"Nathalie," Gabriel repeated again, though more quiet this time. That was her name, but who was she?
"Gabriel, are you alright?" Emilie asks groggily.
"Yes, I'm fine, just a bad dream," Gabriel answers.
Emilie goes back to bed but Gabriel can't, he has too much going on in his head.
He gets a weird feeling as he enters the family room. He feels a weird deja vu sense as if he had done this before. Looking around at the pictures he knows they are a happy family and there are no signs he was ever in love with another woman.
"Nathalie," he repeats it again sitting down, "who is she? I had to know her."
It doesn't make sense, their kiss felt real in his dream as if it had to have happened in real life. He couldn't recall a situation where that would have happened and he couldn't tell you who she was either.
He goes to his office and looks for any clue of the woman he felt like he had to know.
"Nathalie!" he calls in his office. He doesn't expect anything to happen but was hoping for something to jog his memory.
"There has to be something!" He exclaims and pounds a first against his desk.
Why couldn't he remember? He wasn't that old and Nathalie seemed to be a huge part of his life, it was unlikely that he would just forget all about her.
He walked up to the portrait of his wife and ran his finger down the edge. The portrait shifted a bit which surprised Gabriel. He realized, however, that hidden behind the portrait was a safe, but he didn't know the code could be. He tried a pin that was used for some of his other devices and, much to his surprise, it opened.
The contents of the safe were very odd, at least to Gabriel they were. First, he opened a small box that had a small circular purple pin inside. He set the box and looked at a framed photo of his wife, leaning against the photo was a peacock brooch. It looked similar to the one Mayura wore in his dreams. Next were a pair of maroon earrings and a silver ring. He didn't know what was so important about all these items that had to be kept in a secret safe. An old book sat in the corner of the safe and Gabriel flipped through the pages. A few pages, in particular, caught his eyes.
One of the pages had an illustration of someone almost identical to Mayura. Then once again he noticed the peacock brooch that was sketched in the corner. It was written in an unfamiliar script that Gabriel couldn't read, almost similar to hieroglyphics. The next page was a moth man or maybe a butterfly, Gabriel couldn't quite tell. Another page had a woman in a suit with colors that mimicked a ladybug. The last page that had really stood out to Gabriel was a black cat with green details. He couldn't tell you why these things caught his eye and why he found them oddly familiar and yet couldn't tell you what they meant at all.
"Gabriel, what are you doing?" Emilie's shrill voice came from behind him.
"I-nothing!" he exclaimed, throwing the book back into the safe.
"You remember? Don't you?"
"Remember what?"
"Enough to open the safe," she spits, "it's okay, soon enough and won't remember a thing."
"What do you mean?"
Emilie ignored his question as she pushed past him to grab the earrings and the ring, "I wish nobody except myself remembered a thing about Nathalie Sancoeur."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gabriel woke up with a major headache. He shielded his eyes with his arm feelings blinded by the bright light.
"Oh, honey, you're awake," a sweet voice called to him.
He blinked a few times, "Emilie?"
"You had such a terrible fall, I was so worried about you," Emilie cooed sitting next to her husband on the bed.
Gabriel hummed, he couldn't seem to remember a thing, it must have been a symptom of his concussion.
Gabriel's life was perfect. The Agreste family was perfect, the three of them, Gabriel, Emilie, and Adrien, lived happily.
The biggest problem was now Gabriel was visited by a blue angel in his sleep. She had blue skin with even darker hair and her eyes were a brilliant shade of pink. Often she wore a long dress that had a slit to her mid-thigh. She was an undeniable beauty, far from anything his wife looked like, but it was stupid, he couldn't be in love with a dream.
His favorite fantasy has to be the one where they kiss. It replays in a dream nightly and is a daydream when he is awake. He used to feel guilty but it wasn't like he was betraying Emilie, she was real, and his blue lady was a dream.
Gabriel doesn't think anything of his dreams but does notice when Emilie hides stuff from him. He can tell when she lies and it is happening more often. He doesn't know why she would lie and she denies the accusation every time he asks.
He enters their bedroom and sees Emilie reading an old-looking book. Gabriel feels like he has seen it before but he doesn't have much time to examine it before Emilie slams the book shut and throws it in a locked drawer.
"What are you hiding from me?" Gabriel tries again.
"It's a surprise," Emilie claims.
Gabriel knows this is a lie, but what is he supposed to do about it? He wishes she would tell him the truth, between the constant fog in his brain and some odd sort of deja vu feeling, he can't stand more lies and confusion.
The next morning, he pretends he is sick. Emilie cuddles him for a moment before she leaves. She says she will personally make him breakfast and it will be better than anything the chef can make. Gabriel knows this is a lie solely because Emilie has never been good at cooking.
He doesn't think about it as he tries to find the key that Emilie hid yesterday. Gabriel lifts up the mattress and sure enough, just as he saw the previous day, the key is there. He unlocks the drawer and flips through the book that he saw Emilie looking through. Most of the book is unreadable, written in some foreign language that Gabriel doesn't recognize. Some of the book has been transcribed, sticky notes and chicken scratch fill the book with its translation.
"You always have to be so nosy, don't you Gabriel?" Emilie asked from the doorway.
"I know when you're lying to me and you have been lying to me more often than not."
"You're going to kill the kwami's with how much I have to erase your memory. You're lucky these are limitless, this is the eighth time!" Emilie complained.
The words didn't make sense to Gabriel and he didn't have much time as Emilie picked up the earring and the ring once again. The wish for his memory of the last 48 hours to be erased was-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gabriel woke up with a major headache. He shielded his eyes with his arm feelings blinded by the bright light.
"Oh, honey, you're awake," a sweet voice called to him.
He blinked a few times, "Emilie?"
"You had such a terrible fall, I was so worried about you," Emilie cooed sitting next to her husband on the bed.
Gabriel hummed, he couldn't seem to remember a thing, it must have been a symptom of his concussion.
Gabriel's life was perfect. The Agreste family was perfect, the three of them, Gabriel, Emilie, and Adrien, lived happily.
Something made Gabriel cautious with his life. He felt like something was off, that secrets were being kept and that his wife was somehow behind it all. His headache seemed to be getting worse, his mind was cloudy and he felt like he couldn't think straight.
The only thing that brought him comfort was an angel in blue that only visited in dreams. He had learned about the woman, who claimed her name was Mayura. She had blue skin with even darker hair and her eyes were a brilliant shade of pink. Often she wore a long dress that had a slit to her mid-thigh. She was an undeniable beauty, far from anything his wife looked like, but it was stupid, he couldn't be in love with a dream.
In his favorite fantasies, he kissed her and they loved each other. They loved each other in a way that was built on trust and mutual affection, something Gabriel began to doubt more and more every day in his real relationship.
In his worst fantasies, he watched as she collapsed in coughing fits. She could pass out, throw up, or describe immense amounts of pains, and in these cases, he could do nothing as he watched her suffer. He had even seen in her a majestic glass coffin a few times, an image that never ceased to make him cry.
Gabriel was unlucky to not be able to live in a daydream with his imaginary lover. Forced to a life of fame and fortune in the so-called city of love. He felt a force that drew him to Emilie, almost as if he had no choice. Different parts of him were pulled in multiple directions, persuading him to search elsewhere, for someone else.
"Emilie, I love you, that's why I need the truth. I don't know what's going on but something is telling me it has to do with you," Gabriel tried confronting his wife.
"No!" Emilie broke down crying, "I kept trying for us and for Adrien just like you always wanted. I tried twenty times now and you still can't love me! I've tried to erase every trace of that stupid PA and you still love her! Why can't you just love me unconditionally?"
"I do love you, Emilie," Gabriel said hugging his wife, "I'm just confused, I've never had a PA."
"Wish after wish for you to love me and you still can't, it always comes back to her, doesn't it?" she continued to sob, "I just want it all to be over. Fate wanted me dead."
"Emilie, dear, stop, I don't even know what you're rambling on about."
"Oh stop it, Gabriel!" she said shoving him away from her.
She stood up and although her vision was blurred she knew exactly where she was going. Riffling through a makeup bag she now hid the miraculous in, she pulled out the earring and a ring.
"I wish- I wish," Emilie didn't know what she wanted. Part of her wanted her relationship the way it was back when Gabriel was first starting with her and... *her* as his only support. The realization that she was only happy with the other woman around was painful, but he would just fall in love with the woman of navy and red again and again.
Choose your own ending:
The first is going to have Emilie being a "good" person as she realizes what she is doing is wrong.
The second is going to have Emilie continue being a selfish person as her feelings consume her and she becomes her own worst enemy. (I prefer this one)
Both include some Gabenath because I assume that's what most of you are here for.
Go to Chapter 3 if you want the first ending.
Go to Chapter 4 if you want the second ending.
Or read both, whatever you want!