise of doing her job correctly. It had been more of a telling off than it was a scold, but the message from Adrien's father was clear.

All this because he had come home maybe ten minutes later than he normally would have done. While part of that did contribute to him actually taking the cat the the shelter, he could have made that time up by breaking into a light jog. The main reason he had been late was because he had spent some of that time talking to Marinette.

Not that it was her fault, of course. Adrien had been fully aware of the likely repercussions for staying and talking to her. He had decided that, in that exact moment, that he had wanted to, so he didn't begrudge her for that in the slightest. Still, he found it sort of weird that she just happened to be there at the exact time he happened to be there, but he didn't think too much about that fact.

Returning to his room, Adrien sat on his bed and began to thin.

"If it helps, kid, I think you made the right call." Plagg commented to his human partner, exiting the pocket that he inhabited during school hours.

"Thanks, Plagg." Adrien nodded, his gratitude for that simple gesture larger than Plagg knew. right now, however, Adrien was thinking more about the Soul Link. He laid on his bed, and held his right hand in the air, like he was grasping at an invisible object in the sky, just slightly out of his reach. He looked at his ring, watching how the small metallic object reflected the light that hit the surface of it. He had to wonder, would this device give him more hints as to the identity of Ladybug? Would it tell him more about her? About the Soul Link they shared? "What secrets are you keeping from me?..."

"Kid?"

"Hrrm? Oh, nothing, Plagg. Just thinking is all. Hey, d'you know if Ladybug's miraculous will be sending her messages as well?"

"It's possible. It depends if her miraculous has been with her long enough. Yours activated abnormally quickly, so I wouldn't put my money on it.""

"Right..." Adrien said quietly, still staring at the magical object around his ring finger.

He sighed. Talk about karma.

How would he even go about explaining a Soul Link to his lady? The miraculouses tell you who your soulmate is via magic and project messages onto a wall? That's right up there with screaming 'Ancient Egyptian laser beams', and expecting to be taken seriously. So, really, what else was there for Adrien to do, other than keep on keeping on as he normally would have done? there was no need to concern Ladybug with such matters.

He spent the rest of the day on Alya's Ladyblog, trying to gather his thoughts.

Even if he was convinced they were soulmates, he wouldn't push her towards anything.

That night, Adrien had been somewhat anxious, but equal parts looking forward to going out on patrol with Ladybug. Though he had decided he wasn't going to bring up anything to do with the Soul Link, the miraculouses, Soul Mates or anything like that, just knowing that he could be patrolling with his soulmate filled him with a certain joy and excitement of simply seeing her again.

He had transformed at the usual time he did for their nightly patrols, and had exited the Agreste estate as Chat Noir, the destruction and bad-luck hero, defender of Paris, and the true side of Adrien's personality - Slightly cocky, confident, wild, and immensely flirtatious, particularly to Ladybug. Behind a mask, no one knew it was him, and he could act however he wanted without consequence. He could let his real side shine.

He leaped up high over the buildings of Paris, taking a second, while still in the middle of the air, to admire the lit up city. Thousands of tiny lights, all coming from streetlamps, bedroom and shop windows, cars and other various sources, all combining to create a beautiful contrasting landscape of brown, black, grey and light. He saw it nearly every single night, but it never failed to captivate the young hero. Readjusting himself as he fell, he swung from one rooftop to another, on his way to the usual meetup point with his lady. He moved with Olympian-like grace.

The point they had agreed to meet at this day was at the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, a well known boulevard of the city, near the Arc de Triomphe. It hadn't taken Chat too long to get there, with his wild speed and athletic ability. Leaping over the rooftops, covered by the night, he had made his way to the meeting point. And to Ladybug.

"M'lady." Chat greeted, taking a small bow while walking over to his partner in fighting crime.

Ladybug turned with a bit of a start, but quickly relaxed when she realized it was Chat. "Oh, Chat. It's you."

"Who were you expecting?"

"Not too sure. An Akuma. You know, someone easier than you to deal with." Sass was preventative in her voice. She made sure of that, so Chat knew she was only joking with him.

"Me-, my lady. That was absolutely merciless." The black cat hero commented with his usual grin, before he crouched down on the side of the building next to his partner, his crush, and, he prayed, his soulmate.

"You look like you're in a good mood today, Kitty." Ladybug commented, prodding him on his shoulder, causing him to threaten to lose balance for half a second. "Something good happen to you today?"

"You could say that." '

"See anything on your way here?"

"Nope. Everything's clear. Again."

"Weird." Ladybug said, biting her finger lightly, muttering to herself. "It's not like Hawkmoth to wait this long before sending out an Akuma. What's he doing?"

"Maybe he off." Chat suggested, making sure to add a pun into his sentence for extra measure. All this earned him was a groan from Ladybug. "Hey, I'm not complaining. It gives us time to ."

"Please stop."

"But I'm having a time!"

"That was was a bit of a stretch."

"My Lady!"

"I've heard you do better, Chat."

Chat Noir could only chuckle, but it was a more bitter one than he would have liked. Not out of any sort of anger with Ladybug, but repression at the knowledge of the miraculouses of which he couldn't tell her about.