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Chapter 6: Submerged

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The cold wind rushed into the apartment as Adrien pried open the balcony door. Marinette was right behind him, her hand resting tentatively on the small of his back.

His father, Gabriel Agreste, looked more alien than human, what with his silvery mask covering the majority of his head. The off-putting mask nearly perfectly matched his gray eyes, which were fixated on the teenagers. "Adrien," Gabriel spoke formally, "I understand you are still on edge about the situation." He said the words on edge with extra emphasis, as if he personally thought that it was a ridiculous thing for Adrien to be.

Adrien was flabbergasted. Did his father really think he could simply march back into his life and start bossing him around again?

It was ridiculous. After all, they were enemies. They just hadn't known it until a few days ago.

Standing up straighter, Adrien glared at his father and tried to emanate the same level of authority. "I'm not on edge about anything," growled Adrien, "I know exactly where my loyalties fall."

The gray mask warped as Gabriel's brows furrowed and his eyes narrowed. "There is so much you don't know, so much that you don't understand," he snapped, acid in his tone. A little shiver of fear raced down Adrien's back. He'd long ago learned to never make his father angry; and yet, here he was, purposefully defying him. It was, admittedly, kind of frightening.

Adrien still managed to growl, "I know enough."

"No, you don't," Gabriel spat, but then seemed to reconsider his words. Pinching his nose, Gabriel sighed heavily. When he spoke next, he did so in a kinder (albeit strained) way. "Look, I understand that you have never thought of Hawk Moth as anything but evil -"

"You've been trying to kill us for years," Adrien accused.

"Kill you!?" shouted Hawk Moth, "Hardly! That was never my intention -"

"Oh, bullshit!"

"Adrien, calm down," whispered Marinette, stepping a little closer to him. He could feel her body heat, could feel the front of her shirt brushing into the back of his.

Adrien clenched and then unclenched his fists. Marinette was right. He was getting emotional. This wasn't the time to be short-tempered. They needed to proceed carefully in this conversation.

Hawk Moth waited and watched, his face impassive. When Adrien had visibly calmed, Hawk Moth cleared his throat and spoke again, "I never aimed to kill. I always actively avoided it. Trust me, I already know how awful death is. I do not wish for more death in the world."

As much as Adrien wanted to yell at his father, to say bullshit again to him (seriously, he'd never actually cussed at his father like that - it was a wee bit exhilarating), he couldn't. His father was telling the truth. In fact, he and Marinette had already discussed it before. Hell, he'd even discussed it with Nino earlier in the day, (after he'd given his friend the turtle miraculous).

Hawk Moth didn't kill. He'd had many opportunities to, but had never taken advantage of them.

"Sharp Shooter," murmured Marinette and Adrien glanced back at her. She was looking at Hawk Moth as if she was trying to read him.

"Yes," Hawk Moth replied grimly, "it would have been very easy… with that akuma." Easy to kill you. Hawk Moth didn't say it, but he didn't have to. Another shiver ran down Adrien's back.

"What do you want?" asked Marinette, stepping around Adrien so she was by his side. He couldn't help but wish she'd stay behind him. It was safer there, farther from his lunatic father.

"To save my wife," Gabriel replied simply.

There it was again, the impossible sentiment. Adrien's mother was dead. Adrien didn't know why or how, but he knew it must be true. Emilie Agreste had not been the kind of woman to abandon her family. Some tragedy had befell her.

Adrien could only assume that his father's plan hinged on raising her from the dead. An idea that, if television and movies had taught him anything, was definitely bad and doomed to backfire. The laws of nature were not meant to be played with like that, no matter what magical miraculouses you possessed.

"You've lost it." Adrien meant to speak in a haughty fashion; instead, his words came out more like a whimper.

That's when Gabriel reached into a black cloth bag that was looped across his chest. In the darkness of the night, Adrien hadn't noticed the bag prior. From this strangely mundane bag, Gabriel produced something red and rectangular. Both Adrien and Marinette took a step back, as if they were perfectly in sync with their train of thought: what is that, is it dangerous?

However, when the moonlight struck the object, it was revealed to be just a book. An thick, maroon red book.

"Your mother isn't doomed," Gabriel said gravely as he held the book forward, offering it to them, "read this. Learn the truth."

It was Marinette who reached forward and accepted the book, her blue eyes sparkling with curiosity. Meanwhile, Adrien had to fight the urge to snatch the book from her and throw it over the railing. How could they possibly trust anything his father said? He was their enemy. Blood ties could not erase four years of war.

"Please," added Gabriel, his voice surprisingly raw with emotion, "help me save her."

Those were the last words he said. With a very small nod goodbye, Gabriel leaned backwards and fell right off the balcony railing. Adrien ran a few steps forward and peered down, scanning the dark alleyway below for the purple and silver suit. Alas, Gabriel Agreste was either fast, stealthy, or both. There was no hint of Hawk Moth in the quiet Parisian night. He had disappeared.

Adrien followed Marinette back into the living room. As he stepped inside, the first thing he did was close the balcony door and lock it, grunting softly in frustration. Then, he grabbed the heavy curtains that were clustered to one side and yanked them over the balcony's glass door. Now they had some privacy, even if Gabriel Agreste was still lurking there somewhere, camouflaged in the darkness.

Marinette was standing by the couch, holding the book carefully with one hand around the spine and the other under the back cover. In the fluorescent indoor lighting, the book was much more visible. Adrien walked over to her and squinted suspiciously at the book.

It was an old, perhaps ancient, book. It had a thick leather cover that was peeling at the edges from years of wear and tear. Its pages were a heavy material, yellowed from time. However, Adrien's attention was mostly drawn to the golden inscription and illustration on the front cover of the book.

A majestic dragon, painted in cracked gold, wrapped around a set of beautiful Chinese characters.

大龙和他们神奇的珍珠

Adrien recognized the first three characters ('great,' 'dragons,' and 'and' respectfully) but, despite his years of Mandarin lessons, not any of the other characters.

There was one other curious thing about the cover of the book. While the words and the dragon itself were drawn with thin gold lines, there was one thing that was painted with thick silver lines: a small circle that was a centimeter or so in front of the dragon's open mouth.

"Can you read it?" Marinette asked softly as she brushed her fingers lightly along the spine of the book.

"Kind of," Adrien answered honestly, "I think these ones say, The Great Dragons and… something." He shrugged. "I don't know the rest."

Marinette continued to stare at the book, seemingly beguiled by it.

Adrien, on the other hand, didn't feel the same way. "We should burn it," he stated grimly.

"Burn it?" replied Marinette in shock, "Are you kidding? This book is ancient. It's history."

"It's the history my father wants us to see," he pointed out, crossing his arms, "how can we trust it? We can't."

"Adrien," Marinette argued, frowning, "there's no way he wrote this book. It's at least worth looking at."

"Why?" Adrien bit out the word harshly, his anger spiking, "What good will it do, Marinette?" That book could not bring his mother back from the dead. It was a waste of their time. There was no need to indulge Gabriel Agreste with their time.

She took a step back, hugging the book against her chest. Spluttering, she replied, "But! It-it might h-help us understand what y-your father wants -"

"What my father wants is impossible." Now he was practically snarling. Negative emotions were pounding through his veins, filling him to the brim. His mother was dead, his father was on some preposterous quest to raise her from the dead, and now his father expected him to help, like the good little boy he was.

Adrien had no family any more.

His eyes began to burn, as rage brought tears with it.

Marinette pressed the book tighter to her chest. She stood there, watching him nervously. "Adrien... I, I know you're upset -"

"Upset. Upset," he echoed sarcastically, his voice cracking, "I think I'm a little more than upset, Marinette! My father is an absolute loon." His breath was coming raggedly to him. It was hard to think right. Dropping down onto the couch, Adrien slapped his hands onto his face and tried to calm his breathing.

"Loon's a little strong, I think," she whispered, her voice wavering nervously, "I think love can make anyone act irrationally." There was something about the way she said that, like there was a nugget of irony in it. Risking a glance up at her, Adrien winced when he saw the hurt expression on Marinette's face. She looked like a kicked puppy.

I'm an idiot, he thought, groaning and planting his face back firmly in his hands. He knew he shouldn't snap at Marinette. This wasn't her fault. He wasn't angry at her. "I'm sorry," he whispered miserably, "I'm so sorry, Marinette."

The couch cushions bounced ever so slightly as Marinette sat down next to him. She sighed softly. "It's okay," she whispered back.

"No, it's not okay," murmured Adrien, as some of his rage turned inwards, "my world is turning to shit and I'm here, yelling at the one good thing in it." Growling, he rubbed viciously at his eyes, erasing the tears that were threatening to spill down over his cheeks.

Marinette didn't reply. When he peaked sideways at her, he found her staring at him with wide eyes, clearly surprised.

A tiny bit of amusement managed to sneak past all the negative feelings and into him. She was too cute. He didn't deserve this wonderful girl sitting next to him - not that he was ever going to give her up, though. "I'm not kidding," he added, unable to help himself, "you're my drug of choice."

"Drugs are bad," Marinette replied automatically. Almost right after the words left her mouth, her face screwed up, as if she couldn't believe she'd just said that.

Adrien burst into laughter.

She turned even redder and pouted her lower lip out. Adrien fought the urge to tackle her down against the couch and claim her lips for himself, like he had been going to prior to his father's interruption.

However, the dark feelings were still there. The raw pain from his father's insanity, his mother's death brought up anew, and a home he could no longer go back too. The last thing he needed was to have a panic attack in the middle of his first real (well, technically second) make-out session with the girl he was madly in love with.

"Maybe we should call it a night," he pointed out gently.

"Okay," she agreed, before adding stubbornly, "we can talk more about the book in the morning."

No, he wanted to insist. He wanted to tell her, no way am I joining my father's book club. Seriously, if it was only up to him, he really would burn the book. Adrien felt so very done with his father and his crap. But, it wasn't just up to him. Ladybug and Chat Noir were a partnership. He could not act selfishly. If she saw value in analyzing the book, he knew he should respect that.

Not that it was easy. "Maybe," he relented, rubbing the back of his neck, "okay."

Marinette patted his knee before standing up from the couch, still holding the book. Smartly, she took the book with her into her bedroom.

Adrien flopped down onto the couch and forced himself to breath slowly. He tried to think optimistically. Perhaps, somewhere in that book, there might be an explanation for why his father had lost his marbles. Although... to be completely honest, assuming an explanation did exist, Adrien didn't really want to find it. He didn't want to understand his father; he just wanted to hate him. Hate him for being a terrible dad, hate him for making his life growing up difficult, hate him for being an evil villain who attacked Paris.

Adrien knew his desires were immature. It was easy to hate. It was harder to forgive.

It was a good thing he had Marinette with him, to balance out his temper. His temper… that had, unfortunately, turned on her too. Groaning aloud, Adrien hated himself again for yelling at her. Really, he needed to apologize again. He wanted Marinette to know that he truly cared about her.

Slipping off the couch, Adrien tiptoed over to Marinette's door and knocked lightly. If she was asleep already, he'd leave her be and tell her in the morning.

"Uh, yes?" he heard her reply.

"Can I come in for a second?" he asked, leaning his entire body against the door.

"Um… one second," she said. He then heard movement, like bed sheets being moved around. "Okay, you can come in."

When Adrien opened the door, he momentarily lost his breath. Marinette was sitting in bed, her lower half in the sheets. Her upper half was covered by a satin spaghetti string tank top. What impact him the most, however, was her hair. It lung loosely around her shoulders, a few strands even daring to hang in front of her face.

Your adorable, he thought automatically.

Then he realized he accidentally said it ("you're adorable") out loud. Marinette turned tomato red and shrunk down into the sheets. "You're crazy," she hissed at him, although her eyes were crunched up with happiness.

He could only shrug and grin. His own cheeks were warm.

"Did you just come in here to tease me?" she asked playfully, still shielding herself with the sheets.

"No," he answered, kicking at the door frame nervously, "I wanted to, well…" He sighed. "I wanted to tell you, thank you. For everything."

She dropped the sheets and sat up, tilting her head. "I haven't really done anything," she told him honestly.

"You have," he disagreed, "you've always been there for me. As Ladybug and as Marinette."

"You've always been there for me too," she pointed out, blinking.

He smiled wholeheartedly, "Still. Marinette… I don't know what I'd do without you." He kicked the door frame a few more times, dropping his gaze down to the floor. Everything he was saying was awkward but also the absolute truth. "You mean a lot to me, bugaboo. I love… ah, having you in my life." He almost said something else, but he changed his mind at the last second.

It was too soon, too intense. His cheeks burned with chagrin.

"Adrien," Marinette whispered as she reached up and tucked her loose hair behind her ears. Suddenly, Adrien had to resist the urge to join her in the bed, to claim that damned kiss. However, that would hardly be romantic. In the shadow of Hawk Moth's visit, while they were both in their PJs... no, it was far from perfect. Marinette deserved something more romantic, something more beautiful.

Grabbing onto the door handle, he told her with a shaky voice, "Good night, Marinette." The door clicked softly as he closed it.

Then, he could have swore - and maybe he heard it wrong - that he heard her sigh and whisper, "I love you too, you silly cat."

- x -

The next day, the two visited Master Fu during their lunch break. It was a rather uneventful visit.

The peacock kwami, Lee, was still very dizzy and spent most of the time playing around in Adrien's hair. "Pretty," the kwami kept saying. He decided to tolerate it, for the sake of the little spirit, although he really didn't like how she was yanking on her hair.

While Lee played in his hair, Adrien settled next to Adrien at Master Fu's low table. After they were settled down, they told Master Fu about Nino and Alya. He was pleased (and unsurprised) by their selections. "Bring them next time," he told them as he dished out some noodles for them. They agreed, thanked him for the food, and then dug in.

As they ate, Marinette and Adrien kept exchanging glances. Partially because Adrien was terrible at chopsticks and that seemed to highly amuse Marinette, but also partially because they were sharing one big secret.

The book.

It was tucked into Marinette's back, between her geometry workbook and her history textbook. The two had decided not to mention to Master Fu just yet, not until they'd had a chance to decipher it on their own. They did, however, try to bring up the topic of dragons in between slurps of noodles.

"So, Master Fu," Marinette began casually, "I have a sort of random question for you."

"If it's about where I buy my Hawaiian shirts," he replied, smiling, "I'm afraid that's a secret!" They laughed politely at his joke.

"It's not that," said Marinette, stirring her noodles, "but I do like your shirts, they are very nice."

Master Fu beamed.

Clearing her throat, Marinette broached the subject, "It's about dragons. They're very common in Chinese mythology, and I was wondering if there's any truth in the matter? Did they exist?"

And if they did, what happened to them? Also, did they all have glowing orbs that hovered in front of their faces? What were those glowing orbs? These were some of the burning questions in Adrien's mind. That morning, over breakfast, him and Marinette had flipped through the old book his father given them. Inside that book had been numerous, painstakingly detailed illustrations, most of which were of dragons.

"Dragons?" repeated Master Fu, frowning thoughtfully, "Hm. Unfortunately, nothing I've ever read has ever indicated that they are anything more than fairy tales. Most likely, the concept of dragons were created when early people discovered dinosaur bones."

Adrien sighed with disappointment. So, maybe his father was really just nuts.

Meanwhile, Tikki and Plagg floated at the edge of the table, listening to the whole conversation. There was something off about the kwamis today. When Marinette and Adrien had been flipping through the book that morning, the two kwamis had been whispering nervously to each other. Now, they looked just as nervous again.

"Besides," added Master Fu, "I'm pretty sure none of our immortal kwamis has ever seen a dragon. Isn't that right?" He looked pointedly at Tikki and Plagg.

The weirdest thing happened. Tikki zoomed behind Plagg with a tiny eep, as if the attention was too much. Plagg looked uncomfortable too as he rubbed the back of his oversized head with a paw. "Um, yea. Never seen a dragon before."

Adrien blinked at the kwami's odd behavior. He was starting to suspect that there was something going on between Plagg and Tikki. Can kwamis be in love? He found himself wondering as he slurped up some noodles.

Master Fu gave the kwamis a kind smile before quickly changing the topic. Adrien and Marinette were left nodding out of obligation rather than interest as Master Fu spoke about different kinds of herbal tea.

As Master Fu dominated the conversation, Adrien retreated into his own mind, thinking of dragons and moths.

- x -

"Dude, I thought you've been learning Chinese for years."

Adrien's ears turned red in embarrassment. "I've been learning Mandarin, yes," he replied hotly to Nino, "but I don't know all of these characters." Adrien was regretting not trying harder to learn Mandarin. Honestly, before, the Mandarin lessons had always been just another mandated appointment in his overfilled calendar. Now, they were suddenly vital... but, well, it was too late.

The four teenagers were sitting around a table at the back of the Dupain-Cheng bakery. The infamous book laid open on their table, it's puzzling script mocking them.

"These illustrations are pretty amazing," commented Alya as she flipped through the pages of the book.

Before anyone could reply, another voice interrupted. "Pastries, anyone?" Sabine Dupain-Cheng asked as she ducked under the makeshift ribbon barrier. Behind her, fascinated patrons peered at Adrien and his friends.

It had been a couple of weeks since Marinette's identity had been revealed. While some of the fervor had died down, there were still a few die hard fans who came to the Dupain-Cheng bakery every day in hopes of catching a glimpse of the famed Ladybug. At least it's good for business, Sabine had whispered to them as she helped them drag a table to the back of the bakery. For a little added privacy, they'd hung a thick red ribbon (from Marinette's sewing supplies) to separate it from the rest of the bakery. Nino had jokingly dubbed it the VIP section.

"Yes please," Nino said with a grin, "you know I can't resist your macaroons, Mrs. Dupain-Cheng."

"Neither can I," added Alya, peering lustfully at the tray Sabine was carrying. There were macaroons as well as croissants, cream-filled pastries, and donut holes.

Nino and Alya were quick to pluck off their treats. However, Adrien noticed that Marinette didn't; she was distracted by the people in the rest of the bakery. Several of them had their phones out and were snapping pictures of the teens.

"Ignore them," he whispered into Marinette's ear, before grabbing one croissant for him and one for her. She accepted hers with a blush and a muttered thank you.

"So, what's this?" Sabine asked, her eyes on the red book, "Homework?"

"Yes."

"No."

"Sort of."

They all spoke at once, their voices merging into one guilty mess.

Sabine blinked. "Alright then," she said. Luckily, she didn't sound too concerned about their contrasting answers.

"Actually, mom," Marinette said, pulling the book over to herself and flipping it a different page, "can you read this? We're trying to figure out what this page says." She gently pushed the book across the table, closer to her mother.

The page Marinette had picked looked similar to the other pages. Like the other pages, it bore a fancy illustration of a dragon chasing a glass sphere. However, unlike the other pages, this one had been bookmarked with a thin peacock feather.

Subtle, Adrien had thought dryly when they'd stumbled across the feather.

Sabine hovered over the page, frowning. Her fingers reached forward and lightly stroked the yellowed, thick paper. "It says, Amaterasu. That's the name of this dragon." Smiling a little, she murmured, "how fascinating. Amaterasu is the goddess of the Spirit world in Japanese mythology."

"Japanese?" repeated Nino, "But, this book is written in Chinese."

"Yes, but it also borrows a lot of Japanese words. For example, this one," she poked at a strange character that Adrien couldn't remember having seen before, "it is the Japanese symbol for kami - the spirits."

Kami. The word echoed in Adrien's mind.

He wasn't the only one who immediately leaned in towards the book, staring curiously at the dragon depicted on the page. All of the teenagers moved at the same time, each inching closer to the book. Their curious eyes drank in the illustration of the dragon: it was painted with rich oranges and yellows, and then further decorated with a few touches of brilliant white.

Curiously, while the rest of the book had faded, the colors of this dragon had not.

"What does it about spirits?" Marinette asked almost breathlessly.

Sabine gave her daughter an odd look before refocusing back on the book. "Well, not too much else. Most of this is more poetic than substantial. Let's see… hm... this talks about her great power... this about how her orange scales glowed in the moonlight... and this is says all were amazed by her." She listed each of these items one by one, her finger trailing along the faded black wording as she translated.

Adrien couldn't help but feel disappointed. "That's it?"

Sabine squinted at the page, her eyes darting around to some of the other scattered notes. "Well, there's this right here." She pointed to a note, written in red ink, to the side of the dragon. "This one says, her pearl broke in two."

"Pearl?" Alya asked.

"Oh, yes, these. Huoh chuh." Sabine pointed at the glass sphere that was drawn right in front of the dragon's mouth. "Sometimes these are called fire pearls. In some myths, they are said to contain the power and soul of the dragon."

"That's pretty cool," commented Nino, his eyebrows raising.

Chuckling, Sabine agreed, "Yes, it is. Dragon mythology is fascinating. Although, this is the first time I've seen dragons named after Japanese deities. You have definitely found yourselves an interesting book!"

The four teens laughed nervously. Found wasn't quite the right word to use.

After they'd all thanked Sabine for her help, she turned and ducked out of the VIP section. The macaroons weren't going to bake themselves, after all.

They spent a little more time pouring over the book. Nino and Alya both picked favorite dragons and started arguing over which was best. Adrien, however, just wanted to look at the Amaterasu page more. It was the page his father bookmarked. There had to be a good reason for it.

That reason was, unfortunately, far from obvious.

The only thing the four of them accomplished over few hours was getting some crumps wedged between the pages of the who-knows-how-old book. Nino tried to brush the crumbs out with a napkin, but ended up brushing off some of the paint from a ferocious green dragon. That's when they decided to call it a night.

While Alya and Nino shouldered their backpacks, Marinette said, "I'd like to get some things from my room, to bring to my apartment."

"Okay, well, we'll see you guys at school tomorrow," replied Alya, before not so subtly winking at Marinette, "good luck getting what you need."

Adrien watched Marinette color. It was pretty damned cute how easily she blushed.

However, it was worth noting that there were multiple romances a foot. Adrien watched as Alya and Nino walked out of the bakery, side by side. Then, right before they reached the door, he saw Nino take Alya's hand. Adrien chuckled.

"Thanks so much, mom," Adrien heard Marinette say from the other side of the store. He hadn't even realized she'd wandered away from him. She was now over by the counter, handing the decimated tray of pastries back to her mother. "Do you want us to help you clean today?"

"Oh, no, not today," her mother said with a wave of a hand, "it's a school night. You should be getting to bed sooner than later."

Marinette smiled and nodded, "Okay, if you're sure. But first, I'm going to go upstairs and get a few things… if that's okay?" She added the last bit nervously, as if she wasn't sure if her mother was going to agree. Adrien wasn't concerned. While Sabine had taken the whole moving out thing rather harshly at first, she'd warmed up immensely to everything.

"Sure, that's fine," replied Sabine as she carried the dishes to the sink, "is Adrien going to help you carry your things?" There was something playful in Sabine's tone that made Adrien flush. It was one thing to hear the teasing inflection in Alya's voice; to hear Marinette's mother have it… eep.

"Um, well, yes."

"Oh, well, isn't that nice." Sabine glanced over her shoulder and smiled sweetly at Adrien. "He's a sweet boy, isn't he?" Adrien could only smile bashfully.

"Ah, yes, um, he is, well, ah, anyways we, um, we should go, yea, go get the stuff now, okay, bye." Marinette's words were a garbled, rushed mess. Before her mother could say anything more, Marinette hightailed it back to the VIP area, grabbed Adrien's arm, and started to haul him towards the stairs. He barely managed not to trip over his own feet as she lugged him up the stairs and into her childhood room.

As soon as they got into the room, Marinette let out a big sigh.

Adrien couldn't help but laugh. "I like your mother a lot," he told her pleasantly as he rubbed his still warm cheeks.

Marinette giggled. With a small, crooked smile, she said jokingly, "Well, I'm sorry to tell you, but she's taken."

Adrien laughed hard. "Really? Well, I guess I'll just have to find myself someone who's similar." Marinette's mouth opened and closed a few times, as if she was trying to find a creative or sassy way to reply to that.

Eventually, she huffed, "oh shush." Her cheeks were a lovely shade of pink. That pink that was quickly becoming one of Adrien's favorite colors.

Then, Marinette refocused and began to fret about her room, gathering up items. Much to Adrien's amusement, he noticed that most of what Marinette was grabbing was sewing supplies. He tried to protest when she handed him a huge bolt of green fabric, but she told him sternly, "I need it."

He gave up and let her gather her supplies in peace. Carrying the obnoxiously large bolt of fabric, he wandered around her room and peeked at her stuff. Most of it was the traditional girly stuff with a dash of Paris class. Flowers, pink, hearts, and pastel accents everywhere. Then, as he was passing by her computer desk, something caught his eye.

Himself.

There was a picture - no, wait, several pictures - of him, hung up on the wall next to the computer. Jaw falling open, Adrien leaned in closer to inspect the pictures. Most of them were from various magazine shoots. One, however, was totally taken by a cell phone and printed out. It shouted him looking casual and smiling. He didn't remember the that particular photo at all.

The dumbest grin broke out on his face. If he'd been told a month ago that Ladybug had pictures of him tacked up in her room, he wouldn't have believed it. It was kind of funny how the two had been gravitating around each other for so long.

"Adrien, can you help me find my pincushion? It's shaped like a toma- oh my god!"

Suddenly, Adrien found himself being tugged away from the glorious wall. Marinette was babbling in horror, saying, "I-I-I don't know where those, ah, came from! A-a-alya put them up! It's, um, a prank, yes, a prank! I, ah, didn't even know, uh, you were um, a model…" It was like she was choking on her own words. The girl made a horrified, gurgling noise as she continued to drag Adrien (who was now howling with laughter) to the other side of the room.

He ended up losing his footing and tumbling down to the ground. However, he grabbed her on his way down, yanking her to the floor with him. She landed on top of him with a squeak.

He was still laughing. He couldn't help himself. "Stop it!" she cried, her face bright red.

Shaking his head, he did his best to express that this was well beyond his control. That picture wall was the funniest shit he'd seen in a long time.

Marinette didn't seemed pleased with this. She slapped her hands over his mouth, growling.

So, he grabbed her arms, holding them in place just long enough for him to give her hands a sloppy lick. "Adrien!" she squawked, rolling off him. "What are you, an animal!?"

"Yea, actually!" he managed to cough out in between his rambunctious laughter, "I show affection with licks!"

"Adrien, don't you dare -" But he was already up on all fours and crawling towards her, his tongue lolling out threateningly. "No, bad cat!"

Before she could stand back up, he grabbed her leg and pulled her back to him. "Come here, princess," he purred as he pinned her down, his body over hers.

"Don't you dare!" she barked at him, her face contorted with an odd mix of annoyance, embarrassment, and amusement.

He dared.

Marinette screeched, "Adrien!" as he licked his tongue up the length of her cheek, "Stop it, you're not really a cat!"

"Oh? I'm not?" he replied, grinning. "Oh… that's right, I'm a human." Frowning thoughtfully, he pretended to study Marinette's face. "That's right, humans don't lick. They… what's the word I'm looking for?"

Marinette got very quiet. He watched as her eyes darted down to his lips, then back up to meet his own eyes.

That's when he forgot his humor. Heated blossomed within his chest and his heart sped up. They were so close, their bodies centimeters away. Without thinking about it, he licked his lips. There, surrounded by sewing supplies that they'd both dropped, he could finally claim a kiss.

But first, he savored the moment. There was something glorious about being so close and feeling the passion that seemed to fill every last bit of his body. Adrien was in no rush. Or at least, he wasn't, until Marinette let out a little noise, like a pleading whimper. That little noise sent pleasant shivers up his spine.

She was looking at him intensely. So intensely, that he forgot how to breath.

"Hey, are you kids alright?" Tom, Marinette's father, called out suddenly, his voice muffled by the closed trap door. There was a heavy knocking on the door. "I thought I heard a scream."

"Oh!" Marinette was quick to respond, "Ah, we're fine! I just, um, ri-ripped some fabric by accident!"

"Oh, well, would you like some help?" Tom asked. At the same time that he spoke, the trap door began to open. Marinette and Adrien were quick to spring apart and stand up. Luckily, Tom hardly seemed to notice their rosey faces or wide pupils. He strode into the room, asking, "what can I do?"

While Marinette tasked her father with finding the tomato pincushion, Adrien took a moment to breath. Once Tom had traveled to the other side of the room (looking for the pincushion), Adrien stepped closer to Marinette. He whispered huskily into her ear, "Next time."

She turned into a spluttering mess again.

- x -

Right before they'd left her bedroom, Marinette had tried to sneakily tear down the photograph wall. Only, Adrien saw her do it; he made a point of winking at her once she'd turned around, after the deed was done.

It took a few hours for Marinette's face to return back to its standard pale color.

Although, that was partially due to Adrien's behavior over the next few hours.

On the walk home, Marinette kept jumping every time Adrien brushed into her. So naturally, he went out of his way to bump into her as much as possible.

Once they got home, Adrien immediately went into the bedroom. While Marinette busied herself with avoiding him, he printed a bunch of Ladybug pictures off Alya's blog. Then, he scotch taped the pictures up, all around the computer.

He took a step back and admired his work. Perfect, he thought proudly.

"Hey Marinette, I'm going to take a shower," he yelled.

"Oh, okay, sure," yelled back Marinette from the kitchen.

He was barely halfway through with this nice, relaxing, hot shower when he heard her scream, "Adrien, this isn't funny!"

Only, it was funny. Really, really funny.

- x -

Perhaps his playfulness was infectious. The next day, during school, Marinette was downright flirtatious. Adrien could barely believe it.

It started in their very first class. Their teacher was lecturing about some classic French book. Adrien was half listening and half staring into space. There was nothing wrong with the lecture itself, other than the fact that it was utterly boring. Oh well. At least it was better than obsessing over his father's insanity.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when something wet pressed into his arm. Hissing, "jeez," under his breath, he turned to look curiously at Marinette. She smiled at him apologetically before going back to what she'd been doing. Which just so happened to be, drawing on his arm.

Adrien gaped. Marinette Dupain-Cheng, her eyes narrow with delight, was drawing cats on his bicep with a felt-tip marker. She was using one of her good markers, the kind she used for drawing fashion images. He'd seen her doodling dresses and skirts and shirts before with them. Now, instead of fashion, those markers were producing smiling cartoon cats.

Grinning, Adrien whispered suggestively to Marinette, "me-ow."

She flushed but kept drawing. He did notice that she pointedly ignored making eye contact with him.

It was surprising hard to focus on what his teacher was saying. That difficulty only increased when she reached forward and lightly grasped his forearm, holding him steady so she could add careful details to the cats.

Adrien watched her out of the corner of his eye. With the way she was concentrating, her tongue half stuck out, he had to fight the urge to scoop her up, throw her onto the table, and mash his mouth into hers.

He didn't, though. He was pretty sure his French teacher wouldn't be appreciate of it. But teacher, she looked too cute, probably wouldn't be a good enough excuse.

- x -

At lunch, Adrien and his friends found a shady spot under some trees in the school's courtyard and made themselves comfortable. It was kind of like everything was normal again. Marinette passed out sandwiches that she'd made that morning while Nino shared some energy drinks he'd bought. To any outsider, they looked like four normal teenagers.

But, they were much more than four normal teenagers. Each of them had a powerful miraculous and, in Marinette's bag, there was an ancient text on dragons.

"Aw man, Mari, is there mustard on here?" asked Alya, frowning.

"Yea… I thought you liked mustard?" replied Marinette.

Alya shook her head. "It's okay though." Putting the sandwich down, Alya leaned over and embraced Marinette, squeezing her shoulders. "I still love you, even though you're subjecting me to mustard."

"I got you, babe," Nino said with a grin. He reached over and picked up Alya's sandwich, popped it open, and licked off the mustard.

Alya snorted with laughter, "Nino, you're my hero."

He winked at her and the rest of the group laughed.

They all dug into their sandwiches, including Alya. Their talk stayed casual, focusing on what their morning lessons had been about. Adrien found himself forgetting entirely about the serious side of their life. The ring on his finger, the book in Marinette's back, and the black cat spirit sleeping in his shirt's pocket… it all might as well have disappeared.

While they ate, Marinette kept shooting little looks to Adrien. It was as if she was daring herself to look at him. He responded by trying to meet her gaze every time. Satisfyingly, her face scrunched up shyly every time he succeeded. And yet, she kept doing it. At one point, she even stuck her tongue out at him.

Adrien was once again tempted to tackle Marinette and claim her mouth with his. If his mouth hadn't been full of sandwich, he might have.

All in all, lunch was very pleasant. Adrien - for a brief time - was a typical teenage boy, concerned only with the food in his hands and the cute girl sitting next to him.

It wasn't until they were cleaning up their food, shoving empty energy drink cans and other scraps into a plastic bag, that Alya broke the illusion. "Can I see the book, by the way?"

Without asking why, Marinette nodded and pulled the book from her bag, handing it to Alya. Adrien figured Marinette thought much like he did; the book was a curious thing. It was no surprise that Alya wanted to flip through it.

Alya opened up the book and began to leaf through it. Meanwhile, Nino started talking about some DJ that was coming to town. "If Hawk Moth doesn't kill us beforehand, do you guys want to go?" he asked the group.

"Hell yeah," replied Adrien. Marinette replied similarly. Excitedly, Nino started to tell them about this particular DJ and why he liked him. Adrien listened politely, nodding along as he enjoyed his friend's enthusiastic. Nino had always been very passionate towards music.

"Hey guys," Alya spoke up, interrupting Nino right as he was telling them about the DJ's signature mouse helmet, "what's this page about?"

They all turned to look at the book. Alya had it opened to a page near the back. Admittedly, they hadn't spent much of their time on those pages. Those pages contained a lot of seemingly random illustrations as well as walls of text, most of which Adrien couldn't even begin to decipher. The words he could read were not useful to understanding the greater meaning for pretty much any page in the back.

The pages with illustrations of dragons were easily more interesting. That being said, Alya had managed to find a pretty fascinating page. It depicted a glassy silver orb, cracked roughly down the middle into two pieces.

Sabine Dupain-Cheng's voice echoed in Adrien's mind. Her pearl broke in two.

Adrien was once again drawn closer to the book, his brow furrowing in thought. This particular page was jam packed with Chinese writing. He saw characters for strength, weaknesses, two, death, life, and then the character he'd, yesterday, learned meant Amaterasu. It took all of his good sense to not rip the book away from Alya so that he could better see it.

"Could that be the pearl that my mom mentioned?" speculated Marinette. She was also arched forwards the book, her arms supporting her weight as she peered down.

In hindsight, they probably shouldn't have had the ancient book resting on the grass and dirt, but oh well. All four teenagers crowded around it, studying the detailed illustration of the split pearl.

"I think so," Adrien said, "it says Amaterasu here… and here… and here…" His finger trailed around the page, hesitating on each instance of the word.

"What else does it say?" Nino asked.

"I… don't know," admitted Adrien, frustration bubbling up within him, "hell, I really wish I'd tried harder to learn Mandarin." Rubbing his face, he groaned. "I never thought I'd be using it for anything like this." Adrien had always assumed he'd only be using his Mandarin to communicate with the factories in China. After all, that was why his father had had him learn Mandarin… well, allegedly, at least.

"It's okay," Marinette told him, as she reached over and rubbed his back, "Adrien, I'm half Chinese and I can't help at all. You are more than okay."

"Yeah dude, don't worry about it," Nino agreed, nodding sagely, "besides, there's always google translate!"

"We'll figure it out one way or another," added Marinette positively.

Adrien's mind was torn between thinking about google translate and being highly distracted by how Marinette was rubbing his back.

- x -

The rest of the day passed slowly. Adrien's mind kept going back to the book. Every time his teachers would prattle on and on, their voice would fade away and Adrien would be consumed in his own thoughts. Nino's suggestion, perhaps made jokingly, was actually a good one. Google translate did have a handwrite option for simple Chinese characters. Adrien could attempt to use that feature to make some more sense out of the book.

In the middle of their math class, while their teacher showed them how to solve derivatives, a foot kicked his.

"Sorry," Marinette murmured honestly, as she pushed herself up a little in her chair.

Glancing over at the girl, Adrien raised a brow curiously. However, she hardly noticed. She was focusing on what the teacher was saying, her hand flicking deftly as she wrote down the numbers and method. Meanwhile, his notebook was completely barren. He'd been too busy daydreaming pointlessly about what the book may or may not say.

That tiny kick was enough to bring him out of his own mind. Grinning a little, Adrien slouched down in his chair and gave Marinette's foot a kick in return.

"Hey," she huffed softly, glaring at him for a second before going back to diligently taking notes.

So, he kicked her foot again.

She kicked back, scowling.

His grin grew as he kicked again.

Soon enough, Marinette forgot about her notes and the two of them got into a full out footsie war. Marinette kept trying to pin his feet down, while he started trying to knocked off her shoes. It was delightfully childish fun.

Unfortunately, Adrien succeeded in shoving one of her shoes off her foot. This ended up being an unfortunate thing because the shoe clattered noisily away and over the ledge. It landed a foot away from Alya's chair.

The teacher paused in the middle of her equation, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

"Sorry," squeaked Marinette.

Alya, her cheeks puffed up as she very obviously tried to hold in giggles, reached down and picked up the shoe. She handed it back to Marinette, winking as she did so.

Marinette was bright red and, as soon as her shoe was back on and the teacher had went back to lecturing, buried her face in her notebook. "Adrien, are you trying to embarrass me?" she whispered to him.

"Kind of," he whispered back cheerfully, a stupidly large grin adorning his face.

A shy smile snuck onto her face. She turned her face away, trying to hide it, but Adrien had already saw it.

- x -

After school, while Marinette put the finishing touches on the Ladybug hoodie, Adrien settled down in front of the Mac computer and got to work. Armed with pen, paper, and google translate, he started trying to decipher the page about the split pearl.

It wasn't a fast process.

First of all, he couldn't find a lot of the symbols. Whether that was because he was drawing them terribly or they just didn't exist in the google translate database, he wasn't sure. No matter what, it meant he wasted a lot of time drawing the same symbol over and over again.

Secondly, even for the characters that he did manage to find, they too usually took several attempts. It was too easy to junk up drawing the images when drawing them with a mouse.

Thirdly, he got multiple results for some of the characters. It was hard to say, for few of them, which character the book actually bore. In some places, the calligraphy text had blurred, making Adrien's job harder.

"I'm going to order a pizza," Marinette said at one point. He'd only nodded, intent on solving the book's mysteries.

In the time it took Marinette to order the pizza and for the pizza to be delivered, Adrien managed a handful new words added to his partial translation.

Marinette brought him two slices of pizza on a plate, looking concerned. "Do you want to take a break?" she asked him, eyeing his paper with the quickly jotted translations.

"Not yet, give me a bit longer," he told her, "thank you for bringing me pizza." Then, his eyes sparkled deviously. "I'm glad you ordered dessert too."

"Dessert?" she repeated, confused, "I didn't. I only ordered pizza."

"Funny, I see a rather sweet thing right here." On here, he reached forward and poked her arm.

"Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air and blushing for the billionth time that day. Marinette told him, "I'm going to go study for history. Come find me when you're done."

"Okay princess," he purred. He watched her walk out of the bedroom, noticing how there was a little swing to her hips as she walked. It looked like his cheesy comment had worked well. Great success, he congratulated himself jovially, before turning back to his work.

The book wasn't going to translate itself, after all.

If only it could of.

Three hours later, Adrien was arched over the desk, his eyes sore from staring at the computer screen. He had a moderate headache. But, there was some good. Several important words had emerged from his translating.

Luck. Life. Death. Misfortune. From what Adrien could gather, one half of the pearl represented the first two - luck and life - while the other half of the pearl represented the later two - death and misfortune.

That sure sounded familiar.

Once Adrien had deduced that meaning, he'd swiveled around in the chair, eyes scanning the room for Plagg. The kwami had been in and out of the room all evening, spending half his time watching Adrien and the other half his time with Tikki.

The two kwamis had been spending a lot of time together recently. Adrien hadn't really thought much of it. After all, he had a sneaking suspicion that there was something romantic between them. He could have swore there was something in the way that Plagg looked at Tikki… and well, even if he was wrong, they were both kwamis. Dating or not, they were sure to have a lot in common.

Although, in general, the two kwamis had been behaving oddly. For example, both kwamis had been relatively unhelpful when it came to the book. In fact, Plagg had been downright dismissive of it. It's probably nothing, the kwami kept saying about the book, I'm still for burning it.

Adrien spotted Plagg, his two green eyes glowing in the darkness of the room, resting on the bed frame of Marinette's bed. It was just him - there was no red kwami with him. Adrien was unsure how long his kwami had been there for, perched on the bed frame.

"Plagg," Adrien said. Plagg blinked in acknowledgement and hovered an inch upward. Tapping the book, Adrien continued, "I think this Amaterasu pearl has something to do with the Black Cat and Ladybug miraculous."

Instead of replying, Plagg silently flew over to Adrien's shoulder. The kwame's green eyes flitted from the ancient book to the white printer paper where Adrien had sloppily written the translations. There was something odd about his expression. It was like a mixture of worry and annoyance.

"Did you… already know that?" guessed Adrien, frowning.

"Kid," Plagg said somberly, "you're digging into things you shouldn't be digging into."

"What?" Adrien said incredulously. Was Plagg serious?

Rubbing his face, Plagg sighed, "Look… I don't want to come off as harsh. I just… I'm worried. I'm worried about what your father wants. I'm worried about where it'll lead. Most of this information is better forgotten." With that mysterious comment, the black cat kwami turned and floated away.

- x -

It was only nine o'clock when Adrien finally closed the google translate window. He'd done all that he could, attempted almost every character on the stupid page. In the end, he only had a vague idea that somehow, possibly, his and Marinette's miraculouses had been created from the same dragon's fire pearl.

And yet, that made everything more confusing, not less. What did that have to do with his mother, with anything?

Oh, and there was one other thing. There was one term that kept appearing, over and over, on the page.

Soul.

It appeared in at least seven places in the text surrounding the cracked pearl illustration. Additionally, there were a few other characters that looked similar, but, thanks to faded ink, it was hard to be certain.

In fact, a quick glance through the book revealed that that character also appeared on many of the other pages.

It was overwhelming. Adrien forced it all out of his mind as he dragged himself away from the computer. There would be plenty of time tomorrow to figure it all out. Rubbing his aching head, he walked out of the bedroom.

The lights in the living room were off, but the TV was on. Marinette was curled up on the couch, a blanket hiding most of her. Quietly, Adrien tiptoed closer to her.

She was asleep. A wave of guilt crashed down on him. He had essentially ignored her all evening. Rubbing his neck, he looked over at the TV. A movie was playing, one that he faintly recognized. He'd been subjected to it once by Chloé, back when they were both young; if he remembered correctly, it was called The Notebook..

Without thinking much more about it, Adrien grabbed the remote and clicked off the TV. Then, he stepped over to the couch, leaned down, and scooped up Marinette.

"Mm, I can walk," she muttered against his chest, wiggling a little in protest. He'd woken up her.

"It's okay princess," he told her as he carried her away from the couch, "sorry for not joining you earlier."

"Yea, you should be," Marinette told him, yawning, "you missed out."

"Oh?" he hummed in response as he pushed the bedroom door open with his foot.

She whispered slyly, "Yes. We could have made out after the movie." There was a lot of drowsiness in her voice. It was clear that Marinette wasn't all the way awake. Adrien was pretty sure she wouldn't be speaking so boldly if she was fully awake.

That being said, he was highly amused by her sleepy commentary. "Who says I can't have a kiss anyways?" he whispered back to her as he approached her bed.

"You don't deserve one," she sang softly, snuggling closer to him.

Laughing, Adrien eased her down onto the bed. "Are you sure?" He hesitated, bent over the bed; his face was only a couple of centimeters from hers. Her blue eyes locked onto his.

"Um…" she murmured, dazed, "okay, maybe you can have one…" Marinette licked her lips, one of her hands reaching up and softly touching his jaw. An involuntarily purr rumbled through Adrien's body.

But, she was only half awake. Adrien resisted his teenager urges and, instead of kissing the silly girl, told her teasingly, "oh, but you said I don't deserve one."

"I take that back," she whimpered fervidly.

"Sorry princess," he moved forward, pressing his lips into her forehead, "get some sleep. I'll make it up to you soon, I promise."

He pulled the sheets over her and left her to fall asleep. Out in the living room, he collapsed onto the couch and found himself thinking about luck, life, destruction, death, and souls. There was much too much rolling around in his mind.

Adrien couldn't shake the feeling that they were missing something, something big.

It took him several agonizing hours to fall asleep.

- x -

Thursday, after school, Adrien, Marinette, Nino, and Alya all visited Master Fu.

It was the first time that Nino and Alya were meeting Master Fu. They were nervous, despite both Adrien and Marinette reassuring them that Master Fu was a very laid back, friendly person. He'll love you, Marinette kept telling them as they walked across Paris together.

The four of teengars were quite the sight. Two of them - Alya and Nino - were dressed normally, in jeans and shirts. Marinette and Adrien, on the other hand, were wearing hoodies (even though the weather was quite pleasant).

Marinette was wearing her Chat Noir hoodie with the hood pulled up. She was also wearing a pair of big black sunglasses. She looked like a celebrity trying to dodge the paparazzi… which, well, she was. That was the point of the hoodie and the sunglasses.

Adrien was not wearing an oversized pair of sunglasses like Marinette, but he was wearing a hoodie. His hoodie, however, was maroon red with black spots. He also wasn't wearing the hood up, since he didn't have to hide himself from the public in the same way that Marinette did.

You two are dorks, is what Alya had told them when she'd saw their hero themed hoodies. Couple goals, is what Nino had said. Adrien had beamed at both of them in response and said, thanks.

They managed to make it across town in good time, without running into any obsessed Ladybug fans or any other troubles.

Master Fu was expecting them. He was quick to open the door when they knocked and smiled widely when he noticed Nino and Alya. "Ah, come in, come in," he insisted, waving them in.

Luckily, Marinette ending up being right. Master Fu loved Nino and Alya. The more he talked to them, the more animated he became. "You have chosen well," he told Marinette and Adrien. Nino and Alya both blushed and chuckled nervously.

While the humans were talking and getting to know each other, the kwamis were practically having a party. There were five of them, all flitting back and forth across the room. Tikki, Plagg, Trixx, Wayzz, and - of course - Lee. Lee looked like she'd recovered from whatever had happened. Her eyes were more focused and her flight was relatively straight. She was able to keep up with the other kwamis' movements, although she wasn't as talkative as the others.

Adrien found himself occasionally distracted by all the kwami activity. He'd never seen so many kwamis in one place.

"So how did you all meet?" asked Master Fu.

"School," they replied.

Most of the conversation was mundane like this. It was an easy conversation to zone out of. This was only more so true when Lee decided to play in Adrien's hair. Lee rolled around on top of his head, pulling at his blonde hair. Adrien resisted the urge to swat her away. This kwami was still recovering from whatever his father had done to her. She deserved patience.

Patience was kind of hard, though, with the kwami tugging sharply on his hair. Wincing occasionally, Adrien did his best to listen as Nino told Master Fu about his DJing.

"Ah, so you mix together the music in order to make it even more pleasing?" asked Master Fu.

"Yea, exactly!" Nino said.

"I've used his music on my Ladyblog before!" added Alya.

"Blog? Oh, you must run that Ladybug website that I've heard of before." replied Master Fu.

"Yep, that's me!" Alya declared proudly, before launching into an explanation of her blog.

It was while Alya was in the middle of describing how she started her blog that Lee relinquished Adrien's hair. He breathed a sigh of relief as the weight of the kwami disappeared from his head. That relief ended up being quite temporarily; Lee suddenly dropped down in front of his face, hovering a mere few inches from his face.

He couldn't help but jolt back in surprise. Lee didn't seem to notice. She was smiling happily, her pink eyes staring unblinkingly at him. "I know you," she told him cheerfully.

"Sure," Adrien replied hesitantly, "I was here last time." He didn't the way that Lee was staring at him. It was unnerving.

"You're Adrien," Lee chirped in a sing-song voice.

"... um, yes," he replied.

Alya had stopped speaking. The rest of the table was now watching him and Lee curiously. Adrien glanced over at Marinette, silently begging for some help. Marinette gave him a little smile and shrugged.

"Adrien, Adrien, Adrien," Lee spun in a circle, "such a nice name, such a good boy."

Okay, that was inarguably weird. Shifting backwards, Adrien put a bit of space between himself and Lee.

Master Fu cleared his throat. Suddenly, all the other kwamis rushed forward, all talking over each other. "Why don't we give the humans some space," they said, "let's go to the kitchen."

Only, Lee resisted them. She flew upwards, her pink eyes still locked onto Adrien.

A shiver ran up is spine. Her expression had changed, morphing from playful to ponderous. "I know him," she repeated, stronger this time, "I know him…"

"I think you're just confused." Tikki argued as she floated up next to Lee.

"I'm not confused," she insisted manically, "I know him, I know him, I know him!"

"Is she okay?" Nino asked Master Fu.

Master Fu sighed, his eyes watching the kwamis sadly. "I think it is as I feared," the Master said mysteriously.

Lee's panicking was only getting worse. Her feather's were all fluffed out and she was waving her tiny wings wildly as she continued to say, I know him. The other kwamis swarmed around her again.

"Calm down -" Trixx started to say.

"Deep breath -" Tikki started to say.

"Slow down -" Wayzz started to say.

"For fuck's sake -" Plagg started to say.

Before any of the kwamis could finish what they were saying, Lee plummeted out of the air. The peacock kwami plopped hard onto the table, gasping loudly. The bowls and chopsticks on the table clattered as the impact bounced them up half a centimeter. Then, Lee clapped her tiny blue wings together, delight exploding onto her face.

"I remember," she declared, "I remember now. He's my son!" The whole room went silent. The only sound was from Lee as she sang happily, "My son, my son, Adrien, Adrien, Adrien!"

Adrien was completely and utterly confused. What did the kwami mean by that? He's my son. There was no way. The kwami had clearly lost its mind. Somehow, Hawk Moth had broken her, driven her mad. After all, Master Fu had told them, many years ago, that kwamis were ancient, immortal creatures. They were not, and had never been, people.

… right?

And yet, Adrien's stomach began to do flips and his chest filled with panic.

Tikki had flown over to Plagg. The black cat kwami wrapped his arms around the red kwami, comfortingly. Adrien looked up at his kwami and locked eyes with him. The sorrowful expression on the cat kwami's face was downright human-like.

Then, as if he could read Adrien's mind, Plagg nodded.

Adrien started to tremble.

Marinette spoke first, her voice trembling like his body was, "You must be mistaken. Adrien's mother died... a long time ago."

Nino added, "Besides, her name wasn't Lee, it was Emi… oh."

Emilie.

Adrien looked over at Master Fu. The master of the miraculouses was staring down at his tea, a somber expression on his face. It is as I feared, he'd said a moment ago. The words echoed in Adrien's brain.

Suddenly, it was hard to breath. Suddenly, tears were threatening to blur his vision. Adrien didn't understand. He didn't understand at all. But, he wasn't stupid. The truth was right in front of him, adorned with bright blue feathers. The truth, the one that had driven his father to a life of crime.

"Mom?" whispered Adrien hoarsely.

The little kwami beamed happily.

- x - x - x -

A/N: Oh my.
Well ain't this a pickle.
What the Amatersu is going on?

#hawkmothsreadingclub
#dadblockedagain