Chapter Text
Adrien’s entire life changed on an unassuming sunny Friday afternoon. He waved goodbye to his friends and hopped in the car with Gorilla. What he wasn’t expecting was to find Nathalie sitting in the passenger seat.
“Good afternoon, Adrien,” she said, her tone clipped and cold. “You will not be attending your fencing lesson this afternoon. There is something your father must discuss with you.”
Adrien froze. His father never let him skip out on an extracurriculars, let alone arranged it. Something was going on, and he raced through the possible options, coming up with only one idea.
His father knew he was Chat Noir.
Too soon, the car pulled through the gates of the Agreste mansion. Gabriel waited for them inside, arms crossed and frown deeper than usual.
Adrien resisted the urge to run. Run away from this place and transform. Become Chat Noir so he didn’t have to deal with the mess that was his family.
“Adrien.” His father’s voice was cold, but that wasn’t unusual. In fact, the only thing that seemed out of the ordinary was the fact that he had been waiting for Adrien to get home from school so that he could talk to him. “It has come to my attention that you have been sneaking out on the regular.”
Adrien tensed, waiting for his father to reveal that he knew his secret identity. He didn’t know how Gabriel would react; would he demand Adrien give up his miraculous? Would he be supportive? Somehow, he doubted it.
“I don’t know how you’ve been doing it,” Gabriel continued, prompting a relieved breath from Adrien, “but I won’t allow it to continue. You will be home-schooled by Nathalie from now on.”
“Please let me go to school,” Adrien begged.
Gabriel remained unflinching. “You had your chance; you wasted it. Before you go, give me your phone.” He held out his hand. Reluctantly, Adrien handed over the device. “I will be deleting all contacts from your phone except mine and Nathalie’s. And all unnecessary apps. Now go to your room.”
Adrien hung his head, his voice barely a whisper. “Yes, Father.”
Adrien closed his door with a gentle click and let out a breath. “That was close,” he murmured. He would work on getting his father to allow him to go back to school. But for now, he was just relieved Gabriel hadn’t worked out the truth of his son’s disappearances.
He transformed and headed over to the window. When he pushed on it, though, it wouldn’t budge. Frowning, he dragged a chair over and stood on it, heart sinking when he spotted the new locks near the top.
The rest of the windows in his room were the same, right down to the ones in his ensuite. Adrien detransformed and slumped onto his chair. “It’s no use, Plagg. I can’t get out of here. What if Ladybug needs me?”
Plagg hovered nearby. “You’ll find a way to get out,” he said. “We’ll figure out a way.”
“Thanks, Plagg. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“You’d be lost, kid.”
The weekend passed without any akumatisations, thankfully. Adrien checked his messages on his staff daily but found only one from Ladybug on Sunday afternoon.
“Hey Chaton, just checking everything’s okay on your end. You missed our patrol today and it was so boring without you. Bye!”
He quickly dialled her number, listening as it rang and rang, before sending him to voicemail. “Hey Bugaboo, sorry I wasn’t there. Something has come up in my personal life that means I won’t be able to come for a little while. I’ll try to get things sorted quickly so I can come back and help you. I’ll let you know if anything changes.”
A knock sounded on his door and he hastily detransformed before rushing to answer it. Nathalie stood outside, holding her tablet. “Your father has requested that you eat lunch with him today,” she said.
Adrien followed her into the dining room, where he usually ate alone. Today, his father sat at the long table, lunch already on the table. He glanced up as Adrien slid into his seat.
“Good. You’re here.”
The conversation ended there between them for the rest of the meal. Adrien stole glances across the table, but Gabriel remained engrossed in whatever he was reading on his tablet. Once he finished his meal, he stood and excused himself. “Nathalie, please take Adrien back to his room.”
Adrien tailed Nathalie through the mansion, hurt over his father’s apparent apathy. He had been surprised when Nathalie came to get him, thinking that maybe things would change. How wrong he had been.
He collapsed on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. Maybe he should paint it a different colour. He would need something to occupy his time now that he wasn’t allowed to attend school and couldn’t run across Parisian roofs as a masked superhero.
Instinctively, he reached for his phone to text Nino, belatedly remembering that his father still had his phone. Even if Adrien had it, he wouldn’t have Nino’s number anymore.
Adrien sighed heavily. He needed to find a way out of this mess, and fast, before it drove him to the brink of insanity.