Several hours later, her eyes fluttered open. She had had a dream about her parents that stirred her from her sleep. The room was dark, except for the light of a small desk lamp below. She peered down over the edge. Adrien was sitting at a desk with a cup of coffee, pouring over some of her old documents. She didn't remember what they were, but she didn't care. All old plans and forgotten observations.

"He said I broke you." Marinette muttered, still in a half conscious stupor. Her head had fallen back against the pillow, and she stared up at the ceiling in front of her. She heard him put down his coffee mug and walk across the floor to the bedside, poking his head up over the edge of her loft. "He said it was all my fault."

Adrien shook his head.

"I'm sorry." She whispered. He smiled and brushed some hair out of her eyes.

"Get some rest, Marinette. I'm not mad at you anymore."

"You were mad at me." Marinette murmured, burying her face in her pillow. She felt too much shame to see his face right now.

"Maybe once, but it's been ten years. You get some sleep, okay? We'll talk about it later."

Marinette made an a noise that could have been speech, but was just as likely not. He smiled and began to lower himself, when her hand reached out and grabbed his arm. "Stay."

He still could not see her face, and her words were still muffled, but he smiled and shrugged and leaned against the edge of the loft. After about a minute, the woman's grip loosened, and a minute after that, her arm fell limp and moved itself away under the covers. Marinette snored lightly as she drifted off to sleep. He gave her shoulder a squeeze and went back down to the desk below.

Several hours of dreamless sleep passed uneventfully, and Marinette's eyes opened once again. Now the light of morning was trying desperately to fight in through the black out curtains on the windows. Adrien had dozed off in the chair at the desk below. She sat up and felt a sudden pain shoot through her body to her head. She groaned.

She lowered herself from the ladder carefully onto the main floor, groaning with each step. Every bone ached, every muscle was stiff, and every thought made her brain protest. She walked over to where Adrien was sleeping and took the mug of coffee off the table. It was cold, but there was some left over from the night before, which she drank in one swig, wincing at the stale, cold bitterness of it.

She looked down at the man in the chair. He had his arms folded across his chest with a bundle of papers in one hand. His head was hanging and his mouth was slightly agape. An unattractive little line of drool had made its way from the corner of his mouth down his chin and onto his sleeve. She scoffed.

"Arise, sleeping beauty." She nudged him with the mug. His eyes shot open, and with a snort, he straightened up in his chair, stretching and placing a hand on his sore neck.

"Ah, jeez, Ladybug? Marinette. Hey. Jeez. M-Morning." He mumbled, feeling the sleep leave his body kicking and screaming. He rubbed his eyes under his glasses and looked up at her. She was smiling.

"Were you here all night? You didn't have to stay." She said, flopping down on one of the chairs nearby. He scoffed.

"Actually, you asked me to." Adrien sniffled and rose from his seat to get the feeling back in to his limbs. She felt a tinge of heat on her cheeks.

"Oh god, I didn't say anything else, did I?" She asked. He smiled and raised his eyebrows.

"You just talked about how cool I am and how much you appreciated me being there. Normal stuff."

She stared at him. He laughed. "Nothing serious. We can talk about it later."

"Glad there's still a little Chat Noir in you after all these years. I guess." She muttered sarcastically. "What do you have there?"

Adrien looked down at the papers in his hand. They were slightly creased from where he held them tightly as he drifted off, but he walked over to her and spread them out on the table nearby. They were designs. Not fashion designs, but designs for costumed superheroes. There were plenty of alternate looks for Ladybug sketched across the various papers, sure, but that wasn't all. She had designed new costumes for Chat Noir as well. Some of them were for a female build, but most were designed for the average male body.

She rolled her eyes at them as Adrien marveled. There weren't just designs for them. There were designs for everyone. Here was a new, regal looking outfit for Queen Bee. On this page, a very neo noir inspired look for Pegasus. They were amazing and intricate and sometimes slightly impractical, but they were all lovingly done.

"These are incredible." He said, looking over them. "You did all of these?"

"A hobby, I guess. Pass the time." She averted her eyes when he complimented her design, and tried to sound as nonchalant as possible. To her, these were all mindless doodles done while watching the news or listening to the police scanner. They didn't mean anything. But to him, he saw boundless potential. "Don't read too deeply into them, okay?"

Adrien looked down at a design for Chat Noir that was way too skimpy and revealing to be practical in any way. He looked up at her.

"I don't. That's not. Uh." She stammered, pulling the paper out from under his hand. "That's not mine."

"You're blushing."

"That's a bruise?"

"Ah, of course." He conceded. He looked back down at the designs in front of him. As someone with an eye for fashion, he saw them as a bit raw, directionless. They weren't designed to be worn, really. They were just ideas, never meant to take real form. But they all showed potential. He could tell just by looking that she still had an inspired imagination. And that was something to be admired, something to be proud of. Maybe something she should try doing, instead of being Ladybug. "You know, if you ever wanted to try designing again,"

"Please, Adrien, I'm not-" She protested, but Adrien shook his head and held up a hand.

"I'm just saying, if you submitted something to the line, it would be considered." He explained, as noncommittal as possible. That kind of decision wasn't always up to him, and besides, offering her a job outright was not the right approach. He couldn't change her world view all at once, he had to open her eyes slowly, give her time to adjust. "I'm not saying this as your friend to flatter you, I'm saying this as a person who works in fashion, and making an objective statement: you have talent."

Marinette stared at him, and then down at her designs. They were silly, really, childish fantasies she dreamt up in her spare time. She had never really looked at them objectively, or ever given them much thought, for the matter. They were all idly done, pulled straight from her head without refinement.

But looking at them critically, as she was now, she had to say… They were bad. They were really rough and very impractical, and she wasn't super proud of them.

"I can probably do better than this." Marinette muttered to herself.

"I think you can too." The man agreed. She looked up at him. She hadn't been speaking to him, just thinking aloud.

"You think so?" She asked. She didn't know how to feel about this, because it didn't feel real. It felt like idle chit chat, like they were just bouncing ideas around. It wasn't like she was suddenly employed in fashion.

It had once been her dream job, before Ladybug happened. She'd sketch designs hourly, carry a notebook everywhere she went for inspiration. Then, during the early years of being a hero, she slowly found she lost the time to devote to her hobby, and when she fell out of practice, she forgot all about her interest in designing. She didn't know if it was still what she wanted anymore.

"I do. I'm not saying you're the best I've ever seen, I'm just saying, think about it." Adrien continued, pulling her from her thoughts. She gave a thoughtful nod and swallowed.

"You want breakfast? I can make you something, I got…" He thought for a moment, "Stuff. At the store."

"Ugh, no." She answered, leaning back in her chair and going limp, which only made her head pound harder "I feel like I'm going to vomit."

"You okay? You ought to rest some more."

"No, no, it's fine. I have to," She leaned forward to her desk and shuffled some papers until she found a blank one and stared down at it. "I have to figure out how I'm going to get that ring back. Felix beat the hell out of me last night. God, and all the garbage that came out of his mouth."

She thought back to the fight last night. It should have been so easy. She was the experienced one, she had all the skill. He was just some clever rookie. So why had it been a stalemate? Felix had always been her least favorite kind of person, all snide and full of evil little plans. The kind of person who had no moral qualms about lying and cheating and doing it all with a smile on his face. An extremely punchable face. She pounded her fist against the desk.

"Woah, woah, o-okay there." Adrien urged, scooting his chair closer to hers. He placed a hand on the table and leaned in closer to her, trying to look into her eyes. She stubbornly refused to meet his gaze. "Why don't you just take a deep breath and tell me about it."

"No, no, it's fine. I don't need to talk about it. I need to win." She insisted. "We aren't partners anymore, Adrien, I don't need to confide in you, I just need space so I can handle this."

Adrien almost pressed the issue, but that last remark stung more than he expected it to. He took a deep breath, leaned back in his chair, and decided instead just to watch her for a while.

She started by writing something down on the piece of paper in front of her. Some words, probably the beginnings of a plan she wasn't going to follow. She quickly groaned, crossed the writing out, and started again. Halfway through the second sentence, she sighed and rubbed her temples, weakly complaining about the headache she had. He rose silently from his seat and trotted downstairs.

His bodyguard was on the couch nearby, reading something on his tablet. He greeted the enormous man who nodded in response.

"Don't suppose you know how to get the ring back from Felix?" Adrien asked, fishing around in the cabinet above Marinette's sink. His bodyguard shook his head. "Didn't think so. Need anything?"

Again the man declined.

"Cool. Back to it then." Adrien climbed the stairs into the bedroom clutching a small bottle of pills and a glass of water.

"How's the ape man?" Marinette asked without looking up. Adrien wordlessly placed the painkillers and water on the desk next to her and gestured to them. She nodded and lazily emptied a few into her palm, swallowing them. Adrien returned to his seat.

"Doing better than either of us, at least." Adrien admitted. Marinette let a small smile show on her face before biting her lip to disguise it. "That guy could put Felix through the ringer."

"You think so?" Marinette asked, mindlessly doodling instead of planning like she promised herself she would. Why was she having so much trouble focusing?

"Well, not now obviously. Not now that he has the ring." Adrien conceded. "Can't believe it. He was like a brother to me for a decade just to get dirt on you."

There was silence.

"And, for what it's worth, I'm sorry I gave it to him. It's just, I dunno, he gets in my head you know? I can't say no."

Marinette placed her pen down flat and looked up, not at him, but at the ceiling. She really didn't need this. Every time he apologized for something, she felt a pang of guilt for some reason she couldn't explain.

She was angry with him for telling Felix all those things, things that were used against her, personal things. And an apology felt appropriate in some ways, but not if it meant he had to feel bad about it. Things were hard enough on him already, she didn't want him to feel worse for mistakes he made in the past. She just wanted him to be safe and content.

"Listen, Adrien, you don't have to apologize." She began, still staring at the ceiling, now pinching the bridge of her nose. "I know how he works. That's what he does, you know? Manipulates you, tells you what you want to hear. He's like that. You trusted someone, and I don't hold that against you. You deserve to have someone you can trust in your life."

"You're not angry then?" He asked.

"I'm furious, it's just I'd rather direct that at your slimy cousin than you." She replied, now rolling her pen on the desk. He smiled and stifled a tired laugh.

"Well, if it means anything, I've always trusted you completely." He assured her. She sighed and let the pen roll off of her desk. He stooped and picked it up for her, presenting it to her the way one might hand off an umbrella on a rainy day. She stared at it.

"You have?" Marinette asked, not taking the pen. He shrugged.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Even after I took the ring and all that?"

He sighed. He thought often to that moment. To what he thought had been the cause, and what he now knew was the cause.

"Marinette, when you took that ring from me, you told me it was because you thought we should finally reveal our identities to each other." He began, rotating the pen between his thumb and forefinger. She gritted her teeth and averted her eyes. "But, that was a lie."

"I thought, for a long time, you lied because you didn't trust me after I messed up and told everyone who I was. And I was angry, at you, and at everyone. But that was a decade ago. Now I know that you did what you did to protect me. And I guess that makes a bit more sense. I'm done being angry about it either way."

Marinette could sense a 'but' coming.

"But, you know, the crazy thing is, if you had come to me and just told me the truth, that you thought I'd be safer with out it, I would have given it to you."

"Really?" Marinette asked, cocking her head toward him. He nodded, eyebrows raised.

"Yeah. I trust you. Completely."

Marinette slumped in her chair. Now she felt really terrible. All these years, she had let him believe that lie. She had been the catalyst for more of his pain. The worst part is, she knew it too. She knew she had done these things, but she had convinced herself it was necessary to save him. Now she knew it never had been. And after all that, Adrien still trusted her.

'But I lied to you, so much." Marinette whimpered. Adrien nodded.

"And it hurt, every time you did." Adrien began. He crossed his arms and looked down at his feet. "Can I say some things? They may be unpleasant to hear."

Marinette nodded somberly, silently bracing herself.

"I don't think you've ever trusted me the way I trust you." Adrien began. Marinette was silent, but she knew that was true. That was barely even a secret. "Not to say you've never trusted me, I mean, I'm here aren't I? But there's always been a line you've straddled between trusting me and keeping me at a distance."

"What I'm getting around to, Marinette, is that you seem to think this whole thing you do, where you push people away and build these walls around yourself, started when you took that ring from me. But it didn't. You've been doing that since I met you. You've always done that."

Marinette shook. She didn't want that to be true. After all, she had trusted others with greater secrets. Her best friend knew her identity, so that was proof!

When the burden of secrecy became too great, she let Alya in on almost everything. She had trusted her as much as possible, even letting her carry her own Miraculous for a time.

She was about to present this as a counterpoint, when she saw his eyes and realized: What he said was true about him. He didn't know about any of that. From his perspective, it was true for everyone, but Marinette knew better. Marinette knew this was a behavior she reserved exclusively for the one person she should have trusted the most. Since day one, she had built up walls between Ladybug and Chat Noir for the sake of their perceived safety. But so many things would have been simpler if she had just let him in a little closer.

"I did it because…"

"I know, to keep us safe. Well, and again, this is harsh, so forgive me, it didn't work." Adrien replied, in the softest tone he could. He was careful not to raise his voice, he didn't want this situation to explode.

"Okay, that doesn't have anything to do with me losing the ring, I thought I was trusting you!" The woman protested, leaning in. Her voice was rising. Adrien shook his head.

"I offered to help you with Felix, you refused, and he beat you."

"So? What were you going to do, sweet talk him?" Marinette snapped.

"Are you going to go fight him again? I'm not staying if all I'm going to see is you getting yourself hurt. I can't."

Marinette exhaled, trying to hide the embarrassment she felt when she thought about her loss. But of course, she couldn't hide the evidence, the bruises and cuts that Felix had given her.

"Well, what do you want me to do? He's better than I thought it would be, alright?" Marinette huffed. She was still chalking it up to a fluke deep inside.

"Let me help you." He beseeched. "Let's stop him together, like old times. As a team."

Marinette sighed. She didn't see the point. He didn't have his powers anymore, how could he help? He'd also be putting himself in danger, and that, to her, was not worth the extra risk.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea." She stated, gripping the pen and giving it a tug out of his grip. He kept his hand on it, and looked her in the eye.

"Then you're just going to have to trust me completely when I say I can help you." He replied.

Their eyes locked for a long moment. She could see sincerity and honesty in them, but also a sadness that reminded her that this wasn't easy for him either. Going up against Felix, his only friend for ten long years, must have taken a lot of will.

Every part of her brain was screaming at her not to do this. This was a bad idea. The last time she trusted someone, it was Felix, and she lost the ring. This blind faith was exactly what got her in to this mess in the first place. And besides, she knew that, alone, she would get the ring back eventually, even if it took everything she had.

But then there was her heart, which was enthusiastic about the idea. And her gut, which told her it was right. Working with him was right, it was how things were supposed to be. How things always had been. Maybe Tikki was right. Maybe she lost herself in Ladybug because she hadn't had Chat Noir to balance her out.

And this was his fight too. Felix was his villain as much as he was hers. She wouldn't have taken on Papillon without Adrien by her side. Why should she take on Felix?

She released her grip on the pen.

"Okay. Tell me what you have in mind."

Adrien smiled. "So you trust me? Completely?"

"It's not that easy, but I'll try."

"So I can use another Miraculous, if I ask for one?"

Marinette was silent.

"Marinette." He scolded.

She sighed. "Fine."

"Good!" Adrien clapped his hands together, sliding her page of rejected plans across the desk to his side. "I don't want one. We won't need it. I have a plan."

"This is the worst plan I think I 've ever heard." Marinette groaned. She, along with Adrien and his bodyguard, had convened in the living room to discuss Adrien's grand design over drinks and myriad snacks. It felt nice to emerge from her cave for once. The living room had light and air flow and only one screen, which was off. And it was communal. In a way, chatting casually with partners about plans to stop villains felt right. Like it always should have been.

"Well, you see, we've always been more reactive than proactive," Adrien began, "So planning for all contingencies is not our strong point. But I think this one will work."

"There are so many ways this can go inconceivably wrong." Marinette pointed out. He nodded. This was true.

"That's a blanket statement you could make about anything in the world, Marinette. But this will go right, because it's you and me. It's Ladybug and Chat Noir." He reminded her. His bodyguard cleared his throat.

"And him too." Adrien finished.

"Yeah, about his involvement, I'm not sure I'm comfortable involving a civilian in this whole, whatever this is." She whispered, leaning in. Adrien waved his hand dismissively.

"I'm a civilian." He reminded her.

"Yes, and that also makes me uncomfortable."

"Ah, so you do have a soft spot for me after all these years!" Adrien crooned. Marinette took very little comfort in the fact that he had so easily fallen back into Chat Noir's flirtatious habits. A very small part of her found it endearing, but that small part of her currently was being strangled to death by the part of her that found it annoying.

"I just don't want something happening to you or to him." She replied, grimly. While she was going through with this vulnerability and trust thing that Adrien seemed so eager about, she figured she may as well be honest and expand on that statement. "I would feel a lot of guilt if I let you get hurt. Weirdly enough, I care about you."

Adrien smiled gently. "I care about you too. I know the last few days have been an emotional rollercoaster. But you have us. And we're all going to get through this. Trust me."

The rest of the evening was spent catching up. Before, they had spoken of their past exploits and the experiences that they shared, but Marinette was surprised to find the conversation took a more somber tone that evening. Adrien spoke of his routine each day, rising from restless sleep to a world where he had very little control over his day to day activities, relenting sorrowfully how much his adult life had turned out like his childhood one.

And Marinette, in turn, discussed all the things she wished she had done over the last ten years. The reunions she had missed, the friends she had lost touch with. Looking back, there was so much more she regretted than not.

And, naturally, as the night went on, they found their conversation traveling back in time to when they had been children. Adrien sighed, recalling the times he felt so sure he would finally work up the nerve to say 'no' to his father, only to reluctantly back out at the last moment. All the things he missed out on as a result, and how, if he were given another chance, he wasn't even sure he'd be able to do it differently. After all, he couldn't even say 'no' to Felix.

Cheeks stained a slight pink, Marinette recounted the panic she felt, each and every time she had to talk to her old high school crush. How she'd stutter and trip over each word, embarrassing herself in front of him.

"You know, for a while, I was pretty sure you secretly hated me." Adrien sighed.

"Really? Why? How much more obvious could I have been?"

"You would literally run away from me. I would invite you to hang out and you'd stutter and make some excuse. How was I supposed to know?"

She conceded that perhaps she had made it more difficult than it needed to be. Of course, the irony of Chat Noir's crush on Ladybug was not lost on either of them.

And then, after some final wallowing in sympathy and self pity, they retired for the night. Quietly, perhaps reluctantly, they said good night. Marinette ascended into her loft, and Adrien eased quietly into the unused bedroom where her parents once dwelled. He offered first use of that room to his bodyguard, but he insisted that the couch was fine.

And, about an hour later, Adrien received a text message.

'I can't sleep'

It was from Marinette.

'try harder ' He replied. He'd been up reading a book by lamplight, since, of course, the thought of facing Felix tomorrow made him too anxious to rest.

'I want to talk some more. Can you come up?' She replied, less than a minute later

Adrien inhaled deeply and stared at his phone for a few moments. His heart beat slightly faster.

'ok'

He emerged from the other room and crept silently so as not to disturb his slumbering friend. He tiptoed up the stairs to Marinette's room and pushed the hatch open quietly, the creaking of the hinges was almost deafening in the stillness of the night.

"Marinette?" He called. No response. He pushed up into the room and looked around. She wasn't anywhere on this level. He felt his face scrunch itself into an uncomfortable grimace, and reluctantly, stepped onto the ladder to where her bed was, peering over the edge.

Not there either. Adrien felt slightly relieved at that, he supposed. The hatch above, to the roof, was ajar, so Adrien scrambled up onto the loft where the bed was, rising up through the hatch to the terrace on top of the building. His neck and back hurt from having to arch at weird angles to fit into the loft and out onto the roof.

"You really gotta squeeze to get up here, huh." Adrien muttered, clamoring up. This probably wasn't as hard for a teenager, but for a grown man, it was down right exhausting. He rose to his full height. Marinette was straight ahead, leaning on the railing. He joined her. "What's up?"

Marinette turned and acknowledged him silently, before gazing out over the city again. It was a dismal night in Paris, but the lights of her city helped to put her at ease a bit.

All night, she found her mind wandering back to what Felix had said during their fight. She knew how he worked, and that he was just trying to unnerve, but she was ashamed to admit, he had succeeded. She didn't know if she could forgive herself for adding on to Adrien's suffering through this past decade.

"Marinette, it's freezing up here." Adrien noted after several minutes of silently gazing out on the city. The woman had been so preoccupied, she had not realized how long they'd stood there. She sighed.

"I just wanted to say, you know, I'm sorry. If, when I took the ring, I messed you up." Marinette said, flatly, and calmly. She didn't know how to say it best, so she just said it with out thinking. It was a go to strategy for her that almost never worked out in her favor, but she stuck to it anyway. She did not have the nerve to look at Adrien's face, but she heard him exhale. He leaned backward on the railing and folded his arms.

"Is this about what Felix told you?" He asked, quietly. She nodded. "I don't know exactly what he said, but forget about it."

"He said I was to blame for making you the broken person you are today." She recounted. He scoffed.

"What an asshole. I'm assuming that's verbatim? God, what a drama queen."

Adrien laid a hand on her shoulder and turned her toward him. She still averted her gaze, but let him rotate her so they were facing each other.

"Listen, Marinette." He began, "I don't know what a broken person is, per se, but I don't consider myself one. When you took the ring, it was a lot for me, and I stewed for a long time on it. But if you think you're responsible for all my problems, I gotta introduce you to this guy named Gabe."

"That man, my father, is to blame for all the crazy things that have happened to me. Not you. I do blame him, and yeah, I'm still angry, every single day, at all the things he did and all the things that happened to me. I still have nightmares about that day."

Marinette winced.

"Every day is a fight. I have nearly a decade of therapy under my belt, and even now, I close my eyes and see my mother in that glass cocoon he kept her in. And every day, I just have to keep going anyway."

"And maybe Felix Graham de Vanilly thinks that makes me 'broken' or whatever. But I disagree. That's someone who has put themselves back together." The man concluded with just a hint of personal pride in his voice. He'd worked hard to get to where he was. He had bad moments, and he had better moments, and he wasn't quite at the finish line yet, but he had come this far. It took work, and perseverance. And he wasn't proud of each step along the way. But he was proud of the journey.

Marinette ruminated on these words. She thought back to the way he acted when he first came to her, the scared, simpering man that appeared on her doorstep. This was a complete reversal, a picture of self assuredness. What had changed?

"It's just, you were so shaky, you know?"

"Well, yeah, my best friend stole my identity." Adrien confessed. "But then, you know, you were there. And you reminded me who I was."

"Me? I was so shitty to you. I was going to kick you out after you told me everything about Felix." Marinette sighed. The man shook his head.

"Maybe you thought it was nothing, but that whole speech you gave me? About how I was Chat Noir? That was classic Ladybug." He sighed dreamily, and slightly dramatically. Marinette smiled.

"That's who you are, Marinette." He continued. "Maybe you forgot too, so consider this your reminder. You're kind and considerate and confident. Don't let Ladybug take that from you."

Marinette had to avert her gaze to disguise the blush that was forming on her cheeks. She was almost ashamed to have fallen for such a smooth line. But Adrien always had had a way with words.

"Why are you so…" Marinette began, trailing off. She heaved a heavy sigh and gripped the railing. He was irritatingly perfect. It was almost annoying how thoughtful he was, and how he always knew just what to say. She almost wished he was more like Felix, so she could continue to pretend like she wasn't savoring each minute in his company like fine wine.

Of course, she didn't feel like a kind, considerate person. She knew she wasn't the paragon that he always made her out to be. But hearing it from him did help more than she expected it to. She had put everything aside and devoted all her energy to being Ladybug. Where had that gotten her? If she had just trusted a little more, none of this would have happened. If she had been a little more Marinette than Ladybug.

"Will you be okay, when we see him tomorrow?" She asked, trying now to show the consideration that he expected her to. He thought about this, putting a hand on the railing and staring up at the few stars he could see beyond the halo of light the city produced.

"I don't know, to be honest." He muttered, his gaze falling back to the city. "I want to know why he's doing all this, but I don't know if I'll have the nerve to ask. Honestly, that guy intimidates me."

"Why?"

"He's just like my dad, you know? He says he cares, but all he really does is sneak around and lie and hurt people. All right under my nose." Adrien began. "I remember when we finally did confront Gabe, how I almost…"

He trailed off, scratched under his chin, rubbed his eyes under his glasses, and shook his head uncomfortably. All this anxious fidgeting amounted to very little, and he realized the woman he was with was still staring up at him expectantly. He heaved a heavy sigh.

"I almost let him go, you know? Don't know if I ever told you that, but there was a part of me that just wanted to make my dad happy. Even then. Now I wonder if the same thing is going to happen with Felix, just because I'm too afraid to stand up to him."

Marinette winced nearly imperceptibly. The night they won, all those years ago, it was not a grand victory. It was fought for tooth and nail. It was almost a loss, several times. And now she knew one more way in which they had come close to losing everything. And, of course, her first thought was to berate him for his weakness. But she was trying hard not to be that person anymore.

"What changed? Why didn't you?" She asked, as a way of pulling her thoughts away from the negative. The corner of his mouth turned upward slightly. He pointed at her.

"Didn't want to disappoint my partner."

Well, that was the last straw. She shut her eyes. Took a deep breath. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him.

"You're so unbelievable." She muttered into his chest.

He laughed, taken slightly off guard. He rested a hand on the back of her head. "Yeah."

"Whatever happens tomorrow," Her words were muffled against him. "I want you to know I'm proud of you, and I…"

She paused.

"I couldn't ask for a better partner. Thank you for being here with me."

The man smiled and ran his hand down the back of her head a few times. She pressed an ear to him. His heart was pounding, but not in the same way hers was. She could tell by his body language, he was not relaxed. She took a deep breath in and stepped back, exhaling a puff of white in the cold late winter air. She stared straight ahead at his chest, not up at his eyes, and smiled. Then she forced herself to stop smiling. She couldn't force the red from her cheeks, however.

"Let's get the hell off this roof, huh?" Adrien asked her, shivering. She laughed and nodded, and he headed back toward the roof hatch. By the time she willed her legs to move and catch up to him, he had already slunk down from the loft and was standing by the stairs to the living room. She knelt on her bed. He waved and started to go.

"Hey," Marinette began, kneeling. He turned to look up at her. "Do you want to uh."

There was silence in the room.

"Nothing." Marinette finished. "Goodnight."

He watched her throw herself onto her bed and frantically roll away from him. Shrugging, he opened the hatch and descended.