chatpiper | ✿|| it feels so right to be here with you

✿|| it feels so right to be here with you

[ It isn't as though Cat isn't used to being tossed around like a rag doll when it comes to fighting akuma. He's been slammed into things, fallen off buildings, turned into a statue... all part of the job, and today's no different.

......Well, okay. Maybe it's a little different.

His Lady is a little slow on the yo-yo action this time as gravity does what gravity does, and instead of her sweeping him off his feet as per usual, he collapses onto the ground like a miserable pile of bones.

He yelps, and he vaguely hears Ladybug's distressed voice from somewhere above calling after him, but everything turns to fuzz and static.

He blinks a few times as his consciousness struggles to keep up, but instead of seeing Ladybug's majestic dark tones, he sees... a sunshine blonde. And green eyes like his own. ]

...punzel? [ He murmurs, tilting his head like a cat. He struggles to sit up, smiling like the absolute doofus he is. ] Fancy meeting you here. It's nooot really safe, so you should.......

[ Oh.

Dizzy.

...Annnd his upper body flops back onto the ground, welcoming like an old friend. G'night. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ A man in all black leather tumbling from the sky was not what she'd expected to see while sitting in the garden working on her sketches, but that's exactly what she got. It's accompanied by one of Hawkmoth's most recent Akumatized victims flying by overhead and a frantic call from a feminine voice.

Rapunzel recognizes neither of those voices, the villain's or the heroine's, but she's also more concerned with the human being who'd just taken a painful fall onto their estate.

Abandoning her work, Rapunzel jumps up, hurrying over to check on the young man she skids to a stop, all but falling to her knees beside him. ]

Oh my gosh- are you alright??

[ She may or may NOT have heard him murmuring part of her name. If she did she's too frazzled to act on or show it. She panics more when he tries to get up just to collapse again, jumping up just in time for him to sack against her, back to chest. With a comedically startled expression Rapunzel catches his weight against her and manages to half lower, half fall to the ground, her grip only slipping because of something warm and slick coating part of the leather. ]

Oh no, oh nonononono...! Please, please don't be what I think you are...!

[ It's absolutely what she thinks it is, and when she peels back her hand to look it's stained dark red, leaving her with only one really obvious choice to make. ]

[ She manages, with some hurried fumbling, to fashion a sort of back sling out of her hair. And as mindfully as possible she carries the unconscious man into the basement and from there in through the secret entrance to the tower on the manse where she'd woken for the first time in the 21st century. So far as Rapunzel was aware no one of the staff knew about it, only she and Gothel, and they only made use of it rarely these days, Gothel preferring the more spacious comfort of her own room when she needed the work of the spell. Perfect, now, because it gave Rapunzel somewhere private to bring the young man to heal his wounds without alerting or alarming said staff.

She manages to half settle, half dump him into the bed there, where she promptly feels her legs turn to jello and give out. As she takes a second to recover her hands push aside her own hair to look for the wound, and she tries to talk him around. ]

Hey, hey! Whoever you are, stay with me! You're gonna be alright, I promise.

[ Green eyes keep darting frantically between his face and her search as she says it. If- or when he finally comes around again he'll notice that she's starting to pile hair onto the wounded area.

You know, normal first aid procedure. 100% sanitary. ]

[ Okay, voices are happening.

Cat winces, coming to with the vague notion that is no longer where he once was, or where he is supposed to be. ]

So much for landing on my feet... [ He mumbles, trying to look around, but everything's is still a little blurry. He can make out the blonde in her hair... there sure is a lot of it. ]

[ ............wait. ]

Hold on. Are you trying to stuff me like a plushie?

[ HAIR DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY?? ]

[ Oh, good. He's still breathing and conscious enough to be sassy. That'll make this 100% more fun.

Except, oh, wait, Rapunzel is concentrating hard, so instead of responding she shushes Cat Noir with a finger pressed against his lips. SHHHH, no talking. ]

Hush. Let me concentrate.

[ Once she's sure she has enough hair covering the wound she gently presses both hands down on it, shutting her eyes and beginning the incantation. ]

Flower, gleam and glow...
Let your power shine...!
Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine...!

Mmf--

[ Listen you are not Ladybug so you can't just hush him. HE WILL NOT BE SILENCED!!!

Except when he is. Because her hair is suddenly glowing, and so are his wounds, and that beautiful melody fills the air before he can really object. His eyes widen. What the fuck is happening??? ]

[ He can only watch as his wounds close, the pain easing with it. His mouth hangs open, taken in by her voice just as it fades away into silence once again. ]

Oh.

[ You know... she probably hadn't thought this through as much as she should have, because as the urgency of the situation wears away with the second and final verse of the incantation Rapunzel is left with the sudden realization that she'd made a lot of assumptions when she decided to do this. Too late all of Gothel's warnings about keeping her secret being more urgent than ever with the invention of "social media" come back to mind.

Her eyes dart over towards the ones behind the mask, inhumanly green all the way through, like a cat's. ]

.....

[ My GOD she has a lot of questions. ]

Um... so... is that better?

[ She already knows it is, but she pulls her hair back so he can see for himself anyway.

Maybe if she plays it cool, he will, too. ]

[ Cat Noir is never, yet at the same time, always cool.

Since she asked, he slowly starts to sit up, finding himself stretching like a cat as if to test out how well it all worked. He looks utterly dumbfounded as he checks himself over... It's as if he never fell, never fought at all. ]

Lots better. Thanks.

[ There is a pause, and...

Yeah, that elephant in the room. ]

Did you know you have magic hair that glows when you sing?

[ That is... sure an interesting contradiction! She'll have to see for herself first hand sometime. For now she's just grateful he's not freaking out. In fact he's surprisingly calm, maybe something to do with the fact he'd fallen out of the sky bleeding and wounded. What exactly had he been doing, anyway??

Surprised, she quirks an eyebrow at him, then grins, lopsided, tentative, and unsure. There's even a trill in her voice, like a hint of nervous laughter bubbling under the surface. ]

I kinda noticed, yeah. About that, actually... Do you, ah... do you mind keeping that just between us? No one else is supposed to know about that. You know... people trying to cut it off to take it for themselves, that kinda thing??

[ Unbraided like this one would think she had plenty to spare, but- since it doesn't WORK that way... ]

[ He looks over Rapunzel for what feels like the first time that night. It really is her, isn’t it? The same shy, meek girl he had taught how to dance. It’s hard to hide his recognition—honestly, he would have never guessed she was hiding that much hair—but he has to.

He channels his surprise into admiration instead, gently touching the strands leftover from when she was jabbing at his wounds. ]

Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone. [ he gestures zipping his lips. ] Just think of it as a thank you for helping me.

[ His goofy expression dissipates, though, as if he suddenly remembered how he got there. ]

Speaking of that... did you see what happened to Ladybug?

[ She looks relieved, though she does consider asking him to promise, or shake on it, but he changes the subject first and his question has her tilting her head in confusion. ]

You were chasing a ladybug?

[ That would be a no, kitty. ]

I didn't see anything until you landed in the garden. I heard other voices, but I didn't see who they belonged to.

[ Turning, she points in the direction the voices were headed when she'd heard them last. ]

They were fading in that direction... I think?

[ Cat glances in the direction she indicates, and then turns back to look at her. He knows she's only just moved here, of course, but damn, does she really have no idea? ]

Not a ladybug. The Ladybug! Only the most amazing superhero in all of Paris.

[ Some of that goofiness returns, though he's still worried. ]

I'm her partner, Cat Noir, and I'm afraid she might need me.

[ That.... clarifies NOTHING kthx. Still, she'll pretend she knows what he's talking about and go along with it for now. She demonstrates that she understands with a firm nod, then places a hand on his shoulder. ]

Then you should go. She'll probably be worried. You know where to find me if you need help.

[ Because someone will be coming to investigate the commotion, if they haven't already. She suspects they're probably already looking for her to make sure she's A: Alright, and B: Not kidnapped. ]

[ She's really out here trying to convince him she's never heard of Ladybug and Cat Noir..........

Since she does go along with the explanation though, he just looks at her with an air of suspicion and cat-like curiosity. ]

Will you be alright?

[ Because the only thing that could keep him from Ladybug is the thought that someone else might need him more. (Even then...) ]

[ SHE LIVES AN EXTREMELY SHELTERED LIFE ALRIGHT??? Gothel doesn't want her getting ideas about going out there being HEROIC with her powers. Ew. ]

I'll be fine! I'm not the one fighting, remember?

[ She insists, nudging him towards the skylight ladder. ]

I promise. Now go.

[ Cat Noir looks at the skylight ladder, then back at Rapunzel with a lighthearted shrug. ]

Hey, you never really know. Your demons might not look like ours.

[ WHICH IS PROBABLY THE DEEPEST THING HE HAS EVER SAID. Or will say. Ever. ]

...But a promise is a promise. I'll be back to check on you.

[ He'd left her a little floored with that pearl of wisdom, but shook her out of it with his own promise. She wasn't expecting that last part, and with a little smile, grateful, she moved to cup his shoulder under one hand and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. ]

Thank you. I'll be looking forward to it.

[ And in the meantime she's got some homework to do, apparently, if she can figure out how. ]

[ To say that it's the last thing Cat expected when she approached would be a little extreme, but... not entirely untrue. That kind of gratitude is pretty rare, even from the victims of the akumas they save.

He finds himself frozen at the base of the ladder for a moment, hand pressed against his cheek where she'd kissed him. Ultimately however, he climbs on with a smile, reminding himself that Ladybug still needs him. ]

...See ya.

[ He disappears into the night, leaving Rapunzel to her studies. ]

[ There's something kind of sweet about the way he looks so surprised, even if the situation's urgency makes it seem a bit inopportune, too. She watches with an amused quirk of her lips and eyebrow as he finally collects himself again and leaves, moving to the base of the ladder to watch him disappear over the window ledge. ]

....

[ Time to go search the web for anything she can find about Ladybug and her companion. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

✿|| it feels so right to be here with you

1/2 - Forget the "edge of the city" part Paris is so massive there's no way Lmao

2/2

1/3

2/3

3/3

1/2 - WOW JUST LIKE A CAT TO BE RUDE AND UNGRATEFUL.

2/2

1/2

2/2

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject