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Adrien had always known that his father was not a good man. Somewhere deep inside, he just knew there was something broken inside Gabriel. He had hoped that if he continued being the child he was expected to be, that somehow it would help heal the hurt in Gabriel’s heart. That he could learn to move on as Adrien had.
But that never seemed to happen. Sitting in his room, Adrien recalled the event of that evening’s dinner. It was one of the rare times his father had bothered to join him. They both sat in silence for quite some time, Gabriel giving the spouts on his plate more attention than his son. Adrien did his best to stay calm, to stay quiet, but the numerous possibilities as to why his dad had chosen today of all days to have dinner together were almost overwhelming.
“How have you been, Father?” he finally managed to ask.
“Adrien, are you aware of what today is?” Gabriel coldly inquired, electing to ignore his son’s question.
“Um, a Thursday,” Adrien replied.
“It is three days from one of the biggest decisions of your life, son,” Gabriel coldly stated.
“Excuse me?” Adrien stated, completely confused. True, it was three days from his 18th birthday, but he was unaware of what kinds of choices he would have to make. “I am not sure I understand what you mean Father.”
“In three days you will be turning 18, as I am sure you are aware,” Gabriel began to explain, his voice never wavering in its cold inflection. “On that day you will be choosing if you will be staying here, in the comfort of my home, and help me to achieve our family goals, or if you will be cut off.”
Adrien had to stop himself from spitting out his food in surprise. “W-what are you talking about?”
“It is time our goals aligned properly, Adrien.” Gabriel’s cold eyes stared out at his son over the rim of his wine glass. “You will either agree, or I will kick you out. That is all, you may leave.”
Adrien looked down at his half-eaten food. Good thing he was no longer hungry anyway. He nodded briefly at his father and stood up. He started for the door but stopped with his hand on the handle.
“Is this about the company?” he questioned, his voice quiet yet clearly audible in the hostile silence.
“It is about more than the company; it is about our family, Adrien,” the spartan reply came. “Nathalie will fill you in on the detail as she sees fit.” Adrien looked back at his father, still confused. Gabriel took a long sip of wine. “You are dismissed now. Go to your room,” he said in a tone that brooked no argument.
Adrien nodded, more out of a habit of being agreeable than in actual agreement. He walked back to his room, confused as ever. He was not there for long before Nathalie showed up with an envelope.
“Just so you know, everything in the letters is true,” she told him before turning to walk out of his room. “If you have questions, just call for me. In the meantime, stay here. You have homework and a modeling shoot in the morning.”
Adrien watched, speechless, as she walked out. Once she was gone, Plagg flew out and placed a small paw on Adrien’s hand. Empathy shined back at him from within the kwami’s eyes.
“Thanks, Plagg,” Adrien whispered, a small smile on his face.
“What for? I didn’t do anything,” Plagg replied.
“You don’t have to.” Adrien reached up with his other hand and scratched between Plagg’s ears. “You’re always here for me, and I appreciate it.”
“Of course, Adrien, you’re the best Chat Noir I’ve ever had,” Plagg smiled up at his holder. “Let’s open this letter and figure out what is going on.”
Adrien nodded and carefully broke the wax Agreste family crest seal on the envelope. It was a rare occasion when his father brought out the wax stamp. It was usually reserved for matters of deep importance and family deaths. He took a deep breath and took the pages out. There appeared to be multiple letters for him. But one stood out the most. That delicate script belonged to his mother.
My Dearest Boy,
If you are reading this, then you’re spending your 18th birthday without me, and I have failed to find out how to stop what is happening to me. You should know, son, that there is a wonderful and exciting world within ours. There are these jewels called the Miraculous, and they are just that. They have such beautiful power, and so many possibilities to do good. But mine is broken. Your father, bless him, is trying to find out how to help me, but I fear that my life’s energy will be gone soon. I hope, my son, that someday you will meet Duusuu, for he is a wonderful companion. My hope is that someday my miraculous will be fixed, and you can use it to help propel our family even further. If my miraculous is not enclosed with this letter, then I hope your father will have a reason and explain to you why. Be well, my son. And remember, you are an Agreste. Never let your ambitions hold you back in life. You can achieve anything.
Lovingly,
Your Mother
The letter slipped from Adrien’s hands, floating gently to the ground. His hand was shaking while he picked up the letter from his father. He didn’t really read much of it, he didn’t have to. But the words he feared were there. Hawkmoth , Myura , Miraculous, coma . That was all he needed to see. He set the letter down and began to move about his room.
“Plagg, what do I do?” he hissed, his voice only slightly more audible than his footsteps. He ran his hands down his face.
Plagg was silent, as, for once, he had nothing to say. No snarky quip or witty comeback. He sat in stunned silence. He looked over the letter again, and back at his holder. Adrien was still pacing, muttering incoherent nonsense to himself. Then, suddenly, he stopped and slammed his fist into his hand, nodding his head firmly before turning to his closet. Curiosity piqued, Plagg flew over.
“What are you doing?”
“Packing a bag. Father said I had three days to make a decision, and I have a feeling I can’t be guaranteed that if-no when- I say no that I will be able to get away peaceably, let alone with stuff I need.” Adrien stopped and checked around his closet a few times, mentally tallying what he had that was truly his versus what could be considered his father’s. “I need to pack the things that are truly mine. Thankfully I have quite a bit more than I used to thanks to my friends.”
“Okay, sure,” Plagg started, “but how will you get this stuff?” He watched as Adrien threw a bunch of clothes in a duffle bag.
“That is where my friend’s kindness will hopefully come in,” Adrien replied. He grabbed the bag and walked out towards his computer. Plagg sat silently and watched as the boy pulled out a flash drive and started going through his computer files. He knew that his father had Nathalie go through the cloud server regularly, so he did his best to not mess with anything that seemed unusual. Thankfully, he had gotten in a habit of turning his computer completely off every so often. So after backing up any cloud files, he turned the computer off and carefully dismantled the tower to take out the hard drive.
“Kid, what are you going to do with that?” Plagg asked, now completely confused by what Adrien could be thinking.
“We are going to visit Max tonight.” Adrien’s eyes had a mischievous shine.
“Okay, and the duffle bag?” Plagg floated over and looked through it. “Won’t your dad notice all this stuff missing?”
Adrien looked over at his kwami, a sad but resigned look. “Plagg, you give him too much credit. Neither Father nor Nathalie knows what I keep in my closet or on my desk. I can take these mementos and store them elsewhere. I obviously can’t take, like, the bed or my gaming system, but that is a small price to pay.” Adrien looked more determined than before. “Come on Plagg, we have some people to see this evening. Starting with Max. Hopefully, Ladybug is out tonight.”
Plagg nodded a few times. “Okay, hold on a sec, though,” he said, flying off to his cheese cupboard. He grabbed a few unopened wheels of camembert and set them on the desk. He then flew into the bathroom and grabbed his favorite stinky sock, and a toiletries bag. Delicately, the little god of destruction packed his prized possessions into the little bag and lowered them into the duffle.
“Is that all you want to pack?” Adrien asked, worried at the amount packed versus what he knew the kwami’s appetite to be.
“Yeah, for now. We can figure out a better bag for the rest of it once we know more about where we are going,” he replied.
“Okay, then if that is everything, you know the drill. Plagg, claws out!”
*****
As expected, when he called Ladybug, she didn’t answer, so Chat left a voicemail. Also as expected, once the Chat Noir had asked Max if he could help him out with a situation a civilian had reached out to him for, Max was eager to do his best. Once he figured out it was Adrien’s files he was backing up however, Max became stone-faced and calm.
“Is it his dad? Is Adrien in some sort of trouble with his dad?” Max asked him.
“Uh,” Chat started, his hand rubbing the back of his neck, “I can’t really say. But he said he knew you would have questions and would answer them tomorrow at school.”
Max nodded and turned back to his work. It only took him about 10 minutes to finish copying everything over.
“I will weed through the information and see what I can get saved properly. And what I can unencrypt from the data you asked me to.” Max pushed his glasses up his nose then turned to look at the leather-clad hero. “Thank you, Chat Noir, for helping my friend.”
Chat nodded one last time at the other teen, then hopped out the window. On the roof across the way was the duffle bag he had packed. He checked his phone, still no Ladybug. He figured he would try calling her again after checking a few of the usual spots. He ran along rooftops and took a deep breath of the fresh night air. So far, he had been able to keep his calm, however, he could feel the ever-looming breakdown inching closer to him. He could only hope Ladybug was out tonight and able to find him first.
As he started to head towards Notre Dame, he spotted Marinette out on her balcony. He stopped, and figured she might be able to tell him if she had seen Ladybug that night, after all, they did seem to be friends.
“Hello there, Princess!” he called landing on the railing of her balcony.
Marinette looked up from her knitting, a bright smile on her face, “Chat! To what do I owe the pleasure? Here to get your butt kicked again at Ultimate Mecha Strike III?”
Chat let out a chuckle at his friend’s good spirits and shook his head. “No, that will have to be another time. I have some things I need to discuss with Ladybug, and I was hoping you had seen her,” he explained.
“Oh,” Mari started, “I uh, no. I haven’t seen her. Is it important?”
“Ah…” Chat looked down at Marinette. An honest worry in her eyes. “It is um important, yes, but it is just some superhero stuff. So if you see her, let her know I will be at the usual spot for a while.”
He gave her a smile and a quick nod before vaulting away. He didn’t want to lie to Marinette, but he didn’t want to worry her about the contents of the letter any more than he needed to. So he figured getting away and waiting for Ladybug would be his best bet. He landed on the roof that served as their usual meet up spot, a commercial building that had a decent view of the Eiffel Tower. Chat finally sat down and just let out a deep sigh. Tension he hadn’t even realized he had escaped him as he flopped down onto his back, the cool concrete keeping him grounded. He placed an arm over his eyes and focused on his breathing.
As much as he didn’t want to be alone right now, detransforming wasn’t an option. Ladybug could be here any moment, and for the gravity of the conversation they were going to have to have, he didn’t think being there detransformed on a roof would help much to keep her calm. He knew how she could be with bad news, so might as well start out small.
It wasn’t long before he heard a soft pat of feet on concrete. He could tell by the sounds of her walk that it was his lady. He heard her walk over and sit down next to him.
“So,” Chat started, “I’m guessing a little mouse told you to meet me here?”
He heard her chuckle slightly. “Yes Chaton, Marinette told me.” He felt her hand gently touch his arm, he could tell what she was about to ask next: “Chat, what’s going on? Are you okay?”
Chat sighed and removed his arm from over his eyes. He sat up and reached into the duffle bag. He held the envelope in his hand, unsure of where to start.
“Milady, I...I have some big news that I need to tell you about. I know everything I am about to do goes against so many rules, but I think you need to know just what is about to happen in these next three days.” He looked up at Ladybug’s face. Her eyes were full of worry and confusion. “Here, in this letter,” he held up the envelope, “letters actually, I discovered who Hawkmoth is.”
Ladybug’s eyes grew wide, shock rippling through her body. “Chaton, what? Who-how?”
He could see the gears turning. He placed the envelope in her hands, holding them in his to calm her down. “Hawkmoth is my father.”
*****
Ladybug started blankly at her partner, looking down at the envelope in her hands, decorated with the Agreste family crest, and her partner. His words echoing through her ears. Chat Noir was Adrien Agreste. His father was Hawkmoth, and he was going to try and force Adrien to join him. To have Adrien help bring his mother back. Adrien was very much in danger. This man not only revealed himself but threatened his son under the guise of a choice all in one letter. Fury was not an apt description of what she felt toward that man.
Her poor sweet Chaton, her best friend, was hurting so much. And now it all made sense. He filled her in with his plan to slowly get all of the belongings that were truly his out of the house over the next few days.
“But the problem I have now is, I don’t know where I will stay.” Chat said. “I can’t really stay at Nino’s house, at least not for long. They don’t have a lot of space, and I-”
“Me,” she interrupted. “You will stay with me.”
Chat stared at her blankly for a moment, disbelief on his face. “But Milady, then I’ll know who you are.”
“I-it’s only fair,” she choked out. She was trying her best to not be emotional, to not scream at the world for the hand it had dealt her dear friend. But she was quickly losing her cool.
“But I had to let you know because of the situation, you don’t. I know how important this secret is to you,” Chat retorted.
“Not as important as you, Minou.” She stared into his eyes, willing herself not to cry. “Ah, come on, I think we need to go home,” she said standing up.
“Ah, I am not going home yet, I have to drop this duffle bag off somewhere first,” Chat protested.
“Not that house,” she spat. “That building is not your home, not anymore. We are going home . Come on.”
Ladybug stood up and grabbed Chat’s hand, pulling him up with her. She saw a tear form in the corner of his eye. She nodded at him and started across the rooftops, checking only once to see that her partner was following her. Thankfully he was.
It was very surreal to Ladybug, that so many times she had made her way home and hoped that Chat would never see the direction she was going. But this time, she needed him to see where she was going, and she needed him to be safe.
The pair landed on her balcony. Chat had started to protest but was quickly shut up when Ladybug opened the hatch and pulled him into Marinette’s room.
“Now, we are about to have some big and interesting conversations, please just follow my lead, okay?” Ladybug said. “You can leave the duffel bag here.”
Chat silently nodded, obviously still processing what was happening. He carefully put his bag down on the floor near the desk.
Ladybug checked the clock on her desk. Just a little before 8. Good, her parents should be in the living room, watching their favorite program. She took a deep breath and nodded to herself. She opened the trap door and motioned to Chat to follow her down.
“Maman, Papa, we need to talk,” she declared.
“Okay, sweetie-AH! Ladybug!” her dad yelled.
“Chat Noir?” her mom questioned.
Mentally she took note that she probably should have gone about this in the reverse order.
“Right, transformed. Tikki, spots off,” she said. As the transformation reversed, Marinette felt all eyes on her.
“Marinette?” her dad whispered. Both parents stood there looking at her, shocked.
“Mom, Dad, this is Chat Noir. He’s in trouble, and we need your help,” Mari said, hoping her voice sounded more confident than she felt.
“What kind of trouble, sweetheart?” her mom asked as she ushered both her and Chat to sit on the couch.
“The family kind,” Chat replied.
Tom and Sabine exchanged a look before nodding at him to continue.
“Um, my dad, uh…” Chat started.
“His dad is Hawkmoth,” Mari finished. “And in three days he is going to try and force Chat to join him.”
“Does he-Hawkmoth know you are Chat Noir?” Tom asked.
“No, I don’t think so,” Chat answered.
“Okay, and how will he force you, exactly?” Sabine chimed in, a motherly worry evident on her face and in her tone.
“Um, well, he kind of controls all the aspects of my life right now. And while I do have some money of my own, I don’t have a lot beyond what is also his.” Chat explained.
“Maman, Papa, he needs a place to stay,” Mari cut in.
“Sweetie, I- We don’t know who he is, and having a superhero just come and go looks a little...suspicious,” Tom started to explain.
“Oh, that is an easy fix,” Chat said, waving his hand in front of his face for emphasis. “Plagg, claws in.”
While Mari had known logically that Chat was Adrien, seeing him in front of her was a little different. Now he wasn’t just the hero of Paris, but one of her very best friends. He had tears in the corners of his eyes. His tired kwami came spiraling out and landed on his lap. The look in his eyes reminded her of a scared bird.
“Well, this changes things,” she heard her mom mutter.
Before either teen could say much more, they were both swept into a deep hug by both parents. Mari finally let the ball of anxiety she had been holding in her chest go and just sighed in relief. She knew her parents would help her. She knew she could count on them. A muffled sob next to her snapped her back to the room.
Adrien was crying; snot and tears now running down his face. None of them said anything. Instead, Sabine just held him tighter and patted his back. Tom went and grabbed a glass of water from the kitchen and as a family, they gave him the space to let it all out. Mari ran her hand in methodic circles on his back, hoping that it would give him some comfort.
Once Adrien had stopped crying, he leaned out of Sabine’s hug and wiped his nose and eyes.
“I’m sorry, I just-I have been holding that in all evening,” he whispered.
“There is nothing to be sorry for dear,” Sabine gently assured him.
“Nothin’ at all. Every man has to cry sometimes, it means you feel,” Tom chimed in. “Adrien, we want you to know that you are always welcome in our home.”
“Always,” Sabine echoed.
“We’re here for you, Chaton,” Mari said, reaching out for his hand. She felt tears blurring her vision as she looked at her partner. He looked so fragile and so tired.
“Now, it has been quite the evening, Adrien, sweetie, did you bring clothes?” Sabine asked.
“Um, actually yeah, I have a duffel bag of some stuff I was going to store at a friend’s house if possible,” he replied.
“Okay. There are two options here. One, you can stay the night here, but make sure you are up before you have to be up at your house,” Sabine stated in a gentle, yet matter-of-fact tone. “Or two, you can leave the things here, and we will set them up in the guest room, while you go back home tonight and pack a few more things.”
Adrien looked around the room, almost as if astonished that he was getting a choice. Mari watched as he scrunched his face up in thought. She thought of all the different ways that she could potentially help him over the next few days. At the very least she was sure her parents would agree to send her to school with extra coffee and breakfast.
“Well, I have a 4 am photo shoot tomorrow, so I should head home soon,” Adrien stated, not even trying to hide the gloom in his voice. “But I’ll bring by more stuff tomorrow. I can pack an extra bag with the excuse of clothes for school and fencing practice if that’s okay.” His eyes got wide as if worried he would offend someone.
“That sounds perfect,” Tom replied, giving Adrien’s shoulder a gentle squeeze.
Mari looked between the people in the room. She knew that the road to defeat Hawkmoth would be a long one. And would have its fair share of heartaches. But at least on this front, she could rest assured that her friend, her partner, would be taken care of.