Chapter Text
Chat Noir looks down in horror, his green eyes as wide as saucers. He feels his chest heave as Hawkmoth’s identity is revealed by one of his own akumatized victims. The Revealer was granted the power to reveal people’s darkest secrets after her crush was revealed by her bully. Turns out that was a poor decision by Hawkmoth as his identity is seconds away from being revealed. Hawkmoth is restrained by the Revealer’s rope of truth and no matter how hard he tries, he can’t break free. He and Ladybug watch as the Revealer takes off Hawkmoth’s miraculous and Adrien feels his world collapse.
Standing in Hawkmoth’s place is no other than Gabriel Agreste, his own father. Chat Noir feels his composure start to slip and his gaze moves to Ladybug in hope of an explanation for this to be some type of cruel trick. “How can that be? He, he was akumatized not that long ago! Gabriel Agreste can’t be Hawkmoth. He just can’t! There has to be some other explanation!”
Ladybug looks just as confused as him, but she makes no move to agree with him. “Chat, she took his miraculous off right in front of us. He must have akumatized himself to make himself seem like less of a threat.”
Chat Noir turns his head away from her as he feels the tears start to pool in his eyes. His baton falls onto the roof and he let out an ear-piercing scream as he falls onto his hands and knees. Ladybug rushes to his side and tries asking him what’s wrong, why he’s screaming. He ignores her as he raises his right hand and activates his cataclysm. Ladybug tries to grab his wrist to stop him from destroying the entire building because they still need to save the akuma victim and capture Gabriel. Adrien knows he’ll destroy the roof if he does this, but in his moment of pure rage at his father he doesn’t care. He pushes her away with his left hand and slams his right hand down onto one of the support beams. The roof starts to collapse and Ladybug swings in to not only save the akuma victim, but Gabriel Agreste and his miraculous as well. Chat Noir watches from the rooftop of the building next to the one he just destroyed as Ladybug breaks the victim’s headphone’s and cleanse the akuma. He watches motionless as everything that the Revealer and himself have destroyed return to normal, except for the pain in Adrien’s chest.
He stood still and watched as the ladybugs flew around to repair anything damaged by the Revealer. Once the ladybugs clear he realizes his father is no longer lying on the ground where Ladybug had left him and is nowhere to be found.
Adrien feels his chest start to heave as he backs away from the scene. Both of his parents are gone now. He’s all alone. Ladybug looks up at him and goes to throw her yoyo to probably interrogate him about why he acted so careless, but he can’t talk to her right now. He needs to get out of there. He takes off running despite her pleas for him to stay and talk to her. She can usually keep up with him when he’s moving from rooftop to rooftop, but he’s so determined to get away that he somehow managed to evade her. He falls into an alley as his ring beeps one last time before his transformation drops.
Adrien clamps his eyes shut as he presses his back against the wall and slides down to the ground with his knees pressed to his chest. He feels Plagg looking at him sympathetically and he keeps quiet for once. Plagg inches closer to Adrien and whispers, “Are you ok, kid?”
Adrien breaks down right then and there as everything hits him. Plagg would tell him if something was a mind game or not. This clearly wasn’t a mind game if Plagg asked if he was ok. Plagg flies to Adrien’s hand and hugs one of his fingers as Adrien lets all the tears and sobs out. He doesn’t know how long he sits in the alley with his arms wrapped around his legs as he sobs into his knees. This can’t be happening to him. He feels everything suffocating him and he can’t breathe. His father was Hawkmoth. Gabriel Agreste was Hawkmoth and there was no way of denying it. His reveal was televised all throughout Paris. Hawkmoth dropped his transformation right in front of him to reveal his own father. Adrien let out another scream as he wrapped his arms around his waist. He was inconsolable right now and Plagg knew that no matter what he did it wouldn’t be enough to make him smile.
Adrien sat there and let his emotions flow through him as he punched the wall behind him. He had lost both of his parents, but this time he lost everything. His dad was his only family left despite their strange relationship. How could his father do something so horrid to so many innocent people? How could his father do this to him? How could his father leave him like that? How could his father betray him like that? God his father had tried to hurt him, possibly even kill him. His father had manipulated so many people, including himself and Adrien couldn’t bear the thought of it. Did his father feel no remorse? Didn’t his father fucking care about him? Wasn’t he supposed to take care of him? Wasn’t he supposed to keep him safe?
His anger shifted into guilt once he realized he could have stopped him earlier if he knew. He could have stopped all the horrible things his father did. So many people would have been safe if he had just known. They could have captured him, but now he’s on the run as a wanted fugitive and it’s all his fault. Hawkmoth is now running free as the whole city starts its search for Gabriel Agreste. If he hadn’t acted so careless they could have trapped him before her got away and hide his miraculous from the world. Now he and Ladybug would have to search the city for him day and night before he manipulates anyone else.
Adrien knows he can’t stay in the alley forever, but he’s also scared to go back to the mansion. Did Nathalie know? She had to. She was his personal assistant anyway and knew him better than he probably did. She probably fled once she saw the reveal out of fear that she would be discovered, but a small part of him prayed she didn’t. Once his mother disappeared, Nathalie had always tried to talk Gabriel into letting Adrien do small things that he wanted. She had become the closest thing he had to a mother. His mind wandered to his bodyguard. There was no reason for him to be at the mansion anymore. He won’t be getting paid anymore and Adrien also had a suspicion that he knew about his father’s side job as well. Adrien would be all alone again.
His tears have stopped flowing, but sobs continued to fall from his lips. Plagg flew up to Adrien’s head and hugged his cheek with his whole body to let him know he wasn’t fully alone and Adrien appreciated that. He looked at Plagg and noticed just how famished he was. He quietly reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of camembert for him. Plagg takes it and gulps it down before he’s floating in front of Adrien with his antennas down, “We gotta get you home, kid.”
Adrien chuckles dryly at the thought. Does he even have a home anymore? Where would he live? How would he sneak out as Chat Noir now? His whole life was changing again and this time he wasn’t sure how he would cope with it. Adrien slowly stood up and started walking back to the mansion with a heavy heart. He keeps his head down as he walks back and tries to block out all the commotion around him. He tries to feel numb and let his mind wander to another planet, but he can’t stop his brain from going back to his father’s exposure of being Hawkmoth. When Adrien gets closer to the mansion he hears sirens and sees the flashing lights from the police cars. He really should have expected them to be there in search of his father. Adrien can’t deal with the police right now. He wants to be left alone so he can try and process everything, but it’s clear that isn’t an option for tonight. He makes the split decision to transform behind a nearby market and try to listen to what the police are saying before he makes his presence known. He really doesn’t want to be taken in for questioning tonight, but he knows if the authorities see him as Adrien he won’t have a choice. He jumps behind an empty police car that Sabrina’s father and his partner are leaning on as they discuss this evenings events.
Both are clearly expressing their shock that such a powerful business man would do this, but then again, Gabriel Agreste was never the same after his wife disappeared. Adrien sadly had to figure that out on his own and learn to adapt to his father’s new behavior. His ears twitch at the mention of his own name by Sabrina’s dad and decides not to wallow in self-pity for a while to eavesdrop on their conversation.
“Has anyone seen his son, Adrien? The poor kid must be horrified. We have to find him before someone decides to take their anger out against him out of revenge for the pain Hawkmoth has caused so many others.”
“Well we don’t know how much the kid knew. The second his father’s identity was revealed he might have just packed up and left. Who’s to say this kid didn’t know what was going on? Who’s to say he wasn’t protecting him this entire time? How do we know that this kid is innocent?”
There’s a short period of silence between the two and Adrien sees Sabrina’s dad inch closer to his partner with a fiery look on his face as he says, “Do you not fucking hear yourself? He’s just a child! How would he know that his father was doing these things? Hell, the kid was locked up in his house for most of his life! That boy is in my daughter’s class and I have never met someone more respectful, polite, and sheltered in my life. Don’t you dare try to pin some of the blame on him. He’s just as much of a victim as everyone else!”
His partner stands down and Adrien feels the tight grip on his chest return at the realization that many people may think the same way as his partner. Was he a target now? Would he have to watch his back everywhere he went? Would people really try to take it out on him? All he knew was he didn’t exactly want to find out too late. His ears twitch again as Sabrina’s dad moves to the center of the crowd of police and news reporters.
He steps to the podium as questions are shouted at him, asking if Gabriel is in custody? What would happen to Paris? Where were Ladybug and Chat Noir to address the public after the reveal of Hawkmoth? How long has Hawkmoth had possession of a miraculous? Where had he gone? He silences everyone with a rise of his hand and begins his address to the public. Adrien listens quietly as he stays crouched behind the car and out of everyone’s sights. Sabrina’s dad is saying something about how they are searching high and low for Gabriel and now has very limited places to run and hide and if anyone has any tips or finds him to contact the police immediately and not face him alone. They mention how Nathalie is also missing and Adrien’s last shred of hope falls. It was foolish of him to think that she would stay for him, anyway. His attention is drawn back to what is being said and his heart stops when his name is mentioned by a reporter. The Lieutenant freezes before he clears his throat and addresses the crowd, “Sadly we are unaware of Adrien Agreste’s location right now. We are looking for him as well. Right now, he is deemed innocent. If he is found, please call the police so we may escort him to a place he can stay for a few days while the investigation begins.”
Adrien’s eyes snap closed as he tunes out the rest of the press conference. This isn’t happening right now. He’s going to wake up any minute now, his alarm is going to blare some Jagged Stone song, he going to be back in his room, Nathalie will be knocking on his door to make sure he’s awake. He just has to wake up. This aching feeling in his chest won’t be there soon, his eyelashes won’t be wet soon, his cheeks won’t be sticky from dried tears.
The press conference ends and he hears Sabrina’s dad and some other police officer discuss what to do if they find him. Sabrina’s dad sighs and pinches his nose, “Apparently the Mayor’s daughter is a childhood friend. The mayor has specifically requested that when he is found that we bring him there. He thinks it’s best for him to stay with someone close to him despite a total stranger.”
Adrien freezes upon hearing that. No, no he won’t go there. He can’t bear seeing Chloe right now. He can’t bear being near anyone that has any connection to his father until he’s got his head on straight. He knows that Chloe means well, she had done the same when his mother disappeared, but right now he needs to be somewhere far away from anything that reminds him of his father, of Hawkmoth. He sees the police officers move to their cars and quickly gets behind the building he used to transform. He stays there until all the police cars and news vans are gone before he uses his baton to propel himself to the roof.
He loses control of his body as his mind runs on autopilot. He doesn’t know where his feet are taking him and in this moment, he couldn’t care less, if it was far away from anything that reminded him of his father. He leaps from building to building as the pressure in his chest continues to tighten and he knows he’s going to break down again soon, but until that moment comes he keeps running. His legs are straining due to the lack of rest, and his eyes are sore from the crying he did earlier and the crying that will inevitably come. He sees a balcony with a lawn chair not too far away and lets his mind take him there for his body to rest. When he gets there, he has a strange feeling of familiarity, but he doesn’t think he’s ever been here before. He lets his mind try and reply through his memories on when he was ever there when it finally slaps him in the face.
This is Marinette’s balcony.
Although he’s never been up here himself, he’s seen her and Alya hang out up there while he would run his occasional solo patrols. He looks out at the Paris skyline for a few moments and takes in the beauty this city has, the beauty his father had endlessly tried to destroy. He feels another tear slip out and as hard as he tries to stop anymore from falling, he can’t. He turns his back to the view as a low sob rips itself out of his throat. He falls onto his knees and lets the crushing revelation take over him. No matter how hard he tried to deny it his father had tried to hurt his classmates, innocent children, random civilians that did him no wrong, and even his own son. His own father had tried to hurt him, to take away one of his few sources of freedom, to ruin his life. Adrien pounds his fist against the ground once, twice, three times before he stands up again and turns around with his head down. The tears don’t stop, and Adrien feels all his mental strength and energy leave him.
A small creaking noise comes from behind him and he quickly extends his baton behind him and a small gasp falls from somewhere. He picks his head up and sees Marinette had opened her sky door a crack and just the top of her head was showing. He looks back at the ground and retracts the baton at her slightly scared expression. “Sorry.”
Marinette gives him a confused look as she opens the sky door the rest of the way and stands on the balcony with her arms across her chest to fight off the cold, “What are you doing here?”
He chuckles dryly and looks back at the skyline, shakes his head and says, “I don’t know.”
Marinette takes a couple of steps forward to the point that she can touch him if she wanted to, but she wouldn’t want to make him uncomfortable. He was clearly going through a lot right now. “That’s okay. Uh do you want anything? I may be able to sneak you a few pastries from the bakery if you’d like. You and Ladybug had a really hard fight tonight.”
His hands clench into fists, his shoulders tense, and he hisses lightly at the mention of his and Ladybug’s battle. He knows he can’t fight off the breakdown for much longer as the lump in his throat becomes impossible to swallow. He looks at her over his shoulder and subtly shakes his head, “I, I should go. You have school tomorrow and it’s late.”
He holds his baton out in front of him with his thumb hovering above the pawprint button, ready to have it propel him onto the next rooftop before he feels Marinette put her hand on his shoulder. He could just shrug her hand off and go on his way, but her touch keeps him in place. He feels his arms start to shake and his shoulders sag as whatever little strength he had left to fight off his break down slip away. The tears are threatening to spill, and his lips are desperately trying to keep the violent sob in. Then just as quietly as the wind blows he hears Marinette’s worried tone, “Are you okay?”
The baton falls to the ground, his body shakes, the tears flow, and the sob leaves his mouth so much louder than he thought. He turns around to face Marinette again and desperately clings on to her as his entire world crumbles around him. Marinette is motionless at his rapid actions. She lets him hold onto her, cry into her pajama shirt, let his sobs out into her shoulder as she wraps her arms around his back just as tight. She’s never seen this side of her partner before and she’s instantly filled with worry. Her feet stay planted in their position, afraid to move and startle him. “Hey, hey kitty. What’s wrong?”
He cries harder and tries to speak through his sobs, but instead nothing but coughs leave him, and Marinette realizes she must calm him down at least a little bit before he can talk coherently. She raises her hand to the back of his head and lightly rubs the back of his head, something she knows he loves from their nightly patrols. She stands still as he lets the heartbreaking sobs leave his chest in a hurry. She shushes him quietly and whispers that everything will be alright, to let it out, to breathe, to not bottle a single thing up. There’s no space between them whatsoever anymore and Adrien feels her body’s warmth against his and he’d give anything for that warmth instead of the coldness he felt inside.
Marinette doesn’t know how long they stand there for, but she doesn’t care. She refuses to let him leave until he talks to her. He had run away from her so fast, well Ladybug, after the battle that she instantly knew something was very wrong. He never ran off like that without at least saying goodbye. Slowly but surely, his heaving chest and sobs slowed down to the point for him to talk through the tears. He takes a deep breathe, but makes no move to let go of her or look her in the eyes. He sighs as his mouth starts moving a mile a minute, “He-he was revealed, and I-I don’t know if I can fight him and be the partner Ladybug needs me to be. He’s done so much to me, Marinette. You have no idea how hard it was for me to see that it was him. He was close with the mayor and they want me to go to Chloe’s and I just, I can’t go there. Please don’t make me go there, Marinette. Please don’t make me go near any of them. I can’t relive the childhood memories of our families together and-“
Marinette takes his head in her hands then and makes him look at her. Her eyebrows are furrowed together as the rest of her face shows her confusion. “Kitty please. You’re not making any sense. What do you mean they want you to go to Chloe’s? Who’s they? Who’s your family, Chat?”
He puts his head down and knows he’s said to much and there is no was out of this. He feels Marinette rub his tears off his cheeks as he finally makes eye contact with her and he knows he can trust her. He looks around to make sure they are alone and for once the streets are clear. He leans his cheek against her palm and whispers, “Plagg, claws in.”
Marinette’s eyes widen, her mouth opens to stop him, but it’s too late. A bright green light flashes and Marinette finds herself face to face with Adrien Agreste. She’s gasping for air as she takes him in. Chat Noir is Adrien. Adrien is Chat Noir. Adrien’s dad is Hawkmoth. Hawkmoth and Chat Noir were fighting. Adrien and Gabriel were fighting. He had been fighting his dad. She looks into Adrien’s bloodshot green eyes and her heart breaks for him. The usual light in his eyes is gone, replaced with dread, sadness, and loneliness. She lets out a quick sob of her own as she throws her arms around his neck and pulls his head back down to his shoulder. Adrien’s tears flow again, but he isn’t sobbing this time. Marinette holds him so tight in hopes of putting his broken pieces back together. Marinette slowly navigates them to sit on her lawn chair when she feels his knees almost give out. She rubs his back as he cries. “Oh my god, Adrien. I’m so sorry. I’m, I’m so sorry.”
Adrien sobs lightly at that and he backs away slightly and wipes the last of his tears away. “Mari, is, is it too much for me to stay the night? I, I really don’t know where else to go.” He continues to sniffle and cave in on himself and Marinette swears she’s never seen Adrien look so small.
“Of course, you can. You can stay here as long as you want.” Marinette pulls her into another hug as a few stray tears fall. She stands back up and holds her hand out for him to take, “C’mon. We should get you inside.” Adrien gently takes her hand and follows her down into her house and closes the sky door as quietly as he can. Marinette is thankful that she never had the time to put the pictures of Adrien back on her walls, that would have been a rather embarrassing experience. She leads him to her bedroom, then to the large chair she has in the corner. Adrien sits down as she turns her back to him. “I’m going to get you some food and tell my parents that you’re here. They were so worried about you. I, I mean we were so worried about you. My dad might have some spare clothes for you, but they might be a little big on you.”
Adrien sends her a small smile. When she reaches for the doorknob Adrien calls for her. She looks over her shoulder and he let out a sigh and says, “Thank you, Mari. You don’t know how much this means to me.”
Marinette sends him a small smile before she walks out the door to get the things she promised him. Adrien puts his hand on his pocket and feels the outline on his phone. He hesitantly pulls it out and sees all his missed texts and calls. There’s at least thirty notifications from Nino, begging him to answer him, call him, anything, but Adrien can’t bring himself to answer. He knows Nino is worried, but he still hasn’t fully processed everything himself. The last thing he wanted to do was lie to Nino. He scrolled through Chloe’s texts that expressed her worry, but he can’t answer her either. He could barely answer Marinette earlier. He turned off his phone just as Marinette reentered the room with the food she promised, her mother behind her, her arms full of clothes for Adrien. Marinette sends him an apologetic smile, “I tried to tell her I would bring them to you, but she insisted on making sure they fit.”
Adrien nodded his head and tried his best to send her mother a smile, but even that seemed tiring. Sabine looked at him sympathetically and put the clothes down next to him. She placed a light kiss on his head, told him he was welcome for as long as he needed. The corners of his mouth turned upwards slightly before immediately going back into the frown they were stuck in. Marinette placed his dinner on her desk and left the room with her mother, probably to talk about how he even got there. She would come up with something. Adrien used the time to change into the clothes Sabine had given him and they surprisingly fit him well. They weren’t too tight, but also weren’t too loose and occasionally gave him sweater paws.
He sat back down just as Marinette reentered the room, texting someone. When she finally looks up from her phone, she points to it, “I was just letting Nino know you were with me. He’s really worried about you. I understand that you don’t want to talk though.”
Adrien nodded his head and locked eyes with her as the tears once again pooled in his eyes. Just as he starts to reach his arms out for her to hug him again, she is already walking back to him and sitting down next to him. As she takes him into her arms for the second time that night, she maneuvers them so they’re lying down. He rests his head against her shoulder and cries into her chest in an awkward side-hug. Marinette has her arm around him, her head on top of his, as she whispers encouragement in his ear. “It’s ok, Adrien. You’re safe. I’m here for you.”
Somehow during his breakdown, Adrien finds himself growing tired. Marinette notices he starts to doze off, but he forces himself to stay awake. She shushes him and grabs the blanket she keeps on the other side of the chair and drapes it across them. Adrien opens his mouth to protest, probably to tell her to sleep in her own bed, but she simply puts her finger to his lips, effectively stopping him. She reaches behind her and turns off the light as Adrien subconsciously cuddles into her more. She looks down at him before she places a kiss of her own on his head, “Goodnight Adrien.”
Adrien hums in response just before his eyes slip shut for the night. Marinette watches his chest slow to a steady rhythm before she lets her own slip shut as she promises herself to protect him at all costs.