Unclean Hands 🫴🏻 (A Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction)

9 | Seal It With A Kiss

"...my father is dead. You can't tell anyone."

Marinette stood still in her bedroom as she held her phone to her ear. What was Adrien talking about? His father, dead? Why can't she tell anyone? It didn't matter. He'd explain later and he needed her now.

She rushed to Adrien's house immediately, driving over the recommended safe speed limit on her scooter. She parked by the sidewalk and jumped off. She ran to the gate and punched in the code.

Adrien had given it to her a while ago and sometimes when he was grounded—or on house arrest, as the model called it—Marinette would sneak into his room so they could hang out.

She opened the front door and closed it softly behind her, looking around the dark, empty house. The air was cold and suddenly she felt afraid. Of what? She didn't know.

"Adrien?" She called out, and her soft voice echoed. With no answer, she started heading up to his bedroom.

Tikki popped her head out of the purse. "What's going on, Marinette? What did Adrien say on the phone?

"I..." Marinette reached a hand out and grabbed the door handle. "I don't know. Hide, Tikki," She whispered. She pushed the door open and walked in, and found Adrien kneeling by his father, who was wrapped in a blanket.

Adrien realized after he called Marinette that she might recognize Cat Noir's cataclysm, and this wasn't how he wanted her to find out.

He looked up as he heard her footsteps. He'd been crying all this time now.

"Adrien..." Marinette sat beside him and glanced at his dead father. She started feeling sick and quickly looked back at him. "What happened?"

"I—" Adrien's eyes widened as he remembered what truly happened. He trusted Marinette more than anyone, but he couldn't tell her this truth. Not yet, anyway. "My father... he came up to my room and he..." Adrien closed his eyes tight.

"What did he do?" She asked.

Adrien lifted his neck and showed Marinette the bruising. "My father got so angry. He started screaming at me and then, and then h-he... he grabbed my neck and slammed me into the wall. He choked me. I couldn't breathe. And I... I lost it. I killed him."

Marinette grabbed his hand. "It was self defense."

Plagg had said the same thing, but Adrien didn't believe either of them. Because for a while now, Adrien had wanted his father dead, and now he was.

Adrien shook his head and stared down at the ring on his hand. "I-I don't know what to do."

"Adrien..." Marinette had no idea what else to say.

"I was thinking I could hide his body. Make it look like he went missing or something. I don't want you drag you into another one of my messes, but I... I can't do this alone."

Marinette glanced over at his dead father and then back at Adrien. She had seen first hand what his father was like and Adrien told her about all the other times before. For years Gabriel abused his son, verbally, mentally, and physically, and Adrien wasn't strong enough to stand up to his father. He didn't have the courage. And when he finally did, it wasn't to talk, but to kill him.

How could he escalate from a conversation to murder?

Marinette decided right then and there she couldn't—and wouldn't—let Adrien suffer anymore. "I'm going to help you."

Adrien looked up at her, confused. "You will?"

"Yes," She whispered with a nod. "We're going to hide your father's body and make sure no one finds about this."