S'il vous plaît = please (polite)
apprends moi = teach me
prends moi = take me
beau gosse = approximately 'good-looking kid' or 'stud' (what marinette calls adrien instead of 'hot stuff' in the french dub)

Rating: T

18: Underwater Kiss

Ladybug took stock of the situation:

The three of them (her, Chat, and the akuma) had been thrown into a town square of sorts: an open space that was now surrounded by walls of water on all sides. Geyser had taken a break from blasting powerful waterspouts at them to pose and laugh maniacally, but still wasn't wearing any obvious accessories or objects that she could see.

The city at large (or what she could see of it, at least) had been turned into an elaborate deathtrap of a water-park-slash-fountain-showcase. Their attempt to curb the flooding by Cataclysming the public fountain that Geyser had designed had backfired, simply allowing more water to burst forth from beneath Paris' paved streets. And Chat...

Chat was casting nervous, wincing glances at the last flickering light of his Miraculous.

A hot ball of panic dropped into Ladybug's stomach.

There was no safe place for him to release his transformation here.

She shoved off the iron lamppost she'd claimed as a perch, crashing into Chat before she'd thought much more beyond shit we're way out in the open, and tackling him through the large wall of water on the far side of the square.

They came to to a rolling stop just as Chat's Miraculous gave its last shrill beep. Ladybug dropped on him like she would on a grenade, green light searing into the backs of her eyeballs despite her best efforts.

Leather ears dissolved under her fingers with a crackle of magic, a faint wisp of ozone and burnt dust tickled her throat, and then it wasn't Chat Noir - dork, flirt, and local celebrity - in her arms, but Adrien Agreste: dork, flirt, and local celebrity.

He wrapped his arms around her before she could let him up, nose skimming her suit and brushing her sternum.

"Thanks for the save," he mumbled, squeezing her a little tighter, ignoring that the dryness his detransformation had granted him was quickly being undone by the way he nuzzled her wet suit.

"'Course," Ladybug mumbled back, patting his hair and trying to determine where they'd landed. "But let go or you're gonna get wet."

Reluctantly, he let her go, and she peeled herself away with an effort, collapsing to sit beside him. They'd rolled into some kind of alcove or decorative overhang set into the wall of a building. Now sealed off from the rest of the square by water, it had a hidden grotto feeling to it, like ducking behind a waterfall. If she listened hard, she could make out the faint ranting of Geyser's voice as the akuma yelled for them to come out of hiding. Rather than grant the request, Ladybug settled a little closer to Adrien.

He was so warm.

Plagg apparently deemed that this meant it was his turn. He flew into her lap, pushing himself into her hands and melting over her thigh.

"So... hungry..."

She giggled, scritching her partner's kwami behind the ears while Adrien sighed and dug cheese out of his pocket (and wow, had so many things made sense after his identity reveal - why Adrien wrinkled his nose at every cheese gift and yet never stopped smelling like it, for one). Rather than attempting to feed Plagg himself, he handed it over to her. Plagg purred and delicately nibbled the cheese from her fingers, as he always did whenever she fed him.

It made for an incredibly peaceful tableau, really - the water falling in sheets around the overhang, casting the small space in a blue glow; a catlike kind-of-god purring in her lap; her partner lowering himself against the wall (in his nicely fitted jeans) and watching the scene with her.

It was too bad there was an akuma out there.

Adrien shook his head, stay drops of water flying free and ghosting against her face like a mist, then ran a hand through his hair, slicking it back messy and disheveled with a devil-may-care grin.

She debated whether she should stop him before he got started.

"Well, now that we've seen what gets me wet-"

"Water will do that, I've noticed," she interrupted, with no real hope (or wish, if she was being very honest) to derail where this was going.

"-I admit that I'm curious-"

"Curious," she echoed, setting her chin in her palm and telling herself she wasn't smiling, that her gut wasn't curling in anticipation.

"As a cat," he assured her cheerily, and Ladybug bit her lip as she facepalmed, waiting for the drop. "About what it takes to get you wet."

There it was.

(That particular combination of cocky and disheveled was a good start, not that she'd ever tell him that.)

She flicked her still-dripping fingers at him, insides pleasantly tight and warm. "Waterfalls are pretty equal-opportunity, you know."

He wrinkled his nose and pouted, and she laughed, going back to scratching his kwami behind the ears as she ran out of cheese. Plagg purred a little more, grumpy looks over her encouragement of Adrien's flirting fading into nothing as she found a good spot.

"You're gonna have to work harder than that, hot stuff," she teased, tapping his nose with one finger.

Adrien stilled, pupils dilating and a flush gathering in his cheeks the same way it always did when she used that nickname.

(She was pretty sure he thought she was just making fun of his newly discovered model status, but he still blushed like that, and it frustrated and flattered her in equal measure.)

"How?" he finally asked, unfreezing to mirror her pose, legs folded and chin in hand. The worst of his flush faded, but the color still lingered in his cheeks, pink dusting his skin. There was honest confusion and a sliver of defeat in the question, and it gave her pause. "It's not like I haven't been trying."

Which... was true.

Ladybug considered, staring off into the sheeting water outside their shelter and scratching Plagg until he rattled a purr against her knee.

"Well," she suggested, almost but not quite joking herself. "You could always ask very nicely."

The spark that entered his darkened eyes was hypnotic, holding her in place while he leaned forward with a mischievous grin - or at least, that was what she planned to tell any potential witnesses.

Of course she wouldn't let him get that close of her own free will.

Obviously.

(That she constantly, constantly craved to touch him lately had nothing to do with it.)

(It wasn't discovering that Chat was her lycée crush that was the problem. Rather, her learning his identity had washed away some unnoticed layer of false bravado that seemed to have been keeping them at arm's length.

She hadn't realized it before, but now...

None of his acts, lines, or smiles rang false on any level anymore, and it was getting to her.)

"Well then," he said when he was less than a foot away. He tilted another rakish grin. "Pretty please, my Ladybug, won't you tell me how to please you?"

(Like that one.)

Ladybug's skin flashed hot all over. Her cheeks tingled tellingly, and she averted her eyes so she didn't have to see the gleam of awed delight that entered his.

"S'il vous plaît," Adrien continued, not quite a sigh and not quite a purr, but something coy and low and flirty in between that she appreciated on a visceral level. "A-"

She looked up, amused and wanting, and his voice stuttered mid-word.

"-h... prends moi."

Then he clapped a hand over his mouth, blush going from faint pink to bright scarlet.

Ladybug's jaw dropped.

"Apprends!" Adrien squeaked, mortified, jerking back. "Apprends-! Ap... prends... moi- That's... not actually much better, is it."

As he rambled on, Ladybug took a moment to recover from the system shock of hearing her partner asking her to-

To...

Ladybug licked her lips, fire dancing in her core and questionable decisions on her mind.

Then reached out to place her fingers under his chin, halting his stream of babble, and smirked just so.

Adrien swallowed audibly.

"Why, kitten, does that mean you don't want me to take you?"

Adrien stared.

Ladybug wondered why she'd even opened her mouth.

Three seconds ticked by with no sound but the rush of water and Plagg's fake snoring. Ladybug was just realizing that she should probably let go when Adrien spoke.

"Both," he said, crackling raw and barely there. "Both is good."

Ladybug sucked in a breath.

"...Did you just meme at me?"

Guilty silence, and then: "...Maybe?"

Ladybug groaned and buried her face in her hands, the moment gone.

Why did she love this doofus again?

She could hear Adrien laughing at her reaction, or maybe at his own joke, breathless little bubbles of noise floating around their space. His warm fingers brushed her forehead and smoothed a long, soaked lock of hair away from her temple, infinitely tender.

And Ladybug thought, Oh.

That's why.

When she lifted her eyes, she was met with a look of such intense, unabashed adoration that she nearly hid again in self-defense.

(Open, open, he was so open now, and it was killing her.)

Her only other options were to keep talking (flirting), run, or give in and actually kiss him.

She went with the option least likely to destroy her.

"So," she drawled, careful not to dislodge Plagg as she leaned back into Adrien's space. "You want me to teach you-" She reached out again, stroking his jaw this time. "-how to please me..."

His breath hitched as she reached his chin, escaping in a little rush over her still-damp fingers as she stroked his lip.

"...And you want me to take you..."

He whined, a noise that she could feel building in his throat long before she heard it, and it shot straight to her core.

"...And you haven't even asked for a kiss yet?" She finished, rough and quiet. She swiped the pad of her thumb back over his lip, receiving a shuddering gasp in return. "Doesn't that seem a little... backwards to you?"

Adrien stared at her with wide, dazed eyes, lips flushed and parted under her touch.

Belatedly, Ladybug remembered that she wanted to go with the option that was less likely to destroy her.

Oops.

"Pretty please, my Ladybug," he whispered, enchanted and enchanting, brushing her fingers with every movement. "Can I have a kiss?"

Ladybug held out for all of two seconds before that look snapped her control like brittle kindling.

Her lips met with the brief resistance of a surprised groan, and then he was opening up to her onslaught, squeezing her elbow and clumsily trying to pull her closer.

His mouth was wet, warm, slick and sweet. A shudder ran through him when she touched her tongue to his - a shudder that turned into a moan when she dug her fingers into his damp hair, rolling out of her crouch to press him against the wall of their shelter.

His moan slipped down her throat, slipped into her gut, slipped into her blood. It pulled a ferocity out of her she hadn't known existed, an empty hunger that demanded touch, touch, touch.

She fed it, dragging her fingertips down his nape and pushing a palm under the hem of his shirt, wishing she could break away long enough to detransform so she could feel him. But something in her rebelled against parting for even that long, especially when his lips and teeth and tongue felt like this.

Adrien kissed her with equal fervor, kissed her like a last hope - desperation and reverence and adoration and gratitude - and Ladybug got lost in the feeling, shuddering, breathy sighs escaping her on every exhale.

The reverence got her the worst: the gentleness with which he pulled her closer, the faint my lady he mewled into her mouth, the careful press of his hands cupping her sides. It left her dizzy, made it so she couldn't tell if her rougher, clumsier ministrations were borne from frustration or the sheer volume of emotion he was invoking in her.

"'Love you," he rasped between kisses, the tone alone enough to make her whimper and lurch closer. "My lady, Ladybug, Ladybug-"

By the time they pulled apart for air she was half in his lap and he was half in hers, a tangle of limbs that pinned him tight against the stucco wall behind him. Both of them were as flushed and winded as marathon runners.

"Finally..." someone not-Adrien grumbled in the distance.

Ladybug hiccuped a laugh, summer-sweet and feeling like heaven, resting her forehead against Adrien's as they caught their breath.

"See?" she said, quiet and wavering and tasting his breath on every inhale. "It's amazing what asking nicely can do."

"There's an aaaaakuma," Plagg drawled from somewhere to her right.

"Hmm," Adrien agreed, pulling his forehead away from hers so he could brush her nose with a kiss.

She giggled again, warm from the tips of her ears to the tips of her toes.

"Do you two just... not care about the city at all, or what."

"So tell me, hot stuff," Ladybug murmured, because, as much as she hated to admit it, Plagg was right. She gave Adrien a crooked smirk. "What are you doing tonight?"

Adrien buried his face in his hands, but not before she spied an uptick in the corner of his mouth. "Do you have to call me that?"

"Hmmmm," Ladybug considered, cocking her head to the other side and trying to peek around his hands. His ears were bright red. "Handsome boy?"

He groaned softly, ears turning even redder, and her stomach flipped over in excitement.

"Beau gosse," she half-sang, running two fingers up his bare forearm from the crook of his elbow to his wrist.

She bit her lip, watching goosebumps raise on his skin around her touch, and loosely circled her fingers around his wrist. His arms fell away from his face, revealing one furiously blushing handsome boy with an awkward half-suppressed grin bitten down around the corners of his mouth.

"I'll stop when you stop smiling over it," she offered generously, because she thought it would be worth it even if he just kept blushing.

Then tacked on, "Hot stuff," just because she couldn't resist.

He looked at her and glanced away, neither gesture enough to hide the flattered grin that broke free of its confines.

Ladybug flat-out melted.

"Cutie," she said, hopelessly charmed at the way he squirmed in pleasure. "Pretty kitty. Mon beau."

"C-careful," he said, unable to look at her but grin staying firmly in place. "Or I might start to think you like my face."

She tapped his nose, because she couldn't not.

"I've always liked your face," she admitted softly. "Even half-covered, it's a very handsome face."

And it was. It was the constant showing off that she hadn't been so sure about.

Adrien's blush now dipped below his collar, he was so red. Ladybug was very, very tempted to see what other kinds of reactions more praise might garner, but Plagg chose that moment to fly up and point dramatically out into the water, shouting, "Oh look, there's the akuma!"

Ladybug gave in to necessity.

Sighing and clambering to her feet, she offered Adrien a hand up, scrubbing her face and stretching when he turned it down with an unsteady wave.

"You never did tell me what you're doing tonight," she noted casually.

When she glanced behind her, she saw Adrien swallowing, his green eyes wandering slowly up her body. He glanced away when he met her eye, hooking a finger in his collar and tugging it away from his throat.

"Nothing I can't cancel if... if you wanted to..."

Impulsively, Ladybug leaned over with her hands on her knees and arched her back, tasting victory in a sharp rush when his eyes snapped back to her, wide and flustered.

"Wrong answer," she singsonged, grinning at him over her shoulder.

He blinked at her, baffled.

"The right answer is 'me.'"

Adrien choked, and Ladybug plunged back out to the battle to the sweet sound of his incoherent spluttering, enthusiasm restored.

She had akuma ass to kick.

It wouldn't do to be late to her date, after all.

(Granted, akuma ass kicking would have been easier if Chat could look directly at her without going bright red and stuttering over whatever he'd been trying to say.

Or if she hadn't exacerbated that by leaning into his space with a flirty grin whenever he was close enough, murmuring another compliment at every opportunity.

Oh well.

It was totally worth it.)