[[ LET THE COUNTDOWN TO V-DAY BEGIN! 8) ]]

Day 1 prompt:

"I want you to remember you deserve this."

It was stupid.

Another stupid Akuma to defeat alongside that stupid cat. Gall, she hated him. She hated his stupid saunter, his stupid smirk, and just his overall stupid look. This was Ladybug's personal opinion, though. Objectively, Chat Noir was the finest thing since sliced bread and sugarcoated donuts.

Tasted just as sweet too.

Objectively speaking, of course.

(She had to save him, dangit.)

And now Ladybug had to deal with all this stupid on top of fighting her best-friend-turned-crazed-henchman, "Lady Wifi".

Why did Alya want "LadyNoir" to happen so bad, anyway?

It was never going to happen.

N – E – V – E – R.

And yet, here Ladybug was, trapped against the wall, little shining locks over her wrists and her "best friend" laughing in her face. All Lady Wifi wants in a love confession! And then, unlike every villain ever, she'll let Ladybug go! Whatever. Ladybug had heard it all. But the holds on her wrists weren't budging, and Chat Noir was nowhere in sight. Her options were limited. She could lie, of course. She was fighting for her life. And trying to save Paris! It would be justified. COMPLETELY justified. And…well, Chat Noir wasn't in the room, so there was a small chance that he wouldn't hear her "confess". In front of a camera. For all of Paris to see.

Ladybug groaned heavily in her head.

"Alya – "

"I am LADY WIFI, BugBrat!"

Ladybug rolled her eyes. "Yeah, ok. Whatever. Look, I can't give you a love confession," Ladybug reiterated with air quotes for the fifth time, "because I don't even like Chat Noir, let alone love him. And, guess what! He hates me too! He's just a business partner to me, that's it. A bad, bad business partner."

"Takes one to know one."

Both girls jumped at the new voice in the room, but before either had a chance to put a face to the voice, a steel-toed boot slammed into Lady Wifi's face, followed swiftly by a staff to the stomach. She was suddenly pinned temporarily to the wall, and Ladybug looked to see who her savior was.

She had heard about other Miraculouses, and, well, a girl could only hope.

She was extremely disappointed.

"Chat Noir," Ladybug deadpanned. "So glad to see you."

Chat Noir chuckled humorlessly, shaking his head and checking over Ladybug's holds. He wore his signature smirk, like he constantly knew something she didn't. It made Ladybug's blood boil.

"How do I get these off?" he finally snarled through gritted teeth.

Before Ladybug could reprimand him for losing his temper so easily, Lady Wifi started throwing discs with 'pause' symbols on them toward the kitten superhero, and he was struggling to dodge them while still attempting to free Ladybug.

"She uses the wifi signals. So maybe – "

"Mmkay, yeah, I get you," he cut her off, nodding. Without another word or glance in her direction, he started for the door. Ladybug, shocked, yelled after him.

"Hey, wait! I didn't tell you the plan!"

"Uh, I have a brain?" he replied, deflecting more pink discs and now kicks at the freed Lady Wifi. "I get it, and I don't need to blab it in front of this chick so she can head me off, thanks."

"I'm the brain of this operation!"

"Ha! Says the bug stuck on the wall."

"You have no idea what my plan is!"

Chat Noir let out a loud, exasperated sigh. With a huge swipe of his baton, he sent Lady Wifi into the freezer, snapping it shut. The girl started screaming angrily (something about no "making-out" when she couldn't see it) while Chat Noir turned on Ladybug.

"How about we make a bet, Lovebug."

She didn't like his tone of voice. …Or the nickname. That too.

"How about I take care of 'the plan' since you're clearly," – he gestured broadly to her – "incapacitated. And if I can do it in less than…5 minutes? You give me a kiss."

Excuse me!?

"On camera."

Ha! As if…!

When she didn't actually respond – she couldn't get her mouth to form words, it was not her fault! – he laughed again before throwing her a wink and leaping through the kitchen door, yelling behind him.

"I'll take that as a 'yes!'"

Chat Noir was long gone before Ladybug even had time to comprehend what had just happened.

This…This wasn't their dynamic. They were enemies. Well, enemies with a common enemy. It had been that way since day one! She annoyed him, and he annoyed her. When he found out she hated flirting, he started ostentatiously flirting with her just to make her rile her up. And she threw him off buildings with her yo-yo when he least suspected it, and took it as her personal mission to make him look bad in front of Paris. They would race to the Eiffel Tower and the loser had to let the winner give them a solid kick to the back. They kept tallies on who landed the final blow in an Akuma battle (it was 12-10 to Ladybug at the moment). They "played" Bloody Knuckles and Slap, just for an excuse to be mean to each other. It wasn't…good, perhaps…especially for superheroes. But, for them, somehow it worked? It just seemed like an understanding between them: they didn't have to like each other to completely trust each other.

And then that stupid cat had to go and mess up their carefully crafted dynamic.

Ladybug growled and tried pulling out her arms again in frustration. Acutely aware of the camera staring at her now, the one that had just captured everything that alley cat had said, Ladybug could do nothing but wait patiently for her "partner" to crash and burn and then hopefully she would be able to save everyone afterward. It wasn't that she didn't think he was smart, but…she needed this? She needed to be the brain of the operations, because he was certainly the brawn. What good was she to the team otherwise?

She could do this.

He'd be back for her. She knew he would.

When five minutes later found Ladybug standing in front of news cameras and cell phones – including, to her complete annoyance, an Akuma-less Alya – who were all staring at her expectantly, Ladybug was sort of, well…frozen.

"Time to pay your dues, Ladybug."

Ladybug shivered involuntarily at the whisper in her ear. The fact that it was Chat Noir meant nothing. It just tickled her ear.

Uh, personal space much!?

She resisted the urge to punch him.

Upon turning to whisper angrily back to him, it only made her frustrated at the height difference, the one he was purposefully playing up so she couldn't respond without making the comparison painfully obvious to everyone else. So Ladybug reached up and pulled Chat down to her height roughly by his bell.

"You just take whatever you can get, don't you?" she whisper huffily back into his one human ear.

He laughed heartily at her antics. "Ha, yeah, something like that, LB." Wink.

Ladybug sighed.

Then turned momentarily to the camera, plastering on an overly-sweet smile. Chat Noir, to his benefit, actually looked a little surprised at this. Ladybug pulled back to look him straight in the eyes before leaning up, a hand on his shoulder. They were cheek to cheek, and she was at least satisfied in knowing his felt as warm as hers.

Ladybug's next words she spoke deliberately slow and soft.

"I want you to remember, Alley Cat… You deserrrve this."

And with that, Ladybug, who had made sure her face was hidden from the cameras by his, moved as if she was going to kiss his cheek. That's certainly what it would look like to the cameras…she hoped.

But it definitely wasn't a kiss.

Ladybug quickly sucked in what skin she could from his cheek and bit down. Hard.

Chat Noir mewled and jumped, a hand reaching up to slap the side of his face. Ladybug only looked shy and abashed, the crowd in front of them going wild with screams and flashes.

Then she ran.

And laughed all the way home at the stupid look on his stupidly handsome face.

Tomorrow (Day 2) Prompt:

"It wasn't smart, it wasn't cute, and it wasn't pleasant. But it was the best option."

[[ Haha, this was barely edited, so if you see something, let me know! Just a speed-write, a mini-series (probably mostly drabble-sized chapters) to celebrate Valentine's Day! Yes, it makes no sense…an enemy-ish AU for V-Day, but... Hahaha. Oh well!

These will all be based off of romance story writing prompts I found on Pinterest.

THANKS FOR READING! *kiss kiss* ]]