Whims of Reality (#1YearOfMiraculous)

A thousand thoughts were running through Adrien's head when he got home that night. Many of them revolved around Marinette, much to his pleasure, but unfortunately, the vast majority focusing on what the hell had been the deal with Chloe.

He knew Chloe. He understood her personality. He knew the kind of person she was. He knew the sort of things she would do in certain situations.

That had not been one of them, at any given point.

Chloe was a spiteful person. Adrien had known her since he was a child, and had known that about her for years, probably close to a decade now that he thought about it. That fact hadn't changed throughout all these years knowing her. In a sane world, Chloe would have freaked the hell out about seeing him and Marinette, based on her previous reactions.

She had smiled and waved.

That wasn't normal.

Something wasn't right.

He was convinced that something wasn't right. Maybe it was an Akuma? That seemed to be a logical conclusion to draw. An Akuma that dramatically altered the personality of a person in question didn't seem out of the question. In a way, that's what they did anyway. But he found himself dismissing it. Chloe had already been Akumatized, into Antibug. The blond model knew very little about Akuma's themselves, but he had the theory that the same person could only be Akumatized into one villain. He used that logic because of Stoneheart and Ivan. It wasn't perfect logic, but it wasn't like he had any other information to work with.

So Chloe herself being Akumatized was removed from the table of possibilities. Adrien supposed that it was possible that Chloe had been affected by someone who was Akumatized, or something - Anything... But he wasn't sure. There were too many unanswered questions, too many ways this could go differently. So many varied ways that something wrong was happening, and Adrien just couldn't see them. He was convinced something dark was happening behind the scenes.

Hawkmoth hadn't sent any Akumas out for a rather long time. Was it possible this had something to do with it?...

No, that was unlikely. Affecting the behavior of people just... It didn't benefit Hawkmoth in any way. He could have argued that because Chloe was the mayor's daughter, Hawkmoth could use her as some sort of ransom, but that required him to come into the light. Hawkmoth worked from the shadows, never doing anything himself. He wouldn't risk being detected.

Adrien bit his lower lip. "What a way to end a date." He muttered to himself. He hoped Marinette had more ideas about this whole mess than he did.

Marinette could not recall, in the history of her friendship with Alya, a moment in which she seemed to be absolutely seething with pure rage. Chloe suspending her had been close, but ultimately, it didn't even to the state the blogger was in right now.

First thing in the morning, and Alya looked ready to tear someone to shreds with her bare hands. Marinette could have sworn that they even looked sharper than normal. She'd rarely seen the brown-skinned girl with a frown on her face, never-mind this predatory growl. Part of her was worried Alya might genuinely bite her.

The blunette girl was, quite frankly, disturbed. she had come to school this morning completely expecting Alya to be armed with a long list of questions and innuendos regarding the date she and Adrien had last night. That was Alya-like. She would have expected that. She had been expecting that. Coming in to find this rabid beast almost... She would have preferred the list of jokes and teases.

"I freaking hate him, Marinette!" Alya snorted again, for maybe the tenth time. "I can't stand him!"

"Alya, please, calm down. You're freaking me out here." Marinette said, trying to make her friend relax as best she could, failing miserably. "S-Seriously, what's up with you and Nino?"

"I told you, I hate him!"

"I thought you two got along well enough. Heck, I thought you - " Actually, thinking about it, this was one thread she did want to sail down, particularly with Alya looking like she might throw someone into a wall at any moment. "We- Well, okay, what did he do?"

"He's just... There!"

"That - That's your reasoning?..."

"Do I need better reasoning?!"

"Uh... Kind of?" Marinette almost bit her tongue when answering as she received a venomous glare from her best friend.

This didn't even seem to be like Alya at all. This didn't even seem to be the same person. This seemed to be some sort of feral animal placed into a human body and forced to integrate into society. She was feral. There really wasn't a better explanation.

And Nino didn't seem to be any better. He had hurled abuse towards Alya the very second she had walked in the room. Marinette had had to seriously drag Alya back, and force her to sit at the exact opposite of the classroom, as far away from Nino as she could physically get her friend.

"Come on, there isn't a need for that, you two."

And even more confusing - Chloe was being a freaking voice of . It was freaking to Marinette. Like she'd been thrown into some sort of alternative reality, that warped to the whims of someone who decreed various things that made no sense whatsoever.

Everyone else in the classroom was equally as confused and concerned. There wasn't a single person who wasn't somewhat disturbed by what the hell was going on.

When Adrien finally walked in, it was like he'd visited an alien world. He took one look at Nino, then Alya, then Marinette, and then Chloe, and finally, he looked at everyone else. They'd all huddled into the center few seats, so as to be as far away from the others as physically possible.

"Ooookay... What's - What's going on here then?" The blond model asked, needing answers basically instantly. This scene was both hilarious to him, and very, deeply concerning.

He never got an answer that made sense.

"So Chloe is being... Not Chloe. And Alya and Nino are in a fight or something?..." Adrien asked Marinette while she waited with him for his ride back home to arrive. She had, to the best of her ability, explain what was going on, but since she had no idea herself, she couldn't do much of a good job of it.

"I guess?... I don't know Adrien..." Marinette sighed. "I'm worried about Alya. She was just... That wasn't her. That girl in there... That wasn't Alya."

"Nino and Chloe neither... Something's going on. Chloe didn't even bring up our date, and Nino... I don't think I've ever seen him this pissed off about... Anything. I'm not even... I don't know what's going on right now." He held her hand tightly as the two of them waited next to one another.

"We'll find out though, won't we?" Marinette said to him, with a small smile on her face. She knew she should be happy right now. Just being able to be next to Adrien, and hold his hand like this... She should be happy... But she couldn't be. Not while unsure what was wrong with her friends.

"Of course we will. That's what we do." Adrien said with a smile. "Same place as usual, right?"

He was referring to their meetup point. It was just a casual phrase they could use, even in public, and no one would get the wrong idea... Well, okay, perhaps they would, but that was the least of their concerned right now. "Yep. Absolutely."

"I'm worried too." Adrien told her honestly. "But we'll figure this out. We always do, don't we?"

How many times had their backs been pressed against the walls? How close had they come to defeat? How many times did they come so close to losing everything? To it being the end of their journeys? To failing to protect Paris. To fail to protect one another. To do... Anything.

They always came out on top. They always had each other's backs.

Why would it be any different now?

"Right." Marinette nodded.

As soon as she finished that sentence, Adrien's usual limousine showed up, driving around the corner. Reluctantly, they let go of one another's hands, and waved each other goodbye as Adrien was whisked off once again to his prison of a home.

"You lied to me about where you were going last night."

First words Gabriel spoke when Adrien saw him, and Adrien already knew this wasn't going to be a fun conversation. He knew exactly where this was going. He didn't even try to act innocent. "Father?"

"You told me you were going to a classmate's house to work on a school project. Is that not correct?"

"Yes..."

"Could you explain this to me then?" The fashion designer asked - It wasn't really a request, more a demand, as he turned his computer monitor to face Adrien.

A HD quality image of him and Marinette holding hands at the funfair the previous night. This had been taken not long after they had arrived, Adrien could tell, since Marinette had the Chat Noir doll tucked underneath her arm, and basically nothing else. By the end of the night, they had a few bags of things to carry. None in the image though.

Adrien knew he was busted. He didn't really have anything to day in his defense, so he didn't even bother. Instead, he just sighed out in exasperation. Even when he wasn't in front of a camera, people still felt the need to take photos of him. "...Damn it."