Chapter Text
Chapter 25 Duusu’s wish
Adrien had always loved being Chat Noir, the freedom he felt not having to put on the face of the Agreste fashion line. Tonight was a little different; Adrien was trapped in one of the hospital rooms with reporters and lawyers alike trying to get inside. A police officer and the gorilla were keeping them at bay but Adrian couldn’t stay locked up any longer. He jumped out the window and fell several floors before a flag pole caught him. The rain had stopped making his heightened senses pick up everything around him, a mouse crawling on the streets below. It scratched at some leaves and knocked over a can, normally Chat would joke about acting like a cat but right now he didn’t care. He pounced down onto a fire escape and then slide down to the ground landing on all fours, his night vision gave him an easy view of the small creature tangled in some string. Chat stalked closer to it, the mouse squeaked in alarm at the glowing green eyes.
An ugly meow breaks Chat out of his haze; he turns to a garbage can to find the culprit. It was a black Persian with striking green eyes; he meowed again and jumped down from the can to approach tail in the air.
“You a stray little fella” Chat mutters holding his hand out for the cat to smell, it meowed again and rubbed its head on him. Chat sat down to scratch the cats ears, it must have been a fighter based off the condition on its ears torn in several places. “I guess I’m a stray now too” Chat added his own ears drooping, the cat began to purr slightly and he let it ease him for a while.
A paw boops his nose making Chat open his eyes, the cat looked up at the hospital then back at him. “I won’t be seeing Nathalie for a while, I heard they put her into a coma” Chat mutters wondering why the heck he was bothering to tell a cat this.
The cat didn’t say anything, just continued to stare at one part of the building. Chat followed its gaze and raised a brow, he couldn’t quite place it but something felt off. “I think I’m going to go check on Nath” he said standing up and walking to the end of the ally. He looks back for a moment to see the cat sitting almost proudly then walking off into the darkness. He pays it no mind and uses his staff to scale up the building, using his claws to crack open the window and slip in.
A small figure stood at the base of his bed with an iPad in her hands, Chat softly stalked towards her as she typed on it. Her hair was tied in four pigtails that ran far down her back, black with a sleek purple strike in each. Chat was right behind her when she looked up and jumped back twirling to face him,
“what the hell are you doing?” she snaps closing the iPad and holding it close to her chest.
“I could ask you the same kid, you don’t look like family” Chat fired back standing tall to tower over her.
“That’s none of your business piss-head” the girl growls and runs out of the room, Chat moves to the doorway but the girl seemed to have vanished. Chat sighs and looks back at the bed; Nath looked like he hadn’t moved since he last saw him.
He hears loud footsteps approach the door and jumps out the window not wanting an awkward conversation with the doctor. He sneaks a peak to see Nathaniel’s mom sitting on the bed listening to what the doctor was saying. No serious conditions thanks to Ladybug’s cure but getting your entire body destroyed by a cataclysm still had taken a toll. Guilt bit at Chat as he half listened to the doctor, it wasn’t his fault but the feeling was all the same.
Fu tapped his pen against the paper at his desk; he had been putting this off for a while. Ever since becoming guardian in fact, he had been avoiding this task. In his defense he couldn’t do it exactly since the book was missing up until this day but Wayzz had told him multiple times all he had to do was write it down on some paper to transfer to the book once it was found. The turtle wasn’t here anymore but Fu could still feel his comforting presence, encouraging him to begin. He finally clicked the pen and began to write.
Fu was about twelve when he made his first mistake, the boys in his class had dared him to enter the temple at midnight. All he had to do was steal a blade of grass from the dragon; he knew darn well the dragon was only a teacher. But when he had grasped a blade of grass and heard her footsteps approaching, he had panicked and ran into the nearest room. That was when he met Duusu; she had been forcibly removed from her holder. Since her holder never gave her up Duusu was free to wail loudly in the room the guardians confined her in. Fu had always been soft hearted; he listened to the kwami’s story and offered his assistance. But what could they do? The guardians had Duusu’s miraculous and were working on making her inactive, there was no way Fu could steal it from them.
Luck had been on their side, Fu passed by the resting place for the last Ladybug. A grand grave with Ladybug’s carved into the stone. In the stone on two ladybugs were the earrings of creation, a tradition for fallen miraculous wielders to allow the kwami to say goodbye. In the offering where candles or incense would be placed was none other than the ring of destruction. The idea that came to Fu’s mind clouded out the mystery of the black cat’s fate, so much so that he took both miraculous’s to tell Duusu his idea.
They had to be careful, they decided on one day. For one day Duusu wouldn’t be bound to her miraculous but she still would be able to communicate with humans. They weren’t specific on the wish, so Fu was surprised when Duusu form glowed and stretched into a human with peacock features. Fu gasped when she threw her wings around him in thanks. Then like an angel she vanished, no doubt to find her wielder far from the temple.
The earrings and ring were all about balance, Fu would realize soon. To give Duusu humanity would mean someone had to lose it in return.
“Duusu gained some abilities from her time as a human, she could withhold truths even lie to her future holders” Fu spoke aloud as he wrote the note down. Future guardians would benefit from that little knowledge “she also has more free will when it comes to her wielder, if someone tries to wield her while deactivated she decides if she’ll activate or not”.
He looks over to a box sitting innocently at his desk; he picked it up and ran his thumb over the surface. “Duusu always got so attached to her wielders, calling them her peachicks like they were her young” he said into the empty room. “Such attachment might cloud her judgement-“he stands up and throws a backpack over his shoulders. “-But I have a feeling she made the right choice” maybe it was his third mistake to leave Duusu with the boy. Yet when he turned his heads to the heavens to apologize to his elders he felt nothing but peace. He could only hope the peace remained as he did something that hadn’t been done for hundreds of years.
He flips open the box and faintly smirks at his reflection “but it wouldn’t hurt to have someone behind the scenes to keep an eye on them” he could almost see Nooroo’s smirk.
“I want to repair the damage Gabriel did using my power, find me someone able to see the goodness in others and I’ll make you proud” echoed in his ears.
Fu clicked the box with the butterfly miraculous closed, “I know just the person to ask Nooroo”. He gives one last look at his old shop then closes the door.
Chat slid into the room to find a bundle of blankets had been placed on the bed, after waking up Nath had no desire to stay at the hospital with all the voices outside and had gone home at first opportunity. His mom was downstairs trying to shoo away the obnoxious paparazzi, if Chat listened he could hear her strained patience at their heartless questioning.
Chat went to sit on the bed next to the lump “Hey Nath how’s it going?” the lump doesn’t respond so Chat pokes it a few times. Finally the lump moves to a sitting position and the blanket falls to reveal Nathaniel’s face.
“I was hoping Paon could join us for the victory party, Carapace is bringing pizza” Chat said trying his best to appear as positive and energetic as he normally did.
Nath flinched and hugged his knees “I don’t think Paon deserves to be at that party, Paon’s done nothing but bring trouble” he admits looking over to meet Chat’s eyes.
“Nath you’re not saying-“
“That I’m giving up? Yes” Nath cuts him off, “Hawk moth has been controlling me since the beginning, using me to hurt people, I’ve never been a hero” his lip trembles and bows his head into his knees. Chat grabs his shoulder while he breaths through clenched teeth trying to keep quiet “just take Duusu Chat; find her someone who’s not just a puppet”.
“I can’t do that” Chat says with such power he sounded much older. His hand squeezes Nath’s shoulder “no one else in Paris…no the world could replace you as Paon and you know that”.
Nathaniel bites his lip until he tasted blood “but hawk moth-“
“I bet you Hawk moth didn’t tell you to save that kid in Achu, or to destroy those shadow akuma’s in the most show off way possible” Chat cuts him off making Nath look up at him.
Duusu flies out from the bathroom with such speed she smacks into the two boys. “Nath you’ve done something incredible” she breaths out then blinks in confusion “is everything okay?”
Chat looks back to Nath and he shakes his head slightly, a quiet plea not to tell her. Chat spies the silver necklace in Duusu’s nubs; it looked like a snake biting its own tail with an amethyst for an eye. “We’re okay, what were you saying?”
Duusu flies down and hands Nathaniel the necklace “you somehow purified both Ennzo and his miraculous” she cries regaining her energy. “I just tried a bunch of tests and it’s completely clean, not even Ladybug could do that” she adds jumping up and down on his knee.
“I don’t know how I did that” Nath admits scratching his neck while letting the necklace roll around in his free hand. “Can we activate it?” he asks watching Duusu fly up to touch the necklace.
“He’s very weak, it would be best if we allow him to rest for now” Duusu replies staring at the snake’s eye, for half a second the eye glows slightly.
A beeping sound comes from Chat’s baton and he clicks it quiet “that’s Carapace telling me to help with the pizza”. Duusu takes the necklace and puts it in the best looking box in the room. A broken music box Nath got from a garage sale. Duusu removed the paintbrushes to make room for the miraculous.
“Let’s go with him, maybe Bee will give you a victory kiss” Duusu teases making Nath blush as red as his hair. Chat chuckles wondering if his lady would do the same.
Ladybug lands at the meeting spot with a large dotted backpack attached to her normal costume. She slides it to the ground and yawns looking to her side, where the heck was everyone?
“LADYBUG” Bee squealed flying out of nowhere and picking Ladybug up, she twirled her around in excitement. “We won, we actually won” she cries finally setting a very dizzy Ladybug down.
Rena lands beside them and puts a hand on Ladybug’s shoulders before she falls down, “you were amazing up there LB, I had no idea you could fly”.
“Neither did I” Ladybug admits with a giggle, “did you remember the drinks?” Rena pulls out two boxes of pop from a black backpack she had on.
“Anyone order a pizza, or two or twelve?” Chat cries from above and lands in front of the girls with four boxes in his arms. Carapace is right behind him with several more boxes; Paon flies down with a bag of bread sticks.
“Paon” Bee jumps onto him sending the bread sticks flying, “where the heck were you? You missed me knock over the Eiffel tower” she cries wings flapping excitedly.
“I was uh…fighting the Black Prince” Paon blurts flinching slightly at the gasps from the rest of the team.
“Yeah…he literally came out of nowhere and grabbed Paon, I didn’t ’t tell you guys earlier cause…you know the akuma then the whole deal with Hawk moth” Chat chimes in ears drooping when Hawk moth was mentioned.
The sound of a can opening makes the crew look over at Carapace “that makes this a celebration of both the end of Hawk moth and the corrupt” he says holding the pop can up like one would a glass of wine.
A few minutes later the whole team sits down in front of many boxes of pizza, Bee had tried to refuse a slice at first but gave in from hunger. It wasn’t a big deal that she could treat herself to peasant food this once, nobody had to know. Rena demanded answers from Paon about how the battle went with the Prince and Paon did a decent enough job thinking up a story on the spot.
“He had an awful fascination with you” Paon says looking at Bee, she pauses on her forth slice of cheese pizza.
She flips her ponytail allowing it to bounce cutely “well I can’t blame him, I am true royalty after all” she purrs holding a hand over her chest.
“And so modest too” Rena chirps taking a swig of her drink.
“Speaking of me did you get some awesome shots for the Lady Blog?” Bee asks leaning in to see what shots Rena had this time. The fox’s ears droop and she bites her lip, yet another epic battle and she had no photo or video to show for it. Her bloggers were going to be so disappointed, she’s about to give Bee the bad news when Carapace bumps her shoulder.
“I uh figured with everything going on you may have missed making an Alya illusion so well here” he holds his wrist out to show the phone attached had dozens of photos right up in the action. Rena squeals swiping though them finding close ups of her and Bee, a nice angle of Ladybug and Chat’s special costumes as they fought a giant peacock and mysterious rider. Although there were some which were just snapshots of the air, Carapace frowned at them “those were supposed to be of our light bulb friends”.
Ladybug studied the photos with a thoughtful frown “that proves it then, those were kwami”. She walks over to the roofs edge to look down at the crowds celebrating by dancing or jumping around “these people are in danger so long as the knights of sin are loose” she says holding her yo-yo close to her heart.
“I thought kwami were only as good or evil as their holder” Carapace says recalling his first chat with Wayzz.
“They have become corrupted while trapped in the other world; the kwami may have become as evil as their past holders. We’re going to have to catch every one of them and try to purify them”
“How do you know?” Paon asks sitting down with his feet over the edge. He couldn’t help but think back to the memory, the word evil just didn’t fit the boy he had seen freeze to death in the snow.
“I don’t know, ever since Chat and I got those special costumes it’s been like Tikki’s able to communicate with me. Not with words but like images and feelings..and some of those images weren’t pretty” Ladybug says with a serious look that turns warm. “I feel closer than ever with her” she turns to Chat who was just about to bite into a glob of cheese with pizza somewhere in there.
“Maybe that’s why I have such a craving for cheese” Chat jokes wondering just how much that was going to bite him in the butt later.
Ladybug spies her parents down below dancing with one another; she smiles as Tom lifts Sabine like she was his world. She adjusts the backpack on her shoulders “oh right I got a surprise for you guys” Ladybug spins to face her team and opens the backpack.
Inside were orange, green, black, yellow and blue photo albums. Ladybug handed each team member their corresponding colours, a smirk forming on her lips as each takes a look inside.
The books started out with a photo of each of them with stats next to them, some of it was serious like Paon having the highest speed stat, Bee having the highest power and Carapace having best defense. Then there were things like Chat’s pun stat, which was better than Paon’s by one bar. Further into the books were photos taken by Rena’s illusion or Ladybug herself, including the group photo they did during the London underwater incident. Paon chuckled at the one of him being thrown at an akuma by Bee with a less than impressed expression. The caption to that photo was “the bird keeps itself in flight by sheer force of anger”. Chat giggled at one which was of him and Paon finding a cat during a patrol, the cat had favored Paon and in the photo was sitting on his lap while Chat pretended to pout. Rena loved the ones of her posing with dogs around Paris and Bee’s favorite was one of her and Ladybug posing with “Bug buddies” as the caption.
“These came out awesome LB” Rena chirps flipping a page and something flutters to the floor. The rest of the crew find similar pages inside the books “Paris dog show?” Rena reads out loud looking to Ladybug shocked.
“You signed me up to be a judge at the flower show?” Bee cried showing the ad on her paper which had her name listed with the judges. “And it’s on a Sunday, I don’t work Sundays” she added with a whine, Ladybug’s smirk didn’t fade.
“I got story time with Chat at the children’s hospital” Chat chirps with enthusiasm until another paper falls out of his book. “And to attend a showing on endangered species…which is over four hours” boredom seeps into his voice.
“Same but I also got a new exhibit in the aquarium” Carapace says looking to Paon who had gone the most pale.
“You signed me for an interview on TV?” he squeaks out feeling his cheeks burn at the thought.
Bee glared at him “What’s so bad about that?”
“People everywhere want to know what the deal is with the corrupt, and you are currently the only one able to purify them” Ladybug said zipping her backpack back up. “You need to talk with the people you’re protecting, it’s part of the job Paon”, the bird in turn can only make out a squeak in reply.
“The lady blog needs you for an interview too, you’re the only one Alya hasn’t done” Rena chimes in excitement in her eyes. But it sinks the second Ladybug continues talking.
“We’re also all going to London in autumn to attend the new miraculous hero’s section at the wax museum” Ladybug adds clicking on her yo-yo. Seconds later each hero looks at their phone to find their calendar app filled with events they had to do.
“No fair, you promised if we beat Hawk moth we’d get two weeks without patrol” Bee whined.
“And you don’t have any solo acts, what’s that all about?” Rena adds not caring that she matched Bee’s level of whining.
“Well I would have taken some for myself if my team had been honest with me-“ Ladybug starts pretending to look at her nails “-I may have checked the news before coming back to Paris”.
Paon is absolutely lost while Rena, Bee, Chat and Carapace exchange looks of fear. Ladybug puts her hands on her hips “I don’t appreciate being lied to” Ladybug states so calmly it just makes them more terrified. “So maybe doing some good publicity for the people of Paris will remind you just how important honesty is to a good team”.
“Ladybug” Chat whines
“I can’t believe I didn’t think of that” Rena mutters
“I can’t believe I agreed to that plan” Carapace cries throwing his arms into the air.
“I thought we were bug buddies” Bee wails posing like she was in a soap opera.
“I’m so confused” Paon mutters closing his book.
Suddenly there’s a beeping in Ladybug’s hand, she clicks open the yo-yo and yelps at the time. “Sorry guys I promised my friends I’d join them in the celebration” she grabs one more slice of pizza then swings out of sight. The team groans but cleans up the garbage and says their own good byes, all saying they also had plans to attend to.
Paon expected Chat to follow him home but is surprised when he grabs him and yanks him down into the ally’s below. “Okay Paon we’re covered, drop the costume” he orders with a mysterious smile, he drops his costume and Paon does the same. When the lights fade Adrien throws Plagg a slice of his beloved cheese without missing a beat. Before Nathaniel can ask Adrien tosses a chunk of sandwich to Duusu “alright come on” Adrien gives a follow me motion and the kwami’s go to their hiding spots.
“Adrien what are you planning?” Nathaniel hisses as Duusu snuggles in under his jacket with a giggle.
Instead of answering Adrian opens the front door of Nathaniel’s house and pushes the boy inside, the lights click on “SURPRISE!”
Nathaniel jumps back at the sound of everyone yelling, Adrian laughs and hits him on the back while Nath takes in his surroundings. Nino, Alya, Rose and Juleka sat on the couch with brightly coloured boxes beside them. Marinette ran from the kitchen and slipped on the carpet as she tends to do. Her head pops up from behind the couch with an embarrassed smile “surprise” she squeaks just above the giggles around her. There was a banner above them that read “happy birthday”.
“You didn’t think with everything that happened today that we forgot your birthday did ya?” Rose squeaks jumping off the couch and throwing her arms around him.
“I uh, I think I forgot” Nathaniel admits making the room laugh once more, his mom comes out of the kitchen licking some frosting off her fingers.
“This was certainly the most eventful sweet sixteen, Marinette could you help me finish the cake?”
Marinette accepts Alya’s hand up and calmly walks over to help; she’s fine up until Adrian smiles at her then she proceeds to trip over a footrest. Alya slaps her forehead and groans.
“Hey where’s-“ Adrien is cut off by the doorbell ringing behind him, Nathaniel’s breath catches in his throat as Chloe steps in.
“The party can now begin now that you’ve been blessed with my presence” Chloe purrs with a giggle in her tone. Sabrina walks behind her dragging a cooler behind her, although thankfully this one had wheels so she wasn’t struggling. Chloe twirls and hands Nathanial a box wrapped in black and yellow wrapping paper “open mine first please” she orders hoping her blush wasn’t noticeable.
Nathaniel swallows and picks apart the wrapping paper, trying his best to ignore the cheeky grins his friends were giving him. He held up the DVD and his mouth opened in surprise, “the miraculous adventures of Ladybug and Cat Noir, the mysterious Paon” was written on the cover. The cover had Ladybug and Chat Noir from the anime on the sides with a third figure in the middle with his back to the camera. He had his arms out with a fan in each hand, his feathers highlighted by the moonlight above. The company name “Tag toons” was written in the bottom left corner.
Adrian peeks over his shoulder “no way that isn’t supposed to come out for months” the other kids gather round to see and Chloe smirks at their excitement.
“My daddy has his ways, I heard from Adrien he was your favorite” she says signaling Sabrina to step forward “and we brought drinks” Sabrina opens the cooler to reveal multiple unmarked bottles.
Once everyone was seated Marinette comes out with a small cake, they sing and then she cuts them all a slice. An angel food cake with blue raspberry icing, Nath hides a laugh when he hears Duusu muffle a plea to have some.
Then came the rest of the gift opening, Juleka gave him a brand new drawing pad, Alya gave him a set of miraculous themed pencils and paintbrushes. Marinette handed him a brand new schoolbag she had made herself, it was teal and had had vines on the pattern. One of the inside pockets was made with fake fur “Adrien suggested that” she squeaked with a blush making Nathaniel smirk at him.
Nino’s gift was a mix CD of tracks he had created for Nath to listen to while he drew “they’re perfect for battle scenes” the DJ chirped adjusting his hat. He raised a brow at Rose’s gift, a bunch of hair ties and a solid black hairband.
“I noticed you were growing your hair long again so I thought you’d need it out of your way when you paint” she explained with a shrug.
Last but not least was Adrian’s gift, the modal presented it proudly and leaned back on his chair. Adrien threw a thankful look at Nino for holding onto the gift so they worked well with the tracks. And you know not get crushed with the house. Nathaniel took one look at the headphones and threw him another smirk; they contained two blue cat ears on top that lit up with a green light.
“Oh perfect, to match that hat of yours” Rose giggles.
“Don’t forget Sabrina’s gift” Chloe says opening a small cooler within the cooler and pulling out a pink wine glass. Sabrina tries to squeak that it wasn’t hers but Chloe shushes her “they were your idea so you can take credit”. Sabrina beams as she hands everyone a glass and pours them their choice of drink, Nathaniel’s smile faltered by how sticky the glasses were.
“Chloe these are awful sticky” Alya is first to blurt it out.
Chloe finishes her pop in one sip and smirks at Alya “That’s because they’re the treat” without another word she bites into the glass and chews on it.
“It’s sugar glass, that’s so cool Sabrina” Marinette chirps taking a bite of her glass, Sabrina shyly smiles from the compliments.
“Now let’s watch the movie” Adrien adds wiping his hands on a napkin, he chuckles nervously at the anxious looks the rest of them shared. “Look right now I’d like to pretend whatever rumor you may have heard tonight isn’t true so” he doesn’t finish hoping everyone got what he was trying to say. Everyone awkwardly agrees and Nino proceeds to set up the TV.
A few minutes after the opening credits Pollen sighs softly from her hiding spot on the shut off ceiling light. In her nubs was a plastic shot glass filled with tea and sweetened to nearly undrinkable levels with honey. Despite the movie being decent she had a scowl on her face, she knew Duusu was behind her. She knew Duusu was making that stupid face, that stupid face she always makes when her wielder does something cute. Down below Chloe and Nathaniel was eating out of the same bowl of popcorn, they were bound to brush hands at some point and they were going to shy away all adorable like.
She loved Chloe, but Chloe’s biggest enemy was herself. Pollen had watched Chloe talk herself into frenzy with worry several times; lately it had all been about the same two boys. Who as Pollen had pieced together was the exact same boy. She took a long sip of her tea; she hadn’t had enough sugar to deal with this crap.
“Oh man Alya you’ve got a gold mine here”
Pollen jerks to the sound of Trixx whispering beside her, the fox kwami had a cup of hot chocolate in his paws. She followed his eyes before she could stop herself to his wielder sneakily taking a photo of Chloe leaning on Nathaniel to grab her drink on the ground.
“Trixx what are you doing, you can’t just point out your wielder like that” Pollen whisper yells. Trixx just smirks at her and waves to Duusu as she flies to sit with them with a cup of her own.
“Come on Pollen it’s no big deal if we know” Trixx whispers and Duusu giggles.
“I knew your wielder had to be the cutie with the fluffy hair” Duusu coos play punching Trixx by leaning across Pollen nearly spilling their drinks.
“At least Tikki understands the importance” Pollen mumbles
“How’s the view of the movie from here?” Tikki asks sitting beside Duusu, a cup of tea in her nubs.
Pollen is frozen in a silent scream as Plagg sits by Trixx with a god damn cup of cheese dip. “This movie is hilarious” he whispers to Trixx and the two share a laugh.
Tikki sets her drink down and turns to Duusu “Duusu I’m sorry for what I said, you chose your wielder well”.
Duusu smiles and puts her drink down “I’m sorry too, it was rude of me to leave like that” she opens her arms with tears pricking at her eyes “hug?”
“Hug” Tikki confirms and Duusu jumps into her little arms.
“Ha, ha you guys are all doomed” Wayzz says watching Nino lean over to grab Alya’s hand, then promptly fell over and slid down the light.
“Okay who spiked his tea?” Tikki asks and Trixx’s paw goes up.
Pollen sighs and her head falls forward “no Pollen, don’t drown in the tea” Trixx cries trying not to laugh.
Two hours later Rose and Juleka have fallen asleep on the couch, Sabrina was helping Caline put away the dishes. Nath was frozen in shock watching the credits; Chloe was almost sitting on him dissecting the movie with Nino. Marinette was in a similar state on the arm chair with a handful of popcorn almost at her mouth.
And Adrian and Alya were having a fan-gasm on the floor.
“Oh my god he had the opportunity to kiss her and he didn’t because she was under a spell, he’s falling in love with her” Adrian cried rolling on the ground from the sugar and excitement.
“And Paon in this movie holy crap what a character” Alya adds throwing her arms up into the air “he flirted with both Chat and Ladybug, that’s freaking hilarious”.
“Oh man and that ending, I can’t wait for the next one” Adrien says as the last credit rolls and like with marvel movies it had a clip to tease the next movie. Everyone with a secret identity screams in a mix of terror and excitement, scaring the crap out of Rose and Juleka.
Nathaniel waves as his friends head back home in either their parent’s cars or drivers, before Adrien can get too far he grabs his hand.
“Adrien uh-“he starts looking down in shame “-would you mind staying here tonight? I don’t want to be alone in case Hawk moth activates some kind of programming…”
Adrien bites his lip “you know Hawk moth is locked up right now, he can’t get to you” he whispers so the others walking away don’t hear.
“I know” Nath starts forcing his voice to stay steady “I just don’t want to be alone” Adrien forces a smile and grabs his shoulder.
“Sure, just let me tell Nino there’s a change of plans” he says then heads over to where Nino was waiting, Nino had instantly offered his home to Adrien when it was clear his old house wasn’t coming back.
“Okay bro but don’t be afraid to call me alright? Call me at 3 am to talk about my dog if you want, I’ll be here for you” Nino says hugging Adrien and slapping him on the back. Adrian nods and hugs him back, not letting Nino see the tears that threatened to fall.
“We all are” Marinette says from behind him, Alya throws her into the group hug.
“I need my beauty sleep but my daddies hotel is always open to you, if you need a place to stay I can get you the best room with a view” Chloe added glomping Adrien from behind. She allowed Marinette in her precious friend’s space for just this once.
“Thanks guys” Adrien can’t bring his voice any higher than a whisper, he really did have a great group of friends. They broke it up after a moment and Adrien turned to Caline at the front door, the teacher leaned over to give him a hug of her own.
Nino paused at the door to the car then looked up at his mom; she nodded and gestured to the trunk. He grabbed the bag out of the trunk and ran over to Adrien before he disappeared behind the door. Nino grabs his shoulder with the sleeping bag under his arms “this is your first sleep over right? You’re gonna need me to show you how it’s done”.
“You two are welcome to stay, just don’t stay up all night” Caline says closing the door behind them, the chorus of “we won’t” coming from all three of them as they head to Nathanial’s room.
Three minutes later the three boys had created a bed on the floor from just about every blanket and pillow in the house. Nath was fiddling with the present his mom had left on his bed before they tore the blankets off, a new phone. He turns the device off and sits beside Adrien; Nino was downstairs plugging his phone in the kitchen.
“Thanks for staying Adrian” Nath says to fill the silence, Adrian nods and leans back on his bed. “How are you holding up?”
Adrien sighs before answering “I’m fine Nath, really I am” he says with an unconvincing smile. Nathaniel is at a loss at what to do, he glances up at the bathroom to see Duusu wave at him then zip out of sight.
She clearly wanted him for something; Nath looks back as Nino comes into the room and sits beside Adrien waiting for him to talk. Nathaniel let out a sigh and excused himself, it would be best he let Nino help Adrien out. Despite sharing quite the secret between them Nino was Adrien’s best friend, Nino would be the one Adrien could talk to.
“Did you have a good party Nath?” Duusu asks once he had shut the door behind him.
“I did, how long did you know about it?” Nathaniel says but isn’t really listening, ears strained to hear what was going on in the other room.
“Adrien I know you’re not fine, you can talk to me” Nino was saying putting one hand on Adrien’s shoulder, Adrien was hugging his knees with his head ducked like a makeshift ball.
“What’s really there to say? Tomorrow my father goes on trial for being a super villain, Nathalie is in the hospital in a medically induced coma, and for all I know I’ll be going to orphanage since my house is gone and my father’s freaking Hawk moth!”
Adrien throws a fist over his mouth to shut himself up “dude just let it out” Nino orders grabbing a pillow and hitting Adrien softly with it.
“What more can I say Nino? Turns out when I think my father and I are finally having a relationship, Hawk moth pulls of his mask and is all like-“Adrien makes his voice low and robotic “-I am your father”. He grabs a pillow and hits Nino back; “he’s the one that hurt so many people didn’t give a crap that people would be dead if Ladybug wasn’t there and…” he trails off into angry rambling which turns into a pillow fight.
“He was behind that akuma attack during my physics test” he wacks Nino on the side, then blocks Nino’s swing. Nino smirks and jumps up on the bed to continue the battle on a bouncy surface, Adrien right behind him.
“He destroyed our house to make a freaking chrysalis statue thing” Adrien gets a good shot on Nino’s side knocking him to the ground. “AND I’M SO SICK OF SECRETS AND LIES” he screams jumping off the bed to wack Nino with all his might.
Nino falls on his back dazed and Adrien stops attacking “sorry” he chokes out. He almost jumps back in surprise when Nino starts laughing; he stumbles to his feet and adjusts his glasses.
“Nice shot, now unleash hell” Nino cries then launches himself at Adrian aiming for his side, Adrien reacts and starts rapid fire swinging. Every emotion swirling in Adrien’s gut released with each swing, the confusion and anger left him for a precious moment. For a little while he wasn’t the newly discovered son of Hawk moth, he was just the pillow fighting champion.
Duusu chuckles knowing Nath was eager to go back and join in on the battle, “I’ll make this quick peachick, I have a gift of my own for you”.
Nathaniel scratches his ear and a cheeky smile meets his lips “you’re not going to throw up are you?”
Duusu puts her nubs where her hips would be “just because some birds regurgitate their food doesn’t mean I do it”. She reaches behind and pulls out a feather from her back, before Nath could ask she flies down and wraps it around his middle finger on his left hand. Once she has a size she’s satisfied with, she proceeds to shove the feather in her mouth. Nath looks both confused and a tad disgusted as she hums and spins with it then she spits it at him.
His reflexes catch the object before it splats on his face, “um, ew” is all he can say voice growing high like he was asking a question. The slightly glowing spit falls off revealing the feather had crystallized into pretty silver like metal.
“Us kwami create these Kwagatama as a symbol of friendship to our wielders, I like to go beyond the usual design” Duusu explains helping Nath slip the ring on. Where the “eye” of the feather would be was a dark blue jewel.
“It’s awesome Duusu, thank you”
“Nath I need backup” Nino cries from the bedroom, what sounded like Adrien laughing was heard as well. Nathaniel smirks and uses one of the hair ties from Rose to tie his hair in a ponytail, then runs out to grab a weapon. Duusu giggles and zips downstairs to get some leftover cake before the other kwami ate it all.
Nino was backed against the wall with Adrien using the pillow with one hand; Nath grabs and throws one pillow into Adrien’s face then slides to grab a second one to smack into his gut. Adrien drops the pillow caught off guard, Nino takes the opportunity to jump up into the bed and tackle him to the ground.
A little bit of super hero training comes into play as the pillow fight continues, they continue at it until they all collapse on the blankets below.
“Alright birthday boy, you win” Nino gasps acting like it was a grand battle he had lost, Nath laughs and mutters something into his pillow. Nino throws a small pillow at the switch and manages to swallow the room in darkness; he shuffles inside his sleeping bag not going to bother with pajamas. “Good night guys”.
Nathaniel opened his eyes to a pitch black room; it felt hot and stuffy like the inside of a creature. Nath stumbled though the room and his feet sink into the floor, he groans in disgust trying to pull out of the goo.
“Did you think you could escape?” a deep voice booms in front of him, Nath jumped in surprise but his trapped foot made him just fall to the ground. A purple light lit up the room revealing just how disgusting it was, the black goo on the walls reflected off the light. Nath looked down at his foot to find the goo was moving and pulsing, it made a sucking sound as he tried to pull free. The light dimmed and morphed into a figure “you will always belong to me”.
“NO” Nathaniel screamed trying to pull away from Hawk moth; the goo swallowed his hands like quicksand. Hawk moth grinned ear to ear and put his cane under Nathaniel’s chin to force him to look up at him.
“Quiet little pup-“
“NOOOO” Nathaniel thrashed wildly cutting the villain off; he pulls one hand free and grabs hold of the cane. He yanks it free and swings wildly; it vibrates painfully in his hands as it makes contact with Hawk moth.
Hawk moth starts to laugh while holding his face with his hands, Nath gasps as the cane melts into goo trapping his hand once more. Hawk moth stands tall revealing his mask had been ripped off but instead of a human face it was thousands of leaches forming a human face. “Stop fighting puppet” he purrs stalking towards Nathaniel in an unnatural way as if he had no bones. Nathaniel screams as the man collapses on him covering him with leaches, he thrashed as they crawled through his hair and over his face.
“Nath wake up”
Nathaniel gasps and grabs hold of Nino’s wrists, “you’re okay, it was just a nightmare” Nino says calmly waiting for Nathaniel’s death grip to relax. Adrien groans and a lump of blankets pop up where his head would be, Nath slowly let Nino’s wrists go taking slow breaths. Nino took one look at Nath’s pale face and smiles softly “I got just the thing for nightmares, will you be okay here?” Nathaniel nods and Nino leaves the room, Adrian pulls the blankets off revealing his hair was as messy as it was when he was Chat.
As soon as the door was shut Duusu flies out of her hiding spot and smacks into Nathaniel’s chest “I woke up as soon as I heard you calling out, thank goodness your friend was there”. Turtle wielders were always so selfless and kind, for that she was thankful.
“It was about Hawk moth wasn’t it?” Adrien asked sitting up, Nath’s shameful look to the ground was all the answer he needed.
“I hope it was just a nightmare” Nath muttered using one hand to hug Duusu’s little body. Neither Duusu nor Adrien can ask before the Nino opens the door. Duusu quickly hid in Nathaniel’s shirt before he saw her.
“Okay this vid helps me out whenever something freaks me out” Nino holds up his phone and sits between the two. Adrien shrugs and squints as the bright light comes on, Nino presses play on the video.
The video started with a large snake slithering around on the ground, “ah the mighty python on the hunt for prey” an Australian voice says with interest. The snake lifts his head “and like all her fellow snakes she must taste the air to check her surroundings”.
PPPPPPHHHHHTTTTT!
A human raspberry plays over the snakes tongue; all three of them crack up as it switches to the next animal. A spider with its back to the camera only for a finger to poke its butt, the goofy scream plays as it scatters away. A creepy girl from some horror movie slips on set and a British toddler drops an F bomb.
The rest of the video plays like that; a creature that was normally feared was made a joke out of. Not in the most mature way but it was perfect for three sleep deprived boys at two in the morning. Once it’s over Nath clicks the phone off and glances over at Nino, dude had already fallen back asleep and was snoring loudly. Adrien yawned and went to fall asleep muttering good night, Nath was about to do the same when he hears a tiny thump by the window.
He creeps over and hears muffled swearing from outside, swallowing his fear he throws open the window and looks out. He blinks in confusion not expecting to see her again so soon, Queen Bee was quietly shooing away a bird that was attacking her head.
“Queen Bee?”
Bee finally managed to get the bird to leave and waves shyly, “uh hi…I uh heard it was your birthday, just thought I’d stop by on patrol”. That was a lie; it wasn’t Bee’s turn to patrol. If Nath remembered correctly it was Rena’s and Ladybug’s night. “So happy birthday red” she continues presenting her gift from behind her back, a single red rose with the thorns removed.
“Uh thank you” Nath says feeling his face warm, he missed the shy smile on Bee’s lips as he trailed a finger down the petals.
“It matches your hair” Bee added running a hand though her ponytail, a tinge of pride in her chest for thinking of a gift before she got to his house. She was sure the garden she took it from wouldn’t miss it.
“You did say you liked my hair” Nath blurts tucking some loose bangs behind his ear, he freezes realizing he said that out loud. Bee’s eyes were wide and a question was stuck on her tongue, Nath chuckles nervously “when uh, I was imprisoned by Witchy words I heard some things that you said”
“Like what things” Bee demanded quietly flying right up in his face, her memory flashing back to that conversation.
-Flashback-
Bee’s timer started as soon as she entered the tower, she glared at Nathaniel on the bed and let her costume fall.
“What did I tell you about losing the costume in front of people” Pollen hissed seconds after appearing, Chloe sent her an equal grouchy look.
Chloe wrinkled her nose “it’s fine Pollen, he’s sleeping beauty right now” she growled crossing her arms. Pollen grabbed her honey treats and waited for the Mentos to hit the cola. Chloe tapped her finger on her arm then her face went bright red.
“I can’t stand you Nathaniel, I can’t believe how frustrating you’re making my life” she fumes stamping her foot. Frustrated tears burn at her eyes “every time I try to start something with Paon all I can think about is you, your stupid face, the way you draw me as Queen Bee, how excited you look whenever Alya brings up her lady blog, and how cute your damn hair is”. She wipes at her eyes growling as her makeup smears and makes her eyes look bruised “one time I even kissed Paon and neither of us was under a spell, it was dark and we were without our costumes”. Her fist clenched “and I freaking imagined I was kissing you!”
Chloe sighed and closed her eyes, Pollen took that as an opportunity to speak “Chloe” she says gently. “I think I’ve given you the wrong advice and for that I apologise. Trying to force you to confess to Paon your feelings and concerns is stressing you out”.
Chloe looked confused but her face remained a puffed pink, “you’re still young and have a long life ahead of you, there’s no rush to get into a romantic relationship. Let your friendship grow and don’t feel pressured into confessing.”
“What so I don’t confess at all?” Chloe snapped glancing at the sleeping boy then back at the kwami.
“No what I’m saying is be confident, Paon calls you his queen of course he will like you mask or not. You’re the same spoiled girl who rushes into things without thinking and eats way too much sugar before bed”. Pollen straightens out the comb in Chloe’s hair “don’t be Marionette about it; you’re a thousand times better than her”. She knew where to hit; Chloe’s prideful smile was all the proof she needed.
“You’re right I am way better than her. Why should I be using her technique for love it she just fails and makes a fool of herself?” Chloe holds a determined fist in front of her “my bird would be honoured to be my king”.
“Once you’ve proven yourself a queen” Pollen can’t help but tease making Chloe stick her tongue out at her. They turn to the window at the sound of the team yelling for her, team was getting tired of waiting.
“Guess we should hurry up here, teams getting restless” Chloe muttered putting her hands on her hips.
“You know if you’re still curious some old fairy tales come to mind” Pollen sings before she gets sucked into her miraculous.
When the light dies down Queen Bee paused with her hand around the darkened rose in Nathaniel’s hands. A certain fairy tale did come to mind and her eyes were drawn to his small pink lips. Her heart pounded and she yanked the flower free, turning on her heel and flying out the window without looking back.
-Flashback end-
“Um, you know like bits and pieces…like you liked my hair and uh something about Paon” he answers truthfully, he also heard someone else talking but they were too muffled for anything to be heard clearly. Bee releases the breath she was holding in relief, no angry lecture from Pollen tonight.
Nath plays with the flower and finds a tag attached to the stem, in the dim moonlight he could make out it was an invite to the flower show next week. “Will I see you there?” Bee whispers trying not to sound too excited, she fails adorably.
Nath smirks and looks up at her “wouldn’t miss it princess” without thinking he takes her hand and kisses it gently. As soon as he realised what he’d done they both blush and giggle nervously, god he was spending way too much time with Chat.
“See you then” Bee squeaks than flies out the window, careful not to disturb the nest but still show off as much as possible. She does at least one loop wings glowing like a cute little firefly, Nath watches her until he feels two eyes staring at him.
He turns to face Adrien with a terrible cheeky smile lying down with his feet crossed in the air, his head rested on his arms. Nath doesn’t give him the satisfaction of a goofy excuse and crawls into his bed without another word.
In an ally not far from the room Bee zips overhead causing a trash can to fall over. A green ball falls out of the can and unrolls into a tiny creature. It had large yellow eyes and tiny antennas on its head, it whimpers and sits up.
A yellow light shoots out from somewhere and stops in front of the creatures face, making it yelp and jump back. The light fades revealing a tiny lion cub with large brown eyes and tiny claws on its paws “is everyone here?” she asks in a voice that was female but much deeper than expected out of a tiny body.
Red, blue, orange and indigo lights creep out from their hiding spots behind trash cans. Each turning into their own creature, the red was a bright pink unicorn with white sparkly hooves and a small horn on its head. The blue was a tiny orca whale with a large fin instead of feet; it had white patches of skin around its nearly black eyes. The indigo turned into a bat with its wings attached to its nubby arms, small fangs poked out of its worried frown. Lastly the orange turned into a vulture with a very grouchy expression; unlike with Duusu he had a beak that looked ready to poke an eye out.
“We’re down one” the unicorn sniffed starting to cry “I can’t sense Ennzo at all” the orca was imminently by her side offering a nub (fin?) to hold.
“It’s what I feared; the wielder of destruction killed him. And that means he’s likely to come after us next” the lion hissed making the unicorn hug the orca and cry harder. Her eyes soften and she flies to the two and places a nub on the unicorn’s side “Miyuu I know you’re scared but you need to be brave right now”.
“What can we do Purrde? We’re powerless without our wielders” the bat cries with a voice high enough it had to be female.
Purrde turned to her “much time has passed since we were banished; I believe it would be best for us to find new wielders for our protection”. The other kwami exchange depressed looks but nodded in agreement, “you have to test them, make sure they are worthy of your power before-“.
“That sounds like so much work” the green one complained from the ground, Purrde glared at him with a twitch where her eyebrow would be. “Can’t we just sit here and wait for someone to find us?” he adds brushing a piece of garbage away from his head.
“No what if Ladybug or one of her minions finds us?” The orca hissed letting Miyuu go and flying down and jabbing a nub on the green kwami’s head.
“Irrin calm down, there’s no point fighting amongst ourselves” the bat gently said flying in between the two and pushing them apart.
“Thank you Wixxin” Purrde hums then stands waiting for everyone’s attention “during my flight around I discovered this city is known as Paris and it’s been nearly a hundred years since we’ve been on earth”.
“A hundred years! No wonder this place looks so weird” the vulture that had been rather quiet squawked and flapped his wings. Everyone starts to blab about random things they had seen in varying decrees of panic.
“Everyone was holding up glowing boxes that made noise” Miyuu cried
“Their fire is touchable” Wixxin added referring to a light she had crashed into in an office.
“What about those metal monsters roaming the streets?” Irrin said only for said metal monster to zip by them, a car with glaring lights. Naturally they all scream and hide waiting for the monster to leave; Purrde is first to peek out once the monsters roars had moved away.
“This is why we need to find new wielders, do you guys understand?” Purrde hissed watching everyone else’s heads pop out from their hiding places.
Miyuu sniffed and nodded “I saw someone with kindness when I first appeared, I will test her”.
“Same goes for me, I saw someone who had a certain spark” Irrin chimed in, the vulture nodded behind him.
“I still think we should just wait here” the green one says and receives an apple core to the face.
“This is why no one listens to you Bobby” Irrin roars.
Marionette wakes up the next morning to a knocking at the entrance to her room, her father peeks in “good morning Marionette, there’s a man out front asking for you, says he’s your Chinese teacher”. Marionette jumps out of bed saying she’ll be right down, sharing a concerned look with Tikki once her father had left to go back downstairs.
“Good morning Marionette, I hope you don’t mind me coming in” Fu says sitting in the back room with her sharing a basket of cookies and cups of tea.
“I don’t mind, it’s just-“she’s cut off by her mom coming into the room, Tikki shot into her hiding spot before she was spotted.
“Marionette I didn’t know you were taking Chinese lessons” she said offering her hand to Fu who politely shook it.
“Uh yeah I met him though school and thought it would be cool to surprise you” Marionette squeaked ending with a nervous laugh.
“Well I’m afraid the reason I’m here is because I can no longer do these lessons”
Marionette gasps and looks back at Fu, he smiles gently “I need to return home for a little while, but I do have a parting gift for you”. He reaches into his backpack and pulls out a brown box with a Chinese symbol meaning generosity in bright red font “if it’s not your style you can always give it to a friend”. There’s a knowing smirk on his face and Marionette carefully takes it trying to hold in tears.
Fu stands up to leave right as Tom appears carrying a large box full of stuff, he trips on a chair and the boxes contents go everywhere. “Here let me help you” Fu says bending down to pick up the nearest scroll of paper. He grabs and the old rubber band breaks letting it unroll, Fu looks at the painting and a small gasp comes from his mouth. “This is very beautiful, where did you get it?” Fu asks turning to Sabine to hand her the painting.
“Oh this-“Sabine starts using her hand to smooth out the lines in the ancient paper, time had been cruel but the picture was still clear and vibrant. “-My grandmother would tell me a story of the magnificent bird that saved her life” the painting had two figures, one a women with resemblance to Sabine and the other a peacock the size of the person. “She was lost in the mountains with nothing but the cloth on her back; she thought she was going to perish in the snow. But the story goes that this peacock appeared from the heavens and flew her to town”.
Marionette stared at the peacock’s almost motherly expression as it held the woman in its beautiful wings.
“The peacock stayed with her until she had given birth, but it’s just a silly bedtime story” Sabine said picking up the blue rock that had held the band on the painting, time had made it so fragile that it had broken in two.
Fu smiled like he knew a secret, “it’s a wonderful story, you take good care of it” Sabine’s face lights up and she nods.
Marionette raises a brow but doesn’t say anything until Fu turned to leave, “Fu I’m not sure if I can take this” she says holding the box out. “Isn’t it very important to you?”
“It’s true I’ve been searching for it for a long time, but I know you’ll take care of it. Take care Marionette” he says with a small bow than exiting out the door. Marionette cracks open the box slightly and catch a glimpse of the miraculous inside; yup it’s what she thought it was.
And she had to pick his next wielder…
With her parents still in the room, Marionette became the master of the internal scream.