Archive of Our Own ^beta

Team training is… interesting.

It’s more one giant sparring session, with several poorly disguised children’s interspersed. They also haven’t been able to get many full team sessions in, thanks to strict parents, summer job exhaustion, and hundreds of other excuses that may or not be identity-compromising.

The only two heroes that have made it successfully to every training session are Ladybug and Chat Noir. Ladybug is doing her best to teach them, even though it’s clear she has very little idea what she’s doing, and meanwhile Chat Noir radiates a painful amount of ‘clueless substitute’ energy, even though he’s one of very few on the team with enough experience to fall back on.

If Roo’s being honest, he’s just glad to be included. Not very long ago, he could never have expected he’d be able to be a superhero, fighting alongside Paris’ saviours. And, if he’s honest, that hero worship has barely worn off. Of course it hasn’t! He’s just a humble writer, barely fourteen, and yet a woman likely from literal ancient Egypt has chosen him to be part of her team.

Everyone’s getting antsy, because for the first time so far, Ladybug is late. Chat is waving the whole thing off, saying that Ladybug is secretly the less punctual of the two. Roo’s not entirely sure about that, but figures that Chat knows more about his partner than Roo does.

To pass the time, they’re trying to figure out the limitations of their weapons. Or, supposedly. Polymouse’s jump rope has been passed around the whole team for some jump roping, and now Roi Singe is introducing them to some weird game where he spins the rope wildly around on the ground and everyone tries to jump over it. A lot of the team seems to be already familiar with it, but all it looks like to Roo is a headache in the making, not that’s as applicable while his miraculous is activated.

Carapace walks away from said game, which he’s been hardly trying in this entire time. He sits on the rooftop next to Roo, fidgeting with his bracelet. “Rena’s late.”

Roo blinks, he’s never had a solid conversation with Carapace before. “Your girlfriend, right?”

“Dude,” Carapace deadpans, and his expression changes but it’s hard to read considering the hood and goggles. “We weren’t exactly hiding it.”

“Yeah, but considering Ladynoir, it’s always helpful to make sure.”

He still thinks that Ladynoir could totally be real, for the record. Just that clearly it isn’t right now, despite what the public tries to insist. And as someone who falls out of the heteronormative box himself, he doesn’t find it fair to force Ladybug and Chat Noir into one.

“That’s nice, man,” Carapace says. “But yeah, we were dating before we even became heroes. We don’t exactly plan on hiding it at this point.”

“She seems to be hiding right now, though,” Roo comments, because apparently his miraculous has made him way too outgoing. He doesn’t know anyone here well enough to joke with them, he doesn’t want to accidentally upset anybody.

Luckily, Carapace takes his joke with only a huff.

There’s a sudden zip, and everyone looks up, familiar with the sound of Ladybug flying in. However, the red and black blur that arrives clearly isn’t Ladybug, and it’d be pretty hard to even make the mistake. For one, there’s her entire costume, but then you add in the clumsy way she stumbles to a stop, arms wildly waving as she attempts to pull back the yo-yo’s string.

Well hello there, Scarabella. Nice of you to finally show up, isn’t it?

“Hi!” Scarabella greets, just a little bit too loud. “So Ladybug’s got a bit of a migraine and doesn’t want to go swinging right now, but also didn’t want to ditch any of you right now, so she sent her kwami over to me for a little, I hope that’s okay?”

It’s not like anyone has a reason to refuse her, though Chat Noir is certainly trying to create that effect with that sudden squinting glare of his.

“Nice to meet you!” Pigella suddenly pipes up, all bouncing and smiles as she always is. Roo can’t help but think that it has to be part of her powers, there’s no way anyone in the world except Rose could have that much positivity stored in them.

“Nice to meet you too, Pigella,” she almost immediately responds. Maybe the gal’s a little too caffeinated for the current chill environment.

“Why didn’t she tell anyone else that she wasn’t feeling good?” Chat asks, sounding oddly uncomfortable. “Why did she go to you again?”

Scarabella winces, but then plays it off as a shrug. Everyone notices, but she presses on anyways. “Lights suck with migraines, man, I wouldn’t want to transform either. The kwami came and filled me in, it’s nothing big, I promise. I thought we’ve been over this already?”

Chat purses his lips. “Right, right. Old habits. It’s good to see you again, Bella.”

She raises a brow, but doesn’t point out Chat’s obvious conflict any further.

Roo has a feeling that he’s just gotten insight to some hero drama that he definitely isn’t privy too. He’s not sure whether to ignore it in order to be respectful, or write some fanfiction about it to see if Nathaniel or people online have any ideas about what he can do to help relieve some of the tension. Definitely not because he’s invested already, nope.

Scarabella clearly has even less of an idea as to how to lead a proper training session, so she and Chat both declare Roi Singe’s game good reflex practice and the chill energy of the whole night persists.

She walks over towards where he and Carapace are still chilling, pauses, and then backs away slowly like a startled animal. Once she’s made a bit of distance, she speedwalks awkwardly away, as if this isn’t a very open space with very few people.

So that’s also certainly a thing that’s happening.

He can’t deny that it’s interesting, though. There’s almost no information about Scarabella out there so far, since her appearances are some of the most scattered out of all the heroes, just barely above a one-timer. If he had to pick out one thing that stands out about her, it’s that she’s definitely the fangirl type. He’s pretty sure that if he had a lot more confidence, he’d be exactly like her with the Ladybug miraculous. Bouncy, dramatic, y’know. Confident. But that’s not really his style. And while it does remind him of a lot of their team members, all of which he thinks are as decent as the rest, he can still see why she wouldn’t make a good full-time ladybug clear as day. She’s not very good with the yo-yo, though she plays it off, and she doesn’t bounce off of Chat Noir’s energy like Ladybug can, despite the fact that she’s thrown out plenty of puns in just a few short hours.

After a bit, he gets up, figuring that he might as well do something while he’s here. He slides into the next round of the seemingly never ending game, winding up next to Scarabella. It’s fine, but like he guessed, this would definitely be a nightmare with a headache.

Suddenly, Scarabella calls for her lucky charm, springing up into the air to catch it. The jump gets her high enough to avoid the rope, but then distracts Roo enough that he doesn’t jump at all. She smugly grins as she drops back to the ground, catching a red and black spotted flute with a smug grin. He only glares at her before taking his loss and walking away from the game.

Definitely not a full-time ladybug.