Chapter 4

The Cesaire twins were playing peacefully, until they heard the apartment door open.

"Alya!" they yelled with joy. Welcome back… home?"

They came out to greet her, but she had disappeared into her room and locked the door. "Go away, you two," screamed Alya from within the room.

Ella and Etta gasped in disbelief at Alya's harsh reaction. Etta stuck her tongue out at the door. Even if Alya couldn't see it, it gave the little girl some satisfaction.

She was about to head back to the toys when Ella stopped her. "Etta, come back," whispered Ella, with a cheeky smile on her face. "Let's knock on the door loudly to annoy her. That way, she'll know not to be mean."

"Good idea," snickered the other twin. "We'll show her!"

The little scoundrels tiptoed over to the door, and raised their arms to begin the onslaught of knocks. "One, two, three," announced Etta, but their hands didn't get the chance to touch the door. A loud crash came from inside.

The two paled. Their sister's obvious distress scared them. They left running to find help.

…..

Adrien locked himself in his room, as soon as he returned home. He paced up and down the room; his fury burning hotter with each step.

Anger and sadness. A toxic and incontrollable mix. The two teenagers demolished their rooms, in order to release their anger.

"Adrien, stop! Please! If not, you will become a perfect prey for Hawkmoth," yelled a terrified Plagg, as he zipped about, trying to get his holder's attention.

Meanwhile, in a secret lair, filled with pretty white butterflies, a corrupted miraculous wielder was opening his giant window, overlooking the city. His evil laugh echoed in the spacious room.

"Ah, being a teenager," said Hawkmoth, with a smile. "Arguments filled with burning insults and broken hearts. So much hate and frustration to feed my akuma."

He was just about to darken the akuma, when the negative emotions of another Parisian stopped him. The signal was coming from the villain's own home.

"Adrien?" murmured the man, raising his head up. He took one last look at the insect on his palm. He so badly desired to take advantage of the opportunity to akumatise the girl again, but his heart swayed him in the opposite direction.

He breathed a sigh of defeat, letting the butterfly fly away. "Nooroo, dark wings fall", he said finally. Under the cover of a flash of magic light, Hawkmoth was gone. Gabriel Agreste was back.

The designer went to see his son. When he reached the bottom of the black stairs, his phone beeped.

"An email from Mr. Damocles? Maybe this is the source of his anger," he thought, as he opened the message on his screen.

As he ascended, Gabriel became annoyed. How dare that insolent girl talk about him like that? And Adrien! The Agreste name could be at risk because of this spectacle.

His rage grew and grew, until he read the part about his wife's absence. He stopped his advance, deeply hurt by what he just read. He wanted to respond, to defend his wonderful wife, but he was unable to.

Gabriel continued his ascent slowly. Emilie was a great mother, but of course, people wanted answers. A single tear fell onto one of the marble stairs. "It's okay, Gabriel," he said to himself. "She will be back soon. This is main reason why you must never give up on trying to get the miraculous." He repeated those words every time, he lost a battle with the two heroes. They were words of hope.

At long last, he reached the door to Adrien's room. The sound of crying penetrated the wood of the door.

He knocked loudly. No response. Gabriel opened the door quietly. Adrien was crying silently on his massive bed.

Adrien lifted his head, after the door opened. His father's slim form stood at the door. The room was silent.

Gabriel walked towards his son's bed, and hugged him tightly. Adrien wanted to speak but the words were stuck at the tip of his tongue. His father's presence helped him to calm down gradually.

….

At the Cesaire home, the twins went to find their parents, in order to help their sister. The worried couple forced their way into the room. Mr Cesaire took a step back in shock. Several pieces of furniture had been flipped all over the place.

In the centre, Alya wept.

"My daughter!" exclaimed the zookeeper, as he sat beside his distressed daughter. "It's alright."

Alya managed to look past her tears, to see the blurry images of her loving family. Their scared faces reminded her of what Adrien had said.

"You are so ready to put yourself in danger because you don't care about your family or your friends. Their feelings aren't important."

He had been right. These beautiful people had always been right there, in front of her, and she had ignored them to go after some dumb quest. Guilt overshadowed her soul, causing her to embrace her father, while burying her face in his shirt. He rubbed his child's back to comfort her until her sobs died down.

A few minutes later, the bespectacled brunette pulled herself together. "I'm so sorry," she began hoarsely. "I was angry because—

"We already know why," interrupted Mrs Cesaire, a disappointed look on her face. She and her husband had received Mr Damocles' email as well. They, like him, were unimpressed with the situation.

The disapproval of her parents weighed heavily on her. She could no longer look them in the eyes.

"This 'Adrien' boy, I often see him with the mayor's daughter," stated the bearded man. "I am not surprised that he could say such things. However, you insulted his father first, and you most definitely had no right to slap him or to talk about his missing mother."

Hearing her dad talk about Adrien like he was Chloe's best friend gave Alya mixed feelings. On one end, it made her feel good, because her dad felt her pain a little bit. But at the same time, it made new lumps form in her throat, because she knew that it was all untrue.

"I understand, Papa," she said, putting her hand on his shoulder. "But, you are wrong about Adrien." The young girl removed her glasses to wipe her eyes.

"Adrien and Chloe are nothing alike. He would never have said those things if I had not provoked him. He is honest and kind. He just got angry with something… outlandish that I said. That's all."

…..

"I raised you right, Adrien. What happened in your class today?" Gabriel felt confident enough to bring up the sour subject, now that Adrien had stopped crying.

"It's all my fault, Dad. I am the one who started the argument. Alya said something shocking and I lost control. I should have just talked about it with her in private. I am really sorry." With that confession done, Adrien breathed a sigh of relief and rubbed his red, tired eyes.

Gabriel nodded, soaking up Adrien's pain. His overprotective nature cast his mind back to the days where Adrien was still home-schooled. This kind of thing would never have happened.

"Dad? Did you hear me?"

"Umm… yes! Yes I did. I understand that your reaction was in self-defence. Just know that everything that she said about our family is untrue. All I ask is that you apologise to Miss Cesaire, despite what she did to you. And, you must do all of the punishment that Mr Damocles has prepared for you."

Adrien nodded.

The designer stopped to consider his next sentence. He hated what had happened to his son. He wanted nothing more than to protect the only family that he still had. He squeezed his eyes tight as he made the painful decision.

"I had another idea, but I don't believe it would help us", he stated bluntly. "In any case, everything will surely sort itself out."

…..

"You really think so?" asked Alya.

"Of course, sweetie", replied Mrs Cesaire, giving her remorseful daughter a kiss on her forehead. "Now clean up this room immediately. I want it perfect before you go to school tomorrow."

Alya blushed as she took in the current state of her room. "Yes, mum," she said tiredly.

Once her family vacated the room, she saw the entirety of the mess she had made.

"Okay, I really need to find a better way to manage my anger."

….

Plagg could not remember the last time he had hyperventilated over anything. The amount of negativity that had clouded Adrien's heart and soul was overwhelming. The magical cat had been sure that his holder was going to get akumatised. Luckily that didn't happen.

In fact, Plagg witnessed something else that was out of the ordinary.

Gabriel had come to comfort Adrien. No yelling or coldness. Just warmth. It was both heart-warming and terrifying for the kwami of destruction. Overall, the change was welcome.

Once Gabriel was done talking to Adrien, he left to continue working. Plagg came out of the laundry basket in which he had taken shelter, when he heard Gabriel's knock on the door.

He rapidly flew in front of Adrien's nose, and gave it a small smack.

"That was too close, Adrien," affirmed Plagg with an uncharacteristically serious tone. "What if one of Hawkmoth's akumas showed up?"

Adrien exhaled softly, with a faint smile on his damp face. "I know Plagg," he said, pulling his kwami into a small hug. "I am still a human teenager, so my emotions will get the better of me every now and then. I will be more careful from now on."

Plagg smiled contentedly, until he remembered something more important than negative emotions.

"Great. So where is my consolation camembert? Your little outburst traumatised me to the point of hunger!"

Adrien's smile faded immediately. "And you just ruined the moment. Thanks, Plagg."

…

"Hey! It's your favourite blogger, Alya! Please leave a message after the tone."

Marinette and Tikki both sighed after having heard the pre-recorded message for the tenth time. They had been trying to get in touch with Alya all evening.

"Do you think she is still blue?" asked Tikki, as she munched on a cookie.

"I hope that's not the case", remarked Marinette as she plugged her phone in to charge. "If not, Alya will be akumatised a second time."

Tikki winced at the thought. Alya had been a pretty strong akuma the first time that they had encountered her. The red kwami did not want Marinette to fight her best friend again. The poor teenager was already worried sick.

"What about you Marinette?" demanded Tikki, as she perched on her bearer's shoulder.

"Me?"

"Yes. How do YOU feel after everything that happened?

Upon understanding Tikki's question, Marinette realised that she had not actually taken a moment to consider her own feelings. She began to think.

"I am not even sure, to be honest," she explained, shaking her head slowly. "Seeing my best friend and the boy of my dreams argue like that? It was… awful."

Marinette got up and walked towards the circular window at the other side of her room.

"It seemed like Alya borrowed Chloe's mouth for the day. I wanted to die when she talked about his parents like they were good for nothing. And of course, Adrien spoke to her like she was the class bully."

The pained teenager looked at bright streets of Paris to ease her troubled mind.

"Who knows? Maybe I was wrong about both of them."

Tikki gave Marinette a surprise kiss on the nose. "That's not true, Marinette. We all have flaws, but some of them show more than others. Honestly, I am happy that this happened."

Marinette looked astonished at Tikki's sudden confession. "Happy? Why?"

"The extent of Alya's obsessive nature was exposed and you saw that Adrien isn't as perfect as you think he is."

The blue-eyed girl bit her lip. Tikki was right. This experience had shown her what her two friends were capable of when they were angry. It had not been a pretty sight, but Marinette had definitely learned a thing or two.

"I guess that's true", she admitted with a low shrug.

"Exactly," stated the kwami. "But at least, in all of this, Adrien defended Ladybug ferociously. It seems to me that he really cares about you," added Tikki teasingly.

Marinette blushed a deep red. "Yes. That did actually happen, didn't it? Thanks Tikki."

"No problem, Marinette", said Tikki as she flew over to Marinette's laptop. She saw the time and her huge eyes widened.

"Marinette! Isn't it time for your night patrol?"

"What?" exclaimed the heroine, as she checked her phone screen.

"Oh no! We are thirty minutes late," yelled Marinette, before running up to her balcony ladder.

"Tikki, spots on!"

…

Chat Noir paced up and down at the meeting point. Why did Ladybug have to be late for patrol on this one occasion? Why today?

Her presence would have been a welcome distraction, but the universe seemed to deny him that luxury.

Alya had been his sole focus the entire evening. He wanted to forget her for at least a minute, but that was impossible. Instead, he ended up planning all sorts of ways in which he could make amends. None of them involved speaking face-to-face. That would be a bit too much for his fragile heart.

He breathed a short sigh of frustration, as he kicked a broken piece of brick roof into a nearby alley.

Even though he had beaten himself up after the argument, Adrien was fully aware that he had been in the right. At first, he wondered if he had exaggerated the gravity of Alya's actions. But after thinking back on it, he concluded that his friend's outburst had been an act of deflection.

He was still mad about it. Alya's comments had stung, and it felt good to let out his displeasure at that moment. He was protecting his identity, but more so that of Ladybug. He knew that she had a soft spot for Alya. They both did. That had probably even added to his rage, since the young reporter was so important in his life, in and out of costume.

As he twirled his tail with his hand, he thought about the things he had said in retaliation. He wanted to punch himself in the stomach. He had been a hypocrite. It would have been better, if he had just stayed on the initial topic of the argument. Instead, he had mimicked Alya's behaviour.

Deciding to rest his legs, he sat down with his legs crossed. He got a good look at his leather exterior, which shielded him from the scrutiny of onlookers. Suddenly, an idea came to mind.

Maybe he could reach out to her as Chat Noir, like he had originally suggested to his lady. Adrien was clearly not ready to face his blogger classmate. Perhaps Chat Noir would have better luck with her. No hostility, no scathing words and a hint of admiration.

The blonde hero's countenance brightened at his intention. He had mustered up the courage to hop on over to the Cesaire residence, when Ladybug's panicked form appeared and spooked him. His shoulders fell slightly, as he knew that his meeting with Alya will have to wait.

"I am… so sorry for… for being late, kitty", she said in between deep breaths. "I lost track of time. I hope you weren't about to leave."

"What? Leaving without making sure that my city is flea-free as my fur? Of course not!"

Ladybug smiled, appreciating her partner's patience.

"Plus, one night without seeing your beautiful face would be too much for this cat!"

Ladybug's smile evolved into a full laugh after Chat Noir's last comment. "That's funny. I don't think I look forward to hearing your puns."

Chat Noir feigned hurt before laughing at the innocent jab. "Come on. Paris awaits."

Ladybug nodded, and the two sped off to take care of their city.