"Whoa, dude, you could have been a bit more subtle about your surprise" Nino said shaking his hair and then fixing his seatbelt

"I'm sorry, your joke wasn't good

"We both know it wasn't a joke and that you already fucked up so don't come at me with bad excuses and distracting words. I know you are Chat Noir, there, I said it"

"Okay, okay, next time can I park the car first so we don't crash and become stickers on a wall or something?"

"Sure, let's go to your house and we talk, that was the plan after all"

"Then why didn't you wait till we were there?!"

"Because you asked and I wanted to see your reaction, didn't expect to almost die!"

"What the hell were you expecting?!" Adrien hit his palms against the handle

"I don't know! I didn't give anything explicit, I thought you were going to laugh or crack a joke to get away of the subject! After years of lying and excuses, you failed at a phrase that could be taken as a joke related to the crush you had on Ladybug"

"Well excuse me, but I know when you are joking and you weren't joking at all" Nino looked at his friend, his brows middle-raised "Okay, I fucked up, I admit it… but how do you know?"

"I thought you wanted to talk about this at your apartment"

"Yeah, yeah… I better start driving then" and so he did.

The silence reign between them till they were sitting in front of each other in Adrien' apartment.

"So you are the new guy Alya was so excited about, uh?"

"I'm glad to see that you aren't so dense anymore, bro" Nino gave him a teasing smile "Jade Turtle at your services"

"I'll make sure to take your word on that" Adrien chuckled "Dude, you have a miraculous!"

"Yes, I do"

"When did this happen?"

"Just after LB disappeared, Wayzz found me; apparently his old master had an eye on me for a while"

"Wayzz is your kwami's name? I know Wayzz!"

"Yeah, I know. He must be asleep somewhere in the apartment, but you'll see him later"

"I hope he doesn't' eat cheese because Plagg is going to get territorial"

"Nah, that's not his thing, no need to worry" He smiled "Territorial, no wonder you get along"

"How funny" Adrien faked a laugh "Anyways, when and how did you figure it out? I mean, it's been years"

"I didn't figure out till this week; I had my doubts, you always were on Alya's suspects list, you know? I wasn't really looking to find out Chat Noir's identity right away, thought Wayzz told me it would be for the best if I did. So I followed you a few nights ago, trying to see if I could talk to you, yet you were really busy with Miss Vigilante, so I kept following you till you dropped her and then I saw you enter your apartment, and since you never came out again, I connected the dots." He explained "By the way, you should be more careful if you are dropping Marinette off every night, is not the smartest decision to jump right away to your apartment" Oh great, he knew about Marinette too.

"I am careful! I have years of experience, I know how to distract and fool people on my way back home

"You didn't fool me" Nino said

"You got powers, different" He remarked "Yet I'm a little ashamed that I didn't realized you were following me"

"Oh, I can be very quiet when I want to"

"Dude, this is so cool! I always wished to have someone with who I could share the secret"

"I feel like you wished Ladybug to be that someone

"I mean, yes, but she was too fond to the "don't reveal your identity" rule, I knew she wanted to forget it a few times but her duty always came first"

"Sadly, it would be useful to know who she was

"Tell that to me" He sighed "Why are you looking for her? I know something happened with her, yet I always tried to convince myself that it had something to do with me or the fact that there weren't any more magical villains around, that she focused on school as I did and she decided to live a normal civilian life… that being the reason why she erased me of her life…"

"I understand why would you think that, being that far away you didn't allowed yourself to thin the worst, but, Adrien, difference to you I have been taught to think the worst.

"What do you mean?" Adrien asked scared

"Let me start from the beginning, then I can make more sense: Master Fu, who I'm aware you got to know a few times when Plagg got sick, well, he was the Big Guardian and the holder of the Turtle Miraculous before me; since he died, Wayzz had to teach me and guide me to be the Big Guardian and it's not a job to take lightly, I know more stuff than you know about the Miraculous, not everything because I'm still learning and there are secrets revolving around the world that are secret even to us, but I know more and I got powers that go beyond battle that I had to learn how to use. My mission as a Miraculous holder is quite different than the others, I need preparation in areas the other Miraculous holders don't ever get to prepare, it's more than skills on battle, it is all about the harmony of the Miraculous. Since my role is different, my kwami is also different. Kwamis can sense each other in determinate ratios, but there's three exceptions, Wayzz, Plagg and Tikki

"Plagg?" Adrien asked proud

"Plagg and Tikki are two parts of a whole; they sense each other no matter how apart of each other they are. Same goes with Wayzz; he can sense all the other kwamis, when their powers are not dormant. That's how he warned Master Fu about Papillon years ago. And that's how he realized something was wrong with Ladybug

Adrien felt how a knot appeared on his throat, he wasn't ready for this. He had been hoping and lying to himself for so long to avoid this, to avoid the worst thoughts and situations that could explain Ladybug vanishing from his world.

"Wayzz can't sense Tikki anymore, which makes us think that something happened to her and to Ladybug. The power of the miraculous wasn't corrupted and he is sure that Tikki was with her chosen when she disappeared of the map

Adrien didn't answer he just shook his head, strands of hair falling into his eyes, covering them and making it easier for him to hide the tears that were about to run out.

"Wait" Adrien had realized something "Plagg said something related to that… that his senses weren't the same, that it was strange… but he tried to convince me that it wasn't a big deal"

"He lied" Nino said

"PLAGG!" Adrien shouted

"Adrien, calm down, we can—

"Little liar come here!" Adrien shouted again and Plagg appeared in front of him, his little arms crossed

"Who do you call little liar, uh?"

"You! You told me it wasn't a big deal! Why don't you let me worry about you?"

"Oh, you already told him" Plagg looked at Nino and sighed "Well, someone forgive me for trying to protect you"

"Protect me from what? I am an adult, I can take it"

"No, you can't, that's why you been trying to find excuses for Ladybug's disappearance, if you could handle it you would have accepted the true already"

"Okay, there's no need to be dramatic, we can all talk about it and start figuring out this puzzle" Nino said, now he was accompanied by a green kwami.

"Hi, Wayzz, nice to see you again"

"My pleasure, Chat Noir" He made a little bow and Adrien bowed with only his head in return "I agree with Nino, we should calm down and go around what we know, if we work like a team it will be easier"

"Alright" Adrien agreed; he sat down once again and started playing with the sleeve of his sweater. "I think Plagg should start talking, since he hasn't said a thing—

"Don't be mean" Nino scolded

"Yes, don't be mean" Plagg agreed "But I will start… the last time I sensed Tikki was a Friday, we had been a month on the states, it was late and Adrien was going to a party with one of his roommates, Adrien had been complaining that Ladybug didn't returned his texts"

"So Ladybug didn't answered before Tikki disappeared, uh, that's curious" Nino added "What was the last thing Ladybug sent you?"

Adrien looked for his phone on the back pocket of his pants. He tapped on the screen and searched into his messages, he already knew how much he had to scroll to find the chat with her name, it was part of his daily routine to stare at the text.

"There you have" Adrien offered the phone to Nino

"Being busy is part of life, chaton! I'll call you as soon as I can, stop worrying about me, okay?"

"I always worry about you, Buginette, I'll be waiting" Adrien said out loud. He didn't need to read it, he knew their last conversation by memory "And then there goes a few text of me, of course, worrying"

"So, assuming she didn't lie to you

"She never lied to me"

"Well… it doesn't seem like she wanted to erase you from her life, so this only proves that something happened to her. Have you tried to track down her phone?"

"Yeah, but it was her Ladybug phone. When you are a superhero companies tend to give you special treatment, she didn't need to give any information"

"Damn"

"I know" Adrien sighed "I tried everything in my power to find her, nothing works, and now you are telling me that her kwami also vanished. We can't figure it out this in our civilian form.

"Especially when it's related to magic" Wayzz added "We have been tracking down all the miraculous we could. The Fox and the Bee are safe with us, the Peacock is in good hands, the Ladybug Miraculous is missing, as we have already established and… the Butterfly Miraculous was corrupted once again-"

"WHAT?!" Adrien interrupted. He stood on his feet once again "No, no, no, no, no!" He walked in circles

"Adrien, breathe" Plagg said touching his cheek

"No, this is not happening again, I can't do that again" He jolted on his place "I don't want to"

"Adrien, dude" Nino had his hands on his shoulders and was searching for his sight "Hey, it's okay, it's not happening again, we will explain"

"I can't do that again" He whispered and hugged Nino, trying to put himself together

"You won't" Nino assured "The corruption was different this time and… it went dormant too"

But Adrien wasn't listening. He had his hands on fits, his breathe was uneven and he was crying on Nino's shoulders

"I can't do it, I can't, I can't" He kept saying

"Adrien, breathe!" Plagg shouted worried.

The kwami touched his tiny forehead with Adrien's and started to say words

"Adrien, five things you can see"

"I—

"Tell me five things you can see" Plagg's voice was sweet, diferrent to his normal one, also more calmed.

"The door… a sofa… mm.. I " Adrien said

"Be calm, it's okay, so what color is the door?"

"Black… it is black… and the sofa is white, and there's a glass table and Nino's shirt is blue… the wall is white…"

"Excellent, now four things you can hear" Plagg continued

"You, I can hear you" Adrien said between sobs "And I can hear Nino's heart and his breathing… I can hear me"

"Perfect, perfect, should I go on?" Plagg asked and Adrien shook his head

"I'm fine… I'm fine" He smiled "Thank you"

"Anytime"

Adrien released Nino from the hug and cleaned his tears

"Are you sure you are okay? Nino rubbed his friend shoulder

"Yes… sometimes it happens"

"How often does it happen?"

Adrien gave a look to Plagg

"Usually when he is taken by surprise, and more often it's when he has nightmares, it's been a while since it had happen in the day time" The kwami explained

"Plagg takes care of me when he can, so I'm fine, I visited a therapist and all, she gave us the coping mechanism"

"You should have told me, I'm your friend"

"I couldn't tell you the truth, I had to pretend I was a victim of the battle to my therapist, if Plagg hadn't insisted I would have never told anyone"

"Well, now you have me, and I want to know if this happens again, okay?"

"Okay" He smiled; it was good to have a friend like Nino, to think that there was a time when he was an isolated kid… it all seemed so far away now.

"So… it was corrupted" Adrien cleared his throat

"Yes, Adrien, but it was different. The way it felt was different, her use was corrupted but not by a corrupted soul… I can't put it into words, but I can assure you that is not the same that the last time" Wayzz spoke "I felt that, minutes later I felt Tikki disappear"

"That's the strange energy I felt!" Plagg shouted

"You too?" Wayzz asked, not as excited as Plagg seemed to be

"Yes, I couldn't figure it out what it was! And then everything changed"

"I see" Wayzz hummed

"What changed?" Nino asked the black kwami

"Ah, er, well"

"It's honesty moment" Adrien reminded at Plagg

"Don't get mad at me" Plagg said it in a bitter tone, but it was clearly a beg. "I forgot who Ladybug was, I'm sure I knew her civilian identity, but from that moment is like I never did"

"You knew who Ladybug was?" Adrien tried to keep his cool, but it was hard "You never told me"

"You made a deal with her, Tikki and I respected it, it's also a safety thing; If there had been a moment in which revealing her identity turned to be necessary I would have done it… if I remembered who she was I would have told you already

Nino sighed

"Wayzz can't remember who she is either, and he was there when she was chosen… this is bigger than we thought"

"Indeed it is" Wayzz sighed just like Nino

"So let me get this straight" Adrien said

"But you are not straight" Nino joked, he felt the need to stop the tension Adrien was bringing to the conversation. Plagg laughed but Adrien just frowned at him

"This is serious" He clenched his teeth "For what you said, you don't think Ladybug and her kwami vanished out of nowhere, you think it has something to do with the Butterfly Miraculous"

"Yes" Nino and Wayzz said at the unison

"But do we think it was too different events that tangled togheter or that this is only one event"

"That's what we are trying to figure it out, I lean to the second option" Nino pointed at Adrien's phone "Your text makes me doubt, but that's why we are here, to figure it out"

"Do you have a plan? Because Plagg and I are still in point zero, and we have been for years

"So have we, but I have mastered skills that will help us. We came back to Paris to track down her magic and also because we have two powerful allies in here"

"Since when?" Adrien gave a look to Plagg, but he was as confused as him

"A civilian who dedicated her life to figure it out who Ladybug was, I'll take care of that one" Nino smirked and Adrien rolled his eyes "And the husband of a missing miraculous holder"

"Missing? Who is missing?"

"The holder of the peacock miraculous"

"But you said it was in safe hands" Adrien pointed at Wayzz

"It is, her husband found the miraculous, sadly he didn't found her" Adrien bit his inner cheek at the statement. He felt sorry for the guy, he knew how bad could it be for a husband to lose his wife, he had seen it all on his father… his father.

Wait a second.

A flash of a distant memory appeared on his mind.

He remembered the book, and the vault behind his mother's painting. There were things there, suspicious things and then, that little thing he hadn't give a minute of his attention shined on his mind. Blue, green and gold sparkling in front of his eyes.

"Adrien" Nino snapped his fingers in front of him

"This is not happening" He growled "Please tell me our ally is not my dad, please"

"Definitely not as dense as you were" Nino said

"Fan-fucking-tastic" Oh look, another problem to add to his list, he was acquiring Marinette's way of swearing.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION BELOW:

OKAY SO... I completely forgot to warn you that english is not my native language, so I'm sorry if there's any mistakes I try my best and constructive critics are always welcome. And I think I figured it out how to reply messages so yeah there's that :)