THREE: They didn't feel any different. Or, that was to say, they still felt like themselves as the superhero identity fell from them. Adrien looked down at himself—was he taller?—no, that wasn't it. He was higher from the ground than usual, however, that was due to Maaya apparently deciding that he should wear slight heels.
Master Fu disappeared into the back room for a moment, reappearing a minute later with a body-length mirror on wheels. He places it in front of Adrien, whom of which inspects his new appearance cautiously. His eyes appear more narrow, his hair more blond, and, to his horror, his hair is also partially slicked back. Adrien can't help but feel this new appearance of his to look startlingly like his father.
"It's like they took all the parts of me that belonged to my mother and left me with just my father." He observes his eyes, which are thankfully still his mother's unique green. He would rather not have his father's icy cold stare.
"Stop complaining, you're..." the girl beside him, Adrien assumes is the disguised Ladybug, "decent...looking."
A smirk rests upon Adrien's lips; his sly facial expressions are still intact. "Why, of course, My Lady. I am, after all, a model."
Ladybug takes this comment as a highly inflated ego, over her partner genuinely speaking the truth. She pushes past him to observe her own features. Her hips are somewhat wider, though still with slim waist. Her eyes are smaller, more curved. Her hair, too, has changed, in both length and cut. What was once shoulder-length, now reached just above her hip bone, and her fringe was much messier, though still with bangs.
Maaya feigned coughing on Adrien's shoulder in an attempt for the attention to turn to her. "I don't suppose you two are going to thank me."
Adrien obliged to this, before asking the kwami a question, "How can you control your powers? Don't kwamis have to merged with their holder to use their power?"
Master Fu shook his head before Maaya could answer, "Of course not. The kwamis can use their powers, though on a much smaller scale."
"Tikki," Ladybug spoke to the air just as a red and black spotted kwami flew into sight, "Is this true?"
Tikki's abnormally high-pitched voice throws Adrien off. "Of course, but I would never do it. There's no use for me to use a Lucky Charm, anyway," the bug-based kwami turns to Adrien, "Where's Plagg?"
"Is that my dearest beloved?" a voice cries out from the folds of Adrien's newly-donned petticoat. Seconds later, Plagg appears and begins snuggling up to Tikki.
"You..." Adrien begins, at a loss of what to say," and... you make fun of me for being a sap!"
The disguised Ladybug perks up that, "Chat Noir, a sap? Feeling a bit emotional, Chaton?"
Adrien shrugs this off by instead addressing Maaya, "Are you sure you've got no problem with us using your power?"
If Adrien didn't know that kwamis didn't have eyebrows, he would suspect that the kwami was raising hers at him. "I don't exactly have a choice."
This kwami was certainly different from Plagg, and miles away from even resembling Tikki. Where Plagg had laziness and an abundance in appetite, Maaya made up for in sass. Where Tikki was a moral compass, the vixen kwami was vain. The young Agreste pitied the poor soul that would have to merge with this particular kwami.
"It would make me feel much better if I... well, I'd I had your consent. I'd rather not feel like a villain."
Maaya sighed into his shoulder and rolled her eyes, "Whatever you say, A-" she stumbles on his name, however realises it wouldn't be wise to speak his true identity out loud. Of course she knew his identity, if only made sense. Plagg had known whom it was that he was as soon as they'd met. "What should I call you?"
"Um," Adrien so intelligently starts, "Fèlix. Yeah, Fèlix." Maaya then turns to Ladybug's fake persona, "And you?"
Ladybug takes a moment to consider her options. A list of several names spring to mind before she settles on her decision of something simple, yet classy. "Bridgette."
It had been Adrien's idea to enroll in the high school, an idea which Ladybug seemed to decide was the only way to occupy their time while Master Fu attempted to find ways to send them back to the future. While Adrien could think of certain activities the two could partake in, he was more focused on his main selfish indulgence: seeing his mother again.
"Class, I'd like you to meet your new classmates, Fèlix Delon and Bridgette Arébelle." The surnames hadn't been either of the duo's choice, instead having been thought up by Master Fu. "Mademoiselle Arébelle, you can sit next to Mademoiselle Fuyez*."
Adrien's heartstrings tugged unpleasantly, yet, excitably at the words of who Ladybug would sit next to. Of all the people, Ladybug would be seated next to his mother. Adrien looked over the room, and with a pang of anxiety he realised that he would be most definitely forced to sit next to the last person he wanted to come face-to-face with: Gabriel Agreste.
"And Monsieur Delon, would you sit besides Monsieur Agreste," the teacher, an elderly woman with a rather raspy voice pointed out Gabriel to him, though Adrien already knew who he was. He had to force himself to move forwards towards the seat, identical to the one he sat in in the present.
"Hello," Gabriel spoke softly, though with an air of authority. Adrien wasn't sure if he'd ever been seated this close to his father in his entire life.
"Um... hi," Adrien managed, though in such a way that made it seem like he had a terrible attitude problem, such a thing which Adrien would have suspected to have deterred Gabriel away from him. However, this was not the case.
"I'm Gabriel," his father holds out a hand towards Adrien, which he warily reciprocates. "Fèlix."
"Yes, I am aware. The teacher did say that just a moment ago."
So, apparently Gabriel had always been such a higher influence with an aura of power, it wasn't something that suddenly erupted in his adulthood. No wonder the elder Gabriel scared him so much.
Behind him, was Ladybug–"Bridgette"–and his mother. His mother looked just a beautiful as she had when he'd caught that glimpse at her just yesterday. He could hear their slight conversation of introductions, and Ladybug seemed most intimidated by her. Adrien couldn't imagine why–she wasn't in the slightest bit scary, or alarming. Everything about her was radiantly soft and elegant. Almost the embodiment of femininity.
"-This is my BFF, Gabriel." Adrien turned to between his mother and father. He noticed the furrow of Gabriel's brow disappear and a glimmer appear between the ice in his eyes as he looked at Emilie, "Gabe, this is Bridgette."
Unlike his previous slight nod and a patronising comment in Adrien's direction when he had introduced himself, Gabriel seemed a lot less tense in the mere presence of the future Missus Agreste. Adrien had almost forgotten that his father could even feel proper emotions.
"Nice to meet you, Bridgette," he spoke calmly. Adrien couldn't help but compare his own voice to his father's–it was almost disconcerting, how alike they sounded in their younger years. Adrien had to fight the urge to not visibly shudder at the idea. Emilie looked at Gabriel with a slight head-tilt.
"Aren't you gonna introduce me to your new friend?" she almost tutted him. Adrien almost winced. "We're not-"
Gabriel cut over Adrien's declaration against being friends with him. "Em, this is Fèlix Delon. Fèlix, this is my best friend-" he stressed the term, "-Emilie Fuyez."
"Delon, hey? There isn't a possibility you're related to that old-timey actor, Alain Delon, is there?"
"Um, uh-"
Emilie smiled, "I'm joking."
Ladybug was obviously amused by her partner's awkwardness, though she couldn't quite pinpoint why. He seemed absolutely entranced by the possibly-late wife of Gabriel Agreste, yet flinched every time Gabriel got within a half-metre radius of him. She'd have to ask him about that later.
"Anyway!" Emilie suddenly said with enthusiasm, "I just had the greatest idea!"
"Well, go ahead," Gabriel said. Adrien could see just how infatuated he was with her; she was just yet to see it.
"We all hang out. Get to know each other. Ooh! That film Disney film, 'Les aventures de Bernard et Bianca**' was re-released not to long ago!"
Her energy couldn't help but remind Adrien of someone else he knew, but he couldn't quite put his finger on who exactly.
"I'm up for it," said Ladybug. Emilie smiled. Adrien couldn't help the tugging feeling that, in another life, Ladybug and his mother would get along in the present.
author's note: this chapter ends really badly. apologies.
footnotes:
* 'fuyez' means 'escape' in french. geddit? okay, sorry.
** you may know the film in it's english name, 'the rescuers'. it was re-released in late-march of 1989.
