A/N. So this is my first time in the Miraculous fandom and I couldn't decide if I wanted to do a holiday fic or an Enemy AU so I thought I'd just put them together. I also thought it would be fun to change up the dynamic between these two cuties because after all, isn't that what fanfiction is for? Anyway, without further ado, my first MLB fanfic...

-Something Gone Wrong-

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

Marinette snatches her yo-yo away just seconds before Chat Noir's Cataclysm presses into the spot where her most valuable weapon used to be. The concrete disintegrates into black dust, decaying and in startling contrast to the white of the snow surrounding it. Faintly, she can hear the akuma's laugh in the distance and the screams of terror echoing in the street. It twists her mouth into a grimace.

Chat's green eyes are furious today. Even during their worst fights, there would still be a strange kind of humor in them.

"No puns today, Chat Noir?" she asks as she ducks the swing of his baton.

"Afraid not, M'lady," he says.

An odd disappointment settles in her stomach. He would usually crack a pun or two that would give Ladybug more incentive to punch the smirk off his face. As violent as they seemed, his attempts to steal her miraculous could almost be described as playful.

Not today. Something was particularly different about her enemy today.

She flips onto the next rooftop to escape him because purifying the akuma is her number one priority. Her movements are slower today. Marinette curses the cold weather affecting her. Tikki warned her that Ladybugs were more sluggish during the winter. They couldn't help it. It was one of the less desirable traits they inherited from their namesake.

It wouldn't be a problem, she thinks, if she had a partner to back her up instead of an enemy trying to steal her powers. She chances a glance at Chat Noir who isn't too far behind her. She thought the Christmas season would soften him enough to have a civil and serious conversation. She couldn't have been more wrong.

The akuma is in sight now. An environmentalist who wasn't being taken seriously now spreads plants across the city. Thick vines wrapped themselves around buildings while foliage creeped its way into the streets. The akuma must sense her because he turns in her direction. His chlorophyll-eyes flash and he extends an arm at her.

"Ladybugs must be one with nature, then I will take your miraculous!"

Vines shout out from his fingertips and Ladybug almost smiles at the turn of events. She uses her yo-yo to launch herself over the vines easily a second before they could wrap around her. Chat's surprised grunt makes her chuckle. Poor kitty. Too focused on catching her that he missed the vines hurling towards him.

The black cat is hopelessly entangled in the vines and his sharp claws slicing at the plants seem to trap him even more. From her perch, Ladybug smiles at him, knowing he only has minutes before he detransforms. "Good luck getting out of that one, kitty cat. Merry Christmas!"

His growl of frustration just makes her smile wider.

She turns her full attention back to the overgrown weed terrorizing Paris and twirls her yo-yo in her hand. "Now, now," she says, "let's go down nice and easy."

A rush of ladybugs is the only thing that frees Chat and he only has seconds to spare before he hides behind a dumpster and detransforms. He doesn't leave right away. He just buries his face in his hands in frustration and tries not to cry.

He can almost hear his father's anger when he comes home without Ladybug's miraculous. It will be worse than usual—not that Adrien can blame him. This will be the first Christmas that he's going to spend without his mother. It makes him want to crawl in a ball and hide. He would do anything to get Ladybug's miraculous so he could bring her back, but now especially. He was hoping he could bring his mom back just in time to exchange presents on Christmas morning.

With only less than a month before Christmas day, that situation became less and less likely.

This is all Ladybug's fault. If she would just hand over her miraculous, this wouldn't be a problem. A pit of anger brews in his stomach. Normally, Adrien could honestly say he liked Ladybug. She was strong and brave and compassionate. She was everything Adrien ever aspired to be and if circumstances hadn't happened the way they did, he would've been honored to be her partner instead of her enemy.

But that's not how things turned out. Right now, she was a reminder of failure. It's been a full year since his mother passed and eight months after he donned the Chat Noir costume, but he was nowhere near retrieving her miraculous. Ladybug was an obstacle. And that needed to be taken care of.

Plagg lets out some sort of mewl of discontentment and gives Adrien a pointed look. The cat kwami never says much to Adrien, much too angry about the miraculous being misused to do anything except to request for food.

The kwami's condescending look partnered with his already sour disposition only heightens Adrien's annoyance. "Still won't say anything to me? Not even now, Plagg?" he says, bitterly. "I don't understand what you don't understand. What's so bad about wanting to bring her back?"

His kwami says nothing. He just gives Adrien a look that can only be described as ancient. It lasts for a moment before Plagg's face reverts back to its usual scowl. He grabs the zipper of Adrien's backpack and zooms insider without another glance.

Adrien lets his hands go completely numb before he finally psyches himself up enough to begin the long walk home.

"Oh my God, please don't tell me you have a crush on Chat Noir," Alya says behind Marinette.

Marinette's cheek flush and she turns to gape at Alya who has her eyes trained on the sketch Marinette was absentmindedly working on while waiting for the teacher to arrive. "What? No! That would be insane. Totally insane," she says.

Her own eyes glance at the drawing she's created and she almost winces. It's incredibly detailed with Chat Noir's unruly hair and his signature smirk on his lips. His sharp cat teeth poke out ever so slightly over his bottom lip and the look in his eyes is both arrogant and concerned. It looks so life-like that she can practically imagine that day in the rain again when she first met him as a civilian.

She snaps the sketchbook shut and does her best to glare at her best friend. "I do not like Chat Noir."

Alya raises a skeptical eyebrow as she settles next to Marinette. When Marinette sees the grin creeping up on Alya's face, she knows she's screwed.

"Come on, Mari. I know he's handsome and all, so I wouldn't blame you for having a slight crush on him, but you having a thing for a villain? Really? You're better than that," she says.

"He's not a villain," Marinette replies before she can stop herself.

Alya's grin widens. Fuck.

"I mean, he's obviously not a hero," she backtracks. "I just mean, I don't think he's really a villain either, you know? He saves civilians all the time. He doesn't do any harm. Not really. The most he does is fight with Ladybug and try to take her miraculous, which, yeah, is pretty bad, but he just doesn't strike me as evil?"

Shut up, shut up, shut up, she tells herself, but her mouth doesn't seem to be getting the memo. Her mind keeps drifting to Chat Noir using his baton to bring her to safety during the first akuma attack, his eyes exactly the way she drew them in the picture.

"Are you alright?" he asked after he had dropped her a little roughly. "I'm sorry, kind of new to this whole thing. I'm still getting the hang of it."

"Yeah, I'm fine," she had said. It was drizzling, but she hardly noticed. This black cat almost got himself killed when he rushed to grab her before the akuma's sharp talons could tear at her skin. He didn't even know her, but there he was risking his life for her.

"Well I'm pawstiviely happy to hear that, Princess," he said and flashed that smirk at her. Her cheeks heated up and she dropped his gaze.

"Thanks," she had said and watched him leap back into the fight before looking for a place to transform herself.

She's still rambling, she knows, so she cuts herself off before she can say anything worse. "I think he's an anti-hero. That's all. Not a villain," she finishes awkwardly.

"Okay," Alya says, "I believe you."

"I hate you," she grumbles and sinks into her seat as Alya just laughs at her discomfort.

She's still trying to her burning face under control so she can tell Alya that Chat Noir is also an arrogant, dorky, self-centered jerk who really needs to learn to improve his puns when Mme. Bustier walks into the classroom with a tired looking Adrien Agreste coming in after her.

Nino snorts as Adrien approaches. "For once, you're not late, dude. You had what? 2 seconds to spare?"

"Yeah, my alarm clock didn't go off, so I woke up late," he says. His gaze flicks to Marinette and his cheeks grows a little red. "H-hey, Mari! Morning good! I mean, good morning!"

She smiles kindly, if not a tad distractedly at him. "Morning, Adrien."

Mme. Bustier begins to take attendance and Marinette shakes her head to clear her thoughts of any black cat who she certainly didn't like not matter what Alya thought. She sneaks a peak of her drawing anyway and makes a mental note to burn it later before anyone else got any ideas.

A/N. And that's a wrap for the first chapter of this story! I had a blast trying my hand out with these characters and I'm really hoping I did them justice. Please review to let me know what you think!

-Indy