Summary: Here, right here: this is why he's friends with Chloe. If only she were like this around anyone else. Adrien knows they'd see her the way he does. A three piece collection demonstrating the hallmark of Adrien's out of place friendship with Chloe: it all comes down to mommy issues.
Maman au Concerto
premier mouvement
abandonment
Midnight Christmas dinner had left Adrien drained.
So many people showing up to show their support, to show they care, and how his father had let them was wonderfully overwhelming. He had been so sure he'd be too wired to sleep that night, buzzing and humming with warm feelings.
Instead, he wakes up bloodshot and bleary-eyed. He shifts uncomfortably, realizing he's still in his clothes from last night. He groans into his mattress; he hates sleeping in jeans.
Groggy with his hair flat against his head, Adrien lifts himself into a cat stretch before half rolling out of bed. There's some grappling with his belt, but he's pants-free quickly enough. He rubs his shins before heading for the shower.
The dial cranked to full blast, he stands beneath the rain-style shower head, pelted by the mighty and torrential water for a while, zoning out. The water pressure rinses his hair, his hands hanging lamely at his sides. Adrien is frumpily dragging a towel around his head before he's actually starting to wake up.
Surprisingly, no one has come to summon him, and Adrien thinks his father is showing a bit of mercy for the late night festivities he allowed.
Satisfied to spend the better part of the day recovering from all the Christmas cheer, all he pulls over his barely dried body is a white t-shirt from his father's casual collection that hides the hem of his undone pajama pants. Why tie them up? Who's he impressing today?
That question is answered by a knock on his door, that is quickly followed by a high, sing-song, "Adrikins~" before he can reply.
He's immediately fumbling with the draw strings on his sweats, fumbling to keep the wet towel on his head, fumbling through, "Just - In a minute! Yeah!"
Plagg snorts from the comforter, his nest of a blanket and scarves a good a place to hide as any.
After wadding up the towel and hurling it into his dark bathroom, Adrien lets out a sigh to center and steel himself, before opening the door -
- And nearly being blown over by Hurricane Chloe.
High fashion is ever mysterious, as Chloe whirls around in a winter coat that has both form-fitting broquet and a fur collar so full, her head might as well be floating on a cloud.
Still, Adrien notes, closing the door behind her as he regains his balance, it's pretty. Doesn't look like anything from his father's collections (Gabriel strays from yellow since his wife left), but the gold butterfly motif of the jacket's body, excessively trimmed with (what what Adriend hopes is faux) fur could certainly pass for Argeste Apparel.
Slender hands are in suede, navy gloves. And held in those gloved hands, is a box of pastries.
Boulangerie Patisserie.
"I know I'm gorgeous," Chloe purrs with a raised brow. "But how rude is it to stare?"
He clicks his tongue at her with a shake of his head, then makes a sweeping gesture towards the couch in the center of his room.
"Merry Christmas, Chloe," he says after realizing he didn't really greet her.
"Right?"
Oh, Chloe. Following her around to take a seat, but keeping a cushion between them, he asks, "What are you doing here?" Because while she may enjoy being coy and wandering around subjects herself, it's always better to just be blunt when talking to her.
"Oh, you know, just in the neighborhood specifically to stop by." The corner of his mouth quirks up. Removing her gloves, "And I just happened to brave a certain bakery to pick up this box of the tiny eclairs you love so much."
Dryly, "You mean, you love so much."
Painstakingly sculpted nails begin picking at the cardboard latch. "Whoops," she says airily. "Guess it's a good thing my hand slipped." And the lid is popped, revealing Adrien's actual favourite treat: apple cinnamon fritters with caramel drizzle. He moans his appreciation.
Most days, even holidays, Adrien's dietary guidelines would keep such things forbidden. But Chloe will let no rules dictate her actions, especially the ones that apply to other people. It seems she had the mini eclairs piled thick over the fritters to sneak them past his bodyguard.
His 'thank you' is loudly whispered, and she hums her welcome.
Careful that the chocolate never leaves the pad of her fingertips for easy cleaning with her tongue (no asking for napkins), Chloe gives his outfit an obvious and critical once over.
"Why the jobless look? You live at home, but not in the basement."
He flushes. "I wasn't expecting company. Chloe." She looks incredibly innocent. Yeah. Her and Kermit the Frog.
"Okay. But also, it's like, almost noon."
"Which," he insists, rubbing his fingers together to free them of excess cinnamon, "brings us back to: why are you here?"
Ever a lady but still indulgent, Chloe tends to inhale the little pastries. Almost like she orders them small for no other purpose than to ensure no chewing is necessary. Now, though, she takes her time swallowing what is clearly a tiny mouthful.
She's looking out the massive panes of glass before them, her gaze unfocused, her attention on something inside her head. Her makeup is light today, he notices; foundation and mascara, a coloured lip balm. Almost naked, by her standards.
"Can I take my coat off?" she asks suddenly.
"Er, yeah?"
The bold outerwear reveals a designer zipup, something from his father's line; a gradient of aquamarine, growing darker towards the bottom. The hood and shoulders have a water-type pattern, like a picture taken from beneath the surface of the ocean. Adrien owns one himself.
They had gotten them together, because Chloe wanted them to have something matching, and it's one of the only things his father ever designed as unisex.
Adrien isn't sure what point, if any, she's trying to make by wearing it right now. Maybe it's nothing, but it feels like a fairly personal gesture. Especially since -
"Is this cool yet?"
- since they got them the day his mother left.
It creates an uncomfortable feeling in his chest. Not so much seeing the clothing, but feeling embarrassed he so childishly buried everything from that day. Chloe is unaware of it, but there's a hard silence from the other side of the room, where Plagg has surely found the conversation interesting.
"...Yeah. It's cool," he says, finally. "It was always cool."
"Good," she says. "Because isn't it just perfect for our eyes?" Speaking of eyes, Adrien rolls his. "Just the right amount of blue for mine, and the right amount of green for yours."
"Definitely the real tragedy." His sarcasm is light. "You came over for that?"
"No." And she's still Chloe, but there's something a little more sombre to her dismissive tone. "Real talk: I came to check on you."
Oh.
"The first Christmas - well, like, first any major holiday without my mom was pretty hard."
Adrien clears his throat.
"Even though I was so mad at her I couldn't see straight." Her contempt is clear, but her tone softens a bit as she admits, "I still would rather she'd been there."
He doesn't say anything. Just stares down at his smuggled fritter.
"I just remember how much it sucked. So." He can see her shrug slightly from the corner of his eye. "How was the first Big One with maman?"
Here, right here: this is why he's friends with Chloe. If only she were like this around anyone else. Adrien knows they'd see her the way he does.
"It sounds like your dad is still saying she 'disappeared.'"
She gets it. It happened much earlier in her life, but Mrs Bourgeois also walked out of her husband and child's lives.
"...Yeah." It comes out a little rough, and he clears his throat again. "Yeah," he repeats. "We don't know where she is, but it's not like she vanished."
She plucks up another eclair. "Tell me about it. Daddy was the same way. Like, Daddy, please. Don't make it harder than it has to be. That Woman -" because she is no longer 'Mumsie' "- caught the first train out. Get over it. I did."
No, Adrien thinks, no you did not.
The conversation drifts towards school and gossip. It's mostly Chloe talking, because she never needed anyone else one to have a conversation.
Eventually, his television is on, and the soft click of buttons and analog sticks fill the silence when she stops to take a breath. Blood and gore fill the screen as Adrien chops zombies down to size. Both of them watch the saturated violence explode across the tv, and neither have trouble dividing their attention between the visceral graphics and whatever Chloe has decided to prattle on about.
Playing games with his friends, like Marinette and Nino, is great, and he's certainly perfected the art of solo-gaming. But there's a special place in Adrien's heart for times like these with Chloe.
She never asks for the controller or for one for herself, nor she does not backseat game; she just talks about whatever she wants, but still pays attention. Enough so to quiet down during cutscenes, or squint at the screen when he's working on a puzzle.
It's kind of a weird setup, but it works for them, and Adrien wishes she would try for this kind of middle ground with more people. She can still be her while also being accommodating, when she wants to. It does make him feel special, but he wouldn't mind sharing if it meant her compassion wasn't this pseudo-secret.
There's a small lull in conversation, as he let her help him with a jumping puzzle. Adrien works up the nerve to ask something she's never mentioned but he's always wondered about.
"Does she ever… you know, like…" God, it's so uncomfortable.
"Write or call or whatever? Not even." Chloe downs another treat. "I don't remember where I heard it, but I think she's in Greece these days? But like, who knows? More like, who cares."
Chloe is aggressive in all things. Her grief is no different. Adrien wonders how she can be so dismissive, but he has to remember that not only has Chloe been living without her disappeared mom for a lot longer than him, her mother had been extremely vocal in her unhappiness.
In fact, one of Mrs Bourgeois' fits is how he and Chloe met. A little Chloe had come to talk to a little Adrien at a Christmas party, because she didn't want to listen to one of her mom's 'tantrums'.
Adrien's mother kept her misery close to her chest. He knew she'd been unhappy, but he hadn't realized to what extent. Then poof, away she went to who knows where.
Certainly not her son.
She rejected and abandoned all things Gabriel Agreste. Adrien wonders just at what point he stopped being their son, and just his.
"Oh, Adrikins," she sighs dramatically, when he asks. "Some people are just done. Like, with everything or whatever. And if your mother was anything like mine?" Her voice goes flat. "The kid didn't factor in. At all."
Was his mother anything like that? In the end, he supposes, she didn't take him with her. Left Adrien to fend for himself.
Chloe's father took the approach of buying Chloe's affection. Chloe, for her love of all things that are things, does truly care about her father. Even if he took everything away, she would never do to him what her mother did to them.
The mayor's made it easy to walk in and out of his life, but Chloe will always choose to stay in.
Adrien's father is a hard opposite. Though he can't seem to understand that trying to keep Adrien in is the very thing that's driving him out. Gabriel seems like he's trying to see his son for who he is, but it's hard to see anything beyond his grief.
The fact that he still refers to his wife's leaving as her 'disappearing' is clear enough of his refusal to accept the truth of things.
"Daddy worked it out on his own," she says, lazily waving around an eclair. "It tooks years, don't get me wrong. I just wouldn't listen. He wanted to feel sorry for himself, which I get, I guess." Chloe pops the bonbon in her mouth, talking around it. "But like, poor you? You're not the only one who got tossed aside here, Daddy. And if you're so busy feeling sorry for yourself, who's gonna feel sorry for me? Because, I am not gonna feel sorry for me. You don't want me, lady? Your loss."
Maybe, in a few years, Adrien can feel like that. It sounds dismissive and callous, but he knows Chloe is just protecting herself. That her mother leaving isn't a positive, but it doesn't have to be this great negative. It doesn't have to be a poisonous rain cloud that seeps into and stain everything about her.
Adrien still has that cloud hanging over him, but it's not always raining anymore.
Another save point reached, and it's nearly four. He might have gotten a pass on breakfast and lunch, but there's no way his father will let Adrien slide on dinner.
He needs to get up, get dressed, and do something with his hair. The box is just under half empty of eclairs but all the fritters are gone, so the box will go with her.
Gloves on first, and he's then helping her into her coat. His hands linger on her shoulders.
"Thanks for this," he says. His voice is as flat as his television, but he can't settle on an emotion.
She doesn't seem to take it personally. "But of course, Adrikins!" Chloe turns around, his hands pulling away from her. She fastens braided loops over shiny buttons. "I'm sure I'm much easier to talk to than your little urchin friends."
He scowls. She just can't help herself.
"Chloe -"
"Because you don't have to explain your life story to me. Duh, I'm a part of it. That's all I meant," she tells him cooly.
He doesn't seem impressed. "I'm so sure."
"But of course," she insists, finishing her last button and placing on hand on her waist and gesturing with the other. "How many of your urch - friends," she corrects herself when he draws in a breath, "do you talk to about this?"
She's got him there. A few people know his mom isn't in the picture, yet the circumstances are something he keeps a tight lid on.
"C'est magnifique," Chloe chirps when he says nothing. "So, kisses on the cheek, and I'll be on my way."
Chloe might not be the brightest star in the sky, but she is cunning. However infuriating that might be, Adrien will give her that.
A gloved finger taps the side of her tilted face, and he knows it's easier to relent. And, if he's being honest with himself as he leans in, this has been the first frank talk he's had with anyone about his mother since she left.
In gratitude, maybe Adrien lets his lips linger against her skin a fraction longer than is polite. Chloe accepts all praise, and doesn't pull away until he does. Likewise, he says nothing when her brief kiss goodbye is closer to his mouth than he would usually allow, and lasts longer, too.
Chloe knows his boundaries and limits and how far she can push them, and hops down from her tipped-toes before she presses either. Why can't she be like this around others, he wonders for the upteenth time. Respectfully flirtatious, instead of territorial and clingy. Not that it would shift his feelings for her (of course not! His heart beats for his Lady and none other!), but it certainly would help him breathe easier.
A bid adieu, and she is gone in a flurry of gold and fur. And while (after dressing himself, and running a comb through his hair, and looking human for the first time that day) Adrien eats his dinner alone at the table, he does not feel lonely.
Plagg, interestingly enough, only mildly complains about having his day snooze disturbed by the Snobby Girl, and asks nothing more about the topic. Adrien can't decide if he's being respectful or enjoying the extra slabs of cheese he brought him.
#
The first day back from holiday break, Marinette nearly literally runs into him on the stairs. She turns about as red as Ladybug, stuttering about his scarf. She thinks it's nice, maybe; it's hard to tell amongst the fumbled words.
It must really compliment his undersea zipup, he figures.
Chloe outright says so, loudly, when she links her arm with his, and escorts him to class.
Author's Note: I am only one episode into season two, so RIP continuity since I dunno if this diverges or not. I also desperately want Chloe to be redeemable on some level. I just like these two individuals. Hello, Miraculous Fandom! The sun is out today, but it's cold. I hope your November has been well! I also hope you join me for parts two and three.
Thank you for reading!