Chapter 21: Pire Noel(Part 1)(Adrien's POV)
Adrien hangs another ornament on the tree, sighing.
"Adrien I'm sure your father will be here soon," Natalie says, making Adiren light up.
"I hope so," Adrien murmurs. His father has to be here, he needs his Father's support. But since when has his father bothered to show up and give him some attention. After mother's disappearance, Father has become more invested in his fashion company and more protective of him, despite his many pleas to be able to go to regular school.
At least one of his wishes came true. If it weren't for being Chat Noir and being able to go to school, well, he doesn't even want to think about it.
Hearing the door open, Adrien turns around and sees Keith and Gorilla walking up to them.
"Hey Adrien," Keith says. Then Keith looks at the tree, which barely has any ornaments on it, "Do you need help decorating the tree?"
"I thought you were going to stay at the Dupain-Chengs bakery till midnight,"
Keith looks hurt, "And miss hanging out with my bro on Christmas Eve. Who do you think I am? Besides, Blondie's there helping them."
"But what about Chloe?"
"Me and her have a date set up for Christmas Day for lunch tomorrow. So that means tonight, and most of Chirtmas day is going to be just me and you."
Adrien smiles and doesn't know what to say. No one, and he means no one, has ever given up time with some else for him. Natalie and Gorilla are assigned to watch over him, his mother, even though she did spend time with him before she disappeared, she was sick most of the time having dizzy spells now and again, Master Fu is his mentor and is required to have him constantly in his presence(Adrien doesn't realise that Master Fu chooses to spend so much time with him, not just because of mentoring him for the Guardian role, but because he enjoys the young boy's company. And is wishing that he could spend Christmas with him right now, instead of just having the kwamis as his only family tomorrow to celebrate). And his other friends had lives and couldn't always be with him.
"Don't look so shocked, now help me with this tree." Keith says, breaking Adrien out of his thoughts.
After getting more ornaments on the tree, he excused himself. Not wanting to continue if his father isn't going to be there.
Keith's POV
Watching Adrien go, he feels a twang in his heart. Keith puts an angel ornament on the tree that he has in his hand and turns to Natalie. The woman also seems to be sad at Adrien's exit.
"Can't you convince Gabriel to spend more time with him?"
Natalie sighs, "I wish I could, but Gabriel is stubborn in burying himself in his work yo make sure everything happens exactly as he wants it."
"Figures. It's just…" I don't want him to go through the same feelings of sadness and loneliness that I've felt, as those feelings are terrible, Keith finishes in his head. That's another reason why he came back early. Adrien should be spending Christmas among family, not alone. Especially when he still has family, namely Gabriel.
But he can't complain, can't march up to Gabriel and stand his ground and fight with him. Because if he does, then that means leaving Adrien alone(since if he does complain against Gabriel, oh so kind Gabriel, will kick him out instead of listening). And he doesn't want Adrien to be alone again. As loneliness is the worst kind of feeling anyone can feel.
"But can't you try?" Keith persists.
"I can, but I doubt he'll listen to me."
"Good, cause I think Adrien needs some time with his crummy father, especially on Christmas Eve."
Natalie chuckles, "I couldn't agree more."
Adrien's POV
"Why so glum?" Plagg asks.
"Because my father is being a douchebag! It's like he hates me, or something." Adrien angrily says.
"I'm sure your father doesn't hate you.."
"Then why does he keep insisting that his work is so 'important' then spending time with me!"
Adrien looks at Plagg, his kwami is at a loss of words. Plagg keeps opening mouth and then closing it.
"I hate Christmas!"
"Now kid I'm sure you don't mean…."
"Plagg Claws Out!" Adrien yells, angrily.
Opening his room window, he leaps onto the ground. Snow swirls around him, wind making his face cold. Extending his staff he goes onto a roof and starts running. Perhaps the other Team Miraculous members are out, Adrien thinks, desperately not wanting to feel alone.
But when he gets to their spot, all he sees is the Eiffel tower, surrounded by falling snow.
He slumps onto the roof, making an imprint on the snow.
Looking about he can see families through the windows of the buildings, hanging around their different Christmas trees and his anger builds up again.
"Why does everyone else get to spend Christmas with their families, while I'm stuck with a no-good father who hates me and loves his work more! Why can't I have a father who loves me! What did I do to deserve my mother disappearing and my father hating me! What?! What?!"
Leaping off the building he runs, tears streaming in his eyes. His mind only thinking of, what, what did I do wrong?
Then he stops in an alleyway that is a deadend, slumping forward into the snowbank, and lies in the snow, tears streaming down his face.
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Christmas, Adrien thinks in anger. Christmas….
Getting up off the snow, dusting himself off, he runs with new vigour to the Hotel De Ville. When he gets there he sees the tall pine tree. Nicely decorated and its star shining brightly, the biggest symbol of Christmas in all Paris, Adrien thinks in anger.
Burning with anger, he clenches his fist, "Cataclysm,"
But before he can destroy the biggest symbol of Christmas is Paris, an image of his mother flashes before his eyes, making him stop. His anger dissipates and a sad, sorrowful feeling takes it place.
"What am I doing?" He asks himself, looking at the hand that holds his Cataclysm.
Seeing a Gabriel advertisement he touches his cataclysm to it instead, as Adrien still has some anger and resentment towards his father. It crumbles and he quickly ducks into another alley, but this one being beside the Hotel de Ville.
His ring starts beeping and Adrien stares in horror. I didn't bring any cheese with me! And Plagg is going to be weak. Stupid, stupid Agreste. Blinded by my own anger, Adrien thinks.
Soon he detransforms and Plagg appears before him.
"Hi kid," Plagg says as he falls onto the snow.
"I'm so sorry Plagg, I should've thought about what I was doing before running away and now it's my fault you're weak and I can't give you any strength because I left the cheese at home and, and…"
"Kid, it's okay. You were just too in the moment," Plagg says weakly, shivering.
"No it's not. You're my kwami. I'm supposed to take care of you. Here, let me help you get into my pocket."
He gently scoops up Plagg and puts him inside his inside jacket coat pocket.
"There, nice and warm."
Standing up, Adrien hears bells ringing in the distance. "Merry Christmas Plagg,"
"Merry Christmas Adrien,"
Then he starts to walk around, hoping to get Plagg back to the Mansion as soon as possible, or Master's Fu place. Whichever one he could find first(since he usually goes to Master Fu's by roof hopping as Chat Noir and his bodyguard and Natalie drive him everywhere so he doesn't go to many places on foot).
Gabriel's POV
Who does Natalie think she is? Of course I was going to spend time with Adrien on Christmas Eve, there were just a lot of things that needed doing, like planning Chat Noir's demise along with his Team Miraculous, Gabriel thinks in his head, excusing his neglectful behaviours.
Holding a present, he knocks on Adrien's door. Since it is no longer Christmas Eve, as it is midnight, giving him this present and hanging out with him till the sun rises should be enough to calm Natalie's worries, Gabriel thinks, not caring at all what his son would think.
"Adrien? Son?" Gabriel asks when no sound from Adrien graces his ears.
Dropping Adrien's present, Gabriel swings open the door, fear coursing through him. Frantically he looks around the room and then notices Adrien's window is wide open, letting the snow fall in.
Fear is replaced with fierce anger.
No! Adrien, that ungrateful child! I spend all day providing for us, to make sure our family becomes whole again! And what does he do in thanks? Runs away! Pffft. Such weakness, coming from my perfect son, I think not!
"Natalie!" Gabriel roars with fury.
Turning around he sees Natalie and Keith running towards him.
"What happened?" they both ask.
"Adrien, my ungrateful child has run away. I need you to find him and ask why he did such a foolish thing. And right during the biggest holiday! And then I want you to tell him he's grounded."
"But.."
Natalie slaps her hands on Keith's mouth, stopping the sixteen year old boy from saying something. But it doesn't matter, Adriden is going to be in a heap of trouble.
"Will do, sir."
"Good and take Keith with you. I want him to see what a punishment from me looks like."
Natalie nods and drags Keith out of the room. He turns away and looks out the windows, smiling wickedly. Adrien will learn who the master of the house is and so will Keith. And not either one of them will, especially Adrien will disobey him again. He must have been too lenient if Adrien thought he could run away for a night without consequence and why would he want to run away in the first place?
Adrien has a big room, tons of books, games, movies and shows to keep him occupied. And he let Keith stay instead of returning that delinquent back to the Galaxy Garrison(he had researched Keith Kogane and had found that he has anger issues, but let him stay anyway since Adrien wanted Keith to stay so bad. At least he has Keith under oath so that nothing like a punch to face will happen).
Ah yes, Adrien is going to regret leaving his perfect life for the night.
Author's Note: Alright, some cruelty from Gabriel. To be honest in the show we don't see much of Gabriel's cruel side, only on rare occasions. And honestly it sucks, because we don't see it as often. And in the show he has significant mood changes, from kind and caring, to neglectful. So in my eyes, I think Gabriel is like those nice guy types, you know, the ones who think they are entitled to everything(mainly women). So my theory is that Gabriel thinks he's entitled to have whatever he wants and that because he's so 'nice' people will just obey him. So he thinks people should be his lap dogs, adhering to everything he says without question. Which in turn means that he thinks he's entitled to have a happy ending with Emile and Adrien and why he can't accept her death and why(I think) it's most likely Emile used the peacock miraculous, because Gabriel couldn't accept not having that happy ending fairy tale of having a family(as most of us in our youth were preached, mainly the older generations, by their old cartoons that having children and being married is the best thing to happen to a man and a women). Because it's a much better fit than Emile just being sterile and wanting to have kids(as adoption is always an option). It gives much more substance to that theory, and to be honest Gabriel mostly acts like an entitled kid, especially when he screamed Natalie's name at the end of Evolution, like a child losing their favourite toy. That and it explains why he's blindsided by his goal of obtaining the miraculous, he feels entitled to them, not just his happy relationship with Emile, and why most of his plans are garbage. He's blindsided because he believes he's entitled to ultimate power, no matter what, even taking over his desire to be with Emile because their relationship wasn't about love. I think Chlogami comics demonstrate this by making Emile be in love with Andre and marrying Gabriel only as a friend, while Gabriel goes along with this because he feels entitled to her. Which is just crazy to think about, but to me it explains why Gabriel started this whole Miraculous war in the first place. Because he felt entitled to a happy ending, if it were Tom and Sabine, I couldn't see Tom using the miraculous to bring Sabine back, why? Because Tom and Sabine's love is more wholesome. Anyway super long tangent, but I kinda felt I needed to explain the direction I am taking Gabriel in and my thoughts about his character in order for his anger about Adrien to make sense(because for most of the show Gabriel has always shown hints of entitlement, and he always expects himself to win and get the miraculous. Cocky much. Anywho Leafbranch signing off. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.