A little bit of quiet sad stuff for Valentine's Day because why not?

Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous Ladybug

Misery Loves Company

The moon looks absolutely gorgeous. There's fresh snow on the streets of Paris and it glitters in the late night lamplight. Buses and cabs make their difficult treks through the city as they crunch over snow and turn slowly around corners for fear of slipping. The pigeons are long gone and in their place are the air born waves of powdered snow. Despite the thin layer of clouds above, he can still feel the soft glow of the moon. This part of Paris is quiet. Cat Noir wonders if perhaps that is why his father brought them to live near the Eiffel Tower. Perhaps the famous fashion designer desired to be in the center of everything, to be away from the comforting quiet that would allow him to actually stop and be with his family.

Perhaps family is the exact reason the Dupain-Chengs decided to start their life here. Marinette has told him, both as Cat Noir and Adrien, how much her family enjoys the quaintness of living near a school. This area was built for families, for children, for safety. The park and the school are a short walk from the bakery that Marinette grew up in, and it's stood tall and proud as a beacon for her to come home to. She's not like Adrien, who is eager to escape the cloistering castle he calls home. She returns with joy, her love for her family palpable, and Cat Noir aches (not for the first time) to have some of that joy.

The snow continues to fall. It stings at his exposed cheeks and he takes a moment to run a hand through his blonde hair. He shakes out the snowflakes, watching them fall off his head and get whisked away by a gust of wind that gathers up the stray flakes to fly; it's like a train picking up passengers. He can feel the bitterness in the air and a sharp chill that no magic cat suit can protect him from.

Cat Noir breathes out heavily and considers leaving the private rooftop he's on. The location is great, ideal, and secluded. His father would be furious to hear about his son sneaking off to stargaze on the roof. Leaving the house has become less of a challenge and more of mini-game before starting the main quest. To get here, Cat Noir feels like he has successfully surpassed his small world boundaries. This is the place he wants to be. Maybe it is peaceful, and maybe it is lonely, but it's just him and his thoughts. He doesn't have to pretend to be anyone here. He can wallow in his own frustration and self-pity. His father, Gorilla, Nathalie - none of them will guess that he'll be on the rooftop of a bakery tonight. Nobody, not even Ladybug, can find him here.

There is a clicking sound below him and he stays perched on the curve of the roof, careful not to make a sound.

"Mhmm," he hears, the voice of a girl growing louder as the hatch is opened and his classmate pulls herself onto the balcony. "Yeah, I know that."

She wears the same black jacket and pink pants, and the phone pressed to her ear collects all her attention. He watches her, torn between wanting to give her privacy and intense curiousity. She doesn't seem bothered by the cold as she paces along her balcony, and, somehow, Marinette is his perfectly timed distraction.

"No," she said, "I get it."

Cat Noir wrinkles his nose, his ears perking up naturally to catch some of what is being said.

"I'm just saying," says the girl on the other line, clearly Alya now that Cat Noir is trying to focus, "you've been acting a little different. You're not gushing about him 24/7. Do you even like him anymore?"

"Of course, I do. I'll always like him. I don't have to talk about him all the time to like him." Marinette blushes a pretty pink and Cat Noir wonders if Marinette has ever spoken about someone incessantly in classes. The only person she seems to gush about is Jagged Stone, but it's the way another fan might gush over someone. He assumes that it must be the same mysterious boy she's mentioned previously. It must be the boy that's too blind to see her as she so clearly sees him.

"I've just been busy. Besides, there are other interesting things."

"You mean 'there are other interesting people'?" Alya sounds so much like Nino as she says that that Cat Noir must stifle his own laughter. He's had a similar conversation with Nino.

"I mean that I have a life too, Alya. I can't spend all my time talking about him."

"Girl, what else do you do? Talk, bake, design and school. What else could you be doing?"

"Just... other things," says Marinette. He expects her to laugh about it, to make a joke or brush the whole thing off. He watches eagerly for her light-hearted reaction because her tone is just as light and playful as ever. Instead, her expression grows pained and tired. It's an expression he's rarely seen on her face. Marinette can be frustrated, confused, confident, or pleased. But pained is something Adrien has never seen; pained is something only Cat Noir has seen glimpses of.

Even though she doesn't see him, the same feeling that overtook him weeks earlier returns. He wants to comfort her, to share her sorrows and the burdens she must be feeling. She offered him comfort, and all he did was show her the picnic he'd planned for Ladybug. She'd said she'd enjoyed it, but Cat Noir wishes he could do more for her now in this moment. Her words, even if he hadn't believed them fully at the time, had reassured him. It's almost second nature that he reaches out, two heartaches merging when he looks at her before she turns away.

"If you're moving on, you should let me know," says Alya. "I could help you out with this new guy."

"I don't need help." Stunningly, Cat Noir realizes that she sounds exactly like him now. She's alone, in pain, and she stays there. She doesn't share it with Alya, just as he doesn't share all his pain with Nino. Even Ladybug, his source of joy, is also a source of pain and he could never disclose all his burdens fully to her.

And Marinette is standing in the cold, talking to Alya with that pained expression hidden away from all eyes but his own. He's said those words before but hearing them from her make them mean more to him.

She's a good friend to Adrien; Marinette's a little shy and very clumsy, but she knows how to be a good friend. As Adrien, he feels like he can never really reciprocate that in full. He's got an image to maintain from his father and a questionable friendship to maintain with Chloe. He's trying to maintain something with Marinette too, something that he'd like to call friendship.

Marinette pushes away from her balcony railing and returns to pacing.

"If you say so," says Alya, "but I'm here for you if you change your mind. You know that, right?"

Marinette cracks a smile. "Yeah, I know. Thanks, Alya."

"No problem," Alya laughs. "You're so uptight recently. Get some rest, girl. I don't want you running late to class again. I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"Night," Marinette says softly before she ends the call and sighs heavily into the late night air. "What am I doing?" she whispers to herself. Marinette rubs a hand over her face and turns to head back inside. She lifts the hatch and slips back outside, the door locking with a final click before Cat Noir is on his own again.

It's a few more seconds before Cat Noir climbs down from the roof and onto her balcony. He's not sure what he wants to do, but a part of him is sure that regardless of the action, it has to do with him knowing that he doesn't want her to be alone. And so he does what he's only done a handful of times as Adrien. He does what he wants, half for her and half for his own, lowly stray cat self.

He knocks on her door, and hopes she'll answer.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed!