Ladybug was back in Paris and everybody knew. She was not hanging around after attacks to do interviews or smile for pictures but she was there. The attacks were coming thick and fast. In the three weeks since she had been back there had been ten of them. Adrien couldn't remember the last time there had been so many. It was exhausting but at the end of each battle, Ladybug put it all back the way it had been before.

"What we need to do is find this Hawkmoth," Ladybug said after a battle with an Akuma whose name Chat hadn't even figured out. He had used big fans to blow things around and it would have been comical if the things he was blowing around hadn't been cars and buses and at least three vendor carts. Chat had been hit in the face with what he was pretty sure had been falafel.

They were hidden away from the news crews wandering the streets looking for wreckage to report in front of but Ladybug was back and there was nothing for them to find. When she had been away, the news broadcasts had been far more sensational. Destruction and mayhem. Now they had to report from empty streets and cleaned up parks and buildings without holes.

"We've tried everything," Chat said without looking away from the street.

"So we try again. Maybe if we release an Akuma and follow it back?" she suggested.

They sat on a rooftop, her feet dangling and his tucked up under him like he really was a cat. The longer he spent as Chat Noir, the more he found himself doing things like that without thinking. He sat down properly and dropped his feet over the edge so they dangled beside hers. Her legs were so much shorter than his were, even her feet were little. He might have said something about her tiny bug feet but he knew she could kick his ass without trying so he kept his mouth shut.

"They don't go back, they go find someone else to infect. I tried that one," Chat said.

She sighed and stared out over the city. It had been a short battle. They had found their rhythm again and they were both better than they had been when they had been younger.

"The rest of the world calls Paris a city under siege. People would be so excited or scared when I told them I grew up in Paris. It was like I grew up in an adventure novel or a war zone," she said.

"Two kinds of people, I guess," he said.

"It would be nice to have Paris actually be a safe place again," she said.

"It will be," he said.

"Such confidence, kitty cat," she said.

"Paris has you, has me, has us, that's enough to be confident about," he said.

"And Paris has Hawkmoth," she said with a hand wave at the city below them, "There are bad things the world over. Things like the Akuma but everywhere else they're natural. Just like little bundles of evil that build up and get into a person. Rare and strange and awful but like a disease. No where else has a monster who makes them."

"We're just lucky," Chat said.

"You're definition of lucky is different from mine," she said.

"If you let me take you home, we can talk about getting lucky," he said.

She snorted and shot him a look that was a little bit disgusted. He gave her his best roguish grin and raised an eyebrow. She stared back at him. She looked at him hard with her lips pressed together and her eyes just slightly narrowed. He remembered that she had kissed him once and it almost made the smile falter into something blushing and stammering.

Then she laughed and braced a foot against his hip and her back against the chimney she had been leaning against. He raised both eyebrows in a question but then she finished bracing herself and grinned at him. He realized too late what she was doing.

She kicked him off the ledge.

There was a balcony below that he landed on in a heap, taking a flowerpot down with him and making the woman in the kitchen nearby scream. He attempted to put the pot back in place and tripped over a basket of washing waiting to either be hung out or taken in and nearly fell off the balcony again but he was laughing the entire time.

Ladybug was gone by the time he got back onto the rooftop but when he got to the street and transformed back into himself, there was a text message on his phone, "That's as lucky as you're going to get."

He typed up, "I'm the luckiest cat on the planet," but didn't send it.


Author Notes:

Today we have a window into the editing process: "Chat had been hit in the face with what he was pretty sure had been falafel." What even are verb tenses? I have tried parsing this sentence, re-writing it, rewriting it again and you know what? This is what stays. *makes loud fart noise at editing process* (I still don't know if it is right. I honestly don't know. Are the clauses both past perfect? Should they be? Is "he was" the right tense? I have been staring at it too long). *chucks it into fire* aka *post and run*

I started a diploma program this week. During the transition it is leaving me with less mental energy for writing but hopefully once I settle, I'll be able to get back to regular writing time. I actually took this afternoon off to spend with my stories. It was a good idea.

Also I know this scene is super short. I'm actually going to post two today (so you people who manage to read it as soon as it goes up, see you again in a few minutes for the second one). I couldn't combine the topics/settings and I refuse to cut this scene because I love her kicking him off the roof SO MUCH so two little chapters it is.

I am also wordy and attention seeking tonight so you get long rambley authors notes.