Adrien could now understand why some people turned to dangerous things that were highly addictive. One night in the Underground had him hooked and when he finally shuffled out of there at two in the morning, regretting every step up those stairs, he wasn't even home when he desperately wanted to head back. Walking outside to that chilly night had him shaking his head as if coming from the best dream in the world and if it wasn't for the paint still on his face in traces by the time he got home, he would never have believed that such a thing actually happened to him.

Over the next two weeks, he snuck out almost every night for at least two or three hours at a time. He was careful to make it look like he was merely heading to his room to get some much needed rest or just wanted to be alone until the evening was over. Not like anyone thought anything contrary to the norm. Sneaking out was child's play once he figured out the hours of the staff and when his father and Natalie retired for the night. No one was around when he headed out and as long as his trusty blanket held onto the railing and was there when he climbed back up, no one suspected a thing.

There were a few nights here and there when he passed out before being able to go anywhere. It had always been totally unwillingly too. He almost refused to go to sleep when the Underground was awaiting him. Any time he came to with the dawn or Natalie knocking on his door, he groaned in knowing that he had wasted another night stupidly sleeping in. A night of losing the ability to get out all this new-found energy and desire to express himself...and to dance with Ladybug.

The beats, the darkened room, those cheap lights, the smell of paint, the cat ears...he was caught. His sanity and his nights had been held captive from Adrien the ballet dancer to be replaced with Chat Noir the amazing. Those times he got to be someone else made the quickness come back to his step. He felt a little more playful in class, even if the nights were starting to wear on him. He could tell, but he didn't mind. He relished in it, knowing what it ultimately meant. His exhaustion was payment for freedom, for kinship in the beat and the loud music amongst the others. He was there to be free from the constraints of society; just like The Illustrator said. He went to dance and do what he wanted and for the first time in his life, he felt absolutely amazing...totally alive!

The only few issues that popped up were easy to fix. He couldn't always be Chat Noir in his jacket when he danced in it for hours on end every night. It had to be washed sometime. It was a dry clean only item and thus there were a few nights when he was forced to alter his disguise. He still made it a point to wear all black, but in order to hide most of his identity, he donned a ball cap, even if his face still got painted (1). He was always thankful when his cat jacket was back because the cap was never the same. It wasn't Chat Noir and he felt his personae lacking without his extra ears.

It was so hard to force himself to get out of there before two and sometimes he stayed till three. The trip home wasn't long and he always mentally counted how quickly he could get home, how many streets he could cut through to shorten the distance.

The intense movement for so many hours, along with constantly staying awake overnight, was starting to take its toll. The dozen or more hours less every week that he wasn't getting was adding lead to his steps during early morning practice. He almost paid for it and a few times he had to grit his teeth when he practically dropped Chloe in a move that was supposed to hoist her a few feet off the floor. Such an incident could cause head trauma if she landed on the hardwood floor or easily break something. He apologized to her and the teacher, but finally got a break when he explained he just needed to take a few minutes and get some water.

Lying to his classmates and the staff felt easy and justified. It was effortless and it surprised him how well the excuses left his lips. He became Chat Noir in the ways that he started dealing with those situations whenever they came to him. He sometimes became paranoid that the others would notice and start asking questions about his more playful nature, but Chloe seemed to like the more outward change and took it as a means to start flirting with him more than usual. No one else seemed to care and anyone in his house wasn't around him enough to see the difference.

The moment he got done with ballet for the day allotted him around an hour before dinner and he always collapsed on his bed for a desperately needed nap. He set the phone on his alarm and made sure to turn it all the way up so Natalie didn't start knocking on his door and finding this new routine to his day.

He tried to make it look like he wasn't doing such things, but waking up after a any short stretch of sleep never found him immediately hungry and thus the drastically altered sleeping patterns were also affecting his appetite. There were a few times he'd come home after ballet and sneak some food from the kitchen to stash in his room for when he really got hungry after dancing. A few times, he pocketed some change in his room and stopped at a convenience store that stayed open all hours to grab something before heading back.

He got into this strange pattern of sleeping more during the day in short bursts than proper amounts over the course of the evening. He'd sneak back around two or three in the morning, sleep for a very small handful of hours, wake up and try to eat, go do ballet until lunch, force more food into his system, sneak an hour nap after dance was done for the day, have dinner, then catch a few more hours until eleven o'clock rolled around.

He wondered if he was even pulling his usual eight hours and whenever he attempted to tally the actual amount of sleep, he cringed at the five or six he barely remembered getting in a day. 'Falling asleep' was not the right term to use either; more like 'passing out'.

Anytime eleven thirty rolled around, he'd throw on those cat ears and the rest of his black attire with more exuberance than most of his kindred probably felt when they got ready to head out. Just wearing the clothes made him more than excited. It meant that he would get to dance with her again. She was there more often than not and it was rare not to see her.

Ladybug.

She had stolen him and he honestly didn't want her to give back whatever she had taken from him. Every time he saw her, a smile would light up his face at finding her on the dance floor ahead of him. She was out there enjoying her time, but never waiting for him. He wondered if this feeling that always encompassed him was on his side alone. It was a lonely feeling, but it was delicious and he didn't mind being prisoner to it so long as he could appease it by dancing with her almost every night.

The few nights he showed up and she wasn't there, he instantly wondered why. The first time, it seemed like something was wrong. Ladybug was a staple to that place. When she wasn't there, the music didn't seem as lively and the songs were a little more stereotypical. The crowd didn't appear different, but the atmosphere wasn't there.

She made things more amazing, but he couldn't put his finger on why. One slip of a girl, despite her amazing abilities, shouldn't be able to do so much. She didn't make it that much of a point to talk to the others or do more than interact outside of dancing. It was just that the moves she showed off had a power of their own. She was intensity and all encompassing to every sense. She was a black hole that sucked him in and he found such darkness a comfortable place.

He wondered if she ever noticed those few instances when he didn't show up. Did she ever wonder where he was, like he did when she sometimes didn't show up? Even though it was probably just to get a good night's rest for once... He always squashed such thoughts because he didn't want to admit that she didn't care at all and would dance the night away regardless of his presence or not. He wanted to hope, even a little, that she would look around the floor for him a few times in wonder before giving up and continuing on.

He always tried to dance with her to at least a few songs, if not most of the evening. She didn't seem to mind and she never forced him away from her. She was always playful when he showed up, but never patronizing. She made it appear as if she liked dancing with him and he did so partially because she didn't seem to mind, but mostly it was for his own sake. He was lost on that floor without his partner to stride across it. Whenever that had become the unspoken rule, he didn't know, but it made his heart beat a little faster whenever he thought of then together in sync through their natural abilities.

His lips tilted as he rolled over on his bed, not wanting to give in to dreamland just yet. He wasn't done thinking about those piercing, gorgeous blue depths that made up her eyes or the curve of her smile. He didn't even care that her body was smoking hot or that her wardrobe never left anything to the imagination. Whenever he thought up the person that was Ladybug, those things weren't the first to enter into his brain. It was the little things that he couldn't stop obsessing over. The way she'd turn away from him and then devilishly look over her shoulder just before she spun back around...the sharp pop to her step that never seemed to quit...the absolute abandon that she danced with to every song, as if it were her last for the evening...

He couldn't believe how good of a pair they were on the dance floor! He had never done such moves, nor done them so well, with anyone...not even Chloe! Chloe had nothing on Ladybug and it made him want to laugh to think of Chloe trying to hold her own against her even with as talented as she was. He wanted to believe that the reason they danced so well was because they had that innate chemistry which so many dancers looked for and never found.

He wondered if she knew any other dance methods aside the natural flow she possessed. She was clearly experienced because of how well she moved; how she managed to create the most interesting moves from absolutely nothing simply because the music guided her. He was never able to stop and consider such things in the middle of their tempo, but curiosity would usually get the better of him in quiet times like these.

An alarm sounded in the silence and he hopped up. It was time. Time to play ninja in his black outfit and steal himself away. The night was calling and he could almost hear the beat from his room. He wondered what type of music there would be tonight. Ladybug seemed to request quite a few songs and he wondered if she helped create the playlist for the evening. It was interesting to think that she had a hand in setting the mood of the room, but it made sense with as well as she moved. If she picked songs she liked and had the dj, or Bubbler as he had come to find out, play them for her, she would do better than with some random beat which meant nothing.

It was more than easy to hop the railing at his bathroom window and grab the sheet. Scaling the wall now took less than a minute to get down and now he trusted his landing enough to not need to go all the way to the bottom before letting to of the sheet. His reflexes aided him and he managed to land with the grace of his cat personae.

He looked up from the back street to his window. There were only cameras in the front area of the house because no one would ever suspect someone climbing the wall like he just did. It would be tough, but someone could still use the ground level railing and manage to get to his on the first floor with a little finagling. He knew because he had to do so once when his blanket had blown up and caught on the railing, almost locking him out and exposing the whole debacle he was entrenched in. He counted himself lucky that his father never considered the feat which he attempted to get into his own house.

After that night, he made sure to weigh down the ends so such a thing didn't happen again. He would never forgive himself if he got caught doing this. There was so much more at stake aside from the freedom of dancing to some random hip hop or techno music amidst a bunch of unknown teens. If he didn't make it back home before morning and Natalie didn't find him in his room, she would immediately alert his father who would demand the truth from him. His father would find out all about what had been happening, why he was so tired, why he was eating a little less every day, and probably where the Underground was.

"I'm only interested in ballet. That is what makes up this company, nothing else. That is what my students learn and my crew performs. I've no interest in tainting ballet with anything else after however many hundreds of years since it began."

He wouldn't put it past his father to do everything in his power to find the building and have it demolished...probably a few others in the area too. Gabriel Agreste was a stern man and if he knew just how long his son had been doing something outside of what he wished, his punishment would be swift and memorable. He would destroy the Underground without a single thought to its purpose and probably involve the innocents who also went.

This was why he always made sure to be extra careful around his usual schedule. He couldn't let any of that happen. It wasn't paranoia, it was certainty.

01010

Days and weeks rolled together. Spring had arrived and bled into the warmer days of the approaching summer. His schedule had altered itself and adjusted accordingly to this new, horrible sleep-deprived one. A few weeks started to cause the bags to be a possible, everyday issue; a few months made them a daily staple to his mornings and afternoons.

He was exhausted and he knew this. Over the last month, he ended up sleeping more instead of going to the Underground, despite not wanting to. His body demanded he give in and let it heal him when his mind only wanted release from the daily annoyances of The Beast, Chloe, his classmates on occasion, and his father's harsh schedule.

He knew that this place was sucking the life out of him slowly but surely and yet still he went. He needed the fix, the high running through his veins as he danced and danced for hours on end. He needed the freedom that the Underground represented and the feel of the face paint whenever it dripped down his cheeks.

He had to be with the others in that place. He had to see The Illustrator do his amazing and interesting art pieces mixed with music. He needed that place which afforded him the availability to dance however he wished with Ladybug for hours on end. The allure of that abandoned building, once shrouded in legend, had captured him so thoroughly and he couldn't do without it anymore. Thinking of how boring and safe his life used to be, occasionally contemplating throwing the Underground away for a good night's rest, made him violently deny such scenarios. He refused to do without it, without her!

Whenever he had become hers, he lost the initial occurrence to time. He was wrapped around those slender little pinkies and all she had to do was smile at him when he approached her on the floor. Any of the days when she wasn't around made his heart ache. Whenever he found she wasn't there, he almost left for home and sleep, but sometimes she merely showed up later than he did. After that, he would always hang around in foolish hope that she would renounce sleep for this place like he did and was just having trouble arriving at a normal time.

His insistent heart was starting to poke his curiosity with questions that he didn't want to consider. He always pushed them away, but they started forming and lining up in his mind one after another. He was starting to want to know who she was outside of that paint-smelled, music-filled, concrete structure. It was eating his brain alive and despite telling himself that none of those things should matter...they did. It was all he thought about whenever he waited the night hours away before he could see her again. They were only kept at bay when the loud music shoved them to the recesses of his mind and her face made thinking impossible.

He was never able to follow her home and see for himself because she usually stayed much later than he did. Even the few times he was there until three, she made no move to leave. He wondered if she lived much closer than he did or she had less responsibilities than him. He was never able to check the place out during the daytime, so he never knew exactly where he was and the neighborhood around it to narrow down her possible location.

He was starting to wish that school would close for one just day or that he could find a day off to stay late enough to sneak after her and find a little piece to hold close. All he wanted was to know, to feel closer to her than he did when they danced. He wasn't that serious in his queries though, but fate had sharp ears and luck was not always a positive thing.

He had spent another long night in the Underground and perhaps it had been the last straw to his abused muscles and overly tired brain. That next morning had him feeling more tired than he ever could imagine and he barely ate anything because of it. His head was in a fog and it felt strange to be in his own body. He was practically falling asleep on the ride to the school and Natalie had to nudge him awake in order to get him out of the car. The walk seemed to take forever because of the laborious trudge on his overly-used legs.

Practice seemed more labor-intensive than usual, The Beast louder and more unforgiving of any mistakes...though his ears were too fogged to hear much of her lectures anyway. Any time he looked at her, his vision refused to cooperate and he had to blink harshly to get her to focus.

He had been standing in some pose he couldn't remember, next to Chloe as always. He was in no way paying attention to the stern rebuke from The Beast about how badly he had done all morning when the world suddenly tilted and shook his vision. He shook his head in order to keep it from doing that again and apologized when it seemed like he wasn't paying attention. He excused his less than stellar performance in class, though the words felt like lead on his tongue and it seemed like someone else was using his mouth to speak for him. He almost felt outside of himself as he looked around the room and tried to make it seem like he was okay. His eyes somehow worked to show him the curious looks of some classmates.

His body stopped listening to his mental commands that it obey him and went on strike, along with his consciousness. He couldn't control his limbs, vaguely aware as he stumbled and reached out for something to stabilize himself. The air denied helping him and he crashed to the ground...so comfortable and forgiving and welcoming.

He couldn't remember much of the incident after that...just that there was a lot of screaming from Chloe and noise from the others. The darkness swallowed him and he fell into the abyss of blissful sleep before his head even struck the floor. Getting up was pointless and thus he let the weight from his muscles drag him into the recesses of his mind.

When he finally awoke, his eyes fluttered open after what felt like a battle. The darkness had been so pleasant and he didn't want to leave it, but something was off. The room he was in was quiet and foreign. His brain screamed for more sleep, but his curiosity demanded to know where he was. The sound of a steady beeping had his wonder running enough to force his participation in checking out his new surroundings.

"Adrien? Can you hear me?"

The voice was recognizable and he turned its way. The movement was slow and labored, but manageable. He went to move his arms and found something poking him. He looked to the slight pain and found an IV in his forearm. He cringed and when he twitched, something small and sticky covered his chest. His brain jolted awake a little more when he finally figured out that the beeping was a machine keeping track of his heart rate.

He wanted to panic, but he was too sluggish to properly do so. All he could think of was that he had given himself away at last because of his body's inability to keep up.

He finally recognized Natalie standing a few feet away from the bed and blinked. She was looking very professional, tablet in hand as always. She was often a very stoic-looking person, which was why it was a shock to see a sense of relief written all over her face. He blinked and made to sit up, but she went to his bed and put a hand on his shoulder. He felt too weak to even resist her and thus let his poor muscles go from their pathetic attempts to aid him.

"Where...am I?" He mumbled, eyes closing. He tried to calm his breathing from such a stunt that actually had him a little winded. The world threatened to shake again and his eyes squeezed shut against it.

"You're at a nearby hospital. You were brought here after you collapsed during morning practice. You've been asleep for two whole days Adrien."

His eyes popped open at that last sentence. He looked to her to confirm this and she nodded. His eyes widened, hearing the heart monitor pick up a little. His mouth opened to say...anything...ask questions...something! All he could do was stutter syllables of questions that led to nothing and fogged his brain.

"Your father wished to know of the moment you woke up. I'll go contact him. He wanted to see you and talk to you. He's at the school right now, but he'll be here shortly."

His eyes followed Natalie out of the room and then he was alone. Two whole days?! His father was coming here to talk to him?! Oh...oh no...! His taped arm flexed as a fist weakly clenched. That was the last thing he needed!

Two...days...! Two mornings, two afternoons, two evenings. Two missed opportunities to go to the Underground. Two lost chances to dance with Ladybug. So many hours at her side, lost. He wondered if she had noticed him missing for two evenings and speared the wall a sad look. He wanted the answer to be an obvious 'yes', but he feared the truth was too easy to figure out and he cut off his thoughts before he let that scenario play out in his head.

It was a short wait after Natalie left and his father appeared. He worried that his father would burst into the room and demand an explanation for his behavior, and he was almost ready to beg for forgiveness. All he could think of was that his father had searched his room for clues to his collapse and found his cat outfit stuck in the corner of his closet. His father was a smart man; Gabriel would put the pieces together with an outfit that he had never worn during the light of day and theorize that something else was going on.

"F – father..." He weakly began, meeting the man's stare, trying not to cringe. He watched his father close the door and immediately stop in front of his bed. His hands twitched as if to move in between them, but he felt in no shape to raise them. "I – I can...explain..."

He was given no option to do so. Gabriel swooped down and embraced him, to his utter amaze. His mouth gaped open, eyes wide as they would go. The heart monitor picked up again as Gabriel gave him a careful squeeze around tense muscles. He didn't dare move for the comfort he felt was being given and taken all at once.

His father was worried?! That wasn't right; he was supposed to be angry! Was this a trick?

Adrien's eyes searched his father's once he pulled away. His brain shut down the second the embrace happened and refused to be used. He could only stare at the chagrin and relief he found in the returned gaze. He watched his father stand above his bed once more, as if remembering who they were, and was relieved that the bed was there to keep him from falling through the earth in his utter shock.

He kept watching his father, even when Gabriel turned away and routinely clasped his hands behind his back. Gabriel looked around the walls idly in total silence. He took in every movement in utter confusion. Was he safe?

"The doctor informed me that your body was utterly exhausted and slightly malnourished over the past few months, and shut down in a means of self-preservation. You've been unconscious for the last two days in order to regain your strength."

"I...I heard from Natalie..." He muttered, eyes avidly on his father.

Gabriel's head dipped down, back still to him. "I was thinking Adrien... Thinking that...perhaps you've been pushed too far this past year. When I tried to figure out the reason for your collapse, I could only think that your schedule has finally caught up to you."

"I apologize. I never wished for you to be in class for so many hours doing such grueling movement every day that it led to this. That is going to change though. I refuse to lose you like I have already lost your mother. I would be very sad if something were to happen to you too."

Father and son finally locked eyes. "The doctor says you'll be fine once you have sufficiently rested and I intend on having those orders fulfilled to the letter. You are not to visit the school again until your physician prescribes you in full health. Only after that okay has been given will I allow you to step foot in my building and do light practice to regain your abilities."

Fate was perhaps more kind to him than he had previously thought and maybe his luck had turned for the good. He almost couldn't believe this fortune! Sure, he was laying prostrate in a hospital with an IV up his arm and had lost two whole days to sleep, but he was getting a reprieve from life! He could only stare at his father and nod his understanding to a conversation which he had never been privy to such length of before now.

So, this was what he had to do in order to extract such a thing from his father, huh?

His lips twitched, feeling somewhat emotional at the man's words. "If it's okay with you father, I think I can rest just as well in my bed as opposed to a stiff hospital mattress. I feel much better after having slept for so long and I won't push myself if I go home."

"I'll talk to the doctor and see what your current state is like before checking in to such a possibility. If the doctor prescribes you well enough to allow such a thing, I'll make it happen." Gabriel silently put a hand on his shoulder, meeting his eyes before reporting he would be at the school for rest of the afternoon and that Natalie would be in the area. If Adrien needed anything, he could be reached through Natalie. Then he was gone and the silence descended upon him again.

He wanted to feel guilty about this. Really he did. But the thought that he had skipped two days of ballet class didn't escape him. He was going to skip a lot more in the next few days too. He couldn't help the curve of his lips and the skip to his adrenaline at that thought.

(1) Adrien disguise change inspiration: starrycove tumblr com/post/140735419755/ok-but-please-consider-break-danceing-au