Ho Yay / Miraculous Ladybug

Are they rivals? Or something...more?

Despite the HUGE amounts of heterosexual Ship Tease, there are some moments of this happening too.

---

Between the girls

With so many female characters, was there any chance it wouldn't happen?

Marinette and Alya

• Some of Marinette and Alya's interactions often go beyond the BFF scale.
  • Marinette and Alya having fun with Manon in "Prime Queen" looks quite similar to two mothers having fun with their daughter.
  • Alya's fangirling over Ladybug is also very easy to read as a celebrity crush.
• In "Rocketear" Alya discusses how difficult it will be to keep her secret from Nino, her boyfriend, Marinette says that it wasn't easy hiding the truth from her best friend. Marinette directly compared her platonic relationship with her best friend to said friend's romantic relationship with a guy.
• A scene near the end of the Miraculous World:Paris special has Marinette and Alya laying on a lounge chair together, basically cuddling, while Marinette tells Alya how lucky she was to have met her. They even kiss each other! (On the cheeks^note Kissing on the cheeks in France is similar to hugging in the US, but still!)

Chloé and Sabrina

• One of Chloé's favorite games is to dress up as Ladybug and have Sabrina dress up as Cat Noir. Note that Cat Noir is a guy who constantly flirts with Ladybug.
  • In "Oblivio", Sabrina mentions that she and Chloé often play Super Penguino together, although Chloé rapidly shushes her. The scene is absolutely dripping with subtext already.
  • Sabrina's reminiscence in "Miraculer" when it seems Chloé has rejected her really looks more like a heartbroken ex than split friends. Also, when she thinks of Chloé tickling her, the positions they're in are not too subtle.
• Sabrina's surprisingly quick to drop Chloé and adopt Marinette as her new best friend. When she believes Marinette abandoned her work on their school project and accuses her of being just as uncaring as Chloé is, it can come off as a jaded lover who's had her heart broken one too many times. Alternatively she's simply that desperate for an actual friend, which is much worse.
• In "Penalteam", Marinette convinces Sabrina to accept a Miraculous by assuring her that doing so will help her save Chloé.

Kagami and Marinette

• Kagami's reaction to first meeting Ladybug is being interpreted in this light. Ironic considering that she's a rival for Adrien's affections.
  • In the French version of "Riposte", she (as the titular villain) actually called Ladybug "My Lady" during their fight at the Louvre.
  • During "Frozer", after Marinette falls and can't decide whether to let Luka or Adrien help her up, Kagami goes right over to Marinette and pulls her up onto her feet, then gets a little too close to Marinette and whispers into her ear, having a rather... Interesting choice of words. While the context is that Kagami was merely telling Marinette that the reason she can't get together with Adrien is because she can't tell him like it is, one can't help but think that Kagami was declaring her intent to claim Marinette for herself if she wouldn't decide whom she wants to be with anytime soon...
    Kagami: The only reason you can't stay on your feet is your hesitation. I never hesitate.
  • In "Ikari Gozen", Marinette's rant when she finds out that she's been partnered up with Kagami for the contest ends up sounding like she has a crush on her. Marinette's body language during said rant certainly doesn't help matters.
    Marinette: No way! She's brilliant, strong, cute!
  • In "Heart Hunter", both Adrien and Kagami comment that Marinette looks beautiful with her hair down. Later, when the three are getting ice cream from André, André thinks up a flavor pairing for Marinette and Kagami. And Marinette, before choosing Adrien and Kagami's flavors does ask about any way to blend the three together.
    • When Kagami is about to kiss Adrien, Ladybug intervenes and snatches her away from him, carrying her in her arms◊). For her part, Kagami does not look especially annoyed by this.
  • Throughout a good half of "Mr. Pigeon 72", the sheer◊ amount◊ of◊ overly◊ close◊ contact◊ between Marinette and Kagami as the former tries to bring the latter back together with Adrien is anything but subtle, and gets even further when they're at the swimming pool, almost bordering on Getting Crap Past the Radar at times. Also when Marinette finds out that Kagami and Adrien have broken up, her first thought is to console Kagami and doesn't even give a thought about the boy she had been obsessing over for 3 seasons.
    • Not helping matters is the minor detail of the colors on Kagami's swimsuit and their arrangement having a striking similarity to the pansexual pride flag. Subtle.
    • To top it all off, at the end of the episode, the conversation◊ that Kagami◊ and Marinette◊ have under the rain is almost framed like a romantic confession. One could have probably expected Kagami to confess her feelings to Marinette, had the conversation not ended the way it did.
  • In "Glaciator 2", when Marinette goes to Kagami for love advice, the latter offers her to practice a romantic confession with someone else... And in a moment of Suspiciously Specific Denial, says that the person Marinette has to choose for love confession practice should definitely have no feelings for her. The implication is as clear as it gets. Not to mention, for a brief moment, Marinette actually considers asking Kagami to help her practice.
  • In "Determination", the events of the episode are set off by Adrien being captivated by a highly-detailed watercolor that Kagami made of Marinette.
  • It's even outright stated in Kagami's character bio that she "has powerful feelings for Adrien, but also for Marinette, who has since become her friend". Feelings of love, perhaps?

Marinette and Zoe

• Ever since Zoé's first appearance, she and Marinette have had quite a few instances of this.
  • When Marinette and Zoé first meet in "Sole Crusher", they become friends quickly and even exchange their phone numbers. Zoé writes her number on Marinette's hand, causing her to blush. Later on, Zoé also smiles when she receives a text from her. Also, while Akumatized, Sole Crusher doesn't absorb Marinette and just carries her. They talk and Marinette nearly gets her to reject Hawk Moth's influence.
    • In this episode Sabrina is also forced in a closet, and later wraps her arm around Zoé's, affectionately demanding to do her homework.
  • "Queen Banana" gives us quite a few more moments between the two.
    • Anytime during the episode that Zoé is attacked by someone else, Marinette is always the first person to defend her. For example, when Chloé tried to steal the lead role from her and after Bob Roth gave Chloé the lead role in the play.
    • When Chloé is akumatized, Marinette's first response is to grab Zoé by the hand and drag her out. Not any other character she is close friends with, specifically her.
    • Marinette is also quick to trust Zoé with the Bee Miraculous even though they have only been friends for a few weeks at most.
    • The two also have quite a few instances of being pretty touchy during the episode.
  • There is also this moment in "Gabriel Agreste".
  • All of these moments could be considered foreshadowing, since Zoé reveals she has a crush on Marinette in "Adoration".

Marinette and Lila

• Pretty much the entirety of "Chameleon" is Lila trying to kiss Ladybug. Granted, that's how her shapeshifting power works, and she spends most of the time in various male forms, but still. Also, she's defeated by tricking her into kissing a clam, which sounds like a Double Entendre for oral sex.
  • Additionally when Lila gives an ultimatum to Marinette to make her decide to be Lila's friend or she'll make Marinette lose all her friends, Lila pins her against the wall. The scene takes place in the restroom, though. At the end of the episode, she gets right up in Marinette's face almost seductively, and when Marinette smiles and laughs it off it actually gets her flustered. All in all, Lila gives off a vibe of hating Marinette far more passionately than she likes Adrien.
  • Regardless of how she feels about Marinette, "Oni-chan" confirms that she definitely hates Ladybug more than she likes Adrien.
• In "Heart Hunter" Marinette is given the chance of choosing combos from André's ice cream of love, that more than once was hinted to give people hints about their future partner. Marinette ends up choosing the peppermint-orange combo, reproducing Lila's color scheme of green eyes and orange jacket.

Other

• Clara Nightingale gets very up close and personal to Marinette, such as dancing with her, dipping her with their faces a literal inch apart, and getting down on one knee when asking her to take part in the music video, very much the same as Cat Noir did in "Evillustrator" when he went to kiss her hand. The fact that Marinette smiles and blushes when Clara dips her doesn't quite help.
  • Clara also immediately takes back Marinette after Chloé's audition despite Chloé doing very well (she mentions she's had eight years of dancing lessons and Marinette, well...) and being dressed in a well-made Ladybug costume and wig.
  • It starts from the very beginning of the episode. When watching her on television and talking about her, we get multiple instances of her holding her hands against her cheeks and talking about her in an increasingly squeaky voice as she absolutely gushes over how great she is. We never see her act like this with any non-Adrien person, even the other celebrities she's met. It happens again when everyone's waiting in line to see her, with Mari excited that Clara is coming in their direction (this just before the scene mentioned earlier, with Clara dancing with her.)
• It's debatable since the kwamis in the Miracle Box are genderless and are qualified as "brothers and sisters" by Plagg, but during the kwami party in "Sandboy", horse and goat kwamis Kaalki and Ziggy (who both have feminine voices and are referred to by female pronouns) are seen gleefully dancing with each other. Later in the episode, Ziggy is seen helping Kaalki to stand up after the kwamis' confrontation with Hawk Moth.
• Chloé booping Marinette on the nose near the end of "Animaestro", not only did she do this while telling her she wasn't worth Adrien's attention, but Marinette appears to look a bit flustered after it. Could it be that Marinette is worth someone else's attention?
  • Also in "Cat Blanc" we see Chloé angry that Marinette and Adrien are a couple, but given Chloé's hinted lack of romantic attraction to Adrien, it very well might've not been Adrien she was mad about seeing taken.
• A very subtle one, but in "Backwarder", Ladybug visits the pharmacist to give her the prescription for Master Fu's medication, but ends up accidentally giving her the letter that he wrote for Marianne. The pharmacist reads the letter and exclaims that while she's very flattered at Ladybug's apparent feelings for her, she's already taken (plus her name's not Marianne) Though neither is implied to have actual feelings for the other, the show clearly acknowledges girl-on-girl-itude to be a thing, and something the pharmacist has no problem with even though she doesn't share Ladybug's supposed feelings.
• Marinette revealing herself as Ladybug to Alya can read like a somebody coming out of the closet to their closest friend, fearing how what their reaction may be.
• Even Sabine, Marinette's mother has one scene in "Troublemaker". An akumatized and invisible Penny touches Sabine's back to make it look like one of the staff member was flirting with her.
• Zoé and Juleka get a few moments together during "Strike Back". The two are often seen side-by-side in their superhero identities, and when Juleka is injured, Zoé immediately goes to check up on her and helps her up.
• During Alya and Zoé's brief stint as Scarabella and Kitty Noire, Scarbella tells a reporter that she and Kitty Noire are not in a relationship, as the press liked to speculate with Ladybug and Cat Noir. Kitty Noire flirtatiously challenges that notion.

Between the guys

Less often than the girls, but the guys also have their moments.

Adrien and Nino

• Nino, Adrien's best friend, holds the dubious honor of being one of the few characters who got turned into an Akuma because of injustice done to someone else close to them, the trigger for his own Akumatization being seeing Adrien so upset.
  • Nino is also seen more psyched to see Adrien after a supervillain attack than his girlfriend.
  • Rocketear gave us these◊ three◊ pictures◊.
  • In "Party Crasher", he is the one who insists on the party at Adrien's being guys-only, even though he, Kim, and Ivan have girlfriends

Adrien and Luka

• Despite the immense Ship Tease he had with Marinette for the majority of "Captain Hardrock", Luka Couffaine also got along with Adrien pretty well, even if they spent very little screen time together.
  • Furthermore, just before the final shot, Luka appears to be looking at Adrien, while the lights over him are the same colors as the bisexual flag.
  • And then, there's the final shot of the episode...
• "Desperada" shows more interactions between Adrien and Luka. Unlike between Marinette and Kagami, they have been very friendly with each other from the get-go despite the mutual interest in Marinette.
  • There's that look of admiration Adrien sends to Luka that mimics Ladybug's when they first meetup in the sewers.
  • They’re very quick to protect each other from Desperada, Luka insisting on taking Adrien to a safe place to hide, and Adrien jumping to save Luka from one of her attacks.
  • After accepting that he's not fit for the Snake Miraculous after thousands of retries, Adrien convinces Ladybug that Luka is likely a better fit for it than he is, stating how kind, caring, and determined the guitarist is.
  • Cat and Viperion manage to get along pretty well. They even wink at each other.
  • The ending card, whether intentional or not, shows a love heart between them.

Marc and Nathaniel

• In "Party Crasher" there's a shot of Marc, Nathaniel, Ivan and Adrien hugging with Marc and Nathaniel kissing Adrien's cheeks, which is composed to look a lot like the classic faces-vase image used to demonstrate figure-ground perception. Ivan and Adrien are the vase, Marc and Nathaniel are the faces. Taken at face value, this an Indirect Kiss between Marc and Nathaniel. Treating it as figure and ground, they’re at the moment just before they kiss directly.
• Marc dragging Nathaniel to the soccer game and begging him to go in "Penalteam" reads like a guy trying to get his boyfriend to do something he's not particularly interested in.

Other

• Max seems to be heavily invested in Kim's love life during Dark Cupid...
• Vincent Aza, Hawk Moth's victim in "Pixelator": an Ambiguously Gay freelance photographer whose akumatization is a result of his obsession with Jagged Stone.
• "Gorizilla" presents us with Wayhem, a Loony Fan of Adrien who might as well be considered Marinette's Badass Normal Spear Counterpart. He even dresses like Adrien! The parallel is even made explicit when both are chasing Gorizilla, they shout "Put Adrien down, right now!" within seconds of each other in the same way, though neither could've heard the other.
  • In "Ikari Gozen", he appears to be the only male character who takes part in the scavenger hunt where Adrien is the celebrity they have to find to win.
• A very subtle one, but if one watches closely, Nathaniel seems to like to draw Cat Noir more muscular than the genuine article...
  • However, considering the fact that his Mr. Bug form is pretty muscular as well, he might actually be muscular in-universe, but the team can't be bothered to re-model him.
• Adrien has some quasi-selfcest moments in "Copycat" and "Chameleon".
• While Adrien obviously means a lot to Plagg, it is sporadically implied that Plagg's affection reached an extent that surpasses the normal relationships between Kwamis and their human partners. Compared to Tikki, who has a more mentor-like relationship with Marinette, Plagg is far, far more flagrant and sentimental in his interactions with his human partner. This gem from "Syren" sums it up:
  Plagg: Oh, I'm sure there'll be another Cat Noir to give me cheese... but he won't be you.
  • In "Chameleon", Plagg attempts what basically amounts to using the True Love's Kiss to awaken Adrien from the sleep the latter was forced into by the titular Akuma, a la Sleeping Beauty or Snow White.
    • Albeit Adrien awakened before anything happened, and Plagg was visibly reluctant about going through with the idea, it should be noted that this was nonetheless the very first thing he thought of when trying to come up with a way to free Adrien. It doesn't help that of all assurances he could've used to rationalize trying it, he chose No One Will Ever Know.
• "Party Crasher" is just loaded with homoerotic subtext, as the boys all decide to throw a party at Adrien's place with girls being explicitly forbidden. Ostensibly, it's so that Mylene and Alya don't find out that their boyfriends ditched them, but still.
  • At one point they put on a vinyl record of a Village People Expy - a bright rainbow record with sparkle dust - and several guests dress up like the Village People and sing a song similar to "YMCA" (which is titled The Holiday Camp Dance).
  • It’s just about everywhere you look in the party scenes. You see Mayor Bourgeois and Butler Armand made up like drag queens (ineptly made up drag queens, but still), and Kim is a Walking Swimsuit Scene who is seen striking a pose on top of the grand piano, at one point, and pole dancing on the fireman’s pole that descends from the gallery later on. Overwhelmingly, what we’re witnessing here looks like the jubilation of a bunch of gay men who can’t be Out in their public personas finally getting together in a safe space and being able to stop pretending. (And then the Villain of the Week shows up and everybody runs like they’re in a pre-Stonewall gay bar being raided by the police.)

---