Sorry for not updating!! School has been a lot for me these past 3 weeks. But good news, i'm back (obviously!!) and I should be able to go back on updating every week.

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XY's eyes snapped open, "Get out of my head!"

His breaths were uneven as he forced himself to get up. He turned to the window and noticed that it was still dark out. It was probably midnight.

XY stared at his bed. He couldn't go back to sleep, at least not until he cleared his head. It was like everytime he closed his eyes for more than a minute, he would see his dad yelling at him. Screaming about how much of a disappointment he is.

Xy squeezed his eyes shut. He needed to get out of this room.

He grabbed the closest jacket near him and walked out his door.

-

The frosty air hit XY as soon as he walked out of the hotel.

He looked up the dark sky. You couldn't see a lot of the stars due to air pollution. It made XY frown. He remembered when his mom used to take him camping. Every night, they would look at the stars and she would point at a constellation and tell him the story behind it.

He missed her.

A sudden BANG- snapped XY out of his thoughts. He turned and saw a man wearing a hawaiin t-shirt on the floor, along with a man wearing a white t-shirt and sweats running away.

XY didn't know what to do. Should he help the man or run after the guy? He was fast. He could probably catch the guy. But what about the man on the floor? Was the man still breathing?

In the end, XY turned to the man on the floor.

"Are you alright?" XY asked.

The man coughed. "I should be-" the man tried to stand and almost tumbled over. "I might need a bit of help getting home though."

"I can help." XY assured. "I don't need to go home yet anyways."

The man gave XY a smile that made XY feel warm. XY couldn't help but smile back. "Which way do we need to go?"

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Marinette was out for patrol.

That was a lie. It wasn't really patrol. It was more of an excuse to clear her mind.

Marinette felt like she couldn't breathe. It was like she was in a small room and the walls were closing in on her. She couldn't leave. She could only sit and watch as the walls would crush her to death.

Marinette loved swinging from building to building. It made her feel free. It made her feel like a bird ready to stretch her wings after being trapped in a cage for so long.

Tonight, she wasn't Ladybug or Marinette.

Ladybug often felt like the whole world was resting on her shoulders. Like if she made a single mistake, everyone would judge her for it and hate her.

Marinette was often stressed. Marinette felt like she always had to watch her back, fearing that Lila would do something to her. Marinette had a lot of homework to finish. A lot of commissions to do.

But like she mentioned before, right now, she wasn't any of her two personas. She was Maribug. Maribug was free. Maribug wasn't stressed. Maribug didn't have anyone that had high expectations for her. She was just her.

There was no homework to worry about.

There was no Lila making snide comments about her appearance.

There was no Adrien who glared at her whenever she met his eyes.

There was no Chat Noir who would forcefully ask her on dates, only to throw a giant tantrum when she declined.

There were no hate comments that told her that her life wasn;t worth it. That she should just kill herself .

It was only Maribug and the stars.

It was quiet for a few minutes before Maribug heard voices. They both sounded familiar so Maribug walked closer towards it.

Maribug was facing Master Fu's shop and saw two people standing on the front. One was obviously Master Fu. He was wearing his trademark bright red shirt with white flowers and light brown pants.

Maribug squinted, trying to figure out why the other guy looked so familiar. Maribug could only see the guys back. He was wearing a dark navy jacket with black sweats. He turned and Marinette saw the familiar blue eyes that could only belong to one person.

Maribug felt a frown stretch onto her face. What was Xavier doing with Master Fu?

Maribug studied the blonde haired boy from the top building. His hair was a mess. And not the usually cute kinda mess. It was more like the i-just-walked-through-a-tornado kinda mess. He had bags under his eyes, which made Maribug assume that he couldn't sleep.

She couldn't help but snort. "You and me both."

However, that noise made Xavier turn his head. His light blue eyes met Maribug's dark blue ones.

Fuck.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

When XY helped the man back to his home (he told XY to call him Fu!), he did not expect Ladybug to be watching him.

XY couldn't help but be nervous. Was she still mad about how she got the blue-haired boy akumatized? He apologized! He bought the boy a new guitar and he introduced the kitty band to a good producer and brand deal. He was pretty sure that they were friends now. And if not friends, at least good acquaintances.

Did Ladybug hate him? Can Ladybug even hate anybody? Is he going to be the first person the Ladybug is going to hate?

XY wanted to curl up and cry. As if he needed another flaw.

He faced Fu and gave him a smile.

"Thank you for helping me back to my home."

XY couldn't help but feel warmth from that sentence. "It was no problem. I should probably head back now though."

Fu nodded in agreement and walked inside his massage parlor.

He was about to head to the hotel when Ladybug suddenly appeared in front of him.

If Ladybug was a Pokemon, XY was sure that one of her moves would be teleportation.

"I'm sorry!" XY suddenly blurted out.

"What?"

"I'm sorry for getting the Luka guy akumatized." he couldn't bring his eyes to meet hers.

"Xa-" Ladybug suddenly coughed, "I mean XY," he slowly lifted his eyes from the ground. "It's okay. I'm not mad at you."

"But I caused an akumatization!"

Ladybug let out a twinkling laugh that sounded so familiar to him (but he couldn't figure out why!). He was shaken out of his thoughts when Ladybug gave him a big smile and said, "Chloe caused a ton of akumatizations too and I still gave her the bee miraculous."

That was true.

"So you don't hate me?" XY asked meekly.

"Of course not!" XY couldn't help but give her a small smile. She sounded so offended that she thought that she hated him. "So, why are you walking around this late at night?"

"I just needed to clear my mind. You?"

"Same."

XY didn't know what to say. He looked at her and he could see that her eyes were a bit red. Was she crying? "Are you okay?"

"Huh- what..." Ladybug wouldn't meet his eyes, biting her lip. "I'm fine?"

XY couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." Their eyes met and XY knew that she could hear the silent question he was asking. Are you okay? XY would not be the one that broke their eye contact. A few seconds passed and all XY could hear was their breathing. It was Ladybug that broke the eye contact, "No." she whispered.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

The air was starting to get colder as he waited for her answer.

In the end, she nodded and held her hand out to him.