The noisy toll of the clock tower below made it clear it was nearly time to go. Even if she wasn't quite ready to leave Chat Noir just yet, midnight had come far too soon.

Absently, Ladybug mussed Chat Noir's hair, trying to make sense of the drastic task before them.

It had been a particularly valiant effort on his part, but Chat Noir kept yawning through Rose and Juleka's check-in. When Ivan and Mylene finally called to let them know they'd arrived and would be searching for leads first thing in the morning, his head had dropped onto her shoulder.

By the time she heard back from Max and Kim, Chat Noir had collapsed into the lanky pile of a cat with his head nestled on her lap. At least Max had been able to gather some intel on the train's security footage on the way down south.

"Always pushing himself too hard," she murmured aloud. Her fingers wove into his hair, careful to ghost over his cat ears so he wouldn't stir.

Chat Noir swore he had taken a nap on the train ride north, but his yawning showed that it clearly hadn't been enough. She understood. She'd been awake the whole time on the train, puzzling out just how and where one of the butterflies might have hidden.

The nap she took in the hotel when she arrived had done the trick for her, but he never really was used to the late hours. Of course, Chat Noir was always on his game when it came to the adrenaline rush of battles. Still, when it came to their few stolen evenings up on their favorite rooftops, he spent the later nights falling asleep on her shoulder. Not that she could ask enough about his life to find out why he was so insistent on waking up early.

Careful not to move her legs, Ladybug leaned back against the clock tower to glance up at the stars. Nearly everyone had reported in.

She was still waiting for any word from Alix as she kept watch in Paris; no one else was better on solo missions, and no noise from Bunnyx was almost certainly good news. Just in case, she opened up her yoyo, scanning the headlines from Paris.

These new butterflies they all had been chasing had gone missing near the Paris train stations; not long after, the trains would depart the station. The police didn't have proper eyes on the ground, so it fell to Alya's growing network of connections to dig up what little they could.

That's what made it so hard for the team to figure out what they were looking for here. Three of the cleansed butterflies had been reported in this city alone, which had only left her with a half dozen more questions to answer. Were any cleansed butterflies still roaming the city unnoticed? Was the suspect someone local who traveled a lot? Did they have someone they were staying with? Did anything happen here around those times? Was there some intel in the local papers that Alya hadn't been able to dig-up?

Ladybug looked back down at her sleeping partner as he silently stirred in her lap. Gazing at his peaceful face, she found herself lost in the sight before her.

"Tomorrow, I'll go see if they have anything in the library that could help to give us a lead," she whispered with a small kiss to his head.

Behind her, she could hear the clock tower starting to toll incessantly, the pang of the noise, causing Chat to waken as his eyes slowly slipped open.

"You should head back to your hotel, Chaton." She smiled down at him. "It's much too cold to fall asleep up here. Especially since we both have hotel rooms to go back to…"

"I don't want to leave you." He whined, the soft glow of his endlessly green eyes gazing directly at hers, as his clawed hand gently cupped the side of her face.

"We'll both come back up tomorrow night." Her soft smile widened, "besides, you need to be up early if you're going to check with all the travel agencies tomorrow."

"I know," he pouted playfully, "but I'm starving."

"It's midnight," Ladybug chuckled, ruffling his hair fondly one last time before picking her yoyo back up, "nothing is open this late."

"That's a shame," he glanced up, tugging her hand back onto his head, "I really could go for something sweet."

"You know we can't really show up like this," she teased, giving his bell a slight tap. On instinct, she reached for her purse that wasn't there. "Besides, I didn't bring anything for Tikki, so detransformation is off the table tonight."

Silent glances passed back and forth between them. They didn't need the words. It was a question they'd each asked a hundred times over.

Would it be so bad if we could see behind the mask?

Chat Noir grinned, sitting up so his lips could inch ever closer. "Guess this will have to tide me over, then."


Ladybug let Chat Noir leave first, so focused on filing the reports from the other holders.

Some of them arrived much earlier this evening. Still, until the libraries opened and the train station staff were there, it would be a challenge coming up with anything useful. She fired off messages on plans-of-attack for the next day that the team would find in the morning.

The trip back to the hotel took mere minutes. Her transformation fell just inside her room after the two sets of curtains were closed.

Wearily, she flopped onto the bed, bouncing just a little onto the exceptionally soft mattress.

She could get back up in a minute to get ready for bed after she burrowed into the luxurious covers and savored their warmth.

She wasn't sure how Chat noir had managed all the arrangements. He simply assured her he would handle it, so she could focus on all of the craziness of the holidays. It was entirely necessary as she helped out her parents. Between studying and taking the end of term exams, it was a struggle to handle real-life outside of Akuma attacks on a good day. As the holidays neared, it had become impossible.

Clearly, he'd succeeded at the mission. So far, everyone had arrived in their assigned city, and no issues had come up.

In a room as cozy and comfortable as this, it was going to be a challenge not to sleep in; especially with curtains that darkened the room enough that the earliest beams of dawn couldn't reach her or allow her to start tossing and turn her way awake.

She was going to have to be super careful, especially with Adrien so close. She sighed into the soft pillow. It was amazing that he could still somehow manage to leave her frazzled after all these years later. She just had to muddle through this one weekend. Then they would both be back to their life in Paris.

Back to classes and the regular buzz where she could be sure Adrien stayed safe while she watched over him on the billboards and from half a campus away.