This was based on beebeebombam's body swap au. I took a few liberties so I could keep this as a one-shot, but I recommend checking out all the art that goes with this!

Also, a huge thank you to chatnoirinette for beta-reading. You are wonderful!

So That Just Happened

"Ladybug, look out!"

Chat Noir crashes into her, cradling her close as they hit the ground and roll to a stop. Too bad the misty, blue light still envelopes them.

Her heart lurches, skipping and jumping to her throat. Oh no. Any second she's going to be forced to swap bodies with Chat Noir, just like what happened to all of Switcher's other victims. Sure, it's better that it's him than anyone else since they're in the middle of an akuma battle, but still. This is a disaster!

His green eyes are wide and stare into her own. "Ladybu—"

But it's too late. Liquid ice rushes through her body and everything goes black.

oOo

"Marinette." Something taps her face. "Marinette, wake up."

She groans and slowly opens her eyes. Her own face is peering down at her. Her own giant face.

A shriek escapes her, and she throws her hands up as if to ward the face off, scuttling backwards like a panicked crab. Or at least she tries. Everything feels off, and the big hands holding her up stop her from going anywhere.

"Marinette, please calm down," the giant that has stolen her face says. "It's just me."

"Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down when—" She breaks off, startled by the familiar high-pitched tone of her voice. "Wait …"

She stares at her hands, which are tiny and red. So are her feet. Something twitches on her head, and her heart quickens like the fluttering wings of a hummingbird. Those are antennae. She has antennae and a red body, and she's tiny, and there's a giant Marinette holding her.

"T-Tikki?" she says.

The giant Marinette nods.

Her chest tightens. "Then we really …"

Another nod.

Oh no. Oh no, no, no. She cannot be stuck in her kwami's body. The akuma is probably still out there, which means Tikki has to become Ladybug, but Marinette is the kwami right now, and she doesn't know how to become a magical suit, and—

"Marinette," Tikki says in a soothing tone, "it's okay. There's no need to panic. We'll figure this out."

"But Switcher—"

"Has been defeated."

Marinette blinks. "What?"

"Plagg and I stopped the akuma. I purified it as well."

Two more blinks. "Plagg?"

Tikki grimaces, glancing off to the side. "That's the other thing. See—"

"Sugarcube!"

Adrien walks over.

Adrien.

And he's holding the black cat kwami in his hands.

Marinette's eyes bulge so wide it feels like they're going to pop out. Her jaw drops. The antennae shoot up on her head like exclamation points. "A-A-A—"

"Oh dear," Tikki says. "I was afraid of this."

The sound that escapes Marinette is like a dying wheeze mixed with a screech. It's the air rushing out of a deflating balloon, the ungraceful honk-hiss of a flailing bird. If she'd been standing, she would have slumped to her knees. As it is, she can only open and close her mouth, pointing at Adrien with one tiny red paw.

Adrien. Adrien is Chat Noir.

She has rejected Chat Noir multiple times, because she loves Adrien, who is Chat Noir, who is—

"I think the kid's face broke her," Adrien says with a little cackle.

Marinette makes the wheezing screech again.

Tikki rounds on him. "I thought I told you to wait for my signal."

"I did wait, but we don't have time for you to gently break it to baker girl that her crush is—"

"Adrien," Marinette manages to get out.

His beautiful green eyes fix on her, except the expression in them is all wrong. Not the right softness, not the right sweetness. These eyes hold chaos and secret smiles and far too much amusement.

"You," she says, her hand trembling. "You're not Adrien."

His teeth flash in a grin. "What gave it away? My superior sense of taste? My—"

Tikki elbows him. "Plagg, now is not the time."

Marinette swallows and shifts her gaze to the sleeping kwami cradled in Plagg's hands. "Th-then that means Adrien is …"

"Uh huh," Plagg says. "So now you see our predicament. The akuma has been defeated, the cure used, and we're still stuck in the wrong bodies."

Adrien chooses this moment to wake, sitting up with his little cat ears flicking this way and that. He yawns, baring tiny fangs.

That's Adrien. That tiny cat is Adrien, who is Chat Noir, who is Adrien, who—

"I think she broke again," Plagg observes.

"Stop teasing her. Of course this is going to be a shock."

Adrien blinks, glances up at Plagg, then over to Tikki, then down to Marinette. She's stiff like a statue, but she can almost see the pieces connecting in his head as to why his classmate and friend is holding Ladybug's kwami. His brow wrinkles, his eyes widen, and then a delighted grin splits his face.

"Not just an every-day Ladybug, huh?"

The wheeze-screech once more escapes her lips. This is too much.

oOo

"Okay," Marinette mutters, hidden inside the purse with a few cookies and other necessities. "This is fine, this is fine, this is fine. It's just a dream. It has to be a dream. Any moment I'm gonna wake up and realise how silly this all is."

She forces a laugh, just to see if it'll make her feel better. It doesn't. Instead, the purse swings a bit too far and a cookie hits her in the face. Her nose scrunches. She pats the cookie away, cringing at the sticky touch of melted chocolate. Is this what Tikki has to put up with all the time?

"Stop wriggling," Plagg says from somewhere outside the purse.

"It's your cheese's fault," Adrien grumbles. "It stinks."

"Stinks like heaven, you mean."

"Well, your heaven is trying to kill me."

"Shh." That one is definitely Tikki. "People will notice if you keep talking to your pocket. Here, I'll put Adrien with Marinette."

Marinette stiffens and makes a little meep sound. The purse gets opened and Adrien gets deposited inside without ceremony. Then the clasps click shut, sealing the two of them in together.

Her heart thumps and thumps and thumps.

"So," he says, rubbing the base of his neck, "guess this cat is in the bag."

Wait.

Did he just …

Laughter bubbles free of her lips. "I can't believe you." You dork, she almost adds. Of all the things to say.

His smile is shy but pleased. "Still made you laugh, didn't it?"

"It barely makes sense."

"But you still got it, and—" He breaks off, pressing his lips together with an oops expression, like he knows he almost blurted something he shouldn't.

She tilts her head. "What?"

"It's just … I'm happy to see you laugh."

Her heart skips and stutters. "Oh."

"Because you seemed kind of uncomfortable before." He shoots her a shy glance. "And I just hope it's not because I'm, well, me."

"Oh, Adrien, no. I could never be upset that you're Chat Noir."

His ears perk up. "You're not?"

"No. Not at all. I'm just—"

Madly in love with you. Still struggling to comprehend the fact I've kissed you twice, not to mention rejected you for you.

Also, did I mention I'm super crazily in love with you?

"—I'm just trying to process it all, I guess," she says. "This isn't how I expected our reveal to go."

He leans forward, wiggling his eyebrows. "So you did imagine it?"

Heat explodes on her cheeks. "Wh-what? No. I—no!"

He laughs, which does nothing to cool the blush spreading all over her face. But then his expression turns more pensive. He fidgets with his tail, lowering his gaze.

"I did," he says softly.

"Huh?"

"Imagine it. What it would be like to see each other without the masks."

The drumming beat in her chest gets louder and louder. "Y-you did?"

His gaze flickers to hers, so soft and so very Adrien, even if he is in his kwami's body. "Yeah. I thought about it a lot."

She licks her dry lips. "Wh-what did you imagine?"

"Well, first, we were actually in our own bodies."

She laughs, shy and hushed. He laughs too, which makes her cheeks warm all over again. How is it that he can have this effect on her even when he looks like a tiny cat with whiskers?

His gaze slides back to his hands. "I always wondered who you might be under the mask: whether you were a stranger to me in my civilian life, whether you were closer than I realised." A faint blush blooms on his face. "I … I hoped it would be the latter."

"That part worked out at least."

"Y-yeah," he says with an unsteady laugh. "It did."

The silence that settles is charged with an energy that makes her blood hum and her skin prickle as if touched by an invisible caress.

"What else did you imagine?" she whispers.

"Telling you."

His voice is just as soft, like something fragile might shatter if either of them speak any louder.

"Telling me what?"

Their eyes meet, and her pulse thrums in her ears as he holds her gaze.

"Telling you for real, no mask and no secrets, that I—"

The purse is opened.

"We're here," Tikki announces, gesturing to the bakery.

Marinette tries not to groan in frustration. Just when they were getting to the good part.

oOo

They shut themselves in Marinette's room and, with the help of all the kwamis under her protection, try to figure out a way to undo this mess. Now that she is the guardian, the pressure is on her. The problem is that she has no idea why only the four of them have remained body swapped. Neither do the kwamis. There is much discussion about side effects and kwami magic interference, but it's all so convoluted and technical that it gives her a headache. Trying to decipher the information she received from Master Fu will take forever as well. The whole thing seems hopeless.

"What if we're stuck like this forever?" Marinette wails, resisting the urge to bash her head against the floor. "I can't stay as a kwami. Plus, my parents will never believe that Tikki is me. We'll be exposed in a day!"

Tikki frowns, sitting primly on her knees. "I thought I did quite well at pretending to be you."

"Oh, sure, sure." Marinette forces a smile. "It's just, um … you also kind of …"

"Kind of what?"

"You sounded like you were from the wrong decade, sugarcube," Plagg says, leaning back on his palms and grinning. "Didn't you see her parents giving you odd looks?"

Tikki folds her arms. "I suppose you think you did better job?"

"Naturally."

Adrien purses his lips. "You asked them what cheese-flavoured things they had and bought five of every kind."

Plagg shrugs. "Everyone loves cheese."

"I don't."

"Well, I guess you do now."

Adrien's expression sours even more. "If you eat all that while you're in my body, I will throw your special camembert stash into the Seine."

"Not the special camembert!"

"Don't think I won't do it."

Tikki holds up her hands in an appeasing gesture. "Okay, okay. I think we can safely say that none of us are very good at being each other, so let's just focus on fixing this."

"But none of us know how," Marinette sighs, antennae drooping like sad flower stems. "We're trapped like this."

There's an awkward pause as everyone reflects on the truth of this statement.

"Actually …" Adrien sits up straighter, his brow creased. "There may be one thing we can try."

"What?" Marinette asks. Any suggestions are welcome at this point.

His cheeks darken. "Well, um, you remember that time I was under Dark Cupid's control? You were able to break the magic without using the cure, right?"

Heat crawls up her face. Oh. He's talking about that.

She scratches her cheek, looking off to the side. "Are you suggesting that we k-kiss?"

"I mean it worked then, so it's worth a try, right?"

Her face burns, spreading to the tips of her antennae. Adrien wants to kiss her. Adrien, who is Chat Noir, wants to kiss her.

Okay, she can do this. Just speak like a normal person. Play it cool, play it cool, play it cool. Do not let the reek of desperately and crazily in love and "yes, let's kiss right now" seep through.

"I guess," she says.

Success. Cool points have increased by one.

Adrien shoots her a shy glance. "Then should we …?"

"Yes!"

Damn. That was way too eager. Back to being a dorkasaurus.

Adrien does not seem to mind her explosive eagerness. His blush darkens and he shuffles over on his little kitty paws.

Paws.

That's when it hits her: they are stuck in their kwamis' bodies. This will not be the kiss she has dreamed of, because Adrien looks like a cat thing with whiskers, and she looks like a mousebug, and everyone is staring, and—

"Are they gonna kiss or not?" one the kwamis murmurs.

"Shh. You'll ruin the moment."

"It's already ruined."

"Shh!"

Adrien and Marinette blush, avoiding each other's gaze. This is so awkward.

"Um," he says, glancing at the others. "Could you maybe … turn away?"

Plagg grins and gives an unsubtle wink. "Sure thing, kid."

"Thanks."

Tikki smiles at Marinette and then ushers the other kwamis to give them some privacy.

Okay, that's kind of better. Now Marinette just has to kiss this tiny cat version of Adrien. Not weird at all.

He bites his lip and leans in, pausing when they're an inch apart to check if she's still okay with this. She closes her eyes, puckers up her lips. Gets a whiff of stinky cheese and cat breath.

This is fine, she tells herself. He's still Adrien. Still the boy I love. This is fine.

"Two carrots that they can't do it," Kaalki's voice drifts to them.

"You're on," Fluff says.

A chorus of groans.

"You ruined it again," Pollen complains.

"Just let them have their moment," Wayzz says, clenching his fist like one who has had their greatest treasure snatched from them. "My ship is almost sailing."

Adrien steps back and presses his paws to his face. "They're totally staring at us, aren't they?"

"Yep," Marinette says. "Not even attempting to look away."

They both laugh awkwardly.

He shuffles on his feet, looks down at the floor. "We don't have to do this if you don't want to. I'm sure—"

"Adrien."

"Yeah?"

She steps forward and kisses him on the lips. It's the barest touch, just a little peck, but the warmth humming through her face tells her she'd be redder than an overripe strawberry had she still been in her human body. Good thing Tikki is already red.

He blinks at her slowly, his mouth forming a small O.

Seconds pass.

"Nothing's happening," Kaalki says flatly.

Fluff nudges the horse kwami. "But they still kissed. You owe me two carrots."

A sigh. "Very well."

"Wait!" Pollen says, clapping their hands together. "What if Tikki and Plagg have to kiss as well?"

Tikki and Plagg share a startled glance.

"What?" Tikki says, going bright pink. "M-me and stinky sock? You want us to kiss?"

Wayzz's mouth twitches like he's trying very hard not to smile. "It is worth a try."

"B-but—"

"C'mere, sugarcube."

Plagg grabs Tikki's face, smooshing her cheeks slightly, and plants a kiss right on her lips, complete with a big, wet smooching sound. Marinette's eyes bulge. Adrien holds a paw to his mouth, all wide-eyed and shocked like some sheltered Victorian lady who has seen the forbidden.

"Quick, someone grab a camera!" one of the kwamis says.

Then liquid ice surges through Marinette's body and the world once more goes black.

oOo

"Marinette." Something taps her face. "Marinette, wake up."

She opens her eyes slowly and is greeted by warm green. Adrien's eyes. To the left are Tikki and Plagg, both in their kwami forms and smiling. Behind them are the rest of the kwamis, all peering at her in a mixture of curiosity and amusement.

"It worked?" she asked. "This isn't a dream?"

Adrien takes her hand and helps her to sit up. "It's not a dream."

"Oh, thank goodness!"

She crashes into his chest, hugging him tight. He melts into her without hesitation. It's warm and wonderful, and she is happy to stay like this forever. Then her brain catches up and starts what Alya fondly calls the Marinette Flailfluster Internal Scream, because this is Adrien Agreste, and right now they're in full hug contact, and—

And he's her partner. Her kitty. He's a total goof and makes the silliest puns.

Her shoulders relax. A soft smile curves her lips and she snuggles more into him. Tikki and Plagg soon join in, nuzzling up against their cheeks and laughing. It feels so good to be back to normal.

"Thanks, kitty," Marinette murmurs, pulling back to meet his gaze. "You really saved us."

His smile makes her warm all the way to her toes. "I'm just glad it worked."

Fluttering wings stir in her stomach. Yeah, she is still hopelessly and crazily in love with this boy.

oOo

It's much later when she and Adrien are able to get some privacy on her balcony. The sky is slate grey and has that heavy quality that promises rain, but that doesn't matter. What matters is this quiet moment: the hush that settles, the little shuffle of their feet like a shy tiptoe around each other, the way his arm bumps hers as he leans next to her on the railing. Warm and innocent.

"So …" she says.

"So …"

The corner of her mouth curves. He mirrors the expression, his eyes crinkling.

"I never got a chance to say it earlier," he says, "but I'm happy."

"About what?"

His hand comes to rest over hers. "That it's you. That it's always been you."

Her heart thumps faster.

Something shifts in his gaze and he leans closer, his voice softening as if he's about to share a secret. "Marinette …"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

It's like every bone in her body turns to jelly. She wants to melt, wants to scream, wants to jump up and down in unrestrained joy because this is finally, finally happening. But somehow she manages the restraint to smile and interlace their fingers. "I love you too, Adrien."