Against the World

Cat Noir

Chapter 5: Cat Noir

Adrien's excuse to his father? Running away like a fool. He sold it so well, Lila would be proud. Adrien was disgusted with himself. 'Too much pressure, sadness over his mother.' Excuses his father couldn't deny. Three days of escape then the prodigal son returned full of contrition. Adrien was expecting harsher punishment, but it seemed that this time his father's fear of loss had for once outweighed his icy reserve. Instead his schedule was cleared for a week, extra lessons included. Was this why Lila did it?

School was a much less draining lie. He was incapacitated with a serious illness brought on by too much work. If Adrien squinted hard at the lie and tilted his head just right he could almost see the truth. Still, the cheerful encouragement he got from everyone, the doting looks from Marinette, and the empty chair in the first row next to a despondent Sabrina all combined to make his stomach turn.

Queen Bee made no immediate appearances, but other things started happening. Mayor Bourgeois was arrested. The news said embezzlement of funds, to the tune of hundreds of millions in Euros. The coffers of Paris were bare. Audrey Bourgeois was served an extradition order. Money Laundering in the US was the accusation. It was caught up in red tape at the moment but Zoe's stay in Paris hung in the balance with her remaining guardian.

It was both obvious and confounding what was happening. Chloe knew nothing about this kind of crime and planning. Did the ChloeN? Not if it was a real copy of her. Adrien had seen nothing to differentiate them, no reserve of cunning that might account for all this.

It was the end of his week of freedom when chance changed the equation. Adrien was exhausted. Shadowmoth had been going on a bender the last few days. Akuma after Akuma, multiple times a day every day. Strangely most of them seemed focused on punishing some member of the Bourgeois family, which made exactly no sense. Very little had since all this started.

Adrien was very nearly asleep sitting up in History when he noticed Sabrina was no longer moping in the first row. She was industriously working on some project, cutting up what looked like two pages of writing and arranging the pieces. Ms. Bustier seemed to be intentionally not noticing, likely out of kindness toward the poor girl. Briefly Adrien was glad she was doing anything at all rather than sitting despondent, then it clicked. The yellow paper, bee motifs. His weariness dropped away and he was suddenly on edge, straining for the end of class.

"Hey Sabrina!" He greeted her as soon as the bell rang, beating out Marinette by only a step.

She was still in the midst of her jigsaw project and startled at Adrien's greeting,"Oh Umm Hi." she said, hunching protectively over the splayed bits of paper. She went from meek to confrontational in an instant when she spotted Marinette,"What do YOU want?"

Adrien and Marinette exchanged looks, and the unspoken communication was uncanny. She waved a hand,"Oh sorry. I just needed to ask Adrien about Math homework. I'll ask later, You two have fun, bye!" and she was gone.

"Sorry about that." Adrien said apologetically. Sabrina relaxed visibly, though she was still staring daggers at Marinette's back. That was something to tackle later. "What've you got going on there? Can I help at all?"

Students were filling out. Sabrina watched them warily, then leaned in closer to Adrien,"Don't tell anyone, but I got two letters from Chloe." she gestured to the spread out pieces,"But, they're written funny." She pointed to pieces,"Two kinds of handwriting, and they don't make any sense. But I figured out I could cut the pieces up and fit them together." she scooted two sections of text beside each other to demonstrate,"I'll figure it out. Maybe she'll talk about you? She always liked you." Sabrina patted the scraps reverently,"I just want her to come home."