"You know, we've really got to stop meeting like this," Chat Noir says, but there's laughter in his voice and one of his famed smirks on his face even as his body shakes and shivers at the cold bite of the Seine seeping through his leather suit. He clings on a little tighter to his savior, hands in a vice-grip around the arm she has wrapped around his waist to drag him out of the water.

"We wouldn't have to if you'd stop falling into my river," she points out with a small annoyed huff, but she starts swimming a little faster, pulls him in closer to her until he can switch to holding onto her neck. "You'd think you would have considered learning how to swim already with the amount of times you've fallen in because of your… things throwing you in here."

"I've considered the idea," is all he says to her, because he has, of course- but there is never any time for Adrien to do anything for himself when his schedule is packed with work, activities his father makes him learn, obligations to his father, and his Chat Noir duties, and the ability to swim isn't something his father never deemed relevant enough to have him learn. Thankfully, he's got her in the waters to help him out and drag him out whenever an Akuma ends up knocking him in during a fight, or when his bad luck strikes again and he ends up tripping and falling in.

Without her, he would have been dead months ago- just another drowned corpse at the bottom of the river, so he's incredibly glad that she's somehow always in the general vicinity whenever he takes a tumble into the water. He's trying not to make a habit of it, because it's absolutely frightening and life-threatening every time, but knowing that she's usually around makes it a little easier, helps him stay calm a little longer before he starts to panic and flail in the water to attract her attention.

Despite the usual circumstances whenever they meet, since she doesn't like to appear unless she truly has to, he enjoys their time together anyway even though it's always a near-death experience for him. It's not as though she herself has much freedom in choosing where she can appear anyway, so he can't exactly fault her for it. Adrien has learned over the years from experience with his father to take whatever he can get.

She brings him over to a place where he can get out of the water, and even though he's a little reluctant to let her go he pulls himself up onto the concrete of the street and out of the water anyway. He tries his best to fight the hard shudder that wracks his body when a gust of wind hits him as he crawls out, but it doesn't work too well when his whole body is soaked and it's the middle of the night.

There's a concerned frown on her face as she eyes him carefully. "Hurry home and dry off," she commands, shaking her head. "You'll get ill like this. Go and get yourself warmed up." She makes a motion to leave, but he catches her by the wrist gently before she can go.

"I wouldn't mind getting ill if you'll nurse me back to full health," Chat coos at her, giving her a flirtatious wink. Her face is so unimpressed by it that he almost feels hurt by it, so he continues to speak because she looks like she's about to peel his hand off of her and leave any second now and he doesn't want her to go- would much prefer to never part with her, if he could.

"But, that's not why I kept you. Since you were the one to bring it up, perhaps you could teach me to swim, my lady? Just a private lesson between a gorgeous lady like you and me, under the romantic beams of the moon," he offers, flashing her a suggestive, sly smile. "I'd like to get to know a wonderful beauty like you better- it turns out that while your rescues are very nice bonding activities, they aren't very good for learning about each other when we're both too preoccupied with keeping me above water."

She laughs at the idea, loud and sharp but beautiful- and even though he knows that she's laughing at him, he finds that he doesn't mind in the slightest because of the bright amusement in her eyes then, the crooked smile lighting her face, and he can only give her a goofy grin in return as she reaches up to flick at one of the fake cat ears in his hair.

"You should probably ask someone with legs to teach you instead, kitty," she tells him with a small giggle, waving her tail- bright red with cute speckles of black, like polka-dots- as if to remind him about that before gently removing his hand off of her wrist. "Do make an effort to learn, though. Next time, you might not be lucky enough to have me around to help you."

She dives beneath the water then, disappearing back into the Seine, and all Adrien can think about then is that she never specifically said no, and his grin doesn't leave him even as he makes his way home in the dark, completely freezing and unable to feel his toes or fingers or stop his teeth from chattering.

Adrien doesn't know anything about her besides the fact that she's a mermaid that appears in the Seine. He doesn't know what kind of fish she's based on or how she ended up in the river running through Paris to begin with or what she does for food and how she survives in there and how she even sleeps in there and he doesn't even know her name- or if she even has one too, but he's enthralled by her anyway regardless of how little he knows of her.

He understands her need for secrets, to release as little information about her as possible because there's danger in discovery- her general existence is a scientific improbability and her kind only exists in mythology and fantasy, and getting caught by the wrong person could literally be the end of her life, but sometimes it's a little frustrating for him to think about how he barely knows about his lady, the one he's absolutely mesmerized by.

He knows that she's lovely, absolutely lovely and captivating and amazing. He knows that she's enchanting, with her elegant graceful swimming and the fond edges of her smirks and the pretty, pretty sky blues of her eyes brought out by the flecks of red scales on her face and the dark curtains of her wet hair framing her gorgeous face, and that she's also so kind-hearted too, because she's saved his life so many times and he knows from the rumors of something in the river that he hears that she saves the lives of anyone that falls into the river even though it only endangers her and brings her so much more closer to being discovered and caught.

But he doesn't know anything of real substance about her at all. All he has about her are the small little observations he catches when she's pulling him out of the Seine and he wants to know more about her. He wants to know absolutely everything about her, to carve every detail of her into his memory and keep her essence there in his mind.

Plagg makes gagging noises whenever he talks about her, calling him a disgustingly lovesick fool and occasionally says that he's creepy, and Adrien can't even deny it the slightest bit. He's been far gone for her since the first time she pulled him out of the water, her bright eyes filled with panic and desperation and a deep concern when she grabbed him and brought him to the surface and held onto him as his body trembled from fear while he coughed up water and clung to her.

She stayed with him until he stopped shaking, arms around him in a tight hug even as his claws dug into her skin and kept rubbing at his back soothingly, muttering soft it's okays and you're safe now, you're okays into his hair until he could breathe again, and she does it every time he falls in and his head dips under too many times and his lungs take in too much water for his liking without complaint.

He's enraptured by her and her kindness and displays of altruism, and utterly intoxicated by the sound of her laughter in his ears and the way she smiles as she rolls her eyes at him when he tries to flirt with her or makes a bad joke and the soft curves of her tender smile and her gentle eyes when she thinks he's not looking- he's always looking at her whenever they're together though, drinking in the sight of her and taking in everything to commit her to memory to try and have something to curb his ever-present longing for her, like a painful claw wrapped around his heart that makes it hard for him to breath when she's not around.

(It doesn't work, because all it really does is make the longing worse, makes him want her even more as he memorizes the exact shade of color her scales are to turn and stare whenever something red catches the corner of his eye, keeps him up at night thinking about the way she bites her lips and worries them red whenever she's concerned for him and the way she tosses her hair over her shoulder with a smirk and a mischievous gleam in her eyes when she's in a playful mood and every little thing about her that he's seen of her that he keeps close to his heart and burned into his head.

He's always thinking about her and he deeply wishes that she would trust him more and tell him about herself because he would never tell a soul anything about her no matter what, and Plagg calls him gross and rolls his eyes at him and tells him that cheese is so much better than girls, Adrien, honestly, but he's in love, he's in so hopelessly deep for this mysterious girl that's not even really a girl and he knows that it's impossible for him to get out of this endless chasm of affection and care and yearning and he doesn't want to either.)

The next time Chat Noir sees her, it's thankfully not because he's ended up in the Seine again- he started to keep a jar in his room to toss money into to keep track of the amount of times he's fallen in and it's slightly distressing how the jar is already half-full after a few months. Since he's met her for the first time, he's gotten into the habit of visiting the Seine- more specifically, the spot where she first dropped him off at- after his nightly patrols on the days he manages to stay dry.

He likes to go there and stay for a bit to relax, watching the way the light from the streetlights make the river glow and how the moon reflects off the surface of the water. There's a part of him, the pining infatuated side of him, that goes there to wait for her, hoping that she'll pop up out of the water to greet him and they can have a proper conversation without having to worry about the whole drowning factor that's always there when they see each other, but he's never seen her show up.

Until now, that is. He does a double-take when he sees her casually floating in the water with something on her stomach, idly playing with the strap of her red and black spotted bikini top (he had asked her about it once, because all his ideas of mermaids involve girls with sea-shell bras on and she had scoffed at him before going on a lecture about the fragility of shells and the potential danger involved when sharp shards are close to your chest) and he stops mid-pounce on top of a streetlight to stare in disbelief, wondering if he's imagining her there just because he wants to see her so badly.

His distraction causes him to fall, hand slipping off the metal when he moves to adjust himself and making him lose his balance from his perch with a surprised, small yelp. He barely manages to grab onto the post and catch himself in time- thank small blessings for his good reflexes, because falling on his face in front of her would be so mortifying, not to mention bad since he has a photo shoot tomorrow and Adrien Agreste can't show up with an injured face.

Chat stays on top of the streetlight for a couple moments to make sure he's steady and won't slip again before hopping off, tucking himself into a roll as he lands before quickly striding over to her with a grin. The grin grows larger as she turns her head towards him and waves him over towards her. "Well, well, well! What an extremely pleasant surprise to see you, my lady!"

"Evening, kitty," she greets him, a small smirk on her lips. Now that he's close to her, he realizes that the item on her stomach was a vinyl bag. He wonders idly what it's for. "I thought I'd catch you here tonight. Good catch, by the way. I'd give you at least a seven for it."

"You saw that?" he asks, laughing a little sheepishly as he rubs at the back of his head. "I was a little distracted by seeing you around, you know, when I'm not drowning. Your entrancing beauty stole my attention for a brief second, and that's all it took."

"You're always quite the flirt, aren't you," she groans, rolling her eyes in exasperation but there's a fond curve to her lips anyway so Chat takes it as a small victory. "Distracting you isn't the reason why I waited for you. I've got a small gift for you."

He blinks. The first thing that his mind processes is I waited for you and the words make his chest clench, his breath catching in his throat slightly, as he feels his face heat up and his heart swell with something large and heavy and fond. Adrien really is in deep for her, if just words like that are doing him in like this. "The only gift I need is your presence, my lady," he manages to say weakly before she notices his pause, swallowing hard at the thought of a gift from her.

"Just take it, Chat," she tells him, rolling her eyes again as she picks up her bag to dangle it in front of him. "It's not anything fancy, but it's something I got specifically for you. It'd be pretty much useless to me. Open it for me. I don't want to get it wet."

"If the lady insists," he hears himself say as he nervously takes the bag into his hands. The item inside is surprisingly firm, but it's not heavier than a couple of pounds and he has no idea what it is. His heart is pounding in his ears as he pulls the zipper open, and he holds his breath as he reaches inside to pull out… a book?

He blinks, feeling slightly light-headed from confusion and a dash of disappointment before his eyes catch the words, "Swimming for Beginners" written on the cover of it, and then the disappointment is completely gone and he lets out a loud, amused snicker because of course, she would.

She's grinning at him, looking pleased by his reaction. "You asked me to teach you how to swim last time," she explains with a small hum, "and I told you that I couldn't since my method of swimming is completely different than what you're physically able to do, so I figured getting you a book on it could work instead."

"How thoughtful of you to remember my request, my lady," Chat smirks, and because there's still a swirl of love bubbling in his chest, he gently grabs one of her hands to press a light kiss into her knuckle. "You really are truly kind. Thank you."

"It's just a book, kitty," she laughs, pushing his face away from her hand with a finger. "I'm glad you liked it though."

"It's not just a book," he sniffles dramatically, holding it to his chest and cradling it preciously. "It's the first gift my lady has given me! I'll cherish it to the end of my days!" It's not a lie, honestly. It might be a book, but the idea that she remembered about what he said and took the effort to get him something to make up for it makes him feel butterflies in his chest, his cheeks feeling sore from all the smiling he's doing.

"You're insufferable," she sighs, but he catches the smile that she hides behind her palm. "If you're going to act like this every time I get you anything, then it's not encouraging me to get you anything again."

He's about to make a quip about how all he needs is her, but he pauses, frowning for a moment as he realizes something, noticing the price sticker on the book. "Where did you even get this?" he asks, feeling confused again. "I mean, it's not like you can, you know," he stops to gesture to her tail, "get up and walk into a bookstore, so how…?"

She raises an eyebrow, but there's amusement on her face. "I got up and walked into a bookstore," she smirks at him, giggling at the shocked look on his face as he gapes at her. "It's as simple as that, kitty. What, did you think that I'm completely stuck in this river? Did you really think I spend all my time in here? If I get on land, I can shift my tail into legs for a period of time. I do have a life outside of rescuing you."

He's still reeling from this new bombshell of information she's given him when his Miraculous beeps out a warning as a claw disappears from his ring and she takes that as her cue to leave, giving him a small wave as she ducks down under the current. He's still reeling as he makes his way home, after Plagg's spent several minutes yelling at him in his head to go already, and he's still reeling as he lies in bed, still holding onto the book and staring up at his ceiling.

Huh, he thinks. Huh. Well. At least that means that if he ever managed to ask her out of a date, they'd have more options than just sitting at the river bank.