First chapter of the second part of my mini-series and sequel to Strength is now up! (Or, my sad attempt at angst.) Enjoy!

Disclaimer: This show and its characters belong to Thomas Astruc. I do not own anything.

It started out as a slip in memory.

Ladybug and Chat Noir had been facing a particularly difficult Akuma that day. It was supposed to be a normal patrol day for the both of them, considering that one, the other, or neither could meet up as usual during the week due to school being especially overwhelming for them.

The Landscaper had succumbed to Papillon's influence after being ridiculed for his "poor taste" in terms of plant arrangement for a specific section of the city that was soon to be open to the public. As a result of his awakening, growth of every type of flora present in Paris had gone haywire, amassing to the forest-like greenery that overtook the city's streets.

He had threatened to turn the city itself into his own personal garden, using the Champs-Élysées as his base of central command.

The duo had already determined the Akuma to be inside the Landscaper's large gardening shears — the only thing he had on him when he was Akumatized — but was struggling to even approach the villain at a high vantage point. All efforts at freestyle acrobatics and agility were hindered as bouts of foliage and branches impeded their every move.

They had already dodged flowers that produced sleep spores — which had unfortunately befallen the citizens — and spores that caused paralysis, even having a close call with a Venus Flytrap. At one point, Ladybug even tried to use her magically enhanced strength to bypass it all, but was met with newly-sprouted roots threatening to tangle her arms and legs.

With no clear way up and vines attempting to ensnare them for nutrients at every turn, the heroes had to resort to their trump cards.

Upon calling on Lucky Charm, Ladybug was given a matchbox, to which the heroine immediately knew what to do. Luckily, she had just learned about controlled burning* in class.

Once both of them made it to a place where they wouldn't get caught in the crossfire — pun not intended — Ladybug swiftly swiped one of the matches along the side of the box, igniting the tip of the stick with a tiny flame, and set one of the treetop canopies ablaze.

The heroes watched as the flames grew in size and burned their way up the monument, scorching most of the foliage down to the roots and clearing a path straight to the villain. But they had to move. New shoots were beginning to sprout, and there was only a limited amount of time before the side of the monument was overrun with plants again.

Thankfully, they had made it to the top in time, leaving Chat Noir to use Cataclysm on the Landscaper's shears and effectively sealing their victory.

But the aftermath was where things turned strange.

Following the tainted butterfly's purification and the restoration spell, Ladybug held up her fist, fully expecting it to be met with her partner's in what became their tradition after a successful mission.

But it was never returned.

Instead, Ladybug was stunned as she watched her partner start to walk away without so much as a backward glance.

"Uh, Chat Noir?" she called, stopping the feline hero in his tracks. He turned back to her with an equally surprised look on his face.

She held up her offered fist awkwardly, her shoulders lifting in a half-shrug. "Are you just going to leave me hanging, minou?"

His face was blank for a moment before it registered, and his eyes snapped wide. He then chuckled sheepishly as he rushed over, bumping his knuckles with hers.

"Many a-paw-logies, My Lady," he joked, earning a light-hearted groan from his partner. "Just feline a little out of it today."

"Not enough to stop cracking your jokes, I see," Ladybug deadpanned as they dropped their hands. Chat Noir only grinned in response.

The heroine's expression then turned earnest with a hint of nervousness. "On a more serious note, though, since I've only got three minutes left… Was there anything you wanted to ask me about?"

Chat Noir only looked at her questioningly, confused. "About… what?"

Now Ladybug was even more stunned.

"You know!" she insisted, holding up her hands and willing her secondary aspect into existence. "About this!"

Her partner watched as the familiar flecks of energy appeared and steadily danced around her hands, fascination and awe shining in his eyes.

As if he was seeing them for the first time.

"Wow, buginette! I didn't know you could do that! How long have you been able to do that? Have you been able to do that this whole time?"

Ladybug was growing more concerned by the minute. "No. Chat Noir… I only had this since last week. You saw it before. I was going to tell you about it the next time we met up, remember? After the fight with the Challenger?"

To her dismay, he was only looking a little more lost. "Really? I saw…? You were…? Um…" Realization dawned on him then, eyes lighting up as the memories suddenly came to him. "Oh! That's right, I remember now!"

The heroine let out a breath of relief that she didn't know she had been holding, her hands dropping to her sides as if they had lost all their energy and the flecks vanishing with her waning emotions. "Sheesh, kitty, have you really forgotten about it?"

"Sorry, My Lady," he replied as he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "It completely slipped my mind!"

"It's only been a week, Chat Noir," Ladybug reminded him with a giggle. She poked his bell teasingly. "Your memory can't be that faulty, can it?"

"Hey! I'll have you know, my memory is purr-etty sharp." He tapped his temple with a small grin. "Almost as sharp as my senses!"

"If you say so, chaton."

A warning beep from their Miraculouses suddenly startled them both, reminding them of how much time they had left.

"Uh-oh, I'm about to change back," Ladybug said as she placed a hand over her earring, realizing that that was the last warning signal. She looked up at her partner with a sense of urgency. "Sorry, Chat Noir. I guess we're going to have to postpone this, uh" — she gestured awkwardly with her hands — "this again."

"No rush, My Lady. Whenever you're ready." The feline hero put one hand to his heart while holding the other up in a gesture of a promise. "And I won't forget again."

"I'll hold you to that, kitty," Ladybug replied with a small grin as she tossed her yo-yo at a nearby building, where it anchored itself around a support beam. With a final glance of farewell at her partner, she swung away, but not without a strange, faint nagging worry at the back of her mind.

Surely he wouldn't forget again? Of course he wouldn't! It was just the one time.

…Right?

*Fun fact for those of you who don't know, controlled burning is a technique of forest management, or, to put it simply, a way of controlling forest growth using deliberate forest fires.