A Small Discovery

Kwami Swap is an interesting AU that comes with a lot of questions. In canon, they are each well suited to their role in the team. Marinette’s cleverness, focus, and ability to make tactical plans on the fly means that she excels at using Lucky Charm (no matter how enigmatic) to defeat the villain, and her natural charisma and leadership qualities lend well to her being the icon of the city due to being the one who can capture/purify the akuma and fix everything. Adrien’s experience in fencing means that it works well for him to use a melee weapon (even if he does use it incorrectly for the weapon it is, his fencing experience no doubt helps him in combat), and NOT being the one required to purify the akuma allows him to use his recklessness and protectiveness to the advantage of the team, even to the point of sacrificing himself.
So, how does the team function in a Kwami Swap AU? Is Marinette still the one coming up with the plans, figuring out how to use his Lucky Charm? How well does she do with a melee weapon when she has no training with one (even a different one)? Knowing Marinette, she’d likely put her all into studying staff fighting – how long would it take for her to become competent with it and how would battles fare along the way? How would using the staff as a staff instead of as a fencing foil affect the battles? Would Adrien be able to reign in his recklessness when he’s the one who’s needed to set things right? Does Marinette take the hits for him or is he still the one throwing himself in harm’s way? If Marinette takes the hits and is still the tactician of the team, how well does Adrien fare without her? Or is Marinette more clever about protecting him, without sacrificing herself? Is he seen as the icon of the city as the one who sets everything right, or is she, on account of her charisma and leadership? She’d probably still be the one to talk back to Papillon when he announces himself, even if she can’t do the snapping up of all the akumas like she does in canon, which I would point to as the moment establishing the city’s faith in her. The dynamic, the teamwork, their roles in canon – everything we take for granted about how they fight would have to be examined and questioned to fully flesh out this AU.
So, naturally, I’m going to ignore ALL of that and just write some fluffy romantic interactions because I don’t know how I want to answer those questions :D
One note though, on their superhero names. I think, just as in canon, Adrien would go with French and Marinette would go with English, so in this fic they’ll be Black Cat and Coccinelle in place of Ladybug and Chat Noir.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Today’s akuma victim was quickly bearing down on him, and Adrien saw no way out. Had he been transformed, he could block the blow with his yo-yo, or maybe even dodge out of the way. But he wasn’t transformed; he hadn’t had time to get away, with this particular villain being hellbent on attacking civilian-him. Something about his fencing performance always being compared unfavorably to Adrien’s. It explained the sword, at least.

A glowing butterfly outline eerily lit the guy’s face. Adrien took advantage of the distraction to scoot further away, but he didn’t get very far before the guy scowled and shook his head.

“I’ll fulfill my part of the deal after I get my revenge. Besides, I don’t see any heroes here yet.”

The sword was lifted into the air, prepared to strike, and quickly brought down on Adrien, who closed his eyes uselessly against the coming blow. But a resounding clang rang through the air, followed by what Adrien would describe as the most beautiful voice in the universe.

“Maybe you should focus on trying to improve your own skills instead of hurting people who work hard to get as good as they are!”

Adrien quickly opened his eyes, eager to see the savior that he knew so well. Crouched protectively in front of him was his superhero partner, holding her staff in a defensive position. Though he couldn’t see her face, he could tell that she was glaring fiercely at the villain, that she had apparently thrown back across the room.

“Black Cat!” Adrien joyfully called out to her, although it came out a lot breathier than he intended. Oh well. She turned to look at him, but with a tenseness that indicated that she hadn’t entirely taken her focus off of the temporarily fallen villain. Her features softening as she looked at him did nothing to disguise that she was a lovely vision of destructive power that could ruin him with ease in a million ways, both pleasant and unpleasant. He tore his gaze away from her lashing tail to meet her gorgeous eyes.

“Adrien, are you alright?” she asked. He felt his heart swell that she remembered his name from the last time he had met her while he was untransformed, and even more that she was concerned for him. Of course she was concerned, Black Cat was so wonderfully dedicated to Paris and all its citizens, but a part of him stubbornly wanted to believe that her concern for him was special.

“Yeah…thanks, Black Cat,” he said, not looking away from her captivating eyes – slitted like a real cat’s, but a beautiful sky blue quite unlike any cat he’d ever seen.

“Of…of course! Just doing my job!” she said, flashing a smile that almost seemed nervous. But the nervousness was gone in a second, as Black Cat whirled around to once again fend off the villain, who had risen up and started advancing again. Shoving him back again, this time she turned around and didn’t waste any time in grabbing Adrien’s hand.

“I need to get you out of here,” she said, pulling him with her towards the window. Adrien made a noise of agreement. He didn't need to look back to know that the villain is gaining on them.

As they reached the open window, Black Cat released his hand in favor of gripping him around the waist and pulling him against her. Adrien hoped she couldn’t feel how his heartbeat picked up at that (or see the blush on his face), or at the very least, would attribute it to anxiousness about the villain. While it wasn’t like he hadn’t been this close to her before, there was a certain vulnerability when he wasn’t Coccinelle. It felt more intimate, somehow. He didn’t have time to dwell on it, as she used her staff to launch the pair of them out the window just as the sword closed down, barely missing them.

They landed hard on a nearby roof, Black Cat absorbing most of the blow, Adrien landing on top of her. They both panted from the close call.

“Are you alright?” Adrien asked, simultaneous with her asking him the exact same question. They both giggled at their unintentional synchronization. Adrien knew he was blushing, and she looked a little red in the face too…but no, that couldn’t be right…

Black Cat smiled up at him, and Adrien realized with a jolt that he was still on top of her. He couldn’t bring himself to move just yet, though, and shyly returned her smile with one of his own. She blinked slowly, holding his gaze. The moment held still between them, the current threat a distant thought, with the only thing on Adrien’s mind being her smile and the look in her eyes and her warmth and her…

A rumbling noise and a vibration beneath him startled Adrien out of his thoughts. Black Cat’s eyes widened as shock replaced her contented expression, and Adrien almost instinctively knew that now was a good time to get up off of her. He jumped up, and she got to her feet just as quickly, stepping back from him, eyes still wide with shock.

“Was…was that…were you…?” still dazed, Adrien struggled to voice his question. Black Cat’s expression morphed once again, to one of utter embarrassment. Quicker than he thought even she could move, she darted forward, grabbed his arm with one hand and yanked open the roof access door behind him with the other, and flung him through before he could even react.

“Ineedtogostaysafebye!” she said in a single breath, and slammed the door in front of him with much more force than necessary. Adrien barely registered it, and leaned against the wall of the stairwell.

“Black Cat purred,” he whispered in awe. “Did you hear it, Tikki? She can purr!” He let out a dreamy sigh and slid down the wall onto the steps. Tikki flew out of his jacket.

“It’s very exciting, Adrien, but you need to stay focused! Black Cat needs Coccinelle right now! She can’t fight the Akuma on her own.”

“I know,” he said distractedly, a silly grin stretching across his face. “She purrs…she’s so wonderful…and she purrs. That’s…she’s…adorable.”

“Adrien,” Tikki chastised.

“I know, I know,” he said again. He shook himself from his daze, smile never falling from his face, and stood up. “Tikki, transform me!”

Oh, he hoped he could get her to purr again.

“This is the worst day of my life,” Marinette wailed, dramatically throwing herself onto her chaise as she detransformed after the battle. “I can’t believe I actually purred. Like a real cat. In front of Adrien, no less. Why didn’t you warn me that that could happen?” Without waiting for a response, she groaned and dragged her hands across her face. “He must think I’m a total freak. A weirdo. An inhuman abomination. Oh, he’ll never want anything to do with me again!”

“You’ll live,” Plagg said, zipping over to his snack stash.

Notes:

So, I've been in a writing drought for a while. I'm hoping to pull myself out of it by writing for a new fandom, so expect a lot of Miraculous from me in the near future (ship weeks/months are for whatever reason, a lot easier for me to write stuff for, though I'll only be doing a few days here and there). I apologize to those who were looking forward to more of Triple Game, but I'm taking a step back from it for the time being. I hope to come back to it at some point; I don't want to abandon it as it's an idea I would really love to explore fully. But for now...it's on the back burner, and while it's too late for Triple Game, I've now learned not to start publishing a multichapter fic until it's finished :)

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