Chat May have underestimated the amount of liquor he had consumed. Vaulting across the rooftops was more arduous than usual, which he could only attribute to the warm buzz he had going.

The young hero was grateful when his boots found themselves on his windowsill. As fun as his night ended up being, he was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed. Hoping to squeeze in a couple of hours of sleep.

"Plagg, claws in." The hero yawned, already making his way towards the shower as his transformation dropped. Instantly the Kwami was in his face, zipping about in an indignant flurry.

"And what exactly do you think you're doing?" The little black God squawked at Adrien, clearly irritated by the young man's actions.

"Superheroes aren't supposed to run around the city drinking! Do that in your own time! Are you even old enough to drink?"

Adrien continued to ignore his companion as he stripped off his black shirt and faded blue jeans. He was in no mood for one of Plaggs rants. You would have thought a God of Destruction would be more laid back about a little rule breaking. Could drinking on the job really be considered breaking the rules though? It's not exactly like there was a handbook.

The blonde man sighed as he turned on the taps of the shower, hopefully the water would be enough to keep Plagg away and end his rant. Wishful thinking apparently.

"And besides! What would Ladybug say if she knew you were carrying on like this?" That was a low blow, and Plagg knew it! If he wanted Adrien to bite he had succeeded.

"Yeah? What if she knew?" Adrien snapped at the Kwami, spinning to face him.

"What else can she do, Plagg? She's hardly speaking to me as it is! And she's clearly keeping something from me, so why can't I have my own secrets?" He raised his voice as he ranted, not quite shouting. Adrien's tone lacked anger, it was more like he was pleading with the Kwami, hoping he had an explanation.

The young man wasn't surprised though when the little God didn't offer him an answer, Kwamis were good like that.

Adrien turned back to the shower and stepped into the stream of water, mumbling to himself while he did so. "I doubt she would even care. Not anymore."

A knock on the bathroom door caught the soaked blonde by surprise, so much so, he almost jumped out of his own skin.

"Adrien?" A muffled voice called out, barely audible over the noise of the shower and the buffer of the door.

"Is everything okay? Don't forget you have a shoot first thing in the morning, like literally, first thing! They want you there, prepped and ready before the sun is up."

Adrien relaxed at the familiar sound of his cousin's voice, he should have known better. It's not like his father would care enough to actually enter his room. Having Felix around was a godsend for the model, it helped make his life feel just a little less lonely.

"Yeah, no I'm fine… I was just on the phone. I know I'm having a shower then going to bed. I promise I won't be late!"

Felix had been driving him half crazy the last week, stressing about the upcoming shoot. Adrien couldn't really blame him, the young man was nervous about the reveal of his first fashion line. Still he wished he would stop harping at him about it, modeling was literally what he did for a living.

"Okay, as long as you're okay. I'll see you in the morning."

"Yup, all good. Go get some sleep Felix, everything will be fine!" Adrien sighed, quietly jealous about the passion his cousin had for what he did. The only thing he was passionate about had been his superhero responsibilities, but lately his enthusiasm for even that was dwindling.

Marinette paced her balcony in a flurry, unconsciously pulling at her raven locks. "Tikki! What am I going to do? I can't keep this up! It's driving me crazy!" The young woman begged her Kwami for answers.

"You're right you can't! It's not fair to take your frustration out on Chat Noir, he hasn't done anything wrong." The little red God hovered in front of her holder's face, doing nothing to hide her unimpressed expression.

The young woman stopped her pacing and sunk to her knees, letting out a frustrated groan. That wasn't what she had meant at all, and Tikki knew it.

All through high school Marinette had told herself she wasn't like the other girls all over the world, who fawned over Adrien Agrest. No, she was different! She liked him for who he was.

Yet here she was, it was a slap in the face to know she had been kidding herself all this time. It hurt to know she had been so blind; to be pining after someone the way she had with Adrien.

While rebuffing Chat Noir's advances, for just as long, because of her -what she was only just realising, was an unhealthy obsession with Adrien.

Only for said unhealthy obsession… and her slight stalking to lead to her discovery; that they were in fact one and the same. Adrien, and Chat Noir…the same person, the reality of it still blew her mind.

But it was the wake up call she needed, in truth she was no different to all the other girls. If she was, she would have realised it sooner. She would have seen the similarities between the two. But no, she really hadn't known Adrien as well as she thought she had, not as a person outside of the model. Not even as a friend outside of the superhero.

What made it worse was that she couldn't even tell him! What was she supposed to say? "Oh hi Adrien, so the other day I was stalking you and I saw you transform into Chat Noir and climb out your window? How did I see you from your second story window? Well, the funny thing about that is… I'm actually Ladybug and I decided to swing past your house instead of patrolling the city that night."

Yeah, that would go down well, so instead she kept her mouth shut. Not that that strategy was working out too crash hot either, her frustration at herself often ended up coming across as coldness to Chat Noir when they were together.

She had, no doubt done irreversible damage to their partnership, Chat proved that tonight when he accused her of hiding something from him. What was she supposed to do! Marinette knew what she wanted to do, quit being a hero and hide in her bed for the rest of her life. To hell with being a hero, and to hell with her internship.

"Oh god!" The distraught young woman let out another groan, and as if she couldn't get any more pathetic, curled herself into the fetal position, right there on her balcony floor.

Her internship! Marinette had completely forgotten about the photo shoot she was supposed to attend first thing tomorrow morning. A photo shoot featuring none other than Adrien Agrest himself, her life really was just like a bad movie.

"Marinette!" The scolding voice of her Kwami disrupted the young heroine's internal pity party.

"Marinette, you cannot stay out here all night! You need to go inside before you get sick. You will work it out one thing at a time. Now first things first, inside!" The Kwamis orders left little room for negotiation.

Sometimes it was easy to forget Tikki was a God, she was so sweet and mild mannered; meek even. But when she did make a stand there wasn't much Mari could do, except comply.

Summoning up any remaining scraps of dignity she possessed, the young woman dragged herself to her feet and climbed down the stairs into her bedroom. Once inside she stood there contemplating her choices; bed was the most attractive option by far.

Unfortunately though, Mari needed to wash her hair, and there was no way she was going to get up any earlier just to do that. With an annoyed grunt she trudged her way to the bathroom. The quicker she got it done the quicker she could crawl into bed and pretend she didn't exist, at least for a little while.

As the exhausted heroine made her way downstairs in the direction of the bathroom, she was thankful that at least that her parents would be asleep. She didn't have to worry about pretending to be excited about the shoot tomorrow, which up until last week had been all she talked about.

Wasting no time she turned the faucet on, stepping into the stream of water before the temperature was adjusted properly. Her haste ment she was greeted with a torrent of icy droplets against her skin, still raw from the frigid night air.

"Shit! Goddammit!" With a sharp intake of breath, Marinette spun to move her body out of the spray, but the small space didn't leave room to do so. Instead she ended up with her back pressed against the equally cold tiles of the shower.

Groaning in acceptance Marinette simply stood there in the cold, waiting for the water to heat up. Once again she had found herself in a predicament of her own creation. Luckily it didn't take long before water began to warm her skin, filling the bathroom with steam.

It was one of her favourite things about the small room, it's age ment it lacked the more effective ventilation systems of modern bathrooms. So on cold nights or mornings steam quickly filled the entire space. To the point it was difficult to see, for Mari it was a comfort; enveloping her in her own private little world, free of troubles.

Once the goosebumps disappeared from her arms Mari got to work washing her thick, long hair. Occasionally she missed the low maintenance of her short hair, but those days were few and far between.

The perks of long silky hair that reached her waist far outweighed the downsides. As silly as it sounded it made her feel elegant when she put the effort into dressing it up, not to mention it made her look more mature. Her hair was by far Marinette's favourite feature and she went to great lengths to keep it healthy.

Twenty minutes later and a very red Marinette exited the shower. Quickly she wrapped herself up in a large, white towel, before the chill of the night could creep its prickly fingers across her skin. Then quietly made her way back upstairs to her room.

Hoping to save time in the morning -she was notorious for being late; the young woman began sorting through her closet. Hoping to find something appropriate to wear, she had to look professional. Yet the thought of being in the vicinity of Adrien Agrest or Chat Noir had her incredibly self conscious.