Notes: My apologies to those of you who were hoping for a more dialogue-heavy chapter. This is more of an interlude, which I hope will still be enjoyable.
That afternoon, after his five-minute super serious and sober-minded strategy meeting with his bodyguard, wherein he laid out surreptitious plans for patrol routes and maybe some dates while pretending to simply play with action figures, Adrien finds that "Wave Three: The Heroes" is on the way.
The new run, whose release date is yet several months away, is announced prematurely in a hasty press release as a means of cutting some of the negativity surrounding the launch of the first wave and Chat Noir's figure in particular.
Between practice fencing matches, Adrien takes a quick break to pound back a quarter bottle of water, slick a film of sweat off his brow, and contemplate the announcement on his phone while off to the side of his fencing arena. Other students mill about, chattering among themselves or comparing techniques, while yet more resolve their duels.
Ryuuko's prototype images, which he examines carefully on his cell phone because the Dragon deserves respect, suggest brilliant paint applications and the use of face printing technology.
No whitewashing and general racism helps.
Alongside her, the wave also contains Carapace, Rena Rouge, Viperion, and Queen Bee, the rights to whose likeness had to have been negotiated with Chloe and Mayor Bourgeois, though for the acclaim, the heiress must have leapt at the chance to be turned into an action figure.
How had he not noticed her bragging about it?
Is is possible that he had been so enraptured by the contemplation of his customized Ladybug figure, and absorbed by Marinette's strangled silence, over the past few days that he missed Chloe's self-aggrandizement?
No, she would have mentioned something earlier than that, if the action figure had really mattered to her.
It probably doesn't, even if in some strange vicarious fashion, it means something to him, as if she's joining him on his adventures, becoming part of the fun.
The other more obscure heroes such as King Money, Pegasus, and Multimouse are sure to-
Sure to follow...
Flailing in a frantic spasm of horror, as if his muscles are coiling and degrading under the effects of some horrible snake venom, Adrien nearly tosses his fencing foil into a passing student's face.
Multimouse! he laments mentally, staggering over to the benches than line the gymnasium's walls while said nearly-impaled student glares balefully and continues on his way.
No time to worry about that little mishap!
Other than Ladybug, Chat, and Marinette herself, no one in the world has even heard of Multimouse!
He might have first-edition versions of every figure that Hasbro and Figma alike produce, and be able to pick up all the limited-edition Walmart, Amazon, and Target exclusives, even though he has to have some of them flown in from the States, but he can never have a Multimouse.
Given that Hawkmoth too knows of Multimouse, it isn't as if he can order a commission, either. No matter how scant the chance of Hawkmoth catching wind of Adrien Agreste's familiarity with the super heroine, no self-respecting defender of Paris could ever take the risk-
But without Multimouse...
Gulping down the rest of his water bottle's contents as his instructor, veins popping in his forehead as his aristocratic reserve breaks, begins laying into him for his dangerous lack of focus, Adrien can't swallow down the burn.
He's only just realized that without Multimouse there on his shelf, in a place of honor right next to the only girl who really deserves to stand beside her, his Lady, there will always be a hole in his room. A great gaping chasm.
He has to find some way to plug up the fissure before the entire dyke bursts and crumbles.
Adrien Agreste needs a Multimouse figure.
Even if Ladybug never acquiesces to his request to allow the most generous, effervescent, courageous, kind, and cute girl that he knows rejoin them in their fight against Hawkmoth (he's really going to have to press her on that point).
Even if she's only been in the field once, never to be seen again, which breaks his heart for some reason...
He needs Multimouse.
There's only one person in the world who can make her figure.
But before that, he still has another customized action figure to create and deliver on patrol tomorrow evening.
Working on his second little Lady is how he spends this evening.
Given that he's had the opportunity to practice and refine his techniques through the creation of his first customized Ladybug figure, the gift for the girl herself is completed in record time. It's not as if he took greater care in sketching the fine line-work of an oil wash to make the first figure's eyes pop, or applied substantially more layers from his spectrum of skin-toned paints to bring out the highlights.
Why would he invest more effort in Marinette's gift than Ladybug's?
That's crazy-talk.
Ridiculous.
Utterly and completely and totally ridiculous in the same vein as a suggestion that good friends couldn't hold hands and walk each other to class or to school generally and back again which he might start doing if his schedule and Marinette, who is more important than the former, will let him.
Regardless, his little lady is perfect, and so very similar to the first; he's used all the same colours, that were kept viable due to the fact that he had slipped his wet palette into the otherwise-Camembert stocked mini-fridge in his room, and even painted in the same silver edge-highlight to Ladybug's tassels. Improved brush control permits the creation of an even finer layer.
He's just a day away from patrol - one day away from giving Ladybug her gift!
But the best laid plans of mice and men and boys who dress up in leather and pretend to be cats gang aft agley...