Thank you all for your continued support, lovely people! I hope you continue to enjoy. This is an angsty chapter to send you in to the weekend hehehehe
...I am not good at writing Felix and Kagami's voices...sorry if they're a bit OOC. At some point Imma go back and do some revisions and try to fix that.
Chapter 7
'Mind the gap...'
The overhead speakers sang, the doors of the Eurostar 'chunnel' train humming as they enclosed their passengers inside.
Adrien tried his best not to draw attention to himself in front of the other passengers, but he was forced to lean heavily on both Felix and Kagami, one arm around each of their shoulders, as he limped his way back to the seating area. The three of them had stopped to purchase a few disguises, since they collectively posessed the most famous faces in Europe (maybe the world) at the moment. They each had oversized sunglasses, Felix opting for a cashmere beanie and turtleneck sweater (since he had to look dapper even in casual dress) while Adrien and Kagami opted for hoodies.
Even trying to be quiet, he couldn't suppress a groan as he lowered himself into a seat near the back of the train, where he could lean up against the back wall and elevate his ankle on the next seat over. His vision went spotty for a moment as he struggled to catch his breath, both his cousin and friend having jostled his tender ribs quite a bit without trying during their transport.
"We should wrap your ankle and ice it if possible," Kagami stated, taking stock of the situation as she surveyed the pitiful sight splayed on the seat in front of her. She looked over at her boyfriend. "Do you think you could find any somewhere?"
Felix scoffed, his arms folded. "I'll see if I can manage it. Without getting accosted by Adrien's fans in the process." He stalked away, leaving the two of them.
"What did Ladybug say when she found out you were injured?" Kagami ventured, placing her belongings down on the table and taking stock of their situation.
Adrien grunted and shifted his weight, trying to take some of the pressure off his ribs. "Didn't tell her."
Her eyes widened. "You didn't!?"
"I'm still trying to figure this out, okay?" Adrien winced. "Once we get to Paris, I'll have to either give my miraculous back to her or find a new holder. Someone I know I could trust."
Their eyes met for an uncomfortably long time as each wondered if they were thinking the same thing.
"I mean," he bit his lip nervously. "I could give it to you."
Kagami stared in shock for a moment before shaking herself. "What? No. I couldn't wear the Black Cat miraculous! I mean, I've worn the dragon before. It was great. But you and Ladybug are a team! You understand one another like nobody else could. Besides, you should be there to confront your father. It wouldn't be right of Ladybug to decide his fate without you."
"Decide his fate?! He's my father!" Adrien winced and paled further, if possible, as the loud exclamation caused a sharp stab in his chest. Quieter, he continued, "I'm the last person who should be deciding his fate. I don't want to decide his fate, I just want-" he stopped as he realized he couldn't say out loud what he really wanted without sounding stupid.
Kagami's eyes narrowed. "What? An apology? Do you want him to change? To be a good father?"
Why hesitate to speak when you have a Kagami to narrate all your stupid thoughts out loud, Adrien thought with annoyance.
"Don't you want the same for your mother?" he argued weakly.
"I hate to tell you this, but none of those things are going to happen because both of our parents are evil," Kagami's words cut like a sharp knife, so cleanly he hardly felt any pain. "They locked us in a prison, Adrien. They stole our identities against our will and spread lies about us to the whole world, lies that hurt the ones we love most. And while I'm hardly privy to my mother's accounts, I'm sure they made millions off of us."
"They're still our parents." Adrien's voice was quiet, weighed down by the heavy truth of her words. "We can't just fight them like they mean nothing to us."
Kagami barked a humorless laugh. "WE mean nothing to THEM," she insisted. "They've already shown us they won't hesitate to hurt us if we get in the way of whatever their end goal is. With or without the Miraculous, they're dangerous. The sooner you give up on false hope, the better chance you have of surviving what's to come."
Satisfied with having said her piece, Kagami stared at the ring on her left hand, the one with her family crest. Felix had told her it was the original.
There were still many questions that were unanswered. Why had her mother given her a fake before, she wondered?
To test her loyalty? What was even her end goal?
"I'll think about your offer," she ventured quietly.
Adrien slumped a little further against the barely-cushioned wall. His eyes were starting to develop a glassy look, partly from the pain and partly from the exhaustion of trying to manage it. "Just-you have to promise me you won't tell Felix I asked you."
Her eyes narrowed. "If you want me to become Chat Noir, you cannot expect me to lie about it to someone I care about."
His eyes flickered in anger, something she rarely saw in him. "I trust you! I don't trust him. Kagami, Felix is the one who stole Ladybug's yo-yo and turned in all the Miraculous to Hawkmoth. Regardless of whether Hawkmoth is my-m-my father-or not, Felix once believed in Hawkmoth enough to almost defeat Ladybug and I on his behalf. The other Kwamis are being held hostage because of him. If he knew you had the Miraculous of the cat, if there was ANY hint of loyalty still between him and Hawkmoth, all it would take was waiting until you were asleep, or even distracted. He knows enough about magic and slight of hand to take things off of people without them knowing it."
Kagami swallowed hard as she looked down at her hand again.
Felix had somehow obtained a ring he never should have had access to. He didn't even know her mother.
They HAD only met just over a week ago. She sighed.
"There are things I trust Felix with, and there are things I know I cannot. You're right, Adrien. We've only known each other for a short time. As much as I want him to be trustworthy, and I have faith that he will be, I cannot tell him if I become holder of the cat miraculous any more than you can tell Ladybug, or even Marinette, your identity. But, if you're going to turn it over to me, you should do it sooner than later. If there's any chance you're right about Felix, he now knows you're Chat Noir. And if he's as good a thief as you say, you are vulnerable to him stealing it from you as long as he's around."
Adrien was about to agree, but they were interrupted by Felix's timely return.
Under his jacket, he could feel little drops of wetness where Plagg was burrowing into his shirt.
His kwamii didn't want to say goodbye.
Just the thought of it made Adrien want to start crying too, but he knew they didn't have a choice. He just hoped they'd be reunited after-if Ladybug still trusted him-if his father really was who Felix said he was-if she found out he was Adrien Agreste.
A protein bar landed on the table in front of him and he became vaguely aware that Felix and Kagami were dividing up snacks from the breakfast bar. His stomach churned. Pain was making him feel nauseated. He knew he should say thank-you but he knew there was no way he could bring himself to eat.
"Drink something, at least, cousin," Felix was encouraging him. Again, there he was, being irritatingly nice and acting like he was trustworthy. "You don't want to end up in worse shape than you already are."
More than anything, Adrien just wanted to lie down somewhere. Maybe take like, five or six more Advils and wake up after this nightmare was over.
But it wouldn't be over until he'd taken care of quite a few things first, so he forced himself to take a few sips from the offered water bottle.
He realized they were both watching him and flushed in embarrassment. Felix was visibly upset. "Hey. Could I-uh-talk to you in private for a moment?"
Alarm bells rang in Adrien's head, the memory of what he'd JUST talked about with Kagami fresh in his mind. He took Felix's offered hand to help him to his feet, and hobbled after him into the bathroom, but not before locking eyes with Kagami knowingly.
She nodded. Adrien knew she really liked Felix, but that she'd do what she had to if this was a trap to take his Miraculous. Above all vices, Kagami hated dishonesty.
(::)
"You look like death incarnate right now," Felix tsk'ed, wetting a paper towel and going to work cleaning the dried blood from Adrien's face and neck, perfectly comfortable in his cousin's personal space as though their being identical made them literally the same person.
Adrien shot him a look, fumbling for the towel and attempting to finish the job himself. His fingers felt weak and uncoordinated, and his face felt almost numb, like he couldn't tell where body actually began and ended even though he was looking at it in the mirror like he always did. "What'd you wanna talk about," he mumbled, too tired to bother making a full sentence at this point.
Felix had the decency to look ashamed. "Well...it's just that...I know you still don't trust me..."
"Whatever gave you that idea."
"...And I just wanted to come clean about everything. Without Kagami around. Because-I don't want you to think I'm just trying to win her heart by treating you kindly."
"Mmhmm."
"The times my mother and I would come and visit you used to be some of my favorites."
"Ironic."
"If I had known you were Chat Noir, I-"
Adrien turned to face him, his eyes wide and angry. "Do NOT say that out loud, please?!"
Felix froze. "Sorry!"
"I'm serious, okay?"
"Okay! I get it! I won't do it again!"
Adrien deflated a little, averting his flaming glare to allow Felix to continue. Fortunately, there hadn't been anyone else in the bathroom at that moment.
Felix sighed. "Anyway, IF I had known I could TRUST you, and-and maybe Ladybug, I might have come to you for help. But I didn't even know how to get you-her-attention, and-let's just say I've spent most of my life having to take matters into my own hands if I wanted something done. Even after MY father died, I needed the Peacock if I was going to be free of YOURS. When I started putting things together, my lovely uncle threatened to snap me out of existence if I didn't keep my mouth shut. I had to offer him something that would be worth his while."
"He-" Adrien paled significantly. "He threatened you?"
Felix glowered into the sink beside him, as if Gabriel's slimy face had been at the bottom. "He would've done the same to you if you'd bothered to do any snooping around. But why would you?" he shrugged sympathetically. "I never investigated MY father. I just wanted to get away from him as much as I possibly could. That's why my mom convinced him to send me to boarding school. It was the only place where he didn't bother to harass me, because he didn't even have to look at me."
Adrien mustered what was perhaps the last ounce of patience he had left. His ankle REALLY hurt and it made Felix's sob story difficult to pay much attention to. "I'm sorry," he said genuinely.
"My point is," Felix explained, noting the bloody towels Adrien still had in his hand and grabbing them for the trash, "I actually want to help you defeat him. I have everything I want now, except my favorite cousin. And now that I know it's YOU," he drew Adrien's arm over his shoulders, helping him take more weight off his ankle as they started to move forward, "I promise I won't do anything more behind your back."
Adrien stared at him for a long moment, trying to catch his breath by the door before they left. "Do you have proof that my father is Monarch? Proof that you could show me-and Ladybug?"
Felix scowled a little. "I HAD proof, I had a video of your house when I figured out where he hides when he's transformed. Then I lost it in my hurry to get out of your house when he found me. But I remember how to get in. I memorized his passcodes. I can show both of you."
Adrien nodded, groaning as they started moving again. "'s good enough for now, I guess."
Kagami had stretched out on the seats, waiting for their return appearing casual but in reality, she'd been tensed to jump up and run in if there had been any sign of trouble. She was shaking up a water bottle with liquid IV tablets.
"We have about an hour and a half until we arrive in Paris, so drink up."
Adrien found a bottle forced into his hand along with a small handful of pills, the latter of which he gratefully swallowed down with a few sips of the gritty lemon-lime water. He hissed when Kagami grasped his leg, lifting it onto the bench so it was at least somewhat elevated.
She slid the leg of his jeans upward, with some difficulty since the ankle had already swollen over twice its original size. Adrien stuffed a corner of his own hoodie into his mouth to give him something to bite down on instead of screaming.
Kagami took in the situation with her trademark emotionless analysis, which was coming in very handy as Felix stood back away from them a bit with his eyes having gone wide as saucers.
"I think we should ice first and wrap it after about 20 minutes," she determined after a moment.
Adrien could only sit there and not protest as his form of agreement. He would appreciate being as numb as humanly possible for the wrapping part.
"Felix, my love, we're going to need more than what you brought. And a few trash bags."
"On it!" Felix was more than thrilled to get away for a minute and sprinted off to get what she'd asked.
A few minutes later, Adrien's ankle, converse still on to provide what support and compression it could, had been completely surrounded by trash bag-contained ice and while it still throbbed internally, some of the pain started to subside as numbness set in. It was at that point he realized how hard his chest was rattling with every breath, and how out of breath he still felt even though he'd been sitting there for plenty of time.
Kagami steeled her gaze on him. "You need to see a doctor when we get to Paris."
Adrien blinked, debating if talking was worth the oxygen it would require. "H-how?!" he rubbed a shaking hand over his eyes, squeezing them shut. "The-they'll call m-my father as ssoon as I get ad-dmitted."
Realizing he was cold, Kagami checked her watch and saw that 20 minutes had passed. She pulled out an ace bandage from her purse.
Felix, who had returned a while ago, stared at her. "You have an ace bandage in your purse?!"
She shrugged like she wouldn't give it a second thought. "You never know when you might need one during a fencing competition."
Adrien debated watching her wrap but ended up squeezing his eyes shut and pretending he was far away. Marinette-that's what he could dream about. He imagined her lying on a picnic blanket next to him, their hands brushing together, the deepness of her eyes, her melodic laugh, the way her eyelashes flickered when HE made her laugh.
"All done."
And just like before, it was Kagami who ruined the moment.
"T-thanks," he shuddered, trying to will himself to warm up so the shivering didn't continuously jostle his ribcage.
"I guess we could get some sleep," Felix suggested, checking his phone.
Adrien had forgotten they even had phones. As his friends settled on the seat across from him and leaned into one another for some attempt at a nap, he pulled his from the pocket of his jeans. Now that he had WiFi from the train, he scrolled through a few Parisian news articles, relieved to find there was no sign of any recent akuma attacks.
Then he checked his messages.
There were a few from Nino, Alya, Kim, and his other friends from the party who had missed him last night when he didn't show up with Marinette as planned.
He had a couple of missed calls from Nino, too, and a final message that read:
'Dude, I'm so sorry you got sent away, man'
'Marinette made it sound like it was really sudden'
Adrien felt a pang of guilt. It hadn't been THAT sudden. More sudden than he'd been expecting, but he knew he should've told his friends about him leaving days ago.
A sudden sense of anger pierced through his self-deprecating thought. No, it wasn't HIS fault he'd been sent away, and it wasn't his fault he hadn't had time to prepare his friends for it, either. Because his father was MONARCH and he had played all of this exactly the way he wanted, to make things as difficult as possible for Adrien, for Marinette, their relationship, and even his relationships with his friends! Even if he felt guilty for having not told them sooner, he should have had more time! He shouldn't have been sent away AT ALL.
He didn't expect the anger welling up inside of him to lead to more tears, but before he knew it, there were hot tracks running down his face and his vision was blurry as he struggled to keep the sobs controlled enough not to wake his friends or send more tiny daggers through his chest.
Plagg flew out of his jacket for the first time that day. "Adrien!" The kwamii's eyes darted all around as though he had a million thoughts that had been building up all day threatening to burst out of him at any moment.
Not now, Adrien wanted to tell him, if he'd been able to cry, breathe, and speak all at the same time. I can't do this now.
It was all so UNFAIR. He had never been so angry with his father in his whole life, and now instead of doing something about it, all he could do was sit here and cry about how unfair it all was. He shouldn't HAVE to fight his own father. He shouldn't have to figure out what could have possibly possessed him to attack Paris, himself, his own friends and family, relentlessly for over a year. He shouldn't have to because his father SHOULD have been a GOOD PERSON.
Plagg must have realized this even without him speaking, somehow, because instead of going batshit crazy and flying all around the train cursing out Gabriel Agreste and losing his mind, great droplets of kwamii tears started welling up in his own cat-like eyes.
He flew straight to the crook between Adrien's neck and his shoulder, curling up just under his ear, a tiny ball of warmth reminding him that someone was there.