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Why does she do this to herself? She had plenty of time, no akuma attacks this week at all. It should have been no problem. Yet here she was, at eleven thirty-three, struggling through her physics assignment that was due tomorrow.
Cursing her procrastination, she tore out the page of scrap paper she had been working on and tossed it aside. Apparently, tangent is useless for forces in equilibrium problems. Who knew?
She glanced at her clock and groaned. It was going to be a long, hard night.
------
He was starving. And bored. And not at all tired. Those three don't mix well.
That was how Adrien ended up flying across the rooftops of Paris at eleven thirty. He figured that if he could wear himself out, he could get to sleep despite the constant growling of his stomach, and Plagg, in a rare show of sympathy, didn't argue.
His father, kind and loving man that he is, decided that Adrien had reached the age that he should start losing his baby fat. The fact that he hadn't yet seemed to infuriate him, as if not losing his baby fat when told to was some form of teenage rebellion on Adrien's part. As a result, Adrien's already constricting model diet was reduced to even less. And the poor kid was hungry.
Naturally, his father knew nothing of the "extra-curricular activities" his son did during akuma attacks. If Gabriel Agreste knew his son was Chat Noir in his down time, well, Adrien tried not to think about that. If the cost of being Chat Noir was a little hunger here and there, he figured that was okay.
No way was he going to let his lady know, though. He could hear the concern in her voice already. He didn't want to worry her. Besides, it was only until that stubborn baby fat left. He could do it. He just had to suffer through the clenching of his stomach until then. Really, the only time it gave him trouble was when he was trying to sleep.
That is why he had donned the mask tonight, attempting to tire himself out. Unfortunately, it seemed to work too well.
With a grunt, he collapsed, energy spent, on a roof. With barely enough strength to lift his head, he was helpless as he slid off, landing with a thump on the balcony below. Now he could sleep. Just close his eyes and-
"Chat Noir? What's wrong? Is there an akuma?"
With painstaking effort, he lifted his eyelids at the timid questions laced with worry, but couldn't find the strength to answer the girl. Why was he so tired? He couldn't remember. Who was that girl? She looked familiar. Does he know her? For some reason, an image of an umbrella pops into his head. He's too tired to figure out why as he closes his eyes again, just wanting to sleep.
------
Once again, Marinette was at a loss at what to do. Tikki had fallen asleep an hour ago, and she didn't want to wake her, the poor thing rarely got time off from Marinette freak-out control, so she wasn’t going to ask her for advice. She had to decide for herself what to do with the superhero that just collapsed on her balcony. She was pretty sure it wasn't an akuma. If it was, he would have called Ladybug from his baton before fighting if it was this late, right? All doubt and inner debates vanished when the tiny little whimper from her partner reached her ears.
Mentally berating herself for not doing so sooner, she heaved him up off the floor and dragged him to her bed, flopping him onto it. This seemed to rouse him, at least momentarily.
"Wha-? Where-?" He breathed, exhausted.
"You, um, sorta collapsed on my balcony, so, um, I dragged you onto my bed." A beat of silence as she tried to figure out what to do. "Can I, can I get you anything? A glass of wat-"
She was cut off by the timely thunder that was his stomach.
Suppressing a giggle, she asked, "Can I get you anything to eat?"
His stomach answered for him.
Still suppressing the giggles, she slid down the stairs and out of her room to the kitchen, grabbing a few pastries left over from the bakery. Back upstairs, she found Chat Noir sitting up, obviously confused.
"Um, hi. I, uh . . . I'm not really sure how I ended up here, but, uh . . ."
"Don't worry about it, kitty cat." She added a wink for good measure. "I brought you something."
She handed him the plate of pastries and once again repressed the urge to giggle. He was staring at her in awe, as if she had just nonchalantly offered him her firstborn instead of a snack.
"Thank you." He whispered reverently before digging in with gusto.
"It's no biggie.” She said, sitting on the bed next to him. “They're leftovers from the bakery that would be stale by tomorrow, and your stomach was growling, and you were kind of out of it, and I didn't want you to be hungry, especially since you help out the city, and you keep us safe from akumas, and I'm rambling, aren't I? Sorry."
She gave him a sheepish grin.
"No, I'm shahry, I'b intruded an' oo pobbly 'anna 'leep an'-"
She did burst into giggles at that.
Slightly miffed, he swallowed his mouthful and tried again, pushing off the bed. "I said, 'I'm sorry'. I've intruded into your room, and it's late, and you've got school tomorrow, and you probably want to sleep, and I'm keeping you up, and-"
She held a finger to his lips to stop him.
"Now you're the one rambling." She giggled. "It's fine. I was up anyway. Physics homework."
She made a face that he found rather adorable, similar to the one his lady made when dealing with a particularly annoying akuma.
"You can stay up here and eat and rest while I do my homework. You can leave whenever you want. The trapdoor above you leads to the balcony."
She climbed back down the stairs to her room to continue her work as he gaped at her. He was completely blown away. She was, hands down, the nicest person he had ever met. She was feeding him and letting him rest, not even bothering to ask him why he had collapsed or what he was doing on her roof. He would have to find some way to thank her, later. Right now, he just wanted to eat. He had heard that hunger was the best seasoning, but he was pretty sure those pastries would be absolutely amazing even if he wasn't starving.
After finishing off the last slice of heavenly cinnamon bread, he climbed down the stairs to return the plate and properly thank his savior. What he didn't expect was the pile of crumpled paper and the aforementioned savior pulling her pigtails in frustration.
"I don't understand! How does the coefficient of static friction fit into this?" She muttered, frazzled.
Glancing at the problem from over her shoulder, he frowned.
"You mean kinetic?"
He did not expect the backhanded slap to the face as she screamed, flailing her arms about and toppling over her chair.
"Sorry! Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you." He shot an apologetic grin at the poor girl, and offered her a hand up from the floor, the other hand massaging his cheek.
After some heavy breathing and internally screaming, she took his hand as he helped her up.
"Sorry. I shouldn't have snuck up on you like that. I just wanted to thank you again and give this back." He held out the plate, waiting for her to yell at him or smack him again.
"It's okay, I just wasn't expecting a voice suddenly in my ear. I was so focused, I forgot you were here. Sorry. I didn't mean to slap you."
He stared at her in shock. She was apologizing?! Could this girl be any more kind? He was dumbstruck for a moment before collecting his wits.
"It's kinetic." He cringed, innerly cursing his social ineptitude at her quizzical look. "I mean, for the problem. It's kinetic friction, not static."
Her face lit up. "Oh! Then the force on the box is the cosin minus the kinetic friction?"
He chuckled. He couldn't help it. She was so adorable, and so very wrong. He grabbed her pencil and began explaining the problem and its solution.
------
"And that's the last one!"
She breathed a sigh of relief. After Chat Noir started helping her, physics was easy.
"What a relief. I thought we'd be static all night."
She stared at him, his grin reaching from ear to ear.
"You managed to make it nearly an hour without a single pun. I'm almost impressed."
"Well, homework is serious business. I didn't want you getting dis-torqe-ted." His grin grew.
"Says the cat who crashed onto my balcony in the middle of the night."
His grin became apologetic, hand absentmindedly scratching the back of his head in that nervous tic of his.
"Sorry about that. Guess I should probably get going, huh?"
Struck with a sudden idea, she shoved him back in his chair.
"Wait right here!"
Dumbfounded, he watched her shoot down the stairs to the house below. Sitting back in the folding chair she had pulled from her closet, he grabbed yet another cookie from the third plate of pastries she had brought up. He felt a little bad that she had gone to all this trouble for him and that he had eaten so much, but he wasn’t starving anymore at least. He was determined to pay her back somehow. His thoughts skidded to a halt when she bolted into her room again, panting heavily and holding out a paper bag.
"These are . . . for you!" She finally managed to heave out.
He curiously took the bag and peeked inside. Before he could protest, she explained.
"As a thank you for helping me finally understand physics. Or, sorta understand it, anyway." She grinned at him.
"But-"
She cut him off. "I won't take no for an answer." Her grin was gone. She glared at him. He gulped. "I don't want you running around exhausting yourself when you haven't even eaten properly."
He nodded, not trusting his voice enough to speak. He couldn't remember the last time someone had cared for him like this. Tears started welling up, but he blinked them back.
"Thank you." Was all he could manage to get out after swallowing his tears and a sniff or two.
Her heart went out to her poor kitty. She could tell he was trying not to show how much her simple gesture touched him. Pulling him close, she tried to put as much love and compassion as she could into a hug. She knew she hadn’t shown tenderness toward him like this as Ladybug, so she was trying to make up for it now.
"No problem, kitty. You've helped me out before, plus the physics tutoring tonight, not to mention keeping all of Paris safe on a daily basis." And staying by my side when I'm Ladybug. She added mentally.
He managed a weak chuckle. "That's mostly Ladybug. I just help her out. She's the real her- ow!" He rubbed the top of his head where she had just whacked him, scowling. "What was that for?" He didn't understand why she looked so angry.
"Don't you dare say that! You are just as much a hero as she is! We all depend on you. Don't go selling yourself short. I won't hear of it." She glared at him.
He had lost count of how many times this girl had surprised him. He was once again staring at her, mouth agape, completely dumbstruck. He brushed it off in an attempt to appear unaffected.
"Doesn't mean you have to whack me."
Her glare hardened. He didn't think that was possible.
"I will whack you again if I hear you talking like that." She struck an idea. "What would Ladybug say if she heard you?"
The thought had not occurred to him before. Now that he thought about it, she would probably have the same reaction as Marinette.
"That's what I thought." She said with a terse nod.
For the umpteenth time, he could only stare at her. She was not only immeasurably kind, it seemed, but also perceptive and, dare he say it, perspicacious. If he wasn't careful, she might figure out why he wasn't eating properly, or, even worse, who he was under the mask.
"I'd, um, probably, heh, probably better be, uh, getting home." He stuttered out. Why was he stuttering?
She smiled. "Probably." Her smile morphed into a yawn. "Good night, kitty." She said, rubbing her eyes.
"Good night, Princess. Thank you, again, for the pastries. They were amazing."
"You better not make this a habit, Chat Noir." She warned.
He waggled his eyebrows in answer before bounding up the stairs to her second floor, opening the trapdoor and slipping out. She followed him to latch it behind him, groaning at his childish antics, pausing when she saw him poke his head back in the room.
"I hope you realize, Princess," He purred, "That you just fed a stray." With a smirk, he shut the trapdoor and bounded off into the night.
She groaned, flopping onto her bed. She was going to get an earful from Tikki tomorrow, no doubt. She smiled into her pillow. It was worth it.