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2 Days. Only 2 days had passed since Monarch’s identity was revealed, and Adrien’s life had fallen apart before his eyes. While it had initially come as a shock, everything began to make more sense—the distance, the secrecy, the irritability…Adrien should have seen it coming. He almost felt foolish for not noticing the signs, but now, due to being the son of a supervillain, of course he was being dragged into this.
The police didn’t believe that Adrien was truly unaware of all of this; With the two of them living in the same household, he simply had to have known something (in actuality, he didn’t). It also didn’t help at all that he was found at the scene of the crime, right after de-transforming.
And now, he was sitting in a plain empty room in an uncomfortable, scruffy fold-out chair, waiting to be interrogated for his involvement with Monarch. He just couldn’t figure out how he’d explain himself without revealing his identity as Chat Noir. Under no circumstance had he and Ladybug ever agreed to reveal themselves to the public, whether it was to police officers or not. They never knew who to trust, even with his father no longer terrorizing Paris.
Adrien took a deep breath and nervously tapped his foot, lifting his head up to the security camera on the ceiling that stared at him, watching him like a hawk. If the police were watching him right now through the footage, they’d definitely be suspicious of his anxious behavior. He quickly forced himself to stop fidgeting and tapping his foot.
Finally, after what felt like half an hour had gone by, an officer walked into the room, looking down at a clipboard.
“Adrien Agreste, I’m Officer Jean Morisette, and I’m here to speak to you about your father,” the tall man said coolly, turning to look down at a timid Adrien. “Is there anything you’d like to say before we start?”
He was already expecting some sort of confession from Adrien. Great.
He shook his head quickly, politely smiling.
“Very well,” Jean mumbled, shooting a glance at his clipboard and back at Adrien. “You said you didn’t know about your father’s true identity until now, right? How long ago did you find out?”
“I-I found out at the same time as the police did,” he stuttered. “Well, I um…kinda found out a few minutes before you guys showed up, because Ladybug and Chat Noir had already handled the situation and left.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That was only half-true. The two heroes were both locked in combat with Monarch right outside of the Louvre, and eventually had stripped him of his miraculouses, restraining him with a metal lamp post. Monarch’s de-transformation left Chat Noir with visible shock, a reaction that Ladybug couldn’t quite place. Of course she was also surprised by his identity, but there was something painful that hid behind Chat’s expression. She made a note to talk to him about it later.
By the time they had restrained Gabriel, Ladybug’s earrings and Chat Noir’s ring had beeped their warnings for the third and final time. If they didn’t leave now, they’d detransform as soon as the police arrived, exposing themselves to everyone around them.
Chat could only stare at his father, dumbfounded; how could he do this and be so awful? Why would his father terrorize Paris, hurt Adrien’s friends? He couldn’t understand any of it.
He felt sick to his stomach, his vision beginning to blur as thousands of these thoughts flooded his head.
“Chat?”
He could hear a soft voice calling out to him, but he was paralyzed to where he stood, unsure of how to even feel about this. Should it have even been surprising? Maybe Adrien should have known better. He looked back to the unconscious man with a lamppost over his chest with disgust, as he clenched his fists in anger. He didn’t want to believe his father could be so incredibly selfish.
“Chat, are you okay?”, the voice said again, but it was more audible now as he felt a hand on his shoulder pulling him back to reality. It was Ladybug’s voice that stabilized him.
“I’m fine,” he lied, turning away from both the man who had betrayed him, and Ladybug, his wonderful partner—who had no idea that his entire world fell apart before his eyes. Adrien didn’t want her to see him vulnerable like this, not now.
“We have to go, we don’t have much time until we detransform,” she spoke slowly, carefully pulling away her hand. “I already called the police, so they’re on their way to take custody of Gabriel Agreste.”
“Okay. You can go on ahead, I’ll go in a second.”
She furrowed her eyebrows curiously for a moment, but took a step back from Chat. Not wanting to pry, she nodded and she swung her yoyo to a nearby building, beginning to swing westward.
He kneeled down to his father’s level, searching for something to say before he was arrested. Adrien didn’t even know if his father could hear him, but nonetheless, he still failed to properly articulate his thoughts into words. Just as his transformation fell, the police had arrived at the scene; fortunately, they hadn’t seen the detransformation. Unfortunately, they witnessed Adrien kneeling beside his unconscious father, distress painting his features.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Adrien was supposed to have already left, but he foolishly stayed there. He failed to listen to Ladybug, and he allowed himself to detransform right as the police arrived. He got himself into this mess, and now he needed to find his way out of it.
“Did you talk to Ladybug and Chat Noir? Did they…I don’t know, make you aware of your father’s crimes?” the officer inquired, raising an eyebrow at Adrien. “Or did you show up after they left?”
He momentarily shut his eyes as he thought of the correct answer. Adrien quickly opened them and looked back at Jean, ensuring he made direct eye contact. Direct eye contact usually indicated that someone was trustworthy.
“I happened to be out on a walk, but then I saw the ongoing fight between Monarch and the superheroes,” he lied. “I hid in a building, just like the other civilians did…but then Ladybug and Chat Noir took my father’s miraculous. Yeah! That’s—um when I found out.”
Shit. He wasn’t so sure if the last part sounded so convincing.
“Right…”, the officer stated, writing notes down onto a paper. “So you didn’t talk to Ladybug and Chat Noir?”
“Um, yeah I did for a quick moment! Ladybug was already gone, but I um- I ran into Chat Noir, and he apologized to me for what happened. He was very apologetic actually, he’s a really nice guy, by the way-“
“I just don’t understand how you got there so fast, Adrien,” Jean stated calmly, seeming to assess him for any signs of lying. “All the civilians were sent to buildings and put on lockdown, and we hadn’t even lifted the lockdown yet. And somehow, you managed to escape the building you were locked down in?”
Adrien shook his head, feeling his face begin to redden in a sudden panic. “No, no- I—For some reason the building I was in wasn’t on lockdown, so I assumed it was okay for me to leave. That’s all-“
“Do you know the name of this building? Perhaps I can call the owner and question why they weren’t following the protocol.”
Adrien bit the inside of his cheek, unsure of how to answer. He wasn’t going to throw an innocent bystander to the wolves. “I…don’t remember the name.”
Jean shook his head, unimpressed at Adrien’s attempt at lying. “Were you perhaps…hiding outside? Maybe you knew that your father was Monarch, and wanted to keep an eye on the battle. In case anything bad happened to him.”
“What?” Adrien furrowed his eyebrows, shaking his head as he chuckled a bit nervously. “No, no. I’m just as surprised as everyone else was—I don’t support what my father has done, he’s hurt the entirety of Paris, including my friends.”
“But how did you not know anything? You two live in the same household, and it shouldn’t be that difficult to miss a gigantic atrium beneath your home, and based on what your father shared with us about his motive, you’d have every reason to support him.”
Adrien hadn’t gotten the chance to speak to his father yet. He didn’t know about any secret rooms, nor what his motive even was, so this all came as news to him.
“What? I didn’t know—I don’t think we have a secret atrium in our house, I would have known if there was.”
Jean responded with only silence, picking up a folder and carefully opening it. Adrien eyed his movements, as the officer pulled out printed pictures and placed them on the table in front of him.
He picked them up, fingers trembling, staring at each image. His breath was caught in his throat, none of this feeling real. He would have known about this, he should have.
“These are images our team took when investigating your home. They discovered this secret room, and when speaking to your father about it, he confessed to his motives.”
“Oh,” Adrien responded dumbly, unsure of what else to say. What else was there to say?! ‘Oh, awesome! I had no idea this was in my house, that’s so cool!’
When Adrien reached the last image, he grew pale, looking closer to double-check he wasn’t imagining it. No. No no no no.
It was very much real, and he felt his breathing hitch once again, before quickly stacking the images back together and stuffing them back in the folder. His mother was in that secret room. Her body, at least.
What had he done to her?
He began to piece everything together in his head, finally having been given some answers.
“I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt here. Let’s say you didn’t know about this room, or your father’s true motive. But you had to have known something, and I’m not so sure I’m buying the whole ‘escaping a building’ story.”
“No, Officer, you have to believe me—I had a really good reason to be outside, but I can’t tell you why,” Adrien protested, desperate to prove his innocence at this point. He didn’t want any association with his father now, especially after seeing the evidence he had just been given. Everyone probably hated Adrien by now, including everyone at school. They all probably thought he was just as horrible as his father.
“Interesting,” Jean chuckled. “And why can’t you tell me?”
“It’s something private. I’m not allowed to share it with anyone, for the sake of all of your safety-“
“Very well. That’s fine, Adrien, I completely understand,” the officer smiled, getting up from where he sat.
Adrien breathed a sigh of relief, glad that Jean was so calm about this. “Really? Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.”
He was sure he would be let out now, and that the police force would help Adrien figure out his current living situation.
“Of course,” he replied, writing something down on his clipboard, maintaining a cool expression. “We’ll just have to keep you here a few days longer until you feel comfortable enough to share your complete alibi with us. Thanks for at least mostly cooperating, Adrien.”
Adrien’s heart dropped to the pit of his stomach, his expression turning pale once more. He wasn’t out of the woods just yet, was he?