Chapter Text
The sun peeking through Adriens eyelids, he groaned, and pulled the covers over his face. He didn’t want to get up yet, and the alarm clock stayed silent. It was probably a weekend, or he accidentally snoozed it without noticing. He still didn’t open his eyes, wanting to keep basking in the silence a bit longer. There was something calming about it, it’s not that he wasn’t used to it, he loved the natural silence of his room.
There was a knock accompanied by a voice, “Adrien? Are you awake?” He didn’t recognize the voice, he could tell it was a woman's though.
He threw off the covers, opening his eyes, the sun through the giant windows blinding him. “UH, yeah, I am!” He called out.
“Alright, your parents are waiting for you downstairs in the kitchen.” Then he heard the click of her heels turn and leave.
Now Adrien was excited to hear that, his Mother had been away for a little over a year now, just coming back yesterday, and he couldn’t wait to see her again. He practically jumped out of bed and got dressed. Rushing to the kitchen to see… His Father cooking pancakes? And his mother was sitting on one of the bar stools talking to another lady who he assumed was the one who knocked on his door earlier.
His Mother swiveled around to face him and clasped her hands together, “Adrien!” She patted the stool next to her waving him over. “Come, come, sit!” And so he did, giving her a tight hug.
“Good morning, Adrien.” His Father said at the stove, it was odd seeing him in this attire, the apron over his expensive suit, though all of his clothing was expensive. “Did you sleep well?”
His Father slid him a plate of oddly looking pancakes, with all sorts of toppings, which seemed to anger the lady seated on the other side of his Mother. “Gabriel, you know Adrien likes his pancakes plain.”
What? Adrien thought he always did like all the toppings. Plain?
“No I don’t? I’d rather not have my pancakes plain actually.” Adrien cut a piece and shoved the fork into his mouth to prove his point.
The woman looked deeply confused, and so did his Mother, until her face softened and turned towards them again. “You know, taste buds change.” And then started to ramble on about a story as Adrien finished his pancakes.
As Adrien pushed his empty plate aside, he tugged on his Mothers sleeve to get her attention. “Maman, where were you when you were gone?”
The room fell silent and she gave an unreadable expression before answering, “I’ll tell you when you are older, do not worry about such silly things, alright?” She gave him another hug, and he gave it right back. He still didn’t understand, she was gone for so long and still had no explanation. He decided to put it off for now, it really was pointless matter.
His Father, who was sitting at the island now, gestured over towards the lady at the island with them, “Natalie has spoken to your teachers about your current situation, You will go back no earlier than next week.” Nathalie . How could he forget?
“Thank you Father… And Natalie..” Adrien fiddled with his ring on his left hand.
His Mother noticed this and grabbed his hand, “What an adorable ring, where did you get it?”
Adrien wanted to respond, but he had to think. Where did he get the ring? He should know. He’s supposed to know. But he doesn’t. The three of them are looking at him, expecting an answer, one he couldn’t give.
“I don’t know.” He finally said.
His Father scrunched his face up in confusion, “You’ve had that ring since the beginning of the school year, what do you mean ‘you don’t know’?”
“I just…” He glanced back and forth between his Mother and his Father. “Don’t know.”
His Mother placed her hands around Adrien’s shoulders, “Oh, don’t be too hard on him Gabriel, I forget where I get all my jewelry all the time!” She cackled and turned towards him again. “How about you head up to your room, play one of those games you like!”
“Uhm… Ok.” Adrien pushed himself up from the stool and headed out the kitchen. He didn’t want to leave, but he also didn’t want to deal with more questions about himself he didn’t know the answer to.
He was in his room again. And confusion settled in. What did he do in here? Sure, there was a TV, computer, books, games, whatnot, but it didn’t seem like he was supposed to be alone in this big room. Maybe it was because he was supposed to go back to school. If he could remember what he did last there, he would do homework. Maybe not. What did his Mother say? Play a game he liked? Adrien headed over to his drawer of video games, loads of discs he could easily pop in and turn on a console. But what did he like? None of the games he had really sounded… Interesting.
He looked around, there were a couple disc cases already out, like he had just recently been playing them. He picked one up, it was a racing game, it didn’t seem his style but he loaded it into the disc tray. He scooted back from the TV, and spotted a controller, hopped onto the couch and started playing.
Just after a few minutes of playing this game, Adrien was already growing tired of this. Is this really what he liked to do in his free time? He turned the game off and wandered around his room, and he noticed his phone on the charger. When he picked it up, it must’ve been on silent because there were loads of notifications that made Adrien’s head spin. Dozens of missed calls and text messages from a numerous amount of friends. He clicked on the one that said ‘ Nino 🎵🎧 ’.
Nino 🎵🎧
“I just heard the news dude, oh my gosh congrats my man!”
“Hey dude, I know you’ve been busy with your mom returning and everything but it’d be cool if you gave me a call back, I just wanna know you’re ok”
“Marinette has been freaking out about how you haven’t responded, can you pleeeaaseee text or call me to let us know you’re ok?”
“If your old man took your phone or something thats super uncool, we’re really worried about you dude”
“You werent at school today, you sick? Or spending time with your mom, totally get it dude.”
“We just wanna know your ok dude, please update us!!”
The last two messages were sent very recently, the most recent being 20 minutes ago. He really seemed worried for Adrien, the least he could do was call him. The phone rang a couple times, he almost thought Nino wouldn’t pick up, and then he heard a voice from the other side of the phone.
“Adrien?”
“Hey uh… Nino?”
“Dude! Did you get all of my messages? I-I don’t blame you for being busy, but we were totally worried about you man!”
“Oh… Sorry…” He wasn’t fully sure on what to say, or why he was so nervous, tugging at the bottom of his T-shirt.
“No… I’m sorry dude, I shouldn’t have spammed you with texts, Marinette thought something bad happened to you or something… Which obviously isn’t the case.”
Marinette . “My phone was on silent, I didn't realize people were texting me.”
“Makes alotta sense, especially with your mom coming back, I can understand everyone texting you about it all…” There was a beat of silence. “So… Was it nice… Seeing your mom again?”
“Uh… Yes?” He tried to think back to yesterday, seeing his mom again, and trying to remember how it felt. He couldn’t really remember.
“That’s good dude, I’m gonna have to see you later, I told Ms. Bustier I was using the bathroom, couldn’t pass up talking to my best bro.”
Best bro… “Y-yeah, I’ll see you… later?” He took the phone away from his ear and hung up.
He looked at the other friends who had texted him, assuming they were all in class right now like Nino was. But one name stuck out to him, Marinette🎀🧵 . She had the most messages unread, he was honestly afraid to open them up.
When he did finally gain the courage to open up her messages, he was a little taken aback from her chaotic energy.
Marinette🎀🧵
“ADRIEN”
“IF SOMETHING HAPPENED TO YOU I SWEAR TO GOD”
“ILL FIGHT GABRIEL MYSELF WITH MY BARE HANDS”
“alya and nino tell me your probably just busy reuniting with your mother, BUT if something happened to you I WILL FIND OUT”
“ARE YOU DEAD IS THAT WH”
“WHY YOUR NT ASWERING?????”
“PLEASE DONT BE DEAD IL COME OVER NAD BRING YOU BACK”
“please please please please plea”
“I CARE ABOUT YOU ALOT ADIRNE PLEASE DONT LET THIS BE WAHT I THINK IT IS”
And he barely scratched the surface with those texts, how long had it been since he talked to them to have them worry this much? He wished he could see them right now, maybe get his head out of this funk right now, pull him back to what’s normal . What had his Father said? Not returning to school no earlier than next week . He guessed that meant he could still hang out with them.
But Maman just got home… Maybe they could wait. He dropped his phone back on his nightstand. He decided he could message them later.
He stepped to his desk, shuffling through homework papers, trying to see if he needed to get anything done. But no, he apparently already had finished it all. Guess he wasn’t a procrastinator on these things.
He plopped down into his desk chair, staring at the computer monitor, his save screen being him and his Mother. He smiled and logged into the device, showing him he was last on the… Ladyblog? An entire site dedicated to superheroes, Paris superheroes . Ladybug and-
“ADRIEN!?” There was suddenly a black floating blob in his face holding… something.
He quickly leaned back in his chair, trying to get away from that… thing .
“I thought- the wish , I don’t understand, I know what he-” It was talking. God why was it talking ?
His chair was rolling back, thank god for wheels. “What ARE you!?” Struggling to back up and stand at the same time.
With its small but giant head (compared to the rest of its body) it tilted it to the side in confusion. “What do you mean who am I ? You know who I am! I’m Plagg! Remember?”
With an attempt to back up some more while standing up, he tripped over the chair entirely and fell hard on his butt, the chair rolling to the side. But he didn’t care, all he needed to do was get away from that thing .
It started to float closer. “Adrien, I didn’t even realize you were alive why are you pretending-”
Adrien cut it off, he didn’t care what it had to say. “Stop talking to me! Go away!” He started to scoot away now, hoping it would discourage any closing of distance.
“How do I make you go away, I don’t even know what you are .” His back hit a wall.
“Why do you wanna renounce me so bad? I’m not going to-”
Adrien covered his ears with his hands and squeezed his eyes shut. “Well I renounce you! Renounce! Renounce! Renounce!” He could faintly hear a clink on the floor and slowly peeled his eyes open.
The thing was gone, but what it was originally holding… He crawled towards it, picking it up. It was a jet black ring, save for the green paw print. What was this? And why did it know his name?
He didn’t want to think about it, and he didn’t want this cursed ring, so…
He threw the ring across his room, not too hard, watching it roll under his bed. Maybe he could live with that. A weird ring under his bed. Something he could just forget about.
Was the black blob a hallucination? But that wouldn’t explain the ring… Maybe this is a dream? It certainly didn’t feel like it.
Adrien picked himself up and walked back towards his desk, dragging back his chair. Maybe he should forget about it. He just needed a good distraction from whatever just happened and…
He opened up another tab to a video site. Watching an aimless video could do the trick, yeah, he could do this, he could distract himself. He scrolled through videos, thumbnails never looking interesting enough, no matter how clickbaity they seemed. He tried not thinking about that ring , but need to distract himself he didn’t need to think about it anymore because it won’t come back and-
A video caught his attention. It was a painting video, a tutorial on simple techniques. He never tried painting before, maybe it would be fun, to possibly just watch.
-
He was in the middle of an anatomy drawing tutorial before he was interrupted by a knock at his door. He looked down at the paper he had doodled on, trying to follow the tutorial. It was… Ok to say the least. Definitely a beginner.
“Yes?” He called out.
His door opened and it was Nathalie. Did she live here? “Your Mother would like to spend time with you, in the living room.”
He pushed away the papers on his desk and stood up, and Nathalie quickly left. What exactly was her deal? She seemed like an employee? Maybe an assistant?
He pushed away the questions in his mind and turned off his computer. While he was making his way out of his room and towards the living room- how long had it been since he’d even been in there? - He thought of how long it had been since Maman and him had even had a conversation to themselves. He couldn’t quite place what their last conversation was about, but maybe it had really just been that long.
He opened the door to see Maman sitting on one of the sofas in the room. Whipping her head around to see him, she put down whatever book she was holding. She was alone, which was odd, didn’t Father want to see her?
She smiled wide, “Adrien! Just the boy I wanted to see!” She patted the cushion next to her, ushering him over.
He waltzed right on over and took a seat alongside her, giving her a hug as he did so.
“Oh, you're too sweet aren’t you?” She ruffled his hair, and then gestured toward the coffee table in front of them. “I got you some of those passion fruit macarons that you like, remember how we used to enjoy them together?”
Adrien didn’t, but he didn’t want to break her heart by telling her that, so he just nodded and reached over for one. If he cherished his Mother so much why didn’t he remember? He didn’t need to worry about that, so he took a bite.
He immediately wanted to spit it out. Trying not to make a face, he grabbed a napkin sitting next to the box of macarons and set down the rest of the cookie. Something about the flavor was just… wrong .
His Mother gave him a concerned look, “Do you not like them? I was told they were the best bakery in Paris…” Her face grimaced as she took a closer look at the label of the box.
“No, no!” He assured. “It’s good I just…”
She looked back, expecting him to finish his sentence.
“I don’t think I like passion fruit.”
To that she was bewildered . “But that was always your favorite, what do you mean ‘you don’t like passion fruit?’”
Was he supposed to like it? Did he ever? Maybe something changed over this past year of her being gone that made him dislike it, but he couldn’t remember what that would be. He should’ve just sucked it up, this was turning into a bigger deal. She got these for him and he was being ungrateful .
He unclenched his teeth- how long had he been doing that? “Tastebuds change?” He gave her a small smile.
She stared at him for a second, until she threw her back her head with laughter, looking at him again to pinch his cheeks. “Oh, you’re going to be the death of me sweet child.”
Adrien could feel his own big smile start to form, how could he forget the times with his Maman like this? How did he even survive a whole year without her?
She pulled back, resting her arm on the back of the sofa, facing him. “So what other new things should I know about?”
He glanced down at the hands in his lap, what else was new, other than his food preferences? He tried to think, but this past year he couldn’t think of anything actually new. Maybe Adrien needed his Mother in his life, just to keep himself grounded. He remembered what he was doing before he came down, and decided to go with that.
He finally lifted his head back towards her with a timid smile. “I think I like art?”
She gasped with a smile, “Oh really? My boy, a mini artist? Do you have any work I could see?”
He laughed weakly, “No, I just started, I just thought it would be fun to pick up painting.”
“Well I think, tomorrow, you should get painting supplies. I have some things to take care of and I want you to keep busy, sound alright?”
He practically beamed at that, vigorously nodding his head. The idea of filtering through different paint tubes and brushes and choosing what he wanted. He didn’t even have a clue of what he would do first, but based on his silly scribbles from before, he should practice more of that before transferring it to a canvas.
“Now, Adrien be a dear and go get your Father from his office, I want him to be here with us.”
“Ok, I can do that.” And Adrien got up and left the room, heading for his Father’s office. What could be so important from his work that he couldn’t spend more time with Maman? It clearly seemed like she wanted to see them both, and Father had been so upset that she was gone, what was he doing?
As he approached the office, he could hear voices from inside, they sounded harsh, not too loud, like they were trying to keep quiet. It was his Father and Nathalie speaking. He made his footsteps quieter, trying to decipher what they were saying. Almost putting his ear up to the door, he tried to listen.
“You cannot just keep him in the basement, Émilie could find out-”
“She’s not going to find out, she won’t be going down there, so she won’t see him.”
“How do you know that?”
Before he let the conversation continue any further, he spun right around, and headed back to the living room. He didn’t want to know what they meant, he didn’t want to know who “him” was, or why they were keeping it from Maman. He didn’t even know there was a basement.
When he made it back to the living room, Maman tilted her head, almost like a way to ask ‘ where is he?’
“He’s busy.”