Chapter Text
Ezreal walked through Paris according to Tikki’s directions. They were in a part of town Ezreal had never been before, and he was half convinced that Tikki didn’t know where they were going when Tikki pointed to a tea shop.
“There! That’s where the guardian lives!”
Ezreal walked in. It was a tea shop, but there were no customers, odd. Though this part of town was kind of an odd place to put a tea shop if you expected to actually make money. There was an old man meditating at one of the tables. Was he the guardian?
“Ezreal,” the old man said, opening his eyes. “I’ve been expecting you.”
Ezreal froze. Definitely the guardian. “You. . . have?”
“But I did not expect to see you so soon. Tikki, I told you to only bring your holder in an emergency.”
“This is an emergency master!” Tikki said, flying out of Ezreal’s bag. “Ezreal found the miracle book!”
The man’s eyes widened. “I see. Sit Ezreal, I’ll make us some tea.”
Ezreal sat and pulled the miracle book out of his backpack. “Guardian, what does the book mean? It’s in a language I can’t read.”
“You may call me Master Yi,” the man said. “And tea first, questions later.”
Ezreal sighed quietly and put the book back in his bag. Master Yi. Like that was any less formal than Guardian.
The tea was quite good, but Ezreal was impatient to know what it actually meant. He had flipped through the whole thing only looking at the pictures and was so curious about the other superheroes. If he could use them to help him and Cat Noir fight Hawkmoth maybe they would have the butterfly miraculous by now.
Ezreal downed his tea and turned to bring out the book again but Yi just raised an eyebrow sipping slowly on his tea, taking his sweet ass time.
Ezreal looked around for Tikki and saw her floating around with another kwami that looked like a turtle.
“Are you a holder?” Ezreal asked, suddenly intrigued. He took the book out, ignoring Yi’s disapproval and flipped to the page that showed a picture of the turtle miraculous holder.
“I am,” Yi said. “Though I’m not active anymore, Wayzz is more of a companion than anything these days.”
“What about the other miraculous? Do they have holders?”
“Not currently.”
“Why not? With more holders we could take back the butterfly miraculous,” Ezreal protested.
Master Yi sighed. “While that may be true, it comes with a risk. I took a great risk even giving you and Cat Noir your miraculous.”
“What risk? We’re doing great.”
“I have made mistakes regarding holders before. I will not make that same mistake again.”
Oh.
It settled on Ezreal finally. Of course. The butterfly miraculous was given out to someone Master Yi trusted once.
“I’m sorry I just. . . I just want Hawkmoth gone.”
Yi smiled. “You and me both boy. I appreciate you bringing the book to me.”
“Can you read it?”
Yi nodded. “I was taught the cypher when I was young. It will take some time, but I’ll get it all worked out soon enough.”
“What’s in it?”
“Lots of things young holder. Recipes for potions to make yourself stronger along with information on your powers and how to combine your powers with that of another miraculous.”
Ezreal’s eyes widened. “You can do that?” He didn’t know what the other miraculous powers were, but if he could have all of them at once surely he could find and defeat Hawkmoth.
“But it is rather dangerous, and only to be used for extreme measures.”
Right. Always great power with great consequence. Of course.
“Where did you find this book?”
“Hm? Why?”
“Well I can only imagine that Hawkmoth wants it, and whoever might have had it could be Hawkmoth.”
A chill ran down Ezreal’s spine. Kayn had it. Kayn his best friend, who he spent every lunch with in the music room. No. Kayn couldn’t be Hawkmoth. He just couldn’t.
“Oh, um I don’t know! I just sort of found it!”
Master Yi’s eyes narrowed slightly before his expression returned to neutral. “That is a shame. Maybe you could look into it. Maybe someone nearby saw who left the book there. A mystery really.”
“Yes, a mystery,” Ezreal said. “Well! I better get to that investigation! I’ll leave you to deciphering!”
“Did we have to leave so soon?” Tikki asked, flying after Ezreal as he left the building.
“Tikki Kayn had the book. But Kayn can’t be Hawkmoth.”
Tikki frowned. “I know you don’t want to believe it, but finding Hawkmoth is important. Maybe the simplest explanation is the right one?”
Ezreal thought about that night and his conversation with Kayn. Hadn’t he said the book was for his father? Oh no. That would mean Kayn’s father was Hawkmoth. Certainly better than it being Kayn himself, but Kayn would be devastated. Finding out your father was a supervillain? Ezreal had to be sure before he accused anyone.
***
“Who do you think has the miracle book?” Syndra asked.
Zed was sitting at his desk going through paperwork. “Isn’t that your job to figure out?”
“Ladybug. It’s probably Ladybug.”
“Then get it back from him.”
“All in due time yes. But have you considered that if Ladybug has it he might be able to trace it’s ownership back to you?”
“I had considered it.”
“And your plan to deal with that?”
Zed scoffed finally looking up fully from his paperwork. “Ladybug is a child. He can’t just accuse me and expect something good to come of it.”
“And if he tries?”
“I have cover stories. There’s more than one reason someone might want that book.”
Not very good reasons. Syndra thought. But she wasn’t about to challenge Zed further.
***
Back at Ezreals apartment he set up a corkboard and found some red string. What else could there be? What other reason would someone have for wanting that book besides the fact that Zed could be Hawkmoth. He just couldn’t be. Hawkmoth was evil and surely Kayn’s dad wasn’t evil.
His first thought was just how rich people are eclectic. They like to have things to have things so maybe he heard about the miracle book and bought it on auction to keep in his private collections. Ezreal thought his parents might do that if given the chance.
Or maybe he knew what the book was and bought it specifically to give to Ladybug. A teenager could never buy something like that, much less would be actively looking on auction markets. That must be it! Zed got Kayn to get the book from Renata so that he could maybe look at it first out of curiosity and then give to Ladybug!
Tikki frowned at Ezreals corkboard and d string detective project. She understood what Ezreal was trying to do, and more importantly why he was doing it but still felt that something was off.
“You should just confront him Ezreal,” Tikki said.
“No. I can’t do that. That would be rubbing in his face that he lost the book. Well he lost it to me, so it ended up where Zed wanted it to anyways but still, that would be rude.”
“But what if you’re wrong?”
“Wrong? How could I be wrong?”
Tikki sighed. “You should talk to Cat Noir about it at least.”
“You’re right. Tikki, spots on!”
***
Kayn got a message from Ladybug asking to meet up.
“What’s up?” Kayn asked. It wasn’t often that Ladybug asked to meet up like this. Especially since there wasn’t an akuma attack going on.
“If you ever thought that someone might you know, be Hawkmoth, what would you do?”
Kayn’s eyes widened in surprise. “You know who Hawkmoth is? Who? We should go take him down right now.”
“Well I don’t know for certain it was just sort of a—”
A loud explosion in the distance shook the ground.
“What the fuck was that?” Kayn asked.
“Something that we should definitely go check out.”
On the scene they found a little kid akumatized with a giant backpack full of bombs he was throwing everywhere.
“Light the match and throw it,” Fuse said, tossing another bomb.
“A kid with bombs. Great. Like actually why?” Cat Noir groaned.
“We find out why after we break the object. I think it’s in the backpack.”
“So. . . powers?”
“No! If you cataclysm the bomb it might blow up!”
“Since when?”
“Since I don’t know? Do you want to risk it?”
“Fair enough. So what’s the plan?”
“Lucky charm!”
“Sparklers? Fuck no. Are we fighting Jinx again or something because that’s not lucky.”
“Shut up, leme think.”
Ezreal looked around, trying to see the pattern. This kid was setting off bombs. Why?
Ladybug struck the end of the sparkler quick across the side of the building and the top lit up like a star.
Fuse looked up and grinned, entranced by the sparkler.
“Watch this,” Ladybug said as he fumbled around with the sparkler keeping Fuse’s attention
Kayn took the clue and jumped down, not cataclysming the bomb back pack just quickly severing the straps from Fuse’s shoulders.
From there he ripped the cord fuse out of the bomb and the akuma came out.
Ezreal smiled and caught the butterfly.
“Miraculous Ladybug!” He tossed the glowing sparkler in the air and Ziggs, the kid on the ground watched with wide eyes. The ladybugs fixed everything else.
“Maybe we try to talk through our emotions first before we start blowing stuff up,” Ladybug said, jumping down to the ground and ruffling the kid’s hair.
Ziggs pouted. “But I wanted to set off fireworks and Mommy and Daddy said we couldn’t!”
“Well you’re only allowed to set of fireworks on certain days of the year,” Ezreal reasoned.
Ziggs pouted. “That’s a dumb rule.”
“It may be, but rules are there for a reason. We can’t go breaking them just because.”
“Ok, fine.”
Ladybug smiled. “Ill take you home.”
Ziggs’ face lit up. “Can we fly?”
Ezreal scooped the kid up in one arm. “Just don’t tell your parents.”
Cat Noir opened his mouth but Ladybug was already gone. But he wasn’t going to wait around if Ladybug had an idea of who Hawkmoth was.
Ladybug dropped off Ziggs, who told his parents in two seconds that he had flown home with Ladybug and his parents gave Ezreal some very concerned looks and he quickly took his leave. He was about to find somewhere to de-transform when he ran into Cat Noir.
“So about earlier?” Cat Noir said. “About who Hawkmoth is?”
“Oh!” Ezreal fumbled for words. He couldn’t. He just couldn’t. Not without proof. “It was just a hypothetical. Like, if you knew who Hawkmoth was what would you do? Because we are gonna find him eventually and when we do we’ll need a plan. So what would you do?”
Kayn scowled. There was something Ladybug wasn’t telling him, he just wasn’t sure what. “I’d make Hawkmoth forget he was ever born.”
Ezreal laughed nervously. “See good start to a plan! I’ll keep thinking on mine and get back to you. Anyway, later!”
“Tikki, spots off,” Ezreal said when he got back to his apartment. “I have to be sure about Zed before I say anything to Cat Noir.”
“But Ezreal—”
“No Tikki, I have to be certain. I can’t have Cat Noir going feral on my only friend’s dad.”