Here is the first of three!
Also, my finals are kicking my ass oh my god. My last one is today, thankfully, so then I'll have the entire summer to write and hopefully edit this fic a bit.
And sorry, I meant to have this chapter out yesterday but my computer was glitching so it's coming a day late.
I hope you enjoy!
Chapter Twenty-Three:
Chat Blanc.
She hadn't dared speak the name in the years past, the memories too chaotic, too vicious for her to consider remembering for long points of time.
But she had to make him understand. Had to try and force him to realize what would happen if he knew who Hawk Moth's identity was.
Some darker part of her wanted him to remember, wanted him to know what he had done so long ago.
Wanted him to know that he once did the same thing she did.
But there was no recognition in his eyes.
"Chat Blanc?" He echoed, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "I don't know who that is."
Marinette couldn't handle continuing the conversation, not when it meant remembering those blue eyes, that white suit.
The smile that bared more teeth than it should have.
"He was. . . an akuma," Tikki said softly, floating up to her holder as the designer hugged herself. "A very dangerous akuma."
Adrien still looked confused, but there was something almost pale about Plagg's face. Well, as pale as could be since his fur was black.
"An akuma? But I don't remember him. When did we fight him?"
"You didn't, kid."
They all turned to Plagg, who looked almost sick. A glance at Tikki and Marinette's pale face confirmed his suspicion. "What do you mean, Plagg?"
"You can't figure it out? What do you think is happening? Why do you think Marinette looks like she's about to throw up?"
Adrien's eyes darted between all three of them, still confused, still swirling when he stilled.
"Oh."
.
It was the only thing he could say.
He really was blind. A name so similar to his own, Marinette's reaction to this Chat Blanc, Tikki's intervention and Plagg's extra-raspy voice.
Adrien Agreste was Chat Blanc.
A picture came unbidden into his mind, one of flashing teeth and a lonely sun without its moon.
"What did he look like?"
The question was asked softly, quietly. Not one of confusion like before, but of genuine curiosity of what his akuma form looked like.
Marinette's eyes - eyes that Adrien didn't realize were mirrors of what his had been at one time - darted to him, pupils wide with the increasing agitation she felt.
She blinked. "He-he looked like you. I mean, he was you. Not you? Chat Noir."
Adrien felt his world tilting.
He was Chat Noir when he was akumatized?!
If he was his normal self, if he was Adrien, he could understand the akuma. But he turned when he was a hero?
What had pushed him that far?
And then the light bulb blinked again.
"You don't want to tell me what you learned because, whatever it is, is what pushed me off the edge last time when I became Chat Blanc?"
She nodded. Just once.
But it was enough.
"What could my father have possibly told you that would do that to me?"
His voice was hushed, his mind flittering with dozens of random things that might push him over the edge.
There was nothing he could think of.
"His suit was white."
Adrien started at the sound of her voice, and he grew more concerned when he saw her dull eyes as she stared without seeing.
"What?"
"His suit was white," she repeated softly, glazed eyes unblinking. "Everything about him was white - even his bell. The only thing that wasn't were his eyes."
"What color were his eyes?"
"They were blue," she whispered. "Blue like ice. Slitted so thin I could barely see the pupil."
Chills went down his back. "What did he do?"
"That is enough."
They all collectively flinched at the sharpness in Tikki's tone. The sweet-tempered kwami had never snapped at them before like that.
Those indigo eyes were hard as they flickered between Adrien and Plagg. "She clearly doesn't want to talk about what happened and, for that matter, neither do I. It was traumatic on both ends."
"I'm sorry, sugarcube," Plagg rasped, flying over to her. "Let's change the topic."
But to what?
"Tikki?"
Marinette's timid voice had them all turning to her.
Tikki's expression softened. "Yes, Marinette?"
"Why were you so scared of Lady Luck?"
The kwamis flinched.
"Not every pairing of Ladybug and Chat Noir work out, kid," Plagg said softly. "They were one of those couples."
"Them too? Even after Miss Bug and Panther?" Adrien was curious, especially because of Plagg's wariness toward the previous Chat.
"They were romantic soulmates," Tikki murmured. "Their love was beautiful. But. . ."
"The times weren't forgiving," Plagg finished. "A person of color and a white person together, while a scandal at the time, could potentially get away with it under near perfect circumstances. But for that couple to be two women? It was unforgivable."
Adrien wasn't sure he wanted to know, but he asked it anyway. "What happened?"
"Lady Luck went insane," Tikki whispered. "They were going to kill Onyx, to make an example of her so that no one else thought of having forbidden love like they did. Lady Luck found out, and she slaughtered them all. But it was too late, so she took her own life as well."
Adrien and Marinette's faces were pale, staring at the solemn kwamis. "And you two couldn't stop that? Stop what was happening?"
"We are gods," Plagg stated, without an ounce of hesitation. "But we are bound to pieces of jewelry, only allowed out when we have someone to wear them. We couldn't do anything - Onyx released me before they caught her so that I wouldn't be with her when they trapped her, and Lady Luck ordered Tikki to stand down just as Hawk Moth does to Nooroo."
"What about Panther? Bunnix said that they were romantic soulmates that were forced apart and that it didn't end well."
Plagg grimaced. "She wasn't entirely correct."
"Miss Bug and Panther were soulmates, as all who wear our Miraculous are," Tikki explained, "but they were not romantic soulmates. The man that Miss Bug was to marry was a man she did in fact love. Panther, however, had fallen for his creation counterpart somehow and hated that she was being taken away from him."
"He couldn't accept that they weren't meant to be," Plagg continued. "And he destroyed their entire tribe as well as the one that Miss Bug was to marry into."
"What happened to them, though?"
Tikki glanced at Marinette with sorrowful eyes. "Miss Bug had to put Panther down."
The words were like a blow to the teens.
She was forced to kill him?
"She couldn't stand the guilt of it," Plagg said quietly. "She gave Tikki up and only ran long enough to give us both back to her Guardian before completely disappearing, and we don't know what happened to her afterward."
"That is the danger of the Miraculous," Tikki said softly. "Regardless of the fact that putting our Miraculous together would devastate the world if used incorrectly, we are only given to soulmates. And life can interfere in a lot of messy ways to make those soulmates upset."
"It's also the reason why you two had to hide your identities for so long," Plagg offered. "You loved the masks you wore, not the people under them. Until that changed, you couldn't reveal who you truly were."
Marinette blinked. "So that's why Tikki didn't seem to mind Chat finding out that much. Because we had already fallen in love with the real versions of ourselves.
The kwami of creation smiled faintly. "I wasn't ecstatic about it, considering the threat of Hawk Moth was still a large one. But, it was more beneficial to know each other's identities now so you could further help each other be more protected."
The bluenette faltered at the mention of the villain they had been fighting for years, her eyes dulling all over again.
Adrien opened his mouth to change the topic, to try and get her eyes to brighten somewhat again, but she spoke before he could. "You should go, Adrien. Try and get some sleep. Tomorrow I'll have to talk with Alya about some things to figure something out."
"Are you going to get some sleep?" He questioned gently.
She half-smiled, although the exhaustion in those sapphire eyes seemed to increase.. "Don't know yet. But I'd like to try."
He nodded slowly, taking a step back and murmuring the words that caused Plagg to get sucked into his ring and neon green to flash for a moment. "I'll. . . I'll see you tomorrow, then."
Her gaze flicked away, and she nodded silently, already deep in her mind.
All he could do was kiss her cheek goodnight and then leave, silent as a cat.
.
Marinette hunted down Alya the next day, pulling her aside minutes from the starting of class.
"Oh, Mari, we're gonna be-"
"I don't care," she said sharply, making Alya blink in shock. "I found out who Hawk Moth is."
The moment she said the words, Alya went deathly pale. "You what?"
"I'm not repeating myself." Her eyes were wild now, compared to the dull vacancy that they had been the night before. "I had forgotten it after you told me that you knew I was Ladybug, but you said you found something out that could change a lot of things.
"I thought it was my identity, but when I thought about it last night, I realized that you weren't talking about her. About me. You were talking about something else. What was it?"
She bit her lip, glancing around at the empty hallway. "I don't think we should-"
"Alya, I am losing my mind."
The rasp in the younger girl's voice made the brunette flinch, and she saw the terror in her best friend's blue eyes.
"I'm losing my mind," she whispered. "Who Hawk Moth is- I can't deal with it. Chat Noir won't be able to deal with it. He'll go insane from the truth, and I don't know how I'll be able to get him out of it."
Her eyes widened. "Wait, do you know who-"
"Yes, we figured it out months ago." She laughed bitterly. "We've eaten with the man on multiple occasions. That's ironic, isn't it? Chat Noir and Ladybug having a nice meal with Hawk Moth, all the while none of us knew who we all were?"
Alya stared at her friend, the way she could almost see the thread that the bluenette was hanging on.
She didn't know if her secret would strengthen or snap that thread.
"Please Alya." Her voice had turned soft, so much softer. "I need to know what you found out. I need to know all the details so I can figure out what to do next."
The hazel-eyed reporter stared at her for a moment before leaning in, whispering in her ear what she wanted to know.
And Marinette's mind sharpened.
.
"Hi, Felix."
The Adrien lookalike started before offering the young girl a smile. "Marinette! I thought I would be the early one. Have you been waiting for long?"
She smiled faintly, shaking her head. "No, I arrived a few minutes before you did. Had some extra time on my hands and figured I'd get a head start here."
The Agreste cousin hummed, his eyes scanning over her briefly, more than likely noting the tension. "Are you alright, Marinette? You seem uneasy."
She shook her head. "Sorry, long day. Just a bit tired. But, you were the one that called me. What did you want to talk about?"
Those green eyes flashed as he gestured to the woman taking orders. "Well, let's first order a juice, and then we can take a walk, if you don't mind."
Her lips curled into a grin, eyes bright. "Sure."
.
Adrien had no idea what to make of his girlfriend's message. Especially after what she had said at the dinner with his father and cousin.
Maribug 3: having lunch w/ ur cuz. ttyl & find viper as chat at 8 tonight
Maribug 3: and don't text till i do. promise it'll be worth it
He sighed, flopping back on his bed while Plagg munched on his cheese.
"Stawp worring," Plagg said, his voice muffled by the cheese as he actually ate it like a normal person. Or cat. Or kwami.
"I'm not worrying," Adrien hissed. "I'm just confused. I don't get why she's having lunch with him."
"Oh, I get it." The black kwami finally swallowed his cheese. "You're jealous."
Adrien shot up, staring at Plagg in shock. "What?! No way?! Why the hell would I be jealous of my cousin?"
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because, besides the fact that you're personalities are different, he's a mirror image of you and you're still afraid that Marinette fell for your looks more than your personality. She also called him charming during dinner, and admitted that something could have maybe happened between them in a different life."
The blond stiffened. "That was uncalled for, Plagg. I know Marinette loves me for what's underneath my skin. She proved that by falling for Chat."
"Yes, but if Felix were to transform with my Miraculous, the only difference between your Chat Noir and his would probably just be the hair. And the flirtation tactics."
Adrien hissed at his kwami, making said creature chortle. "Honestly, kid. Don't worry about it. I say that because I know you're thinking it, but that girl really loves you. More than a lot of the cats and bugs I've met throughout the years."
"Love isn't comparable. It varies from person to person, from relationship to relationship."
"Agreed, but you've loved her for longer than they ever did. Most of them met halfway through their twenties, some closer to eighteen. You two met when you just entered high school. That kind of love is different and a lot more powerful than you think it is."
He stayed silent, thinking over Plagg's words of his insecurity and what he and Marinette had. Then he smiled.
"Like what you and Tikki have?"
The cat seemed to recoil into himself. "What- where the hell did you get that idea?!"
"I mean, you do call her sugarcube, and the flirting is almost as bad as mine was to Ladybug over the years. Plus-"
"Get that notion out of your head," Plagg snarled. "Kwamis can't love. Anything I do is just to tease her for my own amusement."
"Love is an emotion, though. If you can feel happiness, and sadness, and amusement, why can't you feel love too?"
"We can feel it, kid. We feel it every single time our rings or earrings or necklaces are put on and we're used for the greater good. But to actually love something, romantically. . . we can't."
"Why not?"
They were in dangerous territory now, although Adrien didn't know it.
The neon green eyes that nearly matched his holder's narrowed. "Humans love because of their ability to reproduce and procreate. Kwamis aren't born, they're made. We can't love romantically because it won't amount to a child."
Adrien scoffed. "That's bs and you know it. Plenty of human couples despise the idea of having children, for a multitude of reasons. They still love each other with everything they have."
"Drop it, kid."
He didn't want to drop it. He wanted to keep going, to keep testing him, asking him why again and again until he got a real answer, but his phone decided to ring in that moment.
Taking it, he glanced at the caller ID before answering. "Princess. Did the lunch date with Felix go well."
"It wasn't a date, silly kitty," Marinette's faintly amused voice sounded over the phone. "But, it went as I thought it would."
"Oh? And how was that?"
"I'll explain when Viperion is with us."
"What- is it eight already?!"
"No, no. I'm moving up the time because this is urgent, and I need his experience for this. Or, what he was allowed to remember of the experience, anyhow."
"What?"
"Again, I'll explain when Viperion is with us. Then, we'll gather everyone."
"What do you mean by everyone?"
"I mean everyone. Rena Rouge, Carapace, Queen Bee, King Monkey, Pegasus, Bunnix - younger, obviously- Viperion, Ryuuko, and us."
Chills went down Adrien's spine. "Why are we bringing everyone into this?"
"Because I finally know what to do. And I'll need everyone's help to do it."
"To do what?" Adrien pressed.
There was a pause on the other side before she answered. "Why, to finally catch Hawk Moth, of course."