help I accidentally posted this as the chapter 2 to my other miraculous fic instead what is my life

The next time she awoke, she felt cold. None of the past day registered in her mind, a vague fogginess coating her memories as she twisted with a groan. The ground under her was hard, rocky, and wet. Somewhere, water dripped, and echoed.

Opening her eyes showed her much the same. A dark rock ceiling stretched overhead, jagged edges jutting down toward her. That was where Ladybug stayed, for several long minutes, trying to remember how in the world she ended up in a damp cave. She took in the darkness around her, only able to see vague shapes and nothing more, and smelled the musky scent of dead air that may have never seen the sun.

Finally, after a long time of mugging through the haze in her mind, the memory of Hawkmoth getting the best of her snapped to the surface like she'd been drenched in cold water. She gasped, and bolted upright, only to groan and curl into her legs. Her head spun as soon as she'd moved it, and her chest protested against where she'd been shot.

Clearly, she wasn't dead yet, if the pain was any indication. But that still left the explanation of how she got here. The last thing she remembered was drowning, thrown overboard into the Cataclysm and weighted down to sink into its depths.

Speaking of, her eyes trailed down to her wrists. Not that she could really see much more than a pale outline of her own skin, but they were unbound and free. Moving one leg into the air, her ankles proved much the same. Somehow, she'd both miraculously escaped drowning, and gotten free of her chains and weights, all with no memory of how. Something didn't add up, people didn't just magically escape death after passing out, no matter how previously lucky they'd been.

Her thoughts came to a screeching halt when a new sound suddenly echoed around the small cavern. Nearby, there was a large pool in the floor, and she could hear the water splashing around something. Something big, if her ears weren't betraying her. It was too dark to see at all, but it sounded like something had just pulled itself out of that water and was now dragging itself up the rock toward her.

Even to the protest of her wounds, she scooted backward, trying to press herself into the wall as silently as possible. Maybe whatever it was wouldn't be able to see any better than her, and would leave if she didn't make any noise. Soon the sound of it moving reached the spot she'd previously been in, and stopped. Knowing where it was, but now unable to see and hear it, was worse than hearing it ominously move toward her. Somewhere in her battered brain, she likened it to seeing a spider, and then not seeing the spider anymore.

Ladybug's complete lack of vision didn't last for long, though. The cave was still as dark as ever, but the unknown creature before her swung its head, looking around, and when it turned to face her, its glowing green eyes pierced the darkness and came into focus. They were the only thing she could see, and burned themselves into her memory.

Except they were already there, she realized. With a gasp, the blurry image of those same eyes appearing in the dark, suffocating water came to mind.

It didn't matter that she'd made a noise, because it had already seen her the instant she saw it. Those cat shaped eyes loomed and bobbed through the darkness, getting bigger along with the noise of the creature moving again as it approached. She was frozen in place, pressing harder against the jabbing wall behind her purely out of tense fear.

After what felt like forever, it stopped. The eyes were floating directly in front of her face, staring intently down at her, and she felt more than heard as it gave a deep huff and its breath wafted over her face. It smelled like fish, and almost like blood. That's where they both stayed for several long seconds, the green eyes disappearing periodically as the thing sat there and blinked at her, and she tried to remember to breathe. Neither moved otherwise, both waiting for the other to make the first move.

Finally, after what felt like hours of agonizing tension, it huffed again, and then coughed. It sounded like it was clearing its throat, followed by a deep growl, and then another cough. Lastly, a scratchy noise escaped it, and then another, and then more, the volume rising out of what she didn't realize was frustration.

Then it clicked, and her jaw fell open. The creature was speaking words.

"Are you listening now?" It asked, its voice impossibly scratchy from disuse and heavy with an accent she didn't recognize, explaining why she couldn't recognize it as words earlier. Stunned, she just dumbly nodded her head, completely out of her element. It grunted, and then continued. "Good. I think."

"Who, who… what?" Good job Ladybug, very eloquent.

The mysterious creature seemed to think the same, and chuckled. It chuckled, the green eyed fish creature was laughing like a human, clearly she'd been mistaken earlier and was most definitely dead because this wasn't real. "Well, I think right now you could call me your savior."

That didn't help her whatsoever. It only added more questions, burning behind her tongue but refusing to come out intelligibly. She rambled a string of confused noises, unable to form a proper sentence or word, starting to sink underneath a blanket of suffocating emotions.

"Hey, hey, breathe. I know the air's thin down here, but you won't help yourself by panicking." It spoke again, its voice starting to smooth out as it got used to using it, but she was still too far gone. Her head ached, she'd been caught by her enemy, she'd drowned in the ocean, now she was dead and talking to a pair of floating cat eyes that smelled like fish, it was too much. As her breathing continued to increase, her thoughts spiraling farther and farther, she wasn't aware of the creature sighing in defeat and then moving closer until it was right in her space.

She jolted when a pair of arms wrapped around her, holding her close to a very human chest, her head cradled under a very human chin. The green eyes had vanished from her sight, leaving her only darkness and the physical sensation of being hugged. It still didn't add up, it made no sense, this was making even less sense now that it was touching her, why did the fish creature feel like a human, what even was happening-

"Oh for the love of, just stop thinking already." Its voice cut clean through her thoughts this time, stopping them in their tracks as she felt the words rumble in its throat. The arms tightened around her, grounding her along with the rhythmic rise and fall of the chest she was pulled against. Its skin was cold to the touch but radiated warmth from underneath, so similar and yet so different to her own. Her mind seemed to have stopped working, especially when she automatically wrapped her own arms around it in return and held on like she was going to drift away. "There you go."

After several long minutes, her breathing finally evened out, and the creature pulled away. Its green eyes came back into sight, staring down at her in the darkness. Its cat shaped pupils were wider, looking more human now, and its hands, hands!, hadn't left her shoulders.

"Better?"

She opened her mouth, and a crackly squeak came out. It was patient as it waited for her to try again, this time her own voice being the one to sound raw and scratchy. "Yeah."

"Good." The eyes looked down, trailing over her body and catching on where her bullet wound probably was. She felt pinned under its stare, almost like prey, and desperately tried to take its attention away from its scrutiny of her injured state.

"Um." It looked up. "What are you?"

Smooth, Ladybug.

It chuckled again, the eyes disappearing as it looked around. "Right, it's too dark in here for you. You probably can't see me, right?"

She nodded.

"That may be for the best." Okay, that wasn't a great answer. Now she was just picturing the very decidedly human shape she'd felt was some sort of illusion, and it was actually some spiky deep sea creature with huge teeth- "No, no, I know what you're thinking, stop. I'm just saying seeing a so-called 'mythical' creature as soon as you woke up might've broken you."

"A who what now."

"Exactly, see, you can't even speak properly just from the mention of it." Even though she was on the road to freaking out again, unable to absorb literally any of this day at this point, she could see the eyes narrow ever so slightly and almost thought they looked amused. After a moment, it became clear the creature had no intention of answering.

Maybe she should switch tactics. Jumping to the next best question, she spoke up again. "What's your name?" At least if it had a name, she could stop referring to it as 'it', and stop picturing a man eating fish. But no sooner had the question escaped her mouth did the friendly amusement drain from its demeanor, resurrecting the previous tension from before it had hugged her. Its hands fell from her shoulders now, the creature pulling away to a more comfortable, though tense, distance.

"Names hold a lot of power under the ocean." It said, an ominous edge to its tone. It clearly had no intention of telling her its name, either, as it lapsed into silence for a long moment. But eventually, "But I know humans like to be able to refer to others as something personal. Er… Call me.. Chat Noir, I guess."

Well, that was a weird name. But if he was coming up with an alias, it made sense, and at least it gave her something normal-ish to latch onto. Two could play his game, though. If he wouldn't tell her his name, he didn't need to know hers, no more than the man who'd tried to kill her did.

"I'm Ladybug."

The warmth returned to his gaze, already feeling more human now that she knew what to call him. Understanding flickered in his eyes as well, and she was sure he'd figured out instantly that she hadn't told her real name, either. "Ladybug." He tested, and if she could see him, she'd have seen him smile. "I like it. Sounds familiar, though."

She didn't offer an explanation. Even if he seemed friendly, she didn't know how friendly he'd be if she let it slip she was a pirate, and she was still trapped in a cave with him, not to mention injured. "So, uh, where are we?" She asked, changing the subject.

"Underwater." Chat deadpanned. She groaned. "No, really. This is an air pocket cave in the wall of my ravine. I, uh, couldn't think of where else to take you."

Ladybug blinked. "Right, wait, you did mention you saved me. What happened?"

"You fell into my ravine and drowned. I dragged you in here. The End."

Not the answer she was looking for, but close enough. If he didn't want to say any more, she wasn't about to force the issue, not when she still didn't know his intentions. Or if he had a temper. "Why?"

That made him pause even more. He looked away. "I don't know. Look, just accept that you're alive and cheated death big time, you'd probably be better off not poking at the specifics considering the odds."

Was that a threat? She couldn't tell. Either way, she took the hint, and dropped that too. Ever the brave, or maybe foolish, though, she didn't entirely stop poking the proverbial bear.

"What are you going to do with me?"

"I don't know." That answer was instantaneous, truthful. "You're awake now, so I guess you can decide where to go. But there's one downside."

"And what would that be?"

"We're nearly at the bottom of the ravine. There's no other air pockets I can take you to, and you'll drown before we reach the surface."

"So I'm trapped here."

"Until we think of something? Maybe kinda."

Something didn't feel right, though. "Wait, if I'd drown on the way to the surface, how'd I get here without dying in the first place?"

Chat looked away again, not meeting her gaze. "You almost did." He mumbled, something odd in his tone that she couldn't place. A moment passed between them in silence, his glowing eyes still directed elsewhere, his mind in another place. The moment grew, the silence stretching on until she was sure he wasn't going to break it, but then his eyes snapped back to her with renewed focus, shaking off the weird air he'd had before. "Look, let's just focus on right now. I'd kind of prefer to not have to lug your dead body out of here, so can I please just do something about your wounds?"

That sentence at least told her two things, as ominous as it was. One, he didn't plan to kill her, in fact he'd prefer she not die even if he didn't seem particularly emotionally invested in her wellbeing, and he was willing to help at least. She still didn't exactly trust him, especially with the layer of mystery he was purposefully staying shrouded in, but she really didn't have much choice but to go along with whatever he decided at this point. He could be lying about how far up the surface was, but somehow she could feel the distance and knew it was true. The air felt thin, while at the same time there was a pounding pressure in her head that she couldn't entirely attribute to her near death experience.

Chat was still waiting for an answer, albeit patiently, while her brain rattled with thoughts. She'd started to forget about it throughout their conversation, but her head was still aching and filled with fog, and it seemed almost worse than before. Trying to ignore it, she focused on the current moment, and nodded. Almost instantly, his eyes disappeared as he turned around, and she could hear that echoing sound of movement again. It was strange, the way it sounded like he dragged his body around, and she looked toward the ceiling, wondering if it was just too low to stand and walk. She was still trying to convince herself he was actually human, but it wasn't panning out.

His glowing eyes were her warning for when he returned, appearing again from the darkness beside her. Still, Ladybug flinched slightly, unaware that he did too. "I, uh, it's a bit different to treat injuries underwater than it is for your people, I'm sure. And I haven't taken care of someone else since… for a long time." Chat sounded more unsure at this point, more skittish than he had at first. Her head spinning, though, Ladybug barely noticed his demeanor. All of her focus was on trying to understand his words and act like she wasn't slowly spiraling back into a hazy state.

"Yeah, it's good, go for it?" She tried. She wasn't able to see the way he raised an eyebrow inquisitively at her odd sentence, but he tentatively shuffled back into her personal space all the same. Shaking her head and forcefully dragging herself back into a more attentive state, she looked toward him, even though she couldn't see what he was doing.

"I can clean it, and put something on it to help it heal, but I need to see it better first." His tone shifted back into something low, almost soothing, almost as if he were dealing with a cornered wild animal. Slowly, and almost extremely cautiously, he leaned further into her space and she felt his hands on her shoulders again. When she didn't protest, he pushed her coat down onto her arms, exposing the bullet hole well and fully to the air. Tsking, he looked back and forth from different angles, leaving her to watch his eyes flitting around in the darkness. "You're lucky, it went all the way through, and missed anything important on the way. Yeah, it'll have to heal from both sides now, but that's better than if I'd have had to dig the bullet out."

Taking a deep breath, she had to agree. She'd gone through that before and repeating it today with this headache didn't sound like fun. "Have you had to do it before?" She asked without thinking, and it didn't escape her notice that his touch went rigid.

"...Yeah."

He worked in silence after that, though he was as gentle as possible and the longer the ordeal stretched on, the more she found herself appreciating it. Though after awhile she started warring with herself in her own head, torn between being glad to be in the company of someone who at least seemed to be a gentle soul, and being suspicious of his every move. Things still didn't sit quite right with her, and if she was at all honest, she was still pretty sure this was either a dream or the afterlife.

Because, after all, they were deep within the ocean and he talked about himself like he wasn't human, which fit along with the way he smelled like fish and had glowing cat eyes, but that was impossible. The only things under the ocean were actual fish, not mythical fish people that could see in the dark, those were just fairy tales. Plus, no one survived ending up in this ravine, they were drowned and torn apart by probably sharks or something, not magically saved by magical people.

"You're shivering."

Was she? She hadn't noticed. She just shrugged, wincing when it pulled on her wound, and took another deep breath. In the darkness, she noticed his eyes catch on the movement of her breathing, and narrow.

"We need to think of something. The air in here is running out."

Ladybug breathed in again, heavily, and realized he was right. It was freezing, this far below the surface, and her breathing had steadily gotten more labored as the air within the cave ran out. If it hadn't been so dark, she'd have noticed the edges of her vision flickering. He was nearly done with her wound, now slathering some kind of sticky plant substance on it, but that wouldn't do her any good if she froze or suffocated. A tense minute passed, the remaining air practically crackling with his anxiety as she slowly drifted, until finally he was done.

Any previous inhibitions gone, he firmly grabbed her coat and put it back in place, wrapping her snugly in it. "I'm going to look for any more air pockets further up the ravine wall. Stay here, don't move if you can help it and don't freak out again, okay?"

She nodded, though it could be debated whether she actually heard a word he said or not. By the time he'd splashed into the pool and disappeared, she was out.