"If you're done admiring yourself," Plagg's voice sounded in Sabrina's – no, Chat Noire's – head, "you should probably try to fly now."
Chat Noire froze, green eyes widening and not because she suddenly noticed that her kitty ears were movable. "Fly?" she echoed numbly.
"Yeah. Fly." her new kwami did not sound amused with her lack of knowledge or enthusiasm.
"With what?"
"You're a cat-witch, aren't ya? You use your broom."
"What broom?!"
"This is why you should have let me finish explaining, kid."
It took only about thirty seconds for Chat Noire to figure out how to transform her magic wand into a broomstick. It took ten seconds for her to stop admiring how cute it looked – with a black handle, green ribbon binding the straw, and a green cat's head charm to connect the segments.
It took ten minutes for Plagg to convince his new charge to actually use it.
And it took about thirty more seconds for Chat Noire to start flying erratically, screaming at the top of her lungs (Plagg distinctly remembered screaming "What do you mean you hate heights?!" mid-flight), make it halfway across the city, and crash into Ladybug.
After Stoneheart was finally defeated and the butterfly purified, Plagg decided that this cat would fly, or he'd die trying.
ATTEMPT THREE
He was starting to think he really might die trying after all. And not because of reckless flying, but of boredom.
None of the previous cats had been this terrified!
"Okay, so, I figure the first few times were bad because I started too high!" Chat Noire said cheerfully, standing with her broom in the alley behind her apartment building. "If I start on the ground and work my way up to baby steps, I'll be perfectly fine!"
"That's so boring!"
"But it's safe!"
"Flying isn't meant to be safe! It's supposed to be freeing! Fun!"
"I can't have fun if I break my neck." Chat Noire hummed cheerfully under her breath and braced herself. A cheeky grin appeared on her lips, her hair lifting slightly with a burst of green magic. The broom beneath her slowly levitated a foot off the ground, floated backwards a few inches...
...and then rocketed skyward, Chat Noire screaming like a siren the whole way up.
ATTEMPT SIX
"TURN THE BROOM TO STEER, TURN TO STEER!"
"HOW DO I SLOW DOWN, PLAGG?!"
"HOW SHOULD I KNOW?! IT'S SUPPOSED TO COME NATURALLY – UP-UP-UP, THAT'S A BUS!"
"AAAAAAAAAH!"
ATTEMPT TEN
Chat Noire hit the grass and dropped the transformation. Sabrina hugged the ground for dear life, mumbling something about sweet, sweet unmoving land.
Plagg sat a foot away from her head, arms folded and a deadpan look on his face. "Your broom," he said slowly, "landed in a tree."
"Uh-huh."
"And you-"
Sabrina just sniffled.
"-jumped off of it, instead of trying to turn."
"Be quiet!"
ATTEMPTS FIFTEEN THROUGH NINETEEN
The less said about those, the better.
The Ladyblog had some amazing (if blurry) pictures of Chat Noire's unsuccessful flights, and one really good one of the upturned flower cart.
Sabrina had to blow her entire allowance on expensive cheese just to pacify her kwami, and liberally applied cheap rose perfume to get rid of the smell about her.
ATTEMPT THIRTY
Chat Noire sputtered, partly in shock and partly in disgust, as she swam through the Seine in desperate searching of her broom.
In her head, Plagg was shouting up a storm. "-so lucky I can't get wet in here, I hate water-"
"I'm so sorry, Plagg!"
"-what kind of cat willingly goes to water-"
"I'm not liking this any more than you are! Do you know how dirty the Seine actually is?! I mean okay it's getting cleaned up and they're estimating it'll be safe for swimming within a decade or so – but still, this is so gross!"
"Find your broom, then we can go home! You owe me so much-"
It wasn't for a good five minutes that Plagg told her all she had to do was will the broom to come to her and it would. Sabrina wasn't sure how much was forgetting in the heat of emotion, and how much was him being spiteful.
ATTEMPT FIFTY-THREE
"You've mastered flying, turning, slowing and speeding, landing finally...Now all's left is—"
Chat Noire's blood ran cold. "I can't fly upside-down, are you crazy?!"
ATTEMPT FIFTY-FOUR
She flew upside-down anyway, thank you very much Akuma. Thank you, Ladybug, for that weird plan.
It was good that Miraculous Ladybug healed all injuries. Otherwise she didn't know how she'd explain a goose-egg on the back of her head to her father.
NOT-ATTEMPT ONE HUNDRED
Ladybug glanced over at Chat Noire during patrol one night, noting the way she flew standing up.
She didn't look tensed up at all, but rather stood atop her broom with her hands clasped behind her back like she was simply standing in the middle of the street. The kitten heels of her shoes were locked behind the broomstick, keeping her balanced.
…..wait. Kitten heel. Ladybug wasn't sure if that was brilliant or awful.
"You're pretty good at that thing."
"Thank you! You know it wasn't easy?"
"I know. The Ladyblog archives have the pics to prove it."
"Shut up!"