A/N: Whoot! Managed to get this done before the one month mark of no updates. Sorry for the delay, I honestly have no excuse other than that I was lazy this month. This chapter is longer than usual, so enjoy!

"Manon!"

On instinct I tried to roll over and find myself falling a short distance before my back crashes onto the floor. "Right... Sleeping on the couch." I groan.

The sound of stifled cries barely registers in my ears; if not for my enhanced hearing I probably wouldn't be able to hear them. Even now, in a time when she should be selfish, Marinette is worrying about me. Stifling the cries so she doesn't disturb me. Or maybe it's that she doesn't want me to know. Doesn't want to let me in enough to see the broken sides of her. That wall has always been there, I have one to. I have promises to keep, secrets to protect. I have my reasons for that wall, but what are hers? And why doesn't she want me reaching past it?

"Whatever you're thinking kid, stop it." Plagg hisses. "You can't start doubting her now."

I sigh, pushing myself up to walk across the room. Marinette has agrees. Marinette has her face buried in the pillow, so she doesn't notice me as I walk up. I feel her shaking shoulder freeze at my touch. This was definitely a bad idea.

"I woke you up." She mumbles, sitting up and wiping her face. "I didn't mean to. I'm sorry-"

"Don't." My nerves make it come out harsher than I intended. "You have nothing to apologize for. You dreamt of Manon, didn't you?"

Marinette nods, keeping her eyes downcast. "Her mom doesn't blame me, but she should. It's my fault Manon is gone."

"No, it's not." I retort, sitting next to her on the bed.

"Yes it is, I shouldn't have-"

"Shouldn't have taken your eyes off her for one minute? You couldn't have kept her in your sight the entire time."

I hate seeing her like this. I desperately want to help her, but I don't know how. I want to promise that ladybug and I will rescue Manon, but the truth is that we haven't been much help the police. I reach out and squeeze her hand.

"Please don't blame yourself."

"I can't help it."

"I know, I just...I..." If I push too hard, she's going to pull away me. I have to make her understand what I'm feeling, but I need to to be careful with my words. "I wish I could help. I hate seeing you beat yourself up like this."

We sit in silence for a moment, then she suddenly her arms are around me and she's sobbing into my chest. Instinctively I wrap my arms around her, pulling her tighter against me. Marinette loves Manon, no matter how much she says otherwise. What would I be like in her situation? If something happened to Marinette...I don't even want to think about it. What was it that mother once told me?

"There are somethings you can't fix Adrien. All you can do is be there and try to minimize the damage."

That's what I'm going to do. I'll fight desperately to keep her from falling apart.

Hours later, after Marinette has cried herself to sleep, I tell Plagg about my new found determination and where it came from.

"Kid," Plagg gives me a measured look, "your mother didn't tell you that."

"Yeah she did, it was-"

"Adrien." Plagg cuts me off, "That was Nathalie, not your mother. She told you that a few months after your mother disappeared."

That can't be right, it can't be. "But I...Mother..."

"We'll talk about it another time, kid. Get some sleep for now."

Like I'll be able to sleep now.

"How's Marinette?" I ask Aninta I sit down to eat lunch.

"She's been asleep all morning." She replies, gathering her things.

Anita and I both agreed that Marinette shouldn't be left alone. So, with the help of Nathalie, we arranged for her to be excuse from school for this morning and me this afternoon.

"I called Marinette's parent's on my way to school, like you asked me to. They said to bring her home wherever she's ready. They told me a little bit more about what happened yesterday. Marinette got questioned about Manon's disappearance and according to Sabine, it got pretty intense."

"Intense?"

"Sabine said...well they kind of insinuated that Marinette wasn't being careful enough." Anita sighs. "I get that the police are getting frustrated over these disappearances and lack of leads, but that's not an excuse to blame here. Honestly, I'm glad Marinette was getting ice cream when Manon was taken."

I raise my eyebrows at her, "Why?"

"I've been doing some research about the Akuma attacks. From my understanding, Papillon hasn't gone so far as actively putting someone's life in danger."

"Actually, Jackady tried to make father jump off the roof of a building."

"Oh...well aside from that then. So what if Marinette had been with Manon? She probably would have been captured too, right? To keep her quiet? And if this is a case of child abduction, like the police are thinking, then who knows what the kidnapper would have done to Marinette."

"...You've put a lot of thought into this. We don't even know it's Papillon behind all these disappearances."

"I had nothing to do but think. I should have just gone to school and let you stay here all day, at least then I would have had a distraction." Anita groans. "I even looked up what kind of powers those who disappeared had. The mime guy, a guy who can morph into any animal at will, an exact copy of Chat Noir, a girl with storm powers, that kid who had weird video game powers, and now the Manon, who was able to turn previous victims into their Akumatized selves and control them. If this is Papillon, he's building an army."

"But we don't know it is, so you shouldn't worry so much." I insist, ignoring the way my stomach twists. "Ladybug and Chat Noir have never been beaten."

"They've never fought six Akumatized people before!" Anita argues. "People can be Akumatized twice Adrien! Papillon could be gathering the best of his victims."

"Gathering them for what?"

"To finally bring down Ladybug and Chat Noir? I don't know. But it's a scary thought. Ladybug and Chat Noir might actually lose if it comes to that."

"Don't worry about it for now, okay? It's not like we can do anything about it anyways, we're just civilians." I'm lying to her, the one thing we promised to never do. But I can't let her know. I can't drag her into my mess.

"Right, well I'll go then. Keep me updated on Marinette."

I assure her I will and she takes off calling for The Gorilla.

She trusts me, more than she should. I wish I didn't have to put up barriers with her. I starting to realize though, that I never really had a choice in the matter. My destiny was set before I even met Anita.

"What are you drawing Adrien?" Mom leans in to see my picture.

"It's Plagg." I smile proudly. "He's saving the day."

"Plagg, we need to talk."

"I guess we do." Plagg flies out of my shirt pocket and helps himself to my food. "I knew I'd have to have this talk with you one day. Do you remember that conversation you had with Anita when you started modeling?"

"Yeah."

"Well before that, you had a conversation with Nathalie about how you wished things could go back to normal with your father."

"I can tell that dad is hurting. Things haven't been the same since mom disappeared. There has to be something I can do to fix things."

Nathalie lets out a sympathetic sigh, turning back to me."There are somethings you can't fix Adrien. All you can do is be there and try to minimize the damage."

"And I decided I'd do whatever I could to be there for him." I say as the memory comes flowing back. "But why..."

"Adrien...you didn't take your mother leaving well." Plagg says slowly, "You didn't talk to anyone, even me, for a month. Anita texted you everyday and that's the only communication you'd allow. You didn't actually start picking up her calls until months later."

[How are you today?]

[I don't want to talk.]

[Okay. I'm here for you. Always.]

The more I try to think back, the more I realize that I can't remember much of anything from that time.

"Nathalie was pretty worried about you kid, though I'm sure she'd deny it. I haven't seen her act that way since, so that says something about how you were acting."

"I better go check on Marinette." I say, pushing away from the table.

"Adrien-"

"We'll talk more later."

Mother leaving, her disappearance. Father never talks about it, and I hate even thinking about it. She walked out of my life four years ago and never looked back. She was only supposed to be gone for a year, year and a half at most. She lied.

"So you're the...Keeper of this box that holds all of these Miraculous things?" I ask when mom's finished explaining everything. "What does that mean exactly?"

"It means it's my job to find the Chosen holders when the time comes." Mom replies. "It's why I agree to go on so many trips, so I can hunt for the other holders. It's not often that they have to join the fight against Papillon, but they need to be found so they can be prepared should it come to that."

"Right. What happens in Papillon comes into power before you've found Ladybug and the others?"

"Then I'll have to go into hiding."

"Mom-"

"It's not an appealing idea, I know. But I can't risk Papillon finding me and taking the other three. I'd only have to be gone long enough to find the others." She promises.

A few months later, I find a small black box on my desk. In that instance, I know. She's gone. No warning, no goodbye. She's just gone.

"Adrien," Nathalie's voice is gentle, "your father has asked that you join him in his office."

I sit through dad's explanation and promises to do everything possible to find her before I'm finally free to go back to my room.

"Hey, kid." Plagg greets when I finally open the box.

"She's gone."

"Yeah, I'm sorry."

"I don't get it. Ladybug's avoiding Caleo and me now." I complain to Plagg. "I thought by now things would've gone back to normal."

"You're an idiot." Plagg rolls his eyes. "It's obvious that she's jealous."

"Jealous? Why would Ladybug be jealous?"

"Oh I don't know. This new girl comes in, you fall in sync almost immediately, and you quite clearly admire her. Meanwhile, Ladybug doesn't even get her own nickname anymore."

"You know why-"

"I'm not blaming you." Plagg cuts off my protest. "I know that after being rejected you needed space and pulled back from Ladybug because of that. And when you realized that you have feelings for Marinette, it made things complicated all over again. I honestly think Ladybug understood that, but I think she'd been hoping that at some point things could go back to the way they were. That this space you put between the two of you would disappear."

"I didn't realize..."

"Hold on, Tikki is trying to connect with me." Plagg lands on my knee and shuts his eyes.

I know he can communicate with her telepathically, but I've never actually seen him do it. Plagg said Tikki thinks it's for the best that they don't unless it's an emergency, so they don't accidentally slip and give away their chosen's identity. Plagg thinks it's stupid and that we shouldn't be so bothered with hiding our identities.

"We need to go meet Ladybug Notre Dame. Change into something dark, preferably black, grab a hoodie, and a mask."

"What? Why?"

"Tikki wanted to talk about how much we should tell you guys about Papillon and such, and freaked when I told her you already know everything. She wants to have a talk with me in person, and since Ladybug doesn't want to know your identity, you need a disguise."

"Um...okay. Should I text Caleo?"

"Might as well. I'm sure Rikku will want to stay informed. And if we're going to fill Ladybug in on everything, we might as well confirm what Caleo knows. Make sure she brings a mask."

Maybe telling Ladybug about mother will be a good thing. What she doesn't know, what she can't know, is how wrong she is about my 'instant connection' with Caleo. I knew about the others. I've been holding out hope that some of them would show up at one point; so of course when Caleo first showed up, I was happy. But when she said she was chosen six years ago, I got mad. Caleo was chosen two years before mother disappeared and she never told me. I couldn't help but wonder just how many times my mother lied to me. I didn't want to be angry, so I let myself go over the top with my excitement about a new team member.

I have to fix things with Ladybug.

But first, I need to visit the Princess in her tower.

Marinette is startled to see me, but she looks better. I almost believe the smile she gives me.

"Isn't this the time you're usually supposed to be on patrol?" She asks, a hand on her hip.

"Usually, but I wanted to check on you and give you this." I hold out a folded piece of paper to her. "I know Manon disappeared."

Her face falls. "Oh."

"I know you have your parents and plenty of friends to talk to. And I doubt you'd want to talk to me about this, but I...I wanted to give you the option...just in case. I always carry my phone, even on patrol." I gesture to the pocket holding my phone as evidence. "So...feel free to call me if you ever want to talk."

I'm turning to leave when Marinette suddenly hugs me. "Thanks, Chat." She's crying again, I can hear it. She pulls away, wiping her face. "Sorry, didn't mean to break down on you."

"We're going to find her."

"What?"

"Ladybug and I, we'll find Manon." Refusing to think through my actions, I lean in to kiss her forehead. "I promise you Marinette, I'm going to find her."

I'm gone from the terrace before she can respond.

'Marinette will be upset with Chat Noir if something happens to Manon.'

"If something happens to Manon, Chat Noir won't be around for her to be mad at."

/

"How is it that even with your speed, I beat you here?" Caleo asks when I arrive at Notre Dame.

"I had to make stop along the way."

"Visiting your girlfriend again?"

"She's not my girlfriend!" I protest, feeling my cheeks heat up. "She's having a hard time right now and I just wanted to see how she was doing."

Caleo's eyes glow brighter as she laughs. "Alright, I'll let it slide this time because you're being a gentlemen."

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but your eyes…."

"The glow reacts to my emotions. I'm sure by now you've been training with Plagg long enough to know that our powers become more connected to our emotions as they grow." I nod. "I've been training longer than you, so naturally mine react more. When I'm feeling confident or happy they glow brighter. When I'm insecure, like that night I fought with Ladybug, they slowly grow dimmer. It affects my fire abilities too. I've had to practice a lot of self-control over the years."

Ladybug lands beside me, looking surprised to see Caleo. "Caleo...you're here."

"Um...Yeah, Chat texted me saying we needed to meet. I can go if you-"

"No-it's not-I just..." Ladybug lets out a frustrated growl. "Stay." She orders, then swings away.

"Okay, that was weird."

"She told you to stay, so she's probably not mad anymore." I supply.

"Hopefully. Since we're waiting, that questions game we did the last time the three of us were together; how do you win?" Caleo asks, dropping to sit on the ground.

"Be the first one to get three points." I explain, sitting as well. "We don't really play for points anymore though. There's not enough to ask about."

"Because you have to keep your identities a secret."

"Yeah. When we first started, the idea was to ask a question that wasn't completely invasive about our civilian identities, but also something the other wouldn't want to answer. If you chose to skip the question, the other person got a point."

"Good way to learn more about each other."

"We had to get creative to avoid personal details. Changing names and places, that kind of thing."

"So, since you and Ladybug asked all the questions last time, that means it's my turn right?" I start to protest, but she's already talking. "This girl who's not your girlfriend, are you going to tell her about your double life as a superhero?"

She doesn't beat around the bush. "...Yeah I do."

Thankfully Ladybug's return saves me from further questions. Panting slightly, she holds out a box with a small bow on it to Caleo. "Here."

"What's this?"

"An apology gift." Ladybug explains. "It's a set of phoenix themed pajamas. I figured they were a safe choice since pajamas are more comfortable if they're loose anyways. If they're too big just let me know and I'll fix them."

"Wow….you didn't need to-"

"No, I did." Ladybug cuts her off. "I'm sorry I didn't give you a chance to explain yourself. Speaking of, Tikki is yelling at me right now. She wants to talk to Plagg, and Rikku, if she wants to join in."

"So that's why I was told to wear a mask and a hoodie." Caleo says, letting her transformation drop. She's wearing a simple black mask masquerade mask and a black jacket pulled up, completely hiding her hair.

"Plagg, with me. Now." Tikki orders, grabbing hold of my kwami and flying away.

"Tikki is cute." I say as I turn to Ladybug. "Hey, you're hair is longer then when you're transformed."

Ladybug fingers one of her ponytails that are sticking out from under her hood. "Yeah, I've been letting it grow out. I'm not sure why it's shorter when I'm transformed."

"It's to help hide our identities." Caleo supplies. "My hair is a different length too. What I'm interested in, is why Tikki seems to be mad at Plagg."

"Probably because Plagg didn't tell her that I already know that Papillon has the purple miraculous." I shrug. "And that Nooroo, Papillon's kwami, is evil."

"You know about that?" Caleo gapes, "How?"

"My uh...my mother is the Keeper of the Box."

"You're mother is The Keeper? Wait, then shouldn't you have already known about me?"

"She never told me about you."

"Can we backup a bit?" Ladybug interjects. "Who's this Keeper you're talking about? And this other kwami, Nooroo, is evil? I don't understand."

"The Miraculous, when no being held by chosen wielders, are kept in a special box that contains their power. The person chosen to hold it is The Keeper of the Box." Caleo explains. "Nooroo, from my understanding, was created to do good like the others. But over time she became corrupt. Ladybug and Chat Noir fight Papillon because Nooroo has yet to be captured."

"Well, that's not completely true." I correct her. "She has been put back in the box, but she keeps escaping. She doesn't like being held in place."

"Okay, I think I'm following. And this Keeper...she's your mom?" Ladybug looks at me for confirmation.

"Yeah. But I'm not in contact with her, so you won't be able to ask her any questions."

"I don't understand."

"Yeah, I don't get it either. The Keeper has been in regular contact with Master Fu and me."

I shake my head, avoiding their gazes. "It's complicated. I don't want to get into it. Besides, I think Tikki is done yelling at Plagg."

"I'm not the one who said we shouldn't be contact." Plagg argues as the three of them fly back to us. "Besides, like I said, it's a complicated situation."

Tikki's eyes connect with mine, a frown playing on her lips. What did Plagg tell her?

"I know. Did you guys talk?"

"Yep. Ladybug is all caught up." Caleo smiles. "And now we can all head home. I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready for bed."

"Actually Chat I was hoping I could talk to you, in private." Ladybug looks over at Caleo. "I'm not trying to leave you out...I just-"

"Don't even worry about." Caleo cuts her off. "We may be a team, but I don't need to know everything. Everyone needs their privacy. Rikku, transform me!" With a wave farewell, she flies away into the night.

"Plagg and I will be...elsewhere. Shout for us when you're ready to leave." Tikki says and flies away with Plagg, leaving us alone.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. I should have trusted you." Ladybug rubs her arm, shifting her weight from one foot to another. "I had my doubt about Caleo but you clearly trusted her, and that should have been enough for me. So….I'm sorry. I had reasons that made sense at the time but...I don't know. I was stupid."

"You know Ladybug, if you wanted your nickname back, all you had to do was ask." I smile, hoping my tease will ease the tension. She blinks at me in confusion so I add, "Plagg told me that you were probably feeling jealous. Which I swear, I didn't mean to do. I wasn't sure if I was allowed….if it was okay for me to call you that after...after everything. I'm sorry if I made you feel like you've lost your importance to me. That could never happen; you're my partner, and nothing will ever change that. I'm always going to be here."

Ladybug takes a hesitant step forward. "You shouldn't be apologizing, I'm the one who caused all of this."

"You were just being honest, you have nothing to feel guilty for." I open my arms to her. "Come here."

With a water smile, she nearly tackles me in a hug. Somehow not having our magical disguises, knowing that's keeping our secret is plastic masks, makes this feel more real than any interaction we've had. I return her tight embrace, letting my head rest on top of hers as the silence of the night envelopes us.

"I would like my nickname back, if you don't mind."

"Your wish is my command, my lady." This earns a small giggle from Ladybug.

"Silly kitty."

A/N: It's after midnight and I'm running off about 5 hours of sleep at best, BUT IT'S DONE! I hope you guys enjoyed. Let me know your thoughts!