(Sorry for the delay, it's like the world doesn't want me to finish this story lol. I'm alright, just a few big life things happened. All is well now though.)

Sleep is such a weird thing.

Your body just stops, and then all of a sudden it's up again.

Marinette couldn't remember waking up, she couldn't remember going to sleep, but in that blissful moment, right before her thoughts began to run again, she felt like her soul had taken a rest.

It was awake again.

There were things that needed to be figured out.

Why had she been having those...dreams? Is that what they were? What could they be classified as?

And how in the world did Hawkmoth know who she was?

She had to tell Chat, right?

But what if Hawkmoth didn't actually know? What if it was all in her head? What if she told Chat, and then Hawkmoth really did find out?

It wasn't like he had burst into her home while she was sleeping or anything, so maybe he didn't? She ran her hand along her ears to assure herself.

Her earrings were still intact.

Unless he had switched them? Used an akuma? Could there be one right now?

Marinette frantically scrambled from her bed, head spinning at her sudden movement. Her vision was splotchy as she stumbled from her ladder, holding herself up against her desk.

She pulled open the drawer Tikki was resided inside.

"Marinette?" The small creature rubbed her eyes, tiredly sitting herself upright.

The exasperated look on Marinette's face made Tikki jolt.

"Is everything okay?"

Marinette blinked, backing away from the desk and falling into her chair.

Tikki was still here, her earrings were still here. Everything was fine.

Tikki knew the dangers of Hawkmoth knowing who Ladybug was, but she figured Marinette was well aware of it.

Tikki was more concerned with the knowledge that, if she did try and talk to Marinette about it, she'd never get her back out of her head.

What could a kwami do? Tikki had learned so much about human emotions over her many years.

But she had never learned what it meant to keep someone stable. She always assumed humans could learn how to get through anything all on their own.

That was before.

"Yes..." Marinette finally said, taking Tikki from her momentary trip through memory lane.

Tikki had made that mistake once before. She wouldn't make it again.

She refused to believe in the sanctuary of the words "I'm fine."

She couldn't help her, she didn't understand anything Marinette was going through.

"I just...got a little confused." Marinette settled on.

Confused wasn't quite right, the steady pounding of her heart was not set on confusion, it was running on fear.

She felt like she'd been out of her mind for a few seconds, and was slowly stepping back into it.

Every interaction she'd had lately felt like she'd been someone else.

Like she was in a cage, and someone else was running her life. And she was watching her lookalike ruin everything.

Leaving the real her to deal with the damages.

Feelings were such a fickle thing. Everyone always said "do what makes you happy." What happens when you don't know what makes you happy anymore?

She sat with her thoughts for a moment, something she'd been doing so much yet so little of at the same time. One second, nothing was turning, and the next, every gear was kicked into full blast.

She wanted to talk to Chat Noir. She wanted to ask him why he'd been so kind to her. Was he always like this to citizens? Did he always treat them that way?

It felt so natural to her last night, but she had been Marinette. Not Ladybug.

Chat didn't know Marinette the way he knew Ladybug.

She stood up, standing on her cast despite the protests of Tikki.

"I could use some fresh air." She smiled weakly.

She wasn't sure why she felt the need to pretend that she wasn't feeling the way that she was.

"Alright."

Tikki wanted to say no. To tell Marinette that she should stay inside, and rest for a while. She had been overdoing it for a while, and Tikki had thought that her injury would force her to slow down.

It didn't.

In fact, it seemed to fill her with this boiling frustration, like she believed that she was useless now. Which wasn't true, because Ladybug could still walk, she just had to be careful.

It hurt Tikki to see Marinette this way, and to deny her a chance to feel a bit better, she just couldn't do.

She gave the okay for Marinette to transform, knowing that she would never force her to do it.

That was the thing about her too, Marinette always let Tikki decide. Many holders didn't do that. She'd been unfortunate enough to experience the feeling of being unheard.

She didn't want Marinette to feel that way too.

Ladybug bounded her way through the city, over the bustling noise and the rushing people. She liked to people watch, and as she swung amongst the taller buildings, she noticed a few things.

A young girl dashing away from her mother, who was struggling to keep her bag slung against her arm. The ice cream cart, with a small line of people awaiting their fates. A man holding up a sign, though she couldn't make out what it said.

She didn't notice that she was swinging right past the Agreste's.

*****

Adrien groaned.

It seemed lately, we was doing nothing but groaning. Groaning over Ladybug, groaning over Marinette.

Groaning over his royal screw ups dealing with both of them. Or rather just her.

He shook his head, thinking over the night before.

He had treated Marinette the way that Chat would've treated Ladybug... the way that he wished he had treated her as Adrien. The whole thing was messed up.

He wasn't supposed to know who she was.
And he really needed to find out what she meant when she was talking about Hawkmoth.

"I should just tell her." He sighed.

Plagg, who was uncharacteristically listening to Adrien, spoke up.

"Then what?"

Adrien turned his head.

"Huh?"

Plagg sighed, tilting his head.

"What would you do after that?" He asked.

Adrien thought for a moment.

What would he do?

He'd probably freak her out if he told her, she was already scared about Hawkmoth. He couldn't actually know her identity...could he?

No. There was no way, he would've targeted her by now.

"She deserves to know though." Adrien reasoned.

"Yes...she does. But-" Plagg spoke, moving across the room to his cheese stash.

"I don't think she would take it well." He finished.

Plagg was right. And so was Adrien.

Both points valid, but he didn't know how to choose which mattered more.

Before he could think on it anymore, he saw red in the corner of his eye. A quick flash, of a spotted girl swinging just out of view. He squinted, pulling his phone from his back pocket.

No Akuma alert.
No scheduled patrol.

"What is she doing..?" He whispered under his breath, standing up from his spot on the couch.

He shot Plagg a knowing look, to which he received an annoyed glare.

"I can't just leave her out there." Adrien pointed out.

"Yeah yeah get it over with."

Adrien chuckled,

"Plagg, Claws out."

***

The wind was pleasant, though the city air didn't smell the greatest. It wasn't bad, but in this area it smelled a little more like wet concrete than it did baked goods.

Ladybug took in the sights. She saw them everyday, but she didn't always get to appreciate them from this high up.

From the top of the Eiffel Tower, everything looked so small.

She enjoyed her moment alone, not phased by the chill in the air. Her leg had a decent weight to it, but the suit made it seem like nothing was any different underneath. Her foot was no longer sore, just itchy sometimes. She was desperate to stretch her ankle.

She tapped her nails against the metal, attempting to forget about how uncomfortable her foot felt.

She heard a familiar pattern of steps behind her.

"Bugaboo."

It was Chat's voice, warm and ringing. He spoke as if he were about to scold her.

"Hello Chaton." She offered a soft grin as he sat next to her.

"You know I'm going to say that you shouldn't be out here."

She could see his raised eyebrows beneath his mask.

"Yes I know." She turned her focus back out to the city.

"I just wanted to see the view."

He looked down, to the people she was watching. It was a nice view.

"You'll go home if there's an akuma attack?"

She didn't look at him, biting the side of her bottom lip.

"M'lady we can't have you getting hurt anymore." His voice forced her head to turn towards him.

"It's my job to protect Paris." She stated.

"And it's my job to protect you."

She looked away from him again, down to her hands. She could look into his green eyes, that color was something too strong for her.

"I don't need you to protect me." She whispered.

He didn't hesitate to respond.

"I know you don't. But I want to."

She felt her mask scrunch with her eyebrows.

But I want to.

The words repeated in her head again. He wanted to protect her. Even though he knew she didn't need him to. Why?

She was too afraid to ask him.

"It doesn't make sense though." Chat broke her
thoughts.

"What?"

"The suits are supposed to be indestructible right? So how come you broke your ankle?" He questioned.

"My body isn't indestructible though. I guess it's like when you cataclysmed yourself, you didn't die because the suit couldn't be destroyed, but it still hurt." She shrugged.

"That did hurt." He winced at the thought of it.

They were quiet for a moment, comfortable in the silence that they had created.

"Hey Ladybug."

She hadn't meant to notice him just then. Not his emerald eyes, not the way his lips were just slightly tighter than usual, and not the slight drop of the ears on top of his head.

"Can you promise me something?"

She didn't mean to notice it, but he was staring right through her.

"Promise me you'll talk to me, I need to know what's going on. I know you don't want to talk about it now, so I won't ask...but we have to talk about it at some point."

She felt a pause in her own chest, processing what it was that he was saying. She found herself distracted when she looked at him.

But she nodded.

"I promise."