Chat Out of the Bag?

Chapter 9

Lucia quickly realized that Adrien being grounded wasn't much different than usual. He still had to go to school, work and attend all of his other activities. The only difference was the small amount of free time that he could be with his friends was gone. The good news is that he spent more time with her. The bad news was seeing him be so sad. She and Plagg did their best to cheer him up but it didn't seem like it was enough.

Lucia was sitting in the dining room trying to think of ideas of how to make her brother happy. She was surprised that her papa came to eat dinner with them.

"Papa! you're here!"

"Good evening, father," said Adrien.

"Good evening, children, I cannot stay for long. I have important business I need to finish," said Gabriel.

Lucia frowned when she heard that. She looked over at Adrien and he didn't look surprised. Papa rarely ate with them claiming he was too busy.

"Papa! Guess what!? My friend, Manon, invited me to sleep over at her house this weekend!"

Gabriel looked over to his daughter and saw her using puppy dog eyes on him.

"No, you cannot sleep over at her house," he replied.

Lucia pouted but recovered quickly, "Then can she sleep over here or come over to play with me?"

"No she may not," he replied again.

Lucia then proceeded to use the dreaded question that makes adults go insane.

"Why?"

"Because I said so and that is the end of the conversation," replied Gabriel.

Lucia huffed dramatically and went back to eating. Adrien had to hold himself back from laughing at his sister's dramatic huff. He thought she looked so cute when she puffed up her cheeks. Maybe he could sneak her over to Manon's house to play this weekend. It's not like their father checked on them that often.

The next day Lucia was playing with Manon at school. Manon didn't care that Lucia got too nervous to talk at school and still played with her. She more than made up for the fact that Lucia never talked.

"What did your papa say? Can you sleep over?"

Lucia shook her head to answer Manon. "Oh, I really wanted you to come. Maybe maman can talk to your papa."

Lucia nodded and hoped that her papa would let her sleep over at Manon's house. Manon looked sad when she found out that Lucia's papa had said no. Lucia could tell even though Manon had seemed happy when she said her maman could talk to Lucia's papa. Lucia hated that everyone she cared about seemed to be sad. First, her brother and now Manon were both sad. Was it her fault that everyone was sad? It was her fault that Adrien was in trouble because she signed the permission slip for him to go on the trip without telling papa. Papa was always sad too. He rarely smiled and was always so busy. Was he sad because of her too? She just wanted everyone to be happy.

Lucia was so lost in thought that she didn't notice a butterfly come towards her and touch the bracelet that her brother had gotten her. A weird voice started talking inside her head.

"Princess Happiness, I am Hawkmoth and I will give you the power to make everyone around you happy, in exchange you must bring me Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculous," said the voice.