Ladybug and Reine Nuit: chapter 24
Volpina I
Disclaimer: I don’t own ML.
So, um…I’m back? I had chapters up to 43 written but I was getting stuck even with my plan and felt like I was falling into the trap of just copying canon with a few changes, so I took a step back and worked on other fics. And it took all this time to figure out what I wanted to do with it.
Not sure yet whether I’ll turn this into a series of fics or just leave it complete at 44 chapters and see what I write for it next but either way, I realised that where I stopped writing was actually the perfect point to end a first part. So, that’s what’s happening, and I’ll see how I go from there :)
Chapter 23 | Chapter 25
“Of course you’re bothering me! I was right in the middle of something very important! What do you want?”
Adrien, who’s just come jogging down the staircase into the mansion lobby, pauses at the sound of ranting wafting out of his father’s atelier. Frowning, he tiptoes over to the door and peers inside. Gabriel is pacing in front of his desk in front of an open book, but Adrien can’t quite make out the details from here.
“What? Unacceptable! We sent you a file with all the measurements! You just had to follow my instructions! Imbecile!” Gabriel picks up the book and flips it shut with one hand, then crosses over to a small opening in the wall and deposits it inside before shutting the door…and then the massive golden portrait of Emilie Agreste. Wait. What? “What am I supposed to do now? The show is in three days! No, no, no, not him, he’s incompetent. Contact my assistant Nathalie. She’ll give you some other names.”
Adrien leaps away from the door as Gabriel approaches, ducking behind a nearby pillar just before his father leaves the room. Once Gabriel’s gone, Adrien slinks inside and over to the painting of Emilie to pull it open and reveal the door in the wall. Since when does Gabriel hide things behind it? He reaches out to the safe…but then withdraws his hand.
“I shouldn’t,” he says. “My father would be so angry if he knew. And I don’t even know the code. But…”
Common sense and respect battle curiosity. In the end, curiosity wins out; Adrien punches in his father’s birthday, but he’s denied access. He tries his birthday and even his mother’s, but they both fail too. What else could the code be?
“Mama, what was yours and Papa’s wedding like?” little Adrien says as Emilie pulls the covers over him. Emilie smiles and kisses his forehead.
“Well, it was a warm spring day – April twenty-sixth, to be precise…”
Holding his breath, Adrien types 2604. The breath escapes him in a punched gasp when the safe door clicks and swings open, and he tentatively pushes it open a fraction more to reveal the contents. There’s a photo of Emilie, a book on Tibet, an old flyer from a hotel, a blue-green peacock brooch…and the book that Gabriel had been reading.
“What is this?” he mutters, pulling the book out. In the process, he accidentally knocks the peacock brooch, but he doesn’t notice it tumble into his bag as he’s too focused on the page he’s turned to: a drawing of a woman in ancient Chinese ladybug-patterned clothing, with an enlarged picture of earrings next to her and writing in a language he’s never even heard of before. “Ladybug?”
On the next page is a picture of a man in black, cat-like clothing, next to a black ring with a green cat’s paw on it. Are these…the Miraculouses? But what’s his father doing with a book like this? Does Gabriel even know the significance of this book?
The picture of a man in a purple suit with a silvery butterfly mask on his head on the next page makes Adrien freeze. Hawkmoth? What is Hawkmoth doing in a book of superheroes? Maybe…the Butterfly Miraculous is just being misused, and this isn’t its true purpose? To be fair, Adrien could imagine how the Ladybug and Black Cat could be misused just as easily if he really tried.
Which again begs the question: why does Gabriel have this book, and does he understand the importance of it?
The sound of footsteps makes him jump out of his skin. He slams shut the safe and painting, shoves the book into his fencing bag, and dances halfway across the room just as Nathalie enters with his bodyguard.
“Adrien? You're going to be late,” Nathalie says. Adrien scratches the back of his head.
“I was…looking for my homework! I left it in here.” He chuckles nervously. But Nathalie doesn’t ask questions, so he counts his lie as successful.
.
After his fencing class, Adrien makes sure that everyone else has left the changing room before he decides to investigate the book. But when he fumbles around in his bag for it, his fingers meet cool metal, and then there’s an explosion of blue light inside his bag.
“What the –?” He yeets his bag across the room, accidentally hitting Kagami in the face when she opens the door at just the wrong moment.
“Why did you throw your bag at me?” she says, catching it before it can hit the floor.
“There’s something in there! Glowed blue! Gah!”
With a frown, Kagami brings Adrien’s bag back to him, and he reaches back inside with trembling fingers to locate the cool metal that seems to be the source of the blue light. He blinks when he pulls it out. The peacock brooch? But he hadn’t taken it out of the safe! Had he? Maybe it had fallen? He jerks and nearly drops the brooch when it once again glows with vivid blue light…and this time, a tiny creature that looks like a deep blue peacock with pink tail eye spots materialises in thin air with a yawn.
“What. The. Heck,” says a wide-eyed Kagami.
“Woohoo! Freedom at last!” the peacock creature trills and starts to zoom around the locker room.”
“What the –?” Adrien shoves Kagami behind him, ignoring her irritated look in response. “Who are you? What are you?”
“My name’s Duusu!” The peacock creature floats down to rest in Adrien’s palm, beaming. “I’m a kwami and that’s my Miraculous!”
“Miraculous?” Adrien hands the brooch to Kagami so that he can grab the book out of his bag and flip through the pages until he lands on a blue and green superhero. Sure enough, next to the Chinese woman is the very brooch that he’d just given Kagami. “This book was in my father’s safe, along with your brooch. Wait, so, like…you give powers like Ladybug’s earrings and Reine Nuit’s ring?”
“The Ladybug and Black Cat?” Duusu’s eyes – dark blue with deep pink irises – widen. “But they haven’t been active since the fall of the Guardians! I would have felt it!”
“Yeah,” Adrien says. “I think because of Hawkmoth. He’d have the Butterfly Miraculous, right? Akumatisation? That’s how he’s sending supervillains after Ladybug and Reine Nuit all the time.”
“Supervillains? Poor Nooroo.” Duusu sighs and snuggles into Adrien’s palm. “He’s the sweetest one of us, even though he’s the kwami of chaos. You know, butterfly effect! Wait, what year is it?”
“What year – wait, how long have you been, uh…asleep?”
Duusu shrugs. “Hard to say. I know I was in Tibet, and I vaguely remember some blonde woman using my Miraculous a few times, then, uh, nothing? I guess I got renounced!”
“As pleasant as this conversation is,” Kagami says, “what should we do with you, Duusu? You mentioned that there was a fall of Guardians? Does that mean that there’s someone who cares for the Miraculouses?”
“We?” Adrien says.
“Of course,” Kagami says. “You mentioned these were in your father’s safe. I highly doubt that you took them with his approval.” She smirks rather scarily and says, “If I’m going to have my typical teenage rebellion, I’d rather it be helping a little magic creature like this.”
“Yes, there’s a Guardian!” Duusu says after a moment of frowning. “I can sense him! Wang Fu, probably – I remember him when he was just a boy, yes! But I can’t tell where he is, no! Ladybug and Reine Nuit will know, though! If not them, their kwamis!”
“Aww,” Adrien says. “I was totally gonna keep you and help Ladybug and Reine Nuit fight akumas! Imagine! Me, a superhero!”
“Oh, no, no, you can’t do that!” Duusu cries before Adrien can slip too far into his fantasy. “There’s something wrong with my Miraculous! I can feel it, yes!”
“Wrong with your Miraculous?” Kagami leans in to examine the brooch with narrowed eyes. “How does that even happen? Is the damage magical?”
Duusu nods vigorously. “I don’t remember how, but yes! If you tried to use me to create a sentimonster, your body would start to break down with every use!”
“Sentimonster?” a bewildered Adrien says.
“I’m the kwami of emotion! I create sentimonsters based on someone’s emotions!” Duusu says, her tail feathers fluttering. “My holder has to imbue a feather with energy and turn it into an amok! Very similar to Nooroo’s akumas, yes!”
“Well, we’ll get you to Ladybug and Reine Nuit as soon as we can,” Adrien says, stroking Duusu’s little feathery head. “Then the Guardian can help you.”
“Won’t your father notice Duusu’s absence?” Kagami says. “If I had a Miraculous that was activated upon touch, I wouldn’t be inclined to just forget about it.”
“Yeah, but…what was he even doing with Duusu in the first place?” Adrien says. “Duusu, you said a woman found you in Tibet and used you, right? Mother and Father did go on loads of trips there…” Adrien’s eyes widen. “Do you think – was Mother in on it too? Was she the woman who used the Peacock and is that why she’s missing? I’ve thought she was dead, but what if she’s not?”
“You can’t exactly ask her,” says Kagami, blunt as always, popping the balloon starting to inflate Adrien’s insides. “And you can’t really ask your father either. I mean, if this book exists then it was written by someone, which means that others know of the Miraculouses. It could have just been an eccentric hobby of his, except that these magic artefacts actually exist.”
“Maybe…” Adrien says.
“We can talk about this later, okay? Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.” Kagami hands Adrien back the brooch for him to stash in his bag with the book. After a moment of thought, he opens his shirt to hide Duusu inside a pocket.
“You’re the best, Kagami,” he says.
“I know,” Kagami says. “Maybe that will teach you to make sure you’re completely alone before you pull out magical jewellery.”
The minute Adrien leaves the changing rooms, he runs into an unfamiliar girl with long brown hair, tan skin, a black romper, black tights, and a red jacket. When she gasps and looks up at him, her olive-green eyes widen.
“Adrien Agreste! Oh, I am so sorry!” she babbles.
“Oh…it was nothing,” Adrien says. “I’m sorry, I should’ve been looking where I was going. You’re new, aren’t you?”
The girl smiles and runs a hand down his arm. Oh, great. She’d better not be one of those fans. “Lila Rossi. I just got here today. My mamma is a diplomat from Italy.”
“That’s cool…” Adrien steps away, but Lila just shuffles closer.
“And my name is Kagami Tsurugi.” Kagami holds out a hand, effectively forming a barrier between Adrien and Lila. For a split second, Lila seems to glare at it, but then she’s smiling sweetly and shaking it. Adrien blinks and wonders if he’s imagining things. After discovering Duusu, he’s not all that sure what’s real anymore.
“Pleasure to meet you!” Lila says. “Are you Adrien’s best friend?”
“One of them.” Kagami looks down at the courtyard, where Marinette, Alya, and Nino are watching with narrowed eyes. Lila follows her gaze.
“I can’t wait to meet your other friends, Adrien,” Lila says. “Or should I say, Ladybugreste?”
“You follow the Ladyblog?” Huh, maybe he’s just been reading Lila wrong the whole time.
“Of course! Ladybug and I are like this.” Lila crosses her fingers. “She totally saved my life once and now we’re besties!”
“Didn’t you say that you just got here today?” Kagami says.
“The akuma attack last week, silly!” Lila says. “We’ve been settling in before I started school, obviously.” She smiles at Adrien and says, “We’ve both been saved by Ladybug, right? We’re more alike than I thought!”
“I was saved by Ladybug too, but you don’t see me advertising that fact,” Kagami says. Lila just smiles at her but says nothing.
“We should get going,” Adrien says. “Class is going to start soon, and I still have to put my fencing gear away –”
“You fence?” Lila attaches herself to his arm again. Adrien shoots a pleading glance down at Marinette and Alya, since Kagami’s in an unusually foul mood right now and he doesn’t want Lila to get ripped to shreds. “Oh my gosh! What a coincidence! I’m descended from the legendary Italian fencer Salvator Fabris!”
“Wait, really?” Kagami gasps and covers her mouth with her hands. Lila beams and nods.
“Yes! Of course, I don’t like to brag about it…”
“Which of his children are you descended from?”
“Oh, it would’ve been…Amedeo Fabris, I believe.”
“Hmm.” Kagami tilts her head. “To the best of my knowledge, Salvator Fabris was unmarried and childless. You must be a miracle of conception.”
Lila pales. “I – well, no one knows about Amedeo! He was an illegitimate child, but his history was passed down through my family.” She smiles at Adrien, having miraculously recovered from being called out. “I know I only just met you, but I feel like I can trust you to keep that a secret.”
Why is Lila lying to him? To try and gain favour with a celebrity? Doesn’t she realise that he’s pretty friendly with his classmates – perfectly ordinary people – and she doesn’t need to lie to be his friend? “I’ll have to ask Kagami’s mother for a second opinion,” Adrien says. “The Tsurugi family are master fencers, did you know?”
Lila pales once again, while Kagami gives her a rather shark-like smile.
“Adrien!” Marinette – sweet, blessed, angelic Marinette – arrives with Alya and Nino at that moment and hugs him, then waves at her nose exaggeratedly. “Phew! Smells like you had a good fencing class.”
“Excuse me but I showered!” Adrien huffs. Marinette giggles, and the sound is like a choir of angels to his ears. He waves at Lila and says, “I hope I can get to really know you, Lila!” before walking off with his friends.
.
Chloé’s totally not a dumb blonde. Sure, she’s loud and stubborn and proud, but she’s got a sharp brain when she actually puts it to use and proves the people who underestimate her wrong.
That’s why, when she spots Adrien and his…ugh, “friends” …walking away from the new girl, whose fists are clenched, she seizes the opportunity that’s practically been gift-wrapped for her.
“That Marinette girl sucks, doesn’t she?” Chloé drawls, drawing level with the new girl. The new girl squints at her suspiciously.
“I’m much less a fan of Kagami Tsurugi,” the new girl says.
“Pfft, her. Thinking she can waltz in and steal my best friend Adrikins from me just because she fences.”
“Adrien’s your best friend?” The new girl’s eyes narrow even further.
“Was. Ever since Dupain-bloody-Cheng got her claws into him, he hasn’t wanted a bar of me. All because I show people their place and I’m not afraid to speak my mind. He never had a problem with it before.”
“So, Marinette would be the bigger threat here?” the new girl says.
“Yeah,” Chloé says. “Tsurugi’s close and all, but she’s the ice queen. Dupain-Cheng is the sickeningly sweet Disney Princess that everyone loves.” She holds her hand out to the new girl. “I’m Chloé Bourgeois, not that you wouldn’t know that – actually, you might not if you’re new and all. My daddy’s the mayor of Paris.”
“Hmm. Pleasure. I’m Lila Rossi.” Lila shakes Chloé’s hand.
“How about I cut you a deal, new girl?” Chloé says. “I want my best friend back. You want his “friends” out of the way. I want that baker’s girl away from my Adrikins. I think we could come to an agreement.”
The brunette smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. Chloé just knows that Lila’s going to backstab her at the first available opportunity; but that’s okay, because Chloé’s planning on getting in first.
“I think I’d like that, Chloé Bourgeois,” says Lila Rossi.