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It was a beautiful autumn night, the kind of night that held the last traces of summer, and Ladybug hummed happily as she kicked her heels over Paris. The city was at peace tonight, with no signs of any akumas, and she was glad for the chance to relax a little after what had been a hectic week.
Predictably, Chat just had to ruin the peace.
"I dunno about you, My Lady, but I think love is in the air."
"It's not," Ladybug said, tipping her nose up and inhaling deeply. If she closed her eyes, she thought she could smell the scent of her parent's pastries on the breeze.
"Mew-ouch. That hurts."
"Chat," she warned.
"I'm just saying. Your cat-titude is a-paw-lling, Bugaboo. I wish you'd realize how claw-some we could be together."
She opened one eye to glare at him and tried not to sigh when she saw the shit-eating grin on his face. Sometimes Chat was just in the mood to tease, and he'd learned a long time ago that the easiest way to get on her nerves was to make puns.
"I will throw you off this roof," she said. "You know I'll do it."
His grin widened. "Paw-lease. You would never do that to your meow-nificent paw-tner, would you?"
"Oh my god," Ladybug whispered.
"Am I bugging you?" Chat asked, all innocence.
The next sound he made was a startled sqauwk as Ladybug pushed him off the roof. He cackled like a maniac the whole way down. She leaned back and rolled her eyes at the sky; by pushing him, he knew for sure he'd gotten a rise out of her and she had, in effect, given him exactly what he wanted.
But damnit, she could only take so many puns.
--
A few days later, Marinette was feeling considerably less satisfied with the world. She was exhausted thanks to a slew of akumas, trying to study for year-end exams, and helping her parents in the bakery. The only thing keeping her going was the extra-large coffee in her hand, but even that wasn't helping. Her head slowly sank to her chest as her eyes drifted shut.
"What do you think?" Alya was asking Nino, showing him something on her phone.
"I think it's fur real purr-fect," Adrien said.
Marinette twitched.
Nino groaned. "Aw man, are you kidding me right now?"
"I'm not kitten-ing you at all."
"I didn't know you liked puns," said Alya.
"I think they're very claw-ver myself."
Alya snorted. "You sound like Chat Noir."
Chat. Yes. He was punning again. Marinette fought the urge to yell at him, because that was exactly what he wanted.
"I consider that a purr-ty big compliment. Whenever I'm feline down, a few puns always purr-k me back up. I can be pretty hiss-terical, if I do say so myself."
Nope. No. She wanted to bang her head against the desk. Could she get just a few minutes without puns?
"I'll never fur-get the -"
"Okay, enough!" Marinette reached out and gave Chat a solid push, and was rewarded with a shocked yelp followed by blissful silence.
Then, of course, Chat started to laugh.
"Marinette! What did you do that for?!"
Wait. Marinette opened her eyes. Alya was staring at her. So was Nino. And there, on the floor in front of her, was Adrien Agreste. Staring up at her and laughing just the way he always did when she pushed him off a roof, though this time his laughter had an edge of hysteria to it.
"Oh my god," Marinette said, softly but with true horror. "This can't be happening."
And Adrien looked up at her, the little shit that he was, and said, "Don't you mean this can't be cat-tening?"
"Nope," Marinette said, and leapt to her feet. She darted down the classroom steps and sprinted for the door.
"Marinette, wait!" Adrien yelled behind her.
But she didn't. She raced for the doors of the school and burst outside into a downpour. She was soaked within seconds, but she didn't care. She ran across the schoolyard.
"Wait! Princess!"
Her body stopped without her permission at the nickname. That was nothing if not proof. Marinette stood there, panting, and didn't move until something covered her head and stopped the rain. Only then did she turn around and see the boy standing behind her. He'd gotten an umbrella from somewhere, and was holding it over her head.
"You pushed me," he said, watching her with light in his eyes.
"I didn't mean to. You know I can only stand so many of your puns," Marinette said helplessly. He smiled then.
"I know. Sorry. You're tired and that was pushing your limits. If I'd known..." He trailed off, then grinned. "Well, I know now that Marinette will push me off a chair and that it hurts more than Ladybug throwing Chat off a rooftop."
"Oh god, I'm so sorry," she said, mortified.
"Don't be. I deserved it." Adrien laughed a little, shaking his head. "Would you, um, like to go get a coffee? I feel like we have a lot to talk about."
"Okay," Marinette said slowly.
"Great. I'd say we could talk here, but I'm pretty sure we're being watched and also it's raining -"
"Don't say it."
" - cats and dogs," he finished with a smirk.
"Next time, I'm going to push you off the Eiffel Tower," Marinette muttered, snatching the umbrella out of his hand and walking away. But it was okay. It turned out that his dramatic yowl as the rain soaked him was just as good as the sound he made when he was pushed off a roof.