Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chat noir had gotten rather good at being sneaky over the past few years. Which is quite impressive considering he had a small bell attached to the collar of his dark leather costume, as well as a large lantern tail connected to his belt.

And using those sneaking skills he's perfected the art of moving in the shadows, away from the security cameras and breaking into museums.

Why museums you might ask? Well, because they're the place in which houses gems, rubies, diamonds, any shiny artifacts really.

Most times he wouldn't be into random petty theft, but these gems were different for some odd reason. Ever since he had gotten his miraculous shiny things had always called to him. Even till this day he wasn't sure why.

So, when there was news about a new gem exhibit that was opening in a museum near him, he knew he had to check it out.

He knew the police would be expecting him, so he made sure to wait a couple days before going, so that no one would suspect him. Or at least let their guard down a little bit.

The time was 3:45 Am. Chat carefully landed on the roof not making a sound. He grabbed his baton from behind his back to check the map he had saved online. He walked over a few feet towards a glass ceiling.

He crouched down peeking into the glass, the room was a dinosaur exhibit. He checked his map then back at the room.

"A left...straight, right...then left." He mumbled to himself as he connected the baton on his lower back.

He carefully stepped around the glass looking for a small trapdoor, which he found not two seconds later. He looked through the glass, to think there were no guards in the only room which had a glass ceiling. He chuckled at there stupidity and carefully picked the lock with his claw. It made little to no noise as he opened it.

Chat noir didn't like the idea of breaking people's property, so he did his best to find an accessible entrance that wouldn't damage the building. Which was quite a lot of work given the fact he hated small spaces and there were a lot of vents he 'could' use but instead, avoided them like the plague.

He jumped down, making a small thud noise as he landed. A small echo followed but not enough to draw attention.

He looked up at the large t-Rex structure he had landed next to. The moon was shining directly on it making it glow. He starred at it a few seconds longer before turning to the left and darting down a long hallway.

He spotted a couple night guards as he ran but none noticed him.

He made his final turn and starred in awe at the beautiful gems lining the hallway. There were many of different shapes and sizes. He was only planing on taking one, but they all were very tempting.

He walked slowly examining them each. The way they shimmered was really pleasing to him. He was indecisive of which he would take until he reached a more open rounded room. There were a few gems in the center of the room, but one stood out to him.

It was a green-ish teal, medium sized jewel. A small amount of light shown through a window above and hit the jewel, causing the walls around to glow.

Chat noir watched as the room lit up. He placed his hand delicately on the glass box trapping the gem inside. He found the one he wanted.

Carefully he picked the small lock on the display case. Opening it and carefully picking up the gem. When he moved it away from the light the room became darker. With the other hand he pulled his lantern tail closer to him. He clicked a small hatch, opening it and placing the gem delicately inside. He turned a small nob on the lantern, watching as it started to glow the same color as the gem.

He smiled and shut the hatch. Right when it closed, he heard someone clearing their throat behind him.

Turning around he saw a girl, medium length dark blue hair pulled up into two pig tails. She was on the shorter side. She was wearing a bright red jumpsuit with black polka-dots all over.

"Ladybug! How've you been?" Chat smiled.

She didn't look too amused. "Put the gem down."

"It's been a while since we've since each other, did you miss me?"

"The opposite actually." She grumbled.

He rolled his eyes jokingly. She took a step towards him.

He side stepped her. "Look I'd love to stay and "chat", but I should be going."

He tried to run past her, but she moved her leg in the way causing him to trip. luckily, he caught himself, instead of hitting his face on the marble floor, instead he did a summersault landing on his butt.

He looked up at her quickly as she reached towards his tail. He rolled away pushing himself back onto his feet.
He heard an annoyed "Hey!" As he booked it down the hallway. Multiple security guards were blocking the direction he originally came from. He grabbed his baton to look at the layout of the building.

He got an idea as he booked it down the dark hallways. Multiple windows were lining the walls but most of the light was coming from his tail.

He checked to make sure she was still following, she was.

He made a sharp turn to the left into a smaller room with no windows; his lantern made it very clear it was an insect exhibit.

He leaned up against the back wall as ladybug stood in front of the doorway.

"Ha!" She scoffed. "There's no where for you to run this time!" She looked pretty tired, weather that was because she had been chasing him or the fact that it was around 4:00 in the morning, it was probably the later.

"Are you sure about that bugaboo?" He teased, grabbing into his lantern and pulling it towards him.
"Cause last I checked; ladybugs don't have night vision." He placed his hand on the nob.

The last this he saw was her annoyed face as she said "Don't you dare!"

He turned off the light.

He could see rather clearly. Sure, it was green, but it was at least better than no vision.

He quickly ran around her and saw as she stumbled her way out of the room.

He started running towards his original exit before he heard multiple people running in his direction. He quickly looked around at the long hallways he was in. There was one window to his left, an empty wall on the right, ladybug behind him, and probable security guards in front of him. Then he had the idea to look up.

To his relief but also disappointment, there was a vent.
He grabbed his metal stick and extended his way up. He quickly unscrewed the vent and crawled inside.

He coughed at the amount of dust in the small space but as he heard people accumulating underneath him, he covered his mouth.

"Where did he go?"

"I don't know! He ran this way, did none of you see him?!" Ladybugs voice had a slight echo on the open hallway walls.

Chat noir squinted through the vent at the picture below him. It was ladybug and two male security guards.
The two guards shrugged as ladybug sighed.

"Maybe he went the other way?" she thought aloud.
The guards pointed their flashlights down the other side of the hallway.

Another security guard raced up to them. A female this time. “Ladybug!" She shouted.

Ladybug turned to face her.

"We found where he got in! It was the dinosaur exhibit!" She said quickly. "I've stationed multiple guards around that room and the back and front exits!... and all the exits really!"

Chat noir frowned at the thought of his escape plan being foiled.

Ladybug nodded. “I'm going to search this way." She stated as she pulled out the yo-yo from her hip. She clicked a button and a small light shown out the back.

"He couldn't have gone far." She turned and ran down the hallway. The guards did the same, just in the opposite direction.

Chat noir breathed out a small sigh as they left. The moment of peace was interrupted by his cough as he inhaled.

Though he hated it, the best way for him to escape was the vents.

From that discovery he immediately started crawling. He wasn't sure if he was going the right way, he couldn't grab his baton from his back to check. It was to cramped.

As he continued to crawl, he was getting more desperate to escape. His breath was starting to come out quicker and in smaller succession. He was trying not to think about it, her really was. But the small space was a lot for him.

His thoughts stoped for a moment as the cord of his tail was snagged on an indented in the wall.

He gasped softly at the sudden halt. That's when the panic kicked in.

His breath started quickening. He pushed his back up against the top of the vent, making sure it wasn't closing in on him.

He tried to crawl forward, but it didn't budge. His eyes frantically looked around for something to grab, someone to help. But it was only him.

He closed his eyes, which left him with his frantic thoughts.

"I'm stuck! Where is...!?! How am i gonna...I can't... I don't...no...no...no!..."

He was getting lightheaded from the frantic breathing.
"You can't...I...how...help...No!... Breathe!! ...breathe...breathe!”

He gently rested his forehead to the metal floor. He inhaled carefully...followed by a shaky exhale. In. Out. In. Out.

After around a minute he opened his eyes and moved his hand behind him to figure out the problem. He carefully pulled up on the tail and freed it.

He breathed a small sigh of relief, then booked it as fast as he could to the end of the vents. It ended up leading back up the roof.

He quickly slammed open the bars and shot his way out.

He stood up and leaned against a wall. Breathing out slowly, he ran his hand through his fluffy blonde hair.
"Never again... dumb vents." He stated as he jumped off the roof.
…

Ladybug walked back towards the front of the building with a frown on her face. Her steps making soft echos as she walked.

For the longest time ladybug hadn't been able to catch chat noir in the act of stealing a gem, and even when she did, he always got away. If chat noir were good at anything than it would be running away.

She said goodnight to the night guards and left the museum.

On her way home she made sure to keep an eye out just in case he showed up. To no one's surprise, he was nowhere to be seen.

By the time she landed on her balcony it was already 4:30 am. She had around 2 hours till she had to wake up for school.

The last few days she hadn't been able to sleep because of the museums new exhibit. She knew chat noir would be there, so she made sure to wait for him to show up. He did. She just failed to catch him.

Honestly, she really didn't know why he stole the gems. Last she checked all he wanted was her miraculous.
She opened the trap door to her room and jumped down onto her bed.

"Tikki, spots off." Her costume disappeared as she yawned.

"You need sleep Marinette." Tikki said sitting down onto her pillow.

Marinette stretched. She had already changed before she left for the museum because she figured it was going to be a late night, which it was.

"I know...why does he always have to come out at night!?" She plopped her head on her pillow, laying her hands above her head.

"Maybe cause that's where he blends in the best?"

"Well, yeah I guess that was a stupid question..." She sighed and turned onto her side.

"How in the world does he get sleep?!"

"He probably doesn't." Tikki shrugged. "Either way, you should get sleep."

Marinette nodded. She turned off a small lamp on her shelf.

"Goodnight tikki.”

"Goodnight Marinette."

Chapter Text

Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

Adrien groaned and turned towards his alarm and slapped his nightstand aggressively, causing his phone to fall to the floor. Still beeping.

He groaned again, shoving his head underneath the pillow.

"Kid I'm all for skipping school but turn off the alarm please!" Plagg yelled from across the bed.

"You do it!" Adrien grumbled.

"You and I both know I can't touch the screen."
Adrien didn't respond, he just pushed the pillow harder over his ears.

"Ugh!" Plagg flew over to the phone, picked it up, and threw it at Adrien.

"Ow!" Adrien sat up staring angrily at the small cat. He grabbed the phone and turned off the alarm.

Plagg flew back down onto the bed as Adrien stood up and stretched.

"Man, I'm exhausted!" Adrien yawned.

"Maybe you wouldn't be if you weren't out all-night stealing things." Plagg stated.

He raised an eyebrow at him then smiled.

"I think it was worth it." Adrien rubbed his finger over Plagg's forehead.

Plagg shoved Adriens hand off his head. "Yeah, sure. I see the eye-bags!"

Adrien rolled his eyes and walked into the bathroom. He ruffled his hair and looked into the mirror, green eyes starting back at him.

He gently touched his right cheek. A scar. Rather small, but big impact in his life. It started at the bottom of his right eye, stoping halfway down his cheek. His mother had died when he got that, long before this whole 'chat noir' business.

Adrien grabbed the makeup off his counter and quickly covered his scar and the eye bags.

He changed and ran out the door with his bag in hand.
…

"Not again!! Marinette!!!" Tikki whined.

Marinette booked it around the room, frantically getting ready for the day.

This was the third time this week she had slept through her alarm. Every time she did, Tikki tried her best to wake her up, but nothing ever got her out of bed.

"That. stupid. Cat." Marinette said in between brushing her teeth.

Tikki sighed and placed the homework in her backpack, then flying into her purse as Marinette raced out the door having eaten nothing for breakfast.

Marinette ran into the school right before the door was shut and made it into the classroom just as the teacher started talking.

Mrs. Bustier chuckled slightly at Marinette's awkward smile as she waddled to her seat.

Alya patted her on the shoulder and dug out her schoolbooks, Marinette did the same.

She was about to write something but reached down and realized she forgot her pen. She bent over searching her bag with no luck. As she sat back up, she saw a nice black pen and a small note on a small, ripped piece of paper.

The note read: "Did you sleep in again?"

Marinette looked up at the person sitting a row in front of her, then quickly doodled a note back:"Is it obvious?"

She dropped the note down onto Adrien's desk when the teacher wasn't looking.

She got a response quickly: "You have eye-bags, also you forgot your pencil case. Again."

Marinette sighed. If she hadn't had to wait out at the museum she wouldn't have to miss sleep, which caused her to be too tired to wake up on time, as well as miss-place her pencil case.

"You cut it close this morning." Adrien wrote.

"I know, but I wasn't late...so"

"You were close tho- how much sleep did you get last night?"

"Not enough."

"Why not?"

Marinette had to take a hot minute to think of a response.

"Homework."

Adrien read the note, nodded slightly then set the paper down to focus on the teacher.

Marinette and Adrien had gotten really close over the last few years. Possibly even closer than her and Alya. They met when they were 13 and 14, now they were 15 and 16. They were best friends. They always told each other everything and loved each other's company. If either of them were sad they would give the other a hug and ask if they'd like to talk about it, if they didn't, the other wouldn't pry.

Throughout the day, Marinette half payed attention to most of the lessons and almost fell asleep countless times. On the way out of the building Marinette heard someone call behind her.

"Marinette, wait!"

She turned around and saw Adrien racing towards her.

"I haven't seen you most of the day!" He whined.

"Yeah, why didn't you sit with me at lunch?" She frowned folding her arms.

"Chloe wouldn't let go of my arm." He dramatically rolled his eyes and leaned his head against Marinette's shoulder.

She smiled sympathetically, ruffling his hair.

"Anyways," He stood up straight. "Homework, huh?"

"What- oh yeah!" She almost forgot about there notes earlier. "Homework sucks."

"Well, if you ever need a tutor just call me."

"Will do." She sighed.

There was small amount of silence before Adrien spoke.
"Well, my cars here to pick me up." He pointed to the door. "I'll see you later!"

Marinette wave was interrupted with a hug. She blushed slightly then finished the wave as he ran to his car.
…
7:23 pm. Ladybug was outside sitting on a roof waiting for someone. It didn't take long for that someone to glide up onto the roof.

"Sorry I took so long." A young lad walked over to her. He had fluffy short black hair with purple tips and was wearing a black, grey, and purple body suit. He had a small butterfly clip in his hair, along with a butterfly on his stringy belt. The most prominent thing about him apart from his bright blue eyes were the medium sized wings on his back.

"You didn't take long at all; I only got here a few minuets ago." Ladybug smiled.

"Oh, that's good." Lavender moth chuckled.
She stood up and walked over to him.

"So, how did that museum thing go?" He asked.

Ladybugs expression shift to something of annoyance.

"Oh!” Lavender jumped, giving her a sad smile. “Not well, huh?"

She nodded and sighed. "He got away again..."

"Sorry, I should've come." He looked at the ground sadly.

"No, you said you had a test, don't stress about it!" She placed a hand on his shoulder.

"We should focus." She stated. He nodded in agreement.

"Normal patrol?"

"Yeah."

He grabbed a small butterfly attached to his belt. Flipping the wings caused a small screen to open. He clicked a small button and a map appeared. He started swiping around, looking at the map.

The butterfly miraculous had one main ability but it also had a smaller ability, similar to how ladybug can make 'lucky charms' and 'miraculous ladybugs' lavender moth can use his butterflies to recruit people to join their team with there own powers for a short amount of time. But he also had the ability to sense people's emotions. Just the general positive and negative though, nothing crazy.

So even though ladybug couldn't see anything on the map, lavender moth could see small red and yellow dots scattered across the screen. Yellow for positive emotions and red for negative.

After a couple seconds he pointed to a small area on the map.

"There's a good amount of red here." Lavender moth said.

"Okay, send me the location." She dug out her yo-yo and found it on her map.

"Let's go."

He nodded and followed as she swung off the building.
It didn't take long for them to get to the spot. It wasn't anything crazy, just a small fist fight they needed to break up. Luckily, no one was majorly injured. Ladybug used her lucky charm and easily fixed some things up.
…

Chat noir on the other hand wasn't having as easy of a time.

-Time- 8:23

He had gotten stuck in between some muggers that were trying to steal some man's stuff. The guy already ran away, luckily unscathed. Chat noir on the other hand had gotten cornered in an alley. There were two muggers both male, probably in their late 20's.

They were wielding knives, but Chat noir quickly kicked them out of their hands, causing the weapons to land multiple feet away.

Scoffing, Chat Noir continued to fight them off. He was definitely a better fighter than the two men, even then one of them still managed to land a good blow to chat noir's lower rib.

He grunted and fell into the brick wall behind him but managed to pick himself up quickly. He grabbed his staff, forcefully extending it causing it to shoot one of the muggers in the side of the head, knocking him unconscious.

The second guy instantly lunged towards chat, throwing a punch towards his head. He ducked, dodging by a few inches.

Chat noir jumped backwards doing a slight handstand as he placed his hands on the cold concrete and swung his leg towards the side of the man's head. His foot landed causing the man to hit his head on the brick, knocking him out.

Adrien let out a soft breath. Pulling his staff down towards his side like a sword. He clicked the small paw print on the side allowing it to shrink back to its original size.

He walked over to the knives he had flung earlier, shuffling them slowly with his feet towards the bodies. Even though his costume had gloves he didn't want to risk leaving fingerprints.

After pushing the weapons out in the open he reached into the coat pocket of one of the men and pulled out his phone.

Swiping to the left he dialed 112. "Hello 112, what's your emergency."

Chat noir cleared his throat then in a fake deep voice he spoke into the phone.

"Yes hi, I was walking down the sidewalk on market street andI heard fighting in the alleyway next to me and looked in and saw these two random dudes fighting.” He took a short pause before continuing. “I think they had weapons I didn't stare long enough to tell. Anyways thought I'd call. But like, I'm super busy dude. So, Uhm market street."

Before the operator had a chance to say anything Adrien hung up the phone.

He slammed the phone against the brick wall leaving multiple shards dropping to the ground as he tossed the broken device into a dumpster.

Chat noir took a step back to give himself a boost as he jumped up to the roof of one of the buildings.

It only took a few minuets for a police car to come rolling down the street. He crouched when he saw the officer park and open the door. Once he was certain the sherif saw the bodies he turned to walk across the rooftops.

Oddly enough it was peaceful as he ran across the rooftops. The weather was nice, the wind was blowing through his hair and the sunset was beautiful.

Slowly he stopped in a quieter part of the city, where there were multiple warehouse buildings.

Chat noir peaked over the edge of building holding his hand against his forehead.

"Aha!" He whispered to himself as he leapt off the building.

He slowly walked down an alley, grabbing his staff He pushed it underneath a garage door, prying it open.
It made a large clack noise as the locking mechanism was broken. Chat noir held the door open with his hand, it made small clicking noises as he pushed it up, then another clank when it crashed to the ground.

It was dark. He reached ahead and pulled down on a small hanging lightbulb. It was a small building but there was definitely a lack of lights.

He walked over to a dirty blue tarp hanging over some shelves in the back of the room.

He gently pulled it to the side and walked into a small, isolated room. There was a a desk with some sticky-notes and a closed laptop on top of it.

There was a beanbag chair laying in the right corner next to a couple stacked boxes. In the opposite corner was a mini fridge.

He walked over to the desk and leaned against it.
"Plagg, claws in." He whispered.

He grunted as the costume disappeared. The suits' magical ability included high pain-tolerance. So that punch to the ribs earlier came punching right back.
"You, okay?" Plagg asked, carefully flying over to where Adrien was gripping his side.

"Nothing...I just forgot about it..." He breathed in then lifted his shirt to check.

There was a large purple bruise on his lower right side.
"Youch." Was all Plagg could think to say.

Adrien shifted to the left corner and opened the mini fridge, pulling out an ice bag, placing it on his side and flopped down on the beanbag chair, grabbing the laptop on his way.

"Lemme guess..." Plagg sat down next to him. "You're not gonna get medical attention, are you?"

"It's just a bruise, it'll go away."

"Not for a while!"

"So?"

"What if you have a photoshoot and need to take off your shirt? For like- a swimsuit or something?"

"It's September...a swimsuit collection?” He paused. “In fall?"

"Your father is spontaneous sometimes." Plagg shrugged.

Adrien chuckled. Plagg just stared at him with slight concern.

"Look..." Adrien held out his hand for Plagg to sit on. "I know you're worried, but I'll be fine. I've gotten worse bruises."

"Who said I'm worried?" Plagg squinted.

Adrien raised an eyebrow with a smirk on his face.
Plagg folded his arms as Adrien moved his hand to open the laptop.

The screen flicked on to a bright white screen which lit the small space before it loaded to a picture of Marinette and Adrien laughing.

He swiped up on the mouse pad and typed in the password:101300

It opened already on a website: The ladyblog.
None of the superhero's had spoken out about how their powers worked but count on Alya to find out. She had worked out a lot of the details and was a crazy fan girl of ladybug and lavender moth. Even with the the picture she couldn't fit all the puzzle pieces, namely the miraculous.

Ladybug nor lavender moth have never spoke out about how they got their powers or about the magical jewelry in general. Adrien hadn't found out about the miraculous until he had found his on the sidewalk. He was fairly sure that an older man had dropped it, and if that were the case then he’d probably had more miraculous, but honestly Adrien didn't care if there were more weird jewelry, he just wanted ladybugs earrings for the wish. He didn't really care about the power... I mean the cat powers are cool but that wasn't his main priority.

He swiped down on the website looking for any new activity, which didn't seem like the case. Usually, she updated it once a day and Adrien watched it like a hawk. More recently the blog hadn't been super helpful for information on the bug, but at the beginning of his chat noir journey it was helpful.

The most recent post was a debate about weather or not ladybug should change her costume to make it more detailed like lavander moths. Which the majority said 'no.'

Adrien sighed and closed the laptop.

"It's past your bedtime." Plagg stated.

"I don't have a bedtime." Adrien huffed.

"What about your curfew?" Plagg raised an eyebrow.
Adrien rolled his eyes and laid his head back onto the beanbag chair.

"It's not like my father comes in my room." Adrien grumbled.

"What about Nathalie?"

Adrien looked around in thought for a minute then pried himself off the chair, groaning as he stood. "Fine, I'll go home..."

Adrien pushed open the grey metal door on one of the walls and saw a figure jump from a rooftop as he stepped outside. He squinted trying to decipher who it was as they jumped off the rooftop.

"Good. You've had a lot of late nights recently and-" Plagg’s sentence was cut off as Adrien spoke.

"With maybe a small detour."

"Wait what-"

"Plagg claws out."

Chapter Text

Chat noir took multiple minuets squinting in the darkness trying to decipher where the figure on the roof went.

He had his hands on his hips, staring down into a nearby alleyway when he heard a small *clack*

Though he couldn't see anyone in the direction of the noise he decided to get a closer look. He jumped down into the alley with a hard landing, wincing from the pressure on his side, then took a few steps forward.
He was about to give up and just go home until he heard a voice behind him. “Rough day?"

He quickly turned around startled that someone could've snuck up on him. When turning around no one was there.

"WHOS THERE!?" He shouted.

"Wow calm down kid, I'm only here to talk." A high-pitched feminine voice echoed through the alley.

Adrien frantically turned his head trying to find the owner of the voice.

"If your just here to 'talk', then show yourself!” He said confidently into the empty air. A few moments of silence passed before he added. "Well, where are you?!"

"Behind you." The voice said.

He quickly jumped forward, raising his fists before turning around, only this time to be met with a person.

A young woman looked around the age of 20. She had long strawberry blonde hair, pulled into a high pony with a coral-colored ribbon that matched her coral belt. She had light tan skin and a grey mask covering the skin around her hazel eyes. She was wearing black strapped goggles on-top of her head along with a black choker around her neck. Her whole outfit was colored grey, such as her dark grey cropped hoodie over top the grey undershirt and gloves and a dark grey mini skirt. She was wearing grey tights with fish nets overtop, along with tall black heeled boots.

She took a pink lollipop out of her mouth before speaking. “Chill, I'm not here to fight."

He lowered his arms slightly.

"Right..." he said. "Cause you're here to "talk.""

She raised an amused eyebrow at his fist's that were still in the air.

The girl poked at his left hand with her finger."You have a funny way of saying hello."

Chat sighed then rested his hands by his hips. “Fine. Who are you."

"You can call me Somber rose."

Adrien would have pressed about the fact there was no way that was her real name, the 'rose' part maybe but definitely not the somber part. Then again, he had an identity he wanted to keep hidden, maybe she did as well.

"Okay... Somber..." He said awkwardly while walking a circle around her.

"What did you want to talk about." He made air quotations as he spoke.

"What I want is an alliance?"

He stopped walking. “Excuse me?"

"I want to be a team, I mean." She clarified.

"Yes- I know what the word alliance means-" He put his hands on his hips. "I meant, why would you want to team up with me? I hardly just met you."

"True..." She took a step closer. "But I know enough about you to say we have a similar enemy."

Chat noir squinted. “You're after ladybug?"

"Yeah- something like that." She tapped her bottom lip as she spoke.

"Why?"

The question was out of genuine confusion, as far as he knew no one knew about the miraculous or how they got their powers in general so maybe she knew ladybug personally and had a grudge of some sort. Then again if she knew who ladybug was then why would she need him.

"It's hard to explain..." She paused then quickly added "But if you must know." After seeing his annoyed expression. "I want knowledge."

He squinted as she continued. "You know more about her powers and what the limits are..."

It had been so long since Adrien had found his miraculous, he honestly forgot about how confusing ladybug and lavander moth's powers were for outsider's point of view.

Adrien gave her a skeptical look.

"Hey, you have a reason you're after her, don't you? I'm not pressuring you to tell me." Somber folded her arms, pointing her face in the air with a pout on her lip.

There was a brief period of silent starring between them.

"Plus," She added. "You look like you could use the help, or a friend at least- and look!" She gestured to herself. "You've got a wonderful 'could be bestie' right here!"

He looked into her eyes. She didn't look mean... and sounded quite genuine when giving her reasoning behind why she was after ladybug, and even though he didn't have all that much information of why she wanted the "knowledge", he had enough trust to sigh, holding out his hand saying: "I'm Chat noir..."

She took his hand with a smile. "I already knew that."

"Yeah- well- I was just being nice!" He grumbled pulling away his hand, then crossing his arms.

She giggled. “Does that mean we're a team now?" She looked up at him.

"No!" Chat stood up taller, trying to show his dominance towards the young adult in front of him.

"It means, I'll consider it." He stated quickly.

Somber looked at the ground twisting her foot slightly. She looked upset but it quickly faded when she looked back at him.

"Okay! So, how do you want me to keep in touch?"

Chat got jumped by the sudden spring in her step. He was about to answer before she cut him off.

"You know what, never mind I'll find you if I need to!" She smiled widely.

He blinked slowly bring his hand up for a thumbs up.
She gave him a soft fist bump then ran towards the exit of the alley.

"See you later alligator! I gotta go! Try not to die before I see you again, byeee!!"

Somber's voice faded out as she left the alley, presumably to run down the sidewalk.

Chat ran to follow her but when he turned the corner she was gone.

He let out a soft "huh..." then turned towards the alley, pulling out his staff and launching himself into the air.
…

That morning was quite the struggle for Adrien, mainly the getting out of bed aspect. Who would've guessed that jumping around on buildings would make a bruise on one's stomach not feel the best.

But also, it could've been the lack of sleep he had gotten, being that the time was around 12:30 am when he actually made it back into his house, and another half hour before actually laying down into bed, with the occasional time checks throughout the night.

When waking up, Adrien tried his best not to complain about his injury, mainly to stop Plagg from criticizing his decisions but he didn't even have to say anything for Plagg to start.

"That was stupid, You're stupid." Plagg grumbled.

Adrien groaned. “Why are you talking about that? I didn't even say anything!"

"Your face said it all kid."

Adrien frowned and walked to his dresser pulling out a soft-purple form fitting t-shirt, there was a faint Gabriel Agreste logo in the center of the upper chest. He grabbed some black jeans, then walked to the bathroom. Quickly changing then grabbing a faded Jean jacket with black fabric lining the inside.

"Adrien... we need to talk about this." Play flew in front of Adriens face as he reached for the door nob.

"What is there to talk about?" Adrien sounded harsher than he would've liked, especially since the tone made Plagg's concerned expression turn into an angry frown.
Adrien took a step away from the scary cat.

"Yes, we do! You've been ignoring my warnings for too long! I've seen you get injured too many times-"

"It's just a bruise!" Adrien took a more dominant stance just for Plagg to fly and shout directly at his face.

"One day it's gonna be more than 'just a bruise'!" His voice made Adrien flinch slightly.

"One day you're gonna get hurt badly and i won't be able to help you!"

Adrien could've sworn he saw a tear on Plagg's face.
"Plagg-" His voice was cut off by a knock from the door, causing the small cat to disappear into Adrien's jacket.

"Adrien are you okay in there, I thought I heard shouting?” Nathalie's soft voice lingered in the air as Adrien looked down at Plagg.

Plagg looked away.

"No... sorry Nathalie I just got a little upset at..." he glanced around his room, his eyes landing on his 3-screened monitor.

"At a game...I was playing a game on my computer..."
He looked back down at Plagg giving him a sad smile.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have yelled..."

Plagg looked back at him, his expression softened slightly.

Nathalie gently opened the door.

"It’s fine... there is something I came up here for though."

"Don't worry I'm awake, I was just about to leave for school-"

"Not that." She sifted her clipboard. “Gabriel wants to speak to you."
…

"You've been slacking Adrien." Gabriel was facing the wall as he spoke.

Adrien shifted uncomfortably.

Even with his uneasy demeanor he wasn't nervous, making sure to hold a confident stance as he responded. "In which area?" Adrien raised an eyebrow.

Gabriel turned his head to glare at Adrien. He was unsettled but didn't divert his gaze.

"Your grades having been going down-"

"Oh no- " Adrien said sarcastically. "Let me guess, my A went to an A-"

Gabriel hardened his glare but didn't respond leaving Adrien with the impression that he was right.

"Don't get cocky Adrien. You've been lacking in your modeling skills as well."

"Yeah- well, that's because I don't want to model."

"You have a job to do, and you will do it right!" Gabriel rose his voice.

Adrien eyes widened but then arched as he took a step forward.

"If you care that much then get someone else to do it for you!"

"This is what's good for you Adrien."

"This is not what I want!"

"It's what your mother would've wanted."

Adrien placed a hand on his right cheek. The scar. Silence. A few seconds past before either of them thought to breath.

"It's not been that long...." Gabriel raised his head, eyes piercing down at Adrien as he spoke. "And yet it seems you have forgotten why she's gone..."

Adrien looked everywhere except his father. Anywhere but his father. The only thought ringing through his head: "It's my fault."

"But...wouldn't..." Adriens voice stuttering as he spoke. He didn't mean for it to come out shaking but he couldn't stop it. "Wouldn't she just want me to be happy...?"

The question was real because he didn't know the answer. His mom had been gone for 11 years. He remembered only a few things about her.

"She would want you to have a successful future." Gabriel stated plainly.

Adrien tried to think of a counter, but nothing came to mind, as a short shaky breath escaped his lips. He tilted his head to the ground; eyes closed in defeat.

"You have a modeling job at 2:00, don't be late."

Chapter Text

Everything was dark, his thoughts...hard to say if he was actually thinking. Processing what he was taught in his earlier classes. He had everything zoned out as he was walking down the hall towards the cafeteria.

His earbuds were in, a muffled version of 'I wait for you'* playing into his ear.

With his hand in his pockets his mind started to drift off, down a small stream turning red. His mom. That night, he didn't understand it fully, he didn't understand the situation they were in and what he was told to do.

Either way, he didn't listen. And she's gone...because of him.

"Adrien..." A voice... who's voice...

He took a step forward, mind in darkness. A black abyss surrounded him. Looking around he noticed a figure, a woman.

Squinting into the darkness he could see long blonde hair...

"Adrien."

No, it wasn't blonde... and it wasn't long... was it... blue?

"Adrien!" The girls voice echoed into his mind.
He was about to take another step forward when someone grabbed his wrist pulling him out of his daze.

Quickly blinking he felt the sunshine on his face through the hallway window. He quickly turned around taking out one of his earbuds.

"Adrien! Are you okay?" Marinette's expression was one of concern.

"Sorry... I zoned out." He gave her a soft smile.

She shook her head with a smile matching his.

Taking a second to look around, Adrien realized no one else was in the hallway.

"You should get to lunch, everyone else is already there" she said as she saw him looking at the empty walkway.

"Why aren't you?" He raised an eyebrow with a small smirk on his face.

Her cheeks turned a small shade of pink before she composed herself.

"Well, because I saw you missing from the cafeteria and thought you needed a lovely lady to guide you to the lunchroom." She gave him a smug look which was met with an eyebrow raise.

"Okay fine." She sighed. "I was in the bathroom."
He chuckled as they both made their way down the quiet hallway.

Adrien looked at Marinette then quickly looked away as she looked up at him. The wall of lockers seemed interesting until he felt something warm touch his hand.
He looked back down only to see Marinette gently holding his hand as she looked at him, cheeks slightly pink in the process.

"You seem upset, is something wrong?" She gently asked.

"I... I'm okay..."

Her only response was a soft eyebrow lift.

"I'll tell you in the cafeteria." He sighed giving her a warm smile, which was met with a light nod.

...

"Another photoshoot, really?!"

"I know right!" Adrien sighed stuffing his face with a fork full of salad. "This is like-" He swallowed before continuing. "The third one this week, and it's only Thursday!"

"Sorry about that..." Marinette placed her hand on her cheek, resting her elbow on the table.

"If you want, I could come with you?" She offered, resting her other hand on top of his.

"Nah- you would have to leave school early and you and me both know that you need all the help you can get."

Marinette lifted her hand, hitting him in the side of the head.

"Ow!" He laughed, rubbing the left side of his face.

"Hey guys!"

Alya walked over to there table, placing her tray down next to Marinette.

"Mind if I sit?"

Marinette and Adrien both nod as she sits down. A few seconds of silence followed, but only a few seconds was long enough for Alya to started rambling. “Did you guys see the news about the museum robbery a few days ago!?"

"Not this again-" Marinette laid her head against the table.

"What do you mean again!? Did someone else already tell you?"

"Something like that-" Before Marinette could finish Adrien cut in.

"What robbery?" He smugly asked as if he wasn't the culprit.

"Chat noir stole an expansive jewel from a museum down at Westwood, apparently ladybug was there, and he still managed to get away!"

Marinette groaned under her breath as Alya continued. “I'll give him props, even if he's a criminal he's pretty good at it."

"Can we not talk about this right now." Marinette asked, lifting her head from its place on the table.

"Sorry girl, I know you don't like him. He's just so mysterious!" She paused then looked over at Adrien whose expression was one of disappointment.

"What about you Adrien?"

"Huh?"

"What are your thoughts on chat noir?" She asked again.

"Oh Uhm- he's okay." Adrien looked at Marinette, who looked annoyed as he quickly continued. "I mean, he's a criminal so what is there to talk about?" He laughed awkwardly.

"See Alya! There's nothing to talk about!" Marinette stated folding her arms.

"There so is!" Alya jumped slightly. Adrien took hold of his tray to make sure it didn't fall off the table as she continued. "For starters, his goal! We have no idea what he wants!"

"Yes we-" She cleared her throat, then continued. "I mean, whatever it is it's probably not good!"

Adrien shrunk in his seat slightly, looking down at his fork as he pushed it around his salad.

"Either way you've got to admit that he's got a lot of secrets!" Alya stated.

"No, he doesn't- he's a total open book!"

"Yeah, like what?" Alya folded her arms, giving Marinette a smile that said, 'prove it.'

Marinette stammered for a second before responding.
"Well- he's really...cocky! And supper full of himself!"

Adrien almost spit out his water as she continued. "He thinks he can do anything and just get away with it!"
"That's just his personality though- bet you can't explain his hobbies and what not."

"Well- Uhm..." Marinette stumbled with her words before looking at Adrien who had just finished coughing and was now very invested in his water. "Come on Adrien help me out here!"

"Me? W-what do you want me to say?!" He stammered.
"Tell her she's crazy!"

"Uhm-" he looked around, then towards Alya. "Alya, Marinette says you’re crazy."

With a pout on her lip, Marinette slouched in her chair folding her arms in the process.

"Sorry, but she's got a point I mean...like, we don't know all that much about him..." He smiled awkwardly.
She glared at him as Alya triumphantly spoke.

"See, told you girl."

"Whatever." Marinette frowned.

Adrien looked at her with a soft expression. This was one of the many reasons he could never tell her about being chat noir. He wished he didn't have to hide it, but she hated him.

Plus, it wouldn't matter once he got the miraculous and made the wish. Then there wouldn't be a reason for him to be chat noir. The gems he would miss, but he wouldn’t have to hide that side anymore, he could just be Adrien... thats what would be best...

He was about to speak but was cut off as the bell rang. Causing them all to disperse from the table, Marinette being the first to walk away.
...

-4:20 pm-

Adrien made sure the photoshoot went well enough so he wouldn't be ridiculed by his father afterwards. He wanted to be able to talk to Marinette after school, but having to leave early didn't make it easy. He needed to get his mind off of all that happened. Luckily, on his way home he spotted something that might help with that.

While driving, because the modeling set was far away- on the road they passed by a large caramel colored building with a sign in the front titled "Artifacts & Animals"

But the sign that really caught his attention was a teal banner hanging on the side of the doorway with the words, "Paris's brightest blue diamond!!" Along with a drawing of a diamond on the front.

The instant his eyes landed on the image of the gem he knew exactly what that night foretold.
...

- 1:46 am-

Adrien was shocked that he hadn't heard about this museum before, maybe the people that own it are smarter about what information they spread online. He did wonder though:

"Did they just think i wouldn't see it because it wasn't in the news- I can be blind sometimes but come on- I mean how can someone miss a sign so obvious?”

Chat noir grabbed onto the ledge of the second story windowsill. The roof was slanted and after a search around the building, it didn't look like there were any accessible vents, not like he would've used them.

So, with that knowledge in mind he stood up, balancing on the edge as his heels hovered over the side.

Carefully he picked the lock and slipped inside, grabbing his tail to make sure it didn't bump against the glass.

The inside almost resembled a mall with the way it was laid out. The building wasn't super wide, but it was pretty long.

Adrien walked around the gallery* surprised at the lack of security as he peaked inside the different rooms looking for the jewel.

In the short amount of time, he spent researching in his room he ended up making a map for himself, or at least a path he would travel. Because the museum wasn't well known it didn't have a proper layout for where everything was.

The only thing Adrien knew about the layout was his exit point on the west side of the building; there was a back door that seemed easy to break from the inside.

Continuing his plan, his hand slid across the railing as he walked.

After the last few months of stealing, he honestly didn't care about being spotted on any cameras, if there even were any. He wasn't really looking. If this were a more 'high security' type of building he would have tried to look, but because it was empty he wasn't really concerned.

He walked quietly, admiring the soft lighting from the ceiling windows, only a few seconds later did he actually spot a guard causing him to slip inside one of the rooms as she passed.

Only a few minuets after that did he realize that the gem was on the main floor of the building. Which after leaping over the railing did he also realize it was placed directly in the center of the museum. The type of place you'd see break up a couple of hallways.

"How convenient." He thought as he walked over to the glass box.

The gem, it was beautiful. It was a gorgeous blue color that almost reminded him of Marinette's eyes, and just as the sign had said, it was very bright. Even though it was night it glowed. Realistically that could have just been because the window lined up directly so the moon would shine on it. Either way, it was bright, to the point where he could turn off his night vision and still see. Which he did, whether that was stupid decision is yet to be decided.

He stood there for a few seconds admiring the gem with his normal vision. But before he could get too distracted, he quickly ducked under the red rope that blocked people from getting too close and scanned the glass box to see if he could find a keyhole.

Which he did a few seconds later, followed by him placing the gem into his lantern tail, flicking the switch, and watching as the lamp started glowing the same blue color.

"Beautiful..." He softly smiled.

"Hey!" A voice shouted from somewhere behind him.
He didn’t even have to turn around to know it was the guard he saw earlier. In which case he instantly booked it down the hall away from her.

He managed to get a good head start given the fact he had superpowers, and she didn’t. Yet even his suit couldn’t block the sting he felt through his leg, and his ears from the loud crash it made as his right foot slammed into a metal trash can.

"Ow!" He grunted. Instinctively lifting his foot to grab it, making him look like a cartoon character jumping up and down on one leg.

"Dumb trash can!" He groaned as he stumbled back into run.

He knew his exit point was in the opposite direction from the way he was going, which is most definitely an issue. Especially seeing that he had been caught at a dead end.

He stopped running and looked around. One of the stores to his left had a wall slightly pushed out near the entrance, giving him a small wall to hide behind.

As he pressed his back up to the plaster, he quickly remembered the glowing blue light emulating from his tail, which he instantly turned off before it drew to much attention.

The guard only took a few extra seconds before she made it to the end of the hallway. Chat was trying his best to stay hidden as he saw the soft glow of her flashlight against the wall in front of him.

He knew it would only take a few seconds for her to look were he was hiding, meaning he didn’t have a-lot of time to figure out his situation.

There was nowhere to go forward, the guard was blocking the way back, and he didn’t have enough time to look up before a soft 'crash' sound echoed from the other side of the museum.

"Huh?" He thought as the light from the securities flashlight dimmed. She apparently heard the noise as well, (probably thinking it was him) she turned and raced away.

When the light was fully gone, he quickly turned his night vision back on, so as to not run into another trashcan, but also to figure out what the noise was.
Last time he checked there was only him and the single night guard.

He peeked around the wall blocking his view. Like he had thought the night guard ran the other way. He stepped around the pillar and slipped into the store, sneaking closer to where she ran then peeking out again.

"What made that noise." He whispered to himself, when suddenly something Carmel brown fell in front of him making him jump backwards.

"Sup kid?" A cheery voice said as chat noir composed himself.

"Somber..." He took a deep breath before continuing. "Oh- my... " He wasn’t going to admit that she had scared him, so he moved on to his second thought “What are you doing here?"

Somber was hanging upside down from the ceiling, it looks to him like she was hanging on a rope of some-kind, but he couldn’t fully tell because she jumped down too quickly to tell.

She looked mostly the same as last time except she was wearing the goggles she originally had on her head, and her hair was up in a messy bun rather than a ponytail.

"Saving you." She stated placing her hands on her hips triumphantly.

"Wait hold on- two things... first, were you the one who made that noise?"

She nodded happily.

"Okay..." He looked away in thought for a moment before continuing. "And second, how did you know i was going to be here?"

"Oh-" She placed a finger on her bottom lip, tapping it gently as she thought.

"I mean, i saw you come in here." She shrugged. "So, i kind of just followed you."

He blinked, wondering weather or not to believe her. But instead of arguing he sighed and placed a hand behind his neck.

"You know what, Thanks, I owe you one."

"Anytime!" She made an 'anime' like movement, using two fingers starting from her forehead then pointing upwards.

"Now let's get out of here before the lady comes back."
Somber started to make her way towards a hallway.

"Wait-" He said causing somber to halt for a second "My exit point on the other side of the building." Chat glanced at her then pointed towards his right.

"Oh! Don't worry i have a way out over here!" She smiled.

She made a 'come' gesture using her fingers. "Follow me."
...

"Where are you planing on storing this thing anyways?" Somber asked, pointing towards the blue glow coming from his tail.

It had only been a few minutes since they left the museum and she was already asking questions, he wasn’t to surprised. She seemed like a spontaneous person. He also didn’t mind answering, especially considering she just saved his butt.

Their jog slowly turned into a walk as he answered. "My Hideout- well it’s just a warehouse."

"Oohhh~ you own a warehouse?!"

His movement came to a stop.

"No, No! Its just one i broke into." He moved his hands side to side, shaking his head along with them.
She stopped moving along with him, stopping a few feet in-front of him.

"Does someone still use it?"

"If there is they haven't been around for me to find out." Chat folded his arms just so they weren't awkwardly resting by his hips. "Plus, I’ve hidden my stuff behind a tarp so it’s more secretive."

"Alrightttt..." She held the 't' for a few seconds before moving on. "So, when do i get to see this 'Hideout'?"

"Oh-" He looked away. "I'm not sure thats such a good idea...”

"Awww... why not?! I won't do anything, i promise!"

He found the warehouse a month or two after he found his miraculous. And so far, the only other person whose ever been to it was Plagg, and even he's more of an animal than a person.

Plus, He wasn’t even sure about letting Somber into an alliance let alone his "secret hideout." To be fair she has proven to be trustworthy thus far, but thats not saying much given the fact he'd only talked to her twice.

I guess it wouldn’t be too bad assuming he didn’t have anything crazy in the warehouse. All he really did in there was chill, snack, plot, and have a place to hide the gems he stole. Other than that, there really wasn’t a-lot in there.

"Pretty please! ~" Somber stood on her tip toes with her hands behind her back, rocking back and forth with her heels, placing her feet softly on the ground then raising them back up again.

For a split second, his vision turned white with an image of his mother saying the same thing, in a sing-song voice with her hands placed on both of her cheeks, head tilting slightly to the left. But once he blinked it was gone and all he saw was somber.

'Maybe this isn’t such a bad idea...'

"Okay fine." He sighed, pushing his folded arms up higher on his chest then turning his pouting face away from her. "Maybe a small tour wouldn’t hurt."

"Hooray!!" She gasped, jumping up and down from excitement.

'I hope i don't regret this...' He breathed a sigh as he led her towards the building.

Chapter Text

"It’s just a couple more blocks."

Chat noir and Somber Rose had been walking for a good while, estaminet: 20 minutes. Luckily for Adrien they weren't in total silence. The streets of Paris were always noisy, even at night. Along with the fact that Somber, come to find out, was a very talkative person.

Every other sentence that came out of her mouth was on a different topic, or at least that's what it felt like. Some of the questions she asked were more personal than he would have liked, but once she saw he didn't want to answer she just moved on to the next question. "Why'd you choose a place so far away?" she asked.

"I didn't know where I was stealing from before I picked the warehouse?" he answered, keeping his gaze focused in front of him.

She tilted her head. "Oh, right!"

He chuckled at her dumb question as he turned them down an alleyway leading to a quiet street, consisting of empty cars and large buildings with minimal space in-between the next. Every so often bigger gaps came, when one did, he turned to the left and walked up to a medium sized warehouse building. It had a black roof and grey bricks that looked bluer due to the light emulating from his tail.

There were two garage doors along the side of the building, one of which chat easily pried open, lifting it above his head to allow somber in.

"Cute place." Somber took a few steps in, scanning the dark atmosphere. "Where are the lights?"

"They're kind of scattered." He dropped the door, causing an echo to follow.

Through his night vision (along with the small amount of light coming from his tail) chat saw somber jump from the sudden noise, causing him to chuckle as he pulled down on a nearby lightbulb.

The light broke through and everything was clear. Somber rose turned to scan the room with more vision than before.

"Well, this is..." She scrunched her face. "Not really what I expected..." She turned to look at all the empty supply shelfs. "Kinda plain...but you know, you do you!" She placed her hands on her hips, awkwardly smiling.

"This isn’t it." He walked past some racks and made it to a gray-ish blue tarp which he grabbed but paused before pulling it out of the way.

"Just a note, its not quiet done yet... it's more of a place I put things at the moment." He said glancing back at her.

"Alright!" She nodded.

Chat sucked in a small breath, then pulled back the tarp.

Somber looked more pleased for her third time of scanning the area.

As she stepped in Chat let go of the tarp allowing it to drop back to the ground. It made the room darker yet more esthetic with the soft glow of blue light coming from the gem in his tail, as well as the LED lights around the ceiling.

Chat pulled his tail, gently grabbing the gem. Crouching down, he placed the jewel into a cardboard box next to a few others he had collected before.

As chat looked back, he noticed somber looking over the contents of his small wooden desk. He followed her gaze, which led to the laptop he had accidentally left open.
If she walked up to it and clicked anything she would see a picture of him and Marinette, which would instantly give away his identity.

Chat quickly jumped and ran past her, closing the laptop and tossing it onto the beanbag chair.

She smiled, weirdly, then turned her head back to his desk.

He sighed, leaning his back against the wall.

"Its nice, I like the lights." She picked up a couple papers on the desk, skimming the contents then placing it back down to pick up the next one. "What's on the computer?" She asked without glancing away from the newspaper she had in her hand.

Chat shifted his stance looking towards his bean bag chair. "Uh- my laptop?"

She nodded looking towards him this time.

He rubbed his forearm as he spoke. "well- it's just my personal stuff- for school and what not."

"Oh, what grade are you in?"

"I’d prefer not to say."

"Well, how old are you?"

"If I told you that, it would defeat the purpose of not telling you my grade."

Somber smiled. "I guess that's true." She took a pause to look him up and down. “But if I had to make a guess-" She lifted her pointer finger to her chin as she continued. "Id say you're around... seventeen?"

Chat smiled, knowing she had guessed a year older than he was. For reference, He should probably be more careful with saying 'school' in the future. He still wasn’t sure if he should trust somber or not. He didn’t think she was asking these personal questions to make him uncomfortable, from the small amount of time they had talked it just seemed to be her way of making conversation.

"How old are you?" Chat folded his arms.

"Guess." She said simply.

Chat stiffened, He knew it was sometimes rude to guess a woman's age. Especially if you get it wrong. But since she had just guessed his and was smiling, he figured it was fine.

Hesitatingly he said "twenty...one?"

"I'll take it." She smiled.

He was about to ask if he was close, but she made her way towards the tarp before he could speak.

"Anyways, I should probably get going." She grabbed the tarp with her right hand, her left carrying one of Chat's blank index cards and a pen.

"Uhh- what's that for?" He pointed to her left hand as she lifted it into the air.

"Oh these?"

"Yeah?" He raised a suspicious eyebrow.

"I'm just bringing them outside so I can write down the address, you know, incase I need to get in touch with you again?"

He nodded. Seemed reasonable enough. "Okay, ill walk you out." He bent down next to his beanbag chair and picked up his laptop.

"Oh no you don’t have to."

He walked in front of her as she stepped past the tarp. "I want my pen back, plus I was going to leave anyways."

"Oh-"

Walking back out into the cold dark night he saw somber pull her goggles back over her eyes as she searched the building for an address number, finding it, then jotting it down along with the street name.

Once finished she turned and tossed the black ballpoint pen towards Chat. "That's a nice pen." She said.

He caught it, then placing it into his right pocket he smiled. "Thanks."
...
-5:45 am-

"From the camera footage last night, if I’m remembering correctly, it seemed there were two people who broke in. I think one was from an upstairs window, the other from the back door."

Lavander Moth had already sat down at the computer desk and was trying to make sense of the many screens that glowed in front of him. Ladybug had been interrogating, though she would’ve argued it was just asking, one of the night guards about last nights robbery.

The only thing that really kept this small museum running was the crystal that had been stolen the night previous.

"I feel awful!" One of the night guards, the one who'd been tasked to roam the halls, placed her hands over her eyes.

"That was the one item they said to keep an eye on and I failed!!" She muffled through her hands as her dark curly hair fell in front of her face.

Ladybug sighed, mumbling under her breath. "Of course, he has to come and steal from a small establishment.'" She gave the woman a sympathetic smile, placing a hand on her shoulder. "It’s not your fault, you couldn’t have known he was going to come." The guard looked up from her hands, eyes watery from crying. "Why don’t you go home and get some rest, we can handle the rest from here."

The girl agreed as she walked slowly out of the security room.

Ladybug looked back towards the cameras. The second guard had been pointing out the different cameras and where they were located in the building to her partner.

Lavender moth has always been good with technology. Let’s be real- half of his power is using gps to find people that were upset.

He seemed focused as he shifted through the camera footage.

Camera 1-A 1:50 Am, nothing. Camera 1-B 1:50 Am, nothing. Camera 1-C, D and E 1:50 Am, still nothing.

Lavender slid the chair to the cameras on the other side of the desk.

He kept scanning the cameras as he quickly flicked through them until he finally said something. “Aha!”
Again, gliding across the room lavender flicked to camera 2-D at 1:49 Am.

Ladybug walked up behind him carefully placing a hand on his shoulder, so he knew she was there.

He smiled up at her as he gestured to the cameras. “Tada!”

“Are you two good to handle this on your own?” The security guard asked, already stepping towards the exit.

Ladybug looked over to him, giving a small nod.

He grabbed his jacket and opened the door, but before leaving he turned around. “By the way,” he said. “We’ve had some cabling issues on the cameras. So don’t be alarmed if they glitch out a little.”

They both acknowledged him as he closed the door behind himself.

They turned their heads back to the computer, looking at the frame lavender had paused on: Chat noir had just broken into the second story window and was hopping inside.

“Good work!” She said gently squeezing lavender moth’s shoulder. “Press play, see where he goes.”

The screen started to play as lavender moth clicked a button on the keyboard. Chat noir started to slowly walk down the hallway, gliding his hand along the railing as he took in the atmosphere.

Lavender moth switched screens perfectly as chat walked out of the camera’s view. Same pose, different angle.

They continued to watch as Chat noir made his way through the museum, sneaking past the guard then hopping over the rail down to the main floor.

“I don’t get it.” Ladybug started as she watched him get mesmerized by the gem, his eyes becoming slightly dimmer than before. “Why does he like these jewels so much?”

Lavender moth looked up from the computer.

“He’s always been after my earrings, but I don’t get where the obsession with gems came from, or why?”

Lavender moth looked back at the screen. “Maybe cause they’re shiny?”

“Why would that be a reason?” She raised an eyebrow.

He gestured to the now paused screen “Cats like shiny things, don’t they?”

Ladybug folded her arms. “But he’s not a real cat.”

Lavender shrugged. “Just a thought, I mean,” He looked up at ladybug with a grin. “He’s looking at it like he wants to propose.”

Ladybug chuckled slightly as lavender moth pushed play again.

The guard then walks on screen with her flashlight pointed towards chat. He immediately books it without looking back.

As lavender switches screens Ladybug couldn’t help but laugh as chat slammed his right foot into a trashcan.

“Doesn’t he have night vision?” She laughed.

“I thought so?”

“How did he not see that coming?”

He thought for moment before responding. “I’m actually not sure.” He chuckled.

Ladybug was now leaning against the office chair as she intently watched the computer.

While there was no camera behind the pillar where chat noir hid, they could still see the glow of the gem disappear from around the corner. Followed by the security guard who started searching the area, having not seen where he went.

Because there was no sound recorded through the footage, they could not hear what had alerted the guard, but whatever it was, was enough to make her turn and run back the way she came.

Ladybug had been carefully watching as chat made his way back towards the (supposed) noise when the screen suddenly started to cut. Not fully blacking out just glitching rapidly, red, blue, and yellow.

Ladybug folded her arms. Now moving away from her leaning position on the chair she let out a small breath. “Well, that’s inconvenient.” She thought. “Why’d the cameras have to cut out then? They couldn’t have waited till he left the building?”

Her thoughts were cut off as Lavender moved to a different camera.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Going to the spot where the other person broke in.”

“Oh yeah.” Ladybug had been so focused on chat she had forgotten about the second break in. Although, this just raised a whole new question. “You don’t think he has an accomplice, do you?”

“Not sure.” He didn’t look away from the computer as he spoke. “But we can try and find out.”

Scrolling through the cameras Lavender made it to the position of the back door, no glitches were present on the screen. He then turned back the clock to when chat had broken in: 1:50 am: everything was still. No doors had seemingly been touched.

With a small shake of the handle, the door had been opened, but right as the person was stepping through the cameras glitched out again.

“What!” Lavender moth exclaimed, straightening his chair. “That doesn’t make any sense!”

“What is it?”

“Hold on, I need to check something.”

Ladybug had learned to let him do his thing, before bombarding him with questions. Ever since their first introduction he had always been one for fact checking. He’d rather be right about something than stupidly say something false.

Lavender slid a hand through his hair, leaning back in his chair as he scrolled back to the previous cameras. “Somethings not right.” He stated.

“What’s wrong?” She asked again.

“The cameras.” He replied. “And I don’t only mean the fact they’re glitching.”

“What’s the issue then?”

“See the time?” He said, pointing to the small clock in the corner of the screen: 1:56

“Yeah?”

“This is the exact moment it starts glitching, right?”

She answered him with a nod.

“But watch.” He flicked the screen to a different camera, the one directly next to the one glitching. At the exact same time, but no sign of error anywhere. “All of these cameras are hooked up to the same cables. If they’re glitching due to a cabling issue like the man said, then shouldn’t they all be glitching?”

"That sounds right." Ladybug speculated.

“Mhm,” he continued, again, scrolling back to the back door break in. “Why does this camera glitch,” he again moved to the neighboring camera. “But this one doesn’t. But get this,” He moved back and let the tape play, the glitchy black figurer walking off screen. Right as they step off the camera goes back to normal. “It just fixes itself.”

“Do you have a theory?” she asked. “Because that’s what it sounds like.”

He smiled. “It’s more like a small idea, but I guess it could qualify as a theory.” He scooted the chair so she could step closer. “If this was some type of wiring issue, it couldn’t just go back to normal on its own, unless someone fixed it.” He glanced back at the screen. “If someone fixed it, it would be more realistic if they knew the problem to begin with.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying, I don’t think this was a cabling issue.” He looked up at her. “I think someone hacked into the system.”

Ladybug raised an eyebrow as she looked back towards the glitchy screen. “But as far as we know Chat Noir works alone, apart from this random person,” she gestured to the figure on the screen. “And they couldn’t have done it considering they were in the building, presumably, helping Chat at the times it glitched out.”

“This is true.”

“Are you saying you think there is someone else involved?”

He nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

Ladybug studied the screen. He made many good points, all of which seemed reasonably true, but the real question behind It all, was ‘who’?