Oop! Hiya, so yeh i've kinda been loving all that time travel stuff lately and maybe i've been nagging myself to write some instead of reading one after another hopelessly trying to get a kick i'm only gonna get outta writing it - so here we are! anyways as always these characters alas are not mine but i hope you enjoy! By the way i wrote this in a sick rush to be warned for some mediocre af writing.

- me

It was the week after her 16th birthday and as far as Marinette was concerned she had everything she wanted, here she sat in a swamp of new and various fabrics a choc-chip cookie hanging half eaten between her lips as crumbs spilt across the pink of her cut off pants, Tikki excitedly flip-flopping about in circles waxing sloppily about how life truly was looking up and invitation from Alya to stay over at her apartment tomorrow night with Adrien and Nino, and Adrien. Her heart flip-flopped much like Tikki as she squealed excitedly at the belated birthday celebration. Life was serene and Marinette couldn't ask for more, time with Adrien, akumas were relatively dormant, more time with Adrien, new fabrics, free birthday candies which she was still working through, more time with Adrien...

She giggled at the implausible state of euphoria her life seemed to be sedated in, she had been able to talk to Adrien for little over a month now, but it hadn't been much more than idle chats in group conversation, this - right here would be the first time in an intimate setting. Him, her, Alya and Nino all together, all evening. She had to admit she was slightly nervous it hadn't been long since she had gotten over her stalker-ish-tendencies. I mean she had only just taken down the photos a month or two ago, it was baby steps. Baby steps. It was strange to think she had been crushing on him for a year and a bit, it was awkward even. To have known his every move and schedule but not be able to string a sentence together near him further than a few syllables.

Oh God did this mean she had been Ladybug for almost a year and a half too? Marinette thought about it for a minute before nodding in shock, wow she had been at this since she was 14 and a half - she was practically an old woman now.

"Wow Tikki, I've known Chat for a year and a half - I should get him something. I'm sure at least one of his birthdays would have passed by now." Tikki nodded, agreeing with Marinette before swooping in and lifting her second, or was it third. Cookie from the plate further crumbs tumbling to the floor but what did it matter, life felt infinite right now, and Marinette felt invincible - crumbs and all.

It was an hour or so later when the sun had long since began its descent, that Marinette flung out her bedroom window, a small, sewn paw charm in hands for a certain feline and her face set in a contagious smile as she headed out for patrol.

"Long time no see Milady, I have to say you look paw-itivly purrfect." The Cat smiled, his teeth glinting in the sun's sinking light as he stretched up and strode over to Ladybug, his eyes tired and faintly disassociated as he looked into hers - it made her smile tip faintly, concern suddenly in her mouth.

"Chat you okay? You-" But Ladybug was snapped off abruptly, Chat waving a hand dismissively and flashing another smile with model-like accuracy. This isn't him.

"I'm fine now that your here Bug." He grinned, his eyes deceiving his face as they, unlike his mouth, looked at her like a storm at sea, turbulent and anxious. It was obvious behind them waves were swooping and crashing before they could reach their arch - chaos was ensuing and Ladybug, instinctively, wanted to help.

"Chat-" She reached out, her hand extending towards him as her heart beat a little faster. His suit flexing away from her touch before she could reach his warmth.

"I said I'm fine Ladybug! Just leave it, please." He snapped, jumping back and pushing his hands forward, projecting the space between them as his eyes fell to look anywhere but Ladybug and her soured face. His head hanging as Ladybug stayed frozen with her palm openly outstretched, blue eyes blinking beneath heavy lashes as her tongue swiped out and over her drying lip. Chat dipped his head up, still avoiding her eyes, squinting and flinching as we looked into the wobbling sun. Sinking as it died and shrunk behind building after building, painting them gold as a final adieu before the darkness swept over.

Chat's chest rose, air swelling in his pink lungs before breathing out. Shaking blond hair as the flickers of sun slipped off the stands and he stretched his neck to look at his lady, his expression frustrated. Blinking over burning eyes from too many nights spent awake and feeling the sting as the lids wished to stay lying there.

"I'm sorry." He sighed out, a subtle side smile twitching on his lips as he looked back at his Lady's paled face -She was worried, she didn't need to be worried.- Her perfect teeth tugging on that perfect pink lip. "It's just I've had a lot on my mind recentl-" Chat's syllables trailed off, eyes widening up as he sunk his teeth into the wilder smile that grew under his mask. "What's that in your hand?"

Ladybug stuttered, slipping back a step as the smile that was on her face as he partner turned back at her dropped. "What, Oh it's nothing." She quickly lied, silly little presents didn't even patch on her partner's happiness; plus - what good is reminding him that the girl he pines after doesn't even know his birthday going to do?

"No the thing you're trying to tuck behind your back - did you bring me a gift?" Ladybug visibly cringed, tripping over herself as she shuffled back another step, lurching out the way as Chat reached out to snatch at her clasped hand. "Oh Bugaboo, you do care!" He called out as he chased her across the roof, sprinting after her as she laughed out - part in frantic relief Chat had seemed to cheer up and part in competitive panic as he ate up her footfalls. Leap after leap.

The two sprinted in unknown circuits, Chat trailed after Ladybug, reaching for her hand as she stayed constantly an arm's length away. Her giggly breaths as she flashed a look back at her predator between streaks of black hair that loosened from her pigtails, spurring him on inches and inches closer. The evening suddenly illuminated by moon instead of dying sun stretched over their skins as phone screens pointed up at them from below in the weaving streets. Buzzes of people commenting on their exploits as they launched away and after each other, Chats fingers grazing against ladybugs as he finally pulled her down and snatched the keychain between his paw, falling on his back as he rolled with the impact of his win.

Eyes widening he smiled, toying with his small achievement and chuckling to himself as he rotated the small prize, chest heaving and sinking as he lay out of breath. His heart thudding in his chest, throat and stomach in pride and affection. "What's with the reluctance, Lady?" Chat whistled, still grinning like a Chesire Cat and humming sweetly. "It's just a keyring. I could pick up the same one from any gift shop - Or is it?" Chat wagered as Ladybug nibbled on her lip, hand on hip as her own chest rose up and down. Breathless, they had run over uncountable rooftops.

"No, it's um- handmade I got a have a friend who makes them er."

"Marinette." Chat finished when he shouldn't have, slipping his thumb over where her name was stitched in silver under the seam of felt, it was a risk. Marinette knew that, signing her own name. But it was her trademark and she thought she hid it well enough. That sneaky cat just had to go and find it. But Ladybug was less taken aback by this and more so by the way, that Chat whispered Marinette with too much affection to know her through her work.

That and she really wasn't well known enough to be known solely by her work.

Still, it shouldn't be giving her any sort of fluttering butterflies in her stomach.

"Do you- ha, do you know her." That seemed to snap him out of it, his glazed eyes flicking back up to Ladybug as she waltzed her fingers between each other.

"Oh- erm well. That would be telling." He stuttered and then decided, a smirk stretching on his face with flirty confidence as he recovered from his distance and hopped up to stand beside Ladybug. "And we can't have you finding out my identity can we now Bugaboo."

"No." Ladybug settled, trying her hardest not to overanalyse Chat's unwillingness to admit to knowing Marinette or not, instead smiling. "Well, she was making little symbols of Paris' superheroes and I thought maybe she could make me a keyring for a certain feline friend of mine."

It made his heart swell, heat tingling through his veins and jittering his nerves. He knew he shouldn't be worried, it shouldn't be keeping him up at night as it had been. People really did care. His Lady cared. "Thank you." He caught himself utter between thoughts, still sinking in the warmth of feeling appreciated.

Ladybug went faintly ever so quiet, he looked so sincere, so content to get something as small as a keychain she made in no more than five minutes. It reminded her of Adrien, how bubbly and bright he had been when he thought his Father bought him that scarf. He was just so fragile she didn't want to be the one to pop it, they are both so fragile. - "Yeah well, we've spent over a year together, I thought you would have at least have to have had one birthday since then." Ladybug grinned, waving it off as if it was nothing. She didn't want to dwell on this for so long his emotions had already been so extream.

Chat's own smile fell slightly as Ladybug's worry began to play out in front of her. "Yeh." He breathed out, looking her in the eye then back down at the paw print. "We really don't know much about each other. We're practically strangers."

Just as fast as it had fleeted in Chat's sentiment was gone, the warmth that fell around him slipped away in a cool breeze as the night air swept suddenly around them. "No Chat, don't say that. - You know you're more than that to me."

"Am I really though Ladybug? I see you what once, twice a week? And hell! I don't even know what you look like - You don't even know my birthday."

"Chat-" Ladybug tried to reach out, pulling her hand towards him as he shuffled away from her.

"It's sick Ladybug, I'm this invested in you and I can't even get you a damned birthday present." He shouted, blood heating and heating till it burned. It hurt, it signed as the pent-up anxieties and sleepless nights exploded onto Ladybug. He was unloved, rejected. He couldn't escape from being Adrien. Hell Ladybug knew Adrien - knew Adrien from billboards and the numerous posters across the city, advertisements and fashion campaigns. She knew the Adrien that his father cultivated, not the Adrien that he was inside.

Whoever that was.

"Chat, I know you care-" Ladybug tried to shout over his spiralling thoughts, she was watching him drown as he clutched onto the keychain for some semblance of stability, felt heating in his hands.

"Forget it Ladybug, I'll see you Friday." Chat sighed, turning his back and hanging his head. His heart hammered feverously to argue on but it seemed pointless - it would only distress him further.

"Chat what about patrol?" Ladybug knew she was grasping at straws as she watched him trying to sink into the royal blue of the night - it wasn't quite dark enough for him to fade away. Not yet.

"You finish up. I don't really care all that much tonight."

Eek so i know- i know this really isn't probably the best thing i've ever written but argg i think i might have a plot plan for this - maybe?

I also think this might be pretty Adrien POV heavy 'cause i like writing him.

- Me