Damaged

This fic is now rated T for swearing, you have been warned. This show does not belong to me, I just like writing stories about it.

"Why the fuck do you have my mom's necklace?" Adrien fumed the second the woman's face came into view.

"Such a warm welcome," The woman sighed, her finger coiling around the chain of the necklace. "I thought you were raised better than that."

Adrien was still restrained to his seat and that woman was damn lucky that he was. Adrien never knew his mother, and his father refused to talk about her. He knew from some snooping that her name was Ariana Agreste, formally Ariana DuBois. She was born on August twelfth in Nice, studied science at Cambridge University in England, and met his father while modeling an outfit for a friend's senior project at the London College of Fashion. He knew that she wasn't dead, there would have been some kind of document if she was. She sort of just left one day when he was a baby. That's all that he knew. He only had one picture of her, she was wearing a long white dress and standing next to his father outside of Notre Dame, where they had gotten married. He knew that she had blonde hair, and that she had given him her green eyes-

He looked at the woman, she had the same bright green eyes that he did.

He was afraid to ask, but also eager, and a little bit enraged. Such an odd combination of emotions.

"Are you Ariana?" He broke the silence, his voice was quiet and unreadable. He might have sounded intrigued, he might have sounded bitter. But he used her first name, because even if this was the woman who gave birth to him, he sure as hell wasn't calling her mom.

"You were only a year old the last time I saw you." She affirmed, smiling slightly. She slowly took hold of the tacky plastic mask and lifted it off of his face. She looked at his face, studying him. This was the first time she had gotten a good look at him since he was a baby. "You look so much like your father."

Adrien scowled at her and looked away. She couldn't leave for sixteen years and then expect him to be civil to her, especially after kidnapping him and the woman that he loved.

"Adrien, I understand that you're angry," She soothed, her voice tinged with disappointment, but mostly regret. "Your father-"

"Don't talk about my father." Adrien snapped. "I don't want you to talk to me. Ever. Let Ladybug and I go."

Ariana looked at her son, who was still restrained to his seat. He was angry, that she could tell, he had every right to be.

"Let me explain." She pleaded.

"No!" Adrien yelled lividly. "I'd rather rot in that fucking cell than listen to you!"

Despite wanting her son to understand, to listen to her for just a minute, Ariana pressed the appropriate button to unlock her son's restraints. He bolted up from his seat and began storming away. But the casement holding the two kwamis caught his eye. He saw Plagg, lying in the cage, his tiny body immobile. Tikki stood over him, looking terrified. Adrien stared at the little black sprite in concern, then ferocious rage washed over his face once again.

"What did you do to him?" He yelled, fists turning white.

"Nothing." Ariana replied calmly. "You're beginning to realize that I'm right, so much pain would just go away if there was no magic."

Adrien stood frozen. She was wrong. He didn't think that. He loved magic and being Chat Noir, it gave him an identity and a purpose. It gave him and Ladybug freedom to be whoever they wanted without the fear of being judged or mocked. It gave them the chance to do incredible things, things that only a handful of people get to experience. But then her face flashed in his mind, her screaming, the blood, her burning flesh. He tried his best to push the thought away.

"That's bullshit!" He yelled.

"You say that," Ariana continued. "But I know that you're thinking about her, burning there on the pyre, knowing that you couldn't do anything to help her."

He glared at her angrily before hurrying out of the room, a guard following at least six feet behind. He put the metallic plastic mask back on his face. It wasn't the same as his Chat Noir mask, but it still hid his face. Because in that moment, he wanted to be anyone but Adrien Agreste. He stormed down the flight of stairs to where his cell was. He threw open the steel door to the prison. Ladybug was standing in her cell, head sticking out between the bars, a large smile on her lips. With that smile, he nearly forgot about the anger that was festering inside of him. She was okay, she was alive, she was standing in front of him, giving him that sweet smile. He ran up to the cage, laying his hands delicately overtop of hers. He could feel her again, she was there with him, he wasn't alone. They were okay.

"Hey." He whispered. His voice was filled with urgency, yet he had a large smile plastered on his face.

"Hi." She whispered back, returning his sweet smile, reassuring him that she was alright.

Both of their smiles immediately faded when the guard shoved Chat Noir back into his cell and locked the door behind him. Soon they were alone in the dark again with only a faint light of the setting sun streaming in through the window. Then there was silence between them again, a necessary one they silently agreed. Ladybug wanted to ask, but she wasn't sure that Chat Noir was ready to tell her. Then she heard small whimpers, muffled sobs of the boy in the cage next to hers, and her heart immediately broke for him. She could only imagine how he must be feeling, what he might be going through. Chat's entire body shook violently, his head was in his hands, he squeezed his eyes shut so tightly that they might never open again. Ladybug realized the pain that he felt, so she reached out of her cell, her arm extending through the bars. A moment later she felt the touch of his warm hand against hers. They stayed like that for a long time, she didn't talk. She didn't judge him. He had to get his emotions out, it wasn't healthy to bottle everything away. She let him cry until there were no more tears to shed.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." She whispered. "Just know that I'm here, I'll always listen."

He shut his eyes tightly. As much as he didn't want to talk about it, he also didn't want to keep this bottled up. Ladybug was his friend, his closest friend. She was the only person that he could talk to about this, the only person who would understand. She would listen, she would try her best to help, she would comfort him. And he would do the same for her in return, anytime she needed it. It was one of the reasons why they were so close.

"I found out," Chat mumbled, his voice shaky. "That she's my mom."

Ladybug sat in silence. She bit her bottom lip tightly to keep herself from gasping. She was shocked, and confused. She had so many questions, most of which Chat Noir probably couldn't answer. She didn't want him to feel as though he couldn't talk to her. She hoped that he knew that she was there for him.

"Her name is Ariana. Sh- She kidnapped me," He stuttered, his voice cracking. He took a deep breath, determined not to cry again. "She kidnapped you, she made me feel like life would be better without magic."

Ladybug's expression became anxious and also perplexed, her hand still outstretched and pressed against Chat's. She didn't want to pull away just yet, even if her arm was beginning to ache. She was confused, how did this woman think that his life would be better without magic? Why would she want him to think that? These and so many new questions bombarded her, screaming in her mind, begging to be asked. But she didn't want to overwhelm him, so she started with a simple question.

"How?" She asked cautiously, careful that she didn't ask anything that he would be uncomfortable answering.

She felt his hand shake and he immediately withdrew his arm. He brushed his sweaty blonde locks out of his face, he curled up into a ball, feeling so small. He shook wildly again, sobbing into his hands because of what he witnessed earlier that day. The image was still fresh in his mind, her burning flesh, the chanting townsfolk who were happy to see her suffer, her screams as she was met with a violent and horrific end. Those screams haunted him, like a phantom whispering into his ear. He knew that it wasn't his Ladybug, but Anna Spliid looked so much like the girl in the cell next to his. Her hair was black as the night sky, her face was round, they even had the same ski slope nose. He had spent hours memorizing every curve of his Ladybug's face, her image forever burned into his brain. Another tear escaped his eye, then another, he quickly wiped them away.

"I watched you die." He choked out.

Ladybug took in a small, sharp, breath at those words.

"She sent me back alone," Chat sobbed. "To the sixteenth century, during the witch trials."

Ladybug's eyes widened, predicting where this story was going. She put her hand to the wall, as if somehow she could tear it all down, break through the stone, get back to him. It hurt her to know that this was how he was feeling. Even though he annoyed her sometimes, she still cared deeply for him. All she wanted to do in that moment was hug him, hold him and make sure that he never felt the way that he did ever again. She was still there, she was still alive. She would care for him as long as her heart was beating, in this life and every life after.

"I- I know that it wasn't you… But…" Chat trailed off, trying to collect his thoughts. He couldn't hold back anymore. He violently cried, he could barely breath. He took a large breath and continued. "I watched you burn. You had all of this power, all of this magic, and you were doing so much good. But everyone thought that you were a monster! You would have lived if it weren't for-"

"Stop." Ladybug demanded. She felt bad for not letting him finish, but this wasn't going anywhere good anytime soon. "That was the past, we can't change it. She wants us to believe that life would be better without our miraculouses, but we both know that's not the truth."

Ladybug sat with her back against the wall connecting the two cells, her head tilted up at the small window where the light would shine in. All that she could see was gold, meaning that the day was nearly over, the world would be dark soon.

"We've done so much good," Ladybug reassured him. "This woman, your mother, she doesn't want us to see the good. I wish that I knew why. There will always be bad, that's inevitable, but there will always be good. I know that you love being Chat Noir, I know that you embrace every little moment of the time you get to be him."

He knew that she was right, he shouldn't have doubted any of this, not for one second. Being Chat Noir was the only time he got to be free, even if it was only for a few hours. The limited amount of time that he had as the masked hero was so special because he got to be himself. There were no photo shoots or fathers constantly breathing down his neck. He could be reckless, make his own decisions, he could have flaws. There was only him, fighting crime alongside the coolest girl in the world. Even if he didn't know who she was behind the mask.

"And," Ladybug continued, her face broke out into an uncontrollable grin, a deep scarlet blush covering her face. "Going on all of these adventures, fighting evil side by side, has been the greatest experience of my life. I wouldn't trade it for anything."

Her face was hot, blood pooled in her cheeks, her heart fluttered slightly. Every word of what she had just told him was the truth. She cared for him, she really did. His friendship meant the world to her. No, not the world, that was too small. The whole universe, the sun and the moon, the infinite cosmos that stretched beyond the galaxy, touching every star that ever existed and ever would exist. That is what he was to her. She knew that he felt that way for Ladybug, but he would never feel that way for Marinette. When she put the mask on she was confident and flawless, Marinette couldn't even talk to the boy that she liked without getting flustered. He loved a perfect version of her, a Ladybug who was completely fearless. She had gotten better, she could admit that. She used to be a lot less social before she became Ladybug. Maybe it was time to stop hiding behind a mask, maybe Ladybug was something that Marinette should aspire to be.

"You really know how to pick someone up when they're down." Chat's voice sounded so much happier, it filled Ladybug with glee to know that he was feeling better. "I'm so lucky that I have you, my purr-ecious."

"That was awful." Ladybug groaned.

And yet she couldn't help but smile. He was acting like himself again, and that was all that mattered. She smiled, leaning against the walls of the uncomfortable stone cell that they had spent the last few days in. They couldn't stay forever, they needed a plan, or they would both rot in those cages for the rest of their lives.

"Chat?" She called. The blonde boy's ears perked up at the sound of her voice. "It's time to plan a prison break."

Adrien confronted his mother, and more Ladybug/Chat Noir banter because I love them. What will happen next? Well, I know. But you'll have to wait to find out.

See you soon!