Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

The ground felt like individual pieces of jagged rock piercing through the limp corpse, each rock individually stabbing at the skin.

Legs couldn't move, trembling. Arms stiff. Fingers could barely curl without a hot pain shooting through them.

Can't breathe.

Can't breathe.

Can't breathe.

Your eye shot open and you gasped for air, sitting up to cough aggressively. Your body hacked forward as you kept coughing, left with a sore throat and speckles of drool on your cracked lips.

You wiped it off with the sleeve of your pajamas, noticing your hair once again hanging in the air.

You were on the ceiling, sat there due to your uncontrollable sticking.

What a surprise.

You stuck your palms to the ceiling and let your body unstick, dangling until you let your palms go as well.

You landed on the floor soundlessly, and almost felt yourself gasp as you saw your room.

A mess.

The once neat bedsheets were thrown carelessly off the mattress, clothes scattered along the floor. The curtains of your balcony, that were once closed, were pooled on the floor.

The moon was in full view, reflecting on your skin with its pale glow. You could've sworn you even got a glimpse of glowing blue on your fingertips.

You blinked, and it was gone.

You didn't think too much into it, deciding to pick up your curtains and set them back up.

Picking the clothes up and folding them.

Redoing the sheets.

Not going back to sleep.

-

Blink.

Blink.

Snooze.

Your body was sprawled out over the carpet, deciding to lay there instead of the bed. You were scared you'd ruin it again.

You tried staying up the entire night, dozing off only to shoot back awake to a blaring alarm.

You sat up, rubbing your eyes in a daze. You had school today, just your luck.

With gargled mumbles, you sluggishly stood up and threw on your clothes for school.

You then clipped your webshooters on your wrist, covered completely by your oversized sweaters sleeves.

You transferred your folded suit into the bottom of your school backpack rather then keeping it in your traveling one, slipping the bag on.

It felt heavier than usual, like a burden.

You slipped on your shoes and walked out of your room with droopy eyes, heading to the bathroom to quickly brush your teeth.

You didn't even look in the mirror, immediately going down the stairs when you were done. You decided to head straight to school instead of waiting, or even eating.

Your mom caught on, stopping you by the door. Her hand sat on your shoulder, and your head lulled to face her.

"You're not eating break- oh god did you even sleep?" She gawked, eyeing the deep bags starting to form. You've always had them, but with your sluggish movements it was made a lot more obvious.

"Yeah, I did. I'm fine" you answered in the clearest tone you can manage, and her eyes brows furrowed in concern.

"If it's about yesterday then I'm really sorry we grounded you from going out, but we go so worried that you disappeared like that! You just need to understand you can't head out with an akuma on the loose like that.." she explained, and you gave her a soft smile.

"It's fine, I wasn't thinking right" you respond sheepishly, thinking back to yesterday.

After the whole ordeal with Chat noir, you returned to two very worried and angry parents who grounded you for the rest of the week from leaving the house (beside for school of course).

Yeah, it sucked. It frustrated you, because what if another akuma happens? You'd be sent back to California at that point.

"We just want you safe. Walk to school carefully, be safe" she warned, and you nodded. Her hands slipped off your shoulders, and with a small wave you walked out the door.

Each step seemed like hell, since you didn't really think where you were going. You relied on muscle memory heavily, taking twists and turns while you tried not closing your eyes too long.

You crossed the street and took a listen to the busy day, the chatter, the birds occasionally tweeting..

The people screaming.

"..people screaming?" You mumbled to yourself, eyes then widening. There was a bus on the loose, zooming right past you. You mentally cursed.

You sped walked into an empty alleyway before turning yourself invisible, leaving your backpack there temporarily.

You ran off into the busses direction, too tired but awake enough to take action.

'To hell with it, I'll just use my hands' you thought to yourself, springing around the corner of where the bus next appeared. You stood your ground in the middle of the road, watching it swerve unstably. You even caught a glance of screaming people.

The chaos was halted with the power of your hands, causing half of it to bounce up before falling back down.

It seemed to stop completely, and with a sigh you hurried back in a jog to grab your backpack-

Only to see chat noir in the way, leaned down to inspect it.

You couldn't bother to properly deal with him, so you carefully crept over into the far end of the alley, sitting down in a corner like you've been cowering.

You felt yourself let your invisibility fall and you croaked, "hello?"

Chat noir immediately rushed to the sound of your voice, peeking around the corner to spot you cowering. He kneeled down,

"Are you okay? What are you doing here?" He asked, and the second question struck you hard to answer.

"I'm fine and there was a bus about to hit me, it was on the loose. So I kinda just hid here.."

'No way is he falling for that, (name). I mean he's an idiot but-'

"Come on our then, the situations been handled. Ladybugs helping people out of the bus" he held his hand out for you to take, but you ignored it and stood up on your own.

"If she's there then why are you here..?" You eyed him suspiciously, and he chuckled before rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

"I was looking for..a friend. Don't tell ladybug! But there's someone I really look up to. He's really cool, but seeing he's always kind of cold.. I can tell he doesn't really like me. I really want to be his friend, though" he gazed down at you, a light pink coating his cheeks.

Your eyes widened in shock.

You barely know him, but he's spilling his guts out to you. You didn't think too deep into it.

Is this how Chat noir really felt? He looked up to you? To Spider-Man?

He thought you were cool.

'I thought he just wanted to make things harder for me..he really wanted to be my friend? Why me?'

"Tiny, are you sure you're okay? You're red" he pointed out, and you cupped your flushed cheeks.

"Yup, coolio. But..don't you think he might be going through something? He might've been caught up in other things to realize how mean he's been" you attempted to reason, rocking your weight on one foot to another.

He looked into your eyes, "maybe..I'm probably just wasting his time" he mumbled dryly, and you shook your head vigorously.

"N-no!"

He stared at you, seeing your cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

You took a deep breath, "he just..you probably always caught him when he wasn't in a good mood. Maybe he formed a dumb opinion about you..and was wrong. Got off on the wrong foot" you admitted, expressing how you felt by talking about spiderman from a third person point of view.

Chat noir seemed intrigued by your response, but before the conversation could carry on, your body jolted in realization.

"Wait..OH MY GOD I HAVE CLASS RIGHT NOW" you rushed past chat noir, grabbing your backpack and throwing it over your shoulder.

You gave him a final glance and said,

"I'm sure he'll warm up to you"

You ran off after, not catching the big smile on the hero's face.

'Well..maybe chat isn't that bad.

Maybe we can really be friends

I'll give it a chance.'

—

A/N

Who knew that you'd warm up to him after he showed a snippet of his vulnerable side.