Chapter 12: We Watch Over
A/N: I was hoping to finish this fic before season 2, but evidently that just isn't the case. Also this chapter is a bit messy and distracted I'm sorry.
Edit: Added 500 words to the end because that scene didn't go very well with the next chapter.
The weeks passed in a blur.
Between school and running off with Nino to train with Marinette, Adrien felt like he couldn't quite keep everything straight. As much as he hated to admit it, Adrien needed a set schedule for himself, not a "whenever we can" schedule. Without the majority of Adrien's afterschool activities and modeling jobs he found that he had a lot of free time on his hands, he thought this is what he always wanted but he wasn't sure what to do with all the extra time. Training took up some time but they could only do it every few days to avoid suspicion, needless to say it didn't work well.
"You've been avoiding me Adrien," Was how his father started their talk that morning. It was a statement, no room to push any possibility of otherwise.
And yet Adrien pushed.
"Have I?"
"Yes, you've been spending a lot of time with Nino over the past couple of weeks."
"He's my friend, my best friend, dad, of course I want to spend time with him," Adrien responded, trying to keep himself cool and collected.
"More time than usual," His father emphasized.
Adrien didn't say anything, instead looking off to the side away from his father's heavy gaze, waiting for him to explain his suspicions.
A few seconds of silence passed before his father sighed, "Look, I know you don't want to spend time with an old man like me," Adrien looked up at his father in curiosity, he never spoke like this, like a typical parent, "But you know you can interrupt me to talk whenever you like."
Before the incident, Adrien would have scoffed at a statement like that from his father, the man would never have time to break away from his work. But now, his father had pulled away from his work more and more, he knew there was something his father wanted Adrien to tell him. He did feel bad about going behind his father's back, if only a little bit, however hearing how he acted towards Ladybug shoved that feeling away.
"I know, and we've spent a lot of time together over the past month, and now I want to spend time with my friends again that are my own age," Adrien kept his voice level as he spoke and looked his father straight in the eye to emphasize that was the only reason for his spending so much time away.
"Other friends? But you've only been spending extra time with Nino, have you not?" his father asked in a most innocent tone, but Adrien could tell that he was cheering for finding a flaw in Adrien's excuse.
"Well yes, but sometimes Alya and Marinette are with us too," Adrien easily bounced back since they were often there, but worried about bringing Marinette into the conversation should his father ask more about her, "And I've been spending my lunchtimes with Chloé," Which was partially true, he tried to share his lunchtimes with Marinette, Nino, Alya, and Chloé equally, switching off with them for each day.
His father visually grimace at the mention of Chloé, knowing how she could be and never having approved much of their friendship in the past.
"Are you, interested, in any of those girls?" His father asked, visually uncomfortable with the question, but forcing himself to ask it anyways.
Never had his father taken such interest in his personal life before, and Adrien couldn't help but internally grimace at the show of force from his father. He would have loved to have a conversation like this with his father even a few months ago, but now he realized why so many television shows would make it out to be as awkward as it was. Please wouldn't his father just leave?
"No, Chloé's just my friend, Alya is dating Nino, and Marinette is just our friend," Adrien tried to clip the question short as quickly as possible, his father didn't need to know about any of his romantic feelings.
"Oh, Nino has a girlfriend, that's… nice."
Adrien thought he was going to scream.
"Yup it really is, and oh man look at the time, don't you have a meeting dad?" Adrien jumped up and began pushing his father out the door, making his discomfort very evident, "I still have to finish my homework for the weekend before…"
They stopped, Gabriel barely out the door and awkwardly leaning on Adrien.
"Before you go to Nino's," His father finished, already knowing Adrien plans for the day.
"Uh… yeah," Adrien looked at the ground even though his father couldn't see him, painfully aware of the timing of their conversation only exacerbated the issue brought up by it.
"Are you sure, Nino has a girlfriend?" His father asked, giving Adrien the last push he needed to shove his father out of his room.
"Homework!" Was all he shouted as he shut the door.
Adrien was met with silence for a good long minute while he calmed himself down from where he stood before hearing Plagg's quiet laughter slowly grow from the other end of the room. He popped out from the blanket he was hiding under as Adrien turned to face him.
"Your father is painfully bad at talking to you! Stars above! I haven't had a laugh like that in some time," Plagg exclaimed as Adrien approached him.
"Yes, because uncomfortable personal conversations with my father are the pinnacle of humor," Adrien deadpanned.
"They are," Plagg confirmed, "At least they're better than listening to your talks with your friends, you're too serious, too mushy, or laughing at humor that makes little sense to anyone aside from yourselves."
"Do you have to listen to all of my conversations?" Adrien whined, now very aware that Plagg was present for almost all of his and Nino's very personal talks.
"I don't have much else to do now do I?" He asked.
Plagg was met with silence as Adrien didn't have a proper response and instead elected to do exactly what he told his father he was going to do. He sat down at his desk looking over yesterday's work as Plagg settled in his hair for one of his many cat naps.
"My father and I had a "personal chat" this morning," Adrien said as he pulled off his shoes in Nino's living room.
"Uh-oh, what's that mean?" Alya asked handing a drink to Adrien.
Marinette looked uncomfortable at the mention of his father but listened attentively from where she sat on the couch next to him, her own drink in hand.
"He's a bit suspicious about us, Nino and I, hanging out so much as of recent," Adrien said quietly, Nino's parents were out for the day but he was still cautious, Marinette frowned at the information but Adrien kept going to keep the conversation from getting too heavy, "And he's been wanting to know about my personal life."
Nino laughed from where he was setting up the movie for them to watch, causing Adrien to roll his eyes, of course that's how he's react.
"And what is that like?" Nino popped in the movie and curled up on the couch next to Adrien, Alya flopping down on the other side of her boyfriend.
"It's unbearable, he asked me if I liked anyone today," Adrien answered, again Nino laughed, "I'm about ready to pinch you, you know?"
"So what did you tell him?" Marinette asked with honestly curiosity.
"So did you tell him about Marinette?" Alya teased, "Tell him about your smooooching?"
"Alya shut up!" Marinette squealed, pulling a pillow from off the couch and attempting to throw it at her. It missed in Marinette's attempt to not hit Adrien and Nino between them and flopped to the ground
"No, Alya I didn't tell him about our 'smooooching'," Adrien replied, imitating how Alya dragged out the word, "I killed that conversation as soon as it came up."
"We understand Adrien," Nino said in a false sympathetic voice, "Your father isn't exactly the epitome of good conversation," Marinette let out a laugh at that, "And it's hard telling your dad that on top of hanging out with your local delinquent," Nino gestured to himself, "You're sneaking around romancing what he considers to be Public Enemy No. 1."
Marinette laughed louder, "That's me! Public Enemy No. 1, remember kids, don't eat your vegetables!"
Everyone laughed along as the movie began, no one was paying attention to it.
"It's Ladybug! She's here's to seduce all of Paris' most beautiful men and women!" Alya said between laughs.
"I know I've got your heart," Marinette replied with a wink, Alya dramatically swooned.
"Ooh Miss Ladybug!" Alya and Nino yelled out together leaning on top of Adrien to reach out to Marinette.
"But what about that Chat Noir? He's the real cat's meow," Marinette grabbed Alya and Nino's hands and kissed the top of their knuckles while looking up at Adrien.
"I heard he was a model as his day job," Adrien dramatically fanned himself.
"Gosh he's such a dream boat!" Alya gushed still on top of Nino and Adrien.
"10 out of 10 would slap his ass," Nino sang almost next to Adrien's ear.
"10 out of 10 have slapped his ass!" Adrien laughed.
They all fell into a fit of giggles as Adrien flopped onto Marinette, bringing Alya and Nino down with him. The first few minutes of the movie had not been noticed by anyone. They calmed down and restarted the movie to actually watch what they ignored and all four curled up together on the couch. Adrien felt good, he felt happy. He was with people he cared about and that was good, he felt normal.
When the movie finished Adrien and Marinette got up to head off for some training.
"Make sure you're back in time for dinner," Nino said giving both of them hugs with Alya.
It felt like a somewhat rude interruption to their time with Alya and Nino, but it was better than waiting until last minute, and leaving right after dropping off Adrien's phone somehow felt even more rude.
Adrien didn't feel too bad though, being Ladybug was fun, lots of fun. Admittedly, he had only been Ladybug a couple of times from their practice, wanting to take more time to get used to being Chat Noir again before trying something new.
It was odd at first, the sensation of transforming was different, softer than when he became Chat Noir. He also felt less of a change in himself when he transformed into Ladybug, no extra appendages or abilities, he felt more like a person in a costume than a super being. Similarly, learning to use her yo-yo was rather difficult at first, Adrien hit himself on the head many a time, but the feeling of weightlessness when he swung from one end of the warehouse to the other was absolutely fantastic. And using the Lucky Charm, while always confusing with the odd items it would produce, brought with it an amazing feeling of luckiness with it, nothing like his Cataclysm as Chat Noir.
They arrived at the warehouse after the long, but enjoyable walk. Marinette calmly took off her earrings and handed them the Adrien as he took off his ring around his neck and handed it to her. Their kwamis floated from their places and looked to each person that they would be working with for the time being.
"You ready Tikki?" Adrien asked with and enthusiasm that was easily met by her.
"Sure am!" She responded.
He transformed along with Marinette, watching her new look with interest, it was fascinating how their costumes differed from person to person. There was more black in his costume than Marinette's when transformed into Ladybug, with dark, boot-like markings coming up his leg.
"Still as adorable as ever with those feline features my lady," he commented.
"Keep you focus bug boy," She smirked as she lightly pulled on the scarf around his neck.
In response he pulled out the yo-yo at his hip and began to swing it around as she jumped back and pulled out the staff on her back. They sparred like that for a good hour, Adrien better able to keep up with each of their training sessions, he felt stronger, like he could actually face Papillon head on.
Which was becoming more of a problem, or at least an oddity.
"Papillon hasn't done anything? Really? Nothing at all?" He asked Marinette as they sat down for a quick break.
"The Butterfly Miraculous hasn't been active at all since the last akuma attack," Tikki confirmed as she took a bite of her cookie.
"So far no suspicious activity has been reported either," Marinette added.
"If anything that's even more suspicious," Plagg commented, Adrien nodded in agreement.
"So what are we going to do about it?" Adrien asked.
"What-" Marinette looked at him in concern, "What do you mean?"
"…Well, if Papillon hasn't done anything, shouldn't we be more on the lookout?" Adrien explained, it made sense to him.
"I mean yes, we are, aren't we?" Marinette seemed to be missing his point.
"I mean, what if we start patrolling around the city to watch for suspicious activity?" Adrien suggested, easily picking up on Marinette's worry but still going even further, "If we find anything, we could follow it to find out what he might be doing."
"You mean actively seeking out Papillon and trying to confront him," Tikki said, it wasn't a question, but a confirmation of what he said. By the tone of her voice he could tell she didn't approve much.
"Adrien are you sure that's safe?" Marinette slowly brought herself to speak, he felt bad for making her worry like this but it was a question that needed to be asked, "We've never actually confronted him one on one."
"We've just passively been fighting his akuma," Marinette grimaced at his use of the word "passively", as if they weren't really doing anything of importance. It was important, but Adrien knew there was more they could do, "If we stop the issue at its source, then the akuma stop happening, it's better for everyone."
"But they have stopped," Marinette tried to weakly defend.
"But for how long? This won't last forever you know," Adrien realized that he was being too aggressive in pushing his point, he needed to take a gentler approach to convince Marinette despite the obvious overthinking he saw through her eyes, "Look, I'm not asking that we go find him and immediately go fight him and stop him from sending out akuma," though that was what he was asking, "I'm just saying that we should look a little harder for Papillon and find out if, or more so, what he is planning and prepare ourselves or stop it before it gets to be something bigger then we can handle."
Marinette was conflicted, his logic was sound and Adrien could see how she recognized that, but she was holding herself back. Another minute of letting her mull over it and she sighed.
"You do realize that doing something like a patrol increases you likelihood of being spotted, are you willing to deal with the consequences of your father inevitably confronting you about having your Miraculous back?"
He had briefly considered it, and while the idea made him tense, he was willing to take his chances at hopefully not being spotted, "Yes."
"Fine then," Marinette sighed again, looking to the side, "We'll go out some time to do a patrol, something small, not the entire city, but sections."
Adrien reached over and grabbed her hand, cause her to look at him, he smiled to offer some confidence her way.
"This will be good for us in the long run," He said, "We'll stick together too, in case something happens," Marinette gave a small smiled back, though he could still see the look in her eye that told him that she certainly hoped nothing would happen.
They packed up their things and returned to have dinner with Nino and Alya.
No matter what way he went about it Adrien was sure that he would be caught by his father tonight while on patrol, whether it was by a report of Ladybug and Chat Noir being spotted in the night or more likely by the security feed catching Adrien sneaking out. He was nervous but willing to accept the consequences of his father knowing that he had his Miraculous back.
He was most scared of the possibility of his father attempting to take to take his Miraculous away with what Marinette told him about his father demanding the Miraculous. But he and Plagg devised a plan that if that did happen, Plagg would book it to Marinette's with the ring.
Adrien transformed in an alleyway and headed over to Notre Dame to meet with Ladybug, actually eager to do this patrol.
Sneaking around on the rooftops was much easier at night than during the day, he steps were silent, the almost-darkness of Paris shrouded Chat and made him feel invisible. He landed at their meeting point, Ladybug looking out over the city waiting for him.
"Did you run into any problems?" She asked.
"Nope! Slipped out like a snake," He purred.
She smiled.
"Good, we'll follow the route we planned before, and remember, we stick together," She looked at him for confirmation.
Chat Noir nodded at her. He thought it better that they split up, cover more ground, but for his and Ladybug's sake it was best if they stayed together.
"Well let's get going!" He cheered, pulling out his staff and launching himself to a nearby rooftop on the planned route.
"Right behind you."
Ladybug and Chat Noir followed the planned route quietly, watching and listening for any suspicious activity. At each landmark they lingered and looked over the crowded area more carefully than others, people actively milling about even in the late night. Nothing was seen.
They went from spot to spot like that for what seemed like hours, and yet nothing was seen.
The end of the route was reached, effectively going in a circle.
Nothing.
"Maybe we should go over the area again?" Chat offered.
"Chat's its okay if we don't find anything on the first night, we'll do this again," Ladybug offered.
"Yeah, but what if there was something there and we missed it? Like, we just overlooked it?" He pushed.
"Chat, we had at least two pairs of eyes looking over these areas, and we made sure to be thorough. I know you want to find something right away but these things take time," She reassured him, "Besides, you're tired, I'm tried. Its best we retire for the night and try again some other night."
Chat sighed, she was right, he could feel the exhaustion of staying up so late pulling his eyes down.
"I suppose so," He said letting a small yawn out.
Ladybug let out her own yawn in response and shook her head.
"Goodnight Chat," Ladybug leaned up to give him a kiss on the cheek, "Sleep well."
"Goodnight Ladybug," He returned, heading off to his home. Ladybug watching him as he went before going her own way home.
Chat landed on the roof of his mansion in silence, he peeked his head down into the window of his bedroom, checking that his father wasn't inside waiting for him. He was needed his sleep now, he could deal with the consequences of his father catching him in the morning, where he could at least run off to school.
A/N: I am very bothered by how little information we have about Nino's home life. Does he have siblings? What do his parent look/act like? What does his home/bedroom look like? Please I must know!
Also check out this story on AO3 for a picture I drew of Adrien as Ladybug!