Chapter Text
For a moment more, there was silence. Future Chat Noir surveyed Adrien with an annoyingly pitying look in his eyes. Adrien, for his part, felt his indignation growing. And also felt terrible about this fact. But also also felt far too tired and angry to fight it.
See… he’d asked for a sign. But he didn’t want this. This reminder of everything he could be if he were stronger and stopped being so pathetic to give him some sort of pep talk. To be perfectly, embarrassingly honest, he’d imagined something more along the lines of Ladybug as the Sign. Ladybug, finding him by some miracle, wrapping him in her arms, telling him she was so sorry, and that he was her everything, and that she’d always loved him after all…
But that would never be reality, because reality sucked. Hence the situation Adrien now found himself in.
He stared, his face still frozen in what must have been a stony expression, at Perfect Future Chat. Of course. Of course the only one who wanted to comfort him was himself.
(Adrien ignored the part of his mind that protested that Bunnix was someone other than himself, and that she had literally just expressed a desire for him to stay in this life. But this didn’t fit the dramatic downward spiral in Adrien’s mind, and so it got squelched.)
Future Chat’s smile gradually faltered, as if only now noticing Adrien’s lack of a warm and fuzzy reaction. He sighed. “Alright, first things first,” he said, before reaching out a hand, palm up. “Hand it over.”
A spark of anger rose in Adrien, despite his confusion. He didn’t really know what he wanted or expected out of Future Chat, but he thought maybe he’d be comforted, not demanded something of.
Hand over what? Adrien meant to say—except when he opened his mouth, no sound came out.
Huh. That was new. And kind of frustrating.
Future Chat rubbed the back of his neck. “Your miraculous, I mean. I know what you were planning on doing with it. There are no secrets between us, whether you like it or not.”
Adrien tried to snatch his ring-bearing arm away. He only succeeded in wrapping his arms around himself tighter–since when had he been doing that?
Future Chat’s eyes softened. “Do you need some help with that?”
This time, Adrien managed to deepen his glare, just a smidge, and shake his head.
“No, as in you don’t need help, or no, as in you don’t want me to take it?”
Adrien met Future Chat’s eyes and stared.
Future Chat’s lips quirked into a weak smirk. “Alright, I see how it is.” He took a step closer, still handily meeting Adrien’s gaze, and bent his knees, lowering his face closer to Adrien’s level. Another spark of fury lit in Adrien at the patronizing implication. “You know, if you take off the miraculous yourself, Plagg will still be there. But if I do, he won’t. Are you sure you don’t want me to help you take it off yourself?
Adrien’s face was still frozen in a glare, but as he considered the man in front of him, he realized, for the first time, how outmatched he was, should he choose to fight. (And if he were to search past his anger, he would realize that he didn’t, truly, want that.) Future Chat Noir was bigger, stronger, had more than a decade’s worth more experience than Adrien, and wasn’t currently an emotional wreck. Future Chat could handily take Adrien’s miraculous from him, any time, and Adrien wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it. A helpless, desperate frustration bubbled up within him. Fine, his miraculous was coming off, one way or another. Future Chat was right—the question was, did he want Plagg to see this?
… no. He didn’t.
With effort, Adrien focused on detaching his right arm from where it was squeezing his left, and extended it, shaking, towards his future self.
Future Chat raised an eyebrow, ever so slightly. “You want me to take it off?”
Adrien looked away.
Future Chat seemed to take that as a yes, because moments later, Adrien felt the magical energy of his transformation drop, the strength and protection it granted draining away. Adrien felt himself curl inward at the shock, tears pricking at the corner of his eyes.
There was another flash of green, and moments later, a bare hand reached out and grabbed his shoulder. “Do you want a hug?”
And suddenly, Adrien was too weak not to say yes. He nodded.
Before he knew it, there were strong arms wrapped around him, and Adrien crumpled into them. Suddenly, he didn’t care about it being weird that he was being comforted by himself. He just cared that someone, anyone, finally, was hugging him. Within seconds, he was sobbing, full-body-wracking, can-barely-breathe sobs. All the while, Future Adrien simply held him, letting Adrien’s spiraling thoughts run their course until they started to run out of steam. As his tears slowed and his breathing began to even out, Adrien caught whiffs of his future self’s scent. Future Adrien smelled like him, but not him. The strong but tasteful cologne— utilized to cover the stench of Plagg’s cheese, though it never quite worked—remained the same, as did the lingering smell of leather from his superhero costume and of his favorite shampoo. But Adrien could also detect notes he didn’t recognize—the faint scent of ink, of coffee (oh, thank goodness he would finally be allowed it in the future, Adrien already didn’t know how he functioned without it)—and of something else. Something that he always associated with Ladybug. Sugar, butter, cinnamon.
Adrien’s breath caught. He couldn’t hope, couldn’t dare hope.
Future Adrien rubbed a hand over his back. “Hey, it’ll be okay,” he murmured.
“Easy for you to say that,” Adrien grumbled back, before he could stop himself.
But Future Adrien just chuckled. “I know, I know.” He sighed. “Doesn’t mean getting there will be easy, is that right?”
Adrien felt some of the wind leave his sails. Right. This was him. Of course his future self knew.
Somehow, he felt frustrated that he’d been robbed of a perfectly good argument.
Future Adrien smirked, and Adrien tried to give him a glare, but couldn’t seem to summon up enough heat for it.
“Remember, I know how you feel. I’ve, quite literally, been there.”
Adrien turned away. “You don’t have to sound so smug about it.”
“But don’t you see?” Future Adrien replied, and Adrien could just hear his stupid grin growing. “I’ve waited for this for years. I finally get to be on the other side of this very conversation. It’s glorious.”
Part of Adrien was still upset enough that he wanted to rise to the bait, but the other part of him pushed that reaction down as he realized what, exactly, Future Adrien had just revealed. Or, maybe, what he’d just emphasized, that Adrien was too dull to truly get the first time.
Wait… if this very conversation had happened to Future Adrien, he wasn’t even from an alternate timeline, or from a slightly different future to a past in flux. Future Adrien had also almost done… what the Adrien of now had almost done. And he still lived in his perfect future with his perfect smiling face and his perfect life.
Adrien lifted his eyes to meet Future Adrien’s, who was still unfairly grinning, of course. Future Adrien had gotten past this moment. Future Adrien had gotten through the next week. Future Adrien had gotten past the next year. And the next. And then next.
“How did you do it,” he whispered.
Future Adrien’s smirk faded into a rueful smile. “I’m not here to tell you it’s easy, you know.”
Adrien bit the inside of his lip. Thanks for the reminder. “I know.”
“And I’m about to tell you something you’ll like even less.”
“Great,” Adrien muttered, earning him a small chuckle.
Future Adrien sobered again. He shifted his posture, from a leaning-back, carefree Chat Noir pose to one more hunched forward, slanted towards Adrien, and looked Adrien in the eye. “You’re not going to be able to rely on other people to suddenly change their behavior in order for you to get better.”
Adrien felt his body stiffen up, his face going blank one more. “Well, of course I knew that,” he said, avoiding Future Adrien’s eyes. “They’re never going to notice—”
Adrien suddenly felt a hand on his, and he glanced back up at Future Adrien. “I didn’t say that either,” Future Adrien said. His face was apologetic, kind, sincere. Adrien felt his anger crumple again. Damn it, he couldn’t stay bitter like this.
“Then—”
“Adrien, you have to start telling them. I know it’s hard to talk about, and I know you feel like you’ll be burdening them, or that you’re somehow selfish for asking for help.” Adrien’s stomach tightened, not liking where this was going. “Trust me, you’re not. They need to know how you’re feeling—they aren’t mind readers.”
“I know,” Adrien mumbled. But—but if they were really his friends, if they really cared, they would have noticed… right?
Future Adrien, as though he had read Adrien’s mind, smiled ruefully. “Yes, I know you wanted them to see and figure it out instead. But we’re a little better at acting fine than we think we are. They just don’t know, and you can’t expect them to. And they have their own stuff going on, their own issues—they aren’t perfect. No one is, Adrien. Not even Ladybug.”
(The Ladybug-obsessed part of Adrien’s mind wanted to argue at this—even though he was currently mad at her, some things never change—but he thought better of it.)
“But the little things pile up, because you’re letting them fester,” Future Adrien continued. “So it’s okay—in fact, it’s healthy to tell them, and when people are hurting you, it’s okay to ask them to change their behavior. But you can’t force them to, and sometimes, no matter how much you ask, they won’t.” A shadow crossed Future Adrien’s face, and somehow, Adrien knew, deep in his gut, his future self was talking about Father.
He swallowed and squeezed his eyes shut. Not falling apart again, not falling apart—
“But the right people will be willing to listen, and for you both to work on the relationship so you can repair it. And Adrien, listen to me—” Adrien felt his future self’s hand squeeze his own a little tighter— “you will have those people for you.”
“Does that include Ladybug?” Adrien rasped.
Future Adrien shook his head. “You know what they always say in time-traveling movies, man. No spoilers.”
Adrien felt his shoulders slump. Right. Of course.
But then, Future Adrien paused, seeming to think something through. “I mean… well… that would be true, in a perfect world.”
Adrien’s head jerked upward, a way -too-enthusiastic swell of hope spreading. Good God, he was pathetic.
“Hey, hey, hey,” Future Adrien said. “I’m not telling you everything, just… well, I just realized I remember this part, from when I was you… plus, I think it would really help.”
Adrien continued to look at him, tense with suspense.
Future Adrien gave him a smile that was half rueful, half conspiratorial. “Okay, first of all, yes, Ladybug will remain someone in your corner. She’s not going anywhere.”
Half of the tension Adrien felt dissolved right there.
“Secondly…” Future Adrien leaned in, as though to whisper. “She would absolutely kill me for telling you this, but… the reason she won’t tell you her identity? There’s something more to it, something that isn’t actually you, not really. She’s scared of something happening. But I want you to know it isn’t your fault.”
“What is she scared of?” Adrien whispered.
Future Adrien smirked. “You really think I would tell you that?”
Adrien reached a hand up to cover his eyes. “Ugh.” Future selves were so annoying.
Future Adrien gave his other hand a squeeze once more. “The point is, she’s too afraid of that possibility to give revealing herself a chance right now—but she doesn’t understand how she’s hurting you. I’m not saying she owes you her identity—she has to feel comfortable enough to tell you her reason why first, Adrien—but she doesn’t know you feel like she doesn’t trust you, doesn’t know she’s hurting you by not including you. You have to tell her that.” Adrien fixed his eyes firmly on the rooftop concrete. “I know you want her to notice instead,” Future Adrien continued, more softly. “But at this moment, she’s a little too preoccupied. And I know that hurts. But do you think you can forgive her for it, enough to tell her?”
Adrien felt his eyes begin to burn, and he wiped his eyes sharply. God, all of this was so stupid, wasn’t it? Why did he even feel such a strong need to get included? Why did it make him so angry when he wasn’t? It’s not like he really contributed much to the team—
“Hey,” Future Adrien suddenly cut him off, gentle yet firm. “None of that. Can you answer me? Are you going to tell her?”
Did he really feel like a strong enough person for that right now? Or even a good enough person? No, he generally sucked as a person right now…
… but it was Ladybug. “Okay.”
“Okay,” Future Adrien said, squeezing his hand again. “Alright. Back to what I was… right, what I was trying to say. Ladybug derailed us for a little bit, didn’t she?” He gave a faint chuckle, followed by what Adrien hoped he heard right as She always does…
“So. The point I was trying to make, young Adrien,” Future Adrien said, with a hint of Yoda in his voice. Adrien smacked him on the arm. Okay, fine, he understood a little bit now when people said he was annoying. Future Adrien only gave him one of his Chat grins and continued on like nothing had happened. “Is that… what I had to work on, what we have to work on, is defining ourselves separately. First. Before our relationships.”
Adrien frowned. He was not sure he liked where this was going.
Future Adrien gave him a knowing look. “You’re depressed a lot, but you feel angry, too, don’t you? Angry at other people.”
Geez, poke at the very thing I feel worst about, why don’t you, was Adrien’s first thought… but it only proved Future Adrien’s point, making him feel even worse. “Yeah,” he said, in a small voice.
“And you don’t know where that came from? You want it to stop, because it doesn’t feel like you, and doesn’t make you feel like a good person?”
Adrien felt himself curl inward even more, the tears threatening to fall again. “Yeah?”
He felt a hand on his back, rubbing in circles. “It took me years to figure this out, but I think we put too much of our self-worth in relationships with other people. Maybe because of… Father. We could never make him… uh, express affection towards us…” Adrien wanted to hope that Future Adrien hadn’t been about to say “love,” but he had a sinking feeling it was otherwise. “So,” Future Adrien cleared his throat. “We looked desperately for it everywhere else, once we had the chance. Ladybug, Nino, the class, they were everything to us.”
Adrien swallowed, feeling… not violated, but raw. It’s only yourself, he had to remind himself. He knows you, because he was you.
“But the other thing about Father is… he… also structured so much about our lives that we didn’t know much about who we ourselves really were.” Adrien took a peek at Future Adrien. He was staring off into the distance, a look of melancholy on his face. “We just did things because we always had, you know? But that didn’t make them what we really wanted. So we… sort of started looking to find ourselves in other people.”
Ladybug, Adrien thought guiltily. He… of course he did that with Ladybug. A sick feeling began to twist in his stomach. Oh God, did he hurt her by that? Of course he did, he ruined everything he touched. Did he have to give up loving her? Did—
“Hey, hey, stay with me,” Future Adrien’s voice said, his hands on Adrien’s shoulders. “No beating yourself up, okay?”
Adrien didn’t feel convinced, but was also grateful for the out. An out he shouldn’t take, but… “Okay.”
Future Adrien sighed. “Okay, you know what? I’m just going to skip to the part I remember most. I know I asked you to start a list for me.”
Adrien felt his brow furrow in apprehension. “...yeah?”
“What do you want? And no what you want out of other people. That’s part of what got you in this mess. Adrien, you’re allowed to want things for yourself. What do you want that you can go pursue on your own?”
Adrien stared at Future Adrien, suddenly feeling tired and blank and wrung out raw. “But you already know. You have all the answers.”
Future Adrien smirked. “Maybe I do. But that’s not the point. You’re supposed to come up with them on your own.”
The itching, gnawing frustration was coming back. Future Adrien had it perfect already. Why did Adrien have to go through so much to get there? “Do I have to?”
Out of nowhere, Future Adrien froze. Then, he suddenly snorted, covering his mouth muttering something Adrien thought sounded like “Oh my gosh, that sounded just like Emma.” Then Adrien promptly wondered who ‘Emma’ was.
Adrien stared. Future Adrien stared back, his eyes still shining with poorly concealed mirth. “Sorry,” he said. “Um, this is serious. Right. Please ignore that.”
Adrien didn’t know what came over him, but suddenly, he sort of felt like laughing, too. He was able to manage at least a shy smirk instead. “Uh, okay. I want to know what that was about.”
Future Adrien gave him a look. “No.”
Adrien folded his arms. “Fine.”
Future Adrien grinned. “That’s better.”
Adrien slapped his future self’s arm again. Then, he cleared his throat, ignoring Future Adrien’s look of mock affront.
Okay. So, he should just get over himself, stop being pathetic—
—wait, that was bad language, nope, try again—
—so… he should just try it. “Um, okay. So… I want…”
Ladybug. For Ladybug to love me back, was the first thing he could think of. Of course.
“Uh… I’m kinda only being able to think of Ladybug right now,” he admitted softly.
Future Adrien only smiled. “I expected that. But I want you to try something—can you take Ladybug, personally, out of the equation for a second, and think generally about what you want out of a relationship like that?”
Adrien’s mind short-circuited. No way, I refuse, and But, but, but, were… some of the more childish things that crossed his mind. “I can’t.”
Future Adrien rubbed his back again. “Yes, you can. I know you’ve imagined it, so many times—a future with her. But can you describe it to me, at least generally, what that means for your life, just yours?”
Adrien immediately thought about the wild ideas he’d daydreamed up, from revealing their identities to getting married to moving to a private island to having three kids and a hamster. He closed his eyes, trying to imagine them without Ladybug in them, and shuddered. It hurt, on a visceral level, to take her out of the equation… but…
Just describe it. Generally.
“Um…” he started. “I guess I always wanted a really close and loving relationship… I mean, you’re right, because I wanted someone to love me. But I do want the best things for her, too, even if it’s not with me—I want her to be safe, and happy.”
“Right… still not getting into the you part, bud.”
Adrien sighed. “Right. Um… but a really big part of it is the marriage, um, and the family part. I guess…” Oh boy, this was going to get very raw. “I… wanted to start a family of my own that wasn’t anything like… like how I grew up. I wanted to raise kids with two loving parents that are never too busy for them… and, I don’t know, prove I can love right even though Father…” Father can’t.
He opened his eyes to sneak a peek at Future Adrien. To his surprise, Future Adrien wasn’t looking at him, tears welling in his eyes. He didn’t look upset, just… touched. Perhaps there was something more there that Adrien wasn’t supposed to know. He decided to squeeze his eyes shut again and pretend he hadn’t seen.
“Is there anything else you can get from your Ladybug daydreams? Something about you, not her?” Future Adrien finally seemed to recover enough to ask.
Adrien pressed his lips together, calling the images back into his head. What else… the hamster? “I like pets? And I want one? I guess? And…” And then he thought of the private island.
Why was it so appealing to him? Hmm, the beach and the sun and the ocean sounded amazing, especially since he’d never gotten to do any of that… “Um, apparently, I want to vacation. In really awesome places.”
“You want to travel?”
Adrien thought on it for a moment. “Yeah,” he said, thinking back on the previous trips he’d made, just for modeling. He’d never allowed himself to think about what it would be like to explore instead… but hepeeled back that curtain in his head, and imagined.
“Oh, wow,” he murmured. “Um, yeah. I really do. Without having to work. I want to see what the cities and towns are really like, apart from just Father’s connections.”
“So, you want to see the lower-class parts of town, do you?” Adrien popped an eye open, in time to watch Future Adrien pretend to faint. “Scandalous!”
Adrien quirked a half-smile despite himself. “I just don’t want it to be… fake. And I don’t want people to always treat me the way they do.”
Future Adrien made a sound like a game show buzzer. “That’s wanting something from other people again.”
“No,” Adrien said, frustration welling. “No, I meant…” There’s a reason he’d dreamed that his and his Lady’s home would be a private island, he was beginning to realize. And that was because… “I mean, I don’t want to be famous.”
“Ah,” Future Adrien sighed. “There it is. But that’s a little hard to do once you’re already famous, in both forms. You do realize that, right?”
Adrien lowered his head. “I know,” he replied, voice nearly a whisper. “But maybe I…” Could what? Quit modeling and do something else?
… Oh my God, that’s exactly what he wanted to do. “I want to quit modeling,” he started slowly. “Oh God, Father would take me out of school and lock me in my room if he knew—”
Future Adrien took his hand and squeezed it once more. “Slow down. Let’s think about it. Will you stay a minor forever?”
Adrien’s spiral ground to a halt. “Well… no…” Oh. Oh my God.
Oh. My. God. So that’s what this exercise was all about. Ugh, even Future Adrien’s enigmatic exercises had some merits.
He’d been so worried about never being able to make it through next week that he never even considered thinking about the future, and what it would be like. Besides his favorite Ladybug daydreams, of course—which, the more he thought about it, he’d never let himself think of as anything more than fantasy… because it would hurt so much if he let himself hope, and then get rejected. But Future Adrien was right. He wanted that family, independent of whether it was Ladybug… even though that hurt to think about, that it might not be her… but this way, it was something he could truly want for himself, because all of a sudden, it didn’t depend on somebody else. He could plan for it, strive for it, anyway.
And then… someday, he’d be an adult, and he’d be out of Father’s shadow—or, at least, he could be sure he got himself out. He’d already insisted, successfully, on public school—so he had reason to know he could do it. And then...
Aaaaannnd now he was blanking again. Abort. Abort. Too many choices.
“Uh… I think I have to think about that one…”
Future Adrien smiled. “I get it. You have time. I can wait, if you want to do it now, or you can think it all through later.”
Adrien gulped. “Later,” he said, in a high voice.
Future Adrien let out a small laugh. “That’s fine. I just wanted you to know…” He sobered, and looked Adrien right in the eye once more. “You have options. You have a future. You have things to look forward to. But you also have good things right now, too. Good things like—”
Before Adrien could react, Future Adrien had placed the black cat miraculous back on his finger, and Plagg came swirling out.
Adrien froze. Oh no. OH NO—
But Plagg wasn’t pissed. He was worried.
“Adrien!” Plagg cried, before he zoomed towards him, crashing into his charge’s chest. “Oh my cheese, kid, you scared me, don’t do that again, don’t do that again—”
“I’m sorry,” Adrien whispered, tears already leaking out of his eyes.
“I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost you,” Plagg wailed. “You’re the best Chat Noir I’ve ever had, you hear me?”
“Plagg,” Adrien croaked. “You don’t have to just say stuff like that, I get it, I won’t—”
“No,” Plagg cut him off. He flew in front of Adrien’s face, stopping in front of his eyes. “I’m not just saying it, kid. I really mean it. I couldn’t have—” Plagg flew close again, this time against Adrien’s cheek. “I couldn’t have lived with myself if I’d let you–”
Adrien cupped his hand around Plagg and squeezed his eyes shut. “Oh, Plagg. I really—I really am so sorry.”
And this time, he meant it. Before, when Ladybug, and sometimes Plagg, had scolded him over his previous… suicidal tendencies, perhaps there was no better word… he’d basked far too much in the attention he’d gotten from them, when he did it. It felt like maybe he could get them to care more if he got worse. But now, seeing Plagg like this…
He was hurting the people around him more than he’d realized, by selfishly—wait, no beating himself up. Yes, he’d been selfish, but—
Adrien heaved a rattling sigh. Shit, he just wished this was easier.
“Hey,” Plagg’s voice started again. “I’m no good at words, kid, you know that. But I want you to know that… whatever you need, I’m here for you. I may not always know how to respond right, but I want to listen. Please… just let me know, kid. Let me know, so I can help. ”
“Damn straight,” another, identical-sounding voice said, and Adrien’s eyes fluttered open. Another Plagg was nestled on Future Adrien’s shoulder. Deciding to ignore for now how weird that was… and how weird it was that Future Plagg had apparently listened, but not interjected, throughout his and Future Adrien’s entire conversation… Adrien just gave him a nod and a watery, but genuine, smile.
“Well,” Future Adrien said as he rose to a standing position. “I think my time here is done, as far as I remember.”
Adrien’s stomach clenched, and he scrambled to his feet. “Wait!” he cried—then realized he didn’t know what he wanted his future self to wait for. “Um…”
Maybe it was the tantalizing amount of information about his own future within his grasp, yet just out of reach. Or maybe it was that… he’d managed to become sort of friends, with himself? Adrien didn’t quite know, but—
Future Adrien seemed to understand immediately, and wrapped Adrien in a big, warm hug. “I know there’s a lot you want to know, but you’ll be even better for not knowing,” Future Adrien murmured. “Just… trust me. It gets better. It even gets better soon. Just keep doing what we started.”
“Okay,” Adrien agreed, feeling like a meek child all of a sudden. Future Adrien kind of had that effect on him. Adrien kind of thought he’d make a good dad—
—wait. Adrien’s eyes widened, and he pulled back to look at his future self. “Are you a dad?”
Future Adrien blanched, in a way that only confirmed the question. “Umm…”
The moment was broken by one of Bunnix’s portals. Future Adrien must not have remembered properly what the younger Adrien was currently thinking, because he sighed in relief, as though he’d been saved.
(He hadn’t. Adrien was attempting to cover up his smirk. He’d gotten something out of him… something good. Something really good.
And… if he allowed himself to hope, just from the smell of sugar, butter, and cinnamon…
Okay okay okay, bad Adrien, don’t go there!— )
Bunnix strode out of her portal. “So, is that all sorted for now?” She fixed him with a glare. “Hmm?”
Wow. Alix sure could be scary when she wanted to be, apparently. “I… think so…” Adrien stammered.
Bunnix rolled her eyes and elbowed Future Adrien. “Welp, can’t overstay your welcome, Chat Noir.”
Future Adrien looked sheepish. “Right,” he replied, transforming immediately before making for the portal. Bunnix just snickered.
“Wait,” Adrien said, pointing at the two of them, sudden realization dawning. “You know my identity. If <em>you</em> do, how many others know?”
That made Bunnix stop short (as well as Future Chat, who looked more and more anxious to get away by the second). Her eyes darted to Future Chat’s, and then back. “I’ve got to know because I’m in charge of the timeline,” she said, tone measured. “You know that.”
Adrien gave a small grin in self-satisfaction. “You didn’t answer my question—”
“Good bye, alley cat,” Bunnix said quickly, practically shoving Future Chat in before her. As quickly and suddenly as it had appeared, the portal winked out of existence.
Well well well. That was purposeful avoidance. Adrien let his smirk grow. He now had good reason to believe this cat’s secret identity would eventually be… out of the bag with at least someone other than Alix… (sorry! He had less of an off switch for the pun radar than he thought he did!). Adrien could only hope that meant there would be even more secret identities shared. Specifically, the ones between him and Ladybug. Aaaand… okay, maybe it would be nice to tell Nino, too, even though he’d just called Chat Noir annoying… maybe especially so, since Nino would probably take that back once he knew it was him… right?...
But this was something he could ask, he realized. He could ask Ladybug for this one, small thing. Not their identities, but for him to share with Nino. Because it was something he wanted.
“Kid?” Plagg asked, from behind his ear. Plagg zipped around, stopping in front of him. “Do you think we can go now? Go home?”
Adrien gave a shaky smile. He was by no means completely fine, not yet, but he was starting to think maybe, just maybe, he would be. “Yeah. Let’s get out of here.”