Adrien fiddled with his ring as he sat in the stool next to Marinette at the Louvre. Master Fu stood at the opposite side, and Adrien glanced at the sketch that lay on the easel in front of him. He had never known how talented Master Fu was at art. It wasn't finished enough for Adrien to guess what it was, but the rough outline seemed to take inspiration from the Mona Lisa with a Ladybug twist. Even with his memory erased, Master Fu always wound up back with Ladybug, whether he knew it or not.
His gaze turned to the other side, and Marinette gave him a wide smile. He grinned slightly back, but stared off into space as his mind returned back to what he'd say to his partner.
He could end this war now. That's what Ladybug wanted, and what he wanted too. No more akuma, no more danger and fear. A simple solution that would save Paris and his mother, while also getting the miraculous back to the guardian once it was done. Surely Ladybug would agree with that?
He just had to figure out a time he could leave and tell her. So far it'd been two weeks, and the only time he'd been let out of the house was to help
Marinette and her great uncle (what a coincidence that she's related to the old guardian, Adrien thought).
Well, not just that. Hawkmoth was waiting in a utility closet with the peacock miraculous waiting for Adrien to practice summoning his first full, public sentimonster in - Adrien checked his phone - approximately 10 minutes. He groaned, propping his feet up on the bench and laying his head down on Marinette's lap. He felt her tense up and leaned up slightly to look at her, although she wasn't meeting his eyes.
"Sorry," Adrien said gently, "are you okay if I lean against you?"
"Yep! Yep, yep, no totally cool with it," Marinette stuttered out, still not making eye contact with him. He shifted back down and closed his eyes. The museum was nice and silent today, given Adrien had got them in on a day it was closed to the public. He could have taken a nap there, if his phone hadn't rang only a few minutes later. Adrien stood up, said a quick goodbye to Marinette and Master Fu, and went to go take the call from his father.
"Your boyfriend is quite cute, isn't he?" Master Fu chuckled from behind his easel. Marinette blushed, if that was even possible given how red she already was.
"He's just a friend," she muttered out, before pulling out her own sketchbook to avoid the conversation. Having Adrien here was a good distraction though, especially since even a few moments without him let her mind wander to the whole superhero situation. First, she lost Master Fu a year ago today and now Chat has gone MIA? Could being a guardian get any more difficult?
As if on cue, a sentimonster burst in through the door. Marinette leapt up and grabbed Master Fu so fast that the easel and sketchbook fell and clattered on the floor. Master Fu shouted at first out of confusion, but one look at the giant clock with arms and legs had him running almost as fast as her. They split once they reached the bathrooms, despite Master Fu's reluctance, and Marinette transformed into Ladybug. She ran back into the main room and gauged up her villain for the day. It was an inanimate object that appeared to be almost puppeted by string, which was normally the cue for a sentimonster rather than a loud, human akumatized victim. Not only was the humanish clock horrifying, but the design was shoddy and not like anything she'd seen Mayura or Shadowmoth create.
She had to duck as the clock shot out a laser at her, hitting the bench behind. It flew up, but oddly moved in slow-motion through the air. She guessed that was this sentimonster's superpower: slowing things down in time.
Sliding underneath its feet, she searched for a likely matching akuma victim nearby, but couldn't see or hear anything. The clock wobbled behind her, struggling to turn, and it wasn't difficult for her to knock it flat on its face. While the sentimonster tried to get up, Ladybug started kicking down nearby doors. Surely something - or someone - had to be inside to control this thing, but the Louvre was still empty, save for her, Master Fu, and Adrien.
Adrien! He must be walking around, terrified. She called for him, but still couldn't find him. Distracted with worry, she didn't even notice the sentimonster picking itself up behind her, aiming the sharp, laser-shooting clock hand right at her.
"Wait, wait!" A voice called, bursting out behind a nearby column. There stood the new holder of the peacock miraculous, far shorter than the former wielders but dressed just as intimidating. "Sentimonster, I - uh - release you from life?" the teenager struggled out, wincing at the cliche phrasing. He scrunched his eyes in concentration, and the enemy dissipated before it could hit her.
"Hi, Ladybug," he said, extending a gloved hand towards her, "I'm Paon." He grinned for a few seconds, but the superheroine remained stone-faced and motionless in shock. Paon rubbed the back of his neck, looking away. He wanted to shrink back into the bathroom with his father, but this wasn't exactly a conversation you could walk away from. He turned an even brighter red when Ladybug made her first move, wrapping him up with her yo-yo and pulling him up against her.
"Give Hawkmoth a message for me, pretty-boy," she sneered, working the peacock miraculous off his suit jacket. He felt his shoulders lighten as his cape faded, and his mask slowly disappeared right off his face. He knew his father would tell him to fight (and it was, in fact, what Gabriel was screaming through Adrien's earpiece), but he couldn't fight her no matter how mad she was at him. To be honest, he was glad to just be done with all of this. If Ladybug took his miraculous, he wouldn't have to worry about being Paon - he could just be Chat Noir again.
"Why don't you tell me yourself!" his father shouted, and Adrien's heart sank as Ladybug was swung aside with his father's staff. Hawkmoth posed next to his son as if there were some superhero duo, which as Adrien was slow to realize, they were. Adrien fixed the pin of the miraculous and his costume returned, tight as always. Adrien immediately missed the small reprieve from the costume he had had, but understood why he couldn't reveal his identity yet.
He needed more time. More time to tell Ladybug the truth. More time to get his father to stop hurting civilians. More time to spend with his friends. More time to be Chat Noir, which he hadn't been in weeks.
More time to figure out who the heck he was becoming, and why he hated it so much.