Chapter Text
Once there was a maiden...
...who courted danger and intrigue wherever she went.
She flirted across the skirts of peril
Dancing ahead of those that would destroy her.
Laughing in the face of her own destruction.
When asked how she could so glibly brush off the forces that sought to destroy her, the Maiden responded...
"...luck loves those that lust after life."
Approach the target. Learn her weaknesses. Eliminate her from the equation.
His father’s words echoed in Adrien’s mind as he surveyed the ballroom, nodding to various masked figures as he swept for any signs of the woman he was looking for. Red dress, pale skin, blue eyes hidden behind a red mask. That was all he had to work with. The woman who had been interfering with The Akuma Group didn’t leave anything more than that behind as she left unconscious guards and smashed security cameras in her wake.
Numerous operatives had been sent to eliminate her; numerous operatives never returned.
So where brute force failed, Gabriel decided to try a subtler approach. After all, young women were drawn to his son like a moth to a candle. He wasn’t above using his son’s sexuality as a weapon and statistically speaking. Adrien had the best chance of…disarming her and ensuring her misguided do-gooding ended with a bloody knife in her back.
That was his task; seduce and destroy the Ladybug.
But as the night wore on, Adrien silently hoped his mark would stay home. As much as he would make his father happy, Adrien didn’t envision his first time ending with him strangling his partner while she slept.
Below, Gabriel Agreste droned on, thanking various dignitaries and associates for their continuing support as Adrien stalked the ballroom. Lacking his usual equipment, Adrien tried to blend in as best he could, all the while scanning the room for any sign of his target. A few false positives sent his heart crawling into his throat and hands bunching in his pockets. Maybe he could claim he was sick and slip away. Maybe he could say the Ladybug slipped him some kind of toxin to make him dazed and confused. But as much as the idea of cold blooded murder repulsed him, the idea of Ladybug assassinating his father was equally unbearable.
Lost in his own thoughts, he didn’t notice the woman beside him until she nearly bumped into him.
“Sorry,” Adrien said. “Didn’t see you th-”
Blue eyes locked with green as the young woman looked up at him, smoothing her scarlet dress out with a laugh that seemed to cut through the tedium of the gala. For a moment, Adrien wondered if he had it wrong but the definition in her arms and the way she recovered her balance left no doubt as to who this woman was.
Approach the target. Learn her weaknesses. Eliminate her from the equation.
“My fault,” the woman said, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear. “Head in the clouds, you know?”
Adrien nodded mutely, only dimly aware of what she was saying as he looked her over. The domino mask obscured most of her features, but even so Adrien could tell that Ladybug was…young. About his age or maybe a few years younger. He had expected to deal with an experienced operative but…she was barely out of her teens like he was. Thrust into a world that could seize her life in an instant if her concentration faltered.
“Sorry,” Ladybug said. “You must be Adrien, ri-”
Ladybug paused as Adrien’s arm seized her elbow, glancing up at his pained expression with a small furrowed brow. Her hand went into her coach bag, feeling around for her weighted yo-yo in case she needed to make a quick escape.
“He knows you’re here,” Adrien said quietly, taking her hand and turning her into an awkward waltz as the string quartet played some Mozart standby.
“Sorry?” Ladybug laughed nervously, watching the young man scan the crowd over her head. “I don’t know who you’re talking abo-”
“You’re here to kill my father,” Adrien said simply. Ladybug’s blood went cold, narrowing her eyes at the young man as she was tempted to go for the needle at the back of her dress and knock him out but-
“…why are you telling me this?” Ladybug said softly.
“Because…” Adrien trailed off, swallowing heavily. “I don’t want you to kill him.”
“Your father doesn’t seem to have such lofty ideals,” Ladybug said, hand sliding up Adrien’s shoulder to preserve the masquerade a little longer. “Do you know how much blood he has on his hands?”
“A fair amount, I’d wager,” Adrien said.
“Try gallons,” Ladybug retorted, eyes scanning the crowd for Gabriel Agreste.
“I know…” Adrien said. “I know what he is…but he’s still my father.”
Ladybug looked up at the boy (man, she corrected herself) in front of her. “…he wanted you to kill me, didn’t he?”
Adrien glanced around, nodding noncommittally. “He did…even if I don’t, Gorilla has ten men in the wings waiting for you to make your move.”
Ladybug sniffed, glancing up into the rafters where a gleam of sunglasses caught her attention.
“You’ll never leave this ballroom alive,” Adrien muttered.
“Neither will you once your father figures out you helped me get away,” Ladybug said, dancing them towards a large glass window.
“I’m family,” Adrien laughed. “I’ll be fine.”
“…you really don’t know what happened to your mother then, do you?” Ladybug’s voice sent a cold spike through Adrien’s chest. Part of him screamed that Ladybug was just hitting his soft spots but…part of him knew that his mother hadn’t just left. His father wouldn’t have allowed her to embarrass the family like that.
“…what do you know?” Adrien asked.
“Nothing I can say here,” Ladybug said, glancing at the window as she touched a red and black spotted earing. “West ballroom; large double window…okay I see you.”
“Who are you talking t-” Adrien trailed off as Ladybug pressed her finger to her lips.
“My employer can answer your questions,” Ladybug said, leaning in to whisper in Adrien’s ear. “If you answer a few of hers.”
“She’s not going to be happy when you tell her you failed your mission,” Adrien said, glancing around uneasily. He couldn’t see his father and while he was sure his father’s goons were still watching from the rafters, Ladybug maneuvered them behind a large potted plant for some privacy.
“My mission?” Ladybug laughed softly, winding her arms around Adrien’s neck. “You think I’m here to kill your father?”
Adrien frowned, looking down at Ladybug as she smiled secretively up at him. “Then…why are you here?”
Ladybug reached into her purse and Adrien reached out to seize her wrist. Slowly, he drew her hand out of her purse to find it clutched around a crisp new photograph of a woman in a blue pantsuit, holding the morning’s newspaper and looking up at him with pair of green eyes he hadn’t seen in nearly ten years.
“I’m here…to get you out,” Ladybug said, reaching forward and clipping her belt to his. Adrien stared at the picture for a long moment, looking for any telltale signs of digital manipulation before glancing up to Ladybug with watery eyes.
“What’s your name?” Adrien asked. Ladybug smiled, pressing a finger to her lips as she slowly withdrew her yo-yo from her bag.
“Ask me when we get home,” Ladybug said. With a flick of her wrist and a shattering of glass, Adrien felt himself yanked off his feet, sailing into the chilly night air away from the only world he had ever known. And as his hands wrapped around the mystery woman’s waist as she swung from the nearby rooftop, Adrien could only think that being kidnapped by a strange woman he had never met was for the best.
He was a shitty assassin anyway.