Vanished (Lukadrien) • Miraculous Ladybug

Chapter 1 | how did this happen?

A/n: I found out that Adrien was originally supposed to walk with crutches, and I feel ROBBED of that. So just I heads up that I'll be slowly working that into the story as a "what could have been canon" kind of homage.

He often wondered why things ended up this way. It seems that after his mum died, everything rapidly went downhill. Adriens dad was always a bit distant, but over the last year he'd gotten neglectful, the only times he did talk to his son was to manipulate him. His closest cousin Felix grew cold and distant, and the overwhelming pressure of being in the spotlight 24/7 was becoming too much to bare. And on top of all that, Adrien found himself falling for boys as well as girls now. He knew why, he knew he was bi. But with so much going on he'd been forced to push the realisation aside and out of processing it.

His life as Cat Noir wasn't going any better either. Ladybug was lying to him, growing distant. The girl he once loved he wasn't sure if he could trust anymore. She was handing out other miraculous like fucking Halloween candy. Soon enough, he was sure he'd be replaced.

The only thing he wanted was control. Control of his own life for once, he wanted to make his own decisions, his own path, his own life. And under the puppet strings of his father, and ladybugs contradicting rules he felt he was trapped in a web of lies and manipulation.

The last time he tried to stand up to his dad over the air project, he was shut down immediately, harshly ridiculed and gaslit. The rose tinted glasses of his once seemingly perfect family had finally shattered.

Adrien Agreste was hanging on by a thread.

"Dude... dude!"

Snapping from his daze, he found himself in class Nino snapping his fingers in front of his face.

"You good man? You're all trance like" he asked.

"Oh! Yeah I'm fine. I'm just really tired from fencing yesterday" Adrien lied.

He didn't want to lie to his friends, but he was in a tricky spot.

"If you don't fill out that worksheet your grades will slip bro" Nino pointed out.

That's right, the worksheet he'd been staring at. He picked up his pencil and began to fill it out, trying to push all the intrusive thoughts away. He just had to get through the rest of the day, once he was home and locked up in his room as usual he could have time to himself.

He could hear the soft chatter of the class around him, much happier than he was at the moment. It made him wonder if the class cared for him or not. When Felix pretended to be him they all believed it immediately... they were so willing to turn on him... aside from maybe Marintte, Nino and Alya but the others...

By the time he finished that worksheet, the dismissal bell went and after handing it in he packed up his stuff and waved off his friend to go home for the day.

As he walked through the school halls, he saw groups of friends laughing together and siblings walking each other home. He wondered what it was like to have a ride or die friend like Marinette was to Alya. He passed Nathaniel and Marc rushing to the art room holding hands, finding their relationship so adorable he wanted something like that. Heading out the front doors he was met with an unfamiliar sight.

His car wasn't there. Usually his bodyguard or Nathalie was there the second the bell went to pick him up. Instead it was an empty space on the road. Maybe they were just stuck in traffic or something?

Standing by the school alone, he was stuck with his own thoughts again. The negativity creeping back in. It'd been doing that a lot recently...

His dad threatened to take him out of school if his grades didn't go up, but he could hardly focus because ladybug was lying to him almost daily. It was like a domino effect, one bad thing after the other was making him spiral in silence. He wasn't sure how much more he could take.