Vanished (Lukadrien) • Miraculous Ladybug

Chapter 18 | search

'Today is a sad day for the Agreste family, two years ago today the esteemed Emilie Agreste died young only in her early 30s. And today also marks 4 months of the disappearance of her only son Adrien Agreste. Gabriel still refuses to talk to media since his son's disappearance and multiple allegations against him, but we can only hope that wherever Adrien is, he's taking the day to celebrate the life of his mother rather than mourn another day-'

Turning off the radio, Luka was sick of hearing the exact same thing about Adrien over and over. Unless there was something new to report he was done with hearing it, it depresses him.

He couldn't stop thinking about that person, was it really Adrien? It'd make sense he'd change his appearance to go into hiding, but was it really him or was the weight of the situation just making Luka see things? He couldn't help but wonder, it seemed too good to be true. And yet, it also seemed to line up.

Today, he decided to see for himself. Using his now permanent miraculous, he'd slipped through the streets and jumped the rooftops unnoticed down to the area he saw the person. He was aware the chances of seeing that same person were slim, but on the off chance he could he was going to try. The person mentioned coming home from work, so clearly they were staying nearby, or worked nearby.

Maybe... just maybe he'd be able to spot that same person a little closer. So he sat on the rooftop of a department store overlooking the street he was on before just watching and waiting.

Logically, if this person had a shift each week at the same hours, they'd walk by soon. Part of him felt a bit weird for spying on a mysterious person, but if on the off chance it was Adrien he wanted to at least try and see him himself.

Meanwhile, Adrien was finishing up his Wednesday shift at work. It was a shorter one than usual but he liked Wednesday shifts the most. Those were the days he got to serve kids parties and dress up to play his character of the dream fairy. Thanks to the help of his new caretakers Delilah and Lilith, he'd been learning to sew from them and he'd been adding things to his costume. Lace on the hems, star patches on the eye mask worn like a headband and a brand new pair of sparkly wings.

As he cleared the table, he looked up at the clock seeing the party and his shift was due to end soon. Once he'd taken the plates back to the kitchen, he only had one last thing to do to wrap up this party.

The birthday girl got her present from the cafe, a necklace with a small jar of 'fairy dust' that definitely wasn't just glitter.

"Hey the party ends in a minute, better go wrap up. I'll clean the plates" his coworker said, grabbing the tray off him.

"Thanks, for a moment I was afraid I wouldn't make it in time"

"You've gotten real good at this real quick. It'd be a shame to have you not wrap up a party with a neat little bow"

"Thanks, I actually really like doing parties. Even if kids can get annoying sometimes it's still fun"

Leaving the dishes with his co workers, he picked a necklace out of the basket in the store room and headed back over to the party table.

"So, did you guys have fun today?" He asked.

He was met with a series of happy cheers from the kids.

"That's great! When you go to sleep tonight make sure to look out for me in your dreams. Before you all go there's one more thing for the birthday girl"

The birthday girl in question looked exited, she'd been jumpy and exited all day. She even arrived in a princess costume as she was indeed the birthday princess. Adrien held up the necklace and her eyes lit up.

"You get a special birthday present from me and all my faith friends. It's fairy dust, make sure you use it only when you need a very important wish to come true!"

He put the necklace over her head and she examined the vile of glitter happily.

"Thank you dream fairy! I'll save it for a very special occasion!" She smiled.

Not long after the exchange the party had ended and he waved off all the kids as they left to go back home for the day. He was glad to have made them happy, and in truth he did quite like the dressing up part of it. It was probably the model in him that gave him that urge to dress up. Heading into the back room he changed from his fairy costume to his normal clothes and packed everything up in his bag to head home and wash after a long morning of hard, and glittery, work.

"Your shift over already? Well I guess that was a whole party just then. Hang on I'll get the boss so you can get your pay" his coworker said.

Swinging his bag onto his back he pulled out his phone to call Delilah that he was on the way back when his boss came in.

"Good job dream fairy, keep this up and you'll be getting more pay. Here" she said, handing him his pay slip.

"Thanks, I gotta run. I'll be here early on Saturday!" He replied.

"Bye cat boy!"

"See ya!"

Even his work was in on all the cat jokes. It make him snicker each time. Stuffing his pay slip in his bag and heading out the door he called Delilah to let her know he's be back soon. Unbeknownst to him, he was being watched as he walked home. Following him from the rooftops was Viperion sneaking out of people view to try and get a closer look at the person he was sure was his missing crush.

When Adrien stopped to wait at a crosswalk, Luka peeked out from the alleyway behind him and was finally able to get a closer look.

It was unmistakable. To someone who didn't know Adrien personally they'd not be able to recognise him, but to someone who saw him almost every day they could see the resemblance.

"Adrien... it's really you..." he gasped to himself scanning down the boys new appearance.

Same eyes, same blonde roots, same build although a little taller, same body language.

His hair was rather long now and pulled back into a small ponytail, he wore jeans with a few rips and was wrapped up for the weather getting colder in the same patchwork jacket from last time. Luka was frozen in shock for a moment watching Adrien cross the street and head off home. He could hardly believe that it was really him.

Heading back up to the rooftops to follow out of sight, a million thoughts raced through his mind.

How did he manage to get so far from home so fast? Probably being cat noir. When did he dye his hair black? Seeing as the blonde was coming back probably a while ago. How did he manage to get a job so fast? Where had he been staying? Who was he talking on the phone with? How was he coping with the day since his mums death anniversary was today?

He had a million questions, but no answers. Finally Adrien came to a stop on his walk home and tuned into the doors of an apartment building. Did he live there? How was a 15 year old with a minimum wage part time job at at cafe affording that? More questions...

Luka almost went after him, but stopped himself. He was unsure if Adrien even wanted to be found by even his own friends, he didn't know exactly what apartment he lived in, he wasn't sure if Adrien would trust him getting too close. Maybe... maybe he'd come back another day. Once it'd all sunk in, and today probably wasn't the best day either since Adrien would probably be spending the rest of the day mourning his mum.

Turning to head back home across the rooftops, thanking the miraculous for making him faster he wasn't sure what to do with his information. He's found Adrien.

The right thing to do was turn him in... but he couldn't bring himself to since not only would he risk going back into his dads care, Luka was scared Adrien would hate him for it. He didn't want to loose his relationship with Adrien. He had to keep this from authorities even if it was legally kind of bad to do.

Did he tell the friend group? No. At least not yet, there was the risk one of them with turn him in.

For someone to hated secrets and lying, he sure was in the position where he'd be doing a lot of that. But he just couldn't bring himself to hurt Adrien. At least he knew that he was safe.

Maybe... some day soon he'd go and knock on his door and ask for answers...