"the moth's apprentice" chat noir x y/n

Adrien Agreste

Half of me expects the cold hand on my shoulder to be Hawkmoth. My heart thunders in my chest as I imagine the sensation of falling again. No control. Limbs and thoughts spiralling in unison towards an inevitable demise. 

My irrational brain thinks that Hawkmoth is here. In the Agreste mansion. 

"What are you doing back here?" 

I turn around. Adrien Agreste. 

I didn't even hear him approaching. In the quiet of the hallway, he strikes a surprisingly impressive figure in his prostitute model clothes. 

His face is shrouded in the shadow of the barely lit hallway. Green eyes, quietly, almost impolitely staring. He looks taller than he usually does, shadows stretching his form on the wall. Adrien tips his head down to look at me. The slightest ghost of a grin floats across his face. 

"Are you lost?" 

"I was looking for the bathroom," I say, crossing my arms defensively and glancing down at my feet. I suddenly become self-conscious of my clothing choice. Damn you, Vector, for making me wear something so revealing. "Your house is a maze."

"Everything's easy to find, if you know where to look."

Thanks for that, Dumbledore.

I become acutely aware of his lack of shirt. The dark mostly clothes him in washed out shadow, but I can just barely make out the defined lines of his chest and stomach, and the melt of his broad shoulders into veined arms.

"How poetic of you," I snap before anything more polite can come out of my mouth. 

"I only have interesting words to speak when there's someone interesting listening." 

Did he just call me interesting? Or is this another one of his games? Is he trying to play me like Marinette?

"It's too bad your current person of interest isn't listening," I retort. 

Adrien laughs, a quiet and surprisingly sad sound. He ruffles his hair with one hand, ruining his jelled look. It sticks straight up in some places, and blonde tufts have fallen into his eyes. 

Heart thumping in my chest, I look off to the side for a potential escape. When nothing makes itself clear, I face Agreste with false confidence.

"Aren't you supposed to be on stage with your girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend."

"That's news to me."

Adrien looks bored. His carelessly messy hair pushed back over his forehead and his half-ironed pants. His eyebrows furrow, shading his green eyes.

"It's purely professional," he says, as if he were discussing a job interview. "Father thinks that if I have a -- call her a 'stage girlfriend' -- then it will attract more media attention." he scoffs, shoving his hands in his pockets and leaning against the wall. I try not to notice his abs tense.

I've met him at school before, and seen posters of him everywhere, but this is a side of Adrien that I've yet to see. He plays the tortured model boy well, but it's getting old. Faking a relationship with Lila still doesn't make up for playing with Marinette's feelings.

Adrien's expression darkens and his cheekbones become more pronounced as he clenches his jaw. "I don't expect you to understand, Y/N. Not that I care if you do or not."

It was as if he heard my judgements. "I don't understand, and you shouldn't care if I do," I shrug. "It's not like I'm someone important to you."

"Yeah," He looks away. "Just so you know, what you saw happening with Marinette, I was going to call it off." Adrien's eyes dance as he focuses back on me. "I just got caught up in the moment, and it didn't really end how I expected it to."

I resist the urge to roll my eyes. "God, how hard that must've been for you."

Adrien closes his eyes, blowing out a harsh breath that whistles between his teeth. "Again, I don't expect you to understand."

"I think I'm starting to get it," a grim expression shadows my face. "Mmm, correct me if I'm wrong, but you're trying to please your father with Lila, and then fill some kind of void with Marinette. You went along with her, not because you like her, but because you thought it would benefit you somehow. You thought it might fill the space that's missing.." I say the last words almost sarcastically, but something flickers in Adrien's face. 

Adrien does a dramatic slow clap. "Got me all figured out then, yeah?" he narrows his eyes. "Don't play with me, Y/N. You of all people should know."

"Me of all people?"

"You can be such a hypocrite." 

I bristle. "How do you mean?" 

"You're one to talk to about voids. I see how you are with Marinette," he says. "You blend in when you're with her. You fit in with -- you know -- Alya and Rose, hell, you even get along with Lila." Adrien pauses. "but when they're not around, you have nothing to hide behind."

He doesn't elaborate further, but the unsaid words are twisting on his tongue. 

My heart pounds in my throat as he continues. "We're a lot more similar than you know."

The air crackles as his words sink into my brain. A mildly warm taste on my mouth. Several beats of my heart. He sounds like he knows me. He talks like he knows something more than he should.

"So don't treat me like a puzzle," Adrien smirks. "You might think you've decided that what I'm doing is unfair, but you don't have all the pieces. Knowing goes both ways. Don't read my mind and then expect me to leave yours alone." 

My heart shudders.

Adrien walks past me, stopping to put his hand gently on my waist. He leans over. "And by the way?"

A soft breath. "The bathroom is that way."