"Nathalie..." Gabriel gazed at her, hurt with confusion like a young boy. "What did Viperion mean when he said that I only brought heartbreak on you when I tried to heal Emilie? I remember how you gasped before getting angry at him."
The two were shocked when they got one last chance to talk to each other after being defeated by the other miraculous holders, but they also knew that they were surrounded by prison officers so it sort of made sense to them. Either way, they were grateful and it was obvious that there were still some things between them that needed to be cleared up.
"I..."
After a moment of silence, he managed to put the pieces together and his jaw tightened slightly, "Nathalie, were you in love with me for this whole time?"
"You weren't supposed to find out-"
"Did you think that following whatever I did would make me happy?" Gabriel tried to hold his tears back and his serious, stoic nature began to break. "Did it make you happy?"
"Gabriel..."
He held his head in his hands, "I could've moved on, my son wouldn't have hated me and you wouldn't have been hurting for all of these years!"
"Adrien doesn't hate you," Nathalie stated. "He's just hurt by what you did and he was confused that day because he was overwhelmed."
"But-"
She gave him a small smile, "Deep down he wanted to help you, just like I did."
"He just didn't know how..."
"And neither did I."
...
"Dang, that must've been real tough!" Alix gaped at them. "That must've been hard for all of you, especially Cat Noir. I mean, how would it feel to see your own parent and mother figure get arrested right in front of you? Let alone your own father trying to akumatise you, just like he did in the episode. Yikes, you all must've been terrified."
Marinette smiled at her, "That we were, Alix."
"You know, I never knew that being akumatised felt so weird!" Adrien commented lightheartedly. "I've always wondered about what it felt like."
"Great, now you've gotten me all curious!" Marinette giggled. "It's too bad that I won't be able to find out now: the peacock and moth miraculouses are locked up even more than the others."
Luka grinned, "I'd personally say that's a good thing, ma-ma-ma Marinette."
"Depends on who you're talking to, I guess," she shrugged.
Tom loudly opened the door and surprised everyone, "Super baker dad has now successfully delivered plenty of pastries to all of you, now enjoy!"
He closed the door and they all chuckled as they munched on their croissants, but stopped once they all received a notification on their phones.
'Don't be bemused, it's just the news!'
Adrien grimaced, "I guess it's time for us to watch the news, now."
"Today Ladybug, Cat Noir and the other superheroes have officially defeated both of the supervillains!" Nadja's face popped up on the television as soon as Marinette pressed the 'on' button on the remote control. "The secret identities of both the superheroes and the supervillains can now be revealed: Paris deserves to know the two who have troubled us and the ones who had saved us."
"Here it comes..." Alya averted her eyes to the floor, wondering how the public would respond to her being Rena Rouge.
"It turns out that Hawkmoth was the famous fashion designer, Gabriel Agreste for this whole time!" Nadja revealed as his face appeared on the screen. "Don't worry, though: he will be in prison for a long time and so will Nathalie Sancoeur. She was Gabriel's assistant and she was also Mayura."
Trying to lighten the mood, Kim gave them jazz hands, "I wonder what she say next?"
"Now, we all know that the infamous daughter of the mayor, Chloe Bourgeois is Queen Bee," Nadja stated. "But did you know that the runner of the Ladyblog, Alya Cesaire turned out to be Rena Rouge this whole time? This certainly does raise a lot of questions, doesn't it?"
Alya huffed, "Of course she would say it like that."
"Her boyfriend Nino Lahiffe is Carapace, Max Kante is Pegasus and Le Chien Kim is King Monkey," Nadja showed more pictures of the heroes' civilian identities on the screen. "All of the heroes are classmates at Françoise Dupont apart from Luka Couffaine who is Viperion and Kagami Tsurugi, who is Ryuko."
Kagami frowned, "Mother will be disappointed to hear this news: she will ground me for the rest of my life."
"You're welcome to stay with me," Luka offered. "I'm sure that neither my mother nor Juleka will mind."
She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, "Thanks for the offer, Luka."
"Keeping that in mind, Ladybug has recruited a new hero: Bunnyx," Nadja informed her audience. "Her identity is Alix Kudbel."
Taken aback, Alix wondered, "How do they know about me?"
Kim shook his head in anxiety, "I don't know... none of us know."
"But here is something that none of you would've ever expected," Nadja built up some suspense. "It just happens that Hawkmoth's own son was Cat Noir for this entire time! Who knew that Adrien Agreste, the muse of the Gabriel brand was a superhero?"
Adrien groaned, "Ah, I can practically hear all of the questions running through my poor head now."
"Now Lila Rossi was actually working with Hawkmoth and Mayura too, but she thankfully got arrested along with them," Nadja spilt some more tea. "She bullied Ladybug's civilian form, Marinette Dupain Cheng."
"Oh gosh," Alya face palmed. "I can tell that the next few weeks are going to be messy."
"Very messy indeed," Alix scratched her head, not wanting to deal with publicity.
Nadja added one last thing, "If you heroes are watching this, then just know that we'd really appreciate it if you gave us an interview!"
With that Marinette switched the television off, not wanting to watch any more of Nadja talking about them. She could only imagine who boisterous Manon was going to be next time she'd babysit her.
...
"I knew that something was bothering you, but I had no idea how big that thing was," Ondine placed her soft palm on the troubled hero's cheek. "I'll be here for you, Kim and I hope that you know that."
"I know," Kim shuddered at her touch. "It's just that I wasn't supposed to tell you anything back then."
She closed her eyes gently, "Yeah, I know that."
He pulled her into a hug as his fears started to eat him up, "I want to protect the people of Paris, but more importantly: I want to protect you too."
"Mm," she leaned against him, then made an offer. "Swim to get rid of your troubles?"
He grinned against her shoulder as his usual competitive self reappeared, "Hell yes! I wonder if I'll be able to beat you this time."
...
"I'm sorry for worrying you, mother," Max held his head down as he met her at home again.
His mother shook her head, "You shouldn't have to feel sorry: I understand that it's an important duty... just be careful, please."
"I can't promise that, mother," Max fought against his tears. "I'm sorry-"
In attempt to get him back to being himself, she asked him happily, "Come on, what's the percentage that you'll be fine?"
He tried to find an answer, but hesitated as there wasn't a number that came up and answered her honestly with broken uncertainty, "I'm not sure, mother... I'm sorry."
Sobbing, she embraced her wounded child and they both stayed on the floor crying for a while.
...
"All I ask of you is to not get hurt in the future," Alix's father gave her a serious look. "Now, I don't think that's too much to ask for."
"It's not, but I don't know if I do or if I don't yet," Alix told him honestly. "I haven't looked yet: I haven't felt the need to, but I definitely will soon."
He patted his daughter's head, "That's fine, Alix. I'll still worry though, because that's my job as your father."
"Yeah, I know," she grinned cheekily, before going out to roller skate.
...
'I never saw my mother again after that.'
"You can share a room with Juleka," Luka took her to his sister's room, carrying some of Kagami's belongings for her.
Unsure, Kagami double checked with her, "Are you sure that's alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine with it," Juleka murmured shyly. "Sorry, It'll take me a while to get used to you being here."
"Just let me know if I'm making you feel uncomfortable," Kagami looked at her gently before turning to Luka. "How can I be sure that she won't find me?"
"You can borrow some of my clothes for the time being," Juleka offered kindly.
Their mother laughed, "It looks like we'll have to take you on a shopping trip, sweetie!"
Luka played with a strand of Kagami's hair, "Maybe you should change your hair just to be safe."
"I also have some different coloured contact lenses," Juleka placed a hand onto her shoulder. "Don't worry, they don't have a prescription or anything along those lines."
"Sounds good," Kagami nodded. "I'll do just about anything to stay away from her at this point: I've even warned Marinette about her, just to be safe."
...
Whilst most of the heroes had been gaining support, many have been questioning Alya and Adrien. Marinette, Adrien, Alya and Nino had been hanging out by Andrè's ice cream van when a bunch of comments suddenly popped up on social media.
'How had Adrien had time to do anything? Was his busy schedule a lie for this whole time?"
'No, that wouldn't make sense since Hawkmoth didn't know that he was Cat Noir.'
'I guess that makes sense, but it's still weird.'
'Was the lady blog just a coverup for her identity for this whole time?'
'Nope! Alya didn't become Rena Rouge until a long time after Marinette became Ladybug. Also, they didn't know each other's identities until about a month ago.'
'That's still so strange...'
"Why are we wearing masks everywhere we go now?" Marinette gritted her teeth in frustration. "We're heroes, not celebrities."
"Well, we are famous superheroes," Nino pointed out, "So technically, we are celebrities."
Adrien shrugged, "We don't actually have to wear masks, I just don't want to be interrogated everywhere I go when I'm trying to hang out with my friends."
"Fair enough..." Alya kicked the ground.
Nino gazed at his girlfriend with concern, "Als, are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm not quite there yet," Alya tried to keep a strong face, but it was wobbling. "But I'll be fine and I don't want to cry in public, so let's move on."
...
"Nathalie..."
An officer walked in front of them, "Time's up, I'm afraid."
"I understand," Gabriel let himself get taken away from her.
She wanted to say one last thing, "I'm sorry, Gabriel."
"Don't be," he refused to make eye contact with her. "I'm the one who should be."
...
A/N:
I feel like there are still a few loose ends that need to be tied, but for now this story is complete!
I may make a sequel, but for now I'm not sure yet.
Anyway, thank you for reading this fanfiction! And thank you to those who have left a review: I'm truly grateful to you all.
Please let me know if you'd like a sequel or not: I'm curious about what you think :)
