-Julian's POV-
Subtly looking around outside my classroom, I quickly grab my lunch and snuck out. Alix and Nathaniel were being incredibly weird during class today, both always giving me weird looks before looking away whenever I noticed them. Normally if it was only Nathaniel I would've ignored it (we have a pact to ignore our shared awkwardness), but with the addition of Alix… Let's just say that I should watch my back today.
Looking over the railing onto the courtyard, I try to find my circle of friends, but to my dismay I don't see them anywhere.
They're definitely plotting something.
At least Adrien is there, sitting on a nearby bench, chatting with Nino while eating his own lunch. The wind perfectly hugs his features, giving him a kinder and more gentle aura than usual, if that was even possible. I sigh ( not dreamily), I have it bad don't I?
"Alright Le Beau you're coming with us." I hear a familiar voice sound from behind me. Yelping as a pair of hands grab both my arms, they pull me into a nearby classroom. The lights are off and I am forced down on a chair precariously situated in the center of the room, the lunchbox in my hands was promptly snatched away.
"Oh sweet, pizza." I hear the same voice say again in the dark and I sigh.
"I would've given it to you if you'd ask Alix."
The lights turned on, well, not lights, I realized as I looked up to see a flashlight hanging from the ceiling with a rope directly on top of me, leaving the rest of the classroom in the dark.
"Trust me Lian, after we're done, you would wish I had just wanted pizza." The girl in question says, finally walking out of the shadows to stand in front of me.
I raise an eyebrow at the ludicrousness of the situation. "Not that I hate this but… What's up with the dramatics?" I ask, so confused I might just start laughing.
Alix says nothing, pizza in her hand as she takes a seat, suddenly a table is pushed in between the two of us as Nathaniel appears, sitting down next to the skater with a slice in his own hands.
Alix takes a bite before and places my lunchbox with a single slice left in front of me before talking with her mouth full. "Because it's the best way to get you to talk. Now, I'm sure you're wondering why we brought you here to this empty and private classroom."
"You wanna know how I got these scars?" I guess, because I like being difficult.
"What? No. You don't have scars."
"You want to know about the Muffin Man?"
"The Muffin Man?"
I nod seriously, holding in a laugh. "The Muffin Man."
Alix pauses for a second before groaning. " Seriously Lian? You have any idea how hard it was to tie that light up there for an interrogation?"
"I dunno Alix." I shrug, smirking at her and Nathaniel. "How many art students does it take to fix a light bulb?"
Nathaniel snickers as Alix glares at the both of us before sighing. "Sometimes I regret teaching you how to sass."
"Hey! I was sassy before I met you." I retort, pouting a little.
"Semantics Lian, anyways, back to the topic. I've brought you here to ask a very important question." Alix swings the pizza in her hands around casually, probably trying to lower my guard before asking. "Do you have something you wanna tell us?"
I tense up, does… does she know ?
"What are you talking about?" I ask, smiling as innocently as I can. Alix however does not seem convinced.
"You're not fooling anyone Lian. You always act like you're in a movie, and this week you've been playing the role of "teen hopelessly in love and staring at his classmate'!"
"I don't always act like I'm in a movie."
"You kind of do..."
Giving Nathaniel the most betrayed look I could muster. Alix interrupts me before I can reply. "Aha! So you do admit that you've been staring at Adrien!"
I pale, before laughing out loud. "A-Adrien? Why would I- W-who even is an Adrien?" I blurted before I could stop myself. Well, if that wasn't an admission of guilt, nothing is.
Alix, looking way too evil, slams her hands on the table in front of me. "Say it Julian! Say that you like him!"
"N-Never!" I squeak, face reddening more by the second, why is this happening!?
"It'll make you feel better." Nathaniel finally says, giving me a small smile. I glare at the two of them.
"Good-cop Bad-cop? Really? You know my parents invented that." I lie. "Besides, who would like Adrien anyways, he's all… and when he's happy he's all… and I wanna just-" I stammer, looking at the two of them, feeling like a cornered animal, before-
"Alright FINE! I like Adrien!" I wail, praying to whatever deities out there that only Alix and Nathaniel heard me. "Gods I like him so much it's not even funny! Everytime I see him my heart's just-" I gesture to my chest and make complicated hand movements that even I'm not sure what it means. "And it's not getting better! No! It's getting so much worse! I've thought about avoiding him! But just thinking about upsetting him is enough to make me feel all nauseous! Have you seen him upset? He's like a kicked puppy! Like, what did I even feel before this? It came so suddenly and it's just- I just-" I frantically run my hands through my hair a couple times before groaning again and slamming my head on the table in defeat. "Yeah, I… I like him." I finally admitted, and begrudgingly conceding to myself that Nathaniel was right, I do feel a bit better getting that off my chest.
The silence that followed was deafening, before Alix lets out a long whistle.
"Damn Julian, that's a lot of feelings you have pent up." She comments.
I lift my head up, sending her a small glare. "I wasn't holding it in on purpose . I just needed some time to sort out whatever this was on my own, I've never felt like this in real life before..." I mumble. Sure, I've had crushes on people, but those people were characters on TV shows and movies (honestly who wouldn't have a crush on Spiderman?). But this is real people, I'm feeling this about an actual person, not a character in a movie, and that makes it so much scarier…
Feeling a hand slowly pat my back, I look up to see Nathaniel giving me an encouraging look. "It's going to be alright Julian."
Alix smirks, sitting down next to me. "He's right you know? Cause you have us to help you now."
"That doesn't make me feel better."
" Besides !" The skater continues without acknowledging my very legitimate concern. "Who didn't have a crush on Adrien at least once in their life? He's hot." She jokes.
"Mhmm."
A brief moment passes before Alix and I turn to look at Nathaniel with wide eyes, who at first didn't realize what he said, but quickly turns as red as his hair when he did.
"U-umm, I mean-" The redhead stutters out, but it was too late, Alix had found her next target.
"No way ! Did Agreste awaken something in you too!?" She screams right next to me.
Wincing, I rub my ears. "I knew what I liked way before Adrien…" I grumble as I take a slice of pizza from my lunchbox. Who does she think I am? A prude?
"Y-yeah! Me… Me too…" Nathaniel said as well, blushing as he looks away from the both of us. Alix and I share a look, that definitely wasn't what he should've said if he wanted us to change the topic.
"Nat, you know you have to tell us now right?" The skater pushes, interrogation mode back on.
"Only if you want to." I add. "Don't worry, this is a safe space." I tack on, smirking slightly, oh how the turn tables.
"Yeah! What he said!" Alix leans closer. "C'mon Nat, who's the special boy that gave you the feelings?"
Taking a bite of my food, Nathaniel mumbles something I can't quite make out.
"What?" Alix says, facing the same problem as me.
"F…" Nathaniel tries to say, face growing redder by the second. "Faon Vert!" He finally shouts.
I choke.
Coughing violently, I drop the pizza in my hand as I quickly lean away from the table, facing the floor as an attempt to hide my own blush.
"Woah Julian!"
"A-are you okay?"
Wheezing, I wave away their concerns as I continue hiding away from them to steady my breathing.
Nathaniel had…
I was his...
What?
"Sorry. Sorry." I cough again before clearing my throat, giving them a small smile. "I thought you liked Marinette?" I reply weakly, attempting to divert the attention back to the artist.
Thankfully it worked, the redhead looks away embarrassed, blush never leaving his face. "I did, but after my Akumatization, I realized that Marinette will probably never like me back, so…"
"Didn't you say Faon Vert rescued you and brought you to the bus stop?" Alix pipes in, looking way too smug again. "Was that it? When you realize you had the hots for him? The 'oh no he's hot!' moment?" She asks. I start focusing on the half-eaten pizza back in my hand, willing the blush away from my face.
"N-no!" Nathaniel blatantly lies judging by the extremely caught off guard look on his face.
Alix laughs and leans back on her seat, satisfied. "Oh man, you two are total disasters, I love you dorks." She comments as the bell rings, signaling the end of our lunch.
"We should go." I decide to end Nathaniel's misery by saying, laughing lightly at the relieved sigh from the redhead at the change of topic.
"Wait! Before that!" Alix stands up abruptly, looking at me. "Julian, I want to say one last thing about you and Adrien."
Feeling a chill run down my spine, I smile at her, don't show any weaknesses Julian. "W-what is it?"
The skater puts a hand on her hips, smirking. "Just do it."
I blush harder. "N-No!"
She shrugs. "Whatever, I got time, and the seed's been planted." She says finally before stepping out of the class, but instead of the cool exit I thought she was planning, she freezes by the hallway instead, looking down at the courtyard confused. "Umm, guys? Something weird's happening."
Sharing a confused look with Nathaniel (we're both still blushing but honoring the pact mentioned above) before joining Alix at the railing.
In the courtyard under us, there's a huge crowd of students by the entrance, a few of them whispering excitedly between each other whilst even more of them are taking pictures with their phones.
"What's going on?" I hear Nathaniel ask.
"No idea, but there's one way to find out, c'mon guys!" Alix says, rushing down the nearest stairs, Nathaniel trailing right behind her. I stand still for a moment, feeling extremely uneasy as I take a deep breath before chasing after them. I'll just stay behind the crowd, hopefully Nathaniel has the same mindset so we can hide behind each other.
Turns out the crowd wasn't whispering at all, but were rather chatting quite loudly with each other, their words all mixed up that I could barely make any sense of them. Standing behind everyone, I panic a little at having lost sight of my friends amongst the sea of students, I should probably just head back to class.
"Hello students of Françoise Dupont High School!" A booming voice sounds from the entrance and I immediately freeze in place, I recognize that voice.
"Father?" I ask with wide eyes, standing on the tip of my toes to see over the crowd to confirm my suspicions.
Andray Le Beau stands confidently amongst his peers, confirming my suspicions.
He's wearing his 'casual interview wear', a white button up covered by a dark blue sweater, tucked into a pair of black jeans tied by an expensive looking belt. His black hair gelled up as he gave the audience a naturally beautiful smile, blue colored eyes practically sparkling.
The crowd exploded into cheers again, and this time I realized that not all of them were students, some of them were actually reporters from various magazines as well, holding up crummy phone microphones to the famous actor slash director and asking all sorts of questions, they definitely weren't allowed in here.
"Mr. Le Beau! How is the latest filming of 'Defenders of the Galaxy' coming along?"
"Mr. Le Beau, there are some claiming that Javier Lee had abruptly left the show due to salary concerns, what's your response?"
"Mr. Le Beau, what are you doing back in Paris during the filming of your latest blockbuster hit?"
"Now that I can answer." My father finally says, pointing at one the reporter that asked the last question. "I'm back in Paris because I've been requested by a friend to judge an upcoming short film competition. As for why I'm here specifically…" He scans the crowd before finally landing his sights on me. He smiles brightly and I feel my heart drop straight down to my stomach.
"I just want to say hello to my son, hi Julian!"
Suddenly the entire crowd's eyes shift to me, and I feel a sudden spike of anxiety hit me, all that hard work to keep my parents a secret in school, gone.
Realizing that everyone is still staring at me (Why are they staring!? ), I clear my throat.
"Um… I… Hi father…" I reply weakly, begging him with my eyes to just change the topic so I can leave, but suddenly feeling a pair of arms wrap around me instead. Looking up I see my father smiling down at me.
"Hey champ, and please call me dad, father makes me feel all wrinkly and old." He says warmly, and for a moment, I could almost lie to myself thinking that it was just as before, where we would both hang out, eating at different ice cream stores while dodging the paparazzi.
But that was the past. I got reminded as I feel the looks of every single person in here again, I need to get out of here.
My father doesn't seem to notice (he never seems to notice) "To celebrate this awesome reunion! I'm treating everyone here to a free screening at the movies tonight! Just show them your school IDs and enjoy the show!" He says with a flourish, I stand awkwardly beside him, looking for anything, anything that I can use to escape this hell.
The crowd energizes even more, their voices all just becoming jumbles in my head and I clutch my jacket tighter. Count to ten, remember to breathe.
"Please, please no need to thank me. Thank Julian, he's the one who asked me for this!" My father buries me further in my grave, I look at him with wide eyes, signaling to him in any way possible that I DON'T WANT THIS!
The man finally notices my concerned look, leaning down to whisper. "Why're you looking at me like that champ? You love when I do this for your classmates, remember?"
"YEARS AGO!" I scream internally, my voice doesn't seem to be working anymore.
My father removes his arms from my shoulder. "Anyways I have to meet someone to talk over boring movie stuff. I'll pick you up tonight okay? We can go try that new store I heard opened up." He promises, but it's all just unintelligible garble to me by this point.
I feel his arm leaving mine, and later hear his car starting up and driving away, I look at the crowd surrounding me, did they always look like a mass abomination of horrors?
"Julian! That was your dad!? He's so awesome!"
"Y-Yeah-"
"Hey Julian! Wanna watch the movie with us tonight!?"
"S-Sorry I-"
"Julian hey Julian, is your mom in town too? Is she as cool as your dad!?"
"N-"
"Were you in any movies with your parents!?"
"Do you keep any props in your house?
"Can I visit sometimes!?"
"Wdwaoanyntottutohohaeavnveteaelnruytnthciehpfwsiitltomhbcuepsantntoaemcsottrowrriotwhus?"
"I… I-I…" My heart's going crazy, I'm gonna die here, there's no way out and I can't freaking BREATHE.
"Julian?"
Crashing shakily into someone (I didn't even realize I was walking), my first instinct was to push away, but something about them felt familiar, felt safe.
You have that aura that makes me feel safe.
"Please…" I whimper quietly, I'm not ever sure if they could hear me. "Get me out of here, please…" I wrap my arms around them, clinging on for dear life.
Their words are muffled, but I can feel myself being dragged away, the group of students' faces whirling past me. I can finally make out Alix's voice near me before her back blocks the vision of the crowd as she yells something.
I recognize being dragged up the stairs, and a door opening and closing.
There's no noise here, minus my heartbeats.
And then I'm on something soft.
Feeling their arms trying to leave, I instinctively grip them tighter. "Please don't leave." I keep muttering, whoever this is please don't leave.
Tensing up at a sudden hand on my head, it slowly starts moving across it soothingly and I finally manage to take a full breath, a soft melody plays from somewhere but I can't quite pick up the lyrics.
I don't know how much time had passed like this, the door opened for a moment and a few words were exchanged, but I still can't recognize most of it before it goes back to the peaceful melody.
Finally feeling somewhat better, I slowly release the death grip I had on the person and look up from their chest I'd been pressing onto to see-
"Hey, are you feeling better?" Adrien asks, smiling down softly at me.
I open my mouth, but apparently words still fail me, so I settle for nodding instead.
The blond smiles brighter. "I'm glad." He says, waiting patiently for me to regain my bearings. Looking around, I notice that we're in the school's nurse's office, thankfully there isn't anyone here (including the nurse, where the heck did they go?)
Looking back at Adrien, I realize that he's still staring, feeling my red turn red from the attention, I clear my throat. "Thanks, for helping me…" I finally manage to say, voice hoarse from the heavy breathing.
"No need to thank me, Alix and Nathaniel were the ones that helped the most, they cleared the way for us." He explains, and I nod. I'll have to get them all some gifts to show my appreciation next time.
The door finally opens and the nurse walks in with a thermos in his hands, he starts at the sight of us. "Oh! Hello, what seems to be the problem?"
Adrien opens his mouth to answer, but probably realizes that he doesn't know what happened too. I sigh weakly. "Panic attack…" I mumble to the nurse, who nods.
"Alright, feel free to stay until you feel better, I'll write a note." He says before going to his desk, giving the two of us some privacy.
I look down at my hands, still shaking from the adrenaline.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Adrien asks again, feeling irrationally angry, I look up preparing to snap at him but the honest concerned look in his face deflated me instantly.
I was going to yell at Adrien. What kind of monster am I?
"...No… I'm not." I mumble, clutching my knees close to my chest. "But that's fine, it doesn't last forever…" I tell him as a way to remind myself. "I just don't understand… Why can't my father-" I inhale sharply, the memory is still too raw. "Why can't my parents understand that I'm not seven anymore…" I whisper.
"You… You said that something happened when you were younger… right?" Adrien asks hesitantly.
I nod. "Yeah, it's-" I take a deep breath. "Back then I-" I gasp, before feeling a hand grip my shoulder.
"It's okay Julian, you don't have to tell me." The blond says, and I feel my eyes water.
"B-but, you deserve to know, why… Why I-" I hiccup. Adrien says nothing, starting to rub circles around my back as I let out a relaxed sigh.
"How about you tell me next time then, just focus on getting better now." He says, and I nod.
"Alright, but when I'm better…" I didn't finish, but he knows what I mean.
We sit together for a couple more minutes, the nurse hands us our permission slips before returning back to his desk.
"Do you want to go back to class?" Adrien asks and I tense up.
Back to class? Back… Out there?
I shake my head, letting out a shaky breath. This isn't fair .
"I just want to go home…" I whimper. I just got used to this place, and now I'm back to being too damn scared to go outside.
"So pathetic…" I think to myself.
Adrien gives me one last pat on the back. "It's going to be okay Julian. I'll lend you my notes anytime you want, are you sure you don't want me to stay?" He asks and I shake my head again.
"N-no, go back to class, I'll be fine now…" I reply weakly. The blond nods, wishing me well before leaving the room and I let go another sigh of relief. Adrien's presence helped a lot but now I need some time to just process everything.
Curling up on the bed, I don't know how much time has passed while I wallow in pity, unfortunately Ossi could not say anything due to the nurse in the room. Eventually the nurse did go for a refill, leaving the room after checking up on me.
"How ya feeling kid?" Ossi finally asks.
I sigh. "Terrible… But better." I say before looking around confused. "Not to jinx us but… Do you think it's strange that I didn't get Akumatized?"
"Huh. You got a point." Ossi hums in thought. "Maybe Hawk Moth just didn't notice ya?"
I shake my head. "No, he has akumatized many people in our school before, he would know where to look…" I trail off, could it be possible that someone here is stopping him from Akumatizing me? I log that thought away to further dive into later, if Hawk Moth has a connection to someone here, it would be a big deal.
The school bell rings again, startling me a little. Taking out my phone, I realized that I had once again skipped half of the school day, well, at least I got a note to excuse myself this time…
"Ya wanna transform into Faon? Get home the fast way?" The Kwami asks.
I shake my head. "No… I don't think I can pretend to be Faon right now… I still feel like complete sh-"
A sudden knock on the window scares the crap out of me. Yelping, I quickly spin around as Ossi makes a dive for my pocket. There's someone standing by the window, and they kind of look like-
Wait.
I open the window with wide eyes. "Chat Noir?"
"Hey Julian." The cat hero winks before slinking into the room, a bag strapped around his back.
"W-What are you doing here?" I ask, feeling extremely confused. Aside from the Evillustrator incident, I've never interacted with Chat Noir before, I'm surprised he even knows my name .
"I received a request from a civilian that you need an escort." He says, before bowing. "And being the kind-hearted, considerate and compassionate cat that I am, I decided to lend a paw."
I feel even more confused than before. Someone asked him to help me? Who knows Chat Noir well enough to ask for personal favors like this?
"Helloooo! You okay there Julian?" Snapping out of my thoughts, I turn to look at the blond with a wary look.
"A-Are you sure I'm not interrupting your umm… Hero duties?" I ask. Usually I don't want to trouble someone with something so trivial, but honestly getting an express ticket straight home sounds like absolute bliss to me right now.
"Of course not! Besides, Faon wouldn't let me hear the end of it if I leave you be." The cat hero says, face reddening a little.
I snorted, oh if only he knew…
"Alright then…" I settle for saying.
Chat gives me a bright smile. "Alright! Now hop on, next stop, the Le Beau Estate!"
Climbing onto his back, he makes sure that I'm safely secured before leaping out the window. Feeling the wind blow past my hair, I can't help but sigh contently, it feels so much different when you're not the one doing the jumping…
Fortunately we made it back to my house without much fuss. Directing Chat to my room, we landed on the balcony before I reached into my bag to grab the keys.
"You sneak out a lot?" The blond asks curiously.
I look up in confusion. "Huh? Oh!" I realized suddenly, right! Most people don't keep keys to their balconies on the third floor in their backpack, but I have to because of the things I do as Faon Vert. "N-not anymore, but I haven't gotten rid of the habit yet…" I mumble, half lying.
"Well then, that's lucky!" Chat congratulates as I unlock the door to my room. I chuckle awkwardly, I really don't know how to act around Chat Noir when I'm not in my superhero persona.
"Thanks for getting me home Chat…" I say, honestly this was the best possible scenario that could've happened. "Oh, and thank the person who asked you as well… Can you tell me their name so I can get them something nice as thanks?"
The cat hero smirks, handing my bag back to me. "No can do, part of their request was to keep things confidential."
I frown as I take back my bag. I can probably narrow down my list of suspects easily (perks of having very little friends), but if they want to remain hidden then I probably shouldn't pry…
"Alright… Tell them thanks anyway… Also tell that to Faon too, since apparently he's the reason you agreed to this." I can't help but say that last part, feeling a little cheeky.
The blond blushes. "He's not the whole reason! Just a very big part of it!" He reddens further. "I-I mean, you haven't seen him when he's upset, it's like kicking a puppy!"
I laugh, not sure if I should be feeling flattered that he's so flustered over me or offended at the kicked puppy comment.
"Well, thank you both." I settle for saying, even though it feels kind of weird to thank myself. "Do you want to come in? I can get you something to eat as thanks."
That snaps Chat out of whatever he's thinking as he shakes his head. "No thanks, I'm gonna get in trouble if I stay out any longer."
I nod, regardless of powers, we're all still teenagers (I think), and we all have people who worry for us…
Well, most of us do…
Probably sensing my sudden shift in mood, Chat places an encouraging hand on my shoulder. Looking up in confusion, I-
"Listen Julian." Chat interrupts before I could say anything. "I may not know what you're going through, but I know that honesty and confidence go a long way. Just think about that."
I frown, but the blond leaps away from the balcony before I could retort. I close the doors with a huff.
"Telling me to be confident… What an extrovert." I mutter before planting my face on my pillow and inhaling deeply. This is it, my safe zone, nothing bad ever happens in the safe zone...
My phone rings. Realizing that I hadn't informed Alix and Nathaniel on my wellbeing, I quickly sent an 'I'm OK, thanks' in the group chat as well as informing my chauffeur of my whereabouts before continuing to cocoon myself in my blankets. I'll properly thank all of them later, but for now, this is too comfortable…
-? Amount of Time Later-
The front door slams shut, and I startle awake. Sitting up too quickly, I forgot that I was still wrapped up tightly in my blankets and I fell off the bed with a yelp.
"Ow…" I groan, hoping that I didn't squish Ossi by accident but judging by the lack of overdramatic groans I think I'm good. Shortly after that the door to my room bursts open and my father saunters in.
"Hey buddy, I'm home!" He exclaims. Sitting up, I give him a tired glare from the ground before sighing.
"Hello father." I mumble, untangling myself from my blankets.
My father laughs, sitting on my bed and ruffling my head. "Y'know we bought the beds to sleep on right? Unless there's a government secret out there that says sleeping on the floor is better. Quick, blink twice if I should do that too." He jokes.
"You slammed the door, anyone would fall off their beds." I huff, standing up and lumping all my blankets back on the bed.
"That's big talk coming from the biggest door slammer in this house." He quips back.
Seven years ago. I think bitterly before sitting by my desk, not wanting to give him eye contact. "Did you need something?"
"Ouch, my own son being so formal." My father laments jokingly before continuing. "We made plans to try out that new restaurant at school this afternoon remember?"
Only you did. I feel a chill run down my spine. "C-Can't we just order take out instead…? I… I want to watch a movie."
My father gives me a weird look. "Well why aren't you at the movies with your friends then?" He asks before snapping his fingers in realization. "Oh! I get it! Fashionably late right? Good call, you know our family motto, 'the only worst part about a movie, is the advertisements.'" He says before walking to my closet and swinging it open. "Let's get you all gussied up shall we?"
With that he starts pulling out all my clothes from the closet, ignoring my protests. "Man this brings back some memories, hey, whatever happened to that boy from your primary school? I know you were still young at the time but your mother and I kind of shipped you two, that's what the kids these days say right?"
I blush but before I could say anything a heavy jacket slaps over my face.
"Geez you have a lot of jackets, when's the last time you've been under the sun?" He continues to say, emptying out my closet.
I frown. "Father, I-"
"You know your mother has been saying that our skin was looking a little too pale, how about you and I take a vacation to someplace exotic huh? Show her who's boss."
"Father, would you please-"
"Arhhg but my schedule would be kind of full for the next couple of months, how about I buy us a tanning bed? We could convert one of the rooms and-"
"DAD!" I yell, breathing a little heavy, is my voice not working? Why isn't he listening to me!?
My father freezes in place for a second, and for a moment I thought finally! Some form of acknowledgement! I just yelled at you! Reprimand me or something!
" Finally ." Was what my father said, sounding relieved. He grabs another set of clothes off the hangar before walking back to me. "I've been waiting for you to call me 'dad' for years. I don't even know when you started saying that, I thought it was a teenager thing at first, but one of my co-workers has a son and he-"
That's it.
Grabbing a nearby lamp, I throw it at the wall furthest away from the both of us. It shatters upon contact, startling my father.
"WOAH what the fu- fudge! What the fudge kid?"
"Don't you ever call me kid." I mutter darkly, glaring at my father. Chat wants me to be confident? I'll give him confident.
"Why… Do you keep doing this?" I start by saying.
My father looks confused. "What are you talking about?"
I let out a small chuckle. "Of course you wouldn't realize…" I mutter before continuing to glare at him. "You… You talk to me like I'm some kind of pet! Something you just pay for and feed, and for you to come back to see them exactly the same as they were before! You've been ignoring what happened SEVEN WHOLE YEARS AGO! Both you AND mom!"
Finally, FINALLY my father pales in slight fear, taking a step back. "S-Son?"
"AM I YOUR SON!?" I yell, standing up to face him, tears starting to stream down my face. "Because it feels like I'm some kind of lousy replacement you brought in that just looks like your son! I'm not the same as I was back then! I don't sponsor spontaneous movie outings with school mates! I don't like standing in front of reporters with you and acting like superheroes! And I don't like- no, I absolutely HATE going outside now!"
"Julian please calm-"
"You know why? YOU KNOW WHY!?" I couldn't stop, all these years of emotions are just pouring out non-stop. "Because when I needed you and mom the most, to tell me that it's okay to fail, that I would get laughed at or made fun off constantly or have embarrassing clips of me posted online and made fun of again. When I needed you to be here to support me when I inevitably failed, you weren't there! N O, you and mom left the country instead! You didn't care that I didn't want to go outside anymore, you didn't care that I dropped out of primary and started homeschooling, and you didn't care that I FIRED ninety percent of the staff working here because I couldn't stand talking to anyone else anymore!" I finally take a breath, my father looking completely shellshock at my words.
I choke on a sob. "You weren't there when I needed you most… Yet you still expect me to be unbroken… Without doing anything to help." I finally say.
I look down at my shaking hands, I don't want to know the face my father has on right now, if it confirms that he doesn't actually care about me, it would… It would destroy me.
"Please just… Just go, I'll see you off at the airport when you leave. We don't have to talk till then." I mumble, turning around and facing away from my father. A tense moment passes before the sound of footsteps, followed by the door closing and I let out a relieved sigh.
I did it, I told him everything.
I definitely could've told him in a nicer way though.
I turned to look at the broken lamp by the wall.
At least it wasn't a collector's item . I think, ironically that probably would've been my father's first thought as well…
"Julian…?"
I look back up to see Ossi floating in front of me, looking at me with worried eyes. "Kid, that was…"
I sigh again. "Cruel? Cold-blooded? Unnecessary…?" I guess before crawling into bed, lying down on my back to stare at the ceiling. "I didn't know what else to do, he wouldn't even let me speak." I feel my eyes tear up again. "He probably hates me now too…"
I feel my Kwami land on my chest, I slowly wrap my arms around him in a light hug.
"That's not true kid." Ossi finally says. "I was looking at him when he left, and trust me he was lookin' like-"
The door suddenly breaks down, splinters flying in all directions as I let out a scream, diving to the other side of my bed.
An intimidating man is standing imposingly by the door, face covered by a scary black mask, black cloak billowing out behind him and his body riddled with a bunch of weird sci-fi looking buttons, holding a long alien ray gun in his hands.
He slowly turns to face me. "Julian." He says, voice distorted and yet somehow sounds like-
Oh no.
"F-Father?" I ask, feeling all kinds of fear.
The Akuma nods. "Yes Julian, I am your father."
I gulp, crawling backwards, feeling my back slam against the wall. "I-If you can hear me dad, please resist it! Ladybug and Chat Noir are going to make you better again, o-okay?"
My father lets out an evil chuckle. "Better? That's no longer needed, because I am better now. And you-" He points the ray gun at me and I shiver in fear. "Will be better too, and we can start over."
He fires the gun and a bright green energy zaps my body, letting out a scream of pain, I feel like, like I'm getting smaller?
"I'll be back Julian, have to fulfill my end of the deal." The Akuma says before the loud crash. Cracking open my eyes I notice that the roof to my room is destroyed now, the Akuma probably flew out of it.
Letting out another gasp, I feel myself shrinking again, what's happening to me!?
"Please be safe Ossi…" I thought before finally blacking out.
