Photography

Photo watching in the library

Nino was setting up the equipment in the library. Alya was going through the photos one last time while Alix, Mylenne, Rose and Juleka gathered around her to peek over her shoulders. Alya was glad that the photos were far more decent than her wild imagination sometimes upgraded on them.

Adrien and Marinette were too busy receiving congratulations from other students and teachers as well as the rest of the school staff. Even the janitor and the cooks came because they wanted to see and squeeze hands to the two kids who had beaten Hawk Moth.

"You two look like you are receiving congratulations on your wedding." The librarian cooed. Well, that made the two teens blush. Because they shared the duty of the Guardian of the miracle box, but in order to do so the monks in the temple performed a ceremony of marriage.

They both smiled and shook hands and let the remark slide. They were fourteen and allowed to be embarrassed by such remark even if they were not secretly married, at least for an order of monks that guarded magical jewellery and other supernatural objects.

"We are ready." Alya called and everyone sat down. It was their class as the rest of the students mostly left to go home. The few teachers that stayed slightly longer also had some obligations while Ms Bustier and the school principal had some business to do regarding the new teaching assistant.

The first photo instantly showed what Marinette dreaded the most. Yes, her father was taking photos, and yes, he shared those photos with Alya, and no, Marinette did not see those photos and had no chance to make a selection among them.

The photo showed Adrien with his arms wrapped around Marinette on the back seat of his car with Sabine sitting next to them. "This one is from the car when they were going to the airport." Alya explained. Juleka quietly let in a few late guests, her older brother and a famous fencer.

Then there were few photos from the airport and from the airplane. And again, there was one where the two teens were sleeping, obviously taken by one of her parents. And then another photo, and then another, and then one that was clearly taken by Adrien's bodyguard who sat beside them.

Of course there were whistles and comments.

"It was an overnight flight." Marinette groaned and hid her face.

Adrien wrapped his arms around her on the spot they were sitting at and just smiled.

Rose and the girls cooed.

Alya and Nino flipped through the photos quickly. The view from the airplane, Beijing airport, metro … and then there was Beijing. Alya did her homework. It was good that some mapping web application also had the street view. She named each location and building there.

It was good that there were beautiful and renown sights in those photos because the students had something else to focus on and not only on the way their two classmates looked in those photos or where Adrien's hands were.

Chloe was there, but uncharacteristically quiet. It was not only about Adrien and Marinette. Her childhood friend flew something other than business class. There were no photos from an airport lounge, no drinks from strangely shaped glasses on the flight.

Photos from the train were next.

"Those are proper beds." Alix stated.

"No, they are not, they can be folded, see?" Kim countered.

"What is wrong with those beds?" Juleka muttered.

"About half of the world population sleeps on beds that are objectively less comfortable than those." Max retorted.

"There were six of you in one compartment?" Sabrina inquired.

Marinette nodded.

"But you can hear the noise from the neighbours." Adrien added.

Fortunately, there were many pictures taken through the train window. There were 'aahs' and 'oohs' and gasps of surprise at some scenery seen on the way. There were cities with high rise buildings, they passed over wide rivers, wast colourful fields as well as nature.

Then there was Lhasa. The streets, colourful people, and the temple. Then there was the bus ride, the treacherous road with a waterfall they passed through. There were gasps and wows and 'you really took a ride on than thing' comments, but the two kids just smiled.

And then there were photos of them in their sleeping bag with icicles on everything around. Alya probably thought it was wise to keep that photo and show that it was actually cold there. The photo was taken in the middle of the night or just before the dawn, and the icicles glowed in the light of the flash. It made the photo surreal.

Then there were photos of the walk and Marinette was braver to explain a few things they did as they walked barefoot through the stream and cooked noodles on a small portable gas cooker with her cousins.

They both had strange smiles on their faces when they saw the temple. Suddenly they remembered the monks from the temple and they missed them. Marinette wished they had spent longer time there and pursued the complete training, because she felt they both needed it.

Then Alya switched to the photos of the akuma battles, but did not dwell on them too much. Just a

few photos from her blog with her brief comments. Adrien felt students glanced his way from time to time. Yes, his father was Hawk Moth, and he was never going to get used to that.

"Can't believe you two went against those guys on your own." Chloe muttered. Many eyes turned towards her. "What? I was a superhero! I remember it quite vividly how hard it was to fight them with a super suit on and with your superpowers available!"

"What else were we supposed to do Chloe?" Adrien shrugged. Marinette held his hand, hard. She was really scared that this part might reveal their identities. Yes they fought Hawk Moth and Mayura without a miraculous, because they were taken from them.

Then there was another set of photos from the life in the temple. The room where they slept in a state of total mess. The room where they ate while full of students. The monks chanting (well nobody could hear them in the photo), the kitchen, a hallway, the bathroom area.

Alya had to show this, okay, it was stronger than her, she was running the Ladyblog. There was one video of a fight of Ladybug and Chat Noir with an akuma. It was dark and it was not possible to see much while all they could hear were comments of the Chinese students in the background.

And then she switched to another battle, the in in the temple, with sentimonsters all around, there were blurry and dark photos, the objects moved while the photos were taken, and the only one photo that was remotely clear showed the sarcophagus.

Adrien felt cold shivers go down his spine. At least now he knew where his mother was, or at least where her body was. The monks told him there was little hope there was anything left of her. They had their ways to deal with what was left of her and these did not include the sarcophagus.

"Babe, we spoke about this." Nino chided. Alya flipped to the following photos. She was good at narrating the battle. Little did she know that the most significant portions of that battle were held in some other time, with no cameras available.

Then there were photos of the group going to a nearby village to purchase cheese. Adrien felt Plagg squirm in his shirt only at the mention of cheese. And then Alya showed the photos. Plagg either saw them and became hungry or just the mention of cheese was sufficient to make the tiny glutton restless.

Alya showed snapshots of the final battle. The cruelty of Hawk Moth and Mayura was obvious. The students gasped at the photos, although each of them saw the video of the final battle at least once. Adrien hang onto Marinette and did not want to let her go.

"It is okay, it is finished." She whispered. And it was finished. Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie Sancoeur were defeated. Adrien had a new father figure, and it was Tom, he was free from his schedule and had a say in what he wanted to do.

On one hand, Adrien lost a family that he never had for real, he knew that. He was now on his own, more or less, but he had friends and their family members for support, and he had a life to look forward to.

It was good that the final battle was seen by the world. Once Hawk Moth's identity was relieved to the world, Adrien was labelled for life. But it was Adrien who fought him, so the boy had a different label now, he was a hero who fought his own family to save the world.

"Alya, I thought this was about our school break." Marinette warned.

"It's okay." Adrien cut in. But it was obvious that he was not okay.

"Since when did you know your old man was Hawk Moth?" Kim cut in. Someone groaned, someone else nudged him.

"When ..." Adrien stopped talking. He knew since that day in the cave when the two monks made him realize what secret his father was hiding. But the answer was actually easy. "When I saw the sarcophagus holding … " He took a deep breath. "Holding my mother."

There was a heavy silence hanging in the room. It ate away the very purpose of the gathering which was to look at a few photos and share some happy memories. Nino glared at his girlfriend and she looked at her feet. Yes she messed it up.

"She is not dead yet, but she is not alive either." Adrien decided to break the silence. Nobody dared to ask and Marinette was not sure what to say. The words echoed through the boys mind and settled there as a fact. "I can't say anything more about that."

He did not want to admit that she used to be a miracoulous wielder, that it was her who wielded the peacock miraculous before Nathalie, that it was broken and that it made her ill and finally lead her to that stage where she was.

But she did not need to. Once the identity of Hawk Moth was revealed, all the video material was analysed in detail and the admission that Hawk Moth had made in the temple was discussed and dissected until many conclusions were drawn, most of them wrong, but who cared.

Alya flipped to a photo that showed them going back. She wanted to change the subject, to mend what she had broken, but nobody was paying the attention to the screen any more, everyone was looking at a boy who lost his mother and his father was a villain.

"I'm so sorry Adrien." Rose piped in. The rest of the class joined in on a group hug. There were pats on the back, there were tears of compassion, and there were words of reassurance. He clung on his girlfriend, well they just agreed on that last night, and breathed.

Luka approached and pulled Adrien into a firm hug. 'Thank you Adrien for everything.' The boy whispered and then released Adrien and turned towards Marinette. She stopped feeling awkward and nervous the moment she saw the look in his eyes.

"I'm happy as long as the two of you are." Luka muttered quietly and shook the girl's hand. She already received thanks and handshakes from Kagami who uttered her won praise as well as a message from her mother to both heroes.

"The fact is." Adrien continued in a tone that was so calm, it surprised many of his classmates. "I thought she died years ago, I got used to the thought and have moved on. I guess I was right in a way. She was gone." The boy nodded.

Adrien turned towards the screen and smiled. It was a photo of him and Marinette in front of the temple door. He took her hand and talked about their return. Alya continued and the class at least pretended to pay attention. Marinette was relieved, there were not questions on magic.

The kids had to finish their photo watching and leave the library. They were leaving the school and stood on the school steps, surrounded by kids from their class who could not get enough of their classmates. A tall blonde woman and a neat blonde boy ascended the stairs quickly.

"There you are, Adrien, and I have been looking all over for you." Melodic female voice greeted the boy. "I was thinking how in times like these the few of us who remained around ought to stick together and show each other love and support."

"Aunt Amelie?" The boy asked cautiously. They were just speaking about his mother only moments ago. The picture in his head was so fresh that for the first moment he thought it was her on the steps that lead to the school.

"Hello Adrien." The blonde boy next to her greeted. He was cautious and his eyes were wary. He saw most of the classmates in that video message that he erased. And he remembered rather vividly what he did after that. He was certain that he was not their favourite, but that was never his ambition.

"With both of your parents incapacitated, I was thinking of moving over to Paris. To take care of you and your father's businesses. It's not like Graham de Vanily did not own more than half of the shares even before the last unfortunate events." She elaborated.

Adrien looked at Nino in panic. What was his aunt planning to do? He intended to move in with Nino. He intended to live a normal life. As normal as it could be if you are in charge of a box of jewellery that hid ancient deities.

"It is so impractical that we can't move in the Agreste mansion." She clapped her hands. Adrien was relieved, he was not going back there and he did not even want to discuss that. "Felix and me will settle in the hotel and I came here to ask you to join us." Amelie finished with a beautiful smile.