Chapter 1: The Amulet

Adrien

"Plagg, have you seen my stylus?" Adrien asked. He had searched his sleeping quarters, the study, and even the game room multiple times this morning and still could not find his missing stylus. He needed to find it soon or he would be late for school. His class was meeting at the museum today and he needed it to take notes with his tablet on the exhibits for a reflective essay that would be due later in the week.

"Plagg?" He asked again. No answer. Great, Adrien thought. The Camembert-loving ball of sarcasm was nowhere to be found either. He pushed himself off the ground, as he had just checked under the bed and did not know where else to look.

"Plagg!" Adrien called again, this time more harshly than before. He heard a stifled yawn coming from the closet. The closet! Adrien had not thought of looking there! A sleepy Plagg emerged from the slightly cracked doors of his closet.

"Plagg, have you seen my stylus?" Adrien questioned.

Slow to reply, Plagg rubbed his eyes in a groggy manner. "What's a stylus?"

Adrien face-palmed. "The electronic pen I use on my school tablet," he sighed, "Have you seen it?"

"Oh, that thing." Plagg turned around and lazily floated back into the closet. "You left it just lying around yesterday, so I thought you didn't want it anymore and used it to make myself a cosy cottage. You know, for those little cat naps I like to take." He led Adrien to a corner shelf in Adrien's closet to reveal a kwami-sized hut made of a few select items Adrien had 'lost.'

"So that's where all my things have been!" Adrien pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Just because I left it on the table doesn't mean I didn't want it any more, Plagg."

There was a knock on the door and Adrien heard Nathalie enter his room. "The limo is ready to take you to the Museum, Adrien. Are you almost ready?" Her voice echoed throughout the large perimeters of his sleeping quarters and into his closet.

"Yes, just give me five more minutes!" Adrien answered from the large wardrobe. "Just, uh, deciding on which shoes to wear. . ."

Nathalie remained quiet for a moment before reponding. "Okay, well just come outside when you're ready Sir."

Adrien remained silent until he heard Nathalie exit the room, then preceded to lecture Plagg. "Most people keep things out in the open if they plan on coming back to them. You can't just claim everything you see laying out." Out of anger and frustration, Adrien harshly pulled the stylus from Plagg's tiny architectural creation, causing it to tumble.

"Hey!" Plagg protested. "I worked hard on that." He flew over to the pile of Adrien's objects that was once his little cottage and shot Adrien a look of dissaproval.

"Yeah, with my things!" Adrien discarded Plagg's nasty look and stormed out of the closet to put the stylus in the clip on his tablet. "I've had enough of this today Plagg, let's go." And with that, he stormed out of his room, through the house, and into the limo.

●○Miraculous○●

When the limo pulled up to the museum entrance, Adrien saw his classmates gathered outside. He stepped out onto the sidewalk and was instantly greeted by his best friend.

"Sup Adrien," Nino dropped his phone in his pocket and held out his fist for a fist bump.

"Good morning Nino," Adrien replied and returned the fist bump. "I wasn't the last one to get here, was I?"

Nino waved nonchalantly. "Nope, we're still waiting for Chloè. I bet she just wants to make an entrance, like she always does."

"Oh, come on Nino, Chloe isn't that bad."

Nino responded by shashaying around Adrien in a mocking manner. "I'm Chloè Bourgeois" Nino cocked out a hip and placed a finger on his overly - puckered lips. "I get whatever I want,"

"Um. . .Nino. . ." Adrien attempted to catch the attention of his silly friend, but with out prevail.

"Whenever I want it"

" Nino. . ." But Nino disregarded Adrien's attempts and continued his charade.

"and you have to do whatever I say or else my daddy,"

"Ni. No." Adrien attempted for the final time to get his friend's attention.

"the mayor of Paris, will. Sue," Nino twirled flirtatiously to finish off his performance, "you." Unfortunately, Nino had landed face-to-face with the blonde-haired brat herself. "C-Chloè!"

Chloè dissaprovingly pressed her pointerfinger against Nino's forehead and then quickly applied pressure, which resulted in both pushing Nino away and causing him to lose his balance and tumble to the ground. "Impersonation of the mayor's daughter. I could put you in jail for that, however since it was an unbelievably awful attempt, I don't think I tell my father today. Next time you won't be so lucky. Sabrina! My finger!"

On command, Sabrina pulled out a handkerchief and used it to delicately wipe off Chloès finger. "Is that good, Chloè?"

"Just make sure you get all the peasant germs off of it." Chloè huffed. After a minute or two, she snatched her finger back and charged toward Adrien. "Adrikins!" She latched her arms on to Adrien's neck and pressed her chest in to his arm.

Adrien did not know what to do, so he just let Chloè stay leeched onto him like an expensive perfume smelling parasite. After all, she was his first and only friend before he started going to school. Even though she was a bit annoying and constantly rude to everyone, he could not just throw her away, he would always tell Nino. To which Nino would always respond 'You're just too nice, Adrien.'

Nino was pretty accurate about that statement in most ways. Though, Adrien had not been the nicest to Plagg this morning. The little kwami could not be expected to know everything. I'll appoligize to him as soon as we get somewhere private, Adrien decided.

"Alright class," announced the teacher, "everyone is here, so find a partner."

Adrien watched as his classmates divided into pairs. It seemed that everyone was with their usual desk buddy. Well, everyone except Chloè, who seemed to still be clinging to him.

"We're partners right, Adrikins?" Chloè laid her head on his shoulder and purred slightly.

Adrien lightly shook Chloè off his shoulder. "Actually, I already promised Nino I'd be his partner. Sorry, Chloé."

Chloè retracted herself from Adrien's proximity. "Whatever," she huffed, turning her head away from him and sticking her nose in the air. She stood still for a moment before she grabbed Sabrina's wrist and disappeared into the crowd of chatting classmates.

Adrien opened his mouth to continue his conversation with Nino, but was interrupted by the teacher's clapping to grab the attention of her class once more.

"Alright, that's enough." She clasped her hands together. "Is there anyone who doesn't have a partner? If so, please raise your hand." She paused for a moment and waited to see if any of her students raised their hands. Of course, because the class was pretty cliquish, partners stayed pretty consistent in paired projects. The only reason why a person wouldn't have a partner would be if their usual buddy was absent. Even then, absences were rare. "No one? Okay, good!" continued the teacher. She then stepped to the side to reveal a tall man standing behind her.

He was tall and lanky, but had an air of certainty to him. His amber hair was long and styled with intentional messiness, however it seemed to suit him. He had a thick but finely trimmed mustache over his upper lip and large circular glasses that magnified his emerald green eyes. He wore a cool grey button up that sported the museum's fancy employee emblem and long khaki slacks, who's cuffs lightly kissed the top of his freshly shined architecture boots.

"Class, this is Monsieur Bellerouge," introduced the teacher. "He will be our museum guide today. If you ever have any questions, feel free to raise your hand during the tour and he will try to answer your question to the best of his ability. Monsieur Bellerouge?"

Bellerouge stepped forward and flashed a friendly smile to his audience. "Good morning class," he began. "As your teacher said, I am Monsieur Bellerouge. I work here as a museum guide and occasionally set up exhibits that I've helped contribute to." He pulled out a museum pamphlet from his back pocket and pointed to a highlighted area on the floorplan. "Today we will be going through the ancient history division."

A collective groan was emitted from the class.

"But," Monsieur Bellerouge held up a finger, "since I helped set it up, I have the permission from the museum curator and your teacher, that if we move through the exhibits quickly without a lot of problems, then I can give your a preview of our upcoming specialty exhibit: supernatural artifacts."

Excitement buzzed through the class as students began predicting what would be inside the exhibit. Some classmates expected skeletons of mythical creatures, while others assumed it would be a room full of random items and fictional information videos. No matter who thought what about what would be inside, it was still exciting and inspired the class to satisfy their curiousity.

"One more thing," Monsieur Bellerouge added, "your teacher has specifically instructed that if we do have time to explore the supernatural exhibit, that you are not allowed to write your reflection essay on it." He waited a moment for a reaction but it did not seem to damper on the class's excitement. "Alright now, we are going to go inside, so please pay attention to me and stick close to your partner!"

The class shuffled inside the building like a herd of excited sheep. Muffled voices echoed through the main hall of the musuem. They were then led into a hallway labeled "Hall of Ancient History." The hallway took them to the first exhibit room which featured Stone age sets and displayed stone artifacts and pictures of cavedrawings.

Monsieur Bellerouge stood in front of a giant glass window that showed the stereotypical scene of cavemen discovering fire. He cleared his throat and began a prescripted speech. "The stone age is one of the most mysterious time periods as it is also one of the earliest for mankind. It is believed that at this point in time, humans had almost completely split from the monkey in the evolutionary tree to its own species and by the end of this age mankind was probably 99% genetically close to the current evolutionary state of modern man. It was also assumed-"

"Excuse me! Monsieur Bellerouge?" Chloè waved her arm in the air obnoxiously.

"Yes, Mademoiselle. . ."

"Bourgeois," Chloè said quickly. "Are you saying we evolved from monkeys?"

Bellerouge adjusted the collar on his shirt. "It is believed so, as we share a very large amount of DNA."

"Well, then, if that's the case, Monsieur Bellerouge, I think some people might have evolved more than others." Chloè shot Marinette a satisfied look and snickered.

Adrien watched as his poor black-haired, blue eyed classmate dropped her jaw at the insult Chloè had just thrown at her. Thankfully, Alya was able to prevent World War III from breaking out by calming Marinette down. He had no clue why Chloè and Marinette were at it so often or why Chloè made Marinette her favorite target for insults, but he just wished the two girls would chill.

Monsieur Bellerouge resumed his informative speech, so Adrien decided to take notes on the exhibit with his tablet. Once the class was finished with the stone age room, they moved on to the room over the ancient Middle East, then to Rome and so on.

The morning droned on. Even though most of exhibits and displays were quite facinating, standing and listening to a man ramble off historical facts for minutes on end was draining. They were currently three-fourths of the way through their tour, but the class had stopped for a ten minute bathroom and water break next to the ancient Asia exhibit. Most everyone was taking a break, but Marinette was still jotting down information on her tablet and asking Monsieur Bellerouge a plethora of questions concerning ancient Chinese history.

Adrien chuckled lightly to himself. When Marinette was not babbleing like a baby in front of him, she was actually kind of cute. Not as cute as Ladybug of course, but cute enough to catch his attention on occasion. He watched as Marinette excitedly took notes from Monsieur Bellerouge's lengthy answers. He couldn't blame her though, Marinette being half Chinese. Anyone would be excited to learn about their family history. Too bad Adrien did not know what his was, as his father had kept his ancestry a black hole and probably intended to keep it that way.

Nino plopped down next to Adrien on the bench he was sitting on. "Man, Adrien," Nino started, "this tour is cool and all, but I'm really pumped about this supernatural exhibit! What do you think could be in it?"

"Dunno, Nino. What do you think?" was Adrien's reply. Nino began to ramble off predictions, but Adrien did not pay attention. He did wonder what could be in that exhibit. Could it be about the miraculouses? Or something deeper? He really hoped that the class would have the time to visit the supernatural exhibit. Something about it was tugging at him, but he didn't know what and that made his curiosity burn hotter.

Their teacher called the class to attention and announced that the break was over and that the tour was running ahead of schedule, so they would have time to visit the supernatural exhibit once they finished the ancient history track. The class excitedly collected together so they could quickly finish the tour and finally get to the real interest in the museum.

Finally, they were lead into the the room that held the supernatural exhibit. The space was large, and much more than any member of the class could imagine. Skeletons of mythical creatures such as Vampires, werewolves, and mermaids were displayed in giant glass cases. To the right of each case was a plaque giving a brief history of the creatures. On the left of each case displayed artifacts that correlated to the each specific creature. In the middle of the room was the most mesmerizing thing of all. A heavily protected silver amulet adorned with a blood red jewel .

"I'll just let everyone look around for a few minutes before I begin my talk on our most prized artifact here: this amulet" Monsieur Bellerouge stated as he gestured to the fancy amulet.

Adrien and Nino took their time looking at each little station examining the things on display. Adrien found everything fascinating, but he did not know whether or not he believed the things the plaques said. Kwami existed, so why say that these creatures could have existed? Adrien did not know and he did not feel like persevering on that at the moment. For some reason, the amulet stayed in the back of his mind. There was something about it that kept calling to him and he could not figure out why.

Finally, the class was gathered around the amulet display so Monsieur Bellerouge could begin his talk. "Back about a thousand years ago. . ."

Monsieur Bellerouge's voice lulled into the background as Adrien's attention focused on the amulet. It's beauty was breathtaking. He wondered what it would be like to touch it, to hold it in his hands. Scratch that, it was more than wonder, he wanted to touch it. And it wanted him to touch it too. It was calling to him , he could feel it. As if in a trance, Adrien's hand slowly drifted outward as he walked toward the precious jewel.

"Come to me, Adrien," it called.

"I'm coming," he thought, "I'm coming."

"Adrien. . ." it lulled.

He was so close.

"Adrien. . ."

So close he could almost touch it.

"Adrien. . ."

Just a step more and-

"Adrien! Stop!"

Adrien jumped slightly. His hand was just inches away from the protective glass case of the amulet. How did he get so close? Nino was to his left with an exasperated look on his face, whereas to his right was Monsieur Bellarouge, glaring at him with utter disapproval.

"I said 'Do not touch,' Monsieur Agreste. Do you not understand French?"

"No, Monsieur, I understand French perfectly fine." Adrien replied. He looked around and noted the bewilderment on his classmate's faces. "I was, uh, mesmerized by it's beauty and, um, just had a closer look. . ."

"Alright, Monsieur Agreste, just don't do it again, S'il vous plaît." The displeased tour guide gave him a look that showed he did not completely believe Adrien's explanation, but chose not to act on that suspicion. Instead, he began to gather the class together so their teacher could make a few announcements before they were released to go home for the day. Adrien paid no attention to his teacher's words, stuck in a daze.

Once they had been released, Nino tapped Adrien on the shoulder, "Yo, Adrien, what was that all about?" he asked.

"I don't know," Adrien shugged, "got lost in it, I guess. All I know is that I'm never going back there again. After all, it's just some amulet."

Or at least what he thought.