13. Flower Shop

She was alerted to Chat's presence not because of a knock on her window, but rather a horrible crash on her balcony.

I swear, if that cat broke my favorite flowerpot, I'm going to skin him alive.

When she flung open the trap door, she saw Chat, sitting pitifully on the ground with his ears hung low as he lamented over what was, er… had been not her favorite flowerpot. Thankfully.

"Sorry," he muttered, looking over the dirt splattered across the balcony with broken pieces of pottery scattered around it. "I'll go to the flower shop tomorrow and get a replacement."

Marinette almost opened a round of teasing on him, except something in his demeanor had her pause. "You okay, Chat?"

"Hmm?"

"You seem a little… off."

He shrugged, then after a moment shook his head. "I mean, I will be. But not right now."

Marinette bit her lip. Where was the 'pry' line versus the 'concerned friend' line? Because she was certainly concerned but knew better than to press for information he wasn't going to give. "Are you not feeling well? Have you been overworking yourself or something?"

"Or something," he muttered, slowly collecting the pieces of the pot.

Upon watching the pitiful scene, Marinette couldn't help but bite her lip as the pain in her heart grew. "Just leave it."

"But I broke it."

"It's okay," she said, taking the pieces from his hands and setting them aside. From there, she took his cheeks in her hands, guiding his face towards her to examine. There was a hollow look in his eye, and his skin looked pale. Though, she wasn't sure if that was just an illusion of all the white of his suit paired with the blue glow of the moon playing a trick on her. "You're not okay."

He didn't even try to argue. Which proved he really wasn't okay.

"When was the last time you slept?"

"Slept?"

"Oh, dammit, Chat," she muttered, gently patting his cheeks. "Focus, kitty."

He blinked a couple times, and a little clarity came back to him.

"Have you been sleeping?"

"Uh… not well," he eventually answered.

"And have you been eating?"

"Yes."

"When did you last eat?"

He fell silent again.

She sighed, standing and then pulling him to his feet. "Get up, Chat. You are coming inside, and I am forcing food into you."

He didn't argue. He just stood. And swayed.

Marinette tightened her grasp on him. Chat, I swear, you fall over or pass out on me, I will go full Ladybug on your ass and cage you until you recover.

14. Dancing

It took two hours, a croissant sandwich, and a short nap for Chat to mostly recover.

"You want to tell me what that was all about?" Marinette challenged, shooting the not-really-a-question question his direction.

He shrugged. "I haven't been sleeping."

"Yeah, I'm not going to say that wasn't it, but there's definitely more than that."

Chat just stayed silent.

"Have you been eating?"

He nodded. "My friend makes me."

That was a relief that someone was looking after her stupid cat. Although, a part of her was upset that that friend wasn't her. "Good. Glad to hear that," she said, forcefully shoving aside her jealousy. "Have you been overworking yourself?"

He quirked a brow in her direction. "You promised not to pry?"

"I'm not prying. I'm demanding to know what the hell happened to you that almost made you fall off my balcony and crack your head open on the sidewalk below. Because cats may normally land on their feet, but you sure weren't going to in that state."

Looking appropriately cowed, he turned his head away from her.

"So, you want to tell me why you looked like death warmed over up there?"

"Are you just mad that I accidently took out a flowerpot?"

"Your eyes looked completely glassed over."

"Because I promise to fix it. That was an honest mistake."

"Stop dancing around the subject, Chat," she snarled. "Something is wrong. You looked a million miles away standing right next to me. You're not sick again, are you?"

He pursed his lips, playing with his miraculous and twirling the silver band on his finger. "In a way, I guess."

"You guess?"

"I am."

"Then what are you doing out?"

He shrugged. "I had stuff I had to do, but I wasn't feeling great and knew I could crash here safely."

Half of that sentence really worried her, but there was a tiny part of her that was relieved he felt comfortable at her place. She was thrilled this could be a safe space for him, and she would do everything she could to keep it that way.

And while she knew that meant not prying, this, she decided, was a perfectly reasonable exception.

"I can set up a blanket and you can sleep on my chaise to recover."

"Thanks, but I can't," he said. "I really should get home."

Her brow furrowed in worry. "Are you sure you're up for that?"

"Trust me when I say it is for my well-being I do."

He still seemed a little sluggish, but nothing like he was before. And she supposed it would be far better for him to go home and sleep in his own bed. "Okay. But please, for the love of everything good in this world, will you be careful?"

He gave her a small smile as he slowly got to his feet. "I promise, princess."

She sighed. She wished he had the ability to text her that he got home safe or something of the sort, but she supposed he couldn't do that. She would just have to trust her kitty to make it home safe and sound. "Okay. Then have a good night and take it easy, Chat."

When he grinned, it was small but genuine. It warmed Marinette's heart to see. "Thanks, Marinette. You have a good night, too."

15. Moonlight

Marinette thought Chat would be better in a week's time or so.

Marinette was wrong.

He frequently came around now with a dazed look in his eye. And sometimes, it didn't improve by the time he was getting ready to leave, no matter if she gave him food, water, or a place to rest.

Which worried her to no end.

Then came the day he'd actually passed out in her arms, and true to her mental threat three weeks ago, Marinette went full Ladybug on his ass.

She dragged him down into her room, then transformed, ready and waiting for him to wake back up. She'd lie and say she happened to be passing by and that Marinette was downstairs. Whatever. Her cat was sick, and she was going to drag answers out of him one way or another.

The night crept on, but she didn't leave his side, instead sitting by him on the bed as he slept. It didn't just break her heart to see him like this but utterly destroyed it. The moonlight that shone through the windows highlighted his white suit, causing it to practically glow in the night. It just felt wrong. He was supposed to be black, his suit blending into the shadows because she was his opposite, her red suit standing out boldly in the light. And she wanted nothing more than for things to return to normal, or at least some semblance of it.

She just wanted her kitty back.

Tears prickling at her eyes, she slowly began stroking his white ears and white hair, the feeling so familiar even if the sight wasn't. "Come back to me, kitty," she whispered, feeling one of those tears escape and roll down her cheek.

Eventually, he stirred at her touch. Her heart stepped up its pace, both happy and relieved to see him recovering. She never stopped petting him as she waited for his eyes to open. Eventually, when they did, they seemed to be a little clearer than before, but they still had an exhausted haze hanging over them. "Marinette?"

"Not quite," she said, mentally begging her voice to stay steady.

He blinked several times, that haze lifting a bit more as he looked up to meet her gaze. "Milady?"

At the name she had grown far too fond of over the years, a name she hadn't heard in too long, something in her broke. "Dammit, Chat." She flung herself over him, practically tackling him to the bed as she clung to him. "Do you have any idea how worried I was?"

He was stiff under her touch as she tried her best not to cry into his shoulder. But the moment his hand came down to rest on her head, that fight was lost.

"Sorry," was all he said.

They stayed like that for a while before Chat slowly grabbed hold her shoulders and pushed her up and off of him, clearly creating distance between them. It hurt, but she supposed he did allow her to hug him for a little while. She would have to take the wins she could get.

Wiping the tears, Ladybug began, "Marinette told me everything."

Chat sighed, propping himself up on his elbow. "I knew she would."

"Don't hate her for it, okay? Please. She's just worried."

"You begged her, too, I bet. And I doubt she'd tell you 'no'."

Ladybug decided to nod. "I did."

He sighed again, sounding more like a groan or grunt this time. "I won't be mad at her for it. She didn't mean any harm, even if she'd too nosy for her own good trying to play superhero caretaker."

The words may have sounded disapproving, but the gentleness in his tone as he spoke told Ladybug that he didn't mean it that way. She knew her partner well enough to know those were more swords of concern for her well-being over a condemnation. "She's kind that way."

"Too kind," he muttered. "She reminds me of you; both of you being so sacrificing and willing to help others at the drop of a hat. You can handle yourself as a superhero. I worry for her, though."

His words warmed her heart more than he would ever know, endearing him to her yet again for the countless time over all the years she'd known him. "She can handle herself."

"If you knew half the things she did, you might question that," he muttered, fully sitting up and leaning back against the wall. "So, guess I'll bite the bullet and concede. You cornered me, and I'm ready for the other shoe to drop."

His eyes took on a hard glint to them, as though he was steeling himself for a fight.

Geez, kitty. I'm mad at you, but I'm not going to fight you.

With a sigh, Ladybug prepared herself for the conversation she knew they needed to have. "I know you said you wanted space," she began. "But if you think I'm going to give you space now when you nearly passed out like that, you're wrong. I'm your partner and your friend, and as such, I don't think I'm entitled to know, but I would like to be by your side and bear your burdens if you'll let me. So please, tell me. What's going on?"

At her words, that steel in his eyes softened before his gaze fell to his lap. He was silent for a moment, playing with his miraculous again. As the time ticked on and he still didn't speak, Ladybug had to practically bite her lip in a desperate attempt to not push too hard.

Come on, kitty. Trust me.

"When I found out who Hawkmoth was," Chat began, answering her thoughts in such perfect time she almost questioned if she'd spoken aloud. "It hurt, more than you could ever think possible."

"I'm sure it did."

"And my emotions ran wild."

Her brow furrowed. "Were you akumatized?"

"Almost," he quietly admitted. "But I destroyed the butterfly and found out where Hawkmoth was hiding so I could face him directly. While he didn't get a second chance to use a butterfly on me, my emotions ran rampant enough to cause a different kind of problem."

He lifted his ring for her to see. "Apparently, you can overload a miraculous with emotion," he explained.

Suddenly, things began to click into place. "And that's how you became Chat Blanc."

He nodded, turning his gaze away from her. "When you have that much hate and anger and spite raging through you, it's possible to corrupt the miraculous when it's so deeply tied to who you are." He turned back to her. "And a broken miraculous is a dangerous thing. That's why I have to give it back to you once I finish this mission."

Her gut sank. "How dangerous? Like, do you mean it's power is out of control?" If that was the case, she was sure they could find a way to control it again.

"In a way," he said. "It's not like I can't control the power, but rather the miraculous begins to feed of the emotion its user emanates and drains them."

"Why do I not like the sound of that?"

Chat was silent.

Which only made Ladybug worry more. "Chat," she said, swallowing down the bitter feeling that was bubbling up from her gut. "What do you mean by 'draining you'?"

He looked like he didn't want to answer. "I don't know how it's fixed," he admitted. "But until it is, I can't wear it anymore."

Her mind was on overdrive, but a thought soon popped into Ladybug's mind made her physically ill. Don't tell me…

"Because, basically," Chat continued, tone somber and sad. "This ring is slowly killing me."