Chapter Text
Ladybug caught sight of him, and froze. “Adrien?” She was still spinning her yo-yo, even as he watched her features shift from surprise to worry. “What are you doing here?”
Adrien opened his mouth, scrabbling for an excuse—he couldn’t say he’d been about to transform, could he? But it was at that very moment that the akuma re-emerged. It charged straight for them, unnaturally fast for its gargantuan size—
Ladybug tackled him to the ground and the wind was knocked from his lungs. The akuma skidded past them, shrieked in fury, and began to change directions.
“Ladybug, the—”
“I know,” she said grimly. And then she had scooped him up, swinging them both away from the akuma. His arms instinctively clung to her neck for support.
All the way there, his heart beat a wild, giddy rhythm. He was no stranger to leaping through Paris, wind ruffling his hair as he leveraged his baton to vault over the rooftops. But in Ladybug’s arms, every sense felt heightened; where she held him, his flesh felt as if on fire.
Ladybug touched down on a roof a couple streets away from the akuma. He stumbled out of her arms, wobbly on his feet, and her hands shot out to steady him.
“Careful,” she said, soft.
“Th-Thanks.” He shuffled his feet. “Sorry I took time out of, well…”
“It’s—” Ladybug bit her lip. “You should just go, Adrien. I don’t know what you were even thinking. It’s not safe.”
“Y-Yeah,” Adrien stammered. “I’ll—I’ll do that, Ladybug.”
“You better,” she said. Immediately after her cheeks went pink, and Adrien wished he could make her blush like that forever, and have her smile at him with that tiny, sheepish smile at the corner of her mouth.
“Okay, I’ll—I’ll go now, see you next time bye!” Ladybug cast him one last darting look, and then she was gone, a scarlet blur in the horizon.
“See you, my lady,” Adrien whispered, and then, eagerly: “Plagg, claws out!”