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All we do is hide away
All we do is chase the day
All we do is lie and wait
All we do is feel the fade
The night was as quiet as Paris could get, the arrondisments all dimmed their lights, but still bright. Music and laughter, car horns and quiet chatter, all making the city hum with life. It never truly slept.
On the old rooftops, jumping silently across alleys, and sticking to the shadows, ran a boy dressed completely in black leather, blond hair barely concealed with the rest of him, shining like a halo. After him came a girl dressed in red spandex with large black dots, not blending in nearly as well, but it didn't matter to either of them.
They were good at remaining unseen.
The boy flashed a fangy grin over his shoulder to his companion, and disappeared into a particularly thick and dark shadow on one side of a sloping roof. Even his beautiful halo of hair didn't give his location away.
The girl stopped a few feet away from where the boy had vanished from, letting out an annoyed, but also exhausted, huff.
“If you are going to continue disappearing on me, Chat, I'm going to take it as you saying that patrol is over.” she said only loudly enough for the pair of them to hear.
Chat Noir, for that was the name of the boy, at least when he was dressed as he currently was, only pressed against the wall behind him, and said nothing.
“Fine. See you tomorrow.” the girl said, and jumped off the edge of the roof to her left. Chat Noir could hear the familiar sound of her trusty yo-yo zipping through the air, and his companion was gone. Her scent, however, lingered. Vanilla, and bread, and sweat.
His eyes swept over the rooftop, magical ears on his head flicking back and forth, picking up the sounds of the city. He didn't hear his companion returning, which both saddened him and made him feel relieved.
Stepping out of the darkness, shoulders relaxed, Chat Noir looked up to the sky.
I've been upside down
I don't wanna be the right way round
Can't find paradise on the ground
Ladybug, the name of his spotted companion, his partner against crime. The one he loved.
Chat Noir sighed, and sat down on the edge of the roof, overlooking the third arrondisment. Ladybug was like the Sun, bright light and warmth, with a gravity that drew him to her. But, much like the Sun, she burned his fair skin. Her gravity was inescapable.
He wasn't sure that he wanted to, however.
She made his heart beat too fast in his chest, made him feel like he was flying. She turned his whole world upside down.
He didn't want to be righted.
She was paradise.
All we do is hide away
All we do is chase the day
All we do is play it safe
All we do is live inside a cage
Swinging away from her partner that night was both easy and hard at the same time. Easy because she had done it many times before. Hard because he had been acting strangely for the last little while, and she had begun to fall for him.
Ladybug, swinging over the back alleys of Paris on the string of her yo-yo, heading home after a night of patrol, sighed heavily.
He had been acting strange since her latest rejection of him wanting to share their identities. It was safer this way.
He was freedom, and fun, and reckless behaviour. Ladybug loved that about him. But the rush of adrenaline that came with running across the hidden and forgotten tops of Paris was only supplied by the masks between them. She knew this.
Taking them off would make everything much too real, much too dangerous.
And she was sure that she would be putty in his hands if it ever happened. He had that much control over her.
She didn't like it.
So she played it safe, played it cool, even in the face of Chat Noir's flirtatious nature.
But her mind kept going back to that one kiss they had shared, the one she had given him to break the spell he was under. The one he didn't remember.
She sighed again.
I've been upside down
I don't wanna be the right way round
Can't find paradise on the ground
Chat Noir gave her the strength to fly, even if she didn't have the wings to do it. He convinced her to accept the responsibility that came with being Ladybug when they first met.
He balanced her out, helped her remember to breathe when things got rough.
He was the night that they ran through, as beautiful as the moon and just as fair. But, like the moon, he did have a dark side. It should scare her, but it didn't.
She had conquered it before.
She had fallen for him slowly, without realizing it, and then all of a sudden everything was turned around and backwards.
She didn't want to change it back.
He helped her to live, outside of her normal day-to-day existence. With him, she was better.
She stopped abruptly, one block away from her house where her parents were sleeping. She was out of sight line of the street below, far enough away from the edge of the roof she stood upon to not be seen from any window in case someone was still awake. Face scrunched in concentration, she turned and threw her yo-yo to catch on something sturdy without really thinking about her actions.
Tonight, before she lost her confidence, she flew back to her perfect compliment.
He was right where she left him, same roof top, sitting in the minimal light instead of the shadows.
One ear twitched in her direction, signaling that he heard her approach.
“I thought you had gone home, my lady?”
She said nothing, twirling her yo-yo around her hand idly.
Chat Noir spared her a glance over his shoulder, and sighed before pushing himself to his feet. It was slow, his turn to face her, lacking all of his usual cockiness. Ladybug frowned, but did not allow this to change her mind.
Dropping her yo-yo to the roof below her, she lifted her hands to her ears, and took out her earrings before her nerves took hold and stopped her.
Chat's face went slack with shock, which morphed to worry, which became fear as quick as her actions had been.
It was almost amusing.
A bright pink light encapsulated her, a flash of magic, and then her costume and mask were gone. Her civilian self stood in place of the heroine she had become; pink jeans on her legs, white t-shirt covered by a basic black cardigan instead of red and black spandex.
“P-princess?” Chat took one step towards her, hands shaking slightly from where they were held a little ways away from his body.
“Your turn, minou.” Marinette, formerly Ladybug, said. She placed her hands, curled into fists, on her hips, confidence simmering in her veins and confrontation in her blue eyes. Her earrings hadn't been replaced, yet, clenched in her palms. She lifted her chin in defiance.
She was fire.
She was the Sun.
She was looking for a fight.
Chat Noir gulped, before accepting her challenge. His eyes narrowed, and he could feel the haughty arrogance fill him in response to her.
In slow, calculated moves, he pulled his ring off his hand and was crossing the roof to where she stood even as his transformation dropped. Green light covered him from head to toe, but still that arrogance remained.
Adrien Agreste knew how to use arrogance.
After all, he was every bit his father's son. Arrogance was in his blood.
“I'm glad you finally came to see things my way, Princess.” Adrien purred, stopping but a foot away from Marinette. His lips curved into a smirk, eyes still narrowed, staring pointedly at her face.
“Well, minou,” Marinette said, voice carrying all of the defiance and confrontation her stance did, “Don't let it go to your head. Your ego is already big enough.”
“May I ask, why the sudden change of heart?”
It was Marinette that closed the distance between them. Inches separating their chests, causing her to tilt her head back to continue their staring contest. His head tilted down to match. Their lips were close enough that they could feel each others breaths, but neither made any move to get closer.
Gently, Marinette lifted one hand and began tracing Adrien's chest. His breathing quickened, and green eyes darkened with a sudden lust. How much control did she have over him?
“You may not.”
She was grinning when she stepped away. Her hands replaced her earrings, and he watched in confusion as she called up her transformation.
“But I might tell you if you catch me, Adrien~.” Her voice was husky and low, turning Adrien's insides to mush. And then she was gone, her yo-yo zinging.
His own grin was almost feral as he shoved his ring back on and called up his transformation.
And thus the chase began.