“What now?” Mister Bug called as he sprinted back over to her, yo-yo swinging haphazardly in his right hand. “What’s the plan?”

At the same moment, Lady Noire narrowly dodged a barrage of thorns and hissed as one grazed her cheek. The sudden pain only ignited her temper further.

“I’m not coming up with the plans anymore, you know that!” she snapped back. “We have to keep Hawk Moth and his Akumas on their toes. You have to decide what to do, now. Try to—”

Lady Noire was cut off as the Akuma lunged forward from the next building over. The villain landed several feet away with one arm raised threateningly, her rose-clad hand outstretched in their direction.

Shoulder to shoulder, the two heroes backed up in unison as the villain advanced on them, readying the next onslaught of thorns and vines.

Lady Noire saw how Mister Bug gritted his teeth in her peripheral vision, his eyes raking over their immediate surroundings in an attempt to formulate a plan. But just as he whipped back toward her with a modicum of determination, the roof disappeared from beneath their feet.

A vine had crept its way behind them, sweeping forcefully behind their knees as another struck them from the front.

Lady Noire barely had a moment to register her own surprise before they plunged over the side of the building.

_______

A mere week prior, Chat Noir had found Ladybug pacing the length of their favourite beam on the Eiffel Tower, her teeth worrying at her lower lip.

While she was usually more laidback on patrols than she was otherwise, tonight, she seemed fretful, one arm hugged in around her torso while her other hand rested thoughtfully on her chin.

“Hey, Bugaboo,” Chat greeted her lightly as he retracted the length of his baton. “You look as though you’re feline thoughtful tonight.”

Ladybug stopped pacing and sighed without looking up.

“Just too predictable…” she muttered.

“Predictable?” Chat Noir edged closer. “What’s predictable?”

Sighing once more, his partner finally dropped her arms and met his eyes. Chat felt a tremor of concern run through his spine at her woeful gaze.

“We are, kitty,” she said somberly. “Hawk Moth has been able to predict all of our moves lately. For months. How are we supposed to protect Paris like this? No matter how convoluted I try to make my plans, he’s always one step ahead of us, and I don’t know what to do!”

She buried her face in her hands, but not before Chat Noir caught the way her lower lip had wobbled.

“Milady…” he rested his hands on her shoulders in a tentative attempt to comfort her. “Your plans have been brilliant, as always. We’ll figure something out. I trust you.”

“And I trust you,” she murmured back with a sniffle.

But then she froze.

Slowly raising her red-rimmed and puffy eyes from behind her hands, Ladybug looked at Chat with a mixture of surprise and contemplation.

“I trust you,” she said again, albeit more hesitantly.

Chat Noir withdrew his arms and shifted uncomfortably on his feet.

“Of course, I… I mean, I hope you do,” he said, his brow furrowing.

“No, no, Chat, what I mean is I trust you!” Ladybug exclaimed. Her entire countenance became more confident—excited, even. “In fact, I’d even trust you to make the plans. I would trust you with my Miraculous. I trust you.”

Chat Noir cocked his head as he began to follow her line of thought.

“So you want me to… to start making the plans?” he asked slowly.

“Yes. But more than that—I want us to switch our Miraculous.”

“Switch Miraculous?” he spluttered. “Like, permanently?”

Ladybug seemed almost bashful in response, a light blush dusting her cheeks beneath the mask.

“It might sound weird, I know,” she admitted. “But what better way to throw Hawk Moth off his game than to change the game completely? To make everything he thinks he knows about us entirely unpredictable? We’ve swapped Kwamis before, and we can do it again. But… well, long-term, this time.”

Now that they were beginning to talk about it in-depth, she seemed to be growing more embarrassed by her idea, but Chat Noir could only flash his signature grin.

“See, Milady?” he said. “Like I said, your plans are brilliant .”

_______

Brilliance was what she was aiming for, but the results thus far were less than ideal.

The two had dutifully switched Miraculous that evening and planned to meet back up in three days’ time to begin teaching each other how best to wield the other’s powers.

Unfortunately, Hawk Moth had unwittingly impeded those plans, akumatizing a distressed gardener into Thorn Thief, who was determined to reclaim her stolen greenhouse and take all of Paris for her own.

If Lady Noire were as inclined toward puns as her partner, she would have described the situation as a thorn in her side.

Not that she was in the mood for jokes.

As she transformed and vaulted across the skyline and toward the building Thorn Thief was currently overtaking with flowering vines, she realized Mister Bug had beat her to the scene.

Okay, well, that wasn’t too bad a start, she supposed.

“How nice of you to join me, Buga— I mean, Ladyb— uh, Lady Noire.” He smiled sheepishly despite himself as she landed beside him. Her attention was already trained solely on the green-swathed building before them.

“Any idea where the Akuma might be?” she demanded, her green eyes narrowing.

“Look at the corsage on her wrist.” Mister Bug turned back toward the adjacent building. “That white rose. It’s the only one coloured differently from everything else she’s been growing, so I’m willing to bet that’s the akumatized object.”

She nodded sharply in acknowledgment.

“Well, then I guess we’ll be testing out this new plan sooner than expected, Buggaboy.” Lady Noire attempted to keep her voice light in order to not betray her frayed nerves.

They were supposed to have time to get used to this switch—and yet Hawk Moth was already besting them. Again.

“We’ll be just fine, Milady. In fact, I’ll bet we wrap this one up even faster than usual.” Mister Bug pulled his yo-yo from around his hip, his spotted mask wrinkling around his nose as he flashed a confident smile. “See? We’re already here before—”

“Mister Bug, on your left!”

The Akuma had noticed them. A vine was already sweeping their way.

Lady Noire grabbed her baton to knock her partner out of the way, and it wasn’t long before the two were knocked over the lip of the rooftop.

Just when she expected to feel the unforgiving pavement of the alley rush up to greet her body, however, Lady Noire was startled to instead feel the brace of soft arms. Mister Bug had grabbed her torso midair and twisted himself beneath her, taking the brunt of their collision with the ground.

And as she heard the wheeze of the wind being torn from his lungs, she couldn’t help but lose her previous indignation.

She trusted him.

This was her idea.

It wasn’t his fault that he… well, that they were just as thrown off she hoped Hawk Moth would soon be.

“M-Milady?” Mister Bug took a deep, shuddering breath before coughing. Lady Noire felt the rattle of his torso beneath her own. “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay, Chat— uh, Mister Bug.” She gingerly rolled herself off her partner before standing and testing the balance of her still-shaking knees. Then she held out a clawed hand with an apologetic smile. “But I’m afraid we need to get moving.”

He took her hand gratefully, wincing as he stood. His other hand cradled the back of his head where it had cracked against the pavement.

“It sounds like our gracious villain is making her way back in the direction of the Eiffel Tower,” he said, giving a cursory glance toward the rooftop they had just fallen from. “We don’t have long, but that at least gives us a moment to think. But first, I just want to say I’m sorry. I’m really—”

“No. Don’t apologize.”

She didn’t have to test her trust, nor did he have to earn it. After all, trust was already their very tether.

Lady Noire closed the gap between them, resting both hands on his shoulders, just as he had a mere day prior.

“I’m the one who’s sorry. We didn’t have any time to plan or train together after switching our Miraculous, and I just expected you to start thinking like me, and..”

She closed her eyes and took a steadying breath.

“... And that wasn’t fair of me. I’m sorry.”

She felt Mister Bug’s shoulders sag with relief beneath her palms.

“So you’re not mad at me?” he asked.

“No, kitty, I’m not.” Lady Noire pulled him into a hug, pressing her temple against his collarbone. “I’m just adjusting, too. I know this won’t be easy, but I trust you. I trust us , and I know we’ll figure this out together.”

She smiled as she felt Mister Bug return her hug, his arms looping lightly around her.

“This might be a bit of a new beginning, but it’s still us against the world, Milady,” he murmured. “No matter what mask we wear.”