Not Alone: A Miraculous Ladybug Story

Chapter 12

 "Your--your dad--your father--Gabriel Agreste--," Marinette had never seen Alya at such a loss for words.

"Wait, wait, wait." She began to recover herself. Holding out her hand, "Proof," she demanded, snapping her fingers when Adrien hesitated.

"Oh shit, I didn't--"

"I've got it," Marinette pulled out her phone and scrolled to the picture she had taken of the note the day before. Alya took a brief look, before handing the phone to Nino, so he could enlarge it on the computer.

For ten minutes, there was complete silence. Alya and Nino read and re-read the note, and then without a word, Alya grabbed the laptop and her notebook and began furiously typing on her keyboard and scribbling notes.

Every few minutes she would murmur random words or phrases like "male" , "private education", "20 to 50", "Rhone valley?", "Childhood friend?".

Finally, she seemed to remember that the rest of them existed, and looked up from her research.

"Where did your parents grow up, Adrien?"

"Outside Montpellier."

"Hmm...I guess it's close enough to the Rhone Valley to make sense."

"My grandfather had a Villa there," Adrien remembered suddenly.

"What?" Alya was staring at Adrien again.

"Yeah, about 40 minutes away from Avignon I think? I went there once when I was young, before it was sold. A family friend or something bought it. But, yeah. My mom's aunt was the caretaker, so she would be there and my dad and his friend would go there with their parents during the summer. My parents met and got married at the Villa..." he trailed off in thought.

"Why, Alya?" Marinette asked softly, trying not to startle Adrien out of his reverie.

"The handwriting is male, and in cursive, so he probably had a private education or tutor. He talks about Adela and to Gabriel in a really familiar way, so I think this "faiseur de rois" knows them. And he mentions "the valley", so I'm assuming he means the Rhone valley. What Adrien says fits that theory." She paused. "Also, he must've known that Gabriel was a miraculous holder. I don't know how it works exactly, but I doubt he gave Gabriel the miraculous only to make him use it, so Gabriel probably had it before. If that's true, then this man was most likely someone that Gabriel trusted enough to tell that secret."

It all made complete sense. Adrien and Marinette had been too wrapped up in their own revelations lately to put it together, but Alya was right. This was personal. Looking at each other, they knew something Alya didn't. The miraculous chose you, in a way. You had to be worthy of it. Whoever "Le faiseur de rois" was, he definitely was not worthy of the miraculous, so that meant Gabriel was and had been chosen previously. Maybe I'm more like my father than I thought, Adrien thought and found it surprisingly comforting.

"We need to find men that were friends of you father's growing up. Adrien, do you have any ideas who it might be?" Alya inquired.

"I'm sure we have a few photo albums from when my parents were young," Adrien shrugged, "other than that, my father doesn't really seem to have many friends. At least, none that I remember meeting."

"So, another field trip to the Agreste mansion?" Nino piped in.

"It's not a mansion," Adrien protested.

They all just looked at him.

"Okay, yeah off to the mansion," Adrien amended.

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Later that day, the four friends sauntered down the paseo along the Seine, towards the Agreste's humble residence. Nino was beat-boxing to himself and Marinette was telling Alya about her newest design. He tried to pay attention, but some part of him knew this was his friends' way to give him distraction, but also allowing him some space to think if he needed it.

His mind hadn't stopped spinning since this afternoon when Alya put it all together. Who was this guy? More importantly, what was his end goal? And would his mother be important enough for him to keep her around until he got there?

Distractedly, he opened the gate and ushered his friends through the door and up the stairs towards his room, sparing a second to wave to Natalie as they passed. He pulled out a large box out of the corner of his room, filled with photo albums his mom had made him of his childhood.

Casually flipping through them, Alya made a disatisfied face, clearly not finding what she was looking for. Meanwhile, Nino and Marinette had found the book of his baby pictures and were cooing and laughing over the album.

"Look at his chubby little baby cheeks!" Marinette squealed.

"So cute. What happened, man?" Nino added with a chuckle. Adrien laughed lightly at the two, but turned his attention back to Alya.

"I need stuff of your parents, Adrien." She stated. "Do you have childhood pictures of them? Or even a wedding album?" she thought suddenly. "Maybe he was in their wedding!"

"I don't know..."

"I saw a bunch of albums and binders in his office the other day," Marinette offered helpfully. "Maybe it's in there?"

"Worth a shot. He's at the studio today so we should be in the clear. Oh wait," he face-palmed. "Natalie."

"Leave that to me," Nino chuckled. "I'm the master of annoying distractions."

Before anyone could say a word to the contrary, he darted out of the room. To do what, Adrien didn't even want to know, but when they heard a loud crash from below, and the subsequent scuttle of heels as Natalie ran to investigate, the remaining three ran out of the room and towards the office. Once inside, Adrien shut the door quietly as Alya and Marinette moved towards the bookcase on the back wall. They started going through binder after binder, but Adrien had other ideas.

He walked around his father's minimalistic desk, much more organized than the day before, and towards the large portrait on the wall. Swinging it open, he revealed the safe where he had found the initial picture of his mother that started this whole investigation. He opened his jacket slightly, and with one look at Plagg, the small god zipped out and into the safe, thankfully in silence, and opened it from the inside.

Suddenly, Marinette appeared over his shoulder.

"Jesus," he cursed, holding a hand to his heart and darting an eye at a still very visible Plagg.

"Relax, kitty. It's just me. Hi, Plagg," she added, giving him a quick ear scratch.

"Plagg?" Alya asked walking around the desk towards him, as Plagg zipped back into hiding.

"Erm..." Adrien floundered.

"Inside joke," Marinette covered effortlessly.

"This is where you found the first picture?" Alya asked, thankfully moving on.

"Yeah."

"Hmm.." Alya moved around him, and she and Marinette carefully started sorting through the contents, meticulously putting everything back in it's exact place.

"This is pretty," Alya remarked, picking up what seemed to be a peacock broach.

"Shoot," she whispered as it slipped from her fingers. Marinette, without question reached to catch it, just as Tikki appeared out of her purse and shouted, "No!" just as Marinette's fingers made contact with the broach.

Instantly, Tikki was sucked into Marinette's miraculous earrings and a bright flash of red shone through the room as she transformed into Ladybug.