A/N: this is based off a roleplay with SairenHaria on AO3 (holy shit, they are amazing)
most pov from adrien/chat belongs to them, everything is edited by me to flow

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

i.
prologue

Des erreurs soient commises.

It had been an instinct.

The fact was, of the two, it was less risky for him to be incapacitated than Ladybug. She was the one who could purify Akuma. She was the one who could fix damages—so even with his feelings set aside, of course, it made sense for him to take injury over her. On his own, he could only destroy, but she could create and she could heal.

It was just in his nature that when danger came, he would the last one to get out of the line of fire. And tonight, he had been patrolling alone. Ladybug had said something about family things that evening, so she wouldn't be there. But that was fine. As long as there was no Akuma, he could handle things alone. So far, It had even been a relatively calm night.

When he had decided to head home around midnight was when things went south.

A mugging. It was just a mugging, the most stereotypical of superhero crimes. He thought he'd clean up, save the haggard looking businessman, and be on his way. Except the mugger wasn't alone. The mugger's partner also had a gun. Chat Noir had to push the poor civilian out of the way and knocked the mugger out with an extension of his staff and it wasn't until the mugger hit the ground he realized his side felt like it was on fire.

The darkness and black suit concealed his injury alongside the practiced smiles. He told the businessman to head home, that the streets were dangerous, and to please call the police. The muggers would wake up eventually, so better they came sooner rather than later. But, it was only after the man had left that he allowed himself collapse against a wall and to take a look at the injury. "P-Putain…"

It was a graze, thank god.

The bullet was buried in the wall and not his liver. But it was deep. He would probably need stitches, though he couldn't exactly go to a hospital. "This is gonna hurt," the hero muttered and began his trek along rooftops, pushing himself to get home, one hand pressed against his injury. He had to keep going. That was all. If he could stop the bleeding, then his Miraculous would help speed the healing along. He just needed to get it to stop.

Of course, parkour while bleeding to death wasn't the brightest of ideas—and he ended up tripping. Chat Noir saw nothing in front of him, panic gripping his heart, and he just managed to pull out his baton and extend it to hit a wall—sending him rocketing for another rooftop.

The balcony was familiar. When had he seen… right, when he was acting as bodyguard for her.

He'd just crash-landed on Marinette's roof.