"Do you ever worry about the future?"
They were the first words she'd said all evening.
They were sitting on the edge of one of the hundreds of churches that littered Paris. There was nothing particularly special about this one except that Ladybug happened to like the view. Chat Noir didn't see what made this rooftop any different from a dozen others, but when she was with him the view was always breathtaking.
Chat leaned over to bump his shoulder with hers and grinned. "With you by my side? Never."
She didn't respond.
"My lady?"
Ladybug ignored his searching gaze, her eyes focused far and away across the smoking rooftops and electric lights of their city.
She had been in a Mood since he arrived for patrol and no amount of kitty-quick grins, stumbling one-liners, or orchestrated falls could shake her from her funk. He'd thought the night would end that way and send him home defeated when she had unceremoniously dropped onto their present perch and gestured for him to join her.
His lady wanted to talk. She just needed some help getting there.
"It's nothing, Chat."
He hummed, his legs swinging out and back. "Isn't that what partners are for? All the little nothings and somethings."
She breathed a laugh. It wasn't a happy sound but he felt it like a victory all the same.
"I just… got some disappointing news today. It's got me thinking."
"That's never good."
Ladybug shot him a look but there was no heat behind it. Whatever the news was it must have stung.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He offered gently. With Ladybug, when it came to her other life, he always had to be gentle.
"An internship I wanted." She hesitated, not meeting his eyes. "Like really, really wanted. They went another way."
"I'm sorry," He said. "That happens sometimes."
Ladybug shook her head, her hands jerking violently in her lap.
"I had it, Chat. I had it. Then there was that ridiculous akuma - right in the middle of my interview. I had to go."
He nodded, quiet. There wasn't much to say when there wasn't anything to change. She had to go. They both did.
That didn't make it suck any less.
"I know being a superhero is all about self-sacrifice." She sniffed, gesturing out towards the horizon and Paris. "I guess I just never really thought I'd have to sacrifice so much of myself, you know?"
He didn't know. At least not in the way she wanted him to.
Chat Noir was the choice he never had to think to make.
"How can anyone take me seriously when I'm always disappearing?" Ladybug murmured and it amazed him how much could be said with so little.
She sounded so small.
"There are only so many times I can cry akuma before it's just… me."
Chat slipped his arm around his partner's waist and pulled her close. "It's never just you, Bug."
Because sometimes all you can be for a person is there.
Ladybug hiccupped a small, sad laugh. "It's too bad being a superhero doesn't come with a retirement fund."
He squeezed her shoulders. "If you end up on the street I'll be in the cardboard box right beside you."
"Oh?" She said, pulling away just enough to catch his eyes. "You wouldn't want to share?"
Chat flashed her a devilish grin. "I'll have you know, my lady. This cat won't purr unless it's collared."
Ladybug really laughed then, leaning her head on his shoulder.
"Thank you, Chat."
"Anytime, LB."