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Prompt: "It will be fun, trust me."

Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug

Character/Pairing: Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Jagged Stone/Penny Rolling (BG)

Rating: K Plus / PG / Most Ages

Notes/Warnings: So in my mind, this was happening when they're older, Luka's on tour with Jagged, and Mari's travelling with them (probably as their designer). Jagged probably saw a flyer in an airport terminal and went, "GUYS WE TOTALLY GOTTA DO THIS." (I really wasn't going to do another monthly challenge – I've got at least two chapter fics and a bunch of one shots I've been puttering around on after August – but I really liked these prompts. So I figured twenty minute writing exercises won't kill me, right? Keep that muscle stretching?)

1 October 2019

The phrase famous last words was echoing through Marinette's head in a playful, mocking sing-song that sounded suspiciously like Alya. She peeked over the ledge and gulped.

"It will be fun," Jagged had said. "Trust me."

Oh, she trusted him, all right. About as far as she could throw him – which was a considerable distance. She had chucked Chat Noir halfway across the city and into the Seine countless times, after all, so she would know.

"Breathe," Luka whispered into her ear. His arms, wrapped firmly around her shoulders, gave her a squeeze she supposed was supposed to be comforting, except it wasn't really very comforting at all. Because despite his steady presence, she was still painfully aware of the fact that she was strapped to him with only a thick, stretchy cord and a harness. The harness wasn't even connected to him – he had his own, it was just their feet that were connected to their own harnesses – and his arms were the only thing keeping her pressed to him. And she should feel safe – she always felt safe in his arms, she trusted him with her life – but none of that mattered. The training session that had been included with this asinine package didn't matter. Watching Jagged and Penny get shoved off the bridge before them, Jagged's exuberant hollers echoing through the canyon and ringing in her ears, didn't matter.

Because all Marinette was aware of was the fact that she was about to get shoved off of a bridge with Luka, about to plummet forty nine meters towards the river below, with nothing but a thick, stretchy rope to save them from certain doom. Her Ladybug suit would not protect her should the rope snap. The comforting weight of her yoyo, ready to shoot out at a moment's notice to save them from a painful death, was absent from her hand. Her hands fisted against Luka's back, the fabric of his shirt bunching between her fingers, as she took another steadying breath. She didn't think she could do this. She was going to be sick. She made more terrifying jumps plenty of times in her twenty years, but that had always been as Ladybug. Right now she was just Marinette, and just Marinette was scared shitless.

"Oh my God, that was amazing!" Jagged shouted as he ran up to them. Penny walked slower behind him, but she didn't look nearly as green as she had been when the instructor had pushed them over. Her face was flushed with windburn and excitement.

"Mari, it was incredible," she gasped as she reached them. Jagged nodded, bouncing like the excited child he was on the inside.

"Totally rock-n-roll, Marinette! What are you waiting for – go on, jump!" he cried. Luka chuckled, his hand rubbing soothing lines down her back.

"We had to wait for them to reset everything after your jump," he said. He glanced down at her, and she swallowed. "And I think Mari's having a slight case of cold feet."

"What? No way!" Jagged gasped. "She's the bravest girl I know – c'mon, Mari! You can totally do this!"

"Ready?" the instructor asked, grinning behind his sunglasses. The sun glinted off the lenses like a challenge, and Marinette swallowed again before she looked up at Luka. He smiled down at her, steady and constant as ever, and she pressed closer to him. She was sure her knuckles were white from how tightly she was clutching his shirt – she was amazed it hadn't ripped yet. His eyebrows were raised in amusement, and she tilted her face up towards him.

The package had called it a Lovers' Leap, after all.

"Let's do this," she said as he pulled back, her lips tingling from his kiss. Before she knew it they were on the edge of the bridge, where the railing had been cut away specifically for this purpose, and the instructor was shouting "THREE!" as he pushed them over the edge.

She could barely hear Luka's excited whoop over the rushing of the wind in her ears, and she hoped it also masked her terrified shriek in his own. She pressed her face into his chest, and she felt more than heard his laughter as he held her closer. Her stomach lurched as the bungee cord pulled taught and snapped them back into the air, and for a moment she was Ladybug, swooping through Paris's skies on another afternoon patrol. Viperion was whispering that he loved her in her ear, his head tucked close against her own in the brief second they hung suspended in the air – and then they were free falling again, back towards the river, and somewhere in the process her screams had turned into pealing laughter.

It was over entirely too soon for something that felt like it had taken an eternity to pass. As they swung above the water, both still breathless with adrenaline and laughter, she found herself wondering if they could go again.

"I love you," she shouted, her ears ringing from the wind and their screams and laughs. He grinned at her, and she snaked a hand up – down – to his head to pull him down – up – towards her mouth. The kiss was breathless and made all the better for how neither could stop laughing. When she pulled away, she screamed in delight. "I love you! Thank you for talking me into this!"

"I love you!" he shouted back, dipping towards her mouth again. The boat with the crew that was to help them down was approaching, but neither noticed. "So you trust me?"

"Always!" she cried. Her laughter turned manic as he kissed her again.

"Wanna marry me, then?" he murmured against her mouth as the crew reached them, their arms reaching up to steady their swinging. Her stomach was somewhere in the vicinity of her ears. She was experiencing that mid-air vertigo all over again.

"Yes," she gasped. Neither really minded the crew laughing at them to stop kissing and let them get them down already.