Chapter Text
Plagg felt himself relaxing as the amok rings were placed on Adrien’s finger, a wrong at last having been righted in this house. He pressed his head against Adrien’s hand, but he knew this wasn’t a moment to pause. While something might be right, for Adrien his world was still shattered.
“Get away from him,” a hoarse voice seethed, and he looked down to see Nathalie laying on the floor, blood pouring from the shards of glass she laid on, not able to even sit up, but still her eyes burned.
Fur raised on Plagg’s back. “The only reason you’re still alive, monster, is because he wants you to be. You’ll shut your mouth if you know what’s good for you, because patience is the one thing I don’t have.”
“Says the murderer,” Nathalie hissed.
What a pathetic being, she was a murderer herself– and she seemed unable to grasp the concept that he would destroy this plane of reality before he would ever bring harm to this child. That Adrien was his to care for, and any right she thought she had was lost the moment she chose to wear his amok.
Plagg swiftly let his full attention return to Adrien, who still hadn’t moved from where he sat, those ragged breaths coming from him. Despite his stillness Plagg knew he was listening, the fresh wave of distress contorting his face no doubt being from the words he had just heard. Plagg flew up, landing on the boy’s shoulder as tears fell down, pressing up against his neck with rumbling purrs. One eye remained locked on Nathalie’s prone form, while every other part of him was focused solely on Adrien.
The minutes trickled by, the boy unmoving even with the kwami’s silent reassurance. Adrien's phone then let out a ding, the alert for a message shattering the constructed silence. Adrien flinched, though beyond such didn’t move. Plagg peered out, looking at Adrien’s empty expression, making no move towards his pocket. Throwing a suspicious glance at Nathalie, Plagg swooped down, pulling the device from Adrien’s pocket, the message being exactly from who Plagg thought it was– and who he had hoped it was.
MariPrincess<3: everything okay? you said youd call back in a few minutes
MariPrincess<3: nvm ignore that I know things can get busy for you
MariPrincess<3: love you!!
The next two messages popped up while Plagg was reading the first, and he no doubt could imagine Marinette panicking over the first one, perhaps worried that she was being too pushy or impatient. If only that were truly all they had to worry about.
Plagg eyed Nathalie again, but she hadn’t moved from where she lay near Adrien, and he turned his attention back to the phone, tapping the box to reply. He hesitated for a moment, not knowing what to say– because he couldn’t just spell out the truth in a text message. After a moment he just sent something that was simple but urgent, something that would bring Marinette here.
Adrien: come here hurry
It wasn’t how Adrien usually typed, capitalization and punctuation were always present in his writing, even in text messages– but Plagg didn’t have time to care about that. Perhaps it would only convey a sense of urgency to Marinette and get her here quicker. Plagg dropped the phone to the floor, which immediately began buzzing with incoming messages.
MariPrincess<3: adrien?
MariPrincess<3: did something happen? is everything okay??
MariPrincess<3: adrien??
MariPrincess<3: im omw
Plagg let out a shaky sigh of relief, abandoning the phone and immediately darting back to Adrien. He curled up against the boy once more, who would soon have someone here that would know exactly what to say and do, someone untainted with the death Plagg had exacted. Someone who understood the nuances of human emotion and mortality more than he ever could.
“What are you doing?” Nathalie whispered.
“More than you are,” Plagg replied coolly.
“Who did you message?” She hissed. “What did you say?”
Plagg ignored her, because if he paid her anymore heed she’d end up as ashes on the floor. Instead he hovered in front of Adrien, pressing a paw to his cheek. Adrien seemed to come alive to the touch, letting in a sudden gasping breath. His eyes still didn’t focus, but his chest shook with fresh sobs. Plagg nuzzled his face, gathering the tears that lingered there.
“Fa-fa-father,” He hiccuped.
“He’s gone,” Plagg replied.
“No!” Adrien roared, pulling back. He scrambled on his hands, scooting back with his feet, before letting out a cry. He pulled his hand up looking at the bleeding cut on his hand– having sliced it on the shattered glass around them.
Plagg drifted forward despite his protests, carefully pulling out the shards of glass that had lodged itself into his palm. Adrien stopped his retreat, cradling his hand close as he bled, crying once more, though it had nothing to do with the pain in his hand.
Plagg once again tried to move closer, but Adrien stiffened up at the movement, sending him a wide-eyed stare. “St-stay away from me!”
Plagg paused at the action, a heavy feeling forming in his chest.
There was a sound of an alert that cut through the silence, though it didn’t come from Adrien’s abandoned phone. Instead it came from Nathalie’s tablet, which lay fallen on the floor with a now cracked screen. Plagg drifted over to it, to find a notification from the front gate. There was no way Marinette could’ve gotten here that quickly unless she was already in the area, or had transformed to rush over here.
That was fine with Plagg.
Plagg opened up the alert, which immediately revealed the camera feed for the front gate, where Marinette was now urgently waiting. He didn’t bother to connect to give a reply, his voice wouldn’t carry over the machine anyway, instead tapping the button to unlock the gate. He could see Marinette immediately bolting inside, and he flew away from the tablet.
“Who did you let in?” Nathalie demanded, punctuating her words with a cough.
He had no chance to answer, as the double front doors were now rattling as Marinette tried to barge in. When she found it was locked she immediately began knocking, her faint voice calling, though the words were muffled. Adrien didn’t react, and Plagg eyed Nathalie. Adrien had moved away from her, and it was quite clear she couldn’t hold herself up. He should be fine to leave for a moment, even if that’s the last thing he wanted to do.
“Don’t you dare move,” Plagg growled at her in warning, before swiftly swooping out of Gabriel's office into the main hall, rushing towards the front doors.
He phased through the lock, unlocking it in the same motion he used to pass through the front doors. Marinette recoiled when she saw the kwami in front of her, pulling back.
“Hurry.” Plagg snapped, which was all he had to say to her before diving back inside, rushing for the office once more.
He rushed into the room as the front doors opened behind him, and found that he had been right to hurry. In the few seconds he had been gone Nathalie had gathered the last of her strength, dragging herself towards Adrien once again.
He dove just as Marinette followed him into the room, grabbing Nathalie by the bun as he yanked her away. Deciding not to traumatize the children further he showed the monster of a woman mercy, tossing her into a section of floor that wasn’t littered with glass. Still she had to fight down a groan of pain as she fell, laying weakly on the floor once more as she broke down into a coughing fit.
“Ms. S-sancoeur!” Marinette cried, and then her eyes fell on Adrien, rushing forward. “Adrien! What’s– what happened?”
“Marinette,” Nathalie coughed. “Take Adrien and get out of here, I’ll handle–”
“Shut up, you don’t have the right to talk to either of them,” Plagg snarled at her.
Marinette had carefully navigated around the glass, now kneeling by Adrien, who hadn’t said a word– but the moment his eyes had focused on Marinette he had thrown himself into her arms. He looked like he was trying to find something to say, but any words were lost in his tears as he tried to speak as her arms coiled tightly around him.
“Plagg– what is going on?” Marinette demanded, and Plagg instantly recognized the tone– one usually only used when she was Ladybug. “What– what are you doing here? Where’s Mr. Agreste? What’s–”
“He’s dead,” Plagg said– and at the words Adrien seemed to completely collapse into Marinette’s arms. “I killed him.”
The small purse hanging around Marinette’s shoulder shifted, and he could see Tikki’s eyes peering out at him. Not horrified like Marinette’s, nor in disbelief like Adrien, instead there was only a questioning look in Tikki’s gaze.
“Wh-why?” Adrien’s voice cracked, quiet in the stillness of the ruined room. “Why did you do it? Why would you–?” He couldn’t say another world, his voice seeming to close in on itself. He didn’t break down into sobs, but instead his eyes stared ahead at nothing. “Why?”
“Plagg,” Marinette’s voice was hard, but even she couldn’t hide the edge of panic that had overtaken her. “How– why–?”
Plagg drifted over near where the hidden elevator had been, where Gabriel’s white glove lay abandoned. It was dusted with the ash of the man’s own body, its form misshapen from the rings stuffed inside. He picked it up without a care, flying back over towards Marinette to drop it in front of her.
Several Miraculouses spilled out as it hit the floor, the rings rolling free to display the emblem on the kwamis on the face. Among them laid a small brooch with strips of lavender cloth to look like wings– the Butterfly Miraculous laying vulnerable in front of Ladybug and Chat Noir, their foe now defeated.
Plagg was sure none of them had ever thought it would have been like this.
“He was about to send out another akuma,” Plagg hissed in a low voice as the children stared at the Miraculouses in front of them. “He– he had them all in cages. On the wall. Like trophies. There were empty ones, one for T-tikki– he wasn’t going to stop, it was never going to stop–”
There was now a waver in Plagg’s voice, a different reality from the rage and anger that had been consuming him now washing over him. A realization that this man caged gods to display when words themselves would have contained them. That he had done the same thing with his child, could bind him with words and orders but still did all he could do to carefully frame him for the world to see, to not let one hair get out of place. He wasn’t even sure if there was a ‘why’ to all of them– if there was even anything to this beyond the sheer need and desire for nothing but control.
Tikki slowly phased out of the purse she had been hiding in, realizing that like Plagg there was now no more reason to hide. She carefully drifted towards Plagg, ignoring the gasps from the humans, nuzzling softly against Plagg.
“I had to do it,” Plagg said– he had wanted to, but he also had to, and he didn’t know if they would understand. If they even could understand, not when their views on life and mortality were so different. So he didn’t bother to see if they did, his eyes were locking on Marinette instead. “Help him. He needs you. Help him.”
And suddenly Plagg understood the unstableness the humans were feeling. The way everything felt shaken, and he didn’t know what to do. Not with Gabriel, nor with questioning his fate– he would never regret killing that man. But his Kitten was right there, and he couldn’t draw near.
Because he was watching Adrien crumble, and he didn’t know how to pull him back together. Cracks had long shattered any facade, and how was Destruction meant to be the one to fix this? The truth had broken him, but so would have the lies. He wanted to comfort him, but comfort didn’t heal.
The threat was gone, but things weren’t right– and the fear Plagg felt was the fear that his actions would make it so nothing could be right for his Kitten again.
“They’re safe now,” Tikki whispered softly as she wrapped herself around him.
Safety wasn’t enough. Not right now.
“...You’re Ladybug,” Nathalie said slowly, leveling her eyes with Marinette. “That’s why it brought you here.” Her eyes shifted towards Plagg, narrowed. “But what brought you here, how did you even–?”
“My... my lady?” Adrien’s voice cracked as Nathalie spoke, all eyes falling on him as he looked up at Marinette. The realization washed over her face, Marinette immediately pulling Adrien even closer, cradling his head.
“Chaton,” she whispered, half tender, half horrified as everything truly sank in.
“No,” Nathalie whispered. “No, not you, anyone but you.”
Adrien’s hands curled tightly as she spoke, his eyes locked on the glass that littered the ground. Marinette held him close, though he didn’t seem to have the strength to do the same, practically collapsed in her arms. There was a focus in his gaze though, one that hadn’t been there before. Plagg soon realized that it wasn’t the glass he was looking at– but instead his eyes were locked on the abandoned Butterfly Miraculous.
“Y-you were a part of this?” Adrien’s gaze didn’t move, but it was clear he was speaking to Nathalie. “And h-he... Father truly was...?”
He couldn’t bring himself to finish his words.
“Adrien, I swear, if I had known it was you behind the mask–” Nathalie began, but she didn’t get to finish her sentence– because suddenly Adrien's shaken and unresponsive self was now gone.
He lunged forward like a viper going for the strike– breaking free from Marinette’s gentle embrace, hand snatching the Butterfly Miraculous as if it were about to scurry away. With a single movement he was on his feet, sprinting towards the door with a surge of energy that hadn’t been there before, glass crunching under his feet.
“Adrien!” Several voices called out together, but Adrien’s feet were already thundering up the stairs. Marinette was moving to go after him, a torn expression on her face. Her eyes shuffled about the room– to the many Miraculouses, to Nathalie’s weakened shifting form. She was on her feet, ready to go after Adrien, but then she was leaning down, scooping the rings knowing that she couldn’t just leave them– eyes flickering to the door desperately.
Plagg phased through Tikki’s arms, flying towards the door himself. He knew that Tikki wouldn’t follow, she had her own holder to look after. Plagg didn’t rush, eyes locked up on the stairs as he drifted after where his holder had run. He went right past the boy’s room, knowing that wasn’t where Adrien was going to take shelter, heading up the next flight of stairs.
And he found Adrien just where he had expected him to be, on his knees, huddled in a study that had once belonged to his mother. The Butterfly Miraculous was clutched in his hands still, but now a confused and frightened Nooroo was hovering right above him.
“Why?” Adrien cried at the Butterfly. “Why did he do it– why did he do this to me?!”
“I–” Nooroo drifted back, the fright in his eyes clear, and Plagg could only imagine what was going through the kwami’s mind. One moment he had been transformed as he witnessed his holder dying, and the next he was in the hands of his distressed son– the Butterfly probably thinking the cycle he had been stuck in was about to continue.
“Adrien,” Plagg said softly– and instantly Adrien whipped his head towards him, tears streaking down his cheeks, eyes full of pain and anger.
“What do you want!” Adrien screamed at him.
He wanted Adrien to be okay– but he knew such words would accomplish nothing. Plagg looked from Adrien to Nooroo, considering. He didn’t know how to proceed, he didn’t know what to say– all he wanted was to be here, but he didn’t know if Adrien felt the same.
“If you need someone to yell at, I'm right here,” Plagg finally said, shrugging. “Nooroo didn’t really have a say in any of this, afterall.”
Adrien’s eyes widened, green eyes shifting to Nooroo– as if realizing for the first time that the kwami was even there. Horror flashed through him, and he dropped the Miraculous, scrambling back across the floor until his back was pressed to the white couch. Thankfully Nooroo was not recalled back to the Miraculous by this action, giving the Butterfly a moment to try to piece things together for himself.
“But I– I didn’t want– I just needed to know–” The words came out of Adrien’s mouth in bursts, silent tears falling steadily down his cheeks again, and Plagg was afraid that the composure he had gained would fade away again. Or maybe he hadn’t even gotten ahold of himself in the first place, it only being anger that had driven him up here.
Plagg flicked an ear, listening to the other parts of the mansion. Marinette was calling, worried– very worried. It sounded like she was in Adrien’s room right now, probably thinking that was where he had taken shelter.
“Nooroo, why don’t you take your Miraculous down to Ladybug,” Plagg said. “She’s downstairs, she’s been looking for you for a long time.”
Nooroo fluttered down to his Miraculous, looking up at Plagg. “And you...?”
Plagg gave a forced smile. “Tell her we’ll be down when he’s ready.”
Nooroo picked up his brooch, giving a half nod. His eyes darted between Adrien and Plagg, not fully realizing the extent of what had happened, but recognizing the pain. Then as a blur of lavender he zipped away, rushing from the room and towards the freedom he had long been waiting for, slipping under the door.
And then it was just Plagg and Adrien, as it often was in this manor.
“I didn’t mean to,” Adrien whispered, as if he had been the one to harm Nooroo as his father had. “I just– I just needed to know why–”
“I don’t know why he did it,” Plagg said, slowly drifting closer. “I just did what needed to be done when I saw who he really was.”
“Was... was it really him?”
“I saw him transform,” Plagg confirmed, ears falling flat.
Adrien nodded, looking away. He was still pushed up against the dusty couch, red staining white from where his hands were pressed up against it, his cut still bleeding. Adrien pulled it back, staring at his palm for a moment, before his gaze suddenly hardened. He glared at the rings on his finger, ripping them off with a sudden fury.
Plagg instinctively braced himself to be recalled to the Miraculous– but that was not the ring Adrien had torn off. The two wedding bands of his parents now sat in his hands, which he stared down at in disgust– before launching them across the room with an angry shout. Plagg jumped, before immediately flying after them as they hit a bookcase, falling down to the floor.
“I don’t want them!” Adrien yelled as Plagg gathered the silver rings. “Why’d you even give them to me?! Especially if Nathalie was in on all of this too! She was Mayura, wasn’t she? She knew about it all this whole time and– and why are you looking at me that way?”
“You... you should put on the rings,” Plagg whispered, taking a moment to phrase his words. Adrien shouldn’t put them on– he had to, but if Plagg said that aloud then it wouldn’t be a choice for Adrien, he would have to do it, he would be bound by magic to carry out whatever Plagg said.
“Cataclysm them for all I care!” Adrien screamed back at him.
Plagg’s mouth went dry, but just like everything else he had placed on his kitten today, he knew that nothing good would come from waiting. “Adrien, these aren’t just rings. They’re... they’re magic as well, and no one else should hold them but you.”
Hands pulled at blond hair, eyes pressed tightly shut as he spat out: “So he had even more magic?”
Plagg carefully clutched the bands close. “It... it comes from Miraculous magic. These rings, they hold an amok in them, they have for years.”
“Th-there’s a sentimonster running around?” Adrien croaked.
“Um, yeah, there’s a senti running around,” Plagg began. “Wasn’t able to for a while, but you should see him on the rooftops. He’s pretty agile.”
An eye cracked open, nothing but confusion as Adrien peered at him, and Plagg let out a sigh.
“...The other kwamis told me they were yours,” Plagg finally said softly. “That– that he’d use them to give you orders. That’s why you have to hold it, that’s why no one else should–”
“No.”
“Kid–”
“You’re lying,” Adrien whispered, eyes widening. “That’s– that’s impossible.”
“Not beyond Duusu’s magic, actually, but it’s not very often that the Peacock is used... like that,” Plagg began. “But it’s happened before a few times I’ve heard, Duusu would know more but–”
“I’m not a monster!” Adrien screamed, trying to push himself back, pulling himself up onto the couch as he tried to get away. “You’re lying, they’re lying, they have to be lying–”
Plagg opened his mouth, but no words came, not ones he could risk. Not without putting down the rings, but he couldn’t put down the rings, because they were the one thing that should never be lost. They shouldn’t even be in his hands, but there was nowhere else for them to go.
“I’m– I’m human,” Adrien croaked. “I have to be.”
“Of course you are,” Plagg said offhandedly, in a tone that probably would have Tikki glaring at him, but he decided to roll with it as he zipped towards his chosen. “I mean, that’s how the magic works– sentis are what they’re made to be. Their soul is just in a different vessel, that’s all.”
Adrien was no longer retreating, and Plagg used that as permission to get closer. He held out the rings, but the teenager seemed to recoil from them, so Plagg resigned himself to holding them just a bit longer– flopping down onto the couch next to Adrien like they were about to watch a show.
“It’s, you know, not a big deal,” Plagg said, clinking the two bands together. “Just a bit different, that’s all.”
“I’m... I’m not real,” Adrien whispered in complete horror– sending Plagg straight up into the air.
“I did not say that!” He bellowed, but Adrien’s gaze wasn’t fixated on him, but rather on something a hundred miles away.
He shook his head. “I’ve– I’ve seen how it works, they’re just whatever the one with the amok tells them who they are. If those are my amoks then I’m not real, I’m just a set of rings and that means I’m–”
“Oh no!” Plagg said loudly and sarcastically, purposely cutting Adrien off before he could continue that train of thought. “What an impossible reality– to have your physical form tied to a ring, wherever shall someone do?”
Plagg flopped down onto Adrien’s hand, the one that held his Miraculous, his touch causing it to switch to its activated form.
“I guess that means I’m not real,” Plagg continued, basically shouting as he dramatically closed his eyes. “Just ‘cause someone can throw a few orders for me around with this ring my entire self is just a lie! I guess I never really wanted to eat all that cheese, or steal your socks, or secretly hide your Ladybug collection around the room. Apparently those choices I never made because I’m just nothing but a ring on some boy’s finger– oh well. Even though it happened I guess it never really did, because that makes sense!”
He cracked one eye open, not quite sure what he’d see. Usually his antics like this would either earn a smile or an eyeroll from his kid, but he was not surprised that neither was on the boy’s face. Not today, and perhaps not for a while. He just hoped not forever. However his gaze was focused– listening, thinking– and that was all Plagg could ask for at the moment.
Adrien’s eyes shifted to the silver rings Plagg was holding, which he stretched out toward the boy. He hesitated, before a shaky hand reached out towards the bands, pausing when he was only a few inches away, before pulling back.
Plagg’s response was to chuck the amok straight at his face.
“Ow!” Adrien cried as it nicked him in the forehead, instinctively fumbling to catch it. “Don’t– hey!”
He flicked the other ring at Adrien’s face again, though this time he was able to catch it before it hit him. Plagg rolled over, flying off of Adrien’s hand and into the air, stretching with a loud yawn.
“Take care of your own soul, kid, I ain’t a babysitter.”
“But I– I don’t know what–”
Plagg turned back towards him, watching him closely. “Please... just wear them. You can put them right next to mine, maybe?”
Adrien hesitated, before shakily sliding them onto his middle finger, closing his hand into a fist once they were on. He just stared at his hand for a moment after that, not sure of what to do, or even what to say. His eyes held a million words though– the emotions from before clutching him just as tightly as they had before.
Grief. Rage. Confusion. Pain.
“Plagg,” Adrien croaked. “I... I don’t know what to do. Wh-what do I do?”
Plagg hated that he didn’t know the answer to that. “I... I could go get Ladybug for you?”
Adrien shook his head, tears stinging his eyes. “N-no, I can’t. I’m not ready, not yet, please. I... I need to be alone. Please.”
“Then I can go,” Plagg said in understanding, drifting back– but immediately Adrien’s hand shot out towards him.
“Wait–” he began, and no more words came despite there clearly being more he needed to say.
“...I can stay too, if you want me to,” Plagg said slowly, and Adrien gave him a single nod.
Plagg rushed back to his Kitten, pressing up against his chest, letting out a low purr. Instantly Adrien’s hands were around him, trying to bring him even closer. Plagg could feel the cool rings against his fur– one his, one Adrien– and the boy quivered as another sob built up in his chest.
“I...” he croaked. “I don’t know what to do.”
“I don’t either,” Plagg whispered back quietly, honestly. “But... but I am here, and I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”
Adrien broke down crying, and Plagg closed his eyes, nuzzling close to his Kitten.
Things weren’t okay, nor were they for a long time.
Not that day, not that night, nor even two weeks down the road– not even when Adrien was far from the manor, tucked safely away in the guest room of his bodyguard’s apartment. It was a quiet place, much smaller than the room they had once been in at the manor, but Plagg was quite sure that Adrien didn’t care about where he was, just as long as he was away from it all.
The media was as ruthless as ever, people wondering what had happened to Gabriel Agreste– vanishing one day nearly as mysteriously as his wife had years ago. People were wondering about the silence of Monarch, and when an akuma would strike again. There were things that the media didn’t know, the answers that Nooroo and Nathalie had to the questions Adrien had needed (yet had been so afraid) to ask. Answers that did not bring comfort or peace of mind.
Yet despite it all Plagg would say the both of them found a pattern in the new life they had found themselves. Not that it felt right in the midst of the turmoil they lived in, but it was what it was. A system to live by, a means of carrying on.
Things were still in shambles, but Plagg’s Kitten was not alone. Adrien had his lady, his bodyguard, the other kwamis– on some grounds he had Nathalie still– as rocky as that incline was.
And through it all Adrien decided to keep him close, despite all that the kwami had done– and for Plagg that was all that mattered.
“I want you to have this,” Adrien said softly as they hid away in the room of this house (maybe one that Adrien could one day call a home), holding his hand out to Plagg.
Plagg raised his head from where he had been sunbathing, looking towards Adrien with a blink. The Black Cat sniffed at Adrien’s hand once, but didn’t smell any cheese– much to his disappointment. However he still drifted forward, peering into the palm of his holder regardless to see what he was being offered. A small silvery shape sat in the middle, and Plagg immediately pulled back in confusion, staring at Adrien.
“That’s your amok,” Plagg said.
“Just half of it,” Adrien replied, holding up his other hand– showing the ring’s twin on his other hand, the same one that held his Miraculous. “I want you to have this one though.”
Plagg shook his head. “Look, Kitten, that’s something you keep on yourself, okay? Whoever holds that can control you, you don’t want anyone holding that but you.”
“Whoever has your ring can control you,” Adrien said quietly, causing Plagg to go still. “So why am I the one holding it?”
“That... that is true,” Plagg said after a moment. “But that’s just part of being a kwami–”
“That doesn’t make it right.”
Plagg sighed, before pressing his paws against Adrien’s fingers, guiding them so they wrapped around the ring he was offering to the kwami. “Kid... thinking about right and wrong leads to a very long and confusing existence. For me, I trust you, and that’s enough for me to let you hold my ring.”
Adrien scooped the kwami up in his hand, picking up the amok ring, before placing it on Plagg’s head as if it were a crown. “I trust you too.”
Plagg delicately pulled out the ring, carefully cradling his holder’s soul in his paws, saying nothing in reply. He just stared up at Adrien, before giving the human a single slow blink in reply– which Adrien returned with a soft smile.