A/N: Hey! thanks again fro being patient with me and for all your lovely reviews. Ive been having a little bit of writers block but I think its getting there. hopefully its not getting to stagnant. I have a few more chapters knocked out and being edited ready for uploading so they shouldnt be too far behind this one. On a side note I have an awesome story in the works alongside this one which im really excited about but im mostly excited for this books sequal! its burning a hole in my brain so now I have to finish this story love you all - bug-out-
The problem with emotional sleep is that you wake up puffy eyed and not really very well rested at all. He had slept in his clothes which were now wrinkled, his hair was a mess and he had shadows under his eyes. He had indents in his neck where Plagg had been sleeping and a line across his face where his arm had rested. He could hear his assistant knocking on his door.
"Sir? – Mr Agreste? The meeting starts in 15 minutes. It will take us 10 minutes to drive there. Sir? Mr Agreste? Are you awake?" he could hear her tapping on his door with her knuckles.
Crap. He had overslept and looked a mess, he had no time to sort himself out and here was his assistant ready to take him to a meeting with Chloe and her father about – something – he couldn't remember what or even if he had been told what it was.
He dragged himself off the bed and made a noise to confirm he would be ready in 5 minutes so his assistant left. He washed his face, brushed his teeth, pulled his hair back into a pony tail and let out a sigh in relief that it was long enough to that.
He quickly changed out of his clothes and into fresh ones and patted some concealer on under his eyes. He had found the stuff in his bathroom from his modelling days and he was glad he hadn't chucked it. It seemed more clumpy than he had remembered and it was 5 years old, but it did the job he supposed. He couldn't do anything about the lines on his face at the moment so he called to Plagg who flew to his pocket and made his way downstairs.
As he descended the stairs he caught a whiff of a beautiful floral smell and looked up to see Marinette walking through towards her office room. He smiled stupidly at her and she blushed and nearly bumped into a large flower arrangement.
"Your car is here Mr Agreste, after your meeti-" His assistant had been talking but he walked straight past her to Marinette.
"Morning Mari" he said, the stupid grin on his face unable to be wiped off and he felt himself get heated under the collar of his shirt.
"Morning Adrien" Marinette returned his greeting and blushed a little deeper to go with it.
"I- I hope you slept well?" Adrien managed to stutter out, he wasn't really sure what he was saying.
Marinette giggled "Better than you by the looks of it" She reached up and brushed his cheek with her thumb, where some of the powder had obviously not blended as well against his stubble.
Her hand stayed there, brushing longer than it needed to, green met blue, cheeks turned red.
"Mr. Agreste?"
Eyes blinked, a hand moved away. The moment however brief had ended and left Adrien feeling cold and lonely and desperate to feel Marinettes touch once more.
"Ah, sorry, um, what's the meeting about?"
his assistant sighed, "The mayors daughter wants to commission a designer dress for herself and demanded she meet with you. Its not something we would usually do" she pushed her glasses up her nose at obvious distaste to Adriens management methods. "but her father insisted and you gave it the ok-"
"Of course" Adrien smiled as he remembered. "Hey Marinette," he called after her as she reached the door of her office. "As my lead designer I'll need you with me today" He flashed a smile at her and the pink rose back to her cheeks.
"Road trip, m'la- la-late mother would say..." she seemed to buy his covered up words.
"Oh, well, yeah of course Adrien, Ill grab my sketch book." She went into her office and he heard her knock over two something's and trip over what he presumed was her chair. She returned to his side holding her sketch book and looking a little more flustered but pretending nothing had happened.
In the car, Marinette couldn't help but notice Adriens assistant looked a little annoyed with the change in circumstance. She wondered if his assistant maybe had a crush on Adrien too. Her thoughts drifted lazily to Chat as she stared out the window.
If his assistant liked him then maybe he would get with her? Jealousy wound its way around Marinettes stomach. But then she had Chat and why would Adrien want to be with her? A single mother of a one night stand from a superhero who no longer wanted her either. She sighed a small sad sigh.
She felt a hand on her knee. Looking up she was face to face with Adrien. "Are you ok Marinette?" he asked, voice smooth and full of calm and comfort and concern.
She felt her eyes dart to his lips and wondered what they would feel like. Her memories raced to kisses she had shared with Chat on that fateful night. Rough yet smooth, passionate and longing, hungry and full of desire for her. His ladybug.
"Mari?" she snapped out of her reverie once more.
"Oh sorry Adrien, I'm fine, I just- didn't get as much sleep as I wanted I guess" she smiled at him and he smiled back.
"cat nap for us both later I guess" he winked. She blinked but decided not to respond.
'Dammit Adrien get a grip! Your letting your Chat show'
The meeting with Chloe went surprisingly well, She had great taste and Marinettes expert skills made the meeting run a lot shorter than they had planned. Chloe and Marinette had put aside their negative feelings for each other a long time ago and now where actually good friends.
"I look forward to seeing it," she jingled as she talked "and Mari, I'm sure you understand that I needed it to be Agreste branded for this event otherwise I would have went to you anyway?"
Marinette nodded, and smiled, Chloe had been one of her best and most frequent clients for 2 years now and she was happy to be working for her again only this time in a more prestigious brand name.
They walked down the steps towards the car, chatting happily. "Did you want to go somewhere for a brunch break?" Adrien suggested.
"I'd love too-" Marinette started to reply as an alarm to an expensive jewellers down the street started beeping. "um- but – maybe – another time, I just remembered I have this thing- and its – near here and I- er - see you later-" she ran down an ally that lead to nowhere as Adrien laughed softly. If only she knew.
He turned heel and decided to follow suit round a different corner.
"hello bug-a-boo" Chat charmed in as he picked one of the robbers up on his baton.
"Leave me alone Chat!" She scolded at him "I can handle this on my own"
"come on LB, it will just be like old times" he held onto his pole as he felt it moving as the man on top tried to free himself somehow.
Ladybug swung her yo-yo out and caught the last of the robbers and tying then up together. "This isn't an Akuma Chat" she breathed heavy, and snapped the infinite string and adjusted the loop so they would stay put and she could still have access to her yo-yo "you need to-"
Ladybug pounced on him and sent him flying into the wall and his prisoner he had caught escaped and ran all in the space of a few seconds and a very loud bang was heard.
"Chat, - CHAT! Are you ok?" she felt his arms and torso.
"I'm feline fine m'day" he crooned back at her. "but maybe we can take this somewhere later after we have caught the thieves" he winked
She stood up and turned her back to him "Chat this is no joke. These are NOT Akuma and we are not immune to stabs and gunshots. We need to find that man." she swung off and he processed together the pieces. The wriggling man, he had a gun. Ladybug had saved his life.
Extending his baton once more he flipped himself up onto the roof. He could see police officers searching the area for the escapee as the others were carted off into a van. Ladybug in the distance swinging over rooftops also looking.
Closing his eyes he concentrated. He could have looked like he was sleeping. He stood still. His cat ear twitched. His head inclined. His eye snapped open and he jumped in the direction. He could hear the breathing of the man. He was a cat, a predator, on the hunt. Lady bug swung by.
"this way" he called out to her. She looked at him and ignored him.
His eyes narrowed. She really didn't trust him. He pounced on the rubbish bin the man had taken refuge in and held him still in a locked position with his baton against the mans chest and arms wrapped around the baton, drawing him back so the man yelled in pain.
Hearing the commotion Ladybug swung back and landed next to Chat. He held a fist out to pound but she ignored him. She tied him up with her yo-yo and pressed a button on her ear piece headset which chat only just noticed.
"apprehended, off regal ally behind the big house on the corner" she walked towards the light at the end of the ally dragging Chats prey behind her. She paused in her tracks, without turning she spoke to him. Voice full of anger, sorrow, loneliness and regret.
"This isn't a game Chat, we are not teenagers any more. I have responsibilities. There is so much more at stake. My ladybug charm doesn't fix non-akuma actions. If you get shot, stabbed, cut... the suit doesn't protect us from everything... I'm used to working alone. You compromised all of us today. Just - just stay away Chat"
She continued to walk away. Out of sight. Chat let his transformation drop. "what's the use Plagg?" he held out a slice of cheese for his kwami but for once Plagg ignored it in favour of talking to Adrien.
"Kid, just keep it up, she will see your hearts in the right place soon enough. She just needs to learn to trust you again. You can only do that by being there for her." Plagg took the cheese and zipped into Adriens pocket.