Hello everybody! I've been writing for years, but this is my first foray into the Miraculous fandom. I have big plans for this story, so I hope you all enjoy it. And please, if you have any critique about the story or characters, feel free to let me know about it. :)
Adrien sat in his room, looking through pictures of Ladybug on his phone. He'd long lost count of how many times he'd looked at these pictures, but he didn't care. Most people, if they knew about his love for Ladybug, would assume it was just a celebrity crush. His cousin Felix probably did. However, this wasn't a celebrity crush because he was her partner Chat Noir, and he spent more time with her than anyone.
He'd tried asking her out many times, but Ladybug had never taken an interest, no matter how often they bantered with each other on missions. Admittedly, Adrien was still new to dealing with people regularly, but it was pretty obvious there was something on the other side, right?
A loud noise broke him out of his thoughts. The trash can at the foot of the bed had been turned over and a munching sound was coming out of it. "Ew, Plagg!" he complained, looking at the can. "Can't you eat your cheese anywhere else?"
"You're the one who's always complaining about the smell!" Plagg retorted from within the can. "At least in here you can't smell the cheese over the trash!"
"Yeah, but it's the trash!" Adrien said. "Won't you get sick in there?"
"Kwamis don't get sick the same way you do," Plagg told him. "Besides, it's cozy in here!"
Adrien laughed at Plagg. Then a smell hit his nostrils, and not the good kind. "Okay, cut it out!" he said, holding his nose.
Plagg poked his head out of the trash. "That's not me," he said. They went over to the window to locate the source of the smell and discovered the yard below was filled with sewage. "Oh, can we please stay in?" Plagg begged, holding his nose.
"Plagg, claws out!" Adrien shouted, determined to do something about it. A moment later, he had transformed into Chat Noir. Opening the window, the smell hit him full in the face and he almost puked. Taking a breath, he jumped out onto the wall and tried to ignore the smell.
The streets below were in chaos. Parisians were climbing up on top of their cars to get away from the river of sewage. "No way this is normal!" he said to himself. He used his stick to try and save people who were stuck in the muck while he debated where to go.
Chances were good this was because of an akuma. Either the sewers were backed up or more sewage was being magically created for some reason. He searched the skyline for any obvious signs of an akumatized person, but didn't see any. Desperate for ideas, he opened his phone to check the news.
"This is Nadja Chamack! A new supervillain has appeared and has begun flooding the streets with sewage! Authorities advise you to find higher ground until Ladybug and Chat Noir handle the situation."
Nadja had a clothespin on her nose, which Chat Noir couldn't really blame her for. The supervillain appeared to be on the west side of Paris from the footage, beyond the Eiffel Tower and near the replica of the Statue of Liberty. He was using a bridge to block the flow of the Seine, which was backing up both water and sewage into the streets.
Now that he knew where to go, he made his way straight there. In true hero fashion, he stopped to help people along the way as much as he could.
He arrived at the scene to find Ladybug perched on a building observing the supervillain. Up close, he could tell immediately where the akuma was, the high-vis jacket all city workers wore, which stood out against the akuma's color scheme. "Nice day to waste some time, right my lady?" he began.
"In a minute, we're going to waste him," Ladybug told him.
"What are we up against?" he asked her.
"He's a sewer worker that got denied a promotion, and now he's demanding the mayor pay a ransom or he'll bury the city in waste!"
"What a stinky end for Paris! We can't let that happen!"
Chat Noir led the charge on the villain, using his telescoping stick to force him off his perch and into the sewage. "If you have a complaint about your job, you should've taken it up with HR!" he said.
"I am Wastemaker, and I will not release this dam until my demands are met!" the akuma announced, using the sludge to propel himself back onto solid ground. "While I'm waiting for my ransom, I'll take your Miraculous, too!"
Ladybug tried to yo-yo him, but the slimy sludge he had covered himself with kept it from staying wrapped around him. She threw it again and again, but he threw up a wall of sludge that basically was impenetrable. He could tell that Ladybug was getting more and more disgusted every time she called the yo-yo back.
Unlike her, his stick didn't need to be called back to operate, so he set it to telescope and let it extend right through the sludge until it hit something solid. Suddenly the sludge solidified around the stick, lifting it right up into the air and sending him flying. He flew off, screaming his lungs out, until he managed to jam his stick in the side of a building to break his fall.
Making his way back to the site, he saw that the villain had encased himself with a wall of sludge from all sides that Ladybug was unable to get into. "What now?" he asked, landing beside her.
She held her nose momentarily. "I think I'm going to need a shower after this. Lucky Charm!"
They waited with bated breath while the lucky object appeared and dropped into her hand. "A jug of cooking oil? What am I supposed to do with this?"
"Maybe it wants you to grease your brain!" Chat Noir suggested.
"Hmm…" said Ladybug, glancing around. He could tell her mind was whirring. "Oh, of course! Cat Noir, I'll need your help for this!"
"At your service, my lady," he told her.
She ripped the top off the bottle and wrapped an arm around him, wrinkling her nose from the smell. Get us over the top of the vortex! When I tell you, Cataclysm his vest!"
Chat Noir did so, wondering what she was going to do. When they were in position, she dumped the contents of the bottle in the vortex. Immediately, the sludge where it hit started to congeal and slow down. The suddenly unequal winds messed up the akuma so much he lost his balance.
Ladybug put the bottle on her belt and used her yo-yo to drag Wastemaker up to them. "Cataclysm!" Chat Noir yelled as the villain zoomed up to them. As soon as his hand touched the jacket, it was all over. Ladybug let go of him to capture the released butterfly while he caught the villain and had them land on the ground.
Ladybug landed right near them. "Bye-bye little butterfly," she said as the purified butterfly flew away. "Miraculous Ladybug!"
When she threw the bottle in the air, a swarm of ladybugs swarmed the city, quickly returning it to its non-sewaged state. The villain on the ground reverted into a normal sewer worker. "Pound it!" they both said, pounding fists.
Ladybug sniffed the air, then herself. "You know, I know we got rid of the sewage, and the smell, but I really could use a shower right now. And I'm about to transform back! Bug out!" She waved at him and yo-yo'd away before he could respond.
He honestly felt like a shower, too, and he figured most of Paris would feel the same way. So he made his way home as quickly as possible in case all the water got used up or something. It was unlikely, but he wanted to cover his bases.
After the shower, he decided he wanted to play video games. At least they'd be clean. Plagg stared at him wistfully from the top of the couch. The kwami could play the piano or foosball, but not video games. He was too small to handle the controller.
"You know what? After today, I hope you'll never complain about my camembert ever again!" Plagg began after a while.
"I won't promise that forever, but for right now I can live with it," said Adrien. He sniffed his shirt, but he didn't smell anything. He wondered if he would smell anything again. "You know, it's too bad I didn't get to talk to Ladybug today. She seemed in kind of a hurry."
"Maybe she found some cheese!" Plagg offered.
"Nah, it's probably just personal stuff," he replied. "I know the feeling sometimes when I have to disappear quick to make it to school or a photoshoot."
"Or when you get made to host a show or something," Plagg reminded him.
"Yeah, I hate that," he agreed. "If anything, I wish I could be on a gameshow or something with Ladybug. That might actually be fun."
"What, like a cheese eating competition?" Plagg said. "You can't get fat in costume, so it would be a draw. But you should totally cancel it after you order the cheese. I'll make sure it gets put to, uh, good use."
"Enough with the cheese, Plagg!" he said, laughing. "Although you might be on to something. A competition might just be the thing I need to get closer to her."
"Yeah, but if you host the show, then how are you going to compete?" Plagg asked.
It was a legitimate question. Adrien would be the first person they called if some TV show decided to do a Ladybug vs Chat Noir thing. His father would approve of it in a heartbeat for brand recognition, or so he'd say. Sometimes he didn't know what exactly his father was thinking.
"Yeah, that would suck, wouldn't it?" said Adrien, dropping his controller on the couch. He fed Plagg some cheese from his jacket before he stood up dejectedly.
That was when Plagg had his idea. "Well, why not just go as Adrien? You're a teen heartthrob, surely the costume wouldn't make that much of a difference."
Adrien turned to look at Plagg, an idea forming in his head. "You know what, that might just actually work."
OK, so this is supposed to be a Love Square story, but I'm starting it off with Ladrien just to do something different for a change. This story is being published between Seasons 3 and 4, so expect their characterizations to match those from that point in the show, at least at the start.
Next chapter will be a rare short chapter from me, and will feature Adrien trying to convince his father to go along with his idea, along with other boring background stuff. It's necessary for the story, but it'll start picking back up around Chapter Three or so. I generally have around five chapters ahead of what I've published already written, so I know more or less where the story is headed, but I can still incorporate feedback as needed.
I'll try to update once a week. In the meantime, please leave a review if you're willing, and I'll see you later. :)