Running from the Night (A Ladybug and Chat Noir Fanfic)

Chapter 32

"She needs to know, kid, she needs to know who Hawkmoth is."

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Adrien sat at his desk tapping his pen mindlessly against the papers that laid on the table. His computer desktop was absent. His father had it removed at the same time his phone was taken away. It left more room for the instruction packets that had taken up his time. His studies being at home once again meant most of his time was spent alone with assignments.

Plagg napped on the desktop beside his pencil case snoring softly. Adrien pushed the pieces of blond hair that had fallen into his vision back into place. He huffed in annoyance. The paper in front of him seemed like gibberish as he brain refused to focus on its contents. He knew the material, he knew how to write in Mandarin and the grammar exercise was easy. But his mind wandered.

The room felt cramped and uncomfortable. The walls even in their grandiose size were oppressive. The afternoon light that settled into his room was strangled by the beams that covered his windows. Phantom hands crawled up his back and tightened on his shoulders. He shuddered under the feeling and tried to shake it off. The feeling remained. Fingernails digging into his skin.

Adrien pushed back from the desk. His chair rolled a foot back as he stood up. He walked to the opposite side of his room and then back. He pulled on the back of his neck and paced along the windows. His mind raced as he tried to push back thoughts of Lila. Flashes of her voice and hands surrounded him. He crouched down to the floor and sucked in a harsh breath.

"Adrien?" Nathalie's voice called from his doorway. He hastily wiped the tears that had formed in his eyes and turned to look at her. She stood on the other side of his door that was still stuck open. She was holding her tablet and had stopped mid stride.

"Are you.. Okay?" She questioned. He stood up and gave her his best smile. He pushed all the negative thoughts from his mind. Her eyes flickered up past him before giving him a small, almost strained smile. She nodded him a goodbye and walked away briskly.

Adrien furrowed his eyebrows. She obviously had come up to tell him something or to check up on him. So why had she left so fast?

"Kid," Plaggs voice called his attention, "just breath."

"What?" Adrien asked. He looked back at the small kwami in confusion. Plagg wasn't looking at him, instead he was trained on something higher up. Plagg's paw was sparking with green and black power surrounding it. Adrien looked up and saw it. A purple akuma fluttering hesitantly. His throat went dry.

"How- how did it get in?" Adrien's eyes flickered to the permanently closed windows. He watched it with his breath held. Plagg had put himself between the akuma and Adrien. Together they saw the butterfly purify itself and flutter past the two of them out the doorway.

Adrien stumbled over himself to follow it. He watched from his door frame as it moved down into the foyer of the mansion. He expected it to escape out the front door but instead it turned sharply towards his fathers office. He crept down the stairs as the white butterfly wriggled under the doorway. Muffled shouting came from the same door.

He made his way to the base of the stairs and pressed himself up against the wall near the office door. He strained to hear what the shouting was.

"-dare you!" Nathalie's voice shouted.

"I will not be yelled at in my own home!" Gabriel responded in a loud but stern tone, "and I will not be told what to do with my own son."

"You can not control him like this. And if you think for one second that I will sit by and let you akumatize him you have severely underestimated me," Nathalie growled. Adrien's heart stopped. What did she just say?

"He is my son!"

"If you think Emile would have ever wanted this for Adrien then you know nothing about your family. Forcing him to be akumatized is the last thing she would have ever wanted."

"Give me my ring and brooch back, now."

Adrien forced himself to move. He needed to see it with his own eyes before he could believe it.

"You aren't getting anything from me, I will protect Adrien from you and carry out Emile's wishes even if it's the last thing I do."

Adrien carefully cracked the door open so he could peer into the office. He had to stifle the gasp that threatened to spill from his lips. The man standing where his father should have been was clad in purple.

Hawkmoth. His father was Hawkmoth.

He let the door close and rushed as quietly as he could to his room. He took the steps two at a time. He felt panic rising in his chest. He got to his room and looked around at his surroundings.

His father had tried to akumatize him. His father was going to akumatize him if he stayed here. He pushed down all the negative feelings.

"Plagg were leaving," he declared. He pulled open his closet and yanked his gym bag out. He dumped the fencing gear on the floor. He rushed to put anything he might need in the bag until it was full. He wasn't cognizant of exactly what had made it into the bag as he zipped it close. He opened a side pocket and dumped the stash of camembert that was hidden in his room into it.

Adrien threw the bag over his shoulder. He tiptoed out of his room and down the stairs. He spared a glance at the massive painting of him and his father hanging above the grand stairs. He felt his knuckles tighten around the strap of the bag. He wanted to destroy everything his father had, destroy the entire mansion. He took a breath and pushed it all down.

A numbness swept over him. He finished descending the stairs. He rushed to the back garden. The high wall would be a hard climb. He glanced at his kwami who was looking at him with anxious eyes.

"Plagg," he started, the kwami nodded in resolution, "Claws out."