Chapter Text
The storm tossed the ship like a leaf in a rapid. Adrien wished he could hang off the edge and hurl all night, but no, it happened to be pouring above deck. Sat in his father’s quarters perched over the washbasin, Adrien wished he were anywhere else. He longed for the dry land, the solid ground, and most of all: fresh air.
They had been on the sea for two weeks now, and up until now, Adrien thought he was having a blast. His father had asked him to start taking on more of the business, Agreste Shipping Company, and even suggested taking one of the routes with his top ship, the Butterfly. It glided over the waves like the gentle insect it was named after for the majority of the journey.
That all ended about two hours ago, when the wind picked up and the captain told Adrien to head into his quarters. As soon as the rain hit, he heard it. It slammed into the wood in a roar that sent his heart up into his throat. It hadn’t stopped since then.
He couldn’t take it anymore. The commotion above his head told him that he needed to help on the ship or else they would all be treading water. After a particularly large tilt to the left, he got himself up and started to climb the stairs.
When he opened the door, he met Nathalie. Though his father couldn’t make it, his father had assigned him a bodyguard, and Nathalie, to protect him. He suspected that the woman was only there to make sure he didn’t accidentally fall off the boat or get stuck in all the ropes (seriously, why were there so many?) or something equally embarrassing for his father to tell the papers when they ask why his son never made it off his maiden voyage.
“Adrien, you were instructed to stay in your room until it was safe to come out,” Nathalie said, eyes sharp. Adrien noticed that she looked just as seasick as him with her face flushed red and one hand wrapped tightly around her midsection.
He opened his mouth to respond when the boat rocked again and a wave of nausea washed over him. It apparently hit Nathalie worse. She pushed past him to head to the washbasin and Adrien worked on swallowing his own down to escape.
The storm roared even louder up on the deck. Adrien could hardly hear himself think, but the cascade of voices desperately vying to be heard over the wind and rain pulled him toward the front. The sail had snapped free of its bindings and the wind pulled it mercilessly. At least he knew why they were rocking so much.
A collection of sailors surrounded the sail, pulling at ropes and shouting at each other. Adrien couldn’t understand anything that was going on, but as they started to pull at a particular binding, he jumped in to help. The man in front of him tried to signal him back, but he didn’t listen. They were already struggling as it was, he couldn’t let them do this on their own.
Unfortunately, he was not as strong as these men. It seemed that he had done little to dissuade the wind’s hold on the sail. They had strained against the storm for what felt like forever before the sail started to move. Toward them. Fast. The wind had shifted, and it was going to take them all with it.
Adrien heard the shouting and saw the falling beam coming at him, but he could do nothing but pull his arms up and attempt to shield himself as it knocked him back. He hit the railing, but when the beam crashed into it, it failed him, too. Well, this was it, he supposed. He could read the headlines now: Gabriel Agreste’s idiot son dies doing what he loved: defying orders.
The water dragged him down as soon as he hit it.
It filled his mouth and stung his eyes. Of course he had opened them underwater. Through the pitch black nothing and the stinging salt, he had hoped to find salvation. What he did find, however, was the satchel on his belt floating away from him. Panic and instinct overtook his situation. His mother’s ring was in that bag. He kept it safe in the side pouch. If he lost that ring, his father would kill him dead. Well, more than he already was right now.
His father had given him that ring when he turned 14 and told him to always protect it and keep it safe. That was two months ago. He had already failed. Just his luck that he could fuck up something like this in such a monumental way that his father will definitely never get it back, along with his body. Oh well.
A flash in the dark surprised him. It could have been lightning, but it came from down below. Under the satchel. His eyes squinted trying to get a better look, but nothing appeared. When the lightning lit up overhead, he saw it again. A spark of red shined out from under the satchel. It came up and up and he saw a figure start to appear. By the time he saw her face, his lungs had started to burn, but all the air truly left him when he saw her.
She was beautiful. Her black hair floated around her as she emerged from the darkness below. Blue eyes shone with every flash from above and her smile looked so sweet. The red he saw came from her—
Tail. She had a tail longer than the rest of her human-like body and every now and then a spot of black would disrupt the rich crimson expanse.
She swam to his satchel and examined it curiously while he tried his best not to pass out. When she noticed him struggling, her hand slid into the strap of the satchel and she surged forward like a shot from a cannon and wrapped her arms around him.
At first, he saw teeth. A mouthful of razor-sharp teeth opened wide, coming straight at his neck. But then they changed course and her hands pushed him up toward the surface.
As soon as his head broke the surface, he breathed deep. He barely processed the swirling water below him or the hand now wrapped around his ankle. Heaving, he managed to get his limbs working again and started to tread water. His eyes blinked out the salty sting and looked for the ship. As soon as his leg started to kick again, though, the hand pulled him back under.
He came face to face with his savior once again, but this time he felt afraid. The teeth he hadn’t thought to fear before stared him down now. The beautiful girl seemed to have saved him only to kill him herself. Great. Just when he thought he got lucky. Actually, he couldn’t think much right now.
A mass of hair floated around her and Adrien couldn’t help himself. He pushed her hair out of her face so that he could see her eyes. If he was going to die, he would do it seeing her face, at least.
The action must have startled her. Blue eyes blinked at him soundlessly, open wide. He tried to give her a smile, but it may have looked like a grimace. Regardless, she smiled back at him, teeth on display. It didn’t diminish her beauty, surprisingly. He liked the way it changed the soft features in the rest of her face into something more angular.
The word siren hit him as soon as he thought about her teeth. He had heard stories growing up of alluring creatures who dragged souls into the sea and devoured them alive. Strangely, it hadn’t occurred to her that they might exist until now. He just thought they were cautionary tales to scare him into staying away from the ocean. It had worked, but that was beside the point.
The point, of course, being that he wouldn’t mind if this siren dragged him to his death. However, she had his mother’s ring. He pointed to the bag and ignored the tightness in his chest. It was getting hard to breathe again, but that won’t stop him.
She looked at the bag, once again confused. The satchel around her arm tried to float away in the earlier commotion. It settled behind her head, but with a flick of her tail, it floated back to them. Her free hand caught it and lifted it up to her mouth. Those sharp teeth tore into the fabric like it was nothing and all of its contents floated out, including the ring.
She saw the metal ring glimmer and pinched it between her fingers, twisting it over and over to inspect it. Adrien pointed at it and she moved out of reach. He pointed again and pointed to himself. Her face scrunched up as she tried to discern his meaning, but she looked confused, so he made a grab for it. His hands nearly touched the leather cord that threaded through the ring to keep it around his neck. He missed, though, and she moved even further away. When he decided to swim after her, the sound of something gliding over the water above him stole their attention.
The siren took off into the deep and he mourned the loss of his ring.
Then he remembered he needed air and made a break for the surface.
His first inhale of air came with a sob. How could it have all gone so wrong? As soon as he could see, he twisted around and around looking for the ship. The storm had created waves taller than he could manage, but it seemed that the storm was finally passing. It was still too dark to see far into the rainy expanse, but he did notice an outline about a hundred yards out from him. A ship. Treading water while holding one hand above his head, he yelled as loud as he could. It appeared to be coming toward him, but that could change at any moment.
The journey to the boat took time. It was traveling toward him, but at a crawling pace and at an angle. If he hadn’t waited for them to get close enough and yell once more, he might not have been spotted. A rope hit the water and instructions to wrap it around him came from above. His shaking hands fumbled the rope into a knot, but he told them he was ready after a minute.
As soon as he hit the deck, he knew something was wrong. This vessel definitely wasn’t an Agreste shipping vessel. In fact, it didn’t seem to have a flag to mark its allegiance at all. Adrien couldn’t tell much, though, because soon after his body collapsed from exhaustion. His eyes slid shut as shadows moved around him.
The news came out almost as soon as the Butterfly docked. Adrien Agreste was lost at sea. Rumors spread like wildfire. Adrien saved a sailor, pushed the poor fellow right out of the way and took the blow. Maybe he wanted to die. He just stood there before he got thrown into the water. There was something in the water with him, isn’t that strange? Gabriel sent him out there to die. His first voyage, what are the chances? Just like his mother: gone too soon.
Gabriel Agreste withdrew from the public eye. Well, more than he had before. He put out a statement saying that the business would continue, but he would direct the operations from his home as he mourned. Some say they saw more ships going out than usual, but little more supplies came back.
The speculation died once news of the pirates came. Months after the loss, an Agreste ship was attacked only a few hours from shore. A ship bearing a flag with a siren. No one knew what to make of it. They hadn’t killed anyone or stolen anything other than the ship’s cartography library and captain’s logs. That the public knew of.
The masked captain, a man rumored to be called Chat Noir, had given the fearful sailors an easy smile along with his brandished sword and told them that if they just complied, all would be well. No one had even thought to challenge him. It was hard to go against the cheerful ribbing he gave his own crew and how he showed no cruelty to the helpless sailors he robbed. There was no unnecessary roughness or savagery. He didn’t seem happy, but he wasn’t cruel.
But then came the day when someone did defy Chat Noir. Within the week, his crew had attacked several more ships and taken their things as well. One cocky young captain thought he could defy the masked man and paid the price when he tried to draw his sword on him. Quicker than anyone could comprehend, the pirate had blocked the blow and delivered a swift one of his own. Down went the foolish captain, part of one hand on the deck still clutching his sword.
That solidified his reputation. A considerate and non-violent man just couldn’t be a pirate captain, after all. The storm of lies gathered quickly and anyone who spotted that flag on the waters tried their best to avoid detection.
For years, Chat Noir ruled the waters, but never strayed too far from that coast. Some said he was looking for something. Some said he was avenging someone. And some say that he had his eyes set on taking down Gabriel Agreste’s shipping empire. After all, a majority of the ships he captured had ties to the company in some way, be it a vessel carrying the products or a treasury ship offering wages. The fearsome pirate never took enough to dramatically affect the people working under Gabriel, but suspicions arose that he only intended to irritate the man. Whether any of it was true or not, the sea was not safe for any who carried a hint of valuable sea-faring gear.
Then, after just under a decade of his reign, the mysterious Chat Noir disappeared.