Author's Note:
I don't own Miraculous Ladybug or its characters, but I do own this story.
Description:
Between fighting crime, his distant father, and an over-scheduled life, Adrien doesn't exactly have it easy, despite all outward appearances otherwise. Can he find respite and refuge in a certain polka-dotted someone, or will he crash and burn? Anything's possible. Miraculous love square. Also published on wattpad under backthataccioup.
Please R&R. I really do appreciate it. And thanks to all who have followed/favorited.
Adrien moved his spoon through his French onion soup, making lazy circles and trying to distract himself from Chloé's incessant babble. She alternated between talking about herself and using her phone, and he was so grateful for the reprieves from her verbal assault that he didn't even comment on her horrendous manners and attitude towards her guest.
"Oh, and so then I went to the departments, you know, but not the commoner ones, and I found myself a nice little green Céline bag, like, the color of your eyes, and I figured…"
Chloé trailed off when a notification appeared on her phone.
"Oh my god, there's an akuma attack near the Museé de l'Orangerie and there's live footage on the Ladyblog!"
For the first time all evening Adrien looked towards Chloe, who had her phone out, enraptured by the footage. Ladybug was slinging her yo-yo around lamp posts and launching quick attacks at a villain who appeared to be carrying an umbrella. Violent winds were whipping at her. The view of the whole thing seemed to be obscured by… a wall of ice? Adrien blinked. So his vision hadn't failed him.
He looked from the footage of the fight to the stern gaze of his father, who was managing to seem fixated on the mayor while warning his son at the same time. Adrien didn't want to engage Chloé. She was already clingy enough without getting the sense that whatever she felt for him was mutual.
On Chloé's screen, a large gust of wind blew Ladybug out of the park and down one of the nearby streets. A remarkable familiar nearby street.
Ladybug disappeared from the Ladyblog feed just as she became visible on the street down below. Adrien cursed internally. He had to help her, but there was just no way to transform without someone getting suspicious- and if that someone was Chloé, the entire city would know by sunrise the next day.
"Chloé, do you want to go to the other room?"
The blonde annoyance smiled widely.
"Sure thing, Adrien!"
She enveloped his hand with hers, linking their arms together and all but rubbing herself against his body. He was too focused on doing something to help out Ladybug to shudder. They walked into the living room, which had very expensive sofas and medals of service to the city strewn about. Ha. Not like the mayor had done anything against the akuma attacks.
There were lovely French doors leading out to the balcony, and Adrien rushed through them. Chloé followed close behind him, so close she was like a shadow. He barely gave any thought to her presence, too busy scoping out the scene below.
Ladybug had secured herself to a lamp post with her yoyo, but was being blown up the side of a building. Adrien was at a loss for a moment, but fear for his partner drove his brain to come up with a solution.
"Ladybug," he called softly, not daring to draw the villain's attention. The fact that all the wind was going towards her actually turned out to be lucky, if you can believe that or not (which isn't exactly hard with Ladybug involved), because his words floated right to her ears. She looked up and saw the blonde figure standing on the balcony.
"Come here and I can hide you," he said. He saw her head nod and flew into action, beginning to unbuckle his supple brown leather belt.
"Oh, Adrien, on a balcony? I should have known you had a wilder side," giggled Chloé. "All you had to do was ask."
"Not now, Chloé," he said, unaware of how powerful his voice was, a far cry from his typical soft-spoken self. She shut up immediately.
Ladybug suddenly started running around in circles, off the walls of buildings, using the street and sky as places for her travels. Combined with the villain's wind, this created a red blur, going around and around. It was impossible to distinguish where the hero actually was. Adrien was tense, waiting for the proper moment, and suddenly he knew. He stuck the belt outward into the air, and crossed his fingers, hoping for the best, hoping that this time he wouldn't be quite so unlucky as usual.
He felt a sudden weight at the end of the belt, as a red-and-black gloved hand grabbed it. Quickly, he pulled Ladybug towards him, over the balcony rail, and into the mayor's home. The whole maneuver went so smoothly it was almost like it had been practiced before, somehow.
Pushing Ladybug behind the sofa, he breathed a sigh of relief as the villain used the wind to propel herself away from the street, no doubt thinking that Ladybug had used her momentum to fling herself away.
"Thank you," said Ladybug, before looking up at her helper. For a reason unknown to Adrien, her cheeks tinted pink slightly. "I guess I held out for too long hoping that Chat would arrive and didn't mobilize my plan of attack fast enough."
Adrien felt guilt rise up in his chest. He should have been there to help her. Maybe she wouldn't have been blown about so badly. Maybe the villain would be defeated instead of just at large. Before he could say anything, Chloé ran off the balcony, shutting the doors behind her, and squealed.
"Oh my god, Ladybug, it's you! I saw the footage through the ice on the Ladyblog, but I so totally didn't put the park and my street together! Here, let's take a picture!"
At the mention of the footage through the ice, Ladybug had a look of panic in her eyes, and Adrien almost swore he heard her say, "Alya!". It did make sense that she would know her biggest and most dedicated fangirl, but the panic couldn't have been related.
Chloé seemed all too pleased to be snapping selfies with Ladybug, but Adrien knew that they had to go catch the villain before the city was destroyed.
"Chloé, I think Ladybug has to go save the city," he explained. The blonde pouted but set down her phone. Ladybug inclined her head towards Adrien.
"Thank you, Adrien," she said with a smile, before freezing a little. "I've got to be on my way. Need to track down Chat."
She neatly executed a backflip out of the window and was gone.
Adrien looked at the window from where she left with a goofy grin almost perma-frozen on his face. Ladybug knew his name! He knew that his face was on a few billboards, but the fact that his lady has noticed the Adrien side of him was amazing!
He thought over her last words some more before freezing. Shoot, she was looking for Chat. Time to get going. He coughed a few times unconvincingly.
"Chloé, I'm not feeling all too well," he said, putting some fake sadness in her voice.
"Oh, Adrien, that's too bad. But we can hang out later, right? Right?"
"Sure, Chloé," he reassured her quickly. He had to get away. He nearly sprinted back to the dining room, where his father and the mayor were conversing quietly. Adrien noted the smile on his father's face and his heart fell a little. It had been a while since he'd done that near Adrien.
"Father," he intoned, then coughed, "I am feeling most unwell and would like to retire."
His father didn't even look at him, just told him, "Very well. The car should be waiting."
Adrien ran down the emergency stairs, feeling this qualified as an emergency if anything ever did, and saw the car. Time for a little smooth talking.
"Monsieur Gorilla, my father said that I could walk home tonight."
His bodyguard/chauffeur raised an eyebrow unconvinced.
"This also may have been after imbibing some alcohol, but I'll take what I can get."
The almost emotionless Messr. Gorilla's face twisted into something resembling a smile.
"Well, then, scurry on," he commanded, making a shooing gesture. Adrien wondered if his unhappiness had been that palpable today.
Adrien began to walk down the street. As soon as he was out of sight of the car, he ducked into an alleyway and pulled a snoozing Plagg out of his pocket.
"Plagg, wake up!" he whisper-shouted. His Miraculous let out a little snore. He shook him
"Geez, Adrien," complained Plagg.
"Ladybug needs me!" he cried. The black Miraculous only yawned.
"I'll give you a whole wheel of Brie when we get back," Adrien pleaded.
"Not quite Camembert but it will do," agreed Plagg.
Soon, Chat Noir stood in the alley.
"I'm an alley cat," he said to himself, chuckling. He quickly schooled his features and stopped laughing at his awesome pun. He had to find Ladybug and give her some backup.
He climbed up the pipes and onto the roofs, a black silhouette against the light of the moon. He wasn't certain why, but he felt like Ladybug would have headed towards the park. The concern she displayed for the trapper blogger Alya was not out of character, but was certainly unusual. Chat Noir bounded over the rooftops before dropping down next to a boulangerie. During the day, the quaint little shop positively bustled with activity, and smelled like fresh sourdough and cinnamon, but now the store was closed up. A metal grate designed to keep out thieves hung over the blackened windows.
Lightly, he darted into the park proper, padding over the lush green grass. He was glad he had night vision to keep his path from veering into bushes and trees. That would only attract undue attention, and he needed his stealth on his side if he was going to find Ladybug before Stormy Weather did.
He approached the frozen carousel, where chunks of ice seemed to have dropped inward. He found Ladybug there, hand pressed against the ice, whispering to the people inside it.
"Don't worry, Manon, Marinette went to go get me. I made her go home and be safe. She'll be fine. And you will be too."
Now that Chat Noir thought of it, he had seen Alya and Marinette with a little girl earlier in the park. That was really nice of Ladybug to heed a civilian's call when the villain was still at large. It must have been reassuring for the trapped people to know that saving the people and city was their hero's priority.
"Milady!" Chat whispered. Ladybug whirled around and in the same motion adopted a combat stance, yo-yo at the ready. She relaxed some when she saw that it was her partner, and beckoned him over. "Sorry I couldn't get here sooner," he explained by way of greeting. "I got a little tied up."
"It's alright," said Ladybug, ever understanding. "Besides, a classmate from school gave me some help." A little smile formed on her face, and Chat wasn't sure if it was a quirk of his night vision but he swore her complexion darkened a shade.
Chat Noir tried not to betray any emotion on his face as he processed the information. He had known that Ladybug went to his school, but that honestly hadn't meant too much. There were 4 grades, after all, and many different classes, all teeming with people. But Adrien was Ladybug's classmate?
"Still," he allowed, "I should have shown up earlier."
A fierce gust of wind blew up from behind him, and if Chat hadn't had the reflexes of a cat he would have been blown away. Even so, he landed on all fours a few feet away.
"Seems our villain high-tailed it over here," Chat noted.
They tried to circle Stormy Weather together, but were blown up by the wind along with some cars that had been parked on the nearby avenue. Thank goodness it was late and not many people would be out and about in such a residential neighborhood at this hour. The last thing they needed was to worry about civilians being collateral damage.
"Ladybug, any ideas?" asked Chat, standing up from the pavement.
"Do you know where the akuma is trapped?" she asked him.
Stormy Weather whirled around the corner, dark purple umbrella leading the charge. Adrien had an epiphany.
"It's her umbrella."
Ladybug nodded, before yelling, "Lucky charm!"
A red spotted towel appeared in her hand, causing both her and Chat to adopt a look of confusion? What good could a towel do in defeating this villain? It may be water absorbent but it couldn't exactly absorb wind. Chat found himself worried. Would they have to smother her? Ladybug snatched at his arm and raised it above his head.
"Hold this end of the towel!" she commanded him. No sooner had he done this than Stormy Weather sent a huge gust of wind towards them. They blew upwards into the air. Ladybug yanked at her end of the towel, turning them towards the villain.
"On the count of three, let go!"
Chat Noir nodded. Any qualms he would have had about this plan as Adrien weren't present. He had no need to fear heights; he'd land on his feet.
"One, two, three! Now!"
Ladybug and Chat Noir dropped from the sky, right on top of Stormy Weather. The umbrella was knocked to the pavement as the two heroes did what they do best- work together. Chat Noir moved to pin down Stormy while Ladybug grabbed the umbrella and snapped it in half, revealing a vile akuma that tried to flutter off, away from the crime fighting duo. Ladybug quicky ensnared in in her yoyo with an expert throw.
"No!" cried Stormy Weather, surging under Chat, who held her fast, hissing in her face.
"Time to de-evilize!" cried Ladybug. A beautiful white butterfly fluttered away.
Chat Noir found himself in the interesting position of lying on top of a very attractive meteorologist cum news anchor, who was at least 7 years his senior. He yelped and sprang off her. Ladybug shook her head in amusement. He turned to her and held out his fist.
"Pound it!" they shouted in unison. Chat could barely hold back a blush. If only you knew how disgusting your cat could be, milady.
They both nodded at each other and bounded away, to detransform at home and grab some sleep before tomorrow. Chat Noir looked forward to lying down on his comfortable bed, comforter pulled up to his neck, Plagg dozing on a wheel of cheese, his backpack at the foot of his bed…
Adrien wanted to scream in frustration when he remembered his chemistry assignment.
a/n: please review! it motivates me. I have a few more chapters written but it might get me to update sooner. *hint hint*