Hi! First story here. This fic is based off of a comic I was going to do but sort of grew a bit... I might still do the prologue. I don't know yet. Anyway, enjoy. Criticism and opinions are obviously more than welcome.
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The rain hammered down mercilessly over Paris. An outstretched arm offers an umbrella, a sign of peace and an offer of comfort.
The young fashion designer, standing on the steps of her school doesn't accept however. All she can do is stare at the figure offering it to her. He doesn't react other than to smile softly. The fact that he's being rained on doesn't seem to register to the young man or at the very least, he isn't bothered by it, despite the shelter that he's offering out in front of him and which is currently being ignored. He just looks at her, green eyes gentle and compassionate. The way he fixes her with such tender kindness, causes the young woman to remain all the more speechless, wondering if she's slipped into a scene from over a decade ago.
Finally, after what could have been an eternity or simply a few seconds. She managed to mutter, in some considerable amount of shock:
"It's you..."
A gentle smile is all the acknowledgement that she gets.
Somehow, the young woman found herself following the young man in front of her mindlessly, she remained close enough so as to be able to offer him some shelter from her umbrella.. The proximity in itself was truly bizarre. Asides from that wasn't thinking. It was impossible to think. It was more like operating on autopilot. He could have lead her off of the edge of a cliff, she likely wouldn't have noticed until she hit the ground. It couldn't be him… This was just her imagination playing tricks on her. It wouldn't be the first time she'd thought that she'd seen a familiar set of green eyes looking at her in the crowd only to discover that they belonged to another or were simply a trick of the light.
If he was an illusion however, he was by far and away the most realistic that her mind had ever conjured up. He was older but not so much so as to be unrecognisable. His wonderful smile remained the same. His voice had fully broken and was now a lower tone that she was used to. There was no mistaking the mop of blonde hair or his eyes. Any notion that it was simply a doppelgänger or someone who bore a resemblance to her former crush (in which case following him would have been a foolish thing to do) had been dismissed when she'd seen his kwami, back to hiding in his pocket. A lone Adrien was one thing to see, him accompanied by Plagg was another all together.
Where had he been? Why was he back? Was he alone? A thousand questions spiralled around in the young fashion designer's head. They drowned out the world around her. A part of her wanted to call Alya and the others, to let them know just what was going on and who she was with. She couldn't even muster the presence of mind to do that. She found herself absorbed by Adrien's presence to an extent that only he seemed to exist any more. His current appearance blurred together with that which he had sported all those years ago when they had parted ways. The young man and the teenager blurred together in her mind as she found herself taken back to that night all those years ago.
I can't stay here any more. I'm leaving. Goodbye.
Such harsh words but here he was, as if they had never been spoken before. Hang on? Just where were they? A voice called her out of her daydreaming state.
"Marinette?" It was Adrien.
"Huh?" It was like coming to out of a dazed state, she abruptly took notice of her decidedly unfamiliar surroundings.
"What would you like for your dinner mademoiselle?" A pleasant looking Asian waitress asked her patiently.
"Oh!" She picked the first thing on the menu without really thinking about it. When had they walked into a Chinese anyway?! "I'll have the caramelized pork with noodles, please!"
"Very well and you sir?"
"Just some noodles please." Was his simple request.
"Just noodles, sir?" The waitress questioned, eyebrows raised.
"Yes. Just noodles, if you don't mind. Thank you."
Marinette was curious about the odd order. Perhaps her companion wasn't very hungry? Although now that she thought about it, she seemed to recall him claiming that he was which had lead to them coming here. The waitress departed mere moments later.
Silence reigned over the table. After all this time, could she really not think of anything to say to her old friend? The truth was that she had too much on her mind to possibly even begin to ask it all. A thousand questions and she didn't know which one to say first. Simple chat was impossible as a part of the young woman was still struggling to get her head around the fact that she was here with Adrien Agreste, someone she' pined after for years and that none of this was an illusion was still struggling to get through to her. At any second, Marinette felt as if the scene would dissolve and that she would wake back up in her bed. Even as she was given her glass of wine (which she was beginning to feel that she desperately needed) and her companion his water, she found herself wondering if she'd attended Alya's party after all and overindulged in alcohol.
If it was a dream. She decided to make the most of it. It's realism was such that she was inclined to believe in it. As impossible as it might sound, she was definitely here, with Adrien Agreste. There was no denying it. All of her senses couldn't be wrong. She could hear the chatter from the other tables, the smell of the food was appetizing as it was placed in front of them. Excitement began to bubble in the pit of her stomach as she came to a very simple realization: she was here with her friend...
A friend and a stranger at the same time.
He had both changed beyond all recognition and not at all. He was easy to recognise physically: the same mop of blonde hair and stunning green eyes. He had grown of course. She wasn't too sure if he was taller than Nino or not, the difference must have been small whatever it was. He had filled out however. Despite the baggy tee-shirt, she could make out powerful arm muscles which she guessed meant that he'd been keeping fit. He certainly appeared healthy. Apparently, life at the temple – or wherever they had retreated to – had done him no harm. Once more, she found herself feeling a familiar heat rise to her cheeks as she contemplated the young man. He seemed to be oblivious. That again was familiar about him. He ate his noodles calmly, if he had noticed that she was staring at him, he wasn't letting on in the slightest. It was only after a few moments of her not eating but simply fixing him that he appeared to sense that something wasn't quite right. He raised his gaze to meet hers, wiping around his mouth with a cloth.
"Are you okay, Marinette?" His attention travelled down to her plate of food. "You haven't eaten."
"Me?!" The simple fact that he was addressing her caused the young woman to jump. "Yeah! Of course- I'm fine!"
She made quick work of shovelling a forkful of pasta into her mouth. It was colder than it should have been, a testament to just how much time she had spent gawking at him. In her panicked attempt to conceal just how much she had been staring, she found herself almost chocking on the food. She struggled to avoid spluttering, already the mental image of herself spitting her dinner out over her long absent friend conjured itself in her mind. Despite her best efforts to conceal her difficulty, she must have looked peculiar as Adrien stared at her. This awkwardness which she felt was one thing she would have appreciated disappearing. Unfortunately it lingered, leaving her feeling foolish in front of him, like some drooling fangirl who was no longer in control of her own actions. Was it a feeling of inferiority? No. What it was was a nervousness she couldn't escape, making even the most minute of things seem blown out of all proportion.
He smiled softly. It was a slight tug at the corner of his lips. He looked down at his plate before raising his gaze once more. She blushed, averting her eyes and wishing that she could just vanish until she managed to regain some form of composure. It was rather innocently that he finally spoke, breaking the silence:
"So… You're studying fashion, then? Any of your stuff hit the runway, yet?"
"Not the catwalk – at least not a real one - not yet." There was some regret there but it would come in time, more than one person had told her that much. "Jagged Stone wore one of my jackets through."
"Really?! That's awesome Marinette!"
She blushed once more. There was something about the genuine enthusiasm and joy with the way that Adrien spoke that made his words actually mean something. He somehow managed to always sound sincere. Not only that he actually meant what he was saying but that it meant something to him. It wasn't just where she was concerned, it felt like he cared about everyone. In truth, she didn't know how much he actually cared about all things fashion and how much of it was pandering to the interests of those around him, be it his father or friends.
She hesitated. The fact that he was asking about her seemed to indicate that his return was comparatively recent. For all that, he couldn't have just gotten off of the plane as he had known exactly where to find her. He must have been here for at least a day so as to know just where she went to her classes. Other than that, her detective skills weren't enough to allow her to try to imagine everything that had happened to her friend since they had gone their own ways. It was a question she had asked many a time. As the years had trickled by, she had found herself both desperate to hear from him and dreading whatever news they might receive. Time seemed to both increase uncertainty and the chances that something, somewhere had gone terribly wrong.
The restaurant didn't seem like the place to start bringing up all that fear and worry. That should have been something done once they had caught up some more and had time to get to know one another again. Much of Adrien remained as she had remembered him and just how she had dreamt their reunion would be but there were a few things which remained off. Despite her reservations, curiosity proved to be a powerful driving force however, prompting her to ask in as natural a way as possible:
"What about you? What have you been doing?"
"Training. Day in and day out. I won't bore you with the details." He took another forkful of pasta. "Lets just say I missed my old life."
"Well we sure missed you. What about Master Fu? Did he come too?"
The young man paused suddenly, as if he had suddenly become frozen, a bolt of electricity running through his body. It lasted a few seconds. Just long enough for Marinette to realize that something was wrong. He stopped eating preferring instead to simply stir his food, mixing it around listlessly in his plate. The lack of response only seemed to confirm the young woman's worst fears. She was only able to think of a couple of scenarios which could have lead to such a reaction: either Adrien had left without the man's permission, something he had sworn he never would do but curiously enough not something that she would have put past him or…
"He passed away..."
"What?.." Marinette couldn't help but stutter.
"One morning, I woke up and he didn't."
The response was simple. Most people above the age of three would have been able to understand just what he meant by it. There was some pain there, as clear as day. Regret took hold. She'd probably only spent minutes in the man's company if it were all added up. Still, the knowledge that the elderly man was no longer with them came as a blow. He'd always been someone experienced and wise for them to turn to when they needed help. Without him, there could be no doubt that they wouldn't have been able to defeat Hawkmoth or Mayura. Adrien however might have never left, instead of heading on his quest to purge himself of his parents' sins. Her friend had been living in the man's company for a decade, it must have been a terrible loss for him.
"How long ago was this?" She couldn't help but ask.
"About three months ago." Came the quiet reply.
Three months? Marinette tried her best to imagine what that must have been like for her friend. She hesitated, wondering just how much (if at all) Adrien had cared for the man. Unless he had changed beyond all recognition, he must have formed some attachment over the course of a decade. It must have come as quite a blow. She didn't know what sort of life he had lead, for the moment, her old friend had been evasive to say the least about that much. Had he been alone for all that time until he had come here?
She'd never known much about Master Wang Fu. The man was in many ways a mystery. She got the feeling that might have suited him quite well. He was ancient and wise, that much she did know from the few times that she'd met him, perhaps also merciful being willing to give Adrien, the son of two of his enemies, a chance. He was the last guardian and that was all that she knew of him. She didn't even know just why he had accepted to shelter Cat Noir. The then fourteen year old had ran before any of them could question him about his motivations. True, he was alone with even Nathalie being locked up for the next foreseeable future but nothing had forced him to leave. He'd done that of his own accord and if she was honest, it still hurt.
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah..." The teen's tone of voice made Marinette unwilling to pry any further.
"So you came back here?" It was the first thing she could think of to change the subject.
"Yes. I had some work to finish, so I waited a while." He paused a moment, a pensive smile appeared on his face as he did so. "Besides, I had to let my hair grow back."
She couldn't tell if he was joking or not. Maybe that was the intention.
The conversation became somewhat stagnant once more. She had so many questions to ask and yet she couldn't even begin to articulate any of them. In truth, she found herself to be somewhat lost as she sat there. There was so much which had been left unsaid or simply never known. If nothing else, the last time she'd seen him it had been when he had dumped the sizeable bombshell on them that he was Cat Noir before disappearing for a little over a decade, all this mere hours after his father, mother and their personal assistant had been arrested for what could only be described as "magical terrorism" which had plagued Paris for months. Then there was the matter of just what he'd been doing in the interim, not that he'd been very open about that. If that wasn't enough to fill an entire evening with discussion, there was also just what had prompted his return which could be brought up.
No, things to talk about weren't in short supply. It just felt incredibly awkward to even try mentioning them. Marinette found herself wondering if she was suffering once more from the "Adrien syndrome" which had plagued her so much as a teenager. The awkwardness had returned. Heat rose to her cheeks as she averted her gaze to the best of her ability, choosing instead to fix her food.
"So… What did I miss?"
"You're asking me to sum up 10 years?" She raised an eyebrow dubiously.
"No..." The young man chuckled at the prospect. "I think we'd be here until the morning. Just you, I guess. You, Nino, Alya and Chloe. How are you doing?"
"Fine." An honest if simplistic answer. "I think Chloe's turning into her mom. She's the second harshest fashion critic I know. Alya's studying journalism at college, she's got a column in Le Parisien. She's still together with Nino. He's a DJ, doing gigs and stuff."
Adrien's smile was a genuine one but she felt that behind it lay something else, a sorrow of some kind. Perhaps regret that he himself, hadn't been here to see it. There was so much that he'd missed. She couldn't possibly tell him about everything, not in one go. A handful of sentences was hardly enough either but hopefully would allow him to realize that his friends were doing alright. They'd come on a long way since he had left them. Whilst life had definitely had its ups and downs but it had entered into something of a stable routine which suited all of them a few years ago when they had left high school and entered a slightly more adult world. The miraculouses had never been forgotten, nor the green eyed boy who had disappeared alongside them but as the years had trickled by, their shadow had become increasingly distant, no longer weighing so heavily on their shoulders.
For her part, Marinette had finally stopped looking towards the door every morning, expecting their friend to come striding in with his usual cheery smile.
"What about you? You got a guy?"
"Me?!" In an instant, she was shaken out of her thoughts and reverted into panic mode. "No! Well yeah. On and off. I mean nothing serious! Which isn't to say that I didn't like you- them! Uh... You remember Luka, right?"
"Juleka's brother? Yeah. The guy with the guitar." His brow furred ever-so-slightly as he spoke. "You're dating him?"
"Kind of. Like I said, it's an on-off thing. More of an off thing at the moment to be honest." She frowned trying not to dwell on that somewhat complicated side of her life. "What about you?"
The thought that Adrien might have settled down had crossed her mind more than once throughout the years. Whilst a part of her did wish him that happiness, it was difficult to ignore the instinctive jealousy which took hold. They could only speculate as to what his life had been like, wherever he had ended up. A part of that might have involved romance. She supposed, at 24 years of age, it wasn't impossible that he could even have a child or two of his own. As she found herself going back over those notions in her mind, she was disturbed by a bout of soft laughter from her companion. It wasn't mocking, just genuinely amused by the suggestion or maybe a little embarrassed.
"No, not one." He regained his composure before explaining. "Apprentices aren't allowed partners. They're seen as a potential distraction. It was one of my vows."
"You took vows?" Her voice raised slightly, intrigued.
"A lot of them: no meat, no alcohol, no girls." He shrugged his shoulders indifferently a moment later. "Not that there was much of any on the back of a mountain in the middle of Tibet."
"-but Master Fu, did he even give you a choice?"
It was a question they'd all asked themselves more than once over the course of the past few years. Not without a fair amount of guilt it had to be said. They'd all been so shocked, dumbfounded that none of them had been thinking clearly that night when he'd left them. Adrien Agreste was Cat Noir. The young man who had just helped them put away their two mortal enemies and retrieve their stolen miraculouses. Mortal enemies who happened to be his own parents. When he'd announced he was leaving with Master Wang Fu, a man none of them knew more than in passing, the emotional blow had hit them like a ton of bricks to the extent that they hadn't even been able to muster together enough strength to give him a proper goodbye. Not that he'd given them much of a chance to do so, Marinette reminded herself.
It was only in the weeks after his sudden departure that they had wondered just when and how he had agreed to it. Had it been part of some plan all along that only he and the guardian had known about? Or was it a spur of the moment thing? Whilst Marinette was instinctively more inclined to believe the latter given that the old man had claimed to have no idea just who lay behind the masks of Hawk Moth and Mayura, she'd inevitably started to have her doubts, wondering along with her friends if some degree of blackmail hadn't been used to pressurize their friend into leaving. Now that he was back with them, she finally had the opportunity to ask.
The atmosphere changed, turning a little colder. Adrien abandoned his attempt to scoop up some more noodles, to look at her. His green eyes narrowed, no doubt wondering just what was going through her head:
"You can't pick and chose vows. That would be too easy." He frowned, adopting a slightly more grave expression. "-but that's not what you meant, is it?"
"No..." Her voice trailed off as he gathered the confidence the clarify. "I meant did he give you the choice to go with him and live like that?"
"Of course he did. Don't get me wrong, he suggested it. I would never have asked to go with him but only because I didn't know it was an option." He let out a heavy and regretful sigh. "I was young and foolish Marinette and scared. I was just so terrified. I didn't know what to do. Everyone I knew and loved, they were all taken away from me. They deserved it and I- I wasn't blameless either. Master Fu knew that. He gave me a chance to redeem myself and himself the opportunity to train a new guardian so that when he died, their knowledge would be preserved."
Marinette was struck by the simple matter of fact way that he presented the events and his motivations. It was honest, almost brutally so. He seemed to have no problem with explaining what he had felt and the emotional reasoning which had driven him. It left her unsure just how to respond. A part of her wanted to say that he was wrong, he wouldn't have been alone. His family might have been gone but he still had his friends. She dismissed that thought as foolish and childish in its logic. They were fourteen at the time. He would still have had to go somewhere… Master Fu was, she supposed, whilst an unconventional choice, as good as anything. If nothing else, it had gotten him out of Paris at a time when it wasn't good to be an Agreste in the capital.
Her surprise at his response must have been obvious as he gave her a gentle and affectionate smile. There was something almost Cat Noir about the way that he looked at her in those few seconds:
"Yeah. I'm sworn off lying as well."
"I can tell that..." She replied with a giggle before something occurred to her. "Do the others know you're here?"
"No. You can tell them but I'm trying to keep it quiet. You know? I mean, shouldn't really have come to see you-"
"Why not?"
He froze like a deer in the headlights, evidently aware that he had said something he shouldn't have. The young man frowned, taking note of her anger and puzzling over it. She gave him a few moments, patiently waiting until he explained himself or at least clarified just what exactly he meant. She wasn't particularly offended so much as wondered just what could have prevented him from coming to see his old friends. Had he been given orders by Master Fu, she could have understood but given that he was no longer with them, it would seem that the objection therefore came from Adrien himself. The young man giggled nervously, rubbing behind his head. A tick that he'd apparently kept from his teenage years.
"Sorry. It's just, things are different now. I mean, you've got your life, I've got mine."
"What are you saying?" She narrowed her eyes, getting a decidedly bad feeling about all of this.
"Well, they don't really belong together. It's not like things can go back to the way that they-"
In a flash, Marinette got up, surprising her dinner companion. Adrien stayed sat down staring in silence at the young woman as she slung her handbag over her shoulder. As angry as she was, she didn't make a scene. She simply got up and left, leaving him stunned. She moved quickly enough for him to realize that if he didn't give chase, she would be gone.
In truth, the young woman didn't care, storming out of the restaurant and into the street. She walked as quickly as her legs would allow her without breaking into a full run. It was difficult to ignore Adrien sprinting after her to the restaurant owner's outraged cries. He was less delicate, almost knocking a waiter off of his feet as he leapt over a table in order to catch up. He was quick, able to catch up to her in a matter of seconds. She wouldn't have been able to outrun him, she realized that much. He grabbed her arm, holding it loosely so as not to hurt her but equally preventing her escape. She struggled, symbolically more than anything else before spinning around on her heels to look him in the eye.
"Let me go!" She commanded, practically spitting at him.
"Wh- What did I do?" His confusion was evident, he had no idea what has brought this on.
"If you want me out of your life, then fine! I'll stay out of it."
"Marin- That's not what I meant!"
"Isn't it?!"
"No."
She paused, giving him a chance to explain. Slowly, Adrien relinquished his grip, realizing that she wasn't about to pull away. The rain was thundering down as they stood there, drenching them both to the bone. Marinette managed to maintain a cold look as she waited for the young man's response. His mouth hung open but no words came out as he searched for a way to justify his actions or rather his words. At that moment, it seemed as if he'd replayed what he'd said in his own mind, realizing just how she must have taken it. He froze, regret beginning to fill his eyes. She gave him a few more seconds, waiting patiently.
No apology came.
Instead, he shook his head slowly, averting his gaze. With a huff, she turned around and ran. This time, she didn't hold back. Tears stinging at the corners of her eyes as she went. Her destination? Anywhere where she could be sure not to encounter Adrien Agreste. She glanced once over her shoulder to ensure that she wasn't being followed. The startled looks that she was given by passersby failed to register as did the car that she forced to slam on its breaks to avoid hitting her as she ran blindly across the road. Tonight was a time to run and not to look back. Ten years worth of hopes and dreams went up in smoke in the space of a couple of words.
Adrien didn't give chase. Instead, he lingered there in the rain, watching until she had disappeared into the distance and finally out of sight. Regret already stung him bitterly, drowning out the rain as it hammered down on top of him. It was only the restaurant owner, storming out and threatening to call the cops if he didn't return and pay which finally snapped him out of it and caused him to head back inside.
It wasn't until she had stormed into her house, running up the stairs and calling out some excuse about being "held up on the metro" that she finally found herself calming down. As she shut her door behind her, a strange lassitude took hold. She found herself trapped there. The events which had occurred mere moments ago replaying through her mind. Her legs began to tremble as she stood there. She allowed herself to fall down. Gasping for breath, she closed her eyes, trying her best to make some sense of the storm of emotions thundering through her head. Everything was a mixture of confusion and anger. Hopes had been dashes and pedestals destroyed. Tears flowed down her cheeks.
There had been a dream which she had had on many an occasion. Adrien Agreste, Cat Noir would come back into their lives just as he had done tonight. He would be standing there, older but still very much the same. That gentle look behind his eyes and a wonderful smile just waiting for his old friends. There would be tears, yes but not sad ones. He would embrace his old friends for exactly what they were and they would go back to being the way that they once more. Sometimes, she would be given Tikki back but not always. That part of her life, she had more or less come to terms with was over. Although the kwami still left something of a hole in her heart which she suspected could never be filled.
Try as she might, there was no denying that his words had cut her worse than she had thought possible. Those green eyes and that perfect face of his were part of the cause but over the years, she'd been able to come to terms with the fact that looks weren't everything. It was his sweet and easy-going demeanour which she had found herself thinking back to fondly. She'd dared to hope that he missed them. Even as with every passing day without so much as a peep from their absent friend, she'd found herself wondering if he might have forgotten them. He hadn't. He just didn't want anything to do with them any more.
You've got your life. I've got mine. Why did that hurt so much?!
It was with a deep breath that she reminded herself that there was something that still needed to be done. She retrieved her phone from her handbag. Wiping away her tears with the back of her hand, she started up a conversation between herself and her three best friends. The message was a simple one: "Cat's back. Meet tomorrow, park du Palais Royal.". Within five minutes she had three "yes" replies. Nothing else. She imagined that they would be chatting amongst themselves excitedly. She turned off her phone, ensuring that they couldn't trouble her with their questions. Not tonight. She still needed to gather her thoughts together.
Ideally, she would have liked to climb up onto her roof and contemplate the stars. Tonight however the clouds and rain prevented her from doing so. She chose instead to sit by the window, looking out over the city as it was rendered blurry by the rain and condensation on the glass. Despite everything, she couldn't help but wonder just what Adrien was doing. If he regretted what he'd said or if he truly believed his words…
There were many things which Adrien happened to be regretting at that particular minute: the fact that he was drenched to the bone, that the restaurant owner had forced him to sit on a chair where he couldn't possibly make a break for it and had him under near constant supervision from the chef, the fact that he had most definitely been recognised by at least three members of the public who had taken photos, then there was the small matter of him forgetting to bring any money with him which had prompted the owner to come close to calling the cops… Oh and he had just blown it big time with something so simple as meeting up with one of his old friends. Sitting there with his head on the counter, in part to try and shield his identity and also finding himself losing the will to live. He cursed both his luck and his own ineptitude.
Something heavy, a towel, was thrown over his head.
He groaned and dragged it off of himself, shooting the person responsible a glare which they paid no attention to. They were already explaining things to the owner. In a flash, the man went from seething to understanding. No doubt the offer of compensation for the disruption must have played a part. Whilst the newcomer dealt with the few customers who were responsible for the photos, he dried himself off to the best of his ability. The towel was more for show than anything else: an added little sting to let him know just how badly he had messed up. Within the next two minutes, the images were quickly removed from social media and to his astonishment, Adrien found himself being presented with profuse apologies. He had to hand it to her, she was good… He would no doubt have been more impressed were he not been desperate to salvage the last scraps of his dignity. The past half hour had worn out his sense of humour and ability to smile.
"So… You forgot that the modern world revolves around money then or were you hoping that a struggling fashion student would buy you dinner?" The woman asked him, keying her pincode as she settled up.
"Haha, very funny." He muttered, taking the towel under his arm as he prepared to leave.
"No. I'm curious." She joined him a moment later. "You asked for my help, after all."
"I messed up." It was a defeated sigh which he let out as they stepped out into the street.
"I'd gathered." She deployed her umbrella above her head but failed to offer him any shelter. "Are you planning on trying to make things up or should I assume that we won't be getting any visits any time soon from miss Dupain-Cheng?"
Adrien let out a heavy sigh. It had been so long since he had last set foot in the city, he found himself raising his gaze to the skyline in a way that he had so often done as a teen in the hopes of catching even the briefest glimpse of the girl who had stolen his heart, swinging from one roof to another with her yo-yo. It was a strange thing for him to hope for. He knew that she wouldn't be there. Paris didn't need Ladybug any more. It didn't need Cat Noir either but he had returned, lost and with nowhere else to go.
Turning back to his companion, he steeled his heart. This was a time for new beginnings. He should have seen it coming. His former friends would want back in, regardless of what it might cost them. He couldn't allow them to pay that price. If that meant playing the bad guy for a bit and being cold and unreasonable then so be it. Whilst his first instinct had been to go to Marinette, the girl he had inadvertently shared so much with, as he thought about it under the rain it occurred to him that it had been foolish. An act which the fourteen year old Adrien would have done and a mistake which the 24 year old wouldn't make again.
"Best she lives her life." He declared firmly. "She won't call but if she does, we don't answer. Understood?"
"Perfectly, sir. We give her the cold shoulder."
"Don't call me "sir" or "Mr. Agreste."." He requested, not angry but ensuring that she got the message that this was something he felt rather strongly about. "Feels like you're talking to my father."
"So, I should call you..?"
"Just 'Adrien'. It's what you always called me."
"Okay, Adrien." It sounds natural, not forced as if she's trying to get a point across. "So, are we heading home or would you rather try your best to get us both thrown behind bars again?"
He gave her an irritated look. After everything that had happened, he found that his usual good temper and patience was being tested. She must have known that as she didn't push things any further, becoming quiet once more as she waited for a reply. He let out a sigh, sticking his hands in his pockets. He took a deep breath, relaxing in the way that his master had tired to hard to teach him throughout those years he had spent in the temple: clear your mind, forget about everything else… Marinette Dupain-Cheng's heartbroken expression proved to be decidedly hard to remove from behind his eyes.
He let out a sigh, turning back to his companion. He was too tired to be thinking about such things right now.
"Let's just go home..."