Summary: When Ladybug and Chat Noir get into a fight they end their friendship, each vowing that they never want to see the other again. But when Adrien, Marinette's school crush, disappears and she can't find Chat anywhere, she fears that Chat Noir has kidnapped Adrien out of rage. When she finds Chat beaten and bloody on a rooftop will the two be able to trust each other again? AU.

A/N: Greetings everyone! Lily here! Just wanted to let you know (whether this is the first or the fifth time you've read this fic) that S&B is currently being edited. Sorry if things are a bit buggy or you get halfway through the fic and the quality of writing goes down because I haven't edited that yet. There's more info about the editing in the last chapter. For now, enjoy the story!

Crossposted: On Wattpad and Ao3. Fic name is Secrets and Betrayals and author name is LilyTheNinjaGirl.

Disclaimer: I do not own this show or the characters, all rights go to their respective owners. This applies for all future chapters.

Chapter 1: The Fight (edited)

For Marinette, the day started out as every other. She slept through her alarm clock and woke up late, exhausted from another akuma battle that had lasted until around 3:00am. Eventually she and Chat Noir had managed to defeat the poor akumatized person and de-evilize the akuma before stumbling off in separate directions yawning and rubbing their eyes.

After her disoriented mind realized exactly what time it was, Marinette rushed about in a blind panic. She threw on her classic pink pants, flowered shirt, and black jacket. Tikki helped by dragging Marinette's schoolbooks into her school bag and finding her hair brush. Marinette quickly brushed her dark hair and put it into her signature two pig tails.

Satisfied with her appearance, she stopped and allowed herself just a few seconds to gaze dreamily at her largest poster of Adrien. His gorgeous green eyes stared back, full of spirit and mirth. The way that one strand of hair fell into the perfect place on his forehead was just so…so...

"Marinette!" Tikki squeaked, snapping the girl out of her thoughts.

"Sorry Tikki." Marinette opened her purse and the little kwami dove into it. The girl then ran down the stairs, grabbing a croissant on the way out of the bakery. She jogged as fast as her legs would take her in the direction of her school. Thankfully, it was right around the corner.

When she reached her classroom (breathing a bit more heavily than she would to admit), she opened the door and tiptoed inside. Madame Bustier was facing the chalk board, allowing her to slip into her normal seat next to her best friend without being noticed. She ignored Alya's questioning look and shook her head. All of her other classmates had their heads buried in their textbooks. Perfect.

As Marinette pulled out her History book, she was staring at one head in particular. Adrien's golden hair glistened in the sunlight that was streaming in through the classroom windows. She noticed that he was yawning and he had dark circles under his eyes.

"What's up with Adrien? Is he okay?" she whispered to Alya.

Alya shrugged. "I don't know, I'll ask Nino later."

"Miss Dupain-Cheng," her teacher's voice rang out. "Not only are you late to class almost every day, but you don't even have the decency to listen to me when you are around to hear what I have to teach you. Really, Marinette! This has gone on long enough. Go to the principal's office!"

Marinette turned bright red and groaned internally as she put the History textbook back into her pink bag. She felt her purse rustle against her side and she knew she would be receiving a lecture from Tikki later. She knew she shouldn't be whispering behind her teacher's back, but she couldn't help being late today! Or yesterday… Or the day before that!

Ignoring her classmate's sympathetic stares, she rose and walked to the door of the classroom. As she passed Adrien he gave her a small, tired smile. Her heart skipped a beat. Unfortunately, her feet did too. She tripped and fell, slamming her elbow against the ground and bruising one of her knees. Madame Bustier came over to make sure that she was alright before ushering her towards the door. Meanwhile, Chloe's laughter filled her ears.

Her cheeks were burning as she exited the classroom, shutting the door behind her. Luckily, Adrien had been too busy yawning too notice.

A half an hour later, she left the principal's office with an hour of detention and a note for her parents explaining that she was late almost every day. She had no doubt that now they were going to restrict her curfew and monitor her whereabouts more. That would make her patrols even harder to sneak out for! How many excuses could she make for her absences during akuma attacks before they caught on? She felt like screaming from the stress.

Tikki hadn't helped when she reminded Marinette that although midnight akuma attacks were a decent reason for being late to class, there were other days that she arrived late simply because she got caught up in sewing or forgot to set her alarm. "You should work on your carelessness and forgetfulness, especially as Ladybug," Tikki had advised her. Marinette had to admit that her little kwami was right and that she only wanted to help, but that didn't make her any less frustrated.

The bell rang, signaling that the History class was over. She sighed. "At least I can make it to math on time," she murmured to herself. As she was distracted, she ran right smack into someone. She let out a surprised squeak as she flew backwards and landed on her butt. Looking up, she hoped and prayed that it was anyone but Chloe. As soon as she saw who it actually was, she immediately took that thought back. She could deal with being embarrassed in front of Chloe! But this? Did the universe really hate her that much?

"He-Hello. Hi, uh, Adrien," Marinette stammered nervously whilst scrambling to her feet. "You're so sorry! I mean, I'm so sorry for you, I mean, I'm sorry that you, I mean, that I, um, crashed into you..." She felt the back of her neck turn red.

He yawned slightly. "Hey Marinette." He yawned again. "It's not a problem! Are you alright?" She nodded and he continued. "Did you get into much trouble with the principaaaaaaaaaaaa.."

Marinette giggled a bit as his yawn cut him off. Adrien shook his head slightly as if to wake himself up. "I'm sorry, I'm just really tired," he apologized, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

"Uh, that's okay. That you're tired and stuff… Um, are you ready for math?" she finished lamely. She was still proud of herself for finishing a whole sentence! To be honest, she was really frustrated with how unrealistically stupid her stuttering was sometimes. It was like she was some stupid cartoon character!

"Madame Bustier sent me home early. She knows that I have a lot of modeling gigs this weekend and her huge test next Monday. She wanted me to get some rest!" Adrien smiled a bit. Madame Bustier really was a kind teacher. Even when she sent Marinette to the principal's office she was just trying to help her.

"That's terrible!" Marinette exclaimed without thinking. "I mean, that you're tired, not that you won't be in school for me to, ACK! For you to learn... and stuff." She mentally facepalmed.

"Okay, uh, see you tomorrow," Adrien flashed her a picture-perfect smile and yawned again as he walked away. Marinette winced and stomped in the opposite direction. How could that conversation have been any more embarrassing? What was it about Adrien Agreste that made her so brain dead?

By the time school was over, Chloe and Sabrina had completely humiliated her for both getting in trouble and tripping on the way out, Chloe had cried fake tears when she found out Adrien was sent home, Nino hadn't been able to tell her anything about Adrien, and Alya had ditched her to go and see an exhibit about ladybugs in the local garden for info for her Ladyblog.

When she got home (after her hour of detention), Marinette had to face extra homework and disappointed parents. They had, as she had predetermined, decided to give her a strict ten o'clock curfew. They had in addition decided that they would be making sure that she got to school on time and they expected her to text them any time that she had to stay late at school or go out with her friends so that they could monitor where she was.

Around nine thirty, Tom and Sabine sent their very frustrated daughter up to her room, informing her that they would check in an hour to make sure she was actually in bed and sleeping soundly. Every little bad thing that had happened that day had just added to the fire that burned in Marinette, and by the time she transformed into Ladybug her temper was dangerously close to explosive.

Now Ladybug, she set an alarm on her phone for forty-five minutes, enough time to assure that she was safely in bed by the time her parents came to check in. However, that gave her a very short amount of time to patrol her half of the city and check in with Chat Noir. She ground her teeth together as she swung out the window.

The wind pressing against her face and lifting her hair back gave Ladybug an exhilarating feeling. Here, she was finally free. She didn't have to worry about disappointing her parents. She didn't have to worry about getting her homework done. She didn't have to worry about embarrassing herself in front of a golden-haired guy.

Speaking of which, where was her other golden-haired guy? It wasn't like Chat Noir to miss a patrol, and she was already standing right on their normal roof top meeting place. Looking around and seeing nothing but the silent streetlamps and empty streets, Ladybug sat down on an air vent and drummed her fingers against the metal.

"Bored already, M'lady?" a voice rang out. "Get excited, because here comes your favorite cat!"

Ladybug rolled her eyes. "Hello Chat," she said. Her tone was a bit ruder than she would have liked it to be.

"Woah, somebody's got a cat-titude tonight!" Chat exclaimed, flipping off of the roof and landing next to the spotted girl. His green eyes and blonde hair were the only things visible in the darkness.

Ladybug gnashed her teeth together but managed to hold her tongue. This was her partner, Chat Noir. It wasn't his fault that she had a bad day. Sure, he could be annoyingly cheery sometimes and of course there was the pun issue. But that was just his sense of humor. Nothing worth getting angry at.

"See any action on your way over?" she asked, moving her mind from her day to her work.

"Nope."

"Dang, I need to punch something tonight."

"Well, you don't need to purr-suade me to join you!"

"CHAT!"

###########################################################################

Fifteen minutes and several blocks later, the super hero duo was ready to quit. Chat Noir had to admit to himself that he was absolutely exhausted, but he treasured every minute he had with Ladybug. She was, pardon the pun, purr-ecious to him.

"I think that we can safely assume nothing's happening tonight," Ladybug sighed. She had blown off some steam while running across the rooftops of Paris, but the reminder of what tomorrow would bring kept her temper flared.

Chat shrugged. "There isn't much minor crime anymore. Maybe Hawkmoth is asleep right now?"

Ladybug glanced down at her phone. There were a few minutes left before her alarm would go off and she needed to head home. "I'm inclined to join him and the rest of Paris in slumber, then."

"Would you like to take a quick cat nap with me?" Chat Noir offered flirtatiously, leaning in close and gesturing to the soft grass of the park. Ladybug bristled. How many times did she have to turn him down before he got the point? She had been blowing him off for a year and a half! "LB?" Chat looked confused at her moody silence. "What's wrong? Cat got your tongue? Cuz if he doesn't then he shou-"

Ladybug cut him off. She had finally had enough. "Can you stop with the stupid cat jokes and the never-ending FLIRTING? You are driving me CRAZY!" she barked. Chat was startled, to say the least. She never really yelled at him for using so many cat puns before. He knew that she pretended to hate them, but he had caught her laughing at them when she thought he wasn't looking plenty of times. And the flirting…. Didn't she realize that it was genuine?

"Sorry," he muttered. "Just trying to brighten the mood."

"My mood doesn't need brightening, thank you very much! I can't stand it! Every other second, even in the middle of SERIOUS FIGHTS, you're making those stupid jokes! I hope you want your last words to be a cat pun, because that's what's going to happen if you keep doing that!" He could hear the venom in her voice.

"And the flirting! It was cute at first Chat, really. But don't you think it's gone on long enough? Do you have to flirt with every girl you see? Does it help your ego or something? Or are you really that desperate to get a girl?"

For some reason, maybe because he was exhausted and wasn't thinking straight, maybe because he secretly loved his jokes and puns because that was him and his sense of humor that he had to hide as Adrien, or possibly it was the arrow her words sent shooting into his heart, but whatever it was Chat Noir finally snapped.

"Can you back off? I happen to like making jokes and that's my problem, not yours! I've never distracted myself to much during battle with them! Have I ever FAILED to help you win a fight? Have you ever won a fight without me? I don't think so!" he hissed.

"Oh please, I could win a fight without you any day!" she spat back.

"Oh yeah, I'd like to see you prove that! Remember Anti-bug? You would never have known that the akuma was in her earrings without me! She would've crushed you like the bug you are!"

"Last time I checked, she captured you and tied you to your own baton and then dangled you over the edge of a building. Where was your sense of humor THEN?" she yelled. "And wait, THE BUG THAT I AM? IS THAT ALL YOU THINK OF ME? DO YOU JUST USE ME AS A MEANS TO ACHIEVE FAME BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT STRONG ENOUGH OR SMART ENOUGH TO DO IT YOURSELF?"

"I THINK IT'S YOU WHO USES ME! YOU'VE NEVER WON A FIGHT WITHOUT ME! AND EVERYONE'S LIKE AMAZING LADYBUG, PERFECT LADYBUG, CLEVER LADYBUG! LADYBUG, LADYBUG, LADYBUG! I NEVER GET ANY OF THE CREDIT! YOU'VE NEVER CARED ABOUT ME AT ALL!"

"What do you mean, care about you?" Her voice lowered to an icy whisper. "Aw, is it because I don't love you? I don't return your romantic feelings you've only ever expressed through stupid jokes and horrible flirting? I happen to have someone I like in real life. His name is Adrien, and he's twice the guy you could ever be!"

At the name 'Adrien' Chat Noir's eyes widened, and then narrowed. That was the last straw. He loved Ladybug more than anything in the world, and she had thrown his heart in the dirt. It hurt so badly. And possibly all because of his secret identity. The side of himself that he HATED to be!

"Fine, if you don't need me, then I won't bother you. But don't come crying to me when you find out that the miraculous Ladybug can't do anything without Chat Noir," he hissed at her angrily. The rejection and anger in his voice clearly showed. This seemed to make Ladybug even more mad, if possible.

"Fine, but when you don't have anyone who loves you anymore, who adores you because of stupid heroics you never even manage to pull off correctly, you'd better not come back and beg at my feet. We're done." She slammed her fist, which she had so often bumped against his after a successful fight, into a tree next to him.

"Agreed. I never want to see your face again," he snarled, turning his back on her and stalking away. The duo was no more. The partnership, the friendship, something that he had hoped and wished and prayed could turn into more, was over. And he felt glad. He was so unbelievably angry at her. His tail swished back and forth angrily as he left.

Chat Noir turned and looked back one last time and watched as Ladybug threw her yoyo and swung into the trees. And then she was gone from his view. And his life.

That's when it all came crashing down around. He would never see his beautiful, smart, heroic Ladybug ever again. He would never know whose pretty bluebell eyes were hidden behind that mask. He would never get to pull her into his arms and kiss her. His heart throbbed. How could he have lost his temper? How could he have said those terrible things to her?

He felt the tears begin to fall, but he didn't even try to stop them. This was all his fault. He didn't care if he could never tell a pun again, he just wanted her back. He didn't care if she never loved him back the way he loved her. Every moment that he spent with her made the other moments as Adrien bearable. Now his life was empty. He had no purpose.

Chat rushed blindly across the rooftops, not caring as the tears kept falling. The wind brushed them out of the way but they came so fast that his vision was blurry anyway. He tripped over air vents and stumbled around satellite dishes. He ran until he reached his bedroom window. He slipped inside and detransformed. After dumping Plagg into a bowl of Camembert where he knew the kwami would stay busy and wouldn't bother him, he collapsed on his bed and let the tears flow.

"Adrien?" a voice called. He sat up suddenly and brushed his tears away. The door swung open and his father's assistant, Natalie, came in. "Adrien, I showed your father the note from your teacher and he seems concerned. He says- Adrien, are you sure you're okay?" she asked suddenly, noticing his red eyes.

"Yeah, Natalie, I'm fine," he sighed tiredly. She eyed him suspiciously.

"Well then, your father would like for you to stay home tomorrow and possibly the next day."

"Okay, I'm sure I just need some sleep," Adrien sighed, trying not to let the tears bubble back up. He had nowhere to go anyway. He didn't want to go to school, because he was positive that whoever Ladybug was, she went to his school. There was no point in going on patrol or seeking out akuma victims to fight with either.

Natalie shut the door to his room and left. Adrien collapsed back onto the bed and let the tears come again. He couldn't stop thinking about her. What had she said earlier? "I don't return your romantic feelings you've only ever expressed through stupid jokes and horrible flirting?"

The one time he had tried to tell her that he loved her, he had taken an arrow to the back to save her. And he had been so horribly cruel to her after that... He didn't even know how she had managed to break him out of it. Remembering something, he sat up and crossed the room. He opened the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out a pink card in the shape of a heart.

He felt his heart break as read the lines. He crumpled the card into a ball and then threw it across the room. Plagg peeked out of the cheese bowl, but he chose not to say anything. Adrien needed time alone right now. Even the little har-headed cat knew this.

He watched as Adrien sighed and followed the path the card had taken through the air. Adrien picked it up and smoothed it out. He wiped one last tear away before slipping the card underneath his pillow and pulling up the covers. Maybe he could have one last night full of dreams where he and Ladybug sailed across the rooftops, together in perfect harmony.

Plagg flew over and nestled himself into Adrien's pillow. Poor kid. Plagg didn't know what to do next. But things couldn't stay like this. All of Paris and even the world depended on Ladybug and Chat Noir together. He needed to talk to Tikki. Undoubtedly she would try to talk Ladybug out of it but he wasn't sure that would work.

Fate would bring the two teens together again. It was just a matter of whether it would have to happen the easy way or the hard way. He hoped it was the easy way. If there was something Plagg couldn't bear to see, it was Adrien getting seriously hurt.

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter! If you are new to Secrets and Betrayals, welcome! If you are re-reading this instead of doing your homework, then welcome back! Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts, or PM me if you prefer! I hope you all have a wonderful day/night! (Seriously though you should probably go do that homework!)

Update: I'm trying to edit a chapter every few days or so. It will have "Edited" besides the title if it has been.