Author's Note: This is a sequel to another story of mine – "The Party". You probably do not need to read that one to enjoy this one, although it would make some things more understandable. Also I was told "The Party" was a rather good piece of fanfiction, so…

Anyway… Do you remember the ending of Chapter 11 "The closet" from that story? When after her sassy comeback to Adrien's downpour of puns Plagg states he likes Marinette and jokingly asks Tikki to swap holders? JustAnotherCuriousKat from AO3 – suggested a kwami swap scene in their comment, and I was struck on the spot with inspiration. This is the result. So any complains go to CuriousKat ;P

Just kidding, this is all on me xD

Chapter 1. No such luck

It was really nobody's fault, although Plagg of course blamed his charge.

Adrien and Marinette were getting accustomed to the post reveal reality, and despite their best intentions things still were a little (okay, a lot) awkward, especially out of suits and without any imminent threats that required flawless teamwork. Ladybug and Chat Noir were good at teamwork. Extremely good. But it went as far as akumas were considered. Other than that Marinette and Adrien sucked at being together (at least according to Plagg).

Currently their relationship was stuck somewhere between classmates, teammates, friends and 'something more'. Some promises and declarations were made, hands were held meaningfully, hugs and shy pecks on cheeks were exchanged. And even though the two of them were making progress, it was painfully slow, awkward and – if someone would bother to ask Plagg – sickeningly saccharine.

It was the first time after the fateful party when Marinette and Adrien actually both had time outside of suits just to hang out at Marinette's – only the two of them, not doing anything in particular (Adrien stressed countless number of times, that it was definitely not a date, no matter what Plagg said). Marinette (who as Adrien declared countless number of times, was definitely not his girlfriend, no matter what Plagg said) was working on her newest design, Tikki dozed off on the loft bed and Plagg was keeping her company and munching on a piece of cheesecake.

Adrien however was getting restless, pacing around Marinette's room and thinking out loud about quantum magic. He had that strange idea that they should explore all the possibilities of that branch to make more of their transformations, and to cooperate better, knowing what the other one was capable of. Secretly he was thrilled to finally have someone other that Plagg to talk about miraculouses, secret identities and such.

This time Plagg listened intently to Adrien's antics. Somehow he was having a bad feeling about this. He nudged Tikki but she was fast asleep and snoring. The little cat turned his ears to his Chosen.

Adrien was telling Marinette about his own transformation, switching between drowning her with words and shooting questions at her. Soon the girl tuned him out, focused mostly on her sewing. To keep the conversation going she randomly hummed or echoed his words.

'So, if I want to transform I have to address Plagg by name, right? You do the same with Tikki?'

'Mhm.' Marinette hummed noncommittaly.

'But I can use a few wordings, like different versions of 'transform'.' Adrien was explaining the obvious.

'Yup, different versions.'

'There's also a separate command about drawing claws,' To Plagg's relief his charge purposefully avoided the correct wording not to trigger his transformation at the moment.

'Claws? What do you say then?'

'I can't tell you now or I'll transform,' Adrien chuckled.

'Right, right. Um, sorry,' Marinette also gave a little laugh. 'Can you write it down, tough? I'm just curious,' she added.

'Well, my Lady. They say curiosity killed the cat,' Adrien replied with a wink as he took a piece of paper and a pencil from her desk. 'But since you're not a cat, I guess there's no harm in that.'

And before Plagg was able to swallow the piece of cheesecake in his mouth and explain the importance of keeping the transformation spell a secret, Marinette was already looking at the correct wording.

'Adrien, no!' Plagg launched himself from his spot on the loft bed. 'Marinette, DO NOT read that!' he yelled, at the same moment as the girl zeroed her gaze on the words and read the spell, wondering how it would roll off her tongue.

'Plagg… claws… out…~'

In an instant a green glow appeared around her earrings. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a black blur approaching her with high velocity and heard Plagg screaming his lungs out.

'Noooo! Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!' the black kwami yelled as he was dragged through the room and sucked inside Marinette's earrings. Greenish light engulfed her body from head to toe. Adrien watched in horror as she stumbled backwards surrounded by the miraculous glow and toppled over her chaise lounge with a loud crash.

'Marinette!' he cried and rushed to help her up. A black glove caught his extended hand and Chat Noire emerged from behind the chaise, extremely confused.

Her suit looked exactly like Chat's – the tail swooshed behind her back, the cat ears dropped in embarrassment. The baton was resting on her lower back. But there was no ring on her right hand – she had the earrings instead. They were black, with green paw-prints on them. Her dark hair were still split into pigtails, held with electric-green ribbons, and her now cattish eyes glowed sapphire instead of emerald.

'Wow!' Adrien exclaimed. He circled the black clad girl to take a better look. 'Woooow!' he whispered once again in awe. Mari was right at the party – that look really was great on her. Suddenly the room was really hot and stuffy. Adrien had to sit down.

'A-adrien. How the hell has this happened?!' Marinette groaned looking at her body in black suit. 'Am I a cat now?!'

'Oh, yessss,' was all that Adrien's brain was able to conjure up. 'You look… you look just… woooow…'

'Um, thank you?' Marinette blushed but she felt really flattered. She approached Adrien swinging her tail with her hand and swaying her hips in such way, that Adrien was sure he was going to pass out. He was mesmerized. He was entranced, the vision of Marinette in tight black suit filling all his world. The coy smile she was giving him reduced him to a smitten kitten. And that was exactly the reason why he did what he did.

'I can't believe it! You just said it, and whoosh, you're Chat Noire!'

'I know, Adrien. I was there,' Marinette chuckled amused with his excitement.

'I mean, who would have thought!? So, do you think I will transform into Laddiebug if I say "Tikki, spots on"? ~…'

It was supposed to be a joke. But with a stroke of bad-luck he got that one just right. As soon as Adrien voiced the spell, he felt a strange pull in his ring finger. His miraculous glowed red and he heard Tikki's confused voice mumbling 'Wha… hapn'g…?' while she soared towards him from the bed in a red haze. At the last moment she caught the side of the chaise trying not to be sucked into the ring. 'Oh, nooooooo!' she wailed as she lost her grip and vanished inside the miraculous.

Instantly a reddish light swept over Adrien and when it faded away… there stood Laddiebug, in his red suit with black dots, with a red mask on his face and a yoyo at his hip. The thatch of blond hair was still there, though it grew a little now covering his ears. No earrings on him, but his ring was now red, with five black dots, where previously the paw-print had been.

The boy took a dive to the mirror but soon sighed in disappointment.

'No pigtails,' he complained. 'I was counting on the pigtails.'

Chat approached the mirror herself, inspecting their reflection.

'Well, this is interesting,' she snickered putting her elbow on Bug's shoulder. 'I don't want to be anywhere near our kwami when you explain all that to them.'

'Huh!?' Adrien gasped in mock hurt. 'As far as I recall it was you, who caused this mess. But hey, you won't hear Ladybug's number one fan complaining about this,' he gestured to his attire. 'You know, we look even better than at the party!?'

'I told you that suit should've been mine, Bug,' Marinette tapped Adrien slightly on the nose and he in turn rang the bell under her chin.

'Like I said, you won't find me complaining,' he countered eyeing her suit with a shameless grin.

'Oh my god, how could I ever think it was Plagg's influence! You're just incorrigible flirt!' Marinette nudged him in the ribs.

'Only with you, Mon Minou. Only with you!' Adrien murmured playfully. He took her hand and brushed it lightly with his lips not for one moment breaking eye contact.

A strange sound reverberated in Chat's throat. Her eyes widened and she covered her mouth with her other hand.

Adrien raised a brow, mirth written all over his face. 'Was that a…?'

'No, it wasn't!' Marinette's denial came out slightly muffled as her mouth was still covered.

The boy gave a little chuckle and gently stroked her hand with his thumb eliciting another vibrant sound from her.

'Yes, it was!' he exclaimed. 'You're purring, Mon Minou!'

Yet before Marinette could die of embarrassment both the ring and the earrings gave a warning beep, prompting them to drop the transformation.

'You broke it!' Plagg, pissed like hell, yelled at the top of his voice head-butting the ring on Adrien's finger. 'Ten thousand years of peace and then you just barge in and break it! It was my home!'

Tikki tried to rub soothing circles on the black cat's back. 'Plagg, you're not a genie, for heaven's sake. Calm down.'

'Just let me in, you stupid thing!' the little god was boiling with rage and frustration. Yet no amount of hollering, complaining, head-butting and threats could make the ring let Plagg inside again. No matter how many times Adrien cried 'Plagg, claws out!' the miraculous stayed Plagg-proof, granting access only to Tikki after Ladybug's incantation.

The same went for the earrings. They were not letting the red sprite in anymore, responding only to Plagg now whenever Marinette uttered the spell summoning black cat's transformation.

The heroes were seated on the chaise, looking infinitely dumbfounded and guilty. When they de-transformed it all seemed like a really good joke. It took some time for them to stop giggling and listed to Plagg's accusations. It was easy to ignore his rant, he did that a lot and about just anything. But when Tikki responded with concern and anxiety they finally got the message. It was serious. Very, very serious.

Somehow each miraculous got blocked. Tikki speculated it had something to do with disrupting quantum signatures. The memory of the miraculouses got wiped out and overwritten the moment wrong kwami entered the jewels.

There was nothing they could do by themselves, thus it was decided to seek out Master Fu's advice the next day. In the meantime the afternoon turned into evening and Adrien's car pulled over the bakery to drive him home.

The final conundrum was the sudden kwami incompatibility. Marinette was no longer compatible with Tikki, as now only Plagg could enter her miraculous. Technically she was also no longer Ladybug, but this was a secondary problem. In order to transform into a hero, she needed Plagg. And if Adrien was to keep the ability to change into Laddiebug, he needed Tikki with him.

'We need to swap holders, Tikki,' Plagg pointed out, exasperated and acid at the turn of events.

'It seems so, yes,' the red kwami agreed. It was the only logical conclusion. 'Hopefully Master Fu will sort it out tomorrow and all will go back to normal.' She sighed. She liked Adrien a lot, he was a really nice boy. But even though Marinette was her charge for only a couple of months, she still was Tikki's Chosen. The red sprite grew accustomed to the girl and loved her with all of her tiny kwami heart. They were a good team and good friends. Tikki was saddened to leave Marinette with the grumpy old sourpuss that went by the name of Plagg. But there was no other choice and no time to spare as Adrien's bodyguard was already knocking on the bakery door. Tikki bid her goodbye nuzzling Marinette's cheek and hid in Adrien's pocket.

'Good night, guys!' Adrien gave Marinette a half-hug and then hesitantly leaned forward to peck her lightly on the cheek. She blushed of course, but Adrien's face wasn't really any better. Then the boy patted Plagg on the head and waved a finger in front of his nose. 'I want you to be on your best behavior, Plagg,' he warned the black kwami.

'I don't know what you're getting at,' the little cat sneered. 'I'm always on my best behavior.'

'You know what I mean,' Adrien lowered his voice. 'No nagging about cheese, no wangling any cheese and no eating cheese in bed either!'

Marinette shuddered at that. 'Ewww! He really does that?!'

'Shame on you, Plagg,' Tikki scolded her partner.

'Okay, okay, I will behave, I promise.' Plagg grumbled. 'Happy now?'

'I will be, when I get you back, buddy,' Adrien stroked the little cat one last time, and left. When the trapdoor closed after him the black sprite released a resigned sigh and plopped himself on top of Marinette's phone.

'Well, I hope you remember how it was like before the goddess of luck appeared in your life, because let me tell you girl, with this god of misfortune you're in for a treat,' he muttered.

Marinette decided to show him some positive attitude. Maybe it would cheer him up a bit.

'Oh, I'm sure everything will be all right. It's not like we have an akuma to fight, right?' she chirped happily. As soon as those words left her mouth Plagg felt his butt vibrate. He flew up and read the notification on the phone.

'Well guess what, missy, no such luck!' he snorted pointing at the screen where the words "Ladyblog: Akuma alert" flashed in red font.

AN: Please, let me know, if you liked it? This author really appreciates your comments, favs and follows and really likes to know what you think! All this keeps the chapters coming ;)

Edit: many thanks to 1412kk and Vivian Gray who were so kind to point out the correct (and decent) spelling of female Chat. As I don't know French I wasn't aware of the meaning of 'double female' wording. I'm sorry if I've made some of you uncomfortable. I didn't mean to.