The Dreamweaver had already put an entire school of children to sleep by the time Chat Noir arrived. She was moving out into the street. An older woman with gray streaked hair and a patterned dress though her hair stood up in three directions and her dress flowed across the street like a curtain. Still, she kind of looked like a kindergarten teacher. Drifts of pale yellow sand floated ahead of her and when someone breathed it in they fell asleep, crumpling over cafe tables or falling asleep leaned up against a wall.
"That doesn't look comfortable," Chat told the man drooling against a plate glass window as he ran by. The man was deeply asleep and didn't even shift. At least he wasn't one of the ones who was snoring.
Ladybug arrived moments after he did and she landed at his side, where she always had before. He looked away from the Akuma on the rooftop for a moment, just a moment, to look at her. She was simultaneously tiny and imposing. It was like she was bigger than the willowy little red clad body she lived in.
"Hi," he said.
It might have been more than a moment.
"Look out!" she said.
Ladybug had to haul him out of the way of a cascade of powder that fell across the street like a snow drift.
"Can't we just have some peace and quiet!?" the Akuma screamed at them, "Just take a nap and everything will be fine!"
He caught up against Ladybug under a shop awning. They banged into the glass but the sleeping man on the other side only twitched. Ladybug held his wrist tight and he'd fallen into her so she was pressed back against the glass by the weight of him. She held his gaze and her eyes were bright and blue and unreadable. Was she angry? Was she sad? What had she meant when she told Adrien that Chat Noir didn't want to see her?
"Always a pleasure to have you here, my Lady," he said with a grin and a silent prayer that she understood what he meant.
"Pay attention before we both end up sleeping in the streets, alley cat," she said.
He grinned a little wider and she let go of him. Reluctantly, he stepped away from her and looked towards the rooftops to see where the Akuma had gone. Ladybug peaked out around him and caught sight of the cascade of powder coming towards them before he did. She grabbed him and suddenly they were swinging through the air as she pulled him up onto a rooftop.
There wasn't time for talking. They were in the middle of an attack and that had to be dealt with first before the entire city fell asleep.
They weren't as smooth as they'd once been. He had to dance out of the way of her yo-yo, she had to re-correct for him more than once but it was still familiar.
More than that. Right. It was right.
She was there.
He lost his baton when he got into a hand to hand scuffle with the Dreamweaver and Ladybug threw it back to him with perfect aim. He snatched it out of the air and felt invincible. He wouldn't admit it, not out loud, not even to himself, but a part of him feared taking on these fights alone. He was always one wrong move away from leaving Paris defenseless. With her falling into step beside him, calling out warnings and covering blind spots he forgot he had, it was almost fun.
"I'm fighting a flying brainwashed kindergarten teacher but hey, at least it's fun," he muttered.
"What was that?" Ladybug asked as she stretched out a hand and let him pull her up onto a balcony where they had a better view of the street and where the Akuma was going.
"This is much meow fun with you here," he said with a grin.
She gave him a look that wasn't the dismissive, indulgent smile she usually rewarded a terrible pun with. It was more complicated than that. She still looked a little annoyed that the pun had been so atrocious but she also looked sad or maybe even guilty.
"You've got nothing to apologize for, My Lady," he said but another wave of sleeping sand was drifting towards them and she went left as he went right. He didn't know if she even heard him.
The fight didn't last much longer. The butterfly was in the teacher's pointer that Dreamweaver kept swinging around. It was Ladybug who pulled it out of her hand and Chat who smashed it on the ground.
And when it was all over, Ladybug tilted her head back and watched a little white butterfly flutter up in a lazy spiral toward the sky. A breeze pushing it towards the Seine as clouds moved in above them.
"You really are a miracle," he said.
"Mmm?" she said.
Her eyes were half closed when she looked at him and he realized what had happened. A breeze whirled through the streets. Not much, just enough to churn up the dust and Ladybug sneezed and then yawned.
"Don't fall asleep, not here," he said and she shook her head hard but he could feel the effect of the powder as well. She hadn't had a chance to clean it up. The Akuma was gone but falling asleep in the street wasn't safe. Did Hawkmoth have other agents? He didn't know and he wasn't going to risk her to find out.
"Wake up, LB," he said coming closer. A larger dose must have hit her than had hit him because she seemed to be fading faster. Wavering on her feet and yawning again. Indecision lasted only a moment before he grabbed her wrist and pulled her down the street. There were other options but none of them were as safe and all he could think about was making her safe.
"Where are we going?" she had shaken off a little of the lethargy but he could still feel it in his own muscles so he didn't think they were out of the woods yet. The transformation made them stronger but it wouldn't protect them from everything, including it appeared, sleeping sand.
He almost took her in through the front doors but the doorman was sleeping over the desk there and he remembered that there were security cameras. The last thing he wanted was video of a pair of superheroes entering his apartment complex to leak out onto the news. Even bone tired, as though he hadn't slept in weeks, he knew how to climb up to the fire escape and make it to his window without being seen.
Ladybug was half asleep by that point. She kept shaking herself awake but she needed him to help her up the last few steps. They fell into the apartment and he had the presence of mind to pull shut the heavy blackout drapes so none of the neighbours could see them. He hadn't made his bed that morning but it was now too dark in the room to be able to tell.
"Chat?" she asked.
"We can talk about it in the morning," he slurred out. He still had his arm around her waist and he wasn't sure if he pulled her down into the bed or if she was the one who pulled him down. He gave up the fight to stay awake and the last thing he was aware of was her hair in his face and then he was asleep.
AN:
Heeee. This is why there's an "accidental cuddling" tag on this story. Heee. I finally understand why people say they are "trash of the thing" in the words of Lin Manuel Miranda. I am trash of the thing.
In other news, I move this week so we're going from daily/nearly daily updates to see you on Friday assuming I can actually get my internet connected or can find a convenient cafe with wifi in a new city when I don't have a car and won't get my bus pass until my campus reopens after new years.
So yeah, enjoy that cliffhanger, lovelies.
(or I'll have more time than I am expecting and update tomorrow, you know how it is).
