Adrien and I wandered around for a few more hours, talking and just playing around. We lost track of time, and it was almost surprising how neither of our miraculouses beeped since it grew later into the evening. We were the only ones awake, now, aside from anyone on a night shift. Currently we were wandering somewhere along the length of the Seine River, and I was balancing along the bridge rail as we crossed it, holding my arms out to balance myself.

"Alright, Adrien. Tell me one of your favorite memories from when you were little." I said, smiling at him with a toothy grin. Adrien hummed, lightly holding his chin in thought. He lit up when he got one, a small "Aha!" escaping him.

"My mom loved to cook and make all sorts of things. She'd kick our chefs out of the kitchen for an hour or two once every week, and she'd take me into the kitchen to let me help her while she cooked." He said fondly, smiling up at the star-filled sky above us. "I'd mix anything she wanted me to mix and would sometimes help her at the stove. Whenever we would make a desert, half the time we'd end up covered in flour or smudges of batter." He laughed as he said the last part, looking over to me after a moment.

"This one time, when I was four, I was helping her make a surprise batch of chocolate peppermint brownies to congratulate Father on something- I.. Don't remember what."

"Wait, your dad likes chocolate peppermint brownies?" I asked with a smile, disbelief in my voice.

"Yes, he does. But when we were there, Mom had me measuring all the ingredients and handing them to her while she mixed them together, while listening to the radio. Did you know that my father is scarily silent when it comes to walking around? Because mom and I, we were lost in our own little world and I guess we must have timed it wrong, or Father had come home early, but he walked into the kitchen to say hi and Mom was so startled she turned turned around so fast, dad's entire face was covered."

Adrien laughed again while I chuckled, slipping my feet off the railing to sit on it instead as I listened. "His face was completely blank, and I remember thinking 'He's going to get mad at us. He's not happy.' and then he had grinned, grabbed the flour bag, and taken a gigantic handful of it before throwing it at mom and I. Mom had squealed and thrown some back at him before shaking her hair out over me. Then, it had turned into a huge food fight- although it was really only flour and chocolate power we used. That was probably the first and only time the kitchen staff had the courage to scold us for getting the entire kitchen messy and not finish making something."

I laughed, smiling at Adrien as I kicked my feet back and forth over the river. "Wow, so your dad really wasn't always so terrible. That's a refreshing thought."

Adrien shrugged, leaning against the railing next to me. "Yeah, well, I miss the old him. I still don't get why it was such a big change, though. It just... Doesn't make sense." He looked down sadly, almost like a kicked puppy, and I felt my heart ache a little. He shouldn't look like that. He should never look like that.

"...Well, whatever happened to your mom probably hit him hard." I said softly, "He just wants to protect you, but he doesn't understand how. It's scary, I think. Being a single parent. Mom was terrified for multiple reasons after my accident. She's a lot better now, but for a while we were both pretty screwed up. Our old neighborhood didn't help any, either. Everyone kept whispering about what happened and I had nightmares almost constantly- it was not a good time."

Adrien bit his lip, looking over to me warily. "Jasper... W-what exactly happened that time, if you don't mind me asking?" I bit my lip next, before throwing my head back and sighing loudly.

"Well, I guess you do deserve the full story after the Oogie-Boogie incident-" I paused, realizing something as I looked back at Adrien, "By the way, there haven't been any more Akuma like him, have there? Whatever happened to that lady?"

Adrien blinked from the sudden question, before his eyebrows furrowed in thought. "That's... A good question. Maybe she's just waiting to see how things play out with Hawkmoth...?"

I hummed and shrugged. "I guess. Well, anyway, time for a rather depressing story that I will lighten up with my favorite childhood memory afterwards." I cleared my throat slightly, taking a deep breath to steady myself as I started the story.

"It was 3 years ago, four in February, when my accident happened. A few days prior to what happened, I had gone to look for dad at his work because mom was out of town for personal matters. I don't remember what they were, though. Anyway, I was at dad's workplace because I couldn't be at home alone. Bad stuff was going on in our neighborhood at the time and mom was worried something might happen if I was by myself with no one to protect me, blah blah blah, back to the main story. I couldn't find him in the usual places I could find him; the break lounge, his office, etc. One of his coworkers saw me and told me to try the basement- apparently he had been going down there a lot recently."

"What exactly did your father work in?" Adrien asked, and I thought for a minute.

"It was like... Clinical stuff. Not necessarily a doctor's office nor was it an emergency care, but were a medical company that took in patients from time to time. Dad mainly did paperwork or prescribed medicine." I said after a moment, looking over to Adrien. He hummed and nodded, motioning for me to continue. "Alright, well, I went down to the basement, and fro a while it smelled rather nice, like pines or vanilla, or some other string air freshener, but then the smell became disgusting about halfway down the steps. Like drugs and..." I paled, remembering what I had seen before quickly shaking my head and making an X with my arms out of habit. "No, no. You do not want to know what I saw. Let's just say... It was illegal, and Dad's boss along with a few of the doctors and his coworkers would be furious and appalled when they found out." I took a deep breath again, gripping the railing tightly as I continued.

"Dad was down there, though, and he was furious. He made me promise I wouldn't tell anyone, and I obeyed without question. I thought it was gross and disgusting, but I didn't bother arguing or telling, out of fear for my own life. He was off the deep end, probably halfway gone with drugs and his other accomplices. Anyway, the day of the accident it was storming really hard, and mom was supposed to come back that night. School had gone fine, and I had gone home because Dad didn't want me at his work anymore. I was fine with that, though. The further away from him, the better.

"I was worried mom wouldn't be able to make it home in this weather, and was so engrossed in this fact I didn't realize dad was already home. That wasn't normal. He usually came home two or three hours after I did, when it was darker out. I had gone inside, and dad was on the couch drinking away. He looked towards me when I opened the door, and... Well, he was not happy. He lunged at me with a killing intent practically radiating around him and a crazy look in his eyes, spouting all sorts of nonsense that I had told his company about what was happening in their basement even though I hadn't spoken a word of it to anyone. He was an Akuma all by himself- heck, Hawkmoth would be jealous of how much rage he had!"

I jumped slightly when I felt Adrien's hand on my shoulder. I didn't realize I had started shaking. He looked like he was going to stop me but I just smiled at him and continued on, "He chased me around the house, and I screamed bloody murder hoping the neighbors would hear me. I knew there were a few people home on our street, and I just needed them to hear me. I know I should have gone outside and run as far away as possible, but my mind wasn't working at the time. Eventually he pinned me against the back wall of the hallway upstairs, and he had a big bottle of Hydrochloric acid in his hand. He looked insane as he pinned me there and forced my mouth open. I tried to pull away but the acid just splashed into my skin instead. It burned real bad."

"Jasper-"

"Let me finish, Adrien. You should know." I said sternly, looking Adrien in the eyes until he backed down. I looked back down at the water, worrying at my lip a little before continuing. "He... He pressed his arm against my chest and my throat to keep me still as he pried my mouth open. H-He took the bottle and right before he started to pour it down my throat told me 'Tattle tails should lose their ability to tattle.' and then all I felt was pain as the acid practically destroyed my throat, lungs, and stomach. At that point I hear a terrified scream and a gunshot, and then all I know after that is blackness until I woke up in the hospital. They... They told me it was a miracle I survived. The acid had destroyed all my vocal cords and was close to destroying my lungs. The damage to my stomach was surprisingly minimal, although I couldn't hold anything down for about a week. I had permanent scarring along my neck and it took months for everything that was going to heal, heal completely.

"Dad was sentenced to prison for life, but the police officer who had shot him had killed him. The officer was suspended for like, half a year, and I felt really bad. He was just protecting me. He didn't deserve to be suspended. But there were people shouting police brutality that didn't seem to care that he saved my life and the department had to do something. The officer willingly let himself be suspended. Mom and I visited him often during his suspension, and his family was really kind. They helped us get back on our feet, and he helped me get over the fear of men I had developed. They also suggested a really good doctor that I could see about the nightmares and hallucinations I experienced. She diagnosed me with PTSD and gave me the prescription for pills I need to take. I still can't handle people touching or really seeing my neck, though."

Adrien looked terribly sad when I finished my story, and then he hugged me as tight as he could. "I'm so, so sorry." He said softly, and I hugged him back.

"It's in the past now." I said after a moment, patting his back lightly before gently pushing him away. "Now, here's my one of my favorite childhood memories. I was nine years old, and my birthday had fallen onto a school day that year, like normal. Third grade wasn't my favorite school experience, but the teacher was funny and let me and a few other people spend lunch in her classroom instead of in the cafeteria because we didn't handle crowds and loud areas well. And the library was as awesome as any elementary school can get. Anyway, that birthday hadn't really been the best birthday of my life, and I just wanted to go home, cry over homework, and sleep. I had opened any physical presents from my parents that morning.

"When mom came to pick me up she noticed how tired I was, and she took a detour on the way home. She stopped by an old ice cream shoppe that we had in our town and got us malted milkshakes. I thought that was it. It cheered me up a bit, because it was a really nice treat, but after a while I noticed that we still hadn't gone home, much less near it. I asked her about it and she just gave me a secretive smile. Soon enough I had fallen asleep in the car and the next thing I know, we're pulling into the parking lot of a "fun farm"."

Adrien looked at me confused as I said that, "What's a fun farm?"

"It's... Basically a farm that also counts as an amusement park. The one I went to had petting zoos, a really long slide in the dark, little carnival rides for kids, a corn maze, pony rides, a personalized fun house for that farm, camel rides, pig races, and a few other things. Hence the term, fun farm. Anyway, Mom and I spent the rest of the afternoon there, and... Well, I don't know. The day was just really fun. I still don't know if she had always been planning to do that or if it was spur of the moment, but I'm really glad she did it."

Adrien nodded and smiled, and soon we went on our way, heading back to Adrien's house now that the night was getting a little too late. We didn't talk much, now, but we still enjoyed each other's company.

When we reached his home, I hugged him goodnight then made my way home for the evening.