Ladybug and Chat Noir (Part 1)
~~A.A~~
A flash of soft yellow sped past a large billboard of the new successful perfume brand ‘Eau De Parfum. The face of the young boy in the image matching the one of the panting blonde that paused in front of it, taking a few seconds to catch his breath before continuing his mad dash to the large building that was now in his sights.
Adrien Agreste ran as fast as he could, trying to outrun the growing noise of a car’s engine that he could now clearly hear behind him. He was so close, the school was just across the road now, if he could just keep the current distance between him and the car he would be through those doors in a minutes time.
He knew that, that was physically impossible for a human, let alone a teenage boy to accomplish. Still, he tried to believe that if he just kept going, didn’t look back, then even when it caught up, they would just let him go.
The car screeched to a holt just as he finished crossing the road, his carer and a bodyguard exiting the car to follow him to the school’s entrance.
“Adrien, please reconsider. You know what your father wants.” Nathalie called to him, making him stop halfway up the flight of stairs. Despite knowing it wasn’t a good idea, that he should just continue on, he looked back to try and reason with her. He felt like curling up and hiding once he saw her stern expression.
“But this is what I want.” He managed to force past his lips, trying to convey the desperation, sadness and longing he feels on the matter. He wanted to say more, tell her how he was suffocating at home with only paid tutors and his father’s constant dissatisfaction as his only human interaction, that he wanted to just feel normal rather than a possession to show off and then lock up when not needed and to just have a reason to smile at least once a day.
But he couldn’t, his words were lodged in his throat under her stare of disapproval.
A groan of discomfort was what brought him out of the small standoff. He turns his head towards the direction of the noise in confusion before finding the source. It was an old man. He was just next to Nathalie’s parked car, hunched over on his hands and knee’s trying to reach for his cane. The person next to him didn’t even notice him, walking past without a care as the old man tried again to reach for the wooden stick but stopped with another grown which Adrien recognised as pain and defeat.
Adrien didn’t have to think, he races down the stairs passed Nathalie towards the man’s direction. Stopping in front of the bent figure, he crouched down to grab the cane before reaching a hand out to steady and help lift him from the floor. Gently grabbed the older man’s arm to help pull him up, he was greeted by the sight of another hand also grabbing the limb.
Blinking in surprise, he followed the hand’s arm to come face to face with the owner, which he found was a young boy his age. Adrien was rendered shocked at the blazing colour of red surrounding and framing the boy’s face and it took him a few seconds to registered that is was actually the boy’s hair rather than literal fire. A single blue eye looked back at him, the other covered by the fringe falling over the boy’s face.
With Adrien being a model, he has seen producers recommending to other individuals to change the way they look to provide a more desirable picture or simply they weren’t happy with themselves. He knows others, including Nathalie, that have dyed their hair different colours ranging from blonde, black, to even blue and red. By this point Adrien can now tell what was real and what was not and never in his life has he met someone with such bright red hair paired with such contrasting eyes. The fact that they were both natural really stood out to him.
It took Adrien a few seconds to realise he was staring at the boy who was now giving him a confused look and that the old man still needed to be lifted up. With the assistance of the other boy, they helped the old man find his feet and correcting his balance before letting go. Adrien then proceeded to hold out the cane for the old man to take, which he did with a smile.
“Thank you young man, and thank you Nath” he said to Adrien with a bow of his head, before turning his head to the other boy to also give his thanks, drawing Adrien’s interest back to the boy.
The boy smiled at the old man before directing his attention to Adrien, giving him a small shy smile that spoke of gratitude.
“Thank you for helping my grandfather. I’m not sure what would of happened if either of us were not here to help him. I swear that every time I turn my back on him, he always finds a way to get himself into trouble.” Humour had leaked into the boy’s voice about halfway through his statement, confidence entering his eyes and his shoulders relaxing as he moved his attention away from Adrien to tilt his head up towards his ‘grandfather’ (Adrien couldn’t see a resemblance but he wasn’t going to assume anything), a playful smile replacing his earlier shy one as the older man let out an embarrassed laugh.
Adrien scratched the back of his neck as a light blush from both the boy’s and the old man’s gratitude formed on his cheeks.
“It was no problem.” It really hadn’t been a problem; he hadn’t even thought about the situation before he was moving to help. He smiled at the other boy to prove his statement true when it suddenly hit him that he hadn’t introduced himself to ether of them.
“My name is Adrien A-, sorry for not introducing myself earlier.” He stopped himself from saying his last name. He wasn’t sure how the boy would react to his status of being famous but from experience, most people not working directly with his family always had the same reaction and for once he just wanted others to see him as just Adrien rather the Adrien Agreste.
Of course, Adrien thought about it and realised that he may have never had a chance to cover who he was, with two people arriving in an expensive car for him and a literal billboard with his face on it behind him, close enough that anyone close by could see it. Somehow though, the boy managed to surprise him again.
“My name is Nathaniel, and this is my grandfather Wang Fu, It’s nice to meet you.” The boy didn’t respond to his name, there was no sign of recognition in his facial features at all. Adrien felt a wave of happiness flow through him, he could start fresh with someone.
“Do you go to this school?” There was definitely excitement in his voice and Adrien couldn’t find it in himself to feel embarrassed by sounding to eager, he was after all talking to hopefully one of his future school friends. The boy, Nathaniel, responded with a nod.
“I do, but I won’t be attending today as I need to help escort my grandfather to a few places. I had just ran in to hand in my absence letter to the principle, to inform my teacher of this year that I’m not wagging. Though you should probably hurry since class has already started, if I’m right in assuming your new here?” Nathaniel asked, adjusting the book he was holding to give a glance at the watch on his wrist, double checking the time. Adrien made a noise at fact that class had already started.
The two were interrupted from their conversation but a throat clearing. Adrien glanced behind him to be greeted with the sight of an annoyed Nathalie tapping here foot impatiently and with her arms crossed in front of her. The guard behind her had moved, now his frame was blocking any possible entry to the school via the stairs.
Adrien had missed his chance.
The boy looked away from the scene, his shoulders slumping defeat.
“No, I’m not…” he muttered, gazing down at the ground but still keeping the other boy in sight. Nathaniel looked towards Adrien’s two carers with an unamused raised eye brow before looking back at the disheartened boy, giving him a sympathetic but comforting smile.
“That sucks. Hopefully things work out for you though.” He said, making Adrien smile for a second before he turned around and started walking back towards the stairs, where the two adults waited for him.
“I just wanted to go to school like everyone else, what’s wrong with that?” he whispered, looking up into the stern eyes of Nathalie before bowing his head.
“Please don’t tell my father about this.” She didn’t reply, simply turning on her heel and making her way towards the car. Adrien felt the firm hand of the bodyguard on his upper back, preventing him from bolting as he was lead to the car as well.
Just as his door was opened for him, he spied Nathaniel in the same spot next to his grandfather (Adrien cringed when he realised he completely ignored the elder after introducing himself) by the school. The red head made eye contacted and waved goodbye, which Adrien responded with his own before he stepped into the car and the door closed.
~~N.K~~
Once the car had driven out of sight, Fu straightened his back and gave his cane a twirl before placing it on his shoulder. Nathaniel turned to him with a hand on his waist, looking at the older man with judging eyes.
“Seriously Master? That’s the 6th time today. Can you be any more dramatic?” He grouched, earning him a laugh Fu who also gave him a mischievous look.
-Flashback-
Nathaniel had just arrived at, in his opinion, one of the best bakeries in Paris to pick up is pre ordered desserts. Boulangerie Patisserie hadn’t even opened up yet, but the owners, his fellow classmate’s parents were kind enough to let him in once they saw him waiting outside. While Tom had went to grab his order, Sabine had made small talk with him while they waited, about school and work. When Tom had returned with a large box, Nathaniel had thanked the both of them for the order and the allowing him to take it early with a smile before making his leave, a different individual arriving from the upstairs of the bakery as he closed the door behind him.
Stepping off to the side, he opened the box to check the contents within. 26 colourful mini cakes greeted his sight, each having a different flavouring and topping to suit the tastes of a certain group of friends he has. He wrinkled his nose when the familiar awful smell of Camembert hit him and he glared at one of the mini cakes which had the disgusting cheese used as a topping. Closing the lid after confirming all of the requested cakes were in there (and to lock up that awful smell) he opened his backpack and placing it gently inside.
The bakery’s door suddenly opened with a loud band, nearly hitting him from where he was positioned as a blue headed girl started jogging towards the crosswalk nearby. Clutching his shirt over his rapidly beating heart and calming down from his near experience with death’s door, he shouldered the bag and moved from behind the now closed door to see the person responsible.
When he caught a glimpse of his childhood friend and first crush, he rolled his eyes good naturedly, feeling his growing angry disappear. He has always been unable to hold a grudge against the clumsy girl.
He was cut from his musings when he heard a horrified gasp. Head shooting up with concern and curiosity, he saw Marinette looking at the crosswalk while covering her mouth with a look of horror as she stared onward at the road.
About halfway across, with the green light now signalling for cars to go, was Master Fu taking his sweet time to cross the road even with a car now approaching.
“Dammit!” Nathaniel mumbles as he starts sprinting towards the road, only to slow down to a walk when he sees Marinette already by Fu’s side and franticly pulling him away from the car and towards the sidewalk. Sighing in relief, Nathaniel advanced towards the pair to ask if they were both ok, only to miss Marinette by a few seconds as she says thanks to Master Fu for his complement on one of her remaining intact macaroons and continues her run towards school. He’s disappointed that he didn’t get to say hello but he had another issue to address.
“You’re going to give me a heart attack! You are lucky that Marinette was there.” Nathaniel grumbled. Fu didn’t even try to look sorry as he pulled out a small wooden box with red markings from his pocket.
“So that was the nice girl you kept talking about.” Fu hummed, looking back towards the bakery. Nathaniel was looking between the box and the direction Marinette ran off to with a surprised look.
-End flashback-
“Over the top? Yes. Necessary? Also, yes” Fu comments, making Nathaniel roll his eyes sigh at his master’s antics.
“Have you made a decision?” Nathaniel settles on asking rather then the older man’s mental state, turning away from him to look towards the direction the car had taken. Fu hums at his question before nodding with a determined look in his eyes, walking off into a direction away from the school. Nathaniel looks back at him and huffs, cheeks puffing and reddening with slight anger when he sees him walking off without him, jogging to catch up and follow him.