Heartbeats

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Adrien Agreste was very conflicted. On one hand, he had definitely made a promise as Chat to Lune last night that they'd meet in the field again, a bit earlier than normal. On the other hand, it was raining. Surely they couldn't stargaze in the rain. She wouldn't possibly go out there and wait... right?

"Argh!" The blonde pulls at his hair, endlessly frustrated. "If I get sick, my dad is going to kill me!" He looked out the window at the downpour, trying to weigh his options. "But picturing her out there waiting... in the rain. It's killing me now."

"I think it's pretty obvious what you want." Plagg, the ever impatient Kwami, crosses his arms at his counterpart. "Just don't stay out long enough to get sick."

"And do what instead, take her back here?" Adrien rolls his eyes. "I'll just have to... rain check."

"Leaving her out in the cold?"

"You are the worst, Plagg... transform me."

Chat had to be swift on his feet, and quick. The rooftops were slick with rain, and he nearly lost his footing the whole way there, but he just had to be sure she wasn't waiting, getting soaked by the rain.

As he reached the edge of the city, he became relieved all too quickly to see that Lune wasn't in her normal spot on the edge of the field. Her voice break though the rain, however, causing his heart to leap.

"Hey you, what are you doing in the rain? Get over here!" Lune was standing under an umbrella at the forest lined edge of the field. Had she really been waiting? Thank god he decided to come out, after all. He wasn't sure what to say as he walked up to the light haired girl, but her smile said enough to put him at ease. "I was afraid you weren't gonna come!"

"I wasn't really sure we'd be able to star gaze if it was raining." Chat rubbed the back of his neck and Lune held out the umbrella over his head, protecting him.

"Don't worry, I've got it covered. Let's get out of the rain, though." Chat raises an eyebrow, but as Lune steps away, he notices the canopy of trees and a tarp cover a small tent in the forested area. "Trust me, it's not meant for anything weird. We're gonna star gaze!"

Lune unzips the tent and steps inside, Chat following right after. The inside had a blanket and a few pillows, as well as a small box towards the back of the tent.

"Do you trust me?" Lune smiles, and Chat instinctively nods. "Good! Then lay down, I'll set this up."

Chat couldn't believe any of this. This is not something he'd expected to be doing in the rain, on a school night. With Lune, no less.

He glanced up at the girl by his feet, messing around with the box just out of his vision. She was humming some foreign song, clearly in English. Lune was from America, there was no denying that.

Could she really be Andromeda?

He hadn't really heard her sing enough to determine it from voice alone. He'd have to pay way more attention during drama practice.

What if she was Andromeda? Would that even mean anything to him? Did he like her? Did he like Andromeda?

What about Ladybug? Should he give up on that endeavor? She really didn't seem to be interested in him, and he knew nothing about who she might really be.

He knew a little bit about Lune, though. And she wanted to know about him...

That's so much more than Ladybug had ever been willing to give.

"Ready?" A click of a button sounds, and as Lune lays back, the entire tent lights up with stars.

"Woah." Chat whispers, totally awestruck by the scene. "You brought a projector!"

"Of course! Couldn't miss out on my favorite part of the evening." Lune looked up at all the tiny stars lining the top of the tent, and Chat looked at Lune. To think she went through all this effort, just to spend time with him.

Lune noticed the boy staring at her and cast him a smile. "I'm glad you came."

Chat didn't really care if Lune was Andromeda-- He liked her. It was pretty apparent from what he was feeling in his chest at that moment. "Me too."

"Did you have a good day?" Lune rolls onto her side to watch Chat as he speaks, and Chat tries to think of a way to answer that question. Ladybug hadn't ever bothered to ask.

"Uh, yeah, actually." Chat thought back to class, telling Chloe off, everything Andromeda had said, the smile she gave him... "First really good one in a while... What about you?"

Lune rolled her eyes and flopped onto her back. "Horrible, actually. This is probably the best part." She lets out a deep sigh. "The real me, the one with other responsibilities and stuff-- had to deal with two girls in one day trying to tell me how I needed to feel." Chat watches as her brows furrow and her lips form a small pout. She was cute, even then. 

"It seems like no matter what I do here, I'm always doing something wrong. You can't like him because he doesn't like you, you can't like him because I like him, you can't like him because you're just friends!" She brings a wrist up to rest on her forehead. "I don't even know how I feel, and there's a million people trying to tell me how I should! I don't know what liking someone really is, besides finding them cute. I don't know what to say, how to act! How am I supposed to NOT like someone, when I don't even know what liking them feels like in the first place!"

Chat stared wide eyed at the girl beside him, never having really seen her frustrated before. She was more like an angry teddy bear than a fierce woman, though.

"Sorry, I ranted a bit. I just..." Lune looks over to Chat, her eyes desperate. "This is nice, you know? Because it's just us. No one to tell me how I'm supposed to feel. We're putting the world away, and... I finally feel like I can just be myself." Lune couldn't help but let out a giggle when she saw the look Chat was giving her. "Sorry, I-I really need to be more careful about what I say." He practically melted at her giggle.

Nothing else mattered right now. They were disconnected from everything. Chat didn't need to think about Andromeda, or Ladybug, or school or getting sick... This was his escape.

She was his escape.

"Don't be sorry." Chat regains his composure, a grin on his face that he really couldn't wipe away. "I liked it." He turns and lays on his side to watch her reaction.

It was Lune's turn to stare wide eyed as her hero counterpart took her hand in his and slowly lifted it to his chest to rest atop his heart. She could feel every fast beating pump of his heart.

This must be how it feels, she thought.

She decided she liked liking him.

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