Archive of Our Own ^beta

'What fresh hell is this?' Ladybug exclaimed when the ground shook again and the sounds of wild stampede happening somewhere near reached her ears.

'LADYBUG!' A voice boomed over the street and she heard heavy thuds of approaching steps. She turned around and sighed in relief. It was just Chat Noir, although it quickly became apparent that he wasn't himself today.

'Chat, you don't have to yell,' the girl scolded the feline hero, totally unperturbed with his new looks. 'I'm not deaf, you know.'

'Sorry Mar-' he started with a sheepish smile but was interrupted by her finger sealing his lips shut.

'Ah-ah-ah. What have we agreed on?' She narrowed her eyes in mock reprimand. Chat's lips quirked in a satisfied grin.

'Sorry M'lady,' he corrected himself snatching her hand and kissing it affectionately.

'That's okay.' Ladybug bopped him lightly on the nose and took a step back to inspect his changed form. She scratched her chin thoughtfully.

'Care to tell me, why there's suddenly so much of you, Kitty?' She finally asked. 'And why are you so… green?' She added with a giggle.

'The akuma.' Chat Noir shrugged. 'And I distinctly remember you telling me the other day that I should wear more green because it nicely brings out my eyes.'

'And I mean it – wear all the green you want, Kitty. But not turn green,' she replied with a chuckle.

Chat Noir gleefully examined his reflection in the nearby shop window. 'I'm not that green,' he decided. 'Suit covers most of it anyway.' He snickered and winked at her.

Ladybug just rolled her eyes.

'Is it just you?' She asked hopefully.

'See for yourself,' he pointed at the far end of the street, where an army of green trolls was making its way through the city by demolishing everything in sight.

'Hmmm. I hope you don't feel like smashing anything except Hawk Moth possibly?'

Chat scratched his head and a few bits of dandruff drifted to the ground in the first snowfall this July. 'Him and possibly the akuma's wand,' he admitted. 'Which I'm pretty sure is where the akuma has hidden.'

'That's strange,' the heroine frowned. 'Everybody else seems brainwashed.'

'Yeah,' her partner rubbed his neck anxiously. 'Dunno, maybe it's because of my miraculous? I was already transformed when I got hit.'

'Well, I for a fact am glad you are here with me.' The girl flashed him a sweet smile.

Chat gave her a dubious look and then looked at his reflection in the shop window again.

'Never would have peg you as one after muscles, Princ- My Lady,' he snickered. 'Maybe I should work on my mass when this is over?' He suggested flexing his arms the size of tree trunks.

Ladybug rolled her eyes good-naturedly. 'I meant that it's good to have a super-troll on my side while facing an army of them. Come on, Kitty. Let's get us up for a nice view. We have an akuma to catch,' she pointed to the roof and already kicked off into a sprint towards the nearest alley.

Chat rushed after her and the ground shook when he put his elephantine legs to good use.

Soon Ladybug was inspecting the scene from a rooftop. Chat had yet to join her. The heroine leaned over the edge and discovered her partner still standing six stories below.

'What is it, Chat?' she yelled loud enough for him to hear her.

'Not sure if I should go up,' he boomed back. 'I put on much weight in the last couple of… minutes,' he explained sheepishly shuffling his feet the size of sewer cover plates.

'Nonsense. I need you and your cat sight here, love,' Ladybug shrugged and beckoned him waving her hand. 'Get your ass on that pole of yours and come here this instant.'

Chat gulped and took his baton from its place on his back. It wasn't upsized like the rest of him so it looked like a toothpick in his huge Hulk-like palms. But it still was his staff and as indestructible as ever. He once knocked over a bus with it so it shouldn't be a problem to sustain his current weight. Yet Chat was very well aware that you couldn't cheat physics and vaulting his hippopotamus bulk to the rooftop didn't seem like a very good idea. Still the Lady of His Heart was calling so he started his climb using the baton as an elevator.

Soon it turned out that this time Chat was right. Under his weight the staff pierced the pavement and started to sink into the ground. The feline hero tried to compensate by elongating it even more but as soon as he set his enormous foot on the roof the surface gave in and he got stuck up to his ankle between the tiles. Not wanting to make another hole he tried to balance himself on just one leg but failed. He lost his footing and fell but Ladybug was faster as she caught him with her yoyo.

Chat Noir released a loud sigh of relief. Not that he was afraid of getting hurt. Falls like that happened to him sometimes. But in his current shape he could cause serious damage to anything unlucky enough to be his landing spot. Thank the miraculous for Ladybug and her super-strength.

The heroine gently lowered him to the street level and then got down herself.

'This won't do,' she tsked eyeing him up and down. 'Maybe this would wear off if you de-transformed?'

Chat shook his head in denial. 'I've already tried that to Plagg's utter amusement,' he winced at the reminder of his kwami's yowls. 'It looks like this is how I'm gonna be until we take the akuma down.'

'Ugh!' Ladybug stomped her foot angrily. 'I need you, Chat!'

He responded with a wink and a chuckle. 'My Lady-' he murmured scooting closer to her but was met with a palm in his face. Ladybug pushed him back playfully.

'Down boy! We're in the middle of business now,' she waved a warning finger.

Chat scratched his chin making a noise like glass on sandpaper. 'Well, I don't suppose...'

'What?' Ladybug perked up.

'Forget it,' the boy mumbled. 'It's stupid…'

'Just spit it out, Chat. If there's anything we can do to get you back to operational just tell me!'

'Well, it's not something I remember personally but you told me about it…' the feline hero meandered around the topic to his Lady's rising annoyance. A suspiciously hopeful gleam lit up his emerald eyes.

'Out with it!' she snapped but soon regretted it when a sly grin crawled onto his face.

'I seem to recall you telling me how you broke Dark Cupid's spell…?' he murmured raising his brow.

'Oh...' Ladybug's cheeks suddenly turned as red as her mask. Two years ago Marinette would have been terrified at the prospect of kissing Chat again after Dark Cupid. But she was his girlfriend for more than 12 months now and had been kissing him plenty. Two months ago she would have been terrified at the prospect of kissing Adrien but now she knew she had already been kissing him plenty for more than 12 months. A pleasant thrill ran through her body at the reminder of their smooches.

'It's- worth a try, I guess?' she decided and Chat rubbed his hands.

'Are you ready, My Lady?' he said and puckered his lips, currently swollen to the size of snails and of similar shade.

'Okay,' she sighed apparently unfazed by his mighty shape. 'But don't get any ideas. This is just one exception, but the no-kissing-while-in-suits rule still stands. Understood?'

No-kissing-while-in-suits was one of Ladybug's ground principles introduced right after the reveal. As she had explained to unhappy Chat, his flirting and his kisses, quite welcomed in any other circumstances, were a terrible distraction while facing an akuma.

Chat's ears dropped at the mention of the stupid rule, but he was always eager to get a kiss from his girlfriend so he leaned in invitingly.

Ladybug rose on her toes to reach for his lips, put her hands on Chat's cheeks and closed the space between them. They both closed their eyes and released a satisfied sighs as the tinkling magic worked its way around them.

After the odd sensation of energy crawling up her skin ceased, Marinette kept her eyes closed, reveling in the moment. She felt a bit dizzy and couldn't help but wonder if the reason for that was magic or the fact that this was their first conscious kiss as Ladybug and Chat Noir. But the tinkling of her lips was so pleasant that for a moment Ladybug thought that maybe, just maybe, they should reconsider the no-kissing rule.

Still it felt that the kiss had been successful. The height difference was back to normal – their foreheads touched easily and Ladybug's arms almost involuntarily snaked their way around her boyfriend's neck.

'Did it work?' The girl whispered stroking his back slightly and she smiled feeling a rumble of purr rolling in his chest. The sensation was so pleasant she chose not to open her eyes yet.

'Um...kinda?' Was all she got as a reply.

Of course after that kind of feedback Ladybug immediately opened her eyes and saw that the spell still held Chat firmly in its green-trollic grasp.

'Oh, Chat. I'm afraid it didn't work,' the girl shook her head in disappointment. 'I'm sorry.'

'Me too,' the feline hero said with a heavy sigh. 'But not because it didn't work. Come with me,' he commanded and taking her hand he led her to the nearest window.

'Now, before you look…' he hesitated. 'My Lady, have you ever watched Shrek?'