A/N: Day 6: Clown

Chat Noir noticed right away that Ladybug was in a bad mood.

Considering the increasing burden of protecting the city from the now duos of Akumas and Sentimonster, plus the frustration of not getting anywhere particularly telling to find Hawk Moth with the help of the grimoire, it shouldn't be a surprise. But his Bugaboo had been in high spirits in the last few days, Alya's support and his own making a dent into the stress that was piling up on her. So when she showed up to an akuma fight all frowns and curt words, he did a double take.

Caught up in his thoughts, he was nearly hit by a bunch of small, red balls, only dodging because Ladybug's yo-yo wrapped around his wrist and pulled him away.

"Thanks, my lady!" He grinned. "That was a nice je-"

"Not now, Chat Noir." She snapped, with an angry flush to her cheeks. "We have to end this now. Lucky Charm!"

The smile dropped away from his face as red and black cotton candy fell on her hands, making her angrier, if possible. He could admit that he wasn't very fond of this akuma, either. Not that he actually liked any, but some were easier than others. The Jester was proving themself to be a problem, though, with the weird ability to infinitely take off their clown nose and turn whoever it hit into a laughing mess that can't do anything else. It looked right up his alley at first, puns making his tongue tingle, but since the akuma was too fast, he didn't have the time he needed to quip.

"Chat Noir!" He heard Ladybug calling and cursed himself for getting distracted again. When he looked over, she saw her throwing an object at him. "Cataclysm it!"

It was one of those plastic flowers that squirts water. "On it! Cataclysm!"

The flower came undone and the small black butterfly flew out, barely flapping it's wings before being capture by Ladybug's yo-yo. Uncharacteristically, she purified it quietly and sent it away.

"Miraculous Ladybug!" She called out, releasing the healing lovely that shut down the hysterical laughter from the affected citizens on the streets.

"W-what happened?" The plain-looking girl sitting on the ground stuttered. Chat Noir did a double take when he realized that it was the akuma victim.

"You were akumatized." He explained softly. "You were-"

"I-I don't really want to know, Mr. Noir." She said, cheeks flushed red. "Can you please get me down to the streets? I wanna go home."

"I can take you-"

"No, really, it's fine." The girl said, withdrawing into herself further.

He sighed. "Okay, climb on my back."

She did just that, hiding her face against his neck. As soon as they were on the ground, she climbed down as fast as she could and stammered a "thank you" before running down the metro steps, leaving her now fixed joke flower in his hands. His heart hurt, he hated when the victims weren't even willingly to talk about their problems by the end, it was much harder to help that way.

"Tough akuma, huh." Chat said when he arrived back at the top, Ladybug waiting with an annoyed expression. "Pound-"

"What were you thinking?!" His partner shouted and he took a step back.

"What are you talking about?"

"You almost got hit today just because you were joking around! I told to stop doing that, Chat Noir!" She snapped and he shrugged, trying to keep a nonchalant stance.

"Couldn't let the akuma outshine the true comedian of the hour, huh."

"You can't let the akuma hit you just for a stupid joke!"

"It's not stupid, bugaboo. I know you love them, you already confessed." He cooed, pleased.

She turned even redder, if possible. "Not all of them are funny! Some are just stupid!"

He started to laugh, before it quickly faded away. A memory came to mind, one which he tried to suppress because it haunted-

"It's not funny!"

"Yeah, I know." He supposed the muted tone of his voice was jarring enough, because Ladybug deflated.

"... Chaton? Is everything okay?" She asked and, if it wasn't for the growing pit of regret growing in his stomach, he would have found the fast change from annoyance to concern in her voice funny.

"Of course, why wouldn't it, my lady?" He tried a smile but her face didn't change.

"You're doing that thing again."

"What thing?"

"Smiling, but not really." At her words, the smile dropped from his face. "C'mon, you know you can tell me anything. Is it your dad again?"

"No, not right now." He said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I just remembered that my jokes really aren't all that funny. A friend of mine would certainly agree with you."

She clicked her tongue. "I told you loads of times that you aren't funny sometimes, that can't be it."

"It's not that, it's just that I played a joke on this friend of mine and she didn't think it was funny. She cried, Ladybug. I felt awful and she did forgive me, but maybe I'm just not good with jokes at all."

Marinette had been incredibly upset when he pretended to be a statue in front of her and he could see her hurt blue eyes as if she were standing in front of him.

Ladybug frowned. "But she did forgive you, didn't she? Was the joke that bad?"

"Well, I didn't think so." He said, having spent tons of nights thinking about what exactly went wrong that day. "It was a simple prank, really, but she got really upset. Maybe she just doesn't like pranks."

Marinette had been extremely upset when she found the gum on her seat on the first day. Then again, it was because she thought it had been Chloé's doing.

"Yeah, your friend could be a downer." His partner teased. He was acutely aware of her elbow nudging his arm.

"Nah, she's the best." He said fondly, thinking about Marinette's kind nature and bold personality. "I'm probably not that funny, really."

"If you say so." Ladybug said and he caught sight of a sour frown on her face.

He raised an eyebrow. "It's okay, really, my girlfriend didn't think I was funny either."

"Well, it doesn't matter. I think you're funny." She said firmly, seemingly unaware of what it did to his poor heart.

"If my lady says so, it must be right." Chat grinned, elated. "Hey, did you feel that? Think it's going to rain?"

"What? I didn't feel-" Ladybug sputtered as water squirted on her face from the flower in a laughing Chat's hand.

He waited for her to shout an angry "Chat!" and turn red, but she just stole the toy from his hands and aggressively squirted water on him, laughing when he hissed. It was a loud, beautiful laugh.

He could listen to it for days.