Keep the Mask, It Goes With Your Costume

~Chapter Four: The Friend~

As Cat Noir began his search for his potentially lost friend, that friend began her search for a place to live in secret.

Ladybug needed somewhere secret, yet close to Paris, to stay. She needed to be where people wouldn't find her, but also be where she could easily get to akumas. She swung aimlessly around Paris for three hours, hoping with a hint of luck that the right place might kind of just show up. But, it didn't. Her searching led to absolutely no prevail. It was seven o'clock now and she was getting hungry, not to mention she needed to meet up with Cat Noir for patrol in just 2 short hours. She felt like a failure, first she messed up her whole life by letting Lila damage her miraculous, and now she was trying desperately to help herself and nothing was working. Marinette hated the feeling of being helpless, and it was all she was experiencing right now. This was going to be impossible, there was no place in Paris she could hide without anyone finding out, it was hopeless.

Marinette had probably already been having one of the worst days of her life, and this wasn't helping at all. She swung over to the nearest tall building and landed, and from there just sat down, and took a deep breath. But who was she kidding? A deep breath wasn't making her feel any better! This was horrible, just horrible. She couldn't take it any more. She couldn't keep pretending that she was okay just because she's a superhero. But she couldn't cry either, superheroes make sacrifices, she can't expect it to be easy and just wallow in her grief when it was difficult.

But stressing over how she was supposed to feel made the feelings worse. She hugged her knees, put her head down onto them, and cried. It was so so unprofessional for a superhero to cry, they were supposed to be role models and idols for people. Heroes needed to be strong and confident so people would trust them, vulnerability was not a good quality. Which made Marinette feel nothing like a hero. Being more vulnerable, upset, and self conscious then she'd ever been, Marinette felt more like someone that relied on other people to protect her rather than the hero she was. Such an irony that despite feeling like the opposite of a hero, she was forced to be one for......well maybe forever.

It wasn't like Ladybug, it was closer to Marinette wearing a Ladybug costume. But, is that not how its always been? Ladybug has always been Marinette, as Marinette has always been Ladybug, but this wasn't the same. Being Ladybug improved the clumsy girl's confidence and strength. Although it didn't seem to be working now. Marinette had never been frightened like this before when she was transformed. Being Ladybug made the self conscious girl feel so capable of completing anything that stood in her way, obviously, Marinette didn't quite feel like that right now. But she didn't care, she was going to be scared anyway, she wouldn't cover up her fear just because of a costume, she cried harder for a while over thinking her predicament too much, hoping for a solution.

Ladybug continued silently crying to herself on that tall building. Since she'd been pretty delirious from the stress, Ladybug hadn't realized that she had unintentionally landed on a large building that her friend lived in. Well, if you could call this person her friend.

This 'friend' spotted Ladybug on the roof, and noticed that the hero looked pretty upset. She decided to check and see if something happened to the brave superheroine. She climbed up the staircase and opened the door to see Ladybug sitting there, quietly crying. "Ladybug?" The young girl asked, slowly walking toward where Ladybug was. "Are you okay?" It was obvious Ladybug had just been crying, and she wanted to help.

But Ladybug freaked out when she heard this familiar voice, and had to get away as quickly as possible. This particular girl was not the best ever at keeping secrets, and if she found out Ladybug was upset, or worse, WHY Ladybug was upset, it wouldn't be good. Marinette quickly threw her yoyo and swung over to the next building before her 'friend' could notice that she was crying.