A/N. Hi! I recently binged watched Miraculous and now I'm obsessed. As such I've never written for this fandom before so I'm sorry if anything feels out of character. I hadn't seriously thought of this pairing until Nathalie hugged him then I had jump on board! I hope you guys enjoy! And thank you to RoninReverie for all their help with this story! Xxxxxxxxxxx
Nathalie supposed she should have expected this. It would have been impossible for someone to kidnap Adrian since he was never out of sight of Gorilla when the boy wasn't at home or school. And as the person closest to Gabriel Agreste after his son, she was the most obvious target.
She had barley taken a few steps out of her apartment, too exhausted after everything that had happened recently and too distracted by the schedule on her iPad in front of her to notice, when someone shoved a damp rag against her mouth.
She coughed as her senses returned to her. Judging by the windowless concrete walls surrounding her, she guessed that she was in a basement. When the blurred shape of the walls didn't refocus, she realised that she wasn't wearing her glasses. She tried to reach up her hand to rub her temple only to discover that she couldn't move. She looked down to find that she was tied to a chair. By this point her coughing had turned into a gasping wheeze. She'd had a cough ever since she had used the peacock miraculous. But whatever her kidnappers had drugged her with had made it worse.
Not for the first time she wished Gabriel had let her keep the miraculous. Then she could've gotten herself out of this mess.
"Aww, got a cold do ya sweetheart?" A voice said from behind her. A moment later the owner walked into her line of vision. He was a large Caucasian man with a shaved head and a tattoo covered face. He was followed by two equally large men. Both of whom carried a pair of handguns.
Nathalie might not have been in as dire situation as this before, but she was well used to keeping calm under pressure. So she kept her eyes and face as emotionless as she could as her wheezing died down.
"I'm fine." She told them calmly.
The man who has spoken walked slowly towards her. Once he was directly in front of her, he leaned down until his face was barley inches away from her own.
"And as long as everything goes my way then you should continue to be."
"If you allow me to call my boss then I'm sure we could come to some sort of compromise." She said, trying not to flinch.
The man laughed. It was nothing like Gabriel's that was full of excitement and joy. No, this man's was like the empty bark of an ice sculpture.
"That's the idea sweetheart."
"Hey Adrien! Me and Alya were going to go to get some ice cream later. You in dude?"
Adrien looked up from his desk to the sight of Nino standing in front of him. Alya was standing at his right and Marionette on his left.
"That sounds fun, although I kind of feel like I'd be a third wheel." He replied.
"Don't worry you won't, because Marinette is coming too. Right Marinette?" Alya said in that knowing tone she often used around her best friend that Adrien still didn't understand the implications of.
Marinette froze like an ice-cream sculpture before throwing her arms wide, nearly knowing his backpack off the desk
"Err yeah ice-cream! That sounds cold! I-err I mean cool!" She cried. Adrian smiled. He always found it sweet how excited she became over things.
"Then sure I'd love to come. Just let me check with my father and I'll message you if I can go."
"Awesome my dude! Catch you later! You know hopefully!" Nino said. Adrien watched as he put his arm around Alya's waist before walking out of the classroom. Once again, he wondered how it would feel to hold Ladybug like that.
Shaking the daydream out of his head, he picked up his bag and was about to follow his friends out when he felt someone barrel into him, knocking his bag and all its contents onto the floor.
"Oh my gosh! I am so sorry!" He looked up to see Marinette staring at him with those wide embarrassed blue eyes. She must have tripped over her own feet again. He swore that girl could trip over anything.
"It's fine. It was an accident." He said as he knelt down to gather up his stuff.
"I know but still I'm really sorry!" the girl stammered as she hurried to help him.
He smiled at her, hoping that it would calm her down.
"Hey, don't worry about it." It seemed to have worked as she stayed perfectly still, alternating between staring at his eyes or lips. Once he had finished he offered his hand to help her up. Gingerly she reached up and accepted his help, her face a blossoming red. Adrien figured she still must have felt embarrassed.
"So, are you excited to go to Andre's?" Adrian asked as they walked out of the classroom, wanting to bring the girl out of her shell.
Marinette opened her mouth as though to speak before apparently deciding not too and instead nodded vigorously.
"Me too. I've only been once but that was by myself. It would be fun to go with some friends." And ladybug he added to himself. He thought back to the red, black and blue ice-cream Andre had given him. Maybe one day he could take Ladybug there and Andre would make her a black, green and yellow one.
Eventually they made it to the school entrance. Adrien cringed at the loud honking of the car that was waiting for him. He sighed. He was three minutes and 37 seconds late. Against the odds he wished Nathalie didn't tell his father.
He turned to Marinette.
"Bye. Hopefully I'll see you later!"
She waved at him as he raced down the school steps.
"Sorry I'm late Nathalie." Adrien started as he sunk into the car seat. "I dropped my bag and- "
He cut himself off as he looked across to find the seat next to him empty. That was strange. Nathalie always rode with him on the way home school. Sure, sometimes she had emergency meetings, but she would have messaged him if that was the case.
"Do you know where Nathalie is?" Adrien asked Gorilla.
His bodyguard grunted as he shook his head. He didn't really expect Gorilla to know but the answer still worried him. Maybe it was just all the events that had happened since he's become Chat Noir that was making him paranoid. But he couldn't help but have a feeling that something was wrong.
He called her mobile but there was no answer. He rung it again, but she still didn't pick. He told himself that she was probably busy or stuck in a meeting, but he didn't believe it. Out of options he called his father, but he wasn't surprised when he didn't pick up.
With nothing else he could do from where he was stuck inside his father's car, he rested his head against the cooling window and waited. The car ride home felt long in the painful silence. Usually Nathalie would ask him about his day at school like his Mum used too. It felt nice for someone to care about him, even if Nathalie's questions were more focused on his grades than if he'd had fun.
He tried to start a conversation with Gorilla, but he wasn't surprised when he got nothing more than a few grunts out of the man. So, he went back to staring out of the window, hoping that at the next turn they would be outside his house where Nathalie would be waiting for him.
Gabriel Agreste paced the length of his study. For the first time ever, Nathalie hadn't shown up for work this morning. At first, he thought that maybe she was exhausted and had overslept. He had noticed her seeming more tired ever since she had used the peacock miraculous. He had tried calling her multiple times to no avail.
He stopped in his tracks as a sudden thought pierced his mind. What if Nathalie had been forced into a coma too like his precious Emilie? But Nathalie had only used it once when Emilie had been using it for years, surely that wouldn't have been enough to affect her? he tried to rationalise to himself with little success. Now that the thought was planted he couldn't get it out of his head.
He was driven from his thoughts when he heard the sound of his car arriving outside. Remembering that Nathalie usually accompanied his son on the ride home, he tried to appear calm as he headed to the front door.
The door opened as Gorilla held it open as his son walked in. But there was no sign of Nathalie.
"Adrien have you seen Nathalie today?" Gabriel asked trying to keep his voice steady.
His son looked up at him with his mother's worried eyes.
"I was going to ask you the same thing father."
He clenched his fists.
"Gorilla. I want to you to head over to Nathalie's apartment to check if she's alright. I don't care if you have to break down doors to do so."
The ape of a man nodded at his orders and immediately headed back to the car.
"Do you think Nathalie's alright father?"
He forced himself to unclench his fists as he looked at his son.
"I'm sure she's fine Adrian. Now go practise your piano."
"Actually father, my friends wanted to meet up after school for ice-cream at Andre's so I- "
"No! You are to stay in your room until I say you can leave." Gabriel shouted. With his worry over Nathalie, he needed to know his son was safe.
"Yes father." His son answered before heading off to his room with an even more disheartened demeanour than usual. But Gabriel didn't have time to worry about his son's feelings right now.
He headed back to his study and was about to call Gorilla to find out if he was there yet when his computer alerted him that he was receiving a video call from Nathalie's iPad.
Breathing out a sigh of relief he composed himself before pressing accept.
"Nathalie, where have you- "
His voice stopped when he realised that the bald-headed man on his screen wasn't Nathalie.
"Sorry, Nathalie can't come to the phone right now. She's a little tied up." The tattoos on the man's face curled when he smiled. He moved aside to reveal Nathalie strapped to a chair with two-gun wielding men enclosing her. Gabriel felt his heart stop before it was seized by panic.
"Who are you? What have you done to her? What do you want?" He demanded.
"You can call me John. Don't worry she isn't hurt and if you do as I say then she will stay that way. As for what I want, it's not much really. Only fifty million euros."
"Don't give it to him Mr Ag- "
Nathalie was cut off with an echoing slap. The imprint of his hand was stained red where 'John' had hit her. For the first time in his life, Gabriel saw her mask of patience slip to one of terror.
"Nathalie…" he breathed involuntary.
"You have twenty-four hours to give me my money and for every hour you don't..." John punched her in the stomach. He watched in horror as Nathalie keeled over her stomach and started to wheeze again.
"So, don't keep me waiting. And of course, I don't need to tell you not to call the police. Because you know what will happen if you do." John warned, that same smile tattooed onto his face before he cut off the connection.
As soon as he was gone, Gabriel punched the computer, breaking the screen in two. Ignoring the blood trickling from the cuts on his hand, he stormed over to Emilie's portrait. He had already lost his wife. He wasn't going to lose Nathalie as well.