Chapter Text
If you asked Adrien, it all started after class on a Tuesday afternoon. Well, he would argue, it actually began when he found the black cat miraculous, but technicalities. Tuesday afternoon, 3 pm, is when it went to shit and everything he knew, everything he loved and held dear was ripped out from underneath him like everything he had worked for didn’t matter. His mother had left him – or so he had thought. So, he had been told. Instead, he’s here, staring at his mother in a coma – and not just any coma; a magical coma caused by a broken miraculous according to his father. His father, who turns out to be Hawkmoth. The same enemy that he and his partner has been fighting for the past four and 3/4th of the year.
Gabriel stands there, looking at Adrien, every ounce of brutal businessman that Adrien knows him as he wants on an answer. “Well son? Will you help me? Stand with me to get Chat Noir’s and Ladybug’s miraculi. They seem to be your age, at least according to all those temporary heroes,” Gabriel’s voice drips with disdain, “that those heroes have chosen. That means they have taken a special interest in your class.”
Adrien wonders if maybe fate laughs at him, wonders if this is the luck of the black cat miraculous taking effect. That he, the one known for his bad luck, had his mother fall into a magical coma thanks to a broken miraculous, a father driven by an obsessive need to control things with a miraculous to make things go his way. “Your friend…” Gabriel continues, his mouth twitching downwards just slightly in displeasure, “and his girlfriend, Alya was it? The one who runs the Lady-Blog? They were both heroes too,” he nods at his assistant, as she clicks on the tablet, pulling up the video where Alya calls for Rena Rouge and Carapace to come back and outs herself and Nino. Ah, he wonders briefly if that was why they broke up. He wonders just how much information his father had gotten from the Lady-Blog; wonders if it’s his fault that his father is watching it – wonders, and then shuts that thought down. It wouldn’t do any good to go down that road.
At least he can take solace in the fact that his father doesn’t seem to know that he’s Chat Noir. Small victories, he thinks. After standing in silence, staring at his mother, who once again is in a magical coma, saying nothing because his words just cannot work, Gabriel sighs before letting Natalie take him back to his room. His brain feels like it’s wadding through molasses trying to work through the revelation of his father actually being evil. Natalie stops outside of his door, clicks her tongue and “dinner will be served at hour seven. Be ready by then.” He thinks he nods, before he steps into his room, locking the door behind him. It’s too large, too small, too empty, too filled and he needs to get out of this house before he loses it and his father akumatises him. Making eye contact with Plagg, the small kwami nods, before Adrien holds out his fist, and weakly whispers for his transformation before he’s climbing out of his window and heading to the Saint-Louis-des-Invalides. Sure, it might be in the afternoon, and he might scare a few people into believing an akuma may be around but Adrien doubts that his father will be taking a break today; he just hopes that he takes a long enough break that he could breathe.
As soon as he gets there, he’s already calling Ladybug before he even has a chance to sit down behind the steeple. “Hey bug,” he starts off once she picks up, words tight in his throat “I have news on Hawkmoth that’s pretty important if you want to get down to the Saint-Louis-des-Invalides.” After a confirmation from Ladybug that she’s on her way and she’ll be there as soon as she can, he hangs up and leans against the curve of the building. His father is a terrorist who has been emotionally preying on his friends, his city, for almost five years now. He doesn’t know what to do with that information besides tell Ladybug. He thinks that he should have a breakdown about it, but he knows better. He cannot afford to be akumatised and hurt Ladybug. He’s seen her nightmare thanks to Sandboy; he KNOWS that in another timeline he was turned into Chat Blanc, and he KNOWS Ladybug still has nightmares about it. He’s seen her run past his room some nights like she was evading the devil; the breakdown she had when Chat Blanc showed up in the last Sandboy attack. He won’t allow himself to become that and make Ladybug’s nightmares a reality in this timeline.
After what seemed like five minutes, but was more reasonably like fifteen, he hears the soft thud of Ladybug landing, as she hooks her yoyo back around her suit. Dull green eyes look up as he gives a tired grin, all pretend, up at the one whose saved everyone. “So, I bet you’re wondering why I called you here,” he tries, and at her look, he winces. So, he didn’t hit the mark for amusement it seemed. She sits next to him, and he wonders where he should begin. Where he can begin. “So, it turns out my father is Hawkmoth—” he says, just throwing it out there and ripping the band-aid off. He feels her shock, the way she stirs next to him, swings her face around with wide bluebell eyes and her mouth opens. He’s already gotten this far, might as well continue. “He wants me to work for him. He tried the whole, ‘your mom got sick from misusing a miraculous and since you’re a ladybug fan, you must be worried about her too, we can get it from her so she doesn’t get sick’ which obviously didn’t work so then he tried the whole, “Ladybug must be around your age and watching your class since at least three heroes came from it, I want you to work for me to get close and have her give you one too---’ so obviously he doesn’t know that I’m Chat Noir and M’lady I’m so sorry.”
Ladybug doesn’t say anything while he spirals, she sits there, takes his hand in hers, and even through the gloves, he can feel her fingers rubbing smoothing circles around on his palm. It’s a good distraction technique. Once he stops for some breath, Ladybug inhales. “Alright.”
“Maybe I should stop being Chat No—”
“Don’t you dare.”
“What----?”
“Chat Noir, follow me.”
Ladybug stands, as her back lets out a creak from the way her spine had curved over the arch of the temple, and once she was certain that Chat Noir was going to follow her, she leads him on a remarkably familiar path to a bakery that he knows. Landing, she opens the balcony door, before dropping into her room.
“M’lady, this is Marinette’s room, what are we doing here? I may be a cat, but I am no peeking tomcat.”
She snorts, before de-transforming in front of him and taking his face into her hands. “Chat Noir, I’ll know who you are as soon as you reveal your father’s identity. It isn’t fair of me to know who you are and for you to not know who I am. You’ll be keeping the Black Cat Miraculous if I must super-glue it to your finger. You are my best friend, the most important person to me. You are my rock, my solace in this fight. You encourage me to fight. There is no one else I would want as Chat Noir and if you even think for a moment that I’ll accept anyone else, then you do not know me as well as you think you do.” He’s still staring in shock at his classmate, the only other person in his class to not be akumatised, actually being Ladybug. It makes a lot of sense. Marinette has a strong sense of justice, and she’s smart going toe-to-toe with resident class genius Max. He’s seen plans she’s made and he wants to laugh at just how stupid he had been to not notice that they were Ladybug’s plans as well. He had even called her an everyday Ladybug.
Then again, he shouldn’t be shocked he hadn’t noticed it, after all, his father was Hawkmoth, and he lives with the man. He’s willing to bet Mayura was Nathalie now. His father wouldn’t dare let anyone else close to him and it was obvious that they were working together. “Lady—I mean, Nette----,” before letting out a small huff of frustration and decides to just de-transform to let her see him. There’s a loud squeal as she sees Adrien and then he’s being brought into warm arms as she threads her fingers through his hair. He swears he hears that she’ll kill Gabriel if it’s the last thing she does, but he tries hard, not to think about that in particular. Right now, he takes comfort in the fact that his first friend that he made on his own, that wasn’t because of them having parents close to each other, that didn’t befriend him, is warming him, is comforting him. He swallows.
“I don’t know what to do.”
“That’s okay, you don’t have to have all the answers.”
He pushes his tongue against his teeth before he pulls away from Marinette and moves to sit on her chaise. “I knew he wasn’t a great father,” he begins, “I knew that mom’s disappearance was hard on him, on us, but I never expected this.” He begins, as fingers move to pick up spare yarn to busy his hands. “He wants to revive mom, like I said, she’s in a magical coma apparently,” Marinette blinks, “from using a broken miraculous and he wants the wish to make it never happened. He doesn’t ---” Adrien’s throat closes up as he realizes that his dad didn’t care about him at all. That if the wish happened that it would probably be him that the universe took away as they would make sure that Gabriel lived with his decision.
Marinette shifts, before she moves to her computer chair. “You know,” she begins softly, “I suspected him, back at the beginning. Probably around month six?” she avoids looking at him, “but I had hoped that it wasn’t him. It was just suspicious to me that he had a Grimoire for the Miraculous. Then he got akumatised and I didn’t think that Hawkmoth could do that to himself, so I pushed it out of my mind. Told myself it wasn’t him because you didn’t deserve that. I asked the police later if I could investigate and they were noticeably clear that I wasn’t allowed to do anything like that. That my job was to fight akumas and that was it. No arresting, no investigating, nothing.”
Adrien shifts, he didn’t know that.
Marinette continues, as eyes land on spare thread and she begins to ball it up. She inhales, exhales, “There’s something else I should tell you.” She tries very hard to not tap her feet, but nervous energy is rolling off her in waves, and Adrien is almost afraid of what she’s going to say. He waves his hand to allow her to continue.
“I’m ---” she breathes again, “I’m almost 100 percent certain Lila is working with your father.”
“Of course, she is. You know how my father tried to get me to keep her happy.”
“Not like that. More like, her working with Hawkmoth ----”
“WHAT?!”
Marinette flinches at his tone, and apologetically, he softens the word, “What do you mean that she’s working with Hawkmoth?”
“Welllll,” she drags out, “I have no proof but I’m pretty certain that I’m being targeted. Lila – she’s”, a huff of frustration from the noirette, “she’s threatened me. Multiple times. It’s always when no one else is around,” hands wave in the air as she twists in her chair to look directly at him. “Before she became Chameleon – that was when she first threatened me. She told me I would lose all of my friends and while I haven’t lost all of them, I’ve lost a lot.” She twists her hands together, “Before you and Alya showed up, I didn’t have a lot of friends, really I only had Nino and Kim and that’s because we grew up together. No one really wanted to be my friend because then they’d get in Chloe’s crossfire but then, then, you and Alya came along and suddenly I had friends and I was being invited to places and hangouts. Now – Now I’m lonely again and I recognize that I feel lonely. I’m overwhelmed and scared that I’ll lose everyone and that one day my cure won’t work, and I’ll fail you, Paris, the Kwami’s and then I have school on top of everything and being targeted ----“, Marinette breathes heavily, and Adrien moves to get up to put his hand on her shoulder to ground her.
“Marinette, breath.”
“The day that I got expelled. Lila caused that, Adrien. She planted the evidence,” he knows, “and Hawkmoth knew that there was going to be a disruption at the school. How else could he have known that would be a good scarlet swarm if he wasn’t working with her?” Her voice takes on a slight hysterical edge and he looks away as he thinks about what she’s saying. She’s right of course, that is suspicious. He had wanted to give Lila the benefit of doubt, thinking that she only wanted friends and then he had assumed that she was being something of a tabloid and the best thing for those is to ignore them – but he had hurt Marinette thinking that just them knowing would be alright. He had seen that when Marinette had gotten expelled. He swallows. “That akuma --- Chameleon ---”
“—was meant for me.”
He hisses, “shit, Marinette----”
She shrugs, “it wasn’t the first time or the last time. I’ve learned to ward them off.”
He almost doesn’t want to ask but he needs to know. “How many times have you been almost akumatised ---?”
She doesn’t look at him and that makes his heart pulls taunt. “Dunno. Lost count. I’ve learned how to set my emotions aside, Princess Justice notwithstanding.”
He pauses to digest, and he remembers now that she was akumatised that day, briefly, before whatever had happened to Natalie. He remembers how terrified he was to see her talking to Hawkmoth, how he instinctively knew that he wouldn’t be able to fight against her. He knows now, that even if he had attempted to fight her, that he wouldn’t have won. She’s Ladybug, there’s no way that he could win against her.
The best thing would be to get out of Paris, but Adrien knows his father wouldn’t allow it. Marinette needs to be out of Paris too – but she won’t leave. His eyes narrow on her before he pats her back. “I need to get out of Paris—” he says suddenly. “I can’t stay here, or I’ll be akumatised,” and because he knows Marinette would bend over backwards to help him, he lowers his voice, and looks away as he raises arm to rub at the back of his neck. It might be a bit manipulative but he’s doing it because he cares. “—I don’t really want to go alone though. I don’t think I could.”
Marinette shifts, tilts her head to look at him as she purses her lips together, eyes all-knowing, before she bites the corner of her lips and stands before walking across her room and pulling down her calendar. Once, twice, and the secret plans she had falls in front of it. “I’ve thought about it, running away to get away from it all,” she begins shyly, “mostly for a break from Paris, a break so I could feel but I never could convince myself to do it. Then I thought about looking at places where we could get help. We need someone smart, a detective, someone with money and resources to go over the police and someone who has the political influence and power that Gabriel doesn’t have.” She stands in front of the plan with red yarn connecting everything and he’s both amazed and slightly terrified for anyone who ever goes against her. She grins sharply as her hands gesture to where she’s circled, “and I’ve found it.”
Raising a brow as he looks at the circle, “in the United States? What’s in the United States?” Her grin sharpens and eyes shimmer with mischief.
“Why Adrien, I never thought you would ask. May I present to you, Gotham, New Jersey. Home of the bats and birds. Otherwise known as Batman’s turf.”
He’s floored that she’s thought this through that much, he’s extremely impressed. He shouldn’t be, he knows. Marinette is the one person that could save the world with a spoon- probably. She probably has. He doesn’t know what exactly goes on when he’s turned by an akuma, at this point it’s probable that she’s had a spoon as a lucky charm that wasn’t just the Copycat incident). He looks over her data, the yarn that connects the everything, the red circle that encompasses Gotham and he realizes that he would have followed her without her even asking. If she had asked him to stay, he would have. He may not be in love with her, but she’s still the most important person to him.
“Do you think Batman will help us?”
She nods, “I reckon we can at least ask. The worst he can say is no.” She’s spent many a nights thinking what she would do if he did say no, and she’s figured that she would continue the way she has. Sure, it might suck that he would disagree to help, but Batman seems to have a soft spot for children from what she can read; if she can’t get Batman himself, she’ll capture a bird to help her. She shifts, leans against him as she takes his hand into her own. “Do you think you can wait a week before we leave? I’d like to get everything settled here first before we leave.”
He doesn’t know why she asks; she knows, should know, that he would follow her directions without thought but he shrugs regardless, “sure, why a week though?”
She spins to plop herself into her gaming chair as she waves a hand, “time for you to get what you want to bring, hide it here, for you to disappear for about a week before I whisk you away from Paris so that Gabriel doesn’t think that me leaving concedes with you leaving, time to get you a new identity made, a place to stay, money set aside and for me to get my school stuff ready.”
He blinks, surprised at her answer. He didn’t think it took that much work to run-away, but Marinette has ten plans for each plan and curveballs are her specialties. It doesn’t surprise him as much as it should that she can get new identities made; he’s actively trying to not think about that fact. Deniability and all that jazz. “How are you gonna get us a place in Gotham in less than a week?”
She waves her phone towards his face after picking it up. “Jagged Stone is from Gotham. I am willing to bet he knows of a place where we can stay, all I have to do is call and ask him.” He nods, that makes sense. Jagged had all but declared her as his niece on live television. Things are lining up so well for them, that it must be Marinette’s, Lady Luck herself, luck that they’re running into. “After that, I’ll talk to my parents. You should make a list of what you want slash need from your house and then tonight bring it over here after you’re,” she makes quotations with her fingers, “’in bed’ that way it’s easier to transport. You’ll have to make sure you get it all tonight though, but not too much so Gabriel doesn’t suspect that you’ve left Paris, we don’t want to cause a mass akumatisation with your fangirls.”
She sends off a text to Jagged, asking if it were alright if she could call and if not when would be a good time as she had a question for him. She continues to speak, “In fact, I wouldn’t worry about clothes, I could make you a new wardrobe with whatever style you want to experiment with.” While Gabriel use to be her fashion idol, his designs had tanked and after adding onto the fact that he was literally Hawkmoth and those designs are literally the worst? Her hands are itching to get onto Adrien and dress him in a way that doesn’t hurt her eyesight. “We can tell Chloe and Kagami, my parent’s as well because they would literally kill Gabriel before handing you over to them. Get you a new---” her voice trails off as her phone lights up with a text and attention is immediately caught onto the text. “Jagged says I can call him in about five minutes, and he should be free.”
She’s almost excited about the possibility. Them getting actual help from someone who knows how to do detective work, about getting out of Paris and away from Lila and Alya. She can’t breath easily yet but it feels like almost can. Her phone rings and she nearly jumps out of her thoughts. There’s a grin tugging at Adrien’s lips and she shoots him a mock glare as she swings in her chair to answer the phone.
“Hey Jagged –” she begins and Adrien has to hide a smile behind his fist as he can clearly hear Jagged’s overly excited voice through the phone.
“My favorite little rocker! What’s up?”
“Me and a friend are gonna go to Gotham soo—”
“WHAT? NETTIE I HAVE A PLACE YOU CAN STAY!”
Marinette shoots Adrien an ‘I told you so’ look before she brings her attention back to Jagged, “Are you certain? You remember my friend Adrien right? It’ll be him. I’m stealing him away from his father and since LB and CN can’t leave Paris undefended,” not a total lie, “I thought I would go about seeing if I could find Batman there and see if I could get him in touch with our heroes. I’m sure they need the help.”
Adrien furrows his brows. She’s right, they really can’t leave Paris undefended, so how exactly will they be moving to a whole different country?
“That’s a great idea, Rockette. As long as no funny business goes on between you and Adrien I have no problem with letting him stay. Old Gabe is a stuffy individual anyways and anyone you keep company with has to be rockin’ as well.”
Marinette snorts. “No. Even if he loves me to the end of the world, and he does,” she shoots a teasing grin towards Adrien, “he’s definitely not interested in me like that.”
“He should be!”
“I can’t tell if you’re trying to defend my honour or not, but you don’t need to worry, Uncle Jagged. There’s something else I should tell you.” She raises a brow at Adrien, silently asking Adrien if she can tell Jagged about his father and him changing his identity. Adrien doesn’t really care and gives her the go ahead wave. “We’re gonna get Adrien some fake identification.” Oh, he thought that she was gonna tell him about Gabriel being Hawkmoth.
Jagged goes silent for a moment, “That’s a lot of work you’re doing for him, Marinette. Is everything okay?”
She’s silent and then slow as she answers, “Things are…. difficult here. We’re taking precautionary measures.” A finger taps on her desk with anxiety; she doesn’t believe that Jagged will take his offer back, but anxiety is a liar that tells her to worry.
He lets out a hum finally as she hears Fangs’ tail in the background thump. “Alright. Can I do anything to help?”
“Just you letting us stay in your place is enough, Uncle Jagged. We’ll be leaving in a week for it.”
“Alright then Rockette, I gotta go, but call me if you need anything else at all. I will need some designs soon but we can iron out those details once you’re in Gotham.”
She lets out a breath and grins, “awesome, thank you Uncle Jagged. We will keep you in the loop.” With a final farewell, she hangs up before looking towards Adrien and shakes her hands in a sort of jazz hand motion, “See? Easy Peezy.” Adrien’s lips curl upwards at the confidence that radiates off of Marinette and he thinks for a brief moment that if he was straight that he would have fallen in love with her. “Next I’ll need to get my parents on our side but that’ll be easy—” She’s lost in thought thinking of what she needs to do to prepare for the trip overseas.
“Bug?”
“Yeah?”
“How are we gonna defend Paris if we’re living in Gotham?”
A deadpan look is shot towards him as she raises a brow, waiting for him to remember that she’s the Guardian and when his brows furrow in confusion as silence reigns between them she lets out a huff of air.
“Minou, think really hard how we could do it.”
Golden lashes kiss his cheeks as nose scrunches up, “I don’t see it.”
“I’m the guardian. We can use the horse miraculous.”
“Oh.”
She snorts. “yeah, oh.”
“Wouldn’t that be considered using the miraculous for personal gain?”
Shoulder lifts then drops. “Possibly but Kaalki doesn’t mind. In fact, they’ve all been suggesting we get out of here since the Order found me.”
Opening his mouth, he wants to ask about that but Marinette continues before he can even say anything.
“—sides, the only rules that matter are the ones I decide on. Anyways, I suggest you go back to your father’s for the evening while I get everything prepared here for you. I’ll feed you when you get here this evening. No patrol. Pack necessities and other important things to you but nothing else.” Adrien nods, blonde hair brushing against his face as she stands.
Quietly, she moves over to him and wraps her arms around him gently. “It’ll be alright.” Slumping over her body, he brings well-toned arms around her small frame as he buries his face into her hair and breathes in the cherry almond scent of her hair. There’s a knot at the base of his throat and he wants to cry but cannot, will not allow himself to. “Sure, bug.” He says finally, words barely above a whisper before unwrapping himself from her embrace and calling for his transformation. “I’ll be back around hour nine.”
Marinette nods, shifts to watch him leave out of her skylight and once it’s closes, she slumps against her chaise. “Tikki, this is so much worse than what I thought would happen. I never even considered what Gabriel being Hawkmoth could mean for Adrien.”
Tikki, whose been comforting Plagg, comes to sit on Marinette’s shoulder as paw presses against Miraculous. “It’ll work out, Marinette. You already have a plan with or without Batman on your side and what you’re doing for Adrien is a good thing. Plagg appreciates it too. Now, go downstairs and talk to your parents and get me some cookies! Go, go, go!”
Marinette tries not to laugh at the tiny Goddess but lips curl upwards into smile before nodding. “You’re right. I can do this. I have to do this.” Tikki flies off to her little room in the doll-house that Marinette had made for the Kwami’s to curl into a nest of blankets that had been made for her as she watches her charge head downstairs to talk to her parents. She hopes that her luck will be enough for all of them; that Adrien will soon be healthier.
Marinette goes downstairs, slowly coming behind her parents at the dinner table, and she fidgets. Her foot scruffs at the floor as bluebell eyes dart around the room. Sabine looks towards Tom before raising a brow and having a silent discussion with him about whose going to tackle their nervous daughter. Tom raises arm to shrug and they both nod. Double team then.
“Marinette?” Sabine starts off, soft, as she wanders around the island in the kitchen to press plates into her daughters hands. She’s noticed that giving Marinette something to do, something to distract her, she tends to talk more. “Will you set the table for us? Papa will bring the bread to the table shortly.” She’s counting on her daughter’s need to please to win out and when plates start to clink against the cherry wood is when she pounces. “So,” she begins, “What’s going on?”
Marinette stumbles over her foot, catching the plate she almost dropped as she looks at Sabine in shock before she quickly fixes her expression and focuses back on the table. “I – Adrien—” a huff of frustration as she tries to formulate her words. She knows that she’ll need a solid argument for Gotham if she’s going to convince her parents to allow her to leave Paris, away from their watching eyes.
Tom places some bread on the table before pressing large palm against Marinette’s back. “It’s okay Dream Puff, take your time. In the meanwhile, sit down, eat.” Marinette nods, waiting for her mother to get to the table before she even thinks about picking up her chopsticks. She knows better than to eat without all of them at the table. “I want to leave Paris.” She says as her mother sits down, and Sabine goes into a coughing fit.
“What?”
“Dream Puff what is going on?”
As her mother sits down, Marinette moves to grab a piece of bing bread to go with her zhajiangmian. She inhales as she tears her bread into pieces. It’s hard for her to open up, so use to doing things on her own and she loves her parents and knows that her parents love her, but they swing wildly between being over-bearing or barely there. She’s not bitter about it, mostly. “I need a break maman. I can’t—can’t continue to be here. I’m being targeted by Hawkmoth, Lila’s helping Hawkmoth, my friends are leaving me slowly. I can’t keep doing it.”
Tom and Sabine look over Marinette’s head, brows raising. They didn’t know it was that bad. “甜心”[sweetheart] Sabine says, “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I thought I could handle it. I can’t.” she stops speaking to chew for a moment as she watches her parents from under her lashes, “I keep almost getting akumatised. I can’t do it maman. I can’t – please don’t make me.” Her voice is low and soft, as if she’s ashamed and Sabine feels her appetite leave. How bad was it that her daughter was here, barely holding it together, begging to leave them, her home, just so she can feel anything that isn’t positive. Sabine blinks and looks up at Tom and she can see her husband is barely restrained in his anger at Hawkmoth. She doesn’t even have to be married to him to see that he’s planning Hawkmoth’s murder.
“Where would you want to go?”
This is the difficult part; getting her parents on board for the most dangerous city in America. “I have a place that’s already been offered to me --- Uncle Jagged’s apartment. It’s in Gotham though –” Marinette sees her mother’s face pale, “Before you say no, there’s security at the place and it’s in one of the high-class parts of Gotham.”
Sabine wants to say no. She doesn’t want her baby to leave where she isn’t close to her. What if something happens? What if a rouge attacked Marinette? There’s no miraculous cure in Gotham, no coming back if her baby dies. She risks a look at Tom. Her husband is sitting, shell-shocked. Maybe from all the planning Marinette has already done – or the fact that it’s Gotham and their daughter wants to leave the country.
“What about school?” Sabine says after taking a sip of her water.
“Lila was able to call in for her classes,” even if Marinette thinks she actually never left the country, Madame Bustier clearly believed that she had, “so I should be able to do it as well.” It’s well thought out, but her daughter had always been a planner.
She nods as she takes another bite of her noodles. She knows that she will eventually let Marinette go. Her daughter is seventeen, ready to spread her wings and she’s being stunted currently here in Paris between the akumas and her classmates who all want her to make stuff for them for free and if Marinette would be in one of the areas that’s protected then it should be fine. The family sits in silence as they chew. Marinette becomes more nervous as time passes by and Sabine pauses.
“Tom, doesn’t Gina know Red Hood?”
Marinette’s eyes brighten.
Tom is confused, “yes?”
Sabine nods. She thought so. “Alright.” She turns her attention back to her baby, “I will let you go on some conditions.”
Marinette has stopped eating, chopsticks all but falling out of her hands in surprise. She squeaks, “Of- Of course, maman!”
“One, you call us daily. Two, we will have Gina drop by occasionally to check in on you. We will send you a weekly allowance so you can spend it but you will keep up with your studies or else.”
Marinette readily agrees and Sabine thinks that’s the end of it until she sees her daughter open her mouth and then close it with furrowed brows. Ladybug above, she thought that was the most difficult thing. Sabine eats as Marinette nods to herself, almost reassuringly. “Adrien is running away from Gabriel. I told him he could stay here for a week. He offered to come with me to Gotham since Gabriel won’t even think to look there and that way we can have someone else that’s familiar to us.”
Sabine blinks, she hadn’t expected that, as she connects the pieces. “So, if that man comes here or his secretary we should tell them we haven’t seen Adrien?”
Marinette nods, lips curling upwards into a smile. She doesn’t mention the fake identity, but she can deal with that later.
“What about Adrien’s schooling?”
Marinette shrugs, she hadn’t thought that far ahead, maman. She needs room in case something doesn’t go to plan. “We’ll think about it when we get to it.”
Sabine’s eyes drift over to her husband, “Tom? You’ve been silent.”
The man lets out a breath, “Dream Puff, I don’t want you going to a whole country that’s an ocean away,” his nose twitches, “especially America but I realise that I would be a hypocrite if I told you not too. I’m just concerned. You’re our only Dumpling. There’s no Miraculous Cure in Gotham. Something that is broken or dead, stays dead there. Are you sure that’s where you want to go?”
Marinette nods, “I’ve thought about it. With Jagged and Nonna, I’ll be checked in constantly and knowing Nonna, she’ll have Red Hood watch out for me as well. Adrien will be there so it won’t be me alone and he’s a guy—” despite Marinette being very able to take care of herself, she knows that someone of her statue would be seen as small and weak, “so I won’t be going places alone. Not to mention Batman is there. I’ll be protected papa.”
Tom wants to cry. “Alright Pumpkin. Clean up your plate and go up to your room.”
Marinette nods as she stands, “Oh, papa, would it be alright if Adrien helped in the bakery in the back this week? He needs some normalcy in his life, and I figured him being in the back, he won’t get noticed. He’s coming by this evening around nine to stay here. I told him earlier to pack his necessities. He won’t be going to school this week and he’ll be out of public for the week before we leave so Gabriel can’t pin Adrien’s disappearance on me.”
Tom nods, sharing a concerned glance with his wife. He knows that Gabriel wasn’t the best father, it was easy to see in the way Adrien hunched in on himself, brightened at compliments like he wasn’t use to them. Easy to see in the way that he was a growing boy and yet was too underweight for where he should be, the way that he ate anything placed in front of him – okay no. He can see why Adrien was running away. “Sure thing sweet pea. Don’t stay up all night.” Marinette nods before she treks her way back to her room after pausing to snatch a few cookies. Marinette, not for the very first time in her life, counts her blessings that she has the parents that she does. While she waits for Adrien to come back, she decides to shower. There’s a knock on her skylight as she’s brushing through her wet hair, adding oils to keep it shiny and she waves a hand to allow him to come in.
“Got everything you need? Money? Pictures of your mom? A few clothes to tide you over until I can finish you a new wardrobe?”
Adrien nods as he holds up a bag of all of his most important things. A picture of him and his mother, photos of him and Nino, a camera that he had been given, some clothes, some books, his lucky charm bracelet that’s tied on his wrist.
Marinette eyes him, “Good. I know we said no patrol this evening, but suit up. We’re going to go throw your phone away into the Seine. We’ll go and sit on top of a restaurant building for a while so Gabriel, if he decides to track it, doesn’t see your phone being here last and pins your disappearance on me. After we dump your phone, you can come back here or go with me to Max’s. That’s where I’ll get a new identity for you from. I would recommend you to come back here just so he can’t say he’s seen you, or you can come with me as Chat Noir, really it’s up to you, I’ll be going as Ladybug---”
“Lucky bug, breath. I can go as Chat Noir. Together we can say that something’s come up and we need to keep an eye out on Gabriel and we’re getting Adrien out of the crossfire. Max is a good person, he’s not gonna rat to Gabriel. I appreciate that you’re not trying to control my decisions on what to do. That’s more than anything.”
Marinette looks up at him, setting the brush aside and nods. “Sorry, just nervous. I told my parents that you’ll be coming with me to Gotham and Papa said you can help him out in the back of the bakery this week so you aren’t stuck up here doing nothing and since you’ll be in the back, no one else will notice you.” She pauses, remembers that she also told him that she would have food for him, “Actually, Adrien how hot can you eat? Dinner was pretty spicy tonight and if you can’t handle it we can get you something else while we’re out. Adrien shifts, thinks for a moment before he decides. "Let's go and get a burger, bugaboo." His eyes gleam with knowing that he was doing something he wasn't allowed to do, "with all the extra's that Gabriel would have a conniption fit over." Marinette snorts, "Alright rebel, lets go then."