Chapter Text
If anyone had asked Ladybug if he was nervous when reuniting with Tangerine after Japan, he would have lied straight to their face. The whole time he felt like he was either going to pass the fuck out, or shit himself. Or both.
On their trip to Tangerine’s place in Bethnal Green, Tan threatened to veer off the side of the road and kill both him and Ladybug in one go around 16 times in the 30 minutes it took them to get home, even with the latter stopping to get something from Arches Cafe and his local Tesco (He left Ladybug in the car both times, and didn’t even roll down a window). By the time they made it to Tangerine’s place, it was 9:46.
Tangerine didn’t seem to actually have his own flat. It was more like he knew the owners of a UK Cargo Service in a ghetto looking area (according to Ladybug), just paid a bit of rent and to live above their place. After Tangerine parked his shitty little Ford Fiesta, they headed through the back of Cave Cuvée, a small bar/cafe place which Ladybug actually enjoyed the atmosphere of, before walking up and absurd amount of stairs (It was three flights, Ladybug is just old as balls) and reaching Tangerine’s home.
Tangerine whistled, flicking a lightswitch and slipping his jacket off and hanging it on up in one swift motion. A small cat bounded over to him, making by far the sweetest sounds Ladybug had ever heard. He could tell it was an Australian Mist, and a young one at that.
“Hey Lizzie.” Tangerine smiled fondly, bending down and picking the small cat up with ease. He slipped his car keys into a dish by the door before walking down the entrance hall, Ladybug following like one of Tangerine’s own cats.
The latter flicked another switch, revealing a small living room connected to a kitchen on the right, and a door beside the spot that connected the two. The place was pretty dark, a few strings of lights hanging around the living room and 2 lamps on either side of the couch. There was a small TV, like the ones you would find in a hotel, except Tangerine’s was surrounded by stacks of books and a few cd’s mixed in there. In front of the TV sat two beds, which Ladybug assumed were for cats, but he’d only seen one so far
On the couch sat one of the fattest cats Ladybug had ever seen. Guess thats cat no.2 He thought. It looked like a Siberian to him, despite him knowing nothing whatsoever about cats.
Tangerine had since placed the smaller cat on the ground, heading into the kitchen to grab something out of his fridge while Ladybug stood at the edge of his living room like a dork.
“You done gushing over my cats?” Tangerine called, making Ladybug’s head snap to meet his eyes. There were two containers of cat food on the counter along with two bowls; one with ‘LIZZIE’ printed on it in sunny yellow, and one with ‘JUNO’ printed on it in orange. Big cat is Juno, the little cat is Lizzie, Ladybug noted.
“I- Yeah, actually. You didn’t strike me as a cat person.” Ladybug scratched the back of his neck, trying to look anywhere but directly at Tangerine. The latter frowned, his mustache twitching slightly.
“You didn’t strike me as someone who would shoot with no outside information, but here we are.” Tangerine hissed slightly, making Ladybug wince.
“Let’s keep the topic off me.” Ladybug murmured hesitantly, trying his gosh-darn best to focus back on Tangerine. “So, have you always had.. Uh… Lizzie and Juno?..” He hummed, bouncing on his heels with his hands stuffed into his pockets.
“Yeah. Lizzie, the smaller one, showed up at Cuvée’s door last month, so I just took her in. Nobody ever said anything about pets when I started renting here.” Tangerine hummed, the tension easing slightly as he put a good amount of cat food into each of their bowls. Out of the corner of his eye, Ladybug watched Juno stretch, hop off the couch, wander over to where Tangerine was standing and walk in figure eights around his ankles.
“And Juno?” Ladybug hummed lightly, shifting his duffle bag around slightly.
“She’s from Lemon. After I got out of the hospital.” Tangerine sighed, walking over to a spot by the backdoor, which Ladybug had guessed led to the top of the building, and placing the two bowls down. Both Juno and Lizzie walked over, Lizzie jumping more than actually walking.
“Just put your bag in my room to the left, and you can have the couch. It’s decently comfortable.” Tangerine shrugged, slipping a lighter and a pack of Davidoff Classic out of the pocket of his joggers. “I’ll be out on the roof if you need anything.” He murmured before the door opened, and Tangerine was gone.
Ladybug sighed, looking over to the left where Tangerine said his room was. There was a half open door, a pile of books sitting beside it. Damn, this guy can sure read, Ladybug thought as he headed for the door with Lizzie right on his heels.
Inside the room was small, like a college dorm room. There was a single person bed slammed up against the wall to the right, the headboard decorated with a string of lights and a fuck-ton of sticky notes. There was a bookshelf beside it, covered in books from head to toe, a pair of shut doors beside that was most likely a closet. There was a desk by the left wall, a few books sitting on it along with a stack of papers and a laptop. It had a few stickers on the back, one of which Ladybug actually recognized since he’d seen the West Ham United one before in the airport.
There was a dresser beside the door, the top completely cleaned off apart from a bunch of rings and a few framed photos of Lizzie, Juno, Lemon and some other people mixed in with Tangerine that Ladybug didn’t recognize. Ladybug walked around to the other side of the dresser, seeing a small stool. He placed his bag down there, heading out of Tangerine’s room.
Back inside the living room, a replay of West Ham United’s match against Chelsea was playing on the TV, Tangerine working on something in the kitchen as he hummed along to ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’.
“I’m surprised you haven’t tried to kill me yet.” Ladybug murmured, walking over to the island in the kitchen and leaning on it slightly.
“Likewise. I’ve got most of my ducks in a row though, so I’m not as shitty as before.” Tangerine sighed, glancing up at Ladybug for a second before returning to whatever he was doing.
“Therapy?” Ladybug raised an eyebrow, smiling slightly.
“Oh don’t get all peachy-fucking-keen, it wasn’t your doing.” Tangerine looked up, rolling his eyes aggressively, despite there not being much of a bite behind it.
“Oh so it was Lemon?” Ladybug went on, his hand holding up his chin as he smirked. He totally thought this was his doing.
“Yeah, actually. Both with encouragement from the hospital, and because he thought my anger would lead to more casualties once we started working again.” Tangerine hummed, frowning ever so slightly as he talked.
There was a bit of silence, a bit of the match playing in the background.
“French under 21 player Mallo Gusto who takes the place of the injured Rhys James.”
The silence wasn’t how Ladybug expected it to be. It wasn’t thick, or filled to the brim with anger fueled with spite alone, but it was comfortable. It felt as if he had been living with Tangerine for a few months and this had just become the new normal for them.
Lizzie came up and started scratching at Ladybug’s leg, causing him to look down with a smile. He bent down, picking up the small cat and scratching behind her ears.
And as fate had it, Tangerine had looked up at just that second to see the man that had shot him with the sweetest smile on his face, holding one of his beloved babies in his arms and looking like he couldn’t even hurt a fly if he tried.
Well, shit.