Moving With Pain

Schools end couldn't have come around slower for Adrien. It was like he was being marched on a forced trek throughout hell itself. He hadn't even written anything in his notes for the day. Instead, there was just a long, charcoal black line in his notepad where he had run his pencil on paper back and forth all day. It was the first day in his life that he really detested actually being in a public school. He didn't want to be around people right now...

He didn't even want to be around himself at this point.

Once the final bell rang for the day, Adrien was out the door within seconds, relishing the breath of fresh air, and the fact that time started moving again for him. The fact that his lift home was right there had never made him happier in his life. After a brief goodbye to Nino, along with assuring him that, really, he is okay, Adrien bailed into the back of the large, black car, and was whisked away home again. Never before had he wanted to be surrounded by the walls of his prison of a bedroom so badly. He practically fell asleep in the car the second he sat down in it, exhausted from the previous night.

Arriving back home, he went straight to his room, and fell flat on his bed within nanoseconds. This was all he wanted right now. To just lay here. Let the rest of the world pass him by.

He didn't normally feel self pity like this. He wasn't a self absorbed person, in spite of being a model, arguably one of the jobs in the world that would make you self obsessed the most. But this wasn't out of vanity or narcissism. This was disappointment. Loneliness. Sadness.

"God, what am I doing?..." Adrien asked himself, rhetorically. Why was he even doing this to himself? Why was he even thinking this way? What good would it do him?

"Good question, kid." Plagg spoke up, hovering above the young teenager. "You remember that you still have to patrol with Ladybug tonight, right? Are you gonna be like this around her?"

"Oh God... I'd forgotten about that. Thanks, Plagg." Adrien moaned sarcastically, covering his face with his arms. Christ, now he had to force himself to be his usual happy-go-lucky, cheerful and energetic Chat Noir persona? This was already sounding painful to him. "I can't go on patrol like this as Chat Noir... Ladybug would immediately know what's wrong with me... Urgh..."

"Come on, Adrien." Plagg urged, trying to motivate his human master in any way he could. "It's not all bad."

"How would you know?" There wasn't even anger in Adrien's voice. Not anger. Not bitterness. Not sarcasm. His voice was basically void of emotion. There was only sadness and a hint of jealousy in the brokenhearted boys words. "The only thing you've ever loved is cheese..."

Plagg sorrowfully knew there wasn't anything he could say that was going to motivate Adrien. He didn't know a thing about romance. He was a Kwami. Kwami weren't commonly known for their understanding of human emotions. One of the exceptions was Tikki, and she was with Ladybug, so that didn't help matters at all.

That was until he looked out a window.

"Uh... Kid? You might wanna look at this."

"If it's a shipment of cheese, just go get some. I honestly don't care right now."

"No, it really isn't. I'm serious, you might want to check the window." Plagg told the depressed human, shooting back from the window so as not to be seen.

Adrien had absolutely no intentions of going to his window. Whatever it was, he couldn't care less for it. 

 That was, until he heard a tapping on the glass.

Of all the people in the world, it had to be the one person who had stamped his very soul into dust.

"Ladybug?" Adrien spoke automatically as he saw her. She almost resembled how Chat Noir might hand from a window when knocking on one. After giving him a short and friendly wave alongside that damned perfect smile, she made a sort of gesture with her free hand, indicating for him to open the window.

"Of all the people..." Adrien quietly said to himself. A big part of him really did want to just shut the curtains and plug his ears closed, but if Ladybug was insistent on seeing Adrien Agreste, she was going to see him. She was stubborn like that. Reluctantly, the blond model got up from his bed and made his way to the windows, and opened the one next to the superhero of Paris.

Seeing her here was the last thing he needed. What could she want? Why was she here?

"Hello." Was all Adrien had to say, before he backed away from the window, allowing the slender female to climb into his room. He wasn't particularly softly spoken, but he wasn't harshly spoken towards her either. He didn't even sound surprised that she was here, a fact that surprised himself.

"Hello..." Ladybug spoke to him softly and gently, like she could already tell he was hurting. She seemed to show concern for the teenager, more so than she did for the average citizen of Paris. "I... Heard you were having a rough time."

"I'm doing fine, M - " He quickly paused. "- Ladybug. Who told you I wasn't having a good day?"

"A girl from your class told me. Someone called Marinette."

"Marinette?" Adrien raised an eyebrow in suspicion and surprise.

"Don't be upset with her, please." Ladybug spoke defensively, like she was a child trying to defend her friend. "She just mentioned to me that she said you looked down, and wanted to know if you were okay. I offered to check up on your for her and well... Here I am."

How would Marinette have known he wasn't doing... Well, actually, now that he thought about it, Marinette sat right behind him in class, didn't she? She'd have been able to watch him all day if she'd wanted to. She must have noticed his lack of energy, or how little he'd taken notes or... Something.

But this had to be the worst solution to help him he could have possible imagined. It was like trying to cheer up a child who lost their parents to a fire by giving them a sparkler - Entirely the wrong thing.

He was grateful to her for her attempts... But this was the worst thing she could have come up with...

Hold on a second...

"You know Marinette?" Adrien asked, his eyebrow once again raised in curiosity.

Ladybug seemed to stiffen up, just for a second, in that moment. Adrien wasn't particularly aware of how many friend's Marinette had. she was basically on friendly terms with everyone in their school, bar Chloe. Did this mean that Ladybug went to his school after all?...

"I um, I've run into her a few times! She - She did some designs for me!"

What designs, though? He'd never heard anything about Ladybug wanting designs. Was she updating her costume or something? When the heck had this happened? Then again, if there was one person he trusted with designs, it would probably be her.

"I see..." He was really trying to not seem to down around Ladybug, but he just couldn't do it. Here was the person responsible for making him like this, depressed beyond depression, trying to make sure he was okay. He didn't begrudge Ladybug a thing... but that didn't make it easier to be around her. "Look, I'm fine. Could you - Could you please leave now?" If she stayed her for much longer, Adrien was going to break down.

"You haven't told me what's wrong though..."

"...I'd rather not talk about it."

Hurt, but wanting to respect his feelings, Ladybug sighed, defeated. "Okay... But... You know you can talk to me, don't you?"

Adrien thought to himself with a heavy heart. He was facing away from the girl he was in love with, trying not to break into tears. "I know. Thank you."

Ladybug turned around to leave, before looking back at the model in front of her. A big part of her wanted to hug him right now, to tell him whatever was happening, it would all be okay. that she would help him sort it all out. that she'd be there to help him no matter what happened.

But she still, even as Ladybug, didn't have the courage.

"Take care of yourself, okay?" She said, softly and kindly, that sweet, caring side that Ladybug only let show to those she truly cared about, those two being Chat Noir and Adrien, before she used her yo-yo to swing out of the room.

Adrien was left alone in his room once again. He found himself mad all of a sudden. At himself. "What the hell is wrong with you, Agreste?... She was just trying to help..."

His mind argued back.

"It's not like she knew I'm Chat Noir!..."

"I can't blame her for having a different soul mate. It's not like either of us had a choice in the matter..." Adrien weakly said, before sitting back on his bed, quietly.

Marinette sent her? How had she even managed to do that?... Now that he thought about it, how had Marinette managed to even get hold of Ladybug? How long had she known her for?

He found his mind lingering on the awkward girl he had known for a year now. She certainly was a curious case. 

Marinette sighed, troubled. That was an understatement. She had really thought, really, really thought, that speaking to Adrien as Ladybug would work. She couldn't think why it wouldn't. And now she really was stumped. She had no idea what to do to help Adrien. What could she do to help? The hero of Paris couldn't help, what was this klutz going to be able to do?

"I don't suppose that miraculouses tell you how to help your soul mate, do they Tikki?" Marinette asked her Kwami, tapping her desk with her finger, trying to come up with something, anything that she could to try and help Adrien.

"Unfortunately not. Things have to happen as they should." Tikki said, equally as exasperated as her human partner was.

"I thought that I wasn't that lucky." Groaned the blunette girl, leaning back in her chair. She took a long, hard look at her hand. "These powers of good luck don't seem to be working a lot these days."

Silence fell between the two of them as Marinette thought about everything. She hoped she had at least helped Adrien a little bit as Ladybug...

Even just a little bit...

She sighed.

It was the first night in quite a while in which neither hero of Paris went out to patrol that night. Their minds occupied, a certain occurrence had sparked off a chain of events that would lead them to collide.

That occurrence was called curiosity. And it manifested itself in Adrien Agreste.