Adrian POV
After having the physician look Marinette over I realized a major flaw in my plan to bring her here. I stopped dead in the hallway and gave her a guilty smile.
"I'm really sorry about this but I just realized that we don't have a room prepared for you..." I rubbed the back of my head embarrassedly as she tried to hide the fact that she was giggling.
"When you said that you didn't think this through you really meant it didn't you?" She asked as she tried to suppress a smile. I nodded with a small grin and tried to think about what to do next. Just then, out of sheer luck one of the maids came around the corner.
"Oh perfect, Sabrina! Hey could you come here for a second?" I called. She flinched and came over cautiously.
"Y-yes prince Noir?" She asked trembling. I smiled at her and said,
"This is Marinette, she's going to be our guest for a while. Unfortunately I may have made an oversight and failed to prepare a room in advance, if you wouldn't mind getting one set up after you finish with your other duties for today." She nodded timidly and hurried off. I sighed and we started walking again.
"She's pretty nervous, huh?" Marinette asked in a light tone. I nodded sullenly and replied,
"Most people are whenever I'm involved, but when you have the power of destruction what can you do?" She looked at me curiously and I found myself chuckling in spite of myself.
"You really don't know anything about Miraculous do you?" I asked her smiling. She simply shook her head and I said,
"Well I guess we're going to have to fix that if you're going to stay." Then with that I lead her out to my favorite place.
"This was my mother's garden apparently, I always come here to think." I told her as I plucked a rose from a nearby bush. She looked around with an awestruck smile.
"This place is beautiful. But why did you bring me here?" I sighed and nodded solemnly This is your responsiblity Adrian, you brought her here and now it's your job to help her adjust. I thought to myself before I asked her,
"You know how I said that I had the power of destruction?" She nodded and I continued,
"Well I said that because here in Miraculous everyone has their own powers, they're supposedly gifts from the Kwamis- our gods? but seeing the way my father misuses his power and how people react just at the sight of me, I don't really believe that they're gifts from anyone." Then to demonstrate I looked down at the hand that was holding the rose which became surrounded by a dark black glow and the rose turned black and withered into dust. I dropped my hand and looked back up at Marinette, expecting a look of fear or repulsion but instead the look she was giving me was almost like.....admiration.
"That's incredible! If I had an ability like that it wouldn't matter that I'm a mega-clutz! I'd just be able to remove whatever obstacle I was about to trip over!" She declared with a huge grin spread across her face. I stared at her in disbelief. Is she serious? I mean isn't she-
"Aren't you afraid? I mean I almost did that to you! Doesn't that bother you at all?" I asked her feeling a whirlwind of confusion and joy. She looked me in the eye and simply stated,
"Of course I was scared, but it wasn't your decision to, you don't really strike me as someone who would willingly kill an innocent person. Besides, after all the work you went through to get me here, why would you just kill me the first time someone tells you to. I don't think that's the kind of person you are Adrian." My breath caught in my throat and I couldn't help but blush. I tried to gather my composure and think of something to say.
"Thank you..... no ones ever said anything like that to me before...." I said not being able to hide my sudden and newfound admiration for her. She blushed and looked down before suddenly shaking her head and hurriedly asked me,
"So wait, what's your dad's power? I'm kinda guessing it's something different than yours. He seemed kinda like he was controlling you, is it like hypnosis or something?" I blinked a couple times before replying,
"It's not unlike it, what he does is amplify someone else's powers and in the process force them into giving him their complete loyalty." She stared at me blankly and I chuckled quietly.
"Think of it like this, he uses the promise of power to lure people into allowing him to remove their free will, essentially he gives them the full extent of their power in return for making them slaves." Her eyes widened in horror and she covered her mouth with one of her hands.
"But that's horrible! Who would do something like that?! Not to mention who would allow him to?" She asked disgust and horror dripping from every word. I once again found myself at a loss of words as I considered the fact that she had no fear or disdain whatsoever for my power which had managed to make essentially everyone I knew fear and hate me while my father's power which had made him revered as a king repulsed her. I shook my head and finally responded,
"Well most citizens would do anything to reach their power's full potential, and even when someone isn't willing he can still take control of them, like what happened with me." She shook her head, a frown etched onto her face. I grimaced and quickly began to explain,
"There are other powers too, like in the
Salihafa Kingdom where my friend Nino lives, his power is protection. He can create a protective shell around himself or someone else, and then in the Renarde Queendom Nino's betrothed Alya has the ability to create illusions, which she mostly uses to scare people- in a joking way not a cruel way; in the Ryu Queendom my friend Kagami has the ability to turn into different elements: she can turn into water, air, and lightning- she doesn't actually use her power much, she thinks it's cheating in life. Then in the Conkhỉ kingdom my friend Kim, who's a man just to say, has the ability to create objects that interfere with whoever they come in contact with's power. There are a lot others of course but those are the more powerful ones, there's also Max-one of the guards-'s power he can transport anything anywhere, he's actually a former prince who had to come here when his kingdom fell to Mayura-" she cut off my ramblings confusedly,
"What's Mayura? It sounds pretty bad......" I froze before slapping my forehead.
"I can't believe I didn't tell you yet......." I groaned feeling like an idiot. I took a deep breath and began to explain the best I could,
"Mayura is a scourge of monsters that has been tearing Miraculous apart for 15 years, perfectly peaceful villages were suddenly overrun by horrible creatures, and one by one all of the other kingdoms and queendoms fell to them. There wasn't any name for them when they first came but at some point people started calling the phenomenon Mayura because of the blue glow that appears before the monsters spawn. The reason I bought you here in the first place is because Ladybug, a famous heroine in our history and former royal household of Miraculous, has the ability to nullify certain powers, like what you did when my father when he was controlling me. I was hoping that it would work to cancel out whatever is creating these monsters. Not to mention the fact that her power was to mirror the powers of Tikki the Kwami-er goddess of creation. Back when the last member of the Ladybug bloodline to live here in Papillon tried to overthrow my ancestors she created a flag to rally the people to revolt against the current king." She looked at me in complete horror and disbelief.
"Are.....are you telling me that the person who tried to overthrow him was my ancestor?! Is-is that why you brought me here?! I can't defeat anything I don't have any powers! Not to mention what my ancestor supposedly did to yours h-h-how can you even think about trusting me after that happened-wait is that why you said Ladybug was banished when we first met?!" She cried in a quavering voice as she began to look distraught and I felt guilt wash over me. I grabbed both of her shoulders and made her look me in the eye.
"Marinette she was a hero, her rebellion put a tyrant's reign to an end, and she wasn't alone one of my ancestors helped her overthrow the king. And as for you not having any powers you already proved that you do, you freed me from my father's control that alone is proof that you do have powers. Besides even if you don't who cares? You can still help if you want to, you don't need to fight monsters to be a hero." She closed her eyes and took some deep breaths before placing a hand over one of my own, both of which where still holding her shoulders, and smiled murmuring,
"Thanks Adrian, I think I really needed to hear that......" I felt my face fill with warmth and I quickly released my grip on her shoulders and stepped away from her. That's when I finally noticed a very important detail. I ran a hand through my hair anxiously and tried to ignore my rising blush.
".....you're wearing pants......"