"Mom?" Adrien covered his gaping mouth with his hand.
Emilie just stood back, trying to fight her tears.
"I told you sweetie, this is going to be bad," his mother looked him dead straight in the eye. Meanwhile, Marinette just stood back and watched. She couldn't even believe what was happening. The Emilie Agreste was standing in front of her.
"Are you just going to stand there love?" Emilie sighed, reaching out her arms to Adrien. He blinked away his tears and ran straight into her, crushing his body against his mother's while she held him. He buried his head in her chest and embraced every second of the moment with his mother.
"Where have you been?" He whispered, still holding her. Her hesitation was long, giving her time to look up at Marinette, who was shedding tears herself. Emilie just gave her a small smile.
"Thank you," she silently mouthed to Marinette. Emilie broke away from the hug first, but she firmly planted her arms on Adrien's shoulders.
"Is there a safer place we can talk than the park?" Emilie gave a little giggle at the end of her question. Adrien put his head down and thought. Nothing. Nowhere was safe without Gabriel, or Hawkmoth, spying on them. Then, a lightbulb turned on. He instantly turned around to a sobbing Marinette. As soon as she realized eyes were on her, she straightened up.
"Uh, um," she stuttered, then nodded, leaving the park as the others, including their kwami' s followed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MARINETTE'S BEDROOM
The three of them snuck into Marinette's bedroom through the balcony. Both Tom and Sabine were already asleep, so that made everything easier and harder at the same time. The three took a seat on Marinette's bed, however, it took a while before anyone spoke up.
"So, uh, mom?" Adrien finally got the courage to speak.
Emilie leaned in, intrigued with what her son had to say.
"Yes dear?"
"Where have you been?" He asked her. Emilie sighed and looked down at the bedsheets. She knew the question had to come at some point.
"Plotting," she eventually said.
"And hiding," she added. Adrien just looked at her, but she gave no eye contact.
"I knew about your father's plan to get all the miraculous and somehow control the world. So I took one of them, and ran" she explained.
"But..."
"Wait, darling, I can explain. You see, I was part of the scheme he had. The only way to protect you Adrien was to abandon you. But...it turns out you could protect yourself, Cat Noir," she nudged him and laughed. Her laugh was cut short when she saw her only son smile.
"My gosh you've grown," she whispered. Adrien looked up and instantly threw his arms around his mother.
"Um, sorry, I don't mean to break up the moment..." Marinette butted in.
"But we have a wild Hawkmoth on the loose, plotting something against us, and we have no defense except our powers, hehe, what are we supposed to do?" She fumbled as she broke into a worried sweat.
"Oh and not to mention," she added as she rubbed the back of her neck.
"That the villain knows who all of us are!"
Adrien just looked at her and giggled. He reached over and gave her a hug.
"Mari, we will figure something out, I promise," he kissed her forehead.
"Well promises aren't g-good enough in this s-situation, we need a plan!" She broke out of his hug, disappointing Adrien and started walking vigorously around the room. "The question is, what is Gabriel planning?" Marinette questioned them, and herself.
