Not Alone: A Miraculous Ladybug Story

Chapter 16

 At some point, you become desensitised to shocking news. Like fighting against the barrage of wave after wave, eventually you have to let go and just let the current carry you. Let it wash over you, take it in, and keep going.

Adrien hadn't gotten there yet. Each revelation was like a fresh blow, suckerpunching him directly in the stomach. As his knees slowly gave out, Marinette transferred her arm to around his waist, slowly lowering them to the ground, and Nino came up on his other side. Together, they sank into a semicircle, with Alya next to Marinette, and pointed themselves in Fu's direction.

"My mother," Adrien repeated, incredulous.

Marinette said nothing, just looked at Fu in expectation. Surely he wasn't just going to say that and move on. Thankfully, Nino never had an issue asking the obvious questions.

"This is his mom's kwami."

Fu simply nodded, but held his hands up in a placating manner. "First, we have left Duusu in this position for much too long. Tikki? Plagg? If you will, please."

The kwamis floated back over seeming to know exactly what Fu wanted them to do, and as much as Adrien wanted to protest, he assented. Fu was right, and if Duusu was really his mother's kwami, then he was even more anxious to know the small god.

Marinette watched Adrien carefully. She had always thought him a perfect balance to his powers as Chat Noir because of his levity and outgoing personality. He may wield destruction, but he would never succumb to it. She was just beginning to realize how wrong she was. His control of his power was built on a far stronger foundation; he had faced destruction and lived. He rarely spoke of his childhood, even in an obscure way as Chat. She'd only managed to glean bits and pieces from him in the past, but after the last week, she'd been able to piece it all together. Not a complete picture of course, but enough to show her that it hadn't been anything like her own childhood.

His father was much colder now, but Gabriel had been spiraling in that direction since Adrien had been young. His business took off, and faced with mounting pressures from elsewhere, he delegated his attentions away from his family. Adela had some shortfalls as well. Ever the doting mother, she tried to shelter Adrien from her and Gabriel's increasingly stressful marriage, and often times relied too much on the young boy's companionship. She had left her life and family back in Avignon to support Gabriel in his dream, but her own dream had always been a large family. Health complications with her first pregnancy had made that impossible, so she poured all her affection into Adrien, protecting him from everything she could. If she were really a miraculous holder, Marinette could only imagine how much more careful she would be, knowing full well the dangers of the world around them, even without a Hawkmoth to fight. So Adrien had been coddled by one parent, to the point where he was separated from almost anyone in the outside world, and ignored for the better part of his formative years by the other. Suddenly, he finds out that all that has been a lie, at least partially, and his strange but stable world is destroyed.

Marinette gave thanks for the hundredth time that week for her own steady and loving parents, who to most would look unassuming and unremarkable, but Marinette would never make that mistake again.

She leaned into Adrien's side a bit more, and turned her attention to what Tikki and Plagg were doing. They held hands and formed a circle, hovering just above Duusu. Rotating slowly, Marinette felt rather than heard a hum go through the room. Adrien sat up, reacting to the same sensation, but a look at Alya and Nino confirmed it was just them who could sense it. Glancing back, she saw Plagg's antena start to glow a faint green and Tikki's a pale pink. Their anteni rose slowly over their heads coming to meet in between them and glow a bright white. The light traveled slowly downward and into Duusu, who at once began to look like a kwami again and not a stiff figurine. Slowly, she started to stir, but didn't open her eyes yet. Plagg and Tikki disconnected, and flew back over towards their people.

Lethargically, Tikki rested on Marinette's shoulder and against her neck. Marinette instantly began to dig through her purse, finding a few cookies and handed it to the kwami who breathed out a grateful, "Thank you" before munching down. Her head turned when she smelled a sharp and pungent scent. She looked over and saw Adrien giving Plagg a wedge of camembert, and started to giggle.

"Oh my god! That's why you always smell faintly of gym socks." She began to laugh in earnest, and felt Tikki chuckling on her shoulder too.

His eyes seemed to light up from somewhere within at the sound of her laughter.

"All a part of the intoxicating man you fell for, M'Lady." he smirked with a waggle of his eyebrows in her direction.

"Intoxicating? More like nauseating cheesy to go along with that nauseating cheese," Alya muttered from Marinette's left, and the four started laughing hysterically, more from the release of the recent stress than from anything truly funny, but it was liberating nonetheless.

"Is that all you eat?" Nino addressed Plagg.

"It's the only thing worth eating," Plagg retorted, not without sass. He added, "I have refined tastes."

"The refined tastes of an alley cat," Tikki snickered, and Adrien laughed.

"Oh, stop ganging up on poor Plagg," Marinette chided, but was smiling. "My dad makes a really good camembert loaf, Plagg. I'll bring you some next time." Plagg looked over at Marinette with a look of true adoration, Adrien noted and the tiny god floated over to settle himself on Marinette's other shoulder. She crinkled her nose a bit at the smell of the cheese, but looked triumphantly in Adrien's direction nonetheless. Adrien's heart skipped a beat, the way it always did when he was fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of a Marinette smile.

She turned away, her attention was captured once again by the reason for their visit: Duusu. The kwami slowly opened her eyes, and looked up. "Master Fu," she breathed a sigh of relief. Then, looking around, her eyes landed on Adrien, and tears started to flow over her indigo cheeks.

"Adrien?" she choked out, and flew to hug his face.

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