Coffee Break
“I’m not sure what’s happening, but Viperon just seemed to kinda stop robberies these past few weeks.” Kagami noted. “I wonder if something’s up.”
Chat kinda knew the answer to that. Last night at the bridge he seemed pretty emotional. It wasn’t anything particular just...emotions.
“Yeah seems like it’s a common theme.” Kim commented with a fake cough and a glance in Chat’s direction. Chloe added on a gaze as well.
“Um...so LB...M’Lady...” Chat began with nervous laughter and two finger guns. Ladybug’s face was less than amused.
“You um....you seem kinda different lately....like normally you’re stern but with this just...you don’t seem to be accepting the difficulty of the case and-“
“I really don’t want to deal with this right now. I told you, I’m fine.” Ladybug replied sternly.
“Well you have been kind of an ass lately and we were just worried ab-“ Kim began before being cut off.
“No, no worrying will be necessary. Sometimes I just get like this. It’s not a big deal.”
“Yeah guys, I say we leave it alone.” Kagami suggested. “Let her be, we have bigger issues to be dealing with here.”
Chat, Chloe, and Kim all sighed.
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Marinette sat on Kagami’s couch, an energy drink bottle in hand.
“Thanks for letting me come over Kags.” Marinette said, taking a swig of her drink after her words finished.
“No problem Mari. I know you’ve been really stressed lately. A tough case like this was just assigned at the wrong time, huh?” Kagami replied, adjusting herself to sit on the couch next to Marinette.
“You couldn’t have said it better. I’ve got enough going on with my dad I don’t need some emotional tragic anime villain to worry about. I just want to beat him like I do with the rest of them.”
“But that hasn’t been working.” Kagami pointed out. “Listening to others doesn’t make you weak. In fact, I think it makes you stronger. If you listen to Chat and Kim, we can have Viperon put to justice in no time.”
Marinette turned her head to look at Kagami. “You really think so?”
“Promise.”
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Two days later, around three weeks now on the Viperon case it was.
Chat Noir was sitting alone in what he had picked up on what was Viperon’s favorite place to go—the lake. He wasn’t alone for long though.
“Nice of you to finally join me, Viper.” Chat greeted.
“Ooo, Viper. I like it.” Viperon said with a nod. “I’ll offer again like I do every time. Want me to deal with any scumbags for you? Murder is murder it doesn’t really matter how many.”
“Actually, it can.” Chat corrected. “I mean I want to try to find a way to get the case to drop but I don’t know how to do that so I just gotta plan it on the down low.”
“I appreciate the thought, tomcat.” Viperon stayed silent for a few seconds before opening his eyes wide in thought. “What if I killed someone popular but didn’t sign it as me? I haven’t done anything in a bit anyways. All your focus would be somewhere else.”
“No. I told you. No more murdering anyone else.”
“Well who decided you were the boss of me, blondie?”
“Um, federal law? I’m a cop I’m in charge of the general public.” Chat pointed out.
“Hm, well I could do some good if you would really let me. And technically, you can’t stop me either.”
“Yes, yes I know...don’t remind me..”
“Alright then. You can only play good cop for so long. Justice is overrated. The law is screwed up, Chat. It’s people like me that serve correctly. Killing our tournamenters, but we’re the ones that serve time in hell. Alright then. Hell. I can deal with that. I was never going to heaven, Tomcat.”
Almost like magic, Viperon was gone. Chat let out a long sigh. “God fucking..fuck. What is he going to do?”
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Chat got his answer the next day.
“Gabriel Agreste found dead in his home.” Ladybug announced. “All that’s known is that his gory corpse was found in his room by his assistant. They’re assigning us to hunt down the killer, they’ve got an entire list of suspects.”
“But what about Viperon?” Chloe asked. “What if he attacks again?”
“He’s slowed down. They’re sending the local force onto him. Until we get another lead, there’s only so much we can do. We found his pattern, but he’s not attacking again.” Ladybug explained. She turned to look at Chat, who looked as if his head was going to straight up explode. “You Alright?”
“That’s my fucking dad of course I’m not okay!” Chat hissed.
“I thought you hated him.” Alix pointed out.
“I do! But I never wanted this to happen! Now he could be with my mom and he doesn’t deserve it! Do you have any idea what type of cop I feel like right now?! I could have s-....” Chat cut off.
“Adrien. I know you feel like you could have stopped this if you were perhaps closer with your dad.” Kagami began. “But it isn’t your fault. If my mom were to suddenly die, I’d say she deserved it. She ruined my childhood.”
“Kagami! You’re a cop! How can you think that?!” Chat exclaimed.
“Eh. It’s not like she’s just going to turn up dead because I said I was fine with it.”
“There are ears everywhere! You never know what could end up happening!”
“Are you saying the culprit could be someone here?” Ladybug inquired calmly.
“Of course not! But Viperon was able to get in! What if someone else found a way to spy too?” Chat questioned.
“Well we can worry about that later we’ve got a mansion to investigate.”
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Adrien didn’t expect to find himself straight up walking down the street not in costume at any point during this. But he wanted a break from feeling like a cop for a second. Because then maybe he wouldn’t feel responsible for the death of his father.
Eventually it was sunset, and he found himself watching the lake from a bench.
“Kitten’s looking a little bare today.”
Adrien’s automatic reaction to Viperon’s voice was to roll his eyes.
“Don’t you fucking dare start with that shit.” Adrien sneered.
“I don’t understand why you’re mad. You got what you wanted. Your department isn’t focusing on me anymore. It was announced in the news where your new focus is.”
Adrien swiftly turned around to face Viperon, his eyebrows deeply furrowed in anger.
“Don’t understand why I’m mad? You fucking murdered my father!”
“Where’s my thank you?”
“You’re not getting one. I told you not to do it!”
“I was originally just going to rob him.” Viperon shrugged. “Because I knew you didn’t want me to. But hearing him speak...what he was saying...it just angered me...tell me. What did he look like when you went to see his corpse?”
“Well from what I’ve observed as a cop, it looked like it was on instinct. It was messy, there didn’t appear to be a plan. Just whatever would get him dead the fastest....what does that have to do with anything? It’s not changing that fact that I should turn you in right now.”
“Hearing him speak about how useless you were when you were modeling made me angry, Adrien. He doesn’t understand how important the role of a cop is.” Viperon jumped over the bench, taking a seat next to Adrien.
“It’s nothing I haven’t heard before. He um...he’s actually committed some crimes in the past...But I never had the courage to put him to justice so..I became a cop instead. To help put others to justice.”
Viperon’s face filled with amusement. “So. He fits my pattern. Interesting. If you were to tell your cop friends that, I could be put on the list of suspects. But he has it well covered up, doesn’t he?”
“No normal or cop run background check could discover it. He was never caught...why am I telling you this?” Adrien pulled out a gun from his belt, pointing it at Viperon.
The latter only blinked calmly. “What, you gonna turn me in? Shoot me? Claim self defense? I dare you. I won’t stop you. Go ahead.”
Adrien only stared at the snake themed thief for a solid three minutes before slowly lowering his gun.
“You hate your dad. You only feel so guilty because you didn’t make sure I was stopped. You couldn’t control it like when you tried to dispose of him yourself.”
“Wh-“
“That amount of guilt? Your reactions? I can read you. You’re no hero, Adrien. You’re just like me. That darkness of defense of what you truly care about is deep in your heart. You’re only trying to cover it because your conscious can’t bare it.”
“S-Stop reading me...stop it...”
“Of course no one would believe me if I told them Chat Noir attempted murder.” Viperon shrugged. “But whatever. You now know I know. And that’s gonna mean something to you. You’ve never truly felt right. Sharing it feels good, admit it.”
“I-I...Hate how reasonable you sound...you’re manipulating me but...no you aren’t...you’re not trying to...it’s just how you know how to communicate...you’re truly trying to help...”
“Hm. I guess that’s what you see.” Viperon shrugged. “I am not attempting to manipulate you. I’m trying to help.”
“I...became a cop to...stop criminals...stop the bad guys...but you’re no bad guy...” Adrien slipped his gun back into his his belt.
“I thought we had established this, had we not?” Viperon tilted his head.
“No-No we did I’m just...tired.”
“Well, I’ll let you sleep then.”
Adrien turned to reply, but Viperon was gone before he could. He let out a sigh.
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It was the next day, and Chat Noir wore the face of death. Or uh, lack of sleep.
“Chat, I don’t think you could look more dead if you tried.” Alix laughed.
Adrien rolled his eyes. “My father just got murdered do you think I’m going to be getting sleep any time soon?”
“Eh. Probably not.” Alix replied with a shrug. Chloe and Alix high-fived.
“If you ask me, I’d say a certain snake would have to do with that.” Kim laughed.
“Sshhh!” Chat hissed, slapping Kim in the face.
“Ow!”
“We’re in a public coffee shop shut up!”
Kim held up his coffee to take a sip of it, but it was automatically slapped out of his hand by Chat.
“Hey!” Kim growled. “That cost money-“ Kim’s eyes darted to the side.
“Sorry I am not in a good mood right now you need to-“
“Chat.”
“Not now Alix. Kim, I’m sorry I don’t generally get that upset just-“
“CHAT!”
“WHAT?”
Alix pointed to the ground next to their table. There was a man with long dyed blue hair crouching over, coffee dripping all over him.
“Oh my god I’m so sorry!” Chat dashed out of his seat, and to the floor to crouch in front of the man. He swiped up the coffee up, nearly dropping it. “Sorry I was just kind of upset definitely not a good impression of me-“
The main raised up his head, slowly lowering his hands from his ears. The blue-green heterochromia held in his eyes stood out automatically. He only gently smiled.
“It’s alright Mr Noir. Probably my fault for getting freaked out by the arguing. I didn’t exactly see it coming, I’m blind in my blue eye.”
“N-No um I’m so sorry now you have to go and change oh goddamnit it.” Chat sighed. “Oh, ah...sorry...” He pushed himself up to stand, offering a hand to the man to do the same, which he took. “I’m so sorry um...”
“Luka.”
“I’m so sorry, Luka.” Chat rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
“I heard what happened. That must be really rough. Even great detectives face hardships. You can’t be strong for everything, right? I imagine it must be hard for Adrien. He’s probably not easy to deal with it. I imagine he’s very emotional.”
Chat nodded slowly. “Yeah, I guess not. And yeah uh...he is...Here uh, what did you want? I’ll buy it for you, in an attempt of an apology.”
“What about getting me a new coffee?” Kim hissed with crossed arms.
“Yeah yeah just a second, Kim.” Chat answered, clearly not paying attention.
“You should probably pay attention to your colleague there.” Luka laughed. “I’m just no one. I was actually just grabbing a smoothie for my sister, she’s in the corner. Girl in the wheelchair.”
Chat glanced over into the corner, automatically seeing who Luka was referring to. “I-I can buy that! And are you sure you don’t want something? Trust me this job pays a lot, I’ve got the money.”
Chloe let out a laugh. “Guys, I think Chat’s in love.”
“Nope, I’m pretty sure he’s devoted his heart to Viperon. You hear how he talks about him, right?” Kim laughed.
“You Guys still need to fill me in on that.” Alix stuck out her tongue playfully.
Luka’s glance quickly went on Kim’s direction, then went back to Chat.
Chat stayed still for a second, then his brain suddenly processed what had happened. “Th-They’re joking! I’m o-on the head of his case or w-was before we got this new one and they’re my best friends so they’re just being stupid.” Chat explained, his face tomato red.
Luka offered a gentle smile. “I get that. Don’t let them get to you though. But I’m sure they’re just trying to have fun. I mean most criminals are scrappy old men, I understand they’d take the first chance they got to tease you when a young criminal came on the scene. Now I’m gonna get back to my sister. Thanks for offering to pay, but I got it.” Luka gave a wave, then made his way up to the counter.
Chat sat back down, a look of pure death directed towards his friends. “Are you trying to kill me?!”
All three burst into laughter.
“You are such a reck!” Alix cackled.
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“Luka, have you lost your fucking mind?!” Juleka exclaimed. “Talking to Chat like that?!”
“If I tried to ignore him, it would seem suspicious. I didn’t try to run into him it just...happened.” Luka shrugged while flipping through the stack of mail.
“I know just...I guess I’m worried...you don’t seem okay.”
“I didn’t want to murder again...it was so impulsive.” Luka sighed. “Chat is on my side, but how long can he really keep me out of jail?” He continued to flip through the mail stack, but paused at one piece, dropping the rest.
“Luka?” Juleka tilted her head.
“...Hayden...oh my god how’d he get our address...” He ripped the letter from the envelope, quickly scanning it. He automatically ran back into the hallway.
“Luka? Luka what are you doing?” Juleka called, unease tucked into her tone.
A few minutes later, Viperon emerged from the hall. “We don’t all get second chances. Especially not Hayden.” He quickly ran to the back.
Juleka sighed, hearing the back exit open and close swiftly. “Luka...”
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“Hayden Allard. He was a musician. Preformed in the most popular orchestras in town, along with having a job as a music teacher. Ladybug noted to her group. “Apparently he also has a history of paying male prostitutes to come to his shop to engage in harsh sexual play. Lemne Oran came last night and found Hayden’s dismembered and gory corpse attached to many of the different BDSM related devices in his workshop.”
“I’d say for now we look into all his current clientele and past clients for suspects.” Kagami replied.
“Sabrina’s on the phone, she says she’s doing what she can to look through his records.” Chloe commented.
Chat stood against the wall, holding the side of his face with his hands.
Kim walked up to Chat. “You okay man?”
“I’m tired of seeing so much gory death. There’s just so much of it. I’m dealing with a lot.”
Kim nodded. “Ah. I get that. This definitely isn’t an easy job.”
Chat sighed. “Unfortunately, it never will be.”
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“Hayden set his records to self destruct. All his clients for prostitution and for his music clients. If anyone tries the wrong password just two times, they permanently erase.” Sabrina sighed. The group was back at the station.
“That’s ridiculous! What’s our lead on his murder now?” Kim groaned.
“I’m not sure.” Ladybug admitted. “We’re still looking into Gabriel. The chiefs want us to choose a case to focus on, and the other one will be passed to a different station. They want an announcement on it by tomorrow.”
“I Uh...they’re both important cases.” Chat shrugged. “Just handing one over? Why can’t we do both?”
“Because we need all the focus we can get.” Ladybug replied. “I want all of your votes by the end of the day.”
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