Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“Oof!”

Ladybug grunted as a blast of light hit her square in the chest, knocking her off her feet and sending her tumbling off the roof.

This akuma was similar to Reverser, the Akumatized version of Marc Anciel, but instead of changing something about their personality or abilities, it truly changed them physically. Marinette had watched a small child grow fifty feet, and a man with a large nose lose his as it shrunk perpetually before she was able to transform.

“Ladybug!” Chat Noir yelled as she fell. She didn’t feel any different, but once she landed, the drop felt much farther than it once was. Also, it didn’t hurt.

She opened her eyes warily, noticing everything around her was much bigger than it previously seemed.

Oh god , she thought, I’ve shrunk?

Which makes no sense. Marinette wasn’t a large person. She was a girl of barely 5 foot 3 inches, why would the spell make her shrink ?

“Ladybug?!”

Over here , she tried to say, but she couldn't make her voice work. What was happening?

“Ladybug?” Chat Noir asked, creeping slowly around the corner of the building. He glanced around cautiously, but saw no sign of his black spotted partner.

Marinette felt something press against her side and jumped; much higher than she ever thought possible.

Chat Noir tensed, watching a black cat leap into the air as if something had startled it. He gripped his staff tightly as the sudden jump of the cat revealed the hidden figure in the pile of trash. A tiny, red, black spotted Kwami.

“Oh, shit,” Chat Noir muttered. Tikki glanced worriedly between Marinette and Chat Noir. She knew Chat Noir wouldn’t make the connection between the cat and Marinette, but she had to do something.

“Ladybug’s Kwami?” Chat Noir asked, approaching closer. Marinette the cat stumbled around, clearly not used to walking on four legs or being 12 inches tall.

“Yes, Chat Noir. I am Tikki, the Ladybug Kwami. My holder, uhh…”

“Do you know where she went?” Chat Noir asked. Tikki glanced over, saw Marinette’s frightened look, and shook her head.

“No, I don’t. But I’m sure I’ll find her soon, don’t worry!” Tikki reassured. “You just go fend off the Akuma, and we’ll get back to help you soon.”

“Alright, I… Aw, no,” Chat Noir cooed. Tikki tensed. He wouldn’t …?

“Look at this cutie!” Chat Noir approached Marinette the cat slowly, putting his hand out lightly so he wouldn’t startle her. She blinked up at him with green eyes.

Tikki watched in horror as Marinette crept closer, sniffing his hand and nuzzling his fingers, before freezing and leaping back in surprise.

What was she doing? Nuzzling against his hand? Why couldn’t she speak?

“Let’s get you out of the danger zone. Tikki, you can find Ladybug?”

“Yes, but—”

“Great. Let’s get going. My dad’s gonna hate me but he never comes to see me anyways, so…” Chat Noir scooped up Marinette, ignoring her yowling and fidgeting and launched himself into the air. Tikki sighed. This wasn’t going to happen the easy way.

For some horrible reason, Chat Noir dropped Marinette off at Adrien Agreste’s room.

Marinette was very confused. She knew Adrien was lonely, but why would Chat Noir drop Marinette off at his room?

From the looks of it, Adrien wasn’t home. She managed to make her way into his bathroom, though and leapt up to the bathroom mirror.

She screamed.

Well, mentally. She can’t actually scream as a CAT, since their vocal chords are different and she doesn’t know how to make sounds as a CAT yet.

Did she mention she was a fucking cat ?

She started to pace. What was she going to do? She was a cat? At first, she thought she had shrunk and detransformed, but when Chat Noir didn’t recognize her she knew something had changed. But a cat? How could she reverse this? She no longer had her powers, since she was detransformed and a CAT!

Marinette started to hyperventilate, wobbling on her unsteady feet. Then she fell of the counter.

One thing, Marinette noted, is that falling as a cat was much nicer than falling as a human. She landed softly on her feet, despite falling back first when she tripped off the edge.

She learned her whiskers allowed her to feel more of her surroundings. She could sense movement through the air as they picked up vibrations. Her paws were sensitive too, and silent as she prowled through Adrien’s room. Her eyes could see the minute details across the room, such as specks of dust on his computer monitors. Her ears twitched constantly, getting used to every small sound happening around her. She could smell a heavy scent of camembert cheese, dominating Adrien the Fragrance and the smell of new clothing fresh from the design table. It was a sensory overload and she must’ve spent fifteen minutes taking it all in.

Marinette heard him heading toward the house before he entered through the window. Chat Noir dropped onto the wooden floor with a light thud, a black jar in his hands. Inside, a shadow of a butterfly fluttered frantically, trying to escape. Master Fu must’ve lent Chat Noir a tool when Ladybug didn’t arrive in time.

“Damn, that was a tough one,” Chat Noir frowned, glancing down at the jar.

Oh no.

He set it lightly on the nearest table—

No please no.

—and closed his eyes.

No no no no no no no no no no no no—!

“Plagg,” Chat Noir started.

Hoe don’t do it!

“Claws in.”

A line of green energy crackled its was up Chat Noir’s suit, pulling it away and revealing Adrien Agreste, standing in his own room. Marinette’s mouth fell open.

Mother of all that is holy…

“Weird that Ladybug never showed again... Any idea where she is?” Adrien asked the black Kwami resting in the air. The Kwami yawned, freezing mid yawn and looking directly at Marinette.

“Uhh…” Plagg started. “No.”

Plagg glanced between Adrien and Marinette, before leaving the room without another word. Adrien didn’t seem to notice him go.

Adrien didn’t see the cat at first, grabbing his phone and sending a quick message to Alya.

• Hey, any sign of Ladybug today? Looked like she disappeared!

He shoved the phone back into his pocket and collapsed in his desk chair, pulling up his schedule and checking. His mouth fell open in shock.

“He’s gone for a week?” Adrien refreshed the page and checked again, sure there was a misunderstanding. Gabriel must’ve been feeling comfortable with Adrien’s lifestyle when he added that in. He had never left Adrien alone before, and this was truly alone, since Natalie had left with him.

“Did he leave this morning?” Adrien muttered, checking his father’s schedule as well. He nodded. Seven in the morning was late for Gabriel, but it must’ve been a later meeting.

“ Mrow ?” A hesitant call came from behind him. He froze.

“Shit, I forgot!” He exclaimed, turning excitedly and facing the black cat. The cat looked scared, staring up at him in shock as he kneeled down to pet it. The cat recoiled as far back as it could, stumbling away when it lost its balance.

“You seem like a stray… Hmmm.” Adrien looked down at Marinette, and she had an awful thought. He’s not gonna do what I think he is… is he?

“Hmm… I’d need a cat bed, and food…”

Shit. Dammit, Adrien . Damn your beautiful, beautiful face.

“Uhh, I don’t think that’s a good idea…” Plagg stated, floating back into the room. Adrien looked up at him, frowning.

“Why not? I’ve always wanted a pet.”

“Yeah, but like… I would get a pet that is already trained. Stray cats are…” Plagg glanced at Marinette again. “...tricky.”

“Nah! It’ll be fun! I’ve never had a responsibility that was my choice, anyways. It’ll be a good life lesson.”

“Yeah, one you’ll regret tomorrow,” Plagg muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing. Where’s my camembert?”

“Where it always is? Stop being such a pig and eat less, Plagg,” Adrien rolled his eyes. Marinette started to step backwards, but of course, Adrien sensed her movements and turned back to her. She huffed in irritation, her cat vocal chords making a weird hacking sound instead because they hate her. Adrien tilted his head, looking more like an innocent puppy than the suave cat he apparently was.

He reached down to pet Marinette again, but she slunk away, maneuvering around the couch and table, heading for the window.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Adrien lunged, grabbing her just as she leapt off the ground. She yowled, upset and wiggling. He hugged her tight to his chest, bringing her over to his bed. She managed to wiggle free and run toward the window again. She went to leap, but something moved in the corner of her eye, and she flinched, falling over in shock. Adrien scooped her up again, petting her softly in an attempt to calm her down. The bird that startled her flew away, feathers dodging the winter snow.

Our Father, who art in heaven, please fucking kill me.

Adrien let her down onto his bed, going to google what he needed to care for a cat. Marinette stared, wondering how she got into such a situation.

She had to find Tikki. And get out of this prison.

Never did she think she’d be calling Adrien Agreste’s room a prison, but to be fair she never expected to be in his room as a cat. She expected a ladybug, but never a cat.

She glanced back at Adrien, and then her reflection in the window.

Nevermind Tikki.

She had to get to Fu.

And to no one’s surprise, she wasn’t able to escape.

Adrien caught her almost every time. And Plagg caught her every other time, hissing words of encouragement and promises of fixing her while shooing the black cat back to the room. She finally resigned to her fate, pouting on the bed until Adrien came over to give her attention.

God, Adrien was good at petting.

And no. That wasn’t a gross euphemism. He was good at petting animals . She felt her eyes roll back into her head, and her ears flattened against her head to allow him more access to her black fur. A loud hum started in the air, and Marinette realized with a jolt that she was purring. Adrien’s lips parted to reveal a soft smile, and Marinette melted because that smile was for her.

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

An hour later, Adrien was asleep on top of the covers, having fallen asleep while checking his texts. His phone lay next to his face. Marinette had wiggled out of his arms and gone over to the trash bin, where a strong scent of camembert wafted through the air. Her feet pattered across the floor. Plagg popped out of the bin, startling her backwards.

“You. Stop trying to escape.”

Marinette gave him a deadpan look. Plagg rolled his eyes.

“Look, Tikki is on her way. But we can’t help you if we can’t find you. So stay here until she arrives, unless you wanna be stuck as a cat forever?” Plagg offered. She sent him an icy glare. He smirked.

As if on cue, a light buzzing sound came from behind them. They both turned to see Tikki finish phasing through the window. She smiled softly.

“Hi, Marinette. Are you okay?”

Marinette sent her a look that simply said: Bitch, please.

“That’s a no, Tikki.”

“I’m aware, Plagg. Let’s see what I can do.”

Half an hour later, Plagg and Tikki gave her the diagnosis.

“There’s nothing we can do, Marinette.’

Marinette was quiet for a second.

“ARE YOU SER—EEP! ”

The Kwami’s flew backward in shock, and Marinette leapt a foot into the air. Was that her voice just now?

A light flicked on above them. Adrien rubbed his eyes sleepily, before catching sight of the scene before him and freezing.

“Plagg? Tikki? What was that?”

“Just me!” Tikki said, smiling uncomfortably. Plagg mimicked her, teeth glinting in the moonlight.

“Oh… okay? Is everything alright?”

“Yep! Just visiting Plagg. We do this once a week,” Tikki lied.

“You do?”

“Yep! Just giving each other some updates on Nooroo,” Plagg said.

“Oh, alright..” Adrien glanced between them, then looking at Marinette. “And the cat is there… why?”

“It thinks we’re mice. Now, c’mon, Tikki,” Plagg grabbed her paw and whisked out of the room. Marinette glanced between Adrien and the door, before sprinting full speed through the open doorway.

She found the Kwamis hovering above the dining room table. She jumped up to meet them.

“You can talk now?” Plagg asked.

“I-I guess so… What happened? Did you guys do something?”

Tikki thought hard. “Oh!” She clapped her paws together. “We tried a spell to bring some of your humanity back to you. That must’ve given you the ability to speak.”

Marinette shook her head. “So I can speak now? How do I hide that?”

Plagg shrugged, “Don’t speak? I’m sure Adrien won’t notice. He’s pretty oblivious.”

“Fine.” She glanced behind her, seeing nothing in the empty hallway. “Now what?”

Tikki perked up. “We need to get you to Master Fu. He should be able to reverse this.”

“Okay, how do we do that?”

“Let’s just go now. That’ll make things easier,” Plagg offered.

Kwami and Master shared a glance. “Alright.”

Master Fu opened the door and, unsurprisingly, was shocked to see Plagg and Tikki alone.

“What are you doing here? Where are your masters?”

“Look down,” Plagg yawned.

Master Fu did as he said, narrowing his eyes and sighing.

“Which one?”

“It’s me, Master,” Marinette said, causing the old man to jump. “Marinette.”

The man blinked. He looked back at the Kwamis. “What did you do?”

“We did nothing!” Plagg protested.

“Well, we made her speak,” Tikki offered.

“True, we did do that.”

“Just—” Fu sighed, opening the door wider. “Come inside.”

“I swear,” Marinette started. “This isn’t my fault. It was the akuma.”

“Hmmm,” Master Fu hummed, grabbing his book and flipping through the pages, clearly unamused.

“And now I can speak, and Chat Noir thinks I’m a cat and adopted me, and now I know he’s Adrien Agreste, and—”

“What?” Fu gasped.

“Yeah, I know, this keeps getting worse with every word. Oh, no. Tikki, my parents. How long has it been since I was transformed?”

“About four hours, now.” Plagg said, stretching. Marinette whined.

“They’re probably super worried. They said they’d call me when their plane landed. That time had to have passed by now. I need to call them,” Marinette looked around before yelling in irritation. “My phone’s gone too! I’m going to lose my sh—”

“Marinette, please. Wayzz, grab me these ingredients, please,” Master Fu pointed to the other room, and Wayzz followed his instructions, listening closely as Master Fu listed of the ingredients from his book.

“Witch Hazel, Mucana, Ginkgo Biloba, Lingzhi Mushroom, Oregano, Sea Kelp, Gotu Kola, Peppermint Oil, Eucalyptus Oil, and Clary Sage, just a handful of the herbs and about an ounce of the oils each,” Master Fu listed off.

“Tikki, get these from the box over there,” Master Fu instructed. Tikki nodded, flying to the box. “Myrrh, Rosemary Oil, Tea Tree Oil, Bergamot Oil, Ylang Ylang, Wild Orange Oil, Labradorite shavings, Malachite shavings, Chrysocolla shavings, Rhyolite, Lemongrass, and Chamomile.”

“Of course, Master,” Tikki dove into the box.  

“And Plagg, I need a hair from Marinette.”

“Easy peasy,” Plagg stretched his arms, and dove at the cat. Marinette yelped, scrambling away as Plagg chased her around like a red dot. Master Fu didn’t look up as the cartoonish sounds of cat yowling and items crashing made its way around the shop.

“Plagg don’t you dare touch mE—!” her voice shot up as Plagg grabbed a handful of her fur and yanked. Plagg brought it over the Master, who had set down a heavy black cauldron and was currently pouring gallons of water into it. They both ignored Marinette who was nursing her new wound in the corner of the room, whining about how much it hurt. Tikki returned next, arms full of the ingredients Master Fu told her to grab. She placed it down gently next to the cauldron. Fu grabbed a handful of red powder from a jar, tossing it into the cauldron. It sizzled, and the water started to boil.

“Powdered Inferno,” Master Fu explained. “A technique used by the Monks of Tibet.”

“Ah. Of course,” Marinette said, because what else could you say to something like that?

“Here you are, Master,” Wayzz returned, placing the other ingredients next to Tikki’s pile. Fu started chopping, ripping, peeling, crushing, and measuring each ingredient.

“Marinette, you may return to Adrien’s. This will be ready in five moons. Come back then, and I can return you to your human form.”

“Thank you Master,” Marinette sighed, slinking toward the door. Plagg and Tikki bowed to Master Fu before following her out.

They were silent as they went back.

“Tikki, how do you measure time in moons?”

Marinette didn’t last long keeping her secret.

The first day went well. She was quiet and complacent, letting Adrien rub her belly and scratch behind her ears. When he thought about ordering cat clothing was where she drew the line.

He fed her cat food, which tasted like shit, but she ate to keep her stamina up. Adrien was a bit of a wild card with his dad out of the house. Very Chat Noir-like. She watched him closely, learning his mannerisms outside the suit. She watched the way his eyes scanned the room as he entered, the same way Chat Noir did, and wondered how she never noticed when Adrien did it. He walked with a bit of Chat Noir’s swagger too, which she assumed was more prominent when his father wasn’t breathing down his neck. He used Chat Noir phrases when he was on the phone with Nino. He twirled his pens like Chat Noir casually twirled his staff. He would occasionally make references to animes or sigh through his mouth, cheeks blowing out awkwardly, just like Chat Noir does.

This really was blowing her mind. How could her partner be her crush?

Then she saw his damn smirk, the one Chat Noir shot Ladybug after he said a particularly raunchy pickup line, the one he used when he would show the camera just how much he grew up, and she finally understood. She finally understood how they were the same person.

She hated it.

The second day went pretty much as expected. Bad.

Marinette had woken up to something very hard underneath her. She shifted and rolled around a lot in her sleep, but she didn’t remember feeling anything like that underneath her. It was warm.

With a soft mewl she glanced down. Adrien was sleeping soundly underneath heavy blankets to protect him from the cold winter air. She followed his frame to where she was laying and shrieked.

That could not be what she thought it was— oh my god it is I need to leave immediately.

She leapt off the bed, ignoring Adrien’s wild flailing under the covers as he woke up, and ran out of the room. She ran as far away as she could, but she could still hear Adrien’s heavy breaths and his sigh.

“That’s new,” she heard him mutter before she closed the door behind her, effectively blocking out any other sounds he could be making.

“Calm down, calm down, calm down…” she told herself, pacing around the small room. She glanced up, and her mouth fell open.

“Is this Gabriel’s office?” she whispered, glancing around and seeing a large desk with a computer on it, stacks of paper piled neatly next to the computer. She wiggled her butt, and leapt up onto the desk. The jolt moved Gabriel’s computer mouse, bringing the computer to the sign in screen.

“Hmmm…” Marinette hummed, padding over and glancing down at the keyboard. The cursor was blinking in the passcode box, waiting for someone to input the correct— or incorrect— code.

“Passcode… passcode passcode…” she muttered, glancing around his office. She padded around on his desk, looking for anything that could give away the passcode.

“Need help?” a timid voice asked. Marinette screamed out “What the shit?”, flailing and falling off the desk roughly. She landed on her feet again, but stumbled back and hit the wall.

“Who’s there?” she called frantically.

“Don’t be alarmed!” the voice called again. “I will not harm you. I just want to help!”

“Who are you?” Marinette asked, not moving from the wall. She looked around but couldn’t see anyone.

“I’m not allowed to say,” the voice said softly. “But I truly want to help you, Marinette. My master is not a nice man. He must be stopped. I will help you stop him.”

“Who is your master?”

“He’s… I’m not allowed to say either…” the voice sighed.

“Can you tell me where you are?”

“I’ve been forbidden from speaking of many things, Marinette. Most of which include information about me or my master.”

“Is Gabriel your master?”

The voice was silent.

“Hello?”

“I cannot say. But I want to help you Marinette. Will you let me help you?”

Marinette glanced around, creeping forward. “What are your intentions?”

“To stop my master from getting your…” the voice sighed. “I’m afraid I cannot say what of yours, but you should know that it is very important that he never gets them. It will have disastrous consequences.”

“A-alright. How will you help?”

“There is a sticky note with my master’s computer password encoded on it.”

Marinette glanced around. “Where is it?”

“Not in here. Find the sticky note in the house. I was never told where it ended up, but I saw it being created. Once you find it, figure out the code, and I’ll show you all the proof you need to stop my master.”

Marinette let out a heavy breath. “Find a sticky note in this monster of a house? Yeah, no problem.”

“I believe in you, Marinette. We’re all counting on you!”

“How many of you are there?”

“I’m the only one in this room. There’s another in this house, trapped as I am. Then two more, free and happy. They are trying to find us. You must find the sticky note.”

“Two of you? Will the other send me on an impossible mission?” Marinette asked, joking.

“I’m so sorry that I ask this of you, but it’s for the good of the world. Please Marinette. Please help me.”

“Oh, don’t worry. This is a challenge, and I love challenges. Especially ones that I can’t solve immediately. I’ll free you, buddy. And you’re friend. We’ll stop your master.”

“Thank you, Marinette. For now, I will rest.” The voice faded and disappeared. Marinette stretched out on the ground.

“Great. Let’s go find a sticky note. As a cat.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She couldn’t find the sticky note all day. But she did find a garbage can full of tissues and screamed again, so that worried Adrien to no end.

“Why is the cat screaming? Do cats normally scream?” Adrien had asked. Plagg shrugged.

“I dunno. Do you know the last time I was around a real cat?”

“No?”

“394 B.C.E.” Plagg deadpanned. “And it tried to eat me. Now leave the damn cat alone and go play Xbox or something.”

“You’re particularly salty today, Plagg. What happened?”

“Nothing! I’m just hungry cause you haven’t fed me all day!”

“You ate ten minutes ago!”

“That’s ten minutes of starvation , Adrien! Feed me cheese!”

“You’re so irritating, Plagg.”

“You’re killing me, Adrien!”

“Boys, boys,” Tikki chided, flying through the window, “You’re both very pretty.”

“Tikki?” Adrien asked, watching her fly over to Plagg. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes, Adrien. Don’t worry yourself. I just need to speak to Plagg about his manners.”

“Damn right you do,” Adrien muttered.

“Hey!”

“Excuse us,” Tikki bowed her head, grabbing Plagg’s ear and dragging him through the bedroom wall. Marinette slunk toward the door, but Adrien shut it before she could escape.

“Sorry kitty, but I can’t have you wandering around the house anymore. I’m sure my dad would notice one tiny cat hair on the floor and lose his shit. You’ve gotta stay in here.”

Marinette hissed at him and padded away, pissed. She had to find that sticky note. She needed to figure out what the voice was talking about.

“I wanna watch a movie,” Adrien yawned, climbing up the spiral staircase to the large selection of DVD’s that he owned. Marinette followed him up, curious as to what he would choose. He scanned the rows, eyes glazed over. Marinette read a few titles.

The Dark Knight, Mad Max, Inglorious Bastards, Finding Nemo, Mothra—

Marinette’s eyes flew to the last one again. Mothra? The classic 1961 Mothra? Marinette loved that movie. The goofy special effects always got her laughing. She meowed loudly, climbing up the movie shelves and knocking that one to the ground. Adrien walked over and picked it up.

“Mothra, huh?” He hummed to himself, looking it over. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen it… I’ll give it a try.”

Marinette purred happily. She went to leap down, but the DVD cases falling over scared her. She jumped, landing on the ground. Adrien laughed, reaching down and petting her head.

“Get scared?”

She purred happily, eyes rolling up in bliss. They caught on something and her mind stopped.

Attached to the back of the DVD case was a sticky note.

She leapt up and snatched it between her teeth before Adrien could blink. She ran quickly, leaping over the glass railing and landing on the top of the skateboard ramp, running along the edge and perching on the wobbly connector that held his zipline string to the wall. She stared at Adrien and he stared back, eyebrow raised and blinking heavily.

“Alright then. I guess you can have it?” He shook his head and went to the fireman’s pole, sliding down gracefully and putting the movie in. Marinette chirped, happy he didn’t fight her for it, and glanced at the code.

It was a mess. There were symbols and letters and numbers all mixed together. There was no way she couldn’t break it without the use of Google.

She glanced down at Adrien, who had flicked off the lights in his room and cuddled up on his couch, illuminated only the the screen before him. She sighed, sticking the note to the connector and hopping down. She needed his phone. So she’d have to use it when he was asleep.

He took a while to fall asleep.

Luckily, Marinette got to watch the movie a bit, curled up in his lap and he absentmindedly stroked her fur. And right when the move finished its climax, Marinette glanced up and noticed he was sound asleep. She smirked. Sorry kitty, but I need to save a disembodied voice in your father’s office.

She snuck out of his arms, feeling confident when he didn’t stir, and grabbed his phone in her mouth. She climbed back up to her perch and looked at the passcode. She sighed, and tried to type something into the phone.

Nothing happened.

“Right,” she muttered, “I don’t have his phone’s password…” She glanced around. “Or a way to work the touch screen.” She got up and stretched. “Okay, this officially is hard to solve. I’m totally down.”

She jumped back down and started to think. Where could she find something to use for a touch screen.

She remembered Natalie Sancoeur, Gabriel’s assistant, used a stylus occasionally. She was bound to have a spare in her office.

Marinette just needed to open the door.

She snuck into Adrien’s closet, apologized for her sins, and grabbed one of Adrien’s uglier ties, (not that there were many of them) and tied a loop in it. She swung it up and hooked it on the doorknob, tightening it and pulling with all her cat might. It clicked and swung open.

“Yes!” she whispered, untying the tie and dragging it with her as she attempted to find Natalie’s office.

“Which room, which room, which room… Aha!” she exclaimed, heading toward one that said “Assistant” on it. She tied the tie again, pulling the door open with ease and butting her head in.

She hummed to herself as she leapt onto the desk, looking around for a stylus. There wasn’t one in plain sight, but after opening the top drawer in the desk, she found one immediately.

Needless to say, she was feeling quite good about herself by the time she came back to her perch. Especially for a cat with no opposable thumbs.

Adrien’s phone was still locked, but it wouldn’t be for long. She tried a few combinations before getting down at eye level with the bottom of the phone, looking across it for fingerprints. She saw the hexagonal pattern he used and copied that, rather messily, with the stylus clamped between her jaws. The phone unlocked to his messages. Apparently he was texting Nino earlier that day. Nino had claimed that Alya hadn’t heard from Marinette in a while. Adrien said that Marinette was probably buried in her designs since she was such a hard worker.

Marinette purred, happy her kitty thought she was a hard worker. She shifted and heard a crumple of paper. The sticky note. She shook her head and refocused, opening up his Google app and looking up simple cryptograms.

She saw the Atbash cipher, Caeser cipher, A1Z26 cipher, and something called a Symbol cipher, using symbols that looked quite familiar based on what was on the note.

Translating the symbols, Marinette now looked at the paper.

VP912RH421ID

“Wow, really original…” Marinette sighed, heading to Gabriel’s office.

She typed in the passcode carefully, but nothing worked. She frowned, heading back and checking if she did it correctly. She had.

“Hmm… okay…” She looked at the Atbash cipher, translating that carefully into the one given. Atbash only worked with letters, so she didn’t touch the numbers. Atbash took the alphabet and reversed it, so A=Z, B=Y, C=X and so on.

She got EK912IS421RW.

“I guess we’ll try this…”

It didn’t work. She moved onto Caesar, still only working with letters. Caesar moved the letters of the alphabet three letters back, so A=X, B=Y, C=Z, D=A and so on.

She got SM912OE421FA. It didn’t work either.

She tried the A1Z26 cipher, which translated each letter to a number, A=1, B=2 C=3, all the way through the alphabet. She couldn’t tell if the number was 9 12 or 9 1 2, so she tried both, getting VPILRHDUID and VPIABRHDBAID. Neither worked.

She huffed, wondering if she was even using the right codes. There were thousands of codes she could try. How was she supposed to know which one to use?

She looked at the sticky note again. In the top corner she saw a tiny little word written out. She looked closer. It wasn’t a word. It said AC1S.

“AC1S?” she muttered, before looking back at the codes she was using. Atbash, Caesar, A1Z26, Symbols…

“Oh my god, I’m so dumb,” she sighed, grabbing the stylus and translating the code based on the pattern given.

She got EMILIEDURAND. It took her a second before she realized what it was.

“Oh, that’s sad.” She murmured, taking a moment to remember what she could about Adrien’s mother. There wasn’t much, just that she stared in a popular yet rare movie and tried to stay away from the media.

She sighed, stretching out unhappily and making her way back to the computer. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t notice where she was headed.

CLANG!

She cursed loudly as she bumped into the metal garbage can, knocking it over and sending it crashing to the ground with a loud sound. She winced, cursing and muttering to herself as she batted the tissues and balled up scrap paper balls.

“Can’t believe I put in all this effort and it was his dead wife’s goddamn name the entire time I could’ve guessed that a while ago with a simple goddamn guess and— AH!” She shrieked when she looked up and saw Adrien staring down at her with his jaw dropped to the floor.

“Did you just speak?” he asked, eyes wide.

“No.” Marinette answered instinctually, before whining loudly and running into the bathroom. Adrien followed, passing both Kwamis, stumbling a bit from his sudden wake up.

“You can talk? Since when?”

“I don’t know! This is all a disaster and I just wanna go home!” Marinette cried, dodging Adrien’s grabby hands. He reached again, and on instinct, she clamped her tiny jaws onto his hand. He recoiled in pain.

“Sorry!”

“What is happening? Is this a dream?” Adrien pat his cheeks a couple times, trying to wake himself up. He glanced down, and took a deep breath.

“Do you have, like, an owner or something?”

Marinette hissed. “Excuse me, this is a free country!”

“Sorry!” Adrien threw up his hands. Plagg and Tikki reentered the room.

Tikki glanced between Adrien’s hand and Marinette’s mouth. She gasped. “Marinette!”

“Sorry! I panicked!”

“ Marinette ?” Adrien yelled.

“Shit.”

“You’re a cat?” Adrien asked, horrified.

“I guess so? I’m sorry, this is all so confusing…”

Adrien opened and closed his mouth like a fish. He exhaled roughly, turning to Tikki.

“Tikki, what are you doing here? Did you find Ladybug?”

The Kwamis shared a glance. Plagg shrugged.

“Well,” Tikki started, “yes, but…”

Adrien furrowed his brow, before his face went slack and he turned to the cat. “No way.”

“Yes way,” Plagg tugged on his whisker. Tikki smacked his shoulder.

Adrien crouched down, staring at the cat. “Ladybug?”

Marinette turned away, knowing that if she could blush that’d be the only thing she would be doing. “Maybe…”

“Marinette, you’re Ladybug?”

“Maybe.”

“You’re a cat.”

“Maybe.”

“You know my identity.”

“Maybe.”

“I know your identity.”

“Maybe.”

“You can talk.”

“I guess so?”

“Shit.”

“Shit,” Marinette agreed, scratching behind her ear with her back paw. Adrien stared for another second, before cracking a smile and laughing. Marinette pouted.

“This isn’t funny, Adrien!”

“It’s pretty funny,” Plagg shrugged. Even Tikki cracked a smile.

“In all honesty, if you were hit, Adrien, you’d be a real ladybug right now,” Tikki mentioned. That stopped his laughing.

“Seriously?”

“Yes.”

“That’d be bad.”

“Yes.”

“How do we fix her?”

“I’m not sure. My abilities are inactive since the earrings technically aren’t here anymore. They were transformed along with the rest of the suit. Plagg and I are pretty much powerless against this.”

“Dammit…” Adrien shook his head, before blinking and pinching his arm. Nothing happened.

“Trust me, Adrien. This isn’t a dream.”

Adrien sighed. “I know, I know… I just needed to check. Okay. So when that blast of light hit you, you turned into a cat?”

“Yes,” Marinette nodded.

“So why didn’t you say anything?”

“I couldn’t. Plagg and Tikki did this when they were trying to change me back. But before, I could make cat sounds, and that was about it.”

“Hmmm…”Adrien went silent for a minute. Tikki and Plagg shared a look before leaving the bathroom.

“We should go see Fu.”

“We already did. We still have four days until his potion is ready for consumption, so I’ve just been waiting...” Marinette sighed.

“What about your parents?” Adrien asked, “They must be worried sick?”

Marinette winced. “Well, they’re out of town, so I’ve called them on your cell when you were sleeping.”

Adrien raised his eyebrows. “You used my phone?”

“Yeah… sorry…”

“No, don’t apologize. I’m actually curious, did you dial it or did one of the Kwamis?” He cracked a smile. She felt herself heat up.

“They had to, my paws don’t work on the touch screen.”

“Your little toe beans don’t work?” Adrien snorted, covering his mouth with his hand. Marinette took a deep breath.

“I’m going to find another owner,”

“No, My Lady, wait,” Adrien managed to say through his laughs. “I’m sorry. But I’m happy you called your parents.” His brow furrowed. “Aren’t you supposed to be watching the bakery?”

“Well, yes, but I couldn’t really do that as a cat, so…”

“Do you have your keys? I could go check for you,” Adrien offered. Marinette’s tense shoulders relaxed.

“Well, my personal keys are gone until I can transform back, but I can show you where the spares are?” Marinette suggested. Adrien nodded, satisfied.

“We can head there tomorrow. Hopefully nothing burned down.”

“Right.”

Marinette glanced back down, and winced.

“Uh, Adrien?”

His head snapped toward her. “Yes?”

“Your, uh… hand. Blood.”

He glanced down. “Oh, whoops.”

“Do you have bandaids?”

Adrien scoffed. “‘Do I have bandaids?’ What kind of person doesn’t have bandaids?”

Apparently, him.

“Alright,” Adrien sighed, checking his phone. “It’s midnight. If I hurry, I might still be able to make it to the pharmacy and grab some bandaids.”

“Are you kidding me?” Marinette cried, leaping up to the counter to see him better. “It’s freezing outside! You can’t go out with weather like this! Especially you!”

“Why not?”

“Marinette’s right, Adrien,” Tikki called. “If you go out, someone might see you. Do you really want your dad knowing you left the house at three in the morning in below freezing temperatures? Plus, crazy fans will be out at this hour. You don’t want to be mobbed.”

Adrien was silent, glaring at his reflection. Marinette sighed, nuzzling against him before realizing what she was doing and bounding away awkwardly. She didn’t face him as she stuttered, “I-I know you need to stop the bleeding, but… but you can’t, can’t go out now. Wait until morning. The cuts will scab over soon and we can deal with the consequences later. It’s not safe, especially with the akuma still out. We don’t know what it can do.”
Adrien looked at her, face blank. Then he smiled, reaching out and scritching behind her ear, making her purr. Then she mewled loudly, embarrassed. He chuckled, grabbing her and cuddling her to his chest.

“Maybe you’re right, My Lady. I’ll wait until morning.” He kissed the top of her head, and she felt the heat travel from her ears to her toes.

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

By morning, it had stopped snowing, and the temperature had warmed to back above freezing. And it turned out Marinette was right. The cut had scabbed over, and it seemed okay for now.

“Adrien, I forgot to tell you something,” Marinette told him as soon as he woke up. He glanced down. She was staring at a sticky note.

“What?”

“Right. Well, I was wandering around your house while you were…” she cleared her throat awkwardly, “predisposed.” Adrien had the decency to blush and look away. “And I found your father’s office.”

“Oh please tell me you didn’t trash the place.” He sighed.

“No, I’m not that much of an asshole. No, I was looking around and there was this disembodied voice started talking to me.” She told him.

“What the fuck?”

“Yeah, I know, right?” she shook her head. “Anyways, it told me that ‘it’s master’ is doing something very bad and I need to break into his computer and find evidence to free them. Also it has another buddy somewhere in the house. So it told me to find the sticky note, which in encoded, and if I can crack the code it will give me the passcode to his computer…” Marinette trailed off, looking up to Adrien. “ And it worked. ”

“A-alright?”

“The passcode was VP9—a symbol I can’t read—RH4—a symbol I can’t read—ID. I translated the symbols into numbers, and then used three other ciphers to translate it into Emilie Durand. I tried it and it worked. I-I need to show you the rest…” she said, nodding her head toward the door. Adrien nodded back and followed her into his dad’s office.

“Hello?” Marinette called out, listening for any sign of a disembodied voice. There was no answer.

“Hmm…” Adrien said, looking around. Marinette shook her head.

“That’s not what’s important. Look here…” she went over to the computer and, at a painstakingly slow pace with her paws, typed the passcode in and opened his computer. Open on the screen, in front of Gabriel’s boring ass wallpaper, were many tabs of a book, scanned almost perfectly. Marinette thumbed through the tabs, each page making Adrien’s brow furrow more and more.

“Remember that book you lost a couple years ago?” Marinette asked.

“Yep.”

“This is it.”

“Yep.”

“It’s translated into English.”

“Yep.”

“And it has the secrets of each Miraculous with it.”

“Yep.”

“Do you know how long Master Fu has been trying to translate this book so he could help us get Nooroo and Duusuu back?”

“A really long time?” Adrien offered.

“Yes. You could say that. We need to get this to him right away. And then figure out why your dad has it.”

“He has it to get what he is looking for,” A disembodied voice told them. They both screamed, Marinette jumping into the air, and Adrien falling onto the ground in shock.

“See? I’m not crazy!” Marinette yelled, breathing heavily.

“I-I see that,” Adrien huffed out, crawling back to his feet. “Hello, disembodied voice. Please don’t kill us.”

“I would never harm you, Adrien. I would never harm anyone. All I ask is to be free, and for my master to pay for abusing his power.”

“W-what power?”

“I cannot say…”

“Who are you?”

“He cannot say,” Marinette butted in. “There a lot it can’t talk about. I’m guessing it was your jackass master?”

“I-I…” the voice seemed flustered, “y-yes, it was him.”

“Wonderful. Where are you?” Adrien asked.

“Can’t say,” Marinette said. “Look, I’ve asked it everything I could to figure out where it is, but—”

“Left or right side of the room, voice?”

“Oh… left.” the voice seemed surprised. Marinette’s face fell slack as Adrien headed toward the left side of the room.

“I’m going to walk around the room. Say “hot” when I’m close, and “cold” when I’m getting farther away, okay?”

“Y-yes, Adrien.” Marinette could hear the smile in the voice’s… well, voice.

She huffed. “Outsmarted by a dork.”

Adrien smirked at her. “Feeling a little dumb, bug?”

“Don’t make me claw your eyes out,” she warned.

“You like them too much.” He took a large step to his left.

“Cold,” the voice said.

Adrien did a one-eighty and took another step.

“Warm.”
Another step. “Warmer, warmer, hot, hotter, colder, hotter, hotter, hotter, a bit colder, colder, colder, warmer, Adrien you are now lit aflame!” The voice sounded so excited as Adrien opened a drawer and saw a small jewelry box.

Adrien opened it up, seeing a small ovular pin before a purple ball of light exploded. Both heroes gasped as the purple light faded, but nothing was there to greet them.

“You’re a kwami?” Adrien asked.

“Hello, Adrien and Marinette.”

“N-Nooroo?” Marinette asked.

“Unfortunately, I am still bound by my master’s wishes. The only way to break it is for Master Fu to clear my being and my… pin.”

“Is Gabriel Hawkmoth?” Marinette pressed, getting closer.

“I am not allowed to say, but I think it’s very clear the answer to that question.”

“Adrien.”

Adrien sighed. “Marinette?”

“I fucking told you. Three years ago.”

“I know.”

“Also I’m super sorry, your dad is an ass.”

“Trust me, at this point, I know.” He huffed out a breath and put on a brave face. “Let’s get this poor guy to Fu.”

“Don’t forget the book,” Marinette reminded him, clicking the mouse on “Print”.

He shot her a smile. “Right.” He reached over and scratched behind her ears, listening to her purr. “I’m gonna miss you as a cat.”

“Trust me, I won’t.”

“Ready to head out?” Marinette asked through a yawn, stretching her nimble body. Adrien’s lips quirked into a smile.

“You want to come with me?”

“Yeah! I love the snow! And I’ll be warm thanks to the fur,” she said, tail swishing excitedly. Adrien shrugged, his smile growing wider as he slipped his jacket on over his sweater. Marinette grabbed his gloves with her mouth and happily brought them over to him. He shook his head, amused, and pulled them over his hands.

“Ready?” Marinette asked. He winked down at her, opening the door and watching the winter air blow her fur back in a strong gust. She back pedalled from the shock, head shrinking into her shoulders.

“Oh, that’s awful… Oh no…” she muttered. Tikki poked her head out of Adrien’s jacket as he gathered the book and Nooroo’s pin.

“C’mon Marinette, I thought you loved the snow!”

“Shut up, Tikki!” she forced herself forward, taking light steps down the snow covered steps. Each step she sank deeper into the snow, until one step sent her careening into the snow drift. She yowled, scrambling the best she could out of the snow, ignoring Adrien’s heavy laughter.

“That’s it!” she cried, “I’m going inside!”

“Oh, no you don’t!” Adrien called, snatching her up into his hands and cradling her like a baby. She stared up at him. “You said you wanted to come. You’re coming.”

She felt herself heat up. “Fine. But if I die, you’re the one who killed me.”

Adrien smiled, “I pawmise, My Lady, I will never let that happen.”

She heated up even more, burying her face into his coat and ignoring his soft chuckles above her. He was too cute.

“We need to find Duusuu too, everyone.” Tikki reminded them, ruining the moment.

“Right. According to Nooroo, Duusuu is somewhere in the house too, the same situation as Nooroo,” Marinette said, thinking about what Nooroo had told her.

“We’ll find her when we get home, alright? First we gotta deal with Nooroo and the book.”

“And the dad thing…” Marinette offered weakly. His smile went stiff before he shook it off.

“And go to the bakery,” he said, not subtly changing the subject.

“And get bandaids,” Marinette said.

“Right, those too.”

“Maybe Master Fu will have something ready to change you back, Marinette.” Tikki said hopefully.

“It’s only been three days, though. He said five moons or something like that.”

“Tonight is four moons since then. Tomorrow night, the potion should be ready.” Plagg offered, poking his head into the cold air.

“I thought you didn’t know how to measure time in moons?” Marinette asked, ear flicking as a snowflake landed on it.

“I don’t.”

Adrien rolled his eyes. “At least you’ll be back to normal soon. Then you can cleanse the Akuma.”

“True.” Marinette sniffed the air, recoiling as the smell of garbage passed by. She shook her head, wincing. Adrien smirked.

“See? You always make fun of me for acting weird in costume. Now you’re the one acting weird for no reason.”

“It smells bad,” she whined.

“Oh, I know. I smell it too.”

“Dork.”

“Baby.”

The snow was falling gently, painting a starry sky on Marinette’s black fur. Her green eyes found Adrien’s hair, flecked with snowflakes that outlines his messy style. The streets were mostly empty, Christmas gone and passed and the New Year approaching. A few cars drove by and a small amount of people passed them on the streets, giving Adrien odd looks for carrying a cat like a baby. He ignored them, heading to Master Fu’s shop and holding Marinette close.

They finally reached his shop, entering quietly and looking to see if he had any customers. The place seemed empty. The Kwami’s took that as their cue to fly free. Adrien put Marinette down and she shook the snow off her fur.

“Master Fu?” she called through the store. He poked his head out of the back room, saw Adrien and Marinette and sighed.

“I assume the cat is out of the bag, then?”

Marinette sighed as Adrien chuckled. “Yep.”

“Well, I guess there is no avoiding it. I must explain—,”

“Master Fu, I really would love to hear what you have to say, but we’re here for something more important.” Marinette interrupted, turning back to Adrien. He produced the book first, holding it out for Master Fu to take. The man took it, before gasping and dropping it on the floor.

“Is that—?”

“Yes.”

“How did you find translate it?”

“We didn’t have to. Hawkmoth did it for us?”

“Hawkmoth?” Master Fu’s eyes narrowed. “What did you do?”

“Don’t worry, we didn’t confront him. We didn’t have to. He’s currently out of town for some dumb business trip. We just broke into his computer and found this.”

“How did you know it was his?”

“I helped them, Master.” The disembodied voice said.

Master Fu stumbled backward.

“Nooroo?” Wayzz asked, startling Marinette. She didn’t realize he was there.

“Here,” Adrien said, pulling the pin from his pocket and passing it to Master Fu. Fu cradled it gently as he gazed downward.

“Nooroo, how do you feel?”

“A bit cramped, Master Fu.”

Marinette smiled as Master Fu chuckled, “Well, we can fix that right away. Wayzz, if you will.”

Wayzz took the pin, flew over to the cauldron in the back corner that was bubbling away, and dropped the pin into it.

Marinette and Adrien gasped, taking a step forward. Master Fu held out his hand to stop them.

“That potion is not specifically to turn a cat into a human, young ones. It is a transformation potion, which will resent anything back to what it should be.”

The potion sent up a large bubble, which popped and launched the pin into the air. Adrien caught it quickly, before cursing and tossing it back up.

“ Why would you catch that? ” Marinette hissed as it landed on the floor and made a burn mark in the hardwood.

“Reflex,” he winced.

With a large pop, Nooroo was forced out of the pin and into the air, spinning dizzily and making every take a step back. Tikki and Plagg flew forward immediately, latching onto Nooroo in a large hug.

“We’re glad you’re back, Nooroo!” Tikki cheered. Wayzz joined them. Plagg bawled loudly.

“Master, is the potion ready?”

“Give it one more night. I don’t want to risk it on a larger body, you will not transform back completely,” he warned. Marinette recoiled, picturing Hermione from the Chamber of Secrets.

“Sure thing.” She gulped. “Tomorrow.”

“We’ve also learned that Duusuu is in my house, Master. We’ll find her and bring her tomorrow as well,” Adrien told him. Master Fu sighed, and Marinette could see a weight was lifted off his shoulder.

“Wonderful.”

They had stopped to get band aids before they went back for the day, spending the rest of the day looking around for Duusuu. They couldn’t find her.

“Oh, we forgot about the bakery!” Marinette yelped scrambling to her feet as soon as they had sat down for the night. Adrien groaned.

“Right. I’m not walking. Plagg, claws out!”

“Nooooooo!” Plagg whined as he was sucked into the ring. Marinette felt herself being scooped up and launched back into the dark, cold air before she could blink.

Adrien got them there quick, landing on her balcony and setting her down. He detransformed and shoved Plagg into his pocket before he could say anything. Adrien popped the lock open on her skylight and held it open for Marinette.

“Ladies first,” he winked. She rolled her eyes, feeling herself heat up, and leapt down into her room.

“Guess I should’ve let you go first, then.”

“Meowch, princess! That stung!”

“Your awful puns hurt more.”

“You love them, don’t lie.”

“I would never lie to you. I hate them.”

“You’ll come around someday,” he winked again.

“Open that door and shut up, Agreste,” she shook her head as he laughed, opening the door and letting her head down the stairs again. Then another door, then down the stairs to another door. She hated being tiny.

And, to no one’s surprise, Adrien loved it.

“Need me to pick you up to see higher?” He asked. She hissed and leapt up onto the counter without his help. He just laughed.

She checked the ovens, making sure they were off, and the sinks, making sure the water bill wasn’t flying through the roof with a leaky tap. The windows were closed and locked, front door still locked and mail still coming through. Adrien gathered it for her and placed it on the counter. The only thing that was really out of place was that she was a cat in a bakery.

“Everything looks fine here. We can head back.”

“Sure thing, lovebug. Back through your room?”

“Mmmhmm,” she hummed, double checking the ovens. He scooped her up and went back upstairs, making sure their house door was locked and her bedroom skylight was locked as they left.

“It’s a shame. I should’ve looked through your room. I bet I would’ve found a bunch of interesting stuff,” he said, smirking. She blanched.

“Don’t touch my stuff, Agreste.”

“I wouldn’t dare without your permission, My Lady.”

“Come out, come out, wherever you are, Duusuu,” Marinette called the next morning, wishing she was taller.

“I checked all of Natalie’s things,” Adrien sighed, shutting the door. Marinette hissed as a fly flew past her face. “She’s not in there.”

“Man, this sucks. Nooroo at least could talk to me. We’re dead in the water here.”

“Is there anywhere you know Natalie spends a lot of time?”

“The kitchen, stress eating?” Adrien suggested. Marinette shrugged. “Besides that, my father’s office and his atelier.”

“Hmm,” Marinette thought. “I’ll take the office, since I’ve already leafed through it. You try the atelier. Hopefully, she’s still in the house and Natalie didn’t take her along for the trip.”

“Don’t say that,” Adrien sighed. “I’ll call you if I find anything.”

“Same here.”

Marinette padded up the stairs and nudged Gabriel’s door open. Back into the office, she goes. Luckily, or unluckily, there was no creepy voice to guide her around. She opened drawers, knocked over piles of papers, overturned marble busts, and felt less and less bad about it with each thing she misplaced. Gabriel was a shit father, but he was also a shit villain. He deserved this and more.

“This is going nowhere,” she huffed, knocking his glass paperweight to the ground. It shattered, but did nothing to make her feel better. She looked closer at what she broke, and winced. A diamond ring sat in the middle of broken glass.

“That was probably his wife’s wedding ring, wasn’t it…?”

“Marinette!” Adrien called frantically. She leapt off the desk quickly and sprinted out the door, sliding into the atelier to find Adrien holding a vibrating peacock pin in front of an open safe, hidden behind the large gold painting of Adrien’s mother.

“What do I do?”

“How am I supposed to know?” Marinette cried as it jerked around it his hand. He yelped and dropped it as it started to steam.

“We need to get it to Fu!” she cried, racing forward to grab it. She slid to a stop as it leapt into the air and hovered .

“I-Is it possessed?” Marinette asked.

“Yeah, by a super pissed Kwami,” Adrien said carefully, inching around as it spun in a circle, seeming to scan the room around it.

“Okay, let’s try to— EEP!” Marinette shrieked as it flew directly as her. She leapt out of the way, thankful for her cat reflexes as the pin flew directly as the computer screen on a stand. It crashed into it, knocking it to the ground and breaking it.

“Shit!” Adrien flinched as it sparked and sizzled. The pin hovered before it, turning slowly and creepily toward the heroes. They both took a step back.

“Uh, hey, Duusuu… How are you doing?” Adrien asked, shooting her finger guns. Duusuu didn’t answer, instead taking what sounded like a really powerful inhale, and smashing into the ground beneath her.

“What is happening?” Marinette asked as a circular platform appeared and sank into the ground, heading to god knows where.

“I don’t know but I really don’t like it.” Adrien answered, daring to peek down the new hole in the ground. “Plagg!”

They heard a small zip! behind them. “Yes Adrien, what do you wa— HOLY SHIT THERE’S A HUGE WHOLE IN THE FLOOR!”

“Duusuu’s a little pissed off,” Marinette said.

“That’s an understatement,” Adrien shook his head. “Plagg, claws out!”

Chat Noir grabbed Marinette and vaulted down the hole. Wind rippled at her fur as they fell, fell, fell. It was a deep hole.

Or , she rethought, a deep evil lair .

“What the fuck was he doing down here?”

“Probably plotting to destroy the city,” Adrien suggested, looking up at the large butterfly window.

“Psychopath,” she rolled her eyes. “What would he gain from that?”

“Nothing. That’s why he’s a psychopath.” Adrien took a deep breath, walking down the narrow platform. They reached the other end, and froze.

“No fucking way…” Marinette managed to say. Emilie Agreste was in a coffin, arms folded neatly over her stomach, looking the same as the day she disappeared.

“That bastard…” Adrien said, tears streaming down his face. “He was… Dammit.” He wiped away his tears, taking a step forward. He reached out and touched the glass cover over his mother’s small frame. His claws clinked against the glass. He lowered his head for a moment.

Marinette padded forward, looking at Adrien’s feet. Duusuu’s pin lay there, still and silent. She picked it up and held it in her mouth.

He then spun around and grabbed Marinette, launching himself toward the ceiling with his staff.

Marinette moved the pin to her paws. “Adrien?” she asked quietly. He took a deep breath.

“This ends today, Marinette. We’re changing you back, cleansing the akuma, and calling the cops on this sick bastard.”

“A-alright,” she said, looking up and seeing a determined face with tears on his cheeks. She nuzzled up against his side, slipping Duusuu’s pin into his pocket..

Master Fu had turned Marinette back by dunking her into the boiling potion. Adrien had to leave the room when he heard her screaming. But she popped back out as a human again, steaming and detransformed. Her skin was red and raw, but Master Fu said that would calm in a few hours.

They had returned Duusuu to Master Fu, but hadn’t stuck around to see her transform back. They had other things to take care of.

Marinette had called the police as soon as they got back to the Agreste Mansion, claiming she was studying with her friend Adrien when they had heard something crash. They had found a large hole in the ground, and when they investigated, found out that Adrien’s father was Hawkmoth and his mother was alive! Le gasp!

The entire police force was there within fifteen minutes, the time Marinette spent cleansing the Akuma and sending Paris back to normal. Luckily, the hole in the floor remained. They had questioned them both to death, but their stories didn’t waver. Adrien feigned shock and sadness about his father, but the sad face when he mentioned his mother? Marinette knew that was true despair.

Three years of nothing and she was under his feet this entire time.

Adrien decided to spend the next three days at Marinette’s while they waited for Gabriel to return to Paris. Chat Noir and Ladybug had explicitly stated they would take care of Gabriel, and no one should alert him of their suspicions. Paris had stayed quiet about the incident. Adrien and Marinette spent some of the three days planning, some doing other stuff.

Marinette would say it was playing video games and hanging out. Adrien would wink behind her and mouth “we made out a lot”.

Gabriel Agreste arrived at home with Natalie, fully expecting to find his son practicing piano in his room. He did not. He found a large hole in his atelier where his rising platform would be, the computer broken on the ground. Natalie’s office looked untouched. Gabriel ran to his office. It was in shambles. Everything was messed up. Natalie said she was calling the police.

“Oh, there’s no need!” A cheerful voice said behind them. The pair spun around to find Ladybug and Chat Noir lounging on the stairs.

“What happened here?” Gabriel asked stiffly.

“You tell me, Hawkmoth. Mayura.” Chat Noir said, his smile faker than Gabriel’s hair color. Both stiffened more than usual.

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, don’t worry. We took care of your miraculous for you. They’re safe, no harm done.”

“They’re also free, just in case you were worried,” Ladybug added with a smirk. “And your son is moving out. He was the one who found out, actually. He called us immediately. Poor thing. He’ll be living with his mother, once she wakes up from her coma. The doctors said it should only be a few more days! Isn’t that great news?”

“Yeah, Gabriel. Isn’t that fantastic? Your wife is coming back. All those years she was in your basement. Why didn’t you just bring her to the hospital like a normal human being?” Chat Noir asked, fake smile gone.

Gabriel didn’t answer. Natalie glanced between them, wondering who would crack first.

It was neither. Ladybug stood up and stretched, sending them a glare as she shot her yoyo forward and wrapped them up before they could react.

She pulled them out the door on their asses, Chat Noir laughing his off every step of the way. The reporters they called were gathered outside, snapping pictures left and right.

“Ladybug! Where were you for the last five days?” Someone called.

“Unfortunately, I was hit by the Akuma’s powers! But I got changed back and I’m ready to protect Paris once again!” she said cheerily.

“Is it true that Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth?”

“Yep!”

“And that he kept his wife in a coma in his basement?”

“Also true!”

“And that his son was apart of it?”

Both heroes fell silent, before laughing.

“No, Adrien had no idea. He’s with his mother at the moment, and plans on cutting his father out of his life permanently.” Chat Noir answered, wiping a tear from his eye.

“Poor kid. He deserved much better, didn’t he Gabriel?”

Gabriel didn’t answer, glaring at the black spotted hero.

“Ah, here come the police. Perfect timing,” Ladybug pointed. “Take ‘em away, boys.” Ladybug shoved them toward the police officers, who handcuffed them and pushed them into the police cars. Ladybug and Chat Noir saluted the reporters and vaulted away.

“That,” Chat Noir said, landing on Marinette’s balcony, “was really cleansing. I feel free now.”

“Good. You should, after having to deal with him for so long.” Marinette said, detransforming. Adrien detransformed as well, taking a seat on her chaise. Marinette sat next to him, breathing out heavily.

“Hey,” Adrien said, looking down at her blue eyes.

“Hey,” She responded, glancing at his lips. He smiled softly, leaning forward and capturing her in a kiss.

“Thank you for everything,” he murmured as he pulled away.

“Thank you for everything. I’d still be a cat without you,”

“But you’d be a cute cat,” Adrien chuckled. She rolled her eyes.

“Don’t push it, kitty.”

“I’ll shut up now,” he said, leaning forward and kissing her again.

Plagg handed Tikki five dollars with a huff.

“Told you he’d say something cheesy.”

“He always says something cheesy.”

“Then why did you bet he’d say something to ruin it?”

“Cause he always does that too!”

Tikki rolled her eyes. “Sure Plagg.”