Something happened to Adrien. One day, he stopped talking. No one knew why, some had their theories but there was no solid reason why. It happened seemingly out of the blue, at first doctors thought it was language regression, which does occasionally happen with kids. But he was 13 when it happened, much past the age of typical language regression. It was almost like reverse autism.

Some autistic children don't talk at all, and then one day around ages 7 onward they suddenly start talking like they'd always had the ability to talk. In those cases, it was a developmental disorder. But for Adrien it was like that happened in reverse. He could talk like normal, he always had. But one day, he woke up and his brain just refused to let him open his mouth for anything other than eating the food he needed to survive. At first he thought maybe he was just sick, and has lost his voice. But days passed and he still felt healthy, but he just couldn't talk. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't do it.

He could talk to himself, when he was alone. He had the physical ability to talk, but he just couldn't get the words out. His father became frustrated at him, thinking he was just being a stubborn rebellious teenager, but Nathalie could tell something was wrong and took him to a doctor.

Selective mutism. That what happened to Adrien. It set in soon after his mother died, and things in the household started getting stressful with his father, it was most likely a trauma response. For a while he was scared, what if he could never talk again? What if his life fell apart? But as time went by, and with Nathalie's support and her insistence on helping him learn sign language, he came to understand and feel more at ease with the situation. He knew why he couldn't talk now, he still had other ways too communicate too. Wiring, texting, sign language, communication apps. Body language too, he could nod yes and no, gesture over at things and beckon at people.

Of course, his father wasn't pleased with it. But he couldn't do anything about it apart from send Adrien to therapy and hope something happened. He didn't stop Adrien from modelling either, and soon enough word got out that Adrien lost his ability to speak. He was lucky that most people understood that it was a response to his mothers death, and were generally sympathetic. Of course there was the occasional ableist, but for the most part it didn't affect his life as a model. He could still pose for the camera and communicate via other means.

He didn't let it stop him from begging to go to school either, and he was lucky most of his classmates were understanding and willing to help him. When he was given the miraculous, he was a bit nervous about it, how can he fight without talking? He needed to say things like 'claws out' and 'cataclysm' to activate his powers. But it turns out there was a solution for that too, the miraculous would adapt to its holder after all. Plagg explained everything to him, that the power of the miraculous would grow and change to suit the holders needs and all he'd have to do is use his baton like a speaker, that the magic would take his thoughts and project them through the speaker. For a while people didn't even know he wasn't actually talking and it was the baton reading his mind, as his suit formed with a mask over his mouth.

Naturally the media wasn't only intrigued with two superheroes showing up to fight villains, but the fact one of them was disabled and still managed to be a hero was proof anyone could find a way to do anything.

Life threw him a massive curveball, but he adapted. And now he was comfortable communication via sign language, writing, his baton as cat noir and various other techniques. As time passed, some of his speech came back. But notably only to people he had deep and trusting connections with. Nathalie and Plagg were the only ones he could talk to at the moment. Plagg because he was always around him, and they never spoke in public because Plagg had to stay hidden. And Nathalie because she was basically his mum, she was the one who helped him through everything when he first lost his ability to speak. She almost had a heart attack when she heard him talk again for the first time in almost two years. But she was endlessly proud of him.

Aside from Plagg and Nathalie, no one had heard Adrien speak, not even his father since he was 13. Now at 16, it'd been three years. He'd made progress, he'd adapted, but he was still traumatised from everything that's happened with his mother dying and his fathers horrible behaviour. He didn't have hope of being fully verbal again for a long time to come, but he knew one day he could make it.

None of his friends had ever heard his voice aside from interviews he did before he lost his speech. But he was a kid then, his voice would have definitely changed by now. While they were curious of course, they understood he couldn't control it.

So you could imagine the absolute shock when Luka heard him talk.

They were out on the deck of the boat, just the two of them. The rest of the band had left and Adrien was still waiting to be picked up, Luka offered to teach him guitar, and Adrien was eager to accept with vigorous nodding. So for what felt like hours, they played some simple chords to get him used to the frets and finger placement and pressure on the strings. He was a fast learner.

When Nathalie pulled up and got out to say hello to Lukas mother while Adrien gathered up his stuff was when it happened.

"I have like 3 guitars, you can borrow that one for the weekend to keep practicing" Luka said, picking up the case to hand to Adrien.

Adrien grabbed the case off him, using his free hand to sign thank you. Usually when he signed, he'd speak the words in his mind to keep up with what his hands were saying. But this time, without even thinking about it. The words didn't catch in his throat like that usually did.

"Thank you" he spoke.

He spoke. To Luka.

Luka almost dropped his guitar, and it took a a few seconds to realise what he just did. They looked at each other in surprise, neither of them expecting to hear the voice of the silent model.

"Holy shit you have a nice voice..." Luka muttered.

Adrien blinked in disbelief, cheeks burning with blush.

"I..." he began, not even knowing what to say.

Luka just smiled and pulled the blonde into a tight hug. He knew that Adrien could only speak to people he had a deep connection with, so the fact he just spoke aloud meant he was comfortable and close enough with Luka to trust him. And that meant the world.

"Don't push yourself... but I'm proud of you" Luka assured.

Adrien smiled, tightening his grip.

"Thank you..." he spoke, soft and under his breath.

When he got into the car, he put the borrowed guitar in the back seat and as Nathalie began to drive, the adrenaline rush he felt started to really hit him. He just spoke... to Luka. Out loud. For the first time in 3 years he spoke to a friend. Well... maybe closer than a friend if things went his way.

"Nathalie" Adrien spoke up.

Nathalie was one of the very few who was allowed to hear his voice, so when it was just the two of them in the car after school and all his other extra curricular activities, she was used to hearing his voice.

"Yeah?" She replied.

"I spoke. To Luka. Out loud"

Nathalie almost swerved of the damn road in shock hearing that.

"You- you did?! What happened?" She asked.

"It just... came out. He said I could borrow that guitar, and I signed thank you. But as I signed it I also spoke it... like the barrier between my brain and mouth wasn't there anymore. But after that I closed up again... I was just too in shock I guess" Adrien explained.

"Wow... Adrien that's amazing, massive progress! I'm proud of you kiddo"

Adrien smiled, butterflies in his stomach as the adrenaline turned to the fuzzy feeling he knew so well when he found himself with a crush.

"Luka must really mean something to you if you managed to talk to him" Nathalie teased.

Adrien couldn't even scold her for teasing him, because she was absolutely right. There was a reason why it was Luka of all people that got to hear his voice.

"Yeah... he does. He really does..."