"Uh, Ladybug, ma'am, you're beeping."

Startled out of her reverie, Ladybug turned away from the solemn sight of the creature's body wreathed in smoke as it slowly cooled to stone.

"Ma'am?"

Nino gave her a helpless look. "Well, I don't know what the level of formality is here. Uh, was it 'my Lady'?"

"No," she said, with more force than she intended, and softened her voice. "Just Ladybug is fine."

That silly wordplay didn't belong to him. Only Chat had ever managed to make it sound sincere and respectful, and even then it had still sounded corny as hell. But Chat had been the master of corny sincerity, getting away with all kinds of ridiculousness without ever showing a hint of embarrassment, and somehow that combination had just worked.

"It's blocking the Seine," Nino murmured, with another glance at the river. "Shouldn't we try cleaning that up?"

She nodded, even though it felt wrong to talk that way about the remains of what had clearly been a creature in pain, and threw her conjured whistle into the air.

"Miraculous Ladybug!"

It burst into sparks, sending out a wave of her Creation Magic, swarms of ladybugs spreading over Paris to repair the damage the fiery rampage had caused. Curiously, no swarm fluttered to the creature, leaving what increasingly looked like an enormous statue rising out of the water.

Ladybug pursed her lips, regarding it thoughtfully. If it hadn't been cleansed, then… it hadn't been evil at all, had it? A pang of regret gnawed at her gut. She shouldn't have gone on the offensive, should have tried to figure out what it even was or what it wanted. But then, it hadn't shown the kind of sentience necessary for communication. It had just mindlessly pursued water without paying attention to its surroundings beyond smashing the obstacles in its way.

And by attacking she had made herself an obstacle.

Her Miraculous beeped again, more urgently this time. She turned to Nino, pointing to the shield still hovering at his feet.

"Do me a favor and take me to a roof overlooking an alley I can disappear into? My timer is about to run out."

"You have a timer?" he asked curiously, wrapping his gloved fingers around hers. Then he pulled her up and she cautiously found her footing on the shield. He kept holding her hand. She was about to protest when they suddenly accelerated and she almost lost her balance, and only his grip kept her steady.

"Thanks," she said with a small laugh, glancing down to see how he was keeping himself so still as the wind whipped past them. His boots appeared to have melded with the shield, keeping him upright and balanced. "Yeah, after using my Lucky Charm, I have five minutes before – poof."

"You turn back."

"Exactly."

"Cool." He paused, and self-consciously scratched the scruff on his chin. "So, on the topic of turning back…"

She raised an eyebrow.

"…how do I turn back?"

She laughed softly under her breath. "Did you just grab the Miraculous and transform as soon as you could?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny that." The corners of his eyes crinkled as he smiled sheepishly. "In my defense, I had to hurry. And I arrived here just in the nick of time, so really, you should be thanking me for not letting him finish the speech."

"Very good point. Thank you, ah…"

He puffed out his chest. "Carapace."

She bit her lips to keep from grinning. Nino had given his codename some thought. And had evidently practiced how to say it with a certain flair. "Carapace. That was a very timely arrival, I appreciate it. To answer your question, you transformed with a phrase, right?"

He nodded. "Shield up."

"Right. Well, the de-transformation spell is the opposite of that. Mine is Spots on, and to undo it, I say Spots…" She trailed off, because she couldn't very well say it out loud.

Her mind seized on that idea.

…or could she?

"Spots off," he guessed.

She nodded as her Miraculous gave her the last warning beep and they touched down on a roof. Half a minute left. Marinette absently bit her bottom lip. Could she really do this? It was against the rules.

…but the rules had cost her one partner already.

Plus, this was Nino. She'd be hard-pressed to find anyone more loyal or trustworthy than him. And he was wearing the Turtle Miraculous, so didn't that make him kind of like Master Fu? Master Fu had known her identity, had blessed her with Tikki. So… maybe it would be okay.

No. She knew she was rationalizing selfishness.

But… didn't she deserve to be a little selfish? Just this once?

"So I know you've got to go now, but before you do, could we agree to meet somewhere? Patrol or whatever." Nino smiled at her. "This superhero thing is probably going to take me a while to figure out and it'd be cool if you could give me some pointers or something."

She nodded slowly.

"Alright. Let's meet tomorrow. I'll stop by your apartment."

His eyebrows shot up. "How would you know where–"

"Lesson number one. Protect your secret identity at all costs, Nino." His eyes grew round and alarmed. "Even from Alya. Especially from Alya. It's going to suck, because you will have to lie to her all the time. And I'm about to be a huge hypocrite because I really don't want to lie to you twice over. Once was hard enough."

Marinette peered down into the alley a few stories below, gauging the distance.

Sorry, Tikki. I'm going to have to ask forgiveness rather than permission on this one.

Nino thought he'd been handling the weirdest day of his life quite well.

He hadn't panicked when faced with both his and his girlfriend's looming Death By Immolation. Having a talking magical creature pop into existence in front of him had made him achieve a level of Zen he'd never thought was possible. He'd accepted becoming a superhero without blinking an eye, going with the flow of whatever the world had decided to throw at him on this day.

But it was when Ladybug stepped on the edge of a roof, grinning and beckoning him closer, that his Chill started to unravel under the weight of it all. Ladybug's earrings beeped once more, and then she was enveloped in a bright white light.

Suddenly there was Marinette, standing where Ladybug had stood.

Marinette.

Marinette who, with a grin, spread her arms wide and allowed herself to fall backwards. He ran after her in a panic, trying in vain to catch her, and reached the edge just in time to see her land safely on one knee in the alley below.

Then she straightened up, dusted herself off, and looked up.

What.

She gave him a little wave accompanied by a shy smile, then jogged out of the alley.

He waved back.

When she was out of sight, Nino sat down, drew his knees to his chest, and considered his life choices.

Because, apparently, he'd spent a considerable amount of his life stalking Marinette. He had accompanied Alya on those late-night outings where she lay in wait for Ladybug to swing by. Alya had spent hours painstakingly mapping out her patrol routes to be able to do that. When Ladybug's costume had changed, she'd dragged Nino on stake-outs every night for weeks because she wanted to get clear footage of Ladybug training her gliding.

Nino had enjoyed those nights. The stars had been out, he'd brought snacks and wine, and it had almost been romantic.

Except they'd been stalking Marinette.

Marinette, wearing nothing but a domino mask to disguise her face. Not even a modification of her hairstyle. When Marinette had exchanged her girlish pigtails in favor of wearing her hair down, so had Ladybug. At the exact same time. Somehow, with hours and hours poured into reconnaissance and research, they had completely and utterly failed to see it.

Nino raised his knuckles to his mouth, bit down to muffle the sound, and screamed.

Adrien stalked into Le Grand Paris in a foul mood.

His lips thinned when he saw its owner and the former mayor of Paris deep in conversation with one of his guests in the lobby.

"Adrien!"

A familiar cry greeted him as soon as he passed the threshold. He made an effort to curve the corners of his lips up. Considering the height of her heels, Chloe was able to gather a truly impressive amount of speed as she sprinted toward him. He opened his arms and let her run into them.

Adrien closed his arms around his oldest friend in the world.

"Chloe," he said. "You look stunning. Have you joined my industry yet?"

She tittered, batting huge eyelashes at him, and then launched into a torrent of words. He let the tidal wave wash over him as she happily babbled about how excited she was to see him back in Paris, about what she'd been up to, about the new Mercedes her daddy had bought her and more.

"…such good timing, there's a party tonight where everyone who's anyone is going to be at, and you really can't miss this, Adrien!"

"Tonight?" he asked, bemused, and laid a hand on her platinum blond hair. He did not dare ruffle it – he'd never hear the end of it if he messed up her coiffure. Across the lobby, he saw Chloe's father narrow his eyes at him. "Didn't half of Paris just burn to the ground?"

She scoffed. "Oh please, it was no more than a tenth."

"Well, that changes things." He grinned when she lightly punched his arm.

"It's a celebration of the monster's defeat, duh."

"Ah, the "Thank God we're all alive"-party? Not to be confused with the "Day-ending-in-Y"-party?"

"Exactly!" She beamed at him. "You should come. I can introduce you to some people."

Which was to say, she wanted to show him off, and Adrien was not in the mood to put on a show. Not tonight. He wanted to fall into his bed. A bed, anyway. Maybe acquire a tub of ice cream. And yet, when she stared up at him with big hopeful eyes, he found it hard to deny her. Especially since he was here to hit her up for favors.

He knew Chloe wasn't what one might call a good person. She was self-absorbed, spoiled and had a mean streak, although the latter had softened with age and maturity. She never wrote him, only remembering his existence when he appeared in her vicinity. Then she invariably homed in on him like some sort of heat-seeking missile. Sometimes he wondered if she even had a grasp on object permanence.

And yet…

He and Chloe had a symbiotic sort of relationship. She used him, he used her, and neither of them really minded.

Over Chloe's shoulder he met the gaze of her father. The older man was staring at him with poorly concealed disdain, like Adrien was something distasteful Chloe had dragged in. Which, Adrien supposed, was exactly what he was.

He tightened his hold on Chloe's waist and saw Mr. Bourgeois stiffen.

I'm sorry, is Hawkmoth's son defiling your daughter with his touch?

The first time Adrien had seen the Look he'd since grown very familiar with, he had been unprepared for it. He'd been even more unprepared to see it on the face of a man he'd known since Adrien had been a small child being escorted to playdates with Chloe.

He hadn't known where else to go. His mansion had been surrounded by police officers. Nino's place had been out of the question since it was way too cramped, too small for even Nino's family, let alone another person on top of that, and he hadn't known anyone else well enough to dare asking to stay the night.

All but one. A girl whose father owned a hotel and who was his oldest friend.

So he'd gone to Chloe, who had assured him that of course he could stay, of course he could have a room for as long as he needed, of course security would keep the paparazzi away – until her father had told her that this wouldn't be appropriate, that he couldn't be seen giving shelter to the son of the man who'd terrorized his city for years. That the voters wouldn't approve, and that he'd be thrown out of office.

The way he'd looked at Adrien, it had made him want to run and hide, to turn into Chat Noir and never be Adrien Agreste again.

"I – I'll go, sorry to have bothered you."

Chloe's fingers wrapped around his arm, her vice-like grip not letting him go, ignoring his very clear signals that he wanted her to let go, the way she always did. He could pull harder, shake her off, but that would hurt her and he didn't want to hurt any more people.

"Adrien stays, daddy." Her voice was like steel.

"Now, darling, what did I tell you about people below our station–"

"Adrien. Stays."

And when the man made the mistake of attempting to push back against his daughter's will once more, Chloe Bourgeoise unleashed the biggest temper tantrum the world had ever seen.

"Sure, Chloe," he said so loud he knew his voice would carry, and turned to link their elbows. "Going to a party with you sounds absolutely delightful."

"Chloe, how do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Not care what people think of you? I mean, some people really hate you – no offense."

"None taken."

"This is exactly what I mean! You… you never let it get to you."

She laughed, trilling and haughty. "The first step is to realize that by failing to recognize excellence when they see it, these people have already proven that their taste is utter trash. Thus, their opinions are garbage you can safely ignore. Or mock."

Adrien smiled his most beautiful smile, savoring the rage that crossed the old man's face. He made it a point to pay a visit to Le Grand Paris at least once whenever he came to town. Chloe so loved to be seen with him, and he so loved getting free room and board.

"Tikki, I'm so, so sorry," Marinette said as she slammed the door to the university's empty atelier shut behind her. She huffed, out of breath from sprinting back to campus in the hopes of getting at least a little more work done this evening. She'd been forced to abandon her project when the creature had appeared. The deadline loomed, and she still didn't have a design she was truly happy with.

Her kwami, nestled in her purse, did not respond, nor did she peek out.

"Tikki?"

"It's alright, Marinette." The kwami's voice was muffled and sounded mildly resigned. "If you can trust your identity to anyone, it's the Guardian. I'm just wondering why Wayzz has a new Master."

Huh.

After all those warnings Tikki had given her to not ever reveal her identity to Chat Noir, "no matter how charming and friendly he might appear to be", this was a rather underwhelming rebuke.

"How the fuck did you allow this to happen?"

"All the vitals were normal, sir, we didn't think–"

"Yes," he said disdainfully, and the woman cowered, making herself small. Trying to hide from his wrath behind her glasses. "You very clearly did not think if you allowed a breach of this magnitude to happen."

He turned toward the tank, gazing at the small creature floating within. It pulsed with power, flames licking its tiny body before being snuffed out by the tank's lack of oxygen. Suddenly, as if sensing his scrutiny, it raised its oversized head to stare at him with empty eyes.

"…get this damn thing out of Paris."

"Sir, no! None of our other facilities are as well-equipped as this one to contain it!"

"Yes, I saw how well you could contain it." He sneered. "We are lucky your carelessness didn't end up burning the city to the ground."

Author's Note:

I've been happily working on this fic (I just put the finishing touches on Chapter 11) but the more I go into it, the more I realize that I will need to raise its rating to M. The characters are adults now, with all the good and bad that entails. Expect mild sin/blunt language. So, with apologies to my younger readers, the rating will be raised starting with the next chapter.