Continuing Tales

Both of You

A Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir Story
by Maerynn

Part 6 of 53

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As soon as she heard the ruckus outside, Marinette had cast a worried glance at her kwami, who had looked just as much unsettled than she was. How in the world was it possible for an akuma to strike so far from Paris? The fact that it happened so close to her current location when she was so far away from home seemed to stretch the limits of probability a bit too much to be shaken off as a mere coincidence. An uneasy feeling pooling in her gut, Marinette crossed the room and leaned on the windowsill, trying to get a glimpse of her next foe. The idea that Hawkmoth might know her identity and had grabbed the oportunity she had foolishly handed him on a silver platter to strike while she was separated from her partner briefly brushed her mind, and it wasn't a pleasant notion at all. Ignoring the worry clenching her stomach, she nodded at her silent kwami, very aware that they had a fight to get through, no matter how much she was terrified of doing it without Chat Noir. She was about to transform when a hand appeared in front of her and furiously knocked on her window, startling her out of her skin. Her eyes met a familiar pair of glowing green irises outside the glass, his usual goofy grin missing on his face. Being careful to hide the relief that washed over her at his unexpected appearance, she hastily opened the window as quietly as she could, hoping Adrien wouldn't hear anything suspicious, intending to let the hero in. He, however, did not make a move toward her, instead gently cupping her cheek with a leather-gloved hand, his gaze full of worry he didn't even tried to mask.

"Chat? What are you doing here?" she hiccuped, her surprise taking the best of her. He sighed in answer, his thumb gently stroking the side of her cheek before retreating to grab his staff.

"I just wanted to make sure you were safe. There's an akuma outside, please, please stay hidden until I come back."

"But-" she tried to interject, but he had already turned his back on her and vaulted himself into the night, leaving her perplexed and concerned.


After checking on Marinette quickly, Chat Noir landed square in the middle of the neighbor's garden and very nearly avoided a giant watering hose nastily lunging to trip him. With a jump that cruelly lacked his usual grace and agility, he hopped over the now-living gardening tool and took a minute to examine the menacing beast. It was moving the same way a giant snake would, and he had absolutely no doubt the akumatized person controlling it wouldn't hesitate a second to choke him to death should she get the chance to. Speaking of which, standing over them both was a rather enlarged version of his elder neighbor, Ms. Lambert, dressed with a patchwork dress, her usual straw hat planted on her head, yellowish hair poking everywhere under it like a haystack, and gardening tools hanging from a leather belt loosely tied around her hips. A black rose was carefully pinned on her hat.

'That must be where the akuma is. Now, how will I manage to get it without Ladybug? How will I cure it-HEY THAT HURTS.' His rambling train of thoughts was suddenly interrupted by a rose shot rather violently at him, scratching his left arm pretty badly in the process.

"The fuck? What are those flowers made of? Razorblades?' he mused briefly, before bracing himself for the fight. Chat pounced and leaped, all over the place at once, somehow managing to avoid the snake-like hose trying to tie him up and the steel-like flowers flying everywhere.

"What's your deal, Flowergirl? Not enough catnip or what?" he spat angrily, his usual laid-back demeanor long forgotten.

The akumatized person roared with anger, howling, "I'M THE GARDENER! I'M GONNA SHOW YOU WHAT'S AN AWARD WORTHY FLOWER! BUT FIRST, YOUR MIRACULOUS WILL DO!"

"This is really getting old, Hawkmoth," the feline answered harshly, before using his baton to vault himself into the air, grabbing her hat as he passed over his old neighbor. This made her inflate disproportionately with anger and stomp her foot on the ground sending a slew of steel flowers flying everywhere in the neighborhood. His attention diverted by avoiding getting sliced up by their overly sharp stems, he couldn't help but drop the hat, which the Gardener hastily retrieved and secured back on her head. Chat Noir warily eyed the deadly damage those damned plants had successfully made around them, cutting right through the walls of the neighboring houses like they were made of mere butter.

'Shit, I hope this doesn't wound anybody. MARINETTE. Shit, shit, shit,' he thought, absolutely panicked. He had to get his akuma, and fast. Before he could reassess the situation and come up with a suitable plan, something red flashed before him and landed beside him.

"Need a hand, Kitty?"

Relief almost drowned him as it washed over him and he got back up on his feet, ready to fight, "Can't say I would mind a paw, m'lady. I think I just lost a few of my nine lives. The akuma's in the flower."

Ladybug shrugged, swirling her yoyo by her hip in a defensive manner. "Figured. Distract her."

"As usual, bugaboo. Game on."

They fought for a good twenty minutes before they managed to actually make progress. Chat Noir's cataclysm was well spent on disintegrating the garden hose that was busy choking Ladybug, while Ladybug's lucky charm provided them with a bottle of herbicide the leather-clad hero used to effectively destroy the steel flowers and distract the Gardener with his playful banter long enough for Ladybug to get the straw hat without her noticing and release the akuma from the blackened rose. With a trained flick of her yo-yo, the black butterfly was purified at last and everything in the neighborhood went back to its previous state.

Chat Noir approached the sobbing silhouette of his old neighbor quietly crying on the ground, as he always did.

"My flower was the prettiest, the most perfect. I should have won that contest."

He helped her up, gently patting her back. "Don't worry lady, your flowers are magnificent. Surely you'll win next time, that's for sure."

The old lady smiled weakly at him. "Thank you, young man, you are very kind. I-I think I'll go to bed now. I'm so tired..."

Once he was sure that she was safe and sound in her home, Chat Noir went back to his lady who was sitting on a large rock and inspecting her left arm with a frown upon her beautiful face.

When she realized he was already back she quickly draped her hand over the wound, but he had gotten plenty of time to catch a glimpse of it before she did. "You got hurt, m'lady?"

She waved him off with a dry laugh, flinching away from him. "Just a scratch. Nothing to worry about."

Chat Noir frowned, closing the distance between them. "Why hasn't your Mew-raculous healed it? Was something wrong with your lucky charm?"

She looked away, hoping he would drop the case."What are you even doing here, Chat? Aren't we a little bit far away from Paris for you to come running and save the day, alley cat?"

He shrugged, not even bothering to craft a complicated lie. "Visiting relatives. What about you?"

"Same."

He tried to approach her again, to no avail. His lady was already up on her feet and ready to wrap her yo-yo around a tree. "Well, I'm sure glad we got to clear that up, Chat. Goodnight."

"LADYBUG, WAIT-"

She was already swinging away, out of earshot. Well, he still had to check on Marinette before going back to bed, so his partner's odd behavior would have to wait until their next patrol, or the next akuma, whichever came first. Shrugging in defeat, he extended his staff to make his way back to the house, now equally concerned for both his lady and his princess.


Marinette made it back to her room just in time to hastily detransform and put a thick sweater on before her partner loudly knocked on her window for the second time that night. The young woman had fully expected him to head straight for her as soon as he left the fight, so she had hurried back as much as she could. She opened the glass panel again, trying to muster a believable look of worry and genuine concern on her face. "Is it gone? Did you purify it?"He let himself into the room without waiting to be invited, and he pulled her to his chest, wrapping his arms around her into a tight hug. He didn't care what she would think of the odd gesture, he had been worried sick for her safety ever since the Gardener had started throwing those deadly flowers around. He had seen a few of them coming toward his house, and who knows what they could've done to her should've she been unlucky enough to find herself in their trajectory.

"C-Chat, you're strangling me!" she croaked against the leather of his suit.

He drew back regretfully, and sat on her bed, unable to hide his relief from her. "I'm sorry, princess, I got carried away. I'm just really happy to see you didn't get hurt in the whole ordeal. I was going mad with worry out there."

She sat beside him, dearly hoping that the gash on her arm wasn't bleeding enough under the sweater to visibly seep through the fabric before his departure. "What was all this fuss about?"

"The neighbor got akumatized. She was mad she had lost at some gardening contest. Started using her garden hose as a giant python and throwing around flowers as sharp as razor blades. I was really worried some would get to you and wound you, princess."

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him. It was clear the concern in his eyes was genuine and sincere. "What about you, Kitty, are you okay?"

He carefully inspected his suit, even if he had already known the answer beforehand. "Yeah, I guess I got out of it unscathed. I got pretty badly scratched at the beginning of the fight, but Ladybug fixed me up along with everything else."

'Ah! Cue to look surprised!' Marinette thought, then put her acting skills to the test: "Ladybug? You brought her along?"

"No, but-" His ring suddenly beeped loudly, interrupting him mid-sentence."Sorry, princess, gotta go."

Stepping out the window he seemed to ponder something for a split second before leaning back in and beckoning her to come closer. When she did, intrigued at his odd attitude, the blond pulled her closer and quickly planted a soft peck on her cheek before disappearing into the night, leaving behind a stunned Marinette.

She felt her skin tingle pleasantly where his lips had touched it, and she instinctively reached to touch her face with the tip of her fingers.

He had kissed her cheek.

And if she had to be perfectly honest with herself, it had made her belly turn into an extreme roller coaster.

'What the hell is wrong with me now?' she thought bitterly before remembering she had a wound to tend to. With slow and careful movements, the young woman removed the sweater, wincing in pain as the fabric unglued itself from the cut. Sure enough, it was soaked with her blood, and some fibers had gotten stuck in the wound. Of course, it was just her luck that she had to get hurt before she had transformed. It would have been way too easy otherwise, being healed by her Miraculous just like Chat had been. But no. She had had to go and get that huge gash on her arm as Marinette, and then cure everything as Ladybug. Just her luck.

"Great..."

A soft knock on her door startled her.

"Even greater..." she grunted before opening the door, knowing fairly well she had no real excuse to stall.

Both of You

A Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir Story
by Maerynn

Part 6 of 53

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