giorno giovanna x adrien agreste

Chapter 3- Yubitsume

Adrien's still trembling as he re-enters his room, detransforming. Dinner sits on his desk. It's gone cold by now, but he slurps up the spaghetti gratefully. Five seconds and it's gone.

It then hits him that he's not safe in his home. Those three men, who have the capability and motivation to hunt him down and kill him, are currently dining in his home, roaming the halls. Scarier, the thought that his father might force him to talk to one of them. Adrien can't just hide from these men. He may be forced to confront them, and that thought makes him weak at the knees.

He'd talked to Ladybug about the men for several hours as they patrolled the rest of Paris. Her words weren't assuring, especially because, in the back of his mind, Adrien knew he'd have to return home to these men eventually. They parted ways shortly after midnight. Ladybug had actually hugged Adrien, telling him to stay safe; was she just being nice? Or did she know just how much danger he'd be in for the next few hours?

Maybe they'd all left already. That was a possibility; another possibility is that these men were staying the night here. A bit far-fetched, but it'd happened before, where various businessmen would use the Agreste mansion as a hotel and Adrien would hole up in his room for weeks on end.

There's no use in worrying. Best to deal with this in the morning. Adrien slips into his bed and squeezes his eyes shut, trying to prevent any thoughts from forming.

A hand slides an envelope under his bedroom door. His eyes can make out a messy cursive: it's addressed to him, Adrien Agreste.

He doesn't allow himself to think about it.

At least, not until morning. Then he bolts over to the envelope, tearing it open with a hunger, like it's Christmas or something.

As aforementioned, the handwriting is fairly messy, so it takes Adrien a bit to decipher what the note actually says.

Adrien Agreste,

We have not yet spoken. I hope to rectify that today.

Do not get ready for school.

There's much we have to talk about.

A signature isn't necessary. In his heart, Adrien knows this could only be one person: Boss. Who else could it be? The way their eyes locked felt so... strange, almost secure. Or maybe more fateful. Like his whole life lead up to that moment, and now to this, speaking with him one-on-one. Of course, Boss wouldn't know that it was Adrien he'd locked eyes with, but still. It felt weirdly significant in Adrien's life.

Maybe that was because he's going to get killed by seeing Boss. Or, just maybe...

Adrien hasn't forgotten the rumors. A mystical, all-powerful healer... could that be the Boss, or perhaps one of his posse? And if that were the case... he could be discussing Adrien's mother with him, to glean information that his father's hesitant with. That's the best-case scenario. That's the scenario he runs with in his head, always the optimist.

Of course, Boss didn't specify a time, so Adrien speed-runs his morning routine, then lies in wait in his room, doing small tasks to distract himself from the waiting. Hours pass. Adrien's finished all his homework, cleaned his room, and organized his desk- what's taking so long?

-he gets a phone call and heads to the hotel room-

Cautiously, he knocks.

The door swings open, seemingly of its own accord.

The hotel room is nothing special: two cream-colored beds, a stand with a tv, curtains obscuring a window and a possible balcony. Two men huddled on the foot of the furthest bed. Although they weren't wearing their garish suits, Adrien still recognized the pair as Ugly and Boss. Ugly has his left arm wrapped around his boss, who's leaning heavily on him, head lolling over Ugly's shoulder. On his knees rests a clipboard; he's feverishly working on a pile of paperwork. At Adrien's entrance, he stops his work.