It should feel like the sweet relief of victory, of justice, but to Cat Noir, watching them pile the once supervillain into a cop car feels like hammering the final nail on the coffin of his heart.
He puts on his most confident look, doesn't forget a bit of his Cat swagger, a bit of his model swagger, but it feels staged, and he definitely knows that he isn't imagining the tension on Ladybug's shoulder as she can read Cat Noir like a book after all of this time.
She isn't the only one, because he knows her more than he's ever gotten a chance to know anyone before; he truly loves her, but some days, he wonders if it's romantic love that courses through his veins for her.
His love for her is so much sturdier than the romance in some of the books he's read for school or for fun, and he can tell you for one thing that his feelings run much stronger than Romeo's feelings for Juliet.
Adrien loves her in the way that he knows all of her mannerisms, loves her in the way that he knows for a fact that she's agitated by how she shifts, and how she trembles just light enough that you'll really have to look for it, like her agitations beneath the surface, filling her up to the brim, and needs a sudden relief.
He can read those emotions simply by her stance, can read the grit of determination by the curve of her 'emotionless' frown, because while the world sees a blank face on a confident, nameless girl, he sees a woman that will be strong for she needs to be.
Cat Noir shifts and watches finally as they drag his father away as if he's in an alternate world, and it isn't a cop car his father is in, but an old carriage with a horse pulling him like a victim during the Inquisition.
It aches, and it burns, but his words don't leave him; he doesn't stay to answer the press long after his father is wheeled away by the police officers that hounded the scene just three hours before they finally caught the villain, untransformed.
Cat Noir holds the brooch and pretends that he doesn't realize how all of this must seem to Nooroo; it must seem to him, the way it seems to Adrien.
He imagines that the Kwami feels lost in the way that Adrien is lost, feels broken in the way that Adrien feels beaten down, feels confused in the way that Adrien still can't figure out what changed and how this became the way that it is.
Adrien understands that much, like he understands how defeated Nooroo must have felt when finally Hawkmoth called his transformation off, ready to go home or rather behind bars, because they all knew that he would as soon as he detransformed, all knew that he would as soon as he was pushed to leave.
Cat Noir follows Ladybug to an abandoned alleyway as everyone else is within the commotion, everyone else is trying to figure out how the fashion icon could do this, but they can't even imagine the pain that clings to his son, a hero of Paris.
"What's up?" There's something about the exhaustion that clings to Ladybug's eyes and refuses to fade that makes Adrien stop short, sarcastic, cold reply dying on his tongue before he could even think to breathe or even speak the words.
"You have to know." Cat Noir shifts and while he's an adult now, this still feels like an end to everything that he'd called home before, and he doesn't quite know what to do, "Plagg, claws in."
To his relief, she doesn't gasp or freak out, just takes him into her arms as if he were her baby or her child and needed to be swaddled up in as much human warmth as possible.
Adrien melts into her embrace, too tired to resist, too worn to care about the rest of the world, only Ladybug matters in this moment, "I'm sorry even though you don't want my apology. I'll be here for you. Adrien, stay at my place for a while while this settles. I don't want the paparazzi to make this any worse than it has to be."
"Ladybug." Her name is a murmured plea on his lips, and so she holds him tighter before calling off her own transformation.
"Tikki, spots off." She holds him tighter if possible into her embrace afterward, and he knows her well enough to realize that she isn't trying to hide her identity from him, but rather give him as much comfort as her small body can give.
"I have to see." He knows that she understands his gentle request, knows that it isn't a command, and she backs up just enough for him to stare into a familiar face.
"It had to be you." He murmurs like it's a final proclamation of some great joy that he's never realized before.
He tightens his grasp on her and clings to her for the warmth and love that she so readily supplies.
Adrien only pulls back, startled, when he hears his phone go off in his pocket, and he picks up his friend's worried call in understanding.
"I called as soon as we heard, dude." Nino opens with, not even a 'hello' or 'hey' to start off with.
Adrien smiles, because it sends a sudden rush of cool waves of relief over his stomach and heart as he realizes how deeply another one of his friends care.
"Thank you." It's soft, but it's all that Adrien can say as Marinette tugs him close, back into her arms; his back is to her chest, but the relief and comfort spills forth just like before, and he relaxes completely.
"So where are you?" Nino asked as if it was all that mattered in the world right now.
"I'm with Marinette, just outside of where they arrested him, outside of the paparazzi's sight." Somehow he can't quite say the words that make the full picture fall into place, and Adrien doesn't force them; he's scared of the break that's waiting around the corner, the moment where everything completely sinks in, and he can't pick up the pieces anymore.
"Okay, Alya and I are on our way. How did Mari get to you so quick?" Nino can't help but ask, curiosity peeking through.
"She was here already. She saw everything that happened." Adrien can barely speak, but then her arms are soothing his shoulders with gentle massages, and he feels a part of himself let go to join the relaxing muscles.
He loves her so much more than a fairy tale, and he can barely speak past the lump in his throat that has nothing to do with his father, an awe of her deep understanding, but he knows that despite the distraction and all of the comfort that it will still have a large crash that will hit him all at once with the realization.
"I'm glad that she's already there, dude." Nino took a deep breath, "I'm sorry, man, especially since he was your old man, and I know that Mari used to look up to his designs or something. I'm sorry."
Adrien's thankful for such a great friend especially since he and Alya run into their alley, and don't even pause to get a great scoop from the reporters near where Gabriel Agreste was arrested earlier.
Nino squeezes Adrien in a hug as soon as Marinette lets go of him, so that he could; it's tight, nearly suffocating, but it feels like the brand of home that only best friends can bring with them wherever.
"Thank you." Adrien says again, because he means it, and he doubts that he'll ever go tired of saying it after all of this, all of the support that his friends give out unconditionally.
Nino smiles back at him with teary eyes, and Adrien feels the slight pressure of relief even as his best friend pulls away.
Alya rushes him in the next big moment, "I hope that you guys know that you mean more to me than some silly, old scoop, no matter how big, it is."
Adrien steadies himself in her embrace, so full of life and energy, and it's all of the support that he needs from his other close friend, and perhaps this is the home that he's always chased, the four of them together, strong against the world.
He breaks down crying at their support, at their love, though shock still keeps his father's arrest a distant, confusing thought that won't reveal itself fully to him.
When Alya lets go, Adrien feels Marinette's arms steady right above his stomach and yet below his heart, in the middle ground where chest fades to stomach and stomach fades to chest.
It's remarkably soothing in a way that he can't quite believe, and he hopes that justice is more than however broken he feels right now and that it's more than some law breaker meeting the end of a life of crime.
It has to be or Adrien doesn't think that he can make it.