It was like the whole world had decided to turn against him, and every possible thing that could go wrong went wrong. There were times he found himself wishing they had never followed Hawkmoth's butterfly.
Perhaps if they hadn't, his lady would still be here. And maybe he would still be alive. Not that it would matter if he was alive. Since he was–had been Hawkmoth.
He chuckled bitterly. He finally had the freedom he had so longed for. At least one good thing had come from this. Well…
He glanced at his mother, laying silently in the hospital bed. Even with all the tubing, and cables, and monitors keeping her alive, she still looked as young and beautiful as she had the last time he had seen her.
Two good things. Two good things had come from this.
Two good things had been traded out for two others.
He sighed, and glance at the time, his lock screen showed a picture of Ladybug. She sat on a beam of the Eiffel tower, looking over the whole city. Her eyes wistfully unaware of the picture being taken.
He smiled, tucking his phone away.
One week, it had been one week since the incident. And Ladybug had disappeared from Paris entirely. He had been patrolling like they always did. And not once had she appeared. Perhaps she had already renounced the role of Ladybug. With no more Hawkmoth to fight, he didn't blame her.
Mayura was still out there though, but she had disappeared just the same as Ladybug had.
Nathalie and the Gorilla still lived with him at his home–if it could even be considered that–but soon his ability to keep paying them would end. And then they would be gone too. As of now, he was living off of his father's finances, which had all been inherited to him.
He sighed, closing his eyes, and leaning back on the couch.
Someone knocked on the door, and it slid open.
He expected it to be the nurse performing her usual routine. He had not expected to see both Alya and Nino.
He stood up and greeted them.
"What are you doing here?"
"We came to visit you dude," Nino said.
"And bring you food," Alya held up a bag. "When was the last time you ate?"
A delicious smell wafted from the bag, and his stomach gurgled in response.
He chuckled, "A while."
They ate in silence. Alya had brought some leftovers from her mom's, but they were the most delicious leftovers he had.
"How, uhh is she dude?"
"Nino!" Alya scolded.
"No, it's fine." Adrien said, "they don't know what exactly induced her coma, so they don't know when she's going to wake up. But they say she's got very active brainwave patterns, and her body is actually really healthy. It's just a matter of when she'll wake up."
He glanced at the box of pastries they had brought. The familiar bakery's seal was stamped on the lid.
"Have you guys seen Marinette?"
"Not since the last day of school two days ago." Nino said.
"We tried to see her when we went earlier today," Alya explained, "but she kept her door locked, insisting she was tired."
She sighed and picked up a cookie.
"I'm worried for her." She looked at him. "And you. Both of you had your futures set, and then… everything fell apart."
He sighed.
"Why don't you hire Marinette and the two of you run your dad's company?" Nino suggested.
Chuckling, he crossed his arms. "I wish it was that easy. But with my father's name tarnished, I doubt anyone would be willing to work with the son of Gabriel Agreste."
"Well what are you gonna do then?" Alya asked
"I don't know… Get a job?"
At the though of it, something in his stomach moved. He almost felt selfish for the excitement he felt. But he still felt it. Freedom. He was finally free.
"I know you've got a lot on your plate," Alya said, interrupting his thoughts. "But I know it would mean the world to Marinette if you paid her a visit."
"Yes, in fact maybe you could take her out on like a date or someth–Ow!" Nino cried, from the elbow Alya shoved into him.
"What he means to say, is maybe you two could go out as friends. You know, get your mind off things?"
"Maybe?" He shrugged.
"Great, let's go then," she said, picking up the trash.
"Wait right now?" He asked.
She shrugged, "No time like the present."
X
Marinette stared at the black earrings in her hand. The earring wire was still crooked. And only now she had noticed the small hairline crack that split the glass hallway in one of the earrings. Tikki was gone, and she suspected that to be the reason why.
She sighed, putting them back on. And flipped around in her bed.
She was supposed to be Ladybug, and the guardian. So why couldn't she find a way to fix them?
She clenched her eyes closed and tried to remember the night of Hawkmoth's death. After running away from the Agreste Mansion, the last thing she remembered was waking up on her balcony, cold and in the middle of a growing storm.
Needless to say, her parents had been quite confused when she climbed back into her room, completely soaking wet, and shivering. She had been gone for several hours.
Her roof latch swung open, and someone landed inside her bedroom.
She only knew of one person, who would visit that way. She lifted her head, looking back.
"Chat?"
"Nope," a familiar voice said. "Rena Furtive."
She detransformed and turned on the lights.
Marinette groaned and shrunk back, hiding in the covers.
"You know, it'd only your best friend for the past four years. that you've been ignoring without reason for a week now."
She tugged on the covers, but Marinette tugged harder.
"Leave me alone Alya."
"Oh, so you know my name now."
She groaned, pulling harder.
"Marinette, you have to talk about it with someone eventually you know? And who else can listen to you? No one else can talk with you about what happened that day Marinette."
Alya flopped on top of her.
"I don't want to talk about it." She whispered, loud enough for Alya to hear her. "And I have nothing to talk about."
Alya sighed and stood up.
"We'll save this conversation for another time."
She watched as Alya stooped down, to unlock her door.
"Right now, you have a visitor."
She motioned down to someone, and Adrien's head popped up.
"Marinette?"
She shrieked and jumped upwards. "Adrien what are you doing here!"
Alya laughed tossing some clothes at her.
"Get dressed, you're going out, whether you like it or not."
"But–"
"No buts, now get dressed," she said, shooing Adrien out to give her some privacy.
X
They stood on the subway platform silently.
Adrien turned to her.
"So uhh, where do you want to go?"
"Huh?" she turned to him, her face growing hot. "Oh I don't know, anywhere."
She looked back down at her feet. It's not like she had wanted to come out anyways.
A subway stopped, and its doors released open. And Marinette was pulled forwards.
"Woah! Where're we going!"
Adrien smiled at her, his hand around hers. "No idea."
"What do you mean no idea!" She said, turning back around, only to find the doors closed.
"We'll find out when we get there." He said.
"What if we end up an hour away!"
"Then we end up an hour away."
He sat down, in the mostly empty cabin, and patted the seat next to him.
Begrudgingly, she sat down next to him.
She tugged on her hair and became increasingly self-conscious. Had her hair always been this matted? She ran her fingers through her hair, attempting to comb through the mess, instead she only made it worse. She grumbled, and opted instead to braid it, and deal with it later.
"Here, let me." Adrien said, and his hands slipped in her hair,"
She flinched at his touch, and he backed off.
"Sorry, I should have asked," he gave her an awkward smile, "Could I braid your hair?"
Her cheeks grew even hotter, and she turned away from him to hide her blush. To which he took it as a signal of her letting him braid her hair.
His fingers comb through her hair slowly working through the knots before sectioning of her hair.
He tilted her head, and she leaned back.
"So uhm, where'd you braid to learn? I mean! Learn to braid, learn to braid!"
She made a face at her words.
He chuckled, "An old hairstylist I worked with taught me a while ago."
"Oh I see," she cleared her throat. "Why did you agree to come with me?"
He paused, "I guess, Alya saw I was having a rough time, and she told me you were too."
She chuckled, "Alya dragged you into this too huh?"
"You could say that I suppose, but I don't mind hanging out with you, you know?"
She smiled. His hands continuing to braid.
"Hey," she spoke quieter. "I heard about your mom… and you're dad. I'm sorry…"
He paused again, "Thank you."
He slowly continued braiding. "At least I've still got my mom,"
He moved some hair by her ear, and he paused.
"Oh did you know, you're earring, it's got a crack running through it."
She flinched forward, causing him to yank on her hair. She yelped
"Oh no, I'm so sorry!" he apologized.
"No, it's fine," she leaned back again. "And… yeah, I know it's broken. I'm working on getting it fixed." Not that I will be able to fix it though.
He cleared his throat, and they remained in silence. Only breaking it when he asked for a hair tie.
"Thank you," she said, "For the braid I mean."
"No problem," he smiled.
They went back to silence, until the subway came to a stop, and the doors opened again.
Adrien stood up and held out his hand.
"Well Marinette, shall we?"
She smiled and took it.
"We shall."
Next Update: 11-27-2021