When Duty and Desire Meet

Ribbons Part 2

Adrien's head shot up at the sound of Nino's voice and, despite all the inner anguish, he smiled.

"No worries," he replied, putting his phone away. "You running late?"

"Yeah, I usually help set up but I think half the damn metro is closed for whatever reason, so I walked a lot of the way," Nino explained with a shrug, then gestured to his backpack. "Mari's setting up on her own so I stopped off to buy snacks by way of apology."

"Sweet," Adrien said and it was nice to have a normal conversation, even for a little bit. No talk of Derek, or kidnappings, or how thoroughly he'd messed up his love life.

Nino frowned, glancing out the door and then back to Adrien. "Were you leaving or something? How come you were walking out?"

Adrien froze. "Ah," he drawled out, high and awkward. "I changed my mind about going. You know with everything that happened I'm worried about how far behind I got with my studies and I have a bunch of papers to mark. Plus loads of other stuff."

Nino scoffed, flapping a hand. "Papers-shmapers! You've been through a lot and you need to let off steam."

Oh boy do you not even know the half of it Adrien thought, then gave a start when Nino grabbed his arm and started frog marching him down the stairs.

"Nino, wait," he cried, resisting. A wave of panic hit him. How had he ever thought going to the club was a good idea? "I can't. I really can't."

He tugged his arm out of Nino's grip and Nino grunted in response, losing his balance. Adrien's eyes widened and he swooped down to stop his friend from falling down the stairs. That's just what he didn't need, more blood on his hands.

Nino frowned, turning to glance at him. "Dude, what's going on?"

Adrien started backing away, back up the stairs, back towards the entrance. His heart was pounding. You see? You only know how to hurt the people you love.

"I'm- I'm sorry. I've gotta go," he said. Then he fled.

***

Adrien never wanted special treatment. But, because of the surname he carried, special treatment often followed wherever he went. His PhD, however, was different. He insisted to his professors that he be treated like every other student as he didn't want to be seen as getting favours. At first they were reluctant. Nobody wanted to fail the son of Gabriel Agreste, after all.

But the silver lining in the storm of awfulness that was finding out his father was Paris' main supervillain, had been that he was able to get Gabriel to back off. His PhD was his and his alone. Finally, he would be able to earn something due to his own efforts, not because people were scared of the consequences if they dared deny him.

And equal treatment led him to the Broom Closet.

At a certain point in the programme, PhD students were eligible for their own offices. None of these were glamorous by any stretch of the word. The PhD offices were usually the gloomiest, most run-down, tiniest rooms at the university. Had Adrien allowed his privilege to step in, he would have automatically had a room more akin to a fully qualified academic, possibly even better than theirs.

But Adrien never wanted that. He wanted to start from the dankest, dingiest little closet office and work his way up to an office with a big desk and whiteboards, with an actual window or two and maybe a coffee machine if he was feeling extra daring.

So he had an office, yes. If you could really call it that. Plagg called it the Broom Closet and the name stuck. It was big enough for his desk and an extra chair on the opposite side for any of his students. There was a tiny window at the top which allowed for some light and Adrien had brought a little warm desk lamp, as the blue-white of the overhead light gave him migraines. There was also, quite peculiarly, a constant smell of spinach.