Laura Marling – What He wrote
Adrien stays home, Marinette is late, Miss Bustier is here? Nathalie helps
Silence, a deafening silence was all Adrien could hear while alone in his room. This silence was only interrupted by the buzzing of his alarm clock, signalling it was time to wake up. He had been awake all night actually, just like the previous nights since he fought with his father.
The model sighed, shutting down the alarm. "Monday – 7 AM" he read and closed his eyes, not having the energy to get out of bed, just like the previous days since he fought with his father. So, he just lied on his bed, staring blankly at his ceiling, today was going to be his first day of home-schooling; a feeling of dread overwhelmed him. He should be used to this, this was just like old times, however, after experiencing real school, and real friendships, Adrien couldn't go back to his old life. He truly felt alone now, this was worse than before. Before he had his mum with him before he didn't know what freedom meant, he was innocent, he had never had a taste of it. But now, now that he had learnt about all those concepts, he couldn't let them go.
A knock interrupted his train of thoughts, and he heard Nathalie's voice from the other side "Adrien, are you ready? Lessons start in half an hour."
"I'm coming!" Adrien concluded it was better not to fight, his father would always get his way.
He rose to his feet and would almost call for Plagg out of reflex, and that's when a fresh wave of sadness hit him. Plagg wasn't there anymore, he had lost his miraculous, he had let his kwami down, Paris down, and most importantly, he had let his Lady down. What would she think of him? Perhaps she would think he had abandoned her, but he hadn't meant to, he had been incompetent enough to lose his ring, and now everyone else would pay that price. Maybe it was for the best, his Lady would be better without him, he was only a sidekick who got influenced by Akumas too many times, he only dragged Ladybug behind.
Tears pooled once more from his eyes, Adrien didn't think that was possible by how much he had cried these last days, but here he was, pathetic as always, weeping silently.
The model shook his head and cleaned his tears, he had to get ready, the sooner he started with the lessons, the sooner he could go back to his room. Because this was his new reality, one that he remembered well, so he might get used to that.
"Marinette wake up! You're going to be late for school!" Tikki pulled her chosen's covers.
Marinette's face scrunched up at the sudden cold, and opened her eyes "Tikki, I'm sure I have one more minu- AHH!" She bolted from her bed, as her Kwami held her phone signalling the time "I'm going to be late!" The bluenette panicked running to the bathroom while taking off her pyjamas. Tikki could only chuckle at her chosen's antics.
The teen got dressed quickly, and shoved her homework into her backpack, running to the kitchen.
"Good morning sweetie! Did you sleep well?" Her father asked, kissing her forehead.
"I did, papa, but I have to go, I'm already late" Marinette grabbed an apple and bolted to the bakery, she had to come up with an excuse for Miss Bustier on her way to school, and a good one, since she couldn't always say she had a cold or a fever.
Marinette ran to the bakery and grabbed the lunch her mother had prepared for her "Have a good day at school, sweetie!" Her mother smiled at her while giving the change to a customer.
"You too, mama!" She shouted as she ran.
The designer ran all the way to school, only coming to a stop right before entering her classroom. She rested her hands on her knees and breathed heavily, recovering from the early jog "You have to slow down, Marinette!" Her kwami advised, touching her chosen's cheek. "I know, Tikki, it's just, I spent all night thinking about Adrien! I'm going to talk to him today, I'm going to be his friend, a true friend, I'm ready! And I'm going to call him, Chat-him, to meet me tonight to speak, I don't want him to feel like I'm mad at him or something"
"Oh, Marinette! I'm so proud of you! You really deserve to be Ladybug!"
"Thanks, Tikki! Now hide!" She giggled and entered the classroom.
Marinette entered the classroom discretely, trying to pass unnoticed, but as soon as she looked at the room, she realized she hadn't to do that. All the students were chatting with each other, and Miss Bustier was nowhere in sight.
The bluenette sat on her usual spot next to Alya "Morning, Alya! Where's Miss Bustier?"
"Hey, girl! How can you be always lucky with your tardiness? Mr Damocles called her to his office." Alya explained.
Marinette looked around the room, Kim must have said a joke as Max, Alix, Rose and Juleka were all laughing, Chloé was showing Sabrina a bracelet, it probably was a new purchase, based on how much she was bragging about it and the look of admiration on Sabrina's face. 'Old habits die hard' the bluenette thought, although Chloé was making steady steps into becoming a better person, she still liked to brag a bit too much.
She then smiled at her best friend talking to her boyfriend but lost her smile immediately when her eyes darted to the spot next to Nino, finding it vacant.
"Hey, Nino! Where's Adrien?"
"Hey, Mari! I don't know actually." Nino answered with a worried expression. "I tried to call him all weekend, but he never answered, and he still hadn't shown up."
"Oh!" Was all Marinette could answer. She frowned, now that she was finally ready to face him, and treat him as a friend, just like he deserved, he didn't show up. Not only that, but he didn't answer any of Nino's calls. That was very unlike him.
"C'mon, guys! I'm sure he had a modelling gig he had to go to, and you know how his father is, I bet his old man took his phone away to avoid any distractions, besides, it's not the first time sunshine has disappeared because of modelling."
"You're probably right, Alya, I bet he'll be here tomorrow, if there's one thing my dude can be as stubborn as his father, is school, he wouldn't miss it for a long time." Nino reasoned.
That eased Marinette a bit, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something might be wrong with her partner.
"What do you mean he's not coming back?" Miss Bustier asked surprised.
"His father's assistant contacted me on Friday, she said that Mr Agreste didn't want Adrien to study here anymore, due to the Akuma attacks, that he would be resuming his home-schooling." Mr Damocles explained.
"And this is the solution? To take him out of school in the middle of the year? Miss Bustier questioned. To say that she was disappointed with the news she just heard was an understatement. Adrien was one of her favourite students. She was well aware of the coldness in his life, having lost his mother at such a young age, and such a cold father. She had noticed the despondent look Adrien had shown on career's day, his father hadn't shown up. On top of that, the boy had such a crazy schedule. However, he would always meet the expectations that were placed on his shoulders with a smile on his face. He was always kind to everyone, and although he didn't grow up with kids his age and missed a lot of social clues, he was very mature for his age. The teacher felt that isolating him from the world would do more harm than good for the boy.
"I don't think this is wise, Mr Damocles. Adrien is one of my top students, he's such a positive influence on the class and he appreciates school so much, there must be something we can do!" She reasoned.
"You know how powerful the Agrestes are, Caline. If Gabriel Agreste wants something, who are we to stand in his way?"
"We're his son's teachers, we need to defend Adrien's rights before Gabriel Agreste's wishes! This school is safe, it's probably the only time Adrien can feel like a normal kid. This isn't right!"
"And I tried to explain that to his assistant, but they were very adamant on taking Adrien out of school. You know how the world works, it was never known for its fairness. You should better head back to class, that's all that I needed to discuss with you."
Miss Bustier sighed, Mr Damocles was right, there wasn't anything they could do to get Adrien back, but it still felt that they were abandoning him.
"The allies invaded Normandie beaches on July 6th, a day that is known as the D da-" Nathalie looked at his pupil and sighed. Adrien was not paying the slightest attention to her, which she should expect. He was staring vacantly at his books, not writing anything down.
"Is something wrong, Adrien?" The assistant regretted saying these words the minute they came out of her mouth. The teen looked at her defiantly and huffed, an attitude Nathalie was not familiar with; never from Adrien.
"Everything is wrong, don't you think Nathalie?" He answered angrily.
"If you want, we can make a pause" She proposed.
"When will you activate the router in my room again?"
"What?" Nathalie faked a surprised expression.
"I know that father asked you to turn off the internet router in my room, I haven't been able to access the internet all weekend. Isn't it enough that I have to stay here all day, that you have to restrict my online activities as well?" The model snarled.
"I- 'm sorry, Adrien. You know that I'm only following your father's orders."
Adrien didn't answer. Instead, he looked at her with an expression she couldn't quite decipher and bolted from the dining room, leaving the assistant alone.
Knock Knock. "Come in!" Gabriel answered, never taking his eyes from his designing table.
Nathalie entered the room and waited stoically for her boss to let her speak.
"Is everything all right?" The designer asked.
"Sir, are you certain of this plan of yours? Adrien is furious with all this, I had never seen him like this before. He's bitter, he asked me if he could have internet back."
Nathalie was starting to doubt her boss's plans, she would follow him anywhere, but she had also to develop a feeling for the younger Agreste. After all, she practically raised him, she didn't like to see him suffer.
"Nathalie" The designer sighed "You know that I also hate to see him like this, but we need to isolate him, to make sure he doesn't contact Ladybug, and if we break him a bit more, he will be more inclined to accept my offer, so that we can follow through our plan. I wish we had a better plan, one that would not involve him, but we tried so many things before, and none of those worked, he's our last resort." Gabriel explained.
The assistant considered his words, she guessed that if they made this quick, Adrien would not have to suffer for long, he would have his mother back, and Gabriel could also be happy again. That left her with a bittersweet feeling, yes, he would finally be happy, but not at her side 'We need to let go those we love the most' she sighed.