My Imaginary Friend \|/ Adrienette/Marichat AU

Chapter Seven

You'd think at a concert with tons of teens and adults that someone would notice a creepy couple wearing ornate ballroom masks. They're pretty hard to miss, sequins, glitter, feathers, the whole shebang. But apparently people are just as blind to such things as most are blind to their own beauty. 

Adrien knew almost immediately that the man must be Hawkmoth. He didn't know, however, who the lady beside him was. Her blue mask was as dramatic as a peacocks plumage, and her raven hair blended into the colors of the mask in a flawless way. When she turned her head, the feathers fanning out on either side of her face waved greetings in a strange sign language known only to birds.

Adrien shook himself out of his curious daze. Scolding himself, he resumed his acting. His shoulders hunched, he allowed those negative thoughts from his walk to envelope him once again.

So deep was he in his acting that he never saw the concerned looks that were thrown at him from two pairs of friendly eyes.

Why was he so alone? Yes, Marinette was now here, but she didn't truly know him.

How come his father forced him to always do what was best for HIM? What about Adrien's feelings? Didn't those matter too?

Apparently not.

A quiet tsking noise pulled Adrien out of his thoughts and straight into reality, where Hawkmoth was standing right in front of him. The strange lady stood off to one side, studying the crowd as though looking for phantom threats. Adrien silently willed Marinette and Nino to hide.

Adrien forced himself to stare straight into the strange man's eyes, allowing a bit of curiosity and nervousness to leak into his expression. Hawkmoth's silver mask had beautiful moth wings fanning out from both sides of his face, and his cold eyes seemed calculating and cruel even from behind the mask.

"You are Adrien, are you not?" A deep and monotone voice asked.

The words caught Adrien off guard, but he didn't gasp. Instead, he frowned, the scowl only deepening when he saw the smile that danced on Hawkmoths' face. Could he go nowhere without being recognized?

"Yes," he grit out, wiping his sweaty palms on his shirt, "That's me. And you are?"

The man only smiled in response before pulling something out of the pocket of his silver coat. Adrien could barely get out the thought that it was quite strange for someone to wear a coat in the middle of summer when alarm bells began ringing in his head.

Hawkmoth had just pulled a tiny dagger out of his pocket.

The simple silver blade was so clean that it worked as a tiny mirror, the surface showing Adrien his shocked and angry face. It's handle, however, was nowhere near as simple. A tiny black moth with purple veins was carved into the hilt, and strange markings laid out like words wrapped around the entire handle.

Adrien was snapped out of his horrified gaze when Hawkmoth offered him the blade, his face still frozen in a smile.

"Um," Adrien squeaked, his acting face already stripped away, "Why are you fav— giving me this?!"

"Why, to use of course," Hawkmoth answered simply, not taking the hint that Adrien did not want anything to do with a knife.

Before Adrien could protest, the man whipped the knife forward and cut him on the arm. The tiny knife couldn't cut too deep, but it was still deep enough to make the boy let out a strangled scream and pull his arm to his chest protectively.

The people nearest to him glanced at him weirdly, but their eyes traveled over Hawkmoth as though he didn't exist, and they eventually just mistook it as Adrien accidentally hurting himself.

During all of this Adrien was silently screaming at Marinette to jump out of the crowd to save him, to do anything! He was terrified of this reckless man in front of him, who seemed almost pleased with himself when he looked at the gash in Adrien's sleeve and arm.

But no one came.

What were they doing? Rage filled his thoughts as Adrien slowly backed away from the grinning man before him. How could they leave him with Hawkmoth?! But that was when he realized that the mysterious peacock lady was nowhere to be seen.

Panic replaced his anger as Adrien frantically searched for his friends in the crowd. They were gone. He couldn't see them anywhere.

As he turned his attention back to Hawkmoth his panic only redoubled as he wondered why the man wasn't doing anything, only staring the panicking boy with a strange expression. Almost as if... he was waiting for something.

And it didn't take long for Adrien to find out just what he had been waiting for.

After another minute, the panic that had been filling his mind wavered. Logical reasoning showed him that it wouldn't do any good to be afraid. Instead, he should listen to what Hawkmoth had to say.

Yes, listening to Hawkmoth was important.

The pain that had been pulsing through his arm only seconds ago now seemed dull and nearly gone. His mind felt like it was stuffed with cotton balls, and his thoughts seemed to go through a filter.

This man had something important to say.

"Adrien," Hawkmoth began, his voice like a soothing pillow after a long day, "Life truly is unfair. You have been forced to act, to be confined. But you don't have to be. I can grant you the power to be free. But of course, freedom doesn't come for free..."

Hawkmoth chuckled at his last statement. Adrien found it amusing too. He smiled, the thoughts at the back of his mind screaming at him that it wasn't funny. This man was right. He didn't want to be trapped in his everyday life anymore. And with this opportunity, he didn't have to be.

"So," Hawkmoth said, his gloved hands grasping the knife in a way that should've been unnerving, "if you want to be free follow me. If not... well. You can continue with your miserable life."

A scream shattered the silence that had settled in after Hawkmoth had let his last sentence hang in the air. Adrien knew in the back of his mind that he should care, he should look for whoever had made the sound, but his more rational thoughts pulled him in another direction. Before he knew it, he was walking towards Hawkmoth, his injured arm hanging loosely at his side.

He reached Hawkmoth and smiled, his thoughts only focusing on how he would be free soon, how he would be able to be himself. Adrien then slowly, much too slowly for his liking, rolled up his torn sleeve and held out his now bare arm towards Hawkmoth.

More screams echoed through the crowd, screams of pain, screams of triumph, screams of death. But Adrien only barely heard them. Because at that same moment, Hawkmoth once again used the small dagger. He carved the outline of a moth, it's wings red with blood.

And as the last line connected to the first, a strange tingly sensation spread from Adrien's arm, to his chest, and eventually, to his head. And when the feeling settled there a pain so intense that it caused his knees to give out throbbed from his skull downward, wrapping him in a strange black mist.

And then Adrien knew that no normal human would be able to see him again.

He wasn't human anymore. He was something better, something free. Something that owed its life to Hawkmoth.

This new creature lifted its head to look at Hawkmoth, it's green eyes still half closed from pain.

Hawkmoth smirked, his stoic demeanor crumbling into one of triumph. He slipped his gloved hand into the inside of his jacket and pulled out a mask. This mask was simpler than the one that he wore, it's design one that resembled a black cats. Sequins danced along its edges, and green highlights turned it into a thing of beauty.

Before the creature could so much as blink, Hawkmoth pressed the mask against its face. A groan escaped its lips as a wave of dizziness crashed over it, and it lowered its head. Strangely, though the mask had no straps, it didn't fall off of the creatures face. It was as though it was now a part of it.

"Rise, Chat Noir," Hawkmoth said, his voice full of glee, "and serve me."

Yay, MariChat possibilities! Woot!

I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter!