Chapter Text
My father is Hawkmoth.
My father is Hawkmoth.
My father is Hawkmoth.
The words are bouncing around in Adrien’s head as he stands in the middle of his palatial bedroom, staring out the wall of windows. How much can a teenager’s life change in the span of a few minutes? One moment, a carefree, powerful young superhero is vaulting over the rooftops of Paris, victorious yet again against his arch nemesis; the next moment said nemesis is standing in the hero’s bedroom, watching him drop his transformation and reach into a pocket for an ever-present piece of Camembert.
At first, Adrien’s thoughts were, Oh God, how am I gonna get out of this? Maybe I can convince Father that he’s hallucinating? But as Gabriel Agreste began speaking, this line of thinking was replaced with the mantra, my father is Hawkmoth.
“Well, son,” Gabriel said, almost as if he was teasing, “thank you for confirming my suspicions.” He was standing in the entryway, with a front row seat to the spectacle of Chat Noir leaping in through the open window, landing perfectly in superhero pose, and dropping his transformation in a flash of electric green, leaving behind teen supermodel and model citizen Adrien Agreste. Adrien froze in place, and even Plagg was silent when he would usually be whining for cheese. Both hero and kwami knew there was no explaining this away. Adrien braced himself for the riot act, the inevitable demand that he give up his Miraculous, and the screaming match that would come after Adrien refused to do so, but Gabriel did not seem enraged at his perfect son’s deception. In fact, the man’s face was twisted into a sinister smirk, an expression Adrien had never seen his father wear.
It filled him with dread.
Gabriel continued speaking, ignoring the gobsmacked expressions of his son and the cat-like kwami floating beside him. “I must admit, you were clever to outwit me all this time. How did you manage to be in two places at once?” Adrien remembered Wayhem playing decoy while he transformed and defeated Gorizilla, but said nothing.
“Well,” Gabriel said, “I suppose that doesn’t matter in the end. What matters is the Black Cat Miraculous has been within my reach from the beginning.” Gabriel began to walk purposefully forward, his steely gaze now focused on the unremarkable silver ring on Adrien’s right hand.
Adrien visibly recoiled, pulling his hand close to his chest, and pondered the meaning of the words his father had just stated. ‘From the beginning?’ What is he talking about?
Gabriel kept stalking forward. Fight or flight had kicked in now. Adrien’s mind was no longer forming coherent thoughts, only one-word responses, the loudest of which was screaming at him to RUN.
Plagg, it seemed, was not so affected. He flew in front of Adrien and hissed at Gabriel, which made the designer hesitate in his advance. Plagg’s ears were flat against his head, his tiny tail was lashing about, and he bared his fangs as he shouted, “You stay back! I won’t let you lay a finger on my owner, Hawkmoth!” He spat the villain’s name as if it was the worst piece of cheese he’d ever tasted.
The mention of the enemy snapped Adrien to attention. He looked at Plagg, then at his father, and suddenly, the lightbulb lit up.
My father is Hawkmoth.
Gabriel seemed to sense his son’s epiphany, and his worried expression shifted back to its villainous smirk.
Lifting a hand to his left cheek, Adrien tenderly touched the large bruise he knew was forming. His mind was now beginning to register that his father had actually punched him. Adrien had been so stunned by the blow he hadn’t even felt Gabriel remove the ring from his finger, nor heard Plagg’s cry of protest as he was absorbed. The boy now clutched his right hand, looking down at the empty space where his Miraculous usually rested. He felt naked without it. Vulnerable, and worst of all, completely alone. Before he knew it, Adrien was a sobbing mess on the floor of his bedroom, his loud cries of despair echoing off the steel panels now covering both entrances.
Adrien thought he knew what it felt like to be trapped, but now he truly had no means of escape. No doors, and now no Plagg. His bedroom was now his cage, and the reality was far worse than any nightmare conjured up by an akumatized child. And, by proxy, his own father.
After a few minutes of crying, Adrien sat upright and wiped his tears away. “Stop it, Adrien,” he told himself out loud. “Enough crying. You have to think now! What would Ladybug do?”
The thought of Ladybug brought Adrien immense comfort and hope. He remembered that he would never be alone as long as he had her. She would know what to do. He had to figure out some way to reach her without his father- no, Hawkmoth- finding out. The Ladyblog was out of the question. He already knew Gabriel followed it, and now assumed the villain would follow it obsessively for news of his enemies. There were theories galore about their identities on the site, and Alya would grow suspicious if Adrien asked her to send out a message to Ladybug from him.
Adrien pulled out his phone. Gabriel hadn’t taken it when he’d locked Adrien up, saying something about “maintaining normality” as he’d sauntered out. The thought of going to school, attending his fencing lessons, or a photoshoot as if today had never happened made Adrien want to hiss as Plagg had done earlier. He scrolled through his contact list until he found Master Fu, listed as “Mr. Chen, occupation: Chinese tutor” for security reasons. Adrien was about to hit the call button when the mantra stopped him dead in his tracks.
My father is Hawkmoth.
And then, a connection. I can’t call the Guardian of the Miraculous on my phone while I’m in Hawkmoth’s clutches! I’d lead him straight to Master Fu, not to mention all the other kwamis! Adrien knew Gabriel kept tabs on his mobile phone; just another way of controlling him, as well as keeping the GPS feature active 24/7. No, if he was going to call for help, it would have to be to a friend. Someone he could trust implicitly. Perhaps even with his deepest secret.
Adrien continued scrolling down the contact list. Nino? No, he wouldn’t be able to keep it from Alya. He told her everything, a trait which Adrien usually admired in his best friend, but today it was the disqualifier. He’d already decided that the moderator of the Ladyblog was not to know of this. And so the scrolling continued.
Chloé? A hard, fast, no. Sure, she may be able to actually get in touch with Ladybug, but she would do it in her usual tactless fashion and alert the enemy straight away. Furthermore, Gabriel knew that Adrien was still close with Chloé, and he knew how close her home was to the mansion. He’d be expecting Adrien to run to his childhood friend for safety. But no, Chloé was not a safe option at all. As the despair began to creep up behind Adrien to consume him again, he noticed a name just above “Mr. Chen.”
Marinette.
Adrien stared at her contact info, weighing this new option in his head. Could Marinette get ahold of Ladybug for him? He thought of how helpful his class representative is, how she would drop everything for a friend in need. Gorizilla came to mind again, and his exciting adventure with Marinette, running through the streets of Paris to escape his crazy fans. And when he’d wanted to ask Kagami on a date, she’d agreed to come along to help him feel more comfortable. “You’re our everyday Ladybug,” he’d told her on Heroes Day. And he’d meant it.
Before he could talk himself out of it, his thumb had pressed the green call button, and his phone was dialing. She answered on the third ring.
“H-hey, Adrien,” she greeted in a small, timid voice. Her typical self.
“Marinette,” Adrien replied, deciding to keep this straightforward. “I don’t have a lot of time, and I need you to listen carefully. I’m in trouble, and I need help.”
Marinette didn’t stutter when speaking this time. “What is it?” she demanded. “Are you alright? Tell me what’s going on! What do you need?”
It was a relief for Adrien to hear Marinette so determined to help him. She almost sounded like Ladybug. He had made the right choice. “I’m okay, for now,” he began. “But listen, and promise not to freak out when I tell you this.” He paused, and quickly added, “And, this conversation is for your ears only. You can’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you. Not your parents, and especially not Nino or Alya. Can you do that for me, Marinette?”
Marinette’s reply was almost instant. “Yes,” she said simply.
Adrien breathed a sigh of relief, then started his story. “Thanks, Marinette. You’re a good friend. So, here’s my situation.” Adrien took a calming breath, then spoke aloud the words that had been dominating his thoughts. “My father is Hawkmoth.”
Adrien paused, but Marinette was silent on the other end of the call. She was waiting for him to continue. “And…” Adrien took another pause. He was not supposed to reveal his secret identity. It was dangerous for him and for Ladybug. But, he figured, Hawkmoth already knows who I am, why not someone I actually trust?
“And,” Adrien continued, quieter this time, “I’m Chat Noir. My father found out my secret identity, and he took my Miraculous. He has me trapped in my house. I need you to find a way to get a message to Ladybug. Tell her what I told you. She’ll know what to do. Do you think you can help me, Marinette?”
Adrien waited in agonizing silence for Marinette to reply. He could almost hear the gears turning in her brain as she formulated a plan. Yet another reason his friend reminded Adrien of his Lady. When she finally spoke, she didn’t give Adrien the yes or no he was looking for. Instead, she simply stated, “I’m coming over there.”
Adrien’s eyes went wide. “Marinette, no!” he exclaimed. “It’s too dangerous, you can’t come here!” But she had already hung up.
Adrien looked at his phone in shock. Why would Marinette come here? What could she possibly do against a supervillain? She may be an amazing person, but she was still just a normal girl. How could Marinette help him escape and defeat Hawkmoth? He tried to call her back, but she didn’t pick up.
Just as he was leaving a third voicemail on Marinette’s phone begging her to stay away, he heard a loud THUNK on his window wall. Adrien’s phone fell out of his hand when he saw Ladybug hanging out there by her yo-yo string, her Lucky Charm in hand, which looked like a long piece of wire. She had a look of intense fury on her face, a look he had never seen before. She shoved the wire in between the window and its frame, a little harder than was necessary, but it did the trick. The wire caught the latch, and the window swung open, allowing Paris’ superheroine to swing inside Adrien’s bedroom and land perfectly in superhero pose.
“Ladybug?” Adrien asked, his head reeling. He didn’t quite know what to say.
Ladybug straightened up and looked at him intently, assessing his state of being, from his eyes, red and puffy from crying, and his bruised, swelling cheek, all the way down to his orange Gabriel sneakers. Then she asked, “Do you have your duffel bag here with you?”
Adrien blinked dumbly, not sure why she would be asking for a duffel bag, and pointed to the bag holding his fencing gear, sitting on the floor by the foot of his bed. He could almost smell rotting Camembert just looking at the thing. He had even caught Plagg napping in there among the dirty socks he hadn’t yet transferred to the laundry hamper a few times. As much as Adrien loves his kwami, he could be pretty disgusting sometimes.
Ladybug didn’t seem to notice the smell as she picked up the bag and dumped Adrien’s fencing gear onto the floor, then turned on her heel and marched into his closet. Adrien discovered her pulling t-shirts and jeans off the shelves at random and tossing them into the bag. Out of embarrassment, Adrien opened the drawer containing his socks and boxers, pulling out a few pairs of each and placing them at the very bottom of the pile Ladybug had made.
Seeing he had done this, the superheroine then left the closet and headed into the bathroom, picking up Adrien’s toothbrush from its holder and rummaging through drawers for other toiletries. Adrien finally had the sense to help gather the things he knew were essential and put them in the duffel bag himself.
As his Lady zipped the bag closed, Adrien finally asked her, “Ladybug, what is all of this for?”
She looked at him incredulously, then her expression softened as she replied, “For you, Kitty. I’m getting you out of here. I’m gonna take you somewhere you’ll be safe, where Hawkmoth won’t find you. Then we’ll figure out a plan from there. Does that sound okay?”
She was asking his permission to save him from this prison. From his father. Adrien didn’t think he could love Ladybug any more than he did in this moment. He smiled and said to her, “Yes, m’lady. That sounds more than okay.” He would follow her anywhere. She knew this.
Ladybug smiled at him in return, slung the bulging duffle bag over her shoulder, and extended her hand to him. “Well then, we’d better get going, partner,” she said.
Adrien was about to accept the hand she offered when he remembered, “Oh my god, Marinette!” Ladybug stiffened in surprise at his outburst. “Ladybug,” Adrien pleaded with her, “have you seen my friend Marinette? I called her and told her my identity, I asked her to call you and she said she was coming over here! I hope you told her to stay away! We’ve gotta find her, she could be in danger-“
“Adrien,” Ladybug cut him off calmly, putting one hand on his uninjured cheek. “Marinette is fine,” she continued. “I can’t tell you everything right now, but I know she’s safe. Trust me.”
And with that, Adrien’s fear for his friend vanished. Of course he would trust his Lady. She offered him her hand again, and this time he took it. She led him to the window, then pulled him close to her side so she could throw her yo-yo, and for the first time that afternoon, Adrien felt completely safe. He wasn’t sure where they were going, or what trouble would come their way once Hawkmoth discovered he was missing, but he knew that Ladybug and Chat Noir would be able to face anything, as long as they were together.