Chat Noir closed his eyes, a brief moment of rest for his pained head before he opened them again. Even in the moonlight, the light seemed directed right into his skull. Wincing, he only opened his eyes to a slit, trying his best to keep up with Ladybug on the patrol. When a siren went off from a nearby ambulence, he cried out, covering his sensitive ears with his fists. He crouched and tried to fend off the waves of pain.
"Chat," she said. "Chat, are you alright?" He hadn't even noticed that she had stopped beside him. She looked concerned.
"J-just a migraine," he answered quietly. "I just need... a minute." Ladybug sat down and prepared to wait a few minutes. Chat felt grateful for her quiet patience.
After a minute of crouching in a tense position, he moved to sit beside Ladybug, careful to move slow and quietly to prevent further pain in his head. She made a soothing noise deep in her throat, like the buzzing of a bug's wings. He leaned his head on her shoulder and sighed.
"Ladybug, have you ever felt pain like this?" Chat whispered. It felt like his skull was being piledrived by a block of concrete, pulsing with pain every moment.
"All the time," she responded quietly. "But never in Miraculous form." She lightly smoothed his messy hair down on his head, lightly stroking him in a comforting way. He let out a feeble purr.
"Why? What hurts you, my Lady?" Chat knew this might be getting too close to civilian details, but at the moment, he couldn't bring himself to care.
"It's not physical, chaton. I have some real anxiety. Therapy hasn't been helping recently. And there's school bullies who only make it worse."
Chat opened his eyes wide for the first time that night and looked into Ladybug's eyes. Although her voice never trembled, he noticed that her eyes had a slight tinge of redness around the rims, as if she had been upset earlier that day. "Ladybug... I never knew. I always thought you were so... powerful. Unstoppable."
Ladybug laughed, a bitterness creeping into her voice. "Chat, if only you knew. A rich girl at school makes me feel like shit for not being able to even talk to my crush without having an anxiety attack. He barely knows I exist."
Chat looked down at his feet. He knew she had a crush on another person already, but it still hurt. "I don't even know if I could even date him while keeping my identity a secret, so it's probably going to result in nothing, anyway," she added, sounding sad. This only made him feel worse. Lady Luck should only have happiness, not heartbreak.
Chat closed his eyes again, nestling in closer to Ladybug, the pain in his head reminding him to take it easy again. He phrased his words delicately so as not to reveal anything too personal. "That reminds me of a childhood friend. She wants to go out with me, but I could never trust her with this secret. And the way she treats others... she's the opposite of what I want to be. But I'm afraid to stop being her friend. I might be alone."
"You'll always have other friends, Chat," Ladybug told him, taking hold of his hand. "Even if you don't, we'll always be partners. Ladybug and Chat Noir. Saving Paris."
"Thank you, my Lady," he replied, blinking away tears from his eyes.
Letting go of his hand, Ladybug patted him on the shoulder and stood up. "Should we call off the patrol early? It seems quiet out here, anyway." Chat Noir agreed, and the two went their separate ways, both feeling better and worse than when the conversation had begun.