Adrien woke up again to a tinny alarm. It was some sort of prerecorded cell phone noise. One of those not-quite-music sounds. It was grating. Beside him, someone swore and the last day fell back into place for him. He groped around until he found her and pulled her back against his chest.

"No," she said.

"Yes," he kissed the back of her neck.

"You don't have one?" she asked.

"Don't have a what?" he asked.

"An Akuma alarm," she said.

She was pulling away from him and this time he let her go. He did in fact have an Akuma alert. He had apps that picked through social media and news reports to spit out potential problems. It was one his phone. He didn't know where his phone was. At one point it had been in his pocket but now he didn't have a guess.

He saw hers light up from across the room as she pulled the phone out of her bag and thumbed through it. Her hair was in the way and he couldn't see her face but she was standing there, leaning a hip against his dresser as though she had never been more comfortable anywhere.

"Get up," she said.

"Ugh," he said.

"An eloquent argument, but you still need to get up," she said with looking at him.

As she spoke she was pulling her clothing straight and gathering her stuff. He didn't bother trying to find his phone or anything else. He dragged himself up out of the bed. She'd shut off her phone again and that had been their only illumination. He followed her by sound and caught her hand mostly by luck as she headed for the door. He pulled her in and she leaned her shoulder against his chest. It was almost good enough to calm his need for having her close.

"I am going to turn on the lights," he said.

"No," she said.

"No?" he said.

"Hey," her voice was softer. He must have let too much of his emotion into his voice on that one word because she turned into him and caught his face in one hand. He leaned into her touch, "Not because I don't want to. I do. I need to know as much as you do but there is some sort of blue monster climbing up the side of the Lourve and we need to deal with that first. I want time. I want to ask all the questions and I can't while there's something out there hurting people."

"Akuma first," he said.

"Then we can have all the getting to know you conversations," she said.

"Fine but this Akuma owes me another sick day that I actually get to spend in bed with you. Go figure out where the Kwamis are hiding. I need pants or detransforming after the fight is going to be awkward for the entire city," he said.

She laughed and pushed him away gently before she slipped out of the room.

He met her on the fire escape as Chat Noir and she paused to kiss him before climbing for the roof. It almost made up for his disappointment. He had never really given his imagination full reign over what having her be his was would be like. The way she kissed him like it was a reflex was in the running for his favourite part.

She led the way across the rooftops and he kept close on her heels. The creature hanging off the brick work and methodically breaking all the windows of the museum was bigger than human should have been and periwinkle blue. It had claws and a tail but luckily no wings. It was always easier when they couldn't fly.

"It's actually big and blue," he said.

"This is the second in two days. You'd think he'd need more time to recharge," she said.

"We're just lucky," Chat said.

As far as Akuma battles went, this one was pretty easy. The only not blue and scaly part of the Akuma was a watch which made finding the butterfly easy enough. Ladybug's Lucky Charm and brought her something he didn't see but it unbalanced the Akuma enough that it lost its grip on the side of the building. Once it was laying on its back, Chat could crack the watch face and release the little butterfly.

"I'm going to go home and grab a change of clothes," she said as they stood together watching the butterfly spiral up into the blue sky. She stood with her shoulder against his. Every time she touched him, he cracked a smile.

"I can lend you something," he said.

"Nothing I can wear to work and I can't afford to skip work twice in a row. Tell me your actual apartment number and I will come to your door like a regular person," she said.

He had pouted and she had laughed at him. Letting her go meant going back to his real life and in his real life he had a pile of homework on the mathematical comparisons between different types of load bearing columns. As much as he enjoyed his classes, he wanted her there with him more than he wanted anything else.

"413 but you should just come home," he said.

"You're supposed to say something romantic about me spending the night. I'll see you soon," she said. She kissed him again before her beeping miracle stone made her turn and scamper away before someone caught a picture of Chat Noir kissing some girl on the street.

Adrien went home without her and tried to put his life into some kind of order. He shooed all the white butterflies they hadn't dealt with the night before out a window. He put his shirt back on right side out while Plagg mocked him for getting dressed in the dark.

"Worth it," he said.

He found his phone where it had slipped down behind the bed. It was overflowing with messages. People asking about the Gala mostly. He sent off a few responses to the people who seemed most worried about him being dead and dismissed everything else until he found one from Alya. He'd scrolled through her blog post on the event without reading it. She hadn't been there to get pictures of her own but there were a few links to videos people had put up on youtube or vine. He hadn't watched those either.

The text message wasn't about the Gala or Ladybug or gossip. It read: "Is Marinette still with you?"

"Marinette isn't with me. Did you find her?" he sent back.

The last he had seen Marinette, she had waved to him from the front door of her dormitory before disappearing inside. As far as he knew she was fine. If she was in contact with anyone, it would have been Alya and worry curled in his stomach. Alya never left a text unopened and her response came back immediately.

"She finally picked up. You both need to read your messages more than once a week. Honestly," she sent.

He kept the phone on him but didn't answer most of the messages coming in as he attempted to get his problems done for class. He kept glancing at the screen as he wrote out streams of numbers and sketched out diagrams. He had talked himself out of worrying for most of the afternoon.

He was over eager to see her, that was all it was. It worked until afternoon faded into evening. His worry was worry now.

"Bug, do you want to me to order something for dinner?" he sent her.

It seemed casual enough, not anxious or clingy. He cringed at being that guy. The guy who had to meticulously plan out his messages in case he sent the wrong implication. Nino had been like that at the start of his relationship with Alya. He had worried over every word and what it might mean if you read it on a Tuesday while watching the sunset as opposed to a Friday during breakfast. Adrien had every intention of never being that guy but here he was, worrying about coming across as clingy or demanding.

He pushed the phone away and dropped his head onto the desk and groaned as his own stupidity.

Nothing came back. He waited but the phone didn't buzz. He flipped it over but the screen was the same. Message delivered. That was all. He frowned and started to write out another message. Deleted it. Did it again. Deleted that too. He got up and walked around the room before going back to the phone again.

Still nothing.

"It's fine if you can't come tonight, but tell me that you're ok," he sent.

That sounded worried but he was worried. She wasn't as immediate with texting back as Alya was but usually if she was there, he got a response right away. He was expecting her to be there. She had said she was coming back. He watched the screen and tried to talk himself into a course of action that was more reasonable than sitting and staring and worrying.

The phone finally chimed. He snapped it up prepared to laugh at himself and his over reaction.

"Don't worry. Go left."

That was it. Nothing else. He sent other messages but they went unanswered. He phoned her but it disconnected without an answer. She didn't have a voice mail for him to leave a message on.

"Plagg," he said.

"I am so disappointed that you won't be getting laid tonight," Plagg drawled from somewhere in the apartment.

"Look at this," he held out the phone as Plagg drifted up over the back of the sofa.

"Maybe she sent directions to the wrong apartment," he said.

"That's all she sent me," he said.

"So don't go left then," Plagg said but he didn't sound as sarcastic as he usually did. Plagg sat with him the rest of the evening. Not offering any useful suggestions but just being there. Plagg's nonchalance set Adrien's nerves jangling even if he wouldn't admit to being worried. Plagg just sat there and pretended not to be concerned at all.

Adrien kept calling but got nothing back. He finally went to bed in a room that had never felt so empty before and looked at the ceiling instead of sleeping.


Author Notes:

We aren't to the happily ever after folks.

Not yet anyways. (I am a sucker and I always write a happily ever after but first we must all suffer).

To those who wanted this chapter to be a reveal or more cuddling on steroids: Whoops. Nope.

To those who have been plotting out ways to make this story worse since like chapter 2: join me in the evil laughter.

And a special shout out to me left-field reviewers:

To my anon reviewer who hates kissing, dude, are you still reading? How are you? Does your capslock button still work? How're the kids? To Aaron, where do you get your statistics? I am super curious because based on those numbers Chat Noir can run at 5 times highway speeds.