Song Of Hope: I decided to give in and make a full on story out of this XD. There'll be some development into some of the OCs I've made for this story but it could also include serious themes, and if so I will change the rating to T. I'll keep running these chapters in place of canon episodes until January when you can get actual episodes of Miraculous Ladybug since they won't be premiering. R&R
Marinette sat in the library, there before class had started for once. She already had her book open and was taking notes on what she was reading very diligently.
"You seem to be really into your book," said Angelique with a smile as she pulled her book cart to a stop.
"Oh hey Angelique," said Marinette with a smile. "I haven't seen you the past couple of days. Have you been at home?"
"Yeah," she admitted, looking away sheepishly and rubbing her arm. "My parents weren't exactly happy that I got Akumatized and wanted me to stay home for the next couple of days just to make sure I was… alright." She laughed nervously. "It was good to step away from school. Usually kids are pretty nasty right after Akuma attacks. Only Aurore has been Akumatized in my class. It's not like your class where everyone's accepted that it's something that just happens to people sometimes when they're feeling bad."
"I'm sorry," said Marinette, as she pat the seat next to her. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"I actually have to help out around the library," said Angelique, "but I would like to later. I mean not necessarily talk, I mean hang out. Kinda like friends? I mean that is if you wanna hang out. I know you have your own friends and they probably wouldn't wanna talk to me but they all seem cool! Oh my gosh, like Alya!" Her face lit up and she started talking animatedly, moving her hands around and expressing herself in her movements and not just her words. "I love her Ladyblog! It's so cool and I can't believe she made the entire thing herself! It always looks so sleek and amazing!" As Angelique kept talking, Marinette just smiled to herself, thinking, "wow does this girl talk a lot" and yet Marinette still enjoyed listening. After a few minutes of this, Angelique blushed and stopped talking, holding her hand with her arms straight down. "Sorry, I didn't mean to go on a rant like that."
"It's okay," Marinette chuckled. "I do the same thing a lot, although usually it's because of some doomsday scenario running through my head. If you're busy then we can just text later. Do you have your phone?"
"Oh, yeah!" She smiled and pulled out her phone. It was a small and thick phone, and Marinette soon realized it wasn't a smart phone. It was just one of those sliding phones with a screen that was basically just a flip phone with a touch screen and a keyboard.
"You have one of these things?" Marinette took the phone, trying to find Angelique's sadly bare contacts and add hers in. "I haven't seen anyone use one of these!"
"Well uh, my parents said if I want a real smart phone I have to get a job and pay for it myself," she replied. "It really stinks because they don't believe me when I say that we actually do a lot of school activities on phones now. I even get notes from teachers and nothing! Not to mention I can't exactly get any jobs until I'm 16 other than babysitting. Even then I don't make very much money. I haven't saved up nearly enough to afford even the cheapest one of these."
"Well maybe you can eventually save up," Marinette said as she handed Angelique her phone. "There. If you ever need a friend to talk to you can talk to me."
"A friend," asked Angelique after a moment, holding her phone.
"Of course," Marinette said with a smile. "I wouldn't give you my number otherwise."
"Ahem," came a voice at the entrance. The two of them turned and looked towards Chloe and Sabrina, both of whom did not look happy. Angelique took a small step back. She was not really prepared to see Chloe again.
"Relax." Chloe rolled her eyes, walking towards Angelique. "You look like you think I'm gonna bite your head off or something." She held her hand out, to which Sabrina placed a thin, long box with a yellow bow in it. Chloe held it out to Angelique. "Just take it and don't say anything! And don't think this means we're friends! I have no interest in befriending someone as horribly dressed as you!" Dumbfounded, Angelique took the box from Chloe. "Come on Sabrina, I gotta go pick out a new book for my project." Chloe turned away from her and walked off with Sabrina following behind her. Angelique looked at the box for a few moments before opening it up to see a gorgeous silver and gold pen with a golden angel on the pen clip.
"It's beautiful," Angelique whispered in awe. "I've never seen such a nice pen."
"I think that's Chloe's way of saying she's sorry," said Marinette. "She's still plenty nasty but I think maybe things are starting to change for the better." Only because Ladybug told her she would make sure Chloe kept her promise, but Marinette wouldn't ruin the moment.
"It was still nice of her," said Angelique as she moved to place it in her breast pocket so the angel could be visible. "I'm gonna write with it all the time! It looks like one of those expnsive pens with the really nice ink, so I'll use it sparingly."
"Nice pen," said Alya as she walked into the library, placing her stuff next to Marinette. "You're Angelique right?" She just stared at Alya and nodded slowly. "Nice to meet you. Sorry that we didn't talk before, I was recording Chloe when she was being so nasty. I'd say sorry you had to suffer through that but it seems everyone is dealing with it."
"Wait," she frowned, "you recorded Chloe? Is that how she got suspended?"
"No one deserves to get a smack down from Chloe like that," said Alya, giving her a pat on the shoulder. "You literally didn't do anything to her and she went off like a jerk. Someone had to make sure there was proof. Any other time she's done something there was no proof and she got away with it." Alya grinned. "Chloe totally got what she deserved, and now she's 4 days behind on the project since she didn't bother actually working the day she got in trouble. Plus that gave you 3 sweet sweet Chloe free days."
"That was… really nice of you," stammered out Angelique.
"It was nothing," said Alya. "Someone had to get some concrete evidence. Plus my mom got me this awesome new phone that has the best camera zoom I've ever seen. Like seriously, wanna check it out?"
"I would advise against that Miss Césaire," said an old woman who came up behind them. Angelique looked a little embarrassed when she realized who was there, looking down. "Angelique may not have classes this period but she still has responsibilities to attend to."
"Sorry Mrs. Lecteur," she replied. "I'll go back to restocking the shelves."
"Mhm." Angelique gave Marinette and Alya a wave before walking off with the book cart. Mrs. Lecteur went back to the librarians desk, ready for students to check out books. Alya sat down next to Marinette.
"That girl seems to get nervous easily," Alya noted. "Wonder what's up."
"Who knows," Marinette replied with a shrug, "but she seems nice enough, even if she's chatty."
"Who seems nice," asked Nino as he sat down in front of Alya, placing his bag on the table.
"Angelique," Marinette answered, "the library aide. We were just talking a bit before Mrs. Lecteur reminded her she still had work to do." Marinette looked at the entrance where Nino had come in. "Where's Adrien? I thought you waited for him normally."
"I do," Nino replied as he got out his phone, "but he sent me a text a little bit ago." He showed Alya and Marinette his phone.
Ads: Sorry Nino, I can't come in today. I caught a nasty cold.
Me: srsly bro? what happened?
Ads: A little kid sneezed directly in my face and then I woke up this morning with the worst stuffed nose I've ever had in my life.
Me: bummer dude. dont worry bro ill let everyone know if the teach doesnt
Ads: Thanks Nino.
"Adrien texts like my dad," Nino chuckled out.
"He's sick?!" Marinette brain started to go to the worst case scenario but Alya grabbed her shoulder.
"Don't freak girl." She pointed at Nino and the other people coming in the library. "Don't forget we have company. Deep breaths." Marinette looked at her for a moment but took in a deep breath as requested. "There you go girl. Now, it's probably just something small like the cold. People get colds all the time and there's been one going around. Tons of people have got it so far. I know Rose was out yesterday because of it, plus Mylene and Ivan."
"Yeah," said Nino, "it's probably nothing. If anything he's gonna be just fine. He's got his whole staff working to help him get better."
"But that doesn't mean a certain someone can't bring him his homework after school," Alya implied, nudging Marinette. "Who knows, maybe it'll be a relief to see a friendly face, and a cute one at that."
"No way," said Marinette, blushing and waving a dismissive hand. "Why would they let me in anyway?"
"Well you won that design competition," Alya pointed out. "Plus you're a good student with a good reputation. Not to mention you always do your best to help everyone."
"I agree with Alya," said Nino. "If Mr. Agreste is gonna allow anyone in his house that doesn't work for him, it's going to be you. You're probably one of the only people in our class who could."
"Well if you guys insist," said Marinette with a blush, pushing her index fingers together.
Adrien sat in his bed, a cold pack on his head as he blew his nose, tossing the tissue into the slowly filling bin. His skin was pale and clammy while his nose was red from both the illness and the constant blowing in failed hopes to clear it out.
"I feel horrible," he groaned. Plagg shrugged at Adrien.
"You're the one who decided to pose for a picture with that sick kid." He snickered. "But hey, at least no one took a picture of what happened after when you tried to shake her hand. I mean, she sneezed right in your face!" He doubled over remembering the event.
"Well I didn't know she was sick!" Adrien fell back against his bed as his phone went off a few times. "I missed a whole day of school on top of all of this. Let's just hope Hawk Moth doesn't decide to Akumatize anyone. I'm kinda useless at the moment."
"Again, your own fault." Adrien grabbed his phone and looked at the incoming texts.
Nino: dude marinettes coming ur way
Nino: she left school like 20 min ago so shell b there soon
Nino: shes bringing ur homkework n some notes for u to use
Nino: *homework
Nino: maybe she can play nurse 4 u ;)
Nino: if ur dads assistant lets her in that is
Adrien sat up fully, the cold pack falling off his head.
"Marinette's coming here?!" He ran to his bathroom, looking in the mirror. "I look like death incarnate!"
"Death looks way better than you do right now," Plagg teased. "She's actually a pretty chill person."
"Not the time for jokes," Adrien glared as he started running water, cupping his hands and splashing his face. "I can't believe she's coming over."
"Nino probably told her you were sick." Plagg looked at the water stream. "I think this is probably his way of getting you to stop dragging your feet. Come on, you admitted you like her, just ask her out!"
"I want to make sure she likes the real me," Adrien reminded him, turning off the water. "She knows who I am as Adrien, but she's never even met me as Chat Noir. Well not for any substantial amount of time anyway."
"You could always tell her you're Chat Noir," Plagg suggested, which only got him a raised eyebrow in return.
"You emphasized repeatedly why I can't share who I am with people." He grabbed a towel and wiped his face, then started on his hands. "Why should I break that rule for Marinette?"
"Reasons." Adrien sighed. He knew he wasn't going to get an answer out of the cat.
"Whatever." He grabbed a bottle of cough medicine and measured out some. "I need to hurry and get outside. If this is like any other time, then Natalie's probably going to send her away. She sends everyone away unless it's work related." He took it in one gulp before shivering from the nasty taste. "Ugh."
Marinette rang the doorbell, holding a folder and a notebook.
"Who's there," asked Natalie through the intercom, the security camera observing Marinette.
"Hi uh," Marinette rubbed the back of her head, "I uh, I was here to uh, I have things from Adrien for school, I mean things from school for Adrien! I'm in his class so I thought I'd bring them here!"
"Put them in the drop box and then vacate the premises," ordered Natalie as the drop box popped out. "Adrien needs contact with as few people as possible."
"Oh…" Marinette looked at the drop box in disappointment, but understood. He was sick after all, and they wouldn't want someone else to make it worse. She started to put the items in but heard someone call out.
"Wait Marinette!" She looked up, confused before she blushed as Adrien ran up to the gate. He started huffing and puffing really hard, putting his hands on his knees. "Running is really hard when you're sick!" After he caught his breath he looked up at her. "Sorry, Natalie always tells people to leave when they drop stuff off for me."
"Adrien," came Natalie's surprised voice from the intercom. "Get back inside right now or your father will be very angry."
"Only if you let her in," said Adrien. "She's my friend and she came all this way." He started coughing violently.
"Adrien I think you should listen to her." Marinette reached a concerned hand towards him. "Besides, I don't think I could do much to help you out anyway. You have your staff. I just came here to drop off your notes."
"I'm not letting my father keep me from having friends over," Adrien managed to wheeze out. "Besides, I wasn't at class. It'd be better to have someone explain everything to me that was actually there."
"If you insist Adrien but your father won't be happy." Natalie sounded very unsure and extremely reluctant, but she didn't want Adrien to stand outside getting worse, so she begrudgingly opened the gate and let Marinette walk in. Marinette looked at the opening gate in surprise. She had been there for Christmas but other than that she had never properly been over to his house, at least not as Marinette.
He smiled sheepishly at her, extending a hand before pulling it back.
"Uh, sorry about Natalie," he said. "She means well. She's a little overprotective ever since my mom disappeared, although that's mostly at my dad's request." He extended a hand towards the house. "Anyway, wanna come in? You came all this way."
"I uh… okay?" Her cheeks were red as she walked towards him. He led her towards the house, opening the door for her. She ducked in, holding his stuff out once they were inside. "I brought these for you! If you want me to explain these to you then I can! I paid extra attention in class to make sure that I could help out!"
"Thanks for that," said Adrien as he reached to grab them. "I was worried about missing out on stuff." He took the notes, holding them close to his chest. "We can head up to my room if you-" He started coughing again, rather hard and almost making him double over. "Seriously? I already took some medicine!"
"Is that all you did," asked Marinette.
"Well yeah," he replied, frowning in thought. "What else would I do?"
"You've never had your mo- I mean," she laughed nervously, trying to brush off what she almost said, "your dad or anyone cook for you and take care of you when you're sick?"
"My mom was a huge germaphobe," Adrien chuckled. "She wouldn't get near me, but she'd use the intercoms to sing to me and that made me feel better. My dad's never been like that, and at this point I'd rather just take care of myself."
"That's so wrong!" She looked around. "Which way to the kitchen?"
"Uh," he looked and pointed, trying to figure out what Marinette was trying to do, "the hall to the right of the stairs leads there. Just take a left once you pass the in home theater. Why do you want to go to the kitchen?"
"I'll explain when I'm done," she said. "Just go upstairs, lay down and focus on getting better!" Before Adrien could ask anything else she ran off.
"Man," sniggered Plagg from Adrien's jacket, "when that girl gets an idea she gets laser focused on it."
Marinette started riffling around the gigantic kitchen, grabbed different ingredients and lining them up. Tikki came out of her bag, frowning at all of the items Marinette had grabbed.
"I don't get it," said Tikki. "Why don't you just take Adrien to a healer?"
"Humans aren't like kwamis Tikki." Marinette poured some chicken broth into a pot and turned on the burner, keeping it at a low setting. "When people get sick we need things to help us get better. It takes time. We make things to help us get healthy faster, but usually it takes some time."
"Is this going to help Adrien?" Tikki looked curiously over the broth in one of the pots. "I can't imagine how food is going to help."
"It's a secret family recipe my dad makes for me." Marinette started to cut up some carrots and onions, tossing them into the warming broth. "His mom made it for him and her mom and on and on. It's a tradition when someone's sick. Of course I have to keep most of the ingredients secret, but you can watch me make it Tikki." She gave Tikki a kind smile before going back to cutting up different vegetables. "After all, you're like my family!"
"Well if kwamis had families you'd be part of mine too!" Tikki rubbed up against Marinette's cheek, making the girl giggle.
"Stop it Tikki," she said. "I have to make this as quickly as I can." She tossed more veggies in and put the lid over the pot. "This isn't easy to make from scratch, and I'm already doing some stuff off the recipe, like not making the chicken broth myself. I'll have to use a different cut of meat too, but hopefully it'll still taste as good as when my dad makes it for me. I know the recipe by heart, and I know all the substitutions."
"I think Adrien will really appreciate this," said Tikki as she watched Marinette work. "I don't think I've ever seen you work so hard so quickly. Adrien must be a really good motivator." Tikki giggled.
"Well Adrien needs to get better soon." Marinette put a pat of butter in a pan and let it melt while she cut up some chicken. "He has school and his modeling and a lot of other stuff he needs to be healthy to do. I'd do this for anyone in our class. I actually made this soup for just about everyone in our class. Haven't made any for Alya yet but she hasn't been sick since I've known her."
Hawk Moth stood in his room of butterflies, staring out at the city of Paris. He held a butterfly in his hand, just watching as it slowly moved around.
"Dark Wings Fall," he said after a moment, turning back into Gabriel Agreste. Nooroo seemed incredibly relieved, but confused as well.
"Why have you not used your powers yet Master?"
"My son is sick," he replied, clenching his fist. "Not only that, but his bodyguard is very ill as well from the same cold. I don't know if it is safe for me to Akumatize him. Natalie is not capable of protecting him." He took off his broach, opening it up and looking at the picture of his wife. "What would she think of me if I did something so reckless?"
Adrien looked through the notes Marinette made him as he sat on his bed, wiping his nose with a tissue.
"She wrote so carefully," he noticed with a smile. "It almost looks like she wrote down the lectures word for word. I never knew she had this kind of a skill."
"Maybe she just recorded it and copied it down," said Plagg with a shrug as he ate a slice of camembert. "I've seen plenty of your classmates do it when they don't wanna pay attention. They just record it and take notes later."
"It was still sweet of her." Adrien kept flipping through the notes. "Huh, didn't know we were talking about fractals in geometry. I thought we were on reflection points still." A soft knock came from the door.
"Adrien?" he looked towards the door where Marinette's voice was coming from. "It's me, Marinette."
"Hide Plagg!" Plagg hide behind a chair. "Come in." Marinette opened the door, picking up a breakfast tray off the ground and bring it over to him.
"I thought maybe you'd wanna eat in bed," she said as she sat at the foot of the bed, placing the tray down so he could see what was on it. From the contents, it looked like Marinette had made him homemade chicken noodle soup. He gave it an odd look. Growing up as he did he had never had such common food like this before. He rarely had soup in general.
"What is this?" He pointed down at the bowl. "Why is the broth yellow? Is, is food even supposed to be that shade of yellow? Is that even a yellow?"
"You've never had chicken noodle soup before?" She frowned when she thought about that. Her world and Adrien's felt so different and far apart sometimes, especially when it came to things that not only were normal to her, but she had just assumed he'd be familiar with. She shook her head and shoved that feeling deep down, then beat it with a mallet. "It's a traditional thing to make when someone's sick. Try some." Adrien looked at the bowl rather suspiciously, but he picked up the spoon and dipped it in the broth. He slowly brought it up to his lips, blowing on it to cool it before finally putting it in his mouth. He cringed like it would taste disgusting, but after a few seconds his face changed to pleasantly surprised.
"This actually tastes amazing!" He looked at Marinette in wonder, but she had her hand over her mouth and was trying her hardest not to burst at the seams with laughter, although she was containing it very poorly. "What? What's so funny Marinette?" At that she couldn't contain it anymore. She just burst out laughing as hard as she possibly could. It was a full blown, doubled over, tearing up kind of a laugh.
"I - have never - seen someone - eat chicken soup - like it was going - to - kill them!" Marinette had a hard time getting the words out but eventually she did. Adrien was annoyed for the first few moments, but seeing Marinette laugh so genuinely was cute. In fact, she looked so cute to him that he started to smile, waiting for her to finish her laughing before saying anything else.
"How can you look at a substance of that color and call it food?"
"It's just the color of chicken broth," she explained. "Unless you thicken it up and boil it down a lot and add other spices with different colors into it, it's going to look like that. It's just the color chicken broth is."
"Well it's tasty." Adrien took another bite while their kwamis snuck underneath Adrien's bed to talk.
"I still can't believe this," said Plagg. "Our holders Tikki, right here! Together! And they have no idea and they're all pining for each other and neither of them is smart enough to realize who the other is!"
"It'll be okay," said Tikki as she gave him an assuring pat. "We'll be able to get them to figure it out soon, once they can really see each other."
"Why do we gotta wait so long," he whined.
"We're their Kwamis," Tikki said. "We have to respect their wishes. Not to mention Marinette and Adrien need to see who the other really is on the inside and fall in love with them too. Marinette needs to fall for Chat Noir and he needs to fall for Marinette! You can't build a romance on loving someone's persona without knowing the real person inside!"
"But Adrien already likes Marinette that way," Plagg said in exasperation. "Why can't we just tell Marinette that Chat Noir and Adrien are the same person?!"
"Marinette doesn't love Chat." Tikki looked up towards her holder, even though the mattress was in the way. "She loves Adrien. It's only when she sees Adrien and Chat Noir in the same light that it'll be time for them to know. Otherwise, if they find out they might not love each other. Adrien may love all of Marinette, but Marinette right now only loves a small part of Adrien. If she finds out he's Chat then if she does come to love him it'll only be because of Adrien, not because of Chat, who Adrien feels is his truest self. I can't let Marinette do that to Adrien, and you shouldn't want to do that to your miraculous holder."
"I know," Plagg sighed out. "That doesn't make this any less annoying. I just want them to get this all over with and kiss already!"
"In due time," Tikki giggled. "But for now we just need to be there for each other. It's nice to be able to spend time with you again though Plagg. It's been decades!"
"So people make this stuff all the time when their kids are sick," Adrien asked, still confused as he took another spoonful of soup.
"All the time," she answered with a smile. "This is my family's special secret recipe. I give it to everyone when they're sick, but I've never made it at someone else's house before, so that was interesting." She smiled and got up. "I should really get going. I have some homework that I need to do."
"Wait!" Adrien grabbed her wrist as she started to walk away. "I uh…" Marinette blushed and turned to him, waiting for what he wanted to say. He pulled his hand away. "It's nothing. I'm sorry. Go ahead and go home."
"I don't have to leave." She turned back around. "If you want I can stay."
"I was just gonna say I could help you with your homework." He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "But then again you might get sick if you stay here with me any longer."
"I almost never get sick," said Marinette with her hand quickly waving back and forth. "It's fine! Never even had so much as a sniffle! But uh, you sure you'll be able to help me? You weren't in class today. If anything I should try and help you!"
"I learn fast," he said with a chuckle. "Don't worry, I already read through everything while you made the soup. I can help you with the fractals in geometry. They can be confusing to some people."
"Well…" She looked towards the door, "I left my sack in the kitchen actually. I took it off to cook and just never put it back on. If you really want to then I'll go get my backpack." With that, she gave him a wave and dashed out of the room. Tikki snuck out with her, managing to avoid Adrien's line of sight.
"She's so cute," he said to himself with a sigh. Plagg shook his head.
"You're so oblivious."
Marinette ran through the halls with her bag in her hands, coming around a corner and running smack into Gabriel Agreste, causing him to drop the folder of papers he had been holding. Papers came flying out of her own bag, mixing in with the papers that Mr. Agreste had been carrying.
"Oh my gosh," she said quickly as she started speed grabbing the papers, "I am so sorry I didn't look where I was going and I was in such a rush and-" she gasped when she saw Adrien's father holding his head and groaning. "Oh my gosh Mr. Agreste! I'm so terribly sorry I really didn't mean to do this to you I promise! I just didn't think about where I was going I was hurrying and uh…. Here you go!" She held her arms out straight, head down as Mr. Agreste got up and stared down at her. His expression was completely neutral, but his eyes gave away his anger and confusion.
"Who exactly are you and why are you in my house?"
"I uh…" she smiled sheepishly, looking up at him, "my name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I go to your sons school. We talked once before when I uh, accidentally took that book which I am still really sorry about! I swear everything in that incident was completely an accident!" Gabriel took the papers from her, sorting through them as she rambled, moving expressively. He looked like he was ignoring her, but couldn't help but notice that her behavior was very familiar, in more ways than one. "I just came to bring him notes but I ended up making him some soup for him, and uh I really hope that you don't mind that I did that but I promise I didn't eat any! Okay maybe a little but not like eat it, it's one of those recipes where you have to taste it to make sure it's just right cause it's a family recipe, I'm sure you have plenty of your own family recipes!" He held up a particular design, a red ball gown with a split on the side to reveal a black underskirt.
"Is this your design," he asked as he held it and turned it. "It certainly isn't one of mine."
"It is," she replied, rubbing the back of her neck. "I love designing. It's my dream to become a designer and have people wear my clothes! I didn't mean to get mine mixed in with your though, sorry. Mine are still pretty amateur, I'm sure you don't want to keep looking through my designs." He kept looking through the sketches, easily sorting out his own and Marinette's, as well as her homework and other papers.
"These show a lot of promise," he said as he handed her the papers. "These look almost like professional sketches. Tell me, what are your summer plans?"
"My plans?" She blinked a couple of times as she took the papers. "I don't really have any plans other than helping my parents out at their bakery."
"Have you considered a summer internship program? You wouldn't get paid but when you graduate from school, if you show enough promise throughout the internship, then we pay for your schooling, provided that you come and work for our company immediately after graduation for at least 10 years, which is in the contract upon agreeing to the scholarship." He pulled a card out from the inside of his jacket. "Here. This has a website with more information on the matter." Marinette blinked several times as she took the card, looking at the website address.
"You want me… me… at your… your company…?"
"Of course, otherwise I wouldn't give you that card. Put all the relevant information in the application." He looked where she had been going. "Were you heading back to Adrien's room?" She nodded, making him chuckle. "This is a big house dear. You were going the completely wrong way. Here, I'll show you to his room." He gently placed a hand on her shoulder and started walking.
"Thank you so much Mr. Agreste!" She smiled as Gabriel started leading her towards Adrien's room. "I didn't expect to run into you today. Do you work from home?"
"Yes I do." He smiled gently. "Of course there are things that force me to leave, such as fashion shows, corrections for dresses, things that only I am able to take care of. I try to do my work from home as much as I can. It lets me be closer to my son and protect him. With all of these supervillains running around it comforts me to be at home where I can keep him from harm."
"That's sweet." Marinette smiled. "Adrien is really sweet and kinda you know. You raised him well."
"I'm afraid that's all his mother," Gabriel replied. "I was busy but tried my best to spend time with him. His mother was the one always with him until she went missing. She taught him everything, and up until last year she taught him from home. I merely kept it up until it was clear to me that he would never be happy with home schooling."
"I'm glad you let him come to school." Marinette smiled gently, thinking about him. "Adrien is amazing to have in classes. He's sweet and he's kind and he's so thoughtful. I've never met anyone so selfless. I want to get to know him better but I never get a chance to spend much time with him." Gabriel could easily recognize the look on her face. It made him smile, he remembered another beautiful young woman with one such a look on her face.
"You're very different from others who he brings," he noted.
"What?" She turned to him with a confused look on her face. "Did you say something Mr. Agreste?"
"Nothing. So, why were you in the kitchen?"
Adrien was surprised to see both his father and Marinette were coming into his room.
"You let your friend get lost," Gabriel chuckled. "Perhaps you should've gone with her to the kitchen when she retrieved her bag."
"Father?!" He looked back and forth between his father and Marinette, surprised that not only was he standing there, in his room, but he was with Marinette, a girl he was in love with, and his father was smiling.
"Sorry Adrien," said Marinette. "I got lost and literally ran into your father."
"You didn't tell me you were going to have a guest," said Gabriel. "I'm glad it's at least such a creative individual." He gave them both a wave. "I'll be in my office. If you need me then you can call me." He walked out the door.
"Your dad is really nice," said Marinette as she sat down on his bed with him, pulling out her homework. "He complimented my designs! He even offered me an internship!"
"Seriously?" He looked towards the door. "My father offered you an internship? He's usually not so nice to people he doesn't know well." He sat down on the bed and loosely hugged his knees. "It's really weird to see him act like that."
"Something wrong?" Marinette frowned, gently placing her hand close to him as her palm laid against the bed. "Did I do something wrong? If you don't want me to take the internship I won't. It might be weird to see someone you go to school with and don't talk to much on a regular basis during summer break."
"No that's a great idea," he said with a smile and a wave of his hands. "I didn't mean to make you think you shouldn't do it. My father's a very hard man to impress so I think you should definitely take it!"
"But something's still wrong." She smiled at him. "Look, I know we don't really know each other well yet, but I want you to know that you can still talk to me about things. I mean if you don't want to then it's okay, but I'm here. I'm not going anywhere any time soon."
"It's just," he sighed letting go of his knees and letting his back hit the headboard as he stared at the ceiling, "it's weird that he talked to you so easily, and offered you a job. I can barely get him to spend any time with me." He looked at her. "No matter what he's almost always so wrapped up in his own problems. He's really changed. I mean he wasn't father of the year before, but we always had dinner together every night and always ate lunch together at least once a week and he used to help me with my lessons. Ever since my mom went missing I just, I just… never get to see him."
"Oh Adrien." Marinette gave him a sympathetic look. "Have you told him any of this?"
"Why would I," Adrien asked. "I'm my father's perfect son. He expects me to do everything he asks without question and be his perfect son. I'm not allowed to complain to him or talk about anything unless he initiates the conversation. At least that's how it's been since Mom died."
"You have to talk to him. I feel like a lot of problems could be fixed if you just communicated with your father." Marinette hesitated, but gently laid her hand over his as a comforting gesture. "If you want to spend more time with your father then you need to let him know. How else is he going to know how you feel? Your father isn't psychic, and just like all relationships, even family ones need communication to work. Sometimes my parents get so busy with work that it feels like they forgot about me but I always talk to them about it and it helps. You need to talk with your father and tell him about how you feel. You said it's been like this since your mom disappeared?" He nodded. "Then talk to him about that. Say that it's been hard for you too without her and that you really need him around. He needs to be reminded that you're grieving too, and that his way may be isolation, but you need company and comfort."
"Marinette you're always so creative at figuring out problems," he said with a smile, quickly holding her hand before pulling away and adjusting his seat. "So fractals in geometry, we're still doing that project in French, and then my sheets said we were talking about electron structures. Which one do you wanna start on first?"
Marinette was talking with her mother on the phone as she walked. It was getting dark out, and her mother seemed upset.
"I'm sorry mom," said Marinette, "we were just doing homework and we lost track of the time! No I wasn't on a secret date. I promise, if I ever do manage to get a date you'll be the first person to know, even before Alya!"
"That's not why I'm upset," her mother replied. "I knew you were stopping at someone's house to drop off homework, but I was worried sick! If you want to stay at someone's house and do homework there that's fine. You know you have my complete and total trust, but I just need you to let me know. That's why you have your phone. Otherwise I'm going to think something bad happened!"
"You're right," said Marinette. "This is my fault and I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stay so long, but Adrien asked me to."
"Well next time call me," said her mother. "Dinner will be ready when you get home. I love you."
"Love you too Mom. See you soon." They both hung up, making Marinette sigh as Tikki came out of her bag and flew next to her. "I messed up Tikki. I totally forgot to call my Mom and let her know what was going on, and I was so busy paying attention to Adrien and working on homework that I missed her phone calls!"
"Everyone makes mistakes Marinette," said Tikki, "but you need to work on not letting Adrien take up all your attention. You can't let him distract you, especially since he has distracted you as Ladybug before! The world depends on you Marinette, and you need to remember that."
"I know." She sighed. "But Adrien was so different today. I kinda liked seeing this newer, more open side of him. I hope I get to see more of that."
Adrien knocked on the door of his father's office.
"Who's there?"
"Father, it's me," he said after a few moments. "I was hoping maybe we could talk."
"Come in." Adrien opened the door, watching his father work hard on some papers as he sat at his desk. "Is it important? Do you think we'll need to cancel your shoots for tomorrow as well? If you're still not feeling well then I'll have Natalie cancel them. Your health is more important than shoots."
"It's not that," he said as he sat down in the chair in front of the desk. "Actually I'm feeling a lot better. Whatever soup Marinette made me, I think she called it chicken noodle soup, it's helped me feel a lot better."
"That's good," Gabriel replied. "From what I've seen she's incredibly creative and quite a sweet girl, even if there was that strange book incident. After all, not only did she bring you your homework, but she cooked for you."
"She's pretty amazing," Adrien agreed with a smile before shaking his head, "but that's not what I'm here to talk about, even if Marinette did help me gather my courage to come talk."
"Gather your courage?" Gabriel stopped what he was doing to look at his son. "I'm your father Adrien. You can talk to me whenever I have the time."
"That's just it," Adrien exclaimed. "You never have the time anymore! Even when you're home, which is most of the time, you still don't spend time with me! You don't eat dinner with me, you never ask me how my day went, you didn't even spend time with me on my birthday this year!" He stood up, throwing his arm out. "That was my first birthday without Mom! She's been gone well over a year but this isn't helping! I get it, Marinette told me to understand that you're still grieving, but I just-" he put his hand on his face, trying not to cry, "I miss her so much Father. I miss hearing her voice, I miss her hugs, I miss when she used to kiss me goodnight, but sometimes it doesn't feel like she's the only one gone. It feels like you left with her. You haven't been the same since she left and that you're still grieving loosing her after that accident, but I'm grieving her too! Sometimes, with how often you're gone I feel like I'm gonna loose you too! Do you even care how I'm feeling during all this? It's been well over a year and it hasn't just felt like I lost my mother, but my father too." Gabriel was silent for several moments before standing up and wrapping his arms around Adrien, holding his son closer.
"I had no idea," he said softly. "I'm sorry Adrien. I thought you'd want the distance from me. I thought you blamed me for what happened. I couldn't find her, I couldn't save her."
"I don't blame you," said Adrien as he hugged his father back. "You didn't know that would happen. I never blamed you, not even for a moment. Please, go back to being my father. I want to spend time with you."
"I'll do my best," Gabriel promised. Adrien felt such an incredible amount of relief from finally getting that off his chest. He relaxed against his father, a peaceful smile on his face.
The next morning, Marinette woke up feeling like she had two rocks lodged up her nose.
"Ugh, I feel awful." She dragged herself out of bed and checked her reflection, to see that her nose was red and runny, her eyes were puffy and her skin was paler than normal. "Oh no, how can I be sick?!"
"It's very hard for a Ladybug to get sick," Tikki snickered, "but not impossible. Only if she ends up interacting with someone specific."
"Who?"
"It's a secret." Tikki winked at her. "Kwamis have their secrets too Marinette."
Adrien walked into the library, sitting next to Nino and across from an empty chair where Marinette would usually be.
"Where's Marinette?"
"Didn't you hear," said Alya as she showed Adrien her phone. "You gave her your cold. She's as sick as a dog so her parents are keeping her home."
"That stinks," said Adrien as he pulled out his book. "I wanted to thank her. She gave me some really good advice regarding my father yesterday. It helped a lot."
"Sounds like Marinette," said Alya. "She's always trying to help everyone."
"I know," Adrien replied with a smile. "It's what makes Marinette Marinette."
Song Of Hope: No Akuma attack today, but some positive character development for Adrien! I'm hoping to get to develop him more and more as the story goes on!