Miraculous Reveals and More (A collection of One-Shots)

Lucky (One-Shot, 14167 words)

"Tomorrow? Same time?" Chat leans casually on his staff, watching Ladybug wave bye to the last few onlookers from today's Akuma fight in the park. It had been a quick battle but the sun is setting behind the buildings surrounding them, leaving them in shadow.

She turns back to him and rolls her eyes, "Four years of patrols and you still haven't caught onto our schedule?" She jokes, flicking the bell under his chin.

He shrugs, smirking, "Just checking to make sure I have something to look forward to tomorrow."

Ladybug sighs, resigning, "I'll see you tomorrow, not that I'm something to look forward to." She starts to walk away, swinging her yo-yo around to build momentum.

She can barely hear him say "You are to me," above the sound of her yo-yo whirling through the air. She keeps her face forward, cheeks burning around the edges, and flings her yo-yo to pull her way towards home.

Chat stares after her until she's out of sight.

He's been getting a little more forward with his flirting lately, and Ladybug hates to admit to herself that her resolve is crumbling.

At first, she was just humoring him, his compliments and flirtations passed through her, never actually touching her, so it was easy. But as the years have gone by, he's matured some and she's gotten to know him as a person, a friend; as much as they can know each other without revealing any identities. Built on mutual respect, their partnership is much more now. In her dreams, her mind drifts closer to imaginary plots with Chat than to Adrien. At first, she justified this by reasoning she spends more one-on-one time with Chat than Adrien, so naturally she dreams about him more. But lately, deep down, she recognizes that other reasons might exist for this phenomenon.

Adrien still holds a prominent place in her heart but she's been unknowingly been making room for Chat on the side; only realizing how large his side has grown recently.

She gracefully lands on the edge of a rooftop, breathing in the cool air of the coming evening. One last sweep of the streets on her side of town before she heads home to finish a history essay she had mostly finished, just needing the conclusion, which is always the hardest part.

She winds up her yo-yo again, and throws...

She feels the surface beneath her feet fall away suddenly and in slow motion. The old roofing crumbles under her, sending her plummeting off the three-story building into the darkness of the alley. Her yo-yos trajectory misfires, and she flails to readjust it to catch on something, anything, as the ground quickly approaches.

This isn't the first time she's had to get herself out of a dangerous situation, she does it nearly every time there's an Akuma attack. Quick thinking is her specialty.

But this time feels different, more out of control, unexpected. It takes her mind a second longer to catch up to what was happening than when she's fighting Akumas. This caught her off guard.

Her yo-yo snags a chimney, the slack in the line tightening, but isn't fast enough. She pulls on the string with both hands, angling her body up so her feet are pointed in the direction of the string, readying herself to swing out of the alley.

Waiting for the upward pull, she sucks in a breath, just as the back of her head collides with the concrete. She cries out, her hands releasing her yo-yo to reflexively cradle her head. With the remaining forward momentum that her yo-yo had imparted, she tumbles forward. She practically rolls until hitting another brick wall at the end of the alley, falling onto her side.

The stars flashing before her eyes quickly fade to black.

Her earrings beep without acknowledgement, leading to the flash of light of her detransformation briefly lighting the grim scene. Tikki is ejected from the Miraculous, dizzy and confused. But forces herself to focus on her unmoving Chosen.