AN: Thanks to COVID-19 shutting down the world, I've had a lot more writing time than expected the last couple weeks. I may finish the next round of stories sooner than expected. In the meantime, I also finished a couple of Anthology one-shots. This chapter takes place around "Tit for Tat"; the next one will catch up to "The Fashion Disaster."
To Speckleflower: I do (eventually) have some further plans for Juleka…
Ladybug raced across the rooftops, the wind whipping through her hair and her partner by her side. "It's too bad Ryoku and King Monkey were already busy with those gun runners by the Seine," she observed. "The game was just getting interesting."
Cat Noir hummed in agreement. "At least Settlers of Catan will keep until we can finish the game tomorrow," he told her. "It's a good thing we were at the mansion instead of setting it up in your room; could you imagine the mess if it got in the way of one of your projects?"
"What?" she demanded, narrowing her eyes at him. "After what Plagg did to your anime figures last month, you don't have any room to complain! And anyways, I'm not that bad…"
"Please," he scoffed, "Remember after you made Kagami's kimono? It was like a fabric store threw up everywhere! It was a catastrophe!"
"See if I bring you any pastries in the morning!"
"No!" he whined, putting a hand to his forehead dramatically, "not my pastries! Have mercy, Princess!"
Ladybug stroked her chin in mock contemplation. "Purr-haps I can rescind the pastry ban," she said thoughtfully, looping her yo-yo around a building eave to swing across the next street, "but only if you give up puns for the rest of the night!"
"I purr-omise," Cat Noir teased. He hit the button to extend his staff, slamming the end into the middle of the deserted street ahead of them before pushing off and riding the staff to its apex. From there he used the staff as a springboard and collapsed it, allowing himself to arc through the air toward the roof of the high-rise apartment building that the Heroes of Paris Alert System had sent them to.
Ladybug threw her yo-yo up and looped it around a projection near the apartment building's roof. She tugged the string, which quickly retracted, pulling her over the street and up to the building's roof. She flew across the street and braced her legs for impact with the building's wall. Without losing momentum she ran up the wall, using the yo-yo to gain momentum, until she was a few meters below the yo-yo. She pushed her herself upward, swung around the yo-yo as a fulcrum, detached it, and landed on the balls of her feet, at the same moment that Cat Noir landed next to her.
The small group of men in dark clothing near the rooftop door turned to face the sudden noise. Ladybug smirked at the way the nearest thug's grip on his rifle loosened in shock. She sauntered across the roof, Cat Noir by her side, as though she was just out for a moonlit stroll.
"My, my, my," she commented, scanning the crowd with a practiced eye. "Did you gentlemen come up here for a late-night smoke break?"
"Oh, yeah," the one with the rifle answered, nodding. "We were just… um… waiting for a friend."
"Oh, okay," Ladybug replied, raising an eyebrow. "What do you think, Kitty, should we stay and wait with them?"
"Definitely," he nodded, smirking. "You never know what kinds of dangerous characters could be wandering around on top of thirty-story apartment buildings in the middle of the night!"
"That's okay," the speaker quickly interjected, stepping back and making a motion to his men. "Nothing to see here…"
"You believe them, right, Cat? There couldn't be anything suspicious here!" Ladybug grinned and shifted to her left, even as Cat Noir spread out to the right.
"Certainly nothing suspicious going on here. In the middle of the night. Armed." Cat Noir replied. He cocked his head at them. "Hey, do you think we were actually born yesterday?"
"Ah, crud," the leader muttered. In a single motion he raised his rifle and fired at Cat Noir, even as he shouted to his followers, "Take them down, boys!"
Cat Noir's staff was up and spinning in an instant, shielding himself from the leader's fire. Seeing him so occupied, the remainder of the kidnappers advanced on Ladybug, who spun her yo-yo to one side, eyes darting around the crowd. She carefully monitored the eyes of the man in front of her, waiting until he would telegraph his actions. The group fanned out around her in a semicircle. The thug's eyes twitched a moment before he swung his bat at her head, and Ladybug ducked to one side, grabbing the bat as it passed above her, and pulled the man off-balance. She sidestepped a charge from behind her, looped her yo-yo around the man as he stumbled past, and swung him off his feet into the air, slamming him into the ground so hard she knocked the wind out of his lungs. Spinning into a scissor kick, Ladybug wrapped her legs around the next thug and pulled him to the ground, laying him out on top of the other man.
Several of the criminals had left the group around Ladybug and moved to flank Cat Noir, who was still pinned down by the leader and his rifle. Ladybug threw her yo-yo out, wrapped it around the leader's rifle, and pulled. The leader held onto the gun and spun around, wrapping the yo-yo around a nearby satellite dish. He tugged on the yo-yo string, just as another thug charged Ladybug from the side, swinging a bat above his head. Ladybug ducked away from the bat and dove to the side, keeping her grip on the yo-yo as she did so. The thug tripped over the yo-yo string and fell to the ground, but the string was tugged off of her finger and her momentum carried her away from the yo-yo, which landed on the roof beside the leader.
She was dancing close to the edge of the roof; the thug she had just tripped had landed with his arm dangling off the edge. She leapt over his prone form and spun into a kick to take out the man standing behind him, a little over a meter away from the edge. However, he evaded the kick and planted his foot. The moment Ladybug landed, he kicked her, hard, in the gut.
All the air was forced from Ladybug's chest and she flew backward, over the edge of the roof. She had a momentary feeling of weightlessness before gravity took her. In that moment all she could see was the look of horror in Cat Noir's eyes, watching from the opposite side of the roof with a dozen armed criminals between them.
"Ladybug!"
As she fell past the roof level, Ladybug looked around, searching for a handhold to slow her fall. This particular apartment was built in a streamlined, modern style: straight walls without any ornamentation near the roof. And the force of the kick had pushed her out in an arc, away from the building, too far to reach the balcony railings projecting from the apartments that she was now falling past. Ladybug held her arms out wide, felt the wind whipping around her body, and closed her eyes. The falling sensation was almost peaceful, even though she knew it could not last much longer.
Something collided with her and wrapped tightly around her chest, squeezing the air out of her lungs for the second time in under a minute. Her eyes opened involuntarily, an instant before her descent came to an abrupt halt. She looked up into Cat Noir's face. His jaw had taken on a hard set, his eyes screwed up in concentration. He had wrapped one arm tightly around her chest, so tight she could feel her ribs creaking. His other hand kept a firm grip on his staff, which he had extended to the ground to arrest their fall.
"C-Cat!" she wheezed out, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face in his shoulder.
"I've got you, Milady," he grunted, relaxing his grip on her fractionally so she could breathe.
"I know." She sighed and nuzzled his neck with her nose. She felt the slight tug from gravity as Cat Noir lengthened the staff to return them to the building's roof. "I trust you."
A moment later she felt that sensation of weightlessness again and squeezed Cat Noir tighter. In response he adjusted his arms to cradle her bridal-style, a moment before they landed on the building's roof. Ladybug looked up from his shoulder and saw that all of the kidnappers they had been fighting were sprawled unconscious around the roof.
"So much for finding their boss tonight," she observed, raising an eyebrow at him.
"They were in my way," he defended, glaring at them darkly.
She rested her cheek against his chest as he released her legs so she could stand next to him. "It's not a big deal," she assured him, shifting her hand to cup his cheek. "I'm sure the police will get something from them… if you didn't concuss them too badly!"
In response he wrapped his arms around her shoulders tightly and buried his face in her hair. She looped her arms around his neck to return the hug, and kissed him. "I think our work here is done," she told him as the roof door opened and a pair of police officers raced out. "Ready to go home?"
"… Yeah."
"Hey, do you want to come home with me?" she asked, examining his eyes.
"No, I'll be fine," he promised, giving her an over-bright smile that didn't fool her for a second. "I'll see you in the morning, okay?"
She nodded. "I'll meet you with pastries and coffee bright and early!"
Tap tap tap
Marinette groaned and threw her arm up over her face before blinking her eyes open. Something had interrupted her sleep, but she couldn't imagine what. She looked up at the skylight in her hatch, and her eyes widened in surprise. Glowing green eyes stared back at her for a moment before disappearing.
She threw off the comforter and stood up in her bed, pushing the hatch open and sticking her head out. Her head was less than a meter from that of Cat Noir, who sat cross-legged, staring at her in shame and embarrassment.
"Adrien?" she asked, unsurprised. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, you know," he started, running a hand through his hair anxiously. "I was just in the neighborhood and wondered if I would cat-ch you awake…"
She stared at him dubiously. "You couldn't sleep, could you?" She said it without any anger or disappointment, but his face still fell.
"I…" he mumbled. "I thought I'd lost you," he finally confessed. "I almost did lose you – I felt my grip slipping and I nearly dropped you, even after I did save you! What if I wasn't fast enough? What if I'd let go of the staff? What if–"
Marinette grabbed his shoulder, pulled him close, and silenced him with a kiss on the lips. He froze for a moment before wrapping an arm around her and kissing her back, tentatively at first but quickly turning into fierce desperation. She hugged him tightly, awkward as it was while halfway out of her hatch.
"You did save me, Kitty," she whispered, looking tenderly into his eyes. "I trust you to always protect me, and you never let me down."
He nodded and rested his forehead against hers. "Thanks," he whispered back. "I really needed this." After a moment he leaned back and looked around as if to leave. "I think I'm okay now," he promised her, but without any conviction in his voice.
Marinette gave him a look and shrugged before starting to drop back into the room. Then she suddenly grabbed him by the bell and pulled him inside after her. She allowed her momentum to pull her back and out of his way. He yelped, but instinctively tucked his head and rolled, coming to rest on his back on her bed. Before he could move, she pounced on top of him, pinning him to the bed and kissing him. Cat Noir wrapped his arms around her and held her close.
She pulled away and ran her fingers through his hair, rubbing the cat ears on the top of his head. He closed his eyes and hummed in contentment. "You can't fool me," she told him. "You don't have to be strong for me, either. Sometimes, you can let me be strong for you."
He nodded. His eye glinted at her mischievously. She saw it coming a moment before it happened, but squealed as she allowed him to roll her over onto her back. He landed on top of her, de-transforming as he did so. Plagg rolled his eyes at the sight of them and disappeared to find Tikki. Marinette pulled Adrien's head down to rest over her heart and smiled at the way his face melted into her as he listened to her heartbeat. He started shivering slightly, and she threw the comforter over them both.
"Good night, Kitty," she whispered, wrapping her arms around him.
"Good night, Milady."
