A/N: Based off Geek-Fashionista (Or on here Princess Kitty1) sidekick!Adrien AU idea

Ladybug worked alone. She didn't have a partner since the gem that powered up her partner was trapped away somewhere unknown. She had a hint of where it was, but the bottom line was until she found it, she worked alone.

Until, she didn't.

It wasn't her plan to let him assist any more than the one time she had really needed him.

But she kept needing him.

And he was always there.

She came up to the power panel that she had two options for: use a lucky charm, or call on her stalker/hacker like one calls on Siri.

"Hey Chat," she said, knowing he was blocking all the security cameras in the building. She pointed at the screen she needed hacked, and within seconds, she was watching his signature gif on the screen: a little black cat pawing the air that made it look like it was waving.

She turned toward the camera and blew him a kiss. "Thank you, minou."

She made it past the rest of security to the vault without a hitch. She'd gotten information that one of the eight miraculous gems she still needed was here. She remembered the day she was approached by Master Fu, the carrier of one of the gems and the guardian of the miraculous. His home was ransacked and all the gems… gone. Most of them were inactive, thankfully. Treated and traded like collector's items. He had one miraculous left to give her, one he had found and was bringing back to his collection before the rest were stolen: the ladybug. It was up to her to retrieve the rest.

Well, her and her hacker, Chat Noir.

She made it to the vault, ready to allow her chaton to take over and open it for her. So she waited.

And waited.

And. Waited.

Concerned, she turned toward the camera she knew he'd already blocked. "Kitty?"

And that's when the door behind her dropped shut.

Her heart pounded.

"Lucky Charm!"

The car jack bent the bars open enough to allow her to squeeze though. And she ran. Past all security measures and cameras. She was compromised; it didn't matter what the cameras showed now.

She turned a corner, only to dive back again when they started shooting at her. Her heart was pounding. What now?

She heard a cry, then a second, the buzzing sound of electricity reaching her ears.

One thump followed another, and she could only assume the guards had hit the ground.

"Ladybug!"

Adrenaline spiked at the sound of her name, yet it was spoken frantically, like one calling to her.

Cautiously she peeked around the corner, only to see the guards on the ground and a man with a helmet dressed in a lot of black leather holding a large silver staff. But there was a bell on his zipper. Almost like… almost like a house cat.

"Minou?"

"Come on!" he cried.

She didn't question him. She followed the man with green-tinted glasses through the hallways of the security center they were in. The turned the corner to her opening, one she made in the roof, just as more guards were coming around the corner.

"Hold on!" She grabbed hold of him by the waist, tossing her yo-yo up through the hole and feeling the snap of the yo-yo tightening around something. With a tug, she retracted her yo-yo, pulling her and her hacker along with it.

They scampered away, bounding off rooftops before she realized that a civilian shouldn't be bounding across rooftops.

She stopped and turned, just as Chat Noir leapt across the six-foot gap between the roofs with surprising ease.

So, maybe this one could.

He pulled himself up over the ledge, stopping right in front of her.

He was tall, she realized. A head over her. She'd always been short, and that's helped her on many occasions, but he was tall, and that leather suit of his didn't leave much up to the imagination.

But then she realized that her hacker had just risked his life.

"What were you thinking?"

He took a step back in shock. "W…what?"

"I have a supersuit to protect me," she snapped. "You don't."

"Well, I couldn't just leave you in there and I couldn't contact you from my hacked system."

Ladybug rubbed her eyes. "Okay. Fine. Just don't do it again."

"What? Save your rear end?"

"Yes."

He scoffed. "Not a chance."

"It's safer that way."

"For who? Because I don't know if you would have gotten out of there if it weren't for me."

She hated to admit he was right.

He sighed and put his hands up in surrender. "Look. I don't want to fight you. Let's get out of here first, then we'll talk."

"Sounds like a plan." She took her yo-yo off her hip.

He grabbed her arm to stop her. "You really think they aren't searching the sky for you?"

She knew they were, but she didn't have a choice. "You have a better idea?"

He smirked, and he looked very much like a rouge. "I actually do."

She followed him down to the first level of the parking garage they were in to see a black and green motorbike sitting in wait.

"That's not yours, is it?"

With a smirk, he nodded.

"There was no way that you could have made it to me in time—"

"I follow you," he explained. "For the last year, I've always been close by whatever mission you're on in case you need my help."

She looked up at him, but he was already hopping on his bike. He tilted his head, signaling for her to get on behind him.

She did, wrapping her arms around his surprisingly firm torso just as he sped off into the night. Cop cars riddled the streets, and Chat wove through alleyways to avoid them.

Until he stopped in an alley that was very close to home.

"You always appear and disappear here," he mentioned. "So I thought I'd drop you off."

"Thank you," she said, a bit surprised that he noticed her pattern.

He nodded. "No problem." He pulled off his helmet and glasses, revealing a shaggy, fluffy mess of blonde hair and strikingly green eyes.

Her heart skipped a beat because good gracious, he was a looker.

"I just want to make sure you're okay. I've always got your back. We may not be partners, but you can always count on me."

She swallowed and warned herself to get her head back in the game. There were no shortage of pretty boys in Paris— or anywhere, really—so there was no reason to get flustered over this one. That still didn't stop her from leaning forward and pressing a kiss to his cheek. "I know I can," she said, stepping backwards and away. "Thank you for saving me tonight, and many other times, actually. It's nice to finally meet my sidekick in person."

She wondered if that offended him by the way his eyes were wide and mouth was slack.

But that was how she thought of him, and that wasn't going to change any time soon. "Just please don't pull any more stunts like you did tonight. I kinda need you in one piece. Good night."

With that, she spun on her heel and marched out of the alleyway, but not before she could hear his reply.

"G-g-good night!"