Starlet • Lukadrien [Miraculous]

Chapter 7 | quick trip

Since the defeat of hawkmoth, ladybug and cat noir aren't really needed. They were still around here and there when they were, but they didn't need to be on guard 24/7. That's why Adrien was able to live in Italy and still hold the miraculous. In the event he was needed, he could zip on over to Paris using the Astro-cat boost. Hence why he was there right now, a time travel based villain had popped up, actually he remembered when they were akumatized all those years ago. This was where he went when he jumped though those portals apparently.

Ladybug had planned for his way back when it first happened, so she and Cat already knew what they had to do. Past them had planned it out to future them could do their part in the fight. All they has to do was toss the guy back through the portal when it opened and hand the instructions on how to defeat the guy to past ladybug.

It was such an easy task they were done in a matter on minutes, so rather than zooming straight back to Italy like he had places to be, Cat was able stop and chat with the bug for a little bit. It'd been a while after all, nice to catch up. So just like old times they sat atop the Eiffel Tower to chat.

"You're in your second year now right? How's that going?" He asked.

"Pretty good, although the mid year mock ups are soon and I'm practically drowning in fabric scraps" she replied.

"How many garments are you having to make?"

"Five"

Yikes, that's a lot of dropped pins and loose threads to keep track of. But she'd handle it, he always did. She was probably a better seamstress than Gabriel ever was anyway, once she was out of university Cat had no doubts she'd make it in the industry.

"What about you? What are you doing at the moment?" Ladybug asked.

"Mainly helping a chronically ill family member. Also therapy... a lot of it" Cat replied.

"I can't even blame you after all that happened. Don't stress it though ok? You've got your whole life to find something you want to make a career out of. Just focus on healing for now"

She was right, even though society makes it seem like you need to either get a job or go to university the second you leave high school, you had literally your entire life ahead of you. The average human lives well into their 80s after all, he still had 60 or so years to figure himself out. Maybe even more if he lived longer. He couldn't help but feel a little lost though, like he should be doing something with his life. Everyone around him was, everyone from his past was too.

"Plus if you're the one looking after someone sick your top priority is keeping them you know, alive. So you have a valid excuse for not immediately jumping into working" Ladybug added.

"That's true, she'll be alright. She's not the kind to let sickness beat her down, she's already made heaps of progress. It's the flare ups she's trying to get over at this point" Cat replied.

"I love people who don't let disabilities dictate their whole life. Strongest people there are, it takes a lot mentally to adapt and learn to live with it"

"Exactly. Nothing but respect for them"

Having your flare ups and your bad days was to be expected, and it's perfectly valid to be completely unproductive and mopey on those days. But life goes on, and you have to go on too. Finding the right accommodations and forcing the world to give you respect is the best thing you can do in such a situation.

"Although one good thing happened recently, I ran into an old friend the other week. We immediately picked up where we left off like no time had passed at all" Cat explained.

"I love it when that happens. The way you can just talk for hours as if you'd just seen each other yesterday? Those are the best friendships. Absolutely nothing can shake them" Ladybug replied.

"Oh I know right? It's the best feeling. And actually now I look back on our teen years... I totally had a crush on him"

"Oooh, maybe you can do something about that now you're both all grown up" Ladybug teased.

You know, maybe he could. If he had the confidence for it... he'd need to muster that up. Maybe figure some personal stuff too. But the idea was certainly appealing.

"Speaking of crushes what happened with that girl you were talking about last time?" Cat asked.

"Oh my gods the situation just got more complicated. I'm kind of in a love triangle type thing? There's that same girl right? But then an old friend transferred into the same course I'm doing so we reconnected and now the three of us are kinda like... all crushing? I mean I think that's what's happening. I can't tell if they both like me or if they like each other or if I like them?? Ugh it's so confusing" Ladybug rambled.

Cat snickered, somehow she was always in some kind of love shape. She always had someone she liked or someone that liked her. Or both but one of both of them were too oblivious to realise it until it was too late. The last person she'd dated was a boy, and that relationship didn't end the best. Cat knew there was another boy she liked after that, but it didn't go anywhere. And then the first girl came into the picture, and they'd laughed about both being bi the whole time when Cat replied with revealing he liked boys too.

Somehow they just both sucked at love. It always either went wrong or they were too late to snatch up the ones they liked.

"Man gay people can't flirt normally, always gotta be some weird shit" Cat laughed.

"Like getting into weird love triangles" Ladybug snickered.

"Or reconnecting with an old friend you totally liked as a teen and having your brain influenced by thoughts of what could have been of you'd grown a pair as a teen and kissed him then"

So their love lives weren't perfect, but at least things had gotten a million times better for the both of them since hawkmoth's defeat. Aside from Luka, Ladybug was kind of the only person aside from Nathalie Adrien at right now. Their occasional meet ups were a nice enough interaction to lift his mood for a while, quell the loneliness. That was probably the only thing he missed about Paris and the hawkmoth era, the long talks atop the Eiffel Tower with the other heroes. But these every so often meetings were the bite sized flashback of the good parts of that era he needed to stay relatively sane nowadays.