"I'm your son." Adrien's words echoed through the room.
Ladybug looked at Volpina, and both grimaced at each other. They had sprinted as fast as they could to the Agreste mansion, and had tried to enter the room inconspicuously. They both hoped it was going well, and were going to stay outside until there was trouble, but when they showed up Ladybug immediately heard Adrien's voice plead "Please!". His voice sounded thick with tears and emotion, and fearing the worst, both girls ran up into the room.
Turns out, their timing could have been better.
Now, Adrien stood in front of his father, and Hawkmoth just kept on blinking, as if suddenly he would disappear.
"Adrien? You're-You're Chat Noir?"
"It's me, Papa."
In a rush, Hawkmoth moved towards Adrien and Ladybug made a move towards them, but Volpina held her back. She shook her head, and had a sad smile on her face. Ladybug looked back over and saw Hawkmoth embracing his son, cradling his head against his shoulder. Both men's bodies wracked with sobs, and Ladybug had the feeling that she should look away. Hawkmoth pulled back, wiping his eyes, but keeping a hand on Adrien's shoulder.
"How-How-" Hawkmoth started, but paused to collect himself.
"How was I chosen?" Adrien finished, bashful.
"Obviously not. It's clear why you were chosen. Your mother raised you right. You're a good son and a good person, Adrien." If Ladybug wasn't mistaken, her boyfriend blushed under the praise, and she smiled at them both. "No, what I was going to ask was how you know all this?"
"Oh," Adrien stepped back and rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Well, I found a recent picture of Mom in your office. Recent like a few weeks ago, and then Marinette was helping me and we found one of the blackmail notes…" He trailed off, realizing the slip he just made, and his eyes darted over to Ladybug in the corner. They had agreed that he would release his transformation, but they hadn't talked about the others also revealing their true identities.
"Marinette?" Hawkmoth smirked in amusement. "You're pretty brunette girlfriend is in on this, huh? She knows about your alter ego?"
"Well…" Adrien wasn't sure how to continue without giving more away than he already had. Luckily, he felt Ladybug's hand on his shoulder.
"It's okay, chaton." She squeezed his shoulder. "Hello Mr. Agreste." She smiled softly before releasing her transformation. "Nice to see you again."
"Marinette!" He looked surprised, but not unhappy about it. "Well, this is-" he looked down, realizing that he was still transformed. "No need for masks now is there? Nooro, wings in."
A small lilac kwami who did in fact have wings appeared. Adrien snickered to himself, and Marinette looked at him quizzically.
"What? I just realized my papa is lord of the butterflies." He started actually laughing. "His release phrase is "Wings in". He's the Butterfly ruler." Adrien was practically crying laughing now. Marinette suspected this shift of emotion was to do with pure relief that there were no more secrets. Tension had been building in Adrien, Marinette could feel it every time they were together, but confronting his father had went as well as it could have. The burden had rolled off his shoulders and now he felt weightless. Marinette joined his laughter, giggling at him giggling.
"What's your transformation phrase then?" He asked his father, whose mouth quirked slightly in amusement.
"Nooro, make my heart flutter," he said with a straight face and Adrien literally roared with laughter.
"Oh. My. God. Really?!"
"No, not really Adrien." He rolled his eyes, but chuckled a bit at his son.
"Oh my god," Adrien said, recovering and gasping for air. He was leaning on Marinette, and she felt him sway a bit.
"Adrien? When was the last time you ate?" She remembered that they had all skipped lunch that day, and it had to be nearing ten o'clock by now. She always had snacks in between classes, sharing cookies with Tikki, but she doubted Adrien did the same with Plagg. Camembert wasn't exactly enticing at all hours like cookies, so he must have eaten last at seven that morning.
"I do feel a little light headed." He shook his head, and swayed more when it got worse.
"Let's get you something eat, and go talk somewhere more comfortable." Gabriel took Adrien from Marinette and supported him with an arm around his shoulders.
"I have a feeling this is going to take a while, so why don't you all call your parents too. You can tell them it's for a project and that you're staying over." He looked over at Honu and Volpina, who had both been uncharacteristically quiet the whole time. "You too, Alya, Nino."
Alya looked at him and gaped. Nino's eyebrow furrowed, but his lip quirked nonetheless.
"How-" ALya started, but Gabriel interrupted her.
"Please," he scoffed, mock-offended. "I may have had to distance myself from my son, but that doesn't mean I am completely out of tune with him. If Marinette is Ladybug, then it's not too much of a jump to guess you two are the other half of the fantastic four."
"But still, you couldn't know for sure."
"I didn't..until now." He smirked, and Marinette was shocked at how much he looked like Adrien when he did that. They were more alike than they even realized.
"Now, food first. I'm sure you're all starving."
"I want camembert!" Plagg zoomed out of the room and towards the kitchen. Marinette caught a flash of sadness on Gabriel's face as his eyes followed the black kwami. He met Marinette's eye and gave her a small smile before filing the rest of them out of the room.
"I wonder what that was," she remarked to Tikki. She was silent, and Marinette looked down at her, the question obvious in her eyes.
"That's his story to tell, Marinette." He eyes looked sad, but final. Her lips were sealed.
"Okay," Marinette started down the stairs and pulled the hatch closed after her. "Then let's hear his story."