Work Text:
“If you give me some cheese, I’ll help you with your math homework.”
“Tempting, but no,” Marinette said without looking up from her textbook. She furrowed her brow, eyes flicking back and forth between book and worksheet, before she sighed and erased the equation she had just written out.
“I’m really good at it,” Plagg wheedled. “See, what you just erased was actually the right answer.”
Marinette lifted her head and glared at him.
Plagg blinked back, all innocence, as though he couldn’t fathom why she might be annoyed.
“Plagg, I’m busy and I just fed you two cheese scones half an hour ago. You can’t possibly be hungry already,” she said, annoyed. Plagg was adorable, but it was truly amazing that Adrien got anything done when you factored in the amount of whining that Plagg was capable of.
“Actually, you fed me two hours ago,” Plagg said.
“What?” Marinette gasped, her head whipping around. She scrambled for her phone to check the time and groaned when she saw that Plagg was right.
“Hey, I would have said something earlier, but you told me not to bother you,” Plagg said before Marinette could demand to know why he hadn’t said something before.
Despite his excuse, she glowered at him again. “You didn’t want to interrupt me to tell me about the time, but you had no problem interrupting me to ask about cheese.”
“I have my priorities,” Plagg said loftily, and that was it. Marinette was never agreeing to a kwami swap again.
She had really only agreed this time because she and Chat had been asked to attend a media event, except the request had specifically come for Lady Noire and Mister Bug, not Ladybug and Chat Noir. Chat had theorized that it was because they didn’t swap kwamis very often, so Lady Noire and Mister Bug were still seen as something of a novelty. In other words, their swapped selves were more exciting than their normal superhero selves.
Unfortunately, that meant Marinette had to give up sweet, kind, helpful Tikki and deal with the frustrating little monster that was Plagg. She was absolutely certain that Tikki would have reminded her of the late hour much sooner. Maybe, Marinette reflected guiltily as she closed her textbook and tucked the worksheet into her binder, she had become a little too dependent on Tikki’s help.
But that didn’t mean she couldn’t get Plagg back from waiting so long to point out the time. She narrowed her eyes at him and then gave him a sweet smile. Plagg instantly stopped sniggering to eye her warily; it hadn’t taken him long to learn that, as kind and doting as Marinette could be, she was also vengeful and petty.
“It’s too bad you didn’t tell me sooner. Now I really don’t have time to get you any cheese before we go,” Marinette told him.
Plagg’s smile vanished. “What?! Pigtails, that’s not fair!”
“Sorry! Can’t be late. Plagg, claws out!”
“Meeeeeeeeean!” Plagg wailed as he was sucked across the room and into the ring. A flash of green light suffused the air, and then Lady Noire was left giggling to herself.
She strutted across the room and nimbly clambered up the ladder onto her bed. She had always thought she was graceful as Ladybug, but that couldn’t hold a candle to what it was like to be Lady Noire. Her tail kept her perfectly balanced as she lifted herself up onto the balcony and then up onto the railing, where she crouched down to survey the city.
Something moved out of the corner of her eye, and Lady Noire turned her head just in time to see Mister Bug land on the railing beside her. Since he wasn’t Chat Noir, he couldn’t perch on the rail like she was. It was too uncomfortable. She smiled to herself as he put his feet down on the balcony instead.
“I wondered if you’d forgot,” he said, tilting his head. It was such a cat-like thing to do, and proof that you could take the boy out of the cat costume, but you couldn’t take the cat out of the boy.
“I was trying to do that stupid workbook, sorry. I lost track of time,” she said.
He wrinkled his nose. “Yeah, can’t blame you. That’s a hard one. Maybe I could be persuaded to give you some of the answers… or at least help you figure them out. For a price.”
“Oh really?” Lady Noire said coyly, ducking her head and looking up at him. A slight shifting of her arms meant that she was able to push her breasts together, and sure enough Mister Bug’s eyes flicked down quickly. She was hard-pressed not to grin outright. He was so easy.
“Yes, really,” he said, dragging his eyes back up to her face.
“And what would that price be?” she asked.
He pretended to think about it, dramatically tapping his chin. “Hmm. I’d say that would cost you at least ten kisses, maybe even twelve.”
“You drive a hard bargain,” she said. “But I don’t know. Twelve kisses are a lot.”
“Take it or leave it,” Mister Bug said.
Lady Noire tipped her head back, humming long and loud. His attention snapped back to her immediately, tracing the lean lines of her body. As much as he liked the way she looked in her Ladybug outfit, he couldn’t seem to keep his paws off when they swapped kwamis. And that gave her an idea. She finally let herself smile wickedly and delighted in the way that he visibly gulped.
“You want me, Bugaboy?” she purred. “Then come get me.”
She lingered for a split second more, just long enough to take in his widening eyes and shocked inhale before she sprang off the railing and threw herself forward with a delighted laugh.
“Hey! Cheater!” Mister Bug shouted behind her.
She laughed again in response, landing on a balcony two streets over and immediately springing forward again. She wasn’t quite as adept at using the baton to get around as Chat was, but she was learning quickly. It extended to full length in the blink of an eye, propelling her next jump even harder. Below her, the city was a sprawling glitter of beautiful lights.
The sound of a yoyo somewhere behind her told that she was indeed being pursued. Lady Noire kept moving, deciding that both of them could use a decent workout. It felt like ages since they’d had the chance to just run around and play, what with their busy civilian schedules and stupid Hawkmoth and his stupid akumas.
“You can’t catch me!” she called over her shoulder.
“Wanna bet?” Mister Bug said, much closer than she’d anticipated. The yoyo shot over her shoulder a moment later, and Lady Noire squealed and took a sharp right to avoid it.
Damn him. She might have stumbled a bit when it came to traveling with the baton, but he’d learned how to use the yoyo too quickly for her liking.
Time to bring out the dirty tricks. With a flick of her wrist that she’d learned from watching Chat, she recalled the baton into its smaller form and allowed herself to plummet towards the ground. She slowed her descent by jumping off a few buildings, finally hitting the pavement in a roll that let her come up standing a good ten feet away from where she’d initially touched down.
Then, before Mister Bug could land, she ran forward. Of course, she heard the whistle of the yoyo slicing through the air seconds later. Lady Noire glanced over her shoulder and realized he was in hot pursuit. His expression was completely focused, and she could tell that he had no idea what she was planning. Well, he never had been one to really think things through.
With a giggle, she burst out of the shadowy alley and fled across the street. Of course, Mister Bug followed her without even thinking about it.
Lady Noire was there and gone before people even had the chance to realize it: a shadow passing through.
But poor Mister Bug, in all of his red, black-spotted glory…
“Oh my god, it’s Mister Bug!” someone cried, and before Mister Bug knew what was happening, he was surrounded by a ton of adoring fans.
“I’m so mean,” Lady Noire cackled to herself, watching from the safety of an alley across the street. Mister Bug looked a little bewildered at all of the papers and pens being thrust under his nose, but he was a good sport about it. After all, Adrien knew how to handle fans.
It still took him a good fifteen minutes to extract himself. It was only after he had scrawled his signature across many papers and taken even more photos, and after he had done a few yoyo tricks, that he was able to extricate himself from the situation. The crowd applauded him as he threw the yoyo overhead and let it pull him up and onto the roof of the nearest building.
Even though she’d done it for a prank, Lady Noire’s heart still warmed to see the adoration that the crowd had for her beloved partner. Paris loved Chat Noir no wonder what miraculous he was using, and as far as Lady Noire was concerned that was exactly how it should be.
She extended the baton slowly, allowing it to carry her to the roof of the building across from the one Mister Bug had landed on, and promptly let out a shriek of surprise when arms grabbed her and spun her around.
“Thought that was funny, did you?” Mister Bug said, huffing.
“Actually, I thought it was hilarious,” Lady Noire corrected him.
He was trying hard to keep a scowl on his face. “I hope you know that someone kissed me on the cheek.”
“Oh, did they?” Lady Noire said, not surprised in the slightest. It hadn’t taken either of them long to realize that the general public didn’t have much respect for boundaries when it came to superheroes. However, she also knew that Mister Bug knew that even better than she did, being that he also went through this sort of thing in his civilian life. So, if someone had kissed him, it was because he wanted to let it happen. She stared at him expectantly.
As expected, he cracked. “It was a little girl. She was adorable. She said Chat Noir was her favorite!”
“Sounds like a little girl with good taste. He’s my favorite, too,” Lady Noire said. “Would he let me kiss him?” She looked up at him and batted her eyelashes.
Mister Bug let out a long, thoughtful humming sound. “Well, I don’t know. You see, I have a girlfriend. I’m not sure if she’d be okay with that.”
“You have a girlfriend?” Lady Noire repeated, feigning surprise. “She must be one hell of a woman.”
“She’s the best,” Mister Bug said, softly but sincerely, and she blushed a little. He reached out to touch the curve of her jaw, thumb trailing across her cheek.
“So, you’d accept a kiss from your girlfriend, then?” she said softly.
“Always,” he said, dropping his hands to her hips, and she smiled.
“Okay then, I guess you leave me no choice. Plagg, claws in!”
He grinned. “Tikki, spots off!”
There was a flash of green and red light, and then Adrien was standing there before her. Plagg opened his mouth to complain and Tikki clapped her paw over it, dragging Plagg away to give Adrien and Marinette a little privacy. Marinette watched them go, shaking her head slightly.
“I suddenly understand what you mean when you complain about Plagg,” she said to Adrien.
“It only took you like five hours of spending time alone with him. I’m honestly shocked it took this long,” Adrien said, amused. He pulled her a bit closer and she let it happen, lifting her arms to wrap them around his neck. She played with the hair at the base of his neck and felt more than saw him shiver.
“So,” she whispered huskily. “How about that kiss?”
“Anytime, My Lady,” he murmured back, and, right there under the moonlight surrounded by the city that loved them, bent his head, and kissed her.