Au Revior
Ch. II – Trois
The elegance of the waltzing music sided with the fading chimes of the clock tower's stroke of midnight complimented the ambience of Paris' nightlife well. It didn't bring any explanations as to why two teenagers are lip locked at the top of the Eiffel Tower however. It felt so natural to have her lips against someone else's, but her mind was too numb to even ask herself who she was even kissing. She felt the anguish and excitement of the moments leading up to this point, but she just couldn't place where she was or why.
His lips remained pressed against hers as his mind reeled and his eyes opened slightly. He blinked before opening his eyes all the way to witness the blurry sight of his classmate's face. He blushed hard and backed his head up an inch or two and gasped silently. Marinette opened her eyes and let reality take hold of her senses.
"A-adri…en..?" she asked with a hazy whisper.
"Marinette? What are...we….doing?" he asked as he glanced all around before noticing that he had his arms wrapped around her dainty waist. Her arms loosened around his neck and her hands naturally rested on his shoulders. She blinked several times before turning into a lovely shade of horror and embarrassment. She was hugging Adrien Agreste!
'Were we kissing just now!?' she thought as she stared into his confused neon eyes.
His hand went from her waist to her cheek where he wiped away one of her tears. She hadn't realized that she'd been crying. It wasn't until she noticed that he was crying as well that she backed away from him slightly.
"Marinette?" he asked with wonder as he stared at her adorable expression.
"I…uhh…so we were…did we…? Did we!?" she stuttered, unable to form a full sentence.
"I think we were kissing." Adrien said with a nervous chuckle. "But why?"
Marinette stuttered some more undecipherable words before Adrien took a good look around them.
"Are we on top of the Eiffel Tower?!" he asked loudly as he ran to the railing and looked down at all of Paris lit up by nightlights. The music drifted into his mind and recognized it as the music they danced to yesterday as practice for the ballroom contest.
"Ei-eiffel…Tower?" she asked as she too began looking all around. She clenched whatever was in her hand and walked over to the railing beside him. "When did we get here?" she asked with more poise.
"I don't know, but the clock tower across the way says it's exactly midnight." He gave her a suspicious glance. "Are you sure you aren't Cinderella or something?" he asked jokingly.
"Eeek!" she squeaked. She wasn't sure if she was fearful or excited by his words. What if he thinks she lured him there or if she drugged him? She was just as confused as he was though.
"Aren't these the croissants made at your parents' bakery?" he asked as he picked up the box of half-eaten pastries.
"Why yes…they are.." she said slowly.
He could taste them in the back of his mouth, along with the faint hint of wine. It dawned on him just then; the music, the croissants, the wine, the Eiffel Tower at midnight, the kiss, the crying…..
"Were we on a secret date?" he asked as he gave her the most endearing expression. She wanted to faint right then and there. Adrien was too perfect for words and the moment was too dreamlike to be real.
'Gods…please don't wake me!' she prayed. She hoped she'd slipped into a beautiful coma to never wake again; except for a kiss by dear Adrien of course.
"Earth to Marinette!" he placed his hand on her shoulder and shook her slightly.
"I'm s-sorry!" she said quickly as she snapped out of her daze.
"Do you think we just drank too much wine and now we can't remember anything? It would certainly explain the crying…" he mused as he examined the empty wine bottle.
"That must be why!" she gave a nervous giggle. "So-" she bit her lip as she froze up.
'Is this his ring?' she thought as she examined the silver band in her grasp. 'Oh no! What if he thinks I stole it?' Panic was beginning to settle in.
"Oh crap! It's after midnight! Dad's gonna kill me for being out this late!" Adrien exclaimed with fear.
"Oh my gosh! We have school tomorrow! Don't you have a photoshoot tomorrow too?" she asked with a hand over her mouth.
"Yeah, how did you know that?" he asked with a mildly confused stare.
"Oh uhh… you mentioned it in class yesterday…" she lied.
"Maybe I did?" he asked himself. "Well we can talk about this tomorrow, I want to sneak back in before my father gets back from his office. He usually stays pretty late, but maybe I can beat him home."
"Oh—okay…" she said shakily as she watched him scamper around for the stairs down. Much to his disappointment he couldn't find any.
"Uhh Marinette, why are we on the top floor? There's no way down from here!" he began to panic.
"That's a good question, how in the world did we even get up here?" she looked all around for an elevator shaft or even a pole to climb down on.
"Beats me, maybe I had one of my dad's personal helicopters drop us off?" he pondered. "Nah, the whole world would have seen it on the news if a helicopter came near the tower."
"Maybe we climbed up this passage?" she asked as she pointed to a small square manhole in the floor with just a pole and some foot hinges sticking out.
"Oh that's dangerous!" he said with a leery look. "I think we'd fall to our deaths if we tried climbing that."
"No big deal!" she said boldly. "I used to climb super high trees when I was a kid, this looks like a piece of cake!"
He watched in awe as she masterfully climbed down the makeshift ladder over a hundred feet. He smiled at her bravery and followed her cautiously. Once on the ground he was a nervous wreck while she beamed with pride. He complimented her skills and she turned back into jelly.
"Well I don't have much time to talk, I gotta get home as fast as possible." He said nervously looked at the clock tower again with anxiety. "But we can talk later."
She walked home in a dreamy state. "Oh it was so wonderful!" she said as she opened her purse. She stopped in her tracks and questioned herself.
'Why am I talking to my purse? Man I really am losing my mind!' she thought to herself as she began walking again. The warmth of Adrien's lips invaded her thoughts and she did a twirl in the streets. Thankfully there were no onlookers or she'd have been embarrassed.
When she finally made it home she found that her door was locked and she was too scared to knock on the door or call, she'd be grounded for life if they caught her outside at this hour.
'I know! Alya!' she thought and she whipped out her phone and rang her friend.
"Girl, do you even own a clock?" said the spunky Alya with a yawn.
"Alya it's an emergency!" Marinette said with desperation.
"What's wrong!?"
"I had a secret date with Adrien and now I'm locked out of my house after curfew!" she blurted out quickly.
"I'll be there in five minutes!"
True to her word Alya was there before Marinette could even think of another plan to get herself back inside without waking her parents up.
"I need the deets, right now!" Alya panted as she ran up to the bluenette's side.
"There's no time, I need to get back inside before my parents notice I'm gone—" Marinette paused then looked thoughtful for a moment. "Wait a sec… I remember putting a note on my attic door that I was staying over with a friend last night…"
Alya grinned from ear to ear. "Oh there's plenty of time for details now!"
The two gossiped as they walked to Alya's apartment. "Secret date? I need to know what you mean!"
"I don't know what I mean!" she stammered. "One minute I'm standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower making out with him and the next we're trying to find a way to get home!" she explained with excessive hand and arm gestures.
"Every detail, I need every single little detail!"Alya said with almost lust in her voice.
Marinette spent the night with Alya while she told her everything she could remember and the next morning they walked to school together. Alya was over the moon for her friend, but Marinette couldn't shake a bad feeling she had. Much to her dismay Adrien was absent from class that morning. She wasn't sure if he was too humiliated to show his face or if he got caught trying to sneak in and got grounded.
"Class I have some both good and unfortunate news for you all." Mrs. Bustier began and everyone turned their attention towards her. "Both Agreste and Bourgeois have been pulled from school to complete their learnings at home. This means we will be getting two new students within the next week or so. New chances to make new friends."
"Oh no…" Marinette whined. "I got him in trouble, didn't I?" She clutched the ring in her grasp. She should have given it back to him, but she didn't know what to say.
She knew from then on out that Adrien would never speak to her again. Her actions had taken his freedom from him, something she'd never forgive herself for.
Trois
"Oh Adrikins, it's beaufitul!" Chloe exclaimed as she examined her new diamond ring in the sunlight. She lay on a lawn chair in a bikini by the poolside. Adrien sat in a swimsuit next to her expressionless; soulless.
"It was my mom's." he said flatly. He despised that his mother's ring was in Chloe's possession, but it was not by his choice.
"I can't believe we're finally getting married!" she grinned wickedly. "Now that we're twenty one and through with that icky college stuff we can be together and take over your father's business."
He had made an oath to his father three years prior, as punishment for his actions that night on the Eiffel Tower he would wed a woman of his father's choosing after college graduation. Who other than Chloe Bourgeois would he pick? She was practically royalty in the eyes of Paris.
"Adrikins, call me Princess from now on, 'kay?" she whined pathetically.
"Okay." He said in monotone, thoroughly defeated. He had no choice but to accept his fate, there was no way out that didn't tear his father's life or his own life to shreds, or Chloe's life for that matter.
"What's wrong with you? Quit moping and take that damned silly dime-store earring off!" she shrieked at him.
'This earring….is precious to me.' He thought as his hand went up to his left ear and toyed with it. He had only one piercing and it was in the upper part of his left ear, it was the earring he had in his hand when he and Marinette parted at the Eiffel Tower that fateful night three years ago. It was all he had left of that strangely wonderful moment. He knew the earring was hers, he'd seen her wearing it in class all the time, but he couldn't find a way to meet up with her to give it back.
"Do lighten up Adrien." Spoke the cold words of his father. "Chloe is a beautiful, sophisticated woman. She even reminds me of your mother a bit. Not to mention, mommy-dearest gave her blessings years ago."
Adrien seethed beneath is calm exterior. Those words were the most untrue ever spoken by that man.
Fate was crueler than Chloe.
XxX
Her hands worked as fast as they could go. She had an order of five hundred croissants and one thousand chocolate chip cookies for an event in two days. Marinette and her parents took shifts baking at all hours just to complete the order. Marinette let a tear roll down her cheek, this order was for the Agreste-Bourgeois wedding this weekend. As she rolled the dough into a crescent shape she let a tear trickle down her chin and into Adrien's ring that was strung through a necklace.
To always keep him close to her heart.
She hadn't spoken to him since that night, he never returned to class, and his photoshoots became scarce and heavily guarded. Chloe began appearing in them and shortly after their engagement was announced publicly. With Chloe's father reinstated as the mayor again and again that witch was never going to fall out of power.
"Don't forget to start the fondant flowers for the cake." Her father reminded her. He couldn't fathom why his daughter was so depressed over a boy she hadn't seen in years, but he understood that she and the Agreste boy were at one time quite close.
"I will papa." She said softly. She sighed miserably, this is not how she wanted her life to turn out after graduation. She had an excellent culinary degree with a fashion degree on the way and she'd become fluent in English and Chinese. She had plans to get married and open a French style bakery in China, but she foresaw those dreams slipping further away every day. Her heart was sold to a boy who sold his own heart to the devil.
Finally at dawn the cake flowers were finished. They were pink roses with little ladybugs on the leaves. Chloe was a huge fan of Ladybug and ever since her disappearance merchandise has been flying off the shelves. Chat Noir memorabilia was popular too, but Ladybug merchandise was where the real money was. With a heavy heart she placed the flowers expertly all over the five tier cake. This cake was probably heavier than she was and stood about five feet tall. It was large enough to feed over five hundred people with enough to spare for left overs.
As a courtesy for such a large order she made a batch of green and red bon-bons for the bride and groom. This wasn't a standard thing for their shop, but it's something she wanted to do for Adrien. She put a pretty ribbon on the box with their company logo on it and set it in the fridge.
Adrien paced around his room, the wedding was in two days and Chloe was turning into 'bridezilla' already. She controlled everything from the color of his tie, to the boxers he was going to wear on their honey moon, to the brand of toothpaste he used before the 'I do' kiss. It was driving him mad. He wasn't allowed to eat spinach, artichokes, lemons, or anything she didn't like prior to the wedding.
"I am not going to let you wear that ugly earring to the wedding!" she stamped her heel on the ground.
"But it's my lucky earring, what's so wrong with it? Everyone sees me wearing it in ads and magazines." He retorted.
"Don't talk back to me like that!" she scolded with a finger in his face. "It looks trashy, the only reason the press likes it is because it's edgy. I don't want edgy on my wedding day. Go get a diamond stud earring!" She huffed angrily and turned her back on him.
He grimaced at her while she wasn't looking and stood up from his seat. He left the mansion grounds and went to a jewelry store where he purchased an ordinary diamond stud like Chloe requested. He mournfully took off Marinette's earring and pinned it to his shirt and put the diamond in place on his left ear. He looked in the mirror and frowned, it was gaudy, especially on a young man.
When he returned Chloe was ecstatic and jumped all over him with words of affection. "See Adrikins, isn't that just sooo much better than that old garbage—take it off…." She demanded when she saw it pinned to his shirt.
"I'll take it off for the wedding." He said stone faced.
"No, take it off now!" she hissed. "I don't ever want to see you wear that thing ever again!"
"I will take it off right before the wedding and no sooner!" he shouted back at her with rage. She gasped, how dare he speak to her like that. She snatched it off of his shirt and ran over to the open window and before he could catch her she tossed it out into the pond.
"There, it's gone forever now!" she stuck her nose in the air and walked away briskly. She was damn well aware how absurd her demands were and that her actions were very wrong and hurtful, but it was her wedding and she was going to get her way.
Adrien stood mortified as he staggered over to the window and watched as the koi fish went nuts. They likely ate the earring and Adrien sunk to the floor in defeat. A scoffing noise from the other side of the room made him turn his attention to the doorway where his father stood stiffly.
"This is why you should never defy your wife." He said coldly. There was no emotion to the man's tone, only dominance.
Adrien shrieked in madness as his father left the room. He slammed his fists onto the wall and rolled onto his back and kicked at the window sill like a child having a tantrum. Tears of pure anger pours down his cheeks as he rushed upwards and grabbed a chair and threw it through the window. He felt like the Hulk for a moment before he forced himself to calm down. He choked and sobbed slightly as he stood there shaking before the shattered window.
'Mom, where are you?!' his mind screamed as he sunk to the floor and whimpered to himself.
Sabrina, Chloe's longtime friend, came into the room and offered a hand to Adrien who took it gently and allowed her to help him stand up.
"I know it's rough, but if you just do what she says she's actually capable of being sweet." Sabrina said in her tiny voice.
"I can't do that like you do. I'm too stubborn." He said as he pulled out the diamond earring and gave it to her. Sabrina's eyes went wide like the moon, she'd never had a diamond anything before. Adrien was about to allow himself a moment to smile at her, but he noticed something pinned to her vest. "Sabrina, where did you get that pendant?"
"Oh this? Chloe gave it to me years ago when we started high school together." She said as she placed a hand over the flower gem.
Anger took over his heart once more, this time it came back with a wrath that no one had ever witnessed in him before. "My mother gave that to Chloe the day she disappeared." He said darkly though grit teeth.
Sabrina took a step back in terror, she'd never seen the beautiful Adrien Agreste this ugly before. Never before had such animosity taken hold of Adrien's mind and soul. Sabrina tried to mumble an apology, but she was too scared of this demon that stood before her to even speak properly.
"It's ok, you can keep that trash." He said with a hideous scowl.
Chloe was trying on her wedding dress again, for the eight time that week and admiring herself in the mirror. She turned in all directions, twirled around, posed, and made kissy faces at herself. She deemed herself the most beautiful bride in the history of mankind. She was missing a finishing touch however.
'I know!' she thought mischievously as she walked over to her jewelry box and plucked out a butterfly pendant that Adrien had given to her as an engagement gift last year. She'd never worn it before, but it seemed like the perfect adornment to walk down the aisle with.
She pinned it to the breastline of her gown and did another spin around. "Perfection!" she shouted elatedly. Her excitement turned to slight fear when she saw a large bug floating around her head.
"Eiii!" she screamed and threw the nearest object to her at the floating creature. She threw books, shoes, and perfume bottles at the purple floating bug before it cornered her.
"Calm down! Calm down!" the bug said in a soothing tone. Chloe shrieked and screeched at the bug, but it wouldn't leave her alone. "I'm Nooroo, it is nice to meet you Hawk Moth."
"H-h….Hawk Moth? As in that super villain that Ladybug and Chat Noir defeated three years ago?" she asked with a leery glare.
"Y-yes…?" Nooroo scratched his head, he honestly wasn't sure, he hadn't truly witnessed the final battle for himself. "You're wearing my Miraculous, so you're the new Hawk Moth!" Nooroo shirped happily. He knew nothing about his new master, but he hoped that since she was a young girl in a pretty dress that she'd be nicer than Gabriele Agreste.
Oh how terribly wrong that assumption was.
"I'm Hawk Moth now? Me?" she stood up slowly with an astonished face.
"Indeed! Together you and I will fight crime in Paris, or even all over the world!" he said happily. Surely any master was better than Gabriele Agreste. Right?
"So I can akumatize people into obeying me?" she asked with a shaky inspiration in her voice.
"Yes, you can obtain an army of followers that will do good in the world and-"
"How do I transform?" Chloe asked quickly with insanity in her eyes.
"Just say 'Nooroo, wings rise' and I'm at your command!" he cheered.
She let loose the most villainous cackle Nooroo had ever heard, he was hoping it was just out of shock and not impure intentions. "Nooroo, wings rise!" she shouted and held her arms out to embrace her transformation.
As she transformed she reveled in the feeling of the power than enveloped her every fiber. She admired herself in the mirror. Her suit was all purple and black leather with stiletto heels and a black face mask. The butterfly pendant, her Miraculous, sat over her heart where it was when she was wearing the dress. A flock of butterflies surrounded her and she sighed dreamily, this is what her heart longed for; true power.
Absolute control!
She akumatized a butterfly as she chuckled deeply to herself. "Oh Adrikins will love me!" she exclaimed as she let it fly free. "Obey me Adrien Agreste!"
The akuma flew around the mansion until it found the vexed Adrien. He bit his lip until it bled as he paced around his room thinking of his options. On one hand he could just run away and disappear, but that would ruin his father's life and make Chloe miserable forever. Then on the other hand he could become stern and start bossing Chloe around just like she does to him.
The third option… simply lower his head and obey Chloe and his father. Something he had no desire to do. Sabrina was right though, it would be the easiest, but the most painful way. The butterfly landed on his engagement ring that Chloe had gotten him and he became enveloped with the dark aura of hatred.
"Adrien Agreste, the best path for you is to obey."
Adrien's face went soft and blank. "Yes, Of course it is m'lady."
Chloe dropped her transformation, changed out of her wedding gown and pinned the Miraculous to her tube top. She excitedly made her way down to Adrien's room where she flung herself into his arms. He greeted her warmly by addressing her as 'Princess' and kissing the top of her hand.
"That's more like it!" she purred at him.
He then did something he'd never done before and leaned in and grabbed her lips with his own. She melted in his grasp as her knees went week. Nooroo watched from the distance.
'This isn't…so bad….yet…' he thought with a shiver. 'Just as long as it doesn't get any worse…'
BLK: Why is it that Nooroo always gets the villains as his master?!
