The Letter

"You have a brother?!" Nino, Alya, and Marinette responded in unison. The two girls had only been paying half attention until they'd heard that little tidbit. Marinette squealed internally at the the prospect and was suddenly lost in her own thoughts, imagining what the brother of her crush must be like.

"Woah, dude! I didn't know you had a brother. I mean, I thought we were buds, man," Nino said. He folded his arms across his chest and feigned an offended look.

"Oh, uh, yeah," Adrien replied, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. "He's been studying abroad, so I guess I forgot to mention him." He turned his attention back to the letter, and the addressee's name caught his eye:

Gabriel Agreste

"Oh, but its addressed to my father." That made more sense. He hadn't even spoken to his brother since he'd left for Italy. "But why was it in my bag...?" He glanced at the postmark and grimaced. Uh oh... "It was sent a week and a half ago. I must have gotten it mixed up with my papers when I used Nathalie's desk for my history project last week."

"Hope it's nothing important," Nino commented.

Adrien winced. He'd been thinking the same thing. His brother rarely contacted their father. Usually, any communication went through Nathalie via email. It was quite strange that he would send a letter. With a slight shrug of his shoulders, he dismissed the thought. "If it were important, I'm sure he'd have called or sent an email."

"Well, you can always open it and find out," Alya suggested. She grinned, a conspiratorial glint in her hazel eyes.

"But it's addressed to my father..." Adrien frowned. Nathalie usually handled all of his father's mail. The efficient woman was truly a marvel and more his father's right hand than an assistant. Despite her strict and distant demeanor, she always treated Adrien fairly and often spoke to his father on his behalf. An opened letter would be much easier to explain to Nathalie, and she certainly wouldn't mention his blunder...

Adrien shook his head slowly. Whatever was written within was between his brother and their father. And Nathalie, of course, as the go between. "It's addressed to father," Adrien said resolutely. "I can't open it. I'll give it back to Nathalie during lunch."

Alya pouted. "Oh fine." She sighed, defeated. "Can I take a peek at it, though? Just for a second."

Marinette snapped back to attention and looked at her friend curiously. Alya never gave up that easily, a trait that had gotten her in trouble more than once in her journalistic ventures. Adrien just shrugged and held the envelope out to her. A grin broke over Alya's face. She gripped one corner of the envelope and tugged sharply before Adrien could release it. The paper tore with a loud rip, and the three friends' jaws dropped. "Whoops," the brunette responded. She put a hand to her mouth in feigned innocence.

"Alya!" Marinette exclaimed. Poor Adrien looked like he was in shock, the open envelope hanging loosely in his fingers. Marinette's heart ached for him, while her head took off in a flurry of thoughts. She'd heard that Adrien's dad could be pretty strict. What if he was punished for opening his father's mail? What if Adrien was akumatized over this? She'd seen people become akumatized for less. She couldn't fight Adrien! Cat Noir wouldn't have any qualms about fighting him, but Marinette didn't want to see that either.

Nino shook his head at Alya. "Babe, that was probably the most deliberate thing I've ever seen..."

Alya just winked at him from behind her dark rimmed glasses and retorted, "And you should have seen it coming. How long have we been dating now?"

"Clearly not long enough," Nino replied with a goofy grin at his girlfriend. He sobered and turned his attention to Adrien. "Hey, man, you ok?"

Adrien blinked a couple times and looked up. Then, to all of their surprise, he burst out laughing!

"Um, Adrien..?" Marinette asked tentatively. Had he already been akumatized?

Adrien grinned impishly. Alya's action had been exactly what Plagg would have done had he been a part of their conversation, even down to the fake look of innocence. All Adrien could picture was a tiny Plagg-sized Alya with cat ears, eating Camembert and causing trouble. Adrien chuckled again, shook his head, and said simply, "Well, I guess there's no harm sneaking a peak now." He grabbed the letter and pulled it out of the mangled envelope, but before he could unfold it, the classroom door swung open.

A slightly frazzled looking Miss Bustier hurried into the room and started to settle into the teacher's desk. "I'm sorry I'm late, students. It seems there is an akuma running rampant a couple of streets down. Traffic was a nightmare."

Marinette and Adrien both groaned quietly, while half their class, Alya included, leapt up and tried to see if anything was visible from their classroom window. As their teacher tried her best to corral her class back to their seats, Adrien stuffed the letter into the back of his notebook and tossed it into his book bag.

"Hey, Nino, I've got a photo shoot in half an hour, and if the traffic is as bad as Miss Bustier says, I'd better leave now." Adrien picked up his bag and flashed his DJ friend an apologetic smile. His modeling job had become the purrfect excuse for his Cat Noir escapades, so long as no one mentioned his "extra" photo shoots to Nathalie or his father. He still hated skipping class, though. "Could you let her know for me?"

"Yeah, sure, dude. What are buds for?" Nino grinned back at him. Movement behind him caught his eye, and he turned to see Marinette tiptoeing toward the door. "Where are you going?"

Marinette froze. Adrien and Nino were both staring at her. She hadn't really thought of a good excuse to explain her Ladybug disappearance for today and had been hoping to sneak out before anyone could stop her. She smiled shakily. "I, uh, forgot my French paper at home. I'm just going to run and grab it. I shouldn't be gone long!" Marinette winced as she said it. Great, now Adrien would think she was even more of a spazz.

Nino looked from Marinette to Adrien thoughtfully. "You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you were both sneaking off somewhere..." Marinette's breath caught in her throat, and Adrien shifted uncomfortably. Not noticing their reactions, Nino just chuckled. "Naw, just messing with you. Don't worry, I'll let the teach know."

They both thanked him and dashed out the door, each going their separate ways.

A/N: As always, thank you for reading! My goal is to upload a chapter every two days, but with life and all, it might end up being once a week.

My proofreader when reading about Marinette imagining Adrien's brother: "All I can think of is Stongbad saying, 'Allie. Allie's sister. Allie. Allie's sister.'" I laughed so hard when he said that! Trust me, it's funny if you get the reference...