Counting Ripples

'He never expected those eyes to turn hard like that. Not at him.'

Plagg has had his share of bad holders. Probably more than his fair share, honestly. But he'd take them over the others getting wrapped up in human conflicts. Even if it meant entire cycles and holders that never liked each other. Even if it meant....well. He would rather take it, Destruction takes the hit, Creation gets the pass and Tikki....it breaks her heart, but they always know how it will end when their holders are fighting. Adrien is different. Both of the current kids are different, in a way that Plagg doesn't want to think on too hard because it makes him feel so damned hopeful and he knows it never lasts. But he never expected those eyes to turn hard like that - sure, the kid has a temper. He's seen it before. Under that cheerful innocent mask, the kid is a killer. He knows that, even if that particular shoe hasn't dropped yet.

He expected the hardness, is the thing. Over time, all his kids get it. Some of them come to him tempered already, sharpened by life until all Plagg becomes is a final push. The final scream of a stone on steel before a blade is ready for use. The thing is, and it isn't fair, because the look is deserved. But he never expected Adrien's eyes to go hard like that at him. "You knew." The accusation has none of the feathering, the slight fondness that colors every other interaction. The softening that made everything easier. "Kid-" Plagg starts. "Don't lie to me, Plagg." And it's an order, in the way that so much else hasn't been. In the way that Adrien has never exerted his will over him in their partnership.

"I knew." Plagg agrees, wilting. Adrien is up in a moment, pacing his room, his entire body taunt - a bowstring made of boy that is finding a target. Anger is easier than grief, in some ways. Harder in others. Plagg waits, he doesn't have to. Adrien hasn't ordered him still or silent. But he waits for the war inside the boy he has let himself love to resolve itself for good or ill. Adrien stops in the middle of the floor, his back to Plagg, his head thrown back like a sunflower seeking light even though the midnight air around them is cold and dark. For whatever else they had done, Duusu had made something beautiful. Someone beautiful. Galatea wandering the world, now without his creators to guide him. Only Plagg, and Plagg knows he's a shit guide.

"Felix!" Marinette's mother gives him an awkward, teary smile. Neither of them look happy, neither of them look pleased.

The shop is closed for the night, and he could have easily gone through her hatch but something in him makes him knock.

Maybe it's the delay. Maybe he needs the normal walk through her house, even transformed, to make himself be calm. Maybe he should have waited for Kagami, but Kagami was handling Adrien and Felix - Felix didn't do idle well.

"Mrs. Cheng." He greets, cautiously, because her mother is easier than her giant father. "Can I talk to Marinette?" She bites her lip, gaze scanning him. "Just talk?"

"Just talk." He assures her, though he didn't know that himself until she let him in the door. Marinette feels like an open wound above him, and he feels like he should do something before the new Butterfly tries to Akumatize her again. Sabine Cheng nods, and foists a tray of snacks and tea on him before she lets him escape.

How strange to have a normal family. How strange to be loved so easily. He shakes it off, and climbs the stairs into her room - Tikki greets him, but doesn't leave Marinette's side, curled next to the girl on the lounge. "What were you thinking?" Felix asks softly, easing the tray onto the table next to her. "Not now, Felix." She whispers to her knees. "Please not now." "Kagami is with him." Felix informs her carefully, sitting down next to her. He feels like his head is on swivel watching for a butterfly, it makes him anxious. But either the new Hawkmoth is asleep or she isn't transformed.

Or she's targeting Adrien, but he trusts Kagami to handle the woman.

"Good." A soft, watery whimper escaped her. "I don't understand." Felix says, studying her in the dark. "Why now?" "I can't keep lying to him. I can't. I ca-can't say I love him and keep something so big from him." "So stop lying?" Felix offers. She glares at him, red eyed and runny nose. "It's not that simple."

Kagami is laughing softly into her cupped hands, watching him sail across the ice.

She had suggested this. And after the pain of the last few weeks he had been even less inclined to refuse her - not that he typically refused at all.

Ice skating.

"Is it working?" He asks, catching her hand as he comes to her side.

"You always bring a smile." She answers, and kisses the corner of his mouth.

"But?" He asks, gently.

"A sister." She says softly. "I had a sister. All those....all of it. She never told me."

He brushes her hair back from her face. Waiting. Quiet. Patient.

"And now she's evil. And i am never going to." Kagami takes a breath, leaning into him. "It seems pointless."

"I know." He draws a careful breath.

"I met her and I didn't know." That is what bothers her the most. He thinks. That Lila- Cerise- whoever she really was. Had been right there, had been a friend and Kagami had not realized.

"You had no reason to realize." He says softly, granting her forgiveness she doesn't ask for.

"Is it foolish to think I should have known anyway?" She bites her lip, and he kisses the mark she leaves.

It isn't her mistake, and still she aches.

Blurb: he’s learned the truth about his father. He’s pretending to Marinette and his friends that he’s fine, but on the inside he’s very much not.

Adrien understands.

He hasn't spoken to Nathalie in seven days and he can feel the line she draws down his spine with her eyes every time he leaves the house- usually early, usually before breakfast - but as much as he *understands* and knows how he needs to preform he can't forgive her.

Not yet. Maybe not ever.

The little Eifle Tower keychain has joined his sock Plagg and the rings in his bag.

One day, maybe. He will walk out the front door and never come back. He'll move in with Felix and his aunt, or run away to join Luka in Rio.

But not today. Today, Nino's arm around his stiff shoulders makes him feel like crawling out of his skin.

The smile he plasters on feels like his model smile, but Nino is too lost in his parent's divorce to realize it.

His friends have their own thing. And he's not sure how to start the conversation.

'My father was a monster, and not just to me, to all of Paris, and he has been in your heads and hurt you.'

The second hand guilt mixes with rage - and he doesn't understand why death has so profoundly altered everyone else's understanding of his father when it's only made him colder.

Like he's looking at his memories through glass and realizing the father who loved him died with his mother, or maybe even before. That the person who had been haunting his house had never cared about him at all.

"Adrien?" Alya's voice is a bit sharp, her eyes shooting to Marinette - they're fighting. But they keep trying to hide it.

Adrien smiles. "Sorry. Zoned out. What was the question?:

"Movie?" Alya repeats more gently. She's been angry at Marinette but so soft with him it's confusing.

"Yeah. That's fine." And he smiles. Because he should.

(This is so close to my idea of what is going to happen in canon. Kissing you and holding your hands.)

It's almost a relief, hearing Marinette rage at his father. Hearing the truth resonate through her voice gives him hope where he has been struggling for months.

He has gone back through the copy of the grimoire Ladybug had given him, read everything he could find on the wish.

As far as he can tell, the wish can rewrite things large and small. Given that he has no recollection of the world ending - and granted, he hadn't had Plagg in the moments before. And thus wouldn't be encapsulated from any wish that was made.

He's side tracking himself in his relief. "I wish you would have talked to me about this before." He tells her gently, trying to keep her talking.

Marinette and Ladybug seem to be the most effected by the wish. By his *father's* wish. Which makes sense in a twisted sort of way. Not that his father knows the connection he has to Ladybug, but..well.

It's a work in progress. Like the fact that Plagg has been ordered silent about his Father.

Like the fact that the love of his life is choking on secrets and he seems to be the only one that realizes she is drowning.

Maybe the fake museum had more layers than just pressing against the restrictions of the wish.

"I know." She's crying. His father has made her cry again.

He may need to let Theo build the stupid statue just so he can destroy it. But his anger makes her small, so he keeps himself level, soothes her, leaves to meet Ladybug for patrol.

She's a wreck, too, and doesn't want to talk to him about it. He can see echoes of what has already happened.

"Do you think she knows?" He wonders.

He has the sudden vision of his Lady chewing her nails, though she's wearing gloves. "What?"

"Oh. Ah...." he fishes for a lie. "About Gabriel Agreste." Is too much truth, but he sees the moment the wish compulsion glazes over her eyes and he is already reaching for her when he knees buckles.

"Oh." Her voice is full of false cheer as she straightens. "Forgot to eat breakfast. What were you saying?"

"She seems to be smarter than the old Hawkmoth." He says instead, guiding her down. "You sit, I'll get you breakfast."

So what I need you to do is this. Send me an ask.

Character (or pairing), a short blurb ("Adrien confronts Nathalie about the lies his father told him" sort of thing and send it to me!