Adopted

The early morning sun filled the train with light. The top level of the bunk beds was above the window, but the light reached it anyway. And that was just … a wake up call.

Marinette groaned and turned on he belly, her face away from the window, but she kept holding Adrien's hand, in fact her grip stiffened.

That made Adrien blink his eyes open, he squinted until his eyes adjusted to the light. There was her, his lady, Marinette, Ladybug, the boy smiled dreamily and held her hand over the gap between the beds.

He was awake too early, they both had a rough night, their dreams were filled with nightmares and they were woken up a few times.

Sabine watched the two connected hands and sighed. What was she to do with the boy? What was she to do with her daughter? They became so dependent on each other. She took their phones away yesterday, because they were both tired of them, because they both stirred or hitched a breath or reacted in any other awkward way whenever they received a message. Sabine made them silence their phones at first, but that did not help the two teens as they kept checking the screens. Then she proposed to take away their phones and promised to answer only the emergency calls. Then both kids gladly accepted the offer. She was surprised how often Adrien's phone lit up with a message. That boy really needed peace.

Tom was startled from his sleep when Sabine nudged him. She put her index finger over her mouth and pointed for him to look upwards with her other hand. He did, and he saw two joined hands. Then she motioned for both of them to walk away and find a place to talk. The large man got to his feet slowly and followed his wife.

"What should we do?" Sabine asked as soon as they moved away from the compartment.

"We discussed this before. We have to see with Ms Leclerc, but I think we cant adopt him." Tom teased.

"This is serious, Tom." Sabine groaned.

"Of course it is, but we cant solve it now, if at all." Tom made more serious face.

"They are bot too dependent on each other." Sabine sighed.

"They are, but we will return to Paris and there they will have the rest of their friends. Now they only have each other, and your nephew and niece." Tom shrugged.

"And us." Sabine added.

"And us." Tom confirmed.

"Ms Leclerc confirmed to me last night. Gabriel has been stripped any parental right after physically assaulting Adrien." Sabine sighed. "He refused to go to his aunt in London so she will arrange some kind of custody. She said his case is too complicated to be resolved in a few days and she prefers to keep him with his bodyguard for Adrien's sake. And she is right, he is the closest thing to a parent the boy has."

"Except us." Tom said with a grin but he himself felt shivers go down his spine.

"We can't adopt him, Marinette will not let us live." Sabine whisper shouted.

"Hm, you think so?" Tom replied teasingly, stroked his chin and smirked at his wife.

"You can't be serious." Sabine whispered exasperatedly.

"I can." Tom grinned. "At least so serious that the two of them believe me."

"Are you planning to … ?" Sabine trailed away.

"have some fun? Yes." Tom laughed and hugged his tiny wife.

"This train ride is really too long." Sabine sighed.

"But the view is really beautiful." Tom nudged her to turn around and look through the window.

"It is indeed." Sabine replied as she waved her head.

Adrien looked at Marinette. She was sleeping. He was jealous. Because she could sleep. He could not see her face, just a mop of black hair that was shining all sorts of colours in the early morning light, because the light itself that surged through the window was orange and yellow, while her black hair would normally shine in shades of blue.

Few days ago, Adrien was looking forward to spend a few days or weeks with Nino before his legal guardian found more permanent solution for him. But now Nino was angry at him, because Adrien did not tell him the truth about Lila. Well he did, sort of, he just did not push it so strongly as Marinette did, he did not insist to expose all her lies, he did not push for things to be cleared up. He mentioned, he insinuated, it was implied that this or that thing that Lila said was not holding water, not a fact, not true, a lie. But he was too polite to blatantly expose the liar. He was too much used to the business finesse where one would expose the liar without actually doing so. But there he was dealing with a bunch of teenagers, not business men. They did not take Lila's lies as insults (save Marinette, and him, if you squint), they were buying her tall tales. Lila was way too much versed in the fine arts of making herself look good while making everyone else around her feel low, or at least, lower than the liar, and yet they were all happy about that.

"What is wrong, Adrien." Marinette whispered. She woke up and turned around only to see her sunshine boy had a dark expression on his face.

"Nino is mad at me. I thought I was going to stay with him when we return to Paris. I have nowhere to go to." Adrien whispered back.

Marinette squeezed his hand. She was not so sure Nino was mad at Adrien, she knew him and she expected the boy just needed a little time to accept everything that happened.

"And he is right." Adrien continued. Marinette's eyes went wide and she raised her head from the mattress.

"It is all my fault. I should have exposed Lila, together with you." Adrien looked at the girl more intently. "She hurt you. She hurt my friends. It was all because of me."

Marinette sighed, there it was, the boy was blaming himself, for Hawk Moth, for not exposing him sooner, for Lila, for not exposing her.

"It was not your fault, Adrien." Marinette smiled. "It was not your fault she lied. And Alya and Nino, they did not listen to me, did they? Nobody did." Marinette could not hide the hurt in her voice.

"So you never told me she threatened you. You never told them either." Adrien looked at the ceiling then back at the girl. "And I have asked Alya and Nino to help me trick Gabriel and Nathalie. Hey helped me. They helped us." The boy avoided calling the man his father.

"Lila is not your responsibility." Marinette fastened her grip on his hand and shook it.

Adrien nodded.

"That, what happened in Paris, that was not your fault." The girl concluded.

But then the boy shook himself. Adrien sighed. He expected Nino had changed his mind. He had no home to go to now. And it was all because of Lila.

"Okay, but I cant' stay with Nino now." Adrien continued in his slightly depressed tone.

"You do not know that." Marinette whisper shouted as she sat up one her bed while she kept holding his hand.

Adrien sat up too. He was a famous model (he hated that), he was also a superhero (he loved that bout could not really tell) and apparently he was getting close to homeless. The insecurity about what to expect washed over him. So he dealt with it the only way he knew how. He was Chat Noir for a reason. That personality was what he needed to vent out his frustration whenever he needed to step away from his civilian life.

"I am a stray cat in a need of home." He teased. Each time he faced a problem as Chat Noir, he turned it into a joke.

"Gosh, I fed you, you will never leave." Marinette replied once she recovered from the shock.

"Well, my boy, you are exactly a kind of pet Sabine and I could adopt, since we can not have the real animals for pets because we live above the bakery." Tom teased as he overheard the last part of the conversation.

"You what?" Marinette screeched.

"Sabine and I are adopting Adrien." Tom grinned. But there was a teasing lilt in his tone that Marinette recognized instantly, while Adrien hoped he heard it. Or did not. The boy was not sure if he would really dislike the idea of being adopted by Tom and Sabine.

Sabine stood by Tom's side and observed the two kids with amusement. If Tom decided to have fun with the two kids she might as well enjoy it.

"You do not want us to adopt you son?" Tom was pretending to be hurt (not Lila's style) while he kept grin on his face and there was still teasing in his voice.

"Um." Adrien looked at Marinette and then at their joined hands. "That would make me Marinette's brother?" The boy sounded surprised by his own question.

Tom just grinned.

Marinette blushed severely.

Adrien waited for an answer.

"Stop teasing him, papa." Marinette was furious. "That was not a nice way to talk to him. He practically lost his whole family and his home." The girl continued to scold her father.

"That house was never a home." Adrien waved his head. "Your parents made me feel more at home during this journey. Heck, you made me feel more at home in that temple, than I ever felt in that house."

Marinette stared at the boy. Was he really going along with this. She wanted to protest. She wanted to tell him that if her parents adopt him, then they can't go out on dates, he can't be her brother, they can't have a house and three kids and they can't even have a hamster because they live above the bakery … but then she quickly smacked her forehead to shake herself from that train of thought.

"So it is a deal then?" Tom continued to tease with careful eyes towards Adrien. Was he really going too far? Was he really teasing this kid to much?

Adrien blushed hard.

"Sir I think I have some feelings for your daughter that would make me not appropriate candidate to be adopted by you." Adrien replied quietly.

Tom changed his expression completely. His face was gentle.

"I am sorry, I was teasing you son." Tom used the word son for Adrien often when he spoke to the boy, it came out so naturally. But this time he used it, both teens winced. "I would have taken you gladly, In fact I hope you will be my son one day just in a different way." And then there was teasing lilt in his voice again and mischievous glint in his eyes.

Marinette groaned again. Her face was flushed again and she covered her face with her free hand while she peeked towards Adrien between her fingers. She never let go of his hand.

"Stop teasing us papa, we are having hard time as it is." The girl begged quietly once her blush allowed her to form words again.

The boy was lost. These people wanted him. These adults wanted him. This man kept calling him son. Tom treated the boy with more care and warmth that Adrien could remember he ever got from his own father. They would take him into the family one way or another. The man was not just teasing them. It was a joke. And the boy loved it. He could have joined the joke if he understood from the start. Now he was sorry he missed it. Perhaps it was not too late and he could still have some fun. And then Adrien remembered something, he wanted to tell Tom and Sabine about the marriage in the temple. His face changed. Now he sported a crooked grin and there was a spark in his eyes. Marinette knew that spark. Marinette knew that grin. It was the same expression Chat Noir was wearing before he spilled one of his jokes.

"No" She whispered and yanked his hand a little to get his attention.

Adrien smirked at her.

She glared between her fingers, still red in her face, still hiding behind her hand.

"Adrien needs a home dear." Sabine said quietly.

"You can stay with us for as long as you need if Mme Leclerc allows it." Tom smiled.

Adrien gulped. On one hand he wanted to continue the joke, but this was serious, he was offered into their home.