Hello, Miraculeurs! Saturday = new chapter!
I wanted to thank you all again for your loyalty. I give myself body and soul in this story, only for the purpose of satisfying you and bringing you something new. So I really appreciate your comments. I hope to continue to give you satisfaction throughout this story, which should contains about twenty chapters.
I wish you all a good reading,
CHAPTER 8: Bitter-sweet memories
5 Weeks after Adrien/Chat Noir disappeared... In the real world:
Marinette screamed a second time, falling knees on the ground, just next to Adrien's bed.
Her head turned painfully and her heart made summersault so fast, that her humming's speed perfectly matched that of Ladybug's yo-yo spinning in a circle shield.
Adrien... Adrien was there, the Sentiworld was not far away. On the contrary, he was visibly closer to her than she thought.
Could it be inside the Agreste Manor?
Suddenly, the door of the room opened sharply, revealing an incredibly imposing figure: that of the bodyguard who still lived there. Marinette raised her head towards the man whose face was serious and moody, as always, which prevented her from analyzing his reaction.
She'd to firmly grab the edge of the bed to get up and face the giant. She opened her mouth and closed it. She made a second attempt, but no sound could cross her lips and she shut her mouth again. Eventually, she decided to say anything for her defense. Her shoulders collapsed and she looked down at the ground.
The next moment, she heard the Gorilla push a slight grunt and felt a strong hand touch her shoulder. She raised her head, and against all expectations, she saw a sympathetic and understanding look upon her.
The giant let out another groan, this time closer to a moan. Then he drew Marinette into a strong and silent embrace. The young woman felt something wet running down her neck. Was the Gorilla crying?
6 Weeks after Adrien/Chat Noir disappeared... In the real world.
During the week, which had just passed, Marinette had learned to know the impressive, but absolutely wonderful, bodyguard of Adrien.
The man was actually a real cream puff: firm on the outside, but tender and soft on the inside.
He'd been serving the Agreste family for twenty years. Engaged by Emilie herself, when she had learned that a baby was coming to complete their home.
Mr. Gibbon, despite the reservations expressed by Gabriel and the reluctance of the latter, had immediately pleased his wife. So that's how he was chosen to become Adrien's appointed nanny.
He loved Adrien very much, and took his role very much to heart, sometimes even too much to heart.
Marinette had quickly pierced the Gorilla's crust to reach the sweet creamy pastry, and she had discovered that the man was deeply affected by the disappearance of his long-time protégé.
That evening, she had returned to the Manor through the large main door and brought her some sweets from the Dupain-Cheng Bakery. The bodyguard had a sweet tooth and Marinette quickly noticed it.
So she joined him in the Manor's vast lounge, with a box full of chocolate-hazelnut macaroons and a bag of cream puffs: of course.
She sat next to him on the large corner sofa, then noticed a huge pile of books standing onto the coffee table.
"Sir, why…"
She was interrupted by a disapproving look and a slight groan.
"Gaston," she cleared her throat, correcting her mistake.
The man gave her a slight smile and a new groan escaped from his throat, this time as a sign of approval.
"Gaston, why are all these books on the table?" she ended up asking.
Gaston observed the books for a moment, and then took one, which he immediately replaced back on the table. He then grabbed a second one and did the same. Finally, the third seemed to be the right one and he handed it to Marinette, adding a "mphf" and a gesture of the head to invite her to turn the pages.
The young woman pushed the cover, then she turned to the front page, discovering that it was not a book, but a photo album.
The first photo was one of a newborn, naked, and held by a nurse. "It's the day Adrien was born." It was not a question but an affirmation.
She turned the page again and this time came across a multitude of pictures of the newborn and his parents. Overwhelmed, she continued to turn the pages one by one. Emilie nursing Adrien, the beautiful jouffle baby sleeping peacefully in a rattan cuffin, his first apple compote, his first teeth, his first steps... The giant handed her another album, then another, and yet another.
For a long time, Gaston Gibbon shared with Marinette many anecdotes about little Adrien.
She discovered with astonishment that he was a very silly child who did a lot of stupid things.
The Gorilla stopped with some photos that did not highlight Adrien at all: chicken pox, learning to poop like a big boy, a walk on the farm having ended with a seven-year-old covered in manure… Getting some giggles from Marinette. On several occasions she burst out laughing with Mr. Gibbon. Even if the grief was still present and floating inexorably in the air. This moment to share intimate memories of Adrien with Gaston brought her a little joy and comfort. Just as it brought some cheer to the Gorilla.
The Gorilla: She had just learned that this nickname had been given to him by Adrien more than ten years before. Because his name was Gibbon, and the Gibbon was a primate. A medium-sized monkey, at the opposite of the size and the frame of Gaston. Ironically, the little boy decided to call him the Gorilla. Nicknames, something her kitty particularly loved. And Adrien, too, obviously. Through the photos and anecdotes, she could only see how Adrien, as a child, had an incredibly similar character to that of her partner, Chat Noir.
His mother's disappearance, and his father's oppression, had overtaken his young boy's joyfulness and freedom of expression. A freedom he had regained thanks to his heroic alter-ego.
And thanks to Chat Noir, Adrien, had been able to break his chains in order to preserve his soul as a free and happy child. This soul, full of life, happiness, and humor. That's why her partner didn't always take himself seriously and was a real idiot sometimes. But it was also why he always managed to make her smile, at the turn of a stupid joke or a cat pun. It was for this reason that she fell in love with Chat Noir, because he was the other half who completed Adrien. She loved that boy, both sides of him, because one was not without the other.
It was with eyes shining of different emotions that Marinette closed the last photo album.
"Do you want some tea or coffee, Gaston?" she asked.
A small roar of undisguised joy made Marinette laugh. She knew that the man who was a coffee lover could not refuse. She quickly got up from the sofa to go to the kitchen and bring back two hot drinks.
Meanwhile, in the Sentiworld:
Adrien walked the corridors of the Manors replica, looking for a possible breach. Since the flaw that occurred the previous week, the young man had been looking for a defect in the conception of the Sentiworld. An anomaly that could have been present from the beginning, and that he would not have noticed because he was staying mainly in his room.
He traveled the whole of the gigantic Manor every day, from morning till night. He walked several kilometers in the same corridors. How much? He had no idea. But it was enough for him to feel fatigue and pain that invaded every square inch of the muscles in his legs. He refused to miss an exit door. Every corner of the Sentiworld was inspected daily by him and with the greatest attention.
Unfortunately, no malfunction was reported, to his desperation. He must have realized that to continue pacing the Manoir's floor will not lead him to anything except his own fatigue.
The more days passed, the more he understood that the only breach there had here was related to Nathalie. Only her weakness and the degradation of her health could create a hole in the Sentiworld. And even though he was desperate to get out of here, he didn't want to see Nathalie pay the price of it by suffering, or worse, by dying.
It was getting late and Adrien had been walking like a zombie in the corridors for over four hours. He sighed with disappointment and stopped in front of a large library, made of treated and bleached oak, which sat in the living room in which he was staying.
Instinctively, he took a photo album that he had not consulted for a long time. Then he collapsed into the large black leather armchair with white cushions, which was less than a meter away of him.
The album he was consulting seemed to come straight out of a life that was not his own. There were on these photographs smiles, blossoming faces, loving looks and happy moments... His mother was faithful to every memory he had of her. A woman devoted to her family, smiling, sparkling, with a tender and loving face and gaze. Gabriel was totally different from the man he was today. He was present on most of the shots, spending most of his time with his wife and son. His gaze upon his child was filled with fascination and pride. His face was full of affection, tenderness and joy.
These memories of Gabriel Agreste, as a good family father, were like stars: he could see them there in the pictures, when in reality they had already been dead for ages. Like Gabriel, he too had died from within, for a long time, leaving behind only an empty body, a puppet, whose only spark of life was the thirst for revenge, destruction and madness.
The disappearance of Emilie had changed the man to the point that he lost his humanity. He had allowed himself to be swallowed up in a crazy, unhealthy, uncontrollable and irreversible psychosis.
A dementia that could have been avoided, if Gabriel had tried to put his ego aside and ask for help. Instead of turning to magic, violence and unforgivable acts of cruelty.
Adrien shook his head and suddenly closed the photo album. The past belonged to the past. The pain was done and nothing could change the monstrosities committed by Gabriel. Now he had to focus on the present and wait for Ladybug to find a way to get him out of here. Then, together, they would bring Hawkmoth to face justice so that he could answer for his crimes. That was his mission, his duty as a hero of Paris.
Adrien put the album in the library, before leaving the living room. But as he was about to cross the threshold of the room, he stopped and frowned.
He had been stopped in his tracks by a strong smell of coffee tickling his nostrils and completely invading his smell.
Strange, Gabriel only drank coffee in the morning, and anyway, he was right now locked up in Nathalie's room.
He raised an eyebrow and turned towards the living room. The next moment, his gaze landed on the clock. It was a strange coincidence knowing that it was the time when the Gorilla used to drink coffee, right here, on the couch.
He shivered and was overwhelmed by a strange sensation, as the smell faded away. He shrugged his shoulders, reflecting on the fact that the state of fatigue in which he was in must have caused him to wander. Adrien finally turned his heels and joined his bedroom.
Less than two minutes later, he closed the door of his room and fell on the stool in front of his piano. He elbowed to the keyboard, letting his fingers hang nonchalantly on the keys while playing some notes. Suddenly, as his fingers strolled to the right of the keyboard, towards the bass clef area, a muffled and sizzling sound escaped the instrument.
It was as if something prevented the strings from vibrating normally and producing a clear and harmonious sound.
Adrien stood up and lifted the top of the piano, determined to find the root of the problem. Then he found a completely unexpected object: a red sphere with black dots. The boy sucked his breath in and felt his heart dropping in his stomach. What was the Miracle Box doing in his piano? This amazing discovery had completely paralyzed the young man. Stunned and confused, he slowly reached out to the Miracle Box with a trembling hand.
His eyes widened with surprise when his palm came against all odds crashing against the strings of the piano. He immediately removed his hand as if the instrument were on fire and burning. He quickly made a second and a third attempt, but his fingers never met the red and black sphere.
Suddenly, the Miracle Box became a blurred and incomplete image under his unbelieving eyes. The next moment, it disappeared completely.
Adrien put his hand on the top of the piano and closed it violently and loudly. He let out of his throat a guttural groan, very sonorous, full of anger and frustration. Why? Why was the Sentiworld playing him tonight? His nerves were under severe stress, and that evening, Adrien felt himself slowly reaching the breaking point. The clues led him to believe that his Lady was close to him, and yet, she was so far away at the same time. So far... Too far... Would he ever even see Ladybug again? And her, would she be able to find her partner?
The weight which made pressure on his chest since so many weeks, increased suddenly. This charge gave him the impression that his lungs were compressed, completely crushed. He felt that he lacked oxygen as his rib cage was compressed by grief and pain. His hands and legs trembled and his eyes filled with tears. Tears that he tried to contain, but to no avail.
Desperate and spectator of his own descent into hell, he collapsed like the boneless wooden puppet he was. He was a puppet from which Gabriel Agreste drew the threads as he pleased, ignoring what his son could feel or want. Ignoring the suffering and missing that he felt growing a little stronger every day in him.
His hands fell heavily on the piano while his tears flooded the keyboard.
Meanwhile, in the real world:
Marinette finished her cup of coffee and laid it on the table. She turned to the man who kept her company, or rather, to whom she kept company since he was much more at home here than she was.
She was about to offer him a deck of cards for a battle, when in the vast Manor, the doorbell began to ring. The Gorilla grumbled and beckoned Marinette to go hiding quickly. The young woman rushed in the stairs and the next moment she locked herself in Adrien's room.
She put her hands against the wooden door, and stuck her ear in it to understand who this surprise visitor might have been. She quickly heard a female voice that was totally foreign to her and had no idea who she was. Until she heard a second male voice, familiar, which gave her goosebumps.
Felix! So it must be Adrien's aunt with him: Mrs. Amélie Graham de Vanily. But why was she doing here in Paris?
She listened intently to inquire about the reason for their presence.
"Mr. Gibbon, can you just take me to his office? I will find the paperwork that the lawyer has asked for by myself," she heard Amélie's exasperated voice.
Then she heard Gaston nodding with a growl.
"I don't like it," Marinette said.
"Neither do I. The last time this kid came here, he only caused trouble. He even stole and befouled my Camembert," exclaimed the little kwami cat.
"Plagg, can you sneak into the office and give me a full report of what's going on, please?" Marinette asked him.
The black kwami immediately agreed and instantly disappeared through the ground.
He reappeared just five minutes later, when Felix's voice was heard again in the lobby.
"It's already late, why don't we sleep here, mother?" Felix questioned
"There is no way I am going to stay longer than I need here. I never liked this place," Amelie replied coldly.
Marinette sighed with relief. She could not have slept here knowing that Felix might snoop all over the Manor, and especially in her cousin's room. She finally turned to Plagg to inquire what he had heard and learned.
"She just wanted to retrieve important and indispensable documents, allowing her to take over the management of Agreste's society during the absence of its owner," Plagg said simply.
The young woman grimaced: the company, as well as the money she generated, rightfully belonged to Adrien. Not to Amelie, much less to that insolent and obnoxious Felix, even if it was only temporary.
She again let out a sigh of frustration before opening the door to join Gaston. However, as her hand landed on the handle, a thud echoed through the room and startled her. She turned hurriedly, frowning as she looked all around her.
"Tikki? Plagg? Did you hear that?" she hastened to question them.
The two kwamis nodded in approval.
"The noise came from the piano," calmly notified the little red and black kwami.
Marinette hurried to open the piano to check if the Miraclebox was in its place and fortunately, it was. She seized the sphere in her hands, hurried to open it to check its contents, and sighed with relief when she found that there was nothing to report. But as she rested the Miracle Box in her place, another sound, closer and louder, made her eardrums vibrate.
She could have sworn that the piano had just trembled and that the noise was coming from the top of the instrument that had just been brutally folded out but it was still open. Her heartbeat suddenly became faster, while her memory reminded her that a similar thing had happened a week earlier. Could it really be...? Was it again a sign that the Sentiworld was right under her nose?
This feeling and idea was reinforced when she heard a faint melody rise in the room: a tune played on the piano. Gradually, the sound, which at first was almost imperceptible, became more and more audible. Then a very weak and sad voice overlaps with the melody. Marinette immediately recognized its owner and for a moment she felt that her heart had stopped beating in her chest. The voice was more and more distinct and the suffering she perceived there was more painful to take than a knife dig in the heart.
"Oh Adrien…" She sobbed with emotion and heartbreak.
To be continued...
I hadn't got any bêta on this chapter, I remember you guys, that English isn't my native language. I hope there's not too much mistakes.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: I'm pleased to announce that I'm participating to the Marichat May 2021. This is a writing challenge stretching during the whole month of May. There's a given theme for each day and you have to draw or write something based on that theme.
I participate in collaboration with my friend and excellent author: Etoile-Lead-Sama. As it a collaboration we will publish that on another account where we are six writers. Here's the name of the account : Evil-Bunnies-Landmark
Please if you want to read our 31 stories for Marichat May, juste follow the account to be aware. We'll start posting this on May 1st. And I can tell you that we prepare you some nice surprises!
Next week, Chapter 9: I'll never love again...
Miraculous kisses and don't forget to leave a comment to give your opinion on this chapter.