Chat Noir

Chat pressed his gloved hand against his face and sure enough, a set of whiskers had erupted around his masked nose, three to a side, just below his eyes. What was stranger was that he could feel each one individually, though he wasn't entirely sure he understood the new sensations - yet. What he did understand was that it meant he was in more trouble than he thought. "Ladybug, I don't think this is good."

"Open your mouth," she said, placing her hand on his chin.

Obediently he did so, and she gasped. "What?"

"No wonder you nicked your lip," she said. "Your canines have grown into full fangs."

He pulled out his baton and used the camera function to see his face. "Whoa," he said. "My dentist is definitely not going to like this." He paused. "Or father. There goes the modelling work."

Ladybug tilted her head. "It's been, what, about ten hours since you were hit the first time? And three since the second hit?"

"Maybe," he replied, looking at the sun hanging low in the sky. "I've not actually been keeping track of the time, but that felines right."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't have enough information, but I think perhaps your taking a second dose of whatever was in that dart went beyond simply removing your ability to transform. It's just a guess, but I'd be willing to bet what little of the second dose you did receive has started to physically combine you with your kwami. Hence, you're taking on more and more feline characteristics."

Chat's eyes crinkled into a smile. "You should really say 'ergo,' Sherlock," he laughed.

"Glad you know your place, Dr. Watson," she quipped.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. "I thought we went through that already… I'm so much more than a sidekick!" He tried to stifle another set of retching and had to turn away from her again. "Sorry…" he said between convulsions. "This seems a bit worse than earlier…"

Ladybug held the back of his head as he gasped a bit. At length he turned back around and leaned his face against the cool metalwork of the roof. "What time is it?" he asked. "I'm supposed to meet Master Fu back at my place at sunset."

"We've got about an hour, give or take," she replied. "Are you strong enough to hit that building, or do want me to take you home?"

Chat bristled slightly. "I'm fine," he said, pushing himself up. "But since I'm being chivalrous, I'll let you get us over there…"

"Right," she laughed as she wrapped an arm around his waist once more. This time he leaned into her fully, and she took off toward the high-rise. Effortlessly she sailed through the sky, and the two landed easily on the wide rooftop of the building in question. It was modern enough to include stairway access on opposite sides of the roof, an elevator aperture, and a helipad ringed with warning beacons flashing slowly.

"This has to have been designed by an American," Chat said.

"What makes you say that?"

"It doesn't have any flair at all. It's, like, generic building 101."

She smiled and didn't disagree. "Can you see the bakery from here?"

Chat started to walk the perimeter of the rooftop, easily zeroing in on the correct angle that should have pointed toward her family's bakery. "Yes," he said at length. "And from about here, you can see both the school and your balcony with a minimum shift in stance. Maybe forty degrees, tops."

Ladybug spun in a slow circle. Almost all of the main areas of the city she and Chat Noir moved through were visible from this building. Not the entire city, of course, but the majority of the places the two of them were more likely to be sighted. It also included the homes of just about all of their schoolmates.

"I'd have to use the map software on my computer, but I feel like this might be in the middle of the largest cluster of where the two of us have been called to action." She pointed toward the school. "With that being one of the largest concentrations of events."

"So someone has clearly charted out our pattern," Chat mused, "and then set up shop in a location that would statistically give them a better than average chance at taking us down." He looked at her. "That's not Hawkmoth's style."

"Not unless he's moved to a new level. But no, this doesn't feel like him. He might be behind it, ultimately, but this isn't standard SOP for him."

"I –" Chat grimaced and bent over, his face wreathed in pain. "Wow," he said tightly. "I think we need to get back to Master Fu…"

Ladybug

Chat dropped to his knees in front of her, almost keening with pain. It had been a mistake to let him come with her, not that she could have stopped him. She bent down next him and placed a hand on his back, and was surprised to feel how tense his entire body had become.

Wait… is that… fur?

She looked more closely, and sure enough, tendrils of black fur had started to sprout across Chat's suit. They were very fine, but given enough time, would definitely cover him in a luxurious dark coat. She turned his face up, and determined that his exposed skin was not changing – only the parts covered by his costume.

Interesting. Does that support my theory? she wondered.

"C'mon Chat, let's get you home." She gripped him around the waist once more and lifted them into the sky, soaring back across the skyline and toward the Agreste mansion. The bathroom window was still open (how did no one ever notice that, she wondered) and she deftly slid through, landing carefully on the bathroom tile.

Chat curled up into a tiny ball on the tile. "I think I'm going to stay right here, milady," he said with conviction. "Besides, Chat Noir can't be in Adrien's bed." He cocked one eye up at her. "And I am not putting on that hideous cold cream one more time today."

Ladybug looked at him sternly. "Adrien is supposed to be in there, and Marinette is supposed to be with him." Her eyes flicked to the counter and the half-lidded container.

"Seriously?" he nearly mewled it out.

A few minutes later, a grumbling Chat Noir was ensconced once more in Adrien's bed, wearing a layer of cold cream and sporting the beanie to hide his ears. Ladybug's only concession was to keep the wilted cucumbers close at hand and add them at the last minute if an unexpected visitor appeared. After he was settled in, she ducked into the bathroom and exited the house only to re-enter once more via the front door as Marinette.

"Adrien, I'm back," she called out as she re-entered the bedroom in civilian form.

"Over here, Marinette," he said grumpily.

She skittered to his side. "You've got to keep up appearances, Chat," she whispered.

"You're not the one wearing this hideous stuff," he grumbled.

"Move over, kitty," she said as she sat down on the side of his bed.

He slid over to make space, but then quickly ensnared her with one arm and pulled her dangerously close to his face. "Hey!" she squeaked.

"It's good for your complexion," Chat laughed, before playfully bopping her on the nose with his finger. He sobered quickly, releasing her: "We have time before Master Fu gets here," he said. "I need to tell you something."

Marinette settled in next to him. "Go on."

Chat – or was it Adrien? – took a deep breath. "If I don't get through this, I need you to know one thing."

She tried and failed not to laugh. He placed a finger on her lips. "I'm trying to be serious here, milady."

"I know," she chuckled. "I'm sorry… it's the cold cream…"

He glared at her but pressed forward. "Marinette, I was a fool not to see the Ladybug in you, or you in Ladybug. I am so terribly sorry at all of the lost time." He hugged her close, this time careful to keep her well away from the cream. "You are my entire world. My beginning, my middle, my end."

Chat turned her head so he could stare into her eyes. "If I don't get through this," he repeated, "know that these last few hours that we've had together have been the most joyous of my life." He paused. "I'd have preferred to have not been shot at before finding out who the love of my life was, but I guess that's a small price to pay for happiness."

He hugged her again. "I hope you feel the same," he continued. "But I can understand if you don't. As Chat Noir, I was so hung up on getting Ladybug to acknowledge me I never realized what Adrien was doing to you."

He smiled again. "I talk as if we are two different people, but really, we're not. I can't be Chat Noir without Adrien; one cannot exist without the other." He smoothed out one of her ribbons with a tender motion from a clawed finger. "Does that make any sense at all?"

"Yes," she said. "I have the same duality that is really a unity," she added. "I thought it was Adrien I wanted to be with as badly as life itself; what I've realized is the 'two' of you, like the 'two' of me, are really just different takes on the same soul." She reached up to his hand, still on the ribbon. "It's not entirely true that you can't be both. Everything that we are, deep down, is there. 'They' are still you."

"That's deep, milady."

"It is," she replied. "It came to me some time ago that the two of us didn't accidentally come together. True, we were chosen to be the protectors of this city, but I think there might be a more cosmic angle to it than that." She took his hand down and kissed the palm.

"Does that mean we can officially be a couple? Finally?"

Marinette smiled a bit wider. "It depends – which couple is a couple?"

"Perhaps someone should fill me in," Master Fu said as he stepped around the corner.