Chapter Three

'A Gift'

When the Prince returned to the castle, he was met with a line of guards waiting for him at the gate. In front of the guards waited the head of the Royal Guard, whom Adrien had simply dubbed the 'Gorilla', due to the man's tall and broad stature.

He did not seem happy to see the young Prince arriving at the gates – the Gorilla rather saw the boy inside, where no harm could come to him.

Adrien nodded at the guards and quickly tried to pass them, but was unsuccessful. The Gorilla placed a rather firm hand on the Prince's shoulder and escorted him to the King's chambers, while the guards returned the Prince's horse to the stables.

The King was furious. "Adrien!" he shouted as the Gorilla left the boy at the door, shutting it behind him after the Prince had entered. "Where have you been?"

Adrien tried to maintain a straight face. "I had made a promise to someone, Father," he said. "We ought to keep our promises, no?"

The King offered his son confirmation through a small, stiff nod. "That's right."

The Prince returned his father's gesture. "And if I'm not wrong," he said, "the castle was nearly deserted when I returned earlier this morning, and of those left behind, no one could tell me what was going on or where you were."

Another nod. "Also correct," the King responded. "Many of the staff members, including myself, were busy preparing your birthday ball. It's in three days, and-"

"My birthday's in September, Father."

The King had finished his sentence, hardly even noticing the Prince's attempt to interrupt him.

"Excuse me?"

Adrien repeated himself, a little louder. "My birthday is in September, Father. It's only July. There's no need to rush this ball."

His father seemed to rather disagree. "I want you to have chosen your bride before your birthday," he said stiffly. "You are to be married to her on that day. Timing couldn't be more perfect."

Adrien pursed his lips. He wanted to protest – two months was far too short to get to know someone he'd be spending the rest of his life with – let alone choosing that person based on just one night. But, knowing his father, Adrien had no choice in the matter, and thus the Prince said, "Yes, Father."

His father nodded, less stiff this time. "Good," he said. "I'm glad we could come to an agreement." Then, as if desperate to change the subject into something more positive, the King said, "Nathalie told me you had something important to discuss with me? She said you had a marvellous idea that would add to the ball.

"Of course, I wish to hear that idea, too."

Adrien nodded and smiled. This was his moment! He would finally receive a favour from his father.

"Well," Adrien began enthusiastically, "I had this idea for the ball's theme." He waited; the King nodded, encouraging the Prince to go on.

"Okay, so basically I don't really care what my lady looks like or how rich she is," Adrien continued, "but I want to see which girls think the same of me. I wish for the ball's theme to be a masquerade; everyone's anonymous!" He paused again. "That way, I can choose a girl based on her personality – and I won't be swarmed by girls all night."

"You wish to be anonymous as well?" the King suggested, raising an eyebrow. He was intrigued by this idea – and for more than just one reason.

Adrien nodded. "That's the idea," he said. "I want to be like everyone else."

The King frowned. "You're not like anyone else."

Adrien's face twisted; he'd gone too far. His father would reject the idea for sure now.

Luckily for the Prince, the King wasn't finished. "...But I do like your idea. I'll make sure all those invited receive the news."

The Prince nodded; Adrien was slightly worried Marinette wouldn't get the news – but then he remembered Chloé, and how she would love to rub it all in Marinette's face in detail – if only Chloé knew. "Thank you, Father." The boy bowed, preparing himself to leave; his father dismissed him, telling the Prince to go to his chamber.

It was not as if Adrien had anywhere else to go; his lessons with Nathalie didn't start until later that afternoon, and Adrien didn't feel like fencing. And the chance that the King would let the Prince go out horseback riding was a total zero. So, stay up in his chamber all day it was. Perhaps he could find something up there to keep himself busy.

Luckily, Adrien did not have to look far for adventure; it was on its way to him.

Marinette, her mood restored back to normal and no Chloé in sight, was making her way through town, making the deliveries she'd owed everyone since that morning.

The Governor had made sure his daughter stayed inside the second time Marinette came around, accepting the freshly-baked bread with gratitude.

Marinette also made a delivery to both the Lahiffe and Césaire houses – Marinette was glad to see Sir Lahiffe and his son home, since the man himself was a knight and his son his apprentice. Of course, they'd also received an invitation to the ball, to keep the peace. Several of the King's most trusted knights had received an invitation for the same reason.

Marinette was surprised to have a small bun of bread left when she assumed she'd finished her duties – there was one house left. A house Marinette had never visited before.

Fu Residence, Marinette read on the note her father had left with the bread. Both the name and the address that went with it were unfamiliar to her; Marinette feared she might get lost at first. But luckily, her destination was easier to find than she thought it would be.

Marinette headed over to the house, which didn't seem to stand out from the ones that surrounded it all that much – it was just a regular house. But who was the resident? 'Fu' didn't sound familiar to Marinette, despite having lived in Paris all seventeen years of her life. Was the man – or woman – a traveller?

Perhaps.

When Marinette knocked, it took a while before someone answered the door – and Marinette could immediately see why.

"Yes?"

The man was small and seemed frail, yet his brown eyes had a mischievous sparkle of youth in them. "Ah, Miss Dupain!"

"You know my name?" Marinette asked – in retrospect, it was obvious that the man knew her name.

"Of course," Mr Fu said. "Your father owns the bakery, right? Mr Dupain?"

Marinette nodded. "Oh, right. Here's your delivery, sir."

She handed the bun to the old man in front of her – as he took it from her, Marinette figured she and her father had to figure something out to wrap the baked goods in. That way, Chloé couldn't ruin them.

Mr Fu seemed thankful when Marinette handed him the bread. "Why, thank you," he said. "I'm afraid I don't have any money to pay you with, but there might be something else..." Mr Fu turned back into his house before Marinette could respond.

She waited for him to return, and when he did, he did so without the bread – but with a small box. Its shape was hexagonal, and it was made of dark red wood, with complex crimson patterns on the lid; despite the wooden material, the box's covering looked so smooth that it seemed to be made of velvet.

"Please," Mr Fu said. "Take this."

Marinettte took the box from the old man and couldn't help but look inside.

Inside the box was jewellery. Two earrings, to be in fact.

The earrings were round, red onyxes with small diamonds in the rims that kept the stones in place. The backs were made of carefully forged silver. However, the most interesting feature to the earrings to Marinette were the five black dots on both onyxes, making the stones looklike ladybugs' shells.

"Oh, my."

"They're quite the pretty pair, aren't they?"

Marinette looked up at Mr Fu; he offered her a kind smile. "Take them," he said, "they're yours now.

"I'm sure your father will let you have them."

Marinette opened her mouth with the intention to protest; she couldn't take these earrings – they were worth far more than that simple ball of bread! To take them as payment didn't feel fair.

"Oh, you're worried about me?" Mr Fu smiled, his eyes twinkling mischievously again. "Don't worry... those earrings are better off with you than they would be with me... perhaps you could wear them to a special occasion?" Again, that same twinkle. "Now, come, child, it's time for you to go home. Your father is waiting for you.

"If he asks, tell him the earrings were a gift."

Marinette slowly closed her mouth and nodded at the small old man in front of her. "Yes, sir. I will, sir."

She placed the box with the earrings in her basket, on top of the small pouch of coins that contained the earnings she'd collected from the other deliveries, and turned back from where she'd come from. Unbeknownst to her, Mr Fu watched Marinette with a smile.

When Adrien entered his own chambers, the first thing he noticed that someone had left something for him on the desk in his study. A note rested on the box, with nothing on it but 'A gift', written in careful handwriting. His curiosity piqued, Adrien decided to pick up the box for closer investigation; the box was small, hexagonal, dark red in colour and had a complex, crimson red pattern on the top. Adrien almost felt as if to open the box would be to disturb it, but that didn't stop him from carefully doing so anyway.

Inside the box lay a ring. It was black, with where normally a gemstone should have been, a green cat paw made of tiny jewels rested in place.

"Probably a gift from Father he didn't tell me about," Adrien said. "Perhaps I should... try it on for size?" He felt as if he was making excuses to put on the ring; he considered himself ridiculous for doing so, and took the ring, carefully putting it on his finger.

A perfect fit.

When Adrien let go of the ring to have a better look at it around his finger, he noticed the ring had changed; it was now a simple, silver ring, with no sign of a gemstone – or the cat pattern, for that matter.

Adrien spent some time looking at the changed ring in confusion. What had just happened?

"Hey, Kid! What do I gotta do to get some attention 'round here?"

Adrien let out a yelp, turning around and nearly tripping over his own feet. He looked up at whoever had startled him, his mouth falling open.

The man – Adrien assumed it was a man – was floating at least two feet in the air.

"Now, now, Kid," the man said, "there's no reason to act like that. It's not as if I'm here to hurt you."

The man had dark skin, which made his green eyes appear as if they were glowing – Adrien could hardly believe what he saw; the man's eyes were entirely green; there was nothing separating iris from eye whites. All was green. And his pupils? Black and striped, like a cat's.

His hair was black and messy, fluffing to the sides as if it was a cat's fluffy cheek fur. From the top of his head, cat ears seemed to sprout – and it seemed as if the man had whiskers.

The clothes the man – or creature – wore weren't half bad, however. A fancy black suit, with golden buttons and various other silver details. The back of the suit jacket was longer than the front.

"Who – who are you?" Adrien asked, furrowing his brow. "Why are you here?"

The man grinned; he had fangs. "Kid," he said, "the name's Plagg. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Plagg bowed as he introduced himself. "But – besides from Plagg, I'm also something else. A kwami."

"Don't you mean 'kami'?" Adrien said. Plagg frowned.

"I know what I am, thank you very much," he said. "No. I am a kwami. A kami is a god... I am more of a godparent. A guardian, you see."

Adrien raised an eyebrow. "Huh. But then... why are you here?"

"Why, I'm here for you of course," Plagg said, stretching his arms out with a broad grin on his face. "I mean – you don't seem to be very happy with how things are going right now, Kid."

Adrien's eyes flashed through the room, as if afraid to meet Plagg's. The kwami was right – Adrien was unhappy with the way things went in the castle. How his father never paid attention to him.

Plagg crossed his arms. "Seems like I'm right, huh?

"Listen, Kid. I was sent here because of you. You're special, and I know that because otherwise, you wouldn't be wearing that ring right now." He pointed a gloved finger at the ring around Adrien's finger; even through the black gloves, Adrien could tell that Plagg's nails were long and sharp. "Your name's Adrien, isn't it?"

Adrien nodded. "Yes," he said. "I'm sorry I haven't introduced myself yet."

"That's fine," Plagg said, waving away Adrien's apologies. "Now... I'm going to explain the plan, but you'll have to get me some food while I go at it... I'm starving."

The kwami rose higher up, flying away from Adrien, toward the daytime living compartment of the Prince's chamber.

"Hey! Wait!" Adrien shouted, running after him. When he caught up with Plagg, the Prince found the kwami sitting on his couch.

"Well?" Plagg said, "I said I'm starving, Adrien! Can't you get us some food?"

"Well – what would you like?" Adrien said. The kwami turned to face Adrien.

"Cheese. Camembert."

Adrien let out a sigh. Great; all this cat-fairy wanted was the one kind of cheese Adrien absolutely could not stand.

"Fine," Adrien said. "I'll have the cooks bring some up here. But you'll tell me exactly what's going on in return."

Plagg grinned and smiled. "Fine. Go get your cooks and then have a seat, kid."

When Plagg finally had got his cheese, he was more than happy to tell Adrien everything he wanted to know.

"Now, I heard there's going to be a party soon," Plagg said. "A... ball of some sort."

Adrien nodded. "Yeah... it's for my birthday."

Plagg smiled. "Called it.

"So, yeah. Party. Ball. Great stuff. But the reason why I'm here, is because there might be someone in Paris who'd want to start trouble at that ball."

"Who?" Adrien asked. "Chloé?"

Plagg raised his eyebrows; he had no idea who Chloé was. "No... all we know is that his name is the Hawk Moth. He's got control over one of my friends – one of us kwamis. He intends to capture us all and use us for his own plans. Of course, that's more difficult to do when our jewellery is with someone and thus constantly moving around rather than sitting in a box all the time."

Adrien considered this. "That's a good point. But why would he cause trouble at the ball?"

Plagg shrugged. "We believe the Hawk Moth has connections to the Royal Family, and thus will be attending the ball... He might think kidnapping the Prince will get him closer to the kwami's jewellery. And thus, nothing would be better than having the Prince unmask him." He grinned.

Adrien raised his hands in defence. "Wait – what?"

"Honestly, Kid," Plagg said sarcastically, "do you still not get it? The ball's theme's perfect for the Hawk Moth to appear. And it's perfect for us to go out to the ball.

"A kwami always hides their holder's identity... all I need to do is to get you dressed up in a nice suit, and you're good to go and find my friend."

Adrien breathed heavily. "I might have to consider this," he said. "I'm not sure if I can do this."

"Oh, don't worry," Plagg said. "You won't be out there alone.

"Kwamis always work in pairs."