Chapter Text
Part 2
Head still aching sickeningly, Marinette leaned back against the railing she was chained too, the handcuffs having long since rubbed her wrists raw. She had no idea how long she had been in this place.
She struggled to keep herself awake as every time she had dragged herself from slumber she felt worse, more muddled and confused, and her vision slightly blurred.
“Is this his…lair? Isn’t that what you’re supposed to call the place where the bad guy holds up and monologues from,” she thought, her stream of consciousness the only distraction from the dry, ever-present flutter of butterfly wings. That sound was sure to haunt her for the rest of her life. “Not so much of an evil lair. More of a butterfly farm. An evil butterfly farm? How did this become my life?”
“Consequences of dating a superhero, my dear,” said an amused voice as the lights came on full.
Marinette whimpered as the light stabbed through her eyelids and temples, leaving a reverse star field sparkling across her vision. She grumbled around her gag.
He chuckled nastily before walking over and jerking the gag down away from her mouth. “My apologies, but it is taking longer than I thought it would for your young man to attempt to rescue you. Young people can be so unreliable.” He crossed his arms, looking down at her smugly. “And, you should know that, whilst I wear this,” and he tapped the butterfly miraculous pinned to this chest, “I can hear your emotional thoughts. You have done well so far in keeping your emotions in check, so I haven’t been able to hear everything your cluttered mind is churning around. You have a concussion, you know. Very distracting.”
“Hmm, I wonder how that could have happened,” she muttered sarcastically. “Maybe I’m just clumsy."
“Far from it. You are unique. From what I’ve heard, you stand above the rest of those your age, Marinette Dupain-Cheng: class representative, designer for Jagged Stone, winner of fashion design competitions and offered an internship with Audrey Bourgeois at fourteen, and top of the list for the fast track through design school. Most impressive, I must say.”
“I would have been excited about the compliment a few years ago, before I knew what a bully Gabriel Agreste really is,” she growled. Her head ached too much to fake good manners with this creep and she suspected the concussion was inhibiting her natural caution.
“Oh, and what would you know of Gabriel Agreste? Surely you’re only a fan of his work and his pretty boy son, hmm?”
The smugness in his voice was intolerable and she wanted to slap that supercilious expression from his face. Marinette gave a nasty chuckle of her own. “Oh, please. Surely, you don’t think I’m that shallow, do you… Mr Agreste?”
His eyes widened behind his mask and the smug smile slipped several notches. “Clearly I have underestimated your intelligence, Ms Dupain-Cheng,” he said with a mocking bow, never taking his gaze from her face. “A mistake I will not make again, I assure you.”
She glared at him. Trying to think, to plan, around the mental mess she was dealing with was next to impossible, but the roles were reversed today. It was her job to distract their enemy while Cat and ‘Ladybug’ came up with the plan.
And if there was one thing she had learned about their enemy over the last several years it was that his pride would always bring him up short.
“Clever of you to hide in plain sight,” she mused, casting her eyes around the room, taking in details she had been too groggy to notice before: bushes, metal gratings and ductwork, sun lamps, that strange capsule?…tank?… standing in the middle of the… garden?
“Not that it matters much at this point, but how did you figure it out? You’d be the first, you know.”
“Notorious recluse, enough money to finance a secret lair like this. For crying out loud, you have the butterfly in your logo and all over your house. You have contacts in Shanghai and New York where events similar to akuma attacks have taken place.” Her jaw dropped as the import of those facts filtered through her mental fog. “You! You sent akumas after Adrien! You killed your son! You killed Adrien! I was there… in Shanghai when that giant monster started rampaging and destroying everything! Adrien was there too! You… you killed him!”
The smile fell from Shadowmoth’s face. “That… was not my intention. Everything I have done, I have done for him, Ms Dupain-Cheng.” He wandered over to the strange capsule and caressed it lovingly, a gesture that made Marinette’s skin crawl. “No boy should have to grow up without his mother.”
“So, what? You orphaned your son by trying to get the miraculous?” Her stomach churned and anger burned in her chest, thundered through her blood. Adrien had been doing everything he could to make this… monster happy, proud of him, and Cat Noir had been battling this lunatic almost every day? Oh, she wanted to rip the two miraculouses from Gabriel’s chest and rub his nose in every last time her Kitty had been hurt or erased or turned - like a naughty puppy. She wanted to thrash him for ignoring Adrien in some mad man’s quest to wish his dead wife back - possibly at the cost of his son’s life.
Shadowmorth glared at her, a smoldering rage burning in his eyes. “What kind of father do you think I am? He has had everything a young man could want: fame, fortune, adoration -“
“You don’t really know your son at all, do you,” she spat, her skull pounding in sync with her heart. “Did you ever ask Adrien if he wanted those things? Because I can tell you that he has never wanted any of it! He hates being a model He hates the photoshoots and the isolation and the fabricated mold you’ve shoved him into! He wants nothing more than to just be your son, a son that you’re proud of!” Angry tears were spilling from her eyes now. “All he wanted was a family, but you can’t buy that! Not with money or magic jewelry. It takes love and patience and hard work and sacrifice, mistakes and forgiveness, to make a family, but you wouldn’t know anything about that would you, Gabriel?”
Marinette pulled herself unsteadily to her feet, her arms wrenched painfully in their sockets by the resisting handcuffs. The pain was good. It burned some small clarity back into her foggy mind, a righteous anger crowding in its wake. “Adrien is open and honest, kind, generous, forgiving, and the most loving person I have ever met! He has become all of these things in spite of your neglect and treating him like an asset instead of a son! He was a better man at fourteen than you have ever been for all your power and money and threats! He outgrew this cage long ago and you’ve lost the only treasure you ever really had!”
Those pewter eyes glared angrily at her from behind the dark mask. “And who are you to accuse me?” His voice was a low growl and she saw his hands twist back and forth on his cane.
She stood as straight as she could, looking him squarely in the eye with a grin worthy of Cat Noir. “I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng and I beat the best you’ve got.”
With a flick of his hands she didn’t quite see, the purple jewel on the end of his cane flipped open and a poisonous, black and purple buttery emerged. His grin was fierce and his eyes were no longer sane.
“Then let’s see how well you beat yourself.”
———
It took several hours and lots of phone calls, but they were coming. Every last superhero from their team, compromised or not, was rallying to the call to save their friend, their leader, their hero, and the girl behind the mask. While it was true that Adrien knew about half of the identities of his teammates, Alya, it seemed, knew them all.
She sat next to him on her bed, her fingers tapping away at blinding speeds on her laptop. “There! All done. I passed word to Principle Damocles through the Ladyblog that the heroes need to use the school as a rallying point. I told him we needed him to keep it secure for us … as a sort of rear guard. Making sure we have a safe place to retreat to if things go south. That sort of thing and it keeps him involved without getting in the way.”
“Yeah,” Adrien sighed, glancing over at the other side of the bed where Plagg was cuddling with Tikki and Nino was trying to temp her with a package of cookies. “Sounds good.”
She closed the laptop and looked at him shrewdly. “Okay, Sunshine. Spill. What’s going on?”
Adrien snorted. “You mean aside from the fact that my father is an actual supervillain bent on committing horrible acts of emotional and psychological terrorism? That he kidnapped my girlfriend of only one day and who is now lying bleeding and hurt somewhere in my house? The girl who I fell in love with after Ladybug broke my heart only to find out she is Ladybug and we were in some kind of… of…” He gestured vaguely in front of him.
“Love square,” she offered dryly.
He pointed at her. “Yes. That’s it! Right there. Love triangles I have heard of, but squares? And it was only the two of us the whole time! She was in love with Adrien and Cat was in love with Ladybug! What does it all mean? Are we soulmates or just royally messed up?”
“I vote for both,” Plagg grumped from his spot next to Tikki. “They’re not mutually exclusive, you know.”
“Cut him some slack, little dude,” Nino chided. “He’s just had his world turned upside down.”
Alya chuckled. “Try watching it from the outside, Adrien. We all knew Marinette was in love with you, but she loved you so much it made her stupid!”
“Marinette is not stupid,” he huffed angrily.
She rolled her eyes. “Babe, I think it is guy talk time.”
“Sure thing, Als.” Nino sat next to him and leaned his elbows onto his knees. “Look, bro. Marinette has loved you for ages. Umbrella, wasn’t it,” he asked, shooting a look over at Alya, who nodded. “She just loved you so much it made her extra clumsy and nervous. She never stammered around the rest of us. Just you.”
“So, it was never because I did something wrong or hurt her?”
“Not gonna lie, Buttercup, but you kind of did.” Nino shot a dark look at his girlfriend and Alya actually blushed. “Not on purpose. It’s just, for being Ladybug, Marinette has the worst luck in the world with guys. She broke up with Luka because he couldn’t stand there being secrets between them and Marinette swore she would never tell you how she felt because she didn’t want to hurt you too. It really messed her up for a while, Adrien. That’s why she told me. My girl was falling apart. Not eating. Not sleeping. Just losing Marinette in Ladybug because being Marinette, well… it hurt too much.”
“But I tried,” he exclaimed, running frustrated hands through his hair and leaping up to pace again. “I tried to get Ladybug to confide in me, to tell me what was bothering her, but she just keep pushing me farther and farther away! Why couldn’t she trust me? I… I’m her partner… her friend! I love her! Why couldn’t she just see that all I wanted was to help?”
“It was never a matter of trust, Adrien,” Tikki said from the other side of the bed. “She trusts Cat more than anyone, but a lot changed for Marinette when Master Fu made her the Guardian. She gave us more freedom than we had ever known and some of the others took advantage of it too much. She walked away from Adrien because she thought Kagami would make you happy. Then she had to break things off with Luka and she started having nightmares… and then there was … Cat Blanc.”
Even though he had never heard them before, those words were like a giant fist closing around his chest. “Who…” he gasped, for a moment unable to breathe, then he tried again. “Who is Cat Blanc?”
Alya sat on his other side so he was bracketed between his two friends. “Cat Blanc was a… future you? Is that right, Tikki? Someone called Bunnix came back in time for Ladybug to fight a battle in the future, but she was fighting you.” She sighed, rubbing her forearms with both hands as if warding off the cold. “She could never tell me much, but here’s what I do know. You… the other you, I mean, knew Marinette was Ladybug and said that your love for each other destroyed the world. You fought her, future her, and … I think she died… and Cat Blanc was… broken inside.”
“She fought… me? And I killed her?” The shock of those words rang through him like gunshots and were just as painful.
“No,” Tikki said firmly, flying up to hover before his face. “We don’t know what happened that caused you to be akumatized then, but Cat Blanc destroyed Hawkmoth… and the world and his Lady as a result. Bunnix brought your Ladybug to that timeline to set things right once more and she did. Our Marinette saved him, but she had to come back and change something so Adrien wouldn’t learn her identity. She didn’t know that you are her Cat Noir until last night, but, considering that her nightmares tend to have both Shadowmoth and Cat Blanc in them, I think she subconsciously suspected that you and Shadowmoth have a connection. She just didn’t want to think about it. She didn’t want it to be real because of what it would mean for you.”
“But… how… why would she allow herself to fall in love with Cat knowing that I…”
“Knowing my girl, she probably figured that loving Adrien would put him at risk and she could never talk to you anyway,” Alya said gently. “Marinette knew she was falling for Cat as she was trying to let Adrien go and she figured she had lost out on you as Ladybug already and why would you be interested in ‘plain, boring Marinette’?” Her fingers making sarcastic air quotes soothed the flash of anger that flared at her calling Marinette ‘plain and boring’.
Ladybug suffered from low self confidence at times so it made sense that Marinette would too, but the thought that she had felt like Adrien or Cat couldn’t like her the way she was without the mask? It was a blow to his heart! “But I fell in love with Marinette too,” he whispered. “I did a long time ago, but I couldn’t admit it to myself. She saved me during that fight yesterday, she shredded her favorite jacket to bind my wound. She took down that scorpion monster with just my staff! How could I not tell her how I felt after that? And she… she said she understood how it felt… and I thought it was just me…”
“Look, bro,” Nino said softly, squeezing his shoulder in sympathy. “This a lot to chew on, I get it. But think of it this way: the girl you’ve loved for ages has been in love with you too. It doesn’t matter what name either of you go by or what mask you wear. It’s like the little bug said. Cat Noir is part of you and you needed her to appreciate all of you, just like Marinette needs someone to love her soft, clumsy, nervous, hot mess self. Does that make sense?”
Adrien sniffed and wiped his eyes. “Yeah. I guess it does. I … I knew that Marinette cared about Adrien as a friend and probably had a celebrity crush on me for a while, but she always said we were just friends. She was always so sweet, pretty, and funny and if it hadn’t been for Ladybug I… I would have…”
“You see? The only thing that has kept you apart all this time has been your masks,” Tikki added, nuzzling his cheek.
Nino and Alya wrapped him in a group hug and even Plagg didn’t grumble as he flew over to muss his hair. In that moment, full of fear and wrapped in the love of his friends, Adrien’s world shifted again. Pieces fell into place.
“It wasn’t our love that destroyed things,” he said suddenly. “It was the fact that Shadowmoth is my father! He must have done something to Marinette, something horrible enough to make me expose myself as Cat Noir in order to protect her. Then he must have turned on me and used my confusion and anger to akumatize me.”
“Knowing what we know now, that is a serious possibility,” Tikki replied.
“The question is,” Nino put in, “what do we do now?”
Adrien gripped his hand around the earrings as a stern resolve washed over him like armor. “We follow her plan to the letter. We can’t let Shadowmoth know he already has Ladybug, but we are going to go big. So big he will never see what’s going on behind his back.”
Taking a deep breath, he turned to Alya and held out the earrings to her. “Alya Cesaire, this is the miraculous of the ladybug that will grant you the ability set things right. Can I trust you to use them to help me save Marinette?”
Instead of taking the earrings, Alya clasped her hand over his in a tight grip. Nino’s hand clasped the top of hers. “We’re in, Adrien. All the way. We’re with you!”
In that moment, it felt almost as if the world paused to observe a solemn oath. Maybe it had. Adrien put his other hand on top of theirs, sealing in their promise.
“Good. Then we’ve got work to do.”
———
“You are scared and alone. The one you love has not come to save you. You are trapped with no way out.” The voice in her head was softer, kinder than she knew it to be in real life. It was melodic… and dangerous. “There is no hope for you, except in me. Let me help.”
“I won’t give in. I won’t,” Marinette ground out between gritted teeth. “He will come for me. He is stronger than you know!”
The soft voice chuckled, a disconcerting counterpoint to the harsher one she vaguely heard with her ears. “Give in? Have I asked you to give in? I am merely offering you the power to set things right for everyone.”
“You don’t give power, Shadowmoth! You steal free will! Turn emotions into weapons!”
“Hmmm, your will is strong. We shall see how long you can resist my akuma.”
———
Alya had sent out the kwamis to their holders with explicit instructions to meet at the school and the team had responded, one and all. The mood in the room was tense and loud. King Monkey and Ryuko were arguing over the wisdom of charging in, Pegasus, Pigella,Vesperia, and Purple Tigress were talking quietly with Markov hovering nearby, running computations and possible attack vectors, Polymous perched nervously on a desk next to Minotaurox, Rooster Bolt and Caprikid were sketching out battle strategies, and Viperian sat on the floor, his face a study in repressed rage, plucking his lyre but only sour, discordant notes came out.
Cat surveyed them, his friends, his teammates, his army. He, Nino, and Alya, with the help of Tikki and Plagg, had spent the last several hours putting together a plan. Once the shock and the fear had worn off, they had all fallen into various states of anger. Even sweet, little Tikki had started zipping back and forth in frustration, throwing off pink and amber sparks and muttering imprecations under her breath.
“Oh, when I get my paws on him, he is going to wish he had never been born! Treating my Bug like a punching bag, chaining her up in the dark! Abusing Nooroo and Duusuu all this time! Hurting Plagg’s Kitten! Oooooh, I’m going to create entirely new ways for him to suffer for this, the evil, traitorous-“ At that point her words had trailed off into some unknown language and Plagg had pulled him away.
“Best not to mess with Tiks when she’s angry,” he murmured, watching his other half pacing and sparking in a crimson fury.
“I never thought Tikki could be so intense. I mean about sweets, sure, but destroying things is your business.”
“Kid, do you know what she created the last time she got this angry?”
“No. What?”
“A string of volcanic islands. Ever hear of Japan?”
That thought brought him up short. “Whoa!”
His kwami nodded seriously. “No kidding, but you might want to keep and eye on the Ladyblogger once she transforms. With what is going on with Pigtails, if Tikki goes rogue on us we could have a much bigger problem than just stolen desserts. She’ll calm down eventually once this is over, but better safe than sorry.”
That would explain why Scarabella was pacing around the room in sharp, jerking steps and muttering under her breath. Carapace stood at parade rest at the front of the classroom as his eyes followed his silently raging girlfriend, a trickle of nervous sweat sliding down his cheek.
Suddenly the door slammed open as Alix came skidding in on her blades, eyes wild and fierce. Everyone in the room fell silent at once.
“I’m in,” she panted harshly. “Let’s go pound the creep!”
It was if her words had been a battle cry. The room erupted into angry cheers, even Pegasus and Polymouse added to the uproar with their own protective outrage.
Scarabella tried to call for order, but no one could hear her over the noise. As much as he wanted to join them, Cat knew they needed to move fast if they were going to save Marinette.
Taking a deep breath, he opened his mouth to yell at them to be quiet, but what came out was a loud, rumbling roar. Everyone’s hands slapped to their ears as the room shook with the vibrations. The last echoes died away and the team all looked at him in shock. Cat used it.
“I know we are all angry about Marinette being kidnapped,” he said softly, rubbing his throat in surprise. “But we need to get coordinated and ready to attack Shadowmoth as soon as we can. Only once we take him down can we be sure Marinette, and Paris, are safe.”
“But where is Ladybug,” Pigella asked, staring curiously at Scarabella. “Why isn’t she here?”
Cat shared uncomfortable glances with Nino and Alya. This had been the hardest part. What did they tell them? What was it safe to tell them? After hearing about that horrible future that Marinette had to fight all alone, Adrien couldn’t help but worry that his showing her his identity last night was leading to a repeat… destroying all the hard work she had done and making everything she suffered in vain.
An elbow knocked his. Alix was standing next to him and her eyes were suddenly more than those of the tough-as-nails skater girl they had known for so long. “This is going to be rough, Cat,” she murmured, holding out the pocket watch, which was the rabbit miraculous in its disguised form, and rubbed the engravings with a thumb. “Keep Viperion with you at all times and remember, no matter what happens, she loves you and you won’t be alone.”
He swallowed and nodded. Turning his eyes back to the assembled heroes, he straightened his shoulders.
“This is Scarabella,” he said loudly, gesturing to Alya beside him. “She is Ladybug’s chosen replacement if anything goes wrong and she can’t be here.”
“Replacement,” Polymouse squeaked.
“What happened to her,” Minotaurox asked.
“This fight will be exponentially more difficult than our team has ever faced. How are we going to defeat Shadowmoth without Ladybug?” Pegasus’ voice was calm, but the stress came out in a nervous tick. “No offense, Scarabella, but this fight would already have a 47.8% chance of failure even with Ladybug. Factoring in Marinette’s creativity and intelligence, if she is akumatized those odds jump to a 69.3% against us. With a relative unknown…”
“Pssh! Come on, guys! Lighten up! It’s time to take the fight to old Bug-Ugly and kick his butterflies!” King Monkey laughed at his own joke as he lounged atop a desk.
“Monkey,” Alix said loudly.
“Yeah, short stack?”
“Just stuff it and listen to the cat!”
Cat looked at Alix for a moment. She nodded. “It’s time.”
He let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding. “You all know that Marinette was kidnapped by Shadowmoth.”
They all nodded.
“That is why Ladybug can’t come.”
“Huh?” Several of the team exchanged confused looks, but Viperion scrambled to his feet and Pegasus’ eyes widened so far his miraculous nearly fell off his face.
“You know,” Viperion asked harshly, eyes wide.
Cat nodded. “And that information does not leave this room. Ladybug trusts all of you and so do I. We have to rescue Marinette without letting Shadowmoth know he already has Ladybug at his mercy.”
“But she’s wearing Ladybug’s miraculous,” Caprikid said, pointing at Scarabella. “Why would he suspect Marinette?”
“At the moment, he doesn’t and we’re going to keep it that way. The reason why he kidnapped Marinette is because he found out I’m in love with her.”
King Monkey snorted. “All of Paris knows you’ve been in love with Ladybug for years! Besides, almost every guy in school has had a crush on Marinette at some point or other.” All the male team members, save Minotaurox, nodded briskly.
“I only learned she was Ladybug today. Same as you.”
“Hey, man, if the Cat likes to play the field, it’s-“
Cat shot him a withering look, but before he could give a scathing retort Alix stalked over to King Monkey with fire in her eyes. In an instant, she went from pink haired pixie to roller derby muscle queen. Fast as a striking snake, she grabbed his collar, pulled him off the desk, and slung him against the far wall like a strand of wet spaghetti.
“Listen to me, you banana eating pool boy! Close your mouth and open your big ears for once in your life. Pay attention!” She flicked one of said ears hard enough to be heard all over the room. When he did nothing but stare at her blankly, Alix turned to Cat again. “Show them!”
“But-“
“Quickly! While time is still on your side?”
“Claws in.” As the green light passed over him, leaving Adrien in Cat's wake, the room gasped.
“Any more questions,” Alix practically snarled.
“Adrien, you didn’t notice Marinette because you were in love with Ladybug,” Pigella asked, eyes shining and hands clasped together like she might start to cry.
Polymouse, too, was wide eyed with wonder. “Marinette has been in love with you for -“
“Three years, yeah.”
The classroom erupted in a babble of voices and questions. Carapace sighed. “I’ve got this, bro.” Placing two fingers in his mouth, he let out a piercing whistle. Everyone covered their ears reflexively and Adrien was glad not to be transformed for he wouldn’t have known which pair to cover. “Hey! Guys! Let Adrien speak his piece. It’s kind of an emergency.”
“Thanks, Carapace. Look. It doesn’t matter that its been Marinette and I behind the masks all this time or all the silly nonsense we’ve put ourselves through. What does matter is rescuing her from Shadowmoth. We know she’s been hurt pretty badly and we don’t know how much time she’s got.”
“But how are we supposed to find her,” Viperion said, his voice tight and his eyes dark with worry.
Adrien sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “We know who Shadowmoth is. He’s my…. father.”
There was a split second of silence, then Polymouse, Pigella, and soon the whole team came and wrapped him in a group hug.
“We won’t let you go through this alone, Adrien,” Viperion said for all of them. “We’ll get her back.”
Adrien sighed as tears fell down his face. “I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve friends like you,” he whispered, his voice cracking with all the emotions warring inside him.
“You don’t have to earn this, Adrien,” Polymouse soothed.
“Yeah,” said Pigella. “This is what friends do.”
“You’ve always been there for us, whether in the mask or out,” Purple Tigress added softly. “Let us be here for you. That makes us family.”
His heart slowed to a normal rhythm at their confirmation. Family. He had felt so angry, struck to the heart that Gabriel had stolen everything from him, but Adrien had everything that truly mattered. He had a purpose, friendship, people who loved him fiercely, and the power to make a difference in the world for the better. The realization was like a breath of fresh air, as if he hadn’t truly been breathing until this moment.
“Thanks, guys,” he murmured. “You’re the best.”
“Alright, enough with the mushy stuff,” King Monkey declared, even though he had been one of the ones giving the tightest hugs. “We going to go get Marinette back from Shadowmoth and kick his butt!”
The rest of the team cheered and Adrien steeled himself against the anxiety that roiled in his stomach.
“Right! Everyone, here’s the plan.”
———
The message went out on every media platform just as Shadowmoth’s had done before it, but this time it came as a symbol of hope and defiance. The brave hero of Paris stood strong and proud in front of the Eiffel Tower, pigtails floating in a light breeze and the red of her suit glowed like a ruby in the golden sunset.
“Shadowmoth, this is Ladybug. You will not succeed in claiming our Miraculous. You have kidnapped an innocent girl and that can not stand. We have learned your identity, Gabriel Agreste. The people are tired of your emotional tyranny and I call on all Parisians to rise up with the Heroes of Paris against you. You hide in the dark, but we stand in the light, undaunted and unafraid. Come and face us on neutral ground. Show that there is some shred of humanity left in your heart and surrender. You can’t fight all of us.”
The video replayed over and over on every screen in Paris. Schools, businesses, and public buildings were all closed by mayoral decree and the whole of the city held its breath.
Finally, the butterfly avatar appeared, towering over the heroine, radiating menace.
“There is nowhere neutral, foolish girl. The king always holds the high ground!”
As Ladybug shouted back, giving a speech stirring enough to inspire the faintest of hearts, the real plan was moving forward. Making use of the last three years of escaping his house, Cat Noir lead his group through the sewers. They passed the mansion and crept back up to the street, coming up in a blind spot not completely covered by the security cameras.
“You were right, Cat,” Ryoku said over their comms. “We have a big one on our hands.”
“How big,” he murmured as Polymouse detransformed and sent Mullo to disable the cameras.
“Big.”
“How big,” he demanded.
Just then, a roar thundered through the air so loud that windows broke in every building on the street and car alarms sounded everywhere. Looking up, Cat saw a pair of great, leathery wings that spread like a shroud over the entire mansion. As the wings flapped a hurricane, he took in the long, black, reptilian body crowned with spikes, claws like spears, eyes like diamonds burning in blackness, and a maw full of sword-like teeth that spewed crimson flames.
“That big,” she growled. “Any ideas how to take it down? There’s nothing on it!”
Some small, forgotten scraps of childhood memory resurfaced: his father’s voice reading aloud. “‘Smaug, o chiefest and greatest of calamities! … Old fool! Why, there is a large patch in the hollow of his left breast as bare as a snail out of its shell.’”
“I got all the cameras, Mr Cat,” Mullo squeaked, shivering under the weight of that impossible beast hanging over them. He grinned and the mouse kwami flew away. He glanced to Viperion, noticing his hand was on his bracelet and shook his head.
“Orders, Cat.” Ryoku’s voice was tight, eager for the battle.
“Look for a large patch in the hollow of his left breast. That will probably be its only weak spot.”
“But how-“
“It’s from Gabriel’s favorite book. Keep it from attacking the city and don’t get killed. I need you to hold the line until Scarabella gets here.”
“Got it… and Adrien, stay safe. Get her back.”
He chuckled grimly. “What, Kagami? Don’t you trust me?”
“Always. Good luck.” The line cut off then.
Viperion put a strong hand on his shoulder. “We trust you, Adrien, but Marinette most of all. You aren’t going in alone.”
He didn’t reply to the comfort. “Unless we meet with resistance inside, I’ll let you know when to set Second Chance. Otherwise, use your best judgement. Polymouse, you’ll be point once we get inside. I need you to search the big office downstairs for any kind of secret panel. I know there is a safe behind the painting of my mother. Start there. Minotaurox, be ready to back her up. Gabriel might have akumatized my bodyguard or Nathalie to help him, but they won’t be able to touch you. Take them down without hurting them if possible. Ready?”
His team nodded. They scaled the walls and slipped unnoticed into his bedroom. Adrien swallowed as the familiar silence and loneliness weighed down on him. He hoped this would be the last time he ever had to set foot in here just as he hoped that the kisses he had shared with Marinette the night before wouldn’t be their last.
———
“Your resilience is extraordinary! I have never had someone withstand my akuma for this long, but you are tired and I can feel your fear rising. Just take a little rest, my dear. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of everything.”
“Go breathe ether, Shadowmoth,” Marinette ground out between clenched teeth. She was chained to a bar and reeling from a concussion, but there was nowhere she could run to anyway. There was no way to hide or escape the voice that flowed thick and golden like honey in her mind. There was no escaping the fear that she pushed away, but still caused the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck to stand out.
Shadowmoth chuckled nastily, the stereo effect making her head spin. “You should see the little surprise I have distracting your friends outside. Ladybug has sent up quite a battle cry and half the city seems to be marching on the gates, but my senti-Smaug will keep them busy.”
“Sir, the alarm system has been triggered,” Nathalie called in a tone of alarm from the far side of the platform. “Someone is in the mansion! There is still time to fix this! Release the girl and-“
“No,” he growled, his eyes wide and inhumanely gleeful behind his mask. “We have never been so close, Nathalie! I can feel it! The miraculous shall be mine!” He leaned over Marinette, his gloved hand reaching for her face. “I just need to tip the odds in our favor.”
He grabbed her by the hair that ran atop the head wound, jerking her painfully backward and tearing it open once more. She nearly blacked out from the pain and her control slipped for a fraction of a second. That was all the time he needed.
“Arachne, to your creativity and talent I add the power to reweave reality. Everything will be merely thread for your loom. In exchange, you will retrieve Ladybug and Cat Noir’s miraculouses for me.”
Marinette trembled, the pain intense. “N-no! I… won’t!”
“You will!” She felt his other hand come up and his knuckles press against her bleeding head. She screamed at the additional pain. It felt like he was tearing her hair out, cracking her skull like an egg, and all she wanted was for this nightmare to go away.
“JUST MAKE IT STOP,” she cried as the black fog crept over her.
The last thing she knew was the maniacal laugh that echoed all around her, inside and out.
———
“Cat! Here,” Polymouse called over the sounds of battle and chaos outside. Cat knocked down Gabriel’s giant work tablet, anxious to see what she found.
“There is a circle here in the floor, see? And these triangles on the painting have a different texture.”
A portal opened, revealing Pegasus, Carapace, and Scarabella.
“How’s it going, Cat,” she asked, her hazel eyes dark with repressed anger.
“I think Polymouse found it. We’re going down.”
“Right. What do we do now, bro?”
“Pegasus, go and recharge your kwami. How is the fight going outside?”
Scarabella rolled her eyes at him. “Ryoku and her team are holding their own. She and King Monkey have an… interesting dynamic, but it gets the job done.”
He nodded, his mind already back to the issue at hand. “I don’t think more than one or two of us could fit on this platform at a time, assuming I'm right and it’s an elevator. Max, please send your kwami down to scout for us so you’ll know how far down to make the portal. Then we can all go in together.”
A few seconds later, the small gray pony phased up through the floor. “Sixty eight meters to the bottom, brave knights!”
“Got it! Kaalki, full gallop!”
Cat nodded to Viperion. “Set it now.”
“Second Chance.”
“Voyage!” A new portal opened before them.
“Cat,”Viperion gasped. He turned to find his friend as pale as ash under his tan and trembling all over. “I think the akuma is in the cloth around her neck. None of us can get near her. Only you. And don’t open the capsule in the garden under any circumstances.”
“How many times,” he asked, mouth dry with dread.
He shook his head. “Too… many.”
Cat could read the exhaustion in his friend’s face. He knew what wearing the snake miraculous was like, the aching, bone deep weariness, and the terror of seeing things go wrong time after time.
“Thank you, Luka. Now stay near the back and keep watch, but do not engage. We might still need you as backup.”
With that, they all turned toward the portal and stepped through… to face his father.
“Good evening, Cat Noir,” said a voice that was now twice familiar. The masked madman stood at the end of the long metal walkway they had arrived on, arms crossed and a confident grin pulling back his lips, baring his teeth in a nasty smile. “I’m glad you and your friends finally made it, but I’m afraid we had to start without you.”
There was movement behind him and a vast, white shape rose to tower over the villain. It wasn’t the flat white of milk or the polished white of marble. It was as iridescent as a pearl, shimmering like oil on water. Rainbows rippled across the body as it stretched upward, revealing a human torso, graceful arms, and… the sight of its face froze his blood in his veins.
He should have known. He should have expected this, especially from the way Luka responded after the Second Chance, but he couldn’t bring himself to consider it. Luka had said the akuma was in the cloth at “her” throat and Cat had assumed he had meant Nathalie. It had to be Nathalie, didn’t it? But it wasn’t her.
It was Marinette. Even from where he stood, he could see her beautiful bluebell eyes were black from pupil to sclera… a flat, unfeeling black… dead like the eyes of a shark. Her dark hair hung limply down her back in thick, heavy coils that fell gracelessly across the grotesquely bulbous body of a giant spider. Her black lips parted in a pained snarl, her mouth full of pointed teeth. She was wrapped in blood red silk from the waist up, a scrap of black tied around her throat and blood ran down the side of her face, tracing a dark line down her alabaster skin.
The sight of that flow of crimson lit a fire in Cat. He could feel Plagg raging within the transformation and a roar building like an aftershock in his throat. He had thought kidnapping Marinette was the final straw against the man who thought himself Adrien’s father, the man who had caged him and called it protection, had ignored him and called it love. But seeing the woman he loved like this? Turning the brightest source of life and love in his existence into this … creature that looked half dead? Seeing the blood slipping from her veins, each drop perhaps ticking away the seconds of her life? The same blood that even now stained Shadowmoth’s glove? He clenched his claws tight, resisting the urge to tear the man to shreds where he stood.
“I’ve given her the power to rewrite reality in my favor,” the villain was saying, smugly. “She is by far my masterpiece, though you should be proud of your little girlfriend, alley cat. She held out far longer than anyone else.”
Cat heard a whimper from behind him and saw Scarabella out of the corner of his eye move to comfort Carapace.
“I’ll take Marinette. You take on Shadowmoth,” he muttered to them under his breath.
“It’s your dance, Sunshine,” Alya growled back, “but don’t be surprised if I get a bit rough with the creep.”
“Be my guest.”
“Ever so cocky, Cat Noir,” Shadowmoth sneered. “Why isn’t your faithful Bug with you today? You had to call in a ringer?” Then his eyes widened. “Wait! That means-“
“Now," Cat cried tearing across the metal bridge on all fours, the sound of the others a thunder that was lost in the pounding of his heart. Then the world froze and he felt like he was floating in place.
A soft voice sounded in the sudden silence. “If I indeed have the power to unweave this dark design…” It was Marinette’s voice, but dry and lifeless. Those dead, black eyes looked down at her pale hands for a long moment. No one could move. No one could breathe. The universe seemed to stand still as she contemplated the power Arachne had been given.
“If so,” she murmured darkly, dead eyes turned balefully on the villain that stood at her feet. “Then I must begin with you!”
Reaching out her hands, Arachne’s hair came alive. It swept forward into her hands and formed a phantom fist that crushed Shadowmoth in its dark fingers. He rose in the air, scrabbling at his throat with both hands as his cane fell into the water below. The hand slammed him against the far wall off in the darkness beyond the lit area around the garden.
“Gabriel,” a woman screamed from the far side of the room. Nathalie? “Just let her go and this will all be over!”
The man’s scream rang on and on.
“After him,” he cried, forcing the words out as this new reality started to take shape around them, pulling and twisting in ever loosening strands. “We can’t let her kill him!”
As if his words had been a trigger, their reality meshed once more, and he felt his feet hit the grating of the platform before leaping at Arachne’s side. Scrambling up the slick, jointed armor of her spider’s legs, he grabbed a fistful of hair and hauled himself to her back.
She twisted to look at him, farther than was humanly possible, hissing angrily at being interrupted and showing teeth that could tear flesh from bone. But standing on her back, he was taller and grabbed her face in his hands.
“This isn’t you, my lady,” he said. “You are not Arachne. You’re Marinette! You are the kindest, sweetest, most self-sacrificing person I have ever known! I have loved you ever since we first met and you have loved me! Please, reject the akuma and I will never let him hurt you again!”
For the first time, that lifeless face was uncertain and the screaming stopped for an instant.
“Cat, she’s… unraveling him!”
“Get the miraculous,” he cried, heart hammering and his hands trembling on the face he loved so much. Tears ran down his face as he whispered, “Come back to me, Marinette. I can’t live without you!”
He pulled her into a kiss, rough and desperate, every atom of his being begging for this to work, that this would bring her back. Her black lips were as cold as her eyes had been, but they warmed beneath his touch. She thrashed against him, but Cat stood firm until she was still once more. Arachne jerked away from him, tripping over her spider’s legs and crashed her bulbous body down to the grating, clutching her head as the butterfly symbol flared around her face in a garish purple. He landed beside her and cradled her human half in his arms.
“You can do it, Princess,” he cried, “I know you can!”
“We care about you, Marinette,” Luka yelled. “You can do this. We’re all here for you!”
Alya, Nino, Max, and even Nathalie called out encouragement as well.
“I…I can’t,” she moaned and tears mingled with the blood on her face. “It hurts so much, Cat! Just make it stop!”
“I know, my love,” he said, stroking her long hair out of the way so he could apply pressure to the wound. “You have saved me so many times, even when I didn’t know it, Marinette. Now it’s my turn to save you.”
With his free hand, he shredded the black scarf she had around her neck. “Scarabella, now!”
Just as the akuma fluttered out of the fabric, he heard a pair of feet land next to him and, with a hiss-click, it was captured in silence. A white butterfly emerged a moment later, but instead of rising to seek the sky as they always did, this one landed on Cat’s hand. The evil blackness boiled away from Arachne, leaving only Marinette behind.
“The last akuma,” she murmured, staring as the purified cause of her pain finally fluttered away.
Scarabella gave them both a once over before throwing a red and black pipe wrench into the air. Funny, he had never heard her call for her lucky charm.
The Ladybug cure washed around the room, restoring Carapace and an angry Gabriel Agreste to the platform. As those pewter eyes lighted on him, wrath erupted from the man in a torrent of words.
“How dare you! You’ve ruined everything! You have no idea what you’ve done! You stupid, foolish, selfish-”
Scarabella spun her yoyo as a shield while Cat stood to block Gabriel’s path to Marinette, rage burning through his veins like lava. He opened his mouth and that angry roar reverberated through the unground space, bringing chunks of masonry down around their heads.
He took two steps forward and grabbed the man who used to be his father by the ascot and pulled him into his face. “How dare you touch her,” he growled, his fist tightening and he watched Gabriel’s eyes widen slightly. “How dare you touch a single hair on her head! Her blood is on your hands, you old fool! I should turn you to ash where you stand!”
“Cat,” Marinette whispered hoarsely. “Don’t.”
Gabriel grinned at that. “You lot are too much the heroes to ever hurt me. That’s why you’ll always lose in the end. Someday, I will have all the miraculous. I will have everything I desire and you will all be left groveling at my feet.” His voice was as calm and superior as if he was chastising an errant seamstress for missing a detail in one of his designs.
Cat turned to look at Marinette. Her sapphire eyes stared back at him, her face pale as the blood started drying to a darker hue on her face. She shook her head as tears ran down her cheeks.
“Not in this reality,” he snarled. Balling his hand into a fist, he slammed it hard into Gabriel’s stomach, driving the air from his lungs. “This is for Marinette!” The man stumbled back as far as Cat’s grip on his ascot would let him. “This is for Paris!” He sent an upper cut to the man’s chin, sending his head rocking. The ex-villain fell to his knees, stunned by the blows despite the fact that Cat had been pulling his punches because of his super powers.
Without letting go, Adrien murmured, “Claw’s in.” As the green light faded, Gabriel’s eyes blew wide in shock. “And this one’s for me, father.” He landed a punch straight to the nose, sending the glasses flying and the man tumbling to the floor, bleeding from a swollen lip and a cut across the bridge of his nose where Adrien had struck, miraculous first.
“Carapace, watch him,” he snapped, shaking out his stinging hand. “Pegasus, use Voyage to bring some police here to arrest these… criminals… and call an ambulance for Marinette. No one touches anything until they arrive. Viperion, go check on the other team. Make sure they have that dragon under control.” With that, he turned away from Gabriel Agreste and went to hold Marinette.
“Are you still with me, Princess,” he asked tenderly, barely holding himself together as the remains of his energy and anger flowed out of him. He was so tired, but he couldn’t rest until she did. She was his Lady and he loved her. That was his job.
“A-adrien,” she sobbed, clinging to the front of his shirt while he wrapped his arms around her. “I’m so sorry. You… you shouldn’t h-have come. Not for me.”
“Didn’t you know, Marinette? I will always come for you. No matter what mask you wear or don’t.”
There was a loud groan from Gabriel, a metallic thunk, and the sound of a body hitting the metal grating. Both Adrien and Marinette looked over to see Carapace holding his shield out like a plate and blushing furiously.
“I never got my turn,” he said sheepishly. “After all, Alya socked him one with her wrench, Marinette tried to unravel him like a scarf, and you got to deck him three times. It was only fair! I’ve got to have my bro’s back, don’t I?”
Marinette giggled. “I bet Kagami is going to have fits over not getting her turn!”
Maybe it was the exhaustion or maybe it was just a natural release of tension, but Adrien couldn’t help but laugh.
———
Kagami was livid at not having her turn at Gabriel, but she struck up an amiable friendship with Nino over their mutual dislike of the man and, having taken down an actual dragon with a well-timed thrust before the eyes of all Paris, she figured she’d had enough attention for one day.
Marinette needed twelve stitches and spent the night in the hospital under observation, Adrien refusing to leave her side any longer than necessary. The doctor diagnosed a bad concussion aggravated by duress and blood loss. The prescription was for lots of rest and no stress.
That was easier said than done for Ladybug, the Guardian of the Miraculous. The first on the list of stressors were Marinette’s parents. Tom alternated between crying over his ‘baby girl’ and hugging Adrien fiercely, thanking him and offering him everything from free pastries for life to taking him as an apprentice. Sabine hovered, bringing so much tea, extra pillows, and cookies up into the attic room that Adrien wondered if the stairs would hold up under the onslaught, let alone the woman’s little feet.
The press were hounding them both, wanting to know what it was like to be held captive by Shadowmoth and what was it like to know your father was a magical terrorist. Not a word had slipped out about the identity of the heroes, but the attention was bad enough for Tom to declare the bakery closed until the furor died down a bit. Adrien’s bodyguard showed up out of the blue the first night, saying nothing and refusing to leave. Tom hefted a bread peel, easily the bodyguard’s equal in toughness, but the silent man’s stony face softened with relief when he caught sight of Adrien standing behind the baker.
So with Marinette resting and healing up at home, Adrien camping out in their guest room, and his bodyguard sleeping on the couch, things slowly started to settle into a new normal.
“But I’m bored,” Marinette complained a few days later. She lay on her chaise with her arms crossed, frustrated because of her mother’s refusal to let her sit at her sewing machine and work on a new dress. “I have a concussion! I’m not at death’s door!”
Sabine rolled her eyes after hearing this argument for the third time in two days. She looked at Adrien with a long-suffering expression. “You try, dear. I’m just her mother. Maybe she’ll listen to you.”
She retreated down the stairs, leaving the trap door open per their agreement whenever he was in Marinette’s room. “We trust you, son,” Tom had said. “But all things considered, you can’t blame us for being protective.”
He couldn’t. The Dupain-Chengs had taken him in with open arms and without hesitation. Tom had been elated to learn that Marinette’s ‘dream boy’ had finally come around and fallen for his cupcake. Adrien suspected that the man was up to his bushy mustache in secret wedding plans, but the thought didn’t bother him in the slightest. He loved Marinette’s parents: their nosy generosity, the unconditional love and affection that they showered on all around them, the wonderful food. It was home and family. It was what he had always wanted and it left him with a bittersweet ache inside every time he thought about it too closely.
He shook himself free of his woolgathering and turned back to Marinette. “You should rest more, Princess. You know you hunch over the sewing machine and you should’t put too much stress on your neck and shoulders. Not until the doctor says it’s okay.”
“You’re worse than Maman,” she muttered, but a smirk crossed her face before turning into a smile as he took her hand and kissed her knuckles.
“I promised I would take care of you, Princess. You can’t expect me to not look out for your best interests. You need lots of rest.”
She shifted her eyes away cagily. “I don’t want to sleep.”
“Still having nightmares?”
“Yes… but you don’t need to worry-“
He chuckled weakly. “I’ll worry more if you don’t tell me, you know.”
She sighed. “I am trapped in the dark. Sometimes, I’ve hurt someone, sometimes his voice is inside my head, and always that dry fluttering.” She shuddered. “It’s a jumbled mess, really, and it terrifies me.”
He sat in the desk chair beside her and gave her a gentle hug. “I know, love, but it’s supposed to be. You were akumatized and you know people who’ve been akumatized don’t remember what they did. I know it is awful right now, but-“
She turned her face into his t-shirt and cried. “You don’t understand. I remember!”
Marinette had put on a happy, relieved face for their friends and her family, but Adrien had known Ladybug too long to not know when she was hiding something from him. And since she had so far refused to talk about it, he knew it was only a matter of time before everything came out, for better or worse. It came out in silent, violent sobs that shook him as much as it did her. He just held her for a long time, knowing there was no reason for secrets now and that she would tell him when she could.
“I could have killed you,” she whispered finally. “I tried to kill … Shadowmoth. I remember.”
“You do?”
She nodded briefly, wiping at her eyes with her knuckles. “Yeah. I don’t know whether it was the concussion, being a superhero for so long, or even being the Guardian, but I was aware of what was happening, even if Arachne was controlling it.” She shivered at the memory and he held her just a little tighter in comfort. “Shadowmoth told me what my power was, that in addition to my creativity I could reweave reality. You and the others came through the Voyage portal and then all I could think of was you.” She looked up at him, caressing his cheek with a hand still covered in bandages to help her wrists heal. “How I wanted you safe… how I wanted you out of that house… out from under his thumb. How he had been hurting our friends… my family. I turned on him. I just wanted him gone. I wanted it all to go away. I wasn’t strong enough. I’m so sorry!”
She started weeping again. “You know who I am now,” she sobbed. “You know what I’ve done to you in the past, what I tried to do that day. I would understand if you want nothing more to do with me.”
“Not on your life,” he snapped, clasping her face as gently as he could while making her look up at him. “Marinette you mean the world to me! Tikki and Alya told me about what you’ve been going through - about Cat Blanc. And, no, we don’t have to talk about it now, but I think I understand better what you went through. You have carried so much, Marinette, too much for far too long. You broke my heart along the way, but I also broke yours. You were the one sacrificing for me all this time on both sides of the mask. But you told me you love me! I’m not perfect either. I’ve made mistakes, given up, made so many bad calls it should have its own cell number, but you never gave up on me. The real me. Why on earth do you think I’ll give up on you just because you’re human and have been hurting?”
She stared at him, eyes wide, cheeks pink, and her bottom lip slowly rolling between her teeth drawing his gaze to her lips. Gently, he ran his thumb along her lips, pulling the skin away from her teeth with care. “I love you, Marinette. Sure. We’ll have some things to work through, but we don’t have to do it alone anymore.”
Marinette stretched up to press a light kiss at the corner of his mouth. “I don’t deserve you, Adrien. I love you so much.”
Her words soothed the bittersweet heartache that had settled in his chest and weighed down his heart like a millstone. He sighed in contentment and leaned his head down to press a soft kiss to her hair.
They sat quietly for a long while, disturbed only by the ticking of the clock and the quiet grumbling of Plagg of the lack of camembert in his cheese danish.
“It’s today, isn’t it,” Marinette asked softly.
“Gabriel’s being arraigned today, yeah.”
“There is no way he’s going to slip away, you know.” She ran her fingers between his, weaving them together with a gentle squeeze.
“We don’t have to talk about it, you know.”
“I know, but I think we should. The next few weeks are going to be hard. I know Alya has set up a private page on the Ladyblog so Ladybug and Cat Noir can communicate with the attorneys. It gives us a bit of breathing space.”
“Can’t I just focus on you right now?”
Marinette shook her head. “Adrien, if you baby me any more I’ll go out of my mind! Let me take care of you too! I love you, silly Cat, and you aren’t going through this mess alone either!”
He shrugged, returning the squeeze with one of his own. “I know, Princess. It’s just… hard to think about him without letting all the feelings come with it.”
She shifted on the chaise and pulled him gently beside her and began running her fingers through his hair. “You saw it,” she murmured. “The last akuma. All the butterflies are flying free and the brooches are back in the Miracle Box where they belong. You can let it out now. There’s nothing to fear.”
“But there is,” he insisted, fists banging on his knees in frustration. “What if I’m the reason Gabriel went over the deep end? Why wasn’t I good enough, Marinette? I tried! I did everything I could to make him happy, make him proud… but what good did it do me? What if I turn out just like him and I-“ She cut him off with a fierce kiss to the lips, stunning him into silence.
“Don’t you dare,” she growled, clasping his face in her hands. “Why do you think Shadowmoth was the only one Arachne went after? She could have rewritten reality however she wanted and she went after him alone. I heard him plotting, Adrien! Nathalie was trying to talk him out of it all and he told her that you didn’t matter! All he cared about was making his wish! That has nothing to do with you and everything to do with him. I love you so much it hurts, has hurt for years, and do you know why?”
He swallowed at her vehemence. Boy, was she beautiful when she was angry! “I don’t know. ‘Cause I’m handsome?”
She rolled her eyes and poked him hard in the chest. “Because, stupid Cat, you are litter-ally the sweetest, kindest, most loving, catastic, and furrgiving purrson I know! If you don’t trust yourself, then trust me, and if you ever act so silly that I have to pull out the puns again, then I will kick you clear across Paris! Got it?”
He grinned as she gave him her angry bug face, but her lips quirked up at the corners and her eyes sparkled with mirth. His heart gave a leap. He would never get over his Lady punning back at him.
“Yes, ma’am!” Adrien kissed her, soft and sweet, ending in smiles. They both sighed in contentment when they broke apart, grinning like fools. “I’m glad to be loved by someone as pun-derful as you, Princess.”
She blushed hotly, but her gaze burned. “I told Gabriel that you were a better man than he had ever been by the age of fourteen and I meant every single word of it.”
He caressed her cheek with his knuckles and pressed his forehead against hers. “I know you did, my love.”
“I spent so many years afraid that I would fail everyone, that I wasn’t good enough, especially for you, and all it got me was a broken heart and a lot of tears. It’s not worth it, Adrien. I know this has shaken you badly, I get that, but you usually have more confidence than this.”
He shook his head. “No, Cat has more confidence than this. Adrien has always been a mess. I’ve just been trained to hide it very well.”
“Then let’s work on it together, okay,” she offered shyly.
He lifted her fingers he still held and pressed a kiss to their tips. “You and me against the world, my Lady,” he murmured against her fingertips.
“Always,” she breathed with a smile that took his breath away. “We’ll just have to train you to be better at something you choose this time. Got any ideas?”
His smile stretched so far it hurt his cheeks. “Do you think your papa would be willing to teach me how to make croissants?”
“OF COURSE, MY BOY,” boomed Tom from downstairs. “I’LL GET YOU AN APRON AND MEASURE OUT THE FLOUR. SABINE, PREP SOME CHUB! ADRIEN AND I ARE MAKING STUFFED CROISSANTS FOR DINNER!”
Adrien’s eyes widened in delight at the same time that a blush rose in his cheeks. Of course, Tom had been listening in as he talked about his father and whispered endearments to his princess.
Marinette, her face as pink as a peony, shrugged apologetically. “I apologize if he offers to bring you in on the family business… again.”
He stood and pressed one last kiss to her forehead. “Who says I would mind, my love?” He winked at her and the blush darkened across her face. “I’ll take bread over butterflies any day.”
“HURRY UP, SON! TIME’S A WASTING AND THE BUTTER IS WARMING!”
“Coming, Tom,” he called down with a new warmth in his heart. He may have lost a lot to his father, but he had gained more than he had ever dreamed possible: the love of his princess and her family, the freedom to choose for himself, the destruction of the cage he had been trapped in for so long. A future untainted by dark butterflies…
“See you later, Marinette,” he said before heading down the stairs. “I love you so much!”
“I love you too,” she replied. “Oh, and , Adrien?”
“Yeah?”
Her beautiful face was smiling, loving, and very, very pink. “Welcome home.”