Four times Chat and Ladybug kissed without knowing who the other was, and one time when they did.

I don't own this show. It's just momentarily taken over my life.

GENERAL POV

Her stringed object he had vowed never to call a yo-yo was gone, flung somewhere into the city by the akuma they were fighting. Her earrings were on their last two dots, and she was dangling from the highest point of the Eiffel Tower by one hand, using all of her remaining strength to hold on.

"Chat!" she called out desperately. "You have to get the akuma! It's in his watch!"

He looked at her helplessly from his position on top of the akuma, who he was currently pushing down on with his baton. "I can't cleanse it! And what about you?"

Ladybug grimaced and tightened her hands on the tower. Chat Noir was certain that under her red spandex, her knuckles were dead white.

Don't say the word dead, he chastised himself.

"Just get it!" she gasped out.

Her earrings beeped and the second to last spot vanished. Chat swallowed hard and thrust his hand down, flipping over the business man under him and wrenching the watch away from his arm. As he fell, the feline hero flung his baton out and expanded it, shoving it into one of the gaps in the tower.

He used the excess momentum to fling himself upwards, shoving the watch into his pocket, and landed on the platform that Ladybug dangled from. He leaned over the railing, his hand outstretched as far as possible. "Come on, My Lady," he pleaded.

Ladybug's earrings beeped again, a drastic warning, and she flinched, thrusting her hand upwards and clutching onto his glove with every bit of strength she could. "Chat," she whimpered.

Chat's heart thudded in his chest. He had never heard her sound so desperate, and he used his emotion to press one foot against the base of the railing and yank her up and over the top so that she landed on top of him, tumbling against his chest.

He heard the final warning beep and instinctively shut his eyes, turning his head away as a flash of bright light overwhelmed his corneas. He heard her panting behind him and fumbled into his pocket for the watch, handing it over blindly. "Take it," he said. "I won't look. I promise."

There was a long pause, and then delicate fingers slid the watch from his hand. The soft touch moved its way to his chin and Chat suddenly felt a pair of lips against his own, desperate and anxious and thankful.

He sighed and pressed back, his eyes still shut tightly as he let a hand drift up to clasp her chin in his palm. She pulled away and he held on, the world still black around him. "Thank you," she whispered to him.

He sat back on his heels and waited, listening to the quiet footsteps recede until he was alone in the wind, where he finally pried open his bright green eyes and removed the ring from his finger, sliding Plagg into his pocket before the tiny cat could say a word.

Adrien got to his feet and moved over to the railing slowly, leaning on the edge and staring out over the city, his heart racing in his chest.

One day. One day he would kiss her knowing just who was behind the mask.

He had taken the shot for her again. Why did she let this happen to him all the time? Why wasn't she a better friend, a better partner?

The akuma vanished into her compact and she released it just as quickly, watching the pure white insect fly off before spinning on her heel and darting over to her partner, who was doubled over on the ground clutching at his stomach.

"Chat?" she breathed, settling a gentle hand on his back. "Are you okay?"

He looked at her, his cat eyes dimmer than usual, and gave her a pained smile. "As always," he choked out.

His ring beeped at them and the two heroes glanced down, watching the third spot vanish. The last cataclysm had done enough damage to destroy the akuma, but it had also put Ladybug in harm's way and of course, of course, Chat had shoved her away at the last second.

"No seriously," Ladybug murmured, pushing on his shoulders. "How bad-?"

Her fingers flew to her lips and she cursed softly at the sight of the bloody gash on his torso, left there from the falling rocks. "Chat, you're hurt," she murmured unnecessarily.

He snorted. "That's quite an observation, My Lady. Don't worry; nine lives, remember?"

She sent him a glare, surprising Chat to no end as he spotted the tears in her eyes. "This isn't funny, Chat. You need to get help."

The next dot vanished from his ring, and Ladybug realized that her earrings were also dangerously low.

"I'll get it," Chat promised her, resting a hand on her shoulder. "I'll be okay. I swear. But you need to leave and get that man over there to safety before your transformation wears off."

Ladybug looked at him helplessly. "We're in the middle of nowhere," she protested, waving a hand around them. "What if you don't-?"

"Hey, hey, hey," Chat said quickly, lifting a palm to rest it on her cheek. His ring beeped again and he smiled at her tenderly. "I'll be okay."

Her lips quivered and before he could react, she threw her arms around him in a hug, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek. "Please be okay," she whispered into his ear.

He nodded against her and then pushed her away, watching her gather up the confused civilian they had followed out into the mountains and leave, just in time for his suit to fall away. Plagg groaned and tumbled into his lap, completely unconscious, and Adrien glanced down at his still bloody torso, grimacing and thumping his head back against a rock.

"Great."

She was backed into a corner with nowhere to go, the akuma cursed school student hovering over her and Chat pinned to the wall by a pair of chains behind them.

"Now, Ladybug," the teen said with delight, "you will have no problem with being my girlfriend!"

Ladybug swallowed hard, shooting a desperate look to Chat in the corner. He gave her a helpless shrug and licked his lips, looking around for a way to get out.

She shook her head and tossed her compact into the air. "Lucky Charm!" she yelped, holding out her hand in order to catch whatever fell back to her which, in this case, was a framed photograph.

Of Chat Noir.

"What?" she spat out, absolutely flabbergasted.

The teen loomed closer and Ladybug frowned, ducking and tumbling underneath his legs to get away. She looked down again at the picture as she ran, then back up. Her vision landed on Chat Noir and he flashed with ladybug spots, and it suddenly occurred to her what she had to do.

She spun on one heel and screeched to a halt, facing the student. She didn't even know him, seeing as he was three years older than her, but she had seen him around in the halls before. "I can't be your girlfriend, though!" she called out to him.

"WHAT?" he roared in disbelief.

"Ladybug!" Chat hissed. "Don't make him angry!"

"I can't be your girlfriend," she continued, waving a hand at Chat to shut him up, "because I already have a boyfriend. You wouldn't want me to be dating two people at once, would you?"

The boy hesitated, confusion flashing over his features. "What? Who…who is your boyfriend?"

She turned towards Chat, who looked surprisingly hurt, and strode over to him purposefully. "Why, Chat Noir of course. You think that we just fight crime together?" she asked, slinging an arm around his shoulders.

The boy snarled. "Prove it, then."

She turned to Chat with an apologetic grin. "Help me out?"

A smile twitched on his lips. "Anytime," he agreed.

She slid her arms around his neck and pressed a tender kiss to his lips, letting her eyes fall shut and her body relax. Chat moved his lips against hers slowly, heart wrenchingly, and when she pulled back Ladybug was not ashamed to admit that she was a little weak-kneed.

Leaning on Chat for support, she turned back to the teen, who was staring at them in disbelief. "Sorry," Ladybug said softly.

The evil flowed out of him, and the heroes sighed in relief. They had known that the akuma had been inside of his heart, and that was something they couldn't literally break without horrible consequences.

She captured and released the akuma before unlocking Chat from his chains. He smiled cockily at her as he rubbed his wrists. "So….boyfriend, huh?" he teased.

Ladybug shoved at his shoulder, a grin playing on her lips. "Oh shut it, kitty cat."

He pulled her close to him, pressing her head to his chest. "Hold on tight," he whispered.

She nodded and he jumped off of the top of the Eiffel tower, clutching her to his body with one arm and using his other to pull his baton from his back. He clenched it between his teeth and grabbed Ladybug's compact from her hip, lassoing the string around it before chucking the baton at the leg of the tower.

The string carried them safely to the ground and he looked up as they landed to catch the baton and compact, handing the latter over to Ladybug. "Go," he hissed, shooing her away.

"I am not leaving you here to deal with a murderous butcher," Ladybug protested.

Chat sent her a glare that made shivers crawl down her spine. "You can and you will," he demanded. "Look, I'll buy you time to recharge, that's it. You just hurry up and get back here before I get mauled, okay?"

He tried for a smile and got a slap in the face. "Don't even joke about that," Ladybug snapped, her hand stinging. "I can't lose you, Chat."

Chat smiled warmly and glanced up, watching as the Butcher descended the Eiffel tower via sliding down the legs of it with his knives. "You won't," he assured her, turning to face her. "I promise you."

She shook her head, her earrings warning her that she would transform in moments. "You can't promise me that, Chat."

He grabbed her by the arms tightly. "I promise," he said firmly.

Their fourth kiss was urgent, desperate, and pleading, each of them silently praying that they would get back to one another in one piece. When he pulled away with a smack that reverberated throughout the courtyard, Ladybug felt like she might pass out. "Go," he insisted, pushing her away from him.

He gave her a tender smile. "I'll be here."

And he was.

"We can't beat him," Ladybug whispered desperately into the dark, watching as Chat peered through the vent in the door to look for the villain they had gotten caught up in fighting.

They had thought he had been possessed by an akuma, and discovered too late that he was an actual criminal. It shouldn't have been so hard to defeat him, but when it came down to it, guns were a lot more powerful than a yo-yo and a stick, even if they did both have magic in them.

As she pressed a hand against Chat's shoulder to get his attention, her spandex turned warm and sticky and Ladybug was forced to stifle a yell. "Chat! You're bleeding!"

He looked back at her, his eyes glowing in the darkness like only a cat's could. "I know," he answered softly. "And Ladybug, we have to beat him. He's going to kill all those civilians in the main ballroom."

"But we used my lucky charm and your cataclysm," she protested softly.

As if to remind them, two simultaneous beeps filled the closet. Chat chuckled softly, moving around Ladybug and then stumbling. She grabbed onto his good arm and pushed him gently to the ground. "Sit. We need to replenish our energy."

She sank down next to Chat and the two remained silent for a moment. When Chat let out a harsh chuckle, Ladybug glanced up. "What?"

He shook his head. "I didn't think we'd find out this way," he admitted.

Ladybug gave him a thin smile and looked down at her hands. "Yeah," she agreed. "Me neither."

A shot rang out below them and screams ran through the vents. Ladybug slammed her hands over her ears and sobbed. "No. No, no, no!"

"Hey," Chat said quickly, drawing her into his lap and cradling her to his chest. "Hey. I know. But we can't help them by panicking. We have to replenish our energy."

"My fault," she whispered throatily against his chest, her voice sending vibrations through his skin. "If I hadn't insisted we go see what he was up to…"

Chat tightened his grip on her. "No," he spat out. "This isn't your fault. I thought he was possessed too, remember? What kind of…murderer…wears spandex?"

Ladybug choked back a sob and they both fell quiet as their devices beeped out the last warning signal. "Chat…I'm scared," she whispered.

"I am too," he admitted, shutting his eyes and leaning his head back, trying his best to ignore the throbbing in his shoulder. "We'll get through this, though. We always do."

"What if we don't?" Ladybug murmured, her fingers tightening in his spandex.

Chat had been wondering that too, and now he wrapped his arm even more tightly around the hero in his lap. "Well then...I love you."

She jumped against him, and lifted her gaze to meet his just as their disguises fell away and Plagg and Tikki dropped into their laps.

Neither of them reacted much beyond a quiet intake of breath, and Marinette reached up with shaking fingers to brush away Adrien's hair from his face. "You're my cat," she whispered breathlessly.

A small, nervous smile slid across his lips, and he let his hand drift to her hips. "At your service, My Lady."

She pushed upwards and captured his lips in a moment of pure, overwhelming love, and the two clutched at each other for several heart pounding seconds, fingers intertwined in hair and cloth until finally they broke apart to check on their extremely exhausted kwami's.

As they fed them tiny pieces of food that had been strategically packed into Marinette's purse, the two teenagers studied each other.

Marinette reached out a hand and brushed at the bullet wound in Adrien's shoulder. "You can't fight like that," she murmured.

He captured his fingers in his hand and smiled cockily. "You're forgetting that a cat has nine lives."

Marinette stared at him for a long moment before a grin finally twitched on her lips. "Are you ever going to stop using that line and be serious?"

Adrien glanced down at Plagg, who seemed content, and held out his ringed hand. "Plagg?"

Marinette covered her eyes as the flash of green light flashed through the darkened closet, and when she looked up again he was standing and holding a hand out to her, tail swishing behind him like a real cat's would.

"Do you know me at all, My Lady?" he asked as he pulled her to her feet and pressed a kiss to her hand. "I try very hard to never be serious."

Marinette smiled, biting her lip, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Tikki, transform me."

When the red and black light died away, leaving the two heroes once again disguised to each other, Chat pulled Ladybug up against him. "Whatever happens, remember this, okay? It wasn't your fault, and I love you."

Ladybug blushed furiously and kissed him lightly on the lips. "I love you too," she said softly.

They swiveled their heads to the door as another scream penetrated the air, and Ladybug glanced at Chat in concern. "Is your shoulder okay to fight?"

He shrugged and kicked the door to the closet open, waving an arm out at the hallway. "Let's find out, shall we?"

No one was really able to say how, during that battle, Ladybug and Chat Noir were able to move so fluidly together, as if they were one person. No one was sure how they managed to take down the killer in only three fast minutes without losing any civilian lives.

What they were sure of, however, was that no one had ever seen the two heroes smile harder in their lives when they embraced after the battle.