All rights to Miraculous Ladybug belong to Zagtoon, Method Animation, Thomas Astruc, and Disney. All rights to Persona 5 go to Atlus and Sega. This is my own creative work.

Feeling the first chill of winter, Ladybug was a prisoner.

The sense of freedom rushing past was a sweet illusion while glimpses of reality came in glints from the metal tips of gothic spires and skyscrapers. Her breath escaped in warm puffs as the cold prickled upon her rosy cheeks, with adrenaline the collar choking her. The girl's yoyo's string became a chain pulling her in the direction only some secret, traitorous part of her guilty of human sin knew. As she arced to the apex of her leaps over the rooftops, the toy returned to her hand and she lashed it out again. The process would repeat, all her swings and flips mere steps.

There was something so similar between leaping above the heads and buildings of Paris as a superheroine and being a girl in love. Every direction could go on forever, no destination in sight. She could think she was in control, but she wasn't. She could only be pulled in various directions, to wherever she needed to be.

Recalling her trademark weapon once more, Paris's beloved hero landed upon a roof adjacent to the TV station. Her lithe, athletic form was a mere black dot before the bright screen. She rose to her full height with a sigh.

True ladybugs cared little for the cold, and this Ladybug lived up to her namesake, giving a slight shiver. Activity sent her blood racing to do the job a fluffy scarf of her creation and two mugs of hot chocolate should have done. The crisp chill so common for the holiday season was beginning to roll in, and a first snow worthy of Christmas stories was following.

Last month had rolled by so quickly. Now streetlamps and store windows were being arrested with lights. Below her feet were blares of holiday songs and cheer in a current one could be washed away in. A wry smile made it upon Ladybug's face.

It would be so nice to just enjoy the season, maddeningly enjoyable or enjoyably maddening.

A hero such as herself had other problems.

All she had for fond memories of November was the same Akuma that came day after day throughout the month. Aside from what lurked in her school, it was a true reminder to Ladybug that demons did exist. Its strength went beyond that of the standard fare that could pass for clowns at a child's party with corny parlor tricks as superpowers. Each time it came for her, it did so with the fervor of an army in a single body. It craved destruction, ruin, almost on a new level of possessed. Ladybug had been in the business for the better part of her teenage life and she had no words for it.

She cracked open her yoyo compact, choosing instead to rely on the words of others. The Ladyblog was always the number one source of hero and villain sightings. It was even beating out the normal news.

Her thumb scrolled down the screen. No word on the message boards…

No new headlines…

No live updates. It should have been a call to breathe easy.

Ladybug only sighed in defeat. "What am I even doing here…?"

The hero no longer had time for matters like this. It should be as outgrown as her ponytails. Her duty was not the only reason she was up there on that chilly rooftop, but it should have been. The girl turned to the object in her other hand.

A small box in pink wrapping paper with a red and black-spotted bow atop it.

If she didn't do it now, then when?

Her foot, clad in her trademark suit, shifted. She turned and looked onto the horizon for his house. The house she could have found her way to even if blindfolded. True love or destiny or whatever would make it sound more romantic in the annals of history or the soap opera that got a hold of this cheesy chase.

Adrien Agreste's house.

Simple enough, she thought. Just look for the largest fanciest house with a thousand and one windows with chandelier light emanating out. The one the homeless folk would scrape and climb the walls in jealousy of.

Ladybug moved to the ledge to free her yoyo again and fly off. Then, the screen changed behind her.

"People of Paris!" A voice as lemon-fresh and slick as scented hair-gel came out. She turned and saw the main speaking – someone with a coiffed set of combed hair and a leisurely suit like the male leads in those animated teen dramas she could not get enough of in her younger years. He was wearing a million-dollar smile, which was likely what said suit cost.

"Struggling with your relationships? Got your eye on someone? Girls, are you convinced the guy is the love of your life, tied by the strings of fate?"

The main hit the nail on the head three times in a row.

"Worried he'll never look your way?"

With a sledgehammer. Ladybug winced.

"Fear no more!" He pulled his phone with the screen displaying a large heart and some cutesy wallpaper. "Presenting MakeLove! This remarkable app will help you find the connection you need! This app is the real deal! Prove you can create a connection with the person of your dreams! Love is possible between anyone!"

She sighed, letting the air out of her athletic frame. The girl whispered. "If only it were that simple…"

"…You're telling me, bugaboo."

Ladybug jerked around. The ice gathering on her feet had shattered in a sharp jolt. There in the classic leather suit with claw-like hands placing his weight leaning atop his pole and glowing green slits for eyes was her partner, Cat Noir. To anyone else, half in light and half in darkness, some would pass the kitty with trimmed claws as menacing. She would have laughed them off pointing to the goofy smirk and tossed the boy a ball of yarn to prove otherwise.

Tonight, she was in no mood for laughing. She faced him in full moving the present behind her back. "Cat Noir. Guessing you're done with patrol. Have you spotted any Akuma?"

Cat Noir pouted, his eyes almost vanishing beneath his black locks. "What, don't I get a 'hello, kitty' anymore?"

"If I get a status update, maybe…"

"This is why we need to be friends on social media. All the rage with the younger crowd." He spun his pole and stuck it behind his head. Wrapping his arms around he took a sly saunter over to her. Ladybug kept a stone face. "Sorry, bugaboo, no Akumas needing company tonight. Just a sad little stray."

His chest was in front of her face, almost as stone-firm, before he leaned in. Years of fighting and bouncing along rooftops did bodies good. There was no way she was that superficial.

"Why do you think that Akuma we've been fighting all month is so powerful?" She asked.

"Got me. All I know is I nearly lost a few whiskers."

"Do you think Hawkmoth is finally stepping up his game?" Ladybug sank into the pile of snow forming at her feet again. "He has the deciphered Grimoire on that tablet. Maybe he's learning more about his powers."

"That, or he just found somebody THAT ticked off."

Ladybug hummed.

With a step away, Cat took a step towards. "So… unless you're planning to invite that guy to a Christmas party, mind if I ask what you've got going on for the holidays?"

Ladybug walked away, another two steps. "I'm not and you can't. You know that."

He came another two steps. "Watch your step, my lady Scrooge, or you might just get some ghosts visiting you."

"I've got bigger things on my mind."

"All work and no play makes for a very dull Ladybug." He leaned in from her right, a smirk on his face there for an instant before it fell. "That, and a very empty house."

She brought her hand with the gift to her chest. The girl could swear she saw his feline-eyes, trained in the dark, glint at the sight of the lump in her hand. Ladybug scoffed under her breath and silently prayed. Cat Noir and his endless prying and looking for cracks in her walls would be the death of her, maybe literally.

He lit up like a Christmas tree, or the child who saw it on Christmas morning. "That a certain something special, for a certain someone special?"

"Maybe." A hard yes or no would only encourage him, she'd learned.

"Is it a boy?"

"Maybe."

"Maybe is a baby needing love and care." He leapt in front of her. "Should our love make it a 'yes'?"

"No."

This boy and his relentless questions! She would never tame him. Forget games. Games were what he wanted.

Ladybug trudged over to the ledge where she'd hoped for a shot to end it before it began. Once the cat got frisky, it would take a long time before he'd take the hint and scamper off for that day. Three steps in and her face near bumped into his chest as a hard message that the game was still on.

Cat leaned in and swiped a paw at her right hand. "Methinks it's for your knight in shining armor and golden holly. Since that's clearly not me, you wouldn't mind if I snuck a peek?"

"I do mind, as a matter of fact." She snapped sneaking it behind her chest.

He slunk around and tried to swipe at it again. Whatever was in her hand was as enticing as a ball of yarn to him. Ladybug swore this boy had too many tendencies like his namesake. A stray thought that a bowl of milk might shut him up crossed her mind. The girl only turned and leapt away, for him to stay on like her shadow.

She had reached the ledge, as she'd hoped. But with a persistent kitty sharing precious foot space on the ledge.

"You know the way to make this end, bugaboo."

Ladybug glared hard. "You either drop it or I do. Option one seems to be out, so…"

She jumped.

Yoyo in hand she lashed it out at the chimney of a nearby building. Wind and frost screamed at her, pounding at her body as she swung down and up again in a stomach-wrenching drag of minutes. Her ears picked up the whirr of a pole, and turning, she saw him following, almost dancing with his own shadow amidst the buildings while he continued to play the role of hers. In a moment where their eyes crossed, she could swear she caught a wink.

The yoyo wrapped around the pipes of another building and she swing away. When her footsteps landed on the tile, his echoed them. He ran towards her only for her to lash ahead and zip by, not even sparing him a glance. Cat just shrugged and leapt with his staff pounding on the wall and vaulting to her side.

To anyone else, it was their classic highwire act, dancing and dodging like circus performers. They'd cross glances and paths along the rooftops, and in the moments they were close enough, he'd always be sporting a grin or trying to sneak a kiss. How nice it was for their whole city to be on the high wire while he flirted with danger and skated along the line watching it tip and sway. She sometimes didn't think he noticed Hawk Moth watching maniacally from the bottom.

Ladybug had kept the gift close to her chest the whole time, her brain on autopilot. But their game of cat and mouse had led them in a circle, right back before the jumbotron. The heroine breathed heavily, the air around her lost in a mist of adrenaline.

True to form, she'd heard him right behind her. Laughing, sauntering over, to pull another one of his tricks.

"Look, it's my personal business, okay!" Ladybug shouted more forceful than intended.

There was silence for a moment, until…

"…This about that boy you like so much?"

The girl behind the mask was the one whose breath caught in her throat.

"…Well, I hope the guy likes it." He chuckled. "If you ever give it to him, that is…"

Sound began to fizzle suddenly. They turned to see the large screen crackle and warp, turning to nothing, and spewing white noise like a crashing waterfall. The old image tried to retain form but was soon lost in the static.

"Uh, should've switched to satellite?" Cat shrugged.

Ladybug was about to groan at Cat's poor joke and poorer timing, but caught voices coming through.

"…just like before, right?"

"… got the feed up, for crying out loud!"

"Can they hear us!?"

"No sense debating it now…"

The voices were arguing amongst themselves, in what Ladybug assumed to be a rushed prank by someone who knew their way with a computer. She tended not to dabble in the domain of the police, as her and Cat's consisted of Hawk Moth and his villain of the day, the kind of thing flashy badges could not solve. Ladybug drew a sigh and prepared to take her leave.

Which was when she saw every screen in Paris, one by one, suffer the same affliction.

The jumbo screen behind them regained a single color – a deep crimson red, highlighting the red of her own suit. It still crackled with blackened spots. Ladybug and Cat Noir both caught the utter silence that now drowned Paris. Both the noise and cheery holiday music that once filled the streets below had vanished into a still quiet, with nothing but the shady whispers from before filling their ears.

Ladybug took a step back, clenching her yoyo. Her body sparked alive with a sense of danger from both her own body and the magic it had adapted to after so long.

"Bonjour, people of Paris!" A cheery girl's distorted voice called.

"Your city of lights is truly a work of art." A refined voice followed. "Beautiful beyond words."

"We are here to warn you that all is not as peaceful as it appears," spoke what sounded like a refined lady.

"Villains lurk beneath the surface. Criminals are in your midst." Another young woman's voice came. "It is our mission to reveal those who lurk in the shadows and bring them to justice."

"It ain't our usual stomping grounds, but we'll do you guys a solid!" This time came a crass boy's voice.

"We help the weak and crush those with distorted hearts!" Another young woman's voice came.

At last, something else came into focus. Ladybug tried to make out an image as the icon warped in the same way the screen did before. It came into clear view with the sound of a cat's meow: a mask with a flaming eye.

"We are the Phantom Thieves of Hearts!" One last voice came, the cool, mischievous voice of a young man.

"Coming to you all the way from Japan!"

"Complete with built-in translators!"

All at once, throughout the city, the song 'Jingle Bells' took new meaning. Both heroes turned below to the streets as their ears were pounding with a cacophony of ringtones and message alerts. People's eyes were glued to their phone screens and chatter about the sudden announcement was quick to follow.

Ladybug flashed out her compact again. Social media was drowning with all the greatest hits of social media excitement. Posts were mostly the language of kids with 'OMG!', 'WTF!' and emoji after emoji made just to get a word out.

The cool man's voice rang out once more. "To the criminals of Paris, this is our declaration of war!"

Ladybug looked to Cat Noir, his shocked face most likely a mirror of hers, and the words on his lips the same as well.

"What the heck is going on…? Is this for real?"

It took a little longer than expected, but I finally got this first chapter up! The first piece to my first crossover! Getting this up got delayed a little bit between work, video games, and getting back into another fandom at the time.

First chapters are always the most difficult to write for a lot of reasons, but I hope this one works out. This story will be posted on both Fanfiction and Archive of Our Own since my account there has been all but neglected. Feel free to post comments or reviews or ask questions about the story or writing in general – I like sharing what I've learned so people will hopefully be inspired to write really good stories. I can't give any spoilers as to the story and I don't take requests for story ideas though as I've got a plotline going already.

As always, review, favorite, follow! Until next time!