Chapter Eight

Adrien was grateful that the Gorilla didn't seem to be in on his father's plot as Hawkmoth, because it meant that he was a little bit more lenient with him than he ought to be. That was how he'd managed to get his blue scarf to begin with, as well as his duvan and one of his pillows, instead of the spare blanket and pillow that Nathalie had tried to give him as bedding.

Who knew that the woman could be so petty?

Either way, he was glad to have some kind of bedding with him. After all, there wasn't much to do in a bathroom except catnap.

Leaving Plagg with Marinette hadn't done anything to most of his more cattish tendencies, among them his somewhat more nocturnal nature and his love of stretching out to sleep in the sun. Of course, it didn't really matter. No matter how cattish he may be, without the ring, Adrien wasn't really Chat Noir anymore.

It was thoughts like that that had Adrien reaching for his blue scarf on a regular basis. He couldn't let his emotions get away from him or he would be akumatized, and that would put all of Paris in incredible danger. So instead of thinking, he slept during the day, the blue scarf clutched in his hands close to his face in the hope that Marinette's scent would help him avoid a situation like Sandboy.

Still, he found that sleeping was the safest option, and so he resisted anything that might wake him up. When dark dreams startled him awake, he pressed the blue scarf even closer to his nose, breathing deeply until he drifted back off to sleep. When the sun slid away from him, taking his patch of warmth with it, he just huddled deeper underneath his duvan. When he distantly heard the first crash of an akuma, he cringed and pressed his pillow over his ears, because he knew that there was nothing he could do about it.

But when he first heard the scratching, he could feel his phantom cat ears perk up and twitch towards the sound, his curiosity instantly piqued. Of course the human side of him groaned miserably, wanting to roll over and just sleep, but he couldn't ignore the strange sound. After all, curiosity killed the cat, right?

Adrien blinked blearily awake, lifting himself up on one elbow as he stared around the small room. Where could that be coming from? Could there be mice in the walls? No, it was coming from higher up than that.

The scratching continued, perhaps even a little bit more insistently now, and Adrien slowly rose to his feet, his Miraculous-enhanced eyes flickering around the room. It seemed to be coming from the wall farthest from the door, so he stepped cautiously in that direction, his unshod feet making no noise on the tile. As he passed the shifted patch of sunlight lying across the floor he glanced at it wistfully, wishing the sun would just stay still for once.

Then he stiffened, staring in surprise as one of the shadows across the patch literally crumbled.

In an instant, Adrien's eyes snapped up towards the window where, to his shock, he found that nearly all of the bars that Nathalie had installed in order to make sure he stayed put had disappeared. Even as he watched, there came another sound of tell-tale scratching, then a wave of rust coated the last bar and it turned to dust.

Adrien felt the color drain from his face. He knew exactly what caused that kind of destructive energy.

"Pst! Kid!"

"Plagg?!" Adrien hissed back, and a moment later a little black head popped up over the sill, green eyes gleaming and tiny fangs bared in a grin. "What the heck are you doing here?! Get back to Ladybug!"

"What, and miss out on all the action that's going down over here?" Plagg snorted back, rolling his eyes. "Come on, kid. We're getting you out of here."
"Wait… What?"

"What, did you think we were here for the Gorilla?"

"No, it's just… we?"

"Would you just hurry up, Sunshine? We're on a deadline, here!" a new voice hissed, causing Adrien to jump.

"Rena, is that you?" he whispered back after a moment.

"Duh. Who else knows how to hack into a camera feed and slip a loop into the system so that your evil dad and his assistant wouldn't be able to tell you'd woken up yet?"

"Come again?"

"Just get out here," came the weary sigh.

In spite of himself, Adrien couldn't help but smile. He quickly climbed the steps to the window, then took the black-gloved hand offered to him and allowed his teammate to help him step out onto the stone ledge and pull him firmly against her side; without his Miraculous, a fall from this height would hurt.

Rena Rouge grinned at him as Plagg settled on his shoulder, curling against his neck in a way that clearly screamed mine! "Ready for this, Sunshine?"

"Probably not," Adrien admitted, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. And why did that nickname seem so out of place yet make so much sense falling from the Fox hero's lips?

"Fair enough."

Rena Rouge leaped upwards, dodging expertly past all of the security cameras that his father had so painstakingly set their house up with. At the very top of the building, she stopped, setting Adrien down next to a crouched figure with a green hood and relieved golden eyes.

"Dude," he sighed with obvious relief, rising to his feet and wrapping him in a tight hug. "I thought we'd lost you, man."

"Good to see you too, Carapace," Adrien grunted through his squashed lungs, a little bit stunned by his fellow hero's reaction. After all, hadn't they only interacted a couple of times before now?

"Dude, I still can't believe that I didn't see it sooner! I mean, I always knew you were secretly the biggest pun-loving dork in the world next to Chat Noir, but now I know you are Chat Noir and it makes so much freaking sense-!"

"Would you just put him down and hand him the ring?" Rena rolled her eyes, pulling what looked like a spy gear headset from her flute. "We can worry about identity reveals once this is over." She slipped the earpiece over her ear, pressing the foxtail-shaped symbol on the side. If that was her phone, then Adrien had to admit he was just the slightest bit jealous. It probably didn't have a photo or video function, though.

Wait. What was that about identity reveals?

"Here, man. I believe this is yours," Carapace distracted him with a grin, holding out what looked like a piece of leather cord, looped through a wide silver ring.

For the first time in days, the tension leaked out of Adrien's shoulders as he accepted the precious gift, tugging the knot out of the cord and slipping it onto his finger. He could feel the soft rumble as Plagg purred approvingly, while off to one side he could hear Rena Rouge speaking quickly into her microphone.

"Ladybug and Queen Bee, we're in position. Chat has the Miraculous back and we're about ready to go." She glanced towards him, one eyebrow cocked. "Well, you just going to stand there, or are we finally going to end this madness?"

It ashamed Adrien to admit, but just for an instant, he hesitated. Hawkmoth was his father, and the reason why he'd done all this, the reason why he had terrorized Paris and searched for the Miraculous for so long was because of his desperation to save his mother. Could he really fight against him now after so many years of settling back and doing whatever it was the man told him to do? Was it really alright for him to turn his back on both of his parents?

But then he glanced up at Carapace and Rena Rouge, at the gentle understanding and the fierce determination burning in their eyes, and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the decision that he had made in the rain not so long ago had been the right one.

He could do this.

He would do this.

For his Lady.

For his mother.

For himself.

"Claws out."