On his arrival in France, Adrien has settled down in the hotel run by André Bourgeois. He did not dare to return home. Not yet. Some wounds take longer to heal than others and it will certainly take time before he finds the strength to pass through the doors of the family mansion.
But he is in Paris, and it is already an unexpected progress.
The days go by, and Adrien rediscovers his beloved capital. He gets up at dawn and walks the streets of Paris for long hours. Sometimes he just walks around the neighbourhood. Other days, he decides to go to a museum or to visit one of the many monuments that adorn the city.
From time to time, Chloé and Nino accompany him on his peregrinations.
But generally, Adrien prefers to be alone. Alone with his thoughts, which he lets wander as they please. Thus freed from any constraint, they float, settle, and put themselves back in place during these long walks. Far from these aquatic preoccupations, Adrien allows his brain to reorganize itself gently, willingly giving him the task of taming his new environment himself.
Better not to rush.
Adrien wants to take his time, to slowly get used to his new Parisian life. He has already paid enough for his hasty escape attempt not to know now that trying to artificially hasten things sometimes does a lot more harm than good.
Unfortunately for him, his daily life is quickly disrupted by indiscretions which he would have done well without. He hoped that his return to Paris would go unnoticed, that he would blend in with the crowd like an anonymous shadow. But alas, his face has adorned the smallest walls of the capital for years and his father is at the center of the biggest scandal that Paris has known in decades.
People recognize him. Approach him. Question him.
And soon, the whole town knows that Adrien Agreste is back.
Journalists hurry to his hotel in search of a photo, an interview, anything that would allow them to feed the latest rumour of the moment. When Adrien meets them, he is polite, but firm. No matter the pleas, he won't say anything about his father or what he himself has become since the world discovered the dark side of his illustrious progenitor.
Not that he has much to say about the famous Gabriel Agreste, anyway.
He has not seen his father since his dual identity was revealed, and he has little desire to rush this potential reunion. One day, perhaps, he will find the strength to go and confront him and tell him everything he has on his mind. But that moment is still far away. For now, all Adrien wants is to quietly resume the course of his life away from his father's stifling shadow.
As the days go by, the patience of journalists diminishes. Adrien avoids the slightest of their questions and his peaceful daily life does not give much to write about. After the first two or three weeks of excitement, all of Paris ended up losing interest in this former model who spends his days strolling peacefully in town. The reports about him become less frequent then stop, unwelcome visitors disappear, and Adrien finally finds the calm he longs for.
He continues to wander randomly in the streets of Paris, and little by little, Nino and Chloé insist on supplementing his solitary walks with a few outings between friends. They take him to lunch with them, invite him to drink coffees.
Then, one evening, two other familiar figures reappear in Adrien's life.
When he pushes the door of the restaurant where he has to meet his friends, he sees Alya, who chatters happily with Nino. And sitting in front of her, next to Chloé, is another person that the young man immediately recognizes.
Marinette.
For a brief moment, Adrien freezes. He always had a lot of affection for his old classmate, but she has black hair and blue eyes.
And he can no longer see a girl with black hair and blue eyes without thinking of Ladybug.
For a second, the memory of his Lady hits him with such force that he is breathless. He gropes for the doorframe, clings to it like a lifeline. Just long enough to regain his senses, to catch his breath.
This is not the first time that his memories have left him paralyzed in this way. From time to time, a voice, a laugh, a resemblance a little too disturbing cruelly revive his memory and leave him in shock. Frozen with grief, suffocated by his regrets.
He misses Ladybug.
Her absence haunts him, every day, every second.
Time has done nothing to erase his pain, nor to ease the remorse that threatens to choke him whenever he thinks of her. Adrien has never forgiven himself for having fled without even saying goodbye to her. Without speaking to her one last time, without offering her the slightest chance of understanding his gesture.
Without giving her the opportunity to stay in his life.
He betrayed her trust. He rejected her, even tough he loves her more than anything.
And now he continues to pay heavily for this mistake.
Adrien knows with absolute conviction that he will forever regret the way he brutally ended his hero career. In the chaos that followed the discovery of her father's dual identity, her first instinct was to flee. To violently tear off everything that attached him to this man, as one would abruptly remove a bandage from a wound. To leave, far, far, very far from this reality that threatened to destroy him.
He had to.
It was more than a desire. It was a vital need.
But he was sorely lacking in lucidity, and still today he is paying the consequences. He rushed too quickly. He did not think for a single moment about the repercussions of his actions. In his desperate haste to turn his back on his old life and to run away to try to heal his wounds, he deliberately pushed Ladybug away. His Lady disappeared from his life because of him, and ever since, he keeps blaming himself.
He loves her.
Even after all these years, he still loves her. It seems like some things in this world are immutable. The sky is blue, the earth is round, and Adrien is eternally, hopelessly in love with Ladybug.
His regrets haunt him. If he had to do it again, he would never leave his teammate without giving himself even a tiny chance to find out who is behind her mask. He would ask her for her name. For a phone number, an email address, a simple address. Any little clue that could have allowed him to find this girl who still makes his heart beat today.
He loves her.
But time has passed. Weeks, months, years. Wherever she is, her Lady has certainly move on. She has certainly started a new life, without him. Adrien may well know that he is solely responsible for this situation, this simple observation breaks his heart.
He wants to find her, to see her again. To hear her laugh, to contemplate her bright smile, to admire the summer sky colour of her beautiful eyes, and to laugh with her about her eternal clumsiness which has never prevented her from beeing the most amazing girl he has ever known.
He loves her, he loves her, he loves her.
But he lost her, through his fault.
And he never forgave himself.
The young man is suddenly pulled out of his thoughts when Nino calls him with a cheerful " Adrien!". He jumps, instinctively smiles, then walks into the room.
His reunion with Alya and Marinette is warm, despite a slight embarrassment. As soon as she sees him, Alya jumps up from her chair to greet him with big gestures of welcome. The whole restaurant looks at her, and she obviously doesn't care. Adrien can't hold back a amused smile in front of this demonstrative welcome. Obviously, his old friend is still like the young girl he met in high school. Expansive, determined, enthusiastic. Her good mood is contagious and even Chloé can't help but laugh in the face of so much excitement.
More reserved than her best friend, Marinette smiles shyly at Adrien. Her hair is slightly shorter than in the memories of the young man, and she abandoned her pigtails to let her hair cascade freely. She seems nervous. Too nervous for a simple reunion. Her fingers are wrapped around the glass that rests in her hands and it seems to Adrien that she slightly paled when she saw him.
But maybe it's his imagination playing tricks on him.
He himself feels feverish. To see his old classmates again is to reconnect with his old life, to come back in this world he has been running away from for so long. A dull anguish accelerates his heartbeat.
Maybe he's just projecting his own unease onto Marinette.
Yeah, that's certainly that.
As he approached the table where his friends were waiting for him, Adrien hesitated. His departure was so abrupt, his silence so long, that he does not know how to behave with the two young women. Greet them casually? Apologize for the brutal absence? He doesn't know. But Alya quickly fixes the problem by throwing herself into his arms and hugging him with all her might.
"Adrien!" she exclaims with a happy laugh. "It's so good to see you again!" "
Relieved by the cordial attitude of his friend, the young man gladly hugs her. For a fraction of a second, he almost feels like he never left Paris.
"Me too", he says with a broad smile. " It's been a long time. "
As Alya moves away, Marinette gets up in turn. Smiling nervously, she looks Adrien in the eyes. And immediately, the young man feels an inexplicable pang in his heart.
Has she always had such blue eyes?
Under Adrien's inquisitive gaze, Marinette's cheeks are delicately adorned with red, offering a striking contrast to her milky skin. The young woman approaches him, then stands on tiptoe and places a light kiss on his cheek.
"I'm happy to see you again," she breathes timidly.
"Me too", repeats Adrien gently, nodding his head, while automatically raising his fingers to touch the place where Marinette's lips caressed her skin. "Me too... "
Nino and Chloé greet him in turn, then invite him to sit down with them.
The minutes go by, and Adrien has a great evening with his friends. He is pleasantly surprised to see that he manages to hang out with his former classmates without being obsessed with the memories of his old life.
By his father. By Ladybug.
Of course, he can't help but think about them every now and then. Sometimes a word or an anecdote reminds him of his bitter mistakes and the no less heart-breaking betrayal of his father. But the next moment, the conversation happily resumes, pushing those dark memories away for a moment longer.
The healing will be long, Adrien knows that.
But he is on the right track.
Rather than drowning in his past, he now enjoys the moment he shares with his friends. He finds himself laughing, forgetting his nagging melancholy while he chats happily with his former classmates. The presence of Nino and Chloé reassures him, and that of Alya and Marinette brings a welcome breeze of freshness.
When Adrien asks Alya about her studies, the latter answers him with the passion that is customary to her. Her eyes sparkling with joy, she describes her journalism courses and her internships in great detail, and even their table neighbours benefit from her enthusiastic explanations. The young woman is obviously as good a storyteller as a writer, and her audience listen without a word as she shares stories that are all more exciting than the others.
Randomly during the conversation, Marinette absent-mindedly evokes London. Adrien leaps at the chance to quote his own trip on the other side of the Atlantic, and the next moment, the two young people launch themselves into heated comparisons between their two adopted countries and their homeland. The atmosphere, the food, the customs that surprised them when they arrived abroad and to which they ended up getting used to, everything goes.
Under the amused gaze of their three friends, they argue with the familiarity of two old comrades, bickering gently to determine which of the two countries has the most surprising gastronomy, the most unlikely accent. Nino, Alya and Chloé quickly joined their friendly argument, each bringing a new anecdote about their own trips abroad.
Adrien is absolutely delighted.
It has been a long, long time since he had such a good time. In this restaurant with a warm atmosphere, with crystalline noises of the cutlery and whispers that rise from neighbouring tables, he rediscovers the simple pleasures of a meal with friends. Their company warms his heart, reminds him that he is not alone in this world where he once thought he had lost everything.
After so many years of wandering, he is back in Paris. Chatting. Joking. Laughing.
He had almost forgotten what it looked like.
For one evening, Adrien allows himself to forget his past, to bury his memories deep in his mind. His melancholy will come back to haunt him soon enough, he knows it. In recent years, it has become his silent companion, his faithful shadow. It will take more than a pleasant evening for it to go away. But at each of these wonderful moments when he seems to be alive again, Adrien feels it receding. Weakening. Fading away, like ephemeral traces on the sand.
And one day, he hopes, it'll be gone.
Around him, his friends seem to be having as good a time as he is. Perhaps because they are relieved to see that he is savouring every moment of the evening. Perhaps because they are just happy to be together.
It doesn't matter. They look happy, and for Adrien, that's all that matters. They have done so much for him that he can only wish them the best.
Beside him, Nino laughs loudly, again and again. Amused, Adrien smiles absently. His friend has always had a good mood, but the two glasses of wine he has drunk and the good flesh make him clearly euphoric. He cheerfully animates the conversation, mixing the topics of discussion with as much skill as if he were juggling his favourite pieces of music.
Marinette smiles at Nino's remarks, while Alya gives him so many slaps on the shoulder that Adrien has no doubts that his friend will end up with a sizeable bruise. Chloé does her best to try to seem serious, but the curved corners of her lips betray her amusement.
The night goes on, and the five friends are talking, talking, and talking again.
Sometimes Marinette's gaze is thoughtful. She gazes her huge blue eyes on Adrien and an indecipherable expression passes over her face. And suddenly, she jumps, yelps, brings her hand to her leg while casting a bewildered glance at Alya. A silent conversation then seems to take place between the two young women. A worried look from Alya. An almost imperceptible shrug from Marinette.
Then, as if nothing had happened, Alya innocently restarts the discussion, and the evening continues.
Over the weeks, Chloé and Nino include more and more regularly Alya and Marinette in the little outings they set up to tear Adrien out of his loneliness. The young man has nothing to say against this initiative, on the contrary. Although he's never been as close to his former classmates as Nino, he nevertheless enjoys their company.
These meetings bring a welcome sense of normalcy to his life, and little by little, Adrien begins to feel at home again in the vast city of Paris.
Slowly, summer is approaching, and with it the anniversary of the defeat of Hawkmoth.
Paris is adorned with the colours of Chat Noir and Ladybug in homage to the two heroes, and calls from Chloé and Nino become more and more frequent. They worry about Adrien, and rightly so. This time of year has always been difficult for the young man and they fear his morale will sink once again.
To change his friend's ideas, Nino arbitrarily decides to organize a party with their former classmates.
All their former classmates.
"I assure you, Adrien, it's going to be great!", affirms the young DJ with enthusiasm. "Everybody's in, and Alya's okay with us using her apartment."
With an amused smile on his face, Adrien listens to his best friend describe his projects with contagious passion.
"I have already reached out to Kim, Alix and Max, and they are more than willing to come!", he continues, proudly waving his phone in front of him. "I'm still waiting for Mylène and Ivan to answer, but I think it should be good. The same goes for Rose and Juleka. Nathaniel is not sure he can come yet but he will do everything to make it, and Sabrina has just told me that it is ok for her. Chloé and Marinette will be there, of course," he finally concludes. "Ah, and Alya too, you suspect."
"Yes, it would be a shame if she didn't enjoy a party in her own apartment", laughs Adrien.
"Honestly, man, I'm not even thinking about trying to throw a party like that without her," replied Nino, bursting into laughter. "I care too much for life for that!"
Adrien nods vigorously. Alya is a wonderful girl, he doesn't doubt it for a second. But he wouldn't dare to upset her either.
"So you agree? ", Nino resumes, casting a questioning glance at his best friend. "Ok, perfect !", he exclaims when Adrien replies with an affirmative gesture. "Leave it to me, I'll take care of everything. "
Nino is a great DJ, but that's not all.
His natural friendliness and enthusiasm quickly opened new doors for him. Once a simple performer, he now sometimes takes on the role of organizer, and planning parties is now an integral part of his daily life.
Adrien knows it very well.
However, the efficiency shown by his best friend leaves him speechless.
In just a few hours, Nino managed to get definitive answers from all his guests. To find a caterer at an unbeatable price. To warn Alya's neighbours to apologize for the inconvenience to come. To define which material would be best suited to the acoustics of their friend's home. To negotiate preferential rates with a neighbourhood store for the purchase of stock of drinks. All this while putting together the perfect playlist for the entire evening.
And just three days later, the young man finds himself in Alya's apartment, surrounded by his former classmates.