The scorching hot water hit Adrien's shoulders and he let out a hiss. Adjusting the shower's temperature, he let the water wash away the pent up stress and uncertainty. He ran some of his imported mint shampoo through his hair, and ducked his head under the steady stream of water. The warm steam filled the whole room, and the rest of the world was blocked out by the hypnotic tap of water droplets clicking against the tile. Letting the streams of water bead down his face he felt calm...that is...until he heard her call his name!

"Adrien?" she called from the edge of his bedroom window.

Adrien froze, and his eyes snapped open. Had his turmoil of thoughts and pain of unrequited love somehow conjured up some illusion of her voice following him?!

"Adrien? a..a..are you here?" she craned her neck, leaning further through the window to see if he was there.

I have snapped! Adrien thought, as he ducked his head out of the shower, and crept toward the door. He snatched up a thick white towel off a hook on the wall, and wound it tightly around his waist. Now I'm hearing her in my head! He berated himself for letting his imagination get the best of him. Maybe he had slipped and hit his head in the shower and this was some kind of cruel dream...He peeked out of the slight opening of his bathroom door, and his heart stopped. Ladybug...Ladybug herself was teetering on the edge of his bedroom window!

He ducked back into the bathroom with his back against the cold wall, and his breathing kicked in three fold. How did she find him? How did she know! Maybe that is what the whole Shadowcat meeting at the Eiffel Tower tonight had been about...did she know he was Shadowcat? That he was Chat Noir? Or that he was both?

"Um...are you okay?" Ladybug's voice called out pitifully and small. It was so filled with emotion and hesitation, that it drew him in. What was he doing? She had sought him out! He wasn't going to slink away now.

Taking a deep breath, and channeling every once of confidence his Chat Noir side had to offer, he boldly swung the door open and walked through. "Ladybug!" he said pleasantly, with an air of Adrien-calm surprise. "You were looking for me?"

At this point Ladybug's mouth dropped open at the sight of Adrien in nothing but a towel and her hands released the edge of the window ledge she was holding, sending her falling forward onto the floor of Adrien's room.

This was certainly not what Adrien expected, and he tried to move forward to catch her fall, but in the second it had taken her to tumble, she was already jumping back jump again. With scrambling movements, she gripped the side of the window and pulled herself back up abruptly. Face blazing red from under her mask. Whirling her arms in front of her, she babbled, "Iiama...I...I...I'm so so sorry! If I had known of course I would...I mean would never have...that is to say with you all...without...any...at all...but I just wanted you...I mean to tell you...check you out...I mean check on you...and you seem great...really great...soooooo I'll be going now!" With that eloquent speech out of the way, Ladybug attempted to make a hasty retreat out the window.

"Wait Ladybug!" Adrien found his voice calling out to her.

His call made her freeze with one foot already halfway out.

"Why did you come to find me?" he asked, searching for some answer in her eyes.

Ladybug closed her eyes tight, and then drew slowly back into the room. Keeping her eyes on the floor she tried to steady her breath, and answered, "I wanted to make sure you were okay. I heard you haven't really been yourself lately...and I guess that scared me."

"You...um...know who I am?" Adrien asked with baited breath.

Ladybug looked startled by his question, and seemed to be trying to figure out how exactly to answer. "Of course. You are Adrien Agreste, everyone knows who you are," she brushed off.

"Oh..." the sound hung in the air after it left his tongue. He wasn't sure if he was relieved or disappointed that is wasn't Shadowcat or Chat Noir that she had come to check on.

"...but, you're also someone I care about," she added, only now meeting his eyes. "I don't know what is going on, but I just wanted you to know that you weren't alone...whatever you're going through"

"You did?!" Adrien asked in complete shock.

"...but I am very sorry to have barged in on you and completely invaded your privacy!" her head ducked down again, and the red under her mask crept up to her ears. "I certainly don't make a habit of dropping into super model's bedrooms!"

Adrien couldn't help himself. His lip quivered, and he tried desperately to keep down a smile from breaking through. He couldn't believe how flustered she was getting in front of him. The Chat Noir side of him was curious to see how she'd react if he moved closer, while the Adrien side wanted to put her at ease so she didn't leap right out his open window and out of his life forever.

"Do you mind if I..." Adrien moved to one side, and she flinched. Adrien grabbed his shirt off the back of the couch, and swept his shorts off the floor. "If I go change," he asked, "can you promise me you'll still be here in a minute?"

"No or yeah...of course..no vanishing act...I'll just stay right here," Ladybug stood stock still.

"You could, uh, grab a seat on the couch if you want," Adrien suggested, pulling the door shut behind him.

As soon as the door closed behind him both teens on either side of the door let out a collective breath.

Adrien quickly jumped into his black shorts, and pulled the white t-shirt over his head. What was happening? He was becoming more and more convinced by the second that his theory about the slip in the shower and onset of some concussion was most likely. He was convinced that as soon as he opened that door again she would be gone without a trace. Then he would always wonder if it had been real...but he opened the door and there she was. Perched on the edge of his couch, with her gloved red and black fingertips tapping nervously on her knees.

He walked back out into the room, towel drying his hair, and then tossing the towel into a hamper. His blonde hair stuck up on end, with a lingering scent of mint that carried with him as he walked across the room.

He sat down on the couch, and she looked up at him. "You know," he started, "you never mentioned how you knew that I...well, that I wasn't feeling so great today or why the Superhero of Paris would take it upon herself to pay me a personal visit to check in on me."

"No, I didn't," Ladybug replied.

"But you can't tell me," Adrien concluded for her.

"Not really," she grimaced, "I really am sorry! This was a big mistake...I thought something was horribly wrong, or that you were sick, or in trouble...I don't know...I just thought that maybe you needed me," she finished in a whisper.

"I guess...maybe...you were right," Adrien said slowly looking out the window, rather than at her wide blue eyes staring back at him in surprise.

She stared at him. This was so bizarre. A total mess from the beginning, but with her track record to interactions with Adrien should she have expected any less?!...and yet...was he saying that he really did need her? She quickly had to mentally slap herself into realizing that to Adrien she was Ladybug right now. Not Marinette...Ladybug. And Adrien Agreste needed her help. "How are you?" she finally asked.

Adrien let out a huff of a laugh at how such a simple, generic question, could be so unbelievably difficult to answer.

"If you don't want to say, I understand..." Ladybug tried to brush it aside.

"No, it's not that. I guess I'm just not sure exactly what to say," Adrien said. "I guess I feel broken. Like I've lost my way and I can't find my way back alone."

"But you're not alone!" she jumped in, only to backpedal, "I mean you seem like the kind of guy who has countless fans who are crazy about him, not to mention lots of friends who would do anything form him."

"The fan's are wonderful of course, and my friends are the absolute best! I feel guilty even saying it, but I don't always feel like the people I care about the most need me around. I want them to be able to depend on me, and prove that they can trust me...but I feel like they don't really see me," Adrien looked over at Ladybug.

Ladybug's brow knitted together, and she wove her hands together, interlocking her fingers tightly. "I'm not always the best friend," she started, and then quickly added, "to some of my friends, that I have." She glanced briefly at Adrien, and then back down at her hands. "I get so caught up with what I'm doing or the stress in my own life that I miss when something is bothering them. I miss all the signs they're giving me, and I end up failing them when they need me the most."

"You've got the whole city, heck, sometimes the whole world to look out for!" Adrien countered. "That is a lot on our shoulders."

"I...I just recently lost someone I am really close to, all because I wasn't paying attention," Ladybug admitted quietly.

"It probably wasn't really all your fault," Adrien said.

"I definitely screwed up," Ladybug assured him.

"But you're just so perfect," Adrien said.

"Are you kidding?! I'm the furthest thing from perfect!" Ladybug said in surprise, and then shrugging self-consciously, "I wish I could be more like you,"

"What? Really, me?" Adrien's head snapped up.

"Well, sure, you're smart, selfless, kind, sweet, strong...you always know just what to say. You're everything good in the world, and you do it so easily," Ladybug said.

"Actually, it's not always so easy...it's actually pretty exhausting," Adrien admitted quietly. "Everyone expects me to do things perfectly all the time. It is a lot of pressure."

"All the pressure gets to me too!" Ladybug's eyes widened, turning her knees toward him.

"I guess perfection is not all it's cracked up to be huh?!" Adrien smiled back at her.

"Who needs it!" Ladybug announced triumphantly. "Who can live up to those kind of standards!"

Adrien's knee brushed Ladybug's and the two looked up at each other and stared. "It just makes you feel like at any moment..." Adrien started to say.

"...that you might let everyone down," Ladybug finished his thought.

"Yeah," Adrien agreed, feeling himself being drawn towards her like a magnet. Ladybug too felt the draw...until she realized too late that her streamlined suit was slipping right off the edge of the couch. Before she knew it, she had plopped right down on the floor looking up at Adrien in shock.

Their faces both warmed up, and Marinette started to nervously giggle, which made Adrien sit back and shake his head with a smile.

"Here I go, just proving my point. It feels a little awkward slipping off the pedestal like that," Ladybug murmured.

Adrien slipped himself down off the couch, and plunked himself down right beside her on the floor. "I don't know about that! Things look a lot better from here."

"Off our pedestals, down here?" Ladybug raised an eyebrow.

"It's just easier to really see you when we're side by side," Adrien's face softened.

Ladybug's lips parted in awe, and her blue eyes met the green of his. She had never noticed before that she had never really been able to talk like this with Adrien, as Ladybug. It seemed strangely natural, and yet the way he looked at her made her want to discover how much more about Adrien that was still hidden. She gulped, "Well, there is no where I'd rather be..."

The hazy look between them was abruptly interrupted by a buzz from Ladybug's yoyo.

"Oh, I uh..." Ladybug pushed her yoyo to her side.

"Shouldn't you get that?" Adrien asked.

"Naw, I mean...yeah, probably" Ladybug admitted reluctantly, and flipped it open. "Just give me a moment," she briskly stood up, and walked toward the window, holding the yoyo to her ear, "Yes?"

""Lady! Where are you? I've been waiting and you still aren't here yet!" Rena Furtive's voice shot out through the speaker.

"I was just, checking in on a friend to make sure he was okay," Ladybug whispered tightly.

"You're with Adrien! In SPOTS!" Rena practically shrieked.

"Shush...not so loud! Do you want everyone in Paris to hear! I just had some...um...obsticles...so I needed an alternate route...He wasn't feeling well, but he's doing a bit better now," Ladybug said, and then grinned over nervously to where Adrien smiled back at her.

"Are you sure you're still up for tonight? I mean if you've changed your mind, and you and Adrien are..." Rena questioned coyly.

"No, no, I'm absolutely sure! I'll be right there," Ladybug confirmed.

"Alright, but I better get details later! You know if you're nursing our boy Adrien back to health, we could start calling you Florence Nightingale!" Rena teased.

"I wonder how Principal Damocles would look with the fox miraculous," Ladybug threatened.

"Woah! Okay, Okay! Geez, you don't have to paint that picture!" Rena protested. "Just call me back if something happens to change your mind!"

"I'll see you soon! Just make sure you're ready," Ladybug assured her with finality, and clicked her yoyo shut.

Then she looked across the room at Adrien, hitting her yoyo against her leg, and shifting on her feet.

"You've got to go," Adrien concluded.

"I do..." Ladybug bit her lip.

"Well, thanks for...um...dropping by," Adrien stood up, and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Of course, I just hope you'll feel better soon!" Ladybug smiled.

"I'm getting there," Adrien said. "I'm just grateful I have some some really great friends looking out for me!"

"Yeah, friends," Ladybug nodded with extra effort.

"Ladybug!" Adrien blurted out, and crossed the floor between them.

"Uh...yes?" Ladybug answered startled by his sudden proximity.

"Goodbye Ladybug," Adrien said, wrapping his arms around her in a warm hug. "This really meant a lot to me." Then his arms dropped away from her, making her instantly miss their warmth. "I hope you find what you're looking for."

"You too," Ladybug smiled, "Goodbye Adrien."

As she swung off into the night, Adrien watched her disappear out of sight.

Plagg popped up beside Adrien, regarding him carefully, "Soo..."

"Charge up Plagg," Adrien tossed Plagg another wedge of cheese. We're going to be late."

"Late! Late for what?" Plagg asked.

"I figure there is no harm in Shadowcat dropping by to see what Ladybug is up to," Adrien shrugged with a smile.

"Curious are you?" Plagg inquired.

"Intrigued," replied Adrien.