A/N: Still planning to post the final chapter of my Shadrien fic Dawning Light later this week, but I received more art for this one and couldn't wait! The new art is by zyulla_ and from Chapter 3, so you can wait and see it then or check it out on my instagram or Tumblr.

This fic is now finished, so I'll be updating weekly (if not twice a week).

Two nights later, Marinette had just finished carrying up a brand new empty planter when she caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye.

Chat Blanc was once again scaling rooftops, though with the darkness blanketing the city, his white form didn't stand out as much as it had the other night.

He glanced her way and froze when he met her eyes, crouched to the side of a chimney.

Tensed, she stared at him, waiting to see what he would do.

Blanc shook his head slowly, but she couldn't make out his expression. He took a step across the roof, gradually moving faster before he sprinted away, disappearing quickly.

This time, Marinette carefully transformed, trying to follow and see what he was up to.

Unfortunately, Chat Blanc was skilled at disappearing. Ladybug had often tried to follow him when his time ran out in order to discover his identity and take him down for good. Frustratingly, he always managed to get away from her before his powers ran out.

Ladybug stealthily swung through the city, trying to find his trail with no luck. She returned to the alley near her home and went back inside to keep an eye on the news.

Once again, not a peep about any Chat Blanc-related destruction.

The next evening, Marinette was lifting the partially-filled flower pot onto her balcony wall when a demanding voice came from behind her.

"Why didn't you call Ladybug?"

Marinette nearly jumped out of her skin, losing her grip on the pot as she whirled around to see Chat Blanc perched above her on the chimney stacks. She hadn't even heard him arrive.

Her shock was interrupted by the distant sound of her pot falling onto the street below. She groaned, turning back and rising on her toes to look below before glaring back at him. "Don't sneak up on me like that."

Strangely, the villain actually seemed affected by her admonishment, at least for a moment. Then he scowled at her again. "Why?"

She put a hand on her hip, waving the other one back at her remaining single pot. "Because I'm running out of my plants."

He faltered for a few seconds. "No, not– that's not what I was asking." His eyes flickered to her planter before resting back on her. "Why didn't you call for help when you saw me?"

Marinette frowned. She couldn't exactly tell him she didn't need to, since he had actually been seen by the heroine herself. "Well… it's like you said. You weren't destroying anything. Except my planters, apparently."

It felt a little surreal to be talking casually to her enemy who had constantly tried to take her down and steal her earrings for the past two years.

She tried to figure out how to take advantage of the situation. Perhaps she could stall him. "Are you about to go lure her to you like you always do? Is that why you're out tonight?"

His answer was quick, voice irritated. "No."

"Then, why–" Before she could finish, he jumped away, leaving her staring at his retreating figure in disbelief.

In the two years since she had been battling him, she had never heard of any reports of him wandering the city at night. Yet here he was, out doing just that for multiple evenings in a row.

Very strange.

When the Blanc alert went off the next day, Ladybug was almost taken off guard by the normal, violently-angry Chat Blanc that she came upon destroying a metro station. Fighting off the villain as usual, she pushed all questions aside, until he was forced to leave at the end of his timer an hour or two later.

It was enough of a reminder that when Blanc showed up yet again the following evening at her balcony, Marinette found her anger rising to the top.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't call Ladybug right now–" she began when she heard him land behind her, "–regardless of what you're doing or not doing? You're a villain who keeps trying to destroy my city." She turned around, only then noticing that he was holding something in his hand.

He placed the small pot containing a single yellow flower on the ground. "I'll just leave this here," he mumbled, not looking at her.

Marinette stared at the pot, perplexed. When he moved to leave, she spoke up. "Hold on, what is this?"

Blanc paused at her railing. "A plant." He looked at her strangely, obviously questioning her intelligence.

Her confusion overtook her indignation. "Why?"

He continued to stare at her questioningly. "To replace the one I made you drop?"

"But… you're a villain?"

His expression hardened. "I know." He didn't elaborate, merely turning around and jumping to the railing to leave.

"Wait—" she said, scrambling for something to say as he looked at her again, "—thank you?"

A nod was Blanc's only response. He stopped moving away, however, watching her silently from his crouched position.

Marinette walked a few steps forward, picking up the small yellow flower. Cautiously, she asked, "Is Hawk Moth not… present, then? Watching what you're doing?"

He shook his head. "Not right now."

Questions began building up within her mind. She'd never had the opportunity to talk to the man outside of their battles. Perhaps she could gather some information on him and find out the illusive motivations that had always remained a mystery.

"You seem… different. Doesn't he control you?" None of the unwillingly-akumatized victims she'd taken down before he'd shown up had remembered anything after she purified their akumas. Perhaps willingly taking it on made a difference? But if he was being controlled while fighting, then perhaps that would explain his odd behavior as of late.

Blanc huffed at her question and looked away, his tail swishing behind him. "No, he doesn't."

She frowned. So much for that theory.

Her eyes caught on his hand that was gripping the railing. She couldn't see his miraculous from her current angle. Gotta keep him talking.

Taking another cautious step, Marinette asked, "I haven't seen you 'take a run' before. Why now?"

Blanc shrugged. "No reason."

Very verbose, he was.

Marinette kept expecting him to leave, and yet he remained perched, watching her with those bright blue eyes. There was something off about them, she realized, though she couldn't place what it was. "Do you… want to talk?"

He said nothing for a few moments, and then he abruptly straightened. "No." He extended his baton and leapt off her balcony once again.

Marinette let out a huff of air as she watched him disappear. Then she shook her head as she walked over to her balcony wall, placing the flower next to the only larger planter she had left.

When Chat Blanc came by again, he made some noise before landing next to her as she watered her plants. Marinette placed the can down and narrowed her eyes on him. "What are you doing here now? I thought you didn't want to talk."

For a moment, he looked lost. "I… I don't know."

A hint of sorrow built up within her as she took in expression. Was he… lonely?

She quickly pushed the sadness away; he chose to be a villain.

Still, Marinette needed to see if she could get close enough to him to get his ring. She picked the watering can back up and pushed it into his hands. "Here. Finish watering those two then." She leaned down, ripping open a bag of potting mix and emptying it into the new pot she had brought up. Watching him out of the corner of her eye, she saw him stare uncertainly at the watering can before turning it over the flowers.

Marinette nearly laughed at the sight, but was distracted by his hand wrapped around the handle.

Disappointed, she looked back down. No ring on that hand.

Returning to her own task, Marinette realized her mistake when she finished with her soil. The pot was too heavy now for her to lift.

She eyed Blanc as he finished and placed the can back on the ground. "Can you help me with this?"

Silently, he picked up the pot as though it weighed nothing, placing it carefully down on the platform.

"Thank you." She put the watering can back into place before turning to look at him. The two stared at one another quietly for a few moments. Finally, Marinette spoke. "Why are you fighting with Hawk Moth against Ladybug?"

Blanc tensed. "I can't tell you that."

"Can't, or won't?"

"Both. It doesn't matter. Stop asking me questions."

"Fine," she snapped, twisting away from him. "Be on your way then."

"...wait. I didn't mean that. Shit, I don't know how to do this."

She turned back to see him pacing, agitated. "Do what?" He shot her a brief look before returning to his pacing, one of his clawed hands raking through his hair. "What are you trying to do?"

"Nothing. Fuck, I shouldn't have come back here."

"Hold on," she forced out, reminding herself she had to stick to her plan, despite her annoyance. She quickly ran through his actions over the past week. "I don't understand. You don't want to talk to me, you don't want me to ask you questions. What do you want?"

He let out a growl of frustration. "I didn't mean what I said. I do want to… talk." He scowled as the words left his mouth, as though he wanted to take them back.

"What, you mean… like a friend?" It was the perfect way to take him down, and yet Marinette couldn't hold back some true sentiments. "Why would I be friends with a villain?" She regretted the words as soon as they came out.

Blanc's face went blank. "You're right. I'm sorry. I'll go."

The apology threw her for a loop. Chat Blanc was apologizing for something? "Wait. No." She took a breath. "No one is beyond the potential for redemption. If you need someone to talk to, I'm here."

He glared at her. "I'm not here for redemption."

She shrugged. "So you say."

"I have good reasons for what I do," he gritted out, fists clenched.

"Oh? What are they?" When his expression didn't change, she sighed. "Right, you won't tell me." She gave him a long searching look. "Okay then." A noise came from below, and Marinette walked to the trapdoor down. "I have to go. I guess I'll see you next time."

He turned around and left without saying anything else, and Marinette shook her head as she lowered back into her room.

What was she getting herself into?

Marinette was sitting on her patio chair typing out an email on her laptop when Chat Blanc showed up next.

She gave him one glance before returning to her task. "Do you ever have to deal with annoying people? I have this client who insisted I make her item in a certain way, despite me telling her it was a terrible idea and wouldn't hold up. Surprise surprise, it's not working, and now I get to deal with informing her I was right all along. Except I have to do it in a way that isn't insulting to her intelligence."

Marinette let out a long sigh as she hit send. When she looked up again, Chat Blanc was still standing stiffly on the edge of her balcony. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you want to come sit down?" She gestured to the other chair she had, but he didn't move.

Shrugging, she leaned back and focused on her laptop again. He slowly moved closer, though he didn't sit down. Finally he spoke, his voice low. "What… do you do?"

"I'm going to school for fashion design, though I've been taking commissions on the side for years now."

"You're into fashion?" he asked, sounding surprised.

"Definitely." She looked over at him, something in his tone catching her interest. "Are you?"

"No," he answered forcefully.

Curious, she asked, "What are you into? When you're not, you know, destroying property and such."

He didn't answer. At first, she assumed it was another topic he wasn't planning to go into, but his distant expression told her otherwise. "I don't know," he finally admitted.

Her throat tightened unexpectedly at that. "You… don't know?" What did this guy do with his time then? Chat Blanc was only active a few days a week at the most. When he shook his head, she responded, "But, definitely not fashion? What, did you get attacked by some errant clothing or something?"

He gave her a wry look. "Or something." She snorted, imagining what might possibly have pushed him to be anti-fashion. "Actually," he said, sitting down in the middle of her balcony instead of the chair she'd offered, "I like movies."

"Movies?"

"Yeah."

It was such an odd thought, imagining this force of destruction sitting down and watching movies, like any normal person. It jarred against her preconceived notions of him.

Villain, she reminded herself. Destroys things and hurts people in order to try to steal your miraculous.

Did it really matter that he believed his reasons were good? No, it doesn't. He's a villain, and that's that.

Still, she had an act to keep up. "What kinds of movies?"

He shrugged. "Bit of everything."

"Hmm." Marinette rested her chin on her hand as she stared at him. "You should pick one. To watch next time."

He looked at her in confusion. "What?"

"You should choose a movie, and we should watch it. You know, the next time you come here."

He seemed thrown yet again. "Oh."

"Do you have time for that? How long do you get?" She gestured at him as he looked down.

"A few hours," he mumbled, his fists clenching. Marinette once again couldn't catch sight of his ring, trying not to be obvious as she craned her neck slightly in an attempt to get a better angle. "More time than when… when I'm using my powers."

She gave up trying to look when he leaned back on both of his hands. "So, hold on. He's just, gone, right now? Isn't he always talking to you when you fight? From what I've seen on the news." She tacked on the last bit quickly.

"He's been akumatizing me then detransforming, to give me some time to myself. So no, he's not here. I know when he returns."

She frowned at him, wanting to ask why he doesn't simply go out without being akumatized, using just his own miraculous.

Unfortunately, the general public did not know that he actually held the black cat miraculous at all. The Guardian thought it best not to let it be known that it had also fallen into bad hands.

Perhaps that was the simple answer; an attempt to keep that fact hidden, if he was seen moving about. It didn't quite make sense to her, however.

She shifted her question. "Why did you start going out like this at all?"

He looked away, out at the city skyline. "There's something to moving around like this. Flying through the air, racing across the rooftops. It's so fucking freeing. You wouldn't understand."

Oh, how she did.

Once again, his answer made her feel strange and unwelcome emotions well up within her. "Do you feel so trapped, then?"

Marinette knew the answer the moment he met her eyes, despite the lack of a response that followed. Bleak desperation swirled within those icy blue eyes, and she finally pinpointed what was different about them.

Whenever she fought him as Ladybug, his eyes were nearly completely white, only minor bits of color streaking through. Unlike when he was here, where the blue was much more prominent.

Such a subtle change that seemed to make all the difference.

Her voice a whisper, she asked, "Why can't you get out?"

He looked down at his hand once again. "This is who I am, now. There's nothing else for me."

Before she could respond, he stood abruptly and left.

Marinette watched him disappear from her seat, feeling strangely numb.

He was a villain. With no plans to change.

So why did her soul feel like it was crying out in pain for him?

Befriend him. Find the ring. Take the ring.

Stay focused.

Marinette chanted her goals to herself when he next dropped down on her balcony.

Chat Blanc ignored her, walking over to her pots on the side of the balcony. After staring at them for a moment, he said, "Your plants are dying."

She put the shirt she was mending to the side, standing up to join him. Looking forlornly at the browning plants, she responded, "Yep." He turned his head and raised an eyebrow at her. Reluctantly, she admitted, "So… I don't actually know anything about gardening. The originals were gifts, and they'd been dying a slow death for a while."

He let out a noise that nearly sounded like a laugh, and then he examined them closer, lifting the original pot up before replacing it. "This doesn't have any drainage holes in it."

Marinette gave him an incredulous look. "You're telling me that you like to garden?"

He looked embarrassed for a moment, his hand (ringless, she once again noted) lifting up with a jerk before he dropped it. "No. But I might have… done some research."

"Why?"

Had he done it because of her?

He ignored the question, examining her original plant as well as the new one she had added, which was unfortunately also dying — unlike the flower he had brought her, still in its small container and surprisingly doing well.

Instead of answering her question, Blanc spoke quietly, offering her a few more tips that she kept in a mental folder.

"Thank you," she told him when he finished. "Maybe I can get these to survive, for once."

He nodded without looking at her. Which was a good thing, because Marinette couldn't seem to keep her eyes off of him. She had trouble connecting the fact that the man before her — someone who had apparently learned how to grow plants simply because he thought she was interested in it — was the same one that had, only the day before, destroyed an entire bridge as he'd fought her, cursing at her in a blind rage as he'd demanded her to give up her earrings.

It didn't make sense.

"Why are you so different when you're with me, versus when you're fighting? I've seen you; it's almost as though you have no control of your anger."

He flinched, turning away from her. She thought she had once again scared him off, but he didn't leave. Surprising her again, he answered. "Being akumatized… changes, depending on your frame of mind going into it." Marinette carefully walked closer to him, trying not to reveal just how interested she was. "Akumas are drawn to emotion. If you let it, or are generally unwilling or unable to fight against it, that emotion can control you while akumatized. That's why others Hawk Moth used early on don't remember much about their time akumatized. It's all behind a sort of veil that you can choose to look beyond or not. But if you willingly accept an akuma, it gives you more control, as well as the ability to keep your memory."

Fascinated, Marinette angled around him, leaning against her table when she could once again see his face. "Are you saying that you're being forced to fight?"

He scowled at the ground, his voice rough. "No. I choose it."

She felt a flash of disappointment, but when he didn't continue, her mind began whirling. "So, you let the anger control you, then? Because it makes you, what, stronger?" His silence led her to another guess. "No, that's not it; you do it because you don't want to remember, do you?"

His eyes tightened and he scoffed. "It doesn't fucking matter. It's not like I don't see it afterwards. It doesn't mean I didn't do it." Anger seemed to rise within him, though she sensed that this was perhaps directed at himself.

He didn't like the destruction, she realized. Didn't truly want it.

Why do you choose it?

She knew he wouldn't answer if she asked. He tensed suddenly, dropping his head and taking a deep breath in, the anger diminishing. When he spoke again, his voice was haunted. "I'm responsible for so much death and destruction."

Inexplicably, Marinette felt a desire to comfort him. "Ladybug fixes everything. You haven't done anything permanent. But it's never too late to do the right thing."

His expression remained shadowed. "It doesn't matter," he repeated. "I'm in too deep."

Determination suddenly sprouted within Marinette, pushing everything else away.

He was wrong. She just needed to show him.

Later that evening, she realized she had forgotten to check again for his ring.

"How are these dying again already?"

Marinette jumped in surprise at Chat Blanc's silent arrival.

"Seriously, these aren't difficult to take care of. You're like, the Grim Reaper of plants."

Was he… teasing her? "You're hilarious, Chat," she said, turning to see him freeze at the nickname. "I bought the supplies you told me about. That's as far as I got." He reached over to said supplies and began caring for the plants.

If he only knew the whole of it.

Ladybug, holder of the miraculous of creation.

Unable to keep plants alive.

Watching her enemy with the miraculous of destruction bringing them back to life.

Tikki had found it hilarious after the previous visit.

When he finished, Blanc turned back to her, and she realized he held something else in his hands that he must have brought with him. His awkwardness was back as he held up the object. "I… brought a movie?"

"Oh yeah? What did you bring?"

He tossed it to her and she proceeded to fumble it, wincing as it hit the ground before getting ahold of it.

Batman Begins.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You like superhero movies?"

"Batman is a vigilante, not a superhero," he argued.

"Uh huh."

He rolled his eyes. "It's entertaining, alright? Do you want to watch the damn movie or not?"

"Okay, but you need to come and sit. My laptop screen isn't that big." She grabbed it, placing the disk in the drive and starting up the movie.

He didn't move until it started playing, but when he finally sat down in the chair only a few feet from her, Marinette had to hide a victory smile.

One step closer, she mused.

So began the slow and strange friendship between two enemies.

Over the next several weeks, Marinette was almost relieved to discover that Chat Blanc's ring was never in her sight. Despite checking both hands, it seemed as though Blanc had moved it at some point, though Marinette couldn't figure out where to. She knew she had come close to getting it off of his hand as Ladybug in the past, so perhaps he had wised up and moved it somewhere less accessible.

Though the task seemed more difficult now, Marinette continued to repeat it to herself as a reminder.

She wasn't laughing with him over Monty Python because they were becoming friends.

Find the ring.

She for sure wasn't thrilled when he slowly came out of his shell as she began sharing bits of her life with him.

Better for getting the ring.

She definitely wasn't having a harder and harder time meshing the nearly out-of-control Chat Blanc she fought with the version that cared for her plants, coaxing them back to life and even bringing new ones for her.

Easier to get the ring when he's not expecting it.

And when she nearly fell asleep one night and her head ended up on his shoulder, his arm slowly moving around her to pull her close, her heartbeat most assuredly did not speed up.

A/N: We'll get a view into one of Chat Blanc and Ladybug's fights in the next chapter! What do you think so far?