(Happy) ending?
The next couple of days were, let's say odd. Adrien had returned from his tournament in the evening, to be greeted by his father in person. That was the first thing, that worried him.
"Father", he said with a careful smile. "Is there something going on?"
Gabriel looked down at him with a weary smile.
"Well, I don't even know, where to start, Adrien. I..."
Cécile had taken the decision from him, when she had started to cry.
"What's that?", the teenager asked, giving his father a questioning look.
"Just come, we'll start at the end then!"
And to Adrien's surprise, he laid an arm around his shoulders and led him to his own bedroom. The boy's eyes widened, when he entered and saw Nathalie, pacing around with a tiny baby on her shoulder, trying to calm her down. She looked tired.
He wanted to say something, wanted to ask, what was going on, but as he saw his father, walking towards his 'assistant', the pieces immediately fit together.
Nathalie, who hadn't noticed them before, flinched, when she felt Gabriel's arm around her back, but quickly relaxed into his touch and turned towards him, noticing Adrien was standing there, in the doorway open mouthed, watching them. She took a deep breath, her eyes shortly meeting with Gabriel's, who smiled at her lovingly and reached for his daughter, to place her on his own shoulder.
The young model's gaze followed the little, by the colour of her clothes obviously, girl, who was still crying, but a little calmer already. His father, holding Cécile with one arm to his body, gestured him to come closer with a wave of his other hand, before he pulled Nathalie into his chest with it.
Adrien reluctantly took a few steps towards them, not sure if he should.
"I-I...don't want to...d-disturb you. I...what?", he stammered, making Nathalie smile at him heartily.
"Just come here, son", Gabriel hissed, "sit down on the bed. It's kind of a long story, but at first", he waited for him to take the place, then carefully placed the baby in his son's arms, "meet your little sister."
Though he had hoped that it was the way it had seemed to him, when his father brought him here, his mouth fell open, hearing him say those words and placing that tiny human being in his arms. He stared down at her for some time, not daring to move at first. Then he remembered things, he had seen on TV and began to carefully rock her in his arms, what she apparently liked and almost stopped crying.
Adrien looked up at both adults, with tears in his eyes and asked hoarsely:
"What's her name?"
"Cécile", Nathalie hummed warmly.
"Hi Cécile, I'm your big brother. I-I... can hardly believe that though...", he gave his father a questioning look. "How, I-I...m-mean...I-I k-k-know how...well in th-theory...not literally...but...when and...why d-d-didn't you tell me b-b-before...I..."
He now looked over to his former tutor. "Why did you both hide that from me? I told you ages ago father", the teenager looked back to Gabriel, "that I am okay with the two of you getting closer and that I already see Nathalie as family anyway! Oh no, Nathalie, I am so sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry. Please...I...", his voice getting louder made the little girl in his arms cry harder again.
"Oh no, I didn't want to scare you!", he now whispered softly and continued his soothing movements.
Gabriel had pulled Nathalie into a tight embrace, until she calmed down and was only sniffling. Then he sat down beside Adrien, taking her with him, to sit on the bed too.
Having one arm around the woman he loved, he laid the other around his son and started to talk:
"Well, first of all, I didn't know until today."
Adrien's eyes widened, but he kept quiet, so Gabriel could continue.
"It's all a little complicated. I've had feelings for Nathalie for quite some time now, but because I felt guilty towards Emilie, I couldn't admit that. There was always the wish, to bring her back too you. And I was willing to give up everything for that, ironically even you."
"I don't understand. Bring her back? I thought you didn't know where she went!"
Gabriel cleared his throat. Not able to look into his son's eyes, Emilie's eyes, he muttered:
"That was actually a lie. She...she got sick...after using the peacock miraculous for the first time...it got worse...until she...sh-she...", them man couldn't make himself speak it out loud. Nathalie took his hand and whispered softly:
"Until she died, Adrien"
The boy's eyes instantly filled with tears.
"Th-the p-peacock m-miraculous? B-but h-how? A-A-And why? I can't believe that. Are you telling me, that m-m-mum was M-Mayura? B-Before Shadowmoth? B-but that's impossible. When I got my miraculous, mum was already gone."
Hearing both adults take a sharp breath, he noticed what he had just done.
"Fuck!", he mumbled.
"Your mum wasn't Mayura, Adrien, I was!"
The teenager's head shot around and he stared at Nathalie in shock.
"You? You were helping Hawkmoth? But why? Do you know who he is?"
Despite all the things that were going on, that made Gabriel chuckle.
Adrien now narrowed his eyes at him.
"Ladybug was right, wasn't she? When she told me, Gabriel Agreste was Hawkmoth! And then you akumatized yourself into collector! How could you? How could you do that to all the people?"
His father sighed.
"Isn't that obvious? I wanted to use the wish, that the one, unifying the cat and the ladybug miraculous gets granted. I wanted to bring your mother back to us. And I was so obsessed with that, that I didn't even notice, that I was hurting everyone around me. Nathalie, who told me she would go to the very end with me. You, though I should have been comforting you, I pushed you away and just made it worse. I only can tell you, that I told myself all the time, that if I could turn back time and kept your mum from using the miraculous at all, nobody would be able to remember and so everything would be alright."
He lowered his hand, staring at the floor, his hands shaking.
The young man took a deep breath and asked the question that was the most urgent to him, yet the one he also feared the most.
"Where is she now? Please tell me, you didn't just bury her anywhere? Please tell me, she had a proper funeral."
The tears were running down his cheeks now, and he had to fight to still speak calmly, because he didn't want to scare his little sister again.
Gabriel looked at Nathalie, who just nodded and stood up, to take her daughter from Adrien's arms.
"Go, show him!", she whispered to the desperate looking designer and pecked his lips.
"Come with me!", Gabriel said and nudged Adrien towards the door and into his office. There he stopped in front of the portrait of his deceased wife and pressed the hidden buttons.
It was shortly after the funeral, when ChatNoir sat on top of the Eiffel tower and left a message on Ladybug's yo-yo, that he needed to see her.
Then he leaned back and waited.
"Good evening, M'Lady", he said quietly, his voice a little husky, when she landed behind him making no sound at all.
"What's up Chaton, you sounded so serious, when you called. Hey", she looked into his face now, "have you been crying?"
The black hero turned his head away from her. Kneeling beside him, Ladybug cupped his cheek and made him look at her.
"You know, you can tell me, Kitty, right?", she whispered softly.
Tears filled his eyes again.
"It's too much, LB. Everything that happened lately. My mother's funeral was this week, and it turned out, that my father and his new partner were, well...see for yourself!"
And with that he opened his hand, showing her the peacock and the butterfly miraculous, while whispering:
"Claws in!"
Ladybug gasped, as she reached for the jewels. She hadn't looked anywhere but at his hand, that was turning from black to his usual skin again.
"I guess, now that I brought you Hawkmoth miraculous, we don't have to keep our identities a secret anymore, but if you still want to..."
The heroine had her eyes squeezed shut, as she vigorously shook her head.
Adrien shrugged, croaking: "Well, that's it then!", and was about to turn around and walk away, when he heard a very quiet:
"Spots off!"
He gasped, as she called her transformation off, eager to see who was under the mask, but just like her, he kept his eyes closed. He lifted his hands, searching for her, when he felt something, which turned out to be her forearm. Brushing along it, he interlinked their hands and pulled her towards him.
"I'm scared", she whispered, as she let him lay his arms around her, while she wrapped hers around his neck.
"Me too. But I need to tell you, that no matter who's under that mask, I love you!"
Marinette took a deep breath.
"You know, there's someone else I love", she felt him pull back and tightened her embrace, "but, over those years, I have fallen for my partner a little bit too. So, whoever you are under that mask, I can tell you his name now, because he will never love me anyway. It's my friend and classmate. You have probably heard of him, because he's famous too. He's a model, but that's not why I love him, I..."
"Marinette!"
She shut her mouth immediately, eyes still closed.
"I love you too! Now please look at me!"
The girl shook her head. This wasn't possible. He couldn't be her Minou.
Feeling his hand on her cheek, she carefully blinked at him, feeling her heart beat increase at the same moment.
"Adrien", she breathed. Now her eyes filled with tears as well.
"Please, Purrincess, don't cry!", he soothed and wiped her tears away with his thumb.
Next thing Adrien felt, were Marinette's lips on his own, kissing him savagely. And of course, as it was Marinette, she had used a little too much force and hurt them both with it.
"I'm sorry, I am such a klutz!", she exclaimed sheepishly and looked to the floor.
But the love struck boy just chuckled and tilted his head, to kiss her again, more carefully this time.
Gabriel was hugging Nathalie from behind, as they were both lying on his bed, their daughter in her mother's arms.
"I hope everything goes well", the young woman whispered, afraid what Ladybug would do when Adrien told her the truth.
"It will, you know why? Because he loves you almost as much as I do. And he would do everything to protect his little sister!"
Nathalie turned her head and kissed him.
"I'm so sorry Nathalie, that you had to do all of this on your own. If I hadn't been so obsessed and stubborn, you maybe wouldn't have been too scared to tell me. I am so, so sorry!"
Nathalie could feel him sob behind her and carefully let go of her daughter, who was fast asleep, to turn around to him and hug him tightly. He started to kiss her. Desperately. Pulling her on top of him, while he laid on his back, holding her in a tight grasp.
"I will never let go off you again, I promise!", he whispered under tears.
Nathalie kissed him again, passionately and full of love. She felt as if the room was heating up, while she did. When she felt his hands under her top, she stopped him.
"Wait", she whispered and lifted Cécile up into her arms, to lay her down in her small cot at the side of the bed. "That's better", she mumbled, after kissing her child's head softly.
"Mh, I like, what you are doing", Gabriel hummed, as she crawled back on top of him.
It was the beginning of April the next year. Gabriel was waiting in front of the altar for his beautiful bride. Next to him stood his son, being his best man, while on Nathalie's side stood Marinette, her maid of honour, Cécile sitting on her hip, both wearing pretty pink dresses.
Then finally the music started playing and Nathalie walked along the aisle and towards him. He smiled blissfully, seeing her in the beautiful white gown, he had made for her.
He quickly stepped down the few stairs and took her hand, to help her up the few steps, his hand shortly rubbing her protruding belly.
Nathalie smiled at him lovingly, knowing she was finally, where she always wanted to be.
