Chapter Text
Stepping into the penthouse, Chloe didn’t wait long before throwing her many accessories into the spacious bedroom. She had just spent another day in her relatively new job as a combined social media influencer and model. This, among other things in her arranged schedule, had shockingly left little time for her to spend by herself, and she intends to make the most of any relaxation that she could get.
In that regard, tonight was a night that she happily anticipated more than most. Normally, she’d be ordered by her mom’s employees to once again go outside, review the products in this place or that brand, and then post it online for all her followers to see. Sometimes, she’d be ordered to catch up on her tutoring lessons, which she hated with a passion after spending years having someone else do the schoolwork for her.
Not tonight. No, tonight had nothing scheduled for her, which means she could spend her entire night in the bathtub or in her bed. The thought motivated her throughout the entire day, and as the sun got closer to setting, she had barely kept herself composed enough to do her work. Now, with no one observing her, she can let herself loose.
Removing her shoes, sunglasses, and jacket, she quickly went to prepare the bathtub, when she heard something she had never heard in the several months she’s lived here. A knock on the penthouse’s window.
It shouldn’t be possible. No one could just climb up the outside of the building, all the way to the penthouse, and knock on the window. What happened to all the security systems her mom paid for?
“Who’s there?” she couldn’t help but ask, going against her survival instincts.
She decided to grab a bottle of wine that she had in her bedroom, knowing deep down that it probably wouldn’t do much against someone who’d just pulled off…whatever they pulled off to get to where they are now. Walking at a brisk pace to the windows of the main room, she prepared herself to smash the bottle of wine against the unknown intruder.
As she got closer to the window, she realized that the bottle of wine won’t be needed, as the intruder was someone far worse than a random robber or kidnapper could ever be.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” she quipped at her intruder. On the other side of the window, Chat Noir was standing like a tacky cosplayer, complete with glowing wings and a helmet.
It seems like the window wasn’t soundproof enough to stop him from hearing her, as he managed to reply to what she said. “I wouldn’t need to be dragged in if you’d just open the door and let me in, you know.”
She can feel her blood starting to boil. “And what makes you think I will let you in here? I can call security right now and you’ll just have to fly away or be exposed as a stalking creep,” she said, trying to get a smile on her face that she just couldn’t seem to achieve.
Chat Noir was quick to make a counterargument. “I could, but then you wouldn’t get to find out why I bothered to come here in the first place, and I know you wouldn’t be able to stand not knowing.”
Truthfully, her curiosity of the situation by itself wouldn’t be enough to convince her to let him in. She just didn’t have enough energy to deal with the mangy cat who had contributed to the fact that she was forced to leave Paris and abandon the only life she’d known for 14 years.
No, what piqued her interest was Chat Noir himself. He kept saying things that she expected him to say, but he just felt…different compared to what she knew of him. His facial expressions and tone of voice seemed off, far stiffer than his well-known bravado. She found this just as aggravating, yet in the moment, far more intriguing than anything else.
Trying to plan the thousands of words she’s gonna rant her mouth off to him once he’s inside, she made her decision. “Fine. I’ll go unlock the terrace door. You, meanwhile, need to lose the wings so you don’t break anything inside.” Chloe ordered as she walked over to grab the penthouse’s room settings remote and put down the bottle of wine she’d been holding.
As she unlocked the terrace door using the remote, she was relieved to see that Chat Noir had in fact gotten rid of the wings, returning to his normal form. He wasted no time getting himself in the penthouse before taking a look around the place. He seemed to be ignoring her.
“Can’t even maintain eye contact with me, huh?” she mocked, the jab apparently enough to get his attention back on her.
“What, can’t a cat be interested in this shiny and soft house?” he said, keeping the same uncharacteristically flat tone he’s been using in their conversation.
She felt that he was close to yelling at her. Finding that to be an unacceptable scenario (she needs to be the first person to shout), she sighed and realized she needed to move things along.
“Let’s just cut the bullshit. Why are you here?” Chloe demanded, crossing her arms as she let her annoyance at him fully show in her face.
Chat Noir didn’t immediately say anything back. He just looked down at the floor, once again avoiding eye contact with her. Angry, but figuring that he will actually explain things soon, Chloe remained still, her patience slowly ticking out the longer he stayed quiet.
After what felt like hours even though it was probably just a minute or two, Chat Noir broke the annoying silence. “Chloe…what do you think of Gabriel Agreste?” he quietly asked, finally looking at her once more.
Out of all the things he could’ve said, that was definitely not one that she anticipated. Much to her annoyance, she found herself confused and unable to come up with an immediate response. Not wanting to look weak, she just blurted out whatever came to her mind regarding the old dead man.
“He’s incredibly accomplished & talented at what he did, although he was also way too strict with his son, stricter than my mom and dad ever was with me,” she explained, trying to sound more confident in her words than she actually was.
Thinking about it, her statement wasn’t completely truthful. Ever since Chloe moved to London, her mom has gotten far more similar to what she remembers of Gabriel, at least in how strict she was with Chloe’s daily schedule. She also barely sees her mom in person, but that’s nothing new. She tried to ignore the burning feeling in the back of her head and get rid of these thoughts.
Not receiving a reply from Chat Noir, she continued on. “He was also foolish to give up his life to defeat Monarch. What kind of ridiculous moron would sacrifice themselves to save Ladybug, of all people?” she scoffed, her sentiment mostly genuine, she thought.
Chat Noir’s expression shifted at her words, turning into something more pathetic. It took another minute before he actually said anything. “What if…that’s not what actually happened? What if he didn’t sacrifice himself for Ladybug?” he said, almost whispering, barely loud enough for her to hear.
“What are you even talking about?!” Chloe yelled at him, getting more pissed off at his cryptic nonsense.
Taking a deep breath, Chat Noir let his next words out. “What if I told you that Gabriel Agreste…is Monarch?”
It took a moment for Chloe to take in what he said. She simply found it an utterly ridiculous proposition.
“Gabriel Agreste is Monarch? Are you kidding me? Is this a prank? Do you expect me to fall for one of your tricks?” she ranted, hoping to get a rise out of him and get him to reveal his actual reason for doing all this.
When he made no indication that he’s gonna say anything back, she decided to double down on her mockery. “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue? Did Ladybug put you up to this to embarrass me? Did she leave you by yourself to figure it out?” she grinned as she continued her verbal assault on him.
“Do you really believe Ladybug asked me to do this?” Chat Noir replied, his voice surprisingly close to either cracking in tears or breaking in anger. She couldn’t quite tell.
Chloe wasn’t planning on letting him have the last word on this. “She can ask you to do anything. If it wasn’t Gabriel Agreste that day, it would’ve been you,” she quipped.
Chat Noir remained still for another few minutes. Chloe thought she’d just won some rhetorical victory against him. Against Ladybug, for that matter. All that’s needed now is for her to flip the script and get their embarrassment for the world to see.
Closing his eyes and sighing, Chat Noir said something she would never have expected him to say right in front of her. “Plagg, claws in.”
She understood the mechanics of what was going on, of course. Chat Noir had decided to detransform and reveal his identity to her. That didn’t mean that she wasn’t caught completely off-guard by his decision. She couldn’t do anything but stare at him with the biggest, most genuine look of surprise on her face as green light engulfs his form, before fading to reveal who he is.
This can’t be real. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, nononono….” she repeated to herself. This had to be another trick by Ladybug and Chat Noir. Maybe an illusion by Rena Rouge? Anything she could think of to explain away what she sees in front of her, she tried to think of as being true. She knew deep down that it was all pointless, though.
“Chloe, I’m not playing any tricks on you. It’s really me,” Chat Noir–no, Adrien said to her, his face looking like he’s almost pitying her. It’s sickening. Seeing red in front of her, she could barely even notice him talking with his kwami, giving him some cheese, and sending him to another room.
Despite what she felt, she managed to stop herself from launching a tirade that would send him away and make her look ridiculous. The room was quiet for several more minutes.
Catching her breath after her momentary bout of panic and anger, she gathered enough strength to give him a piece of her mind. “What do you want from me, Adrien?” she glared at him, aiming to look as powerful as she could be in the situation.
“I don’t know,” he shrugged.
“Really? You came all the way here to tell me that you don’t even know what you’re doing?” Chloe yelled at him. When he didn’t reply and just kept the same stupid look on his face, she continued by talking about his earlier revelation. “So it’s true then? About your–Monarch?”
“Yeah, it’s true. I didn’t lie to you about that,” Adrien said, his shoulders now slumping, face looking down at the floor, looking even more pathetic than he already was.
Chloe felt the urge to run up to him and shake him off his sorry state, but managed to shove it in her mind’s locker. “So why did you come here now? Monarch was kill–defeated months ago,” she inquired.
“I…only just found out the truth today,” he admitted.
Now that was something she never would’ve thought to be true. “Really? I mean, I know you weren’t there and that Ladybug had to fight Monarch by herself, but she didn’t tell you his identity? Did you never ask?” Chloe rapidly said, her curiosity now unable to be contained.
“Well, I kind of…said that it’s okay for her to not tell me anything about what happened,” he confessed, almost whispering as he did, as if he was embarrassed about it.
“Of course you did,” she sighed, shaking her head at his utter foolishness. “Did she tell you the truth today or did you overhear her talking with someone else?”
He contemplated on what to say for a moment. “It’s…closer to the second one. Let’s just say I discovered it by accident.”
She narrowed her eyes at his vague answer, but it would have to do for now. There are far more important things to talk about. “Why did you come here? Really, I’ve just had multiple secrets handed out to me for free, but I still don’t even know why it’s happening,” she exclaimed.
His answer was incredibly frustrating. “I don’t know, Chloe. I didn’t know where else to go,” he pouted.
“What do you mean you didn’t know where else to go? You have plenty of places you could go! What about just going back to your own house?” she almost shouted at him.
“I can’t just do that. I wouldn’t be able to think properly there. Everything would remind me of my father, and Nathalie is…well, was, Mayura,” he explained to her.
Huh, that last part does make sense if Gabriel was Monarch. She should’ve thought of that. Touche.
“Okay, that’s actually a fair point. Still, there are many places you could go to besides here. Why not go to your new girlfriend Dupain-Cheng’s house? Or your replacement BFF Lahiffe’s house? I’m sure they’d both wanna listen to your sob story,” she said.
“No, I can’t go there too.”
“Literally why the hell not?” she demanded him.
“Because, I just don’t want Mar–Ladybug to be able to find me. Nino’s house, a-and Marinette’s would be one of the first places she’d look,” he almost cried while saying.
Once again, Chloe had to make do with his answer, even though she felt like he was hiding things that would be relevant to the conversation. “Okay, I guess that explains why you wouldn’t go to their places. None of it answers my actual question, though. Why here? Why me of all people?”
Adrien just sighed and said “I told you, right? I don’t want Ladybug to be able to find me. This is the only place where I can ensure that.”
No. That’s not true at all. That’s not an answer she’ll just accept. “If you simply didn’t want to be found, you could’ve just put on a hoodie, grab some cash, and go to a cheap motel outside of Paris. You could even fly there if you’re too scared to use public transportation.”
Adrien didn’t reply to what she said. Instead, he walked over to the gigantic sofa in the middle of the room, slumped himself on it, and then started letting his tears fall. Chloe followed him and sat beside him.
“I guess…I just…really, really wanna go back,” he was able to choke out through his sobs, not even looking at her.
Chloe once again felt the urge to grab and shake him off his pathetic condition, but again stopped herself in favor of questioning him further. “Go back? What does that mean? Do you wanna go back home now?”
He shook his head. “No, I just…wish I could go back to where I was before the Miraculous. Before my fath–Hawk Moth.”
Chloe widened her eyes at his answer. “What’s so great about how things were before? You seemed…happier after you became Chat Noir. After you had the chance to go to school. After you…made actual friends,” she reluctantly admitted.
Adrien managed to laugh through his tears. The kind of laugh you do when you’ve just witnessed something so absurd. “Before then…I had my mom. My father. Felix. You,” he turned to look at her and smiled at her.
This time, she’s the one who avoided eye contact with him. She didn’t know whether she wanted to smack him or kiss him for his stupidly genuine smile. Maybe both.
“Now, what do I have?” he continued. “Nothing. No one. No person that I could go to with all this crap and trust to keep it all secret.”
Chloe found herself confused again. “But, you’re here now.”
“Yeah, I guess I am here now.”
She had to clear up all the confusion she’s having. “What makes you think I’ll keep all of this a secret? How can you be sure that I wouldn’t just tell the whole world the truth about you and your father right now?” she got up from the sofa and stood directly in front of him.
He pondered his answer for just a second. “You’re right. I can’t be sure. You could reveal everything right now, and I wouldn’t be able to stop you. Not with anything I’m willing to do, anyway.”
Chloe was suddenly reminded that he had the power to literally turn her into dust in a second. This information oddly didn’t scare her. “Is this an elaborate way to get me to do all that? A reputational suicide by influencer thing?”
Adrien just stared up at her, a confused look on his face. “I don’t know what this is, Chloe. Maybe I do want to get all of this over with. Maybe I just wish you had the ability to fix all of it.”
“And what does ‘fix all of it’ mean, exactly?” she raised an eyebrow at what he said.
“You were the one who got me to school in the first place. If you hadn’t helped me sign up for it, then maybe I wouldn’t have been there on that first day. Maybe I wouldn’t have saved that old man on the street. Then I wouldn’t be Chat Noir, and my father would still be alive,” he cried out.
Chloe didn’t even know how to react to the reminder that she had been partially responsible for what must’ve been the biggest change in his life up to that point, so close to his mother’s death. Everything that’s happened since then, to her, to him, to their relationship…she’d rather not think about right now. She’d rather not think about anything.
“What are you planning to do tonight?” she asked him.
Adrien couldn’t even look at her when he said “I guess I just wanna stay and sleep here tonight. If you’ll let me.”
Chloe gave him and herself one last chance to back out of whatever it is they’re about to get themselves into. “How are you so sure I won’t try to steal your Miraculous? I know it’s that ring you’re wearing,” she explained.
Getting himself into a sleeping position on the sofa, Adrien simply stated “I don’t know.”
With nothing else she wanted to say for now, Chloe went to her bedroom, her planned bath forgotten. She tried to go to sleep and not think of everything that just happened. The night turned out to be an almost sleepless one for her.