The night was long and he didn't ever think Cinderella was going to leave the ball. He couldn't keep up with her and there was a while when he had to lean up against a wall and get his energy back. There were no clocks in the room and he didn't bring his cell phone with him because he didn't want anything weighing his pockets down or getting broke whenever he flipped around. He had no idea to the time, but it had to be late for him to be as tired as he was.
It wasn't such a bad thing to be forced away from her because his stamina wasn't up to par with hers. He got to admire her from afar and wondered if he liked looking at all of her as opposed to the up-close-and-personal view he often enjoyed. It was a toss-up, but one thing did become clear as he watched her enjoy herself on the dance floor: she danced alone well enough as she did with him...with pure abandon and enjoyment.
Teeth bit his lip as he felt a little torn up at that thought. He hadn't wanted to admit that she was fine without him and that she would suffer even a little whenever they didn't dance together, but she was proving his fears right now. She didn't seem the slightest bit phased that he wasn't inches away to sway with.
Hands clutched at his jacket and he tried to hide it by burying his arms a little tighter around themselves. He felt hurt, but it was all on him after all. He was the one feeling all of this, not her. He had never asked her opinion on any of this...but maybe he should add that to the list of things he intended on accomplishing before the morning showed up.
That part had him was wrought full of nerves and uncertainty. After the last reaction to his statement of being her partner, he feared more than before that she intended on turning him down. He had to stand firm! He had to persuade her somehow...just...how, he didn't know yet...
He finally had to escape the stale air and paint fumes for a while, and regrettably made his way upstairs. He was shocked to see the sky lighten the barest of traces and battle the darkness in the area. He took in the neighborhood he had frequented so much during the night and took things in a little as if he was visiting this place for the first time again. He decided to stay here for the rest of his time, knowing he couldn't miss her because this seemed to be the only entrance and exit to the place.
The dusk was starting to really make itself known by the time the door opened. A lot of his peers had gone before she finally emerged, but when she did, she seemed to glow much more than the incoming sunrise. She had spent another long night doing what she liked, dancing with abandon to her favorite music amongst others. He looked way up to a towel around her neck...hand raising it to her face ready to wipe the paint off.
She jolted and whipped his way when she noticed another presence shift. She gave a cry and hopped out of the way with all the training of the Underground. "What are you still doing here?!" She burst out, heart beating wildly. A hand went over her chest as if to calm it. "I thought you left a long time ago!"
He stood and looked down at her. The face paint was still over her eyes and the dusk wasn't helping him to 'see' her. His mouth opened to answer her, but he couldn't force words out. He was weak against her insistent indignation and somewhat caved. "I...I...just needed some fresh air." A hand went behind his head, bashful smile appearing. "I guess I lost track of time. I never spend time outside here after all..."
She gave him a weird look and looked behind him. "I don't know what's so fun about being in an alleyway in the middle of night in Paris, but you should head home and get some sleep. It's after four."
He blinked, eyes widening. A thread of worry speared him at the time. He had to be fast on this!
She suddenly walked around him in her dance attire. He finally noticed she had brought a jacket when she went to untie it from her waist and put it on to hide her lack of proper top. A charming smile popped up as he followed her. "Shall I walk you home, my lady? The night streets can be dangerous for a woman after all."
She quickly looked to him with a face that showed only suspicion and confusion mixed with annoyance. "I can take care of myself." She retorted, giving him a dry look for the 'woman' comment.
He forced his smile wider and bowed to offset her. He didn't doubt that in the slightest, but he wasn't going to give in the start of his plan after all. "I insist. I can't have my partner injured, can I?"
Her suspicion grew. She tensed a little despite herself and took in his face and his motives. She stood there, eying him for any answers he may be hiding from her. "You and I dance. That's it. I've never had anyone walk me home in the years since I've been attending the Underground and I don't plan on starting now. Good night Chat Noir. Go home and get some sleep; you've been up for many hours."
He watched her whip away from him after those icy words full of distance and felt something in him crush. She didn't care? Not more than basic human concern it seemed. That little something huddled upon itself in attempt to keep from dying entirely and his hand lashed out before he could think. He grabbed an arm and watched her face full of wary anxiety look him over. His mouth opened as if to explain...or maybe apologize...but nothing came out again.
She stared at him in the silence, reading many things in his eyes that she didn't care to know about. Her dance partner was good and he was friendly, perhaps a little touchy-feely at times, but not a bad person. She tugged on her arm a little, but he didn't let go. Her wariness rose a small degree, not wanting to think that he would try something after all their time together. "Let go Chat." His mouth silently opened again, but her ears received nothing from him. She tugged again and he tried to pull her to him instead. Her teeth grit, body readying itself for anything. Her free hand came up and hit his shoulder to attempt to get him to let go. "Let me go, I said! Now!"
He watched her face, consuming everything she was showing him. He was obsessed with the fire in her eyes, with her concern to his actions and maybe the little fear as well. He was much stronger than her simply because he was bigger than she was and she knew this. Not that he'd ever, ever hurt her...
He pulled her close to him, as close as when they danced. His heartbeat roared in his ears, his breathing becoming erratic. He was trying so hard to form words, to push them out and start asking questions, but the mere fact that he was touching her skin and holding her close was taking over his brain. "Ladybug...I..."
She was inches from his face and his emotions were clear enough for her to see in the barely rising morning. Her eyes darted around his face, seeing his longing, the desire for something and how it was piercing her. She stopped struggling enough to try and read him, fists ready to dish out more if necessary. "Chat...what are you doing?"
"I...I'm sorry, I...I just can't keep this to myself any longer..."
A thread of caution went through her. She didn't want to believe anything bad about him after months of time together, but she just realized that she didn't know him, as planned for the Underground. Sure they had a history together, but that was a long, long time ago and people change within five or six years. She squared her shoulders, chased away her fear, and faced him, highly aware of how gentle he was despite his strength. "What are you going on about?"
Paint had dripped down her face and got to the bottom of her chin. Even The Illustrator's work was teasing him with who she really was! The fiery personality yelling at him, blue storms staring at him, had him lost. "Who are you?" He murmured. "Please...tell me! I've been going around and around in my head about wanting to know who you are." He was barely aware that his tone was getting louder the more he spoke, the more his feelings directed him. "I've tried to keep those thoughts away. I tried to respect the rules. I know what they are, but I can't help myself any longer!" His hands tightened around her arms. "Please tell me! Please give me your real name! Who are you? How can you cause a relocation? You just go there to dance...just like everyone else...right?" His brow furrowed up, searching her eyes that had become impossibly wide. "What is your role here? Are you more than you let on? Please...I'm your partner, aren't I? Don't you trust me at all?"
She stilled in his hold like a rock. The ability to breathe had left her, though the paranoia in her veins ran a marathon through her body. She could see the need to know was genuine and perhaps all of the close dancing they had done over the months must have led him to believe that there was anything more there than basic friendliness and a connection via the Underground. She had never meant to lead him into anything other than a dance partner, and that was loosely calling him that, but he must have read into signals that never existed before.
She remained in his hold until she felt his arms slacken, as if he believed she would stay and talk to him. She took that opportunity to yank his hold from hers, whirl around, and take off down the street.
He gave a cry of surprise, feeling despair encompass him, as he watched her tear away from him. "Wait! Please, don't go!" His adrenaline quickened his step and his longer legs helped him cross the distance. By the time they had reached the end of the ally, he had almost caught up to her.
She didn't even realize that she was heading home to the bakery until she was almost three blocks in its direction. She was going to give him exactly what he wanted and she wasn't going to let that happen! She veered to a different block once she reached a corner and took off for the Eiffel Tower, hoping to lose him in the massive structure somehow.
He had been dancing all night, but the need to know, the emotions running through his system, propelled him after her wherever she was running to and gave him the energy to keep moving. He wasn't going to let her get away from him! She had eluded his mind and his emotions for too many nights!
If she could lose him, maybe she could think up an escape and reroute herself back to her house before he could find her. The streetlights glared down, and the Eiffel Tower lit up as it usually was at night, proved to be a bad idea to be near. The face paint only worked in the Underground because it was dark and they used colored lights. She needed to hide and get the face paint off so she wasn't among the masses like this! He was bound to really see her face out here if he thought long enough after getting a good glimpse of her face. He would remember her; she knew he would.
She spared him a look to find him almost upon her and her eyes widened. She was tired and had danced too much; she wasn't going to get away at this rate! "Let me alone Chat!" She yelled, looking forward. "Go home already! Leave it alone!"
"No! I won't! I'll chase you till your legs give out wherever you go!"
Her teeth grit. Her chest was burning and breathing had long become a problem. She was going to collapse at this rate and the fact that there were a few people loitering around the Tower at this hour, whether exercising or just hanging out, was going to cause a problem for the Underground if this kept up! They would see some random guy dressed all in black chasing some slip of a girl and stop him. They'd find the face paint that was a staple of the Underground and get curious. That would bring up more questions than either of them needed to be answering right now!
This wasn't happening to her! What was going through his brain?! No one needed to know who the other was! That's the way it was supposed to be!
If time kept escaping her like this, he was going to foil her escape back home and her perfect track record of slipping inside before her parents woke up for the morning. She had never let them know what she had created years ago because she didn't think they would approve...maybe... It had been a carefully guarded secret for years and she didn't plan on letting them in on it now due to this issue!
She whirled to a somewhat hidden section of the bottom of the Tower and suddenly stopped. She faced him and readied her fists, stance screaming that she was going to fight him if need be despite the fact that they had cleared however many blocks and were obviously exhausted. She could see the rapid rise of his chest, mimicking her own and knew they were in no shape to move much farther.
She fiercely met his eyes, questioning everything she ever knew about him as she stared him down. He seemed fine with that and various feelings raged behind his eyes which she had never seen before. That knocked her back a step for a while and she wondered to them as well.
Teeth bit her lip. Wariness went through her again at this new angle. She had never seen such emotions on his face and she didn't know how to handle them. She didn't want to handle them! She didn't need them! She had resolved to forget him and didn't want to deal with anything like this concerning him again! She had healed past those forgotten years with help from the Underground and never wanted to know that time ever again.
She shuffled back a step and he could tell she was going to run again. She got about two steps before his hand grasped her arm and kept her from moving. She stumbled and fell to the ground, slumping over in apparent exhaustion. He wasn't any better and fell to his knees next to her, his time in the hospital coming back to haunt him.
She couldn't continue like this and his tenacity was larger than her need to escape. She took in the few people looking at them in confusion and concern and her teeth grit. Someone was going to call the cops soon and then she had a lot more than some basic explaining to do! "Okay..." She mumbled, slowly shifting to sit on her knees. She stared hard at the ground, still trying to get her breath back.
He blinked, fingers squeezing a little. His heart soared as he leaned in. "What?"
She speared a sullen glare through him for a moment before looking away. "Let's get this paint off. We don't need to bring this back to the Underground."
His eyes widened, but he looked around past himself, past them, and saw that they had attracted a little attention due to his stunt. He had the decency to flush and nodded, bashfully looking to the ground. "You're not going to run are you?"
She scoffed and yanked her hand from his, wanting to be offended that he'd call her on her word. "I'm too tired to run anymore..." She slowly stood and brushed her pants off before heading to the nearest tree. She plucked a handful of leaves off and started wiping the paint barely covering her face at this point.
He copied her and tried to get as much black off as he could without making a huge mess. He kept trying to sneak peeks at her as he did so, but she kept the leaves over most of her face while she worked. After a few moments, the handful fluttered to the ground and his fell out of his hands from the sheer amount of shock that hit him.
What?!
His mouth dropped open as he stared at Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the girl who had tried out at his father's ballet school for years. She dutifully sent in application after application at every semester audition and he had seen her works.
"What you just showed us had none of the fluidity of Odette. Your footwork near the end was choppy and your arm swings much too fast to resemble a bird flapping its wings in flight. Those kind of moves will never accurately portray Odette!"
–
"That's really harsh! She wasn't that bad; I thought she did fine."
"Adrien is correct Chloe. Her dancing had obvious ballet training, but it's not pure ballet. You apparently know other dance styles Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng and that's fine for you, but I'm only interested in ballet."
–
"I thought you did fine in your audition...although...father was kind of right. You had something extra in your step for it to be only ballet. I still don't think it was bad though."
He stumbled back a step before he could help himself...as if she had struck him. The person standing in front of him, shuffling uncomfortably on her feet and rubbing an arm with a hand, was not Ladybug. That personae had been wiped off and erased the second she covered her face with those leaves. This person, this shyer, less confident girl he had seen before and he had talked to her a few times. He had already met her...and he had been dancing with her for the last few months now.
The ability to breathe left him long ago. He could barely even force his arms to move to do anything. His eyes were transfixed on her face as if it would evaporate. Words wouldn't form and he was fairly sure his emotions had pretty much exploded in shock.
He also became aware that she all but refused to look at him.
She harshly swallowed as the seconds uncomfortably ticked by and looked to the area, unable to meet his eyes and see what was lurking there this time. "Are you happy now? I need to get home now so that I can beat my parents before they wake up. They don't have any idea what's going on and if you're careful about the whole thing, yours doesn't either."
He jumped and tried to grasp the first group of words in his mind. "I'll...I'll walk you home!"
She heaved a sigh, shaking her head as she zipped up her jacket, but shrugged and harshly stuck hands in her pockets. She turned away and stopped, looking over her shoulder in his general direction. "Suit yourself..." She muttered, starting off at a much leisurely pace, knowing he'd follow again.
It was strange to walk with Marinette. The only time he had ever known her was because she was in his father's school. But, over the last few months, he had met her outside in a place he never expected to find her. So many questions were rampaging through his brain, making more noise than he ever thought possible. None of it made sense! Her actions tonight toward Volpina were confusing more than before.
"If you intend on being a total idiot, causing another relocation and making it harder for everyone else, I can easily make that happen."
How could Ladybug be able to make the entire Underground move somewhere else? Unless...she was maybe involved in it more than mere dancing? He stole looks at her through the safety of the hoodie partially covering his face. Not that she bothered to look at him in her openly pouting stance anyway... He stared at her more openly since she didn't make a move to turn his way, mind ticking away to the last time they met as their everyday identities.
"I know it sounds kind of sudden and a little weird but...if you had the chance to do any other kind of dance style, would you take the opportunity to do so if it was presented to you?"
He thought the question was really weird, but he answered her as honestly as he could.
Did she do something for someone in the Underground? Was she some kind of gopher? Was she part of some group who created the whole thing? Was SHE the one who created it? Was she in cahoots with someone? Did she belong to some kind of mysterious gang that got kicks out of bringing kids in to dance?
"Well then...that's good to know. I just know that your days will get a little brighter someday soon."
Curiosity was going to kill him...but, it did kill the cat right? The more they walked, the more ridiculous the scenarios got until he pretty much pinned her for some kind of mobster queen who had some kind of adorable, night side project outside of her other daily activities.
They rounded the corner and she stopped in front of the bakery. She peeked in and made sure all the lights were off. With as much as the dawn was coming, much faster than her liking, at this rate she would have to pretend that she got up early than normal to jog. Maybe the outfit could make it believable, but she could still feel some of Nathaniel's paint on her face and that wasn't something she could feint on.
He looked up at the bakery, seeing her family's last name on the window before she stepped back and rounded to a random wall. He followed like the stray cat he was, unable to do anything else. He had wanted to know, but he didn't think she was the daughter of a baker. It seemed so normal and quaint...somehow so like her and yet he just couldn't see it when he pictured her dancing last night.
She stopped just as her hand touched the knob to the side door and abruptly whirled to him. A finger poked his chest as she got in his face, eyes blazing. "NO ONE knows about this." She quietly started out, voice laced with retribution if he so much as uttered a word of her residence. She inched forward, looking way up into his eyes and seeing him more than intimidated by her. Good! "Any of your little theories and questions stay to yourself, go that?!" She waited till he dumbly nodded, eyes wide. She took note of the ears still on top of his head and was annoyed with thinking how cute he looked with that stupefied face he was making.
She quickly took a step back and gave the ground a sour look to her own behavior. "There's so much more to this than you know, but there's no time to even properly begin to tell you about it...not like I would, mind you! This is so much bigger than just me and there are multiple people mixed in with it who don't need to be named. There are reasons for all of that, but you don't need to know those either. I'll not endanger their daily lives for your own stupidity!"
Her hand latched out and grasped his wrist tightly. He winced a little at the pressure she applied, at the nails digging into his skin...eyes utterly insistent and boring holes into him. His mouth gaped open and closed a few times, unable to pick his brain up fast enough. "I...yes...fine...you're secret...no one..." He shook himself and took a deep breath to try again. "I swear that I won't tell anyone who you are. I never intended on it in the first place."
His eyes softened as he recalled all those hours of daydreaming in his room over the last week. He leaned forward a little, seeing her face change and become uncertain all over again, her eyes darting over his features. He easily twisted his wrist from her grip and lightly grasped her petite fingers. "I would never. You have my word. I'll show you that you can tell me anything you want Marinette. I –" He quickly looked away, face warming. "I don't ever want you to run away from me like you did ever again. Thank you for letting me see you...really see you. Thank you for all those months we got to share. They...they mean a lot to me."
She hated herself for her face turning into a tomato when he pinned her with those gorgeous emerald stones of his. The breath left her in an audible whoosh at how close she suddenly realized he was. Her mouth resembled a gaping fish for a few attempts to speak. Her eyes danced across his face as if looking for more than what he was already showing, her but there was nothing left that he was hiding. Her adrenaline spiked at that, mouth dry.
She mentally screamed at herself to stop being a fool and snatched her hand away. He easily let it go and she took a quick step back, almost smacking the back of her head on the brick of the building. "W – we'll...see about that...Adrien Agreste..." She clutched at the hand he had been holding against her, shrinking away as if she wanted to climb through the wall. "I'll...I'll be watching you...for a while. Your colors will show who you are on their own and then I'll believe your words!"
She hurried to the door and quietly opened it. She faced away from him for a moment, trying to slow her heart rate. "Head home now. You're going to give yourself away, if you haven't already. It's past the evening and morning is coming. Have your excuses well prepared by the time you get back to that huge building you call home." She quietly murmured.
He didn't miss the soft concern to her voice before the door shut behind her without another word. He finally let out the breath he had been holding in a whoosh. Something warm and soft and fuzzy danced up the back of his spine, making him shiver as her words pierced right where he wanted them to...perhaps more than she ever intended.
He stared at the door for a few breaths as if she would show up again, hands idly going into his jacket pockets. He looked up to the morning after a minute, mind yelling that he had to rush back despite how tired he was, lest someone see him gone. At the very least, he had to get the blanket off the back of his railing so no one else could get in.
He gave the top of the building, what he bet was her home, a soft smile. "Sleep well Marinette..." He turned and cast one final look up to the top windows, as if she were already watching him from inside. "I'll see you later, my lady."
