Hi! I'm new to to this fandom, but not new to the fanfiction world... I thought I would give it a dabble, and see where it takes me. I'm an aspiring writer so I appreciate all critique, so please feel free to share your thoughts, whether good or bad :) I work full time, so my goal is to update this story weekly, provided this story garners your interest.
Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope you enjoy!
No Returns or Exchanges
Chapter 1: Home again, home again, jiggity jig.
"Welcome to Paris! City of love!"
The flight attendant's voice over the plane intercom jarred Adrien Agreste from his sleep. He groggily straightened up in time to gather himself and hand his trash over to the petite blonde female attendant passing by, who placed it in her bag. She made the last few rows before giving a thumbs up to the brunette woman who held the small speaker.
"In a few minutes we will start our descent, please revert your seats to the upright position, and collapse your tray. On behalf of our airline, thank you, and we look forward to flying with you again." She hung the small black device back up and walked over to where the rest of the attendents were buckling themselves in.
Turbulence hit, causing the plane to rock side from side, and while many of the other first class riders grimaced queasily and cringed into their seats, Adrien eagerly popped open the shade on the window to peer out.
5 years.
Paris in all her glorious beauty was splayed out below, illuminated by the pure joyous light of the rising sun. Cathedrals, galleries, towers, and the familiar roof tops. All favorite haunts with even dearer memories attached in perfect view. Adrien pressed his hands against the window, as if he could somehow reach out to touch all that was there at once. He felt like a man who had wandered the desert seeking refuge for weeks on end, and now finally he had found his oasis. Paris was home. Adrien was home.
Five years. It had been five years since Adrien had been surrounded by the sound of his mother tongue. French being spoken, more than just over the phone, all around him, at once- coupled with the smells of bakeries, and the clatter of shoes and luggage. He eagerly pulled his small carry on through the baggage claims, soaking and reveling in everything he saw and heard. It was good to be back. It felt so right. And yet... so wrong that it had taken this long.
Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a small newspaper stand with stacks of free papers. From where he stood he could see the main page, a large picture on the front of what appeared to be an akumatized mailman with the title 'GONE POSTAL' in bold lettering. There were no mentions of… anyone else.
"Master Agreste."
The familiar voice broke him from his reverie, and he turned to meet the warm familiar blue eyes of someone he considered family.
"Nathalie!" He swooped forward and picked up the brunette woman in a quick hug. Nostalgia hit him hard, but even stranger was the fact that the woman who had always seemed tall and stern, only came to his chin and seemed alot-.
She squeaked in alarm. "Put me down!"
Well forget that, she's still stern. Adrien chuckled to himself as he sat her down.
"I see the Americans have rubbed off on you." Nathalie straightened her glasses and looked him up and down. "Your father wil be appalled." Natalie tisked, reaching forward to straighten the button up blouse that Adrien wore. Inwardly though, she beamed with pride at seeing the young man. It only seemed yesterday that she was driving a sad and lonely teenager to the airport. But the Adrien who had returned in his place was a taller, sturdier man with shining eyes, and a large smile.
"I hope so!" Adrien agreed enthusiastically.
"Well, we'll see shortly enough, we have already retrieved your luggage from customs. If you will follow me, I'll bring you to the car." She started leading Adrien to the outside, paying attention as she watched him eagerly looking around. Her lips tightened at the corners. She was happy he was home.
"Speaking of my work-a-holic father, I see he isn't here. I don't remember him being afraid of airports."
"He had a meeting, he is looking forward to dinner though." Nathalie ignored the latter comment. She, herself, still hadn't forgiven Mr. Agreste for not bringing Adrien to the airport all those years ago. What kind of father made his son leave everything he knew with hardly a farewell.
She waved down their limo, and once it pulled up, leaned over to open the car door. However before she could, Adrien grabbed it and opened it. He grinned at her and gestured for her to get in.
Nathalie hesitated and then rolled her eyes and obliged. "Did you treat all of your caretakers like this?"
"Nope, I fired them all a week in. No one matched up to you, and after the tenth time of giving me down feather pillows, I realized it was unfair of me to compare everyone to you, as you are clearly on an absurdly high level. And you can hardly call yourself a caretaker now. I'm not a kid!" Adrien mused leaning back against the comfy seat. He turned up the A.C. and directed a vent towards him, before unbuttoning his collar twice to reveal the neck of the blue shirt underneath.
"Hardly," she repeated dryly, watching as he repeatedly then opened and closed the car window. Who turned on A.C. and then played with the window? "I suppose you fired your limo driver too?"
"Nonsense, he just took an extended leave. I got a car instead." He sighed. "Bessie, she was a beaut. 1982 'vette, with a killer sound sys-" he froze mid sentence, putting the window all the way down and sticking his head out. That flash of red in the corner of his eye, was it… could it be…
A red flag advertising some sort of small gallery whipped in the wind. Adrien settled back in his seat trying to quell the disappointment welling in him. He was acting window closed with a small click and he leaned back and closed his eyes with a sigh, his right index finger absently rubbing a black ring on his left..
Nathalie peered at him with concern for a moment before writing it off as it being exhaustion and decided to let him be. There would be plenty of time for catch up later.
Dupain-Cheng Bakery, Same day.
The usual tinkle of bells greeted Alya as she entered the bakery. It was quickly followed by a thump sound and a weak "Good morning" from the sole worker in the small cafe.
"My my my, is that a lump on your head or are you just happy to see me?" The reporter put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows at the bluenette woman who was rubbing her head where she had banged it on the underside of the table.
"Sorry," Marinette winced, grimacing at the oncoming headache.
"I'm going to assume you're apologizing to the table, seeing as I was the one who surprised you. What were you doing anyway?" Alya swung her backpack off and put it down on the little circular table, watching as Marinette haltingly crawled out from underneath. With little difficulty, the bluenette leaned on the table to help straighten her bad right leg. It had the tendency to get incredibly stiff.
"Gum, I swear this customer the other day had 12 kids, and each of those kids had their own pack of gum… Notice I say had?" Marinette glared at the offending table. With a sigh, she pulled her hair band off the tail of her long braid, and began finger combing it out. It amused Alya to no end to watch Marinette do this, because she knew it would only be a matter of time before the hair went back up to meet the bakery's regulations. "The usual?"
"Yes," Alya blew her a kiss, before reaching down and pulling out her laptop and notebooks. Although the early sunlight was just starting to chase the rest of the shadows away, and cars and people start to fill the street, Alya was already alert and working. News didn't sleep, so she couldn't wait to get an early jump on the days work, especially when she had a Dupain-Cheng coffee and glazed sprinkled donut on the way.
"How was your night?" Marinette asked as she got the coffee grinder started. The sounds of coffee beans rattling around, the chirping of birds outside made the normal morning background music. Sunlight filled the room through the wide windows, throwing the soft amber highlights in her bestfriends hair to full brilliance. In the last couple years, Alya had filled out her broad shoulders and boyish build. She stood a few inches taller than Marinette, with long thick and now smooth red hair on her right side, and an undercut on the left. Her glasses, ever present were black and chique, and her lush black lashes fluttered across her cheeks as she blinked in rapid tempo with her clicking fingers. Despite many of Marinette's and Nino's efforts, her wardrobe of plaid persisted in making a regular appearance.
"Al'?" Marinette repeated, amused, knowing her voice was probably just echoing around in Alya's otherwise focused mind. She grabbed her bestfriends personal mug from the crowd of simple white cups on a shelf. The mug was pink with the black words "Give me Coffee or Give me Death" bold against a red heart.
"Huh?" Due to the sudden silence of keyboard keys, even with her back to her, Marinette knew without looking that Alya's eyes had just froze open along with her fingers. "What. Oh, yeah! My night was... alright."
"Alright?" The corners of Marinette's smile tightened as she poured the expected amount of cream and sugar that Alya took.
While Marinette continued preparing the rest of her coffee, and donut, Alya huffed. "Well, I mean. It could have been better. Like way better. But, someone, and by someone i mean, I don't know, the ONLY person I live with who has access to my stuff, just ACCIDENTALLY, deleted a paper I was working on. But it was accidentally so I will have to, in a timely manner, find it in myself to forgive him."
"Timely manner," Marinette echoed, walking over to Alya with her things.
"As in, it took me roughly a week to write that paper, so it will take me about a week to forgive him."
"Poor Nino," Marinette laughed, slowly sitting down from across her. She glanced at the time, noting it was close to the morning rush and with a sigh, started to re-braid her hair.
Alya took a very pursed sip of her coffee. "Poor Nino my fat- but very appealing- ass! How do you delete something that says in screaming caps- DON'T DELETE ME." a large chomp claimed half the donut's life, followed by a very muffled voice. "And ven, vat boi sayth to me…" she paused, swallowed and the continued in a high pitched voice. "Oh my, I don't know how that happened! One second it was there, then I sneezed, and the next it was gone!"
Marinette laughed, clutching her stomach in amusement over her worked up friend's antics. "And then?" she chortled.
"Then I asked him if he was capable of pulling the document out of his ass, or if it was only disappearing magic he was good at." Alya shook her head, but smiled at the peals of laughter coming out of her friend. Suddenly, her laptop chimed as email notification popped up. She clicked on it, scanning it quickly. "Wow." her eyebrows rose high above her glasses frame.
"Wow what?"
"Chloe Bourgeois just invited me to a welcome back party." She paused, narrowing her eyes.
"Chloe? From highschool? That's weird… I don't remember hearing about her getting head trauma recently." Marinette laughed.
Alya chuckled, "Nope I read that wrong. It was an invite to come work at a welcome back party. She wants me to run a story on it." Her finger scrolled down on the mouse as she continued to read. "She's going to get head trauma if she thinks I'm going to come out to write an article on her boyfriend flavor of the month. Like honestly, the nerve of- oh my God!" Alya's hands flew to her chest and her mouth dropped.
"What?" Marinette, ran around to the other side of the table to see what was giving her friend such a start. As she leaned over to read, she reached over to take a sip of Alya's coffee.
COME WELCOME THE RETURN OF PARIS' SWEETHEART, ADRIEN AGRESTE.
Marinette gasped, spitting coffee all over the screen.
"HEY! Jeeze, are you competing with Nino for biggest butthead?!" Alya complained.
A wave of highschool memories coupled with dusty butterflies Marinette didn't even know she still had swirled to life in her mind and the pits of her stomach. "Adrien is back from the States…" She breathed, and then hiccupped.
Alya finished wiping off her screen, and leaned closer to read the note attached. "Yup, model-boy has returned from his five year tour in America and will be here for the upcoming fashion show. She's invited me to come run an article on him and the party." a single finger snaked up to push up her glasses. "It's tomorrow at 6 at their hotel ballroom."
"Wow," Marinette said, shaking her head like a dog trying to rid itself of water. "That's crazy, it's been so long since…" Since what? She paused, thinking over where she was taking that sentence. Since he left? Since anyone has seen him, talked to him, heard from him? Since she confessed to him? Since her whole life turned upside down?!
Her hand, out of nervous habit, reached up to touch her once adorn but now bare earlobe. Before it did, she stilled it, clenching her fist, and then bringing it back down to her side. She straightened up, making eye contact with the a pedestrian approaching the front door from the outside.
The bell on the door chimed, and Marinette quickly scurried back to behind the counter, hurriedly grabbing her apron off it's hook on the wall, and tying it securely around her waist. "Hi how may I help you today?" she cheerily greeted the elderly man.
He smiled in greeting, and started perusing the baked goods behind the counter's glass windows.
"Hey, Mari."
"Yes Al," Marinette replied.
"Are you working tomorrow?"
"Ummm," Marinette glanced at her schedule hanging on the back of the counter, detailing her two full time jobs. "Actually, surprisingly enough, I get off work early at 4 tomorrow."
"Nino's working tomorrow night." Alya said vaguely. Marinette scrutinized her friend.
"I'm not baby sitting your computer, it's an inanimate object, it can be at home by itself." Marinette rolled her eyes. Her customer pointed out his pastry of choice, and she smiled and nodded at him, opening the glass window to pull it out.
"It's not that." The two made eye contact. "It says I can bring a guest." Alya's eyebrows waggled. "So how about it? Be my guest to the ball?"
Marinette gulped, faltering in wrapping up the selected pastry for her customer. "Th-that will be 4.03." she stammered, accepting the already proffered credit card.
"Cooome on Mari!" Alya whined.
"Yeah, come on Mari!" chipped in the man with a slightly toothy smile. Marinette laughed as she waved him out of the store, before folding up his receipt and depositing it into a drawer below the cashier.
A silence ensued as Marinette busily examined her flour packed fingernails while avoiding Alya's weighted stare.
"Well?"
Marinette sighed. "I don't know Alya, it's just kinda awkward… I mean I haven't talked to him in years, I barely knew him then, let alone now, and…" she blushed."It's not like we ended on the greatest note."
"That was years ago! You guys were in highschool! He probably has completely forgotten about it, and will be happy to see a familiar face." Alya paused, eyeing Marinette. "You're not still crushing on him are you?" Her fingers drummed an even temp on the table.
"Of course not!" one rusty butterfly wing flapped.
The finger drumming spiked in speed. "Are you suuuure?"
The other butterfly wing started to move. Smack went the hand of apathy, wiping that butterfly out of thought and existence. "Absolutely." Marinette huffed.
"Excellent, so I'll be by here at 4 to do your hair," Alya smiled, pleased with the turn of events. "Damn, this is pretty exciting. I mean, outside of it being Chloe's party, and I mean, well Chloe- but how cool is it we will be there to see Adrien, gosh, I wonder how much he's changed? I bet Nino will want to hang out with him again and-"
Alya's musing fell into background noises as a rosy cheeked Marinette went through the motions of running the small bakery.
I can't believe Adrien is home! I'm going to need something to wear. The thought danced through her head, and, for one quick moment, a part of Marinette that had been asleep for years surfaced. Color and design flew through her mind as she day dreamed of a dress. But as quickly as that bloomed, with one glanced at her chock-full calendar, it died. And the reminder that even the miraculous can't change the past weighed heavy on her heart.
Agreste Manor, Same day.
What a ridiculously long table. Adrien stared down the overwhelming stretch of wood that lay between him and his father. They sat, dining in...well the dining room, having an awkward dinner reunion of sorts, over watched by a silent maid. From the fixed expression on her face, it was apparent to Adrien that she would rather be anywhere then there, listening to him and his father attempt at father-son'ing. God knows Adrien gave up on it years ago.
Why is the salt and pepper in the center of the table too? He eyed it, debating if it was worth what appeared to be a mile jog to retrieve it.
"How did you like the States?" His father asked stiffly.
"It's a very…" Adrien paused, watching as his father waved at the maid. She leaned over to grab the salt and pepper and walked it over to his father. So that explains that. "Loud, um, yes it was a very loud country... The fast food wasn't all that bad." his father's eyes flashed up from carefully examining the placement of falling salt and pepper. Damn it, why was that the first thing that popped into my mind. "Not that I had any of course, I mostly vicariously enjoyed it through others. And they likewise, vicariously enjoyed my starvation, and exhaustion."
His father snorted, which Adrien counted as an achievement. "I kept an eye on you out there, the companies you worked with said you were impeccable, and wished for me to know that you were the height of professional."
Well it wasn't welcome back, I missed you, I love you, how are you doing, but Adrien would take it.
"Thank you," he stuffed a piece of green beans in his mouth and then looked over at the salt and pepper, now next to his father, with longing. Definitely not worth it now.
There was a stretch of silence, only broken by the clink of forks. Eye contact was fiercely avoided as the two floundered for something to say to bridge the gap.
It was the first time since Adrien left… Since Adrien was sent away to tour America for modeling that he and his father had talked face to face. The first time in five years, and it was still as painful as it had been before he left.
Adrien accidentally bit his cheek instead of biting back on his disappointment. Blinking rapidly, he chewed and swallowed, staring blankly at the salt and pepper shakers. They were just like his father...out of reach. He didn't know what he had expected, hell it had been hard enough when his father first sent him away to swallow his anger. And yet here he was, still hoping for something, some kind of sign that things had changed.
"Here you go Master Agreste." The maid quietly said as she placed the salt and pepper shakers down in front of him.
Adrien blinked in surprise, barely remembering to murmur thanks as he accepted them. He looked at them, then over to his father, then back at table piece items. Then he grunted to himself, took another bite and mused. Maybe things could change.
"Well Plagg, we're back." Adrien allowed his little black kwami out of his coat pocket as he entered his old room. It was exactly how he remembered leaving it, even to the same blankets adorning the bed, although he was sure they were either new or recently washed. The room was impeccable as always, and still as empty feeling as ever.
The little black kwami zoomed about for a second before pausing to hover in front of Adrien. "Well this is very exciting and all, but wouldn't you rather explore the city than your dinky room."
Adrien laughed, pretty sure no one had ever used the word dinky to describe his bedroom before. "You sure you don't even want a bite of cheese before we go?"
"I'm sure I didn't choose a dodo bird to partner with me," came the cat's snarky response.
Adrien shrugged before with a small grin. It had been five years since he left. Two since Ladybug began to appear less and less, and then one year since she altogether was time to find his friend. "Plagg, transform me!"
Let me know what you think :)
-RS