Chapter 28: There are Consequences to Actions(Part 2)(Keith's POV)
Keith numbly stares at his lap as his mind registers everything that's happened. Adrien has run away again, he must have woken up while he was fighting Pire Noel. And he would have checked, if he wasn't so tired from staying up super late and fighting that damn akuma. And apparently someone called Child Services(he's betting it's Natalie who did so) and now he and Adrien aren't in the custody of Gabriel anymore.
Which is a relief, since Gabriel's behaviour has been irritating him more and more as the months go by. Such a bad father! Doesn't spend time with Adrien and when Adrien messes up, harsh punishments happen! Which is so stupid since Adrien does his very best at everything and has always followed through with his dad's stupid commands and restrictions. Not to mention he stayed cooped up in the mansion like a good little boy for forever!
He's just sad it took this big reaction to finally do something about Gabriel's toxic behaviour and get Adrien out of there. But it wasn't like Gabriel had ever made Adrien run away before and his harsh punishments in the past weren't as bad as the punishment that would have been enacted today.
Still, something should have been done before it got this bad.
A few minutes later they arrive in front of the Dupain-Cheng Bakery. He gets out of the car and stands in front of the door, when suddenly the door swishes open and Sabine and Tom run towards him. They embrace him in a hug, and Keith starts crying and hugs them back.
They lead him to the back door, inside, and to the living room. Keith settles on the couch still crying, with Tom being beside him and giving his back comforting rubs. Sabine comes from the corner with a blue thin blanket and wraps it around Keith after Tom stops the backrub. She then gets up and leaves and Tom continues.
"Keith, do you want to talk about it?" Tom tentatively asks him.
Keith wipes his face, and then takes a deep breath trying to calm himself down. So much has happened, between Adrien running away for the first time, the fight with Pire Noel and what happened this morning. That and he still is tired from the long day. Sabine comes and sits to his right and hands him a mug.
He heastianly reaches for it and stares at the brown liquid inside for a few minutes, his tears effectively all dried up.
"It's okay if you don't want to," Tom quickly adds, still rubbing his back in a soothing motion.
"It's not that…" Keith begins, but trails off, fearing the tears might resurface. God it sounds silly to cry right now, but he can't help but feel sad. Sad for Adrien, and sad for Natalie who has to deal with Gabriel because she's his secretary.
"It's okay to cry, to let your emotions show instead of bottling them up. And we're here for you. It's ok," Sabine softly says. He looks at her and Tom and sighs, feeling relief to have them right now, comforting him in this moment.
"It's Garbriel," he stares into the hot chocolate again, "he didn't spend time with Adrien all day yesterday. So after we were almost finished decorating the tree Adrien went to his room. I didn't think anything of it, just thought that he wanted to decompress since his father didn't spend time with him like he said he would. But after Gabriel finally decided, 'hey I should spend time with my son', he found Adiren's room empty and one of the windows wide open."
He inhaled and then exhaled, and continued his story, sipping on hot chocolate at various parts. After it was finished, Sabine and Tom looked horrified(he obviously left out the parts of being Marmora and Pire Noel coming into Adrien's room and him attacking Pire Noel and defeating him with the help of his teammates).
"No wonder you seem in shock. Gabriel just seems so horrible…To punish his son like that…"
Sabine's POV
She trails off. Of course she had seen the video with her husband of that conversation, but to hear of the aftermath….It made it all the more sad. And the emotional scars that this will leave, well, she didn't even want to think about it.
Sabine looks at Keith, who again stares at his mug of hot chocolate. How dare Gabriel put Keith and Adrien through this! It's as if the man had never wanted children. And if that is the case then why accept Keith into his home in the first place?!
It doesn't make sense, none of it does. But Keith and Adrien need her and her husband, as emotional support and more. Standing up, she asks, "Keith, would you like to rest in Marinette's old room? It sounds like you didn't get that much sleep last night."
Keith opens his mouth, but Tom interrupts, "Keith you need your sleep,"
"But…"
"No buts. You've had a long day yesterday that was also emotionally draining. You need some time to sleep it off. Besides we'll wake you if anything about Adrien comes up."
"My husband is correct." She then gently grabs the mug of hot chocolate from Keith who doesn't protest and sets it down. Then she gently grabs his hand, and pulls him off the couch and leads him to Marinette's room.
Opening the trap door she climbs in and then crouches and helps Keith up. The door closes automatically as Sabine gets Marinette's lounge chair ready for Keith to sleep in. Once it's finished, Keith sits down and then lays on the couch.
Instantly he closes his eyes. Sabine smiles softly and then heads back downstairs. Her heart breaks when she remembers tucking her little Marinette in on that lounge chair after she had a nightmare.
Tears threaten to fall, Marinette is so young to be lost out there somewhere and Adrien and Keith shouldn't be experiencing this type of emotional turmoil at their age.
Her husband suddenly embraces her.
"It'll be alright."
"I wish I could feel it is. Everything seems lost….."
"But it's not. Besides Keith and Adrien have us. We will not let them down."
She looks up at her husband and smiles. "Yeah they do have us."
"And we will protect them from any more dangers, whether those two like it or not."
Sabine giggles and then says seriously, "Yes. From now on they are our sons and no one can take that away from us."