She flew across the rooftops berating herself for sleeping through her alarms-all seven of them-again. If Tikki were an any less understanding mentor, Marinette was sure she would have been dumped for a less tardy pupil by now. Thankfully, though, she'd managed to be under the proverbial and literal wing of the kindest soul she knew; that didn't mean she made training easy. Tikki may be compassionate and encouraging, but she was demanding and it made Marinette work three times harder. The idea of disappointing her...well, Marinette chose not to dwell on that feeling because she refused to let it happen.
She flapped her wings faster, her eyes scanning the awakening horizon for obstacles and the quickest route, but her mind wandering back to the sky. Dawn was her favorite time of day, and being able to watch it break-on the rare occasions she woke up on time-was even further incentive to train with Tikki, even if it did mean lying to everyone she loved about her secret life and concentrating every single moment of every day in order to not accidentally transform into a ladybug. She was pondering this, gazing in awe at the shifting colors of the sky when she flew straight into one of the very obstacles she was supposed to be looking out for. Luckily it was plush enough that even at her significantly enhanced speed, she merely got the wind knocked out of her. She ruffled her wings, shaking off the impact and steadying herself in the air when she looked to what she had hit.
A black, fury face stared back at her. A cat. Her brain named the animal easily, but one look into its much too intelligent eyes and her métamorphe instincts sounded the alarm. They regarded each other for an eternal moment, Marinette not daring to utter a word and give herself away in case this was actually what she thought it was. Then the bell tower tolled in the distance and she was officially late for practice. Her wings reacted instinctively, quickly carrying her away and towards Tikki even as her mind stayed with the black cat, stuck on one shocking realization: that definitely wasn't your typical alley cat.
Adrien was having a shitty night-or was it morning? He looked over and saw the dawn just trying to break and shook his head. Night, he decided. Anyone happily waking up at this time and calling it 'morning' was clearly a sociopath.
He'd managed to escape the festivities at his house earlier that night celebrating his father's...promotion… and had ended up running the length of the city twice over in an attempt to forget the party at his house celebrating an occasion that would turn his home-life into a further living hell.
He took a breath and tried to calm himself. He always got a little...catty when he transformed. Hazard of shifting into a black cat, he supposed. He'd often wondered what that said about his true self, that his métamorphe gene had been activated and it showed his inner animal to be a common alley cat. He tried not to dwell on it too much.
Arching his back languidly, Adrien stretched out his exhausted muscles, enjoying the slight burn of their well-worked lengths. Plagg had found him wandering around the city, of course. They had cancelled training for the night, Adrien expected to be his father's shining golden boy for the evening, but that hadn't lasted long, and Plagg probably guessed as much. His mentor always seemed to find him exactly in the moments he wanted to be left alone. It was those moments that he probably needed someone most, but he wouldn't give Plagg the satisfaction of him admitting that.
The ornery man had challenged him that night, correctly guessing that Adrien would rather focus on anything other than the thoughts swirling in his own mind, and throwing him into an impromptu training session. Hours later, after rolling his eyes constantly at Plagg's sarcastic remarks and working even harder to prove to himself that Plagg barbs were actually the joke he meant them as, Adrien was thankfully just as mentally exhausted as he was physically.
He jumped agily onto the ledge of the roof about a block from home and dreaming about his nice, warm, comfortable bed... He got lost in his thoughts, leaning closer to the edge and enjoying the precariousness of his situation when a bug hit him right between the eyes and he let out an involuntary hiss.
Except, it couldn't have been just a bug. It felt more like a dull bullet, flying much faster than any insect should be able to. Sitting back on his haunches, muscles coiled and ready to attack, he watched as the ladybug ruffle its wings and right itself in the air, pausing and turning to him as if to size him up. It floated a little closer, but a clock tower rang in the distance, indicating it was five in the morning. As if the insect somehow knew what that sound meant, it backed away and flew off into the distance, disappearing almost instantly and leaving Adrien to wonder if he had imagined the entire interaction.
He licked a paw, rubbing it against his face where the bug had made contact gingerly and hoping that there wasn't a bruise there when he shifted back. No, he definitely hadn't imagined it, and that was definitely no ordinary ladybug.