You're The Music That's Been Playing In My Head: Book 3

Kuro Neko: Part 1

Gigantitan roams the city crying, holding Clara in his grasp, Ladybug, Carapace, Pegasus, Pigella, Lady Abeille, and I charging at him. Once again I thought it was an excessive amount of team members to have, all we really needed was Carapace, Lady Abeille, or Pigella to defeat him but of course, even though I was also a guardian it was Ladybug's final say. So we used shield to trap Gigantitan, use voyage to deliver gift, venom to paralyze him. I used my ice powers to help pry Clara out of Gigantitan's grasp to escape while Ladybug dealt with the Megakuma.

"By the way, where's Chat Noir?" Clara had asked during an interview. "You've saved Paris without him quite a few times recently. Are you guys at odds with each other?" 

"Why would you say that?" LB asks, blinking in confusion.

"Again you've saved Paris a few times without out and look at how many of your superhero friends you've had to call on just to make up for his absence."

Ladybug looks back at the five of us pounding it as I direct them to where their meet-up spot was

"Of course not. It's just that he's um a partner like any other and the most important thing is to pick the best superheroes for each mission with or without Chat Noir. No matter what we've got a great team that'll always be there to protect Paris."

It wasn't long after we had collected back the miraculous and headed home that we had to come out again as Rogercop was re-akumatized and we had to recruit Polymouse, King Monkey, Ryuko, and Purple Tigress's help. It didn't take long before we defeated him and fixed everything. We were directing everyone to their meet-up spots when Chat Noir appeared.

"Hey!" Everyone said before their miraculous beeps and flashes, LB rushing them to go.

"He meow are you ladies?" Chat asks with a bow, ringing his bell.

"Great thanks but we gotta go retrieve all these miraculous," Ladybug says getting ready to leave.

"I can lend you a paw to help save time."

"Thanks, Kitty Cat but it's the guardian's job to do it."

"He is a guardian," I point out, my attention turning to my phone as a Purple Tigress and Ryuko text me they reached their spots undetected.

"Yeah, I know you and (s/n) take up the bulk of responsibilities but I can at least do this."

"You don't know where the rendezvous points are and I don't have time to-" LB starts to argue, trying to leave again.

"You know playing cat and mouse is my forte-"

"If you want to save me time stop wasting it in the first place!" She yells at him.

"Hey now-" I start to cut in.

"(s/n) go, the longer we wait the more at risk everyone will be," She interrupts me.

"Fine but this ain't over," I warn her before taking off soon hearing Chat yell back.

"Take my miraculous back when you're done!"

What? What the heck does that mean? I wonder as I ran before a certain conversation I had with Chat re-surfaces.

.

.

.

Chat and I were hanging out on a rooftop waiting for Ladybug to be done with her portion of patrol, Chat and I making small talk. The topic had turned to being superheroes again. The three would have this conversation every so often noting how their reactions to being a hero had changed over time.

"Sometimes I think about what would happen if I quit. I never would not at least until Shadowmoth is taken care of but the idea of being done with all of this nonsense, the pain...the stress...the heartache. It's a refreshing thought to think of a life where I dropped it all to live normally again," I admit, looking into the sunset.

"Really? I can't imagine giving this life up. The upsetting parts yes I would love to leave behind but being able to hang out with you and Ladybug...Those are the best parts of my day going back to my everyday life would be torture," Adrien admits with a sheepish grin.

"Right...I never thought about it from your perspective...This being the highlight of your day...As sweet as it is, it really shouldn't be the case."

"I know but you know how my father is...This is the only escape I get. Did you know I almost threw this away?"

"What...? You mean like when Plagg first appeared?"

"Nope. Back when we fought Syren and first started getting power-ups. I was getting tired of being left in the dark about Master Fu and what you guys were doing I threatened to quit. I don't want to be the guy that's left hopelessly in the dark or left behind. Then it feels like I don't belong," Chat admits, playing with his ring."

"Chat...I promise you, you'll never feel like you have to quit again, I'll make sure you're included," I reassure him, pulling him in for a side hug as Ladybug lands behind us.

.

.

.

My eyes widen as I recall what he told me and I skid to a stop as I look back in a panic. "Don't tell me he..." I trail off before running back only to find the black cat ring on the roof.

"No..." I trail off as I pick the ring up and clutch it to my chest, calling out for Chat Noir.

Ladybug rushes over to me a minute later as she asks "He didn't did he?"

I show her the ring in my palm, guilt washing over me, I had broken my promise to him and let him down. She gives me a distraught look when everyone starts calling us, asking where we are. We didn't have time to worry about this. 

"Stay in position. We're on our way," We both respond as we go to collect the miraculous.

Later when we were at home Ladybug asked Plagg questions.

"What's gotten into him? I didn't do anything."

"Didn't do anything?! Yeah, you did! You've neglected a very classy piece of camembert on your plate for too long! As a result, it got runny and moldy!" Plagg yelled at her as she gave him a confused look.

"What? Chat Noir gave me any camembert."

"Of course not! Chat Noir is the camembert! For a while now, you've been neglecting this camembert— I mean Chat Noir, and going on adventures with the all other cheeses!"

" But he should be happy about it, it gives him more time off," Ladybug pointed out, getting yelled at more.

"Chat Noir doesn't wanna have time off, Ladybug! Saving Paris with you is the best part of his day! Not being able to have broken his heart."

Ladybug turns to me in confusion. 

"It's true. I know you don't want to know anything about his personal life but you need to understand that he doesn't have a good home life and isn't allowed to do much," I explain with a sigh.

"Exactly! Being Chat Noir was the small bit of freedom in his life and you took that away from him!" Plagg shouts.

"I'm sorry if that's the case, but I'm doing my best as a guardian."

"That doesn't change the fact we've let him down. That I've let him down," I say firmly, hating the fact I had let myself let him be pushed away, left in the dark, and feel useless.

"I know just be more thoughtful. So give me the miraculous, I'll give it back to him, we'll chow down and everything will go back to normal," Plagg says, going to grab the ring.

"How can we be sure?" I ask. "He already wanted to leave once before for the same reasons. What if he's being serious about quitting? I've tried Plagg to keep him in the loop and be a part of the team but there are some things out of my control that'll just keep hurting him," I say, glancing at Ladybug while referring to the Chat Blanc incident which he still didn't know about.

"Woah now may I remind you that Cat Noir's a very competent superhero and that your powers complement each other?" Plagg says when LB cuts in.

"(y/n)'s right if Chat is serious about quitting we can't force him to continue but I also know I can't do it without a Cat Noir... So I'll just have to choose another one and try a different approach."

Author: I just realized counting this episode there are only two more episodes till the finale...Here I thought writing season 4 was going slow. I'm not ready for season 5 *sigh*