Disclaimer: never did and never will own it. Thomas Astruc does.
Spoilers: canon until Season 2, Episode 10 (Sapotis)
Marinette was getting fed up with being weak as a kitten, with seeing Adrien worry about her health when she had promised to keep him safe, and with people conjecturing for hours on why she had fainted. She even heard some say she was pregnant. Honestly! Didn't people have anything more productive to do? Like finding Hawk Moth? Thinking of it, Marinette was fed up with Hawk Moth.
So when Master Fu showed up in her living room, she was not in a very good mood.
"My parents…," she began.
"They know, Marinette," Adrien interrupted tiredly. "I don't know how, I certainly didn't say anything. And not only they know, but Marc also. And if Marc knows, Nathalie knows. There's nothing that goes past Nathalie. She's that scary." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry."
"What is done is done," Master Fu said. "No need to cry over spilled water." He came near to have a look at Tikki, who was resting against Marinette.
Marinette closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them again, Master Fu was peering at her and, behind him, Adrien was looking anxious.
"Your battles of late have made you stronger," he announced.
Marinette was usually very polite and not prone to disbelief toward people she trusted. This time, she couldn't help it and scoffed.
"Stronger? When I am limp as a noodle?"
Adrien grinned. No doubt he felt quite the same. Master Fu remained serious.
"Going beyond your strength for the good of others increases it. The Miraculous knows how to recognise self-sacrifice and though you are both by no means the first ones, I dare say you are the strongest. I don't remember anyone gaining two pearls so quickly, especially the first ones. Do you, Tikki?"
Marinette looked toward Tikki, feeling betrayed for no reason. Her kwami was as exhausted as she was, but she grinned happily.
"No, indeed."
Master Fu smiled.
"When you are both feeling better, do come see me."
He had a gesture that made clear that by 'both', he meant Adrien and Marinette. They nodded, feeling quite gloomy. Marinette couldn't help thinking that new powers meant more powerful akumas.
-o-o-
The following day at school, everybody was commenting the new colour of Ladybug's costume and her fainting bout. Marinette made a note to have a stroll as Ladybug later that day so that people would see she was all right. On the other hand, she was glad for Alya, who just explained that considering the fights she had had, it was normal for her to be tired.
Chloé seemed relieved: it meant nobody was speaking about the fact that all her family, including herself, had been akumatised during the weekend. Except when she presented her poster with Sabrina and Lila said, "Considering your experience, you know what you're saying, of course. I mean, nobody had their entire family akumatised. One could wonder why it would be yours."
Miss Bustier seemed ready to scold Lila, but Chloé pushed back her ponytail with a supremely disdainful move and replied sweetly, "At least, I have a family, which is more than can be said about you." She took a deep breath. "We were encouraged just last Friday to take care of not antagonising the others. Everybody today, despite everything, said nothing to me about this weekend. Only you dared. Do you hate Ladybug so much that you would risk the safety of the whole city for a petty revenge? Especially for a reason so stupid, since you claimed she humiliated you in front of the boy you love. How could you claim you love Adrien when you had met him for the first time minutes before?" She looked straight in Lila's eyes. "Now, what? Are you going to be angry because I forced you to face your lies, like Ladybug did, and get akumatised? If yes, I can tell you I will personally help her to put you down. Otherwise, you can just realise that your lies just antagonise you to everybody and stop them. Maybe then you'll have some friends or at the very least, people will speak to you decently."
"Look who's speaking," Lila replied venomously.
"I am perfect," Chloé said haughtily. "But you need to practice for that. Which is obviously something you are too lazy to do."
Lila stood up, angry. Chloé smiled nastily and goaded her further.
"Come, now, cry-baby! Get akumatised because you don't like reality! You're vain and weak if you succumb again."
"Like you?" Lila hissed.
Chloé didn't even bother to reply. She just snickered.
"Lila, Chloé, go see Mr Damoclès, immediately," Miss Bustier said tightly.
"What for?" Chloé replied. "You want me to call my father again and Lila will be expelled but not me? It will make her even angrier."
"What about not calling your father?"
"Don't exaggerate. I'm not going to be punished because a silly girl thinks she's better than me because she's been akumatised only once. I want her to realise how stupid she is." She stepped toward Lila, eyes narrowed. Lila didn't back down.
"I'm better than you because my akuma was way cooler than yours."
"Oh, we're at that level now? Next time, what? You're going to stick out your tongue at me? You're so childish, I don't even know why I'm losing my time with you." She turned around, the tip of her ponytail slapping Lila's face, and returned to her seat.
"Our presentation is over, Miss Bustier. I apologise for the untimely interruption."
Marinette glanced anxiously toward Lila. She didn't run away in tears or close her fists, or anything that could indicate strong emotions. It didn't mean she wasn't feeling them.
-o-o-
She spent her day watching Lila as covertly as she could. She feared the worse when Chloé exclaimed, "If Lila gets akumatised, I hope Ladybug doesn't feel like she needs to come fight. She should just call on the newbies, let them take care of her and just come to purify the akuma."
"Yeah, I should do that," Marinette muttered, head in her arms. "Let the others work while I watch from the side lines."
She sighed in relief when the day ended without incident and went straight for Master Fu's. Adrien came with her and Marc opted for driving around, telling them they would meet at the bakery.
The new pearl was yellow. Or rather, the stone. Marinette didn't see the difference, since they worked exactly the same way.
"Yellow! I'll look ridiculous," she groused.
Adrien had discovered, to his own surprise, that grumpy Marinette was adorable. To him, anyway. Master Fu didn't look like he shared his enthusiasm.
"What does it do?" he asked.
"It allows you to fly."
Marinette grumbled something about the next akuma being airborne and having to fight a sky-battle. Adrien was of the same opinion. While being able to fly sounded fun, it was yet another thing to fight while flying. He didn't dare voice it to Master Fu though, as the old man looked somehow irritated by Marinette's lack of eagerness.
She managed a smile and soft parting words as they left, Tikki watching her anxiously. She knew she should do something about her bad mood but the knot in her stomach kept her dreading the worse. She went back to her house with Adrien, though they were careful not to touch – no need to antagonise Gabriel Agreste's by seeing a photo of his son holding the hand of a girl, especially since it was the one he had saved previously.
Her parents and Marc looked at them when they came in. Marinette was quite impressed by how calmly they were taking in the whole thing.
"Are you all right, honey?" Sabine asked her.
She took a deep breath. "If there isn't any akuma for the next two days, I may be." She smiled. "I'm sorry. I'm tired."
"Go rest for a while, before doing your homework," Tom suggested.
"No, not yet. I think I, we, need to be seen. People are worried. We have to reassure them that we are all right and still ready to fight." She saw something in her mother's eyes and added hurriedly, "A quick stroll! There is no akuma alert."
"You know best, I'm sure. Maybe a quick snack before?"
She relented – to Adrien's delight – and they shared a few pastries before transforming. Marinette refused to 'strut' as she called it and said they just had to be seen by a few passers-by. But it had to be quite discreet, as she didn't want Hawk Moth to think she was taunting him. They enjoyed jumping from roof to roof and did a few summersaults when people were looking. She saw them smile, waved at them and, after twenty long minutes, headed back home.
-o-o-
To her surprise, the following days were quiet, which allowed her to catch up on her sleep and on food, as her parents kept a strict eye on her diet now. Tom came up with recipes for energy balls, both sour and sweet, and even Tikki accepted to try them on. She deemed them perfect and would sometimes switch her usual cookies against the orange chocolate energy balls. Some of her classmates tasted them too and Tom had to make them in industrial quantities as they all wanted to have some to snack on.
Marinette once caught her mother receiving an email from the Agreste chef. Sabine blushed slightly, though she was smiling.
"Mr Agreste is concerned about Adrien's health," she said. "Some recipes for the energy balls, your father created himself, but others come from the Agreste chef. Don't worry, the ginger chocolate ones you like so much are purely coming from your father's mind."
She looked at her daughter and seemed satisfied to see that she no longer looked tired and that her cheeks were rosy again instead of that pasty colour they had been during that horrible weekend of the 'Bourgeois akumas'.
"Once you know who Hawk Moth is, do tell me," she said conversationally. "I have one or two things to tell him."
"And none of them 'bless you'," Marinette retorted.
"I'm very proud of you, Marinette, be sure of it, but I would rather have you be safe. Do you want some help in figuring who he is? You know, sometimes, explaining things to ignorant people puts them into a new light."
"Thank you, mum, but I would rather think about fashion."
"No Adrien today?"
"His father isn't too keen on letting him out of the house so Adrien split his time to make him happy."
"Why don't you go there?"
"Mum! I can't! I'll just... You know I'll just embarrass myself in front of Mr Agreste and then he'll forbid Adrien to ever see me again and he'll give my name to the fashion industry as a fool and I'll never be a designer!"
Sabine smiled and kissed her daughter. "If you say so, sweetie. Have fun designing something then."
As a matter of fact, Marinette didn't do much, because she spent a lot of time texting Adrien.
-o-o-
That very evening, Marinette was watching a television report where Nadja Chamack, who else, was interviewing people about the last developments concerning Paris's superheroes. Tactfully, she had not asked 'Ladybug's greatest fan', namely Chloé, but had rather chosen unknown people. The first were enthusiastic about Ladybug's and Cat Noir's new powers. Some girls even squealed in delight at the purple colour her suit turned into when she called on the infinite Lucky Charms power. But then, the next person Nadja interviewed was the man who had been hurt during the fight against Malediktor and he was not of the same opinion.
"I was minding my own business, I didn't ask to be caught up in their petty feud! I mean, why can't one go from place to place in Paris without risking being hurt by an akuma so that Hawk Moth can prove a point? The streets aren't safe anymore and that's all Ladybug and Cat Noir's fault! Who cares about their Miraculous? If they had given them up at the very beginning, I would not have suffered like I did that day! Okay, she healed me, but the nightmares still haunt me and the pain was very real. It didn't stop with the healing."
Marinette's phone rang. It was Adrien.
"Do not listen to him," he said urgently.
"How did you know I was watching that report?" she asked, a bit tearfully.
"I just knew it. He's an idiot, who's just trying to shift the blame on someone else because he didn't care where he was going."
"But he hurts!"
"Yes, and if that idiot had been careful, he would not have been there to begin with! Let me remind you that if Malediktor had not changed weapon, that same guy who's hurling abuses at us would have been trying to bring us down!"
On TV, Nadja was asking other people what they thought of the man's statement. Though most of them reacted indignantly, reminding everyone that the superheroes risked their lives to protect Paris, some agreed with the man, considering after all that they had lived very well until the Miraculous had appeared and that they had no problem with them disappearing. Marinette broke down in tears. Minutes after, Cat Noir was next to her, his arms around her.
-o-o-
Cat Noir transformed back into Adrien, turned off the TV and pulled up the Ladyblog, where they had fun reading Alya ripping apart the people thinking that Ladybug and Cat Noir should just give up. Marinette laughed when reading the last part of Alya's article.
I've been watching all the 'Captain America' movies lately and in 'The Winter Soldier' – my favourite, by the way – someone says 'S.H. .D doesn't negotiate'. The urban legend would add 'with terrorists'. Well, I think that Ladybug and Cat Noir should take this to heart, like they did before: they will not negotiate with a terrorist like Hawk Moth. Maybe they should call Captain America to their help for not negotiating!
'What's all that about Captain America?" Adrien asked, befuddled.
Marinette snickered. "Maybe it's due to a certain Carapace, who pretended that his full name was an acronym for 'Captain America' and who has a shield just like him."
"Seriously? Oh, poor Nino! No, wait! Alya and Carapace? This is going to be so funny!"
"Let's rather say Rena Rouge and Carapace." She was smiling now.
Together, they read the comments in reaction to Alya's article. Most of them went with her and one or two were a bit more moderate. Strangely, there was none saying that they should give up their Miraculous. Then Adrien pointed to a comment saying that indeed, they should call on Captain America, who would bring with him some of his Avengers friends.
"That's Nino. He's telling us to bring on the reinforcements."
"But it doesn't depend on us," Marinette said glumly.
Adrien remained silent a moment before suggesting, "Maybe Master Fu just asked us to choose so that he would know who we would like to work with and they will find their Miraculous on their table much like we did."
"Maybe. But it would have been nice if he had told us while we were at his home."
-o-o-
Adrien went back to his home under Cat Noir's guise, since he had sneaked around and though Marinette's parents would not have said anything, his would have. He sat at his desk, feeling despondent. Though he had tried to cheer up Marinette, he couldn't say he felt much better. He opened one of his drawers and fished out the sheet on which he had begun listing all the reasons why his father couldn't be Hawk Moth. He had not touched it since the first time. To tell the truth, it rather saddened him not to find more reasons for his father to be innocent. But he had found two since that time. 'Too busy'. After all, Gabriel Agreste had no time for his son, so surely, he had no time for playing around the villain. Right? Then, tentatively, he added, 'maybe has to go places to release his akumas' and he almost never left the house unless to go to fashion meetings.
With a sigh, he started on the 'Guilty' column. It twisted his heart to write the first one: 'cold, emotion-impaired'. Then, the fact that he had commented on both Ladybug's earring and his ring. He had the Spellbook. He pulled out his report of akumas' attacks and looked at the dates. There was no pattern he could see. Like lately, three attacks in one weekend and then nothing.
"I see a pattern," Plagg said, yawning.
"In relation with Camembert?"
"Haha, really funny. What's your father's main occupation?"
"Fashion and making my life miserable?"
Plagg glared at him. "Fashion. What event is important in fashion?"
"Fashion week."
Adrien paled and checked the dates. The week before and during all the time Men an Haute Couture fashion week had lasted, there had been no akumas. Same for Women fashion week. Sighing, he added in the 'Guilty' column 'no akumas during fashion week'.
"Thanks, Plagg."
"I'm sorry, Adrien."
For once, the kwami sounded sincere. Adrien wondered what had changed him, until he turned around and swallowed a large slice of Camembert with disgusting noises. Adrien smiled.
-o-o-
What would his father do if had the two Miraculous? What would he do with an unlimited wish – because Adrien was sure he didn't care about the consequences? Then his heart stopped for a moment. He knew. There was only one thing that could make his father go to such extremities.
"He wants to bring mum back," he whispered.
Plagg stopped wolfing down his cheese and considered the thing.
"Sounds good," he offered. "I mean, probably the only way he can bring her back is with your Miraculous. Except that if she's dead, someone else will die in her stead as soon as he makes the wish. Probably you or him, since you are her closest relatives."
"It makes me feel so much better to know that," Adrien retorted sourly while writing down 'has a goal' and underlining it twice.
Then his eyes fell on the previous lines he had written what seemed a long time ago and he read 'too young to have stolen the Spellbook and the Miraculous'. He had written Miraculous, plural. The Moth Miraculous and what was the other?
"What was the other Miraculous that disappeared?"
"The Peacock one. A blue green gaudy thing. A brooch, if I remember well. No taste whatsoever." He ate some more cheese. "Like that thing in your father's vault."
Adrien felt himself blanch. "What?"
-o-o-
He called Marinette and told her to meet him at the Eiffel Tower, as Ladybug, of course. He was grateful when she didn't ask and simply agreed. He was already waiting for her when she arrived.
"I know who Hawk Moth is," he declared.
"What? How?"
"I found out who you were, didn't I?"
"You were seeing me every day!"
He turned to her miserably. "I see him every day also. You were right, Hawk Moth is Gabriel Agreste, my father."
"Oh, kitty, I'm so sorry."
She couldn't help herself in front of his grief and took him in her arms. He broke down in her arms and she felt helpless.
"It's all right. It will be all right in the end," she repeated softly, though convinced it was stupid. It was definitely not all right.
She held him tight, her hands caressing his back or his hair, pressing soft kisses on his temple, just letting him know she was here, repeating over and over her litany. She didn't even know when it changed and became, "I will make it all right."
After a while, he became aware of her words and asked brokenly, "How?"
"I don't know, but I will make it all right, I promise." She took his face in her hands, looked at him in the eyes and repeated firmly, "I promise."
Then she kissed him. Until now, their kisses had been rather chaste, since they were their first kisses for both of them and they were still getting used to the idea. This kiss had nothing chaste, Ladybug pouring all her love in it, and Cat Noir responded to it. They fumbled a bit, hitting noses, clicking teeth, but passion was there and soon Cat Noir was no more holding Ladybug like a drowning man but rather like a man held a woman he loved with all his heart. In the furnace Ladybug had awaken in him, there was no more place for grief. After a while, his voice was husky when he said, "I would rather lose him than you."