Start Notes:

Yes, I somehow shockingly posted a second chapter the day after the first one, but after the initial reception to the first chapter as a stand-alone, I decided I should probably just post the first two or three chapters this week and THEN transition to a weekly schedule. It'll also help me get a grasp on how much people like it and where the story is headed. I DO have a plan for how this is going to end and a lot of plot points/middle bits, but I'm still working out some details as I go, so.

Anyways, there's a ton of Ladynoir in this chapter! Plus we get a slight bit more insight into the main conflicts we're gonna be looking at in this fic. I don't touch on all of the main conflicts, but we're definitely dipping our toes here. Enjoy!

Adrien couldn't stop thinking about that night.

The one where Hawkmoth took all the miraculous

I mean, not necessarily that I'm all that worried about Hawkmoth, Adrien thought, as he packed up his stuff and waved bye to Nino.

It had nothing to do with him. It had already been six months since then, and they had already gotten so many of the miraculous back. They even got the snake! That was a hard one, for sure. Adrien zipped up his bag and tossed it over his shoulder, heading outside.

No, he meant what he said that night. He knew that, together, they would defeat Hawkmoth one day. He was no match for them.

He just couldn't get her out of his head. I mean, she was-

"Wow, it's Ladybug!" He heard a small child shout from across the street.

He whipped his head in the opposite direction of where the Gorilla was waiting for him, and saw her swinging from her yo-yo string across a building, in the direction of where there seemed to be a giant green plant monster straight out of Avatar: The Last Airbender wreaking havoc on some innocent buildings.

Oh, crap.

He quickly tossed his bag into the Gorilla's arms, spluttered out some half-assed excuse about having a stomach ache, and ran like hell back into the school, as many students were running out.

She had been so weird since that night. Aside from breaking down crying into his arms several times, breaking his heart, because she felt so guilty about the miraculous being stolen by that stupid butterfly man, she was just acting very strange lately.

He had always loved her, he thought, as he ran into the closest locker room and called out Plagg for his transformation.

He still loved her. But when she had told him last year that she was an interested, and he had noticed that she had been going through some personal emotional stuff-

That she decided not to share with me… Adrien grumbled, in his head, still somewhat bitter about that-

He had decided to leave her alone and respect her feelings. If they were going to be together one day, she wanted it to be because she was in her right mind and was ready to commit to him. Not because he pressured her into it like a jerk.

Adrien, now as Chat Noir, launched himself out of the window he had just pried open, and leapt after his lady.

But he supposed that that was nearly nine months ago, how. She'd been acting differently since that night. She even stumbles over her words and has actually been blushing when he flirts with her.

Maybe there was hope for them? He wondered.

"Where have you been, Chat?" Ladybug demanded, breaking him out of his thoughts. "I've been holding this guy off for like 20 minutes already."

"Sorry, lovebug," He replied, sheepishly, and flirtatiously, whacking the plant guy with his staff as his arm came towards her. "I was a bit busy."

She sighed, ignoring his 'lovebug' comment in a way she wouldn't normally, and turned back towards the monster, tangling it up in her yo-yo. "Well, at least you're here now."

Or maybe he was reading too far into it. He wasn't sure, if he was being honest with himself. He had wrongly assumed she might have liked him back when they were 14, and he just ended up embarrassing himself. Besides there was the also the issue that he was experiencing some conflicting feelings for-

No, he needed to focus. He had an akuma to fight.

"So, what's this guy's deal, M'lady?" Chat asked, as he and Ladybug chased after the giant plant monster.

"Not-" Ladybug yelped and dodged a blast of his powers, which seemed to either turn people into plants, or turn plants into sentient creatures he could control. "Ugh. Not entirely sure. Something about environmental activism? But I can't find an akumatized object. It might be underneath the plants of his body."

"Hmm… then the usual plan?"

"Seems like."

Chat grinned, and launched himself onto the monster's head. He bent over so he was looking upside down into its giant blue eye. "Hey, Swampbutt. What's your problem?"

The monster roared, speaking in a deep and booming male voice. "My name is not Swampbutt! It's Aloe du Spectre!"

Aloe du Spectre or whatever his name was swatted at his face, trying to smack Chat Noir, who just kept crawling around like a cat. It roared again, slamming into several buildings while it struggled to catch him. Chat could see Ladybug swinging below, obviously trying to figure out a plan. Her thinking face was cute, with the way she always knotted her eyebrows together.

"But you didn't answer my question, Aloe-head." Chat scoffed.

"Aloe-head?" Ladybug mouthed to him, incredulously.

Chat grinned bigger, shrugging in a 'I couldn't think of something better' kind of way. She rolled her eyes. "I asked what your problem was. Why are you turning people into plants?"

The monster growled, finally knocking Chat off his face. Like any decent cat, he landed gracefully on his feet on the roof of a building 2-3 stories below.

"Nobody took my research seriously!" Aloe du Spectre roared again, trying to grab Ladybug who was running by his feet. "I just wanted to help decrease Paris' carbon footprint. But the mayor refused to fund my green architecture project. Hawkmoth understands me though, and he's gonna help me paint the whole city green!"

"Weird thought process, but okay." Chat quipped. "You know we're gonna stop you though, right?"

The monster slammed its foot on the ground hard, making everything shake and knocking Chat over. Oof.

"Just give me your miraculous and I'll make sure to turn you into a nice plant, cat boy. How about some catnip?"

Chat couldn't help but laugh. "Ha, good o- ah!"

His laughter was cut off by a yelp as the monster smacked him off the building. As he fell, he tried to grab his staff before realizing he had dropped it off the otherside of the building. Before he could even begin to think of a Plan B, he heard a zipping noise, and found himself falling into Ladybug's arms.

"My hero~" He swooned, making kitty-cat eyes at Ladybug. She looked down at him, wide-eyed, and whipped her head back, before dropping him close to the ground and leaping up to fight the monster. Adrien could've sworn the tips of her ears were pink.

"Very funny, Aloe du Spectre. But, as you and your stupid boss may know, I haven't given up these earrings before, and I don't intend to do it now." She whipped her yo-yo at Aloe du Spectre, and it managed to go underneath his vine-y exterior before flying back at her, knocking her down.

She rubbed her head and then met eyes with Chat. He raised his eyebrows. "Oh, so it is just like Avatar."

"Seems like. Which means his akumatized item must be underneath the vines. I suspect possibly in the middle."

"Lucky charm time?" Chat asked, as soon as the monster started charging off, towards Mayor Bourgeois' hotel.

"Yup." She answered, before jumping up to her feet and raising her yo-yo towards the sky.

"Lucky Charm!" Ladybug called out, before a pair of garden shears fell into her hands.

"Garden shears?" He asked, incredulously. "Wouldn't a machete have been better?"

Ladybug shrugged, her pigtails bouncing. "I don't make the rules, I guess."

"Well, do you have a plan?"

Suddenly, a shriek that could definitely only have been a pissed-off Chloe Bourgeois sounded off in the background, towards the hotel.

"No, but I guess I'll figure it out once we get there. Let's move!" She declared, swinging off into action.

Once they arrived at the hotel, they found the Aloe du Spectre holding Mayor Bourgeois in his hands.

"Ladybug! Chat Noir! Thank goodness!" Andre cried, clearly desperately trying to escape Aloe du Spectre's grasp.

"Don't worry, Mayor Bourgeois!" Ladybug yelled up towards him. "We're gonna get you down as soon as possible!"

"No, you won't!" The monster yelled, slamming his other fist down onto the hotel, sending some rubble down towards the superhero duo. Chat wrapped his arm around Ladybug's waist, and used his staff to propel the two of them up and away from the debris, onto the roof of the hotel, by the pool.

"Yes, we will!" Ladybug shouted, grabbing her yo-yo and flinging herself down in a kick to the monster, her superhero-enhanced strength combined with the force of the jump making the kick quite powerful, making the monster stumble and drop the mayor.

Andre screamed, and Adrien flung himself towards him with his staff, catching the mayor just in time. He safely placed him into the doorway towards the penthouse, where Chloe, her half-sister Zoe, and Sabrina were waiting.

"Daddy!" Chloe exclaimed, grabbing onto her father.

"Guys, you should definitely evacuate the building. This akuma is huge and I think you'd be much safer hiding at ground level." Chat told them, in his best superhero voice.

Chloe rolled her eyes, challenging him. "And who are you to tell me what to do? Ladybug? I'd rather stay right here! This is my hotel, after all."

Chat scowled, annoyed by his friend. "Zoe?"

Zoe chuckled, ushering the other three down the stairs. "On it."

"Hey!" He heard Chloe shriek before Zoe slammed the door.

He turned his attention back to Ladybug and Aloe du Spectre. She was trying to knock him down and restrain him with her yo-yo but it seemed to be proving difficult against a 20-story tall plant monster. But, as soon as Chat tried to rush over and help, Ladybug was swatted over and flung towards him.

He opened his arms to catch her, but she slammed into him, knocking them both to the ground. As she landed on top of him, they both rolled over, eventually turning Chat over on top of her, as he tried to hold her closer, protectively, and their faces were knocked closer together, making their lips slightly touch.

Chat's brain short-circuited and he was sure that his entire face turned bright red. But when he looked down at Ladybug, her entire face was red, too.

"Um, I'm-" She stuttered. "I- Me-"

"I'm so sorry, LB!" Chat shrieked, sitting up as soon as he could, gently pushing her off. "I didn't mean to!"

"Oh-okay, um, it's-!"

He helped her up, but she looked away, with her hand held firmly against the bottom half of her face. Her skin matched her suit, and even her ears were bright red. Huh?

"Well, let's get the akuma! You should him chest cataclysm! I mean, uh, you should! Cataclysm! His chest! The monster!" She blurted, waving her hands animatedly in a way that definitely reminded him of someone he couldn't quite put his finger on.

"Um… okay." He said, blinking. "But what about the charm?"

"I saw an amulet under his vines while I fought him. I think the garden shears were to snap the pendant free."

Slowly, Chat nodded, and reluctantly ran into action. But as he cataclysmed Aloe du Spectre, he could think of nothing but how much he rather liked the idea that he might have made her blush like that.

Hawkmoth slammed his cane against the wall of his lair in anger, roaring out in frustration and creating a rather large hole in the drywall.

"Gabriel?" Nathalie asked, from the facetime open on his tablet nearby.

He growled in annoyance. Those annoying little brats. They had foiled him once again. He had been so confident ever since that night that they stole the rest of the miraculous, but he just kept losing.

He sighed, in despair, dropping to his knees in front of Emilie's glass coffin. He had failed her yet again.

"Sir?"

Nathalie's voice jarred him out of his thoughts.

"Yes, yes, what is it, Nathalie? Can't you see that I'm not in the best mood right now?"

"I know, Gabriel. I'm on your side." She reassured him gently, through the video call. "But maybe we're approaching things all wrong. Maybe instead of focusing on bombarding them with akumas and dark miraculous users in the hopes Ladybug may once have a bad day, why don't we try to pick up on their weaknesses?"

"Their weaknesses? Nathalie, you don't think I've already thought of that? I told you, Ladybug only made the one mistake when I stole the miraculous earlier this year."

"No, sir." Nathalie clarified. "Not their mistakes. Their weaknesses."

Gabriel shifted, standing up and picking up the tablet, looking at Nathalie, from where she sat in her bed on the camera. "Go on."

After the akuma victim, an architect and botanist from Nice who was trying to convince the mayor to approve plans to refurbish some newer Parisian skyscrapers to be covered in lush greenery and run on solar panels, was assisted and pointed in the direction of Mayor Bourgeois, who decided to hear him out, Chat and Ladybug were alone once more.

Adrien knew he had to talk to her. He had to know why she's been responding to him so differently lately. He-

"Well!" Ladybug shouted, suddenly, before Chat could even turn to her and ask to speak. "Bien Joue, Chat!"

She grabbed his hand, formed it into a fist, and made him artificially fist bump her.

"Uh- bien joue, My Lady, but-" He began, only to be caught off.

"Sorry, Chat! Gotta run! My earrings are beeping!" Just as she said, her earrings beeped once with perfect timing. "Bye!"

"Wait!" Chat shouted, grabbing her hand.

She froze, turning to look at him, but seemed very nervous, looking away almost immediately at literally anything else, her cheeks getting that pink twinge again. As much as he enjoyed the idea that it might be because of him, he also wanted to make sure he wasn't accidentally making her uncomfortable.

"What's up?" She said, clearly trying to be as nonchalant as possible. It wasn't really working.

"What's with you?" He asked, letting go of her wrist.

"What do you mean?" She responded, fiddling with her soft, raven-feather-colored pigtails. She looked up at him innocently, with those big, bluebell eyes. Chat's heart skipped a beat. God, she is so cu-

Focus!

"I think you know what I mean." He said, trying to sound as stern but gentle as possible. "You've been acting really weird and fidget-y around me."

"What?" She said, raising her eyebrows. "ME? Ladybug? No! I'm not being weird."

"Please, Ladybug." He pleaded, grasping her hands gently, and looking her straight into those beautiful, cerulean eyes. "Please just tell me if I did something wrong. You've been acting this way for months. I thought we had worked through our issues back in the beginning of the year."

Ladybug fidgeted, clearly affected by his begging. She sighed, lifting one hand to caress his cheek (Oh, God, I never want to forget how it feels when she caresses my cheek-), and squeezing his gloved hands with the other one. His heart was beating fast in his chest.

"Oh, Chat." She sighed out. "I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings. You haven't done anything wrong. You're right. I- I've been weird. I'm sorry."

Chat lifted up one of his hands to hold the one of hers caressing his cheek. He relished the moments she was physically affectionate with him. "But what's going on? Is something wrong?"

She sighed again, tucking one of his loose strands of hair behind his ears. "I've just had a lot on my mind, is all. You've just-"

Suddenly she looked into his eyes and turned fully red, seeming to have just become aware of herself and the intimate touch between them. She snatched her hands back quickly, covering her mouth momentarily. Chat's heart mourned the loss of her hands on his cheeks.

"I mean, I've just maybe forgotten that I can rely on you sometimes. I just got thrown off earlier with…" He didn't think it was possible, but Ladybug's cheeks turned even redder under her mask, bright enough to match it. "That thing that accidentally happened earlier. That's all."

Adrien sighed. Maybe he was actually just overthinking. But he felt a bit relieved that she wasn't mad at him.

"So you don't hate me?" He asked, giving her the fake kitten eyes.

"Oh. My God." She laughed, a real laugh for the first time in a while, and shoved him away playfully. He must have had the stupidest lovesick grin on his face. He loved the sound of that laugh more than anything in the entire world.

They sat messing around and giggling there for a moment before her earrings beeped again, at the same time as his ring.

"I guess I actually have to go now." She said, getting up from where she had been sitting. "I have some math homework to do tonight, anyway."

"Huh, me too." He nodded, before looking at his ring. "Hey, have you noticed we seem to have more time before detransforming lately?"

"Yes, I have noticed that." She nodded, touching her earrings passively. "I guess we're just growing up."

"Growing up?" He asked, looking at her quizzically, offering her his hands in a 'help' gesture.

"Well, yeah," she explained, rolling her eyes and helping him up. "Master Fu told me that once we become adults, we probably won't ever detransform involuntarily unless we get seriously hurt in battle. We only had a time limit on the miraculous because we were kids. But as we get older, we'll have more time and more control over our powers."

"Woah…" Chat gasped, looking at his gloved hands before animatedly jumping up and grasping hers again, with stars in his eyes. "Do you think we'll get cool new powers, too?!"

She laughed, but then seemed to think about. "I… don't actually know. I guess I could check the grimoire."

"Oh, hell yeah!" Chat exclaimed. "I hope I can like… make an explosion with my hand and point it at someone! Like in Dragon Ball!"

"I highly doubt it works like that, you weeb." She laughed, ruffling his hair, before she turned towards the horizon. "Anyway, I actually really have to go. But I'll see you on patrol tomorrow night?"

"Of course! Unless another akuma attacks, in which case, I'll see you sooner."

"Please don't speak that into existence."

Chat laughed. "Bye, buginette."

"Bye, minou."

He waved as she leapt off into the distance, watching her for a moment, before leaping off himself in the opposite direction. He really did love her so much.

Which is why he felt all the more guilty that he had been thinking all day, every day, about his classmate, Marinette.

"They're both out of your league, anyway," Plagg told him later that night, once they were both getting ready for bed. He yawned. Yeah… I guess so.

Unbeknownst to Adrien, though, as he got into bed that night, he was being watched, as well. By that same, tall figure.

End Notes:

And that's it for ch. 2! I hope y'all enjoyed.

The swamp monster was definitely inspired by Poison Ivy from Batman as well as the A:TLA swamp people. Originally, I was going to have the kids get tied up by vines and accidentally kiss like that but it felt contrived and unnatural so I went with that kind of accidental kiss.

This is my first time writing an action scene in many, many years, so I may be a little out of practice, haha!

Anyways, if you like this story, again, please don't hesitate to give me reviews, likes, or follows. I also wanna point out that this story is also published on my Ao3, which is also HoneyOpal, and my tumblr which is luxuriant-starlight. Give me some reblogs and likes there if you can! I may also post updates or WIP pics there if you're desperate for more content in between updates.

Expect Ch. 3 within a few days and Ch. 4 probably before next Friday. I may also drop a steamy one-shot this week so watch out for that. Thanks for reading!