"Do you really think this will work?" Marinette's voice had a twinge of doubt.

"Fear not, my lady." Adrien popped open his flashlight and pulled out the battery. "Even though this tin foil isn't quite steel wool, it should be enough to light this pile of cotton I found." He stuffed the flashlight back in his pocket. "Marinette, I really wish I could see you."

"Yeah." Marinette said softly. "I want to see you too, Adrien." She paused. "Wait a second. You just found a pile of cotton? And tin foil?"

"The foil was from the treasure," Adrien said, "We left the box up here, remember? And the cotton was just all nestled in the bars."

Marinette gasped, and Adrien heard her jump to her feet. "It was a bird's nest! Adrien!"

"What?" Adrien said innocently. "It's to break you out!"

Marinette groaned. "Okay, fine. But we're bringing something back for that pigeon, okay?"

"Deal." Adrien knelt and dropped the battery into his pile of shredded aluminum foil and cotton.

"Adrien, how did you learn about fire starting?" Marinette asked curiously.

"Hey, I had a lot of spare time on my hands before I started school." Adrien knelt as the bits of aluminum started to spark. He held his hands up as a shield from the wind, and the sparks flew onto the cotton. Adrien took a deep breath and started blowing gently on the embers. Smoke started to swirl up away from the bits of cotton.

"Ladybug!" A voice shrieked, and a flash of light shone just on the opposite side of the Seine.

"Hurry," Marinette urged. "She'll be here any second!"

A small flame started flickering feebly in middle of the pile of cotton, and the smoke grew heavier. The vines shuddered and started withdrawing back up onto the grate, shying away from the smoke and flames.

"Get ready," Adrien warned, grasping the handles of the now-clear elevator doors. The vines flashed back into a bright green and crawled away from the yellow lift, leaving the doors open and clear.

"Now!" Adrien yanked on the handles as Marinette slammed into them from the other side. The doors burst open, and Marinette tumbled out, still clad in her white and red formal.

"Watch out" She cried, crashing into Adrien. He caught her by the shoulders.
"Ladybug!" Poison Ivy's voice. "Now's the moment for you to give up! Hand over your Miraculous!"

"Hide!" Adrien hissed, and he and Marinette darted around the back of the lift.

"Come on, Ladybug!" Poison Ivy taunted, and Adrien saw her shadow fall across the metal bars of the Eiffel Tower. "I know you're in there!"

"What do we do?" Marinette breathed, leaning up against Adrien. "How are we going to break the pitchfork?"

"Simple." Adrien tapped Marinette on the nose, then pointed to her ears. "I give you your earrings, you give me my ring, and we switch back. Use our powers and then-voila! No more akuma."

Marinette shook her head uneasily. "As soon as we change back, those vines are going to come at us with everything they've got. We both nearly lost our miraculouses, Adrien. This isn't going to be 'simple', as you put it."

"But you can't de-evilze the akuma without your yo-yo," Adrien protested.

"But we can break the pitchfork." Marinette's eyes narrowed, her mind racing. "Then she can't control them anymore. Then I can transform and capture the akuma."

Adrien pursed his lips, thinking. "I-I don't know, Marinette. This is risky, even for us."

"Trust me." Marinette waggled her fingers at Adrien, showing him the thick silver ring she wore on her hand. "We can do this."

Adrien took a deep breath, encasing Marinette in his arms. "I hope so."

"Well!" A voice called out from behind them. "Isn't this cute! What, may I ask are you doing in my tower?"

Adrien and Marinette started, jerking around to face the voice. Poison Ivy smirked, levelling her pitchfork at them. Adrien shoved his way in front of Marinette, throwing his arm out to protect her. Marinette laced her fingers through his, squeezing his hand.

She raised her voice, lacing it with panic as she pushed her way forward to stand beside her partner.

"Who-who are you?" Marinette stuttered, her eyes wide. "I don't understand! Wh-where did all the vines come from?"

Poison Ivy's eyes narrowed. "Little girl, answer my question. What are you doing here?"

"We just wanted to come to the Eiffel Tower," Adrien said, glaring at the villain. "It's prom, can't you see?" He gestured to his tuxedo. "We just wanted to spend the evening together. For prom." He shot a gentle smile at Marinette, and her heart fluttered.

Poison Ivy suddenly grabbed his hand, yanking it up in front of her eyes.

"Hey!" Adrien yelped, stumbling forward. "What-"

"No ring." Poison Ivy cursed, then lunged toward Marinette, her pitchfork levelled at the girl's throat. Marinette cried out, shying away.

"And you're not wearing any earrings." Poison Ivy sounded disappointed.

"Um, sorry?" Marinette locked eyes with Adrien. She's looking for us!

Poison Ivy grunted, turning away from the two teens. "Fine. I'll look elsewhere."

"Um, wait!" Marinette pulled away from Adrien, running after Poison Ivy. "I-I have a question, Poison Ivy!"

"Not now, child!" Poison Ivy snarled, whirling on Marinette.

"It's about pear trees." Marinette crossed her fingers behind her back, walking around to face the supervillain.

"Pear trees?" The villain's voice took on a dreamy tone.

"Yes, pear trees." Marinette breathed a sigh of relief, nodding meaningfully to Adrien. His eyes widened with understanding and he started to creep along behind Poison Ivy.

"So, what do you put on your trees to make them grow so well?" Marinette scanned her surroundings, looking for something to aid them. Adrien's small fire was still flickering merrily as it continued to consume the vines that were knotted around the frame of the Eiffel Tower. "You don't BURN them or anything, do you?" She glanced behind her shoulder at Adrien. He gave her a thumbs-up, grinning.

"Burn them? Why no, of course not." Poison Ivy tapped her cheek thoughtfully. "Pear trees need a lot of water, and fertilizer is good too..." Poison Ivy chattered on, sometimes using her hands to demonstrate different ways to prune or graft the trees. Finally, Poison Ivy started to describe the size of pear, and Marinette seized her chance.

"How big do the pears get?" She interrupted, holding up her hands. "This big?" She mimed holding a pear with one hand.

"No, child," Poison Ivy snorted derisively. "Much bigger."

"How big?" Marinette's eyes grew bigger as she acted astonished. "Show me!"

Poison Ivy planted her pitchfork into the grates of the Eiffel Tower. She held out her two hands. "This big."

Adrien bounded forward, grabbing the pitchfork. "Can I borrow this? Thanks." He darted around the side of the elevator, following the smoke trail.

"What? Give that back!" Poison Ivy shrieked.

Marinette ignored her, running after Adrien. "Hurry, Adrien!"

Adrien threw the pitchfork deliberately into the fire. "Oops. Just kidding, I don't think you want it back now."

Poison Ivy snarled, diving at Adrien. "No!"

The pitchfork crackled as it started to burn. A large crack appeared in the wood, and the akuma fluttered out, barely visible in the smoke. Suddenly, all the vines went limp, and Poison Ivy was engulfed in a cloud of black mist.

"Adrien! My purse!"

Adrien stripped the purse off his shoulder and tossed it to Marinette. "Give me my ring, I don't think you should transform with it."

Marinette pulled Adrien's ring off her finger and pressed it into his hand. Then she clicked open her purse and seized her earrings. Anxiously she put them on, and Tikki appeared before her.
"Tikki, spots on!"

"I knew you could do it!" Tikki crowed as she zipped into Marinette's earrings. Marinette glowed momentarily, and then Ladybug unslung her yo-yo.

"Time to de-evilize!" Ladybug clicked open her yo-yo and swung it into the smoke, quickly capturing the akuma inside. Then she pulled back, recalling her yo-yo. "Gotcha!"

She tapped on the surface of her yo-yo and released the milky white butterfly back into the air. "Bye-bye, little butterfly."

"So." Cat Noir winked, coming up to stand beside Ladybug. "Since you didn't use your lucky charm, does that mean there's still pear trees everywhere?"

Ladybug felt a thrill of worry. "I-I don't know! What do I do?"

Cat Noir shrugged. "Try something. Maybe just your yo-yo?"

"It's worth a shot," Ladybug agreed. She thrust your yo-yo up into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!"

A cloud of shiny Ladybugs burst out of the spotted yo-yo and swarmed out over Paris.

Ladybug grinned. "Does that answer your question?"

Cat Noir watched as the line of pear trees along the Seine disappeared, with help the ladybugs. "Yup."

Ladybug looked sideways at Cat Noir. "Hey, uh, Adrien?"

Cat Noir panicked for a moment, then relaxed. "Oh yeah. You already knew that, huh?"

"Did the fire go out yet?"

Et voila! There's the climax. :) This took forever to work out in my head, then even longer to put it on paper. I'm glad it turned out all right, though!

Thanks for reading! Leave a review with your thoughts!