Le Chien et Chat Noir

"….This is why to this day cats and dogs remain natural enemies. Do your reading on invertebrates for tomorrow. Class dismissed!" Adrien looked up from his doodles of ladybugs all over his notes and blushed whenever he realized he hadn't paid any attention to his teacher's biology lecture. At all. A glance over at Nino's notes showed that his best friend hadn't either. Oh well, he could just repeat the reading from last time in addition to the assigned reading.

Lost in his Ladybug induced haze, Adrien didn't seem to notice there was someone else lost in a lovelorn haze just behind him.

"Marinette. Hello?" Alya waved her hand in front of the half-Chinese girl's spacey blue eyes.

"Marinette? Look Chloe's about to kiss Adrien!" Alya said.

"What! Where!" Marinette's eyes refocused as she rapidly scanned the room. Whenever she realized that this was not what was happening she glared at the now laughing Alya.

"Sorry. Class is over and you were still daydreaming," Alya said trying not to laugh harder at Marinette's facial expression.

"So, I got a scoop that Ladybug and Chat Noir were spotted at the Eiffel Tower Yesterday night," Alya said.

"Really?" Marinette said. She hoped her voice sounded genuinely interested.

She and Chat Noir had been in the area patrolling in case of any of the myriad of tourists possibly becoming akumas. Alya's tone seemed to imply something else.

'Black energy dissipated and their lips parted. Green eyes focussed on her before they widened in confusion—.' Marinette shook her head. That didn't count! He was under the control of an akuma's spell! It meant nothing! Nothing!

"So, do you think—."

"There's no way they're a couple!" Marientte said a tad too loudly. A few other students stopped and stared at them before continuing their exodus.

"I was going to say, do you think they're worried about something but, that's an even better scoop!" Alya said before she ran off.

"Alya!"

"I need to find out if it's true!" Marinette held her head in her hands.

"It's not so bad, Marinette. It wouldn't be the first time." Marinette looked down to see Tikki was peeking up out of her purse.

"First time?"

"Never mind, didn't you want to go and sketch this afternoon before doing your homework?" Tikki said.

"You're right!" Marinette said.

It was a beautiful day in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. What more could she ask for for inspiration!

Champ de Mars

It was a beautiful day and Marie-Claire going about her business. What business you might ask: Marie-Claire was a dog walker whose clients included celebrities, the rich, and a few local business people. Today she only had four dogs and the fourth dog was her own Mini-Fraise, named for her small size and red coat.

Down the way, was of all people, Chloe followed by her ever faithful sidekick Sabrina. The blonde was paying no mind to anything but herself as she checked her nails as she strolled. She bumped into a few tourists here and there and ignored the angry/annoyed yells in at least three different languages. As if she'd care. She had more important things to do. Like track down Adrien.

It was like watching a train wreck about to occur. Mini-Fraise broke loose from the pack, Chloe in her designer boots kept on walking without a care for anything or anyone else. Mini-Fraise was aiming for the dropped food of an American tourist and—

"Yipe! Yipe! Yipe!"

"Mini-Fraise!" Marie-Claire used a hand signal to get the other three to stay as she rushed over to her pet and checked on the whimpering pooch's paw. Chloe kept walking as if she hadn't just crushed the paw of a small animal.

"Hey!" Marie-Claire yelled. Chloe kept walking.

"Apologize!" Chloe stopped and threw a sneer over her shoulder.

"How dare you speak to me like that!" Chloe said, "Do you know who my father is!"

"I don't care, you apologize to Mini-Fraise!" Marie-Claire said. Chloe sniffed and kept walking.

Somewhere else in Paris,

The iris opened, and the butterflies stirred. Hawkmoth had found his daily victim.

"Ah, your beloved pet is hurt, and the one who harmed them doesn't care. Disregard for animals cannot be tolerated, no?" Hawkmoth catches a white butterfly and it turned black, "Fly my, akuma, and today we will get the Miraculous!"

Champ de Mars,

Marie-Claire tried to sooth Mini-Fraise's paw whenever a black butterfly landed on and absorbed itself into the handle of her leash. Around her eyes, the red mark of the butterfly formed just before the glowing outline joined it.

"My Hound. That girl has harmed your precious dog. I can help you get even, but you must do something for me in return."

"Of course, Hawkmoth." Marie-Claire said before she was covered in black smoke-like energy and she was transformed into a gigantic horse sized dog, with the leash around her neck as a collar. The tourists ran in terror from this, well most of them.

.-.. .- -.. -.- -... ..- -.

Adrien had been enjoying the afternoon off with his best friend Nino, and the good weather too. Even Plagg was on his best behavior. That all changed whenever a slavering, slobbering dog akuma began chasing down Chloe. Adrien watched as others scattered from the sight of the massive Hound. He was instantly looking for a place to transform. Chat Noir was needed.

"I just remembered I needed to go get something!" Adrien said as he left his friend after he found just the spot.

"Adrien!"

"Chat Noir!" Plagg flew out of Adrien's bag and into his ring allowing the teen to transform into his alter ego, Chat Noir. The blond leapt into action and landed near Chloe's projected path.

"Hey, stop being so paw-ful to that—." and Chat Noir's opening banter abruptly stopped.

The large dog turned its jowls from the fallen Chole and sniffed in Chat's direction. Chat felt something freeze inside of him, his hair standing on end.

Chat heard a distinctly cat like growl and it took him a few moments to realize it was him growling. Before the boy could assert his will over his feline side, the dog charged, barking and he took off like a shot, sometimes on legs, sometimes on all fours. A splotch of red let him know that his Lady had just seen this.

'Why me?'

.-.. .- -.. -.- -... ..- -.

Marinette had been on her way home after sketching in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower whenever she heard the screams and saw people running. Well most were running. There were the occasional tourists who were filming it. Marinette had to fight rolling her eyes before she ducked into hiding place.

"Tikki: Transform!"

Ladybug emerged onto the scene and stopped dead whenever she saw the main cause of the commotion almost literally zip past her. Chat Noir, hair and eyes wild with fear was being chased by a giant dog akuma. She blinked to make sure it was real before she gave chase. They headed right for where she had been before: The Eiffel Tower. She was having trouble keeping up even with using her yo-yo to swing after them. They were moving that fast. They were also managing to weave past the panicking tourists admirably. Something she was having trouble with, even using lamp posts to swing from.

The chase ground to a halt whenever Chat leapt up into part of the Eiffel Tower and the massive dog shaped akuma was on its hind legs barking at the trapped superhero. Ladybug bit back a giggle. Chat Noir looked a little worse for the wear and was he...hissing! He was acting full out like a cat! Ladybug suppressed another giggle as she threw her yo-yo up in the air.

"Lucky Charm!" This time she got a red and black dog whistle. That was self explanatory, for once. She blew on it and the dog sat promptly. She looked up at her harried partner who looked a little less like a treed cat and a bit more like a treed human.

"You alright, Chat?" Ladybug said.

"I'm purr-fect, my lady," Chat said in a strained voice. Ladybug blew the whistle two more times and the dog began to roll around like a well trained canine would and that's when she saw the blackened leash made into a makeshift collar on the massive Hound's neck.

"Chat, get that leash off their neck!" Ladybug said. Chat leapt down and with a flip pulled the leash-collar off the Hound's neck and tossed it to Ladybug as he landed. The Hound growled at Chat who bared his teeth at it.

Before the massive dog-shaped form could move, Ladybug smashed the handle on the ground.

"Your time is done akuma!" Ladybug said as she ran a finger over the surface of her yo-yo revealing the pure white inner light before she spun it and captured the akuma.

"Got you!" Once in, she released it and waved good by to it,

"Bye-bye little butterfly!" The Hound turned back into Marie-Claire and Mini-Fraise caught up with her human. Ladybug threw the whistle into the air,

"Miraculous Ladybug!" Everything else damaged by the rampage of the temporarily dog-formed dog walker was fixed along with the leash. Mini-Fraise's leash.

"It's alright to care for your pets like family, but going overboard can cause even more problems," Ladybug said as she handed Marie-Claire back her leash. Mini-Fraise yipped and hopped into her arms.

"Good work, Chat for distracting her," Ladybug said with a small smirk.

"O-Of course, my Lady," Chat Noir said as he smoothed his hair down. His voice was back to its usual cocky/flirty tone.

"Well, I'd better go," Ladybug said.

"Thank you, my Lady," Chat Noir said.

"Of course, Chat. I know how useless cats are around dogs," Ladybug said bopping Chat Noir's nose before she took off on foot. Chat Noir coughed and took off in the opposite direction.

.-.. .- -.. -.- -... ..- -.

Adrien slipped into his house and found it was, unsurprisingly, empty.

"Plagg, what happened?" Adrien asked the tiny kwami.

"HAHAHA! You lost yourself to your more animalistic instincts! I haven't seen a reaction this bad in centuries!" Plagg said.

"I suppose you don't want this camebert then," Adrien said as he took out the kwami's favorite cheese.

"CAMEBERT!" Plagg said, "I'm sorry! I won't mention how you acted like a scaredy kitten with that dog akuma! You were the bravest hero ever!" Before Adrien could retract the cheese the little kwami was already all over it.

"Why did that happen, Plagg?"

"Well, unlike Ladybug, you're more closely tied to your animal aspect of your Miraculous because you're a mammal too and that means you're going to have to work keeping your instincts in check. Hopefully better than you did today! Hahahaha!"

"Like you do any better with dogs," Adrien said.

"I do so! I've never ever run away from a dog unlike you!" Plagg said.

"Two weeks ago. That fashion shoot I had to do with a dog in it," Adrien said.

"That dog was the most monstrous dog ever! The worst! You're lucky you survived working with that beast! Oh, I was so scared I was famished like I've never been before from the sheer fear of it. The mere memory is bringing the fear and my appetite back! Oh!" Plagg threw himself on Adrien's desk. Cheese already devoured.

Adrien checked the Ladyblog with dread and hung his head whenever he found that Alya had gotten almost the entirely of his cat-spazz-out on film and had published it on her website for all to see. Chat Noir's image was doomed. Ladybug was definitely never ever going to let him live this down. Plagg was laughing again and Adrien gently flicked him away from the monitor in retaliation. It didn't stop his laughing at all or even earn any sort of reaction.

.-.. .- -.. -.- -... ..- -.

Across Paris, Marinette was also giggling at the video Alya had shared on the Ladyblog.

"Poor Chat," Tikki said, "I bet he was really terrified."

"It's still a little funny to see Mr. Flirt loose his composure," Marinette said once she stopped her giggles, "I didn't know he was afraid of dogs."

"He probably wasn't before," Tikki said. Marinette blinked at her, a couple times.

"It's part of the deal of being Chat Noir. Heightened senses and agility but other feline attributes also come into play."

"I don't have to worry about any ladybug things, do I?" Marinette said after a few moments.

"No, I've never seen any Ladybugs have anything like that happen," Tikki said as she crossed her arms and thought about it.

"Now I feel bad for laughing," Marinette said as she looked down.

Rooftop not far from Marinette and Adrien's school that night

"You wanted to meet me here, My Lady?" Chat Noir said with his usual confidence. Ladybug shoved a package from her family bakery into his arms. Not that Chat Noir knew that.

"I'm sorry I laughed at you," Ladybug said, "I didn't know."

"Think nothing of it, My Lady. I hadn't known I had a fear of dogs waiting to claw its way to the surface either," Chat Noir said. Ladybug nodded,

"Well, I'll see you around!" before Chat Noir could do anything else, Ladybug had swung off into the distance.

.-.. .- -.. -.- -... ..- -.

Chat Noir opened the box from a bakery that he knew. One of his classmates' families owned it. Right, it was Marinette! Inside were two perfectly baked extra large chocolate chip cookies. Chat Noir smiled to himself as he took a large bite of out of one of the cookies.

Perhaps he should let his animal side get the better of him more often.