Sleeping was not a realistic suggestion.
Nathalie found herself sitting in front of her TV with her laptop on her knees. Fifteen minutes after Gabriel's departure, a superpowered ballerina started rampaging around the Palais Garnier. It was on the news.
She had watched the footage with increasing resignation. So, Gabriel's absences coincided with Hawk Moth's appearances. They were also triggered by a quantic butterfly in an enchanted watch. And there was nothing Nathalie could do. Blowing the whistle on one's employer was not an option when you were the only one knowing about his use of butterfly-themed magic.
At least, he had not threatened her. He had expected her to roll with it, which was… unsurprising, actually.
As her 'not wanting to roll with it' was irrelevant, Nathalie celebrated her promotion to henchwoman with a bottle of wine. She checked the company files to see if Gabriel had prepared his legal incarceration (he had, but then again that was expected of him considering his position as the CEO). She googled everything Hawk Moth. She read that blindingly pink Ladybug blog.
It had to be about Alice, because Hawk Moth had surfaced in October, right after Gabriel had figured out his wife was dead. The watch had appeared, the absences had started. The hairpin thing, too. Maybe he had not been trying to heal. Maybe he had just needed an outlet - several - for whatever was driving him now.
The man who would have done anything for Alice Beauregard lived in a world where magic could fix everything .
All it took was a pair of earrings.
Nathalie emptied that bottle of wine, helped its effects with a sleeping pill, and returned to bed. She made sure to unplug her alarm clock.
###
Ladybug and Chat Noir had followed Gabriel across town. After walking out of Nathalie's building, he had called a taxi, and gone straight to an office building two streets away from his company's headquarters. It was a tower rented by multiple companies, whose names and logos were pasted on rows upon rows of mailboxes on the ground floor.
The two heroes had slipped into the building right after Adrien's father, to discover that the elevator was going up. The bright red number on the display above its door were steadily increasing: 2, 3, 4…
Chat Noir dashed to the staircase, only to be stopped dead in his tracks by his partner's yoyo. She dragged him to her.
"There's probably a security system in the staircase", she whispered. "Let's see what floor he stops on and try to go in through the windows."
To anyone in their right mind, it was the best course of action. Adrien, however, just wanted to follow his father and to confront him, safety be damned. He needed to know, and understand. He wanted the obvious explanation to be proved a misunderstanding.
He was falling apart.
Worse, he had to grin and bear it. Secrets identities and all. Chat Noir had no reason to care.
He clasped his hands behind his back to control his trembling, and stared at the tiny screen above the elevator. The numbers were still going up: 27, 28.
"There might still be another explanation", he murmured. "I mean, he's a stylist. What would his mothive be? 'He really likes to design costumes'?"
"I can't believe you just made that pun."
"I did", he replied with a smile. He sighed. "I really don't like to wait in the wings ."
32, 33.
Ladybug glared at him. He swallowed.
"Okay. I'll stop. But it could still be a big misunderstanding. For all we know, he just wants a quiet place to hole himself in when he doesn't feel like returning home."
"Have you ever seen the inside of his house? Or his son's shoes, for that matter?"
Chat Noir blinked. What shoes was she talking about, and what was he supposed to have noticed on them?
"Err, no? Have you?"
36.
"Yes. There are butterfly outlines everywhere. As a matter of fact, I've been told he uses a black butterfly as a signature on his designs."
37.
Chat noir stared at Ladybug, the only answer on his mind a resounding 'shut up'. He wanted the truth to go away. He wanted everything, including her, to go away.
38.
"Just half an hour ago, you told me you wanted to tell that kid that his father was not Hawk Moth", he snapped.
"And I would love to, but failing that, I can't ignore the truth!"
Adrien crushed his own fingers to let his rage out, so he wouldn't let the smile on his face vanish. Secret. Identities. Like father like son. He couldn't let her know. He couldn't. She did not want to know. And, for the first time, he did not want her to know.
He kept his eyes on the floor numbers.
The elevator stopped on floor fifty-two. The last floor. Of course. Why had it even been a question? Supervillains, just like cats, favored high places.
Ladybug ran to the mailboxes.
"Pat Messmer, lawyer", she read next to the '52' label. And, in a lower voice, she murmured: "At least it's not a pun. No logo either. Let's go! "
They ran out of the building, ready to climb to the roof. They realized as they walked out that Hawk moth being out meant 'Akuma attack'.
###
'Wrecking Ballerina' did not take long to defeat. Thankfully for Paris' touristic appeal, Ladybug repaired the Opera Garnier easily enough.
After feeding their Kwamis, she and Chat Noir raced back to the mysterious building where they had left Gabriel. Unfortunately, it looked like Adrien's father was long gone. The building's doors were locked, for a start, and the elevator had gone back to the ground floor. There was not a single lit window in the place.
They climbed to the last floor, peeked through the windows, and saw only darkness.
"Breaking and entering, then?" the boy asked.
"Let's try to be discreet."
They pried a window open (claws helped), and slipped inside, only to find a perfectly normal office filled with perfectly normal furniture filled with perfectly normal lawyery things. The shelves were filled with law books, the desks covered in legal documents, the room decorated with greek statuettes replicas and golden scales.
Ladybug sighed. You couldn't tell if it was in relief or disappointment.
"Maybe we're on the wrong side of the building", she said.
"Maybe", Chat replied, looking around.
He took in the armored door, protected with a keypass. He looked at the perfectly arranged office supplies. There was a notepad on the desk, with a sheet missing, but there was not the slightest crease in the one that showed, not an ink stain, not a smudge. The pencils, in their pot, were all perfectly sharpened. The ballpens were new. The documents lying around were at least six months old.
It was all very convincing, but still fake.
The door was armored, and still locked. It meant there was something hidden to be found in the room. Adrien tapped the walls. He tried to pull on every book on the shelves. He tried to push and twist everything that was attached to the walls. His partner helped him.
The secret passage ended up being in the floor. A piece of tile could be lifted, and underneath was a lever that opened a trapdoor over a staircase. The trapdoor itself was perfectly concealed. It took eight blocks of tile, and slid up and down without the slightest noise. The mechanism was perfectly calibrated and assembled.
They found an entire floor concealed between the fifty-first and fifty-second. It had no windows, a very low ceiling, magically powered lights, and proof. Endless proof.
Ladybug sucked in a breath as she looked around.
A wall was lined with aquariums filled with butterflies. Another was covered with a map of the city covered in annotations and drawings. Upon closer inspection, the point of appearance of every single one of their enemies had been circled.
"Well", Ladybug whispered.
Chat Noir walked to one of the tables. He found it covered with sketches of Stormy Weather and Rogercop. Their flaws and strengths were listed on the side of the drawings, in an elegant hand that Adrien knew only too well.
His partner inspected another table and showed him pictures of Alix and her brother, as well as notes on the Pharaoh.
R&D.
Research, research, research.
They found more of those notes: on Alya, on Nino, on the strangers they had rescued from Evilization. Every single of their failures and mistakes was documented.
Ladybug also found notes about them . Gabriel had analyzed their fighting styles, their speech patterns, the way they interacted - "In any given era, in any given location, in any given circumstances, Chat Noir loves Ladybug", he had written, which made her pause a little, then pretend she had missed the line - and even their costumes.
Adrien wished they had never followed his father.
He had known you didn't want to spy on your own father.
"Alright", he said. "We have proof."
His ring started beeping. So did his partner's Miraculous. They stared at each other, stunned, as they had not used their powers and there was no reason for them to untransform. Then, they ran out of the secret lair, closed the trapdoor, and fled through the open window. Chat closed it behind them, hoping it would stay shut.
"I'll meet you later", he promised as they slid down the building. "Whenever I can change again."
"Be careful", she said. "I don't know what's happening."
Their Miraculous beeped again.
"You too", Adrien said, dropping to the floor. "I'll be patrolling tomorrow afternoon. You know my itinerary. Try to find me!"
On that, they ran in opposite directions.
He hid and turned back into himself.
Plagg popped out of his ring.
"What was that?" Adrien exclaimed. "What just happened?"
"Tikki and I wanted the two of you out of there", the Kwami announced. "Stop investigating this. Stop. You need to talk to Fu. You have to talk to Fu. No. More. Investigating."
###