Bugs and Drugs

- x - x - x -

Dental surgery was intense.

Adrien didn't realize quite what he was signing up for when he agreed to have the dentist extract his impacted wisdom teeth. He knew they'd be yanking them out; that part was obvious. What he wasn't expecting was the amount of drugs they'd be pumping into him both prior to and after the surgery.

As the dentist hooked him up to a saline drip with the giggle juice (as the dentist rather lamely called it), he'd explained to Adrien that his teeth were pretty thoroughly jammed together. This surgery was more than just a yanking out of teeth.

So, Adrien drifted away into lala land as the dentist prepped his tools.

He came to later, well after the surgery had finished, and blinked some of the drowsiness out of his eyes. Gray ceiling panels hovered above him. For some reason, he found the black freckles in the paneling hilarious. He told this to Nathalie, who was sitting at his bedside looking bored. She sighed but didn't reply.

The nurse came into the room and handed Nathalie a small bottle. "Heavy painkillers," she explained, "have him take them every six hours for the next day or two. It'll make it quite drowsy, so keep him home from school." The nurse then handed one of the pills to Adrien. He gulped it down more than willingly, especially since he was already starting to feel the ache in the back of his gums. It wasn't a pleasant pain.

Soon, his father's assistant helped him into a wheelchair. As Adrien tapped his feet on the pedals, Nathalie rolled him out of the dentist. He was loaded into his family's limo and then the world turned into a pretty blur of colors and lights. Pressing his face to the window of the limo, Adrien kept murmuring, "whoa."

He couldn't remember the town being so beautiful.

Then he was back at the mansion. Nathalie once again helped him wobble to his feet and drop into a wheelchair. This time, he played with all the plastic components on the wheelchair, trying to pry them up. He stopped when Nathalie snapped at him.

Nathalie unceremoniously deposited him in his bedroom, telling him to call her if he should want a water or some ice cream. "I want… pancakes," he told her in response.

She glared at him for a solid moment before saying, "Ice cream. Or water." Without another word, she closed the bedroom door. Adrien could hear her heels clacking on the tile as she strode down the hallway.

"Dude, you're totally out of it," another voice spoke up. Adrien freaked out for a second before he remembered his kwami.

"Oh, hi Plagg."

Plagg had a good laugh at that. The black cat kwami flew close to Adrien's face and observed him. "They put you on the good stuff," he commented.

"My teeth were bad." Every word that Adrien said came out slowly, one at a time. It was so ridiculously difficult to speak that Adrien started giggling at himself.

"I bet," replied Plagg with a laugh, "well, tiger, I think you should get some sleep."

"Sleep is for babies," huffed Adrien as he waddled like a drunk penguin over to the couch.

"You sleep every night," Plagg pointed out, clearly entertained.

"No I don't," argued Adrien as he flopped down onto the couch.

"Sure," agreed Plagg, "well, good night."

"Okay, good night." Adrien yawned big and let his eyes fall shut. Drowsiness was hitting him hard, like a tidal wave trying to drown him.

He woke up to tapping on his window. Shoving himself up haphazardly, he muttered, "Who's there?" There wasn't a response. Adrien proceeded to fall off the couch, flopping hard onto the floor. The fall knocked the breath out of him and he laid there on the ground, waiting for the stars to clear out of his vision.

Eventually, he shoved himself up unsteadily to his feet. There was still a tapping noise, but now it had multiplied. It was like a hundred people were tapping on his window.

Only, it wasn't people. When Adrien turned to the window, he discovered something like several hundred purple bugs slamming themselves into his window. Or at least, they seemed like bugs. Adrien's brain felt like it was swimming in a thick fog, so it was hard to be sure.

"This is a weird dream," he commented scratching his head.

"Not a dream," a worried voice commented, flying into his peripheral vision.

"Oh, hi there Plagg," greeted Adrien, smiling as he recognized his kwami, "how are you?"

The kwami scowled at Adrien. "Well, I've been better. There's an akuma attacking, and my human hero is drunk off his ass on pain meds."

"That must suck," replied Adrien, blinking in sympathy. He supposed that he wouldn't like it much if his human hero was drunk either.

Plagg rolled his eyes and sighed. "Hopefully Ladybug can handle this one by herself."

Ladybug. Oh yes, Ladybug! Adrien knew Ladybug well. He decided to share this with Plagg, "She's my friend!" For some reason, Plagg seemed rather uninterested in this factoid. The kwami was instead concentrating on the bugs that were building up against the window.

There were sure a lot of bugs. Whatever akuma was making them was surely serious business.

That's when Adrien's brain realized that if there was an akuma, there needed to be superheros to fight it, and he was a superhero. "Oh! Plagg! We need to go help!" It occurred to him that Ladybug might already be fighting these bugs. "We need to help my friend Ladybug!"

"That's a hard no, Adrien," Plagg was quick to say, shaking his head, "you are far from fit for fighting. You can barely stand up right now -" Adrien realized he was swaying side to side. He tried to stabilize himself. "- and don't forget how dangerous cataclysm is -"

Adrien interrupted him, doing his best to force out the right words, "Plagg, I can do it! I'm Chat Neer, after all."

"Chat Noir."

"That's what I said."

"No, it's not," Plagg growled in annoyance and grabbed his head with his tiny hands, "just, look, Adrien, seriously, for the love of all that's good, don't -"

"Claws out!"

"Mother fu-" Plagg was swirled into the ring and green light shot out, dousing Adrien in his black leather.

"Whoa," Adrien muttered, admiring the black leather. He'd forgotten how cool it was. I'm a hero, he thought to himself, a superhero. Cool.

The swarm of bugs was growing ever heavier outside the window. There was no time to waste. Adrien giggled as he stumbled over to the window and tried to yank it open. Only, it was locked, so nothing happened. About two minutes, after Adrien had figured out the latch mechanism, he finally pried the window open.

The swarm of bugs rushed in, buzzing wildly. "Villians!" he howled at them, swiping his claws at the bugs. Unfortunately, this was a bad idea, as it only made the bugs angry. Turns on these bugs had little stingers, like tiny needles. The bugs started to attack him; thankfully, it seemed like they couldn't get their needles through his black leather. However, he had enough soft, peachy skin for them to attack.

Screaming, Adrien flung himself out the window in an attempt to get away from the bugs.

He landed hard, tumbling wildly. A few bugs followed him, buzzing angrily. "Go away!" he shrieked as he struggled to his feet. Before the rest of the bugs could find him, he flung himself forward, surprising himself momentarily with his own power. His small jump ended up carrying him far over the mansion's fence and into the Paris streets beyond.

He managed to land on his feet, but only barely so. Also, a nasty pain exploded in the back of his mouth. Chat gritted his teeth, trying to squeeze away the feeling. Before the pain fully went away, his attention was stolen by the chaos on the Paris streets.

People were running everywhere and screaming. Some were banging on doors, trying to get inside. Some people had fallen and were laying, curled up in fetal position. The evening skies were darkened by the needle bugs that were absolutely everywhere.

Adrien sat there, his legs sprawled in front of him, watching all of this. It was oddly mesmerizing to watch the people panic.

It wasn't until someone shouted, "Chat Noir! Help us!" that he launched into action. Or, maybe lurched would be a better verb to use. He did his best to shove himself to his feet and took a few steps forward. As soon as he was upright again, he was overcome with feelings of lightheadedness.

Focus, he reminded himself, save people. "Don't worry everyone!" He announced, emphasizing every word, "Chat is here now, so it's all okay."

Either the people were staring at him in shocked appreciation, or maybe they were just shocked. It didn't matter either way. Adrien sprang forward again, flying down the streets. Even in his questionable state, he knew he needed to find the akumatized person.

In other words, someone had been made sick with a very angry butterfly, and he needed to find them and break their stuff. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

A flash of red caught his eye.

"M'lady!" he yelped.

Only, it wasn't Ladybug. It was a fire truck, flying through the streets, perhaps off to help some victims of the bugs.

Another flash of red caught his eye.

"M'lady!" he yelped again.

Only, once again, it wasn't Ladybug. It was just some guy in a red shirt. That guy gave Adrien a funny look before running off.

"Chat Noir, there you are!" someone shouted at him from behind. Twirling around (and nearly falling down in the process) Adrien spotted a girl in red leather, perched up on a building.

"There you are!" he replied, giggling. He knew he could find her. He was good at finding stuff. So, he told her loudly, "I found you first!"

"What?" she yelled back, frowning.

"First, I was first," he repeated giddly. Good job me, he thought proudly.

Ladybug jumped down from the building, landing gracefully a few feet away from Adrien. As soon as she landed, her eyes started scanning him up and down, like she was inspecting him. Adrien couldn't help but wonder if she liked what she saw. The thought made him giggle harder.

"Are you okay?" Ladybug asked, horrified. It was amazing how absolutely gorgeous she was even with her face screwed up in worry and shock.

"Phft," replied Adrien, waving a hand casually, "I'm totally cool. I'm lit. I'm swag."

"Oh my god," his favorite partner in the world replied, covering her mouth with her hands, "you are so not okay. How many of those bugs stung you?" She took several steps forward, removing the space between them. Adrien decided he quite liked that. It was better when Ladybug was closer to him. It was easier for her to admire his face and easier for him to admire hers.

Ladybug reached forward and traced her hand along his chin, gently pushing his head to the side. He was putty in her hands. Smiling dopily, he let himself enjoy the way her hands poked and prodded at the sore skin on his neck.

"I didn't think the bugs had poison," she whispered, almost more to herself.

"Do they?" he gasped, alarmed, "that's not good." His own hands shot up to the stings, poking too hard at his own injuries. It hurt. Adrien hissed as the pain shot through him, clearing his mind just a wee bit. "I hope it doesn't neger- er, neg - no, ah, negara -" Wow, thought Adrien, this is a tough word to say, "negeeteeveely interact with my meds." There we go, that sounds right, thought Adrien. He was proud of himself.

"Meds?" echoed Ladybug, her eyes flying open in alarm, "Do you mean, like, pain meds? Chat, are you seriously high on medicine right now?"

"High, no, silly, I'm low!" he replied, laughing at her funniness, "I'm on the ground, just like you. Duh."

Ladybug smacked her face with both her hands, groaning. Before she could say anything else, the bugs started to swarm near them, their needle stingers glinting in the setting sun's light. Muttering under her breath, Ladybug grabbed Adrien's arm and dragged him into a nearby narrow alley.

Pushing him behind a smelly dumpster, Ladybug demanded, "Why are you here? You aren't going to be any help."

Gasping, Adrien told her honestly, "that's not a nice thing to say. I can help. I am a good helper. Do you remember that one time that, um, I, you know, did the cataclysm?" Surely she remembered.

"You mean every time," she replied dryly.

"Yea, exactly!" His grin was back. Adrien was happy that Ladybug remembered and appreciated his contributions.

Ladybug stared at him, annoyance clearly written on her face. Which, by the way, was completely uncalled for. Adrien was a necessary part of the hero recipe, whether she liked it or not. So, he stared back at her stubbornly, crossing his arms.

But, then, she bit her lip in thought, her beautiful blue eyes narrowing. Those two actions were enough to turn Adrien into a melty pile of goop. He swayed and fell backwards, sighing deeply as his butt hit the ground hard. "Damn," he whispered, his gaze still locked onto Ladybug. It wasn't fair that she was so gorgeous. He decided to tell her this, "it's not fair you're so gorgeous."

There was a distinct change in her expression. Annoyance shifted into embarrassment, and Ladybug's cheeks turned a dusty pink. "Oh, shush Chat," she chastised him, "you're drunk."

"Drunk on you," he replied smoothly, grinning deviously. He wasn't exactly sure if what he said made sense, but it sure sounded good in his head. Although, Ladybug groaned in response, which wasn't a very promising reaction. Oh well.

"Okay, look, I've got a plan," said Ladybug.

"Okay, I don't."

"That's… okay. My plan is for both of us."

"Oh cool, that's nice of you!" chirped Adrien; he thrilled to be included. Ladybug rubbed her temples and sighed again.

"Look, you're going to stay right here. Okay? Don't attack the bugs. Leave them alone. Stay here, by this dumpster." For emphasis, she patted the dumpster. To show that he fully understood, Adrien patted the dumpster too. It made a funny banging noise, so he did it a few more times, until Ladybug gave him a glare that clearly said stop.

"Okay, stay here. Then what?" He asked as he flopped himself down, sitting criss cross applesauce.

"I will go find the akuma, get the item, and bring it back here. You will then, super carefully, use your cataclysm on it. Okay?"

"Fo shizzle." Once again, Adrien made himself laugh with his own silliness. For some reason, Ladybug didn't laugh. Sombering up, he repeated, "I mean, okey dokey."

A single, red finger pointed right at him. Adrien shriveled under the intensity of Ladybug's glare. "I mean it, don't move. Don't even breath."

That was a tall order, but Adrien would go to the end of the world for Ladybug. Sucking his breath, he focused on all his energy on not breathing.

"Wait, no, I was just - ah, look, you can breath. Just stay here," commanded Ladybug.

Expelling his big breath of air, Adrien agreed by saying, "Okey dokey," again.

Ladybug seemed satisfied with his response. Wagging her finger only once more at him, she turned and jumped away. Adrien watched her leave, enjoying how swiftly her lithe body moved. She was like a cheetah, only in person form. "Cheetahs are cool," Adrien thought aloud, tapping his finger to his chin.

"Oh!" he yelped, realizing he'd already broken Ladybug's rules. No moving, she'd said. Adrien tucked his hands back into his lap and tightened his muscles. "No moving," he said aloud.

…

…

Not moving was sure boring. There was no one else in the narrow alleyway other than Adrien. There was only a few rogue bugs, flying around wildly. Off in the distance, there were screams, but the screamers themselves weren't anywhere close enough to be of interest to Adrien.

Groaning, Adrien allowed his body to slack a little. This not moving stuff was very difficult. Besides, his head was starting to hurt. He really wanted to go back home and go to bed.

I wonder if Ladybug would mind, he wondered as he thought about his nice, soft bed. True, Ladybug had told him to stay here, but this alleyway did not have a nice bed for him. His room, on the other hand, had a very nice bed. A top of the line bed, in fact. That's because his father was rich.

"Rich, rich, rich," sang Adrien, rocking right to left.

Then again, if he went off to bed, he couldn't help Ladybug.

Ladybug.

"Oh!" Adrien yelped, jumping to his feet. She was fighting an akuma all alone right now! What on earth was he doing, sitting in an alleyway being useless? It was his job to protect Paris too and to, perhaps most importantly, protect her! How dare he forget this, how dare he not be there for her!

This is why Adrien raced out of the alleyway, his chaotic steps leading him wildly through the Paris streets. Some functional part of his brain told him to follow the bugs, so he did. It was the best idea he had to finding his bugaboo, after all.

"Acupuncture is real medicine!" A scream caught his attention and Adrien tried to stop on a dime. Only, he had much too much forward momentum and ended up rolling head over heels along the road. It hurt, but not nearly as much as the swarm of bugs that were quick to descend upon him.

Needles, tens of needles, stabbed mercilessly into his skin. Shrieking, Adrien swatted wildly at them. "Get the hell off me!"

Then someone saved him. Arms wrapped under his knees and his armpits, yanking him upward. Adrien found himself being picked up bridal style by a very annoyed Ladybug. "Yay!" he shouted as she sprang away from the bugs and onto the roof of a nearby building.

"What did I tell you!" growled Ladybug as she unceremoniously dropped Adrien onto the rooftop.

Blinking in confusion, Adrien searched his memories for what she'd told him. "Was it about my bed?" he asked, unsure.

"No," Ladybug said, slapping a hand to her face again, "no, it definitely wasn't. I told you to stay there." Oh boy, Ladybug did not sound happen with him. The way she said, stay there, was as if he'd really screwed up.

"Sorry bugaboo," he whimpered, honest in his apology.

Some of her anger deflated. Ladybug opened her mouth, maybe to yell at him again or to accept his apology. However, before she could do either of those things, the bugs were back. "Let's go!" she told him, grabbing onto his arm.

He did his best to follow her lead, running down the rooftop and jumping to the next one. Somehow, he did manage most of it. Only, Adrien was still having trouble with landing. His feet got all twisted underneath him while he was in the air, so he ended up landing on his knees. Which, in case you are unaware, is not a good way to land.

True, real pain shot through him. And, not just from his knees. His jaw exploded in pain again, like a knife was slicing into his back teeth. Several cuss words escaped him as he rolled across the rough rooftop. It was Ladybug who grabbed him, preventing him from rolling all the way across the building. "Dammit," she muttered, concern rather than frustration in her voice.

"Feel the sting of my acupuncture!" Some crazy lady shouted from the streets. As Adrien rubbed at his bruised knees, he wondered what was wrong with that lady. Didn't she knew Paris was under attack? This was no time to be promoting asian medicines.

Ladybug crouched next to Adrien and touched his legs. "Are you okay?" she whispered.

"No," he told her, "my knees hurt, my teeth hurt, and also my head feels kind of fuzzy."

The edges of her lips tilting up minimally. "I can't say I'm surprised about your head," she told him kindly as one of her hands traced along his jaw. The light pressure from her fingers spurred positive feelings that battled with the throbbing pain in his teeth.

Adrien didn't get to enjoy her touch for long. The air above them darkened as the swarm of bugs found them. Much like earlier, Ladybug leaned down and scooped Adrien up bridal style. Adrien had the good sense to wrap his arms around her neck securely before she took off, sprinting across rooftops and leaping through the air.

She was like a cheetah. A red, leathery cheetah.

When she finally slowed down, Adrien giggled, "It's kind of like I'm a princess," referring to how she was holding him. Ladybug let out the briefest of laughs before her attention focused on the streets below them.

"I think the akuma is in that red lantern on her waist," said Ladybug. Adrien followed her gaze down to where an older Chinese lady was storming down the street. The lady looked quite fancy in a traditional cheongsam, complete with golden details. Surely enough, at her waist, there was a red lantern tied to a loop at the waist of the dress.

Thanks to several years of Chinese tutorage, Adrien knew many factoids about Chinese culture. "The red lanterns are for the lantern, um, party. Wait, hold on. Umm… oh, festival!" Yes, that's what it was called.

"Thanks Chat, what would I do without you?"

Adrien grinned proudly, completely missing all the sarcasm in her tone.

Ladybug's expression became serious again. "I'm going to make this fast," his partner promised.

"What fast?" he asked.

He never got an explanation. Instead, Ladybug began moving again, once again moving so fast that the world blurred. Then, suddenly, he was being dumped on some balcony. The warmth from Ladybug disappeared as she hopped away and down into the street.

He heard her cry, "Lucky charm!" But he did not see what resulted. In all honesty, Adrien wasn't really sure what was going on. Was Ladybug going to come back for him? Tucking his banged up knees against his chest, Adrien listened carefully to the sounds of superheros and villians.

Only, it was hard to tell which was which. There was a lot of yelling, and then there was this weird cloud of yellow that rose up above the buildings. When the wind blew, it carried some of the yellow smoke Adrien.

It was awful.

It was so awful that he hefted himself to his feet, staggered over to the railing, and puked over it.

The yellow smoke smelled like rotten eggs mixed with one of those anti-mosquito candles. Centroneda? Citrisroda? Cintrofrella? Adrien struggled to remember the name as he tried not to puke again.

"Chat Noir," Ladybug said, appearing so suddenly that Adrien yelped and fell back onto his butt. "Sorry," she apologized sheepishly as she stepped down onto the balcony, "I need you to break the lantern."

The red chinese lantern was suddenly there. Or, maybe Ladybug had had it the entire time, but Adrien hadn't noticed because he'd been so distracted by his lady. She was rather distracting.

"Okay," he agreed, struggling back to his feet, "how do I do that?"

"Cataclysm, Chat," sighed Ladybug, "You use cataclysm." As Adrien considered this, looking at his hands and trying to remember exactly how he normally did his cataclysm, Ladybug herself seemed to consider something. She added, "In fact, I'm going to put the lantern down right here, and then back up. That way, you know, you only hit the lantern."

"Only the lantern," repeated Adrien, nodding, "got it."

Something occurred to him; a memory from earlier in the night. Something about how Plagg had tried to tell him that cataclysm was dangerous.

But then again, what did Plagg know? Sure, cataclysm destroyed or ruined anything it touched, but it wasn't like some novice was wielding it. Adrien was a professional. Cataclysm was safe in his claws.

Safe in his claws. Adrien started to laugh at himself and his ironic train of thought. See, the power of cataclysm itself existed within his claws, so this was an ironic statement. Because, you know, safe in… well anyways. Adrien thought it was very funny. It wasn't until Ladybug cleared her throat, her eyes narrowed with worry, that he snapped himself out of it. "Right, focus," he said aloud, "um… cataclysm!"

It worked on the first try. His glove started glowing black. Which, really, was very weird. Black wasn't a color that could typically glow. Then, as if that wasn't enough, bubbles started to eke out of the black leather. It reminded Adrien of when he was a little boy blowing bubbles under the watchful eye of his mother. Each bubble was a peaceful memory, bringing him back to a simpler time.

"Chat Noir," Ladybug said pointedly.

Oh yes, he needed to destroy the lantern. Giving his head a shake, Adrien turned his attention to the pretty lantern. It seemed like such a shame to destroy such a nice thing. Oh well! Ladybug demanded it. With a little too much flair, Chat swept his pretty, glowing glove down onto the lantern. It split open and a purple butterfly escaped from it.

Ladybug's yoyo was quick to pluck the butterfly out of the air. Adrien watched, dazed, as Ladybug did what Ladybug did best. She purified the butterfly and then released it. While Ladybug watched the now white butterfly fly off, Adrien watched her.

"Beautiful," he whispered.

"Yea," she agreed, still watching the butterfly.

Next, she started to swirl the yoyo again (gosh, thought Adrien, maybe I should get myself a yoyo too) and screamed, "Miraculous Ladybug!" More magical power spilled out of the yoyo as the world started to reset around them.

Adrien started clapping. It was impressive, after all.

The trouble was averted. The villain was defeated. The two of them had done well. Ladybug looked pleased too, a big smile now on her face.

"That could have gone badly," she admitted with a sigh, "I'm glad it didn't."

"Nothing goes badly when we're together," he told her slowly, his brain still feeling like it was stuffed with cotton. In fact, drowsiness was now threatening to overwhelm him again. His eyelids were already dropping, despite the fact that the evening sun had gone back to being fully visible, what with the bug swarms gone.

Stepping closer to him, Ladybug placed a hand on his shoulder, "Chat, you need to get home"

Yawning, he replied, "Okay. Where's that?"

"Um, I don't know, Chat. I don't know where you live."

"The Agreste mansion. Where's that?"

Ladybug froze, her blue eyes widening. For some reason, she started to twitch and her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. "Um um um, what did you say?" she whimpered.

"The Agreste -"

"Oh, okay!" Ladybug cut him off, her panic growing. Adrien could only blink and try to fight off the tiredness that was building up steadily. Maybe Ladybug didn't like mansions. Or maybe she was nervous because she didn't know where it was.

"Maybe taxi," he gurgled, meaning to say maybe I can take a taxi. He was too tired to get all the words out right through.

Adrien yawned and slouched back against the balcony railing.

"Oh no, I-I c-can help, um, um, you… get home…" Ladybug's voice shriveled up as she spoke. It was very weird. Maybe Adrien was missing something about the situation. Oh well, his current major concern was getting home and going to bed.

"Okay, led the way princess," he said after yawning again.

"This way," she practically whispered before springing off the balcony and onto a building across the street.

Narrowing his eyes, Adrien dragged himself up and onto the balcony railing. Bending his knees, his focused all his attention onto jumping. From here, he told himself, to there. It should be easy. He'd jumped across buildings a thousand billion times in his superhero career.

Before he could even try to jump, his foot slipped on the railing and he tumbled forward. Yelping, Adrien twisted around like a throwing star in the air and then landed hard on the street. "Ow," he whimpered.

Ladybug appeared beside him. "Aaah… maybe I should, um, c-c-c-carry you." It took her several attempts to say the word carry. With the way she was acting, it was like carrying him was a big deal. Had she been like that earlier, during the battle? Adrien couldn't remember.

He just nodded. She came over and scooped him up for the third time.

It was very nice to be carried by Ladybug. He enjoyed her warmth, her smell, her everything. Yawning again, Adrien made himself comfortable by nuzzling his head against her neck and closing his eyes. Hopefully Ladybug wouldn't mind if he took a nap as she carried him.

"Thanks buggy, love you," he mumbled, his words obscured with sleepiness.

"Oh my god," he heard her whisper, but he was already half in dreamland at that point.

Adrien was somewhat aware of their movement. He could feel the sway as Ladybug ran and jumped. He could feel the soft air brushing by his cheeks. He could feel a few loose strands of Ladybug's black hair tickling his face.

At the same time, he was caught up in his own little dream. The half or so of himself that was unconscious was imagining a world where he and Ladybug were cheetahs, darting through the Paris streets. He was a black cheetah with green spots and she was a red cheetah with black spots. It was a pretty cool dream.

His dream got interrupted when Ladybug said, "We're here."

Peeling his eyes open, he peered curiously at Ladybug. She wasn't looking at him. No, she was looking at his father's ostentatious mansion.

"It's a dumb mansion," he murmured, his head still nuzzled against her skin. Home or not, Adrien really didn't want to let go of Ladybug. He was so comfortable. Besides, she smelled like fresh baked bread and happiness.

"Dumb?" echoed Ladybug, surprised, "You don't like it?"

Adrien had to think about how to explain it. "It's cold," he finally concluded.

"Oh."

Thankfully, Ladybug didn't seem to be in a rush herself. As Adrien continued to enjoy the feel of being close to Ladybug, she stayed quiet.

It was his suit that broke the serenity by beeping loudly. "Stupid suit," he growled.

"You need to go. I need go to," said Ladybug.

"Yea, I know," Adrien sighed, "we can't find out each other's identities." It was such a drag, having to hide who he was from Ladybug. He wanted to know her in real life, wanted to hang out with her outside of the leather suits. He wanted to be more than superhero partners with this beautiful girl.

Ladybug released him and he found himself back on his unsteady feet.

"Get some sleep," Ladybug told him, her voice soft and sweet.

"You too," he replied automatically.

That's when she did something very, very surprising. Well, either that, or Adrien dreamed something very, very surprising. Two days later, when Adrien got off the pain meds entirely, he wouldn't be sure as to whether it had happened or if it had been a dream. In fact, most of this odd adventure would be a blur to him.

Anyways, out of the blue, Ladybug stepped forward, grabbed his shoulder, stood on her tippy toes, and planted a firm kiss on his cheek. Adrien gasped audibly. "Good night, Chat," she whispered, her cheeks almost as red as her mask.

"Okay," was all that he could mumble in surprise. Then, Ladybug turned and sprang away, moving with lightning speed across the building tops.

Adrien stood there, watching her go. It wasn't until she had completely vanished over the horizon and his suit had beeped again that he pushed himself into action. With about as much grace as a three year old toddler, he made his way over the mansion's tall gates and across the grass yard. He scaled the side of the mansion (falling twice) until he reached his window.

Luckily, he hadn't closed the window when he left, so it was easy to tumble back inside.

"Okay Plagg," he said while yawning, "claws in."

Green light spiraled around Adrien, removing his leather suit and reducing him back to a normal, sleepy kid.

"You're an idiot!" was the first thing that Plagg shouted as he was brought back into existence.

"An idiot who got a kiss from Ladybug," pointed out Adrien, grinning as he staggered his way over to his couch.

Plagg continued to grumble, demanding extra Camembert and insisting that Adrien should never get dental work ever again. Meanwhile, Adrien hauled himself onto his couch and finally let sleep win.

- x - x - x -

A/N: This was supposed to just be a short little drabble,
but then I had too much fun writing high-on-meds Adrien.

What do you think would happen next?
How does Marinette deal with her new knowledge?
Let me know in the comments. :)

(and don't forget to check out my other Miraculous stories!)