Chapter 14
Nous serons réunis dans la nuit,
Comme dans le jour où tout ce qui brille
sera notre amour à l'infini
"Marinette is Ladybug, Ladybug is Marinette!" Chat repeated for the ninth time in a row while he paced back and forth around his room.
"Maybe you saw wrong, there's no way she..." Plagg pleaded with him once the transformation fell.
"There's no way, Plagg? There's no way?!" Adrien interrupted him, turning to face his kwami, "I saw her detransform with my own eyes!" He yelled pointing at his bloodshot eyes,
"Well maybe… Maybe..." Plagg tried to find a new excuse he could use to protect Tikki's owner's identity, but finding none, he exclaimed, "Oh screw it. It was about time!"
"You knew all along? And you saw me struggle for years and didn't say anything?"
"Why did you think I hated listening to you ramble about it?"
"It all makes sense now," every instance when he could have guessed her identity came to his mind, and he began to ramble again. "Like when Marinette began to wear her hair down and so did Ladybug! Or when we had to switch miraculous because I had changed clothes, now I know it was because she changed clothes at the same time as I did! Or... Or remember that time when I saved her from her grandmother and she almost spilled the beans? Or when we fought Star-train and she was there already, even though there was no way she could have been. I should have known!" all these memories overwhelmed him to the point when he threw himself on his bed groaning, staring at the tall ceiling.
"Yes, and I must say you were really oblivious," Plagg followed Adrien to his bed.
"But she doesn't know who I am, I'm not the only oblivious one here!" He tried to defend himself, but Plagg crossed his arms raising an eyebrow,
"Well, maybe it's because she didn't want to see what was in front of her eyes, but you did." Plagg sighed, "But it's all in the past, what matters now is what you're gonna do with this juicy information." Adrien's eyes widened and he covered his face with a pillow, "Come on kid, this is the best news you've received in your life! Are you gonna run away now?"
"I'm not running away it's just..." He removed the pillow and continued talking, "I've been babbling to Marinette about my feelings for Lady... for her! How do I recover from that?"
"So what, she's done more embarrassing things if you ask me,"
"Yeah," Adrien smiled dreamily, "That's part of what makes her perfect," Plagg made a disgusted face.
"You're too cheesy, kid, and not in a good way,"
"But you're right about something, Plagg. What am I gonna do now?" He sighed, "I have this precious piece of information, but nothing has changed, she doesn't know who I am!"
"Are you gonna tell her?" Plagg asked with brows furrowed and fiddley hands,
"Why not?"
"You're not supposed to know each other's identities,"
"I never wanted it to be that way, if I trust her with my life and everything I have, why not trust her with my identity as well?"
"It could be dangerous," Plagg warned, pointing at him with his paw,
"It would be worst if I knew and she didn't," Adrien lay still, thinking on how his Lady would react if she knew that he knew. His thoughts began to wander off and with a yawn, he drifted into a restless sleep.
But Plagg, noticing that Adrien was sleeping, sat next to his head and sighed,
"I know I probably shouldn't, but man am I glad the kid knows! No more whining over the girl," He smiled and settled on Adrien's pillow.
o0o
After what felt like the longest weekend (since there had been no other Akuma sightings since fly-tipper), we went back to school feeling refreshed and renewed. Even me!
For once I decided to pay attention to the class instead of lurking around people's minds, so I didn't really notice what was going on around me, but what I did see and remembered was that I was supposed to work a project with Adrien, so I went to talk to him at the end of the last period,
"Hey Adrien," I approached to the desk where he was seating while looking for my phone on my backpack, "I hope you didn't forget about the..." But when I lifted my eyes to look at him, I saw the same phrase circling around his mind over and over, 'Marinette is Ladybug, Ladybug is Marinette,' "Adrien," I giggled nervously, "what cha thinking about?" He glared up at me,
"You!" He slammed his hands on his desk, gathering the attention from the few other students that still lingered in the room, "You knew all this time!"
"Shh!" I warned him, putting my hand on his shoulder to calm him down, "Nothing to see here," I addressed the other students, "He just missed an assignment, and I should have told him!" I giggled nervously, maybe too nervously, "Silly me, now get going there's nothing to see here." Making sure all the students left I turned to him and whispered, "How much do you know?"
"Everything?" He hissed,
"Okay well, first of all, I don't like your attitude, second, no one knows everything, Adrien, you're gonna have to be just a bit more specific,"
"I know who she is, is that enough to you?" I gulped at his uncharacteristically rude response,
"Yeah well, that sums it up..." I looked around to see that there were still some students in the room, "Hey Adrien, don't we have a project to do together? How 'bout we go to your place and talk about it a bit more," I spoke louder than I should have, to see if he noticed what I was trying to do. He looked askance for a second but then saw the people walking by.
"Yeah, yeah!" He began speaking in a similar tone to mine, "My driver should be outside, I'll ask him to let you come with me."
It took some convincing for Adrien's bodyguard and chauffeur to let me into his car, but I remember something that Nino told me once, the man was a fan of action figures, so I grabbed the one I kept in my backpack, for emergencies just like this and handed it over. The man took it gladly and opened the door for us to enter,
"Wow Adrien, this is a nice car, I can't believe I've never been here in the three years I've known you," I began to press all the buttons that I found on the car as the peasant I am. I opened windows, peeked on the sunroof, closed and opened a panel between the driver, and the passengers and even found a secret compartment for chocolates and candy, "Man, if this is your car, I wonder how your home will be." I chimed, but Adrien just nodded and smiled. His thoughts were still elsewhere, so I grabbed the book I carried in my bag, the one we were supposed to do our report on and began talking, "So, Adrien, I know the book is about a boy, I think his name was Adriel or something, and he falls in love with a mysterious girl, but after a while he discovers he's actually in love with his best friend, who happen to be the same person. I suppose he finds out who she is at some point in the story, but I didn't get to that part, did you?" I looked at him hoping he understood what I meant, and he did,
"Yeah, so, this girl erm..." He glanced at his bodyguard, who was too busy driving to focus on our exchange, but one can never be too cautious, "Basically what happened was that the boy, Adriel, went to visit his best friend's house one night, but instead, he found the mysterious lady near her place, she thought nobody saw her and took off her erm... costume, revealing that she was none other than the boy's best friend, erm, Marianna, yes Marianna that was her name." Of course, I could see the remaining information on his mind. I swear their relationship is better than the soap operas I used to watch with my grandma,
"I see... and this boy, did he tell Marianna that he knew who she was?"
"No, not yet, I mean, not as far as I've read, but I think he went to ask the mad witch for advice." I glared at him with a 'you better not be talking about me' stare, "But I think we should finish reading it when we get to my place,"
"Good Idea, I get dizzy when I read on the car." After a moment of silence, I added, "So, this mad witch, was she mad enough to punish Adriel for calling her a mad witch?" I gave him a crooked smile daring him to say a thing,
"Not as mad as Adriel was, once he found out she knew who the mysterious lady was," He looked mirroring my threatening expression for a moment, but then we both burst into laughter. What were we even talking about?
We were still laughing when the car parked a few moments later, adding a few more comments on the mad witch and Adriel that I can't remember, instead I can perfectly remember the chill that went over my spine the moment I stepped on Adrien's house. It wasn't the way it was decorated or it's architecture, it wasn't even the AC, instead, it was the figure that stood on top the stairs looking down at us.
"Who is this person, Adrien," Gabriel Agreste asked eyeing me with disdain,
"This is Alba, father, she's here to work on a project with me," Adrien explained, cleaning a tear from his eye,
"Hello sir," I smiled finally looking at him from my teary eyes, but as I opened my eyes I saw it, in his thoughts, what he was thinking, and soon my eyes began to fill with more tears, but this time they weren't from the laughter.
"You're not welcome in my house, young lady, my son is not allowed to spend time with girls like you," he spat the words as if they disgusted him. Adrien was about to protest, but I intervened,
"I understand sir," I blinked away a few tears, "I... I guess we can work on our project another time, see ya Adriel, I mean Adrien," I rushed out of that house as fast as I could, not allowing myself to sink into despair, because it was exactly what he wanted.
"Alba, wait," Adrien shouted, I couldn't hold my tears anymore when I turned around to face him. He put a hand on my shoulder and began to talk in a soothing tone, "I'm sorry Alba, I know my father is a bit rude but,"
"I found him," I declared with a broken voice,
"What?" He looked at me as if I had really gone mad this time,
"I found Hawk Moth."
o0o
"Are you sure Sirena? you're not joking, are you?" Ladybug kept asking as she ran next to me. The sun was setting now and we were heading to Adrien's house, the place where I told Chat to wait.
"I'm not sure, that's why I called you, I'll explain everything once we find Chat." It took a little convincing to persuade Adrien to wait until now to figure out if I was right or not, but in the end, I convinced him that if Hawk Moth felt our negative emotions, he would use them against us.
We arrived at our destination where Chat sat staring absently at the mansion before him, but turned to face us when Ladybug said:
"Chat, do you know anything? Sirena says she knows who Hawk Moth is," But Chat said nothing, he just shrugged and continued to stare at the house,
"Ladybug you need to calm down, everything will be revealed,"
"What's wrong with you Chat, I thought you would be more excited to find him," She pressed him, but he didn't answer. He was lost in thought, worried that I would say what he thought I was gonna say.
"Ladybug," I called her attention, and pointed at my next target with my trident, "It's him,"
"Gabriel Agreste? Are you sure?" He was sitting in his office from where we saw him, but I wasn't close enough to read everything,
"I think so, but I'm not sure,"
"You called us here to tell us that you weren't sure?" She snapped putting her hands on her hips,
"Well, this is the closest I've been from finding him,"
"What exactly did you see?" She crossed her arms on her chest and glared at me,
"I was going to Adrien's house to work on a project, and from the moment I stood there, I could feel something was off, but it wasn't until I saw him that I understood why. I saw he was thinking and I quote, 'oh, this is a new one, let's see how much I can push her until I can create a negative emotion,' or something along those lines." Ladybug's scowl hadn't changed, anyone could think those things. Chat was still not looking at me, but I could sense his conflicted emotions roaring, the Adrien side of him battling the Chat Noir. "The second thing I saw, and the one that concerns me the most was his name, it was 'Gabriel Agreste/Collector/H.' I've rarely ever seen three identities at once, but when I do is mostly with miraculous holders that had been akumatized, but there has never been an Akuma called 'H', so I thought it could be the beginning of Hawk Moth," Ladybug was about to say something but I started talking again, "And I know, I know this could be a coincidence, but that's why I brought you here, to prove once and for all if he's the one we've been looking for or not,"
"Alright then, be our guest," She motioned for me to take a step forward and check it out.
I took a look at Chat before grabbing my trident and picking out the middle prong, which I used to look at Gabriel, and everything he thought, everything he was, and everything he did, came to my mind in a matter of seconds,
I blinked back a tear and turned slowly to see my teammates, who looked at me with pleading eyes, though for different reasons. I nodded. Ladybug was shocked but in a good excited way, she even squealed in joy! Whereas Chat pressed his eyes and mouth together, not letting a single sound escape.
"I suspected it was him once, but I disregarded it when he was akumatized, and he was in the list you used a while ago, how did you not see it then?" Ladybug blurted out,
Memories of that day came to my mind, and I just wanted to slap myself for being so careless, "I checked his name before looking, and then Chat came to talk to me, and then there was an Akuma, I... I just forgot! I had so many things in my mind at the time,"
"It doesn't matter, let's be over with him, once and for all," Ladybug was ready to fight him, but when she looked that Chat hadn't moved an inch, she exclaimed "Chat, what are you doing? Let's go get him."
"Maybe you should wait for a little, Ladybug," I put a hand on her shoulder, but she shoved it off, ignoring my words
"We've waited so long for this, why wait?"
"You don't get it," Chat whispered, the tiniest hoarse whisper, but loud enough for Ladybug to hear,
"Yeah, I obviously don't get it!" Ladybug retorted, "you're the one that talked about defeating Hawk Moth all the time, what happened to you,"
"Ladybug..." I tried but was interrupted by a loud reproach by Chat, who towered before Ladybug and me,
"You don't get it and you never will, your life is so perfect, why would it matter to you?"
"What are you talking about?" She yelled back, "What's wrong with you? Why are you like this?"
"Because," he hissed, "He's my father."
"Your father, what are you..." But before she could say anything else, he grabbed his staff and jumped to the nearest building, hiding in its shadow,
"Ladybug..." I tried to say something, but she continued,
"His father? Gabriel Agreste only has one son..." She stopped as the realization crossed her mind and she looked at me with sparkly eyes. Immediately she grabbed her yo-yo and swung to the building where Chat Noir fled to. She called him until she saw him, with his face buried between his arms,
She got closer and knelt before him, touching his hair slightly, forcing him to look at her. She pressed her hand on his cheek with the slightest of touch, his expression unreadable.
"Adrien?" She whispered, and he closed his eyes, enjoying her warm touch on his cheek,
"Yes, Marinette." Her eyes widened like two big plates. She snatched her hand from Adrien's face, and he gave her a sad smile, "I found out the night you got your wings, I saw you detransform when you got to your place," All color left her face only to come back suddenly and abruptly, turning her cheeks into the darkest shade of red,
"Why didn't you tell me," She managed to mumble with a cracking voice,
"I was about to, and then all this happened," Adrien had to look away before continuing, "And I was afraid you'd be disappointed if you knew who I was,"
"Disappointed? Why on earth would I be disappointed?"
"Because of my dad, I was afraid you'd think I was like him or... Or..."
"No, no," she pleaded with him, cupping his face between her hands and forcing him to look back at her, "I know you're not like your father, you're brave, and loyal, dependable, and fair, and good. There's no way I could think... I know you're not like him, and you'll never be," He smiled at her again, and this time she threw herself into his arms, hugging him with the most extensive type of love, the kind of love that bears everything.
o0o
Later that night, Marinette heard a knock on her window, and she rushed to open it for Chat to enter.
"Chat?" She searched him trying to figure out his mood for a moment but failed, until he called off his transformation and Adrien Agreste stood before her. Marinette was taken aback, as she still wasn't used to the fact that Chat, her Chat, was none other than Adrien, her Adrien.
"I just didn't feel like being in that place tonight," he shrugged and went to take a seat on Marinette's chaise lounge, "I know I said I wanted to be alone but... do you mind if I stay, my Lady? Just for a while,"
Marinette smiled warmly and went to take a sit on her desk chair, "My house is your house Chaton, it's always been,"
"Was it a shock when you found out who I was?" He asked settling unto the chaise lounge
"Well yeah, it's not like you said it subtly," She giggled and he smiled though the smile didn't reach his eyes,
"Was it a shock when you found out about me then?"
"More than a shock it was a relief,"
"A relief? You better explain," She rolled her chair to be closer to him and looked at him expectantly,
"I've always been in love with Ladybug, and I swore I would be faithful to her even if she felt nothing for me, but then you came along, we were getting closer to each other, both as Chat and as Adrien, and you stole my heart again, but I was battling the idea because my heart already belonged to Ladybug, but when I found that you were the same person, everything clicked for me." Marinette had gone gradually redder with every word he said,
"Ugh, so cheesy!" Plagg grunted but only loud enough so that just Tikki, who was seating next to him on Marinette's desk could hear,
"Shut up Plagg, you know this is my favorite part," She answered. Adrien and Marinette were too immersed on their conversation that they couldn't listen to what they were saying,
"You know I prefer other kinds of cheesy,"
"You can keep up your tough guy act, but we all know you're a helpless romantic," Tikki giggled, making him frown, though the slightest hint of a smile was visible in the corner of his mouth.
Marinette was staring intently at Adrien as if she still couldn't believe what her eyes were seeing, could this man be more perfect?
"Why do you look at me like that?" He snickered,
"I just... I gave up on you so long ago, I thought you loved Kagami and I fell for the cat that came to visit me every other night, I just never thought that... I just, I don't know how..." She stared at her hands folded over her lap until another pair of stronger and bigger hands grabbed them and kissed them, she looked up at Adrien with gleaming eyes, "Did I just confess to you?" She sighed,
"I confessed first," he winked, making her laugh. She saw that one of his locks had fallen out of place, making him look more like her Chat Noir, but she felt the urge to put it back in its place, and she did, she also caressed his cheek locking eyes with him. He smiled at her, and she smiled back, touching their foreheads together not paying attention at how close they were.
"I'm just happy it's you," she whispered, closing her eyes, in an attempt to close the space between them. But a knock was heard on her window startling them out of their seat. They looked at each other a little flushed, but Marinette went to see who had interrupted them,
"Do you receive other nightly visitors?" He joked, though there was a serious tone in his voice,
"Only one," she answered opening the window for a distracted Sirena to enter the room, reading frantically from a paper in her hands,
"Marinette, I need to tell you something else, I've been looking all over the place for you but I figure you just came home, there's more to Hawk Moth that we think, and we need to..." I lifted my eyes from the paper to see that Adrien was there, staring at me with annoyed eyes, "Oh so you're here too, great, I..." I looked at them again and understood that I had just ruined a romantic moment, "Oh, crabs, I interrupted something, didn't I?"
"You kinda did," "It's all right," they said at the same time, though I couldn't tell who said what,
"I'm sorry, I... wait, are you two like... together?" I motioned at them with my hands, making them blush,
"No," "Yes," they said at the same time and then looked at each other,
"Yes?" "No?" They exclaimed back,
"Well, whatever it is that you decide to be, can I advise you to keep it a secret?" They stared at me intently as if I had told them to drink poison, "I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but I'm scared of what your father could do if he found out,"
"Do you think he would try to separate us?" Adrien asked, stepping closer to Marinette,
"It's possible, he seems to be growing more and more desperate to get your miraculous,"
"Okay, but why does he want them?" Marinette crossed her arms on her chest,
"That's what I was coming to say, you better sit down for this part though." they sat together on the chaise lounge and I sat in front of them, on the desk chair. I cleared my throat and began, "Your mother is alive, Adrien," His eyes widened, but said nothing otherwise, Marinette had a similar expression but motioned for me to continue, "I didn't understand well why, but she's in a coma, and he's hoping to use the ultimate power to wake her up,"
"No, but he can't do that," Marinette said, "It's an eye for an eye and a life for a life. If he wakes her up someone else will go into coma or worse, someone he loves as much as he loves her," Marinette began speaking loudly, but her volume gradually decreased with every word she spoke, as if slowly realizing that they were talking about Adrien's parents,
I could see Adrien's conflicted thoughts, but he didn't speak the whole time, he was just analyzing the situation over and over, trying to make sense of my words, and what they would mean in his life.
Marinette and I spent a few more moments discussing a plan of action, but Adrien kept staring absently at a wall. At some point, Marinette noticed Adrien's distraction, so patting a hand through his back and hugged him, resting her head on his shoulder, to which he responded with a gentle kiss on her forehead,
"You guys make a beautiful couple," I mumbled though they heard me speak. A pang of guilt trespassed me as I remembered that yes, they made an amazing couple, and they always had, I had to confess, and perhaps now would be the best moment. "You guys, I need to tell you something else," I began, and they looked at me, with the sweetest glance, as they were now holding hands, "you guys are a goals couple, and I've always known you were, but there's something I have to confess, it's something that's been eating me alive for way too long,"
"I don't think you have more shocking revelations that the ones we received today," Adrien smiled sadly, maybe he had a point, they have been through a lot, this couldn't possibly be that bad,
"You guys already knew your identities, in fact, you guys were a couple, once upon a time,"
"What are you talking about? I think we would remember something like that," Ladybug snickered,
"No, you wouldn't, because I made sure you didn't,"
Silence reigned in the room for a couple of moments that it took for them to understand this information, so I continued,
"You guys were eager to tell each other who you were, and you did, you were a couple for about an hour, but then I had to..."
"Are you saying," Ladybug spoke with the icy voice she used with me on the day we met, "that you enchanted us?" Chat didn't say anything, instead, he examined me behind a scowl as if he was looking at a stranger,
"No, I mean, yeah, but I had a reason, you see..."
"You lied to us?" she cut me off, and I sighed,
"yes," I admitted, not feeling able to argue with her anymore,
"We gave you a chance, Alba, I knew this, how could I have been so stupid!" She stood up from her seat abruptly, "How many times did you do it? How many times did you pretend to be our friend only to mock us erasing our memories?"
"It's not like that, I swear,"
"And how can we believe you?"
"Marinette, we've known each other for years, you know I would never..."
"Wouldn't you? You just confessed you already did!" She was silent for a moment, "Get out of my house," I looked at her in disbelief, but every hint of the friend I loved was gone, shattered into a million pieces. I looked at Adrien pleadingly, but his trust in me was shattered as well, after all, he had been wrong before, and he wasn't prepared to do it again, nor did he have the mental strength to deal with this right now,
"Marinette, use your head, why would I..."
"My head is telling me to snatch your miraculous and return it to Master Fu right now."
A tear slid through my cheek, there were so many things I could have said, so many things I could have said to defend myself, I could have told them that it wasn't me who wanted to erase her memories, but rather that it was a command from Bunix, but I couldn't. The words got caught in my throat, 'cause I could feel their pain.
After so long knowing each other, they had become a part of me, their pain was my pain, their happiness was my happiness, and if they felt betrayed, I felt betrayed. I could feel them. I could hear the sound of the trust we had built over the past years shattering into a million pieces right in front of me, sliding from my fingers before I could stop it. But the thought of losing Mishell was the one that made me flee. I could deal with them later, but being as angry as she was then, Marinette was able to fulfill her threat.
It took them a while to settle down a little, though the feeling of distrust remained. Adrien decided it was better if he just went home, he wanted to be alone with his thoughts for a while, even if it was in that cold, and now terrible, house he once called home. Both of them had a lot of thinking and planning to do, but at least they had each other now, and they knew they could count on each other.
As for me, I went home. And allowed myself to cry the tears I had been holding since the day I enchanted my first victim.
"They're never going to forgive me, Mishell," I cried hiding my face on the pillow,
"I'm sure if they let you explain, they would understand," She sat on my pillow to comfort me,
"They won't listen, they're too stubborn, especially Ladybug." I sobbed, "And they're right, you know? I did betray them, even if I only did it once and I had a good reason to, the fact remains that I betrayed them, and they have no way of knowing whether I'm telling the truth or not,"
"What if you write to them," She suggested after a few moments, stroking my hair with her paw,
"Write? Like a letter?" I lifted my head from the pillow to face my kwami, maybe she was onto something,
"Doesn't have to be a letter, just tell them what happened, you can start from the beginning if you want,"
"I think I can do that," I headed to my desk and opened my computer, letting the words flow.
It has taken me several weeks, but I think I was finally able to write everything I knew from your story, gathering the details I found in your minds, and adding a few things about me, only for you to know how much I love you and how sorry I am for what I did.
I'm devastated that you're still not talking to me, but I hope this helps you to understand. Your story is the most beautiful I've heard, and I'm glad to be a part of it. You are destined for greater things than you can ever imagine, but I'm afraid things won't always go the way we want them to.
Some people are destined to be the main characters, while others are meant to be side characters. I'm just happy to be a part of the story.
I hope you find it in your hearts to forgive me.
Yours forever,
Sirena.
We will be together in the night,
Like in the day when everything shines
will be our love for infinity!