"What's the worst that could happen?" Plagg asked, half listening to Adrien as he used his tiny paws to change the channel on the TV. "Worst he can do is say no."
"No," Adrien applied cologne and changed his shoes for the third time that morning. "The worst he could do is tell Natalie to say no." He stood in front of his floor-length mirror and checked his outfit again, deciding if these were the right shoes to go with his light blue shirt and dark jeans. He had tried on orange sneakers, but they clashed. Plagg had insisted he try on dress shoes, and he had done so to humor the creature, but obviously those weren't right. The white shoes on his feet worked well, though. They stood out, but in a complimentary way, the perfect pair of shoes for his outfit.
Plagg looked at him out of the corner of his eye. "I still think you should go with the brown ones. They're classy."
"Those are loafers, and I'm not wearing loafers with jeans. Besides, I refuse to take fashion advice from a dog who magically creates a fanny pack-toolbelt."
"It's practical!" The kwami threw the remote as far as it could. It landed softly on the carpet beneath the couch. "And I'm not a dog!"
"Well you're not a cat," Adrien checked his mirror, checking for any hairs he'd missed when he'd shaved earlier. "As you've so kindly told me before. And you're certainly not a duck."
Plagg shook in silent fury as Adrien left the room to go speak to his father. Adrien grinned to himself. He had found the little black cat endlessly entertaining, especially since it got riled up so easily.
The walls of the mansion were filled with paintings. Some of them were old-school: impressionistic, romantic paintings of nature or scenes of people interacting with each other. The last year had seen the house gain a collection of modern art: collections of circles, lines, sometimes triangles if the artist was feeling particularly bold. The traditional paintings were kept further back in the house now, away from any place where a human could see it. The modern art caged Adrien in as he made his way to his father's study. His footsteps echoed through the hallways until they stopped. He raised his hand and knocked.
"Enter," Gabriel's voice came muffled through the solid wood door. Adrien closed it behind him as silently as he could. Gabriel didn't even look up. Adrien cleared his throat. Gabriel hummed.
"Hello, Adrien. Is there something you wanted?"
Anger rose through Adrien, but he forced it down. His voice a perfect mask of calm, he said, "Yes. I wanted to talk to you about something I need your permission for."
Gabriel finally looked up from his computer, and his eyes seemed to have that knowing look in them. That look which Adrien once would have been relieved upon seeing-because at one point, Gabriel had actually known Adrien. It had been more than a year since Gabriel had known Adrien. Now that look only brought a pit of dread into Adrien's stomach.
"You're seventeen," Gabriel murmured, shaking his head. "My, how time flies."
"Yes, and I've been homeschooled my entire life. I want-"
"The time has come for you to come and ask for a car." Gabriel interrupted, evidently not having heard anything his son had just said. Adrien stared at him, shocked. How could he have been so off the mark when, merely two years ago, Gabriel could instantly tell that Adrien had been having trouble in physics just by the gait of his walk? How had they drifted so far apart? "Don't look so shocked," Gabriel chuckled, already losing what little attention he had been giving his son. He shuffled some papers around. "I was your age, too, once."
"No," Adrien shook his head, stepping forward. "I want-"
"Of course, I can afford something much better than my father could ever even dream of giving me. So, have you given it any thought? A Maserati? Rolls-Royce? Oh, how about a Bugatti? I was just looking at their catalogue-"
Adrien raised his voice, "I don't want a Bugatti, I want to go to public high school!"
His father was already lost to him. He continued mumbling to himself, something about having Natalie take him to the dealership at a later date, and Adrien was effectively dismissed.
Sudden fury filled Adrien. So that's how it was, huh? Emelie Agreste went missing, and suddenly, since Gabriel's world fell apart, it was alright for him to treat people like this? To barely have the common decency to pay attention to a conversation with his son for five minutes? Adrien understood pain-his mother had disappeared-but no one could say that Adrien Agreste was a rude, pathetic, shut-in. No one could say that Adrien Agreste, since the death of his mother, had slowly ceased speaking with his father, that he had avoided his only other relative like the plague, that he seemed to forget all the love he had for him. But it would be all too easy to accuse Gabriel of such actions. It would be so easy to accuse Gabriel of not caring for his son, that the words almost didn't need to be said out loud.
Blood rushed to Adrien's face as he turned and stomped back to his room. The door shut silently behind him, though Adrien longed to bang it shut-slam it repeatedly until his father finally took notice and deigned to grace Adrien with his attention. It was useless; he'd tried that before and Natalie told him to stop because she was about to have a meeting with an investor. Wasn't it supposed to be the teenagers who were moody and ignored their parents? Why did Adrien have to be stuck in the one family where he couldn't have that luxury? He would trade any of his things-hell, he'd trade all of them-to have enough of his father's attention that Gabriel would care if Adrien acted out. Adrien entered his room and pulled out his computer before falling onto the couch next to Plagg.
"He said no?" Plagg guessed from the look on his partner's face.
"He didn't even listen to the first two sentences out of my mouth," Adrien said, his voice the epitome of cool manners. "Since he didn't say no, I'll take it as a yes."
"Which means…?"
"Which means I'm signing myself up as a student of Francois Dupont High School."
"So, you're rebelling by signing yourself up for school?"
"Yes," Adrien smiled triumphantly. "It's going to be great, I just know it!" Plagg sighed and turned his attention back onto the cooking show he was watching.
Over the past three weeks, Marinette had gotten used to the company of her little kwami. Most of the time, the thing was harmless. It floated around her room and looked at the designs posted all over the walls, or ate a few cookies from the bakery downstairs, or she drew with the art supplies Marinette provided for her. The kwami was sweet, if a little air-headed. It never gave Marinette useful information until it was almost too late, and it frequently gave Marinette advice she hadn't asked for. Usually it was about how she should be applying her concealer, or something equally as easy to ignore.
At the moment, however, Tikki was talking a mile a minute about the design Marinette was working on, the design she was going to be submitting for the Agreste fashion contest. Agreste-as in, one of the biggest fashion firms in Paris. Usually Marinette brushed off Tikki's opinions of her designs. In this case, she couldn't afford to. The contest promised the winner's design would be featured in multiple fashion magazines, along with the winner's name underneath the design, as well as a nice 700 euro reward. Marinette had entered the Agreste fashion contest last year as well, and had won. She knew her design would be featured in the magazine. She knew she would be receiving 700 euros. She knew her name would not be listed anywhere on the magazine, or on the Agreste website. It happened last year, and there was no doubt it would happen again. It didn't matter. Her family needed any extra money it could get. Marinette had been working at her family's bakery full-time all summer for next to nothing, and they were still struggling. When she went back to school, her parents would be forced to hire someone to work when she usually did, and they would be forced to pay them adequately. She just wanted to help them out as much as she could. So, she took all of Tikki's advice seriously.
The garment was a summer dress. It was difficult to make a summer dress interesting since they tended to be so simple in nature, but Marinette liked the challenge. She had taken a bold print she'd been hanging onto for a while-a white background with red and orange maple leaves scattered around it-and used it in conjunction with a light green fabric and a basic white. The leaf fabric was used as accents along the sides of the dress, on the buttons along the front, and on the seams of the pockets. The green was used for the sleeves and top half of the bodice, and the white used for everything else. The silhouette was classic, but it didn't need to be bold with all the pattern-work on the dress. It didn't seem like it would work, but it just did-in the best possible way. The design was one Marinette had been stewing on for a while. She was almost reluctant to turn it into Agreste for no credit, but she had no choice, really. This was a winning design. 700 euros might not mean a lot to everyone, but it sure meant a lot to her family.
"That's it, Marinette," Tikki fell to the floor and sighed, as if she had been the one working since 5 in the morning. "I think it's ready to be sent in."
The trip to the post office was simple, and nerve-wracking. Marinette had been entering contests since she could first sew, but the nerves she got from entering a competition never went away. Sometimes it was delayed, sometimes the nerves came days before the entered the design, but they were always there.
"Don't worry, Marinette," her kwami said. "Your design is gorgeous, it'll be a winner for sure!"
Marinette managed a smile before handing the garment bag over to the clerk in the post office. That was it. Now it was out of her hands. She turned and started to walk home. If only she didn't need to go to school. She still would have entered the contest, but she could have afforded not to submit a dress which had a piece of her soul in it. She sighed. She was going to be a fashion designer-did it really matter when France went to America to fight against the British? It wasn't like she was planning on going to college. She was going to apply for internships in all the fashion houses in Paris. If she couldn't get in here, she would simply look outside her hometown. No matter how far from her parent's bakery her dream took her, Marinette knew it was her path. Sure, she could have gone to fashion school, but school was not where Marinette thrived. Thankfully, she was already in her last year of high school. No more teachers, no more tests, no more projects for her. Ever. She was almost out. She'd just have to survive another year of Chloe's taunts, Sabrina's attitude, and Max's constant video game challenges. No big deal, she had been doing it for years. She could do it again. Who knew, maybe this year Chloe wouldn't be in her class.
Adrien was at the hospital again, but this time he came prepared. On the floor by his feet was a bag full of twinkies. In front of him was a hospital wing filled with eighteen month's worth of Akuma. Inside each bed was a sedated human, possessed by some sort of moth. Adrien de-transformed in a flash of light and shoved another twinkie in Plagg's mouth.
"I told you, I prefer cheese."
"Incorrect. You prefer chaotic foods, and as I explained to you-"
"Yeah, yeah," Plagg grumbled. "'Twinkies. The most chaotic food of all.'" Plagg swallowed the pastry in a single bite, then shuttered in disgust.
"Claws out," Adrien murmured, approaching the next Akuma. He'd halfway cured five already that night, and he was ready to make that number six. "Cata-" He was cut off by the rumble on the streets of Paris. Cat Noir jumped out of the hospital window. After his visit a week ago, the previous window had been replaced, and the staff kept the window open at night. It was pretty convenient, and he usually closed the window behind him when he left. Tonight, Cat Noir had other things on his mind.
People had already begun mobbing the streets, the air clung to their bodies and hair. It was a literal sea of people, coming out of their houses in waves, crashing against each other to try and get to the nearest shelter before it filled up.
Tonight's the night, kid, Plagg said. We're going to battle, and you're going to meet your partner.
Adrien should have been ecstatic. He'd seen the footage of Ladybug. Everyone had. He'd seen how she handled the giant Makara, how she'd finally proved that it was possible to reverse the effects of an Akumatization. She'd been amazing. He'd been looking forward to meeting her for days-ever since he'd realized that he was her partner.
Now, though, looking down the street and seeing a hulking figure slowly lumbering through the streets of Paris, slowly destroying the city once again, Adrien didn't want to be Cat Noir. He wanted to be stuck in bed, angry at his father and the monotony of his life and the disappearance of his mother. He wanted to read about the battle on his phone the next day, or see it on the news. He didn't want to be a part of it. He didn't want to do anything. He wanted to freeze and hope the Makara would be defeated before it got to the hospital. He wanted to join the people below and move towards safety. He wanted to leave the Makara and the Akuma to the police and Ladybug. He didn't want to go towards the danger he had thought of as excited a few minutes ago.
Sorry, kid, Plagg sympathized. This is just the way it's got to be. Our wavelengths match. It's your job, now. She's already there, dealing with the Makara. We've got to get there before the Akuma does.
Adrien knew that. He knew. He hesitated a moment longer. His heart thudded.
Breathe, Plagg allowed. But not for too long because you can breathe on the way to the Makara.
Adrien laughed tightly. He grabbed his staff, and after one more moment of pause, he headed off towards the Makara, where he could vaguely see a small, lithe figure swirling around it. This Makara was solid and rectangular. It was a vaguely pinkish hue, and every once in a while, it stuck its tongue out in the air. Its body was covered in scales which shimmered, even in the dark, as though they were wet.
"Oh, god," Adrien groaned as he got closer. His hold on the staff loosened and he almost fell to the ground. "What is that smell?"
The Makara, Plagg said, sounding as though he quite enjoyed the stench. Adrien dry-heaved. Hey, not on the suit.
"It would be an improvement," Adrien tried to force the nausea down as he moved ever closer. "Trust me."
Something slammed into Adrien before Plagg could sputter out some indignant reply. He turned and grabbed whatever it was before using the staff to keep them both from falling three stories to the concrete ground.
Let go of that, you idiot! Plagg yelled in his ear, and Adrien immediately loosened his arm. Whatever it was that he had been holding onto pulled from his grip, but remained in the air with him. Its body was vaguely female, and looked to be wearing simple jeans and a t-shirt. All visible skin was covered by a light feathering of fur. Her hair was brown and wavy. Pretty. Her eyes were surrounded by a red glow. An Akuma.
It looked at him for a moment before tilting her head, as if listening to someone. Then she turned towards the Makara. Before he knew what he was doing, Adrien grabbed the Akuma's ankle. He didn't know what its power was, but he wasn't going to let the Akuma near Ladybug while she was busy. Ladybug might not know it yet, but he was her partner, and he would always have her back.
He grabbed at her and threw her against the nearest building, following closely behind. As he approached, she growled at him It was such an inhuman act that Adrien paused for a moment from shock. The Akuma took advantage and threw herself at him, her wings spread to make sure she would make the long jump.
He dodged the Akuma's hands. He still didn't know what she could do, but he knew that it would happen as soon as those hands touched him. That's how all Akuma worked-their hands held magic, and whoever was touched by them was changed. No one knew how to reverse the effects yet, so as of the moment, anyone tainted by an Akuma was treated as terminal and a danger to society. They were all held in the Akuma sector of the hospital, all sedated and left alone.
Adrien shortened the staff to the length of a baseball bat and hit the Akuma so that she would go straight down. Unfortunately, she was stronger than he had thought, and the hit did nothing more than slightly alter her course. In a moment, her wings had fixed her trajectory, and her hands were outstretched once again to change him. Adrien willed the staff to grow, and in an instant he was above her. Her face slammed into the pole. He slid down, his feet right below him, and slammed the bottoms of his boots onto the top of her head. He shortened the staff, then swung, this time with more force. Again, the Akuma slammed into a building. Below him, the police were beginning to arrive.
"Two of them?" One officer wailed in despair.
"No, look, one of them's fighting the other!"
"Do you think it's Cat Noir?"
Adrien paid them no attention and instead used the staff to fling himself towards the Akuma. She rolled to the side before he could get to her, her hands once again outstretched to change him.
A sound filled the air, like a zip, and suddenly the Akuma's hands were tied up, and pulled above her body.
Adrien blinked, and then the struggling and spitting Akuma was pulled away from him and into the air. Its wings opened, possibly trying to guide where it was going, but the force with which it was being flung about was too strong. At one end of the string was the Akuma. At the other end was Ladybug.
She swung the Akuma around, possibly to disorient it. Her outfit was tacky, but nowhere near as bad as Adrien's. Hers was a simple skin-tight jumpsuit, entirely red with black spots on it (some might call it simple, but Adrien would call it unimaginative and on-the-nose). The suit covered her feet and hands, and every other part of her body except for her face. Her eyes were framed by a simple mask, a base red with more spots on it. Her outfit looked as though a child had drawn it. If not for the fact that Adrien knew her hair and eyes had been changed, she would have been completely recognizable to anyone who knew her outside of the mask. As it was, her irises were a vivid purple, her hair an unusually fluorescent red, and it framed her face in a chic bob. The most impressive part about her, though, was her presence. As she swung the Akuma around on the leash, she stood with her legs firm, her face set, and her demeanor calm. She was just like the videos made her out to be: confident, powerful, and totally in control. Her stern voice called from the roof of the building he was on:
"Go away," Ladybug called without looking at him. "You're only going to get hurt." And then she was off. Adrien leapt after her.
"Ladybug, I'm Cat Noir!"
"I don't care," she grunted, finally letting go of the Akuma. It spun around the air a few times, and Adrien extended the staff so that it hit the Akuma in the solar plexus and pinned her to the ground.
"Tie her up!" he urged, "I can destroy her weak point!"
"There's no guarantee you're my partner," Ladybug landed on the ground and ran towards the Akuma without pause. The Akuma was dazed, but still conscious. Adrien mentally cursed. How tough were these things? Ladybug grabbed one of the Akuma's arms and tugged at it, but Adrien wouldn't let up his hold of the staff. "Let her go," She grit out. "The Akuma will be back on form in a few moments, and we don't have time to spare. The police and I already have a procedure."
"Well, you're just going to have to alter that procedure," Adrien frowned. "I am your partner, and you're going to have to let me try and help you." The police were coming closer, and Adrien hoped their rapport with Ladybug would get her to trust him a little. It hurt to see the hero he had been so excited to see distrust him so openly.
"I don't have to do anything," Ladybug said. "Until I know you're exactly who you say you are, you might as well be another Akuma." Adrien ran his clawed hands through his hair, and winced as he accidentally cut his head.
"Your kwami is probably telling you that I'm your partner right now!" That got a startled look out of her, but it was too late. A police officer shouted a warning, and the staff jerked out of Adrien's hands. The police shouted orders and codes at each other, but Adrien didn't pay any attention to them. He had to prove to Ladybug that he was to be trusted.
The Akuma's wing had been damaged, so it stayed on the ground. It was heading back to the Makara. He planted his feet in the ground and extended the staff, this time intending on knocking her to the side, or to the ground. Then, Ladybug could tie her up, he could destroy the object, she'd purify the girl, and they'd walk away as happy partners.
It didn't end up going that way. Apparently, Ladybug had had a similar idea, just without the 'Cat Noir will knock the Akuma down' part. Her yo-yo wrapped around his staff, and he could hear her growl of frustration.
"Stay back," she called. "You're getting in the way!"
"No way!" He used the staff as a sort of broomstick to catch up to Ladybug and the Akuma. "We're partners, and I'm not going to be dead weight!"
Before she could react, he dropped to the ground, swung his staff around, trying his best to avoid any buildings, and slammed it against the Akuma. The staff held her against the side of a building, trapped.
"I got her, she's down, now please tie her up!" Adrien demanded, exasperated. Ladybug did so with practiced ease. "Cataclysm," he mumbled as he ran up to the Akuma. The world went gray, and objects had a slight haze around them, noticeable enough to give him a slight headache. He wasn't sure how long he had before Ladybug decided he was just pulling her leg, so he looked for the weak point as fast as he possibly could. As Ladybug made her way towards him, he reached into the girl's pocket and plucked out a phone. His left hand grabbed onto it, and it disintegrated. The world snapped back into focus, and colors seeped back into his vision.
Ladybug caught the escaping butterfly and she purified the it. Adrien watched with awe as the hair, wings, and red glow on the Akuma disappeared in a haze of bubbles. "Wow," he breathed.
Ladybug came to stand by him. For a girl with such a strong presence, she sure was tiny.
"So, you're my partner?" She looked him up and down with pained eyes. "Yup, seems about right. Nice boots."
"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled. "It wasn't my choice. Nice...hair?"
She sighed. "Don't even start, I know it's awful."
The police came by a few moments later to close off the area and ask the girl a few questions. Name? Alya Cesaire. Age? 17. Did she see what had transformed her? A white butterfly. What had she been doing just prior to the transformation? She had been denied an interview with a local politician once again. Nothing new for her.
The police shook their heads and turned back to their horses, frustrated with the lack of information about whatever was happening to their city. Alya Cesaire turned to Ladybug and Cat Noir, surprisingly alert for someone who had just been Akumatized. She first turned to Adrien.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Cat Noir," he grinned. "Ladybug's partner."
"Her partner?!" Alya exclaimed, then turned to Ladybug, "Your partner?!" She started patting her pants, "Do either of you have a moment for an interview? Geez, where's my phone?"
Adrien's ring beeped, reminding him that it was time to go. It also, conveniently, gave him an out, and an excuse not to tell Alya exactly what had happened to her phone. He gave her an excuse and bid Ladybug goodnight. She looked at him like she knew exactly why he didn't want to talk to the reporter for very long. Adrien didn't care. He was tired, and he had a photo shoot the following afternoon. He needed an overnight mask, and as much sleep as he could get.
(The next day, social media was introduced to a small blog which would soon blow up and become known as the most reliable and up-to-date source of information of all things supernatural happening in Paris. The amateur reporter who ran the blog was one Alya Cesaire, who had not only been purified by Ladybug, but who had been given the opportunity to conduct Ladybug's first official interview.)
