Unclean Hands 🫴🏻 (A Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction)

25 | The Basement

Felix led Adrien and Marinette across the bridge, and they stood in front of the silver container.

"I tried opening that," Adrien said. "It's locked."

"Because you don't know how to unlock it." 

"And you do?" Marinette questioned.

Felix nodded.

Adrien eyed the silver container. "You really know what's in there?" 

"I... I have for years, actually," Felix admitted.

He gasped. "What? And I'm only hearing about this now?"

"In a moment, you'll understand why I hesitated to tell you."

Marinette crossed her arms. "How bad is it?"

Felix couldn't make eye contact with them. "Please forgive me, cousin," He whispered. He touched the panel and a keypad revealed itself, and he overrode the code and unlocked it.

The container doors hissed open. Adrien's mother laid there, unconscious.

Adrien's eyes widened. "M-Mother?" He croaked out. The room started to spin as he got dizzy.

Marinette gasped. This was her first time seeing his mother in person. She was... beautiful. "What...?"

Adrien didn't know what to say, or to think. How could his mother be here? She disappeared years ago!

"Mom...?" He called out, waiting for a reaction.

"She can't hear you," Felix whispered. "Trust me, I've tried many times myself."

Marinette looked at Adrien. His face said everything: shock, horror, worry, heartbreak. This was new territory for her. She knew Adrien cared for his mother deeply, but now she was here, and not here, at the same time.

"Oh, my sweet Emelie..."

Adrien focused back as he watched his father lean against the glass.

Gabriel smiled at his sleeping wife. "How I miss you dearly."

"Get away from her!" Adrien shouted as he leapt forward and knocked Felix aside as he rushed to his mother's side.

"Adrien!" Marinette gasped.

Felix caught his balance. "What is wrong with you? I wasn't doing anything!"

He knelt by his mother and leaned against the glass as he cried.

Marinette walked over and rested a hand on his shoulder. She couldn't stop staring at his mother. "But I thought... she..."

Adrien shoulders shook harder, and he punched the glass repeatedly. He screamed and shouted until his voice was hoarse and scratchy. "My mother was... here... all along... and I never knew!" 

"Cousin..." Felix whispered, but he didn't know what else to say.

Adrien stood up slowly and turned around. He held angry eye contact with his cousin and stormed over to him. He punched Felix in the face. "You knew this entire time! You knew my mother was down here and you never said anything!"

Felix dodged another swing and jumped back. "It was to protect you!"

"You knew my father was Shadowmoth and you kept that from me, too!"

"Adrien, calm down!"

Adrien swept his foot under Felix's leg and knocked him on his back. "If you really wanted to protect me, you should have told me the truth!"

Felix raised his arms in defense and nodded. "You're right... I should have, but I was scared."

"Scared?" He repeated. "You were scared? Try living with my father for seventeen years!"

Adrien tried to stomp on Felix's throat, but his cousin rolled out of the way in time. He jumped up and wrapped his arms around Adrien, holding him in a tight hug. "Adrien—"

"Let me go!" He protested as he struggled to free himself. "Let me go!"

Marinette didn't know what to do. She stood there and just cried.

Adrien's hand gripped Felix's shoulder as he sobbed. "M-My mother..." He grabbed his collar and cried into his jacket.

"I'm sorry," Felix whispered. He stared at Marinette with wide eyes. He'd never seen his cousin like this before. "I thought I was doing the right thing."

Adrien didn't say anything else. He kept crying and fell to his knees. Felix let him go and watched as his cousin crawled away to his mother.

Felix stepped over to Marinette and whispered, "I knew his reaction would be bad, but I didn't think it'd be anything like this."

"How would you feel if your father hid your mother in a secret basement under your house, when you thought she'd simply just been missing all these years?" Marinette asked.

He didn't answer.

Adrien sat up and stared at his mother. "Is she..." 

Felix stepped forward and said, "As far as I can tell, your mother is still alive, Adrien."

He rolled his eyes. "Oh, right, because you just happen to know everything!"

"My best assumption is that she's in some sort of magical coma, which is why Uncle Gabriel kept her down here instead of at a hospital. Earthly medicine won't be able to treat her."

Marinette gasped. "That's why he wanted our miraculous!" She turned to Adrien. "To make a wish. He was going to bring his wife back!"

Adrien stood up and looked at his ring. "Bring... my mother back? Just one wish could bring her home?"

"We can't!" She reminded him. "It wouldn't be right!"

"She's wrong, son!"

Adrien looked up and saw his father standing behind Marinette.

"What's more important than bringing your mother back? Nothing!"

"I..." Adrien closed his hand in a fist.

Gabriel stared at Marinette's earrings. "Don't you want your mother back?"

Ignore him. Don't listen to him. Adrien closed his eyes tight as he shook his head.

"Son, take her miraculous!" His father demanded.

"I won't do it," He whispered.

Marinette sighed in relief. She stepped forward and grabbed his hand. "We'll find a way to bring your mother back, without our miraculous."

"How?"

"I... we... uh..." She sighed. "We'll find a solution. We always do."