Chapter 5: Bleu

Adrien had been highly strung the entire way he ran for the school. Yesterday, during the same stunt, his father managed to catch him just as he had reached the building and made for Adrien's immediate return home. He was watched closely by Nathalie for the rest of that day. But today, today was different, he most certainly wouldn't be caught as Chat Noir.

He landed gently on the roof of the school building and smoothly came down its side making sure no one saw him as he landed in the bush. He released his transformation and tried as casually as he could to walk away from the bush and around the corner to the front of the school.

"I question your need to attend something as tedious as school," Adrien heard Plagg groan from his bag.

"You've seen how my homeschooling is Plagg, I want something more than that, I want to be around other people-"

"Adrien!"

He jumped from his place at the school's first step at the sound of Nathalie's voice. He turned to see her standing just out of the car on the sidewalk with the car running and the door still open.

No. No no no no no! He was sure he wouldn't be caught this time! He left early and made sure to move fast just for that purpose.

"Adrien don't do this," Natalie commanded, he watched concern washed her features, "Your father will be furious."

Adrien felt his toes curl and his back stiffen as he found himself at this crossroad. He wanted to go to school, he wanted this more than anything. What was so wrong with that? He felt himself waver and inch towards the school, he could easily disobey, disobey. But he also knew that that school wouldn't protect him from his father making the Gorilla forcibly remove him from school. He couldn't win.

Nathalie put her hand on Adrien's shoulder and he felt himself jump from the contact. When did she make her way over to him? She added pressure and began to slowly pull him back to the car. One part of Adrien wanted to dig his heels in to the ground, to stop, fight, and cry like a toddler, but the sensible part of him managed to drag his feet to the car until he and Nathalie sat in it. There, a screen of Adrien's father was poised on the back of the chair to stare at him and pass his mental judgements; Adrien elected to look out the window at the school, brooding, and wait for the car to start moving.

"Adrien," He heard his father say lowly, Adrien avoided eye contact.

"Yes?"

"What you did was reckless and dangerous, sneaking off against my order and heading to the school on your own," Adrien barely paid attentions to what his father was blabbering on about, instead choosing to wonder why the wasn't car moving, "You will never, I say, never go back there again... without your bodyguard," Adrien perked up, did his father just say what he thought he said? "He will drop you off and pick you up every day. Nathalie has offered to organize you a new schedule. You'll be continuing your music, Chinese, and fencing classes, and your photo shoots."

Adrien turned to his face his father. That was it? It seemed like a trick, but stars above Adrien would take it!

"Absolutely!" Adrien cried out as he nearly sprang out of the car and went sprinting towards the schools open doors.

He felt euphoric as he took in everything that he could of the school. There were people everywhere, new friends everywhere, all in lovely shades of red. Adrien ran and he ran, admiring everything about the grand building around him and not paying attention to the specifics of where he was going until he slammed right into someone.

"Hey!" He heard them yell as they toppled right over each other.

"Oh!" Adrien quickly collected his thoughts and immediately made to scramble off of the other person, awkwardly sitting on the ground next to them, "Oh, I-I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there."

"Just watch where-" But they stopped as they whipped around and stared at Adrien in the eyes, and he saw it.

Adrien heard himself gasp softly as he saw everything light up in a new color. A new beautiful color that Adrien had never seen before. He watched as the boy's shirt lit up in the most glamorous color that he was most certain was called blue.

Blue, the color of the sky and the ocean and the seas, lakes, and rivers. It was the color of sadness and calmness, and represented life through water. It was enamoring, the brightness of this boy, no his other soulmate's, shirt and how everything lit up together with it. He looked around and saw how beautifully the blue blended in with the red he had from Ladybug to create the beauty of purple. Purple, it was the color of royalty, and Adrien felt like king of the world!

"You're our other," He heard his soulmate whisper across from him. Adrien brought his eyes back from their surroundings to look at his soulmate once again, even in the contrasting colors of blue and red, only blended by some purple, Adrien found him to be beautiful.

"You-"

"You're our other!" His soulmate exclaimed grabbing Adrien's shoulders and lifting them both up into a hug.

Adrien couldn't help but let a laugh bubble through him as his soulmate held him and swung him around.

After a moment of spinning, they slowed down and Adrien was put down. He had a moment to collect his thoughts from the sudden excitement.

"I-I'm Adrien," He quietly introduced and offered his hand as a greeting.

His soulmate stared at the hand as if it was a foreign object and Adrien felt nervous at his hesitation. Not a moment passed before he pushed aside Adrien's hand and pulled him into another embrace.

"My name is Nino, Nino Lahiffe," he introduced as he pulled away. Nino, what a wonderful name.

Nino laughed as he brought his hand to his head, "Oh my stars, I can't believe I'm the first one to find our other!"

Adrien was about to laugh with him when something occurred to him, "Our?" Did Nino know their fourth soulmate?

"Yes, you and I, we have more than one soulmate. So instead of seeing all colors of the rainbow when you meet your soulmate, you only get one. Come with me, you need to meet Alya and Marinette, then you can see every color," Nino exclaimed, grabbing Adrien's hand and pulling him to a set of stairs in the corner of the open room.

Alya and Marinette?

Five soulmates? No, Ladybug said soul mates come in packs of fours. She had said that she didn't know their soulmates either, and… and she couldn't lie to him.

Adrien was trying to keep himself calm at the peculiar revelation as he followed Nino up the stairs and to the entrance of a room. Though the fact of the matter was that while Ladybug couldn't lie to him he hoped, she could keep truths from him. Truths like her name and her real identity, and their soulmates? Adrien felt his body shake for a moment before they entered the classroom and he was temporarily distracted by thankfully Chloé of all people.

"Adrien!" She cried out in excitement and ran over to hug Adrien.

But of course, he had dealt with lies all his life, he thought as he hugged his childhood friend back. Chloé actively lied to get what she wanted, his father had lied to Adrien and hundreds of others an innumerable amount of times. But the thought of his soulmate lying to him but a sour taste in his mouth, they were supposed to be his saving grace were they not? His break from all the lies? Chat Noir had taken that from him though, the minute he needed to keep his identity secret.

"Oh I was so worried when you didn't show up yesterday!" Chloé had let go of him and continued on whilst Adrien barely listened, too focused on his own internal monolog, "I had told everyone that you were going to be here, and then you didn't show and I looked like a fool. And I was so worried because you really wanted this but then you weren't answering your phone."

Chloé looked at him indignantly, waiting for an answer. What was she saying? Something about phones? "Yeah, um, my father took my phone away yesterday after he caught me heading to school without his permission," Adrien managed to offhandedly answer.

"Um, pardon," Nino piped up beside Adrien, still holding his hand, "You know Chloé?"

"Yeah, she's been my friend since we were little," Adrien answered looking over to Nino's pinched look. Adrien knew that look. It was the look someone made when they don't like someone else you're friendly with, the look that many gave him when he told him of his friendship with Chloé.

"I think the question of the matter is, do you two know each other?" Chloé interrupted rather loudly with her own pinched look and pointed to their hands.

Adrien kept quiet, unsure of how he wanted to answer the question.

"Adrien is my, Alya, and Marinette's soulmate," Nino proudly answered, standing straighter and giving Adrien's hand a squeeze.

Adrien felt little comfort from the gesture, there were those names again, Alya and Marinette. He was undoubtedly going to meet them today.

Chloé visibly grimaced at the names, "Is that so?" She turned towards Adrien, "Well then, enjoy your soulmates," She whispered harshly through her teeth before turning back towards her seat.

Chloé had long gotten over the fact that she and Adrien were not soulmates, but it was very obvious that she was irked by the fact that he was soulmates with someone she despised. Adrien wasn't sure what to do to make it better, though he still wasn't sure what to do about his soulmates to begin with. During that whole exchange he had yet to be introduced to either of the elusive Alya and Marinette and he was beginning to grow tense.

Someone from behind griped at them.

"Alright if you're gonna stand around at least don't do it in front of the door way!"

Adrien and Nino jumped out of the way. Nino smiled and let go of Adrien's hand while Adrien was bothered by how familiar the voice was. Did he know someone else who went to this school? No, Adrien didn't know that many other people.

"Alya," Nino happily called out, looking at the grumbly person next to Adrien. He felt his stomach drop at the name, this was it.

"Oh Nino, Marinette just sent me a message saying she's not going to in today, her cold from yesterday got worse," Alya casually informed Nino.

"Oh, that's rather unfortunate, because I have someone for you two to meet," Nino responded and grabbed Adrien by the shoulders and turned him to face away from Alya just a bit more, albeit to add more suspense to the surprise.

Adrien felt himself tense, knowing when you were going to meet your soulmate was much more nerve-wracking than not knowing. He was excited, yes, but he was too terrified to acknowledge it.

She said nothing, Adrien guessed she gave a curious look by Nino's excitement. He gently began to turn Adrien around until he was facing Alya, his other soulmate.

She looked him straight in the eyes and with it he saw the world light up again in one last color.

Green.

The color of life, the color of plants, and contrastingly enough, the color of poisons and evils. Green was best known as the color of spring and peace. It was even more bright and beautiful when he saw it as Chat Noir as it blended magnificently with blue and red to give him a fantastic range of color.

Alya brought her hands up to her mouth as her eyes widened in shock. Adrien felt himself nearly do a double take as he recognized her.

"Y-You're the reporter girl for Ladybug and Chat Noir," he said quietly more to himself than to anyone else.

She smiled, "Indeed I am."

Adrien looked down, trying to assess his situation. He was sure that he had looked her in the eyes before, most certainly. Could it have been his suit that prevented them from having their colors exchanged? No, it worked for both he and Ladybug so…

Though now that he thought about it, he recalled all of the odd conversations he and Ladybug had whenever she would awkwardly shove herself between them and a multitude of other maneuvers that prevented him and Alya from ever properly exchanging conversations for more than a few seconds.

Wouldn't Ladybug have given her a color? Adrien looked back up towards Alya. They couldn't give each other colors, not if they already had them. It made so much sense, why Ladybug was so shaken up after having to fight the reporter girl-Alya, she was Alya the whole time, as an akuma. She-they, they had to fight their soulmate.

Alya was getting blurry in front of him. Ladybug had lied! She had lied, and Adrien felt his mind swimming at the confirmation of his suspicions. His ears were ringing and he couldn't figure out why she would do something as horrible as lie to him about his own soulmates and keep them from meeting. And he couldn't figure out why on Earth Alya was suddenly so blurry! What was wrong with him?

The ringing stopped when felt arms wrap around him from the front, it was followed by a soft "sshhh" and Adrien felt another body wrap around him. He was warm and felt his shaking (when had he started shaking again?) calm, if only barely.

"It's okay to cry."

Oh. He was crying. That was why Alya had gone blurry. How silly of him, to cry in front of his soulmates.

A moment of being wrapped in the double-sided embrace and Adrien felt better, well calmed down at least. Alya and Nino pulled away and Adrien brought his hands up to wipe his face. Alya rummaged around in her bag before offering him a tissue.

"I-I'm sorry," Adrien finally said when he was mostly clean, "This, this is just a bit overwhelming."

"We understand," Nino gently laughed from behind him, "Meeting your soulmate, and finding out you have more than one soulmate can be rather overwhelming."

But they didn't understand, not completely. How would Adrien truly be able to explain himself?

A bell rang throughout the school.

Alya gave a look to Nino and Adrien recalled the whole reason he was here, the whole reason this had happened. He was at school, the place he had wanted to go for years. He was here to learn and make friends, and finally begin living his life how he wanted.

"That was the warning bell, we should probably sit down," Alya began uneasily, she looked at Adrien, unsure of where he was to go. This was his class, he knew that much from Chloé's presence.

"Um, this is my class, so… where can I sit?" Adrien softly asked Alya and Nino.

"Oh! Lucky for you, the seat next to me is open so you can sit there, if you'd like," Nino gestured to the front row seats next to them which where currently void of any other students.

"I would like that," Adrien managed to give Alya and Nino a weak smile, they returned it.

He quietly walked up to the seat and sat down with Nino next to him and Alya behind them. The seat directly behind Adrien was empty.

"Normally Marinette sits in the seat behind you, but she's sick today," Alya explained, gesturing to the empty seat.

"I'm gonna send her a message about what just happened," Nino informed, pulling out his phone.

"No fair, I was going to do that," Alya whined, her phone already in hand. Adrien recognized the ladybug charm hanging off of it.

Marinette, Ladybug. Could they really be the same? Adrien looked for his own phone and met Plagg's eyes from within his bag. Plagg gave him a silent look of utmost concern as he too had realized what had conspired before him and what it all truly meant. Adrien quietly grabbed his phone and looked away from Plagg, closing the bag. He turned on his phone and quietly tapped at it until he was looking at Ladybug's contact, he paused, unsure if he wanted to send her a message or even of what to say.

"Hey," Alya and Nino looked up at Adrien's murmur, "When," He took a breath, "When someone has multiple soulmates, how many, um, how many soul mates can they have?"

Both Alya and Nino perked up at the simple question Adrien already knew the answer to. But Ladybug and the web could be wrong.

Alya piped up and gave the exact same answer as Ladybug had. Adrien simply nodded his head at the answer and quickly pulled up the same online color test he had done when he met Ladybug on his phone. He just had to be sure, to be really, really sure that Ladybug and Marinette couldn't be two different people. He quickly tapped through the quiz.

All of it.

He could see all of it, every color. Every color of the light spectrum. There was no denying it.

Ladybug had to be Marinette.

The teacher came in as a second bell rang through the school and informed everyone that class was starting. Adrien quickly pulled Ladybug's contact up again and typed out a single message before sending it to her and putting his phone away.

"Is your name Marinette?"

A/N: Ayy I'm done! I've still got finals to do but I wanted to write this chapter. It came out longer than I originally anticipated it would and I loved writing it. Although I really love making characters cry, and I love making them argue too, which is why I'm gonna have fun with the next chapter. I had to rummage around for Nathalie and Gabriel's quotes from the origin's episodes 'cause my site for watching Miraculous Ladybug is down and I wanted them to be at least a little accurate.

I didn't get to edit this chapter as many times as the others (only 2) so please bear with me if it seems odd at moments.

Please review if you've enjoyed reading this story as much as I've enjoyed writing it!