"the moth's apprentice" chat noir x y/n

Fire

My balcony was in flames when I woke up. Fire was literally streaming from the roof to the ledges, crying orange and yellow flames. I could hear sirens in the distance, but none close enough to save me from my eventual steamy death. 

I coughed, smoke filling my lungs. I could hear the akuma alarm going off on my phone, so I at least had the notion of why my room was on fire. I scrambled out of bed, tumbling headfirst onto the floor. My head pounded when I stood up and the world momentarily went dark. 

"Fuck this," I muttered, reaching for the door handle. It was white-hot and burned my hand. "Shit." I withdrew my hand, mentally hitting myself for not remembering the first rule of a fire. Don't touch the metal door handles. And maybe I needed to stop reaching for door handles in general. 

Y/N, you should go take a lesson on human anatomy — and next time you reach for something in the dark, it'll be on purpose.

The audacity that Adrien Agreste possessed to write me that note, made me think that his Chat Noir was showing a little too strong. 

Speak of the kitten-devil. 

"Need a paw?" He, Chat Noir, himself was perched on my window sill. He tapped two times on the fragile glass and it simply shattered under his fingertips. The fire must've been hot on the ledge, but he paid no mind. "Come, darling, before you burn to death." 

I coughed, waving a hand in front of my face. "You know, I'm good actually I might just wait for Ladybu—" 

Chat had me swept up in his grasp before I could say Camembert. His arm was unbelievably strong supporting me, and I told myself it was just the power of the suit, not Adrien Agreste himself. I mean, Adrien was strong but he wasn't exactly buff. They're the same person, dumbass. 

"I wasn't asking, Y/N." He muttered. 

My thoughts raced and my head pounded as he leapt out the window in one bound. My stomach dropped down to my feet as we sped towards the ground. I half remembered myself wrapping my arms around his neck and hiding my face before we touched down gently, his pole supporting the both of us. 

"You're so stubborn," he commented, brushing his claws off after putting me down. One of his hands lingered just too long on my waist before pulling back to his pole. "You could've died, you know." 

"Eh." I shrugged lightly. "Death doesn't scare me as much as other things." 

"Like what?" Chat scoffed. 

"Doorhandles," I improvised, avoiding eye contact. Chat's face went red underneath his mask, but he recovered quickly. If I didn't know he was Adrien, I wouldn't have even seen the change. The blush highlighted a tiny freckling across the tip of his nose, which was just visible along the break of his mask. 

"Yeah?" He looked off to the side, where Ladybug was tidying up the Akuma. One miraculous ladybug caused the entire scene to rearrange itself. The building repaired automatically. "Doorhandles, huh?" He smirked. "Sounds like a good story." 

"one you'll never hear," I answered lightly. " Can I have a word with Ladybug?" 

"Wouldn't your rather talk to me?" Chat posed on his pole, leaning his head on his two paws. He batted his eyelashes, and I had to admit they were rather long for a boy. He struck quite an impressive figure, with his lengthly arms and legs poised in the tight black suit. 

I decided to play along, because what the hell — maybe my destiny is different. I'm not Raven, and Hawkmoth hasn't made any move to akumatize me yet. 

"Talking is so boring," I leaned forward until I could see every tiny light shining in his eyes. "There's other things we could do though." 

Chat balked like he didn't actually expect that kind of response from me. He blinked, shifting his hips slightly. "You never fail to surprise me, Y/N." The way he said my name sent a light shiver down my arms. Despite nearly being burned alive, I was feeling pretty euphoric. Triumphant, even. 

"I can do much more than surprise you," I tilted my head to the side. "But you know, I really do want to talk to Ladybug so..." I trailed off. 

"Sure," Chat cleared his throat, scratching the back of his head. "Yeah. I'll just uh. Call her." He shortened the pole, dialing her. Before it even rang three times, she had dropped down in front of me. 

I was ultimately surprised about how different Marinette appeared when she was Ladybug. I mean, it shouldn't have shocked me because Adrien's entire demeanor shifted when he was Chat Noir. But Mari had a whole different energy to her. One that radiated power. 

"Hi," she smiled. "Y/N, right?" 

I pretended she wasn't my best friend. "The one and only," I blinked a couple of times. "Yeah, so I was kind of wondering...have you ever tried to figure out Hawkmoth's identity? Cause I have a guess..." 

"What?" Ladybug raised her eyebrows. "We've had a couple of guesses but none have been correct so far." 

"Well I think Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth."