Summary
Chloe starts a bar fight. Juleka faces a dilemma. Luka returns to the club.
Adrien sat at the bar, quietly observing the variety of customers he was hosting this evening.
It didn't make sense to him. Everyone was going about their business like normal, like it was just another night to drink and party and dance. Like the world wasn't rapidly collapsing around them. Did they not know that the world had stopped yesterday, the moment Marinette had walked into this building? Did they not know that their every move was being watched by forces ultimately controlled by Hawkmoth? Did they not know that the city's hero, the man Adrien himself had murdered, was alive and in Paris tonight?
Of course not.
Adrien shook away his train of thought as he watched Lila Rossi enter the club, her arm draped around some helpless tourist she was feigning interest in. The man was clearly already quite drunk, and seemed hopelessly enamored with the beautiful Italian woman who had taken an interest in him.
Lila's date careened awkwardly, accidentally jostling her sideways so she bumped into Alya, who was working again tonight. Lila didn't bother to apologize and instead waved Alya off, pulling her date toward the dance floor.
Adrien chuckled under his breath at the sight of Alya quickly checking all her pockets to make sure Lila hadn't made off with any of her possessions in another pick-pocketing spree. Still, it gave him pause as he considered that Lila being stressed enough to resume her petty theft habits may mean his father's operational pace had increased.
"What are you thinking about?"
Kagami's voice surprised him. He turned around to see her not even looking at him, completely absorbed with typing something into her phone.
"Thinking?" Adrien asked jokingly. "They don't pay me to think. I'm just here to look pretty."
Kagami scoffed but did not look up from her screen.
"Then you shouldn't crease your eyebrows like that, you'll get wrinkles."
"Ahh, so she's captain of the police force and a dermatologist."
This comment finally got her to shoot a glare in Adrien's direction.
"I am not captain of the police force," she spat under her breath, clearly perturbed.
"Ah, I see," Adrien agreed facetiously. "So I suppose I should thank Officer Raincomprix then, for the thorough search of my club today?"
Kagami made a show of rolling her eyes and took a seat next to him at the bar, slipping her phone back into her pocket.
"You can't have been surprised, you know what my team is investigating," Kagami reminded him as she waved at Zoe to get her a drink.
"Yes well that was some going-over your men gave my place this afternoon. We just got it cleaned up in time to open," Adrien complained.
"I told my mother we would not find the file here. But I also told my men to be especially destructive," Kagami grinned. "You know how that impresses her."
Zoe stopped near them briefly to hand Kagami her regular drink, giving the woman a fake smile that would put even Chloe to shame. Adrien tried to return what he hoped was an apologetic look, but he knew he would get an earful about Kagami later, after they closed.
"Adrien, do you have the dossier?" Kagami casually asked after Zoe had left them.
Adrien looked at her for a moment before answering.
"Kagami, as an officer of the law, do you support the current administration?"
Kagami sighed.
"Serves me right for asking a direct question," she conceded. "The subject is closed."
She took a sip of her drink and glanced over his shoulder at something behind him before opening a new line of questioning.
"So, you and Bourgeois?"
"I told you Kagami, we broke up. If you want to shoot your shot, you're more than welcome to."
"Well, it looks like I may be a little late," Kagami told him with a wry look on her face.
Adrien turned to see what she was looking at. Sure enough, Chloe was at the other end of the bar, her body pressed up against a tall, muscular man that Adrien recognized as a member of Tomoe's personal security team from Japan. He was even still wearing his work blazer with the company logo embroidered on the shoulder.
"Was your special task force not enough, Tomoe had to call in reinforcements?" Adrien teased.
"As you've already pointed out, the Tsurugis are nothing, if not thorough," Kagami replied, sounding a bit annoyed. "My mother thinks there are threats I have not accounted for, but who knows, Chloe here may be a threat neither of us saw coming."
Adrien smiled at her joke. His and Chloe's relationship was superficial at best, but he knew Chloe was a force to be reckoned with. Not being from Paris, this poor man she was with had no idea what he was getting himself into.
Kagami's phone buzzed. She quickly pulled it out and frowned before standing up to dismiss herself.
"You can put that on my tab," she told him, gesturing to her unfinished drink as she moved to exit the club so she could take the call.
Very funny, Adrien thought to himself. As if Kagami ever paid her tab.
He was left alone at the bar again, and he made a conscious effort to stare at a point in his own glass, trying to prevent himself from looking over at Chloe and her date. He shouldn't be affected by it, he told himself. He broke up with her, after all.
"Zoe!" Chloe called out to her sister behind the bar.
"French seventy-fives," her companion ordered in English.
"Put up a whole row of 'em, Zoe." Chloe continued in English excitedly. "Starting here and ending here"
Adrien could see in his peripheral vision that Chloe had her arms spread to her full wingspan, indicating the huge number of shots she wanted Zoe to pour.
"We will begin with two," her date corrected, trying to reel her in.
Apparently Adrien wasn't the only one listening in on the pair's night out, because a stranger's voice rang out in protest, clearly audible to everyone at the bar.
"Bien sûr, Queen Wasp fraie avec les gens comme celui-ci."
"À quoi tu t'attaques?" Chloe shouted back angrily.
"Ce n'est pas surprenant…" the bystander continued.
"Ce n'est pas ton affaire!" Chloe interrupted.
Her date, who apparently did not speak French, had enough of the argument.
"What did you say? Repeat it again in English!" he shouted, raising his voice above the other two.
"What I said is none of your business!" the patron shouted back.
"I will make it my business!"
"Stop!" Chloe interjected hopelessly, trying to pull her date away from the confrontation.
"boudin," the frenchman spat.
The Tsurugi employee raised his fist as the other patron prepared to defend himself. Several other people near by exclaimed their surprise and moved out of the way.
Adrien decided this had gone far enough and got up to address the man who had disturbed Chloe.
"Monsieur, I don't like disturbances in my place. Either lay off politics or get out," he told him.
The man shot Chloe another dirty look, but thought better of arguing with the club owner. He grumbled something under his breath and stormed off, letting the conflict dissolve.
"What on earth was he on about?" the man asked Adrien. Chloe tried to answer for him but Adrien cut her off.
"He just had too much to drink, don't worry about it," Adrien assured him. "You two enjoy your evening."
Adrien left them without giving Chloe a second glance. Whatever he was feeling right now, it wasn't fair to bring her into his mess. Their failed relationship aside, he was more concerned with what caused the disturbance. The heckler had said he wasn't surprised to see Queen Wasp with the Tsurugi employee. What did he mean by that? Chloe had not been akumatized into Queen Wasp in years, and Tsurugi Corp should have no public association with Hawkmoth, at least if Lila was doing her job right.
Adrien was glad Kagami had left the room before the fight broke out. The last thing he needed was Tomoe telling his father that the club was becoming an alleged safe haven for anti-Hawkmoth rhetoric to spread.
He pulled Zoe to the side and told her if any similar disturbances arose to call security right away. Zoe tried to protest, saying she knew the man who started the fight and he just got caught up in the moment.
"My club is not a debate hall," Adrien asserted. "If he wants to voice his opinion, he can take it to Twitter."
Zoe nodded in understanding, clearly not wanting to argue with him while there were customers in earshot.
"And if anyone asks you," Adrien whispered so only Zoe could hear him, "you don't know him."
"Kagami, the situation is not as under control as you may believe," Tomoe's harsh voice droned out of the phone speaker.
"Mother, I assure you I'm doing everything I can, but I cannot regulate the feelings of the people with only a task force. If Rossi was doing her job right-"
"Do not blame Ms. Rossi for your own failings," Tomoe interrupted. "The resistance is building support again. We have the data to prove that."
"Mother, I can assure you, Ladybug is still quite unpopular in Paris," Kagami rebuked. "She abandoned them, they have no sympathy for her."
"Perhaps that is true, but there are still plenty who would support her, if only because it means opposing Hawkmoth," Tomoe continued. "Those people are looking for a leader."
"And you think that leader is Mr. Couffaine?" Kagami asked tentatively.
"I highly suspect so," Tomoe confirmed. "We can't risk him leaving Paris, but we also can't risk him staying."
Kagami pressed her lips tightly as she processed the implication.
"I see what you mean"
Juleka stood alone in a dark corner of the nightclub, her hair drawn over her face to prevent her from being recognized. Rose had insisted on coming tonight. Felix had told them it was worth a shot, but Juleka was hesitant to believe him. She wasn't sure what it was, but something about him made her think he was untrustworthy. Everything he said sounded like a carefully worded half-truth, like a genie tricking his victim into a bad wish.
She scrolled through her phone absentmindedly, trying to look natural as she saw her old friend Alya Césaire approaching. It wasn't until Alya started taking a drink order from the couple seated at the table nearby that Juleka realized she also knew the customers.
Marc and Nathaniel chatted excitedly with Alya, catching up since their last meeting, and discussing their future plans. The two men were about to move to America, Juleka overheard. Alya congratulated Nathaniel on a job he got with a comic book publisher. Marc was apparently still working on his English, but had landed a remote copyediting job in French that he would be able to do from the States.
"Marc, you're so Parisian! I never could have imagined you moving to the US," Alya teased.
"Yes, well," Marc seemed hesitant to voice his thoughts. "Nat and I have been discussing this for a while."
"We love Paris," Nathaniel jumped in, "but we think it will be better for our creative pursuits to be in a less… emotional environment."
"Ah, I see," Alya agreed, rushing to change the topic. She, like everyone else in Paris, didn't want to address the constant looming threat of random akumitizations. Better just to not speak of it, that's what everyone thought was proper these days, wasn't it?
Juleka kept her eyes glued to her phone, but began walking away quickly as if she had just got a message to meet someone. Hopefully her three former classmates wouldn't notice her.
Just as she thought she had successfully escaped, she ran headfirst into another person.
"Woah there," he said, startled. "Juleka, I almost didn't recognize you."
Juleka looked up to see she had run straight into Adrien Agreste. He wore a somber look that almost matched her own. Marinette being back in town must have really gotten to him. She had been shocked herself when he told her this morning in front of Felix's office that her brother was back in town. She hadn't talked to Marinette or Luka in months, and had no idea they were planning a trip back to Paris.
"Are you alright?" Adrien asked.
"I- I'm-" Juleka freezes for a moment. "I'm fine."
"Alright then, well I won't bother you," Adrien says apologetically. "Tell Rose I say hello."
He turned to leave her, but on an instinct Juleka reach out to stop him.
He paused and gave her a concerned look. Suddenly she felt like she was back in collège, sitting on the floor of the boiler room as Adrien's kind green eyes comforted her. He had always only wanted to help.
She wanted to tell him everything— about her fight with Luka, about Rose's health worsening, about the experimental treatment in Brazil that they could never afford, but all the words welled up in her throat.
Juleka steeled herself. This was not the time nor the place. But she had to know. She needed an assurance.
"You know Kagami Tsurugi, don't you?" Juleka asked.
Adrien looked a bit confused by the question, but answered in the affirmative.
"How would you describe her character?" Juleka pressed, unable to hide the slight tremble in her voice.
"Well, she is a businesswoman," Adrien answered diplomatically.
"Yes, I know, she has made me a business proposition," Juleka explained. "I wanted to know, will she keep her end of the deal?"
Adrien gave her an unreadable look before answering.
"She always has."
"Thank you, Adrien. That's all I need to know."
"Are you sure everything is ok Juleka?" Adrien asked again. He seemed to be genuinely concerned.
"Yes, of course," Juleka tried to assure him. Even she thought it sounded unconvincing though.
"It's just— If someone loved you very much, so that your happiness was the only thing she wanted, and she did a bad thing…" Juleka trailed off, her eyes brimming with tears she was trying to hold back. "Could you forgive her?"
"Nobody ever loved me that much," Adrien replied flatly.
They both stood there for a moment, in their own moment of silence, until Adrien finally broke it.
"Well, everyone in Paris has a problem, yours may work out. If you'll excuse me."
He pat Juleka on the shoulder and strode off toward the entrance. Juleka followed his gaze and saw what had drawn him away so quickly. Marinette and Luka had arrived and were chatting with Alya near the entrance. Adrien had said they came by last night. She should have expected they could come again.
Luka didn't know she was here, and she wanted to keep it that way. Juleka silently slipped into the shadows, making her way along the edge of the dimly lit room to the entrance to the VIP lounge.
Juleka carefully made her way over to the roulette table where Rose was playing. The woman's small frame stood in stark contrast to the tall men who were also at the table making bets. Juleka noticed that Rose's stack of betting chips was much smaller than she what had started the night with.
She had known this was a bad idea. Of course Rose wanted to give it a try— she was always too optimistic on the outcomes of these kinds of things. But now seeing the result, Juleka was more convinced than ever that Felix had only encouraged them to come here to waste the last bit of their money, so they would have no choice but to take Kagami's deal.
"Do you wish to place another bet?" she heard Alix ask Rose.
"No, I guess not," Rose said halfheartedly, looking at her tiny stack of chips.
She promised. Juleka told herself. Kagami promised she wouldn't hurt Luka. And Adrien said she always keeps her word. Juleka felt nauseous. She tried to swallow away the bad taste in her mouth, but her throat was too dry. She didn't want to betray her brother. But seeing the love of her life slowly wasting away, her light slowly fading… Juleka couldn't bear it. If sharing a few details with Kagami could save Rose's life, wasn't that the right choice to make?
Juleka moved closer to Rose and hugged her from behind. She couldn't lose her.
"It's alright," Rose assured her. "Let's go."
But before she could collect her chips from the board, a quiet voice interrupted them.
"Have you tried twenty-two tonight?" Adrien muttered under his breath. When had he come in?
He gave Rose a pointed look, and gestured for her to move her chips back to the table. Juleka visibly tensed, her anger rising as she realized Adrien was in on the scheme with his cousin to scam them out of the last of their money.
Rose noticed her partner's shift in emotion immediately, and squeezed Juleka's hand in comforting support. She moved her chips to the space labeled 22, and Alix spun the roulette wheel.
"No more bets, even and pass," Alix called out.
Juleka couldn't take her eyes off the spinning wheel. As it slowed to a halt, her mouth opened in shock.
"Number twenty-two!"
Alix pushed a large stack of chips onto the space. Rose reached for it, but Adrien muttered again,
"Leave it there."
The wheel span again, and this time it felt as if the whole club was watching, perhaps even the whole world. Juleka noticed several guests had stopped their own game to watch, and even Alya had popped in from the main floor and was staring straight at their table.
"Number twenty-two!" Alix called again. She pushed an even larger stack of chips toward Rose.
Adrien leaned in to Juleka's ear and whispers,
"Cash it in, and don't come back."
Juleka quickly nodded and helped Rose to collect the winnings off the table. She could hear murmurs and speculation all around them, but it didn't matter now.
"Are you sure this place is honest?" she heard a customer ask Alya.
"Honest? As honest as the day's long" she assured him.
"how are we doing tonight?" Adrien asked Alix in a low voice.
"A few thousand less than I thought we'd be at," Alix replied, sounding annoyed.
"Don't worry, I know you're still the best croupier in town," Adrien assured her.
"Hmmph," Alix huffed. "Or the only one willing to put up with your antics."
"That too," Adrien smiled.
He left Alix to her work and headed back out to the main club. Before he even made it to the bar, he was wrapped in a jarring embrace from the tiny Rose.
"Adrien I—" Rose could barely get words out through her excited breaths. "Thank you so much."
"No need to thank me," Adrien insisted as he awkwardly peeled her off of him. "You just got lucky tonight."
Juleka gave him a knowing nod and took Rose's hand to lead her away.
"Can I get you a cup of coffee boss?" Alya jumped in and slapped him on the back as the two girls departed.
"No thanks," Adrien waved her off.
But Alya wasn't done yet. She rushed over to Zoe and whispered in her ear. Zoe's face immediately shifted to a look of shock, then pride.
"No way!" she exclaimed, turning to beam at Adrien.
She grabbed his shoulders from across the bar and nearly pulled him over the counter so she could hug him.
"Boss, you've done a beautiful thing," she exclaimed when she released him.
"You crazy American," Adrien grumbled, rubbing his shoulders in mock hurt as he sat down on the barstool.
Zoe poured him a drink and slid it his way with a grin before she rushed off to attend to other customers.
Adrien had only just gotten settled at the bar when he saw Kagami approaching. He was surprised to see she was still on the phone.
"Please come to my office in the morning, we can handle our business then," she stated loudly, holding the phone microphone near her mouth so she could be heard over the noise of the venue.
"Of course, I'll be there at six," Lila's voice came from the other end of the phone. She must have abandoned her impromptu date already and left the club for the night.
Kagami rolled her eyes at Lila's eagerness and gave Adrien a look.
"I'll be there at ten," Kagami told her and promptly ended the call.
"Working hard, I see," Adrien greeted her.
"And you as well," Kagami replied. "Looks like Ms. Lavillant struck big tonight**"**
Adrien said nothing to this, instead opting to take a slow sip of his drink.
"Strange," Kagami continued. "Alix is usually very talented at keeping the House advantage."
"Indeed," Adrien passively agreed.
"But perhaps not so strange," Kagami continued. She briefly glanced toward the DJ booth, and the table nearby where Marinette and Luka were seated. "As I suspected, you're a rank sentimentalist."
"Yeah, why?" Adrien pressed her, putting his drink down.
"You promised you wouldn't interfere."
"Gabriel never told me I couldn't give gambling advice in my own club."
"Oh did Felix give you that idea?"
"I don't make a habit of taking advice from my cousin, do you?"
Kagami didn't respond at first, instead staring intently at Adrien, trying to read him.
"I forgive you this time." She finally said. "But if you truly want out of this side of the business, as you claim, you and your cousin should keep your focus on the lifestyle brand."
Adrien simply smiled at her and stood up, grabbing his drink to leave.
"Yes ma'am," he drawled sarcastically, giving her a two-fingered salute and making his exit.
Adrien had only just returned to the VIP lounge when Luka approached him. He was surprised to see that Marinette was not by his side. The man's presence was still jarring to him. He couldn't reconcile the image of the of the bad-boy pop star with the hero he spent so many years fighting.
"Adrien," Luka greeted him. "I was wondering if I could have a word?"
"Of course," Adrien replied, a little hesitant.
"Is there somewhere more private we could go, to discuss?" Luka asked.
Adrien took a deep breath, and nodded to the back door.
"Come up to my office."