Disclaimer: I don't own Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir.

Given the angry downpour of the dismal skies, Ladybug wondered why she was out in this weather. Chat had chosen not to show up, so what was she doing here? Oh, right. She had to go patrol. Besides, Tikki's presence from within her, coupled with the crashing storm, was even better at drowning it out than music. She knew the dangers of letting her negative emotions take hold of her. She couldn't let herself get an akuma. No, she just had to pretend she was fine.

She heard splashes behind her and angry muttering that cats shouldn't get wet. Once again, she put on a cheerful facade. "Hey, Chat. I didn't expect you to be out tonight."

"Yeah, well, we won't have to be out here much longer if you give me your Miraculous," he said, surprising her.

"Chat Noir, what are you talking abou..." she said as she spun around, dropping into a fighting chance. As much as she instinctively knew that this was her partner, he wasn't.

"Actually, it's Chat Blanc now," he said, gesturing to his body. Not only had his leather turned white, but his bell had turned silver and his eyes were a more sickly shade of green.

"Who the hell are you and what the hell have you done with my partner?" she asked. Several months ago, she'd have been even more shocked, but her partner had betrayed her once. But that had been unwillingly, while this time... this time she couldn't be so sure.

"I'm hurt, my Lady," he said with chilling familiarity, as if this night wasn't cold enough. "I am your partner. Well, at least I'm the same person. I've merely changed my colors."

"No... No, you can't be! The Chat Noir I know would never-"

"But you don't really know me, my Lady. Give me your Miraculous, and we can be rid of these masks."

"That's funny, you'd still have an akuma and a mask, you idiot."

"Don't call me that." Hurt crept into his voice as the rain quickened its pace. Normally she'd apologize, but not now. After all, why should she apologize? He was obviously the one at fault here, wasn't he? She clenched her fists to push away any opposing thoughts.

"Look, that was an idiotic move on your part. I mean, really, an akuma? What the heck were you thinking?" As he began to try to form an answer, she took a chance to swing her grapple - which was certainly not a yo-yo - at him.

He jumped out of the way. Of course. He knew all of her moves. "I wish we didn't have to do things this way, my Lady." He ran forward and attacked.

It was a flurry of pulled hair, pulled belts, and pulled strings; of metal hitting suits and metal hitting skin. Ladybug would use various objects that littered the alleyway, and Chat Blanc would destroy them. He used multiple Cataclysms, but he made sure to never use them directly on her. It was one more reminder of how this was him and not some black lipstick-wearing knockoff version of him. No, he was doing these things as a lucid, or at least near-lucid, person. "You want to know why I'm doing this?" he finally asked her. "I'll tell you, but I don't expect someone as perfect as you to understand.

"You don't know what it's like to live knowing that you're worthless. It's bad enough when your family does it, or your partner implies it - which you have done but I have not - but have you ever heard your own voice in your head, whispering dark things to you? No, you haven't because-"

"You know nothing about me," she growled before she could stop herself. "The voices you hear in your head? I hear ones just like it! Day in and day out, they're there. They tell me that I'm worthless and stupid. Becoming Ladybug... becoming Ladybug helped to push them back, but..." As she trailed off, she realized that they had stopped fighting when she had begun to speak. Why had she done that? Now he knew. He'd think she was crazy. But he heard his own voice in his head, too. So what did that make them? "And besides," she said softly after taking a deep breath, her voice shaking for reasons other than the cold. "You're not worthless. I am."

"You're so stupid," said a dark whisper in Chat's head. He'd been hearing it for a while now, but he hadn't heard it since he'd given himself up to Hawk Moth. He pushed it out of the way (surprising well, in fact) so he could speak.

"Ladybug, I'm the worthless one in this..." He trailed off, seeing rain-soaked white leather through the corner of his eye. He swallowed unshed tears (or perhaps the rain hid these tears) and stared at the puddle that had collected at their feet. "In this former partnership. Ugh, I'm so stupid."

"Maybe, she began, a dull hope building in her that her personal demons decided to try and extinguish.

"He doesn't really want to be your partner," they told her. "If he did, why would he team up with Hawk Moth? It's all your fault this happened. You're so-" Ladybug clenched her fists, and Chat Blanc took a step back. She looked up, sorrowful and ashamed.

"Sorry, I..." She took a deep breath. "It's one of the things I do to keep them at bay. The voices, that is." He nodded in understanding and dropped his guard.

"But anyways, you're not stupid yourself. You just made a really dumb decision. But you're still my partner, and you're still my friend. And," she said, that dull hope coming back. "And maybe we're not worthless."

He smiled sadly and opened his mouth to say something before a look of pure and utter fear crossed his face. He took a step back, a glowing outline of a mask forming over the white one.

"I'm not releasing you from our deal that easily, Chat Blanc," Hawk Moth said. This was a far worse voice than the usual one. "Now get me her Miraculous!"

"No," Chat tried to say, but he found himself falling to his knees, choking.

"Chat!" Ladybug cried out, immediately kneeling at his side. She stopped herself before she could finish with Noir.

"It's," he said, wide green eyes staring into equally scared and hurting blue ones. "In." A cough that wasn't as strong as it should have been. "The ri-" He was cut off by his eyes glazing over with a light made of the darkest purple.

Chat Blanc stood up, grinning the most wicked of grins. He then grabbed his staff and swung it at her head. She rolled out of the way. She stood up. He lunged for her with a Cataclysm. She dodged and let the poor dumpster behind her rust away to nothing.

When there was a large enough space between them, Ladybug called upon her Lucky Charm. For once, she knew exactly what to do with it the second it fell into her hands.

Chat ran towards her, and this time she didn't try to dodge. This time, she raised her spotted diagonal cutters and broke both his ring and his finger. He made no sound as he fell to his knees; as painful as it was he was glad she had done it. It was one less voice in his head.

Right after she released the cleansed akuma and before she could release her cure, he made her pause. "Wait," he said nervously. "I don't have my Miraculous or my kwami. When you cure me, you'll find out my identity. It's not that I don't want you to know or anything, it's just, well, you never acted as if you wanted to know."

She knelt beside him, the water almost covering her lower legs. She would have interlaced her fingers with his, but his left hand was cradling his broken right. It was hard to tell if it was sorrow or being drenched that caused his cat ears to droop so much.

She put her hand on his shoulder before speaking. "Chat, the reason why I didn't want ou to find out my identity was because, well, the girl you know as Ladybug? She's not really who you think she is. She's a klutz who can barely find the strength to talk to one of the boys she likes and too selfish to open up to the other one. She likes - I like the way people look at me like I'm perfect because there's no way my civilian form could ever come close. I didn't want the second boy to stop looking at me with wonder in his eyes, and yet, along the way, I ended up hurting him. Ended up hurting you.

"But... but as much as I was planning to take the secret of my identity to the grave, multiply that by who knows how much - it's a very big number, mind you - and you get how secretive about my mental illness. And if I can share that with you, then I can definitely share identities with you - if you want to, that is. I won't tell anyone who you are. Do you trust me?"

"My Lady, I trust you more than anyone," he replied, his voice slightly clipped. It was safe to assume that it was due to his throbbing hand. "And yes, I still want to share identities with you. But you're going to have to explain stuff to me, because I probably won't remember this."

"Miraculous Cure!" As a swarm of giant ladybugs sped throughout the alleyway, garbage and garbage bins were restored. (Really, was the trash worth fixing? They guessed that even the seemingly worthless pieces of trash were worth it.) The swarm ended by swarming Chat Blanc, cleansing him. As her earrings beeped, Ladybug realized she could finally tell why white was the Chinese color of mourning. It was a different reason than the reasons that most people had, but it was a personal reason. She was brought out of her musings by an exhausted Adrien crashing against her chest and into her arms. He straightened up, looking nervous and ashamed. He remembered all of it. Perhaps the cure didn't fully work, or perhaps it knew that if these two would be need to have no more huge secrets between them if they were to be able to support, lean on, and occasionally carry one another through life's burdens.

"Thanks," he yawned. "Sorry about that." Ladybug let her transformation go and ignored how Tikki was staring at them. The kwami chose to hide in her friend's jacket.

He adjusted himself so he could see her face, and his eyes widened. Ladybug was the cute girl who sat behind him in class and was always so shy and cheerful? So cheerful. He tried to say something, but it seemed that his mouth had decided not to work at the moment. What bad luck, and he had thought he was rid of it. Plagg. No. What was happening to him? He had given him to Hawk Moth. He had been petty, and shortsighted. He was so worthless. Ladybug's - Marinette's - words came back to him.

Maybe we're not worthless. He vowed to take them to heart, and to make sure that she would never forget them.

"H-hi," Marinette stuttered.

"Um... hi," Adrien said back, practically a mirror when it came to awkwardness. Thankfully, it did not continue for too long because the duo carefully and cautiously wrapped his or her arms around his or her partner's, friend's, and perhaps future lover's torso. This awkward hug changed into a fierce one, one that was full of fingers digging into backs and arms squeezing the breath out of chests. Perhaps they were trying to be both the others' lifeline and use them as a lifeline of their own. Perhaps it was to keep from collapsing and be overtaken by tears that threatened to fall even faster and harder than the deluge they were experiencing. Perhaps it was simply for warmth, for it was raining in the middle of the night and neither of them were wearing the proper clothing.

Well, this was emotionally taxing to write. Sorry if they're OOC, this was more of a vent-fic than trying to make sure their personalities were spot-on. I'm not sure if that pun was intended.