#the mishaps of ladybug and kuro neko

[whereisstevethestove]

so I heard we were telling ya’ll about our WIPs?

So I have quite a few running, both published and not, so I’ll just go into the list.

1.Healing = Chaos series 

So it’s my pride and joy series, I’m actually on book three and it should be completely done and out by the one year anniversary of said series, which is great!  It’s a college au where you can meet your ‘other selves’  but it usually throws the universe out of alignment.   It’s got analogical, Rosleep and Mociet, with a few OCs running around and occasionally Thomas.  Disaster condo and wacky adventures with angst as the characters manage past and future lives.

2. Four Horseman AU

For the TSS Big Bang.  Currently about halfway written and unbeta’d but the plot centers around the four sides being the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.  But there’s a catch- Logan’s Jewish and doesn’t believe the new testament, where the four horsemen are mentioned; Virgil’s died before he can ever really age into his power and now, in his current life, he’s atheist and a cynic; Patton’s so full of Catholic guilt it’s a miracle he’s even agreeing with the others; and poor Roman’s been around since the Roman empire trying to figure out how to keep his other horsemen from triggering the end of the world.  Princxiety planned, with a spicy hint of Logicality.

3. The Hero?  Au (Marvel inspired)

Virgil hates superpowers, and they’re common enough that he’s been saddled with them.  Unfortunately, his high school bullies want to use him for it, seeing he’s pretty powerful.  Also unfortunately for him, his high school bullies are superheroes, so him saying he’s being held against his will doesn’t exactly work.  Oh, and comic nerd/Hulkling equivalent Remus is there too, and he’s really fucking lonely.

4. Sylphs and Streets Au

Urban Fantasy, set in Chicago with Storm Sylph Virgil, Illusionist Remus, normal human Roman, Seer Emile and Remy, who happens to illegally sell his potions on the side.  It’s an unbeta’d project exploring the idea of injustice and discrimination.  It’s AO3 exclusive and on it’s second installment of three.

5. The Mishaps of Ladybug and Kuro Neko. 

Self indulgent miraculous ladybug au, where Logan and Virgil are half Japanese, Roman’s a massive fucking idiot in a himbo way, Janus is related to the previous ladybug, Marinette, and Patton’s nearly getting himself killed in hero fights every other weekend.  Ladybug!Roman and Black Cat!Virgil, with other’s coming later.  I post about it on my main blog.

6. Band Au (AO3 exclusive)

Virgil’s a singer/songwriter that got BES (Billie Eilish Syndrome)  and once he turned eighteen, he snuck off to college with the help of Remy his manager and a bodyguard with as much social skills as him.  Love triangles and crushes all around as he runs into small town friends Logan and Roman, all while trying to figure out where he’s seen Patton from before... oh! and Janus is there with the firm belief that everyone is just stuck in a story controlled by an unforgiving Author.

7. ‘Dating’ a Demon

Remus is getting married and Roman’s still single, much to his mortification, as how the hell did his twin get married before him?!?!  He summons a demon out of desperation so he can have a plus one for the wedding and spare the humiliation that is his love life.  Unfortunately for him, Virgil is really fucking hot and now he kinda doesn’t want to get rid of him. Chaos ensues as Virgil learns about humans and Roman tries to not die from simping over a demon that’s ten times older than him, and did he mention that they were hot?   About one fifth written.

8. Accidental Adoption Au

Logan died in a horrific car accident, which also landed his son Virgil into the hospital with a collapsed lung, and the ER nurse that ended up taking care of his son adopts him.  Roman, along with his husbands Remy and Emile, grow to care for Virgil as the teen goes through high school.  Thomas is also there, as Virgil’s crush and he’s very confused that you can in fact, be gay.  Angst and fluff, Ao3 exclusive and about halfway published.

9. The Fae Au I made to cope with the end of Mahogany and Teakwood.

Logan didn’t want a human, and now he’s stuck with one who keeps passing out.  On second thought, maybe he shouldn’t have stabbed them with a massive icicle, that’s probably why.  Oh, and his neighboring Unseelie friend also has partial ownership of said human. You lose some, you lose some.  Patton’s also slightly unsympathetic, but he’s fae, that’s how they are.  Virgil just wants to be awake for more than a half hour.  

And that’s the bulk of my multi chapter Wips!  Of course, I’ve got over 74 one shots that haven’t been published or worked on, but that’s a problem for another time.  *sweeps abandoned one shot folder under the rug in my google drive*

[sentient-stove]

I just hit 200 followers and I want to thank you all.

the mishaps of ladybug and kuro neko should have another chapter out by the weekend.

as a treat.

[ao3feed-ladynoir]

The Mishaps of Ladybug and Kuro Neko

The Mishaps of Ladybug and Kuro Neko by BornofFlame

It's been almost fifty years since Marinette's used a miraculous. And unfortunately, someone's stolen the butterfly and the peacock.

So when the missing miraculous turn up in the US, she's forced to hand out a new team of heroes, finally hanging up the mantle of ladybug forever.

Virgil did not sign up for a kwami(?) that's obsessed with cheese curds.

Roman is ecstatic that he has the ladybug miraculous, after all, superheroes are cool!

Logan wants to live his life and avoid racial slurs, too bad the annoying ass heroes keep destroying his fucking bedroom.

Patton spends his time hero chasing, maybe he'll get a super power one day too!

Janus is done™

Words: 804, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug, Sanders Sides (Web Series)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M, M/M

Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Tikki, Plagg, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Deceit | Janus Sanders, Morality | Patton Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Trixx, Pollen, Wayzz, Duusu, Nooroo

Relationships: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Logic | Logan Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng & Janus|Deceit Sanders

Additional Tags: Logan and Virgil are half Japanese, Roman is amodel, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders Has Heterochromia, Miraculous Ladybug Love Square, patton is basically alya, Racism, Superheroes, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, janus is a bully, But only for a bit, Virgil likes Roman, but Roman likes Kuro Neko, but Kuro Neko is platonic with Ladybug, Who is actually Roman, it's a mess, Original Akuma, Akuma Attack

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26709913

[sentient-stove]

The Mishaps of Ladybug and Kuro Neko- Chapter 3

Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug, Sanders Sides

Relationships: Patton & Roman, Roman & Virgil, Roman/Virgil (way down the line), Remus & Roman, Logan & Virgil, Janus & Marinette Dupain-Cheng  (More later)

Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Virgil Ito, Logan Ito, Patton Hart, Janus Dupain-Cheng, Roman Prince, Remus Prince, Tikki, other kwami

Summary:  It’s been almost fifty years since Marinette’s used a miraculous.  And unfortunately, someone’s stolen the butterfly and the peacock.So when the missing miraculous turn up in the US, she’s forced to hand out a new team of heroes, finally hanging up the mantle of ladybug forever.

Virgil did not sign up for a kwami(?) that’s obsessed with cheese curds.

Roman is ecstatic that he has the ladybug miraculous, after all, superheroes are cool!

Logan wants to live his life and avoid racial slurs, too bad the annoying ass heroes keep destroying his fucking bedroom.

Patton spends his time hero chasing, maybe he’ll get a super power one day too!

Janus is done™

Chapter Summary: First akuma!  Oh my....

Notes: hey, im back lmao.

AO3 |  Previous | Next

Logan was halfway out the door the next morning when the walls of the small apartment caved in.

Well, it was more of a smashed in actually and he was flung back into the apartment among the debris, head smacking against concrete and instantly dying upon impact.

And thus went Logan’s first experience with an akuma.  Unfortunately for him, it would not be the last time that he’d be killed by one.

…

Virgil was halfway to school when his phone buzzed with the only person that he actively followed on Twitter, some boy at his school who was obsessed with the old superheroes from years ago.

He pulled out his phone and looked at it, brain not comprehending for a moment.

Oh.

Virgil looked up at the sky and sighed.  “Fuck.”  

He looked around at the empty street and sighed, opening his slightly damp bag and looking down at the kwami inside.

“Hey, so um, claws out?”

Plagg looked up at him.  “No.”

“What?”  Virgil ducked into the side alley and slid to a sitting position on the dirty ground.  “I have to go do hero shit or something before Ladybug kills himself.”

Plagg sighed and flew out to point a tiny paw at him.  “You didn’t give me cheese.”

“I gave you some Ritz crackers!  You know that I’m lactose intolerant!”

“I want cheese curds.”

“I’d have to go to the fucking Wharf to get those!  They don’t make them here in California, that’s a Wisconsin thing!”

Plagg blew a raspberry at him and Virgil sighed.

“Fine, but I’m booking it to the Wharf and the second you have your damn cheese curds, I will transform.”

“Sounds good.”

Virgil stood, snatched the kwami out of thin air and stuffed him into his bag, shutting the flaps and booking it in the direction of Fisherman’s Wharf.  There were probably closer places selling the cheese, but Virgil really only could remember the one gourmet cheese shop that had opened two years ago there.

Not to mention, cheese curds were disgusting.  They just tasted like plastic to him.   Virgil skidded around a corner and almost ran into a businessman who was talking to someone on a phone.  The man yelled an insult that Virgil ignored as he crossed the street, almost getting KO’d by a car.

Yeah, he didn’t really have a sense of self preservation.  He made it to the Wharf in about fifteen minutes- would have been sooner if he had been at home, but alas, and when he entered the cheese shop, a cheery bell rang, alerting whoever owned the place that they had a customer at eight thirty am.

He didn’t exactly know where to look, but in the back of the place, they had four different flavors of cheese curds.  Virgil sighed at the prices- this kwami was more expensive to feed than the plethora of stray cats that wandered the city.

He grabbed one bag of each flavor and went to the register, placing them on the counter.

“Can I get this?”

“Sure hon.”  The woman smiled and rang them up, he brow furrowing.  “That’ll be twenty seven dollars and fifty four cents.”

Virgil pulled some rumbled bills out and set them down before meticulously counting out the rest of the change in the nickels that lived in his pockets.

“Do you want a bag for that?”

“Uh, no thank you.  And I don’t need the receipt, thanks.”  Virgil grabbed the cheese and rushed out, heading away from the tourists and towards where he could hide.

He turned down an alley and knelt, tearing a hole in his jeans as he opened his bag again and offered some cheese curds to the kwami.

“Thank you.”

“Fuck you, you little chaos demon.”  Virgil bit out as Plagg ate the cheese slowly, seeming to enjoy the squeaking sound that it gave with each chew.  When the kwami finally swallowed, Virgil stood.

“Plagg, claws out, or I--”

Green light enveloped him in a yelp.

…

Roman hit the akuma with his yo-yo fruitlessly as the monster roared at him and swung.  He only managed to jump out of the way before it’s giant fist crushed through the roof of the building he’d been standing on.

“Come on Kuro, where are you?”  He muttered as he rolled to the right, a massive foot coming down right next to him.

“HEY!”  a voice shouted. Kuro Neko.

Roman sighed in relief as his partner yelled something intelligible at the akuma, getting a stoney fist thrown his way.   The black clad figure leapt gracefully over it and used his staff to jab it in the eye, which only enraged it further as he landed next to Roman.

“Sorry LB, I was in a different part of the city.”  Kuro looked up and then tackled them to the side as the akuma roared.  They rolled for a few feet before stopping and Roman quickly got up.

“Thanks.”

“Yeah.  Do you know where the akuma is?”

“It’s right in front of us.” Roman said blankly.  “Oh, wait, you meant the object!”

Kuro rolled his eyes and then launched himself up to dodge a stone hand as Roman threw the yo-yo around one of the arms and used that as a swing.  They landed on a roof next to each other and Kuro’s face fell.

“It’s going to keep destroying if we can’t figure it out.”

Roman nodded.  “I know.  I think the akumatized object is in his foot though.”

Kuro Neko tilted his head in confusion and Roman bit back a comment about cats before pointing.  

“That foot’s a different color than the rest of the stone.”

“Okay, what do you want me to do?”

Roman blinked.  “Well, can you go around front and distract the akuma while I call the lucky charm and figure a plan real fast?  Try to keep it stationary.”

Kuro Neko nodded and jumped off the roof, going into a quick freefall before pulling out his staff and using it to safely land.  He ran between the akuma’s feet and to the front.

Roman bit his lip and pulled his yo-yo off his belt.  “Lucky Charm!”

A red and black spotted bicycle pump came flying down and he caught it, frantically looking around as he tried to figure out a plan.

Nothing, nothing, there!  Roman nodded and jumped off the roof, landing on a balcony that hadn’t been destroyed yet.

“Kuro Neko!”

“What Ladybug?!”

“When I say go, use your cataclysm on the underside of it’s foot!”

Kuro made brief eye contact with him, before resigning himself to the fact and nodding.

Roman took the bike pump and a flowerpot from the balcony before jumping off that and landing on the street to steal an umbrella from the food cart that had somehow not been crushed by the fighting.

He combined the items into a weird spinning thing.

“Now Kuro!”

Kuro didn’t respond to him, but Roman heard a faint “Cataclysm!”   and a roar as the akuma turned to attack the spinning umbrella.

It’s foot was right above him when Kuro Neko came out of nowhere, holding up the hand that had the Cataclysm activated.  The foot came down as Kuro used his free arm to pull Roman to him so they were hip to hip.  Roman dimly noted that his partner’s eyes were closed tight and the second the Cataclysm came in contact with the foot, black spread in veins from the spot.   The stone crumbled away and fell to dust around them, a purple glowing butterfly flapping out of the dust.

Roman threw his yo-yo forward.  “No more evil doing for you.”

The akuma was trapped in the yo-yo and when it got it back, he opened it, watching the white butterfly flap out.  “Bye bye butterfly.”

Kuro’s arm left from where it was wrapped around him and the black cat hero sighed.  “Oh my god, I’m going to have nightmares.’

“Hey, I’m sure you’ll be fine.”  Roman freed the bicycle pump from the contraption and smiled at Kuro Neko.

“Miraculous Ladybug!”

Ladybugs burst from the Lucky Charm, repairing the damage around them as the pair watched in awe.

Roman turned to Kuro.  “Thank you.”

Kuro Neko might have smiled, but Roman didn’t know, after all, his partner’s mask covered the bottom half of his face, leaving his green and blue eyes uncovered.

“Yeah, you too Ladybug.”  Kuro Neko held up a fist.  “Pound it?”

“Pound it.”  Roman grinned then paused as his earrings beeped and Kuro’s ring flashed.

“Well, until next time?” Roman asked casually.

Kuro turned away and then paused.  “Ladybug, we need to eventually figure out who has the butterfly miraculous.”

“Of course, but we don’t know anything right now.  We’ll figure it out.”

Kuro nodded, then extended his staff, using it to launch away, leaving a starstruck Ladybug to watch him disappear before turning himself and yo-yoing away.

…

Logan opened his eyes.   He was standing in the doorway of his apartment and he thought that he could vaguely feel like something was off….

Huh.  He’d remember eventually.  He shut the door and locked it before heading down the stairs to go to class.

The back of his head did have a dull ache though.

[sentient-stove]

The Mishaps of Ladybug and Kuro Neko

Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug, Sanders Sides

Relationships: Patton & Roman, Roman & Virgil, Roman/Virgil (way down the line), Remus & Roman, Logan & Virgil, Janus & Marinette Dupain-Cheng  (More later)

Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Virgil Ito, Logan Ito, Patton Hart, Janus Dupain-Cheng, Roman Prince, Remus Prince, Tikki, other kwami

Summary:  It’s been almost fifty years since Marinette’s used a miraculous.  And unfortunately, someone’s stolen the butterfly and the peacock.So when the missing miraculous turn up in the US, she’s forced to hand out a new team of heroes, finally hanging up the mantle of ladybug forever.

Virgil did not sign up for a kwami(?) that’s obsessed with cheese curds.

Roman is ecstatic that he has the ladybug miraculous, after all, superheroes are cool!

Logan wants to live his life and avoid racial slurs, too bad the annoying ass heroes keep destroying his fucking bedroom.

Patton spends his time hero chasing, maybe he’ll get a super power one day too! 

Janus is done™

Chapter Summary: Introduction of characters

Notes: What do you get when you mix someone who likes Miraculous Ladybug and Sanders Sides?  me, writing this!

AO3 Next

It was raining.

Of course it was, why was Virgil even surprised at this point anymore? The teen flipped his hood up, sighing when glitter cascaded around his face, no doubt put there by some kid during class.

Fuck, he hated San Francisco.  It was too loud, and it rained so often, but not often enough to bring an umbrella wherever you went.  The only good thing about the city was his brother, and even then, Logan was hardly ever home.

He crossed the street nervously, heading towards the general direction of Chinatown, knowing that no matter what his bag was going to be soaking when he got back.

“Hello?”

Virgil stopped in his tracks and turned around to see that an older woman was struggling with what looked like flour bags, hesitant to go out in the rain.

“Can I help you?”

She smiled at him, bright blue eyes warm.  “Thank you so much!” 

Virgil took off his hoodie and draped it over the bag that he took.  “It’s not much, but hopefully it won’t get wet as badly.”

“Aren’t you worried about getting wet?”

“If I get wet it’s fine.  Where to?” 

She led him down winding streets, in the almost exact opposite direction of where he wanted to go, but by now the rain had faded to a light drizzle and the woman was kind, chattering the entire walk.

They stopped in front of a building that looked like it was made of mirrors and Virgil carefully handed the bag back, reclaiming his damp hoodie.

“Thank you.”

“Anyone would’ve done the same.”  Virgil responded nervously.

“Hmm, maybe.  I never got a name, I’m Marinette.”

“Virgil Ito.” 

“Well, you’re quite the hero Mr. Ito.”  Marinette gave him one last smile before entering the glass building, leaving Virgil to shiver slightly in the rain, unaware of a small box that had been slipped into his bag.

…

Marinette watched the newest black cat miraculous holder walk away, hunched over as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders.

Someone who was willing to destroy themselves to help others.

“Do you think you made the right choice?” Her kwami, Tikki floated out of their hiding place and floated in front of their owner.

“I hope so.”

…

Logan Ito was home early and so when Virgil came tromping in, soaking wet and remnants of craft glitter in his hair, he was there to watch curiously.

“Otoutosan, where were you?” He called from his spot in the kitchen.

“Doesn’t matter!” There was a thudding sound that Logan assumed was wet converse against the wall. “Did Janus pour glitter on you?” Again. 

“No Ani- leave me alone please!”

“Virgil!”  Logan finally left the kitchen to watch as the door to their shared room was slammed shut.

Logan stared at the door for a minute before sighing and knocking on it.  “Do you want me to make Kusa?”

“No… Just leave me alone, I wanna be left alone.”

“Vee, you have to eat today.”

“Maybe, just let me sleep Ani.”  Virgil’s voice sounded muffled from the other side and Logan could bet that his little brother was on the other side, burrowed in a ton of blankets.

“I will, but you have to eat before Jared comes home.”

Otherwise neither would eat tonight.

…

Patton was busy.  He had been sitting in front of his editing board for almost three hours, messing with the newest footage that his friend Roman had sent him.

Oh this was gonna be the best AMV ever.

…

Janus watched as his gramma pulled out the ancient looking oval that held her ‘magic jewelry.’  He didn’t believe her when she said that it was the one that owned something called a miracle box.

She didn’t know that he was in the vents, watching her office, but after nothing interesting happened, Janus snaked backwards and disappeared back out of sight.

He did notice later that the ring that his gramma had worn since the death of his grandpa was gone.

How curious. 

…

Roman wiped makeup off his face as he listened to Patton talk about the newest edit he’d done, this time featuring heroes from the last decade, including Roman’s personal favorite- Ladybug from back when the original Hawkmoth had surfaced.  Sure, it had been almost forty years since the spotted heroine had shown her face, but she was so awesome!  Out of all the Paris heroes, she was his favorite. 

And he got to work for the company of someone who had met Ladybug!  MCD Designs were awesome employers and the only time that Roman had met with Marinette, she had shaken his hand and thanked him.

Him!

Gosh, she was amazing.

Roman wished he could be like her, or Ladybug.  Maybe both, yeah both was perfect.

…

Remus really didn’t mean to become the bad guy.

But who cared anyway?

[sentient-stove]

The Mishaps of Ladybug and Kuro Neko- Chapter 2

Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug, Sanders Sides

Relationships: Patton & Roman, Roman & Virgil, Roman/Virgil (way down the line), Remus & Roman, Logan & Virgil, Janus & Marinette Dupain-Cheng  (More later)

Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Virgil Ito, Logan Ito, Patton Hart, Janus Dupain-Cheng, Roman Prince, Remus Prince, Tikki, other kwami

Summary:  It’s been almost fifty years since Marinette’s used a miraculous.  And unfortunately, someone’s stolen the butterfly and the peacock.So when the missing miraculous turn up in the US, she’s forced to hand out a new team of heroes, finally hanging up the mantle of ladybug forever.

Virgil did not sign up for a kwami(?) that’s obsessed with cheese curds.

Roman is ecstatic that he has the ladybug miraculous, after all, superheroes are cool!

Logan wants to live his life and avoid racial slurs, too bad the annoying ass heroes keep destroying his fucking bedroom.

Patton spends his time hero chasing, maybe he’ll get a super power one day too!

Janus is done™

Chapter Summary: Virgil and Plagg meet, Roman and Tikki meet, Kuro Neko and Ladybug meet.

Notes: I want to write for Whumptober and then my brain focuses on this :/  what is wrong with me XD

AO3  | Previous | Next

Virgil upended the contents of his bag onto the small pull out bed that nested under Logan’s. Half of the sketchbooks were soaked beyond ruin and the others were wet, but he could probably hang them to dry and they’d be okay.

He wrapped a blanket around himself as he sat down, slowly beginning to sort through the mess that was on his bed.

There was an origami box among the books and Virgil lifted up, confused. The paper was dry and it wasn’t even slightly smushed from being in a teenager's backpack.

So obviously he opened it.  Virgil had often been compared to a cat with his stupid amounts of curiosity and gosh damn it, he was going to live up to the stereotype.

The box almost fell apart, a glowing ball of light flying around him a few times before condensing in front of him.

“What the--”  Virgil fell backward as the cat-like creature opened its eyes and yawned.

“Got any Camembert?”

“What?” Virgil shook his head.  “I’m lactose intolerant and it’s not like Chinatown’s gonna have fancy ass cheese.”

“Chinatown? Where are we?”  The cat thing floated to look out the dirty window before turning back to the emo.

“San Francisco, 2065.  United Commonwealth of States.”

“Huh.  Where’s Chat Noir? Do you even have cheese here? Oh, does cheese still exist? You’re probably my new holder, I’m Plagg.”  The cat, no, Plagg did an odd flip in air while Virgil tried to process everything.

“Are you talking about Paris Chat Noit? Or Noir I guess...”

“Noir, yes.  Adrien Agreste? My old holder.  Oh! I can say his name now!”  Plagg looked excited for a moment, before his face fell.  “oh…” 

“What does that have to do with you?”  Virgil held out his hands to catch the small cat thing, who had a look of melancholy on his face.

“It means that he’s dead if I can say his name.”

“I’m sorry Plagg.”  Virgil gently scratched the top of the creature’s head.  “So you were Chat Noir’s familiar?”

“Kwami.  I, with the ring, gave him his power.  Ladybug, with her kwami did the same.  You wanna be free?”

Virgil looked back to the origami box.  He could see the ring there, black and green tempting him.  “I don’t know.”

“You’re nothing like Chat.  I like that.”  Plagg flew out of Virgil’s hands and down to the ring, picking it up and placing it in the teen’s palm.  “To transform, say ‘Cat Daddy.’”

Virgil looked horrified.

“I’m just kidding, you say ‘Claws out!’  I had to prank you.”

Virgil slipped the ring on, watching as the green faded out and it shrank a bit to better accommodate his small hand.  “Do I need to feed you first?”

“No, I haven’t been used in a while.  Go ham Virgil.”

“Claws out?” …

Logan opened the door to the shared room, expecting to see his brother curled up in a mound of blankets, not an empty room with an open window.

“Fuck.”

…

“Fuck.”

Virgil listened to Logan move around the room, completely unaware that there was a slightly new hero outside the window.

At least the outfit wasn’t ridiculous.  Virgil felt slightly… off, as if his usual style had been pushed to the left and then a few extra embellishments had been added.  There was also an added strength and when he jumped, he felt like he was launching himself way higher than needed.

Don’t panic, don’t panic, just get used to moving…. 

Virgil faceplanted on a roof, almost crashing through someone’s laundry.  It was painful and by the time he peeled his face off the ground, someone was on the roof, staring slack jawed.

“Hēi māo, Hēi māo!”  

That probably wasn’t good.  Virgil couldn’t understand them, and so he shrugged and jumped forward, clearing them easily and landing on the next roof with less difficulty.

He could get used to this.

…

Roman found a small octagonal box on the dressing room makeup counter, a note to him on top.

The box was small, looked old and it easily fit into the palm of his hand.  Roman held it and shakily opened the note, hoping that it wasn’t a termination of work.

Roman,

It seems that the services of a ladybug hero are needed once again.  I trust you to wield the power of creation.  Good luck, kwami knows you’ll need it.

(I recommend heading in the direction of Chinatown to meet your partner.)

The rest of the day is yours,

-Ladybug

Roman slipped the note into his pocket, excitement bubbling up inside him as he opened the box.  The effect was instantaneous, a glowing ball of pink solidifying into a strange creature.

“Hi!  I’m Roman, and you are?”  

The creature blinked, almost surprised.  “I’m Tikki and I am your kwami.”

“Cool… This is so cool!”  Roman bounced on his heels and looked back to the box, noting the familiar earrings that rested there.

“How much do you know about your new powers?”

“Nothing, except that these earrings give me magic powers and I have a partner near Chinatown.”  Roman set the box on the counter in front of him, pulling out the earrings.  They flashed, and once he’d blinked the stars from his vision, two gold studs sat in his hand.

“I’m gonna have to pierce my ears, aren’t I?”

“Yep, but the earrings will prevent you from getting an infection.”

Roman sighed and bit his lip as the first earring went in, wincing as he put the backing on and did the other ear.  “Ow, shit, that really hurts.”

“The pain will fade.  Would you like me to explain how to transform?”

“Sure.”

“To detransform, you say Spots off.  And to transform, it’s the reverse, ‘Spots on.’  While transformed, you will have a power that you can use one time before you have ten minutes to detransform and feed me.”  Tikki smiled and Roman nodded solemnly.

“Tikki, Spots on!” 

…

Virgil was barely getting the hang of it when the blur of red and black slammed into him, sending them both crashing to the ground in a dirty alley.

“What the fuck??”

“Language! Unless you’re a villain, then I guess the foulness is implied!”

Virgil hissed and squirmed out from under the person, blinking rapidly as he recognized the black and red pattern.

“You’re the new Ladybug?”

“Why so disappointed Alley Cat?”

“Not my name.”  Virgil spat and when Ladybug didn’t respond, he sighed.  “Kuro Neko works I guess.”

“Is that Chinese?” “No dumbass.”

“Dumbass doesn’t work as a superhero name.  And besides Kuro, we are in Chinatown and you do look like some anime emo hero.”

Virgil grit his teeth together, glad that Ladybug couldn’t see it due to his mask, which covered the bottom half of his face rather than the top.  “Japantown and Chinatown combined after 2036.”

Ladybug’s brown eyes blinked a few times before he seemed to snap himself out of the thought.  “I’m sorry for being insensitive.”

“It’s nothing.”  Virgil stood and held out a hand.  “Truce LB?”

“Sure thing Kitten.”

“Hell no on that nickname.”  Virgil pulled his new partner up and laughed as Ladybug pouted.

“Then you can’t use nicknames on me.”

“Ah, but there’s the kicker Scarlet.  I have a bunch to use since you didn’t rename yourself.”

“But Ladybug is English!  It works!  I don’t see why we don’t call you Black Panther… oh wait…”  Ladybug trailed off, his expression slowly growing more confused as they stood there.

Virgil smirked, gave a two fingered salute and grabbed his staff from the ground, using it like a pole vault to catapult himself back to the roof.

“See you around Bug Boy!”

And with that, he was gone.

…

Roman watched Kuro Neko leave, feeling excited.   His partner may have looked dark and vaguely emo, but holy hell, did he have a sharp tongue.

He was 100% Roman’s type and he knew that he was screwed.