The Dissolved - Chapter 1
Hey. so me Alya and Chloe are going to see Adrien at some point tomorrow afternoon. you in?
Sent by Nino Lahiffe at 8:06AM
I think I'll have to pass. I don't know if me tagging along is the best idea right now
Sent by Marinette Dupain-Cheng at 8:11AM
are you sure? i'm sure adrien wouyd be happy to see you
Sent by Nino Lahiffe at 8:12AM
*wpuld
Sent by Nino Lahiffe at 8:12AM
I'm sure. Thanks for thinking of me, though
Sent by Marinette Dupain-Cheng at 8:13AM
ok well let me know if you change your mind. most of the class is still meeting up at Alya's place to work on that collage thign for him if you're still game
Sent by Nino Lahiffe at 8:13AM
Marinette exhaled sharply through her nose and relaxed her arm, letting her phone fall onto the pillow next to her face.
"It's about time you woke up, Marinette!" the familiar, excited squeak came from somewhere on the floor, beneath the loft that held her bed. Seconds later, Tikki's bright red form came swirling into her sight, stopping to hover just above Marinette.
Marinette smiled up at her. "It's Saturday, Tikki. I'm allowed to sleep in, you know."
"But I get so lonely when you do..." Tikki whimpered, fluttering down to drop onto the pillow, between Marinette and her phone. "And bored..."
Marinette giggled, caressing her tiny body with one palm. "Looks like I need to get you some card games or something to keep you entertained."
"They wouldn't be any fun without you," Tikki protested.
Marinette snickered in response. She lifted her blankets off partially and shimmied out of them the rest of the way. She sat up, eyes adjusting to the harsh morning light beaming out of ther windows. The sun always seemed to blare rather unpleasantly into her room at this time of day. She immediately, but groggily stood up, stretching her arms high above her head with an unenthusiastic sigh.
"What's your plan today?" Tikki asked, floating to her side as she let her arms drop ungracefully, smacking against her sides as they fell. She flew a circle around her slumpted form, her hands rubbing through her face and hair. "Are you going to help with that project for Adrien like Alya mentioned?"
"Actually," Marinette yawned, smoothing down the side pieces of her hair that were sticking out from being slept on in an awkward position. She looked at Tikki. "I was thinking we should be Ladybug today."
"Even better!" Tikki cheered, clapping her little hands. She stoppe'd, her overjoyed expression changing to confusion. "Wait, why?" Tikki lowered herself into the two cupped hands Marinette held out for her to land in as she made her way down her bedroom stairs. "There aren't any akumatizations that we know of..."
"Not yet. But with everything that's going on, that just might change very quickly."
After transforming, Marinette - or now Ladybug - made her way to the Agreste's Mansion, settling on a somewhat hidden away spot on the roof where she could see Adrien's bedroom window. From her angle she couldn't see much through it, only part of the wall with some kind of poster and the very end of Adrien's bed. That sight alone was enough to make her heart ache, as if she could see Adrien himself. She wondered if he was crying right now. Guilt quickly stung at her. Adrien was the last person she would ever wish that kind of pain on. He didn't deserve to go through this. And he certainly deserved better friends than her.
Ladybug, discouraged, fell awkwardly to a sitting position, willing herself not to think about it. She had to focus on keeping watch. She made herself comfortable quickly, having no idea of how long she'd be there before spotting any signs of an akuma.
If Hawk Moth were as smart as he made himself out to be, he'd know that a boy grieving the loss of his father would be a perfect chance for a powerful akumatization. They were overdue for another one, after all. Typically, a random citizen gets azumatized about once, sometimes twice a week. Her and Chat Noir theorized that's approximately the time he needs to get his strength back up for another attack. But it's been nearly two weeks since the last time Ladybug and Chat Noir had actually had to fight anything. They'd met on their nightly patrols, as per usual, and did their rounds, searching around Paris for anything putting it in danger, but never found anything cause for concern. Though, to be honest, the thought of Paris being a seemingly peaceful city for this lenth of time was even more concerning.
But surely, if he were to return at any time, it would be now. There's no way he wouldn't take this oppurtunity while it was layed out so publicly in front of him. And with something this serious, an akumatized Adrien was bound to be intense, and something Ladybug knew she wouldn't want to mess with. So if she could find and take down the akuma before it found him, then she and Paris would have nothing to worry about. Catching the akuma ahead of time wasn't something she'd done before, so she was sure Hawk Moth wouldn't see it coming. She just hoped she'd be able to pull it off. And even if she failed to catch the akuma itself, she could, at the very least, get a head start on Adrien's azumatized form before it did too much damage.
Paris was oddly silent for a Saturday. The first distinctive sound she'd heard in several uneventful hours, other than some light chatter from the townspeople in the distance, was a soft, humming motor.
She looked down to see a slick shiny black car, pulled up to the gates that slowly swung open upon it's arrival. She watched it as it drove in, turning and making a half-circle until it stopped in front of the huge set of steps leading to the front door. On those steps were the two she could recognize as Gabriel Agreste's deadpan assistant and Adrien's abnormally large and menacing bodyguard. They ascended to greet the passengers of the almost futuristic vehicle. The driver - who, as Ladybug predicted, was just that: a driver - gracefully stepped out of the car and began opening the doors for the passangers while Adrien's bodyguard opened the trunk and pulled out two bags of luggage.
Ladybug could instantly identify the two blondes that emerged as Adrien's relatives. Letting her curiosity get the better of her, she squinted and moved a little closer to get a better look. Realization hit her when the boy's features resembled Adrien's almost exactly.
Jerk.
Ladybug seethed when she remembered her encounter with Adrien's cousin, Felix, posing as Adrien himself. He better not cause any more problems for Adrien today. He had already proven his lack of empathy by sabotaging him on the anniversary of his mother's death. She made a mental note to try to pay as much attention as she possibly could, wishing she could somehow spectate what was going on inside the mansion.
Over the next few hours, more fancy cars had pulled in and more of the fancy guests entered the Agreste estate. None of them seemed like they were related to the Agreste's, more like they were there for business and discussion. That did no more for her nerves than the first guests did. She couldn't believe Adrien wasn't allowed to have his own friends over until the next day, and instead had to be bombarded with all of these people who didn't actually care about him.
That was, until she caught eye of the unrecognizable, long black limo with four wildy waving French flags awkwardly making its way into the driveway. While her first instinct was to be pessimistic at the arrival of Chloe Bourjeois and her just as overbearing parents, she then realized that Chloe was the only one here that Adrien was actually friends with, and, at the very least, saw in person from time to time. And us much as she hated to admit it, Chloe did have a caring side. Did she let it show? Almost never. But considering the circumstances and the hard favorites Chloe played, she had faith that Adrien at least had one person to be there for him. Though she couldn't quite ignore the tiny flare of stubborn pettiness she felt when she saw the blonde following the large mayor out of what felt like the dozenth expensive car she's seen that day.
A few more hours passed after that, and still no signs on an akuma. What was Hawk Moth waiting for? Even by the slim chance that he didn't catch the exploding news of the millionaire's sudden death, he should be able to sense the overwhelming grief Adrien and others were feeling. Ladybug's gut wrenched at the idea of him potentially planning something. How were they supposed to track the tactics of a villain that hardly ever showed himself?
"-out of his face!"
Her thoughts were interupted by a voice shrill enough to hear clearly all the way from the top of the 4-story building. She perked up, head drawn to the direction of the Agreste's back yard. She crawled closer to the sound as it carried on, careful to keep herself remaining hidden, until she got a clear view of the clean clearing of glass and smooth stone walls. It was smaller and simpler than she'd expected, from how it looked on the outside. There she could see Adrien being somewhat roughly dragged out of the house by a pale hand.
"He's obviously going through a lot right now, and doesn't have time for your stupid questions! You're all ridiculous!" With that, a door slammed forcefully, leaving a quick moment of empty silence. Ladybug didn't need to crane her neck to know who that was.
"You really didn't have to go that far for me," Adrien said with just the tiniest hint of nervous laughter, gripping his arm. Ladybug could just barely make out his words from her level, and it forced the air out of her lungs. The pain in his voice was so tangible. She'd never heard him speak with such a low-pitched, empty sounding tone. Usually, even when he was at some of his worst times, he still forced himself to speak with an uplifted, respectful nature when talking to others. Now he just sounded unnaturally exhausted. It just went to show how poorly he was handling his father's death. Ladybug clutched her fist to her chest as her heart broke for him.
"Of course I did!" Ladybug could just barely see Chloe's tensely crossed arms and the top of her neatly groomed ponytail. "Honestly, some people just have no consideration for others."
Adrien forced a broken half-smile, undoubtedly feeling the same irony that Ladybug did upon hearing such a statement from Chloe Bourjeois of all people. But as usual, he was never one to directly adress it. "Thanks, Chloe," he almost whispered.
"Yeah, don't mention it." Chloe sounded almost dismissive with her reply, turning her head suddenly. She clearly didn't know how to accept words of gratitude, being someone that rarely recieved any. She slowly looked back it him, her tone changing. "Are...you doing okay?" she asked, awkwardly, but with genuine concern in her voice.
Adrien inhaled deeply through his nose, eyes wandering off to the side as he prepared to speak. But instead, his lips pursed and he began blinking rapidly. Then all at once, he broke down, his head dropping limply as he sobbed into his hands that darted to cover his face.
"Oh, Adrikins," Chloe breathed, immediately stepping forward and wrapping her thin arms around him. He surrendered into her shoulder that naturally came up just underneath his slouched head as she hugged him. He continued to cry into his palms for a good few mintes. Neither of them spoke in that time.
With her gloved thumb, Ladybug cleared the sympathetic tears that hadn't quite come to fall past her eyes, her lip still quivering slightly.
She wished she didn't have to be Ladybug at that moment, so that Tikki could actually be present and she'd have someone to talk to. But she wanted to be as prepared as possible. She couldn't let her guard down. Still, seeing the one she loved suffer so miserably was one of the worst thing's she's had to endure. Not like she could really bring herself to pry her attention away.
When Adrien's cries began to cease a bit, he straightened his posture and Chloe stepped back, her hands resting on his arms as he sniffled and wiped repeatedly at his eyes. He quietly muffled something into his hands that Ladybug couldn't understand.
"Why are you sorry?" Chloe said, once again sounding borderline aggressive. Comforting people obviously wasn't her strong suit. Her intentions were clear though, even to Ladybug. "You're allowed to cry, you know."
The sound of the door latching open caused Chloe's head to turn, her expression instantly turning defensive.
"Mr. Agreste, please, if you have a moment, we really need to discuss the-"
"I said not now!" Chloe snapped, seperating from Adrien to shove the owner of the voice back inside and slam the door a second time, this time loud enough make Adrien jump. She turned on her heel, her shoulders high and her fists raised, and scoffed loudly. "Seriously, what is up with these people and their vendetta against people's privacy?"
Ladybug felt her cheeks flush a bit, eyes wide in her sudden self-awareness. She instantly felt bad, realizing how much she was spying on him, especially when he was in such a vulnerable state. She tried justifying it by reminding herself of her duty as Ladybug. It's not like she could really leave. She was here for a reason, after all.
But she wasn't just Ladybug. She was Marinette too. Marinette, the classmate that had probably just ruined any kind of trust between them last Friday over her own lack of self-control.
Well. There was nothing she could really do. Either way, she was stuck on this rooftop whether she liked it or not.
"Do you wanna...I don't know, take a walk or something?" Chloe asked, returning to her previous spot in front of Adrien. "Get away from these nagging vultures?" She shot a glare at the door.
"Do you think you could just...," Adren paused to sniffle and sigh, each action making his shoulders twitch, "...talk? About...anything, honestly."
"Yeah, of course," Chloe agreed. Now there was something she was good at.
The two of them proceeded to sit together on the perfectly mowed lawn. Adrien, noticing Chloe's hesitation, had offered his overshirt for her so she didn't have to sit on the ground. For the next hour or so, Chloe had no difficulty carrying on about any subject that popped into her head for Adrien to half-heartedly listen to while his eyes blankly wandered around his surroundings, his arms lazily hugging his knees that he'd brought up under his chin. Ladybug could vaguely pick up (mostly bitter sounding) mentions of Sabrina, her parents, her classmates and her teachers. Occasionally, Adrien would softly chime in, inquiring about a detail in her story and going back to his trance-like state as she continued, digressing from topic to topic.
Eventually, their intentionally one-sided conversation was cut when Adrien's father's assistant - Nathalie, was it? - joined them outside, informing Adrien that she had dealt with most of the issues on his behalf and sent home all the guests that weren't family or friends, until he was better equipped to deal with them. She also informed Chloe that her parents were preparing to depart. With that, Ladybug watched the two teenagers follow her inside.
Well, there goes what was likely her last form of entertainment for the day, Ladybug thought to herself, attempting to cheer herself up with a bit of humor, but immediately shutting it down, resenting herself for joking at a time like this.
She looked towards the sun that was now bright red and sitting just on top of the city line, painting half of the sky with bright yellows, oranges and sparce specks of golden-pink, complimented by just a few dark clouds. While the opposite sky formed a pale gradient of light to dark blue, with the faint glittering of stars just beginning to creep up on the horizon.
She couldn't help the small melancholy pang she felt when she remembered that her classmates were probably leaving Alya's apartment about now, and realized she had accidentally blown her best friend off. She was already unconfident about working on the project with how her last encounter with Adrien ended. Alya's idea was to make a scrapbook for each classmate to dedicate a fraction of a page to a message describing their favorite moments with Adrien, along with well-wishes and a picture each of them together with him. She wondered how it had turned out.
Come to think of it, Alya had to have been texting her wondering where she was. Ladybug made a mental note to text her back as soon as she got home. Though, she had no idea how long it would be until she felt she could leave the mansion unprotected...It wasn't unheard of for Hawk Moth to akumatize people at night. And who knows when Adrien would fall asleep...or how much he would even get at all?
Ladybug stood up and moved back to her previous spot, where she had a better view of Adrien's window. She saw Nathalie escorting the Bourjeois family to their unnecesarily large limosene, bowing respectfully as they got into the doors already opened for them. Ladybug dropped back into a sitting position, watching the vehicle set off and Nathalie turn and head back inside.
Almost instanly as soon the door shut behind her, a light caught her eye. She looked to see Adrien's window luminated. Pale yellow shone though each of the many rectangles formed by the frames on his window. She noticed what little she could see of his bed frame shake slightly and the covers on his bed shift around before going still.
Well, she thought, crossing her legs and plopping her chin into her palm, back to it.
After bidding farewell to the Bourjeois family and thanking them for their visit, Adrien made his way to his room after quickly sneaking a glass of water from the kitchen, praying he didn't run into Amélie or Felix. His aunt was a sweet woman. She was just...a lot to handle at once. And Felix was, well, Felix. He had already spent most of his gloomy morning with them making what was mostly just depressing small talk in the living room. And after that exhausting few hours of all those people he didn't know throwing themselves at him with papers to sign, nagging him about his father's funeral plans and what would become of his business, he was more than ready to finally have a moment alone. Nathalie had apologized for allowing such a hectic scene to come to be while Adrien was still so sensitive to the situation, which he appreciated. He didn't even know the purpose of half of those papers, nor what decisions for his dad's company he should be making on his behalf. He hadn't thought about any of that stuff. All he could think of was the fact that his only remaining parent was now gone forever. In heaven with his dear Emilie, as Amélie had described that morning, with her hand on her chest.
Adrien felt a weight lift off his shoulders once he'd made it to his room with no inconveniences. He was quick to close the door, enveloped by the darkness until he hit the switch by his shoulder.
He looked around his large, spacious room, wondering what he was gonna do now that he finally had a moment to himself. Or if he even wanted to do anything. Every instinct was screaming at him to just collapse onto his bed and stare at the cieling for hours.
He had no energy to argue with them, and before he knew it, he was sprawled onto his unmade bed, his brain going blank and embracing the moment of quiet that seemed so hard to aquire lately.
"So!" squeaked the mischievious voice he was so familiar with. "Tin-Bee Chloe has a heart after all."
And, it's gone... Adrien thought pessimistically as he felt Plagg shuffle out of his jeans' side pocket, where the Kwami had frantically retreated to when Adrien carelessly stripped his button-up for Chloe. He was greeted with two large, bright green eyes staring down at him, blocking his view of the cieling Adrien had already arranged plans with.
"And Felix..." Plagg paused. "Well, as far as we know, he didn't try to ruin every single one of your friendships today. So that's a plus."
Adrien managed a slight smile and a nod of agreement.
Plagg hesitated, brainstorming for a quick moment. He lit up. "Hey! Speaking of which, guess who I am." He began ruffling the fur on his forehead until it smooshed all off to one side, partically covering one of his eyes. He glared forward, holding his paws behind his back in an overly serious manner. "Yes. It is me. I am the real Adrien," he deadpanned in an exaggerated English accent.
"Yeah, you're Felix. That's funny, Plagg," Adrien sighed, clearly distracted and unamused.
Plagg's ears and tail slowly drooped to their lowest point in reaction to Adrien's underwhelming response. He frowned, helplessly studying his holder's exhausted, miserable looking face. He hung there for a while, opening his mouth several times to say something, but the only noise he made was a defeated sigh. He dropped onto Adrien, burrowing himself underneath his jaw.
Adrien looked down at him fondly, reaching up to pat him.
"I'm all out of ideas," Plagg moaned sheepishly. "My hilarious charm has no effect...I have nothing left."
"It's not your fault," Adrien reassured, his voice soft and melancholy. "This isn't exactly something telling jokes can fix."
"Well what can?" The catlike spirit asked, floating up to peer at him desperately. "You have board games, video games, card games...oh, I'll let you win at fooseball!" he offered.
"That's nice of you, Plagg. But I don't think that would work either."
"Hmm. Well, you've previously expressed that camembert is not a common interest we share, so that's yet another brilliant idea I'll have to scratch." Plagg scratched at his chin. "What are your interests...piano...fencing...Ladybug..."
"Plagg-" Adrien began.
"We could go out as Chat Noir and hope for Ladybug to magically appear out of nowhere?" Plagg facepalmed. "Whatever. I give up..."
Adrien opened his mouth, ready to dismiss Plagg's next unhelpful idea, until his words actually set in. He froze for a second, considering. He saw Plagg slowly light up with hope from the corner of his eye.
"You know what? That's actually a great idea." Adrien got up quickly and walked away from his bed.
"It is?" Plagg watched in disbelief as his holder swung open his closet doors. "I was just kidding!" He was beaming.
"I've got to get out of here, Plagg." Adrien turned, revealing a pile of clothes in his arms. "Ladybug or no, if I spend one more second in this house, I'm going to lose my mind." He dumped the clothes onto his bed, causing Plagg to cry out in surprise and swerve out of his way so he didn't get buried.
"What are you doing? Are we moving? Just so you know, I don't exactly have a good reputation...in...Italy..." Plagg trailed off, distracted. He scowled in confusion as Adrien began moving his clothes around and bunching them together. But once he'd draped his bedding over the specifically shaped pile of clothing, it hit him. "Ah, yes. Classic." He nodded in approval as Adrien stepped back, observing his work and making sure it looked like a figure sleeping in his bed. Plagg shot him a toothy grin. "Works every time."
Adrien couldn't help but smile in response, earning a satisfied look from the kwami. "Well," he said, holding up his ringed hand. "Ready?"
Hope you enjoyed chapter 1!
Huge thanks to everyone that followed/reviewed! I've never really posted my writing, so knowing people are reading my stuff feels SO WEIRD! But it means so much!
(Writing Plagg's dialogue was way more fun than I thought it would be :D )
