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"Lucky Charm!" Loveybug calls. She reaches up for the item, but Cat Walker quickly tugs her back into cover, flat against the shingles. A noiseless blast of white light barely misses them, covering a chimney behind them in a thick layer of frost, and a faint tinkling echoes in the empty streets.
"A sledgehammer?" She weighs the large polka-dotted hammer in her hands. "Do we just smash her scepter?"
"I doubt it's that simple, mademoiselle," Cat Walker whispers. Her Lucky Charms don't require nearly as much... creativity as Ladybug's, but they're also usually less straightforward than Mister Bug's: Loveybug has some brilliant ideas from them to time, but she's... easily distracted. And less experienced, of course. He beckons her to follow quietly - they need to find another cover before the akuma flanks them.
Ice Empress is no pushover. Her magical scepter shoots rays that turn people into ice statues, and unlike many akuma with long-range attacks the ray itself is completely silent - it's her magical scepter that tinkles as it charges. Not only that, but she's able to turn herself into perfectly clear ice and become unexpectedly stealthy for her massive size. And she's quick to freeze anything that moves with extreme prejudice.
Loveybug hums thoughtfully as they sneak from cover to cover. Cat Walker keeps his faint frustration from his face as he turns to put a finger to his lips; Loveybug brings her hand to her mouth and smiles apologetically, settling for lightly tapping her chin as she looks around for ideas.
The tinkling from Ice Empress's scepter drowns their light steps - Loveybug's fluttering wings are too noisy for sneaking around.
They're slinking on a narrow ledge when Loveybug gasps. Cat Walker startles and turns around, expecting an attack, but she's beaming at him. "I saw a construction site as I flew here! Do you think it might be a demolition?" She gestures at the sledgehammer.
"Good idea!" Cat Walker whispers, nodding approvingly. "Where did you-
He tenses at the sudden silence.
He notices the brightness on his left when he's already in the air.
He takes the hit for her out of sheer reflex.
He doesn't expect to be conscious as his body turns to ice, head stuck watching downwards.
As the ground comes closer, he realizes it's been a while since he last died for his partner.
In fact, it's the first time he dies for this partner.
* * *
Hours later, a nonplussed Adrien blinks in his dark bedroom.
"She's got some moves, hasn't she," Plagg comments idly before inhaling another wedge of camembert.
He had assumed something weird had happened - Loveybug saved him, of course, but her customary victory cuddles did have a panicked edge to them... and reporters didn't crowd her as quickly as usual to get a giggly soundbite. Something had happened, that much was clear.
But this?
He moves the cursor to half the video runtime and clicks Play.
This time he doesn't wince at seeing himself turning to ice. Adrien's unblinking eyes don't even follow Cat Walker's fall, laser-focused on Loveybug as he is. This time he barely winces at the noise of his body shattering against the cobblestones.
"MON PRINCE!" She screams in genuine, gut-wrenching horror, reaching for him with her free hand.
"Silence," Ice Empress orders, lip curled in distaste. "I will have-"
Loveybug jumps - no, flies straight into her, swinging her sledgehammer with a ferocity that has Ice Empress reeling. She tries to swat Loveybug out of the air, but her fluttering wings weave around the akuma's hands with an agility Adrien has never seen before. "How! Dare! You! Hurt! Him!" Loveybug howls, each sillable punctuating her attacks. "You! Big-!"
Ice Empress hits her with her scepter's crystal head, too panicked to freeze her. Loveybug slams against the cobblestones with a loud crack. Enraged past words, the akuma raises a huge heel to stomp the hero into the ground.
"MEANIE!"
Loveybug shots straight up in the air and uppercuts Ice Empress.
With the sledgehammer.
The akuma is flung several feet in the air. Loveybug falls back down on her scepter with a growl and a brutal overhead swing, smashing it into smithereens.
Akuma defeated, Adrien can't see Loveybug's expression but she clearly struggles to stand back up and throw the sledgehammer in the air - her right ankle is bent at a distressing angle and her left arm is pressed weakly against her side. As soon as the magical ladybugs wash over her, she barely spares a glance to the butterfly as she snatches it out of the air with her yo-yo. She immediately turns to the stirring silhouette of Cat Walker and absently flicks the purified butterfly away - no cooing, no baby-talk at the cute insect. It just feels wrong.
Loveybug instead gets to Cat Walker's side at a dead sprint and dives to her knees, enveloping him in a fierce hug. This is how Adrien remembers waking up, nose full of her sweet perfume and face full of her long, soft, silky hair, Loveybug nuzzling his neck and babbling in delirious relief.
Adrien's eyes unfocus as Alya's footage cut to his reporter friend, her reassuring words at odds with the slight tension in the corner of her eyes. The video reaches its end, and he absently clicks the Replay button.
The screen projects bright colors on Adrien's face once more, his expression slack as he tries to make sense of what he sees.
* * *
In another room, another Agreste rewatches the same video time and time again, albeit with a very different expression on his face.