Author's note: Thanks for all of the reviews and sorry for the delay with this chapter.
/
Ladybug swings across the rooftops, she travels across Paris far faster than any car obliged to follow the rules of the road could hope to. There is no emergency, at least not one where any lives are in danger. Instead, she has a specific destination in mind and it's essential that she makes it there as quickly as possible. It's a place that she's never actually visited before, the address was given to her by a friend a while ago, just in case anything ever happened. Evidently her precautions were not for naught…
The superhero takes the precaution of changing back to her civilian form before approaching the door. She has her diary with her, in which she had once jotted down the code to let herself in. She keys in the digits, glancing around to ensure that she's not too late or about to receive some company. For the moment, the cost is clear. She enters the building then finds herself stopping as she can't remember what floor or flat she needs. Glancing towards the letterboxes provides the teen with the information that she needs.
She storms up the stairs, running as fast as she can, aware that every second counts. She almost collides with one of the neighbors on her way up. They yell, telling her to be more careful. She apologizes but doesn't stop. She reaches the forth floor and knocks on the door. It's the wrong one. She's greeted by an extremely confused seventy-four-year-old man. Again, apologies are made as she turns to knock on the door across the landing.
Please let it be the right one, please….
After a few moments, she hears the lock turn, someone's in. She's greeted by Nathalie. The woman seems startled. Evidently her visit isn't planned or expected. Instinctively, that sends a certain amount of dread into the teen, dashing many of her hopes.
"Marinette? What's happened?" The woman seems to sense that this isn't a casual visit.
"Adrien, is he here?"
"No."
Nathalie steps to one side, seemingly sensing that Marinette won't be easy until she's seen inside the apartment with her own eyes and guaranteed that he isn't inside. The woman closes the door behind her, keen to ensure that this conversation to be too public. The teen steps inside spins around but sees no Adrien. There is however a man that she's never seen before. She freezes upon noticing him. He's sitting down at a table, in the middle of his breakfast and coffee. The teen feels the heat rise to her cheeks, realizing that she's intruding. The man, evidently a bit surprised himself by the intrusion, offers her a "bonjour". She can only respond in kind.
She glances towards her boyfriend's former guardian, trying to check her response. As always, her face is unreadable. If anything, she sees to be surprisingly calm.
"Adrien's ran away, hasn't he?" It's more of a statement of fact
"Yeah. I thought for sure he'd come here." Marinette confesses not even attempting to hide her disappointment.
"Have you called all of his friends? Nino? Alya?" Nathalie remains astonishingly calm, as if she has a checklist for this sort of thing.
"Yes. I think Mr. and Mrs. Agreste are going to check there as well."
Comforting? Not exactly. Whilst Gabriel had appeared to be rather shocked and confused by what had happened, she reasoned that it would subside eventually and he would go back to being the ruthless machine she knew that the man was capable of becoming. Every inch of Paris would be turned over in an attempt to locate Adrien Agreste. Hence why it was crucial that they located him first.
Nathalie seems to be impossibly calm given the current situation. She doesn't respond however, deep in thought for a few moments. With answers or suggestions being so slow in coming, the teen feels obliged to appeal to her, trying to stress the urgency of the current situation:
"Please Nathalie… You've got to have some idea of what's going on!"
"And why is that?" The woman snaps suddenly perhaps hearing some manner of implication that she's concealing the truth.
"You're his man..." Marinette stresses her voice softening with the declaration.
"Marinette I haven't seen or heard from Adrien in over two months!"
The revelation stops Marinette dead in her tracks. She isn't prepared for it in the slightest. The teen does some quick mental arithmetic and works out that the date would likely be when they were first forced to part ways but that couldn't be right… Adrien had told her that he'd been to see her, that they were texting. He wouldn't lie to her, would he? Yet it's clear that Nathalie is hurt by her declaration which allows the girl to see that she's most definitely telling the truth. They haven't seen one another.
Still, she can't quite manage to get it through her mind.
"But… He went round to see you one night."
"When was this?" Nathalie questions, raising an eyebrow.
"About two weeks." The girl struggles to recall a precise date. "It was after we stopped these two thieves, they'd held up a jewelers."
"What day exactly?"
It must be important to Nathalie as she insists that the girl trawl through her text messages, going back days, weeks and months to when the incident had occurred. It takes her somewhere between five to ten precious minutes which could better have been spent searching for the missing young man. Marinette tries not to let her irritation show, reasoning that there must be something which the woman is looking for. Eventually, she finds the text and reads out the time and date stamp.
On an interesting note, she's never heard Nathalie swear before. Adrien's told her that she does sometimes, if prompted and stressed enough but to date, she's never heard it and honestly has been wondering if he might have been pulling her leg. Now she has definite proof that the woman is capable of cursing. For a moment, the teen fears that she might have been directed towards the boy for being present there that night. Instead, she quickly realizes that its herself that his former assistant is angry with. Evidently, some of her decisions are to blame. Marinette doesn't quite understand and she isn't provided with much of an opportunity to inquire.
"I have an idea about where he might have gone." The woman declares after a few moments.
"You going to need a lift?" The man seems genuinely concerned, reaching for his jacket.
"No. It's okay Jacques." She seems to have calmed down a little by the time he approaches her. "I think I had better do this alone..."
Marinette realizes then and there that Nathalie has no intention of bringing her along for the ride. She's still too confused by the whole thing to feel all that offended. Perhaps if given a few more minutes, the girl would no doubt have protested more vigorously. She would have demanded to be brought along to find Adrien. She is cut short however when she sees the somewhat pained look behind the blue eyes. She doesn't know exactly what's happened but is able to sense that she doesn't want to risk getting in the way of whatever is happening and has already occurred. Without saying another word, she backs down silently.
The man, Jacques, leaves a few minutes later, urging Nathalie call him if she needs any manner of assistance. The woman remains apparently relaxed assuring him that she has matters in hand. When he's gone, Marinette feels a little more comfortable speaking:
"You know where he is?"
"I have a hunch..." The woman responds after after a few moments contemplative silence. "Marinette, if you don't mind, I'd rather do this alone. I have some things to explain to him."
"I-" She hesitates for just a moment, it's difficult to permit such a course of action. "Okay but promise you'll let me know if you find him!"
"You have my word."
She trusts Nathalie. Maybe that's a mistake, only time will tell.
The woman sets off, she heads for the metro. It's quite a long ride out to the city outskirts, not one that she's had to make in a good many years now. Nathalie makes her way along in silence, her mind is elsewhere. Silently, she curses herself for her foolishness and her fear which has prevented her from making which was objectively the logical decision. She tries not to focus on all of the worst possible case scenarios, instead concentrating on the matter at hand. She can only hope that Gabriel and Emilie stay quiet about their panic for just a bit longer. She needs an hour or so, just to talk to him, assuming that he's where she thinks he is. After that, she'll let him be if it's what he wants.
It's a strange thing to be back in this place. How many years has it been? Many. She can't even recall the last time that she was here. It's all a blur. Those days have been erased from her mind now and she's only too grateful for it. It leaves her, for the most part, with only the best days.
She climbs the stairs. As a Parisienne living in the center, she's grown somewhat accustomed to the lack of an elevator. All the same, the woman marks the occasional pause just to catch her breath. After a period of climbing, she eventually reaches her destination. In her handbag are a set of keys which she always carries with her even though she hasn't had the occasion to use them in quite some time. It's only been a few hours, she reasons, he won't have had enough time to change the locks. It likely won't even have occurred to him.
Cautiously, she turns the keys in the lock and opens the door.
Something collides with her, threatening to knock her off her her feet. She has just enough time to brace herself as the large dog, barking enthusiastically greets her. She's not too sure if she's missed this or not. The slobber on her nice clean clothes is definitely something which she could have happily done without. Still, despite her usual reservations, the woman finds herself smiling as she pats the animal, trying to convince it to calm down. There's nothing to be done for it. Macaroon is ecstatic. After a little over two months, the animal had perhaps assumed that he was never going to see the tall and serious woman ever again.
After a few moments, her eyes rise to meet a young man. He's standing a little bit further back in the room. He's frozen as he stands there. His mouth hangs open just slightly. Is he waiting to speak or too shocked to do so. One thing's for sure, he wasn't expecting to see her here, not like this at the very least.
"Nathalie..." The young man breathes out eventually.
She offers him a gentle little smile as if to let him know that everything's alright, he can relax. Given what's happened, there's no predicting just how exactly he will react. Right now, he just looks as lost as he always does. She catches sight of Plagg floating just next to his partner's shoulder, the kwami smiles gratefully at her. Her arrival will have pleased at least someone. She manages to calm down Macaroon enough to get in, closing the door behind her carefully.
She wants to take this slowly and surely. As a result, she's more inclined to let him process this and react in his own time. The last thing that the young woman wants is to impose herself. Perhaps she should have phoned ahead. She reminds herself that he's turned off his cellphone, if he even has it with him. As a result, the woman is forced to try and read him in order to deduce how well – or badly – he's taking this. At first glance, he didn't seem to be displaying any of the little tics or other nervous signs she's learned to take note of which might indicate that he's about to suffer from an episode. As such, she finds herself relaxing just a little.
It's a while before Adrien takes the risk of speaking:
"How did you know I'd be here?"
"You're a smart young man, for the most part." She adds the last part in something of a more jovial tone, in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere. "I reasoned you'd want somewhere to lie low for a bit, to get your bearings that wouldn't put your friends at any risk. Somewhere familiar…"
"This was home, for a while." Adrien mutters quietly.
It's hard not to think back to those days with some fondness. They'd seemed… Simpler in some ways. Although practically Nathalie knows that isn't true – they'd been in hiding from a supervillain after all. For whatever reason however, it's how the two of them chose to remember it. Even now, as her eyes travel around the apartment, she finds herself struggling with the urge to smile as she thinks back to it. The smell is unpleasant and there's a lingering dampness despite the open window. In many ways, it hasn't changed all that much from that first night that they turned up, in that it's a health hazard.
There are some more familiar elements however. It had seemed more natural for there to be photos of Dylan and Delphine lying around and there still are. They've been faded a bit by the sun. Still, she remembers each and every one of them acutely. Adrien with his dyed hair and dark eyes might have looked strange to some but in an odd way, it almost feels more natural to her. She smiles briefly at a few of them before turning her attention back towards the young man who stands before her now:
"I'm impressed that you waited until after your exams before pulling a disappearing act." She tells him earning only a shrug for a response. "I'm a little more disappointed that you didn't let Marinette know."
"I was going to tell her as soon as I was set up." The young man informed her somewhat defensively. "I'm guessing she's looking for me?"
"Yes. She assumed that you were hiding at my apartment."
The mention of the building causes Adrien to recoil slightly. He doesn't looking at her, instead whistling for Macaroon to come over to his side. The dog obliges, tail wagging a mile a minute as he approaches. The boy sits back down on the couch that she had once bought him to make the nights that he spent in the apartment a bit more comfortable for his growing body. He's so tall now, she has to wonder if he would still fit on the unfolded bed. Hopefully, if this works out, they won't have to find out.
The teen is slow with his response. In fact, Nathalie is mostly convinced that there isn't going to be one, so she decides to push ahead herself:
"It's been a few months..." She reminds him quietly, testing the waters cautiously, unwilling to trigger another outburst. "I didn't want to push, even when you stopped answering my messages but you did come round, didn't you? You came round and saw me with a man..."
Again, she leaves him a moment. Providing him with an opportunity to respond, to confirm or deny her statement. He grows distant in those few moments, his attention focuses elsewhere. She can tell that he's a little but awkward standing there. There's probably reason enough for him to be so. Strangely though, she finds herself thinking back to the time that she had announced to Dylan that a man had asked her on a date. He hadn't seemed to be all that bothered by it. Then again, that was three and a bit years ago. Things have changed between the two of them.
She takes a chance and decides to make herself comfortable. Pretending that she still lives here, Nathalie enters, making her way over to couch (the armchair she had spent so many hours recovering from her ailment in brings back unpleasant memories), the woman sits down. Adrien stares but makes no attempt to either join her or make her feel particularly unwanted. He just seems to be confused, a bit lost, something which his former carer hopes that she can remedy.
"I'm sorry for leaving you."
"Don't apologize." Adrien requests, his voice soft. "A lot of this it's my fault. I just- I lose control. I didn't mean to hurt you."
"I know that… I forgive you."
In a flash, everything changes. The teen's features soften. He's back with her. She grins just a bit so as to pull him out of whatever he's become trapped in. He comes over and settles next to her on the couch. They sit like that in silence for a few moments, allowing the emotion to die down somewhat before attempting to discuss matters any further. Both slouch slightly, their postures reminiscent of a couple exhausted after a long day's work. Although in practice, it's still comparatively early in the morning. Nathalie is patient. She's inclined to give him the opportunity to ask the questions this time, reasoning that he must have quite a few on his mind right now.
Finally, the teen summons the daring that he needs to ask:
"So… Who is he?"
"His name is Jacques Lambert. I've been seeing him for a while now." Nathalie confesses her gaze fixing the floor.
"You have?" Next to her, Adrien is surprised. He gets a nod of confirmation. "Why didn't you say anything?"
She shrugs. It's not entirely an apology. Even here, right now, she's not entirely comfortable about discussing such matters. A part of the woman knew that it was perfectly illogical. If there is anyone on the planet that it's probably safe to open up to, it's Adrien Agreste. He will never tell another soul and she doesn't think of him as the judgmental type. Still, she struggles, it's difficult for her to share such things with anyone, even the young man.
"I'm not much good with my feelings." She admits after a little while. "I didn't know if it was going to last or be serious..."
"Where did you meet him?"
"The garage. He's-"
"What? Is he a mechanic or something?" There was a distinctively teasing tone to the kwami's voice.
"Is something wrong with that?" Nathalie responded in a somewhat clipped manner.
"No… It's just..." He fumbles catching sight of the cold look the woman gave him. "I thought you'd prefer, you know. Guys in suits."
"I'll admit… Me too but he was..." She pauses, evidently searching for the right word. "Nice."
There was a certain fascination behind Adrien's eyes. It tells her that he could quite happily go on talking about this subject for quite some time yet. She'll give him the opportunity later on, if he sees it fit. For the time being, there's a matter which seems to be a good deal more pressing which needs to be dealt with.
The woman is hesitant however. She treads carefully, reluctant to risk upsetting the teen or triggering an outburst. He seems calm enough right now but she's learned at her own expense that that can change in a heartbeat. So the woman draws quiet, silently wondering how best to bring up the matter. She wishes that it were possible to snap her fingers and erase much of what's happened. In retrospect, it had been a terribly stupid decision to keep any of this from a young man whom she knew to be fragile. So she sits there, rubbing her heel into the filthy carpet for lack of anything better to do.
"I didn't want to be in the way of your life..." She's not entirely sure if that's meant to hurt or not.
"I wanted you to be happy." He lowers his head, eyes closed as the explanations just come without him able to stop them. "I-I thought I would be in your way."
Nathalie can't quite manage to hold in a sigh. She shakes her head, unsure just how to respond. A part of her almost wants to laugh although there's something in her mind that lets her know that it would be inappropriate. Still, she finds herself smiling at the boy's good-intentions. In a way, it was almost painful just what he was willing to put himself through so as to ensure that those whom he cared for were happy and safe, even if it was at great cost to himself.
"Adrien, you would never be in the way… You know that I-" She almost says it but for whatever reason the words get snagged at the back of her throat. "There's always a place for you, come what may."
The teen hangs his head lowly. He seems beaten, defeated. In those few instants, it isn't an individual whom in the eyes of society has become a man that she sees, instead it's just Adrien, the boy. He seems lost, even with Plagg on his shoulder, providing a silent but none-the-less present sense of comfort.
Nathalie sees what's going to happen before it does. The teen leans forwards, wrapping his arms around her and latching on to the woman he's spent the past two months avoiding. He doesn't object. Instead, she places a hand on his back which she rubs gently. He doesn't seem to be crying, something which surprises his former carer somewhat. It would seem that he just needed the proximity. She's unsure if he would have been receiving any from his parents but Marinette, Plagg and Macaroon have been there for him. She stops herself from asking to many questions. There are many more important matters for her to attend to right at this instant.
"I want to go home..." Adrien tells her eventually.
"You will I promise-" She pauses for a few moments before adding. "-but there's some things we need to do first."