He woke up to the distressing sound of an alarm, the body of his bolting upright and the duvet of his now getting drops of water making a darker shade of the colour. He looked up to check if raindrops were raining down unto the ceiling. He then saw the light from the window, making him glance there and see that there isn't any rain occuring.
Fingers then run up to his face, and when he felt his cheeks damp he realized the water on the duvet was his tears. Trying his best remembering what made his eyes release couple of dripping water.
Looking at the other side of their bed made him finally break down once more.
"Adrien! I'll be leaving for New York as a short business trip." She exclaimed as she leaned onto the doorframe of their bedroom's door to the hallway. "I'm sorry about this, but I'll promise to give you guys back some treats?" Marinette's eyes sparkled with excitement as she tilted her head left to right, a smile that retreats it way back to her face.
The blonde also smiled back to her. "Hang onto your promise, will ya?" He walked up to her and towered over her, placing his hand gently and caress her rosy cheeks. "When are you leaving, then?" Gracefully, he placed a quick peck on the other cheek free. "I'm assuming later on or tomorrow morning." The raven sighed.
There wasn't anything they were able to do.
He stood up, grateful that their children were still fast asleep this early. Four in the morning, of course. Groaning, he switched on the lights of the bathroom and quickly took a look of himself in the mirror. The dark eye bags were clearly becoming more visible and visible hour by hour. Knowing it's not by stress, he wiped again his eyes that were bloodshot until now.
'Crying won't make it better, Agreste.' But he knew that this family didn't add but subtracted itself. With the door open, he could see the piano within his vision and thought of many wonderful things he heard with his ears that came out of her posh mouth.
He really wanted to go back in time, but at what cost? What would be a good reason?
"You're really a great pianist, you know?" She stated, a slight grin on her face as she laid her cheek on the top surface of the grand piano they had. "Although having a grand piano in the bedroom feels weird," She gave out a small giggle. "I love waking up with you doing work with those fingers of yours."
"You really need to keep that mouth of yours PG-13, m'lady." Adrien guffawed as her continued on, she was laughing a bit more longer than he did. "Mmm," With that, she stood up once more and started dancing across the room of theirs, encouraging him to continue on but feel disappointed as she danced alone with him just playing.
"Come on." She grabbed his hands with her soft ones, getting him out of the comfy cushion of the seat. One of his hands then was placed on her waist gently and carefully, the other tangled up with her other hand in the air. "How can we dance to nothing?"
"Why need music to your ears if you know your music by heart?"
He forced himself to smile once more but it looked even more broken than usual. He couldn't bother faking one to his friends or his children. Eyes then went wide when he realized that their bakery is about to open anytime soon, by 8 am to be exact. A ringtone of his phone blared around the room making him go quicker with washing his face and brushing his teeth.
Finishing off by lightly dampening his face with a towel, he reached for the phone with towel in hand as he exited the room. Not even bothering who's the caller, he asked "Hello?"
"Are you okay? Your voice, it's.." "I'm fine, Nino, it's just." Adrien then sat back with the cloth on the arm of the chair. "You have our condolences, you know?" A silent pause remained throughout the call, a hand preventing from his head falling head first to the floor. "You know what, we're coming there, Adrien." This time he heard his best bud's wife. "It's nearly 7:40 and of course you won't oblige to close the bakery for the day or two. Be there in 15."
Adrien was glad enough to have friends like them. Especially in time of need. What was the next best thing to do while waiting for them in a short amount of minutes, he asked himself. His eyes eyed the piano once more before proceeding to brush past to reach the piano. But instead of playing, he played her favourite song she liked to dance with him on his phone and placed it on the piano.
"This is my favourite song, you know?"
"Of course I do, babe. You atleast probably dance to it in the shower and ask for me to dance with you." She laughed in the more heartwarming way. "It would be lonely if I didn't have anyone to dance with. Besides, you don't seem to complain so, win-win?" Her mouth formed into a perky smirk which made him smile by his reflexes.
"I guess it is."
The coffee on the mug is becoming older and older as every minute and second passes by, her lipstick stain were always there no matter how clean she could possibly go. He wishes that this was a dream and his dream was reality, not that he was saying that being her husband is a bad thing but.
A t-shirt she left before bidding adieu to the four or six remained in it's corner. The scourging scent of it haunted him with no doubt, but he felt like it was the only thing she left before she headed off because it was the nearest thing, not that she actually left with all her stuff.
He felt..dumb. He wanted to go back when they both were younger. Where both of them were unaware of their identities and he was directly flirting with her alter ego. Why did he felt dumb? That was another question he asked himself. He felt guilt as he thought of ways preventing her from death.
"Slow and steady now, partner."
Even without a partner did he position himself. Even without her anymore he could feel the warmth in on his hands and on his shoulders as if both her hands were there clinging onto him. As the music finally comes on, he started dancing in their room. Step forward and step, close, step, twirl. With them everyday doing this he felt breeze and as if it was a normal thing.
"Why," he squeaked out despite dancing with the ghost. Her prescence literally remained in the room as he continued, his eyes closed as they were brimmed with tears of his.
How long was he dancing? He didn't knew, the song was in repeat he didn't felt like it was overdue. The song he memorized in his head for how long along with her. Another thing that kept her spirit in the room.
But somehow, even though he did memorized everything his feet started wobbling and made him nearly stumble. An odd thing for him. He just gave up, kneeled on the floor with hands covering his eyes.
"Why did you have to die?"
So I drown it out
like I always do
Dancing through our house
With the ghost of you
And I chase it down
With a shot of truth
That my feet don't dance
Like they did with you
"Adrien?" The doorbell rang once again bringing him into his senses. He left the bedroom to assist the front door, opening it to see the lovely couple who were their best friends.
Up til now, he wished that everytime the doorbell rang and he comes open it, she was there.
"I survived."
But she didn't.
