Chapter Text
The Charles-de-Gaulle airport felt smaller than Marinette remembered.
She tugged her suitcase—the only thing she had brought with her when she first left—down the runway and spilled into the atrium with the rest of her fellow passengers. Tapping away at her phone screen in one hand, she tightened her fingers around the suitcase’s handle with the other.
Returning to Paris after all these years was strange, to say the least. She had rehearsed this moment over and over, trying to figure out the right words to say to her parents, her friends, everyone.
Well, she thought with her chest straining, almost everyone.
“Marinette!”
She lifted her head, mustering up the effort to form a small smile as she watched her parents dash toward her. Already her father knocked over her luggage to hoist her up into one of his infamous bear hugs: something she didn’t realize she missed so dearly. FaceTime calls really just weren’t the same…
“Papa…” Marinette said with nervous laughter. “Everyone’s staring at us—”
“Let them,” Tom said with a huff, but put her down regardless. “It’s completely justified considering I haven’t seen my only daughter in six years!”
Her smile wavered.
Seeing this, her father immediately backtracked. “N-Not that I’m angry at you for it, Marinette,” he assured her. “I know you’ve been working so hard in New York—”
Sabine placed a hand on his shoulder, smiling at them both, having already picked up Marinette’s suitcase for them. “Marinette’s right, dear. We can always catch up at home,” she said, her smile widening just for Marinette. “No pressure, of course.”
Six years.
For Marinette, it felt like a decade.
And yet, as the Dupain-Cheng family made the drive back home, Marinette couldn’t help but feel as though the city had stayed the same since she last left. The same streets, the same buildings, the same people…
Her eyes gravitated towards every billboard and sign they drove by… and her heart sunk when the Gabriel brand was nowhere to be found.
When Adrien’s face was nowhere to be found.
If you were within fifteen feet of the College Francoise Dupont, you could still catch the remnants of missing posters that once covered every visible surface. Most of the flyers have long withered away over the years, either by the elements or grieving fans wanting one last memory of their idol.
But still, if you turned around one corner, you could find the memorial consistently graced with tea candles, tear-stained letters, and other paraphernalia surrounding one sole picture frame that hadn’t changed in a decade.
No one expected that Adrien Agreste, so beloved to so many in the city, would go missing.
“In an unexpected turn of events, Adrien Agreste, model representative of Gabriel, has been reported missing by Gabriel Agreste himself,” Nadia had reported as breaking news, and even she had tears in her eyes, her brows furrowed with great concern. “He was last seen attending class at Francoise Dupont, but if anyone has any additional information, we urge them to report it to the authorities as soon as possible.”
But that was just it. No one else knew where he had gone off to, nor whether he was kidnapped. Whether he was even still alive.
And he wasn’t the only person in Paris who disappeared out of nowhere.
The night the news broke, Marinette still had to keep up her responsibilities as Ladybug; she had her usual patrols to do, but no matter how long she waited, Chat Noir was nowhere to be found either, his communicator unreachable, playing his annoying little voicemail every time Ladybug dialed for him.
Ladybug went to the highest rooftops she could find, and even there, she couldn’t hear him crooning about waiting for his beloved Lady.
As if Adrien vanishing wasn’t causing enough anguish for Paris, for her.
Shadow Moth must have realized this too because his heart wasn’t into his usual fight despite Ladybug’s proactivity in replacing Chat with Rena Rouge and Carapace.
Only a handful of Akumas were defeated before he arrived before her, confronting her and her comrades himself.
“I am done fighting, Ladybug,” Shadow Moth announced to the shock of the three heroes.
“Liar,” Rena Rouge said first, while Ladybug remained speechless. She stepped forward, her fists prepped. “You’re just trying to get our guard down so you can take our Miraculouses—”
Shadow Moth laughed. “You still believe I want your Miraculouses?” he said, shaking his head. “You are sorely mistaken.”
Ladybug frowned, her brows furrowed until it finally dawned on her. “You know Chat Noir’s missing,” she realized, eyes wide. “Without him, there’s no point in getting my Miraculous, is there?”
“I knew you were smarter than you looked,” Shadow Moth replied. “Correct. Without the Black Cat Miraculous, my goals are as good as dead.” He sneered at them all. “I could certainly take you hostage and hope he comes in swinging, but what good will that do when he won’t even come to see you personally?”
Ladybug tightened her fists, saying nothing.
“Your silence only confirms I’m right. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have those two at your beck and call.” Shadow Moth exhaled, tossing his staff aside. “I am done, Ladybug. If I cannot bring my wife back, if my son has to disappear too, then my efforts are for naught.”
Ladybug froze at that, his words only filling her with dread. “Th-that’s why you’ve been trying to take them for us?” she said quietly.
“Why else if not for my family?” Shadow Moth scowled. “I’m sure you won’t understand because you’re just a child, but I worked tirelessly so that my son and I can have her back.” He sniffed, turning away. “But I am not going to shame myself by exposing my entire life’s story to you. If you will defeat me and turn me in, so be it.”
Ladybug took a shaky breath and took another step forward, but Carapace threw his arm out to stop her.
Instead, he was the one to step towards Shadow Moth, extending a hand. “Then… surrender your Miraculouses, Shadow Moth,” he demanded. “Both of them.”
Shadow Moth pursed his lips, his shoulders drooping before straightening again. He glanced up at the news copters now hovering above them all, closing his eyes to brace himself for what was to come.
“Very well,” he said. “Nooroo, Duusu, reverse morphosis.”
A flash of purple surrounded him before his form dissolved away to reveal Gabriel Agreste.
Taken aback, the three heroes all stumbled backward, eyes wide.
“Shadow Moth—” Ladybug stuttered.
Rena Rouge blinked. “He’s—”
“Gabriel Agreste,” Carapace finished.
“Why?” Ladybug asked, her voice shaky, her eyes turning wet. “Why would you do this to your son? T-To Adrien? How could you think he’d approve of this?”
Gabriel said nothing, stepping forward towards Carapace, dropping both brooches into his hand. “Whether or not Adrien would approve didn’t matter to me. Bringing Emilie back was all that mattered, and hopefully, my son would have understood in the end,” he said, his voice soft. He sounded so tired. “Though with him gone too, it doesn’t matter now, does it?”
Carapace stepped over to Ladybug to press the Miraculouses into her palm. She swallowed hard, her fingers clasping around the brooches, refusing to give him an answer out of spite. Instead, she stepped back, letting the approaching police officers come to cuff Gabriel and escort him away.
The moment the police cars were no longer in sight, Ladybug felt her knees buckle until they gave out, collapsing to the ground. The other two rushed to her aid, crouching down to wrap their arms around her.
They sat like that for a while, silent minus Ladybug’s anguished cries.
Marinette flung her luggage to one corner of the bedroom, taking in the nostalgic sights of the one space she claimed as hers before she decided to leave for fashion school.
Eighteen years of living in this room, and six more running away from the writing on the walls.
When they got home, her parents left her to her own devices. Coming back from overseas with her lifelong dreams still unaccomplished was already uncharacteristic enough of their daughter that they didn’t want to dare push further, not for tonight, at least. All these years, they had made sure to do one thing; her room was to always stay the same, just in case she decided to visit…
…or move back in entirely.
She collapsed on the bed, rolling to hug her knees to her chest. Her suitcase rustled for a moment until Tikki phased out of it, approaching her human master slowly but surely.
“It’s been a while, huh, Marinette?” Tikki asked: the most neutral topic she could think of.
“Yeah…” Marinette didn’t even look up, burying her face further into the duvet.
Tikki withered at Marinette’s evident misery, then looked out the window, beaming now at the beginnings of pitter-pattering rain hitting against the glass. “Hey! Marinette, it’s raining. I bet it’ll be a beautiful night outside. What do you think?”
Silence.
Tikki deflated. “…Marinette…” She trailed closer to her, stopping right at her eye level. “Are you sure it was a good idea to come back here?”
What should Marinette even say at this point?
When she opened her acceptance letter to Parsons her last year at lycee, she didn’t feel elation but, instead, relief. She could finally run away from everything that haunted her here, or at least, she thought so. Being in the United States was thousands of kilometers far enough to distance herself from anything and everything that she could have hurt herself over. In New York City, she could be one among millions, a single particle in an entire galaxy.
But over the years, and even now, everyone in Paris still seemed to continue grieving over Adrien Agreste. Everywhere she went, she’d see him. Memorials honoring him, news channels mentioning him every single year on the anniversary of his disappearance, classmates and teachers doing nothing but talk about him on that same day each and every year without fail. It was good to leave it all for four years, for a decade, forever maybe.
It wasn’t the continuous anguish for Adrien that eventually broke her.
It was the lack thereof for Chat Noir.
Instead, he was considered vile, a runaway stray. A young boy went missing, the public said, and instead of helping Ladybug find him, he ran off. Unbelievable .
At first, she too held that kind of fury and frustration. Her heart cried that everyone should have been looking for Adrien Agreste; so where was Chat Noir when she needed him most?
Now, she didn’t know what to feel other than the same devastation she felt in Adrien’s absence. Where are you, Chat? she thought, staring at the ceiling. How could you just leave like that? Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving? Do you still have the Miraculous with you? Are you feeding Plagg enough?
As she drifted off to sleep, one last thought lingered in her head.
Are you still thinking about me?
By the time Marinette woke up, it was completely dark outside.
She sat up from her mattress, rubbing her eyes, wincing at the discomfort her day clothes imprinted in her skin. Near everything in her body begged her to return to sleep, to change into something more comfortable at least, but her brain argued otherwise.
She slipped out from under the duvet, throwing on her jacket instead.
Tikki emerged from the dollhouse with the other kwamis in tow, blinking the drowsiness away. “Marinette…?” she whispered. “Where are you going?”
“Just going for a walk, Tikki,” Marinette replied, slipping on her shoes while also grabbing her bag.
“But… it’s still raining out…”
“I’ll bring an umbrella with me,” she assured. “I’ll be fine.”
Tikki frowned, then flew towards her, settling into her crossbody bag with a long yawn. “I’ll come with you, just in case.”
Marinette granted her a tiny smile then reached for an umbrella by her door, only for her fingers to freeze around it. She rolled the umbrella around in her palms, realizing which one she grabbed with a sunken heart. How many times had she grabbed this very umbrella, grinning like a stupid idiot while reliving how she first fell in love with a boy?
“Wow. You’ve had it all this time?”
She shook her head, debating taking another umbrella instead, only to head out the door with it anyways. Unfolding the umbrella, she stepped out into the pouring rain, listening to the drops crashing over her. Her feet splashed through shallow puddles as she drifted away from the bakery with Tikki still in tow.
She had half a mind to transform into Ladybug again, to leap around the city once more and let the rain hit her face, drenching her in her emotional typhoon. But there was no use for that. Without Shadow Moth around, the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous now tucked away in the Miracle box, Paris was no longer terrorized by physical manifestations of selfish desires.
Paris was no longer in need of a Ladybug.
When she disappeared years after Chat Noir ghosted, the citizens dared not complain now that they lived in newfound peace.
Still, she stopped before the building the two would always meet at, staring up at the rooftop as though Chat Noir would be there—waiting for her after all this time. She tightened her grip around the umbrella and reminisced, her shoulders trembling. Most nights, they used to sit down at the edge of the rooftop together, making jabs at each other without a care in the world before they began their respective patrols. They would leap and dash from roof to roof, never more than a few kilometers away from each other, expressing their uttermost trust in each other through glances and delighted grins whenever their routes crossed paths.
She was fourteen years old then. She didn’t know how good she had it.
She was twenty-four now. She didn’t know what she was feeling exactly.
Marinette wiped at her face. Stupid, she thought. As if taking a literal walk down memory lane would do any good for you. You should have just stayed home.
Making up her mind, she turned to make the trek back.
A distant thud and a scratchy yowl insisted otherwise.
She jumped, turning towards the source of the noise with a frown. She listened to what must have been boxes being moved around, thuds and rustling with a familiar-sounding growl to follow. Step by step, she followed the noise and discord, eventually stopping before a damp alleyway.
A pile of water-logged boxes had, indeed, been precariously tipped over, with a black cat’s tail wagging out from one.
Her heart did somersaults.
She stared at the tail for a moment then vigorously shook her head, trying to knock some sense into herself. It’s just a stray cat, she told herself. You see them around all the time. Don’t get your hopes up.
Her body betraying her, she stepped closer towards the boxes.
But , she tried to reason, if it’s just a normal cat, you can still rescue it, bring it back to a shelter…
One step closer, and she dodged the box flung in her direction.
She jolted again, her eyes frozen on what revealed itself.
His black leather suit was stretched to fit his taller stature, even ripped in a few places even though they were told their suits were indestructible. It looked like his hair had grown out a bit, all the way down to his shoulders now, tufts of blond still sticking out wildly everywhere. One of his cat ears was bent—but it was identifying enough.
None of that was her main concern though.
She let her eyes trail up to his face. His mask was completely off, revealing those big green eyes she had been familiar with all this time, his slitted pupils now dilated. It only dawned on her now just how familiar those eyes were to her, as she took in the whiteness in his eyes that his mask once concealed with pure green.
“Adrien…?”