After months and months of chasing after the girl of his dreams, Adrien finally found her. He then rejected her, breaking her heart and ruining any chance he ever had of being with her. Now he felt lost and broken, unsure how to continue, unsure if he could ever be happy again. It wasn't sadness as much as a numbness, an inability to feel happy again, or sad, or anything. He was just miserable, so much so that he was surprised that he hadn't been akumatized yet. Plagg had tried to cheer him up, but to no avail.

After that, he couldn't bear the thought of being back in school. Back with Marinette. He hadn't spoken to her again since that day. He knew for certain she must hate him now and was too scared to face her. Instead, he had taken the easy way out, returning to his homeschooling.

Doing so made him realize just how badly Nathalie was doing. He had noticed she was acting a bit off lately, but now the changes were more obvious. She suffered from shortness of breath a lot, and her posture was not as disciplined as it once was, not to mention the coughing fits. She hadn't gone to see a doctor about it, as far as he knew, and he was starting to get concerned.

One morning, as he was sitting through the end of Nathalie's lecture, his father suddenly entered the room. Despite the fact that his father worked from home and never left the house, it was still rare for Adrien to see him, especially outside of his office. However, he didn't even care about that anymore. Nathalie stopped midsentence and turned to her employer.

"I think that's enough for right now," his father said, looking to Nathalie.

"Yes, sir," she gave a nod to him. Turning back to Adrien she added, "We'll start your lunch break early today and pick this up afterward." Then she left the room, coughing a bit as she went.

Adrien looked up at his father as they were left alone, wondering what he could want this time. Of late, most of their conversations involved Adrien being rebuked for trying to exercise too much freedom. His father cleared his throat, his taciturn expression as difficult to read as ever.

"Adrien," he said in his familiar, stern voice, "Is something bothering you?"

"No, I'm all right," Adrien answered, looking away. I just ruined any chance I had with the girl I love.

"Please, Adrien," his father's voice lost its normal tone of conviction, "We should be honest with each other. You're upset about that Marinette girl, aren't you?"

"How did you know?" Adrien looked up at him, genuinely surprised. I didn't think he knew about my date, Adrien felt shocked, he usually never takes an interest in what I do with my friends.

"I talked to your bodyguard," his father explained, "He told me all about it."

Adrien didn't feel comfortable talking about this, especially not with his father. He was not a very sentimental person, and this was a very sensitive topic. Unfortunately, he didn't see him getting out of this conversation. "Yeah," he admitted finally, heaving a heavy sigh.

Neither of them spoke after that. Adrien wasn't sure how much he wanted to say, if anything. He was not ready to talk about his love of Ladybug to anyone, least of all his father. Although, his father did come to speak to him, and he seemed to be genuinely concerned. Pushing him away wasn't going to help anyone now.

"I really hurt her, father," Adrien sighed, breaking the silence at last, "I didn't mean to, but I did. Now I don't know what to do." He looked up at his father, waiting to see what he would say. Does he have any advice for me, or does he not care? Adrien found himself wondering.

"Do you… love her?" his father asked slowly. Adrien was, admittedly, surprised he had realized that so quickly, but even more surprised to hear his father speak that way.

"Yes," he spoke softly, feeling shaky saying it aloud. I really do love her, he told himself, and I drove her away.

"Then you should speak to her," his father said with more emotion than Adrien had heard from him in a long time, "You need to show her how you feel, and ask for forgiveness. If you love her, don't let her go."

Adrien stared at his father in shock. Was he really giving advice on love? Adrien had never considered him much of an expert in that field, or of any emotion for that matter. Well, except maybe impatience. And anger. But certainly not love.

But he was right. Sitting here, wallowing in despair, was not helping anything. He had to do something, to try and talk to her at least. He loved her, he really did, and he didn't want to let her go. Even in the deepest pit of despair, he still imagined that, somehow, they would end up together. If he wanted to make that a reality, he needed to do something now.

"Thank you, father," Adrien said suddenly. Overcome by gratitude, he jumped up from the table and ran over to hug him, "Thank you." He felt his father's arms wrap around him, returning the hug. For a moment, he enjoyed the warmth of his embrace, a rare sign of affection from his father.

"Is it all right if I go out for a bit?" Adrien asked him, looking up at his father with newfound appreciation.

"Yes," he answered with ever so slight a smile, "Your bodyguard will drive you wherever you need to go."

Gabriel watched Adrien run out of the room, feeling uncertain. He loved his son, he really did, and he wanted what was best for him, but he was slowly coming to the conclusion that he didn't know what that was anymore.

As a child, Gabriel had dictated pretty much everything his son did. From the topics he studied, the friend he was permitted, and food he was provided, Gabriel had control over everything, certain he knew what was best. As he grew into a teenager, though, he was seeing how Adrien was growing into his own person, in the beginning stages of becoming a man, and the realization was dawning on him that what was best for Adrien was not concurrent with what Gabriel wanted anymore.

That was why he permitted him to go to school, and why he permitted him to spend time with his friends. Especially after Emilie's… incident, he wanted to see his son happy. That meant giving him more freedom, at least within reason.

But now this. Could he really be in love? he wondered, he's so young, what could he know about love? If he was truly in love with this girl, then that was one thing Gabriel felt he couldn't get in the way of. He knew firsthand the importance of love and how far a man could go in pursuit of it. So long as he continued to doggedly pursue his wife, so cruelly taken from him less than a year ago, he couldn't deny Adrien the opportunity to pursue his own love.

Gabriel sighed, still uncertain if what he did was the right thing. Still, it gave him some satisfaction to have seen his smile. With a brief nod and small smile to himself, he returned to his office.