"Save Me" | a Ladrien heart-warmer

Parkour

His city run with Ladybug did wonders for him: Adrien had gotten through the rest of his week with spirits so buffed he was floating on air. The akuma attacks had slowed down a bit and he was able to shore up his lagging grades before they could catch his father's attention. His modelling had also improved in a big way now that he wasn't having the life sucked out of him.

She'd given him courage when he most needed it, and he loved her for it.

"Kid, even I don't get stuck this often, and I'm a real cat."

But it was possible, just possible, that she had given him a little too much courage.

"You can float," Adrien snapped, slipping a little closer to his inevitable death (or dunk in the Seine, whatever). "And phase through things. You don't count. Just trans—"

"Again?"

Plagg dove into Adrien's pocket at mach speed.

Adrien flinched, slipping another few inches, then sighed and wondered why he was surprised. "Hi, Ladybug."

Ladybug rested her forearms on the half-circle railing that discouraged the masses from doing what he'd attempted to do and raised an eyebrow at him from behind her mask. "How on earth did you manage this?"

"Hardcore parkour," he gritted out, shifting his aching feet a fraction on the concrete and breathing a sigh of relief when he didn't slip any further.

She snorted.

Adrien considered letting go of the walls holding him up.

"Your ability to get stuck in the weirdest places amazes me," she said conversationally, making no move to rescue him from his plight.

"Gotta impress you somehow," he shot back drolly. He knew she'd rescue him eventually, but she sure seemed determined to take her sweet time about it. "How else am I supposed to catch the eye of a beautiful girl?"

"Too bad there aren't any here for you to catch the eye of," she said with a self-conscious little laugh.

"I was talking about you," he corrected dryly. It was funny, he thought, that she'd accept every single compliment from Chat Noir but deflect the ones that came from Adrien. He wondered what the difference was.

Noticing she'd gone quiet, he looked up to find her blushing.

"R-really?"

Well, he'd said it as a joke, but...

(Oh hell, who was he kidding: he kept hoping he'd run into her and she'd have to hold him close to pull him out of whatever scrape he'd ended up in this time.)

He'd been quiet too long.

"S-sorry," she stuttered, pulling out her yo-yo and preparing to throw it. "Silly question."

It wasn't a silly question and it had an answer. He opened his mouth to tell her so, only to be cut off by a long, thin line wrapping itself several times around his torso.

She managed to winch him up without giving him any injuries in the process, grabbing his hands to help him over the guardrail when he was close enough.

He staggered a little when he finally got his feet under him. He hadn't been stuck for long, but holding yourself up by friction alone was no easy task.

Catching his elbow, Ladybug gave him a gentle nudge back against the guardrail and reached up to touch his hair.

Adrien's heart stopped before he realized that she wasn't touching his hair so much as pulling something out of it.

She presented him with a twig and a wry, sympathetic smile. "I just can't leave you alone, can I?"

I wish.

"If I had another way to contact you, believe me, I'd use it," he said, another joke with a little too much truth.

"What, if I gave you my number I could stop worrying about where you'll end up next?" she joked right back.

"Oh, definitely."

He'd stop climbing for good if that was what it took to get her number, he thought wryly.

She held out her hand expectantly.

He gave it a blank stare before he realized she hadn't been kidding, and then he was scrambling for his phone and praying he hadn't dropped it while he was 'hardcore parkouring.'

Miraculously he hadn't, and he unlocked and dropped it into Ladybug's waiting palm while trying (and failing) to pretend he was completely chill about what was happening.

"So," she said, staring at the phone in her hands before moving to enter her number with — were her hands shaking? "Next time you feel the urge to climb somewhere high up, call me first."

"Sure," Adrien croaked. Holy shit holy shit holy shit— "Of course. Definitely. For sure. Abso— I'll stop now."

She giggled breathlessly, handing him back the phone.

His fingers brushed hers as he accepted it, yanking his attention to the exact texture of her suit and the electric charge it sent crawling over his skin.

He was saving this number in every memory storage device he had, from his contacts list to scrawling it on his headboard.

"So, no more high places, no more low places, and no more parkour!" she instructed, walking backwards. Then she tacked on, "And call me!"

Adrien was still choking on those last three words when she made her exit — they were worse than 'hot stuff.'

(The recollection of which sent him into a downwards spiral of remembering every bright blush and every flirty word she'd ever given him, and it was a long while before he left that spot.)