"I'm just getting home. I'll look over all the details tonight, come up with some theories. When you can, get back in touch with Nath and ask where we can reasonably expect her to be in the next five to seven days. Probably a good idea to get our eyes on her for a bit before we swoop in. Thanks, Nino. See you tomorrow." Adrien ended the phone call and stepped into his apartment, sighing as he tossed both files, the small one from Chief and the even smaller one from Nath, onto his coffee table. Plopping down onto the floor, Adrien began to sort through the papers within.
"It's so strange." He murmured to himself, looking at her intake and reappearance dates. "Why go off the radar for five years? What could she have been doing all that time? Training? Could explain how she managed to stand her ground against those men.." He glanced back at the photos Nath had provided. "Why would Hawk even bother to train her? She's tiny. And the sudden behavior change…just doesn't make sense." Adrien groaned, a small headache beginning to build behind his eyes. He glanced towards his balcony door, frowning as he felt himself pulled towards it. He'd never really cared for sitting out there before, especially not late at night when it would be cold and dark. Still, entirely unbidden, his feet began to move him across the room until he was opening the balcony doors and stepping out to look over Paris. It was kind of nice when he thought about it. Though his balcony could use a place to sit or some plants to liven up the space. Or maybe something pink, like a-
"What am I thinking?" Adrien hissed, stepping back into his apartment. "I must be exhausted." Adrien made sure to lock both his balcony and front door before crossing to his bedroom with a sigh. Collapsing into bed, Adrien rolled over and buried his face in his pillow, trying his best to ignore the sudden uncharacteristic urge to burrow into a pile of blankets for extra warmth. "What is happening to me?"
———
"Dude, you okay? You look rough." Nino pat his partner on the back and Adrien let out a tired groan.
"I couldn't sleep at all last night." Adrien whined, head down at his desk. "It was freezing in my apartment. I ended up sleeping out on my balcony."
"I thought your balcony was empty."
"It is!" Adrien looked up at his friend with a distressed scowl. "That's why I couldn't sleep. The ground was so hard but if I went inside I was just freezing all over again and no amount of blankets in the world would help."
"You feeling okay? Got a fever?"
"I'm not sick. Just weirded out. I've felt so..off this week. Like I'm a different person."
"Well, I learned something that might cheer you up." Nino sunk into the empty office chair next to his best friend. "Nath said he thinks Ladybug will be down by the docks tonight. Says it's her usual this time of week."
"We should definitely try to check it out, see what she's up to at the very least. When I was fighting sleep deprivation last night I went through every single piece of paper in those files. I think a good place to start, if we can't find her tonight, would be that massage parlor she entered the night she fought off Hawk's men. A girl with her features would be pretty recognizable. Maybe someone there will know more about her than we do."
"Sounds like a plan, dude. And if not, maybe getting a massage will knock you out of whatever funk you're in." Nino laughed and turned towards his desk as Adrien rolled his eyes.
"Real funny, Nino."
———
"Illustrator in position." Nathaniel's voice came over the communication device in Adrien's ear and he hurriedly turned it down.
"Green Turtle in position." Nino's reply came swiftly. "Black Cat, you good to go?"
"In position." Adrien assured, scanning the surrounding area cautiously. Though he was more than capable of handling himself and he wasn't opposed to being alone, it still comforted him to know his colleagues hadn't gone far. Nathaniel had settled himself in a cruiser along the street while Nino had jogged a few blocks over to keep a closer eye on the massage parlor.
"So what are the chances we'll actually see her tonight?" Nino asked, leaning against a brick building as he pretended to take a phone call.
"I'd say they're pretty good." Nathaniel glanced out the cruiser window to check on Adrien before continuing. "She's pretty consistent. Usually see her returning to one of the brick buildings back there, but they're always empty by the time I catch up. She's either got an invisibility cloak or she's just super fast."
"I think I'm gonna go with fast." Adrien laughed.
"Gonna have to second that one, Nath." Nino agreed. "I can't imagine an invisibility cloak is easy to come by." The three friends shared mindless chatter for a few hours until finally Adrien caved.
"Maybe we should break and head back home? Doesn't seem like she's making an appearance tonight."
"Looking for me?" The soft voice and the sudden, almost indistinguishable, sound of footsteps behind him caused Adrien to whirl around, hand on his hip, as he came face to face with the girl they had been looking for. At their closeness she took a step back, a strand of hair falling from one of her pigtails to frame her masked face. They both stood, staring at the other, the silence deafening.
"Black Cat, do you need backup?"
"Negative. Let's not startle anyone, man." Adrien turned back to the girl in front of him at the sound of her quiet giggles.
"Who's startled, Officer?" Ladybug smiled, looking him up and down. Her bluebell eyes lingered on his face for a moment too long and he tried his best to smile politely her way.
"Hopefully no one. We're not here to cause any kind of trouble." Adrien held out his hand and sighed in relief as she reached out to take it. She wasn't openly hostile at least, that made things easier. After an awkward handshake, Adrien stepped back to give her a bit of space.
"I hope you didn't come all this way just to shake my hand, Officer." Ladybug smirked, looking around him towards the road and then turning to glance down an alleyway. "And drag your friends along too." The girl huffed. "You three really should be on your way. This is Hawk's territory at this time of night. Can be pretty dangerous around here."
"I've been in the force for eight years. My partners too. I assure you we can handle ourselves, little lady."
"Little lady?" Nathaniel questioned in his ear over Nino's sudden fit of chuckles.
"No flirting with the vic, Adrien." Nathaniel scolded, crossing his arms as he watched them from his seat in the cruiser.
"I'm not!" Adrien argued, Ladybug raising an eyebrow as she studied him. "Sorry." Adrien apologized quickly. "My partners are idiots." Adrien frowned vaguely in Nathaniel's direction before turning back to the girl. "Miss, my name is Agent Agreste. I work with the OVC, the office for victims of crime here in Paris. You've been identified as a person at risk. I'm here to help you."
"If you stay here, you're going to get yourself killed." The sudden change in her demeanor instantly had Adrien on edge.
"Is that a threat?" He slowly began to inch his hand towards his hip, Ladybug's eyes quickly locking onto the movement.
"Call it a warning; No need for the gun. You're in over your head here. There's a lot going on behind the scenes that you can't possibly be aware of."
"I appreciate the fear for my safety, miss. I'm an Agent. It's my job to find out those things."
"What's my name then? How old am I? How long have I been here? Why am I here?" Ladybug asked as she took a step towards him, lightly poking him in the chest as she looked up at his face. "If you can answer any of those questions correctly, maybe you're safe here. Otherwise..Hawk will come after you."
"They call you Ladybug, though I'm sure that's not your legal name. You're early to mid twenties. Been running with Hawk for five years. I'd say you're probably here for the same reason all of Hawk's girls are. Money. Sex. Violent crime…"
"Wrong, wrong wrong and hmm," Ladybug tapped her chin childishly as she pretended to think. "Wrong. You've proven my point."
"Well tell me then, bug. What is your name?"
"I'm not stupid enough to just reveal my identity to you, Agent Agreste." Ladybug rolled her eyes.
"Fine then. No name for now. You're definitely not in your late twenties or into your thirties. And if you're not in your early to mid twenties..there's no way you're still a teenager. Hawk doesn't take girls under sixteen. You've been with him for five years. Doesn't add up."
"Hawk does what he wants. I'm nineteen. Though don't think I'm warming up to you because I told you that. You can't do anything with that." Ladybug turned away from him and Adrien tried his best to hide the scowl wanting to form on his face. What game was she playing?
"Five years ago you were only fourteen. That's not Hawk's usual shtick. Any idea why he went for you?"
"That night on the docks was just the first time I was caught on camera. Wasn't the first time we met. It means nothing for whatever investigation you're trying to start here. It's getting late. You and your friends need to retreat."
"Like I said we-"
"I know more here. About this. About you. You need to go."
"Know more about me? Like what-"
"You've been an agent with the OVC for eight years. You started when you were eighteen. You're twenty six now. From the chatter on your ear piece I've learned your code name is Black Cat, which I find highly ironic but you won't understand why. Your real name is Adrien Agreste, you-"
"You're listening in on our channel. How do you know my name?"
"She's been listening in on everything?" Nathaniel panicked, hurrying to switch them to a different frequency. "How long?"
"You were a famous teen model, genius. Are you not aware of your own life? I mean, it's kind of embarrassing to admit but I had a serious schoolgirl crush on "Paris's Most Eligible Bachelor of the Year" back in the day. I mean, I know practically everything about you. You fence, speak Chinese, play piano..you were homeschooled before switching to Collége Françoise Dupont. Your favorite flavor is passion fruit-"
"That's so…
"Terrifying?" "Cute?" Nino and Nathaniel asked at the same time.
"Creepy? Weird? Stalkerish?" Ladybug filled in. "Tell me about it."
"I was going to say sweet, actually. I mean, it is a little weird. But still..sweet."
Ladybug glanced up at him through her eyelashes, a shy blush creeping up her cheeks. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, her whole body went stock still.
"I've got to go. So do you. Hurry." Ladybug hurriedly checked her mask and turned towards the alley as Adrien reached out for her shoulder.
"Stay. We can help you."
"I wish you could, Black Cat. But no one can help me here." In an instant Ladybug had turned down the alley and, even with his best attempts to catch up, disappeared from view.
"Where'd she go? How'd she get away so fast?" Nino questioned when they met on the other side of the street. Adrien let out a groan as he glanced around, the swish of fabric on a nearby rooftop catching his eye.
"She deployed her invisibility cloak."