A/N: Replying to Reviews!

Guest: ?

Guest: True.

Scarlet Moon: But wait...there's more to come.

Love bug: Thank you so much!

Enjoy!

I sighed. I did not need this right now. Ladybug was following me, trying to be stealthy, but the zip of her yo-yo kept giving her away. I could hear her ever since I left the Eiffel Tower, and the sound had been grinding on my nerves. I was even more nervous for the confrontation with Ladybug.

I whirled around. "Hello." I kept my tone low and the word short, hoping to drive off Ladybug to keep her out of danger.

Ladybug faced me, a confident expression replacing the guilty one she'd sported when I first caught her. She stood in her power stance, one hand whirling the yo-yo, the other on her hip. "You owe me a reason."

I sighed. "For what?" It was best to play dumb.

"For why you broke up with my friend Marinette!" I looked at her, carefully controlling my emotions. Ladybug didn't know that I knew she was Marinette and it had to stay that way.

"I wasn't aware that you were good friends with her," I retorted.

"That's none of your business! When she called me, she was in tears!" Ladybug was furious.

"What happened between me and her is none of your business." I turned around. "Leave me alone."

"No!" For a moment, Ladybug seemed to struggle regaining control of herself. "You broke her heart! Why did you leave her?"

I gritted my teeth, feeling my blood pressure spike. "I told you-it has nothing to do with you."

"Well, she made it my business. So tell me."

"It's personal! You know we haven't been close in a while, and you never wanted to know about my private life. Why start now?" She opened her mouth to reply.

"I know, I know, she's your friend, but what happened between her and me stays between us. You can get the full details from her if you asked. "

Ladybug's stance faltered. I pushed, sensing a quick victory."Have you even asked her?" I smirked, seeing the stricken look on her face. "No, I'm guessing. What, did she call you and you came leaping after me to seek revenge on your friend's honor?"

"You're going too far, Ladybug," I cautioned. "Leave me alone." As I extended my baton, a yo-yo snapped out in front of me, blocking my way.

"Don't you dare leave," she said, each word clipped and short. "We're not done yet." Her blue eyes snapped sparks, daring me to contradict her.

Didn't she ever give up? I thought angrily. "You're right," I growled. "We aren't done." My face set itself into a mask of anger as I swung my baton, sweeping her legs out under her. She fell backwards, hitting her bottom hard on the tiled rooftop.

"You-" I grunted, "are going to leave me alone." Quickly, I extended my baton, trying to put as much distance between us as possible.

"Not likely!" Ladybug had recovered and was standing on her feet, yo-yo swinging my way. I dodged, hearing the yo-yo click clack off of the chimney behind me. The yo-yo zipped back into her hand. I dashed away faster, scenery of Paris blended into a blur of green and brown.

I wasn't fast enough. Ladybug's yo-yo whipped around my ankle, catching me by surprise. She yanked on the string, dragging me back to her. My claws left deep gouges in the rooftop tiles, and my leather suit smoked from the friction. When I turned my head around, I stared up into the blue eyes of one furious cocinelle.

"She told me that you left her because you didn't like her anymore!" She raged, stomping her foot. "I saw you two together! I heard what you said to her all those secret nights, and it didn't seem fake at all!"

I lifted an eyebrow, amused at what she just admitted. "Secret, huh? Did your friend actually tell you about us, or were you actually sneaking around and eavesdropping?"

"Uh...um..." Ladybug stuttered, at a loss for words. "It doesn't matter right now!"

"That's where you're wrong," I replied. "It means the world to me."

What was happening? Ladybug hadn't seen Chat like this since before he started dating her as Marinette. He was rarely, if ever, so invested in a discussion with Ladybug. It was almost as if Chat didn't care about their relationship as Chat and Marinette, and decided to have some fun with Ladybug on the side. No, she chided herself. He did care. It was what Volpina said to him that made him leave.

"Tell me, Chat," she countered. "What did Volpina tell you during the fight that happened two days ago?" Ladybug curled her hand around her yo-yo, ready to deflect an attack from Chat.

She wasn't disappointed. A flicker of guilt and pain flashed in Chat's eyes and disappeared just as quickly. He raised his staff and charged, aiming to knock Ladybug off of the five-story building.

Ladybug jumped, twirling through the air. She landed behind him, wrapping her weapon's string around his waist, when all of a sudden Chat leaped. He took her by surprise, and she stumbled on the rooftop, scraping her knees.

He pulled Ladybug with him, swinging wildly from building to building, tangling the yo-yo string with lamp posts and window sills. The string grew tighter and tighter, tension building in the material. Eventually, after several city blocks resembled an overly large spider's web, Chat tugged the yo-yo off him. He tied the string to a gargoyle's neck, leaving Ladybug dangling from the string.

He glared at her, anger flaming behind him. The metaphorical fire roared in her ears. "Don't you dare ask that question," he hissed, sounding very much like a half-drowned cat. "You don't know what I do for you."

"Yeah?" She demanded as best as she could while dangling from a gargoyle like an oversized earring. "What do you do for me? You've been nothing but absent for months!"

She could tell thatt her accusation him hard. "What do you mean?"

"You've been so emotionally gone! Disappeared! Ever since I told you-" she broke off. Judging by the look on his face, Chat knew what she was talking about the night she rejected his romantic advances.

She gestured with her hands, her exasperation at Chat expressing itself. "You know, that, you haven't been yourself. God, how long does it take to get over a person?" Whoops. She hadn't meant to cross that line. The last bit had just slipped out.

If anything, Chat looked frostier. "Excuse me," he ground out. "Are you saying that just because I had to step back from the relationship for myself you accuse me of not being there for you?"

"I-I-didn't mean that," Ladybug backpedaled. "Really, just forget-"

"Forget about it?" Chat seemed more incensed than ever. Ladybug mentally hit herself on the head. It seemed that she had only made matters worse.

"Oh, no, Ladybug, I don't think I will," he sneered. "In fact, you might as well tell me what you meant."

She didn't think that was a good idea, but she didn't want to anger him any further. "It's just that-you haven't really been there. I mean, you were there physically, but you weren't the same. No puns, no silly cat jokes, nothing that was truly you. I tried giving you space to heal, really I did. I-I-guess I just wanted my friend, but you weren't coming back," she pleaded.

"The world doesn't revolve around you and your needs, Ladybug." Chat didn't seem moved by her confession. "I have my own needs too, if you don't remember, including my need for privacy. Which brings us back to the start." He pointed at her. "Why were you following me in the first place?"

Ladybug scoffed. "Of all the things you want to ask me, that's what you want to know?" She crossed her arms as best as she could, the string not allowing her much wiggle room. "I told you! You broke my friend's heart, and I want to know why!"

"Was it so urgent that you had to follow me right after I broke up with her?"

Ladybug was furious. Why couldn't he just answer the question? Oh, right, the last time she asked he went straight for the kill, trying to knock her off the building, she thought sarcastically. "For the last time, yes! Just answer the question already. You really hurt her feelings, you know."

"What happened between us stays between us," he countered. "Don'tgo around sticking your nose into other people's business."

"Well, she made it my business," Ladybug snapped back. Back to square one again. Didn't I just say that the first time we hashed this out?

Fighting and confronting obviously wasn't working. "Spots off, Tikki," she murmured. Maybe having Chat see her as Marinette would make him see reason. She felt the magic swoop over her, the coolness a comfort in light of current events. She felt that she could now make progress with Chat-and she was falling?

I'm falling, she belatedly realized, because when I de-transformed the yo-yo disappeared so that means there's nothing holding me up which means I'm FALLING! She could see the stars above her twinkling in the sky, mocking her as if saying that she would never know why Chat left her. Regret flowed through her veins, the words forming on the tip of her tongue.

Time seemed to move slower, freezing and pausing each frame of moment. Marinette had never appreciated physics more when she studied how Chat leaped off the building, the forces of push and pull combining to send him towards her. His arms were outstretched, fingers curling into claws. The ground drew closer and closer.

She could see Chat's mouth voicing her name Marinette, each syllable in a drawn-out pattern. There was no surprise in his eyes, only concern and a certain sense of inevitability. Which only meant that Chat knew she was Marinette, and that he knew her well enough to anticipate her trying to attempt this stunt.

She couldn't believe that he fell for her twice. Once as Ladybug, the other as Marinette. He never really did get over her, did he? He wasn't even close.

The irony was killing her. What were the odds that Chat would seek comfort with the very person that rejected him? She wanted to scream and laugh simultaneously.

WHUMP. Marinette landed in his arms, and time rushed back in a wave of sound. Chat was panting furiously, his breath coming out in gasps. His costume felt warm, and she wanted nothing more to cuddle with him.

She took a closer look at him as he set her onto the ground. "Are you surprised that I'm Ladybug?"

"No." The word was crisp and cool. He turned his head away from her.

"Why did you leave me?" The question slipped out of its own accord. She dodged in front of Chat, effectively stopping his forward progress. "Don't tell me it's none of my business because it is."

"I won't." His jaw clenched.

"Is it something Volpina told you? You know akumas are controlled by Hawkmoth. What she says isn't real. It's just what Hawkmoth wants you to believe," she argued, jabbing a finger into his chest.

He laughed bitterly. "You know nothing."

"I know something," she insisted. "I know that you still have feelings for me, even if you claimed not to. After all, you did save me from my death. I know you."

Chat looked at her with flinty eyes. "If you know me as well as you think you do, you would have known that I would never let someone get hurt, no matter how I feel about them."

You're so hypocritical, Chat." Marinette shook her head. "You say you don't hurt others but you hurt me."

"To keep you safe." The phrase was but a whisper in the wind, floating out of her reach.

"What did you say?" Marinette searched Chat's eyes, finding nothing but a carefully guarded expression. "I heard something."

"It's nothing." Chat brushed her aside. "I'm going home." He took off at a run, too fast for Marinette to follow.

But not for Ladybug.

When she turned the corner in all her black and red glory, all she saw was Adrien Agreste standing in the cold.

A/N: I feel like an accomplished cliffhanger-er person. Thoughts, anyone?