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How much of Adrien Agreste was left? On the outside at least, it looked like all of him. He was sitting in his director’s chair, waiting to be called for the shoot. Inside though, he felt that he was hovering down about his ankles. He couldn’t even sort out the last couple days in his head properly. It was too big. There was just too much and it all overlapped together.
His father was sending him away with Lila. Felix showed up. Felix betrayed them. He couldn’t speak to his father. He wasn’t going away with Lila. Nathalie was bedridden and barely functional. Shadowmoth had the miraculouses. Ladybug needed him. Ladybug had thought Felix was him. Ladybug needed him as Adrien and Cat Noir both. He had to be there for her. His father hadn’t spoken to him since- everything. Adrien had so little of himself left because everything else took up all the space inside and had nowhere to go.
Lila stood where Nathalie normally did now. Adrien watched her tapping away on a tablet with a stylus. She looked up and flashed him the biggest of smiles. He missed Nathalie. Ever since his mother had gone-
Another jolt. He’d come to terms with his mother’s passing, or so he thought. Right now though he felt her absence like he hadn’t in years. He needed… what? He couldn’t even form the thoughts in his head but he knew it was something. Here he was though, about to be slapped onto the cover of another magazine or bottle. He couldn’t even remember what this was for. They’d begun to blur together long ago. He’d get up, he’d plaster on that winning smile and the world would see Adrien Agreste, radiant and carefree.
Adrien realized he was gripping the arms of his chair when his knuckles’ screams penetrated the fog. It was an effort to force his hands to open. Muscles and tendons had locked from the abuse. He flexed his fingers and in the brief clarity that pain brought on, he ran.
No voices screamed after him. No footsteps pounded in his wake. He ran and ran until his lungs burned and his legs felt like rubber, speeding past people and darting through crowds too quick, he prayed, to be recognized. A forsaken hoodie on a railing was snatched up in passing and after throwing himself into a narrow gap between two buildings he pulled it on. The cotton instantly itched and burned as his body tried to vent heat from his sprint. He kept it on though and pulled the hood up. He’d have to move again soon.
Move, but where? It was still inside him, everything. He hadn’t outrun it. He needed… What did he need? Help. Where could he get help? Marinette spiraled into his mind. She had understood about not wanting to go. Maybe he could… no. He couldn’t bring this to her. They were friends but this was too much. He was still Adrien Agreste to her. He could see it in her eyes sometimes. Breaking that illusion, destroying that dream, he couldn’t do that to Marinette. Maybe as Cat? No, that wouldn’t work either. She’d sit and listen to Cat. He dared to think she might even hold him if he broke down. But Cat Noir wasn’t Adrien. He couldn’t be Adrien, not completely. It wouldn’t work. If only his mother were-
The memory brought pain again, and in that pain he had his answer.
—------
Chloé stalked to the door. That hesitant knock, it could only be Zoé back again to ‘reason’ with her. Reason that being friends with the kids in her class was a good idea. That they didn’t hate her and that being all alone was bad. Chloé wasn’t alone, she had Sabrina. Chloé didn’t need those little upstarts as friends. They’d all picked Zoé anyway, so what did it matter? Zoé over Chloé, Vesperia over Queen Bee. If Paris hated her then she could hate it right back. She paused. Hate would make Hawkmoth try to akumatize her again. Who cares? I can tell him to get lost, the loser. She didn’t care if Hawkmoth had all the Miraculouses. Fat lot of good it did him last time. Ladybug would beat him because she always beat him and everything would go on as normal. Just the way she hated it.
Chloé worked herself up into a proper rant then yanked the door open. “Just WHAT do you think you’re-” Chloé stopped short at the hoodied figure slouched in the hallway. He raised his head just enough for his face to be seen and Chloé blinked. “Adrikins?”
“Hi Chloé.” his voice was quiet, but his lips curled into one of his little smiles.
He was here and she wasn’t going to let this opportunity slide. Chloé grabbed his wrist and pulled him into her room. “Welcome welcome! Oh you should have called or sent me a text!” She let him go and paced out towards her Veranda. “I can have Jean-Trope bring us up something to eat.” She pulled out her phone and waved it as she plotted out what would be needed. “We could watch a movie, we have all the latest ones even before streaming. No, not a movie, they’re gauche. I could have a quartet brought in to play for us and we could watch the little people scurrying around in the city below? You can tell me all about your big trip. Oh it’s been so long, Adrikins but I knew you’d come to your senses!”
Chloé’s anger had flipped over into happiness so completely she thought she might explode. She turned back and there he was, hood down, still in her suite! She couldn’t resist. Chloé dashed back across the room and glomped him in a vicious hug. “Oh Adrikins I missed you so much!”
Chloé blinked. Something was wrong. He didn’t try to fob her off. Adrien always did that. She told herself it was their little game, but he wasn’t playing it. Her hug lingered and she felt the slight tug of his fingers gripping the edge of her cardigan. This was wrong, all wrong. Happiness plunged back into worry with intensity unchecked. She stepped back and the slight tug of his grip breaking let her know she hadn't imagined it.
The blare of a special ringtone cut across her next comment. Chloé answered with pavlovian quickness. Sadness to energy. "Yes mommy?"
"Cloaca, I need you to be useful. Have you seen Adrien Agreste?"
Chloé took two steps to burn off energy then whipped around to face her guest. "Know where Adrikins is? What do you take me for mother? Of course-." She froze. The panic in Adrien's eyes was strong enough it reached inside and seized her heart in a vice grip. Chloé swallowed, her gaze ensnared by his. She wet her lips and continued. "Of course I have no idea where Adri-nobody is. Why don't you go ask the tackly losers he hangs out with now? Try that ridiculous baker girl. I have to go, I'm far too busy to worry about other people's problems."
Chloé hung up. The look on Adrien's face had gone through contortions as she spoke but he was still silent. The vice inside clamped down harder, something was clawing its way out from inside of her. Chloé hugged herself to try and keep it inside. In a voice more Sabrina than Chloé to her own ears she asked, "Adrien, why did I just lie to my mother?"
He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his hoodie then tugged them out again. His mouth opened but no words came out and in that moment the past did manage to claw its way out. Two years bled away and Adrien stood in her room in a scuffed and grass stained tuxedo. That time his face had been smeared with tears but he had been just as mute. Chloé had no more answers now than she did then, so she repeated the actions of that day.
She walked over and took his hand. Adrien dragged his feet, but was that in the now or back then? She hauled him up the steps to her bed. She shoved him up onto it then climbed on herself. Mr. Cuddly was pressed into Adrien's limp hands, and this time in a new twist Chloé picked up the ladybug pillow that hadn't been there last time and squeezed it in her lap.
And so they sat in silence. She had done all she knew how to do back then. Two years and she knew no new tricks, no new ways to be a friend. That truth burned.
The silence lingered. It had back then too. Chloé knew what that meant, the voice. The voice she stuffed between the pages of a magazine. The voice she wore out ordering Sabrina around. The voice she suffocated under layers of makeup. It never stayed gone. Two years later and it had so much more to say. Chloé could hear the crinkle inside her head as the list was unfolded. Where to begin? the voice whispered.
“I miss my mother.” His words, the same as before, silenced the voice with their noise. Chloé’s nails had already found the stitching on her pillow and dug holes in the thread, but it was still a reprieve.
“She was nice.” The same words she used back then. They had helped before. Would they now?
They sat in silence longer, each staring at a separate nothing. “I didn’t want to go on this trip.”
Why not? A trip around the world? Away from Paris, away from… everyone. There was the answer. Everything she desired he despised, and everything he treasured she loathed. How had they become such enemies? I called him Adri-nobody. Chloé squeezed the pillow until her arms ached and shoved her face into it, smearing her makeup to ruin. She lifted her head. “You shouldn’t have to leave everyone behind.”
Adrien’s hands gripped Mr. Cuddly finally. He pulled the bear up into the crook of one arm. “Felix betrayed Ladybug. He’s the reason Shadowmoth has the miraculouses.”
This one at least, was easy. “He was always jealous. You did everything you could.”
Adrien fiddled with Mr. Cuddly’s arm. Then in an out of place moment of levity he made the bear wave to her directly. Chloé finger-waved back to the bear and took the pause to wipe away more of her makeup. She added one more note to her response. “Ladybug will beat Shadowmoth and get them back. Remember last time? Her and Cat Noir beat me good.” She still sounded so much more like Sabrina than Chloé.
For the first time since they’d climbed on the bed, Adrien looked at her. She could barely read his face. There was something there, a sadness that was different than the one he walked in with. Was that good? She didn’t think so. She didn’t know how to fix it though. So she waited. She let him look at her as she looked back. How many times had she wished he would look at her before?
He dropped his gaze again. “Ladybug needs me. I’m trying my best, but it’s hard. I want to do so much for her. I want to carry everything, but there are just things I can’t do. She’s the only Ladybug. She’s the guardian. I can’t carry that for her.” He rocked Mr. Cuddly back and forth, ‘kung fu fighting’ an invisible enemy.
“You don’t have to.” Chloé felt a knot forming in her stomach, an uncomfortable presence where she was used to being hollow. “She has everyone in Paris on her side. You don’t have to do more than anyone else. She has Cat Noir for that.”
Adrien brought his eyes back up and the knot in her belly twisted itself and yanked. That emerald gaze was swimming. The perfect jaw had a quiver to it. The earnest plea in his eyes. It’s impossible . What was impossible? He was Adrien. He was so much even as himself. Was it such a stretch? Those eyes needed her to understand what couldn’t be said.
She took a hand from her pillow, it didn’t want to move, the knot pulled it back. Not this, don’t admit this. It cried. You will lose him forever. From deeper within her a smaller Chloé, not yet even thirteen, barely five and knowing for certain that Adrien was the only thing that mattered in her life reached out. Her hand moved again, it hurt her to do. Adrien’s eyes latched onto the motion. Her fingers might be the fangs of a viper for the fear they invoked. The barest of touch, the bottom of his shoe. “Adri- -kins.” One word and an understanding.
The tears fell. He squeezed Mr. Cuddly hard and let them. No sobs, just tears draining one after the other in twin lines to drip onto his lap and her bedsheets. Chloé managed to move her hand an inch more. She had a hold of his toe inside the shoe. She squeezed. It was all she could manage.
Hoodie sleeves dried his cheeks when the tears ebbed. “Nathalie’s bedridden again. Lila’s taking her place.” As if he hadn’t just admitted the closest of secrets.
What could she do? She stuffed it away. No more being angry. No more hating. Those were off limits now. What was she if not those things though? Chloé shivered. “She’s no Nathalie.”
A longer silence than before. She was still leaning forward, still touching his shoe. A tiny voice that had been so loud in the last year told her she was getting her hand dirty. She despised it. Adrien coughed once, it was a ragged thing leftover from his tears. “Father isn’t speaking to me.”
The closing lines of two years ago. Chloé knew the response. She had meant it then, she meant it now. “I’m sorry.”
Adrien was silent again, but his features had relaxed. The tension was gone from him, even if the pain was still bouncing around inside. Chloé slowly straightened herself. She took her hand back and hugged her pillow again. Two years. Two years and she still had nothing new to offer. She remembered two years ago. The world had made sense back then. There was no Shadowmoth, no akumatizations, no Ladybug. She had been so sure of everything. Everything would be better, all it would take was her mother coming back. Except, She’s back, and nothing’s better.
Nothing’s better. And I’m the only one who hasn’t changed.
Chloé fell inward. The knot had untied itself and helpfully left the hollow inside her again. Down she went, and there was nothing to hold onto. Not mother, not daddykins, not even Shadhowmoth’s promises of power. She saw Adrien’s eyes focused on her. Why does he look so afraid? The question echoed inside of her head. There was no one left to answer it.
—------
He watched the light fade in those sapphires. It was sudden, like a switch inside was turned off. Adrien cursed himself inwardly for not knowing better, for coming here at all, for putting this on her. Most of the fog had bled away into the quiet. He wasn't whole, but he felt like there was room for Adrien in his skin now. There was more than enough of him to recognize the loss.
There were many things that could be said about Chloé. He knew plenty before he came to school, and learned still more about her in the last year. Yet behind it all, the one word he used as the core of his feelings for her was 'alive.' Happy, sad, angry, jealous, proud, crushed, bewildered, in control, out of control, through all of it flowed an undeniable vitality. He'd seen it do remarkable things in her rare moments of clarity. It was his earnest desire, buried under so much else these days, to find a way to bring that clarity to the surface more.
"Chloé?" Adrien scooted himself closer.
No reply. He reached out and swapped her pillow with Mr. Cuddly. She was as non-responsive as he had been, possibly worse. How did she do what she did? What could he talk about? Before it was always her mother.
"She came back." Chloé moved enough to curl her fingers around her bear, but her eyes still had no focus beyond the vast expanse of her bedsheet.
If he were Cat Noir this would be easy. Cat Noir could be physical, could touch, could reach out and bring her back. Cat Noir had been there for Ladybug countless times, he’d been there for Marinette too. Now he was just Adrien though, and for all he might want to reach through the intervening space, he didn’t have that kind of bravery without his mask. He was left to think about Audrey. ‘When mommy comes back’, ‘After mommy returns from New York’, ‘Mommy and me will’, ‘Mommy will see’, ‘This is how mommy does it’, truths that littered their childhood. It was everything to her, her mother’s return, and then it happened. Adrien lived borrowed nightmares at times. It wasn’t Audrey on that screen, and he was the one kneeling on the pavement. Nothing exceptional.
“She’s wrong about you.” Adrien pushed himself to scoot closer. He wanted those eyes to focus. He wanted those lips to smile, smirk, sneer, or even scowl. He didn’t care what they did, as long as it banished this emptiness. This negation of everything he loved in her.
Her eyes blinked slowly and just the corner of her lips curled. It was something, but was it her? “You’re a terrible Liar.”
Was he? He was a liar, through and through. He knew that much. ‘We can’t be completely honest with each other.’ ‘We’re both Liars.’ ‘Pinky Promise.’ Chloé’d broken that promise, but what had he done to keep it? He lied every time he looked at Ladybug and didn’t take her in his arms. He lied to her, and he lied to himself.
“Yeah, but she’s still wrong.”
It earned him a snort, then silence. He scooted just a little bit closer, close enough for their knees to touch as they sat cross-legged. Chloé blinked slowly again, still no light behind those eyes. “It didn’t work, being her.”
Be what they want you to be. Adrien had never thought to consider himself lucky, but at least he knew what his father wanted. It might be everything, but it was still a goal. What did Audrey want from Chloé? For her to stop existing. Fail and be nothing, succeed only by being nothing, how could anyone be that way? “You could stop.”
“I won’t.” The reply wasn’t a rebuttal, it was an admission. Her hands curled more tightly around Mr. Cuddly.
“I wish you would.”
There, finally. Her head turned, a shine found its way back into his eyes. She looked at him. There was loss in that gaze that reached out and shook hands with his own. She turned her head back, but there was a slow stretch of her arms with it, out in front of her into a slump shouldered hunch over her stuffed bear. “There’s nothing else.” She squeezed Mr. Cuddly again.
Radiant, Carefree, obedient, and nothing else. Until a black ring opened a door. Adrien ran his thumb along the plain looking silver band. What would he be if it hadn’t come to him? No nighttime patrols. No leaping from his room into freedom. Never meeting his Lady. That ran a cold knife right through him. What would he be today, without Plagg, without Cat Noir?
Impulse seized him. “There could be.” He took Chloé’s hand in his.
There was an instinctive tug, but no energy behind it. She was still too low to fight him. Instead her eyes narrowed, as if trying to read this new madness in his own. She didn’t speak, and he rolled on. “You have to promise me.” he drew her hand up between them. “Not a pinky promise. You have to promise. No matter what happens, no matter who it is. You have to keep this promise. If you hate me tomorrow and every day after, you keep this promise.”
Confusion and more than a little fear painted itself across her face. She didn’t pull her hand back, but she looked at his hold on her then back to his face. “Adrien, what-?”
“Promise me Chloé. Even if you never stop. Promise me and there can always be something else.”
She never even asked what. She was terrified, but she was alive. “I promise Adrik-” she stopped herself, her excited squeal dropped half an octave and she began again. “I promise, Adrien.” Her lips remained parted in anticipation. Her eyes were glued to his.
Adrien turned his hand. He’d come this far. He slipped the silver band up off his finger then down over hers. Silver became gold. Her eyes widened in recognition now. “Chloé Bourgeois.” Adrien thought there must be some formal words for this, Ladybug would probably know them. He had to make it up on the fly. “I choose you as my ally. Should I ever fall or be unable to execute my duties. You will in my stead.” Adrien let go of her hand and said in a more natural voice. “Plagg claws out.”
She didn’t repeat it immediately like he’d expected. He’d expected… joy? Instead, she brought her hand back in. The fingers of her other hand touched the band as if it were spun sugar. She looked from it back up to him again. What- ? Sadness? Pain? What had he-?
She curled up around her hand and fell over on the bed. Something like a whine escaped the small ball she had become, followed by stuttered high pitched gasps. “Chloé!” Adrien reached for her. She curled up tighter at his touch on her back, but didn’t pull away. The sounds stopped but he could feel her shoulders shaking. These too subsided slowly. Adrien let his hand move in a small circle, a reminder she was not alone.
She uncurled. Her cheeks were dry. Whatever she had gone through, tears were not a part of it. She still clutched her hand to her chest. Watery eyes looked at him and he had it this time. Not sadness, not pain, longing. It had been a long time since he’d seen it on her face before. A girl who could get everything she ever wanted at the snap of her fingers. What was longing? Longing was a mother’s love. Longing was a chance to be anything but yourself, even for a moment.
“Adrik- Ad- Adrien.” She stuttered around his name. She was twisting the ring on her finger. “May I?”
Permission asked? That was something rarer than the jewelry she now wore. “You should know what you’re getting into. Of course.”
She finally let her hand away from her chest and crouched on the bed, adjusting her footing in nervous anticipation. “Plagg-”
“Well, isn’t this a surprise.” The kwami slipped free from the hidden pocket inside Adrien’s shirt.
Chloé froze, Adrien did too. Impulses had consequences. He hadn’t thought about Plagg’s opinion. The cat Kwami regarded the crouched debutante who eyed him back, barely breathing.
Plagg tapped his chin. “I gotta admit, I thought this batch of milk might be a little sour to make anything worth eating. Adrien seems to think it’s worth a shot though, so I’ll see how you age. Don’t you ever forget who gave you this chance.”
Chloé glanced at Adrien, then back to Plagg, she was still frozen, until the Kwami prompted. “Well?”
Chloé stood on the bed, “Plagg, Claws out!”
The flash of transformation took her and when it faded a new cat hero was born. A full and free mane of golden hair hung well down her back and around her shoulders. The black mask had a tawny lining, matching the color of her boots and gloves, both of which were lined with fur of the same. Adrien fancied that the skin tight black leather with front zipper was an homage to his own suit. The bell at her collar was smaller, and her tail belt was a diamond studded affair in mirror to her own favorite fashion accessory.
Chloé was still taking stock while Adrien looked on. He laid over onto his side, propping himself up on an elbow. “Well, hello there Empurress.”
She looked down at herself, then to him again, then back a third time. This time it was without longing, sadness, or any of her usual arsenal. Only joy, and the joy was alive. Chloé bounced in place, jumping and kicking up her heels in a circle while little ‘EeEEeEEeEEs’ filled the air. Like a dart she took off. She ran across the bedroom, bounced off a wall, leapt to a fixture, vaulted off the ceiling and landed right beside Adrien again.
"I'm- I'm- I'm a hero again!" another barrage of fist clenched bounces.
"You can be." Adrien replied. When she turned to him, far off eyes focusing he added. "It won't be often with the costume on though. You might want to work on it more with the costume off." He hoped it would get through.
Something did seem to be ticking behind those wide eyes. Some of the excitement drained out into worry. Then, standing there in full regalia another coin dropped. She blinked in belated realization. "Adrien, YOU'RE Cat Noir!" Her face contorted into momentary disgust. "You're Cat NOIR?" Then her features relaxed and a thoughtful head bobble ended in a genuine smile. "You ARE Cat Noir."
"Guilty as charged, Empurress. Now that you know, perhaps you could avoid purrsecuting me quite so much in the future? Ladybug can wear meowt as it is."
"Ugghh." Chloé rolled her eyes and snatched the ladybug pillow from the bed. She stuffed it into his face, initiating a brief mock-battle. "God, I should have known it was you and your corny jokes."
When she relented, Adrien found himself grinning, freedom, excitement, and borrowed joy recharged him. "You should be grateful. Ladybug has had to endure far more than you ever did in this last year. She's saved your ears and then some."
Chloé let the pillow fall to the bed. In the process her hand brushed against his foot. Clawed fingertips trailed against the side of the sole, one leaving a shallow but distinctive mark. "I never really hated them, you know," she said with quiet regret.
Adrien let it pass into the past. Backwards was a terrible way to go for both of them. "Claws in?" He asked softly, sitting up and holding out his hand.
"Oh!" Chloé waved breezily and said the words. The ring went from one to the other, from gold back to silver.
Adrien flexed his fingers, being without the ring felt weird anymore. "It won't be often. Considering the reasons it would be needed, I can hope it's almost never." He looked from the ring to her eyes, "But it won't be anyone else."
She looked small after her transformation. It was more than the fact the cat seemed to add half a foot to her height, it was fear returning again. She sat on the edge of the bed and twisted her fingers, the encouragement bounced off. She was looking at the ring instead of his face. "I'm going to screw up again."
“This time, I won’t wait until it’s too late.”
Her hands still twisted. “How many chances do I get?”
“As many as it takes, as long as you’re trying.”
“They’ll laugh at me.”
“I won’t wait if that happens either.”
“I can already hear that little Dupain-Cheng’s annoyingly cheerfu-”
“Chloé!” Adrien snapped. Her eyes jerked up to his face, widened with shock at the yell. He grinned to disarm the sting. “I told you I wouldn’t wait.”
She frowned, then stood, then began pacing back and forth. Adrien watched a full argument play out in silence across her features and worked very hard to keep the grin off his face. She turned to him finally and in an anguished voice whined, “Why did you DO this to me?”
Now he grinned, drawing fingers across his face and leaning in with a Cat Noir wiggle to his shoulders. “Because I’m a hero.”
Two steps and she shoved him over onto his back, she climbed up to attack him and they wrestled. Adrien laughed, when was the last time he’d laughed like this? He caught her wrists and held. “Also, you’re worth the risk.”
She went still.
Adrien let it sink in just a breath more before continuing. “Chloé. If we made a list of our toughest fights, you’d be in several spots. You’re a force to be reckoned with. Is it wrong that I really want to see it used for good?”
He waited, each new reaction was another test of how good or bad his idea had been. Chloé surprised him by twisting her wrists in his grip, catching his own and pinning his arms to the bed. Instead of a triumphant smirk she looked to the side. “Me. Chloé Bourgeois, being nice. I’ll probably get sick from it. Can you imagine what everyone will think? They’ll think I’m a pushover. It’ll be ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous!”
“I’ll like it.”
That drew her attention back, and the smirk finally appeared. “You’ve gotten bold again, climbed out of that shell you crawled in-” she paused. “-these last couple years.” she finished with far less of her usual verve.
Adrien knew what she meant. I’m done with pain for today though. If this worked, it would be a victory he could hold onto whenever things were dark. “I’ve had a lot of help. Going to school helped. Meeting new people helped. Learning there’s a world beyond my father’s door.”
The smirk vanished completely, and another admission. “I didn’t help much. I was too caught up being m-”
“-your mother.”
She blinked at his interruption. Gratitude blossomed on her face, with an undertone of ache he didn’t expect would vanish any time soon. Adrien wouldn’t let it linger though. “You see, my dear Chloé, you’ve forgotten one very important thing. It’s the other-other reason I’ve done this to you.”
Adrien pulled his legs up as he lay on the bed. Before Chloé could react he’d wrapped them around her waist and with muscles hardened by fencing and heroism both he grabbed hold, twisted, and flipped them. He was on top now with a befuddled blond pinned under him. “I’ve known you when it was just us. So I know who you can be when you think no one is looking.”
She took the tumble well. Then again, it was far from their first time tossing about. What might be awkward with others was simply banter behind closed doors for them. He’d shaken the melancholy out of her, but she still grumbled, “Like I’d ever let any of them see me like this.”
Adrien leaned down and bumped noses with her, giving her an absolutely triumphant smile. Sulky grumbling was always her last line of defense. “I think given enough time. They won’t be able to escape it.”
That brought a spark to those blue eyes. Adrien had a moment to revel in how much could be done when he had the guts to use what he saw in people. It was scary, but as he’d said out loud. She was worth the risk.
A crash drew both their attentions to the balcony doors. Ladybug dashed up the steps into the bedroom with her Yo-yo at the ready, ”Adrien! I found you! People are looking al-”
Ladybug stopped short and blinked.
Adrien became suddenly aware that closed doors had become opened. Beneath him Chloé reached the same conclusion and to her credit, as her first public act of reform she scrambled to get free instead of capitalizing. Adrien was first on his feet. “Ladybug! I didn’t expect- I mean no one needed to- I’m fine.”
Adrien’s explanation faded at the realization it was true. He was fine. He’d come here barely able to lift his head, and now he was afire with potential again. He could be the Cat Noir his Lady would need in the coming fight. The thought put a blush to his cheeks, which was an unfortunate thing in the current situation.
Ladybug looked at him like he’d just burned down Notre Dame. Her head turned mechanically to take each of them in turn. “What were you doi-”
Chloé to the rescue, it was an unnatural sounding idea. “Adrikins was just showing me how to better defend myself.” She talked over the spotted hero.
She made a show of fluffing her ponytail and her fingertips made a show of touching up the makeup that was no longer there. She scooted to the edge of the bed and stood. “Since you took away my miraculous and now Shadowmoth has it, I can’t be too careful. Afterall I am the daughter of the Mayor of Paris. It’s obvious Shadowmoth will try to kidnap me, or worse.” Chloé mocked a swoon, overselling it as only her bad acting could.
Ladybug’s eyes swiveled to Chloé and her mouth opened but Chloé talked over her again. “Go on! Someone’s got the little Ladybug hero on a leash.” Chloé folded her arms. “Take Adrikins back to whoever has the other end of that leash. I’m done with him.” She ended with a proper Chloé smirk, though it looked out of place on her without her usual makeup. She held it though, and gave a convincing show. Adrien was only able to catch her tells from years of experience. This time it was her hand, gripping the elbow of her cardigan as she stood trying to stare down Ladybug, that gave away the act.
Ladybug hadn’t had years to study her. She bought it all at face value. Her frown returned before she simply turned away from Chloé entirely. “Your father’s looking for you, Adrien. Do you need a lift back?” She paused, then added. “Or is there somewhere else you’d like to go maybe?”
Was there? Not as Adrien. Well, yes as Adrien, but that was beyond a dream. He’d see her again soon enough as Cat Noir. He could indulge himself a little though couldn’t he? “A lift home? Swinging over the Paris rooftops with Ladybug? How could I pass that up?”
Ladybug brought her yo-yo up and held it in front of her face with both hands. “All- always happy to help a citizen of Paris, especially one as hands- heroic! Heroic! As you. You’ve helped me out more than once. A ride to my-YOUR home is the least I could do.”
Adrien stepped down to meet her. Exaggerated gagging noises drifted after them from behind. Adrien trailed a hand behind himself as Ladybug led the way and used it to wave to Chloé. Ladybug pulled ahead a step and Adrien dared a glance over his shoulder, mouthing the words. ‘See you Empurress.’ and getting a fond smirk in exchange.
Out on the balcony Ladybug rolled her yo-yo between her hands. “I never got to thank you properly for what you did for me, with Felix.”
“Don’t even think twice about it Ladybug. After everything you’ve done for this city, the people of Paris will always stand up for you, Ladybug.” Adrien glanced back at the closed doors. “Maybe even the least likely of them.”
She followed his gaze. “We can always hope.” Then her tone changed and she shifted the conversation. “So, I kind of got the message while I was on patrol.”
Adrien looked back at her in confusion. Patrol wasn’t for hours.
She continued, averting her gaze, “So, I kind of want to finish up. Do you mind taking a longer route back to your home?”
Adrien smiled. He held out his hand to her. “Ladybug, I’m ready to follow you wherever you take me.”