You're not alone, together we stand
I'll be by your side, you know, I'll take your hand
When it gets cold and it feels like the end
There's no place to go, you know, I won't give in
No, I won't give in

Avril Lavigne, Keep Holding On

He was probably gonna collapse soon.

He was simply exhausted. His weekend had been absolutely crazy. On Saturday, Adrien had three different photoshoots. One in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the middle of the night because, as the photographer said, The Eiffel Tower at night is so romantic!

Yeah, he knew that probably even better than anyone. After all, he often had the best view.

On Sunday, only five hours after the previous photoshoot ended, he got woken up by Nathalie because something happened with the pictures of the first photo shoot and they had to do it all again. And after that, they had a charity event starting at four, where Chloe only left his side once for exactly three minutes and forty seconds, when he went to the bathroom.

All he wanted was to sleep and forget about this awful weekend. But he couldn't. Not now.

"Ugh, please tell me this is all over," Plagg complained once they were finally in Adrien's room.

"Almost. We got one more thing to do."

"Can't it wait? I've been stuck in your bag all day and then in your pocket, which didn't have enough space for me to bring my cheese, so I haven't eaten any in hours! This was the worst weekend of my life! I just wanna eat and sleep!"

"I promise we'll do it soon, Plagg. But I wanna go see Marinette."

"Why?" Plagg whined. "It's late, she's probably sleeping!"

"Because I haven't seen her at all this weekend and I just wanna make sure that she's alright!"

"Ugh, this is my life from now on, isn't it?"

"Yep. Plagg, claws out!"

"Marinette, what's gonna happen now?"

"I don't know, Tikki."

"This is a disaster!"

"Yeah, you're right Trixx."

"Master Marinette, he's getting married! Married!"

"I know, Wayzz."

"But not to her!"

"It's gonna be okay, Pollen, I promise."

"She should do something!"

"You know what Barkk, she probably will."

"This is horrible! What's gonna happen now?"

"Kaalki, we'll probably find out if we watch the movie."

"Oh, this is too much for me!" Tikki suddenly exclaimed, covering her eyes.

Half of the kwamis started laughing while the others followed Tikki's lead and covered their eyes, as though they were watching a horror movie and not a romantic comedy. They were all lying in Marinette's bed, watching yet another movie on the teenager's laptop. She had barely moved from her bed all weekend, only getting out to go to the kitchen to bring some snacks for everyone or to go to the bathroom. Alya had asked her to come and hang out at her place, but honestly, all she had wanted was to be a couch potato for one weekend. She simply wasn't in the mood to pretend to be happy, to talk about what had happened or to even think, for that matter.

While most of the time she was overwhelmed with the whole guardian thing, she was grateful to have them with her today. Yes, they were a handful, but thanks to them, she managed to forget everything for a while.

"Everything's gonna be -" she started saying, but stopped abruptly when she heard a soft knock on her window, right above her head. "What is he...Oh my god, guys, hide!"

They all flew into each other while trying to hide inside the miracle box. Marinette simply sighed at their antics before opening the window to Chat Noir who, without an invite, slipped through the window, landing without a sound on her bed.

"Uh, hi?"

"Hey, princess," he greeted her, sitting down. "What are we watching?"

"Ki… Chat Noir, what are you doing here?"

"Nothing much, just stopping by to check how you're doing."

She slowly sat down beside him, watching him carefully. "Do you often do this? I mean, go check on akuma victims?"

"No," he answered with a shrug.

She waited for some sort of explanation, something to explain why he was coming to see her then, but nothing came. Truth be told, Chat Noir didn't say anything more because he was too busy freaking out. He knew he should have said yes, should've lied. Gosh, why was he such a…

"So… Why did you come to see me?" Marinette finally urged, trying to understand what was up with her partner.

"Well, our fight was different than the others," he said, trying to come out with a credible answer, not noticing how Marinette had tensed.

"How so?" she asked, trying not to panic.

Oh god, he clearly knows, she thought. Ok, no matter what, deny. You can do this Marinette, just pretend that you have no idea what he's talking about.

"You fought it off by yourself. No one had done that before, you know. It was impressive."

Oh.

"Oh well, thanks for stopping by, but I'm fine, obviously. It was just a bad day."

Chat Noir frowned. "I doubt that."

"Uh?"

Okay, maybe not her most eloquent answer.

"I remember clearly what you said on that rooftop, Marinette. It wasn't just a bad day and you're not fine. But it's okay. You don't have to be alright all the time."

She stared at him for an eternity, painfully aware that the kwamis were eavesdropping on their conversation, like always. In fact, they always eavesdropped, no matter the conversation. A few days ago, after her mom had come to ask her what she wanted for supper, Sass had told her all about what and how she should've answered, instead of simply saying "yeah, tacos sound good".

God, they really were a handful.

"What do you want me to say?" Marinette suddenly asked Chat Noir.

His eyes met her and for a second, she was shocked by the familiarity of it. But she couldn't quite figure out what was so familiar about the way he was looking at her, as if the answer was a little bit too far out for her to reach.

"You don't have to say anything. But I just want you to know that you don't have to lie, either." He then looked at the computer screen and repeated his first question, "So, what are we watching?"

She sighed. "Love, Rosie."

"I've heard of it. Is it good?"

She could almost hear the kwamis screaming in their box.

"Yeah, it is. Do you want to watch it?" she surprised herself by asking. "I could start it again."

"You sure? I mean, you could simply tell me what happened."

"It won't be the same," she said with a shrug.

Besides, she couldn't say, I need time to find a way to let the kwamis watch the end of the movie even with you here or else I'll never hear the end of this.

"Alright then, let's start this!"

Adrien figured that this was, actually, the best way to relax. He was watching a movie all cuddled up with the girl of his dreams, who had fallen asleep about twenty minutes into the movie. Knowing thanks to the number of times she had fallen asleep in class that almost nothing could wake her up, he felt safe enough to release his transformation.

"Ugh, I swear Adrien you better have some good… Wait, we're still at Pigtails?"

"Yeah."

"So I'll have to transform again?" he screamed.

"Plagg, stop complaining!" Tikki said, coming out from behind the pillows. Contrary to the other, she never left her owner's side.

"Yeah Plagg, stop complaining!" another voice echoed, but Adrien couldn't tell which kwami it was.

"Oh guys, you can come out if you wanna watch the end of the -"

He didn't even have the time to finish his sentence that already, a bunch of kwamis were flying around him, trying to find a comfortable spot. Two of them ended up on his head.

"Oh, right where we were! Chat Noir, he's getting married, can you believe this?"

"Unbelievable."

"She should tell him how she feels before it's too late!"

"Based on all the movies we watched so far, she will."

"Or one of them will die."

"It's all so dramatic!"

Adrien smiled as the kwamis kept on talking. He watched the rest of the movie with them, talking about what was happening with the same passion. At some point, Marinette ended up all wrapped up in his arms, a content sigh escaping her lips as he hugged her tightly.

Needless to say, he really didn't mind.

Once the movie was over, he kissed her forehead and transformed back after Plagg had said his goodbyes to the other kwamis. Goodbyes that sounded a lot like "see ya later, losers'', although Adrien couldn't be sure as he was too busy watching Marinette smile in her sleep. And as he crashed into his bed, he realized that it was late, he hadn't slept and yet, he felt more at peace and calm than he ever did.

Unfortunately, that peace was short-lived.

In the nine days that followed, Hawkmoth attacked exactly thirteen times and a half. A half because frankly, Mr. Pigeon didn't even count as an akuma anymore. But the thirteen others had taken their toll on Ladybug and Chat Noir. Each new akuma - except Mr. Pigeon - was more difficult than the last one. The hits were more painful and the villains were much more hateful. Criminals who simply didn't care, people who were in pain and who wanted revenge and people who had nothing left to lose.

These ones were the most dangerous.

Chat Noir had died exactly seven times now and had been hurt a lot more after taking hits that were meant for his Lady. And even with him protecting her, Ladybug had ended up with a fair amount of injuries herself.

The fights had left them exhausted. They could barely stand up anymore. Even Ladybug's cure didn't work as well as it did before. People, themselves included, were still hurt. The cure would bring back those who had died, would fix most of the property damage, but anything that was considered minor was left as it was. Tikki and Plagg explained to the teenagers that it was because the villains were a lot harder to fight and Tikki already had to use all her powers on the Lucky Charm and that there were so many casualties, the cure could only go to those who needed it the most. Therefore, everyone and everything else was left as they were. The only good thing that came out of it is that they didn't have to figure out an excuse to explain their cuts or their bruises. Lots of people had them nowadays.

After fight number 10 - the akuma victim was a woman whose kid had just died from leukemia -, they both collapsed on top of a roof, silently crying in each other's arms.

"I'll kill him," Ladybug had whispered.

"Not if I do it first," Chat had simply answered.

And as if it wasn't enough, their civilian life just wasn't any easier. Marinette was, of course, still struggling with everything. She was trying to figure out how to be the guardian and was trying especially hard in the last few days to find a way to stop Hawkmoth.

There was a way, she was sure of it. She just hadn't found it yet.

Her friends and family tried to help her, but she couldn't tell them exactly why she was so tired. She couldn't explain that a supervillain was preventing her from sleeping, from being happy and from simply living her life.

Even Lila nowadays was more tolerable than Hawkmoth. The girl hadn't bothered her in a week, given the fact that she was apparently on some trip to Canada. Of course, that was a lot of bullshit, but as long as she was away and not bothering her, Marinette didn't care.

Things weren't any easier for Adrien. His schedule was absolutely ridiculous. When he wasn't fighting an akuma, he was doing a photo shoot. He barely went to school, much to his disappointment. He had to call Nino every night at an ungodly hour to know what he had missed. After all, exams were coming soon, although his dad didn't seem to care…

But even with everything, he hadn't forgotten his main goal.

Yes, he was exhausted, but it didn't prevent him from going to check on Marinette every chance he had. Adrien couldn't see her at school, so every night, he went to see her.
She wasn't always aware of it. Sometimes she was already asleep and he would leave right away. Other times he would watch her work before tapping on the balcony door. Other times they would sit together side by side on the balcony, talking or not. Often, they would watch a movie or some tv show, getting closer and closer as the hours passed, both physically and emotionally.

He tried to act as if he didn't realize why she always looked so sore, why every movement seemed to hurt, although it made him want to punch something. He hated seeing her like this, so obviously in pain and trying to hide it. He knew what it was like and hated knowing that she was going through the same thing. At least he had someone, her, helping him through it. She would always say that she had seen the fight on the news or on the Ladyblog, that she could help him. She would clean his cuts and even tried to give him some massages, even though he always refused. After all, he knew that she was hurt too. But sometimes, he would start to fall asleep and well, it was Ladybug after all, and she simply wouldn't accept no for an answer. She always found a way to appease him, no matter what.

Adrien wasn't sure if she realized that he was doing the exact same thing. He hoped he was a bit more subtle.

Spoiler alert, he wasn't.

Marinette couldn't figure out why he was always trying to massage her shoulders or her neck, or even her legs, once. She kept on saying that he was the hero, that he should get the massage, after all, he died this morning, and oh my god, will you please stop arguing with me over this.

But secretly, she did like his massage. It actually helped a lot even though, of course, she couldn't tell him.

"Your muscles are so tense, it looks like you're the one running around fighting villains all the time," he had joked once.

"Oh, it's just the stress," she had answered because frankly, that sounded like a good enough reason, right?

"Right," he had said. "Just the stress."

"Hey, Chaton?" Ladybug called him, breaking the silence.

Their patrol had ended and they were now sitting on the Eiffel Tower, looking at the horizon, glad to finally have a moment of peace.

"Yes, M'Lady?"

"Thank you."

He turned to look at her, confused.

"For what?"

"Everything," she whispered, eyes still fixed on the lights ahead, knowing that he couldn't understand what she was talking about.

Even though he actually knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Anything for you," he answered in the same tone.

She finally turned to look at him and there it was, the look that recently made her legs weak and her heart beat a little faster. The look that was oh so familiar because… because…

Because he looked at Marinette and Ladybug the exact same way.

Oh no.