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Ladybug was running late. It wasn't really her fault - she was helping her parents in the bakery when she got the akuma alert, and there was no way they would let her leave the building with that kind of danger outside. It took fifteen minutes of panic-baking and one little white lie about calling Alya to check in on her for Marinette to escape to her balcony and transform.
Running from rooftop to rooftop, Ladybug pulled out her yoyo and called her partner.
Chat Noir's smiling face filled her screen. "Hey, LB! You on your way?"
"Yes! Sorry Chat, I got caught up and couldn't transform. Where are you?"
He paused and looked around. "Uh, a few streets west of Notre Dame."
"I'll be there in five," she said, changing her trajectory.
"Great - we've got a repeat akuma this time, my Lady. It's-" A flash of purple light, a grunt, and the call ended.
"Chat? Chat!" Ladybug picked up speed as she hurled herself across the city. A street away from Notre Dame, she spotted a leather-clad figure laying on a nearby rooftop. Her stomach clenched with fear. "Chat!" Ladybug landed next to her partner, running frantic hands over his head and chest. "Are you okay? What's the akuma? What did it do to you?"
His bright green eyes blinked open. Chat Noir sat up, pressing a hand to his forehead, and stared at her. "Who are you?"
Ladybug sat back, shocked. "Who-"
Then she remembered his words before the phone call cut out: a repeat akuma. And now he didn't know who she was, almost like...he'd lost his memory. Ladybug sighed. "Oblivio."
Chat Noir regarded her curiously. "Is that your name? Oblivio?"
She couldn't suppress a giggle. "Oh, no, sorry. My name is Ladybug."
"That makes sense," he said, eyeing her suit. "My name's...uh..." He scrunched his eyebrows together in thought.
"Chat Noir," Ladybug supplied, placing a hand over his. "You're Chat Noir, my partner."
He looked at her hand on his. "Partner?"
"Yeah! We're a superhero team."
Unless you want to be more than that, Bugaboo.
His eyes widened and he looked down at his suit. "I'm a superhero? Awesome!" Ladybug couldn't help smiling at his excitement. "What are my powers?" he asked, looking for all the world like a child on Christmas morning.
She gave him a crash course on his powers, her powers, Hawkmoth, akumas, and the last time they fought Oblivio (leaving out the kiss neither of them remembered, of course - no need to make things more complicated than they already were). He listened carefully, a wide smile plastered on his face the whole time.
"This is so cool!" Chat jumped to his feet and did a backflip. "Oh my god. Oh, my god! I can't believe I just did that!"
Ladybug gave him another moment to indulge in his 'new' powers, laughing quietly at his enthusiasm. Chat did a series of flips and twists across the rooftop that would make an Olympian gymnast proud, and she clapped for him, beaming.
He jogged back over to her, grinning so widely she was sure his cheeks hurt. "Sorry, I got a little carried away. We have a villain to catch, right?"
"No problem, Kitty." She would never admit it to him, memory intact or not, but she found his excitement adorable. "Let's get to some higher ground so we can find Oblivio."
"Sure thing. Lead the way, Ladybug."
Ladybug blinked. "Weird."
"What?" Chat Noir looked at her nervously. "Did I say something wrong?"
"No, no!" Ladybug waved her hands. "No, I just - you don't usually call me Ladybug."
"Oh." Chat breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, what do I usually call you?"
"All sorts of things - Buginette, Bug, LB, Bugaboo. I think your favorite is, 'My Lady'."
Don't deny it, Bug - it's your favorite, too.
He sent her a look she couldn't quite read. "My Lady."
She smiled fondly. "Yeah, you use that one all the time. Come on, mon chaton - let's go catch this akuma."
As Ladybug threw her yoyo and jumped off the building, she could have sworn she heard him mutter, "Mon chaton?" behind her.
Ton chaton indeed, my Lady.
She moved at a slightly slower pace than normal, keeping an eye on her partner. He struggled with his baton a bit at first, but quickly got the hang of it and kept pace with her nicely. Not bad for an amnesiac, she thought.
I think you mean amnesi-chat.
Ladybug rolled her eyes. Great - that silly chat wasn't even really there and he still managed to annoy her with his puns.
A scream to their right pulled Ladybug out of her head. "This way!" she yelled, swinging toward the sound. Amnesi-Chat followed, landing next to her on the street where Oblivio stood.
The akuma looked the same as they did the first time - a humanoid purple blob with a canon in place of their left hand. They were advancing on some citizens they'd cornered when Ladybug yelled, "Hey, Oblivio! Looking for us?"
Oblivio turned. "Ladybug and Chat Noir! Finally."
"You didn't think we'd forget you, did you?" Chat taunted. Ladybug hid a smile. Apparently making puns was an integral part of his personality.
Puns are my purr-sonality, Bugaboo - and you love it.
"Can you distract them for a few minutes?" she asked.
Chat Noir flashed her a smile. "Anything for you, my Lady." He pulled out his baton and launched himself at Oblivio, leaving Ladybug to stare after him.
Normally when Chat Noir said something like that, he sounded so over-the-top and flirtatious that she couldn't take him seriously. But when Amnesi-Chat said Anything for you, my Lady, he sounded so sincere. So genuine.
Focus, LB. You can stare at me all you want when the fight it over.
Ladybug shook her head to clear it and darted off to the side. "Lucky charm!" A giant Chinese finger-trap fell into her arms. "Pretty straightforward today, huh, Tikki?" She ran over to her partner, who was dodging blows left and right and cackling madly. He was clearly having the time of his life.
Ladybug suppressed a grin. "Chat Noir! Can you get them to shoot straight up?"
"Consider it done!" He took a running start and used his baton to fling himself into the air. "What's wrong, Oblivio?" he called. "Can't hit a moving target?"
Oblivio growled and aimed their arm-canon at the sky. Ladybug sprinted at the akuma, jumped into a flip, and jammed the Chinese finger-trap over their left arm. "Chat, help me with the other side!"
He landed and bounced towards her, dodging past Oblivio and grabbing their right arm. Ladybug wrapped her yoyo around the finger-trap, and together they managed to push Oblivio's other arm into the free end. Oblivio roared in anger, pulling from both ends, which only tightened the trap.
Ladybug brushed her bangs out of her eyes. "Not bad for your first time, mon minou."
He grinned at her. "This is the best day of my life. I'm so fast! Did you see me dodging those blasts? How did they even hit me in the first place?"
"I don't know," she said, shrugging. "I know last time we fought Oblivio, you got hit because you were more focused on flirting with me than fighting the actual battle."
"Let me go and give me your miraculous!" Oblivio yelled beside them. Flashes of purple lit up the finger-trap - they were clearly trying to blast themselves free, and it clearly wasn't working.
"Hey, Ladybug?" Chat Noir shot her a curious look.
"Yes, Chaton?"
He stepped towards her. "Are we..." He ran a hand through his hair. "Are we dating?"
Oblivio stopped struggling. Ladybug's mouth dropped open. "What?"
Chat Noir rubbed the back of his neck. "You didn't say it, but you didn't really need to, you know? It's kind of obvious."
"It's kind of - I didn't - you're not - obvious!?" Ladybug spluttered. "It's obvious!? How can the fact that we're dating be obvious when we're not actually dating?"
Amnesi-Chat stared at her. Even Oblivio seemed to be at a loss for words. "We're not dating?" her partner asked.
"No!" Ladybug said, pulling at her hair. "Why would you think we are?"
"You're kidding, right?" Chat asked incredulously. "Come on! All the cute nicknames, I call you my Lady and you call me your chaton-" Ladybug spluttered some more, but Chat kept talking "-you went crazy when you found me on the rooftop and thought I'd been hurt, apparently I flirt with you while we're fighting, and then there's the way you keep looking at me."
"You guys do kind of act like a couple," Oblivio confirmed.
Ladybug's glare could have leveled the entire city. "Shut up," she spat. She fixed her gaze on Chat Noir. "What do you mean, 'the way I keep looking at you'?"
Her Chat Noir would have known from her tone that he'd messed up. He would have cowered and apologized and promised never to do it again. This Chat Noir - this dumb Amnesi-Chat - crossed his arms and stared her down. "Every time you look at me, your eyes go all soft and you get this fond smile on your face. It's a look of love, Bugaboo." He emphasized the nickname mockingly, the corners of his mouth twitching.
Ladybug narrowed her eyes. "And what about this look, Chat? Is this a look of love?"
He grinned cheekily. "Seems like I've hit a nerve."
She stomped forward and grabbed his bell, pulling him down so his face was level with hers. "Listen, you mangy chat," she hissed, "I am not in love with you. If you had your memories, you'd know that you're in love with me, but I'm in love with someone else."
Infuriatingly, his smile got even wider. "Whatever you say, my Lady."
She released him and turned away. "Let's just finish this."
One cataclysm and one purified akuma later, Alya and Nino sat before them, each with an arm caught in the Chinese finger-trap.
"Ladybug! Chat Noir!" Alya's eyes lit up and she searched her pockets for her phone.
Nino groaned. "Were we Oblivio again?"
Ladybug smiled kindly. "Yep! But don't worry, Chat Noir and I took care of it. I just need my lucky charm so I can get Chat his memories back."
Alya found her phone and hit record, shooting off questions rapid-fire. "Did both of you get hit, or just Chat Noir? How did you defeat us? Are you guys going to kiss again?"
Ladybug smacked a hand to her forehead. Amnesi-Chat's eyebrows shot up. "What was that last question?"
"Are you going to kiss again?" Alya repeated as Nino slowly got his arm free. "Last time you fought us as Oblivio, you both got hit and lost your memories. At the end of the fight, before you got your memories back, you kissed each other!"
Chat Noir was trying not to smile, and he was failing. "You left that out of your explanation, my Lady."
"It wasn't relevant," Ladybug said, grabbing Alya's arm and trying to work it free. "And neither of us remember it, anyways."
"But you do remember your other kiss, right Ladybug?" Alya asked, ignoring the heroine's glare. "When you kissed Chat Noir to break Dark Cupid's influence?"
"Shut up and stop moving," Ladybug commanded.
"You've kissed me more than once?" Chat purred, leaning into her personal space.
"It wasn't a real kiss," Ladybug argued, "it was to save you! Alya just said that. Nino, how did you get this thing off?"
"I got it, Dude - I mean, Ladybug." Nino scrambled over and took Alya's arm while she focused her phone on the superhero duo.
Ladybug pushed Chat Noir away by his nose. "God, you're worse than regular Chat."
"Regular Chat? You mean, the love of your life?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
"You are not the love of my life!"
"You have kissed me twice already," he mused, stepping close enough that she could feel his breath on her face. "Care to make it three times?"
His clawed hand rested gently on her arm, and her cheeks flushed. She couldn't move, even as his face got closer and closer, and it was a small squeak from Alya that brought her back to herself.
"No, I don't want to kiss you!" She shoved him back and snatched the Chinese finger-trap from Nino's hands.
"You hesitated," Chat Noir sang.
"I did not hesitate!" she shouted. "Ugh, I am so glad you're not going to remember any of this."
"No," he said, grinning. "But you will."
She hurled the finger-trap into the air with much more force than necessary. "Miraculous Ladybug!"
Later, Adrien sat in his room and watched Alya's clip from the end of the battle over and over. "She almost kissed me," he breathed. "Do you see this, Plagg? She almost kissed me!"
"Yeah, yeah," Plagg said, biting into a piece of camembert. "I heard you the first five times."
Adrien sat back in his chair, rubbing the back of his neck. "We lose our memories the first time Oblivio attacks, and we kiss. I lose my memories the second time Oblivio attacks, and she almost lets me kiss her again! What does that mean?"
"Maybe she likes you best when you're not yourself," Plagg suggested.
Adrien tossed a textbook at his kwami, who was cackling with glee. "Shut up, Plagg."
Besides, Adrien had been acting like himself when he tried to kiss her - or at least, he'd been acting like Chat. The model smiled to himself and hit replay.