Yaknow,, its been a long time since we had some tasty angst right? I think I've only had 1 angst chapter so here :P

ALSO, FANFICTION HAS BEEN GLITCHY and I can't see recent reviews, it sucks :( but leave em anyways cause I get the email and it makes me happy regardless!

~falling comes in many forms~

Some people fall in love. Some people fall down. Some people fall apart.

Some people do all three at once.

Adrien doesn't just fall; no, he fell in love with Ladybug, heroine of Paris but more importantly his partner. And in quite the grandiose way, too, even if it wasn't completely romantic or cliché. He fell from the Eiffel Tower and experienced the wind whistling in his ears, ruffling his hair back, allowing his heart to soar free in the sky.

He fell apart at home, with a missing mother, a withdrawn father, and high walls made of the finest material available caging him in. But right when he'd been about to really fall, and reach the bottom of the pit, a red-and-black spotted hand pulled him right up and showed him what everyone else was seeing- happiness and freedom.

How that same hand could push him back into the pit, he'd never know. Literally.

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The day usually started off with him waking up, going to school (making sure Plagg was with him), meeting his friends, his after-school activities (which also included saving Paris with Ladybug), some free time with his friends if he was lucky, and heading home to finish his work and go to sleep. But that day, even though nothing had really happened, there was an odd, foreboding sense in the thick air and cloudy sky.

And Marinette was absent.

Late, sure, but absent was odd. Not to mention the fight that had happened the not-so-ordinary day prior that kept weighing on his mind, giving everything an odd, twisted outlook. He wasn't very sure what happened, but the akumatized villain had him knocked out one moment as he leapt in front of Ladybug, and when he had woken up, everything was fine and dandy. But Ladybug was nowhere to be seen. He didn't even have time to ask around due to the constant beeping of his ring reminding him of his limited time. Her disappearance worried him more than he'd like to admit.

When he asked Alya about Marinette's absence in class, she blankly stared at him for a second before regaining her composure and blinking. "Oh! Marinette, I suppose, she's sick maybe. There's this virus going around." Alya rubbed her head. "Wow. I don't know what just happened but my mind just blanked…"

Nino turned around in his seat and worriedly frowned. "Are you okay, Alya?"

Alya shook her head yes. "Yeah, I'm fine! That was just… weird. Oh well. I'll go visit the bakery and ask about Marinette after school."

Adrien also would have gone, had it not been for his packed schedule weighing him down and making him forget about the small ordeal. It wasn't until one week later, with Marinette's absence still, that Adrien finally gave in to his worry for the shy girl and asked Alya about her before class started.

This time she just furrowed her eyebrows. "Mari-who? Adrien, you feeling okay?"

Adrien gaped in bewilderment. "Uhh… are you okay? Marinette? Your best friend?" When Alya still did not respond, Adrien wringed his hands together. "You always hang out! Her parents own the bakery right next to the school!"

Alya frowned. "Mr. and Mrs. Dupain Cheng? They don't have any children."

Adrien's mind and body suddenly ran cold. Something was definitely not right.

Nino walked in at that time and noticed his two friends talking. "Yo, what's up?"

Alya turned to him. "Adrien is being weird and talking about some girl… I think he's feeling sick."

"Nino!" Adrien strode forward and desperately grabbed his best friend by the shoulders, staring into his eyes, making the tanned boy slightly uncomfortable. "You remember, right? Marinette?"

Nino balked. "Uhh… Alya is right, maybe you should go home and rest."

Adrien paled and his fingers on Nino's shoulders slightly trembled. "Wait, hold on." He fumbled in his jean pocket for his phone and unlocked it, opening up the Photos app and scrolling with a shaking thumb to a few months back. The whole class, save for Chloe and Sabrina, had taken photos together in the park. Of course he had them saved to his phone, and backed up. They were precious memories, and he knew Marinette was in them- it was her idea.

Finally the first picture of the batch showed up and he tapped it frantically, impatient for it to load. Surely Nino and Alya were just both experiencing bouts of bad memory, or pulling a bad prank on him. Marinette did exist, she was in this photo, she… she-

-she was nothing more than an empty space next to a smiling Adrien in the class photo.

Alya and Nino looked at the photo, then to a slack-jawed Adrien, and nodded to each other. Alya gently pried his phone out of his hands while Nino put an arm around his shoulders. It all felt wrong.

How could he be smiling in that photo? Where was Marinette? He had a sick feeling in his stomach that the answer would also be the solution to the complex equation of Ladybug's disappearance.

"Madame," Nino called out as their teacher walked in. The woman turned to inquiringly look at Nino. "Adrien, he's not feeling good. He's gone pale and keeps saying weird things. Can I help him to the nurse's office?"

The teacher took a look at Adrien. While it could be a farce, like many students would try to do to get out of class, Adrien wasn't that kind of kid. He was studious and seemed to enjoy his classes. She nodded and wrote down a slip for Adrien, who was still blankly staring off under Nino's arm.

"Be sure to get back to class," The teacher warned, as she was aware that there were many things Nino would rather do than study. The boy in question chuckled sheepishly and took the slip before leading Adrien out of the classroom.

"It'll be fine, man. A bit of rest and you'll be back, good as new. I hear sometimes people get false memories…" Nino talked on to fill the empty silence while Adrien, unaware that he was walking up until this point, suddenly stopped. Nino stopped talking and looked back at him curiously. "Dude? We're almost there…"

"Nino," Adrien began, his voice hoarse. "Are there superheroes in Paris?"

Nino's lips tugged down in a slight frown of concern, but he complied anyways. "Err- you might mean superhero? There's only Chat Noir."

No. No. No way. "B-But," Adrien weakly protested, "how can- how do I- er, he, how does Chat Noir purify the akumas?"

Nino lifted his hat and scratched his head. "He doesn't. He kills the butterflies."

Kills. If Adrien was cold before, now he was frigid. How Plagg wasn't trembling from the chill in his pocket, he wasn't sure. "D-Doesn't Alya have a blog…?"

Nino was really concerned now. "Err, yeah, dude. The Blog on Noir." Nino stepped forward and tried looking into Adrien's eyes. "Look, how about we go to the nurse's office now, yeah? You aren't feeling oka-"

Nino cut off with a shout of surprise when Adrien stepped around him, stumbled a bit, and sprinted. He sprinted as fast as he could, and by the time Nino could even think of trying to follow him, he was down the stairs to the school and across the street. Adrien didn't stop running until he was in front of Paris' best boulangerie. Their logo was not the same as before.

Adrien heaved for his breath next to the wall of the bakery, whose goods smelled slightly different than before. He opened his pocket and let Plagg out. If anyone could know what was going on, it had to be Plagg.

"Plagg," Adrien panted, looking to the kwami with anguish. The kwami was looking down at the ground. "Plagg, you have to know, right? You- you're an all knowing, super being, right? What's going on?"

Finally Plagg looked into his eyes. They were the same green eyes yet at the same time very, very different.

"Are you sure you want to hear this, kid?"

"Just tell me!" Adrien raised his voice a little louder, before apologetically glancing down at his worn orange shoes. His chest still heaved to supply his lungs with oxygen.

After a bit of hesitation, Plagg complied. "Remember yesterday, when you were fighting that akuma with Ladybug?" Adrien simply nodded, not trusting in himself to speak. "Well… you did what you always do, and jumped in front of Ladybug and…"

Plagg trailed off while Adrien drummed his fingers against the wall at his back in impatience. "And what?"

"Damn," Plagg said under his breath. "Look… heroes don't live forever either."

Adrien suddenly felt his knees buckle beneath him. The world spun for a few moments before he found himself sitting on the dirty ground behind the bakery. "No," Adrien croaked, his neck now craning back to look at Plagg. "Don't tell me… she…" Ladybug. Marinette.

"No," Plagg said, uncharacteristically gentle. He was surprised before being surprised even more with the next statement. "It was you."

"M-… Me?" Adrien echoed, pointing a finger to himself. Plagg, floating above his head, grimly looked away. "Yeah. And Ladybug… she sort of, flipped out. Pulled one too many strings." Plagg looked up at the cloudy sky. "Lucky Charm can restore everything, but death has its hold over everything and more. You… she…" Plagg sucked in a breath. His antennae were dropping, paws crossed across his torso. "She used a dark magic to bring you back… I don't know how she even knew to use the spell. I suspect, it was after she went a bit berserk, since extreme negativity in a Miraculous suit does weird things to someone's mind. Like Hawkmoth." Plagg shook his head. "She brought you back, and… well… every action has its equal opposite reaction."

Plagg looked at Adrien's face to see his reaction. He was startled to see tears leaking out of his eyes. But it wasn't the tears that startled him; it was the eyes that cried them. Tears were a sign of emotion in its rawest form. Adrien's eyes were emotionless.

"Kid…"

Adrien stiffly got up, leaning onto the wall for support, before walking his way out from behind the bakery. Plagg didn't have time to do anything but duck back into his pocket and worriedly listen in next to Adrien's consecutive heartbeat.

Mr. and Mrs. Dupain Cheng looked up from their duties when the bell above the door jingled, alerting a new customer. The bakery, which usually had a morning rush of workers getting their breakfast, and an afternoon rush of students who just came out of school, was empty seeing as it was in between those times. Seeing a blond head (oddly looking at the ground instead of up with a cheery smile) and toned figure, they both smiled. "Adrien!" Sabine began, walking out from behind the counter. She gasped, however, when Adrien looked up at his name. His eyes, devoid of any life they might have held, were flowing with tears dripping down his face.

"Oh, my!" Sabine rushed over to him and began wiping his tears away with her thumbs. Tom came out from behind the counter as well and kneeled before the teenage boy, concern clearly reflecting in his eyes. "Adrien, what's wrong?"

More tears flowed down his damp cheeks, though he didn't notice. "Is… is Marinette here?"

Sabine and Tom worriedly looked at each other before they looked back at Adrien. "Would you like to rest? You aren't feeling good…"

Adrien sharply pulled back from their gentle tugs . "No, it- it's not me! Why can't you remember your own daughter?!" Adrien gritted his teeth and pulled on his hair. "Get me out of this nightmare! Wake up, please!"

Tom set his big hands on Adrien's shoulders. "Adrien… we don't have any children… but you are like a son to us. You're worrying us, here…"

Adrien's eyes drooped in exhaustion. "I'm not your child. Marinette is. I need to wake up…"

With that, he fell unconscious.

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Adrien blearily opened his eyes to find himself in an unfamiliar surrounding. A trapdoor was above him, and when he lifted a sore arm to prop his even sorer body up on the bed, it was revealed that he was on a loft bed. Other than the bed, the room was barren and empty. The walls were brown and a few boxes were stacked in a corner.

"Plagg…?" Adrien said with a slight slur. He couldn't remember a single thing that happened. Normally he would be suspicious waking up in an unfamiliar place, like any normal person of course, but he could smell the familiar bakery scent wafting in through another trapdoor below on the ground. What was he doing in the Dupain Cheng's spare room?

Plagg floated out from his pocket and eyed him oddly. He hadn't been asleep, unlike Adrien. "Hey, kid… how are you feeling?"

Adrien confusedly looked at him and ran a hand through his bedhead, each muscle protesting the simple movement. "My muscles feel really sore… and my eyes feel sort of puffy." Adrien noticed his legs tangled in the thin sheets on the bed. "Why am I at the Dupain Cheng's…?"

Plagg's odd look seemed to get even odder, if possible. "What do you remember about yesterday?"

Adrien frowned, trying to recall the prior day. All he came up with were muddled memories of going to school. Nothing after was clear enough. "Uh… I went to school… then I came sick? But how did I get here?"

Instead of answering his question, Plagg dipped his head before asking another of his own. "Adrien, does anything come to mind when I say… Marinette Dupain Cheng?"

Silence.

"Ladybug?"

A few more beats of silence and…

"Who are they?"

A/N: ja