Adrien rose from a dream about Ladybug seeing spots. Everywhere looked there were lots of those tiny little dots. True his bedroom was full of Ladybug merch, her bed covers, her pots, her loo roll - that was his favourite merch because it made him laugh when he brought it. He had posters of her hanging on the wall, trying to figure out who she was, and he had left his ladybug boxers in the hall for the maid, who would fill his drawers with ladybug drawers! That thought made him chuckle. Every morning that he woke up he never saw the skies because instead he was greeted by a lot of little spots! His warm and happy mood died the moment he saw Natalie's serious expression as she waited for him in the dining room.

"Adrien, your father would like to see you."

"Do I have to?" Adrien groaned.

"It would be wise if you did," she nodded.

Hero or not Adrien still feared his father. He knew his father respected Chat Noir, however begrudgingly, but he didn't offer Adrien the same respect. There were no consequences for Chat Noir. Gabriel could destroy Adrien's life, or - worse - make it what it used to be. He couldn't bear to go back to only having chole in his phone contacts. Adrien took a deep breath, fell into perfect posture, and pushed the office door open. Gabriel sat, emotionlessly, behind his desk like a boss about to fire one of his employees. It sent a chill down Adrien's spine.

"Father," he tried not to let his voice shake, but it was difficult.

His father's eyes flicked up from his paperwork momentarily. He said nothing, and continued writing while Adrien waited. Adrien shifted awkwardly. He didn't like feeling like he was going to be scolded. His father raised his head calmly, and placed his fountain pen down, neatly on the desk. His sky-blue eyes met Adrien's acid greens. Adrien held his gaze for a moment, but he had to break away first. His father was too strong to stare down.
Ladybug could do it.
Chat Noir already had.
Adrien wished he could be Chat now, and face his father as the beloved hero. To have the support and admiration of the Parisians to back him up.

"Adrien. Have you any idea how worried we were?"

Adrien bowed his head with no idea what he was supposed to say. He just had to look ashamed of himself.

"I had half of Paris out looking for you before the couple at the bakery suggested you were at this... lake house. I was this close to calling Ladybug to come and help track you down."

Adrien set his face like stone to stop himself smirking. Ladybug could find him in a heartbeat. She had a tracking device on him. It was a shame they didn't work until they were in costume. He could have found his lady's true identity by now.

"You had no permission to go. You had no bodyguards. Anything could have happened! You could have drowned, or been attacked by leeches, and that would /ruin this month's spread!"

Adrien was still stone faced, which was good, because he was hurt by his father's priorities. He didn't want his father to see how hurt he really was.

"And you've missed lessons. Piano and fencing. When you came home - late - you didn't have anyone with you. You had nothing to stop someone kidnapping you! Then what would I have done?!"

Adrien stayed silent still. If he had pointed out that he wasn't exactly defenceless since he was learning karate, and fencing, AND HE WAS CHAT NOIR, but his father would have ignored that, or it would have made things worse.

"One more step out of line, Adrien, and I will have to punish you. Severally. This cannot be allowed to happen again. Is that understood?"

"Yes father," Adrien muttered.

Gabriel hummed drily. He lifted his fountain pen and move his paper into position.

"That's all."

Adrien was sent away like a warned employee. There was no sense of warmth or affection from Gabriel. There was no sense that Adrien was anything more to him that a conveniently placed model. Adrien gazed out of the window, overlooking the city like a guardian angel. He spotted the minivan that he knew to be full of his friends.

"I bet they're having way more fun than me," Adrien sighed to Plagg.

By the time they had to get into the van, three people had managed to get some sleep. Even then it was barely three hours rest before they were woken up and told to pack. Then they all stuffed themselves back into the minivan, full of sweets and exhausted from swimming and dancing and not sleeping. Now they were crowded into a van that rocked on the bumpy road like a cot. When a packet of M&Ms got spilt across the floor, no one was awake enough to care. They scattered everywhere like a rainbow confectionary bomb had gone off.
Two by two they had something soft and warm to lean against. The gentle melody from the radio filled the van. It was a total opposite to the dance music Nino had been spinning all night. It was like a lullaby in the cot.
Alya leaned against Nino and Nino leaned against Alya. Marinette leaned against the wall, and Tikki curled up in her lap. Kim curled into a ball on his chair. Max leaned back in his chair, while Alix hooked her legs over the chair, over Max, and pulled her hat over her eyes. Rose was leaning against Juleka, Juleka leaned against the window. Nathanael leaned his cheek on his fist which was leant on his armrest. Within half an hour all of them were completely asleep. The only sound over the engine were dozing children, and a soft playful melody.

None of them stirred, even as they entered Paris. Most of them had to be shaken awake when their parents came to collect them. None of their parents bothered to ask if they had a good time, because that much was blatantly obviously.

It was the last day of peace Marinette would have for a long time.

Two days passed before another akuma struck. They were becoming less frequent, but more intense. A worrying trend. Even so Ladybug and Chat went out to fight. As sure as Chat did his best to flirt with Ladybug, Alya would be there to film it all for her blog. This clearly worried Ladybug, because she constantly brought up how much she worried about Alya getting hurt. Which is partly why Chat Noir kept an urgent eye on her between fighting. She stayed hidden behind a car.

"What can Hawkmoth offer that we can't?!" Ladybug cried.

"the moon for your miraculous. How could I pass up that deal?!"

"You can't have the moon! If the moon didn't hit your eye how would you know its amore?!" Chat cried.

"Not to mention eternal daytime!" Ladybug huffed.

Chat gasped in horror, "no more sleep?! You monster!"

"You want sleep? Fine! Take a cat nap!" The akuma cried.

He grabbed Chat by his waist and threw him through the air to crash into the ground miles away. And he would have if Ladybug hadn't caught him on her yo-yo to pull him back down safe. For a moment, Chat just floated in the air like a kite. A kitty kite. He landed by her side without a scratch.

"Thanks," he grinned.

"I know how much cats like playing with string," Ladybug winked.

Chat beamed. He glanced back at the car, some distance away now, where Alya was hiding. She was beaming too.

"YOU GO LADYBUG!" She yelled.

Chat Noir refused to be jealous of Ladybug, since they were in the same boat, but sometimes it hurt that people didn't appreciate him like Marinette did. That made her a little more important to him in that moment.

"No one will stop me capturing the moon!"

"I've heard about shooting for the moon but this is ridiculous," Ladybug groaned.

"The akuma has to be in his badge," Chat declared.

"Why?" Ladybug asked.

"It's a telescope, isn't that enough?" Chat asked.

Alya screamed which made both of them snap upright into action. The akuma was striding towards her, reaching out to grab her.

"I got this."

Chat Noir threw himself across the ground. He scooped Alya up urgently and raced across the compound to get her to safety. When he set her down, she raised her phone before she realised it wasn't Ladybug who saved her. She gave him a disappointed look.

"I thought ladybug was going to save me!" She complained.

"Ladybug and I are on the same team. We're the Rescue Aid Society," Chat Noir insisted.

"What team is that?" She smirked.

"Well I voted for the wildcats, but we settled on rescue aid society," chat chuckled.

Alya made a note on her arm with a pen. "Rescue aid society- err, how do you spell that?"

"R-E-S-C-U-E."

"Society."

"Oh, S-O-C-I-E-T-Y."

Alya tilted her head at the writing on her arm. "You're not really calling your team -"

"Rescue Aid Society. We hold our heads high and touch the skies. If you're in a fix or in a bind you can call on us anytime and we'll appear from nowhere to help you!" Chat beamed.

Alya continued to look unimpressed. "Ras? You're one letter away from rash!"

Chat Noir's face fell awkwardly. "Ah..." he grinned. "Wildcats it is then!"

"I NEED A PAW KITTY!" Ladybug yelled.

"COMING MY LADY!" Chat yelled back.

Alya watched him dash off to a daring rescue, and deleted the video she had taken of him. Chat Noir was useless when it came to getting close to Ladybug.
When Chat caught the akuma he smashed it against his hand, and Ladybug leapt forward to catch it in her yo-yo. Once her lucky charm filled the air with light the victim was cured again.

"I wanted to show her I love her," he said miserably.

"Well this isn't how you do it," ladybug said, kindly.

"How then?" He asked.

Chat Noir stepped forward. He listened keenly, ready to take notes so he could take the advice of the girl he wanted more than anything else in the world, on how to make her love him too.

"When you have a natural attraction, you need - no, you /deserve a mutual reaction. When you feel that natural affection leading you in the right direction, you gotta stop showing off!"

"Showing off? I wasn't! Well... I didn't mean to," the boy muttered sheepishly.

Chat's gaze flicked back onto Marinette, waiting for her to finish explaining herself.

"Try just showing her the natural you. Appreciate her for who she is and show her who you are. Then you're gonna be appreciated right back."

The boy smiled at her warmly. "Thanks ladybug."

Her miraculous beeped. She gasped. "I've gotta dash. Good luck, you'll be great."

Chat grabbed her arm and pointed to an underground fortune teller shop across the road.

"Ladybug, this way, that's the only place that's open this early!"

With nothing else open, both heroes dashed across the street down to the fortune tellers shop and leapt through the door. The golden bell above the door twinkled as they opened it.

A short, plump old woman stood behind the counter and looked up when they walked in. "Who goes there?!"

"Sorry madam, have you got a bathroom? Or a cupboard?!" Ladybug asked urgently.

"One bathroom," she pointed to the bathroom. Ladybug shoved Chat Noir into it, since he was going to change back first. The lady folded her arms. "Are you going to pee in my cupboard?"

"No, I'm sorry, I'm ladybug, and I'm about to change-"

The flash that filled the shop floor made Marinette deeply relieved that there were several heavy fabric drapes hiding the windows. She stared at the old woman in horror. All the colour drained from her face. The old woman gave no reaction.

"I guess you changed back huh?"

"I err..."

"Now don't you worry about me, I'm just a poor old blind fortune teller. I don't know who you are," the woman chuckled.

Marinette heaved a sigh of relief deeper than she had ever sighed before. The woman still had no idea who she was. Adrien's phone beeped. He had to be at fencing - FIVE MINUTES AGO! He knocked on the bathroom door anxiously.

"Sorry to interrupt but I have to leave!"

"Do you have somewhere I can hide?" Marinette asked urgently.

The blind old lady gestured to a cupboard hidden by a curtain. Marinette hadn't noticed it before. She ducked inside and hid in the storage unit on the other side. The strong smell of candles reminded her that Tikki needed feeding. She fished a cookie out of her bag and handed it to her. Tikki munched the cookie gratefully. Through the door Marinette heard Chat Noir talking to the old fortune teller.

"Listen to me, it doesn't matter what you look like. It doesn't matter what you wear. How many rings you got on your finger, no one cares. I don't care where you're from or who you are. I'm telling you what you need to do," the fortune teller warned.

Chat Noir frowned, "but what do you mean by dig a little deeper?!"

"It really ain't that far. When you find out who you are you'll find out what you need," the woman huffed.

"But dig for what?!" He insisted.

There was a muffled part as they lowered their voices. Marinette moved towards the door to hear better but she missed some important details.

"So you're a rich little boy and you wanna be rich in the future?"

"Um, sure?"

"That ain't gonna make you happy, does it make you happy now? No! Money ain't got no soul, money ain't got no heart! You got to dig a little deeper. I can't tell you what you'll find, maybe love will grant you peace of mind. Dig a little deeper and you'll know."

Again, there was a long lingering pause. For a moment Marinette though chat had left. Then she heard his voice again. It was soft. Quiet. Too muffled to understand properly. She caught bits here and there, but not enough to understand what he meant.

"I think I already know what you want me to find inside myself..."

"Do you?"

"You think I should face my father and tell him I don't want to be a model anymore. That I want a family more like Marinette's. Right?"

The woman gave a tired old smile that vaguely resembled a carved Halloween pumpkin on the third of November. "Dear boy I don't know. If you dig inside yourself and this is what you come up with, then yes. You're right."

Personally, she thought the boy was better off opening his eyes and realising the reason his mind went back to Marinette was because he was in love with her, but that was none of her business. If he kept digging, he'd figure that out for himself. Adrien thanked her, and left. He ran down the street as fast as his legs could carry him.
The scents of the candles were harsh and never fading to the extent that they were beginning to overpower Marinette. The dizziness overtaking her stole her focus from the conversation outside. When the old woman knocked on the door, Marinette gasped.

"Miss buggy?" The woman asked.

Tikki giggled at the name.

"Yes?" Marinette asked.

"Might I have a word?" The woman asked.

"Is the cat gone?" Marinette asked.

"Yes," the woman said.

Marinette pushed the door gently. It creaked open as she did. On the other side, the smell of burning incense stung her nostrils instead. For a woman who had lost one of her senses she sure liked to abuse her sense of smell.

"Take a seat," she offered.

Obediently, Marinette sat down at the table covered in a deep purple silk cloth with golden stars stamped on it. The woman took her hand for a moment and hummed thoughtfully. Her wrinkled curved across Marinette's soft young hand. She knew that there were callouses that made her good with a pen, and tiny bumps from pin pricks that suggested sewing, but the vague smell of baking made her a cook. She wasn't hard to figure out. Tikki peered over Marinette's shoulder to watch with interest.

"Um... what is it?" Marinette stammered.

"Your daddy is a loving man, family through and through. You're your daddy's daughter. What he had in him, you got in you," the woman explained.

"I hope so," Marinette muttered.

Tikki gave her a cheery nod of encouragement to ensure her it already was because she had seen it.

The woman let go of Marinette's hand and folded her own. "You got to dig a little deeper, dig down deep inside yourself, and you'll find out what you need."

Marinette glanced at Tikki. She didn't have to pause for thought. "I know what I need."

The fortune teller's smile changed slightly, warming at his news. "Oh do you?"

"I'm in love with someone who doesn't look at me twice. I need to find a way to take the confidence I have as ladybug and bring it into my life as me," Marinette nodded.

She had thought about that a lot recently. The trouble was that she had no idea how to do so without the mask. Ladybug was confident because she was anonymous. There were no repercussions for her. For Marinette, facing Adrien... those repercussions could kill her.

Adrien raced into the changing rooms at fencing, and ran back out, hastily dressed and red in the face from running all the way here. He glanced around the room, and met Natalie's eye as she stood in the shadows, watching. Adrien cracked a hopeful smile at her, desperately hoping she would think he had always been there. Much to his horror, Natalie shook her head. It was slow, and tiny. Blink and you miss it. A slow, unnoticed head shake, that sealed Adrien's fate.

His father was on his way.

shit.

Adrien paced back and forth in the locker room, anxiously trying to think up a feasible excuse for what he had been though and why he hadn't made it back on time.

"I don't understand," Plagg said from Adrien's bag, "You told that blind future-seeing lady you'd stand up to your father. Did you lie to the blind future-seeing lady?"

"Plagg I told her I'd try!" Adrien whined.

"then try," Plagg shrugged.

Adrien felt an anxious knot in his chest. "It won't end well."

"you're not a child now. you can take care of yourself. You mustn't let yourself down now!"

Adrien frowned and stared down at the ground. "I've seen him make the body guards cry."

Plagg batted the air carelessly, "oh you'll be fine!"

Adrien side-eyed Plagg uncertainly. Plagg was rather apathetic about a lot of things, but he never deliberately steered Adrien wrong. And having someone so calm in every emergency eased Adrien a lot too.

Adrien took a deep breath and nodded in agreement. "I'll be fine."

Adrien was not fine. Gabriel knew how to make sure Adrien came into his office, unconsciously mirroring the perfect image Gabriel had of him hanging on the wall. The first thing to do was make him sweat. Gabriel left Adrien in his bedroom, alone, waiting to be called down to the office. It worked. It always did. Adrien got nervous while waiting, and started brushing his hair and smoothing his clothes anxiously. The clothes, he understood. Everyone fussed over him during photoshoots – they always had – but it was always his father who would smooth his shoulders when he was little. Back when he attended the shoots, that is. Back when he'd smooth Adrien's shirt, pat his head, and sometimes – if he was in the right mood – he'd smile at him too. Some part of him, deep down, thought that if he kept his clothes smooth, his father would smile again.

The hair, however, he couldn't understand. Whenever he got anxious – which was more and more lately – he'd find a brush, and just start tearing out knots until his hair was silky smooth. Then he'd mess it up, and re-style it, brushing it again and again, until he was distracted by how he looked, and didn't focus on the nerves. Adrien had accepted that as some quirk he'd picked up from modelling. He never remembered where it really came from.

as a toddler, Adrien had the messiest mop of blonde hair you've ever seen in your life. If he wasn't about to be put out on a photoshoot, no one could get a brush through it. it was only when cameras appeared that his father insisted his hair be brushed, and even then, he'd squirm to get away. That was when the nerves would start… that was when his mother would scoop him up, into her arms, and cradle him against her. screaming or not screaming, crying or not, she would hold him close, until he calmed down enough that he would sit on her lap. And she would talk to him. gently. Warmly. Kindly. The way a mother should talk to their son. Adrien would talk back, and explain his side of the story, how he didn't want to be there, because he was afraid. His mother would chuckle. Adrien could barely remember how it sounded now. she was so gentle with him, he would never notice when she started brushing his hair. She would just run the brush through carefully, until it looked neat and glossy, like his father wanted. Then she would tell Adrien that it was the secret powers within him that made his hair like that. he'd laugh, and he wouldn't be nervous anymore, because his hair looked fluffy and messy, but a neat kind of mess.

Kinda like how Chat Noir's looked these days.

"just stay calm, think about what you're going to say, and say it. even if he tries to stop you, keep talking, until you're done," Plagg said.

"I'm not sure about this Plagg," Adrien mumbled.

"Hey, what's the worst that could happen?"

Plagg's smile was supposed to be reassuring, but there was a threat in it. a challenge for his father to rise to. His father didn't often like challenges, but he always, always, bested them. that's how he came to be a world-renowned designer, after all.

Gabriel beckoned Adrien over to the window when he entered the office. Hesitantly, Adrien approached. He felt his hands numb nervously, and butterflies flutter across his stomach. His father didn't move away from where he gazed out of the window. He looked out across Paris as if he owned it. to some extent, he did. He could afford to buy everything they were looking at, and he had influence with the mayor as a close personal friend. Sometimes Adrien forgot about that. he spent so long with only Chole to call "friend" (and to be honest, they were only really friendly because everyone else they knew were far, far older than them) that he forgot his father had them. but he never forgot that his reach was everywhere.

"You disappointed me Adrien," Gabriel stated.

Adrien felt a shot to the heart. A terrible, spear-like icicle, impaled his chest. His father didn't even blink. He held his head high, and continued, without glancing at his son. His tone stayed stable. Unchanging. Cold. hard. Constant.

"You're fortunate that I was generous enough to allow you to go to school, despite my best wishes, but you've continuously disobeyed me since I allowed it."

Adrien felt Plagg against his chest. He was a hot ball purring softly. Vibrating courage right into Adrien's heart. Even so, Adrien stared down at his feet and balled his fists tightly when he began talking.

"Father I go to all of the lessons I can, I'm punctual all the time that I can be, but the workload is simply too much-"

"and who's fault is that? when you had lessons here, you had regulation. You had a ridged schedule, that was followed without fail."

"I remember," Adrien said, darkly.

He remembered the schedule. Breathing at the wrong time was enough to be scolded for. It was a punishment he had grown up in, and he refused to go back to it now. Adrien gritted his teeth in determination. He would not be leaving school.

"allowing you to attend that school is proving to be one of my biggest mistakes Adrien. You would never have run off to some lake in the middle of nowhere with strangers before you started going there-"

Adrien scowled. He felt a hot flush of anger. "They're not strangers, they're my friends! And I wouldn't have gone to the lake with them before I started school because I didn't have any friends then!"

"Friends are a distraction. They are disrupting how our lives are run, and they are a bad influence on you," Gabriel answered sharply.

"my friends are a good influence on me. They stand with me, and they support me, and they like me! they care about me!" Adrien cried.

He felt a bottle in his chest. One he had stuffed full of emotions he didn't want to face. He felt it clink against his ribs like an alcoholic desperate for more to fill him. Adrien refused to bottle this up too. It shook him up. it clinked on his bones. It rattled inside him, ready to burst.

"They don't care about you, that's demented. that's what family is for Adrien," his father stated.

"I wouldn't know, now that mum's gone I don't seem to have a family anymore."

You know when you say something that you've felt for a long time, but never said, because saying it would be like throwing a comet against a pane of glass, and there's a horrible silence in those two seconds between saying it, and realising you said it, where the whole worlds just kinda stops? Cracks were already jetting out from the glass they found themselves standing on. Adrien felt himself free falling through the air. his father stiffened. He held himself rigid, his fists clenched, his jaw hard. Gabriel scowled furiously. His voice tensed. If it was possible, it got colder.

"This is why you never should have left. This just proves you're too naive to be here. I'm pulling you from that school."

"NO!"

That was impossible! Everything he had, everything he wanted, everything was at that school. Even chole was there. Adrien hadn't considered chole as someone he'd want to spend time with, but right now, the prospect of never seeing her again was enough to cause Adrien's heart to stop. He couldn't dare to imagine never seeing Marinette or Alya or – OR NINO! What would he do if he never saw NINO again?! he didn't want to find out. Adrien had never verbally defied his father before. It caused Gabriel to turn his head, and side-eye him, furiously.

"No? Oh. I see how it is. You think you know best. That you're so mature now, such a clever grown up gent. Fine, if you're so sure, go and put them to the test."

Adrien winced as his father spat the words. He was horrified at how quickly everything had changed. At how quickly he had broken something so fragile so terribly. Everything in him was desperate to fix it.

"Father, I-"

His father's voice was cold enough that Alaska itself would have shivered if it had been directed at it. "I want you out of my sight. If you think your friends care about you more than me, then prove it. you will not be spending the night here, you can sleep on the street for all I care."

"Father-"

"If they're lying, don't come crying back to me. I'm only your family, clearly that means nothing to you."

Adrien had no words. He had no breath. The last thing that he could think to say struggled to escape his throat. It was strangled by the ball that had formed there instead.

"father…"

"Go."

That last word hit Adrien like a plank of wood. Blunt and heavy. Adrien's chest rose and fell desperately as he struggled to find his breath. His father had never threatened to send him out of the house before, he'd never even let him out of the house alone before, and now he was being kicked out… Adrien couldn't wrap his head around it, but he knew he couldn't fight it. there was something fragile in their relationship, and somehow on little sentence, had cataclisymed it.

Adrien's gaze turned to the portrait of his mother hanging on the wall. Her shining eyes held an entire forest in each of them. wild and free and beautiful. Like a glorious peacock. If she were here she would fight for him. she would defend him.

But she wasn't.

She was gone.

He was alone.

Nathalie and the gorilla stood before Gabriel. he never showed any sign of emotion except displeasure. Right now, that displeasure was anger. Anger, and hurt, and fear. Gabriel loved Adrien. Of course he did. Adrien was his whole world. but he had forgotten how to show that, and now his son had left, just as his mother had, and he was alone…

"Keep an eye on him, from a distance," Gabriel stated, sharply, "Do not let him get hurt or I will have both of your jobs before you get back to this office."

When your boss is this angry, this hurt, this afraid, there was nothing to say. Nothing to argue. You just obeyed without blinking. Natalie and the gorilla didn't say a word, not even a goodbye, before heading to the car to follow the boy who had left three minutes ago. He had nowhere to go, and it was already late. They were sure he couldn't have gone far.

To be fair to them, he hadn't. he had leapt up onto a nearby roof, to sob out this horror in his chest. This deep cavern in his heart that had been a sinkhole for months had finally collapsed. He was alone. His father was furious. He had nothing by a rucksack with some clothes in, his phone and Plagg. Well that, and a giant bottle of emotions that was finally shattering in his chest, causing him to sob manically, huge, heaving, ugly tears, turning his green eyes red raw. By the time he managed to calm himself he was exhausted, and the moon was high, and he still had nowhere to spend the night. Chat Noir whimpered.

He was all alone in the world again.