Chapter Ten: I believe in true love
I believe in true love. I believe in love at first sight. I believe love conquers all. And that doesn't mean there's not gonna be hard days or difficult things to deal with, because there will be. But finding that person who does it for you and knowing that person loves you back it just makes everything so much easier.
—Haley James Scott
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Marinette led her mother and father into the lounge with Adrien following closely behind. To say he was nervous about this was an understatement. Tom was a big man and could squash him like a bug if he so wished to, luckily however, he was a cat.
They'd been back in Paris a couple of weeks and decided they were finally going to put their plan into action. First on the agenda was explaining to their parents. Marinette decided it was time her parents knew the whole truth. If things went wrong there was always Bunnix's time travel power, and her own abilities to strip memories that could help.
Marinette gestured for her parents to sit down and Adrien to sit on the one seater arm chair. Marinette herself perched on the arm next to Adrien. Her parents looked worriedly at each other and grabbed onto each other's hands.
"Maman, Papa ... we have something to tell you."
"Oh my word, you're pregnant aren't you?" Tom shouted out excitedly.
"Our baby's having a baby!" Sabine exclaimed hugging onto Tom. Adrien looked up at Marinette with a smile and a raised eyebrow. She rolled her eyes at him before turning to her parents.
"I'm not pregnant, but I am glad to know you wouldn't mind if that was to happen." Marinette's parents resettled themselves looking over at the two young adults. Marinette took a deep sigh and Adrien reached to grab her hand, giving her a squeeze in support.
"What we're about to tell you is going to be a shock, but please act rationally." Adrien said to his girlfriends parents.
"You must promise what we say does not go further than between us four. You are the only ones we're trusting with this secret." Marinette continued.
"We promise." Sabine answered.
"We're going to be splitting up for a while." Tom turned his glare to Adrien.
"What have you done to my daughter? Marinette, I knew you shouldn't have trusted a good for nothing model." Tom was seething and Marinette sprung to her feet before her father attacked her boyfriend. Both Adrien and Marinette felt the pain of her fathers words.
"You need to let me finish, papa." Sabine grabbed Tom's hand and pulled him back to the sofa.
"I'm guessing there's a good reason for this Marinette, you two love each other very much, so what don't we know." Marinette looked to Adrien, he nodded for her to carry on.
"There's a threat to Paris, and myself and Adrien need to split up to stop it, if it's not stopped there will be terrible occurrences. When we're apart we'll be able to do our job better finding and eliminating a power worse than Hawk Moth." Adrien smiled, she'd explained that the best she could without terrifying her parents stating there's a possible doomsday on the horizon.
"What do you think you two can do? You're just two kids ..." Tom sprung up again and shouted at the two young heroes, obviously not happy with their plan.
"Tom, you need to calm down." Sabine stood next to Tom and rubbed his back to try and calm the anger radiating from him.
"Calm down! These two are acting stupid! Making a plan to try and stop evil ... geez! Who do they think they are, Sabine? Ladybug and Chat Noir." Tom's face was getting more and more red, Marinette was worried he was going to have a stroke.
"We don't think we are, Sir ... we know we are." Adrien stood up next to Marinette.
"What?" Tom glared at Adrien.
Marinette turned to her silly black kitty cat and nodded. He smiled back at her and took both her hands in his. They called their transformations and colourful lights engulfed the room. Sabine and Tom covered their eyes from the bright light emitted before them.
"You can look now Mr and Mrs Dupain." Adrien announced to the room. The older couple removed their arms from their eyes and starred at the sight before them.
"Holy sh-"
"Papa, please don't swear."
"It's been you two? All this time?" Tom asked as he sunk back into the sofa taking his petite wife down with him. Sabine couldn't speak, the shock was too much.
"Yes, from the day Stoneheart had became the first akuma." Adrien replied.
"Our daughters dating a superhero." Tom exclaimed, as Sabine squealed. The two jumped on each other again hugging.
"This is better news than you being pregnant, sweetheart." Sabine finally spoke up.
"You must be proud, your daughter bagging a super sweet kitten like me ..." Marinette smacked Adrien round the back of the head. "I was joking, Mari. Meow-ch that hurt."
The two called off their transformations and sat back in their seats. Tikki and Plagg headed off for food leaving the humans to talk. Sabine and Tom sat with their mouths hanging.
"What are they?" Sabine asked.
"They're what give us the power to transform." Adrien explained.
"Maman and Papa this needs to stay between us. We wanted you to know because our split is only going to be temporary so we can do what needs to be done." Marinette walked over to her parents and knelt in front of them taking their hands in hers.
"Will you be safe? We don't want anything to happen to either of you." Sabine asked.
"Have we ever let Paris down before? We will do what needs to be done. That's our job." Adrien came over to join his second family, kneeling next to Marinette and placing one arm around her waist.
"I know it's your job but that doesn't stop us from worrying. Will you two be ok with this? Your relationship is something so special, plus you work with each other." Sabine was worried the kids would have to separate and not see each other as often. She knew this would kill Marinette.
"That's where you come in." Marinette exclaimed. "Can we please have the keys to gran papa's house?" Marinette's gran papa had passed away last year and her parents had yet to decide what to do with his house.
"Of course." Her father responded.
"We'll use it so we can meet up as our alter-egos. He's got the trapdoor in the terrace so we can sneak in and out without too much attention." Adrien explained to her parents. They'd discussed this a lot over the past week, there was no way they could say apart for more than a couple of nights. They didn't know if it was the pull of the Miraculous or whether they were just that in love.
"Ladybug and Chat Noir will also be 'officially' seen as a couple - we have an interview with Alya next week for the Ladyblog. You'd probably guessed we needed to work out a way to stay close." It had taken a lot of persuading but Alya had finally agreed with the support of Nino.
Marinette was thrilled to see her friends getting back on track. Alya told Marinette she wanted to stay with Nino to help get over her alcoholism for the next few months and her friend was grateful Alya was finally let someone help her.
There had been a rather heated discussion between Nino and Marinette regarding Alya. It broke Marinette and she revealed to him she'd been following her as her alter-ego. It took him precisely ten seconds to then figure out Adrien was Chat Noir.
He was happy his friends had entrusted him enough with the opportunity of owning a Miraculous, they were thankful one of their friends finally knew their secret and could help. They'd revealed their plan to Nino and he'd swore to help as much as he could.
Alya was terrified of Marinette going back to the house alone. He'd outlined why Alya was staying in the penthouse and he knew she'd try and get Marinette to stay there too. However, with the new situation that just wasn't going to work. So they came up with another plan.
Tom and Sabine nodded and agreed to support however they could. They consented to Marinette staying in her old room for a few days to ride out the 'break up' news. With a thank you to her parents the superheroes gave them both a hug.
"Anything you need at all; either of you, please just come and see us."
"Thank you Maman."
"Thank you Mrs-" before Adrien could finish the petite Chinese lady had put her hand in front of Adrien's face.
"Don't you dare call me Mrs Dupain-Cheng, Adrien." He smiled back at the warmth of the lady and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you Maman Cheng." He said, a smile spreading across his face.
"One more thing-" Tom pulled their attention back to them. "Keep each other safe."
"Love conquers all." Marinette replied smiling up at Adrien before opening the door leading her and her soon to be ex-boyfriend out into the world, hand in hand and heart still with heart.
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Chat Noir and Ladybug sat on a rooftop opposite the Agreste Mansion waiting for Nathalie to leave. They knew she would be exiting very shortly as both had kept a tight eye on her schedule. Something still didn't seem right, but at the moment they had more to worry about than Nathalie.
She came out the Mansion doors and walked over to her car. She was typing on her phone before opening the door and throwing her things across to the other seat. Sitting down and placing on her seatbelt she left the grounds of Agreste, with the iron gates closing securely behind her.
Adrien gave Marinette a nod and they made their way over the fence and up to the front door. Adrien rang the doorbell, it had been decided he would take the lead on this one after all, it was his family. Gorilla opened the door with his usual huff.
"Hey big guy, me and the bug are here to see the man and lady of the house." Marinette rolled her eyes.
Why can't he just be normal when he's in the suit? She thought.
She had her arms crossed in front of her chest and was a couple of feet behind Chat Noir. Gorilla grunted again and led them into the grand hallway. It had changed a lot over the past year. The hall was full of photographs and flowers.
Marinette wandered over to a picture on the wall of her and Adrien. It was one of the two of them laughing at a family picnic they had taken a month ago. She smiled to herself as she looked, they looked so right together, not like there was a care in the world. How did they end up here?
"Awwww I see my son got the message to you. Please come in and sit down. I shall go and get my wife, she's just packing as we leave for London in the morning." Gabriel directed them into the formal seating area then went back to get his wife.
"Thank you, Mr Agreste." Ladybug said as she sat beside Chat on the black leather sofa.
"Look Bugaboo, I'm camouflaged." Ladybug let out a laugh and slapped Chat playfully on the thigh.
"I still can't believe he was Hawk Moth." Chat was shaking his head in disbelief.
"You're telling me." Labybug replied as she reached out to grab his hand. Life had changed so much for this beautiful boy in front of her, yet he's shown time and time again just how loving and caring he is to everyone around him. Her heart was blessed, and it was all thanks to the Miraculous.
"Chat Noir and Ladybug, it's a pleasure to meet you." They all shook hands as they sat to discuss business.
"Thank you for the letter you sent us. Adrien managed to pass it on via Ms. Césaire who runs the Ladyblog. We have looked into all the information you have supplied, as well as what we could find ourselves and we believe this is something we can try and help you out with." Ladybug opened the floor, now it was up to Chat's charms to do the rest.
"Carry on." Gabriel encouraged.
"We need to get the rings so that they can be destroyed. We believe between the two of us we can make that happen." Ladybug nodded in agreement with Chat.
"So what we're asking is that you help us create a little trap. Is there anyway we could encourage one of the owners to get close enough to take away the ring?" The deal was that they played dumb about knowing who had the rings.
"Ms Tsurugi will probably be easier to get close to as she has some sort of fascination with our son. She has been offering us deals to break him and his girlfriend. Apparently she believes Adrien and herself are meant to be." Emilie was shocked when she'd received the first phone call regarding the situation. They all loved Marinette and could see that Adrien's life was very much complete with her in it.
This statement threw the heroes. They didn't expect this, but Chat's quick composure took away from the shocked expression Ladybug was struggling to get rid of. This fight had just become personal.
"Well then, we suggest you set up a situation where Ms Tsurugi believes your son is now free and single. Perhaps he'd be willing to help us for the greater good." Chat continued.
"I don't know if he would do it." Gabriel responded, "he'd never do anything to compromise his relationship with Marinette, and he definitely wouldn't hurt her."
"Sometimes people have to do difficult things to protect the people they love. If he knows about the rings he will understand, if he doesn't know then you need to tell him."
"What about Ms. Dupain-Cheng?" Emilie asked
"Well if you trust her enough perhaps you let her in on it too. I believe this is our only chance Mr Agreste, unless you want to put Paris in serious danger." Marinette had been working on her telepathic skills and creating visions in others minds. She looked into Gabriel's eyes and let him see what could happen without helping Ladybug and Chat Noir.
Gabriel dropped to his knees crying and Emilie rushed to his side placing a comforting hand on his back.
"What did you do to him?"
"She showed him what would happen if we can't get the rings. You need to persuade Adrien. It's the only way." Chat stood and offered his hand to his Lady. Grabbing a hold they made their way to the front door.
"We hope you'll help us." Ladybug said as they stepped out the door.
The two swung into a nearby alley and dropped their transformations. Within a matter of seconds Adrien's phone started ringing. He looked to Marinette who nodded for him to answer the phone.
"Hey father, how are you?"
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