The jog home was the lightest he had ever taken for a long time. Not even in ballet was he this graceful and dainty on his feet! His heart felt a little less heavy at the final words she gave him before she parted and he kept them close, wanting to feel more than necessary from them. He wanted to believe she cared more than she let on and thus said such worries to him.

The fact alone that Ladybug was Marinette and he had been dancing with her without knowing made him want to smack his head against something in his idiocy. Not like he had a long conversation with Marinette when she auditioned in the spring, but that was only a few months ago! How could he forget those pigtails, those deep blue eyes, and the way she had looked at him before she left? That final look when she said those mysterious words concerning the Underground clearly resembled Ladybug and he was apparently too infatuated with the Underground to concentrate on the similarities.

The fact that she didn't live that far away from his house didn't escape him. He wondered if he could find some excuse to go to her family's bakery some day soon and check out the goods before he had to go back to class. After all, he was still on bed rest and he did need food... Who better than the daughter of a baker to help suggest some things for him?

He was smiling all the way home...at least until he got to the bottom of where his window was. He looked up and instantly felt panic like none other encompass every cell he owned. Swear words ran through his brain and he didn't hinder their entrance in the blank space that was his mind. He broke out in a sweat, heart rate suddenly tripling.

The sheet that he had wrapped around the railing was gone.

It hadn't blown up to the inside of the railing...it. Was. GONE. There was no way someone could have taken it off from down below; that would have to have happened from above!

Two possibilities ran through his head and both of them were terrible. Either he had unknowingly let a burglar into the house, or Natalie had come to check up on him earlier than he thought, thus finding his escape route.

He started shaking from either scenario, both of them causing this sense of doom like nothing he ever could envision happening. He was supposed to have been on bed rest per the doctor! His most gracious father had granted him exit from that stiff hospital, had gone to bat for him in order to let him sleep at home! His most gracious, and probably utterly angry by now, father was probably in the know about his sudden disappearance and he almost fell to his knees at that thought.

He tried to stay standing. He had to get inside! Lies like none other ran through his head, but most of them cheesy and totally unbelievable. He was done; every rational part of his mind told him this. He had had his fun and now playtime was over.

It took a lot of convincing for his feet to move to the lower railing and balance on it in order to get to his floor. He almost wanted to just take off and hide for the day, and maybe claim that someone had stolen him away in the middle of the night. That might be a tad more believable if he went missing for the entire day. His brain started clouding over with how he could make it work, but some small piece of hope wanted him to think that things were still okay.

How was he supposed to explain the sheet tied against the railing?!

Maybe something totally unknown happened to it and everything was fine? Maybe he was just overreacting because of what had happened this morning and how late he had returned, which had never happened in the history of his sneaking out...

He almost thought he was in the clear when he successfully managed to get up to his railing and pull himself into his bathroom. His room was quiet and no one was inside. He thought he was in the clear...at least until he saw his bedroom door wide open.

Oh god...god, oh god! No, no, no, no! Oh this was bad! His hands shook to impossible speeds as he quickly looked around for anything out of the ordinary in his room. How was he going to play this off to his very astute father?! Words ran away as they bailed on him for their own safety.

He was done. This was the last he was going to know of anything outside of ballet ever again! A string of swear words left his lips at such speeds that made them mostly unintelligible.

It wasn't until the fifth pass of looking at his computer that he noticed something out of the ordinary. It wasn't anything big and most of the times his quick gaze ran by the monitor, he didn't even see it.

There was a red light blinking on his camera.

He turned to stone, eyes locked on the silent red beep. His eyes widened to the point of falling out of his head. His mouth opened and closed a few times but he had lost the ability to grasp his own language.

It was sheer sense of perversion that forced his legs to step one after the other until he was in front of his computer. He hadn't turned such a thing on before leaving, and he made sure to erase anything on his search files including the Underground to cover his tracks. He turned the screen on to find his father's office staring back at him. He jumped with a startled cry, falling over his desk chair with an additional cry of pain. He hid under the furniture for a moment, peeking over it to hope that perhaps his father wasn't in that particular room this very second and he was still somewhat in the clear.

"Adrien."

He jumped again, breaking out in an even worse sweat. More horrible words ran through his head as his father's voice clearly called his name. His father's face never came to the screen, but it didn't need to. He probably had Natalie turn on the camera software to his computer, connect a call to his father's, and then waited him out till he came back home.

His father was a smart man.

Oh yea...he was screwed.

"Come down to my office this instant. I'll be waiting there for you and the talk we're going to have."

He gulped, mouth dry. Every horrible scenario ran through his head all over again, stubbornly keeping him put. He tightly clutched at the chair with wide eyes. He tried to shrink back and breathe through the blood roaring in his ears.

"Adrien. Now."

The threat in his father's voice had him jumping up faster than he thought he ever could after such a night of constant movement. "Yes! Coming!" He scrambled to the door before screeching to a halt and looking to his attire. The Illustrator's paint was still in specks on his face and he could feel it dripping off with as much as he had started sweating since arriving home. There wasn't time to wipe it off without wasting more of his remaining free seconds.

What was the point in changing? All he wanted to do was crawl to his father's office right now and beg for forgiveness until his father saw fit to let him see the light of day and smell fresh air again.

The walk was painfully long and intense. Never had there been a more 'gallows' feel to those stairs. He tried not to trip down them because he had a feeling any injuries now would be coldly looked at as a cry for pity and utterly ignored.

He deserved this...he knew he did. He had caused his own collapse, he had worried his father over it for reasons the man had never been privy to, and now he had given himself away to his selfish wishes over the last few months. He had skipped sleep of his own accord, created a lack of appetite from his strange eating and sleeping patterns, and put himself in the hospital. He had no one to blame but himself. He really did deserve anything his father wanted to say, or do, to him.

So why did he still want to run away so bad?!

A hand slowly inched the door open until it was just wide enough to let him in. He shuffled a few steps inside, seeing his father sitting at his desk. The second he got into the room, his father stood, hands clasped behind his back like usual.

"Natalie went and checked on how you were feeling around five. I thought it was a tad early, but she had things to do for me today and she wanted to report your condition to me before she got started. It was a clear cut instance of concern for your welfare on her part."

The emotionless words were ripe with a guilt trip and he ate them up, wanting to huddle inside himself. His gaze remained squarely on the floor in front of him, unable to even get farther into the room than just past the doorway. He felt that even this distance was too close for the stare his father was pinning him with. The shaking hands at his sides clenched into fists, but they were moving too much to be able to successfully hide them and thus he didn't.

"Imagine my concern when she entered your room to find you missing and a sheet tied to the railing of your window."

There was a thread of silence and all he could hear was the galloping of his heartbeat. He actually jumped once his father spoke again.

"I thought I was being too concerned with having Natalie look after you as much as she was. I had put too much blame on myself for your collapse. You seemed to be gaining your spirit back after the first day you got home."

Another brief silence. "I worried that perhaps I would lose you like your mother. You still remember her death, correct? How she died from head trauma after being dropped during practice on those hardwood floors we have at the school... I didn't want such a thing to happen again, especially after hearing how you hit your head on the floor when you fainted."

He wanted to shrink into himself, but couldn't. The words were all carefully chosen and well-designed to hit him where it hurt the most. Not like he needed his father's words to feel worse than he ever had in his entire life though.

"I thought that I had been pushing you too far for too long. I even thought of perhaps giving you a much needed break from practices maybe once or twice a week. Imagine my surprise when Natalie comes to me after checking up on you, stating that you were nowhere in your room, let alone anywhere in the entire house. She searched it, thinking you had gone somewhere for a change of scenery."

"I see now that your change of scenery has led you down the path of depravity which you probably have been keeping from me for quite a while. This entire thing is your fault and it's now done. You've had your fun and you'll continue practice as usual starting today since you seem well enough to sneak out for an entire evening. Get changed and hurry to the table for breakfast. The chef will be finished making your food soon and then you'll have practice all day, every day. You will also check in when you return home and when you retire to your room for the evening. There will be someone to check in on you around midnight to make sure you are still in your room until this phase passes."

His gaze finally rose at such demands. "Wait! No! That's not fair! You don't even know what's been happening here and you have no idea how much fun I've -"

"You have no say in this matter!" His father broke in, voice rising.

Cold eyes met his across the way. "You're my son Adrien and you're nineteen now. You're no longer a child and as the heir to my company, it's time to see you act like an adult! You'll take over one day and you need to understand that so you can take your responsibilities seriously. I don't know where you've been or what you've been doing for who knows how long, but I can guess." Gabriel paused enough to eye his attire and the specks on his face. "I expect you to focus on ballet and not ever consider such pointless trash dancing ever again."

"Hip hop is not trash!" He all but yelled, fists shaking out of sudden irritation. How dare his father ridicule the amazing time he had these past few months?!

He took a step forward, as if in challenge, face contorting in anger at the whirlwind of his emotions. "I enjoyed myself there way more over the last few months than any day I spent doing pointless ballet in your school! I don't even care about ballet! It was only an excuse to spend time with mother because she was always so busy! She's not even here any more and yet I still have to continue it because of something YOU want! The only reason I still dance is so I can feel close to her memory and even that is not enough. I'd gladly trade the Underground for ballet any day of the week for the freedom it's granted me of my own free will. I chose to go and spend my nights there which is an option you've never given me!"

Gabriel turned around with a snort. "You're inconveniencing everyone with your egoism and attitude. Go change from those pathetic clothes and wear something presentable before you head to breakfast. The driver will waste gas if you make him sit there much longer than his usual time because you're wasting air arguing with me."

The nails couldn't dig into his skin any harder, but it felt oh so good. The pain was relished to keep him from feeling this pit he was falling into. The despair, the rage, the unfairness of it all...he was sinking and there was nothing to grab a hold of, let alone breathe.

His father remained turned away from him as he stalked from the room. His anger easily helped him clear the steps and he slammed the door to his room as hard as he could. He wished it would come off the hinges from the blow, but then he wouldn't have any privacy to his room...something he was soon to be seriously lacking it seemed.

Red replaced his vision and he wanted to hurt something so badly. His jaw spasmed with as hard as his teeth were clenched, feeling fury beyond anything he had ever known in his life. He found his duffel bag laying on the edge of his bed where it had been placed and grabbed it. He hurled it to the other side of his room with a cry of rage.

This wasn't fair! His father didn't understand anything! He didn't intentionally hurt himself over this! Who would turn away a taste of being able to do what they wanted of their own choosing when nothing but forceful schedules and perfect attitudes were the only alternative?! He loved the Underground! It was his second, no, his first home...so much more so than this place! He didn't care at all for this extensive space that had nothing he loved in it. He would gladly throw it all away if he could dance his nights away and be free with all those other people around him!

His mind switched gears so suddenly at that thought that it wiped the red from his vision like it never existed. He stared at the small mess he had made from his duffel bag, brain whirling. Just how did he expect to throw it all away when he had no place to go? He could try staying in the abandoned building he frequented, but he doubted whoever created the Underground would be happy with his suddenly moving in. Not to mention he had no job and no money and no way to get food. Even if he left, he had a feeling his father would drag him back kicking and screaming. He needed his 'precious heir' after all...

His eyes narrowed as he calculated everything. He couldn't just stay here like this! He might have dug his own grave, but that didn't mean he needed to go quietly into the night and just lay in his own coffin for the rest of his days!

He looked around his room, seeing only the things he would actually need. He couldn't be obvious on this. He had to bide his time and wait for the opportune moment to present itself. That might take a while and it may be days before he got the ability to do this. He would need time to memorize this new, harsh schedule after all. He had to learn what was ahead of him so he could learn how to beat it.

With a decisive nod, he headed to his bathroom for a shower and change of clothes.

01010

Practice wasn't all smiles and warm welcomes like everyone assumed it would be. He brushed off a lot of his classmates with quiet hellos and all but pushed Chloe out of the way when she went to embrace him. He had grown tired of her throwing herself at him during their time apart and it felt cheap to be around her when he had spent so much glorious time with Marinette. Knowing who Ladybug was affirmed and strengthened his emotions for her and no other girl would do now. Chloe was annoying to the level of Volpina and that's all he saw her as.

He played off the annoying lectures from The Beast who admonished him on being sloppy despite his time away from home. She accused him of not practicing and that he had a performance coming up soon which he needed to be ready for...hospital not factoring into her caring.

She kept at him for what felt like forever until his ears could've bled from her annoying words. Everything she said, every wag of that finger in his face, only nailed the coffin shut on ballet and made him want to leave even more. It was extremely hard to bite his tongue for hours on end and not lash out at her in return.

Coming home at the end of the day had Natalie directing him right from the car into his father's office. Someone took his duffel after they approached him and he watched that person head to his room to drop it off. A sense of suspicion and irritation hit as he stopped inside the office. Natalie left him and went for her own desk.

"Here is your new schedule Adrien and there will be no discussion on changing it." Gabriel began. Gabriel nodded to Natalie, who went back to him and silently handed over a blank sheet with a bunch of lines all over it. He merely looked at it and then to his father in silent question.

"Those spaces are where you'll write the time down and sign next to it, all in your own handwriting so there can be no one to forge your signature. I know what it looks like, so don't think you'll get anyone else to do it for you. Natalie will personally visit your room every half hour from now until midnight for you to sign this. She will only leave once you have done so. She will visit you at four every morning to affirm that you are in your bed asleep."

He couldn't help his brows going up at how excessive his father had become in this. Just...wow...

By rights, he should have been furious and he should have acted out, should have felt more than he was right now. This was too much, but he didn't put this insanity past his father. He took everything in and adjusted his calculations accordingly. This was actually a huge help because there wasn't much he needed to guess at. The thirty minute gap would be more than enough to get things taken care of and hide everything to make sure it appeared nothing was going on.

"Sounds like you've thought of everything father..." He sardonically bit back, letting loathing seep through his voice. "Thank you for your consideration."

"The sarcasm is unnecessary. Remember, you brought this on yourself."

He might have, but that didn't mean he was going to live with this utterly pointless schedule! Prisoners in jail had more alone time than he was being granted!

"Natalie will show you to your room and come get you to bring you to dinner. You may sign the sheet only once you get to your room. Someone will sit with you the entire time and get her when you finish."

He handed the paper back to Natalie for now and smartly spun on his heel. Her heels clacked behind him all the way to the doorway of his room. He silently took her pen and wrote the time she informed him of along with his signature. He nodded as she quietly informed him she'd return soon per his father's words about dinner.

Her hand went to the door and she had it halfway shut when she suddenly paused. She met his eyes, looking tired and he felt a little bad that she had to do such pointless busy work for however long his father decided to continue this tirade. "For all our sakes Adrien...please rethink your decision. This is putting hardship on everyone in the house and making our jobs that much more difficult."

01010

The Dupain-Cheng bakery address was up on his online maps, the store front glaring at him through the screen. He had about fourteen more minutes left to stare at it and the Underground nearby. He couldn't believe how ridiculously close Marinette's place was! He wondered if that was intentional or not.

Fingers rubbed over his lower lip as he thought to this morning after they ran from the abandoned building. He looked up the Underground's location using the 3D feature on his maps and the immediate area. He took in the street names, familiarizing himself with them for later use. He didn't plan on taking his phone, or much else, with him.

When his free time ticked down to five minutes, he set about clearing all search history and erasing his tracks. He didn't need his father finding the location because he would send people looking for him. He didn't know how much stuff was left lying around in the basement level, but if the Bubbler didn't move his dj equipment, highly likely, then that would probably be the first thing to get confiscated.

He signed the paper and wrote the appointed time down before handing it back. He could tell that Natalie was tired for it being barely ten and he felt a little sorry for her, but apologies refused to leave him. He had put her in this position and 'sorry' felt too hollow to use right now.

Now alone for another thirty minutes, he went back to his desk and pulled up an internet page again. This time, he went through every online blog dedicated to the Underground. He read through all the theories and personalities that danced there, past and present. He found Ladybug amongst a lot of them and saw that she had been mentioned a lot over a fairly long time span. The dates on some of the blogs, when it was really difficult to believe to exist, went back almost two years.

He reclined in the chair, propping his chin up on interlocked fingers. The clues were there and some of it was starting to make sense when he took the time to reflect on it. The place was close to her home; she initially asked him if he would enjoy dancing there, in her own way of course; she was there so often; she had gone for over a year and seemed a regular; she seemed to know the most of the music that was being played; and no one could best her skills.

If she had been there since the beginning, because she had been the one to create it, then it would explain much.

She would be there a lot, as it was her place...because she had created it.

She would give the Bubbler music to play because she wanted to dance to what she liked...in the place that she had made.

If she was the one to start such a thing, she was probably the one to invite them as well. He thought back to the criteria he had first learned about and the letter he received. Not even a few days after Marinette asked that mysterious question during her audition, he got that letter. She knew where to put it so he'd find it, subtly of course, so no one else would have access to it. She probably did it herself or told someone how to slip it to him.

"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!"

All these theories could get confirmed by her later when they had more time. This morning was rushed; he would make it a point to get the story in full from her.

He would have all the time in the world soon after all...

Teeth nibbled his lower lip as he stared at the word 'Ladybug' loitering the blog he had finished reading minutes ago. She had brought him into her Underground and he had fallen in love with that place of respite...now he could only pray that she would shelter him in this time of need.

'Here's hoping you don't turn me away, my lady...'

She was all he had left and he planned on grasping for her with both hands extended. He wondered what she would do. Would she get mad at him for running away from a place he didn't care anything for because of this...because of her? Would she scoop him up and hug him in his pathetic state? Would she lend an ear and at least hear what he had to say since their last parting? Would she invite him to dance the next time she saw him?

His brow furrowed upward as a need to see her suddenly speared him. He harshly scrubbed his face with his hands before hurriedly wiping his browser history again and standing. Thirty minutes were almost up again.

He signed the twelve A.M. time and handed the paper back. "Good night Natalie." He murmured, feeling guilt again as he stared at her. Natalie looked exhausted, but her face was emotionless as usual. "I...I'm -"

"Get some sleep Adrien." Her hand went to the doorknob. "You're going to have a short night ahead of you with a lot of work to do tomorrow." The door had almost closed when there was a pause and it opened again. "I forgot to mention that there will be someone posted outside your window until one just in case." She looked down, face subdued. "I thought you should know...just in case you see them at the street. They're not anyone suspicious and there's nothing to be scared of."

Of course his father would assume he try something so late in the night... He mentally swore that his plan had to be adjusted, but nodded and gave her a small smile. "Thanks Natalie. I would probably have freaked out a little."

She nodded and closed the door, quietly clicking it shut.

He turned with an annoyed sigh once her heels clacked away and immediately went to his bathroom window. He left the lights off and crept over as if sneaking into his own home. He could see the silhouette of someone leaning against a building across the street. He hovered just behind his bathroom wall enough to keep an eye on where this new person was standing and watched his watcher for a few moments.

He looked at the face of someone he only saw as getting in his way before slinking off and packing his duffel. He had spent too much on his computer and wasted most of his precious rest time. Although, he didn't have the ability to take a even short nap because there was no way anything would get accomplished in thirty minutes.

He'd have plenty of time for sleep later, once he was away from this place.

He kept his phone on him mere minutes to one. He watched the person again for the remaining few, keeping an eye on the time, and watched the unknown face look to a cell phone screen before immediately walking away. He looked to his own phone and saw it was one sharp. His lips curled as he quickly strode away from the window and dropped the useless contraption onto his desk. A hand grabbed the duffel off his bed, giving his room one final look. There really was little that he considered a necessity to his life and he was taking it with him.

He headed to his bathroom and swung a leg over the railing, bag resting over his back. It was an easy move to reach the lower level this time and within seconds, he had landed to the ground below before taking off for the direction of the Underground.