Getting home had proved more difficult than he had initially thought.

You see, he'd allowed the chauffeur to drive off since he didn't really mind walking the remainder the the journey to his house. He and Marinette lived quite closets each other, after all.

However, he hadn't planned on her kissing him (which he certainly wasn't complaining about) and turning his legs to jelly. So what should have only been a five minute walk bordered around the lines of twenty instead.

Adrien couldn't find it in himself to care.

When he got back, he found his Dad still awake sitting in his study up late as he was still scrawling designs.

As Adrien strolled past the room, feeling lighter than air, Gabriel swivelled around on his seat to welcome his son home. Having said that, the words died in his throat as he noticed the blonde's state.

"Adrien? God son, what were they feeding you at that dance? Are you okay?"

Adrien drew out a blissful sigh as he stood at the foot of the stairs, fingers tracing the corner of his lips. "Perfect Dad," He turned towards the man, a stupidly lovesick expression upon his face. "Life's just perfect."

That was until it wasn't.

Adrien sat at a table in the library, humming a little as he flicked through the book's pages. After being told he had a French presentation coming up, he had decided to 'hit the books' as they say, and do some extra research to help with it. Suffice to say, he was getting very little work done. What with the events that had unfolded the previous night.

"That's not going to be really effective," A voice came from behind him, unsettlingly cold. He put down his book to take a look at the newcomer, a tall, thin boy with blonde hair - a similar shade to his - and a pair of storm grey eyes. He wore a dark grey suit - just like the shade of his eyes - and it fit him pretty well. Maybe tailor made? And just by looking at him, Adrien could tell that he seemed to surpass his own age by two or three years.

"How so? Are you not much of a book fan?"

The boy gave him a disapproving look, as if he were already judging him. "No, I mean try looking at the words on the page."

"I am," Adrien shot back. What was this guy's problem?!

"No you're not. Look really closely. Just focus your eyes on the words," Deciding to do as the strange boy told (he looked like someone he honestly didn't want to mess with), Adrien focused his attention solely on the ink scrolled across the pages. At first nothing happened, the words appeared to be nor-

Woah.

Just as if he had Dyslexia, the words mixed across the page becoming complete and utter nonsense. But then again, hadn't they always been like that?

"Wha- I don't understand. Why are the words doing this?" Adrien shifted his gaze back to the other boy, face baffled.

Yet just as before, the stranger continued to be vague.

"Adrien," How did he know his name? He'd never told it to him! "Deep down you know the answer to that, don't you."

Did he really?

Was it something to do with these strange memories he had been receiving lately?

His weird gut feeling of how something wasn't quite right?

His odd dreams he ignored?

How everything seemed just a tad too perfect?

Although perhaps he'd known it all along, just refusing to acknowledge the truth because it was too unbearable. Things were just too beautiful here. He hadn't wanted to let it all go.

Reluctantly, he turned back to the boy, eyes dull. "You can't read in a dream."

The boy nodded at him, confirming his worst fears. "Exactly."

It was then that his perfect paradise turned to hell. Sirens began screaming as the police began their work (something which, now he thought about, they hadn't done in a few days. The crime rate had been far too low). However, they weren't out for criminals. They were out for him. Because now he knew. He knew the truth. The truth they had tried ever so hard to hide from him.

The stranger turned to him and uttered a simple word into his ear, his whisper echoing throughout his mind. "Run."

Well, he didn't need to be asked twice.

Body fuelled with adrenaline (or Adrienaline), his legs carried him out of the building.

He whizzed down the street, nearly stumbling as he went. Adrien didn't even care about the weird looks people cast him as he raced. He just needed to get there. To get to Master Fu's. It was his only chance at getting out of this stupid dream! Fu could help. He knew what to do. Surely he would exist here?!

He doubled over, regaining his breath as he turned to look up at the building. To where Master Fu's was.

Correction: where it should be.

Where once stood the Grand Master's home, was now only a pile of rubble. Flattened out as if the place had never existed.

No! No! No!

This just couldn't be happening.

Nu-uh.

This was just a dream. Some weird crazy dream-

Oh. It was a dream.

…Curse this weird logic.

Adrien leaned back against a wall and rubbed his temples, gathering his thoughts as he did so.

Master Fu's had been his plan. His only plan. It was his ticket back!

But now it was gone, the building being nonexistent. So how on Earth was he meant to get back home? It wasn't as if an opportunity would just go ahead and present itself-

"Adrien?" Her voice was faint, almost lost to the world. Yet his time as Chat Noir (at least he thought he was - his memories of what was real and fake were still kind of fuzzy) had helped improve his hearing.

His Mother was calling him.

She approached him steadily, eyes glistening as if they had previously been lined with tears.

"Mum?" He whispered, words unsure. "Is that you?"

"Yes sweetheart it's me," She spoke softly to him, coaxing him to approach her. Voice sickeningly sweet. Maybe too sweet? Yet, without really thinking about it, Adrien complied, taking a few steps forward.

"We're worried about you, your Dad and I. Please come back,"

"Come back to us, Mon Chaton," Adrien faltered, bringing his shaking hand back down to his side.

Mon Chaton.

Come back to us.

Her words echoed throughout his brain, but not with her Mum's voice. The pitch was higher, as if the words were being spoken by another teenager around his age.

He knew that voice.

He just couldn't forget that voice!

He loved and cared for that voice! He just couldn't forget her!

She was the one who called him that every day.

She was his Lady!

… My Lady.

Adrien staggered back a few paces in shock, much to the confusion of the woman before him. "Adrien? My little Chaton?" Her tentative voice repeated.

The boy's eyes narrowed somewhat as he clenched his fists. His posture straightened into one far more defensive.

"No," His words were surprisingly cold, void of any emotion. "No I'm not."

"Pardon?" Emilie took a small step towards him.

"I'm not your little Chaton," His voice rose slightly as he went on. "That nickname can be used by Ladybug and my real Mum only."

"Adrien? Your scaring me… I don't quite understand."

"I think you do, don't you? This… all of this," We waved his hands out to gesture to the space around them. "None of it is real. It's all a dream. A perfect reality for me."

"But…"

"No brain games, whoever you are. I've got you all figured out," He quirked his lips in a movement that lasted all but three seconds.

"Okay fine," Emilie (or whoever this woman was) snarled, an action which took Adrien aback. He hadn't expected her to outright drop her sweet attitude so suddenly. Her smile had dissipated, leaving a raging woman in her place. Something which seriously didn't look right on his Mum.

"But do you really just want to leave here? It's perfect," Her words oozed with venom. "Your Father loves you here. He appreciates you. Your Mum is alive, you get to spend time with your friends, you are free without having to have an alter ego to feel that way. The city is safe! …And you even have yourself a girlfriend." She chuckled dryly at the last part. A sound similar to the scraping of sandpaper. "Do you really want all of this to go away?"

Adrien's head twitched a tad, before he set his gaze on her. "Okay, so I know my life is far from perfect, but it's real. It's way better than this lie," He hesitated a moment, measuring his next choice of words carefully. "Besides, my Father does love me in his own way. I still have amazing friends… and I have Ladybug."

"Hmm, I guess so. But tell me, how are you planning on getting back?"

Her words were a cold shock to him, presenting him with a bitter reality.

How was he meant to get home?

Hmm…

"Well… this is my dream isn't it?"

"Well done on stating the obvious, boy."

Adrien indubitably ignored her.

"So… If it's mine, then I should be able to gain control of it. It's all in here," He gave the side of his head a small tap.

"I just need to focus," He borrowed his brow and squeezed his eyes shut, mind in deep concentration of all of the positive things he loved about his life. Of all of the things he wanted to get back to. He thought of how Nino would smile when he wanted to listen to his beats, he thought of how Alya would enthusiastically show him images from her blog (her real one: the LadyBlog), how Marinette's eyes would twinkle when she worked on her sewing, how free and uplifted he felt as Chat and…

… The smirk of Ladybug as she formulated another wild yet ingenious plan.

"Urgh, just tap your shoes together or something," The woman voiced her complaints. "What you're doing right now is both cheesy and frustrating to look at."

"As if recreating a scene from the 'Wizard of Oz' wouldn't be cheesy on its own," He spoke underneath his breath, trying to keep his concentration.

Portal, portal, I need a portal. Something to help me get home-

A quick blast of air in his face knocked him back, forcing his eyes back open to regain his balance. In front of him now stood a large vortex of luminous, white light, seemingly leading him into an empty abyss.

"Woah," He breathed, staring at the spectacle before him. "I guess this is my ticket home."

Emilie harrumphed at that. "Seems overkill if you ask me."

Adrien flicked his head back towards her, only just now remembering her presence. "You don't seem to be trying to stop me from leaving."

"There's nothing I can really do to stop you. You weren't willing to listen take me up upon the offer."

"You're just going to let me go? No epic battle required?" Seemed a little easy.

"That's what I just said. And eh, it's your life… You're the one missing out on all of this," Her hand swept the surroundings. The endless shining sun, the beautiful buildings, the distant laughter that could be heard.

Squaring his shoulders, Adrien took a firm step into the portal, its very existence beckoning him to enter. But not before he looked back on the scene at his Mum, allowing a small tear to leak down his cheek. "Bye Mum," He murmured, before jumping into the unknown.

Then all there was was white.

A blinding white.

Adrien flung open his eyes and quickly sat up, mind still in a daze.

Had he done it?

Was he home?

The teenager reached up to his face, fingers brushing across the area around his eyes. A mask. He was wearing a mask again. And ears, and a tail and spandex and, and-

"Chat Noir!" A girl called from somewhere to his left, voice tinged with a hint of disbelief. Wait, was that-

"My Lady?" He groaned, blinking his eyes slowly in attempt to see clearly. A girl in spotted spandex sat on the ground next to him, face red as if she had been crying.

"I thought you were dead," Ladybug sobbed, wiping her face with a hand to remove any excess tears. "You just ran into of that blast and I-"

Oh yes, now he remembered.

They had been fighting an Akuma. Black Mercy.

Apparently, she was sick of living such an awful life (so she had said). Therefore, Hawkmoth had found her and decided that she would be an ideal Akuma for him to get their Miraculouses.

She nearly had been.

The duo had been unsure on what the girl's powers were as she had been yet to attack civilians with them. But then, out of the blue, she had sent out a blast towards Ladybug. And Chat being chat… well, he'd done the only thing he could do.

Intercepted the beam, by using his own body as a shield.

"I had already cleansed the Akuma… but you didn't come back. So I thought… I thought I had lost you Chat," She finished the last sentence rather quietly, voice only audible to him due to his cat-like hearing.

"Hey," He said calmly, as she looked back up at him. "I'm okay now My Lady. Everything's fine," After a slight moments pause, the boy wrapped his arms around her body in a tight hug, hoping that she wouldn't brush him off. "I'm alright now."

He felt Ladybug's arms encircle his back as she buried her head in his chest. "Thank you for coming back Chaton," Came her muffled reply.

Adrien gave off a consent sigh as he gathered through his thoughts.

He was home and - although things weren't the best - it wasn't a lie. He had his Lady back. He had his real friends back. Nino, Chloe, Alya and-

Marinette.

Chat stiffened slightly at the mention of her name, eyes bulging widely.

Oh.

Mon.

Dieu.

HOW IN THE WORLD WAS HE MEANT TO LOOK MARINETTE IN THE EYE THE NEXT DAY?!

.

.

.

The two superheroes, still so very content and happy to stay in their own bubble (although Adrien was having an internal crisis), failed to notice a blonde individual just across the park from them who had been stood against a tree. His steely grey eyes had been onlooking the whole ordeal.

AN: Well that's it finished! My first multiple chaptered fic which I actually managed to finish XD Hoping I didn't make the characters way too ooc.

…Or the ending way too anticlimactic.

This fic is also set sometime in the future where he knows where Master Fu's place is.

And if you're wondering who this stranger is, he's meant to be Felix (this will later be revealed in my next fic which is basically his pov of all of this).