Elliot Smith – Between the bars
Adrien panics, Plagg swears, Gabriel = worst father
Sunlight tried to peek into his eyes, there was a warm filling all his senses, something soft was covering his body, 'You have to wake up, Kitty…' he heard Ladybug giggling. Suddenly, his head started to ache, it was a dull feeling, but jarring nonetheless.
Adrien opened his eyes, closing them immediately as the light flooded his vision violently and flinched. He tried a second time, carefully now anticipating the crippling light, and was successful. His body felt incredibly heavy, no matter how much force he put on moving his arms, they would not stir, not even an inch, his legs didn't seem to move on his command either. 'What the hell happened to me?' he thought.
Emerald eyes darted all around the place, inspecting the room he was lying in, and he concluded that it was his room indeed, and he was lying face down on his bed. "Plagg?" He whispered, not quite able to speak loudly, he wasn't sure if that was from what was happening to him, or if it was pure fear. He waited for an answer and was met with silence. That was weird, usually, Plagg would answer to his calls, even if it was to only ask for cheese. "Plagg?" He tried again, louder this time to be sure his kwami could hear. Once again, no answer came.
Adrien closed his eyes tightly 'Okay, you are dreaming, you need to wake up' he whispered. He opened his eyes for a third time, slowly, and moving his head down to face his fingers, he noticed something, or rather, the lack of something, that made his heart jump to his throat. "PLAGG! THIS IS NOT FUNNY!" He screamed, panic now coursing through his system. He could finally move, but as the model was regaining control of his body, the ache on his head only grew, to a point when it became agonizing.
After what seemed like an eternity, he managed to get up from the bed and started to look for his ring frantically, thrashing all his belongings in a futile attempt to rescue his dearest possession.
His headache had developed to a state where he couldn't even see clearly, as black spots permeated his visual field. His face was wet from the tears that have been released as if a dam had broken and were now making trails towards the floor beneath him. A sob racked through his body and his legs collapsed under him. Adrien fell to the floor, once more losing control of most of his own body. He managed to sit, and brought his knees up to his chest, resting his head on them, and closing his arms around his legs, perhaps, in an attempt to shield himself from the world that had seemed to have lost all its colour.
"UNHAND ME, YOU BASTARD!" Plagg squirmed to try to escape from his attacker's grip.
"We're almost there," Gabriel said coldly, approaching his wife tomb. He then rested his flat palm on a small pillar that was next to the tomb, and a pedestal raised from the floor, a golden cage sat on top of the pedestal, making Plagg realise its purpose quickly.
"I don't know what kind of spell you have learnt to stop me from phasing through objects, or if you think that locking me up in a golden cage will make me bend to your feet, but I can guarantee you that you're mending with things way beyond your control and knowledge." Plagg threatened.
The designer didn't answer, instead, he only chuckled, it was a dry and dark chuckle, enough to send a shiver through the kwami's spine. In his distraction, he didn't notice that Gabriel had locked him inside the cage. The older Agreste snapped his fingers, never taking his eyes from Plagg, and a purple blob floated from behind him, almost automatically.
The kwami of destruction could only stare, mouth agape and eyes wide at the kwami in front of him, Noroo, the butterfly kwami, Hawkmoth's kwami. A fresh wave of anger crashed into Plagg's deep core, it was a fury that in all his millennials of existence he had never felt.
Fear, fury and betrayal, all coursed through the small kwami, and his eyes narrowed, a chilly look on his face, one that made justice to his power, completely directed at the source of all those feelings "You maggot! I hope you rot in hell for what you did! He will never forgive you, and you will never control me! You may have locked me up without a chance to get out, but I will never bend to your will as Noroo did! I only listen to my chosen's requests!"
"Well, I don't exactly need to control you, do I little kwami?" Gabriel smirked and left, leaving a shouting kwami behind.
Gabriel knocked on his son's door and waited for an answer. After hearing no signs of life from the other side, he opened the door "Adrien? Are you still sleeping?" He asked.
The designer was expecting to see his son sleeping, or possibly waking up, the effects of the drug he had put on his food still lingering. What he didn't expect was the mess his son's room was like some war had happened inside, everything was thrashed 'How did he have this much energy?' Gabriel wondered. Upon further inspecting, he heard quiet sobs coming from the bathroom "Adrien, are you there?" He asked with caution, slowly approaching the source of the noises.
"Ple-Please le-leave…" He heard Adrien speaking between gasps. Gabriel concluded that he must have been looking for his miraculous, ending up in that state. A great urge to comfort his child rose inside the designer upon seeing him seating on the floor, head buried between his legs, shaking, sobbing and gasping for air uncontrollably. Gabriel embraced him immediately, petting his hair, which earned a flinch from Adrien, who was suddenly met with such a rare gesture from his father. The last time they were this close, was when Gabriel broke the news of Emilie's "disappearance".
"Shhh! It's okay, Adrien, it's okay…" He whispered, slender fingers passing through soft blond hair. Adrien melted into his father's affections, still sobbing and shaking, muttering incoherent words, pressing his head against his father's chest.
"I don't know what happened, son, but we will fix everything, I promise you that..." He paused, preparing himself for the words that would come out from his mouth next "I knew allowing you to go to school was a bad idea, you have everything you need right here with me…".
Adrien froze upon hearing his father's reasoning, he broke the hug and looked at his father with wide, red-rimmed eyes "Wh-What?" He whispered, his voice shaking.
"I don't want you to go to that school anymore, that's what I was going to tell you after dinner, it far too dangerous, there are too many Akuma attacks going on there, you almost died in the last one."
" , don't do that, I wasn't even at school during the last Akuma, my bodyguard was akumatized!" Adrien pleaded, more tears now flowing from his eyes.
"I'm sorry, son, but my decision is final! Don't see this as a punishment, I'm only doing my role as a father trying to protect you." Gabriel explained. The designer didn't know what he said, but he noticed the shift in Adrien's expression, like something snapped inside of him.
Adrien jumped to his feet, glaring at his father, with a look that resembled Emilie's far too much when she was furious, this only broke Gabriel's heart even more. With a fresh wave of energy, the teenager spoke "What. Do. You. Know. About. That?"
"I'm sorry?"
"I asked, what do you know about being a father? You haven't been a father to me since mother disappeared! You have always treated me like a puppet you could pull and pull until I did what you wanted! You've always treated me like I was just some piece of furniture in this house for you to ignore since then! And now you're worried about my safety?" Adrien shouted.
Gabriel could only stand gobsmacked at his son's sudden change of demeanour, never in his life had Adrien spoken to him like that "Watch it, son!" He threatened.
"OR WHAT? YOU'RE GOING TO LOCK ME INSIDE MY ROOM?" Adrien chuckled dryly "THAT DOESN'T AFFECT ME ANYMORE, IM USED TO THAT! SOMETIMES I WISH YOU WERE THE ONE THAT WENT MISSING INSTEAD OF MOM!"
SMACK! Gabriel's hand outstretched to one side of Adrien's face. Silence lingered in the room, as the two occupants stared at each other perplexed at what had just happened. The younger Agreste touched his now red and burning cheek as if trying to process if that was indeed real.
Words were now extremely hard to come out of the older Agreste mouth. He had hit his son! How could he? His son's words acted as a trigger to him and he lost all his composure "Ade- Adrien… I'm sorry, I didn't… this was never my intention!" He stuttered for the first time in front of his child. The last time the designer stuttered was when he had asked Emilie to marry him he remembered.
Adrien straightened his posture, never taking his eyes from his father. Despite the tears that were flowing on his cheeks, his face didn't hold any expression "Could you please leave? I want to be alone" He asked with a monotone voice.
"I uh, okay, I'll leave you" He paused "But you have to give me your phone, I don't want you to speak to your so-called friends, I bet that this new behaviour of yours was influenced by them."
His son could only chuckle sarcastically at that, he grabbed his phone from his desk "You really don't get it, do you?" He muttered, handing his phone to his father.
Hi, I'm so so sorry for not posting anything last weekend, but I had a medical congress to attend, and study for exams at the same time, so I didn't have time to write. To compensate I'll be posting chapters, every day this weekend, and maybe Monday, who knows?
Once again thank you so much for your lovely comments, it makes me so glad that you are liking the story so far!
Explanation time: There was a comment stating that Nino and Chloé got their miraculous for the first time in later episodes. I considered that when I was starting to think about this fic, and I tried to imagine scenarios where I respected that, for example, having only Alya as a heroine, but I wanted them all. And then I thought, Thomas has said multiple times, that the episodes don't have a specific order, the only ones you should watch in order are "Origins", "Battle of Queens" and "Heroes day", the rest of them I can watch in any order I want, so in this fic, "Gorizilla" happened after "Anansi" and "Battle of the queens", and before "Heroes day, this one, in particular, won't even happen in this fic, as my story arc has deviated from canon by now.
Hope you liked, and see you next chapter.