Waking up before the sun was even out should have been the first clue that this was a bad idea. Transforming into Chat Noir to jump out the window with a duffle bag in one hand and his school bag in the other should have been the second clue. Once reaching the school, Adrien made sure to ditch his superhero alter ego before going up the stairs to the main entrance.

It was six in the morning. He was a whole two and a half hours early, trying to make sure that he was up and out of the house before his Father or Nathalie would have been able to stop him. The main door into the courtyard was still open,so he walked right in. It seemed odd, walking around with all the lights out and no one else there. Normally when he arrived at school, he would be greeted by his friends. He would see large groups of people making plans for when the day was over. Some kids would be scrambling to copy down the answers for the homework they forgot to do. Instead, the courtyard was dark and empty and silent.

Adrien walked across to the door where everyone's lockers were. Unfortunately, that door was actually locked. "Merde."

"Watch your language so early in the morning." Plagg lazily floated around Adrien's head before sitting on his shoulder.

"Sorry." The teenager let out a sigh, leaning his back against the brick wall by the door, and letting himself slip down until he was seated on the ground. He pulled his school bag into his lap, opening it up and pulling out a paper bag and a circular box that his kwami recognized immediately. He set the box of camembert on the ground and watched Plagg rush to it. Then Adrien opened up the paper bag and took out the food inside. Before leaving he had made sure to pack himself something for breakfast; A bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon, a chocolate croissant, a bottle of orange juice, and a thermos with his favorite kind of coffee. Sure, it was just a bunch of carbs, but it was good. "This is a dumb idea, isn't it?"

"It's only dumb because you don't have place to stay." Plagg said through mouthfulls of cheese.

"I'm going to stay at Nino's."

Adrien would have said more, but the main door opened up and one of the teachers, whom he recognized for teaching the higher level courses, walked in. The man stared at Adrien as the boy stood up from his seat on the ground, shaking off the dirt.

"I got here early to work on an assignment." The blonde lied. The teacher seemed to accept this, and disappeared at the top of the metal stairs, only to later return with a ring of keys. Adrien said a quick "thank you" when the teacher unlocked to door to the lockers. Once inside the room, he rushed to his locker and made room for the duffle bag he had brought. It took a bit of pushing to get it inside the locker, and then even more moving around to make it look like it was supposed to be there. By the time he had finished getting settled in, the early birds began to make their way into the school. Max was one of the first to show up, and he honestly looked surprised that Adrien was even there, but he didn't ask any questions.

As more people started arriving, Adrien began feeling more confident in his plan. All he needed was to go through the day like normal. On break he would go back to Nino's house and take his bags with him, and if anyone asked then all he had to do was say he was spending the night. It was easy. "Nothing could possibly go wrong." He muttered to himself.

"What are you saying over there?" A hand slapped the back of Adrien's shoulder, which freaked the teen out until he turned and saw that the very friend he had just been thinking about was behind him. Nino looked way too energetic for the morning, but that might be the lack of sleep talking. "You good for tonight?" Nino whispered.

"Yeah." Adrien smiled. "Thanks again for this man."

"Don't worry about it." The two walked over to Nino's locker. "What are friends for?"

"Right."

"But I'm not sure how long you can stay at my place for. My parents are going to get weird about it eventually." The tanned teen grabbed hold of everything he would need for the morning classes.

"That's fine." Adrien said. "It's just until I figure something else out anyways."

"It's so cool that you're actually doing this!"

"Cool isn't exactly the word I would use…." The pair walked into their classroom, which was starting to fill up.

"Oh come on man!" Nino threw his backpack on top of his portion of their shared desk, and pulled his chair out before sitting down. "You're taking your life into your own hands, that's pretty cool."

"I guess?" Adrien sat down in his own seat, hanging the strap of his shoulder bag on the back of his chair. He open up his bag and started to pull out what he needed for his first class.

The day was very nerve wracking. It felt like any minute someone from his father's company might call him or the school. He also made sure to be extremely careful whenever he opened his locker during breaks. There was no way he was going to let himself get caught, not on the first day at least. Maybe if it was a week in or so, but he hadn't even gotten the chance to take his stuff to Nino's yet. There was no way he was going to-

"What's with the bag?"

Zut.

Adrien turned around and saw Alya, standing directly behind him, peeking over his shoulder. A few steps behind her, and looking as though she was trying to keep her distance, was Marinette. Immediately Adrien shut his locker door. "Nothing. Nothing is with the bag."

The first of the girl's threw on a skeptical face, her eyes squinting behind her glasses. "Oh really now?"

"Yes, really." The blonde teen tried his best to act calm. He looked around for possible things to help him. Nino wasn't around to take control of Alya, and it's not like he had other friends to help him out…. For a split second, he made eye contact with Marinette, who immediately looked down at the floor. "You believe, don't you?" He asked the pigtailed girl.

Adrien didn't know Marinette too well, but he knew her enough to know that she honest and easy to put your trust in. "U-um." Adrien watched as Marinette immediately straightened her back, her arms and legs going stiff. "Well, I totally belieb- I mean, believe you, because if you say so then you're probably telling the truth. I mean, you don't really have a reason to lie."

When Marinette finished stumbling over her words, Adrien just smiled his thanks. She was a nice girl, and he felt a little bad deceiving here, but he didn't exactly have a choice this time around. He closed his locker, and spun the dial of the lock.

As much as he hated to say it, Adrien was a runaway. He'd been contemplating it every since his father became the uncaring man he is now. Of course, he never thought he would actually go through with it. Adrien had put up with a lot when it came to his father's overprotective nature, but so many little improvements had been made that it seemed as though everything could work out in the end. Now he was able attend an actual school like a normal human being, hang out with other people his age, and his life as Chat Noir gave him the freedom to see every possible inch of Paris. It should have been the dream.

Unfortunately enough, the dream didn't last. His father got more and more distant as the days went by. Adrien quickly became desperate. He didn't plan on being gone long; maybe a week or so. He just wanted to be gone long enough to cause a little worry, nothing major, and it wasn't like he was going to completely flake on his responsibilities. It wouldn't be hard to keep going to school, especially with Nino helping him out.

But, of course, every plan always seemed to fall apart.

"Go home, she said. It's not right to sneak out like this, she said. It can't be all that bad, she said." Adrien kicked a rock on the sidewalk. His hands were shoved into his pockets, with his school bag on one shoulder and his duffel on the other. It was already past ten o'clock, and he had been ready to spend the night, but the second Nino's parents overheard them talking about how Adrien wasn't planning on returning home, they sent him away in hopes that he would just go right back.

"Oh calm down." Plagg sighed. "Let's just go back then! We can go get more camembert, play video games, not sleep in the streets…"

"You don't get it Plagg. I wanted to prove a point here." Adrien tried to explain it to his predicament to his kwami for the umpteenth time. It wasn't news that human problems didn't seem to bother the floating black cat…bug…ghost...thing… That didn't mean that Adrien wasn't tired of all this. Especially now that his entire scheme had fallen through. He didn't want to go back home now, but he just didn't know what else to do. He didn't have any other close friends, especially not any who would put up with him and risk cops knocking at their door.

Adrien found himself walking into the park near his school. He walked around the fountain in the center a few times before deciding to sit on one of the benches until he could think over his next move. The blonde boy leaned back against the wood of the bench, lifting his arms up to stretch them above his head. He sat for a few moments, looking up at the sky just in time to see the lights of an airplane that was flying however many thousand feet overhead. "This sucks." He muttered. "Maybe I should just transform or something."

"What good would that do you?" Plagg was fiddling with the zippers of the dufflebag.

"I don't know. But Ladybug is on patrol tonight, so maybe I could find her and think of something?" It wasn't necessarily a bad idea. She might know a place he could go for a little while. Even if he didn't find her, swinging around the city late at night was a good way to cool his head after all this. Adrien rubbed his fingers over his ring, twisting it back and forth around the digit. The question of whether or not he should transform strung itself up in his head, and he wasn't too sure how to answer it still. "To be or not to be- I guess."

Who knows how long it was before Adrien finally made his decision. If he couldn't find a place to sleep as Adrien, then he could at least find a nice rooftop somewhere to crash for the night until he could rethink the whole situation. He stood up from the bench, holding a closed fist in front of his chest. "Plagg! Transf-"

A large clanging became the loudest sound in the park, breaking through the usual Paris background noise. It wasn't just one sound, rather, several noises strung together in what sounded like the crash track of an old sit-com tv show. Adriene was surprised that it didn't end with the sound of a car horn and a screeching cat. The teen looked around for the source of the noise. Behind a hedge he saw the silhouette of a figure over a pile of garbage. His eyes widened when he was able to see in the street light's glow just enough to make out one of his classmates, specifically Marinette, the girl who sat behind him. He watched as she frantically tried to pick up a fallen trashcan, setting it upright once more, then looking at the pieces of trash that had fallen out of it. As Adrien walked closer, he could see the worried expression on her face. She clearly didn't know what to do with the trash. While it was funny to watch, the girl clearly needed help.

"Marinette?" He voiced, walking closer to her.

The pigtailed girl looked as though she had lept out of her own skin. She stumbled and barely saved herself from tripping on air. His classmate whirled around to see who had called her name out so late at night. "Who's there?"

"It's just me. Adrien." He stepped into the light, letting himself be seen, hands open in front of his chest to show that he came in peace. He watched as the girl's face went through several phase changes. At first she had looked so concerned about the figure that came out of the darkness of the park, then her eyes grew large, eyebrows shooting up her forehead, her mouth opening and closing rapidly as she looked for words.

Marinette was always an odd one. She didn't speak too much to anyone other than her best friend Ayla, but that didn't mean she didn't have any friends. From what Adrien could tell, she was in the good graces of everyone in their class; except for Chloe. Those two always seemed to have a bone to pick with each other. Marinette didn't talk too much to Adrien though. He figured it was just because she was pretty shy. It wasn't uncommon for her to stutter over her words, just like now. It looked like words were running through her mind at a mile a minute, but none of them seemed to be able to form into actual sounds. Adrien waited patiently none-the-less. He looked at the pile of trash on the ground, noticing a soda can by his feet. He picked it up, and went to put it in the bin.

"Wh-why are- oh. Thank you." Marinette said as her classmate picked up some of less disgusting looking trash. "I mean…. Wh-why a-are you here A-Adri-Adrien?"

Adrien offered the pigtailed girl a smile in hopes that being friendly would help her calm down. "I just kind of… ended up here." He picked up another few pieces of trash, noticing that the girl across from him did as well, and wiped his hands off on his pants. "I could be asking you the same thing though."

"I, um, I went for a stroll, er.. Walk. Yeah, 'cause, you know.. I live- my house is- my famil- I live nearby." A red tint ghosted over Marinette's cheeks as she spoke. She nervously picked at the hem of her shirt. It was then that Adrien took note of the relaxed clothing she was in. While he was still in the clothes he had worn to school, Marinette wore a pair of gray and white polka dot shorts, with a pink sweatshirt over what looked like a tank top. It was clearly her pajamas. Why she was walking around in the middle of the night in that was beyond Adrien's comprehension.

"I guess I was almost doing the same."

There was a moment of silence between them. Adrien scratched at the back of his neck. He didn't know what to say. Thankfully enough, he didn't have to speak first.

"Weren't… Weren't you s-sup-posed to go to Nino's?" Marinette asked. Her blue eyes flicked from her shoes, to Adrien's face at record speed.

"Yeah. I was supposed to." The sigh he let out was unintentional. He didn't necessarily was to bring attention to his current predicament. He didn't want to involve someone like Marinette, who was so far removed from the whole situation. At the same time… Here was an opportunity to talk to someone other than his lazy kwami, and he trusted her enough not to talk about it to anyone else. "Hey…. Do you want to come sit with me for a bit?"

"Thank you." Marinette said as a water bottle was handed to her. This was definitely not how she expected this night to go. It had just been another night of patrolling her favorite city, swinging from rooftops with her yo-yo as Ladybug. Thankfully, it had been a quiet night as far as akuma attacks went. As it got late, she decided to turn in for the night. Normally she would have just gone straight to the terrace on the roof of her home, but since it had been a nice enough night, she decided to land in the park for once. She most definitely did not expect to run into Adrien there.

Adrien. Of all the people, it had to be Adrien. It couldn't have been Ayla? It couldn't have been that lovely old lady who stopped by the bakery each morning? No. It had to be the guy she had a crush on who found her tripping over trashcans in the middle of the night.

She looked down at the water bottle in her hands, and twisted the cap open. It wasn't cold, but it still felt good to drink something. Her Ladybug suit didn't exactly have room for refreshments.

"It's a nice night." Adrien's voice broke the silence.

All Marinette was able to do was nod at first. Her elbows were clenched into her sides. "Um…. So…." She didn't even know where to start. It had sounded like the beautiful blonde next to her wanted to talk about something, but how do you even bring up sensitive subjects without sounding nosy or rude?

"Right. Nino." Thankfully, Adrien brought it up again of his own accord. He began explaining the situation. There weren't a whole lot of details mentioned. He talked about how he needed space from his home life, and how he had felt like it was suffocating him . Apparently he had planned on spending a few nights at Nino's just to get away. It sounded like it should have been a good plan. "His mother found out why I was over though, and she told me to go home." Adrien continued. "I've been sitting here trying to figure out if I should just go back or not."

"Where…. um…. " Marinette tried to figure out how to say what she wanted to say, but still sound sympathetic. This was a situation she thankfully was not familiar with. She'd never wanted to run away from home before. Her family had always been so good to her and understanding, that there was never the need to even think about the act. "Where would y-you sl-sleep? If-if you don't, don't go home I mean."

"Ah…. That's the question isn't it?" The laugh that the boy let out was like a breath of fresh air. His eyes squinted as the corners of his mouth curled into a slight smile.

Despite the smile on Adrien's face, a frown formed on Marinette's. That wasn't good. Was he just planning on sleeping on this bench or something? That wasn't good at all. She knew very well how smart this boy was. How could he possibly consider sleeping outside in the middle of Paris? Granted, he may not have been aware of how dangerous this city could get, but Marinette knew first hand how this city got when the sun went down.

Now, maybe it was thinking about Adrien sleeping, cold and alone on a park bench, or maybe it was just her good nature that spoke for her. Her words came out of nowhere, and for once, they were perfectly clear.

"Want to stay at my place?"