Author's note: First chapter of the new year! Thanks for all of the reviews.

/

The spring warmth is a pleasant change from the winter which Paris' is steadily emerging from. The rain comes less often, replaced instead by the sun. Furthermore, for the residents of the city, there isn't quite the same volume of tourists flocking to the capital and crowding its streets as there will be come summer. In short, it's a pleasant time to be out and about.

Saturday morning rolls around and Marinette finds herself heading out on an important mission. There is no emergency. Nothing in need of Ladybug's attention. This has all been planned out, scheduled. She made the arrangements last night. She promises her parents to be home for lunch. She doesn't think that she'll be gone more than a couple of hours at most. As always, she has her purse and kwami with her. Again though, she has no plans of getting into trouble. This should be both routine and unconventional. As she starts the brief walk to the place where she's supposed to meet up with an acquaintance for a drink, she finds herself wondering if she's ever done this before. She can't recall meeting up with her before.

She arrives at the cafe but to her surprise can't seem to find the person she was expecting to see. After a glance around the tables outside, she sticks her head inside of the bar, even going so far as to ask one of the waiters if they've seen someone waiting for someone else. Perhaps predictably that course of action yields no real results. Defeated, she heads back outside, assuming that the other must simply be late.

"Marinette!" A woman raises her hand, signaling her position. With a smile, the teen is quick to join her.

"Sorry." The younger woman mutters as she takes her seat. "I didn't see you there..."

"Looking for a suit, were you?"

Unable to tell if that's a tease or a reproach, Marinette, blushing slightly, prefers just to shrug. It is true that without her signature smart attire, it's isn't easy to pick her out in the crowd. Whilst the woman certainly doesn't dress slovenly, seeing her in more casual clothes still comes as a shock. Delphine notwithstanding, the teen can only think of a handful of occasions when she's seen the woman dressed as anything than Gabriel Agreste's assistant. As such, she sometimes struggles to tell with which the older woman is more comfortable: working or relaxing. Adrien would know…

"You, uh… Look well."

"Thank you."

"Have you got a new job?" Marinette searches for other ways to start off some form of a conversation before they have to attend to more serious matters.

"No. Not yet." Nathalie pauses only for a moment. "You came here to talk about Adrien."

There's something almost shockingly blunt about the way that she speaks. Even now, she finds it sometimes difficult to relax around Nathalie. She knows that the woman cares about the boy, it's impossible to conceive that she doesn't love him given how much she's sacrificed for him. Still, there's an emotional detachment about her which is unsettling, it causes the teen to wonder just how she views the world.

She's right though.

Marinette has come here as something of an act of desperation. She's worried. Unable to approach the Agrestes about the matter and with all of Adrien's friends unaware of his double-life as Cat Noir, she finds herself with nobody else to turn to. She's thought all this through. With a comparative lack of dialogue between herself and her boyfriend, she isn't too sure what Nathalie knows and doesn't. So she decides to assume that she probably doesn't or at the very least, she doesn't quite grasp the severity of it. So the teenager decides to just be straight with the woman, to inform her about her fears and concerns:

"Adrien's not doing so well..."

"What's wrong?" Nathalie asks, her voice level.

"What isn't?" Marinette shakes her head slowly as she wonders where to even begin. "Since you left… I don't know. You should see him. It's like he's doing the minimum necessary to keep himself alive. Barely even that… He's having nightmares all the time according to Plagg and gets well- His temper."

"He gets angry and lashes out." Nathalie fills in for the girl.

"He did..."

Marinette doesn't care to think back to his outburst. It's not a side of her boyfriend that she'd ever seen before and she most certainly doesn't want to again. To Nathalie it doesn't seem so surprising. It's hard to read her expression but the concept of Adrien, usually so calm and gentle losing his mind doesn't earn so much as a batted eyelid. So the girl tells him about her recent events that have occurred at the mansion as their coffees arrive. Specifically that the young man had thrown a glass at his mother. That simple statement should shock her. Instead, she barely even blinks.

Something tells Marinette that there's a lot that both Adrien and Nathalie haven't told her over the years, perhaps even concealed from her.

"They sent him to some psychologist. He goes there twice a week. They're keeping it quiet. You know, to avoid a scandal." Marinette stirs her drink mindlessly for a moment. "He gave him some pills."

"Are they working?" Nathalie's interest seems to perk up.

"I don't know… He hasn't really said. Honestly they seem to make him a bit sleepy."

Nathalie says nothing but instead looks down to fix her drink. Again, it's not exactly the response that Marinette had been hoping for. She had been hoping that her tale would stir some form of maternal instinct within the woman that would see her fly to Adrien's rescue or at least provide some words of advice and wisdom for his girlfriend so as she might better be able to assist him. Right now, it's hard to say if she's reluctant or disinterested. The woman's poker face is impossible to read and in truth, not all that encouraging.

After a few moments, her blue gaze rises to meet that of the teen. She seems to be tired all of a sudden and it's then that Marinette is certain that she has been worrying about the boy. What's more likely is that she doesn't believe that she can do anything about it.

"What are you asking of me?" The woman asks after a few moments.

"You're like a mother to him-" Nathalie gives her an odd look. "What? You are… Anyway, maybe just talk to him?"

"Talk to him and say what?" There's a certain harshness behind her tone suddenly. "Anything I can suggest would likely land both of us in trouble."

"Just try to get through to him. I've seen you, you're a good mom-"

Nathalie shakes her head slowly, dismissing the notion silently. Is she giving up on Adrien or her own ability to help?

Whatever the case, she seems unwilling to go any further. Not here at least. With a small signal of the hand, she lets her companion know that this isn't the place to discuss such matters. It's comparatively crowded. Nathalie isn't a celebrity. People might recognize Marinette however purely through her association with Adrien, others will be able to recognize her from her appearances on the occasional television show. At any rate, she must judge that it's too risky to discuss such matters openly here. The teen relents and they finish their coffees in relative silence. He former assistant picks up the bill, unwilling to let a girl who has college to look forwards to next year pay. It causes the teen to wonder how much money she has given that she's no longer working. Did Gabriel even give her a severance package?..

Those questions are comparatively minor when compared to the unease which the teen feels as they walk along. They don't go far. Just down onto one of the quais. The silence lingers for a while, causing Marinette to wonder if Nathalie is waiting for her to say something or simply attempting to gather her own thoughts together. The younger woman errs on the side of caution, preferring to leave the other with the opportunity to speak if she sees it fit. Finally, after a few moments, she says a couple of words:

"I don't know what's best for that boy anymore..." It's clearly a painful confession.

"He didn't want to therapy." Marinette reminds the older woman.

"If Adrien's arm had been hanging off and he said that he didn't want to go to the hospital, would you listen to him?"

"It's not the same. They made things worse..." The younger woman pauses, giving an opportunity for herself to be contradicted.

"They did." Nathalie agrees matter-of-factly. "-but that doesn't mean that he didn't need to go in the first place."

"He was okay before."

This time, she spots out of the corner of her eye Nathalie hesitating. It's as good as proof that there's more to the tale than perhaps she's ever been told. The woman turns towards her, eyeing her cautiously. Without saying a word, Marinette's gaze softens, pleading slightly. Ordinarily, she wouldn't have dared ask about this sort of thing when Adrien wasn't about but the current circumstances are such that she finds herself desperate. She doubts that her boyfriend would willingly talk about what troubles him but she needs to know if there's to be any chance of her helping out.

After a few moments of silent internal deliberation, Nathalie finally caves in and lets out in a single sigh:

"No he wasn't." There's a clear amount of pain behind her voice, making it evident that she's breaking some form of confidence. "You just didn't see the worst of it. He was always so eager to pretend that everything was normal."

"I thought it was just the claustrophobia..." Marinette commented quietly.

"He couldn't hide that but the truth is he hasn't been quite right for a few years now."

"When did it start?"

"He had nightmares right back when he was "Dylan"." The woman lowers her gaze shamefully before adding. "I spent a lot of that time pretending not to care… The rest, that started after the Grand Palais. Nightmares, panic attacks, mood swings… Some days are worse than others."

Marinette contemplates these revelations in silence. In retrospect, she's known that something wasn't quite right for a while. It's clear that Adrien hasn't been the same carefree boy that he once was when she'd first met him. Even that was a facade of sorts, Dylan had been another as well as perhaps a coping mechanism of sorts. She had been aware that he'd suffered following his father's exile, forcing Nathalie to take him away from the capital for a while but she'd been lead to believe that the worst of it had passed since then.

She's getting ready to respond with something although hasn't quite decided if it's going to be another question or a statement about his current state of mind which is – in her opinion – indisputably deteriorating when Nathalie surprises her by continuing to speak:

"He freaks out over things sometimes and for the life of me, I don't know why! And the worse thing is-" She pauses for a moment, fixing the floor as she continues to walk along. When she begins to speak again, her tone is softer, more hushed, barely above a whisper. "I look into his eyes and I see- I can see that he doesn't know why either."

How long has she been forced to sit on this in silence with no one else to turn to?

The woman seems to realize that she's gone a little too far, perhaps left herself both open and vulnerable. She shies away doing her best to regain some sense of self-control and conceal her emotions from the rest of the world. Nathalie's one of these people who isn't an open book and from almost every time that she seems to open up a little more than she usually would Marinette often observes that she's keen to rebuild those barriers as soon as possible. It must be strange to live with her… She seems surprised, shaken. It's as if she's gone further than she ever thought to be possible and now bitterly regrets it. Still, she doesn't backtrack, not entirely. Instead, there's a strange acceptance which comes over her. She owns the words that she had spoken:

"What am I supposed to do when faced with something like that?" The woman shakes her head slowly, as if trying to banish the memories from her mind. "So don't go calling me a good mom. A good mom would have got him some help, no matter what it cost them."

Marinette hesitates. A part of her wants to question if Nathalie really held off of taking Adrien to a specialist out of fear for herself and her own criminal past as she seems to claim or if it was because he simply didn't want to go. She wants to believe the latter. It fits in better with the image of their family life that she had pictured in her mind. She doesn't however, unwilling to put the woman on the spot.

Instead, it's towards her own past that she finds herself turning. There are things there that aren't happiness and joy and which she prefers not to linger on. Unlike Adrien and his guardian however, there was a notable difference for her in that much of the woes which had befallen Marinette Dupain-Cheng had been in the public eye. Her parents had been unfortunately aware of her disappearance when the Grand Palais had collapsed. They, along with the rest of the world had assumed her to be dead. Then the truth or at least part of it had come to light. Even now, it's far from uncommon for her to be reminded that she was the "girl kidnapped by Hawk Moth".

"I went through therapy." Marinette reminds the woman eventually. "It doesn't make everything better."

"It would have helped."

It's a declaration which Nathalie isn't afraid to make it would seem. It offends Marinette somewhat, although she doesn't let it show. A part of her is inclined to wonder just what on earth makes the woman qualified to make such a statement. She's never had to sit in front of a psychiatrist, has she? With the woman, she'd honestly rather not try to say.

She doesn't pick an argument. Perhaps it's something that they can debate at a later date. Whatever the case, Marinette deems that there are more pertinent things to be debating right now. After all, she came here to discuss Adrien, not her own personal issues and the ghosts which still haunt aspects of her life. She had come here hoping that the woman would jump at the chance to help the young man she's spent so long raising. Given that seem to be somewhat reticent about doing so, she resolves that she's going to have to ask outright:

"Won't you help me help Adrien?"

"Help you do what exactly? Drag him away from his parents and the psychiatrist?" Marinette shrugs, it's not a million miles away from what she was planning. "Even if we found a way to do that… It would destroy any chances he ever has of having a normal life with his parents."

"Would-" Marinette starts uneasily, hesitating before deciding that there's no going back now. "Would that be such a bad thing?"

The look that she gets from Nathalie is one which she's never received before and prays she never will again. It's enough to make her be silent for the next few yards. It's clear that in her mind, the possibility of Adrien losing contact with his birth parents is not a desirable one. Marinette would disagree, claiming that they've brought him nothing but trouble and suffering one way or another. Again, she shies away from open conflict reasoning that if push comes to shove she needs allies more than she does enemies and that angering her boyfriend's former guardian is going to be anything but productive.

It takes a minute or so for the woman's silent anger to subside.

Finally however, just as Marinette's starting to make some plans about just how she can excuse herself or prepares to apologize, Nathalie lets out a sigh. It's clear that there's little resentment there. All of a sudden, she just comes across as tired.

"Believe me, I've thought about it. Right now, my hands are tied. If I thought I could magic Adrien away or approach his parents, I would but I can't. Right now… All we can do is wait until he's an adult."

"That's still two weeks away!" Marinette stresses to the woman.

"I know… But it might be simpler than getting tangled up in some sort of legal battle." The idea of backing down causes the girl to wince so Nathalie continues. "The press would be all over it. Things are complicated enough without other parties getting involved."

Marinette wants to argue, to contest the woman's statements. Adrien's suffered enough already. Every day he spends like this, it's as if a piece of him is slipping away from them. Two weeks isn't a long time in the scheme of things but in the current climate, it feels like that they could stretch on forever. She shifts, growing restless and uneasy at the prospect of what's to come.

Instead, the young woman finds herself looking for some manner of an alternative. She wants to do what Nathalie had done all those years ago with Adrien and run away. Take him out of that mansion which resembles more of a prison than anything else. Then what? Plagg has informed her that Gabriel has threatened legal action should anyone try to take the boy away. That more or less rules out anything that the former assistant can do. Whilst Marinette is a little bit hazier about the law, she's not even entirely sure that her own parents would be safe if it was found that they were harboring him. They could hide him somewhere… Then what? He would be a fugitive, there would be a police search, the press would get involved… The teen groans with frustration, struggling to think of even the beginnings of a potential solution.

"So what can we do?" She asks Nathalie eventually, running out of patience.

"Be there for him; if he asks for it – which he won't – or if he doesn't. Let him know that he's not alone… I care for that boy but if we move too soon, we will only make things worse. I think deep down he knows that. That's probably why he's acting the way he is, damage limitation… Stay by his side but don't ask him to do anything."

She makes it sound so easy. Marinette knows that it's about the only thing that she can do at the moment unless she's prepared to jeopardize both of their futures. With nothing more to add, she opts to remain quiet instead.

They walk only for a little bit further. Too much has between the two of them today to even contemplate discussing anything more lighthearted. When they do decide to part ways however there's a question on the young woman's lips. It's one which she's been seeking to ask for quite some time but never dared to. She'd thought about addressing it to Adrien but thought better of it, least he respond negatively and it bring about some form of realization which ended up hurting him somehow. So as she goes back up the ramp leading to the main street whilst Nathalie continues on along the quai towards the Île Saint-Louis, Marinette stops and looks over her shoulder, catching the former assistant's attention as she does so. She pauses, waiting to hear whatever is about to be said. The tone is gentle, letting her know silently that she's free to answer or not:

"Have you ever told him?"

"Told him what?" The woman raises an eyebrow genuinely perplexed.

"Told him that you love him."

She looks as if she's going to answer quickly but something suddenly stops her. Instead, she looks away, averting her gaze as she turns back towards the river. It captures her attention for a few minutes as she focuses on the waters as they glisten in the sun. One of the bateaux-mouches passes, disturbing the flow with its wake. Marinette doesn't push her for a response, preferring to leave the woman will all the time that she needs to to reply. The fact that she hasn't simply dismissed her by saying that of course she has is in many ways, an answer in itself.

Finally, it's with a quiet sigh that the woman replies in her own way:

"He knows."

"Yeah… But sometimes hearing it – especially for Adrien – it can make all the difference."

It's Nathalie's turn to pause, deep in thought as she reflects upon the statement. She isn't the type to wear her emotions on her sleeves and the fact that she's never done something as simple as tell Adrien that she cares for him doesn't come as all that much of a surprise for Marinette. After a few moments, she bows her head and takes her leave, taking it under advisement.

The women part company, although Marinette can sense that it likely won't be the last time that she has to deal with Nathalie Sancoeur. In two weeks, they might both need to stand together once more…