Unbroken

Chapter one

"M'lady?"

"There's a fire escape. I can go down that way." She said, knowing it was what he was going to ask. It was always like that with them though, like they could read each other's thoughts. He always seemed to have known exactly what she wanted, what she needed. Do you know what it is that I really want Chaton? She said in her mind. Can you hear my thoughts? Can you feel the beating of my heart the way that I feel yours? She questioned herself as she watched the slow rise and fall of his chest. Marinette felt she was betraying her own heart by looking at Chat like this.

Her breath on his face let him know how close she was to him, his hand still cradling her waist. He could smell cookies in her hair. He hadn't noticed it before. Perhaps the transformation masked it like everything else. It was familiar and made him feel warm inside. Chat carefully moved his hand up Ladybug's arm until he found her cheek, gently rubbing his thumb across her skin. He wished he could feel her softness without the gloves.

"I'll wait here for awhile. You'll have plenty of time. I won't look."

"Chat, I..." She began, and he held his breath and waited, but there was no sound. When his ring beeped again he reluctantly let her go and felt her slowly move from his grasp. A moment later, Plagg fell into his lap and she was gone.

~~~~~
Adrien jumped through his bedroom window and dropped his transformation, flopping onto his bed. Not only had he been having to battle more complex akumas lately, but his father had kept his schedule packed for months. He'd barely had time to sleep, let alone catch up with anyone. He knew he should try and sleep now, but his mind was racing. Something was different about Ladybug. It wasn't the first time one or both their transformations had fallen, but it was the first time she hadn't tried to hide. She trusted him, but somehow it felt more than that. Before his own transformation wore off, she had hesitated, like she had wanted to stay.

Adrien shook it off, picking up his phone to check his email. Any tiredness soon left him though when Adrien received an email from the university he was to finally start attending. He had been waiting for his class schedule, but this was not what he was expecting to see at all. Printing it out, he ran into the hall and found Nathalie walking through the corridor. "Nathalie." He called out, his father's assistant taking in his crossed features. "Do you know anything about this?"

He showed her the paper and watched her expression change. "I don't understand Adrien." She said, shaking her head. "I confirmed your on campus enrolment last week." Her bewilderment was clear to Adrien as she handed the paper back to him. He should have known Nathalie wouldn't do something like this.

"Then I guess only one other person who would have been responsible then."

Adrien marched towards his father's office. He didn't know if he was angry, frustrated or both. Adrien thought he was used to his father manipulating his life, but he wasn't sure he could handle much more. After his father had pulled him out from the last year of Lycèe and back into homeschooling again the one light in the dark Adrien had was that he would be able to attend university the following year, maybe even get his own apartment. That went out the window when his father forced him to then take a gap year, insisting that he should learn more about the company while upping his PR work. Now he was already a year behind his peers in starting study and the forced isolation was beginning to have an affect on his mental well-being. If it hadn't been for Ladybug he may very well have gone stark raving mad.

Adrien knocked on the door and waited for permission to enter. Permission! His father's office in his own house and he still needed permission to enter like a naughty little boy who had been sent to the principal's office. It added insult to injury.