5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Beware, this chapter is entirely in Chat's POV and is, therefore, not light and happy. It is time for it, though. So, onward valiant Miraculousites and breach the troubled depths that is Chat Noir.

Chat Noir walked into Hawk Moth's lair with leaden legs. He'd been summoned, and that only meant one thing: a scolding.

White butterflies flittered around the dark, cavernous room. There was nothing in the space but failed expectations, thickening the air and clogging his throat. He could barely draw in a breath here.

Come to think of it, the only time he could easily breathe now was with Marinette. Ladybug used to be his refuge, but not anymore and, if he succeeded in taking her Miraculous, never again.

His father stood with his back to him, illuminated by the sunlight streaming in from the open circular window up high. He was always so rigid, so distant. No matter what Adrien did, he couldn't reach him. His blue eyes remained two frozen lakes.

But Adrien knew of one person who could thaw that iciness. His mother.

"Do you have Ladybug's Miraculous?" his father asked, not even bothering to face him. His hands, clasped behind his back, tightened into fists.

Gabriel knew Adrien hadn't retrieved it, but this was now a ritual of theirs. "No, Father."

"You've failed me again?"

How many times had he asked that, insinuated he was a disappointment? Twenty? Thirty? Each time was a needle in his pincushion of a heart. "Yes," he finally answered.

A long, stifling moment passed. If Gabriel's shoulders grew any sharper, they'd cut diamonds.

Adrien wanted to say something, but he didn't know what, so he stood there, waiting for the admonishment to begin, a levee against an oncoming hurricane.

"Do you not want your mother back?"

The question baffled him. This was new. "You know I do."

"Is seeing your mother's smile, hearing her laugh"—he paused, his head lowering a fraction as if the memories of her were too much to bear—"and feeling her gentle touches again not enough motivation?"

Adrien's whole being craved it, more than the air that was denied him here. "I do," he choked out the answer. How could he not? His mother was they key to everything: a family, a future, their redemption.

His father spun around, rage twisting his face into a vicious sneer. "Then why haven't you been trying?"

Taking a step back, Adrien's eyes widened from the vehemence. "I. I have been."

"Don't lie to me," he said with a swipe of his hand. The butterflies stirred, darting around frantically. "I agreed to not take your Miraculous if you used it to get Ladybug's."

"I know. And I will get it. I promise." His gaze fell to his feet. "There's nothing I want more than to get mom back."

Gabriel breathed in, long and slow. The action smoothed his face and reset his imperious posture. "My spies saw you running from her." Who he'd referred to was very clear based on how he'd practically spit out the word. Ladybug.

Grimacing, Adrien tried to think of what to say. His father wouldn't care about how he was being torn in two, frayed and raw. He only cared about competence and cruel honesty. "I've never hurt her before. And afterwards...after I knocked her off the building, I needed time to gather myself. I was weak. But it won't happen again. I swear it."

Seconds ticked by, each one a slice designed to draw blood until there was none left. He didn't allow himself to break eye contact with his father, though. He had to be hard like him, to be cold steel.

"Good." Gabriel turned around to look out the window again.

With that dismissal, Adrien lingered, wishing against all odds his father would say or do something to show he loved his son. Like how Marinette's parents did with her. The emotion showed in their eyes, in every touch and every word when they were together. It permeated the air, sweetening it, making it both splendid and nearly unbearable.

"Oh, and Adrien?"

Gaze shooting to him in hope, he asked, "Yes, Father?"

"Fail me again, and I will take your Miraculous."

His heart plummeted into a pool of icy water. He had to be hard. He had to be without weakness and without flaws. He had to be cold steel.

oOoOo

Adrien? Plagg asked.

Chat snuck across the rooftops back to the apartment. It was daylight and he didn't want to be seen. He needed more time before he confronted Ladybug.

Hey, kid. Don't ignore me.

He didn't want another lecture. After his father's, he was done. Besides, Plagg just made him even more confused. It was like having an angel and a devil sitting on his shoulders telling him what to do. Well, more like a half-angel and a devil. Plagg wasn't exactly innocent and pure.

Look, I know getting your mom back seems like a good reason to give Hawk Moth the Miraculouses, but it isn't. He's wrong, and what he's doing to you is wrong. I know I've said it a million times, but it's true. You've both been unable to grieve her loss because she might not have passed away. You need…

Adrien let Plagg's voice fade to background noise as he skirted around chimneys and leapt from shadow to shadow. In his mind, getting his mom back would be the only reason to relinquish his Miraculous. That, and to save Ladybug's life.

Both had been reason enough to agree to work with his father. The memory of discovering Gabriel was Hawk Moth was still fresh enough to have only occurred days ago.

"Dad?" Adrien asked in a long, sleepy drawl, bleary-eyed from being dead asleep.

Gabriel stood over him, a faceless statue, barely visible in the dark bedroom.

Adrien sat up and rubbed his face. "What's wrong?"

His ring's weight, a familiar presence after years of wearing it, was missing from his finger. He jerked his hand from his face and peered at it. The silver piece of jewelry was gone. He touched bare skin for further confirmation.

"Dad?" he asked, this time with dread.

Turning from him, Gabriel stepped to the large windows, hands clasped behind his back, one holding onto something.

Adrien threw off the covers and jumped out of bed, the cold snapping the last vestiges of sleep from his brain. "I need my ring back." He stretched an arm out, fingers extending that much closer to Plagg, now dormant in the Miraculous.

"I've given you everything," his father said with a glance back at him. "Because you are my son, her son. And when I look at you, I see her." He sighed. "It's almost as if she's with me."

Adrien's arm fell to his side, mouth agape. This sentimentality was...unexpected. "I miss her too."

"I know. It's why I'm giving you a choice." He looked back out the window again. Paris twinkled from its multitude of lights outside. "I can keep your Miraculous and you can go about living a normal life or you can have it back for a while and bring me Ladybug's."

Time came crashing to a halt, running him over in the process. His father was Hawk Moth. His father. Was. Hawk Moth.

The room suddenly spun and his knees buckled. He staggered back to his bed and sat down. Was he breathing? He needed to do so. Right?

"How—" Adrien swallowed but his mouth was too dry to do so. He had to unstick his tongue from the roof of his mouth to speak. "How did you find out who I was? And why are you akumatizing people?" His head fell into his hands. "Why?"

Gabriel walked to him. "To bring your mother back."

His head shot up. "How?"

"When the power of creation and the power of destruction are brought together, the universe will grant a single wish."

All of this time, his father had been trying to make their family whole again. And he'd thought Hawk Moth had just been a power-hungry sociopath. He wanted to laugh, but the weight of the revelation sat on his chest like a boulder.

"Dad, I want her back—"

Gabriel smiled.

"—But I can't take Ladybug's Miraculous. It's not right."

His lips compressed into a thin line. "Not even to save her life?"

Adrien's brows lifted nearly to his hairline. "What?"

"I'm tired of waiting. I will seek out the most vile of human beings and give them the power to wreak true devastation to get it." He bent at the waist to look him in the eyes. "I will get my wife back, no matter the cost."

"You'd kill for her?"

He nodded sharply and stood straight, not a single emotion showing to betray his words.

"But you'll refrain from doing so if I work with you?" Adrien asked.

"If you get me her Miraculous, I won't have to."

Adrien gritted his teeth and held out an open hand. "Then I'll do it."

Gabriel placed the ring in his palm. "Keep your kwami under control."

"How?" He looked at the silver jewelry. Plagg was not going to be happy about this.

"We are the wielders and, therefore, their masters. Command it and they can't disobey." Gabriel pivoted on his heel and made his way to the door.

"Dad?"

He stopped, not looking back at his son.

"How did you find out I'm Chat Noir?"

"I had my suspicions for years now, since the akumatized hypnotist. You knew too much about the mansion's security and you were never with the superhero." He grabbed the doorknob, but didn't open the door. "And I saw your mother when you chastised me."

Chat Noir blinked away the memory. His father had known he was a Miraculous wielder for years and for some reason didn't immediately take his ring. Out of love? The desire to keep his identity hidden? He hoped it was the former.

Welcome back, Plagg said. He sounded miffed.

Adrien rolled his eyes. He cherished the kwami, it was why he'd never ordered his silent obedience, but he could be annoyingly persistent.

"It needs to be done, Plagg. Better she loses her Miraculous than her life."

Even if she ends up despising you for it?

He had to be cold steel. "Yes."

Chat jumped down from the rooftop to a small empty park, more a bundle of trees than anything.

Landing on all fours, he was about to transform back, but a screech startled him. He leapt to the surprised girl and covered her mouth with a gloved hand. Crap, crap, crap. He could've sworn no one had been here.

She struggled against him, getting in a good elbow to his stomach. He winced and sucked in a breath.

A familiar scent greeted him.

He released her and sprang backwards. "Marinette?"

She fell to her bottom, gazing at him with wide eyes.

Holding out his open hands, he said, "I'm not going to hurt you. I swear."

"Chat?" she asked, then quickly added, "Noir."

That was odd. For a second there, she'd reminded him of Ladybug. "Yes, but I'm not going to hurt you." Back in the day, he never had to assure people that. Life used to be so much easier.

"You won't?" she asked, head tilted to the side.

"Never."

"Wait. You remember me?"

"Of course. A man never forgets his damsel in distress." He grinned and winked at her, finally lowering his arms.

"Hold on. You'll never hurt me? But why?"

"Because I'm not—" A bad guy, he wanted to say before remembering the truth. "I'm not a mindless brute."

"Did you say damsel in distress?" she asked, one brow lifted in indignation.

Could she not stay on a single train of thought? "Yes. I did save you those"—he counted his fingers and gave up—"many times."

She got to her feet, and he rushed to help her. Thankfully, she didn't start screaming again.

"I'm not afraid of you."

"And why not? I'm menacing." He waggled his claws at her.

She snorted, but covered it with a cough. "You just said you'd never hurt me. Unless you're a liar."

Crossing his arms, he said, "I am many things, but I'm not a liar and I don't go around attacking people."

She mimicked his guarded stance. "Just Ladybug, then, huh?"

His mouth fell open. He never realized Marinette was this feisty. She was usually so sweet and timid. He liked it.

A corner of his mouth lifted. "Do you want me to attack you?"

"No," she squeaked, clutching her purse, as if he'd take it.

The action made him want to laugh. Instead, he thought of the pretty girl as prey and prowled around her. Then he pounced, snatched her in one arm, and extended his staff with the other, vaulting them to the rooftop.

They landed, and he let her go. She stumbled backwards, arms flailing. There was his old Marinette.

After righting her, he finally let out a laugh. "Scared you, didn't I?"

"No." A smile played at the edge of her lips.

They fell into an amicable silence as she looked out at Paris. He realized he was standing out in the open and slid back into the shadow of a nearby chimney.

His movement caught her eye, and she frowned. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why work with Hawk Moth?"

"The million dollar question." He lazily swung his tail.

She stepped to him, her black hair swaying gently in the breeze. "I'm serious."

"If I tell you, I'd have to kill you. And I'd rather keep my Princess around as long as possible."

He'd expected a blush, maybe a quip if she was still feeling feisty. Instead, she just stared at him with those impeccably blue eyes, so very different from his father's. Hers were the calm waters of a clear bay, warm and inviting. But the sadness filling them reminded him of everything just when the weight of his situation had started to lift.

His heart clenched, and he thought of cold steel, hard and capable. The despair froze in his chest, and he opened his eyes he hadn't even realized closing in the first place.

"Let's get you back to the ground," he said.

She'd begun to reach out to him, her hand suspended between them, but then she pulled it back and nodded.

He scooped her up and hopped down to the grass, not letting her go right away. Her warmth was a cocoon of comfort he struggled to shed.

"You can talk to me," she said softly. "If you need someone, I'm here. Like literally here in these apartments. I no longer live above the bakery."

He smiled and went with it. Stepping back, but not too far, he asked, "By yourself?"

He winked, and this time he was rewarded with a blush. She was pawsitively divine when her cheeks were tinted with that rosey hue.

"No. I'm living with someone."

"Your friend, that brunette?"

"No…"

He placed the tip of his claw under her chin and lifted it, so she was forced to look him in the eyes. "Then who?"

"Adrien."

"A boy!?" he asked in mock surprise, then narrowed his eyes. "Do you like him?"

Her jaw went slack. "What? I. I. No. Maybe." She breathed out hard through her nose and took a step back, further separating them. "That's none of your business."

Did she? It seemed it might be a possibility. He smiled even bigger. "Okay then, Princess. Until next time."

He shot himself to the rooftop again and moved out of sight, but continued to listen for her, waiting for her to leave. It took everything in him to not laugh out loud.

This could be fun.

AN - Thank you for reading! I ended with a moment of levity to help with the depressing nature of this chapter. I hoped it helped. Next one will be more fun, I promise.

Also, thank you for leaving a review and favoriting and following. I'm still shocked that there were only four chapters before this one and over seventy people have liked them enough to follow the story!

My sister hasn't watched the show, but she's asking a lot of questions about it. I might be wearing her down. Lol. Thanks for going over this with me! Now, go watch the show. ;)