The first time Adrien saw Ladybug, she nearly gave him (and half of Paris) a heart attack. While there had been reports of a person leaping over rooftops in the dead of the night, it was the first time she had been seen out in public during the day and she had decided to announce her presence by taking a running leap off the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Adrien had had a photoshoot in front of the Eiffel Tower that day. The photographer had poked and prodded him into his desired pose, so all Adrien had left to do was to gaze blankly up at the top of the monument with the hint of a smile on his face while Pierre fluttered around him, getting photos from every possible angle and a couple impossible angles as well.

Of course, his pose meant that Adrien was in a prime position to see Ladybug's fall.

One second, the sky was clear. The next, a red-clad human was plummeting in free fall off of the very highest platform of the tower.

Adrien's mind went blank with horror as he shot to his feet, stumbling backwards. There were screams from the crowd around them, parents covering their children's eyes as the clearly human figure dropped closer to the ground.

And then suddenly, impossibly, they weren't.

The pigtailed girl swung dangerously close to the ground before swinging back up, clinging to a string that had shot out from her hand and latched itself to a beam on the Eiffel Tower. Suddenly, she wasn't falling.

She was flying.

The girl vanished quickly over the rooftops, leaving the crowd gaping in the direction she had left. For the rest of the afternoon, Adrien's thoughts never strayed far from the mysterious figure.

The second time Adrien saw Ladybug, she had already somewhat established her title as Paris' superhero. She had only fought two supervillains so far, but that was enough to catch Paris' attention. Adrien had been out of the city for both of those fights, busy at summer fashion shoots at the beach, but he had seen news reports and heard the other models talking about her.

Two days after Adrien arrived back in Paris, he saw her again. He had been out on a walk when screams broke out from the next road over. Adrien froze, suddenly regretting his decision to turn down the Gorilla's offer to accompany him on his walk.

Before he had time to run, a red blur leapt easily from one rooftop to another, clearing the street effortlessly before flipping over the ridge and out of Adrien's sight. Almost without realizing it, Adrien found himself trotting in the direction she had gone, rounding the corner and heading towards the screams instead of away, like a normal person would. He had only just peered around the corner and gotten a glimpse of Ladybug fighting, yo-yo a blur, when a heavy hand landed on his shoulder. Adrien looked up to see the Gorilla frowning down at him.

"You shouldn't be here, Master Adrien," he rumbled, his displeasure clear. "It's dangerous."

"I just wanted to see Ladybug," Adrien protested as he was pulled away from the fight. "Isn't she cool?"

He got an annoyed hmph sound as answer.

Ever since his second in-person sighting of Ladybug, Adrien spent the large majority of what little free time he had wandering the streets of Paris, hoping to spot her again. He always tried to leave when the Gorilla was busy, remembering how the burly man had dragged him away from the fight last time. Most of the time, the man found him eventually.

A week and a half of walks later, Adrien finally ran across the scene of another supervillain fight. He had found a blog to help him with his mission of seeing Ladybug again, creatively named the Ladyblog. He linked his phone to Ladyblog alerts minutes after finding the site. The site administrator always posted as soon as news of a supervillain popped up.

Where there was a supervillain, there would be Ladybug.

Adrien ducked inside an alleyway as soon as he got within viewing distance of the fight. He then immediately stuck his face out into the street to watch Ladybug fight. Amazing.

The superhero was struggling a little, he could tell. Based on the complete lack of news about her prior to a month and a half ago, she hadn't been fighting for long. Even though the supervillain she was fighting were around for even shorter amounts of times- possession by purple butterfly turned them into supervillains for hours- they somehow magically knew how to fight, making effective use of their powers. Ladybug, in contrast, sometimes struggled with her yo-yo and got knocked around quite a bit.

"She needs a partner," Adrien murmured, mind immediately flashing to how he could possibly help. The supervillain was pulling what were possibly the weirdest inventions Adrien had ever seen out of a purple briefcase and flinging them in Ladybug's direction. Most of the bizarre inventions simply flopped to the ground. Others seemed to have a life of their own and seemed intent on tripping Ladybug up. If Ladybug had a partner, they could distract the Inventor long enough for her to do... whatever it was that she did. He wasn't completely sure what that was, if he was being perfectly honest. Something with the purple butterfly.

Ladybug flipped out of the way of what looked like a one-armed pillow. "Give up, Inventor!"

"Never!" The Inventor flung what looked like a Facebook-themed shower curtain. Ladybug dodged it with a flip and a somersault. "Novelty item inventors are underappreciated! People must understand how much creativity we have to have to come up with our inventions!"

Adrien blinked. That was just... strange.

"Doesn't it make more sense to invent things that are at least useful?" Ladybug grumbled, deflecting what looked like a giant nose with a quick spin of her yo-yo. The invention crashed to the pavement, a green gel squirting out of the nostrils.

The akuma positively howled. "No! That stifles the creativity! There is always a market for interesting items!"

Adrien was pretty sure that there wasn't. He couldn't think of any use for the slime-oozing nose.

Ladybug tried to dart forward, making a grab for the briefcase. It looked like she might be able to grab it... and then she tripped.

He couldn't just stand by and watch any more. Thankfully it was a cool, drizzly day and Adrien had pulled on a baggy hoodie before leaving his house. He pulled the hood over his head and cinched it as tight as he could without it obstructing his vision. Taking a deep breath, Adrien picked up the umbrella-clad shoes and dashed out from his hiding place into the street. As the Inventor bent over to grab onto Ladybug, Adrien wound up and hurled the shoes, one after the other, right at the supervillain. They whacked into the supervillain, making him pause just long enough for Ladybug to flip onto her feet and dart away. Thankfully the Inventor didn't turn to see who had thrown the shoes, instead darting after Ladybug and throwing more useless inventions. What looked like mop ends flopped to the pavement, followed by an assortment of strange machines with a function that Adrien could not for the life of him identify. As soon as the Inventor was fully distracted, Adrien dashed forward, grabbed the strange armed pillow, and hurled it. The Inventor paused, confused, then turned. Adrien let out a word that, had his father heard him say it, would have gotten him a thorough scolding.

Diving into an alley to avoid being seen, Adrien found himself having to skid to a stop to avoid running over a small Asian-looking man in a red floral shirt. He was eying Adrien oddly, beady eyes locked on the blond model. If the fight hadn't still been raging in the street, Adrien probably would have turned around and bolted straight back out.

"What do you think?" The man asked, his eyes still on Adrien. Adrien's brow furrowed, confused. what did he think about what? He was about to open his mouth and ask when a small black something shot up from behind the man's shoulder and immediately flew right up into Adrien's face. Big green eyes regarded Adrien curiously for several long moments as the boy stood frozen in place. What was going on?

"I think yes." Adrien yelped as the thing suddenly spoke, retreating out of his face. "He seems good."

The man smiled, content. "Good, good. Congratulations, Chat Noir." He smiled at Adrien and held something- a ring?- out to him. Adrien made no move to take it.

"Wh- What's going on?" Adrien managed, backing up as much as he could without exposing himself to the fight in the street. "Who's Chat Noir?"

"You are." The man grinned. "I am Master Fu, and I choose the Miraculous superheroes. You were right earlier- Ladybug does need a partner. I've been trying to find one for weeks now, so I've very glad I found you today."

Adrien only gaped. Him? A superhero?

"Chat Noir is traditionally Ladybug's partner. He has the power of bad luck to counter Ladybug's good luck-"

"Whoa whoa whoa," Adrien interrupted, thoroughly alarmed. "Bad luck?" He didn't want bad luck. He already had a missing mother and distant father. Even if it would be beyond cool to be a superhero and fight alongside Ladybug, he didn't need bad luck.

Master Fu chuckled. "Oh, don't worry. That only means that your superpower is Cataclysm, which harnesses bad luck to destroy thing. It doesn't give you bad luck in your normal life."

Adrien wasn't totally convinced. Still, working with Ladybug...

"A lot of past superheroes have found that being a superhero lets them express their true personality better than they could in their day-to-day life," Master Fu continued, unknowing (or perhaps knowingly) stumbling on the one thing that would interest Adrien most. Despite himself, Adrien visibly perked up. "And Ladybug and Chat Noir usually get along very well and become friends and partners quickly."

Point two for Fu. It was as if the man knew exactly what Adrien wanted most.

"Do you have any experience with fighting?" Master Fu asked. The black something eyed Adrien with interest.

Adrien nodded, replying almost automatically. "I take fencing lessons twice a week, four times a week in the summer. I've been learning since I was seven."

"Perfect. Chat Noir's weapon is a staff, so you should have a head start there already. I would look up bo staff fighting if I were you, just for some tips for fighting with a staff opposed to a foil." Master Fu held out the ring again, and Adrien took it warily. "This is your Miraculous. It and Plagg will help you transform into Chat Noir. Do not let any supervillains take it. Plagg can give you more information if you have questions."

Adrien blinked. This was a lot of information to take in at once. "Plagg?"

"That's me!" the black blob sang happily. It zipped from Master Fu's shoulder to Adrien's. "I like Camembert."

"O...kay?"

"Plagg is a kwami. Like he said, he eats cheese... especially Camembert." Master Fu looked a little amused.

Adrien could feel his allowance evaporating already. At least he got a lot and rarely spent much.

Still, couldn't the kwami like something a little less expensive?

"I'll leave you now," Master Fu announced, picking up a bag from the ground and slinging it over his shoulder. "Oh, and I almost forgot- don't tell anyone who you are, even your family and friends. Even Ladybug. It can be dangerous, since Hawkmoth can target you directly if he knows who you are. Good-bye."

"Wait, who's Hawkmoth-" Adrien blurted, his hand flying out to stop the small man.

It was too late. Master Fu had vanished.

Finding Ladybug for the third time proved to be more difficult than Adrien had anticipated. Attacks seemed to suddenly be few and far between, and often he didn't hear about them until after they were done due to a photo shoot. If he was honest with himself, him missing the fights was probably a good thing. Although he could transform into Chat Noir (the superhero's costume was awesome) and he had figured out how to use Cataclysm, Adrien was still in the middle of a steep learning curve.

He discovered he had a mild fear of heights when running across rooftops. Holding the staff was different than holding his fencing sabre, which was both lighter and thinner and came at a preset length. Figuring out how to spin the staff quickly enough to deflect attacks ended up with the staff flying across Adrien's room more often than not. Adrien spent a great deal of time watching videos of Ladybug, trying to mimic her fighting moves.

Honestly, he was really lucky he had such a large room to himself so he could practice.

Almost two weeks after getting Plagg and the Miraculous, Chat Noir slid out of his bedroom window to roam the rooftops. He'd been going out for the past three nights, though he tended not to go very far. Jumps across large gaps still scared him, even if the extra strength granted to him by the suit meant that most of those jumps weren't impossible and in theory he should be able to catch himself with his staff if he fell.

After ten minutes, Chat Noir had gotten further than he ever had before. At this hour of the night, few people roamed the streets in the neighborhood he patrolled. No one noticed as he ran across rooftops, occasionally sliding around a bit but much steadier on his feet than he had been only days before.

As silent as he was, he still didn't hear the footsteps coming up behind him before he was tackled from behind and sent flying. Chat Noir let out an embarrassingly high-pitched yelp as he tried to scrabble for purchase on the slanted rooftop. Oh my god I'm gonna die I'm gonna die this was such a bad idea oh my god-

"Who are you?" a girl's voice demanded, tightening her hold on Chat Noir as he struggled to get loose. Unfortunately, the combination of her sitting on his back and twisting his arms behind him meant that Chat was very much her prisoner. "A new supervillain? Why are you just running around on the rooftops?"

"No no, I'm Chat Noir!" Chat blurted out, hoping that Ladybug's kwami or Master Fu had mentioned his name. Sure enough, her grip on him loosened ever so slightly. "Master Fu said that we're supposed to be partners, and I was trying to get a bit of practice in so I wouldn't be holding you back in fights."

"I was wondering when you would show up." Suddenly the weight was gone from his back and a red-gloved hand appeared in Chat Noir's face to help him up. He took it and the girl in front of him hauled him to his feet easily. When he straightened up, the first thing that he noticed was that Ladybug was smaller than he was.

She was really strong for her size. She was also really, really pretty.

"Well, I'm here now, my lady," Chat proclaimed, bowing deeply and fighting down the blush that threatened to rise. Apparently he lacked a filter between his brain and his mouth while suited up. "Care to fill me in on the tricks of the trade?"

Ladybug didn't look particularly impressed. He didn't really blame her. "Well, I suppose..."

He saw Ladybug much more frequently after that. Once they met once, their kwamis became more attuned to each other. He started appearing at battles much more frequently, ending the fights much faster than Ladybug could alone. Chat Noir quickly lost track of how many times they saw each other.

It really wasn't a bad thing to lose count of. And every time Chat Noir saw Ladybug, he fell a little more in love with her.

Months later as they ran fearlessly across the rooftops during another patrol, Chat Noir let himself grin. Accepting that ring had been by far the best decision of his life.