Chapter Text
Five years after being chosen as Chat Noir, one year since Hawk Moth’s defeat, three years since his father remarried, and the two heroes are still yet to give up their miraculous.
Adrien Agreste still clearly remembers the day he found Master Fu’s box sitting atop the small coffee table in the vast space that he once called his bedroom when he was fourteen. Now nineteen, his father had finally given him privilege to live on his own when he graduated from college at eighteen, and was now in his second year at university.
Modelling was less of a priority, the rules he had to follow were less tight, and he was finally able to hang out with anyone, although he still had to keep a keen eye on those who snuck in only for his fame and money, as which many people did. We walk among greedy fools so you had better keep an eye on who you are befriending, is that understood? His father had told him.
Of course, the taste of newly found independence felt good – no, it felt great, but he still cannot help but reminisce about the past. His first taste of freedom as Chat Noir, his first day at lycee, the battle with akumas, and oh God, he could never forget Ladybug – his Ladybug, whom he managed to catch on their fourth year together. Yes, they are dating despite not knowing each other’s identities.
As he was about to hark back to their previous adventures, the loud cry of his little brother pulled him back to reality, the grin he did not remember pulling fell down in an instant.
He hoisted the three-year old on his arms and the boy immediately stopped his blubber, eyes still glassy from tears. “Is there something wrong, Liam?” he crooned in a soft voice, wiping the boy’s cheeks dry with the soft pad of his left thumb.
“I want you to play with me, big brother!” the three-year old stubbornly demanded with a pout on his lips, thin brows knitted together.
Adrien looked at the large volumes and notebooks that spread across his desk and heaved a sigh. Tears threatened to spill from Liam’s eyes as he looked at his older brother, still pouting. Adrien internally groaned and heaved yet another deep sigh as he put down his little brother and crouched down to reach Liam’s level. He pinched the boy’s cheeks and said, “Okay.”
☂☂☂
“Adrien, you have a new brother.”
‘Caring’ and ‘lovable’ were two of the many words that people never associated with Gabriel Agreste, which is why Adrien had contemplated a million times what could have possessed his father to make it possible for him to fall in love for the second time, and on top of that, he has a new son!
Gabriel Agreste, with his cold and icy demeanor who treats his son like his own employee, has fallen in love with a woman and she has conceived his child.
What bewildered fifteen-year old Adrien the most was the fact that his father was actually happy with the news and announced it to his son with a large grin formed in his lips that was usually seen pressed in a thin line. Apparently, Clarise Moreau is just that special. Clarise was just as beautiful as his mother, a gorgeous brunette with blue eyes and features to die for. Still, Adrien could not grasp the idea that his father had fallen in love, again, when he was just as stoic and heartless a few months back, even when he was secretly dating the woman. Or perhaps that was just to him?
‘Was I not enough for him to change?’ Adrien once thought. But then again, his father never actually showed any endearing emotions. Love was one emotion that was pushed to the back of his chest and was locked up with many different memories, memories Gabriel refused to look back on. And so, Adrien dismissed this thought and just...let the old man be happy for once.
He knew his father had given up on his mother since so long ago, though the man never admitted it. Years passed by without a single trace of the blonde beauty and Gabriel had decided that it was time to lock things up for good. He threw the chest of memories to the ocean and let it sink to the bottom along with the memory of her. And now that he has found new love, Adrien couldn’t help but go along with it. Clarise was just as nice, but his own mother was, like to any other child of course, better.
When they married when Adrien was fifteen-years old and a half, four-months-pregnant Clarise had moved in the mansion and Gabriel immediately hired a few more maids to help take care of her. Soon after, William Agreste was born. Of course, Adrien had to move out at eighteen, and his ties with the mansion and his father’s rules had loosened up, but he had not expected his father to ask him to babysit his little brother on a random anniversary day
☂☂☂
Marinette Dupain-Cheng was furious, furious because a free weekend from university and her internship was not supposed to be this boring. She had the kind of ennui from having too much time in her hands and having too little will to find something productive to do.
The movie she had been watching was three hours of tedium and she wasn’t able to finish even halfway through before she got bored and decided to bail it. She didn’t feel like drawing nor sewing because everything she drew ended up with either sloppy lines or designs that didn’t add up to her standards or expectations. You could say she was lacking motivation today (or inspiration for that matter). Going out was out of the question since she had no reason to do so, and shopping felt like a tire.
“Homework? Wait, I don’t even have any homework. I did all those last night.”
The girl could clearly remember everything she had thought about the past night for the next day as she was getting to bed. Tiny plans of things she had wanted to do, which she had no will to do now, marathon on some movies, read a book, finish sewing that one design, and many other activities she had planned but now resented doing. It felt like as though if she had risen up from her seat and actually did something she’d faint from a mere three seconds of activity. In other words, she was having a lazy day.
Poor Marinette slouched down and banged her head on the desk before her, feeling distraught over her lack of work.
In retrospect, work was, however, different from having fun. Work was no fun, and she wanted to have fun. She then decided that she would not do anything that involved working. But how was having fun possible when she had no will to do anything?
“How about cleaning up?” Tikki suggests, flying out of the kitchen with a cookie in hand.
Marinette looks up with knitted brows. “Didn’t I already clean up two days ago?”
Tikki shrugs. “Doesn’t seem like two days ago.”
Marinette tears her gaze away from her kwami and to her living room. The pillows that were supposed to be on the couch were on somewhere on the floor, different kinds of cloth sprawled all over one side of the floor (mainly where her sewing kit sat), the volleyball on the coffee table rolled and hit the mug (which of course also ended up on the floor in a billion pieces). And, well, a lot more things on the used-to-be-neatly-carpeted floor that Marinette couldn’t see from her where she sat.
She could only imagine what her own room looked like. And she didn’t even care to notice when she had woken up.
Her eye twitches from disbelief at how fast she had ruined her apartment in just two days. And to think that she and her kwami, who is a really tiny god/dess, are the only occupants of the whole flat. Marinette’s forehead returns to the desk with a thud. “I’ll clean that up when I get home tomorrow or maybe later if I feel like cleaning.”
Tikki hums. “Advance study?”
“Already done.”
“Call Alya and hang out?” The kwami suggested as she sat on top of the desk beside her chosen’s head.
Marinette looked up with knitted brows and scanned the room as though she had found out the secrets of the universe, but she was actually considering that Tikki’s idea with Alya.
The desk is suddenly a magnetic force as her forehead kept returning to the wooden object every time her head decided to part ways with it. The loud thud of course, was always there. Marinette did not care.
“She’s busy.”
“Uh...well... How about we go for a run?”
Marinette’s head quirks up and she wore a large grin. Suddenly remembering the breeze of the cold Parisian winter, there was freedom – liberty. She could run on the rooftops, swing on high buildings, and stand above her darling city on the Eiffel tower. The city is incredibly gorgeous from high points, too.
“Great idea! How could I not have thought of that sooner?”
“So do you want to go right now or-“ Tikki was cut off by the sound of Marinette's ringtone.
Cause the world might do me in
It's alright 'cause I'm with friends
Cause I'm giving up again
It doesn't matter
Marinette fishes her phone from her pocket. “Oh, uhm, let me just take this call and after that we’ll go for a run, okay?”
The ladybug kwami nods and gives her a smile.
Marinette paces to the kitchen and looks at the caller ID. In a second, her brows were knitted together once more and her cheeks rose up from a grin.
Don’t get her wrong, no longer was she the fourteen-year old girl that blushed and stuttered when her crush was around. She had gotten over Adrien when she was seventeen, and she loves Chat Noir now, whoever he is behind that mask. Plus, they’re dating. Well, at least Ladybug is, but Marinette is Ladybug, but that’s not the point.
She and the blond don’t meet up often, only when Alya and Nino are making plans to hang out or when they unexpectedly run into each other someplace, so there was no reason that Marinette could think of for him to call her.
“What could Adrien be calling me for?” She pressed ‘call’.
“Yo, Adrien?”
“Uh, h-hi Marinette? Uhm... How are you?”
Everything was suddenly awkward and it had been only ten seconds. “I’m great?” she replied, though it came out more as a question. “You?”
“Same, same. Erm.”
Somehow, Adrien was more awkward than she was at phone calls.
“Uh... So, what are you calling me for? Can I help you with something?”
“Oh, yes, yes. Are you busy right now?”
Marinette’s eyes lit up at the thought that Adrien would be asking her for something. A date? She shook her head. You’re taken, dumb butt. She wasn’t even supposed to be having these thoughts. “Not really. In fact, I’ve got nothing to do so, I am pretty much likely going to help you with whatever you need help it.”
She heard him heave a sigh of relief from the other side. “Thank you! You’re the only one I know who’s great with kids and... I’ve got tests to study for and my little brother is, well...”
Little brother? Then she remembered Adrien had told them about his brother a few times before, though they’ve only seen Liam in the pictures his big brother would show them. The boy was incredibly adorable even from just his pictures, with a face just like his brother’s, only that the boy had dirty-blonde hair and blue eyes. “Ah, Liam, how is he?”
“He’s quite a handful,” he paused for a chuckle. “I know you’re getting what I’m trying to say here, but it would be completely okay if you decline, it’s not like I’m desperately in need so-“
“Sure.”
She could feel him trail off. “What?” he said after three seconds.
“I’ve been asking the heavens for something to do and your timing was impeccable; I’ll be glad to help you,” she said with a smile, and then realized he wasn’t actually there to see it.
A faint ‘yes!’ was heard from the other side of the call and Marinette couldn’t help but snicker at Adrien’s relief.
“Thank you so much! It won’t be long, I promise! And uh... be here at any time you can?”
A thought popped into her head that Adrien now lived in an apartment and his half brother resides in the mansion. She made a guess. “Agreste mansion, right? I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”
“Yes, and thank you again. I’ll see you in thirty,” and with that, he hung up.
She spent a few seconds staring at an invisible point in the kitchen before darting at the cabinet above the sink and immediately started filling the glass with water. She downed the glass empty in four easy gulps. She glanced at the clock. 3:26 pm
“Tikki!” she called, “Change of plans, we’re going babysitting,” and completely forgot about the broken mug.
☂☂☂
Adrien had no choice. Liam was running around and hiding from him and he can’t keep up with the three-year old. A nineteen-year old can’t keep up with a three-year old. How embarrassing is that?
“Who’s that dark-haired girl with the pigtails again? Didn’t she used to babysit that one kid that turned to the Puppeteer?”
Plagg’s words kept running through Adrien’s head. The kwami was now somewhere in the kitchen. Yes, Marinette used to babysit part-time. Yes, Adrien was a horrible babysitter. Also, Marinette stopped wearing her hair in pigtails since she started Senior High. And no, Adrien did not want to bother her despite having a hard time on his own.
That didn’t mean he didn’t want to try asking.
Adrien started the phone call with an awkward greeting. The whole phone call was awkward. Adrien smacked himself at how he can talk so business-like around simple acquaintances in phone calls but he managed to stutter and slur on his words when it was Marinette. We don’t talk much.
To Adrien’s luck, the girl was completely free and was okay to give a helping hand.
The boy was a ball of adrenaline. Marinette could easily handle kids, and Adrien just had to call for help. He had not expected the girl to accept, though. They weren’t really that close, but knowing Marinette, she’d probably help anyone who asked for a hand, even strangers.
Adrien let his eyes wander around his room. Although he’s moved in an apartment, Gabriel had insisted keeping the room for his son (the one currently attending university, just so you know) if he ever decides to come for a visit.
The cavernous room was even more cavernous with the absence of some of his things, such as the rock-climbing station, arcade stations, fencing banners, and some of the other things he can’t possibly use as an adult had been donated to charity to his request. Gabriel, for some unknown reason, had complied to his son’s wishes anyway. Everything else, such as the library, multi-screen computer system, and the fencing trophies were some of which he decided to keep.
In general, his room looked more or less plain, just how he liked it.
“Liam? Where are you? Ladybug and Chat Noir need your help in defeating the monster!”
It was absolutely hard to play around when you’ve got no experience with kids, moreover experienced even playing with one. Fortunately, for the tall blond, magic actually existed.
Adrien was walking crouched down, bended knees as he scanned through the contents of his room where his brother was hiding in somewhere. His legs were ready to give out at any second, but he had to play along, so he’ll play along.
He heard the treading of small footsteps and the sound of the sliding door to his (also) very large bathroom being closed. Gotcha. The tall blond tiptoed his way to the door and slowly slid the door open before fully opening it and shouted, “Aha!”
Nothing.
He stepped into the room and searched every square inch.
Still nothing.
Liam’s laughter echoed through the whole bedroom, the sound of him running on the carpeted floor gave Adrien a hint as to where he was going. The door closed with a loud thud.
The tall blond sighed once more and glanced at his desk, the volumes and notebooks remained untouched since they had been scattered on the space. His hands made their way to his hair and pulled at the roots. “God, how long can I keep this up?” Don’t get him wrong, he loves the little sprout, but the boy had gotten more notorious as he aged. Adrien had no choice but to understand; he knows he had been the same as a child.
“Ahh shit,” he muttered as he ran his hands through his (very handsome) face and walked out the room.
His eyes darted to his watch. 3:42 pm. Marinette would be here in less than five minutes. Thank the heavens for Marinette.
The doorbell rang, the sound of it echoing throughout the mansion. Adrien froze in his place in the hallway. She's early.
The small voice of his halfbrother was heard from downstairs. “Big brother, a strange pretty lady is looking for you!”
Adrenaline ran through his system at the mere thought that she was there.