Work Text:
So ok Plagg did get that this was probably against some sort of kwami rules but honestly if the Guardians hadn’t wanted him break their rules they shouldn’t have screwed themselves over by giving some kid a responsibility he wasn’t ready for leading to them all disappearing.
And anyway, his track record of wiping things out should make it pretty clear that he and responsibility don’t belong in the same sentence.
Tikki on the other hand was a different matter. Which was why he hadn’t admitted any of this to her. He just knew she’d go on about how they should be protecting Paris, and how her wielder was the Guardian and needed to know and blah blah blah etc.
Plagg shook his head, ignoring any regrets he might have. He flew over to Nooroo carrying a bunch of grapes and camembert before settling down next to Gabriel Agreste’s sleeping face. “Any update with faildad and his assistant with inexplicable taste?”
“It’s romantic,” Duusu chirped.
“It’s messed up,” Plagg disagreed, “but look, you two are the ones that claim he can reciprocate it not me. I’m just doing this because my kid would be shattered if he found out his dad was Hawk Moth."
And Adrien needed to be Chat Noir too. Plagg knew how much the boy valued his time as a hero and with Ladybug and he was never going to be the one to take it away from him.
“There’s been a definite change in his feelings,” Nooroo said.
“He lights up when she’s there,” Duusu agreed.
“I’m gonna guess you mean internally. I’m not convinced he knows how to smile.”
“He smiles with Miss Nathalie!” Duusu flew around them in excitement, “But he snapped at me when I said that, it’s so sad.” The Peacock Kwami drooped, and Nooroo and Plagg exchanged a long-suffering glance.
Though Plagg didn’t think Nooroo really understood that the real crime being committed here was how his wielder treated his son.
Somehow, despite disagreeing with everything he did, Nooroo seemed to feel sorry for the man.
It was ironic.
Plagg would happily cataclysm Hawk Moth in a heartbeat for Adrien’s sake, but he didn’t care that much about the rest of it apart from how exhausting the whole constant process of de-akumatising people was. He’d had wielder’s who’d done worse than Hawk Moth for less reason.
While Nooroo, who just wanted to create heroes, and was being forced to act against his nature actually cared about his wielder and wanted him to move on.
“He’s not very aware of his feelings,” The butterfly kwami sighed oozing that concern Garbriel Agreste hadn’t earned, “I’ve tried to be subtle and push him that way but saying anything explicit just risks sending him further into denial.”
Plagg had ideas of his own that included destroying tablet-lady’s jumpers. That sort of thing usually seemed to lead to humans getting all disgusting. He decided not to mention it to Nooroo though; just in case the other wouldn’t approve.
“Huh. Maybe he is Adrien’s father after all.” Plagg said instead, “I’ve had doubts. That cousin seemed like a more likely candidate for that man’s son. I was convinced the wrong child got taken home sometime.”
Nooroo fluttered anxiously. “Adrien still has no idea though?”
“Poor thing’s totally in the dark.” Plagg confirmed.
Adrien had no idea how he’d been so lucky as for Plagg not to have been with him when he’d overhead The Conversation that time he’d gone to Nathalie’s bedroom to check on her to see if she was ok after her illness.
He knew that if Plagg knew what Adrien knew that there would be absolutely no way he’d have let him get away with not telling Ladybug.
He also had no idea how he’d kept it together for the rest of the night before his Kwami had fallen asleep.
Or how neither his father nor Nathalie had noticed the door had come slightly open, and him standing there horrifed behind.
OK, well, actually that one he did understand because the two of them had been so enthralled staring into each other’s eyes that if it wasn’t for the subject of their conversation he’d have thought that they’d both entirely forgotten the outside world existed.
But still he’d been so astonishingly lucky that night that it had apparently used up all his stores of luck for the rest of his life.
Because his father was Hawk Moth.
And Nathalie was Mayura.
And she was sick because she was Mayura.
And from the sound of it his mother was dead.
Adrien had had a good cry that night.
Then the next day he might have lied to Nino and told him he’d given up on his mum coming back so he could have one with one of his friends too.
The thing was he had meant to tell Ladybug. He’d even brought up the topic of a broken Miraculous to her; and she’d managed to confirm his worst fears about his mum from what Master Fu had told him.
And then at last minute he’d lost his nerve.
Because it was his father.
And he’d already lost his mother.
He couldn’t lose more of his family.
Especially not when it turned out his father hadn’t been pushing him away because he was disappointed in Adrien but because he didn’t want Adrien involved in his activities as Hawk Moth, and that this whole time he’d been doing his best to get Adrien’s mother back.
Adrien was aware that this probably made him the worst hero in the history of ever, but if his father could become a supervillain for the sake of their family then Adrien could do this.
And he knew it was a total betrayal of Ladybug in a way that made his old dreams of anything with her seem an impossibility when she’d never forgive him for this.
He still flirted with her because he couldn’t give away that anything was different but there wasn’t any force behind it. And the more he realised it wasn’t going to happen the more he started to realise that maybe he could like someone else who’d been there the whole time.
Not that that really helped. He could hardly expect Marinette to date Hawk Moth’s son anymore than he could expect Ladybug to.
But Adrien had a plan. One that was going to save all of Paris and what remained of his family.
Because he’d seen his father promise Nathalie she wasn’t going to die the way his mother had. And his father had said with his hand on her cheek looking at her the way Adrien knew he must look when he looked at Ladybug, and Nathalie had looked back in a way Ladybug never did.
So all he had to go was get both of them to admit their feelings and his father could move on, and they wouldn’t have a reason to be supervillains, and they could lay his mum to rest with a grave Adrien could actually visit, and Nathalie would be fine, and they could all be a family together.
And maybe if he could get them to surrender their brooches to Chat Noir Ladybug wouldn’t completely hate him for the secret he’d kept.
Of course it went without saying that it was absolutely vital to this plan that his father never discovered Adrien was Chat Noir or everything would go to hell.
Gabriel Agreste carefully deleted the video footage of Adrien climbing back in his room still transformed as Chat Noir before Nathalie could see it.
If she did he knew she’d tell him immediately and then she’d expect him to talk to Adrien about it and frankly the idea terrified him.
He’d had no idea of the right words to say to Adrien to explain about Hawk Moth and his mother before he’d known his son was the hero.
He had absolutely no idea what to say now.
And he was glad Nathalie hadn’t been here when he’d made the discovery because he’d been so utterly enraged to discover that his son had been the one thwarting him all this time that he’d destroyed so much of the room he’d been in that he also knew that if she’d seen it he would have received one of her disappointed glances that made his stomach squirm.
He wanted to be the man she so clearly believed him to be. Powerful. In control. Capable of talking to his son.
But he wasn’t. Emilie had always handled that side of things.
Without her, and without her prompting he had no idea what to say. Customers and business partners he could charm, and he could manipulate the former along with his rivals and the press but none of that seemed applicable to his son.
Telling Adrien off was easy, it came automatically and sometimes he almost felt like he was hearing his own father speaking when he reprimanded Adrien.
The issue came when he tried to do anything else. It always seemed like he was remonstrating his son even when he didn’t mean to. Every word came out severely and the hope in those expressive eyes Adrien had inherited from his mother would drain away.
Much easier to leave it to Nathalie to deal with the day to day issues with Adrien. His assistant and he were very similar-their easy understanding of one another was one of the things he treasured about her, but she seemed to manage to be stern without terrifying Adrien at least.
But he couldn’t leave this to Nathalie.
He did realise that.
And he could never admit to her that if that initial reaction had taken place in Adrien’s presence he didn’t know if he would have been more restrained. Didn’t know what he might have done to his son.
Perhaps he might have got Adrien's Miraculous but the probable cost haunted him. No doubt Adrien would cut him out of his life the moment he was able to, and Nathalie would lose her faith in him, and Emilie would be incandescent if he managed to get her back.
It shouldn’t be a problem. That was what he kept telling himself. Emilie was Adrien’s mother. If Adrien knew the truth then he’d give him the ring in a heartbeat. Or if he wanted to hold onto it until the last moment then he’d have to join them in fighting Ladybug. Though he’d rather Adrien gave up all of it and for Nathalie to wield the Black Cat Miraculous if it needed a wielder.
There was always that little whisper though. The one that asked about what would happen if Adrien didn’t give his Miraculous up. About how it would fall out then.
He’d been fighting Adrien for long enough after all. There was no reason to think his son wasn’t capable of the same and then Gabriel might—
He didn’t want to think about it.
Not when he had a solution.
Because the reason Adrien might try to be heroic and turn him down was because of that damned Ladybug.
He terrorised Paris for the sake of his wife. There was no reason to believe his son would do anything less for his lady.
Love could be the solution as well as the problem though.
If Ladybug loved Adrien back, if she truly wanted the best for him, then she’d allow the use of both those Miraculous for the sake of Adrien’s family.
So all he had to do was help his son woo Ladybug without either of them realising by sending out Akumas they could defeat without being particularly endangered while still having to work together and if those Akumas happened to include love as their theme then that was a bonus.
Plus he had the ace up his sleeve that he had suspicionsthat the two heroes did know each other. It could be the only explanation for how Adrien acted around that girl who wore her hair exactly the same way as Ladybug’s and had come to the house and made demands of him with exactly the same fire in her eyes as Ladybug.
So if he tried to provoke Adrien into acting there too. Prodding at his weak spots until he defended the girl hoping his defensive anger over her might lead to something more. He’d even allowed her to sit in on one of Adrien’s photoshoots when his son had asked.
There was a slight possibility he was accidentally pushing Adrien between two different girls which would obviously turn out to be horrendously awkward. He couldn’t imagine what a difficult situation that would be to be in and was glad it wasn’t him.
On balance he was fairly certain Marinette was Ladybug, and that Adrien was fairly close to being about to ask her out.
This plan could work.
But all of this would only work so long as Nathalie had no idea and didn’t come up to him and tell him he had to talk to Adrien in that way she had; when he didn’t know how to explain how that he really really couldn’t.
Adrien sometimes came out with the strangest of ideas. Nathalie didn’t dare guess what surprise he had in mind that meant he needed to know when her birthday was but it was very sweet of him to want to do something even if she dreaded what that something would be.
But then Adrien was a very sweet child. Truly so and not just in the way his mother had been saccharine on the surface over a harsher core.
And that was why she could never let either Gabriel or Adrien know who the other one was, however that meant she had to distract them.
She cared too much to let either of them get hurt like that.
Every day she gave thanks for the fact neither of them had heard her shocked exclamation. Given she’d been professionally keeping secrets for the Agrestes for over a decade she had no idea why she’d gasped out that Adrien was Chat Noir when she’d seen him.
Every night what would have happened had she still been on the phone to Gabriel haunted her dreams.
And every time Gabriel released an akuma she felt wracked with guilt at the fact she let him fight his son.
She’d meant to tell him at first, she really had, but then she’d been overcome by a fit of coughing before she could say anything.
Then she’d let Gabriel carry her up to bed, and let him fuss over her while all the time thinking about how telling him could go wrong.
Gabriel loved Adrien. She knew that. She did. And she didn’t doubt it.
But he wasn’t good at showing it. Last Christmas’ debacle had shown that.
That was why they needed Emilie back to fix this family and be the missing link between father and son that Nathalie didn’t know how to be; even if her treacherous heart wanted to be able to fill that position.
And last Christmas rather showed the problem because if that conversation went wrongly Adrien was quite capable of running off. And even if he agreed at first for his mother’s sake, Nathalie had no doubt his guilt would have him spilling the beans to Ladybug eventually.
They couldn’t keep him in the house until they managed to defeat her. Adrien had a proven track record of escaping and even if she could blame the powers of the Black Cat Miraculous for that she still wouldn’t be comfortable with the idea of essentially imprisoning him.
Adrien had thrived at school and the last thing she wanted to do was to send him back to home-schooling and confinement in the house.
What was needed was a scenario where they could get both the Miraculous jewels they needed at the same time. Ideally without harming either of the heroes and without Adrien realising just who Hawk Moth and Mayura were.
Nathalie Sancoeur had never pretended to be a good woman but even she couldn’t claim that last part was all for Gabriel and Emilie’s sake. She didn’t want to lose the affection Adrien so freely offered her despite her stand-offish nature, and she knew she would if he knew the person helping him with his homework, and passing messages from his father was Mayura.
But that didn’t matter.
What mattered was that she knew what she wanted and she had plans to get it.
Once she’d known Chat Noir was Adrien and armed with the knowledge of who the temporary Miraculous Holders were it had been easy to zero in on the exception in the class. The girl who hadn’t been akumatised.
And who wore a pair of earrings every day.
And who lived on a street Mayura had almost tracked Ladybug to.
The ideal scenario was for Marinette to come over on a sleepover and then she could use a sentimonster to steal Adrien’s ring and Marinette’s earrings, or to ensure they both slept through her taking them.
Then she could give them to Gabriel and he could make his wish, and if Nathalie wasn’t around afterwards to put those Miraculous back where they came from then at least Adrien would be presented with a fait accompli and the sweetener of his mother’s return to help with the bitter pill of his father being Hawk Moth.
She realised that convincing Gabriel to let the scenario happen without him knowing why would be difficult but she thought she’d noticed hints from him that he didn’t disapprove of Marinette as a possible companion for Adrien after all so all she needed to do was encourage that.
And of course ensure Marinette never found out.
“Look Tikki,” Marinette said, gladder than ever that all the other Kwamis were in the Miracle Box, “I realise it’s not what Ladybug should do.”
“It’s not.” Tikki confirmed with a worried frown, “I know you love Adrien, and it’s right to want to help him but you should tell Chat Noir you’ve worked out Hawk Moth’s identity.”
“But I’m not certain certain. I haven’t actually seen Gabriel Agreste turn into Hawk Moth. There’s just too many coincidences to ignore, and now he’s got Mayura working with him,” and Marinette assumed she was that assistant of his, though she’d considered Kagami’s mum for a while too, “we know she could have worn his Miraculous and akumatised him into the Collector so there’s no reason to believe that was any sort of proof he isn’t Hawk Moth.”
“So shouldn’t you tell Chat Noir?”
“I can’t admit to Chat Noir that I want to keep this quiet if I can because of Adrien. You know how he feels about me I,” she worried her lip with her teeth, “I don’t think he’d publicise it because he’s jealous of Adrien or anything. He can be silly but he’s a good person. But it would be mean to push the fact that it’s Adrien I like in his face. And besides you know him, he’d want to go in for the big battle straight away like the hero he is.”
“And shouldn’t you?”
“No, we can’t just go barrelling in. If Hawk Moth gets desperate we don’t know what he and Mayura might do, and my powers only reverse damage caused by an akuma or amok. At the very least I need to do reconnaissance first.”
And she’d started doing that as Ladybug. The next step was to do it as Marinette. Which was going to be much harder.
Lila was the only one in their class who’d successfully managed to talk her way in there and Marinette still wasn’t convinced that wasn’t because Adrien’s father had recognised a kindred evil spirit. Besides Marinette might have to lie everyday but she didn’t have Lila’s skill at it.
She’d have to do this a Marinette way.
Though actually that seemed like it might still work. Adrien had been allowed to invite her to a photoshoot, so she hoped that was the first step towards being invited into the house, and honestly his dad’s assistant had been weirdly encouraging of her attempts to spend time with Adrien.
It kind of made Marinette not want her to be Mayura, but by this point she knew hope didn’t count for anything. If the world was what she wanted then she wouldn’t have all this responsibility and she’d be dating Adrien and his dad would actually be a decent person and not Hawk Moth.
Unfortunately that wasn’t the case so Marinette was going to have to get into Agreste mansion somehow, confirm his dad was actually Hawk Moth, ideally steal his and Mayura’s Miraculous brooches and if that wasn’t possible then admit to Chat Noir the situation and come up with a new plan to divest them of their Miraculous.
But first she had to manage the first part of the plan. It had to work.