Beep. Beep. Beep.

Marinette groaned in her sleep as her alarm went off. She was still too far gone in her dream of a dark Parisian sky and swinging by buildings on her yo-yo. This was how she was in her element, the hero the city both needed and respected. As she swung by the doors and windows of nearby buildings, she thought of the civilians resting peacefully inside. The familiar zip and click of her weapon sounded even in her mind.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The teenager stirred once more. She had some semblance that she needed to get up and get ready for school. There was something she had to do, things to plan, but she couldn't quite remember what they were right then. Her brain was still muddled from lack of sleep, drifting in and out of consciousness. Ah well, the tug of sleep and just the thought of school and what was waiting for her there was enough to send her back into Dreamland.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Marinette was Ladybug again, swinging through the city and fighting evil. No one could stop her or her partner, Cat Noir. Not a single soul would dare stand between her and their city. She was a hero, useful again. She was-

"Marinette, you're going to be late!" She could feel her kwami, Tiki, push against her cheek. With a start, her eyes flew open and she noticed the time. There were five minutes before school officially started.

Crapcrapcrapcrap!

The teen sprang from bed and quickly changed clothes. She threw on her usual attire and ran down the stairs, tripping along the way. She gave herself a quick glance down, not noticing any visible bumps or bruises. With a quick kiss to her mom and dad and a to-go bag of breakfast, she was out the door.

Despite living a whole two minutes from school, Marinette only barely managed to make it on time, walking in class just as the bell rang. Mme. Bustier just smiled at her and said to take her seat. Without a word, she began to walk up the steps towards her chair in the back, only to trip halfway up.

"Pfft-"

"Nice going Marinette."

"Typical as always."

She got a few snickers and amused looks. One part of her thought that maybe her classmates were only trying to cheer or up, not mock her. That the joking was just the class being good-natured about her general clumsiness, to cheer her up. She could almost pretend that Lila wasn't the one who started it.

Standing, the blunette composed herself to take her seat. Everyone went silent as the lesson began, not paying the girl much more mind. She pulled out her notebook and the homework she finished the night before. Assignments were collected and the lecture started with Marinette taking careful notes. A few minutes later, the class was interrupted by the door opening.

Adrien Agreste gave a sheepish smile as he entered the room. His face might have seemed perfectly composed but his stare was vacant, as if his mind was elsewhere. The usual excuse of an extended photoshoot slipped through his lips before he was asked to go to sit down. He quickly did as he was told, exchanging a small greeting with Nino before the teacher resumed speaking.

Marinette peered over his direction with a worried gaze. This sort of morning had become routine for both of them, one suffering inwardly and the other, outwardly. She couldn't blame him at all for not noticing what was going on all around him. Caught in his own busy schedule as usual, he had yet to notice how the dynamic of the class had changed.

Several months ago, Adrien's world had shattered.

Even before the lunch bell rang, Marinette had her things gathered. If she was quick, she could run right past Lila and make it safely to the library. Of course, she knew her classmate wouldn't pull anything in front of the teacher and other students, but it was better to be more careful than anything. She might have acted a bit coldly as she dodged Alya, who looked like she wanted to say something, but she didn't have time to wait.

Successfully out of the classroom with nothing happening, the blunette made a beeline for her destination. She sat down at the nearest table and pulled out several folders and books. Even if she wasn't Ladybug as much anymore, she still had to balance being the class rep and guardian of the Miraculous. Stuffing what was supposed to be her breakfast in her mouth, Marinette began working on an assignment, studying the ancient tongue of the Guardians, and all while planning the last dance of the year.

"Ahem," she heard somebody nearby clear their throat but she was too trapped in what she was doing to pay attention. This happened a couple more times before she felt hands grab her shoulders, causing her to freeze. "Marinette!"

"...Oh Alya, it's only you." She looked at her (former) friend with a careful expression. If it was Lila coming to threaten her again, she honestly didn't know how she would handle that at this point. This did not mean good news, however, as Alya was giving her one of those looks. The blogger was definitely planning something.

"Geeze girl, you gotta stop with the Mean Girl act. It isn't like you." Marinette could almost laugh at the irony in her statement. Her, the mean one? It was downright hilarious how skewed things had become but then, it wouldn't help the matter. "Anyway, I came to invite you to a party this weekend."

"Why?" That was the first word out of her lips. She wanted her friends back, sure, but she knew it wouldn't be so simple. Especially when it concerned Lila, Marinette knew for certain that she wasn't in the wrong and shouldn't risk comprising her stance in this scenario.

"I know we haven't been getting along so much anymore but this is the perfect opportunity to make up!" Alya pulled out her planner that had a bunch of notes, listing guests and activities. "Everyone in class will be there, including Adrien!"

"...Lila's going to be there, isn't she?" With that, Alya's face dropped. There it was, the backdraw to it all. Marinette would sooner give up her Miraculous and position as guardian then willing to to a party with Lila. She wasn't quite sure when her classmate's torment turned into outright bullying but she could feel the dread at whatever incident might occur if she went.

"...Girl, I don't know what your problem is with her, but it has to stop." Alya put her hands on her hips, a mixture of anger and disappointment on her face. It was obvious that her former friend was only trying to help, painfully unaware of the damage Lila had done. "I thought I knew you better than this!"

"The funny thing is, I thought you did too." It was definitely not the right thing to say and something she would regret later, but the teen's sleep-deprived and buzzing mind could hardly care at that moment. Alya gave an exasperated huff and stormed off at her response. Marinette was left alone in the library, furiously wiping away tears.

Lunch ended and all Marinette could do was toss her half-eaten food and head to class. She attempted to focus on taking notes and paying attention to her teacher, but her mind was trapped by her spiralling thoughts. It didn't help that time moved too fast and too slowly seemingly at once. When she managed to finally look down at her paper, she found her handwriting was a messy scrawl and the subject barely coherent.

Sighing, Marinette just resigned to watching videos on what she missed later. It was a good thing that the rest of the afternoon passed without further incident. Once the final bell rang, she made it out the door, pointedly ignoring the talk of the party that weekend. She had almost made it out of school when, of course, she happened to lose her footing down the building's steps.

"Waah!" She cried as she took a rather nasty stumble forward. As she headed towards the ground below, she braced herself. Hopefully, with her Ladybug reflexes, she would be able to manage to tuck and roll safely on her feet.

"Careful." That, however, did not happen. She felt herself land on someone, or rather, someone's chest. She squirmed a bit in the person's grasp. "Don't worry, I got you."

"Sorry Adrien." If this had been a couple years ago, she wouldn't have been able to breathe properly. Now only her face flushed in embarrassment as she pulled away. She avoided his her friend's worried gaze.

"...Are you okay? That was a nasty fall." She nodded despite feeling her foot ache. Realizing that if she managed her little tumble, it would have probably been broken. Oh well, those crazy stunts were always Chat Noir's thing, never hers.

"I'll be fine, thanks for the help." Marinette tried to give a reassuring smile before picking up her things and standing. To the model, it probably didn't look quite right. However, he made no attempt to voice said concerns. "I should go, see you tomorrow."

"Alright, see you." The blunette quickly ran past him, towards the bakery.

Several hours later, Marinette entered her room. After returning from school, she greeted her parents, helped out in the bakery for the mid-afternoon rush, did her homework, planned that dance more, and ate dinner. At nine o'clock, her mom and dad retired to bed, leaving their teenaged daughter to go up to hers.

"... Marinette," Tiki gave her a concerned look as she flew out of her purse. She had been meaning to come out beforehand but the tiny God got the feeling that her chosen had been avoiding this very conversation. "You can't keep running from your own feelings."

"I know Tiki, there just isn't much I can do at this point." Marinette sighed, rubbing her tired eyes. "I can only hope to bide my time for now until I move onto uni."

"That's still several months away though." Even though that amount of time was short to the godling, she understood that to humans- particularly the teenaged kind- that it could seem like forever.

"I can manage well enough until then. Anyway, it's past time for patrol to start. Tiki, spots on!" In no time at all, Ladybug was swinging through the streets of Paris. For a while now, patrols had become rather spotty for her. Things had certainly calmed down since the final fight that occurred some time ago. However, that didn't mean there wasn't going to be a new threat that would pop up sooner or later. Ladybug just had to bide her time until she was needed again.

The heroine made it to the top of the Eiffel tower, one of the meeting places that Cat Noir and her would come to before they started their routes. She made sure to check her tracker to know if he would be out tonight and, true enough, she saw a green blip heading her way. From where he was coming from, she guessed that he had already started, she was late after all.

"Milady," he said, landinging next to her. Chat looked as tired and worn as she felt but he had somehow managed to come every evening for about two weeks straight now. She honestly didn't know how he could do it. "I didn't expect to see you out tonight."

"Sit down with me, Chat. Have some tea." She brought the usual treats that she would bring to keep them both energized. The superhero gave a quiet nod and sat next to her, taking a sip of the hot beverage and nibbling on a small biscuit. They ate in what was now customary silence, nothing but a worried glance shared between them.

'When had things started getting so awkward anyway?' Where was the Chat who refused to shut up at times? The one that constantly flirted with her or stroked his own ego? Marinette was just about ready to beg him to throw her at least a terrible joke or two, if only to cheer them both up.

As if reading her mind, Chat spoke up. "Hey Bug, I wanted to thank you."

"Oh?" She already had a feeling what he might say but it would be best to hear him out. So she just prompted him to continue with a somewhat concerned look.

"I haven't really had my head in the game lately so thank you, it means a lot to me." He took a sip of his tea as the heroine nodded.

"I only did what you would have done for me, Cat." That much she knew was true. If she had been more apparent about her feelings and, if Chat wasn't so lost in his own, she knew he would be the one comforting her right then. Even if they didn't know a lot about each other, that would never change.

Her partner's face perked a little, in an expression that was reminiscent of the ones he would usually give. That playful jokester look hadn't been lost after all it seems. "...Still, thanks for being so mintiful towards me."

Ladybug choked on her own tea, sputtering. She was caught somewhere between a laugh and a groan at the unexpected pun. It was far from one of his better ones, but she would have taken it, if she hadn't been caught so off guard.

"Too much, wasn't it?" Her reaction was apparently not what he was looking for. She quickly shook her head multiple times, in an attempt to not mess things up more.

"Chat, that was the first pun you have said in months. I was beginning to think you forgot how." She fidgeted slightly but held eye contact with him. "It's good to see you getting back to your old self."

"Oh, a-alright," he said, giving a shaky smile. Marinette sighed slightly, knowing what to address next.

"Look Cat, I know you don't want to talk about it but… know that I am always here for you." She could only guess but she had a feeling why her partner wasn't opening up to her about this. "C'mon, let's start patrol."

Once it was decided that neither of them would eat anymore, Ladybug put away the snacks and started stretching. Cat Noir was ahead of her already so he gave a salutary salute and simply vaulted away to finish his route.

The smile Ladybug held for her partner faded as he disappeared into the night. With how out of sorts Chat was acting, something terrible must have happened in his personal life. That's why she held this facade in front of him. Whatever he was going through must have been so much worse.

Several months ago, Cat Noir's world had shattered too.

So this is my first Miraculous fanfic. I got into the fandom sometime last year in August or September. My brain had plenty of time to think of story ideas, just couldn't help myself. Decided that I should really write down what I have had in my mind for a while.

I currently have the first few chapters planned out so stay tuned! Comments and critique are welcomed!

Have a nice day/night!