A/N: yes, it's a short chapter. But it's important. I promise.

Three months later

"No!" Chat Noir grumbled. "You're supposed to go to my left! My left!"

"I did!" Ladybug snapped back. Her voice was still soft, but she'd become more bold with him over the months.

"No, that was YOUR left!" Chat pointed to his right. "I said MY left!"

"It's confusing," Ladybug pouted.

The pair of them were inside an abandoned warehouse they set up for training. Truth be told, the warehouse was the recently acquired property of one Adrien Agreste, but he didn't tell Ladybug that. He didn't want her knowing who he was. Especially not her.

The problem was, this Ladybug was awful. He always knew his Ladybug was amazing, but he didn't realize just how special she was until he was forced to work with…this…one.

"Well, get it right," Chat Noir let out his breath in a short, angry puff.

"You don't need to be a jerk about it," Ladybug mumbled.

Chat Noir spun around and threw his staff towards her. It whizzed past her her ear, creating a soft enough wind to rustle her long hair. The staff clattered against the wall several feet behind her. She folded her arms, unamused.

"Tikki doesn't believe me when I said how impossible you are." She said with a snarl.

"Well, no one would believe you were actually the real Ladybug if they saw you in action!" He yelled at her. The anger inside him was causing his hands to tremble. "You can't even follow simple directions! It's a miracle there hasn't actually been an akuma attack since Kingpin or else all of Paris would be destroyed!"

She flinched, and started to sniffle. This was how it always went. They'd threaten each other, usually with near violence, and Chat would take it so far that she'd cry and run off. Fine. He was being unfair to her. Plagg had told him several times to take it easy with her, but he just didn't care. She was pathetic. The only reason he hadn't given up being Chat Noir was because somewhere in the back of his mind, he thought he could still fix everything.

But that part of him was growing smaller every day. Chat Noir was just an empty shell. There wasn't anything left but anger and guilt and sadness. He hated everyone, especially himself, and he had a tendency to take it out on this fake Ladybug.

"Just go already," Chat dismissed her with an arm gesture. He walked passed her as he went for his baton.

She snorted and paused for a moment. She seemed to be contemplating something, until she finally spoke up. "You know, it's not my fault she didn't come back!"

"What did you say!?" Chat Noir roared. His muscles tensed up and he spun around to glare at her.

She flinched, but stood her ground. "Stop acting like I'm the one that chased her away."

Chat sneered. Chased her away. Is that what Tikki said, or was this stupid girl just making assumptions? Either way, it didn't matter. She was useless, and he was wasting all his time trying to train her when she was obviously untrainable.

For a second, he thought he saw something behind her. A flash of red. It reminded him of a red streak he saw three months ago. Once he learned about Tikki, he had assumed it was her. But this time it couldn't be. Unfortunately, Ladybuh draw his attention back to their argument and he quickly forgot about the flash.

She rolled her eyes. "If you could just act like a decent human being for just one second in your life, I might be able to put up with this. But no. I can't. Because you're horrible. I bet you have no friends in real life either."

It was his turn to flinch. Friends. No, he didn't have any of those. After Ladybug…after what happened to her…he just lost touch with everyone. Nino and Alya never talked to him anymore. Marinette was still missing and presumed dead. Even Chloe didn't bother him anymore. He'd managed to push away everyone in his life, both as Adrien and Chat Noir.

"Shut up!" He snapped back at her. "You don't know anything about me!"

She threw her hands up in the air and left. A minute later, he snatched his staff and ran home.

"She's a disaster. I can't work with her. She has no idea what to do and she's always out of sync with me!" Adrien dropped down on his couch with his hands to his side.

"You're not very nice to her," Plagg said, again. "You're never going to fight together if you're always fighting with her."

Adrien grumbled. He was tired of this lecture. "She's fighting with me. She's impossible."

"I can hear what you say, remember," Plagg pointed out. "And you sound nothing like yourself."

"Just stop Plagg."

"I'm serious, Adrien. And you know how I hate being serious." Plagg flew up in front of his face. "You're not you anymore. You haven't acted like yourself since Kingpin. I'm worried about you."

"Well don't be," Adrien looked away. "I don't need your pity."

Plagg sighed. "Adrien…."

"Just stop, okay?" Adrien pushed himself up off the couch and headed towards his bedroom door. "I need everyone to just leave me alone for a while!"

"Where are you going?" Plagg started to fly after him.

"Out." Adrien pulled his ring off his finger and tossed it onto his desk. "Without you."