AFTER Watching Miraculous

Chapter 9: Tears

Adrien laid back on his bed staring at the ceiling. His thoughts ran around in his mind like kids on a playground. Should he go downstairs and continue his investigation or just leave it alone?

He needed to clear his head. He sat up and looked around. "Plagg?" He heard munching noises coming from his trash can. Adrien walked over and looked in it. There was Plagg, munching happily on a piece of Camembert.

"Hey kid." Plagg flew up to Adrien's eye level with his mouth full.

"I have to get out of here."

"Oh great." Plagg swallowed the cheese that was in his mouth.

"Plagg, Claws Out!"

"I can't digest my food first?"

Adrien was now Cat Noir.

Just as he was about to jump to the window, he felt his baton vibrate and heard it ding. He took out his baton and opened up his messages. There was a video from Ladybug. Marinette.

Cat Noir clicked on the video and hit play.

Natalie walked into Gabriel's office. Adrien put two and two together and figured that this must've taken place after Natalie had told him he could go back to school because the book had been returned.

"So if you already had a copy of the book, why did you go through all of that trouble?"

"He has a copy of the book?" Cat Noir said at the same time Ladybug had over the video. Even though it was quiet, she could still be heard over the recording.

"I needed to do what I had to to keep my secret."

"Secret?" Cat Noir did it again. He said the same thing Ladybug did in the video. He would've smiled at that if he wasn't so nervous about what he was seeing.

Gabriel moved to the picture of his wife and used his fingers to push hidden buttons. That made the floor open and bring Gabriel down. Gabriel was gone.

"What?" Cat Noir backed up a bit. He then heard Ladybug at the end. "First the safe and now this? How many secrets does this man have? Poor Adrien."

Cat Noir dropped his baton. He fell to his knees. This only showed more proof that his own father could be Hawkmoth. As much as he didn't want to believe it, the evidence was there, and in front of his eyes too.

Cat Noir felt something wet fall on his black clothed hand. Cat Noir felt his left cheek. A tear? He was crying? Cat Noir wiped his cheek.

He picked up his baton and stared at the end of the video. He then used his thumb to rewind backwards. He stopped when he got to where his father pressed buttons on his mother's portrait. If he could just figure out where exactly he was pressing, then he could figure out where it leads.

🐱🐞🐱

Ladybug jumped from roof to roof. She then stopped when she landed on her balcony. "Spots Off." Ladybug detransformed back into Marinette as she straightened up.

"You did the right thing. Remember what you said? A good hero always listens to her head." Tikki kept herself eye level with Marinette.

Marinette sighed. "I know. Then why do I feel like I did the wrong thing?" Marinette walked over to her railing.

Tikki flew over and sat on the railing. "Because you love him. You don't ever want him to get hurt. You know this would crush him, but you also know that in order to keep Paris safe, you have to find out who Hawkmoth is no matter who it could be. This isn't ideal, but it's what it is. You can all make it through. You can both make it through."