Chat Noir
When he came back to his (admittedly enhanced) senses, Chat found his face buried in a very familiar red and black dotted costume. It wasn't unpleasant, but given the night's events, somewhat unexpected. "Ladybug?" he said, his voice muffled against the fabric of her embrace. "Am I dead?"
"I certainly hope not."
He straightened up a bit and started to return the hug, and only then realized he was still Chat Noir, claws and all. "That's odd," he said, turning his hand over and looking at the Miraculous.
Sure enough, the ring was not showing the normal green-glowing icon of a paw; but he was still in costume, and the ring itself remained black, indicating Plagg was still resident.
This has never happened before.
He blinked, and it was still his enhance Chat Noir vision. He could feel the breeze lifting his feline ears and hear the gentle sounds of the river a few blocks away. He sniffed, and it was still the feline version of his senses, not those of Adrian.
I can't still be Chat Noir. The ring…?!
He sniffed the air again, sensing something familiar. Oddly, Ladybug seemed to have some of the same notes that Marinette had. If she'd rescued him from his fall from grace, he reasoned that Ladybug must have brushed up against something that had some Marinette residuals on it.
"Chat? How are you feeling?" Ladybug's face was still turned away.
"I'm not pawsitive," he admitted, nonplussed and finding himself short of decent puns. "You can turn around."
"No!" she exclaimed. "Not until you can transform again."
"I never changed," he said, and this time he did reach out to her face, turning her toward him. She looked down and sucked in a quick breath as she spied the claw-tipped glove.
"Milady," he said warmly. "I think you saved me yet again."
Her eyes widened and she took his ring hand into her own, examining the Miraculous. "This can't happen," she said. "You should have reverted." She looked up, worried eyes framed by her mask. "You have to transform back! Your kwami—"
"Maybe it needs a catboot," he purred. "Turn around again and I'll try to manually transform."
Ladybug rolled her eyes but turned away again.
"Plagg, claws in."
Chat waited. The transformation was normally instantaneous, but no flash enveloped him. He stared at his gloved hands, willing them to change back to his alter ego.
He tried again, this hearing the rising panic in his voice. "Plagg - claws in!"
Still nothing. He looked at his hands again, realizing with a certainty he'd never before contemplated that there was no way to get out of his costume short of the Miraculous transformation. Gently, he reached up and tugged on one of his feline ears, feeling them pull but not give way. It wasn't a dream: he was still very much Cat Noir.
"Plagg! Claws in!"
What is happening to me? he thought, with barely restrained panic. He was acutely aware that any of the self-assurance that normally came with being Chat Noir had vanished into the ether, though what was left of his logical brain was pointing out it had more to do with whatever had been shot (literally) into his system.
"PLAGG! CLAWS-"
A gentle hand on his arm paused him. "Stand down, kitty," Ladybug said, smiling kindly. "We'll get to the bottom of this, you have my word."
Green eyes ringed with worry met her clear blue. "Of course, milady," he said perfunctorily.
She turned his head to look at the wound on his neck. "Want to walk me through why you were flinging yourself from that balcony over there? And how you wound up with that little beauty?"
Ladybug
Chat pulled away from Ladybug and pulled his knees below his chin. She could see the embarrassment tinging the skin around the exposed areas of his face as he wrestled with just how much to tell her. Inwardly she cringed, realizing as Ladybug she was going through the exact same motions Marinette had when Chat had arrived on her doorstep no more than an hour ago.
Rough night for the Chat, she thought, not without tenderness.
She reached for his gloved hand. "Chat, it's just you and me. You can tell me anything." She paused, then added, more quietly, "I'll always lend an ear, whenever you need one... though technically you have more to spare than I do..."
He smiled lopsidedly. "Milady, I am not sure you want to know all of it." He sighed, and then quickly sketched in how he had come to be on Marinette's balcony. To his credit, he left nothing out, ending with: "I was mere moments away from telling Marinette just how much I love you, which now that I think about it, would have created a pretty uncomfortable moment."
Chat stared up into the dark night, touching the welt at his neck. "I heard this a fraction of a second before it hit me. I don't understand why I didn't react faster, and I went down pretty hard. Next thing I knew, I was waking up in her bed with a massive headache and a chirping Miraculous." Green eyes flicked to her, ears flattened. "Don't you even say it."
Ladybug smirked. "I didn't have to, catsanova."
He tried to smack her and missed, adding, "I have only ever had eyes for you, milady." He frowned. "Of course, you saw that writ large tonight – last night? - anyway."
Ladybug tactfully steered away from his nightmare, asking instead: "You didn't call up Cataclysm? I assume you reverted after we parted this evening, so it's conceivable you would have been able to call it up again."
"Not while I was sensate," he replied, then grinned sheepishly. "I have no idea if Marinette ravished me while I was defenseless."
Ladybug had the good sense to turn away slightly, hiding the blush. "The only possible explanation is that the Miraculous attempted to counter the effects of whatever hit you, draining itself in the process much like it would had you actually used your super power." She looked up. "I hate to think what might have happened if you'd already used Cataclysm."
Chat's eyes bugged wider. "Now there is a scary thought. Someone has come up with a weapon that can affect us like that?" He paused. "Not even Hawkmoth has thrown that at us."
"It only partially explains why you can't transform back, though. If you were totally drained, you should have transformed completely. It's almost as if you're stuck in default mode."
Chat looked at his costume again. "I can't stay like this," he said. He started to fiddle with his ring. "Maybe if I just take this off -"
"No!" Ladybug said forcefully, placing a hand over his ring. "We don't know what would happen once you take it off – it's safer to keep it as is until we know more about what happened."
Chat ran a paw through his wild mane, an affectation Ladybug found strangely familiar. "My, uh, alter ego will be missed in a few hours, Ladybug." He shrugged. "I'm open to suggestions, especially any that require me to leave Paris immediately."
"Well, I can't take you to Master Fu while you are Chat Noir." Ladybug eyed her partner. "But he can go to you – I know he visited your alter ego at home. Do you feel well enough to get there?"
"Same problem," he sighed. "I've enough left in the tank to get there, but Chat Noir can't be where, uh, my alter ego is expected to be." He paused. "Although... I might be able to make it work," he added thoughtfully. "I'll buzz you on the bug phone when I get there. But you have to promise not to use the GPS function – otherwise you'll know where I live."
"Fair enough," she said. "Now get going, kitty."
Chat Noir stood up and did his customary bow-and-a-kiss, albeit with less grace than usual. "As you wish, milady," he replied, slightly unsteadily. He bounded toward the edge and hurled himself over; Ladybug followed and watched as he executed a typically over the top barrel roll to land gently on the street below. He retrieved his baton, which he extended into the night, disappearing in a matter of moments. She popped open her tracker for a brief moment to ensure he was still moving before disengaging the function and starting her own trek toward the Guardian of the Miraculous.
