Chapter Text
Adrien hated Gabriel. M. Pigeon was making their debut which forced him to stay indoors. It wasn’t even like he was home to begin with when it all started, so he had to dodge birds left and right until his bodyguard could get him home.
He mused on the irony of being allergic to feathers for a moment.
Regardless he figured he’d use the situation to his advantage. While Hawk Moth was out, that meant the Atelier was unoccupied.
“Nadalie?” The assistant looked up at Adrien, who was only somewhat playing up the allergic reactions. “I cand fine my andihisdamines…” A conveniently timed sneeze played up the situation. Nathalie sighed, standing up to go look for the hidden medicine. When she was out of sight, Adrien quickly got to work. He figured he had about five minutes before Nathalie would find the bottle tucked into the cabinet corner.
The easy part was opening the safe. His mother’s birthday, of course, was the password. Flipping through the grimoire, Adrien rapidly took photos of the Peacock Miraculous pages. The hard part was now erasing the evidence. Putting the book back, Adrien quickly made his way to Nathalie’s computer. She had not locked the screen, thankfully, and he quickly set about to delete the security footage. Heels on tile approaching, he barely had enough time to look as though he’d been patiently waiting as Nathalie returned with the allergy pills and a glass of water.
“I would suggest you place them somewhere more accessible in the future.” Her tone is soft and concerned despite the bluntness of the words. He popped the cap and swallowed a couple pills with water. It was funny, despite finding out she had been Mayura, that she had created life and then killed it, he couldn’t hate Nathalie. Not in the same way he hated Gabriel.
She too was a victim, though one with more blood on her hands of her own volition. It was something he could understand even if he would admonish it, because unlike Gabriel she did it out of love rather than obsession. Love for Emilie, Love for Adrien, and, unfortunately, Love for Gabriel.
“Miraculous Ladybug!” Ladybugs swarmed the city, cleaning it up of pigeon based destruction, as M. Ramier sat on the ground, confused. Stray picked the man up and looked him dead in the eye.
“Eighteen o’ Clock, Le Grand Paris, Tomorrow, don’t be weird about it.” With the fear of god and fascination of what any of that meant bestowed upon him, Stray left, leaving an equally confused Ladybug behind to deal with him.
“M. Ramier?” The man turned to Ladybug who held out a charm. “This Magical Charm should help prevent you from being re-akumatized by Hawk Moth as long as you keep it with you.” She had debated whether or not to utilize these charms, in fear of kick-starting a miraculous arms race early, but folded almost immediately when she remembered the number of times they would fight M. Pigeon.
“Oh, thank you Ladybug. I hope I wasn’t too much trouble.” He didn’t notice the way her smile strained as he left. The fight was both easier and more difficult against M. Pigeon, in different ways now that Stray was in place of Chat Noir. She looked down the random street they’d defeated him in. No popcorn vending machines, only a garden shop with various seeds that Stray threw across the ground to distract the flocks of birds. Several of the pigeons that did not follow after M. Ramier looked at the shop longingly, their tasty meals having returned to packaged form. Of course, seeing the feathers ruffle as they cooed for the forbidden treats reminded her she needed to finish, or rather start, the hat prototype for—
Hawk Moth Gabriel Agreste’s contest…
She almost didn’t want to, just going with the flow of what her future memories provided. Still, if she played her cards right, maybe this would help fix everything. Winning the contest, getting an in, she could convince M. Agreste to stop for Adrien’s sake. Adrien would have his Father, Paris would be safe from Hawk Moth, and Master Fu would have the Butterfly Miraculous back.
And this time she knew about the feather allergy so her hat wouldn’t be a health hazard.
Walking into Françoise Dupont the next day, hat in box, as Alya excitedly approaches.
“You got your hat?” She asked, looking at the mystery box. Marinette pulls the cover off to reveal her handy work. “Wow, I knew you had this.” Alya marveled at the hat. She did not notice how Marinette seemed to wait for something more. A specific concern about a duplicate hat. However, that’s when she noticed Chloé’s hat looked nothing like hers. And it didn’t look half bad either.
A black hat with an electric green band, a silver pin in the shape of a cat’s paw. As she looked from different angles she saw the black of the hat subtly shift in spots to reveal an almost lightning pattern.
“You got some tough competition but I think you’ll pull through.” Alya nudged the girl but Marinette wasn’t focusing on her. She saw Sabrina look at her hat and whisper something to Chloé who just nodded while responding in kind. Sabrina’s gaze didn’t stray from Marinette’s hat until Nathalie approached with Adrien, Principal Damocles, and Gabriel via Tablet to judge Chloé’s hat.
“M. Agreste.” Chloé nodded to the video screen. “I present to you my creation.” She stepped aside and remained silent as the man studied the hat.
“Inspired by the Heroes I see.” There was an edge to his voice.
“It would be inappropriate to design one based on Hawk Moth, would it not?” There was a flicker in Gabriel’s eyes as he conceded, ego tamped down for the sake of appearances.
“I must say, Mlle. Bourgeois, this is quite exceptional work.” Chloé tensed up hearing the word. She’d wanted to be called that for a very long time. But now, it just filled her with dread. This went unnoticed as Nathalie took Gabriel over to judge Marinette’s hat.
“You okay?” Sabrina, ever faithful, asked the blonde.
“Yeah…just…” She hugged herself. “Don’t like the word anymore.”
As before, Marinette’s hat won. Chloé took defeat with grace to the surprise of several people, and a concealed irritation in Gabriel. None of that really mattered to her though, she had other matters to attend to as M. Ramier awkwardly stood near the Hotel doors.
“He’s with me.” Chloé told the doorman as she pushed Paris’ local birdman inside. “Stray told me you’d be coming by.”
“Ah, yes, though I’m still not sure why.” M. Ramier was led to a conference room Chloé had prepared, a couple other people waiting inside.
“M. Ramier, this is Mme. Kurtzberg and M. Juriste. With their help I hope to solve a problem before it becomes ridi- convoluted.” The lights dimmed as an image projected onto a screen filling M. Ramier with hope.
Ramier Pigeon Sanctuary.
The next couple hours were filled with back and forth debate on legalities and possible ideas on where such a project could be put, funding requirements, and getting M. Ramier the necessary credentials to run the Sanctuary. M. Pigeon was a nuisance at best and a health hazard at worst and Chloé wanted to nip the whole thing in the bud before she had to fight over seventy variations of the guy. While it would take time, it felt a lot more permanent of a solution in the long run. Plus for some reason the guy had the trust of practically every pigeon in the city without being an akuma. It was kind of frightening if you thought about it too long.
Gabriel stewed in his thoughts. While he did not regret his decision picking the feathered derby hat, it was very clever, and did not remind him of his enemies, the lack of reaction from the young Bourgeois vexed him. She was a volatile cocktail of emotion; Spoiled by André who wouldn’t know how to raise a child if a book magically containing all the answers hit him in the face, and trying everything to emulate that narcissistic glitter pile of a mother for a scrap of attention, she should have exploded when claims of ‘exceptionality’ were snatched away from her.
Yet nothing.
Not even a whisper of anger. It didn’t make sense.
“I told you this would not work.” Nooroo spoke, floating beside Gabriel. “She’s grown up. Unlike some people.” Plagg had managed to contact Nooroo and inform them of the changes, including the presence of Oracles. That Gabriel wasn’t one pleased the butterfly to no end. Even as Gabriel silenced Nooroo, their defiant smile showed in their eyes. Because Gabriel refused to believe Nooroo was right.