Ladybug tapped her foot impatiently. It was past the time her and Chat Noir agreed to meet up. She needed answers to her questions. She had a lot of questions. Now she just added another one to her never-ending list. 'Where is he?' She had to leave, she couldn't wait any longer. She gave him some space this morning and decided not to meet up to patrol, she left a message. Multiple in fact. Him missing out on patrol distracted Marinette all day. At first, she thought he just missed it. Then she thought he had a reason, a dentist appointment or his civilian job, or even school. But then she couldn't help but think negatively. 'Maybe he's hurt, or dead, or in the hospital or-or-,' She usually got cut off from that train of thought due to someone needing her attention.

"I'm sure he's fine Marinette." Tikki tried to cheer her up. Marinette smiled at her. She was getting more sick.

"And you? Tikki how are you?" Marinette asked sincerely. Tikki smiled back at Marinette.

"I'm perfect."

"Of course you are, I know that. But how do you feel?" Tikki knew she couldn't lie, she couldn't her body wouldn't allow her to feign healthiness.

"I'm not that great, honestly. It's nothing to worry about. I'm old." She told Marinette. The blue-haired girl nodded. But she didn't believe what Tikki said. The kwami had been living for millions, probably billions of years. Why was her suddenly being "old" cause her illness and make her weak? She's been living forever, she isn't old. Marinette thought. 'She's sick.'

Even after Marinette's statement, she needed to transform. She asked Tikki if the kwami was okay to transform and of course, Tikki said she was and even though Marinette wasn't okay with it, Paris needed Ladybug to protect to protect them. She sat at the Eiffel tower waiting for Chat Noir to show up. 'Maybe he really is hurt.' Ladybug sat there checking her yo-yo so many time she thought she might go blind from the different contrast of looking at the screen light and then back to the dark city.

Just before she jumped another building, the last one to jump to get back to her apartment, she saw movement in the dark night. 'Scotty.' She stated to herself. She didn't know what happened with the akuma, that was something she wanted to ask, another one of her questions.

She followed what she presumed was Scotty. Ladybug threw her yo-yo, wrapping the person in iron string. The tightness of her string loosened.

"What?" She looked at the retracted string that laid in her hands. Only half of the length came back. Hands grabbed her shoulders and she fell to the concrete. A sharp sting vibrated from her tailbone to her skull.

"Ah!" She cried out. She immediately tried to escape the attacker's grip. Ladybug gave up struggling, she bent her leg and shoved it to his groin.

"Mmm." She heard him hissed. She found her yo-yo, climbed onto of him, held the string between her palms and put the thin line against his throat.

"Wait, wait- ack, L-ack!" She hesitated.

"Chat?"

"Yeah... Yeah, it's me."

"What are you doing out?" She got up and lent her hand to him. He looked at it for more than a second and grabbed it.

"Patrol." He simply answered. Chat Noir turned to walk away, to get away from Ladybug but she stopped him by grabbing his shoulder.

"Me too, y'know I thought we were supposed to meet up." She accused. Although it was phrased as a question she said it like a statement. Chat couldn't hear it in her voice but she was hurt.

"Yeah, sorry about that." He said over his shoulder. He looked at her hand. Ladybug did the same but didn't move it instead she forcefully turned him around.

"What's wrong? What happened? Chat I need to know what happened." Ladybug told him. "This is my city too, I protected it when you were gone! I wasn't there for the attack and we still have to capture the akuma!" She shouted. She took in a deep breath. "I need your help." She muttered.

"No... you don't. There's nothing to catch, there's no akuma."

He raised his head and looked into her eyes. He said it coldly like he was talking to an idiot but the look he gave her wasn't fitting his tone of voice. His gaze made him seem weak, fragile. It made it look like he was about to drop to his knees and faint. Ladybug was taken back by the look. She didn't have time to comfort her friend, who clearly needed a shoulder to lean on, because he ran away. It seemed like it was the only thing he wanted to do.

Dear students

Due to recent events, the next three days have been cancelled. This means you are expected to be back to your regular classes next Monday morning/afternoon.

This break is to pay respect to the students who had been injured or worse in the latest akuma attack. Please recover if you can and we hope to see you all back on Monday.

Thank you

Mrs Marvin

Marinette looked at the letter that the university coordinator sent. 'Due to recent events?' She asked herself. 'What happened exactly?'

"Tikki?" Marinette called out into the room.

"Hmh?" She heard.

"Tikki?" Marinette got up and listened once again.

"Over here." Tikki laughed. Marinette found Tikki buried in fabric.

"Tikki!" She half scolded half laughed. Soon the two became a pair of giggles. Both became surrounded by fabric.

"How are you Tikki?" Marinette looked over at the small being as the laughter died down.

"I'm good." Tikki smiled at her miraculous holder. Then a devilish glint shined in her eyes. "How're the collections?" Marinette groaned.

"Oooohhh, Tiiikkiiii!" Tikki snickered.

Marinette avoided everything related to her clothing collections. She didn't think about it, talked about it, or wanted to hear about it. She was finished with them of course but she always had the need to add to something even if she finished it. It was one of her flaws that a lot of people thought were good. But it wasn't. Because when she declared something was finished, it was nice, good, untouched. And when she added to something she made it worst.

So, she was going to leave her collections and enter them for the final show program. Knowing Ms Mandelave she would want the collections by Friday. That's 4 days. A lot can happen between then and now.

Marinette didn't know how much she was expecting from her week. She already had enough the last couple of months. For some reason, she felt like this week was going to be all those months combined with ten times more stress. It was a lucky guess but she just felt that way. That feeling caused more stress. She didn't know what life had planned for her and it scared her. Usually, ever since she moved out, she was prepared, she thought of every outcome good and bad. But now she couldn't think of any outcome, no solution just one huge problem. The thing was she didn't know what the problem was.

"Marinette?" Alya knocked on the door. "You ready?"

"Yeah!" Marinette replied. She left everything as it was but grabbed her bag with Tikki inside.

"Anything from 'guy in leather'?" Alya asked after a while. They were on their way to meet with Nino and Adrien.

"Hm? What?" Marinette's mind went blank.

"That guy that saved you!" Alya exclaimed. Marinette saw a leather covered chest and felt arms wrapped around her at the mention of him.

"Oh, yeah... No, I haven't talked to him since." Marinette said sheepishly.

"It's been three days! You can't avoid him."

'I'm not avoiding him, I saw him last night!' Marinette said to herself. It was true last night she saw Chat Noir. 'I saw him as Ladybug that's all.' She admitted, of course not out loud to Alya.

"I'm not he's just. Poof!" Marinette made an explosive hand gesture.

"Damn, have you called him?" Alya asked. 'I don't need to.' Marinette defended herself.

"I can't I don't have his number." At the stop light, Alya forcefully stopped Marinette. She twisted the petite girl around by the shoulders.

"What!?" Marinette squeezed her eyes shut.

"I'm deaf now," Marinette stated.

"Good cause you're stupid too."

That was the last mention of the topic. The girls crossed the street, Nino waved at the girls and met them halfway.

"Where's Adrien?" Marinette asked.

The couple looked at Marinette. They still had to get used to Marinette being friends with Adrien. She was mad at him for a long time and they were used to Marinette not wanting to do anything with Adrien. But the two of them were getting used to Marinette being okay. Well, they thought she was okay.

"He said he'll meet us at the statue in the park," Nino answered.

The three made small chat while they walked to the park. They didn't have classes for the rest of the week, which was good. The group had a lot of things to do for school during that time. But they did have spare time. The three thought they would you use it to do a little good.

"Where is he?" Alya asked impatiently.

"I don't know." Nino shrugged.

"I think that's him." Alya and Nino followed Marinette's gaze.

"Yeah... It is." Nino sighed looking at his friend.

Even from a distance, the three could see the dark circles under his eyes, his bed hair still prominent and his clothes in different directions, like he slept in them. But he looked like he hadn't gotten any sleep. Adrien walked slowly to the group with a slight hunch. He dragged his feet and he held his bag tight.

"All right." Adrien started when he reached his friends. "You got me here. Now what?"

"Now, we get you what of your funky mood," Alya told him.

"Yeah, dude. You won't tell us won't happen-"

"Because nothing happened," Adrien repeated. He had to say that at least once everytime he was with the trio. Nino continued.

"So, we're just gonna do what we think will get you out of your..." Nino gestured to Adrien. "...thing." Adrien sighed and shrugged.

"'Aight."

All three shared a look that Adrien didn't like. He didn't like many of the looks they've been giving him lately but he didn't like this one for a certain reason. 'They're up to something.'

-.-.-.-

Adrien walked into the room with a black cardigan wrapped around his eyes.

"Is this necessary?" He asked.

"Yes," Marinette answered.

He became quiet. Marinette held onto him as she led him up a flight of stairs. He got the hang of the steeping pattern but held onto her just in case. He didn't really want to be next to her, he kinda felt uncomfortable. Marinette could tell and she asked herself what she did wrong but she couldn't remember. In fact, Marinette didn't really talk to him or privately hang out with him. They were always in a public place or with other people, never alone. Not since the akuma attack. And that's what Marinette wondered. She couldn't remember much from the attack, maybe she did something then. Whatever it was she didn't know.

"Okay, we're here," Marinette said. Adrien attempted to take off the cardigan.

"No, no, no!" Marinette pressed the black cloth back to his eyes, startling Adrien. "I didn't say to take it off." Marinette scolded.

Nino and Alya snickered as they saw the scene. Marinette was shorter than Adrien and had to step on her tippy-toes just to reach his eyes. Marinette whipped her head to look at the couple. "Get back to work!" She hissed low enough so Adrien couldn't hear.

"What?" He asked.

"Nothing!"

She took his hand and led him into a room. Adrien didn't know where he was going of course because he was blindfolded. Marinette turned to see Alya and Nino ready. Marinette mouthed counting down to one. She nodded when she reached the last digit and took her cardigan moving out of the way from Adrien. The second Adrien saw light he was immediately blinded again with thick liquid.

"Agh!" He tried to wipe it off his face.

"Surprise!" He heard.

Adrien looked up as best as he could through his hair that was trenched with paint. All three of his friends had large grins on their faces, two of them holding buckets of paint. Alya held a white paint bucket and Nino held a black one. Adrien looked around to see walls covered with white cloth and canvas's up on stands. White cloth covered the ground and buckets of paint as well as paintbrushes scattered the floor. He scrunched his eyebrows and slowly dragged his feet around the room.

"What is this?" Adrien asked.

"It's our way of trying to cheer you up." Alya declared.

There was only one canvas that was covered with a white cloth. Adrien looked back at his friends and they urged him to uncover it. He stood in front of it and just looked. Alya, Nino and Marinette stood behind him, waiting. He grabbed the cloth and pulled. Maybe he pulled too much because the canvas came down with the cloth.

"Oh no!"

"Crap!"

"Catch it!"

All sorts of things were shouted at Adrien and lucky enough Adrien caught it before it hit the ground. He looked back at his friends sheepishly. The three laughed. He put it gently back on its stand. Adrien was in awe. Pictures of their high school years scattered the canvas, cut-outs of Chat Noir and Ladybug were here and there, little messages were written on or in between pictures and shapes of hearts and stars decorated the blank space as well as other stickers and little doodles.

"What is this for?" He turned to look at his friends with glossy eyes.

"We told you. A little something to cheer you up." Marinette answered.

"You didn't get any paint on it so that's good," Alya said as she speculated the collage. Adrien looked back down at the mixtures of white and black paint that were splattered on his body.

"What's with the paint?"

"Same answer," Marinette said pettily. He quirked an eyebrow at her and glanced at the floor near him. Just like he guessed there were buckets of paint.

"Well..." He took a step closer to the buckets, Marinette not noticing. "Let me thank you!" He quickly grabbed a bucket of red paint and splashed it on Marinette. A loud gasp escaped Marinette.

"Ooooohhh- Ah!" Nino was the next person to get dunked with a bucket of paint, this time blue. Alya looked at Nino and then at Adrien who had a new bucket of purple paint.

"Oh no! Get away from me!" Alya tried to run out of the room but Nino wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight as she tried to smack Nino's arm away. All Nino did was hiss and yelp, his skin tinged red from each slap.

"Let me go! Let me go!" Alya repeated.

She was silenced by purple paint spilling over her and Nino. Adrien hissed and a loud slapped echoed the room. His back was now covered with yellow paint and purple rubber. He turned around to see a smirking Marinette with two ballons, one in each hand. She tossed one up and down into the air and caught it easily back into her hand. Adrien again became trenched with two new colours of paint. Marinette laughed at Adrien's shocked face.

"Oh, it's on!"

"Bring it Agreste!" Nino taunted.

The time they spent in the art room was filled with laughter and enjoyment. Colours were splattered everywhere, on the floor, on the walls and all over the young adults that held paint wars against each other. Adrien and Marinette against Alya and Nino. The teamwork between Adrien and Marinette was something out of a movie, all though it wasn't out of a movie. Neither of them or their friends knew who they truly were, who they were trying to be and hide from the world. With Marinette's small built she was quick and could easily dodge paint balloons. Adrien's long legs and strong arms made it easy for him to retaliate paint buckets onto either Alya or Nino. Colours flew, laughter echoed and the picture collage of Adrien and his friends was kept safe under the comforts of a white cloth in a safe distance from the chaos the four friends called fun.

Marinette stood up from the puddle of paint that merged different colours into one another. Some had swirls and were distinct that there were more than one colours combined, others had a mixture of all colours turning the puddles of paint into a brown colour.

"I'm going to go get cleaned." She declared. Adrien tried to fight off Nino. He finally got out of Nino's clutches and used Marinette as a shield.

"Hey!" She scolded.

"I'm going to go clean up too!" Adrien said pointing a water gun, filled with paint, at Nino.

"Cowards!" Nino shouted.

The two walked the empty halls of their school. Adrien stuffed his hands in his pockets, his go-lucky happy attitude no more. Now a frown was set on his face and he stared straight ahead. Marinette looked up at him. His sudden change in behaviour more than known. Was it all just an act, she thought. 'But he looked like he had fun.' She mentally defended. She knew him too well that she could tell that he actually had fun, but what changed? They walked down the stairs, each stepped echoed on the walls, playing a rhythm, it's own song.

Adrien was aware of Marinette and the looks she gave him. But it wasn't like the looks she's been giving him this week. For some reason this one was different. 'Why?' He asked himself. Each day she looked at him with a look he could only describe as pity. He didn't understand what made him look pitiful. But today she didn't give him a pitiful look. Instead, it was something he couldn't describe. Being the gentleman he still was he opened the doors.

"Why don't we just go to the changing rooms?" Adrien muttered. Marinette rounded the building where the tap was. Next to the tap was a black house neatly placed in its holster on the wall. She picked up the end of it and placed her hand on the tap.

"Because this way is easier."

She turned on the tap. At first, the pressure was strong and it hurt Adrien but then Marinette fixed it and a gentle drizzle spayed Adrien lightly, strong enough to clean the paint that decorated his body. He turned, lifted his arms and scrubbed at his wet clothes. He tried his best to get the paint off of his skin. When he thought he did a pretty good job at cleaning himself off he returned the favour for Marinette. He took her place of spraying the hose. He turned the tap so the pressure was a little stronger and sprayed it over Marinette. She did the same as Adrien. Adrien looked at her as she twirled and picked at the paint on her skin. He let himself smile for once. A light blush covered his tanned skin.

Count on Marinette to change everything about him. He loved the power she had over him. She didn't even know the magic she played on him. They turned off the hose and placed it as they found it. Adrien walked to the front of the building but stopped. He turned to see Marinette with her head down. He didn't open his mouth, for some reason he had a feeling he wasn't supposed to speak. Marinette finally looked up into his eyes with that same indescribable look.

"Are you okay?" She asked. A sweet tone that was strong and caring. No pity, no sympathy. Adrien smiled.

"I'm fine."