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After that rooftop conversation under the full moon, things change between the two superheroes of Paris, mostly for the better.
“Plagg, claws in.”
Back in his room, Adrien falls onto his bed as Plagg immediately flies off to his camembert stash.
He hugs his pillow to his chest and squeals quietly into it, the sound muffled so nobody will hear it. “Plagg? Did you hear what Ladybug said? She remembers her past life! She used to be a superhero in her last life too.” He sighs. “It’s hard to believe Ladybug only told me about her past because of what happened with Sandboy last night. Can’t believe an akuma borne out of a nightmare would have such long-lasting effects—but she would’ve told me eventually even without Sandboy, right? Yeah, Ladybug trusts me; she would’ve let me know sooner or later either way. Ah, but can you imagine a world full of heroes, Plagg? Kwamis, imagine if I can go to hero school, that would be so cool—”
“Huh,” Plagg pauses to shove an entire piece of camembert into his tiny god mouth. “That explains a lot. Fu really chose a good one for Sugarcube.”
Adrien blinks. Wait—
“Have you met anyone like that before? Were they a Black Cat too?”
“Of course I have! I’ve seen more than your human mind can ever comprehend, kid. She’s one of Trixx’s, though. You met Trixx last time at Fu’s, right?”
“Really?” Adrien perks up. “Tell me about her!”
“Hm…I don’t know…my memories of that girl have gotten a little blurry after all these centuries…but who knows?” Plagg smiles slyly. “Maybe an extra piece of camembert will jog my memory.”
“Plagg!”
“What are you doing?” Adrien asks Alya during recess, leaning over her desk to get a better look at her tablet.
Next to Alya, Marinette gives a muttered complaint as Adrien disturbs her nap. She took a sick leave yesterday, but still looked dead on her feet when she returned to class this morning, and promptly planted her face onto her desk for a nap when the recess bell rang.
“Sorry, Marinette.” Adrien whispers. He has no idea what illness his friend caught, but there’s no point in waking her up just to ask such an inane question.
Alya sighs as she looks at her best friend, who is blocking her way to the corridor. She hesitates, before standing up on her bench, and—
“What are you doing?” Nino hisses and removes his headphone, staring as his girlfriend climbs over her desk to sit down deftly between Nino and Adrien.
“Shh! Marinette is resting!” Alya tells him in a much louder voice. She turns to grab her tablet, before showing off the screen to the two boys proudly. “Anyway, this is an edit of all the clips people caught of Ladybug during the Sandboy akuma. It’s still a work in progress.” She presses ‘play’ on her video editing software, then scrubs the progress bar forward until—
Oh! Adrien remembers this. Ladybug is clobbering a giant tarantula in the head with a rolling pin. Cowering behind her but with his face still visible, is one Nino Lahiffe.
Alya grins at Nino, whose face is beet-red at the reminder of that night. “I’ve got a lot of good footage this time, don’t you think?”
Nino sniffs. “If you got a giant tarantula trying to eat you, you would be terrified out of your mind too!”
“What was your nightmare?” Adrien asks Alya curiously. “I had prison bars appearing everywhere in my room.”
“Dude…” Nino looks at him with an undecipherable expression.
Adrien blinks in confusion. “It…wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been? At least I didn’t get handcuffed to my bed or something.” At least Sandboy didn’t make Plagg disappear, he thinks privately. At least Adrien wasn’t shown a version of Ladybug who hates his guts.
“Dude. Did your father—”
Alya elbows Nino and, ignoring his betrayed look, interrupts loudly. “Like heck am I telling you my—sorry, Marinette!” Her voice drops into a whisper when Marinette gives a disgruntled groan.
“Anyway, people are theorising Ladybug lost her powers thanks to Sandboy, since she didn’t transform until after Chat Noir defeated Sandboy. That was awesome, by the way. We finally got to see that catboy in action.”
Adrien never thought there would be a day he would thank his extensive model training for helping him hide his blush, but here he is.
“Did you read my article about that on the Ladyblog?” Alya asks Adrien, who nods. “It says a lot about her psyche that her greatest nightmare would be losing her powers. Can you—”
“I don’t think Sandboy only makes our greatest nightmare come true.” Adrien interrupts. “The prison bars weren’t my worst fear, and Ladybug—she got hit twice by Sandboy, right? The first time shorted out her powers, and the second time—” made her see a vision about Chat Noir “—knocked her out in the middle of a battle. So…you said vulnerability is Ladybug’s greatest nightmare, right? Huh, actually, now that I think of it, both of those incidents rendered Ladybug vulnerable…”
Not that Adrien really thinks vulnerability is Ladybug’s greatest fear, but to explain his opinion would mean explaining why he has such insider knowledge about Ladybug.
Alya blinks. She immediately switches over to her notes app and types out a note. “That’s a brilliant idea! I’ll be sure to credit you when I add this to the article.” Satisfied with her notes, she glances up. “Anyway, where was I…oh, yes! Can you imagine if Hawkmoth created an akuma that shorted out both Ladybug and Chat Noir’s powers? I mean…Ladybug was formidable even when wielding that rolling pin, but they only defeated Sandboy thanks to Chat Noir. Can you imagine if they both lost their powers—”
“No!” A hand shoots out from behind, clamping onto Alya’s shoulder with a vice-like grip. Adrien jumps.
He is guiltily pleased to find he isn’t the only one. Nino even lets out a small shriek.
Adrien spins around to find Marinette glowering at them, her face shrouded in shadows. Her bluebell eyes, normally sweet and kind, almost seem to glow, something ancient and powerful writhing in the depths of those blue oceans—
“Don’t you dare post a word about that onto the Ladyblog.” The ancient creature wearing Marinette’s skin hisses lowly. “You will regret it, Alya Cesaire.”
“O—okay!” Alya laughs awkwardly. Adrien has no idea how she can even speak, with that unknowable energy pressing down on their lungs. “Of—of course I won’t! No need to—to give Hawkmoth any ideas, ri—right?”
A pause.
Adrien holds his breath, begging Plagg that Alya’s answer will placate the unknowable thing—
Marinette smiles.
It’s like a switch is flipped. In a split second, the power pressing down on them lifts. Adrien gasps in relief.
“Good!” The black-haired girl replies cheerfully, no hint of that not-quite-malice in her clear blue eyes. “For a second, I thought you were gonna do something dumb like post your akuma ideas onto the Ladyblog.” She yawns. “Now, if you’ll excuse me…goodnight.”
She lies her head back onto the table and falls asleep without another word.
Nervously, Adrien glances at Alya and Nino, who look back at him with vaguely traumatised eyes.
As much as Adrien wishes otherwise, that wasn’t a mass hallucination.
That day, Adrien learns Marinette can be terrifying.
Ever since that moonlit night on the roof, Ladybug doesn’t bother pretending their sparring matches or games of tag are anything but training exercises.
Chat doesn’t mind. He might not be able to go to hero school, but an apprenticeship under the great pro hero Deku herself is even better, right?
They still call these training sessions patrol, though. It sounds cooler that way.
Today, they are doing an exercise Chat likes to call the Hunt but is truthfully just the superhero version of hide-and-seek.
“Rules are like usual.” Ladybug tells him. “I get a five-minute head start to hide within the city bounds. After that, you can come after me using whatever means to find me. Either you win after finding me or I win after one hour.”
Chat nods eagerly as he pats Ladybug’s shoulder. He has a trick up his sleeve today.
“Don’t worry, my Lady.” He grins. “You won’t be getting away from the cat this time.”
“…we’ll see about that, kitty. Okay, is your timer set?”
Chat nods, showing the screen of his baton to Ladybug. The numbers 5:0000 blink on the screen. Ladybug shows him her own yo-yo in return.
“Three, two, one, go.”
In synchrony, the two heroes press their timers. Then, in one smooth, practiced motion, Ladybug snaps her yo-yo shut and flings it towards the chimney across the street.
She’s gone in the blink of an eye.
Chat Noir sits down on the roof, and waits.
The neon green letters on his baton blink, taunting him. Chat taps his claws on his knee impatiently.
Four minutes…
Three minutes…
Two…
One…
The timer blinks down to 0:0000. Chat Noir stands up, and grins.
In the past, he has done anything from asking random Parisians for directions to faking a call about an akuma to Ladybug. Not today, though.
Backing out of the timer app on his baton-phone, he presses down on an app that wasn’t there yesterday.
The best thing about the miraculous is that they cater to the holder’s desires.
A map appears on his screen, revealing a green-tinted map of Paris and a small, blinking dot.
Chat does not cackle madly, but only because he isn’t a cliché supervillain like Hawkmoth.
Memorising the location of the blinking dot, he slides the phone shut and extends his baton, shooting across the street.
He has a bug to catch.
Danger Sense never goes off during Ladybug’s training sessions with Chat Noir.
It never went off when Izuku went through training simulations with his friends either, unless Kacchan was feeling particularly bloodthirsty that day. Most of the time, it only goes off when someone wants to harm her.
That is to say, when a dark shadow pounces from behind and pins her to the ground, Ladybug is caught entirely unaware.
Her wrists are pinned behind her, but only in a loose grip. Narrowing her eyes, Ladybug prepares to throw her mysterious assailant off, but then—
“Hey, my Lady!”
“Chat!?”
The assailant moves their weight off her. Ladybug sits up.
Yup, that is her Chaton alright. Her partner grins at her, “Told you I’d catch you this time!”
Ladybug shakes her head. She pulls out her yo-yo and glances at the time. It has barely been five minutes since Chat began his hunt. “Wow—you—that’s amazing—how?”
Chat lends her a paw to pull her onto her feet. Then, he reaches for her right shoulder.
“You’ve got something on your shoulder, my Lady.” He tells her smugly, holding a flat circular disc between his fingers.
Ladybug squints at the black disc. That reminds her of…
“Is that a tracker?”
“Yup!” Chat grins again, but his brows twitch as if he is anxious of her reaction. “I attached it to you when I patted your back.” Unhooking his baton from his belt, he shows her the green-tinted map of Paris. “See?” He points at the still-blinking dot. “That’s us.”
“How did you do that?” Ladybug frowns. “I don’t have that app.”
“Oh.” Chat laughs and shrugs. “So Plagg and I were watching this spy anime last night, and there was this gun that can shoot trackers. I commented I could find you so much more easily if I had a tracker, and Plagg said why not. We experimented for a bit, and—you know how we are the first miraculous holders with weapons that can also function as smartphones? The miraculous caters to the needs of its holders, so if I want my baton to come with trackers…” He taps the bottom end of his baton. A small black disc falls out. Chat holds out the tracker proudly. “I get a baton with trackers.”
“Wow.” Ladybug’s eyes widen. Why has she never thought of that? “Chaton, you’re a genius! This is gonna be so useful; do you think we can create earpieces as well? That way, we can communicate without holding up our weapons like a phone—especially when fighting. Oh, do you think we can track each other’s miraculous? How about Hawkmoth’s? Even if that doesn’t work, we can place trackers onto Hawkmoth’s butterfly constructs. We can finally find who Hawkmoth is!”
“Plagg!” Back in his room, Adrien giggles like a schoolgirl. To be fair, he is the masculine form of a schoolgirl. “She called me a genius! Me! Ladybug called me a genius!”
“Yeah, yeah. I heard you the first time.” Plagg grumbles, but a cold, dark part of him warms at his kitten’s expression of pure bliss. “Where are my thanks for inspiring your little plan?”
Adrien blinks. Slowly, a wide beam stretches out across his face.
Plagg would be a terrible kwami if he didn’t know what was about to happen next. “No, don’t—”
Adrien lungs forward, plucking the tiny god of destruction out of the air. The boy hugs Plagg close to his chest, “Thank you, Plagg. Thank you! I will forever be in your debt—”
Emotions are a curse on organic beings and kwamis alike. Plagg will forever curse Duusu’s name for the warm, gooey feeling in his metaphysical chest.
“Don’t mention it, kid.” He tells his kitten.
Then, because he refuses to let Dusuu’s domain get the last word, he adds. “Though, if you really do want to thank me, I won’t mind an extra wheel of camembert—”
As it turns out, their weapons can track each other’s miraculous, but only when transformed. Hawkmoth’s desire not to be discovered by the superheroes has translated into some sort of magical jammer. No matter how hard they try, they cannot track the Butterfly miraculous.
The plan of attaching trackers to the akumas is making progress, though.
“Hey, my Lady?” Chat Noir asks as he slides open his baton and pulls out a bottle of water. The bottle is twice as thick as his baton, and by all logic should not fit inside the slim silver cylinder. That is one of the benefits of having a portable pocket dimension inside his magical weapon, he supposes.
“Hm?” Ladybug unscrews her own water bottle and takes a long sip. After that time he nearly passed out from dehydration on patrol, it has been a rule that they must keep a bottle of water with them when transformed.
“What does Deku’s costume look like?”
Ladybug tilts her head, “Why are you suddenly asking?”
Chat smiles back innocently, “What? Don’t you know curiosity killed the cat?”
Ladybug doesn’t know what she was expecting when Chat Noir asked about Deku’s costume.
Not fanart of her, that’s for sure.
“So?” Chat looks at her expectantly. “What do you think?”
She looks back down to the piece of paper in her hand. There is a sketch of Deku displayed front and centre, drawn like a shouji protagonist, complete with blossoms of roses in the background. Deku is smiling out of the page, with shining eyes half the size of his face. Curls, lightly shaded green, cascades down his face and frames his elvish features. He is wearing a green jumpsuit with a rabbit hood as well as a mouthguard, just like Ladybug told Chat.
All things considered, this isn’t a half bad drawing of Deku.
“I have more at home,” Chat tells her, “but this is my best work yet. I thought you should have it. Happy birthday, my Lady.”
“Thanks? This is…um, it’s beautiful…but my birthday was two months ago?”
“Yeah.” Chat rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. “But I didn’t find a gift worthy of you until now, so…better late than never, right?”
“…that’s really sweet of you, Chaton.”
“If you really want to thank me,” Chat grins mischievously, “you can take me out to lunch.”
Ladybug snorts as she flicks the bell on his neck. “In your dreams, Chaton.”
When Marinette returns home, she slips the illustration into the sketchbook filled with drawings of Izuku’s family, and places it in her locked chest for safekeeping.
“What are you doing, Adrien?” Marinette asks, early to school for once.
Adrien blinks as he looks up, surprised that someone else is already in the classroom. It is that early.
“This?” He sheepishly pushes his notebook forward. “Just a drawing I’m working on.”
On the page, Ladybug and Chat Noir recline on a throne. Chat Noir is sitting on Ladybug’s lap, a suggestive smile on his face and his arms looped around Ladybug’s neck. Ladybug is looking at her partner with the most loving expression possible, a hand tangled in blond hair that Adrien makes out to be luxuriously soft.
“…oh.” Marinette blinks. “That’s…um…wow.”
“That’s…erotic.” Nana-san frowns disapprovingly.
“Erotic? You call that erotic? You should’ve seen some of the novels I’ve read. They would’ve made your poor granny heart explode—hey, don’t punch me! En, help—”
Adrien grimaces, drawing Marinette’s attention away from Fifth’s brutal beatdown at Seventh’s hands. “Is it that bad?”
“What? No! I’m just—surprised. I didn’t know you’re into…this sort of thing.”
“Yeah…” Adrien laughs awkwardly. “My father wouldn’t approve, so I try to keep it discreet. You won’t tell anyone, right?”
“If you don’t want me to.” Marinette promises.
It isn’t until much later that Marinette realises his art style looks a lot like Chat Noir’s.
Later, in her bedroom, Marinette thinks.
“Do you think it’s true? That Chat has a crush on me?”
She feels more than sees the vestiges exchange charged glances with each other. Toshinori coughs into his hand awkwardly, Second rolls his eyes and scoffs, while Third clears his throat in a totally not pointed way.
Finally, Fourth sighs. “Kid, I don’t know how to break it to you, but that boy flirts with you on a daily basis. He literally asked you out to lunch a few days ago. He does have a crush on you. Even a hermit like me can tell that.”
“Duh.” Fifth adds unhelpfully.
Nana, still miffed about that granny comment, promptly cuffs him on the back of his head. Ignoring his shout of protest, she asks Marinette. “What brought this up?”
Marinette’s mind flashes to Adrien’s drawing. The expression that fanart-Chat was giving her…
“Really? Ha! It took you that to figure it out? Hey! Seventh, for the love of—stop hitting me!”
“I don’t—” Marinette scowls. “It’s not like I haven’t seen fanwork of us before!” Alya has made Marinette unfortunately aware of her favourite Ladynoir fanfics. None of them are safe for school or work. There’s a reason smart heroes never search themselves up online. Most of the time, they just leave their PR teams to suffer instead.
“It’s just—that day, All For One said something about Chat’s crush on me. I thought he was just trying to get on my nerves, and I had more important things to worry about anyway, so I...was trying to ignore it?” She wrinkles her nose. “Adrien’s drawing just…reminded me, that’s all.”
An awkward pause blankets her mind at the mention of him.
“Plus, Denki flirts with everything that moves, and he isn’t interested in most of them!” Marinette pushes on through the nervous pause. “I thought—isn’t Chat doing the same thing?”
Third rolls his eyes, “With other people, yeah sure, but no with you, dumbass.”
“He’s right, Marinette.” First agrees.
Marinette huffs. What do any of them know about love, anyway?
“Ignore my advice if you want, tenth.” First informs her blithely. “It isn’t like I have two husbands or anything—”
Yeah. Chat Noir definitely does not have a crush on her. It’s just friendly flirting, nothing more.
“Guys,” Izuku says cheerfully. “She’s in denial!”
“I can see that, young Midoriya.” Toshinori nods.
Kwamis. Why must her past life’s memories and her favourite father figure betray her as well?
“I’m your only father figure!”
“Not anymore. I just adopted Aizawa-sensei.”
“Aizawa-kun isn’t even here!”
“So?”
“Pound it!” Ladybug says, bumping her fist against Chat Noir’s outstretched one. “Great job, Chaton! You’ve been doing so much better lately.”
Chat grins at the comment. It is true; ever since that moonlit conversation—which Ladybug has begun privately referring to it as the Conversation—Chat Noir’s sacrificial tendencies have…calmed down.
Those incidents still happen, of course, but not to the extent they used to. But Ladybug understands old habits die hard, sometimes literally, and their relationship has become so much more genuine ever since that Conversation that she doesn’t know how she managed to stand their previous relationship dynamic—
“I’m glad my purr-formance satisfies you, my Lady!” Chat winks.
Ladybug’s lips twitch at Chat’s platonic flirting. She resolutely does not think about the vestiges’ consensus on the matter. Chat Noir does not have a crush on her.
Besides, it isn’t like she’d be able to return his feelings even if he does have a crush on her; she still has her heart set on one Adrien Agreste.
In Master Fu’s massage parlor, two superheroes and one Guardian check in on Operation: Track the Akumas.
“Okay,” Ladybug says as she projects a map of Paris onto the wall. “This shows the paths the butterfly constructs took before our trackers shorted out.” She points to the dotted trails scrawled all over the map. The trails all head towards a certain area, sometimes taking loops and detours, but whenever they get close to their destination…
“The trackers always short out when they move past this approximate perimeter, and they don’t work at all when we tag the butterflies within the perimeter, so presumably Hawkmoth has the ability to disrupt all tracker spells in this area. That means Hawkmoth most likely operates somewhere in the no-tracker zone.”
Chat Noir nods. The no-tracker zone looks like a lop-sided potato on Ladybug’s map. It includes a small park, a block of residential buildings, a mall, the Le Grande Paris Hotel, and—
“Huh.” Chat blinks. “That’s the Agreste Mansion.”
Master Fu shoots him a warning look. “Is that a problem, Chat Noir?”
“Wha—no! I was just surprised.” He hesitates before adding. “It makes sense Hawkmoth operates around there, though. I don’t think I’ve seen many akumas around the—” The mall is close enough to his house, right? “The mall. Not the hotel, though. Chloe used to cause quite a few akumas.”
Ladybug hummed in acknowledgement. “Say, Chaton, do you want to learn about stakeouts?”
Chat perks up.
“So we’re setting up at the mall?” Chat asks.
Ladybug nods. “It’s most likely Hawkmoth lives or at least rents an apartment in the residential flats, and is using that as his base of operations. So, the mall’s roof should be our best vantage point.”
That makes sense, but… “Who knows? Maybe Hawkmoth rented a store front at the mall.”
“I think someone would notice if that’s the case, Chaton.”
Stakeouts suck.
They’ve been stuck on the roof of the mall for what feels like hours, but what his baton-phone helpfully tells him is only an hour. Ladybug somehow calculated the time Hawkmoth is most likely to send an akuma every day, and is planning on camping out on top of the mall during that time slot until they catch sight of a purple butterfly.
Chat Noir groans as he rolls his shoulders back. He can’t even lie on his back and count clouds to pass the time, because that would defeat the entire point of observing the apartment buildings. “Are you sure we have to do this every day?”
“Sorry, Chat.” Ladybug says, but the twitch of her mouth tells him she’s enjoying his suffering very much. “Hero work isn’t always glamorous.”
“Stop laughing at me!”
Ladybug’s lips split into a grin. “What do you mean? Heroes never laugh at their partners.”
“Can’t we just ask Chloe to film the building for us? The hotel is close enough, and she’s infatuated with you. Chloe would love it if you asked her to do you a favour.”
“We need to be discreet.” Ladybug reminds him. “If word gets out that we’re onto Hawkmoth, he’d switch his base of operations
Chat huffs indignantly. “Chloe won’t brag about this if you emphasize the need to keep things a secret!” Probably.
Ladybug hesitates. “Can you guarantee she won’t let things slip, though? She—not on purpose, but she’s the type to act smug when she knows a secret, isn’t she?”
…she is. It’s really impressive that his Lady can glean something like this from her limited interactions with Chloe. She doesn’t know Chloe personally, unlike him.
But that’s Ladybug for him.
“Come on,” Ladybug pats his knee, “don’t look so upset! We’ll catch something eventually!”
They don’t.
When an akuma alert sounds with no signs of purple butterflies nearby, Chat Noir almost sighs in relief.
After that first stakeout session, Ladybug begins bringing pastries from the Dupain-Cheng bakery to their stakeouts.
“It’s…Aizawa-sensei would never allow it, but you really looked like you were about to die of boredom last time.” She tells him, scratching her cheek awkwardly.
Words cannot express how happy Chat is about her breach of non-existent protocol.
When Chat Noir offers to take turns bringing snacks to their stakeouts, he buys two cups of coffee from a café that Ladybug later informs him is overpriced. The coffees are piled with cream toppings, something his nutritionist would never approve but Chat is slowly growing a fondness for. It isn’t like his superheroing extracurriculars won’t burn the additional calories away. No one will ever know.
Chat Noir waits until Ladybug is taking a sip of her coffee before he says. “I’m thinking of writing a novel about your past life."
Ladybug chokes, setting down her cup as she coughs violently.
Chat continues, seemingly nonplussed. “Obviously, I’d leave out the parts about reincarnation and Ladybug. But think about it! It isn’t every day a story with pre-made worldbuilding lands in your lap! Besides, who doesn’t like a coming-of-age story with a side of superpowers?”
Ladybug finally stops coughing. She takes a deep breath and glowers at Chat. “What?”
“What do you think I should call my novel?” He adds, a shit-eating grin finally blooming on his face. “World’s Greatest Hero: Deku? No, that’s too bland—Rise of the Hero? The Rising of the Green Hero? No, too cheesy. Oh, didn’t you say your journey to becoming a hero started when you first entered UA’s gates? How about something related to that? My Hero School Journey? Welcome to hero school, Deku-kun? Oh, wait—I’ve got it! My Hero Academia! Hm, or maybe I should add a Japanese touch for authenticity; how about…that’s it! Boku no Hero Academia! Did I get the grammar right?”
“Chat Noir,” Ladybug hisses, channelling the power of his full superhero name, “If you don’t shut up right now, I will throw you off this building.”
“Hey! You can’t do that! That’s animal abuse!”
Ultimately, no cats were harmed in Chat Noir’s workshopping of his theoretical novel title.
No novels titled Boku no Hero Academia were written, either.
In the end, it isn’t any of Ladybug or Chat Noir’s hard work that leads them to uncover Hawkmoth’s true identity.
There is something truly miraculous about coincidences.
It was a coincidence that Izuku walked under the overpass the moment the Sludge Villain exited the sewers. It was a coincidence All Might arrived at the scene in time to save Izuku from dying before his story even began. It was a coincidence that the Sludge Villain escaped, that Izuku and All Might both ended up where Katsuki was being held hostage, that Midoriya Izuku became the ninth holder of One For All in the first place.
It is a coincidence Marinette saw Master Fu and pulled him out of the traffic. It is a coincidence Adrien was the student present when Master Fu pulled his tripping act. If Marinette walked out of her house a second too soon, or if Adrien’s car arrived a few moments too late, Ladybug and Chat Noir would not exist.
Stories are made or broken on the foundation of being at the right-wrong place at the right-wrong time.
Similarly, it is a coincidence Adrien saw his father unlock the mysterious vault when he did.
Adrien didn’t mean to eavesdrop on his father.
It’s just…Father left the door to his office open. Adrien just meant to poke his head in, use this rare opportunity to greet Father like any other obedient son, then head off to school while savouring this rare chance meeting with his father.
But then, he heard Father monologuing at Mother’s portrait. It isn’t that strange; Adrien has done his fair share of monologues in the privacy of his room as well. Still, Adrien knows from experience how embarrassing it is to be caught monologuing, so he stays quiet and waits, hoping Father would finish before Adrien has to head off to school.
Then, then—
Father swings open Mother’s portrait.
There is a vault behind the portrait. Father opens the vault and looks at its contents, before closing the vault and subsequently returning Mother’s portrait to its rightful place.
That’s not it, though. Father proceeds to press several hidden buttons on Mother’s portrait. The floor beneath Father begins to be lowered, but Father shows no hint of alarm, so he obviously meant for this to happen.
Adrien almost shouts in shock, but bites his tongue just in time. Within a few seconds, Father has been swallowed entirely by the ground. The floor returns to its previous smooth state, with no hint that it can turn into a trapdoor at the press of a few buttons.
Adrien swallows. This secret vault and hidden trapdoor…they all hint at a mystery, perhaps even a conspiracy.
It sounds ridiculous when he says that. Father, despite being a renowned fashion designer, is too rigid and inflexible to partake in a conspiracy. Father and conspiracy do not belong in the same room, let alone the same sentence.
Adrien can—should—leave this mystery be; he should go to school now and forget all about the secrets in Father’s room. It’s what an obedient son should do.
But…what was it Ladybug said that one time?
Meddling is the essence of a true hero.
Adrien has watched too much anime and listened to too many of Ladybug’s past life anecdotes to believe Father is hiding something innocuous like a wine cellar.
Taking a deep breath, he glances around Father’s room, and the corridor. The coast is clear; if he wants to investigate, he has to do it now, before the Gorilla comes looking for him.
He walks into Father’s office, expecting someone to jump out of the walls and catch him red-handed.
No! He has to be brave. How is facing down an akuma the size of a skyscraper less harrowing than this?
Adrien swings open Mother’s portrait. He stares blankly at the vault, locked, and—
Kwamis. Why didn’t he think of this?
“Plagg?” He asks, opening his pocket to peer at his kwami. “The vault’s locked. What should I do?”
There’s no way he can see the contents of the vault now; not unless he Cataclysms the door, but that would tip Father off that Chat Noir’s onto him, and—
“Jeez, kid. Calm down.” Plagg exclaims as he flies into the lock. He almost sounds amused.
The lock clicks open. Adrien blinks; he didn’t know Plagg can do that.
And then, Plagg isn’t amused anymore
There is a book and a brooch in the vault.
There is also a shrine dedicated to Adrien’s mother, much like Adrien’s Ladybug shrine he keeps hidden behind a bookshelf, except also not because his mother is missing presumed dead, as well as several out-of-place pamphlets about Tibet, whose only relevance might be that Tibet used to be his parents’ favourite vacation spot. Those are mildly less important in the grand scheme of things.
There is a book, written in the code Master Fu is trying to teach him, the ancient language of the Guardian Order. It is filled with illustrations of past miraculous holders, and the image chills Adrien to the bone.
There is a brooch, a purple, blue and green thing with metal feathers fashioned in the shape of a fan. Cracks run down the middle of the brooch, but there is no doubt that the brooch is supposed to represent a peacock.
Adrien knows these items, has learnt about them from Master Fu, has been told they were either lost forever in the tundra of Tibet or in the possession of Hawkmoth.
The lost Grimoire of the Order of the Guardians, and the Peacock miraculous.
Two items of immeasurable power, the two things that Master Fu assumed might have landed in Hawkmoth’s hands alongside the Butterfly miraculous, are now sitting innocently in front of Adrien, hidden away in his father’s secret vault.
But—this has got to be a misunderstanding, right?
Adrien knows his father can be cold, can be calculative, can be physically and emotionally distant. But being perhaps not the best father does not equal to being a villain.
There’s no way Gabriel Agreste can be Hawkmoth.
…right?
(The hero being related to the villain is one of the most common tropes in more than one genres.)
Adrien swallows.
He has to leave.