Adrien wasn't upset that he hadn't made the plane. Nor was he upset that his father, Nathalie, and his bodyguard did make it.

A little guilty, maybe.

But not upset.

"So you're just… at home?" Nino's voice was tinny through the phone's speaker.

"Yeah, I guess," Adrien said with a shrug. "I don't think father's going to send a plane back to fetch me. It wasn't important that I went anyways." The conference was really only meant for the business people—stockholders, marketers, all the admin and their secretaries—not the models. His father's insistence on Adrien going was just to keep Adrien from being alone for holiday break, so they could come home on Christmas, do their thing, and everything would be kicked right back into motion the next day. It was a good idea, in theory.

But only in theory.

Adrien had gone along with it for sake's sake and nothing else. Spending the holidays with his father guaranteed to be around was enough of a gift as it stood, was already a far cry from the sweet nothings he'd been so close to getting last year. It was a chance, and Adrien was going to jump on it no matter what. It beat spending Christmas alone.

But then came Chloe's Christmas party. Everyone was going because everyone was in town, and they were bringing their friends and their friends' friends and their families along for the ride, except him of course. Nope, Adrien was not allowed to go. There was a conference in Milan, his father had said, and a party was not going to get in the way of that, let alone one so abhorrently dangerous as that one. Adrien had a seat on that plane, and he was going to sit in it.

He'd nodded along to it, a bit sadly. It was still a holiday season spent with his father. He put that ahead in his mind, over top of the celebrations in Paris and the time with his friends and all the fun that was promised at home. He went ahead and told Ladybug that he'd be gone, let his friends know he wouldn't be at the party, and he accepted his father's 'request' with a nod of his head.

Until he realized that he was not going to be spending the holiday season with his father, not in the slightest. They would share little more than the plane ride there and the plane ride back—the rest of his time would be spent with the Gorilla, wandering around the hotel while his father went on to do other things with Nathalie by his side. No time spent together. Nothing he'd hoped for. The opposite, really.

Even then, Adrien still planned on going. His father wanted him to go, and so, like it or not, Adrien was going to go. That was just how things worked—no objections, no 'but father's, no nothing. He really hadn't meant to miss the plane.

That was Plagg's fault.

Plagg had dilly-dallied about at one of the airport restaurants for about twenty minutes. And Adrien couldn't find him. He'd gotten so many weird looks around the restaurant, running around like a mad man and hissing out some strange name, that, when he found Plagg snuggled up in a pair of wool socks in the store across, he was frustrated to say the least. And then, since he'd had to lose Gorilla to look for Plagg in the first place, he'd gotten himself lost in the airplane terminal. His name had been called out over the intercom, but by that point he was in the local section of the airport, completely and utterly lost, not sure where in the world he'd taken the wrong turn or which terminal he was even supposed to be at.

Half an hour later, Adrien wandered out into the front of the airport, having given up, called his dad with his most panicked voice and a conjured excuse, then ended up taking a cab home. Airport security called off the manhunt his father sicced on him, and the plane was long gone—no Milan, no meeting, no missing the party.

"I mean, you didn't want to go, right?" Nino was still there on his phone, going on.

"Not really," Adrien said. It sounded more like a question.

"That's awesome. Chloe's party, here we come," Nino said. There was a voice from somewhere in the background yelling out Nino's name loud and clear. "Mom's calling me. Good luck, dude."

Adrien laughed. "Thanks Nino. See ya."

"Bye."

And with that, Nino's face vanished from the other side of the phone. Adrien caught his reflection in the screen before the Skype screen popped up in its place, flashing on that Kim was idle and Alya was online, and he watched as Nino's little icon went grey. Offline. He sent out a quick text on the class' group chat about being home, then closed his phone and plopped it on the table.

Spinning around in his chair with a sigh, Adrien leaned back and took a look up at the ceiling. First day of Christmas break, and he was already bored. The party wasn't until 8:00 on the 22nd, just about 24 hours from then. Meaning Adrien had 24 hours to burn. He was all alone in the house—his father had given the staff the whole next week off—so until his father came back, he was free to do whatever he wanted, only Plagg by his side.

Plagg, who had the remarkable ability to lower his impulse control to that of a toddler.

Plagg, who also had the impulse control of a toddler.

A whole house and a whole four days to themselves.

It was going to be a great weekend.

"So, I may have missed my flight." Adrien sank down onto the platform beside Ladybug, letting his legs dangle off the side of the tower just like she did. There was a big smile smack dab in the middle of his face. He was in a fantastic mood.

After he'd made a call to Ladybug, he'd spent an hour or so wandering around the house for no good reason, just trying to figure out what was in those rooms he never visited. He'd found a handful of guest bedrooms, still made up though they'd probably never be used; the Gorilla's office, which he didn't know existed; a sauna they had for some reason; and a whole bunch of other weird rooms. He bookmarked the sauna in the back of his mind for later, not knowing what else to do with it.

It'd been fun, just wandering around like that, with Plagg floating around his shoulder and chatting along freely. And now, he got to just sit there and bask in the company of Ladybug, no akuma and no nothing to disturb their peace (hopefully, that is). Throw in the beautiful Christmas Market glittering down before him, the little stalls still lit up and all the people still bustling about, and he was practically on cloud nine. The missed plane was a thing of the past already, not to be worried about or even thought about.

"You seem… surprisingly okay with that," Ladybug said. "I thought you were going to-"

"Milan, yes," he said, leaning back on his hands. Swinging his legs about, he kept his eyes trained on the city sprawling out before them, watching but not watching as the cars went by and the people walked around. "But my f- dad was just going to be working the whole time."

"Doesn't sound fun."

"Nope, not fun at all." He could already imagine the stiff suits and his bodyguard trailing behind him and the meetings and all the other stuff that came with business conferences. "Now, I've got the whole house to myself and nothing to do. No plans, no being stuck inside, no nothing."

She frowned. "So you're all alone?"

"Yup. Four whole days," he said with a grin.

Just four days, and he could do whatever he wanted. His imagination (and Plagg's) had been going wild for the past hour, going on and on about running around the house and going places and doing normal stuff. He wanted to wake up, go downstairs, and make himself a grilled cheese for breakfast just because he could. He wanted to put on whatever, maybe some sweats and a t-shirt, then walk down the street towards Nino's without having to ask first. He wanted to slide down the banister like a little kid all over again, slide around on the floor in his socks for no good reason, run too fast, poke his nose wherever he wanted—four days, and he could do it all.

But, despite his grin, Ladybug's face was still creased in thought. She still sat there with that thoughtful look on her face, invisible thoughts whirring along behind her eyes, her face unreadable. "Are you…" she started, trailing off. "Are you really okay with spending the holidays alone?"

He shrugged. "Better than watching my dad work."

"Chat… you shouldn't spend the holidays alone. Nobody should." She paused, looking up to meet his eyes. "Are you sure you shouldn't have gone?"

"Alone is better than some business conference in Milan."

She smiled the slightest bit. "It's that boring?"

"I wouldn't say boring." Things were hardly ever boring with Plagg in his pocket and Chat Noir at his fingertips—all he had to do was get himself a bit of peace and quiet, then he could have all the fun he wanted. No, the boredom was the least of his concerns.

Not when his father had apologized before they left to the airport.

Actually apologized.

The words themselves were nothing special, just an apology about the trip, but the apology itself was enough. Normally, Adrien was told to do stuff and he did it, he wasn't eased into it with 'sorry' or 'apologies'; no, he just did stuff and that was that, no questions about it and certainly no apologizing. But having his father apologize for making him do something, let alone for something so seemingly insignificant as a trip to Milan, was bad. He felt the need to apologize for something he didn't normally apologize for. Call him crazy, but that felt like a bad omen.

And, as it turned out, the apology was nothing more than his father saying, 'I'm going to be busier than ever, so we probably won't see each other at all. Sorry.' The apology was a warning, telling him he'd hardly see a lick of his father the entire trip. He'd been dragged to conferences enough times to realize that, when his father said they'd hardly see each other, and when he felt bad enough to apologize for that, then being away was better than being there.

He let out a sharp laugh. "I wish it was boring."

He could do boring. Boredom was easy. But going and seeing nothing but the back of his father's head for four days straight... that was just painful. Thinking about it was enough to put a damper on his fantastic mood.

"You mean…" Ladybug said, still staring out at the skyline of Paris with her face all creased in thought. Something was going on behind those blue eyes of hers, some cogs spinning around and around in silence. "You mean… if you went, you'd have been alone anyways, wouldn't you?"

He didn't answer. Instead, he just tore his eyes away from the sky and looked over to her, not sure what to say. But apparently, that was all the answer she needed.

"Oh, Chat." She looked up at him, met his eyes all over again. "That's… that's not right. That's not right at all."

He ignored the way his heart caught in his throat at the sound of those words she'd said, swallowing it back down. When he spoke, his voice was unsure, hesitant. "My father's trying his best." The words were hollow, fake, lies that he didn't even believe.

By the look on her face, she didn't either.

"Trying his best or not, it's not right. If he was taking you on that trip, the least he could do was spend some time with you."

"Ladybug seriously, it's okay," Adrien felt himself say. "I would've managed."

"Kitty, you shouldn't have to."

He didn't respond. He wasn't sure he could if he tried, if his voice would even work.

"Your dad should… should put you above business." She took one of his hands in hers, squeezing it in reassurance. "The holidays are about family—in Milan or not. He should get that."

Again, he didn't answer. He didn't even try to defend himself or his father. Silence just settled between them. Only the clamor of the market and the ice rink below interrupted their quiet, and even then, they were just distant, white noise that made the wind seem less stifling. They filled the space, but they didn't take it up. The silence was still there, the wind still howling in their ears as neither of them talked.

She was right.

He remembered his mom, how she'd asked his father to move a conference to get it away from the first week of summer break, just so the three of them could go to the Caribbean. He remembered her smacking his father upside the head with the same message Ladybug was saying, over and over and over until he finally relented and moved the conference.

That'd been one of the best summer breaks he could remember, his mom and his father right by his side. And it'd only happened because his father had moved the conference back.

Family could come first, if only his father gave it a chance.

"Chaton, you shouldn't feel alone." Ladybug's eyes glittered like the festival far below. "Your father should be there. Especially on the holidays."

"Ladybug, it's fine," he said. But his heart wasn't in it, there was nothing behind the words, only her words running through his brain over and over. He hated how his voice wavered, how he clenched his teeth together. He hated how hard those words hit home, how Ladybug's simple little statement had snowballed into something that cut so much deeper. He wasn't even convincing himself this time.

And neither did he convince her, apparently.

"No, it's not," she said softly, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze. "But that's alright. We can fix this."

A slight smile came to his face, no words on his tongue or thoughts buzzing around his brain; only the promise of spending the holidays with people, around his friends and the people he considered family, like he was supposed to do. He was supposed to warm up by the fire with them by his side, maybe a cup of hot cocoa in his hands. He was supposed to have them all by his side—Plagg, Ladybug, Nino, everybody he cared for beyond compare.

A business conference in Milan was not how you spent the holiday season.

Family was.

He and Ladybug sat like that in silence for a little while, her hand leaving his to tuck between her legs to warm her cold fingers up with mutters about it all that he understood clear as day. There was nothing really to be said, just the two of them basking in each other's company like any old pair of friends. They weren't the most typical picture of friends—there was too much spandex, too many secrets, and too much danger for that—but that wasn't what mattered. It was just them, sitting there atop the Eiffel tower.

It was a while before he spoke. And even then, it was only at the sound of his stomach's impatient growl, meaning it was time to go home and cook up some dinner for himself. He didn't mind that he didn't know how to cook much; he was a man of simple tastes, and he would try his hardest to make it work as best as he could anyways.

But he had to go home to get to food, which meant it was time for the two of them to be parting ways.

"I should get going," he said, standing up slowly. "Dinner to cook." He stretched out his back with a relieved sigh, and a smile came to his face.

"Wait."

Her voice was as soft as the winter breeze, just over a grumble but not quite a whisper, enough to catch his attention nonetheless. She didn't really need much more, not when the only other sounds were the soft howl of the wind and the dull murmur of the market far below.

He looked down at her, that smile still curled into the corners of his lips. "Yes, m'lady?"

"Do you have anybody to stay with? Until your dad comes back, I mean," she said.

"I've got the best group of friends a cat could want. There's no need to worry."

"Kitty, it's practically my job to worry over you."

"And protect Paris."

"Yeah, and that," she admitted with a smile. "But... I mean, if your dad's not there, then I'm more than happy to hang out."

He couldn't ask that of her. No way was he going to accept that. Just because his father wasn't home didn't mean that she had to be away from her family. "I'll be okay, m'lady," he said. "Trust me."

Concern was still dusted all over her face.

He had no choice in the matter, did he?

He let out a defeated sigh. "If you're really worried," he said, "Then maybe we can meet up at that party tomorrow?"

"If you won't be too busy…" She leaned back, swinging her legs a little bit for good measure, her entire body just uncoiling from that tense position she'd been in only a minute before.

"It's a date."

She laughed. "Sure."

He stepped up to the edge of the tower, his hand steadying himself on a beam, leaning out over the city as he'd done countless times. But he didn't leave yet. No, he lingered there for a moment in silence, the wind whistling right on by his head and the cold seeping into his fingertips.

He looked back at her. "Ladybug?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks."

She just smiled back.