For Marinette, the day started as every other. She slept through her alarm clock and woke up late, exhausted from another akuma battle that had lasted until around 3:00am. Eventually and as always, she and Chat Noir had managed to defeat the poor akumatized person and de-evilize the akuma before stumbling off in separate directions, yawning and rubbing their eyes.

Marinette rushed about in a blind panic, throwing on her pink pants, flowered shirt, and black jacket. Tikki helped by dragging Marinette's schoolbooks into her school bag and finding her hair brush. Marinette quickly brushed her dark hair and put it into her signature two pig tails.

She stopped and allowed herself a couple seconds to gaze dreamily at her largest poster of Adrien. She stared at his gorgeous green eyes. And the way that one strand of hair fell into the perfect place on his forehead...

"Marinette!" Tikki squeaked, snapping the girl out of her thoughts.

"Sorry Tikki," she apologized. She opened her purse and the little kwami dove into it. Marinette ran down the stairs, grabbing a croissant on the way out. Then she ran as fast as her legs would take her in the direction of her school.

When she reached her classroom, she opened the door and tiptoed inside. Her teacher was facing the chalk board, allowing her to slip into her normal seat next to her best friend without being noticed. She ignored Alya's questioning look and shook her head. All of her other classmates had their heads buried in their textbooks. Perfect.

As Marinette pulled out her History book, she was staring at one head in particular. Adrien's golden hair glistened in the sunlight that was streaming in through the classroom windows. She noticed that he was yawning and he had dark circles under his eyes.

"What's up with Adrien? Is he okay?" she whispered to Alya.

"I don't know, I'll ask Nino later," Alya promised.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng," her teacher's voice rang out. "Not only are you late to class almost every day, but you don't even have the decency to listen to me when you are around to hear what I have to teach you. Go to the principal's office!"

Marinette inwardly groaned as she put the History textbook back into her pink bag. She felt her purse rustle against her side and she knew she would be receiving a lecture from Tikki later.

She got up and walked to the front of the classroom. As she passed Adrien he gave her a sympathetic smile. Her heart skipped a beat. Unfortunately, her feet did as well. She tripped and went down, slamming her elbow against the ground. Her teacher stared at her crossly but made no comment. Chloe's laughter filled her ears.

She pushed herself up off of the ground and hurriedly walked out of the classroom, her cheeks red from embarrassment. Luckily, Adrien had been too busy yawning too notice.

A half an hour later, she left the principal's office with an hour of detention and a note for her parents explaining that she was late almost every day. She had no doubt that now they were going to restrict how late she could be out, making the Ladybug half of her life even more difficult than it had been before. She felt like screaming.

Tikki hadn't helped when she reminded Marinette that if she hadn't been talking to Alya, which had absolutely nothing to do with being Ladybug, she probably wouldn't have gotten sent to the principal's office. Marinette had to admit that her little kwami was right, but that didn't make her any less frustrated.

On her way down the hallway, she ran right into someone. She was knocked over backwards and landed on her butt. She looked up, hoping it was anyone but Chloe. As soon as she saw who it was, she wished it had been Chloe.

"He- Hi Adrien," Marinette stammered nervously, scrambling to her feet. "You're so sorry! I mean, I'm so sorry for you, I mean, I'm sorry that you, I mean, that I, uh, crashed into you..." She felt the back of her neck turn red.

"Hey Marinette," he said. He yawned loudly again. "No problem. Did you get into much trouble with the principaaaaaaaaaaaa.." He finished with a yawn. He shook his head slightly as if to wake himself up. "I'm sorry, I'm just really tired," he apologized, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

"Uh, that's okay. That you're tired and stuff. Um, what are you doing outside of class?" she finished lamely.

"The teacher sent me home because I was yawning so much. She gave me a note for my father and told me that I should take a nap this afternoon and take tomorrow off." Great, now she wouldn't see Adrien at all until Wednesday!

"That's terrible!" Marinette exclaimed without thinking. "I mean, that you're tired, not that you won't be in school for me to, ACK! For you to learn... and stuff." She mentally facepalmed.

"Okay, uh, see you tomorrow," Adrien flashed her a picture perfect smile and yawned again as he walked away. Marinette winced and stomped in the opposite direction. How could that conversation have been any more embarrassing? What was it about Adrien Agreste that made her so brain dead?

By the time school was over, Chloe and Sabrina had completely humiliated her for both getting in trouble and tripping on the way out, Chloe had cried fake tears when she found out Adrien was sent home, Nino hadn't been able to tell her anything about Adrien, and Alya had ditched her to go and see an exhibit about ladybugs in the local garden for info for her Ladyblog.

By the time she got home, Marinette then had to face extra homework, and disappointed parents. They had, as she had predetermined, decided to give her a strict ten o'clock curfew. They had in addition decided that they would drive her to school every day, therefore limiting her freedom even more.

By the time that it was time for her to transform into Ladybug and patrol the city, her parents told her that she needed to go to bed and they would check on her in an hour to make sure she was asleep and hadn't snuck out. And all of this had led to the worst bad mood she had ever been in. Even Tikki hadn't managed to dissipate her temper in the slightest.

"Tikki, spots on!" she whispered. She transformed into Ladybug and slipped outside her window. She set her alarm on her phone for forty five minutes, giving herself plenty of time to wrap up whatever she was doing and get home before her parents checked on her. Then she swung off into the night.

The wind pressing against her face and lifting her hair back gave Ladybug an exhilarated feeling. Here, she was finally free. She didn't have to worry about disappointing her parents. She didn't have to worry about getting her homework done. And she didn't have to worry about embarrassing herself in front of a golden haired guy.

Speaking of which, where was her other golden haired guy? It wasn't like Chat Noir to miss a patrol, and she was already standing right on their normal roof top meeting place. She sat down on an air vent and drummed her fingers against the metal.

"Bored already, Milady?" a voice rang out. "Get excited, because here comes your favorite cat!" Ladybug rolled her eyes.

"Very funny Chat," she said sarcastically. "Does everything have to be a joke to you?"

"Woah, somebody's got a cat-titude tonight!" Chat exclaimed, flipping off of the roof and landing next to the spotted girl. His green eyes and blonde hair were the only things visible in the darkness.

Ladybug gnashed her teeth together, but held her tongue. This was her partner, Chat Noir. It wasn't his fault that she had had a bad day. Sure, she sometimes despised puns, but that was just his sense of humor. She took a deep breath.

"See any action on your way over?" she asked.

"Nope."

"Dang, I need to punch something tonight."

"Well, you don't need to purr-suade me to join you!"

"CHAT!"

###########################################################################

Fifteen minutes and several blocks later, the super hero duo was ready to quit. Chat Noir had to admit to himself that he was absolutely exhausted, but he treasured every minute he had with Ladybug. They were, pardon the pun, purr-ecious to him.

"I think that we can safely assume nothing's happening tonight," Ladybug sighed. She had blown off some steam while running across the rooftops of Paris, but the reminder of what tomorrow would bring kept her temper flared.

"That's weird. Hawkmoth usually sends out at least one akuma a day. Maybe he couldn't find anyone emotional enough to akumatize?"

"With a city full of this many people, that's impossible," Ladybug said, shaking her head. "Maybe he's also tired from that stupid fight last night."

"Would you like to take a quick cat nap with me?" Chat Noir offered, leaning in close and gesturing to the soft grass that they were standing on in the park.

Ladybug had had enough of that. "Can you stop with the stupid cat jokes and the never ending cat PUNS? You are driving me CRAZY!" she barked. Chat was startled. She never really yelled at him for using so many cat puns before. He knew that she pretended to hate them, but he had caught her laughing at them when she thought he wasn't looking plenty of times.

"Sorry," he muttered. "Just trying to brighten the mood."

"My MOOD doesn't need brightening, thank you very much! I can't stand it! Every other second, even in the middle of SERIOUS FIGHTS, you're making those stupid jokes! I hope you want your last words to be a cat pun, because that's what's going to happen if you keep doing that!" He could hear the venom in her voice.

For some reason, maybe because he was exhausted and wasn't thinking straight, maybe because he secretly loved his jokes and puns because that was him and his sense of humor, which he never got to express with anyone else, but whatever it was, Chat Noir finally snapped.

"Can you back off? I happen to like to stay paw-sitive, and if I want to make jokes that's my problem, not yours! Have I ever FAILED to help you win a fight? Have you ever won a fight without me? I don't think so!" he hissed.

"Oh please, I could win a fight without you any day!" she spat back.

"Oh yeah, I'd like to see you prove that! Remember Anti-bug? You would never have known that the akuma was in her earrings without me! She would've crushed you like the bug you are!"

"Last time I checked, she captured you and tied you to your own baton and then dangled you over the edge of a building. Where was your sense of humor THEN?" she yelled. "And wait, the BUG THAT I AM? IS THAT ALL YOU THINK OF ME? DO YOU JUST USE ME AS A MEANS TO ACHIEVE FAME BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT STRONG ENOUGH OR SMART ENOUGH TO DO IT YOURSELF?"

"I THINK IT'S YOU WHO USES ME! YOU'VE NEVER WON A FIGHT WITHOUT ME! AND EVERYONE'S LIKE, AMAZING LADYBUG, PERFECT LADYBUG, CLEVER LADYBUG! LADYBUG, LADYBUG, LADYBUG! I NEVER GET ANY OF THE CREDIT! YOU'VE NEVER CARED ABOUT ME AT ALL!"

"What do you mean, care about you?" Her voice lowered to an icy whisper. "Aw, is it because I don't love you? I don't return your romantic feelings you've only ever expressed through stupid jokes and horrible flirting? I happen to have someone I like in real life. His name is Adrien, and he's twice the guy you could ever be!"

At the name 'Adrien' Chat Noir's eyes widened, and then narrowed. That was the last straw. He loved Ladybug more than anything in the world, and she had thrown his heart in the dirt. It hurt so badly. And possibly all because of his secret identity. The side of himself that he HATED to be!

"Fine, if you don't need me, then I won't bother you. But don't come crying to when you find out that the miraculous Ladybug can't do anything without Chat Noir," he hissed at her angrily. The rejection and anger in his voice clearly showed. This seemed to make Ladybug even more mad, if possible.

"Fine, but when you don't have anyone who loves you anymore, who adores you because of stupid heroics you never even manage to pull off correctly, you'd better not come back and beg at my feet. We're done." She slammed her fist, which she had so often bumped against his after a successful fight, into a tree next to him.

"Agreed. I never want to see your face again," he snarled. He slammed his fist into the tree as well, sealing the pact. The duo was no more. The partnership, the friendship, something that he had hoped and wished and prayed could turn into more, was over. And he felt glad. He was so unbelievably angry at her. He turned on his tail and strode away.

Chat Noir turned and looked back one last time as she threw her yoyo and swung into the trees. And then she was gone from his view. And his life.

And that's when it all came crashing down around. He would never see his beautiful, smart, heroic Ladybug ever again. He would never know whose pretty bluebell eyes were hidden behind that mask. He would never get to pull her into his arms and kiss her. His heart throbbed. How could he have lost his temper? How could he have said those terrible things to her?

He felt the tears begin to fall, but he didn't even try to stop them. This was all his fault. He didn't care if he could never tell a pun again, he just wanted her back. He didn't care if she never loved him back the way he loved her. Every moment that he spent with her made the other moments as Adrien bearable. And now his life was empty. He had no purpose.

Chat rushed blindly across the rooftops, not caring as the tears kept falling. The wind brushed them out of the way, but they came so fast that his vision was blurry anyway. He tripped over air vents and stumbled around satellite dished. He ran until he reached his bedroom window. He slipped inside and detransformed. He dumped Plagg into a bowl of Camembert, were he knew the kwami would stay busy for awhile and wouldn't bother him. The he collapsed on his bed and let the tears flow.

"Adrien?" a voice called. He sat up suddenly and brushed his tears away. The door swung open and his father's assistant, Natalie, came in. "Adrien, I showed your father the note from your teacher and he seems concerned. He says- Adrien, are you sure you're okay?" she asked suddenly, noticing his red eyes.

"Yeah, Natalie, I'm fine," he sighed tiredly. She eyed him suspiciously.

"Well then, your father would like for you to stay home tomorrow and possibly the next day."

"Okay, Natalie, I'm sure I just need some sleep," Adrien sighed, trying not to let the tears bubble back up. He had nowhere to go anyway. He didn't want to go to school, he was positive that whoever Ladybug was, she went to his school. And there was no point in going on patrol anymore, or seeking out akuma victims to fight with.

Natalie shut the door to his room and left. Adrien collapsed back onto the bed and let the tears come again. He couldn't stop thinking about her. What had she said earlier? "I don't return your romantic feelings you've only ever expressed through stupid jokes and horrible flirting?"

The one time he had tried to tell her that he loved her, he had taken an arrow to the back to save her. And he had been so horribly cruel to her after that... He didn't even know how she had managed to break him out of it. Suddenly, he sat up and crossed the room. He opened the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out a pink card in the shape of a heart.

He felt his heart break as read the lines. He crumpled the card into a ball and then threw it across the room. Plagg peaked out of the cheese bowl, but he chose not to say anything. Adrien needed time alone, even from the other half of his soul.

He watched as Adrien sighed and followed the path the card had taken through the air. Adrien picked it up and smoothed it out. He wiped one last tear away before slipping the card underneath his pillow and pulling up the covers. Maybe he could have one last night full of dreams where he and Ladybug sailed across the rooftops, together in perfect harmony.

Plagg flew over and nestled himself into Adrien's pillow. Poor kid. Plagg didn't know what to do next. But things couldn't stay like this. All of Paris and even the world depended on Ladybug and Chat Noir together. He needed to talk to Tikki. Undoubtedly she would try to talk Ladybug out of it, but he wasn't sure that would work. But fate would bring the two teens together again. It was just a matter of whether it would have to happen the easy way or the hard way. And if there was something Plagg couldn't bear to see, it was Adrien getting seriously hurt.