In the distance, just further out of her sight, further away from where she stood on patrol, surveying the surrounding area, a man left his encased room for a fairly normal routine.

He rejoined those that lived or worked in his house as he moved about with the ease and grace of a man raised in this kind of life even though he wasn't, just had lived it for a while to make it much like clockwork to turn out for the night with a few last minute requirements and a few servants to send home, and he'd walk past his son's room without stopping, not aware that his son wasn't sound asleep this late at night.

Just out of sight, Hawkmoth was detransformed and turning in for the night; the idea of it unsettled Ladybug more than she'd ever care to admit.

Hawkmoth could be anyone and anywhere within reason near Paris; he could have a family, a wife, kids, and probably still had living parents and if his family was particularly blessed with good genes, living grandparents.

She sighed as her eyes caught the flash of lights coming to life in Parisian apartments as her heart sank under the thoughts that dropped on her from above like knives, thoughts and theories and heartache.

Ladybug shifted and caught her partner's eye; Cat Noir was everything that she felt like she was not as she slowly came to appreciate and worry more about him everyday.

She knew when a shift meant that he was to be serious, she understood now that his flirting was genuine, she'd realized that he came from a less than welcoming and loving family from accidental hints that he'd dropped and the way he reacted to a few different situations, and most importantly, she just knew him like he was some sort of extension from her body.

When Ladybug worried that she'd become too complacent as a superhero, his genuine concern and worry grounded her in the dangers of their job even as he believed in her wholeheartedly.

She couldn't ask for a better partner and though she hated to see him sacrifice himself for her time and time again, and whenever he did, she began to worry that she'd never get him back, she understood why he did it, time and time again.

Ladybug needed to stay around to purify the Akuma, she needed to remain strong in those moments, and yet with every passing day, she only wished that she could be the one to make those sacrifices in his place, because it began to hurt too, too much to see him do this for her time and time again.

She's worked with him for more than three years; the job takes more out of her than she realizes sometimes, and yet she couldn't ask for a better man, a better partner, to help her out when the going gets tough.

It just sucks to know that over the yonder, some mysterious man is turning in for the night, and may be turning the world upside down with a sort of ease that Ladybug both envies and hates.

Ladybug hates the resolution of who that man actually was over the yonder, who Hawkmoth hid behind as a civilian; he'd broken a part of her partner's heart that she worried she wouldn't be able to fix.

Standing here, watching people evaluate the mansion as if the living owner of it isn't here is unnerving to say the least, and to know that the yonder isn't the safe comfort of a mansion but rather a jail cell hurts more than she can believe, because when the veil is removed, the heart, mind, and soul see more than they bargained for.

Ladybug shifts, masking her heartache behind her own smile as she watches Adrien try not to cry as he tells them that he can't sell the house, not now at least.

It's the only home that he's really known, and as the people leave with a sluggish limp to themselves, she wonders how come they don't see the young man hurting and not just the profit.

"Yonder's so distant." Ladybug sighs as she sits on a bed that both makes her body want to melt into it and bolt away, "It feels different now, anyway."

"Yeah," Adrien mutters, and it sounds so bitter, "It's definitely different now."

"I wish that we never had to see him unmasked or that it didn't play out this way." Ladybug answers, leaning forward to take Adrien into her arms, "It's way worse than I'd imagined. I liked the Hawkmoth of my mind better, he was more distant, and couldn't put you through this kind of pain."

Adrien shrugs helplessly, "It's not like we could have prevented this. He knew what he was doing."

"I doubt he knew who he was hurting." Her gloved hands rub his back, nervous for not the first time that she's saying too much; her partner always brings out this freedom in her that she needs to temper down.

"It doesn't matter. It would have hurt me even if I wasn't Cat Noir. I'm not defending him in court, cat's honor. I can't stand as Cat Noir and defend Hawkmoth in the same breath or in the same lifetime." Adrien speaks up, letting a hint of his humor peek through, before flattening it in the next moment.

"He's not just Hawkmoth." Ladybug sighed, "I don't think that his actions are justified or that you should defend him, but we'll have to look at this from his perspective too and move forward the best we can." She wonders if this moment has aged her or whether she's just been slowly growing to this point all of her life.

"Ladybug," Adrien looked helpless again even though he always had a steely grit of determination beneath the passive layer at the top; a strong underlayer that grew more over the years of him being Cat Noir, "I can't look at my father and see just the man that I thought he was before. It's tainted with who he is now."

"I know," Ladybug took a deep breath, "But love has never been easy, and if you hold a grudge, it will only fester up." She frowned, thinking of the many times that she'd been holding grudges before being a hero reminded her of her duty to protect citizens and care for them no matter what, she'd only recently came to forgive Lila, but she already felt the stirrings of her life change for the better even though she still wasn't friends with her.

Ladybug was still working on forgiving Chloe for all of her misgivings even though she knew that she'd probably never get close to her or Lila, just forgive them for their faults, and move on with her life; ultimately, it pushed her farther than she'd ever imagined possible before.

Adrien stared past her as if he suddenly didn't see her anymore, just the wall behind her, "I know that."

Ladybug looped her arms around him, pulling him much tighter against her even though it really wasn't much added comfort.

"You can detransform, you know. Hawkmoth has been defeated, and no one else is nearby." Adrien mumbled into her shoulder, so she detransformed.

Her heart ached for him, and all that Ladybug, all that Marinette, wanted was for her partner to be happy again, to smile, and she knew that she'd try to support him through this massive trial past all of their fears and heartache.

Forgiveness isn't always easy or cut into stone, but Ladybug would try to forgive Hawkmoth for she knows that she couldn't help but feel defeated if she never forgave her partner's father and tried to move past this moment.

It just stung that that yonder was closer to her and Cat Noir's homes than she'd realized, that if she'd been where she normally is, even as a civilian, he'd been awfully close and doing the things that Cat Noir's dad always did.

Yonder really wasn't as far as she wished it was.