Chapter Text
It was a long time before Adrien could pull himself away from Marinette that first evening. It had all the quality of a lucid dream. The moon rose full and bright over the towers and pinnacles of Notre Dame Cathedral, casting them in a pearly light that silvered her midnight hair and caused her jewel-bright eyes to shine like stars. The sounds of the city made for an orchestral background composed of distant talk, the rumble of traffic, and some old-fashioned music drifting to them from a neighboring apartment. His princess’ lips tasted of the chocolate almond cookies she had brought up for them and the way she had whispered his name between kisses was everything.
They sat side by side on the balcony floor, his arm around her shoulders as she leaned against him, one hand resting lightly on his chest. All he really wanted to do was keep holding her in his arms like this. Marinette was light, warmth, and kindness and he found himself content to bask in her closeness like a sunbather. She loved him. Both sides of him. He couldn’t believe his luck! That this beautiful, sweet, thoughtful, angel of a girl wanted him… had loved him for years. The thought sent cascades of warmth shivering through him and he was glad Marinette’s eyes were closed as a blush took over his face.
He leaned over and pressed a kiss to her silky hair, breathing in her scent of vanilla, cinnamon, and something more personal that was so intoxicating it drew him ever closer. He rubbed his nose against the cool softness of her tresses and she stirred slightly, cuddling closer to him with disappointed noises that delighted him. But it was getting late and she was clearly exhausted after the events of the day.
Gently, he shifted position and began stroking her cheek with his clawed fingers. “Princess, it’s late and you need to sleep,” he murmured, pulling her slowly upright to help rouse her.
“Nope. Too cozy.” Without opening her eyes, Marinette fisted her hand around his bell, lips pursed and frowning - the most adorable pout he had ever seen. Without thinking, he leaned over and kissed those rosy, pouting lips until she smiled again.
“Come on, love. You are the most beautiful woman in the world, but even you need your beauty sleep. I do too or you wouldn’t want to be seen with me at school tomorrow.”
She snorted and ruffled his hair. “You’re pretty enough for both of us, silly, but I guess I should go to bed. What are we going to tell Nino and Alya?”
“Oh boy, Alya’s going to flip, isn’t she?”
“Mmmhmm. She will insist on having all the details.”
He pulled her tight against him, grinning as the sudden movement drew a squeak from her lips. So cute! “I could tell them I was hurt yesterday during the akuma attack and came to my senses. It would also have the benefit of being true and they’ve been angling to get us together for years.”
“Y-you know about that?” The blush that bloomed across her cheeks stirred the feelings from before that had lead him to confess to her in the first place. Warmth and a longing so intense it drove him to distraction.
“Yeah,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to her cheek. “Nino has been bugging me about it for ages. Plagg, too, for that matter. I just never thought you liked me that way and … I’ve lost so much, Marinette. I couldn’t lose you.”
“You aren’t going to lose me, silly cat,” she murmured, giving him a kiss of her own. “I will always do my best to be here for you, Adrien.”
“You have no idea how much that means to me, Marinette. To have someone I can trust and rely on in my civilian life? I mean, Ladybug says it is too dangerous for us to know each other’s identities and I understand why that’s the case, but between modeling for my father and moonlighting as Cat Noir, I feel like I’m nothing but a disappointment as myself.”
She glared at him before kissing him fiercely. “You have always been enough! How can you possibly think you’re a disappointment? With all you do, when do you even have time to sleep?!”
He chuckled at her vehemence. “I take cat naps, little mouse! And drink lots of coffee.”
She rolled her eyes at his pun. “Well, I will purrsonally kick your butt if you talk like that again. Same goes for your father or anyone else who makes you think you are anything but amazing.”
His smile was so wide it hurt. “Have I told you how much I love you?”
She looked thoughtful as she ran her thumb along his jaw. “Yes, but I would always love to hear it again.”
He pulled her in to another kiss, this one languid and laced with promises of more. “I love you so much, Marinette,” he breathed, pleased to feel her shiver in response. He pressed a kiss to her forehead before letting her go. “But we have school tomorrow and we both need some sleep.”
“I know,” she grumbled, making him grin at her discontent, “but I was hoping for more kisses.”
“But we can always sneak kisses between classes,” he reminded her. “We can be the most ridiculously adorable couple in Paris. Sneaking kisses, holding hands, being lost in each others eyes over lunch…”
“I think we might have a ways to go before we pass Nino and Alya.”
He snapped his fingers. “Drat! I knew I should have practiced Super Penguino before confessing to you!”
She giggled and tapped his nose. “That’s their thing. We’ll have our own thing, but you’re right. We need to go to bed.”
He kissed her on the forehead, letting her warmth and love fill him up and sustain him until they could be together once more. He lifted her to her feet and pulled her into a final embrace.
As if she knew he needed reassurance, she wrapped him in a strong hug. “Its going to be okay, Adrien,” she whispered. “I love you so much.”
“I love you too, Princess.” With a bow over her hand and a kiss to her knuckles, he leapt from her balcony and into the night, resisting the urge to stare back at her.
———
Marinette stared after Cat… Adrien … as he made his way home, knowing he did the same thing she did in taking a wider, spiraling path homeward to throw off watching eyes.
As tired as she was, her mind still swirled with the happy thoughts that Cat loved her as Marinette… that Adrien was her Kitty and loved her so deeply that he had been afraid to lose her.
That made her clench her fists in anger. “Adrien has always seemed so easy going and confident most of the time. I mean, I knew he hid a lot from us and he was very reserved about his emotions, but I never knew he was so worried about losing the people he cares about. Ugh! No wonder Cat thought I would abandon him with the other holders coming in. I was so stupid to just assume everything was as simple as him being a needy kitten about my attention!” She slapped herself on the forehead, disgusted with his father for ignoring him and with herself for not seeing him clearly until now.
That was when the exhaustion of the day caught up with her once more, forcing a massive yawn from her that caused her jaw to pop.
“I’ll worry about it tomorrow,” she muttered to herself, turning towards her skylight. Two steps towards her room, she heard a heavy thump behind her. She rolled her eyes. “Forget something, Kitty?”
She turned and her eyes blew wide with fear.
A tall dark figure towered over her, cruel eyes glinting at her from behind an all too familiar mask. A dark cane was held strongly in his fist near his face.
“So, Ms Dupain-Cheng. We meet at last.”
“You… you’re…”
“Yes,” Shadowmoth murmured, grinning widely at her terror. “And I believe we have some unfinished business.”
The last thing she knew before the cane crashed down on her skull was the warmth of Tikki hiding in her hair and the fear that Adrien would never know what happened to his lady… or his princess.
———
It was the pain that woke her.
A stabbing pain lanced across the right side of her head, a knife that dug deeper with every beat of her heart. She moaned softly against the soft fabric that filled her mouth and tried to roll over, but the grip of metal against her face and wrists made itself known as well. She was blindfolded with some sort of heavy, fuzzy cloth and the coppery smell of blood nearly choked her.
A sudden rustling to her left stilled her.
“Are you sure about this?” A woman’s voice, low and worried.
“Do you know how long I have waited to akumatize this girl,” Shadowmoth answered, his satisfied tone sending an icy trickle of sweat down Marinette’s back. “She’s the only one I haven’t successfully gotten from that group. Her resilience must be extraordinary! She will be my masterpiece and Cat Noir will not be able to fight the girl he loves.”
The woman’s voice was softer now, as if she was moving around and Marinette couldn’t catch all of what she said.
“He doesn’t matter.” His voice was condescending and cold. “No one will even remember any of this happened once I make my wish. If she is present in the new world, maybe I’ll even arrange for them to be friends there.”
“But, sir, I believe it goes-”
“Enough. Your loyalty to my family is admirable, but do not forget our goal: retrieving Ladybug and Cat Noir’s miraculouses.”
“Yes, Shadowmoth.”
The words swirled in her head, their meanings disconnected and just barely out of reach.
Shadowmoth had a family?
She knew his family? Someone was her friend?
The pieces weren’t lining up and her head throbbed painfully.
“I probably have a concussion,” she mused, letting her thoughts settle as best she could around the ache in her skull. “I can’t fight like this. But where is Tikki? I thought she was with me when…”
The toe of a pointed boot nudged her roughly in the stomach, making her groan. “Rise and shine, princess.”
She gasped at his use of Cat’s nickname for her, cowering away from the voice as best she could. The blindfold was ripped away, sending another lance of pain through her head as it was jerked across the head wound. Tears fell from her eyes unbidden as a bright light struck her eyes.
When the dazzle cleared from her vision, she saw Shadowmoth kneeling next to her.
“I must apologize for the crudeness of your accommodations,” he sneered, his pewter eyes glittering cruelly at her behind his mask. “But it should only be for a few days and then you won’t even remember this.”
Marinette scowled. “JUST UNTIE ME, YOU CREEP, AND WE’LL SEE ABOUT THAT,“ she yelled around her gag, though he probably couldn’t understand a word.
He chuckled nastily, tipping her chin up with a gloved finger. “Such fire! Such passion! Pity you took up with that alley cat. You would have been a very suitable companion for my son.”
She wanted nothing more than to spit in his face. She tried to reach him, throwing herself forward with all the strength she could muster, but the rattle of metal on metal and the rawness of her wrists held her back. She was handcuffed around a railing that ran around the metal platform they were on, the metal grillwork showing nothing but darkness below them. She swallowed, the thought of oubliettes and bottomless pits making her shudder.
“Yes, my dear. You are quite secure. Unlike those young idiots out there playing heroes, I learn from my mistakes.” He grabbed her by the hair, forcing her head up to meet his eyes once more, his face backlit against a cloud of white butterflies. “Anyone strong enough to take on a super-akuma singlehanded should not be underestimated and I’ve had my eye on you for years. Do you know how many plans you’ve ruined because you wouldn’t accept my akumas?” He shook her head roughly, sending another stab of pain through her skull. “Far too many. But don’t worry! When the despair of being trapped here hits you, when you realize that even your precious Cat Noir can’t save you, we’ll have lots of fun then. I promise.”
Standing up once more, he released her hair sending her crashing back to the grating beneath them. He stalked off towards a long walkway that lead off into the dark. “Feel free to make yourself at home!” Then she was plunged into darkness surrounded by the dry fluttering of countless wings.
Marinette waited for a long time, listening as the sounds of machines rumbled off to her left, where Shadowmoth had gone. After a few minutes, there was no further noise.
“Tikki,” she mumbled through the gag. “Tikki?”
A warm touch at the back of her neck soothed her jangled nerves. “I’m here, Marinette,” the kwami whispered. “It’s going to be okay. I’ll have you out in just a second.”
She shook her head. Slowly, she felt the gag slide down from her mouth and the wad of fabric inside was pulled out.
“You can’t free me, Tikki,” Marinette whispered as softly as she could. “There may be cameras.”
“But Marinette-“
“I know, but I need you to find out where we are so you can get help.”
“But you’re hurt! You’ve been bleeding!”
“I know, but I can’t fight my way out like this. I’m pretty sure I have a concussion and they could come back at any moment. I need you to figure out where we are and then take the earrings to Alya. See if you can contact Cat, okay?”
“But if Cat sees Scarabella and they come to rescue you, he’ll figure out your identity!”
“We’ll have to risk it. This might be our best chance to defeat Shadowmoth once and for all. We have to take it. Alya can make a mirage to show Ladybug is in the fight somehow. Please, Tikki.”
Her eyes were starting to adjust to the dim light and she saw the faint glitter of tears in her little friend’s eyes. “But what if he hurts you again, Marinette?”
She winced, her head throbbing all the more. “I’m Ladybug. I’ve been through worse. Alya knows her way around the miracle box. She knows what to do. Cat can’t come here alone. Promise me, Tikki!”
The kwami sighed. “I’ll do my best, Marinette, just be careful. Please!”
She chuckled softly. “I don’t have much choice right now. You need to put the gag back on me.”
“I’m sorry.” The soft, heavy fabric was gently placed in her mouth and the gag slipped back over her lips. The texture of it felt like velvet. What kind of weirdo kept velvet around to use as a gag?
Little paws took the earrings from her ears.
“I don’t know how long I’ll be gone, but don’t worry. I’ll get help here as soon as I can.”
She nodded as Tikki kissed her on the cheek before zooming off into the dark, carrying the precious miraculous far away from Shadowmoth. Knowing she had done all she could, Marinette curled in on herself and tried to sleep. She was going to need it.
———
Despite only getting five hours of sleep, Adrien bounced out of bed with an excitement that made Plagg groan.
“Is this what you’re going to be like now? You get the girl and you become even more of a smitten kitten?” His kwami crawled under his pillow in disgust.
Adrien ignored him. He was too happy to bother with Plagg’s grumbling. For the first time in as long as he could remember, he had someone waiting for him, who loved him and wanted him just as he was.
“Just think of it, Plagg,” he said, twirling giddily around on his toes. “Marinette loves all of me! She loved Adrien me, then fell in love with Cat Noir too! The look on her face when she figured it out last night? I’ll admit I was worried after what she had told me about loving me me, but she is just so amazing! And the way she took down that super akuma yesterday?”
“You’re repeating yourself, kid,” Plagg whined from underneath the pillow. “The point is you love her, she loves you, and if you are going to be this disgustingly cheerful this early in the morning, it’s going to take a lot more cheese for me to deal with you today!”
Adrien just laughed and went about getting ready for school. He wanted to take extra care this morning, knowing Marinette would appreciate the attention to detail. And if he looked extra attractive for his princess… all the better.
But Marinette never showed up to school. At first he thought she was just running late, as she sometimes did, but as the day crept on, he began to feel a deep, nagging sense of worry falling over him. Was she sick? Did her parents find out about the akuma yesterday and make her stay home to rest? Was she nervous about revealing their new relationship in front of the whole class? The questions churned in his mind and upset his stomach.
Alya and Nino were starting to get concerned too. Alya kept checking her phone even more than she normally did and Nino kept casting worried glances at him. At lunch break, they all agreed to go over to the bakery to check on her.
“It’s not like Marinette to skip school and if she was sick or something, she would have texted me to ask for the class notes,” Alya said, a frown wrinkling her nose behind her glasses.
Nino slid his arm around her and gave her a comforting squeeze. “I know, babe, but we all know that Marinette can flake out at times. She probably just stayed up all night working on some project or other and overslept.”
“Something about this doesn’t feel right,” Adrien said as they made their way down the steps and across the courtyard. “I know she was looking forward to today.”
“How would you know that,” Alya demanded, her worry obvious in her not using one of her nicknames for him.
“Because we were talking last night and -“
“Wait, you talked with her last night? When?”
He blushed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I left around midnight, I guess!”
Both his friends stopped, staring at him with popping eyes and hanging jaws.
“Bro… did you-“
“What were you doing leaving Marinette’s around midnight,” Alya asked, eyes staring intently at him from behind her glasses. “A good four hours after her parent’s go to bed?”
Adrien sighed, feeling his blush burn its way up his neck and over his ears. “Not that it’s any of your business, Alya, but Marinette saved my life yesterday during the akuma attack and it made me realize how much she meant to me and that I shouldn’t wait any longer to tell her how much I love her because I could lose her if I didn’t.”
Alya swallowed back a squeal and Nino just stared at him with tears welling up in his eyes. “Dude, that was the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard!”
Alya gave him a hug. “You’re such a big softie, babe. No wonder she was looking forward to today. She was going to tell us all about it, right?”
Adrien nodded.
Her face suddenly paled and she clutched her boyfriend a little tighter. “There is no way on earth Marinette would miss the first day of being your girl, Adrien. The girl had planned presents for your next fifty birthdays when she was fourteen! There’s no way she would leave you hanging like that!”
“Yeah, no way dude. That’s not our girl at all.”
“I know,” he murmured. “That’s why I’m so worried.”
The fear magnified when they neared the bakery and saw the closed sign flipped over on the front door and two police officers beyond the plate glass windows.
Alya gasped and clung to Nino with a little sob, his friend looking wide-eyed as he wrapped his arms around her in comfort. Adrien swallowed hard and pushed the bakery door open.
“I’m sorry, kids,” one of the officers said. “But the bakery is closed for an investigation.”
“What happened to Marinette,” he asked, ignoring the officers and looking right at her parents.
The giant baker just stared at them, oblivious to the tears that ran down his face and into his mustache. Sabine’s silver eyes were red-rimmed, but she was standing strong in the face of her husband’s worry.
“It’s okay, officers. These are Marinette’s friends. Did Marinette go to school early, Adrien? Alya?”
They shook their heads and fear settled as heavy as stones in Adrien’s stomach. Marinette wouldn’t just disappear without telling someone where she was going, even if her explanations rarely made sense, and Alya was right. Marinette wanted to be with him, had been glad they wouldn’t have to hide their relationship from their friends even if she would have been willing to keep it secret with him as Cat Noir.
“Were there signs of a struggle,” his voice asked distantly.
The officers eyed him suspiciously. “Mr Agreste, as well meaning as you are, that is a rather drastic accusation. We still haven’t ascertained-“
“Did you check her balcony? She likes to spend time up there to watch the stars and sketch.”
“Mr Agreste, I assure you we are doing everything we can to find your friend, but right now you need to leave. Otherwise I will have to charge you for hindering an active investigation.”
Adrien clenched his fists and jaw, his body humming with angry energy and ready for battle. Marinette had disappeared the day after he had revealed his identity to her. He had been the last one to see her.
Her shouted defiance from the fight yesterday echoed through his head. “No one hurts Cat Noir when I’m around! I don’t need a magic suit or a ladybug partner to take down the worst you’ve got! You think I’m afraid of an insect like you? Touch one hair of my Cat’s head and I will come for you myself. Is that clear?”
What if…
The walkie talkies on the officers’ belts started blaring warnings just as his cell phone screamed akuma alert.
“All officers report to the Trocadero and other municipal buildings for crowd control! Shadowmoth is addressing the city. He’s asking for Ladybug and Cat Noir! Repeat: All officers report to the Trocadero -“
Adrien didn’t wait. He ran from the bakery as fast as he could trying to find the nearest place to transform, but a strong hand grabbed his shoulder from behind as he ducked into an alley.
Spinning on his heel, he grabbed the wrist and turned it up at a painful angle, a growl tearing itself from his throat before he realized it was Nino who was wincing under his hold.
“Adrien, bro, it’s me. I know you’re upset, but we have to-“
“Sorry, Nino.” He released his friend’s wrist and stepped back, running a frustrated hand through his hair. “I just don’t have time for this. I need to find her!”
Alya caught up with them then, panting at having following them at a run. “You can’t do this alone, Adrien. Not with that stupid giant butterfly head making demands over the Trocadero.”
Nino shot his girlfriend a look. “Sorry, Alya, but I told Adrien a while back about us being heroes. If ever there was a time to bring my bro into the loop, it’s now.”
Alya frowns and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. “Fine, we’ll deal with that later. Right now we have bigger problems to deal with.” She looked up at Adrien over the top of her glasses. “We have to get a hold of Cat Noir.”
“Why not Ladybug,” he demanded. “Her and Rena - you - are awfully close. Don’t you have a way to contact her?”
She shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, rubbing her opposite arm in a closed gesture. “I… can’t right now. It has to be Cat.”
Her cagey response was the last straw.
“Plagg, claws out!”
A flash of green and black and it was Cat Noir standing glaring at them. “Cat Noir is already here,” he growled at her, claws fisting in anger. “Tell me how to contact Ladybug so I can go and save my girlfriend. Now!”
———
A burning, stinging pain woke her from a sleep full of nightmares. Marinette jerked and the burning sensation was immediately withdrawn.
“Please, stay still,” said that soft, female voice. “I can’t tend to your injury if you move too much.”
She opened her eyes, expecting to see the blue and purple peacock villain, but when her blurred vision cleared it was … Gabriel Agreste’s assistant? What had Adrien called her? Nathalie?
The woman knelt on the grating next to her, moving stiffly on her knees with strange whirring noises. A second glance showed the white lines on her pant legs to be some sort of… mechanical exoskeleton? That would explain the whirring noises. Hadn’t Adrien said she’d had some sort of attack a few years ago and couldn’t walk?
But why was Nathalie here? Marinette’s head hurt so badly she couldn’t think, the puzzle still refusing to resolve itself in the jumbled mess of her mind.
She moaned around her gag, wishing desperately for some water. How long had she been here anyway?
“If you let me treat you, I will remove the gag for a while,” the woman offered calmly, as if she treated prisoners’ wounds everyday.
“Well, if she works with Shadowmoth then maybe she does.” Shivering at the thought, Marinette nodded slowly.
The velvet gag was removed gently from her mouth and the ball of fabric soon followed.
“Why are you helping me,” she rasped, as the woman helped her sit up and gave her a drink from a bottle of water.
“I couldn’t stop him, but kidnapping children is not what I signed up for. Especially not one of Adrien’s friends.” Just as calmly, she began to clean the gash on Marinette’s head, the alcohol on the gauze she was using being the source of the burning.
“A-adrien?!” Her blood ran cold. The pieces locked into place as fragments of the conversation she had overheard before suddenly made sense.
“Do you know how long I have waited to akumatize this girl? She’s the only one I haven’t successfully gotten from that group.”
“He doesn’t matter. No one will even remember any of this happened once I make my wish. If she is present in the new world, maybe I’ll even arrange for them to be friends there.”
“But, sir, I believe it goes-”
“Enough. Your loyalty to my family is admirable, but do not forget our goal: retrieving Ladybug and Cat Noir’s miraculouses.”
“Pity you took up with that alley cat. You would have been a very suitable companion for my son.”
Only one person, aside from her and Adrien, could know that they were the only two in their class that hadn’t been akumatized. The fact that Shadowmoth hadn’t mentioned Adrien should have been enough to warn her! She wished she hadn’t sent Tikki away! She wished there was some way for her to warn her or Alya not to let Cat anywhere near the mansion!
“Is he safe,” she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes.
Nathalie nodded. “Of course. He knows nothing of this … business, but…” She sighed softly. “When Shadowmoth gets the miraculous, everything will be better. For everyone.”
“Cat told me… about the wish. Such things always come with a price! I know Gabriel has read fairytales. Look at all the fairytale akumas! He must know that he could be risking Adrien as well.”
Nathalie stilled and looked at her for a long moment before breaking eye contact. “Shadowmoth is… aware of this possibility, but he insists that a properly worded wish would prevent any negative outcomes.”
“You have to stop him, Nathalie,” she said, tears flowing freely now. “You care about Adrien. You’re the closest thing he has to a mother and he loves you. You can’t let him be hurt!”
For the first time, Marinette saw an expression flicker cross the woman’s face. A wince of pain. Gently, she replaced the gag and stood, gears whirring.
“Adrien will be better off without me. He deserves his own mother back. If there is a price to pay, then I will pay it. For both of them.”
Nathalie left and she found herself once more in darkness. Her heart clenched in fear for Adrien, for how close they had been to their enemy this whole time. All she could do was hope that Tikki found a way to help keep him safe…
… and try not to give in to her fears in the darkness under Shadowmoth’s feet.
———
“Citizens of Paris. I am Shadowmoth. For too long have I suffered indignities at the hands of Ladybug and Cat Noir. Too long have they childishly refused to give me their miraculous and end this stalemate that has left you vulnerable to my akumas.
“But now, I hold the queen. Cat Noir, if you ever want to see Marinette Dupain-Cheng again then you will hand over yours and Ladybug’s miraculous. She is well, for the moment, but you’ll need to hurry. Her fear is starting to get to her and you wouldn’t want to fight her, would you?”
The message was the main topic of news everywhere. The school chat rooms, the Ladyblog, the news sites, the local tv station were all a buzz with the news that Shadowmoth had kidnapped an innocent girl.
“Honestly, if I ever get my hands on that creepy old man, I will throttle him myself,” Alya snarled, throwing her phone onto her bed in disgust and anger.
“Get in line,” Adrien growled, pacing the length of her small bedroom, the boots of his suit thudding heavily against her hardwood floor.
Nino sat on the floor by the bed, knees up and arms and chin propped on them, staring at him in confusion and guilt.
“Dude, I… I’m so sorry. I was such a jerk! I sat there totally convinced Cat Noir was stealing my girl only for him to turn out to be as close as a brother to me and my best friend! And then I got akumatized and beat you to a pulp! How can I ever make it up to you, man?”
Adrien sighed and knelt next to his friend, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. “There was no way you could have known, Nino, and you have always been there for me when I needed you. Besides, it was last year. A lot has changed since then.”
“But I called you annoying.” He had never heard Nino’s voice sound so small before. “I said Ladybug couldn’t stand you.”
“Water under the bridge, bro,” he murmured, giving his shoulder a squeeze. “Right now we need to figure out a way to contact LB so we can figure out how to save Marinette.”
“It’s not that easy, Ca- Adrien,” Alya insisted. “There are … problems.”
“No. I don’t want to hear it, Alya! This is Marinette! Our friend! We all love her! For crying out loud every one of the heroes knows -“ His voice disappeared as the realization of what he just said registered with his conscious mind.
“I got stuck somewhere as a civilian while Tikki recharged. There was a witness, so I couldn’t just transform and get back to you.”
…
“I d-don’t know what I would do if anything h-had happened to you.”
“I love you, Cat Noir. I have for a while, but I have been trying to let someone go too. It hurts, I know, and if you… can’t… like that, I mean…”
“M-Marinette… are you telling me … Adrien Agreste… the model? You…”
…
“I don’t want to play around with your feelings. It would be the same as lying to you. I don’t want to do that. You’re more than a partner, Cat Noir. You’re my friend and I’d never want to lie to a friend.”
“Why do you think it’s lying?”
Because there’s this boy I…
“There’s a boy? Who is…?”
“It’s - I can’t tell you who it is. We can’t know…”
…
“He’s been there for me through some rough times and he means the world to me, but… after three years in the friend zone I figured it was time to move on.”
“Yeah, I guess it would be weird to find out you were letting go of someone in order to love someone else who turns out to be them, huh?”
“You have no idea.”
“Cat! Can you hear me?” Alya’s voice broke through the fog of memory, dragging him back to the present with all the force of a freight train.
“Marinette… is… Ladybug, isn’t she?” His heart pounded sickly in his chest, his mind reeling as the various stars aligned to reveal the perfect… the only… solution. “Nothing else fits.”
A gentle hand settled on his shoulder and Alya’s face was sisterly and full of concern. “You have no idea how much she wanted to tell Cat, Adrien. She loved you for years and kept turning you down for, well, you. If you only knew how hard she tried to tell you, then how she struggled to let you go, thinking it was what you wanted.”
“Yeah,” he rasped around the lump in his throat. Memories of so many strange and adorable Marinette moments, the clumsy evasions, the nervous babbling whenever she used to say something that sounded vaguely suggestive, the pictures all over her room that she had been so embarrassed about now long gone after he had finally found the courage to tell his friends how much he hated modeling. “Three years in the friend zone… Ugh! Why couldn’t we have figured this out sooner?!”
“Because Marinette needed you to love her clumsy, nervous side,” said a high tinkling voice. “And you needed her to fall in love with Cat.”
“Tikki,” Adrien and Alya cried together.
He held out his hands for the red kwami to rest in, her violet eyes looking up at him in fear as she lay the ladybug earrings in his palm. “Adrien, I know this isn’t going to be easy, but I’m going to need Plagg. We both are.”
Without pausing for a heartbeat, he whispered his detransformation and Plagg joined her, wrapping himself around his other half protectively and purring roughly in comfort. He lay the pair on Alya’s pillow, the sick feeling that had been nagging him since Marinette had failed to show up at school churning into a storm inside him. Adrien stared at the earrings nestled in the hollow of his hand and grasped them tightly before his shaking could send them to the floor. There, on the metal posts, were the stains of dried blood.
“Is she… he hasn’t…” Why wouldn’t the words come? He was Cat Noir, master of taunting and clever comebacks, so why did his voice sound so… lost? So… small?
Maybe he could only be Cat Noir if Marinette was Ladybug. She had said the reverse often enough, but it wasn’t until he held her bloody miraculous in his hands that he understand what she had meant.
He would never be Cat Noir without her, for the part that gave him the most freedom would die if he couldn’t spend that freedom with her.
“She’s injured pretty badly,” Tikki murmured, nuzzling her head against Plagg in her grief. “She has a concussion and was having trouble focusing when I left her, but she was still thinking. She has a plan.” Those teary, violet eyes looked from one to the other of them. “Alya, you are to merge me and Trixx and cast an illusion to show Ladybug talking to Shadowmoth. Cat, Marinette made me promise not to let you go in alone.”
“Why,” he asked, eyes filling with tears. “Doesn’t she trust me? After last night-“
“Adrien, please listen!” Tikki zipped up to his face, tears falling from her own eyes. “Marinette trusts you more than anyone. She always has, but she said this was your best shot to beat Shadowmoth once and for all. She… she sent me away with her miraculous to figure out where she was and find you and the other heroes.”
They all stared at her in shock.
“Where is she, Tikki,” he whispered, grief and anger warring against his ribs.
“Somehow, I think Marinette must have known. I’m not sure how or if she even realized it, but-“
“WHERE IS MARINETTE?” Alya and Nino flinched away from him at his scream, but Plagg merely flew up and put a paw to his cheek.
“There’s no need to treat her that way, kid,” he growled. “Let her finished.”
He deflated at the rebuke. “Sorry, Tikki.”
“No, Adrien. I’m sorry.” She sighed. “Marinette … is at your house.”
It was if a fist of fear clawed its way out of his stomach and started to strangle him. Words from several years ago rang through his head like a klaxon.
“You must trust me on this. But it all makes sense. Gabriel Agreste is a secretive man and he never leaves his house. And get this… Check out his brand’s logo.”
“The butterfly,” he whispered, throat gone dry, guilt and anger burning in his chest like acid. “She was right.”
“ Excuse me, uh, Little Bug, but are you positive,” Nino asked tentatively, standing to reach a supportive arm around Adrien’s shoulders. “I mean, I am a charter member of the 'I hate Adrien’s Dad’ fight club, but is the old man being the world’s worst father really the best evidence that he’s Shadowmoth or kidnapped Marinette?”
Tikki shook her head. “I know it’s hard to believe, but -“
“No,” Adrien said flatly, clutching the earrings so tightly in his fist that they stabbed his palm, his blood overlaying hers. “It’s not. All the times I tried to be the perfect son, get good grades, the modeling! I did everything he ever asked of me and he still ignored me, tortured my friends instead of spending time with me, kidnapping the girl I love! Why?! What did I ever do wrong? Why wasn’t I ever enough?!”
Tikki and Plagg cuddled against his cheeks while Nine and Alya pulled him into a tight hug. Adrien howled out his anger and grief into their comforting arms, knowing he wasn’t the only one crying.
He had been wrong.
He hadn’t lost everything.
It had been stolen!
His father had stolen everything that ever mattered from him: his freedom, his childhood, his happiness, his sense of self-worth. He had tried to kill his own son more times than he could remember, but Ladybug… Marinette… remembered each and every one.
And now his… no. Gabriel Agreste was no one’s father. Shadowmoth had kidnapped his lady, his princess, the girl who healed his broken heart and filled him up with everything good and right.
Adrien was Cat Noir and, by Plagg’s ring, he was going to get her back, even if he had to burn Gabriel’s empire down in a pile of ash to do it!