It was surprisingly easy to get used to jumping over the parisien rooftops again. It was as if a part of her former life as a hero of Paris had never left her. Whilst Marinette had found herself to be rusty for lack of a better word, she was soon able to get to grips with her yo-yo and what amount of strength was required to clear a certain distance. She was able to leap through the air effortlessly. Feats which would have been inconceivable for even the greatest athletes became child's play for those wielding the power of a miraculous. Queen Bee managed to keep up. Both of them remained discrete, taking care not to perform overly daring stunts which risked highlighting their presence to the city. Already, there were whispers and rumours about Ladybug being back. They tried their best not to fuel them.

Standing atop the Pantheon, the whole city was visible. It seemed to stretch out far beyond the horizon. Not all of it was Paris, Marinette knew that much. She could make out the peripherique its associated near permanent traffic jams and beyond that lay several large agglomerations which had more or less been absorbed into the larger city. It was a vast space, home to millions and with literally thousands of alleyways, attics and cellars for people to hide. As breathtaking as the sight might be, it also served to remind the heroes of the immensity of the task before them. Ladybug took the opportunity to catch her breath, distracting herself by trying to spot some familiar locations like her school or her old college and her house. It was better than dwelling on the current situation…

Her companion however seemed a little more restless. To be fair, she was expected to attend some form of gala in the next half hour and could no doubt sense the clock ticking down:

"Lets face it… They could be anywhere!" Queen Bee declared irritation after three days of fruitless searching becoming clear.

"I know…" Ladybug let out in a sigh. "They'll have gone to ground."

The implications were multiple. Least of which was that their enemies could be anywhere in the vast city. Likely, they would be waiting. It was fair to assume that they would have the Agreste mansion under some form of surveillance. They would know that there were at least three new heroes protecting him and would adapt accordingly. No doubt they were being doubly cautious. According to Adrien, there was at least three members of the group who had attacked him. They were well trained and efficient but they would know that with an extra five miraculouses out in play that the advantage was not in their favour. So they would be cautious, lying low and waiting for a time to strike. Either that or they had run.

All they could do was wait. Protect the miraculouses and their injured guardian and hope for the best.

Waiting around wasn't something which she particularly appreciated. In an ideal world, she would have liked to be able to track down those responsible and bring them to justice so that they would no longer have to worry about them. Instead, they were left with uncertainty. The situation bore a certain resemblance to the initial mess with Hawk Moth, they were in constant danger but unable to locate the source of the problem so as to be able to deal with it. She suspected that unless they came up with some ingenious solution to allow them to track down their foes, they weren't going to encounter them again until they made a move. They wouldn't do that until they were certain that they were going to be able to get what they wanted. A depressing thought but one which she had come to terms with over the past few days.

"If you want to go to that gala, I'll head back and give Adrien the bad news." She declared turning back towards her friend.

"You sure?" As enthusiastic as she looked, Chloe still hesitated, genuinely concerned. "I can come with you if you-"

"Nah, it's fine." Ladybug offered her a reassuring smile. "I'll deal with him."

"Thanks… Text me to say how things went!"

Marinette nodded once before jumping off of the side of the building, using her yo-yo to swing along. Adrien's was quite far away. The other side of the city as a matter of a fact. Whilst she took the opportunity to survey the streets for any sign of the masked individuals who they had been hunting for the past few days. Not that she would see them down there. Paris might be a busy place but such people would still stand out in the crowd. Her mind was elsewhere at any rate. She wasn't looking forwards to having to explain that once more, their efforts had been in vain. Not because she was particularly ashamed of failure but because every time they left the relative safety of the mansion, she knew that her old friend wouldn't stop climbing the walls until they had returned. Even once they were notionally safe, he would generally remind them that they were vulnerable and so on and so forth.

Whilst she now expected it, it didn't make it any less frustrating. It was a lecture which they could all do without. She knew that they drove their friend to madness by going off on their missions but realistically it was the only way that they were going to bring his attackers to justice. He worried about them. It was neigh on impossible to convince him to do anything else. She could only imagine what it was like for those left behind in the mansion to deal with him. Hence why she hurried back. The sun was setting now, the longer she stayed out after dark, the more he would worry. Not to mention, she had to get back home to finish a paper due for a date which was approaching rather too quickly for her liking.

She'd been given a key to the front door. They all had. It was in case of emergencies but also had the added benefit of meaning that they didn't have to trouble Nathalie. They could slip in and find their friend, leaving her to deal with running the business. Adrien didn't tend to wander too much. He was almost inevitably either in his room or the lounge. Usually, it was the former. Marinette transformed back into her civilian form. She let out a soft sigh as Tikki floated near her head. A silent understanding passed between the two of them, acknowledging yet another day of failure. Their first destination was the lounge but it was empty. Adrien almost inevitably sat in the same armchair, until they returned, it would be resting by the window. It was still there but its occupant was absent. He could have gone to the bathroom, she supposed and so, the young woman decided to wait a few moments accordingly.

It was only after she'd been sitting in the room for a few minutes, that she finally heard the voices upstairs. There was a permanent silence which hung over the mansion, making it seem almost abandoned. It had never been the warmest of places. Even with its more sinister residents gone, the current ones were struggling to escape their terrible legacy. As such, even the most minute of sounds seemed to resonate around the entire building. She couldn't hear the words exactly but could tell that there were at least two people having a conversation. Exchanging a quizzical look with her kwami, she slipped out of the room and into the main hall. Moving silently, she followed the sounds, they were coming from upstairs. It didn't take long for her to identify them as belonging to both Adrien and Nathalie. In truth, they weren't speaking all that often. The assistant was doing most of it. The young man must have returned to his room. She reasoned that she had better make her presence known to ease his concern.

"Head back..."

She heard Nathalie's instructions as she entered the door, they struck her as being somewhat strange. It was only when she walked into the young man's bedroom that she found herself stopping dead. He was sitting on his chair, head tilted back so that he was looking up at the ceiling. Next to him, the older woman was busy applying eye-drops. Marinette was aware that the assistant was currently doubling as a nurse but this was the first time that she'd actually seen the young man being treated. His wounds were something that he guarded closely. They could only guess as to their severity by the pain which he periodically failed to mask or by his evasive responses when asked about them. Now that she could see them, his friend found herself frozen in horror, suddenly understanding why he'd been so eager to conceal his injuries.

The young man stopped before sitting up slightly, his head turning towards the general direction of the door:

"Marinette..."

She didn't respond. Just how he knew that she was there was beyond her. A simple deduction, maybe? He must have heard her. Whilst his eyesight might have been crippled, the rest of his senses were recovering enough to allow the young man to compensate, at least to a degree. He was expecting both her and Queen Bee back. Her best guess was that over the past few days, he had gotten so used to hearing them come and go that he could now tell apart their footsteps and identify who was there. Either that or he had somehow sensed her presence. Whatever the case, they knew that she was there. For all that, the young woman couldn't respond, still unable to do anything other than stare. Nathalie looked over in her direction, evidently irritated at having been disturbed in such a fashion.

"Can we have a minute please?" He spoke softly to the assistant.

"Let me do the other one first."

Adrien didn't object, tilting his head back diligently as before whilst the woman carefully applied some more drops to his other eye. It wasn't a lengthy process. She was done a few seconds later. The woman sealed up the bottle before putting it back down on a table next to another set of bottles and bandages, a veritable little nurse's station. She said nothing as she left, moving in her usual clipped and business-like. She slowed however, just as she passed by Marinette who was still occupying the doorway. Curiously, it was all that was required for the aspiring fashion designer to tear her attention off of her friend. She received a strange look from Nathalie, one which she had trouble placing. It wasn't entirely cold and hostile but neither was it overly warm. A warning of sorts was given. It's meaning was lost on the younger who was still struggling to recover from the shock of seeing her friend's current state. Thankfully, the older woman's intervention was enough to shake her out of her stupor.

As the assistant left, she found herself daring to venture a little further into the room. There was quite a pungent smell of antiseptic which lingered, causing her to instinctively wrinkle her nose with disgust. It wasn't a pleasant aroma, one which assaulted both the olfactory and visual senses, stinging at her eyes as well. She approached Adrien cautiously, his head seemed to be hanging as he sat there in his armchair. Her mouth was dry. It hung open slightly but no words could come out. She couldn't even begin to think what to say. That in turn made her feel terrible. If only because her friend was being so dreadfully silent as well. She paused, only a few feet away from the chair but unable to go any further. Then, the young man let out along with the softest and regretful sigh:

"I didn't want you to see me like this."

The young man turned his head so as to face her. She managed to hold back a gasp. They knew that he'd been sprayed with some sort of chemical, something along the lines of pepperspray Nathalie had said. The skin around his eyes and eyelids was red, evidently it had been burned. That wasn't what she found most difficult to bare however. It was the way that his orbs wandered. Over the course of a week, she'd gotten somewhat used to him not quite looking at where she was. If anything, he was more inclined to turn his head to one side, presumably so that he could hear her more clearly. Now though, his green eyes drifted around, flicking from place to place, never focusing but searching for something, someone… Presumably her. They didn't react to anything however, the pupils always staying the same size. A strange thing to notice, maybe it was because she was searching for some sign of his blindness.

Standing there, she felt uneasy, now fully aware just why he had always hidden himself when the time came for his wounds to be treated. In the face of her silence, he somehow managed to huff in amusement, somehow able to find something, somewhere about the current situation to tickle his sense of humour:

"I know it must be bad… Nathalie's being nice to me."

"God, Adrien…" Finally, she managed to conquer her shock and utter a few words. "You need to see a doctor."

"Can't." There was a certain teasing smile on his face, trying to reassure her. "I'm blind."

"No jokes! This is-" She cleared her throat, trying to regain some of her composure. "Are you in any pain?"

"It's..." His voice trailed off, looking for the right words. "Not as bad as it was. I think it's more of a case of an eyesore than sore eyes now."

He offered her a soft smile, no doubt intended to provide some reassurance. It fell a little short however. She couldn't have been more than a couple of feet away but it was still apparent that he couldn't see her. There had been some hope whilst he'd worn his blindfold, which both the young man and the assistant had assured them was to keep the wounds clean, that once it was removed he would be largely back to normal. Marinette hesitated, unwilling to spend too long dwelling on the matter for fear of making her friend feel awkward. It proved difficult however for her to so however, not before she knew the extend of the damage:

"Can you see anything?"

"Not as much as I'd like to… It's like looking through foggy glass. It is getting better though."

Without giving any warning, the young man got to his feet. He strained slightly as he did so, gritting his teeth, evidently in some pain. He moved slowly, cautious. Already, it was an improvement. He had spent the first two of the five days since his attack largely bedridden. It had been roughly at the same time that the heroes had started to go in search of his attackers that he had managed to gather enough strength to start walking around the mansion unassisted. She couldn't help but note the cuts which littered his bare chest and back. Many of them had stitches. Given that he refused point blank to go to a doctor, the only one likely to have preformed the procedure was Nathalie. Evidently, she had some hidden talents which none of them had been aware of. He must have suffered terribly… Was all that she could think in those few moments as she watched him, uneasily make his way over to the windowsill.

He stayed there, his gaze fixing something on the other side of the glass. He seemed lost like that for a while, causing his friend to hesitate between coming closer and leaving him be. Right now, she struggled with being around him. The attack had changed her friend and not, in her opinion, for the better. She found him to be quiet and often distant. When he wasn't, he was inevitably fretting about their well-being. Now, a sorrow seemed to have come over him as he stared out over a world which he could no longer see:

"I take it you didn't have any luck." He spoke eventually, his voice quiet.

"I'm afraid not." She didn't even attempt to disguise the lack of success that they had encountered. "It's like they vanished into thin air."

"We should be so lucky..." Plagg declared, perched on his partner's shoulder.

"Maybe you scared them off." Marinette's suggestion was more of a joke than anything else.

"I scared them off with how easily I got my butt handed to me maybe..."

Marinette found herself unsure whether to laugh or not. There was some sense of harsh reality which seemed to reflect how he had suffered at the hands of his assailants. Equally, there was something about his tone which resembled that of a joke. On balance, his friend decided to opt for the more secure option and remain serious. She came a little closer however, reminding him that he wasn't alone. It was a fact that whilst she was sure he was aware deep down, the young woman was certain that he needed to be reminded of from time to time. He reached out, hand fumbling slightly. She helped him, placing hers over his rough and somewhat callused knuckles so that he knew where she was. He shifted slightly so that he could hold on properly.

It was a somewhat peculiar habit that his current condition had caused him to develop. He would grab at people. It had become clear that personal boundaries had disappeared as far as he was concerned. The urge to touch seemed to be a powerful one. The target no longer seemed to matter all that much be it her, Nino, Alya or even Chloe and Nathalie, Adrien's natural reaction was often to reach out and try and gain some form of physical contact. The change had taken her by surprise. Whilst he'd never been terribly good with respecting physical boundaries anyway, it was still striking. She'd quickly associated it with simply longing for some confirmation that it wasn't just him alone in the dark. They brought some comfort, acting as anchors of sorts. They gave him a sense of his surroundings. At least, he knew they were there. He wasn't as isolated as he perhaps periodically felt.

"We'll get them..." She found herself promising, despite all of the failure they had encountered so far.

"I hope that you're right Ladybug… I hope that you're right."

He was somewhat more sombre than she'd been expecting. It made him somewhat easier to deal with. Marinette risked giving the young man's kwami a brief glance. Much like his human partner, he was quiet, preoccupied. It was perhaps even more noticeable where Plagg was concerned as he was usually rather hard to ignore. Even Camembert wasn't having quite the same effect as it usually did on him. She doubted that the strange little cat creature would be himself until his partner had recovered and that was already shaping out to be a lengthy and painful process. The young man's dull eyes rested on her for a while. Although they were incapable of making out her features, he still seemed to get some form of comfort from fixing her.

Letting out a soft sigh, Marinette got to her feet. She moved slowly, pulling away from Adrien for a few seconds. The young man frowned, evidently somewhat confused but none-the-less reluctant to question her. In practice, the blue-eyed woman didn't travel all that far. She simply went over to her bed and picked up the sheet from the bed. It struck her just how thin the fabric seemed to be given that they were in the middle of a winter which had seen more than a few snowflakes fall. It must have been mild compared to the mountains of Tibet was all that she could think to explain it. Folding the fabric a couple of times, she brought it over to her friend and dropped it over his shoulders. He accepted it tentatively, pulling it tight with his free left hand. He must have been chilly. One of the pipes, somewhere, was leaking apparently. Despite numerous pleas, it was still to be repaired. Until it was, the mansion was a rather frigid place to be.

Determined to lighten the atmosphere at least slightly, Marinette took a seat next to her friend. Since all of this had begun, their dating had come to a rather abrupt end, at least in the practical sense. In his current state, Adrien had been too weak to leave the mansion making going for a drink or a walk impossible. More than that however, a sort of barrier had been erected between the two of them (she wasn't entirely sure which one of them was responsible). They had gone back to being colleagues, teammates but the affection, whilst no doubt still present was no longer expressed so openly. She found herself missing the interaction, missing him. Yes, he had changed but the young man she had gotten to know was someone whom she had just been beginning to get used to. She cared for both the person who had been (and perhaps some part of her still hoped would return) and the man he had become. Gently, she reached out and took his hand, fingers gently brushing against his rough knuckles. He tensed up, as if the gesture surprised him. His eyes flicked around desperately in an attempt to locate her.

"It's okay Adrien." She paused, looking inside herself for the words which had once come so easily to Ladybug. "I get that you're worried and that you're worrying about us but we're not helpless. We will stop them. Just like we stopped Hawk Moth."

"I just wish that we knew who they were..." Unable to locate her, he opted for simply glancing in the direction of the window once more. "There's something about this which doesn't sit too well on me..."

"Like what?" She frowned, concerned. It was the first time he'd mentioned such a sentiment to her.

"I don't know..." He let out a shaky shy, speaking quietly under his breath. "It's just a bad feeling. It's like something's coming or maybe it's out there already – I don't know – it's eating away at me."

Marinette didn't know what to say. She could only stare at him, unable to make sense of the words which had come out of her friend's mouth. He was speaking French. So actually understanding what he had said wasn't the issue in itself. It was trying to comprehend the meaning behind them. It was enough to send a shiver down her spine, a strange sense of dread making its home in the pit of her stomach. She could only stare at the young man. He didn't seem to be aware of just how his words had troubled her. In truth, he himself seemed to be distracted. His eyes, blind to the rest of the world, remained fixed outside, scanning the city as if there was something out there, which despite everything, he could still see. For all her looking, Marinette was unable to spot what could possibly have captivated his attention out there.

Finally, he turned back to face her, a soft smile on his features as if the past couple of minutes hadn't even happened. The clash was such that it left her utterly speechless:

"It's probably nothing. I shouldn't be troubling you with it."

"Adrien..." She started, in truth, unsure where to go with it.

"It's fine Marinette..." His voice was firm enough for her to know that he was unlikely to change his mind on the matter.

She let out a soft sigh, unwilling to argue any further. There had been enough stresses for today. For the time being, she found herself wanting to curl up and just forget about everything. It was hard to put on a brave face for her parents. They could see that something had changed. Naturally, Adrien had been the first suspect. She assured them that he wasn't to blame. It was school, she had claimed, projects and everything else was just accumulating, piling on stress which she struggled to cope with. In truth, she wasn't entirely sure how long she would be able to keep this up. Life had become a good deal more complicated in the space of a decade… It was an issue that she didn't dwell on for too long. There was no need to heap even more troubles and guilt on her friend's shoulders, he was struggling to cope as it was, she could tell that much.

Instead, Marinette offered him a gentle smile. It was something that she found herself doing even subconsciously. It never even registered that such gestures and expressions would for the most part be lost on a man whose vision remained so badly damaged. Instead, she reached out once more to take his hand in both of hers, providing what she hoped would be some comfort. It was enough to finally tear the set of green eyes away from the window and to get them once more searching for her.

"Mom and dad would like you to come around for dinner sometime." She informed the young man, his eyebrows raising with surprise. "When you're ready of course."

"What did you tell them?" He sounded concerned. As if she would ever tell her parents about the secret of the miraculouses.

"That you'd had an accident. Remember? We've been pedalling that story for the best part of a week now."

"Oh! Right! Sorry..." His voice trailed off for a moment before he explained himself. "I guess I lose track of things sometimes."

Cooped up in here, it wasn't much of a surprise. They'd taken their turns in guarding him during the early days. It had been enough to let them know that he wasn't exactly active at the moment, in any sense of the word. They hadn't exactly been expecting someone who'd taken such a beating to be preforming cartwheels the very next day. It was the lack of intellectual stimulation which was more of a concern. He seemed to spend a lot of his time wrapped up in his own world. A part of that was understandable given that he'd had one of his senses – perhaps the one he relied most heavily on - torn away from him violently. That didn't quite explain the reluctance to listen to the television, radio or even to engage in regular conversation. Eager to change things after the best part of a week, Marinette was largely fed up with such an attitude.

"That settles it then." She declared adamantly with enough confidence in her voice to surprise even her. "As soon as you're better, you're most definitely coming round. Papa will make you one of his special vegetarian tartiflettes. Don't worry, you'll love it."

For a moment, she thought that Adrien might be about to argue. His mouth was certainly open, ready for him to speak. Strangely though, he seemed to think better of it. Marinette didn't drop her guard, preparing counter-arguments should he refuse to comply with her invitation/demand. If anything, the young man seemed to be thoroughly confused. Such an act of kindness, which was only to be expected of her parents really, appeared to have taken him completely off-guard. In a way, that suited the bakers' daughter's purposes rather perfectly. It meant that he was less likely to debate the issue having had less of an opportunity to think it over and come up with excuses why he couldn't attend. Finally, stuttering slightly, he spoke uneasily:

"Sure… Why not?"

"Great! Hey, there will be macaroons."

"And Camembert?!" Plagg peeped up suddenly.

"I'm sure we can work something out." Marinette gave the kwami a wink.

She knew that her boyfriend had a sweet-tooth. He had never been very good at hiding it, if he'd ever tried in the first place. The prospect of patisseries from Paris' greatest baker was enough to cause him to smile, even just slightly. It was progress, much more was going to be required. She managed to get him chatting. It wasn't about anything serious but perhaps their conversation was all the more pleasant for it. It was escapism of the simplest order. That being said, it was much needed. It allowed them both to relax, even just for a few moments. Asides from Tikki's soothing presence, she forgot about the weight of the earrings which she now bore. Those people who had attacked Adrien and started all of this drifted into insignificance. It was just the two of them, chatting idly about old times. She even managed to get a couple of laughs out of him. As many fond memories as they both might have had of their days as Cat Noir and Ladybug, it was a burden which took its toll in more ways than one.

Their brief moment of tranquillity was broken only some time later when Nathalie passed by, glancing into the room as she did so.

Adrien turned his head, no doubt picking up on the sound of her heels clicking against the cold marble floor. To her credit, the assistant didn't do any more than briefly look in before continuing on her way. No doubt she was curious to see if their guest was still there, perhaps wondering if she intended to stay for dinner. Even after the woman had gone, leaving them in peace once more, they didn't recommence talking. Her presence had been enough to remind them that time was marching on and that they would soon be needing to go their separate ways.

"Nathalie!" Adrien called after the assistant.

"Yes?" Her head popped in the door a few seconds later.

"If you're free, could you help bandage me up please?" The young man requested politely.

"Of course..." She entered the room.

"So..." Marinette got to her feet. "See you tomorrow? And you'll let me know about dinner, right?"

"Of course. Goodnight, Marinette."

"Goodnight..."

She left them a few moments later, more than capable of letting herself out. The puzzled look on Nathalie's face spoke for itself. Whilst she could no doubt put some of it together. It was out of character enough for the way her employer had been been behaving these past few days for her to find it odd. True to herself however, the woman's first instinct wasn't to question. Instead, she went diligently back to work. Adrien sat there placidly. His wounds were healing well, enough so that he no longer winced or tensed up at the slightest contact. He was distracted, that much was clear. His attention was focused towards the street. A mixture of his condition and the darkness which had fallen made it inconceivable that he could see anything but the older woman knew full-well just what or rather whom he was hoping to catch a glimpse of, even the most fleeting.

"Dinner?" She eventually asked, not even attempting to conceal her surprise or even her scepticism.

"Haven't you ever loved someone?" The young man spoke in a hushed tone.

"Love is a very strong word Adrien… Just you remember that."

Marinette made her way through the streets. She had contemplated taking a shortcut over the roofs under the guise of Ladybug but thought better of it. There was no point drawing unneeded attention to herself. That and after having to maintain the transformation for the best part of a day, Tikki could probably do with the rest. Instead, she continued to walk. She did so with her hands in her pockets, trying to shelter them from the cold air which nipped harshly at her extremities. She sniffed briefly. It was impossible for her not to think back to some of the things which Adrien had said. They weighed heavily on her. A permanent nagging at the back of her mind caused her to shiver as she walked along. It was impossible to forget just what he had said.

Could something actually be out there? Something else?

"What is it Marinette?" Tikki questioned, her head popping out from the bag.

"What Adrien said… Do you think that something worse might be coming?"

"I don't know." The small creature confessed. "I wouldn't normally question a Cat Noir – much less a guardian's judgement – but he was pretty shaken up. He's still human. He will be frightened. Fear can twist your mind..."

"So, you don't think we should worry?" Despite knowing it was fool's hope, Marinette couldn't help but sound enthusiastic.

"That's not what I said..." The kwami shook her head negatively. "We need to keep our guard up… We don't know what is up there."

Not a comforting thought… Marinette raised her gaze to the dark sky, silently praying that it was just fear and that the next few days would be brighter.

/

Thanks for the review and happy (belated) New Year!