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“Ladybug?” Chat whispers.
She exhales shakily, watching her breath condense into a cloud. “Y-yeah?”
“This isn’t looking g-good.”
She shakes her head. “The akuma—”
“I-I think we have m-more pressing matters at— hand, my Lady.” Chat rubs his hands up and down his arms.
Ladybug closes her eyes and leans against the wall. She gasps and yanks away when her back hits the ice. “N-nope.”
Chat sinks to the bottom of their near solid ice prison. He reaches up and tugs on Ladybug’s hand. “C-come on, might as well get comfortable.”
She doesn’t even bother pretending she’s going to fight him. She lets him pull her down into arms, sinking into his body warmth. “I don’t like winter,” she grumbles. She needs to talk to Tikki about better insulation for these suits. For average temperatures it’s fine. For blizzards, it is not. For akuma attacks during blizzards, it is not. For ice akuma attacks during blizzards—
She can’t feel her hands or feet.
“We better get a snow day tomorrow,” Chat mumbles. “After all the hard work this akuma has gone through.”
Ladybug laughs weakly and rests her forehead against Chat’s shoulder. The akuma victim was angry about the fact that they had school despite the near blizzard conditions. Ladybug can’t blame them, she’s mad too.
Her earrings start beeping rapidly. She squeezes her eyes shut and wraps her arms around Chat tightly, hiding her face in the crook of her neck. They need to get better about timing Lucky Charm and Cataclysm. Significantly better.
Marinette feels the rush of magic as her transformation fade.
“Bug?”
She takes a careful breath. “Y-yeah?”
“My eyes are closed. I won’t look. You’re just hugging me really tight .” His voice becomes strained as he reaches the end of the sentence.
“S-sorry!” Marinette pulls away from Chat quickly and scrambles closer to the wall.
Tikki gives her a worried look. Marinette reaches for her purse and digs through it, looking for the bag of cookies she always has on hand.
“I didn’t mean you had to leave,” Chat says with a laugh. “I just wanted to breathe. Are you dressed for winter? Because if you aren’t, you definitely have to get back here. You’re going to freeze.”
She hesitates. Chat has his eyes close and his head tilted like he really is a cat. She hands Tikki one of the cookies and lets her burrow in her purse. It might be just a tiny bit warmer in there.
Marinette scoots a little closer to Chat. “I have a coat on.”
He shrugs. “Okay, I’m cold. It’s significantly warmer when we’re hugging.”
She rolls her eyes. “Y-you just want an excuse want to cuddle.”
“I mean yeah but I can also hear you shivering.” He holds out a hand and wiggles his fingers. “Come on, bugaboo, this is science.”
Marinette takes his hand and lets him pull her closer. He’s not wrong, it’s significantly warmer when they’re curled up together. She wraps her arms around his waist. “Is this really science? That you can explain?”
“Yeah, of course. It’s body heat and how heat transfers. I have some other tricks up my sleeve, but trust me, you’re not interested in them.”
Marinette frowns and rests her chin on Chat’s shoulder. “What do you mean?”
“Um…” He coughs awkwardly. “Right, so supposedly when someone gets like. Really cold? Like, hypothermia cold? Freezing to death cold? There’s something about uh— You build a fire and um…okay well. You strip. Andhuddleunderblanketstogether. And— Supposedly that… helps…”
She snorts. “No thanks.”
“It’s just science!” he says quickly. “If clothing isn’t there and there’s skin on skin contact then something about heat transferring more easily and I swear if my brain were actually working right now and wasn’t half frozen I’d be able to tell you the actual—”
Marinette turns her head and presses a kiss to Chat’s cheek. “It’s fine , chaton. I don’t need to hear the science behind it. I trust you.” She smiles as he turns pink.
“Skin on skin contact,” he murmurs in a daze. His ring beeps. “Um—”
“Eyes are closed,” Marinette promises. She shuts her eyes and makes herself comfortable in Chat’s arms. She really hopes he has something to feed his kwami with. Tikki hopefully only needs a few minutes more, she’s just been slower lately because of the snow.
She sees green light flash behind her eyelids and is overly aware of the soft fabric under her fingers that’s replaced the slick spandex of Chat’s suit.
“How do we keep ending up here?” a voice asks.
Marinette raises her eyebrows and resists the urge to see who’s speaking.
“ Plagg ,” Chat hisses.
“I’m hungry. And cold. Can we hurry this up so I can nap?”
“I’m trying . I’m a little preoccupied if you couldn’t tell.”
“Yeah, with your girlfriend.”
Marinette feels her cheeks go pink and buries her face in the crook of Chat’s neck. It’s bad enough Tikki will never let her hear the end of this, Chat’s kwami too?
Chat shifts. “Here, eat up,” he says after a moment.
Marinette makes a face as the smell hits her nose. “Is that—”
“Camembert?” he interrupts. He sighs. “Yeah. The smelliest you can find.”
“ Ew .”
“T-tell me about it.”
“Cheese is better than everything,” Plagg insists. “Certainly better than girls . Also, kid, why do you make your life so complicated?”
“Please shut up,” Chat mutters.
“Like if you just opened your eyes—”
“Oh leave them alone ,” Tikki chirps. “Maybe they want to do this when they’re aren’t freezing cold and in the middle of an attack.”
Plagg scoffs. “Well I’m sick of waiting! Open your eyes!”
“Ow!” Chat jerks away. “Stop that! I thought we agreed you’d stop yanking my hair to get my attention!”
Plagg snickers. “Your eyes are open.”
Chat inhales sharply and Marinette tenses.
“They’re closed now!” Chat insists. “M-my hand is over them, I can’t see a thing— I didn’t see—”
“My name is Marinette.”
There’s a long moment of silence and all she can hear is her heart beating and her shaky breathing.
“Y-you don’t have to say anything,” she adds. “I’m just— I’m cold and I’m tired. I want to get this over with.”
“Marinette,” Chat breaths.
“Y-yeah?” She freezes as Chat puts his hands on her shoulders.
“You can open your eyes.”
Marinette braces herself before slowly opening them. She blinks a few times, ice and snow can be truly blinding, and takes in the bright green eyes in front of her. The sweeping blond hair and the small smile—
“A-adrien?”
“Hi,” he whispers.
Marinette laughs breathlessly. “Hey.”
“I’m going to kiss you now.”
“Not if I kiss you first,” she teases. She quickly closes the distance between them, pressing her lips to Adrien’s. She can’t help but smile against his lips. It’s bitterly cold out, she can’t feel her hands, feet, ears, or most of her face, but she’s never felt warmer or cozier.
“Disgusting,” Plagg mutters.
Adrien pulls away and sticks his tongue out at Plagg. “ You’re the reason this is happening.”
“Mistakes were made.”
Adrien rolls his eyes and kisses Marinette again and again, tipping her chin up as he does. She sinks into his touch and thinks that if they weren’t trapped in a cage of ice in the middle of an akuma attack in the middle of a blizzard, this would be pretty perfect.
“God you’re freezing ,” Adrien says when she breaks the kiss to breathe.
Marinette smirks. “Weren’t you the one talking about skin on skin contact?”
Adrien’s eyes go wide as he turns pink. “I- uh—”
“Hey I’m ready to fight this akuma so I can nap,” Plagg says loudly, saving Adrien from any further embarrassment. “Tik?”
Tikki yawns. “I guess. I need warmth.”
“Soon,” Marinette promises. “Tikki, spots on!”
“Plagg, claws out!”
When the light fades, Chat Noir grins widely at Ladybug. “Ready?”
She grabs him by the bell and kisses him hard. “Go for it,” she says as she pushes him away. She gets to her feet and stretches out her legs, unhooking her yoyo from her belt and preparing herself for this battle to finally be over.
Chat stares ahead in a daze for a moment before he leaps to his feet. He gives her a smile so soft that she can’t believe she never recognized it as Adrien’s before it turns into a Cheshire grin. He lifts his hand up in the air, dark energy bubbling around it.
“Cataclysm!”