Chapter 3: Cut Loose

"I'm quitting."

Adrien stood tall as he spoke, his face stoic despite the instinctive wave of nausea that overtook him by standing up to his father. The twenty-four year old had to mentally remind himself to stop acting like some quivering, cowardly teenager afraid of Daddy's disapproval. He was his own man now. Or, he was about to be.

Gabriel Agreste looked up from his paperwork and removed his ear piece. He turned his steely gaze on Adrien, giving him a blank look as though he hadn't been listening.

"What?"

"You heard me," Adrien replied tersely, refusing to repeat himself. Today, he would be the one to command his father's attention—not the other way around.

An eyebrow quirked at his son's boldness, Gabriel peered over the rims of his glasses at the blonde before returning to writing the details of a business deal. "Quitting what?" the man asked as his pen scratched paper. "Your fencing lessons? Don't waste my time, be specific."

Adrien's eye twitched. That was why he was doing this. He had dropped fencing years ago. Apparently, his father didn't care enough to pay attention. Adrien wasn't going to put himself through this anymore.

"I'm quitting working for you."

The pen skidded to a stop, an unsightly blotch of ink developing where it rested. "Oh, really?" Gabriel questioned. "That's ridiculous," he dismissed his son's statement, "Is this about you wanting a larger cut? The dramatics are unnecessary."

"No, I'm here to—"

"Listen, I said don't waste my time. I can't be bothered with—"

"No," Adrien forcibly cut his father off. "You listen. To me."

The order was louder than he anticipated. His breath came out in tiny pants, a sign of the marathon his heart was currently sprinting. Before Gabriel could react, Adrien let loose.

"I want to be happy," Adrien exclaimed. "I want to do what I want, and I don't even know what that is anymore! I always went along with whatever plans you had for me. You, y-you molded me into whatever you wanted, never giving a damn about how I felt. And maybe I never said anything because I didn't give a damn either. But, that aside, I... I'm..." Tearing a hand through his purposeful, put-together hair, Adrien ignored the small stutters and continued, gaining momentum. "I'm leaving this company, and I'm starting over. I'm going to try everything on my own. My own decisions, my own challenges, my own mistakes. Hell! I might not stick with a modeling career! I don't know if I even like it anymore! I'll become a hot dog vendor in a heartbeat if that makes me happy!"

Adrien looked earnestly into his dad's eyes, hoping some part of this was getting through to him. "I need to figure my life out," he finished breathlessly.

Dead air hung between the two as Adrien waited for Gabriel's reaction. This was the first time Adrien had ever had a personal conversation with his father, and he had no idea what to expect. Adrien supposed maybe his dad was the same way.

With a soft thud, Gabriel placed the pen on the desk to rest. Taking off his glasses and folding his hands together, the older man gave Adrien his undivided attention.

"You can't figure it out or be happy around me?" Adrien was caught off guard. Was that concern?

"I need to cut out the people negatively affecting my life before I can start fixing it. So, yes." He answered honestly though he knew the truth was a harsh slap across the face. Gabriel winced from behind his pristine desk, his stoney shoulder having been dealt a chip.

There was a stretch of silence before his father spoke again. "You're going to end up right back here when you go broke," the man said stiffly. His gaze wasn't as steady as before, straying unsurely to look at things that weren't his son's fiery eyes; Gabriel's eyes might have been desperately searching for some convincing argument to make Adrien stay.

"Not everything is about money!" Adrien exasperatedly cried out. "I have my own money! Not a lot of it, but that's perfectly fine! That's all I need right now!"

It was true. Adrien had put aside his own money from modeling for the day he would have the courage to take this great leap. His account was a glass of water compared compared to the ocean that was his father's. But that shouldn't matter. Money shouldn't matter that much, Adrien had decided.

"And even if I do end up back here, then at least I left. The separation should be good for me," Adrien said with conviction.

Gabriel finally met Adrien's eyes. They held a new sense of confidence that the man had never seen in his son.

"Was it something that I did?" The question was a difficult one to ask. It left Gabriel vulnerable.

"N—" Adrien caught the word as it left his mouth. He wasn't being honest with himself. "Partially. Not one stand-out thing. Smaller things that built up over time."

Digesting the barbed admission was difficult. Gabriel swallowed several times, nodded slowly to himself, and returned his glasses to his face. The fragile barrier to his eyes was used in self preservation.

"I want the best for you."

He was genuine.

"I know," Adrien affirmed. It was something he'd told himself over and over: that he knew his dad loved him. Only now did he believe it.

"You've taken care of me as well as you know how," Adrien continued and gave his dad a small, bittersweet smile. "But now it's time for me to take care of myself."

When Adrien left the office that day, despite his every step increasing the distance between them, he had never felt closer to his dad.

Adrien had come to a realization; all the happiness he'd ever had was given to him by someone else.

Plagg had found him, offered him a miraculous power, and changed his life overnight. The little kwami had bestowed him with Chat Noir, a personality that brought him freedom, purpose, and joy like he'd never experienced.

Gabriel Agreste gave him opportunities. Too many to count. While his father might have been distant, the man had always made sure his money was close at hand. Money might not buy happiness, but it sure was a convenient way to rent it. Money had found some of Adrien's passions. Chinese, piano, fencing, and modeling—despite some no longer holding the same allure to his present-day self—were once key pieces of his identity.

And now here he was. Plagg, Chat Noir, and Gabriel Agreste were out of the picture. Somebody else wouldn't simply hand him happiness this time around; he alone would be the one to find it.

He was stripping down to the bare basics: Adrien. Nothing more, nothing less.

A fresh start.

"Not the best place to start, but it fit your budget," the woman droned, not bothering to act interested.

Adrien paid no mind to the third-rate landlady babbling on about the shoebox studio apartment. He chose to instead stare out the broken, plastic wrapped window onto the fire escape. Unlike his old balcony, it was only two stories off the ground. It didn't have the best location either; the neighboring building was a club, so there was bound to be some disturbance of the peace. It would do, Adrien mused silently.

As he looked out onto the street below, a fluttering movement caught his eye. In the corner of the windowsill, a ladybug was fighting valiantly against the hold of a spiderweb. The corner of Adrien's mouth curved upward at the sight, and he immediately came to her aid. With delicately swift fingers, he plucked the bug from the trap. He expected it to fly away once given its new freedom, but the red and black creature chose to instead tickle his hand as it scuttled from one fingertip to the next.

"Well, that's about all there really is to see here. A sorry little dump of a place, isn't it?" The landlady's annoying, nasally voice disrupted the moment. "I've got a nice option a couple blocks from here that we can check out. Pricier, of course, but unlike this one nothing needs to be fixed or replaced—"

"I'll take it."

"Why, you haven't even seen it yet!"

"No, this one. I'll take this one." Adrien smiled at the ladybug crawling around his palm. "I have a lucky feeling about it."