Adrien tried to tell himself his father favored work , and not just Nathalie. He tried to tell himself that things were no different than the week before, the month before, or whenever it was that Gabriel and his assistant had gotten "involved".
Things were, however, different. It stung to discover that his father had free time and affection to spare and spared them on someone else, but it was not the real problem. It hurt that they had chosen to hide the relationship from him, but it was not why being in the same room as Nathalie now filled Adrien with loathing.
Gabriel was not allowed to move on . Not before they knew for sure where Alice was. As long as they didn't know, there was hope she would come back. If Gabriel himself gave up on her, Adrien couldn't pretend that there was still a chance to see her again. He had thought his father would wait forever.
It wasn't a fair thing to ask from him, Adrien knew that. It had been four years, nearly five. He would have waited forever, or at least he thought so. And the way his father had looked at his mother, with a warmth that bordered on adoration… It was hard to believe Gabriel could just put all of that love in a box and bury it without irrefutable proof that Alice was forever gone.
Adrien had left Nathalie's office in their company's headquarters, left the building, and walked home. Then, he had locked himself in his bedroom, where he had thrown himself on the bed and done his best to think aboutnothing at all .
Plagg was sitting on his desk, pacing and staring at him, clearly trying to find something to say. Twenty minutes of reflexion had not been enough for him to come up with comforting words. Adrien never found out how long the cat would have needed: after twenty minutes, Gabriel knocked on his door.
Adrien went to open, and found his father tense and bristling with impatience.
"You wanted to talk to me", he all but snapped.
His son tried to be nice and polite, as one of them had to be. He had dragged his father out of… R&D, possibly something important, most likely something important. Everything Gabriel did was important to Gabriel.
The teenager smiled and moved back, gesturing for his father to enter the room.
"Yes. I'm sorry I was so pushy about it, but… I need to talk about mom."
Months of fights as Chat Noir and years of fencing training had taught him to spot the minute signs that someone was about to step away and flee. He saw Gabriel's every muscle prepare for retreat, then he watched as his father forced himself to walk into the room.
He looked around, unfamiliar with surroundings he had not seen in years now. He looked mildly surprised at the presence of arcade games he had paid for, took in the climbing wall, the posters, the everything, and paused as he turned to Adrien's computer screens.
"I see you are a fan of Ladybug", he commented, face blanker than his son had ever seen it.
He pressed his lips into a thin line and turned to Adrien with a look of disapproval.
"I think she's kind of cool", the teenager replied. "I… I take it you don't."
"Children recklessly endangering themselves? I can't say I approve. They are in over their head, and I doubt they realize it. But I'm sure you are aware of that."
Adrien lowered his eyes, trying to hide how hard that blow had hit him. Gabriel had no idea how personal that topic was, and had not meant to hurt him. Not that much, at least.
"They save the city every day", he murmured.
His father closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"What was it you wanted to discuss?"
"I want to know… That is, I am not sure… I mean… Are you still trying to find mom?"
Gabriel opened and closed his mouth in puzzled, then horrified silence. He was frozen, and did not manage much more than stunned blinks for a few moments. When he recovered, it was to retreat behind an icy facade.
"As a matter of fact, I'm flying to Bolivia next week, then to Brazil, to meet with the private investigators we hired there", he said, his words chosen with even more care than the fabric he picked for his most elaborate creations.
It was not the answer Adrien had wanted: it told him nothing about his father thoughts, nor about his hopes and feelings.
"Do you think there is still a chance to find her?"
Gabriel tried his best to hide his reaction at that. Anger still flickered on his face, his jaw still clenched, he still pulled back. He reined it all in before he could lash out - it took him less than a second - but Adrien had not missed his expression. It was quickly replaced by impassiveness. Gabriel's tone turned reassuring, but he still avoided giving a straight answer.
"We have hired the best investigators money can afford, all over South America and Europe. If there is a chance, they will not miss it."
Maybe Adrien read too much into it, but at no point did those words suggest that Gabriel believed the chance existed. "If".
"Do you think there is one?" he insisted. "Do you ?"
There was a short silence as Gabriel frowned and tried to figure out how to react. He joined his son and put a hand on his shoulder. He clearly wondered where to go from that point, squeezed a little, and sighed.
"What brought this on, Adrien?"
The boy stared at him.
Evasive tactics, again. He did not want to reply, most likely because his answer would be to no one's liking.
"You gave up", the young model murmured.
The hand Gabriel had placed on his shoulder twitched.
"Why would you think that?" his father asked, hesitant.
"Because I have been trying to get you to tell me that you still have hope for the last ten minutes, Father, and you can't say it."
The hand fell, hovered next to Adrien's arm for a moment, and returned to his shoulder. Gabriel swallowed hard. He sucked his cheeks in, bit down, breathed out.
"I will not stop looking until we know for sure what happened to her", he promised.
He was still not saying he believed she would be found, let alone found alive.
Adrien had never wanted so hard to be held, but he was not sure his father could stomach it. That hand on his shoulder was a lot, coming from someone like Gabriel. It was a surprise when the man ran his other hand through Adrien's hair. He left it there, after an awkward pat.
"You should…" he started.
He stopped there, sighing one more time.
"I will keep you informed of any development", he said. "I wish I could-"
His phone rang. While he did not pick up, he did not silence it either. He hesitated for a moment, listening to the ringtone until it stopped.
"I…" Gabriel murmured, swallowing his next words, racking his brains for more.
This was a man who managed a worldwide corporation and who was interviewed every other day. But, apparently, talking with his own son was beyond his abilities. He wanted to run. You could see it in his posture, in his eyes, in his everything.
"Wasn't that an important call?" Adrien asked.
"Maybe. It can wait. I will call you next week, after talking with the investigators, if you want me to."
"I'd like that."
Gabriel pulled back, removing his hands, leaving him cold and distraught.
"I will, then", he assured.
There was a lull, then he patted his pocket to check for his phone. He took it out, looked at the screen, and frowned.
"This can't wait", he muttered. "I'm sorry, Adrien, there's an emergency at the office. I have to go."
"I understand, Father. Go. Just go."
It was the opportunity to run Gabriel had waited for. He seized it.
###
Nathalie was good at covering her ass. It was both the reason why she had been hired, and the one why she had never been fired. She could lie, trick or bribe her way out of most situations. She had lied, tricked or bribed Gabriel's way out of many situations. She knew what one could get away with, and when you had to man up and face the music.
She knew when retreat was neither possible nor recommended. That was why she had sent Gabriel to Adrien. Something was wrong, and waiting for it to pass was not an option.
Her employer had trusted her judgement, and gone to talk to his son.
Her judgement had not recommended escaping the conversation after less than five minutes, to go handle paperwork at the office.
She was routinely baffled by how inapt a parent Gabriel could be. She could not parent, but she was certain she could have done a better job, had she tried. She would have mimicked happy families on television, which would still have been better than Gabriel's handling of the boy. She didn't get it. She felt like a parent should have been better at dealing with their own child, if only for having brought them into the world. Then she remembered that procreating did in no way instill parenting into you.
If it had not threatened her continued employment, and if she had not already known the answer to the question, she would have asked Gabriel why he had chosen to have a child.
"You don't like children. As a matter of fact, you don't like people . What the hell possessed you?"
The answer to the question was "Alice wanted children".
Gabriel would have given Alice the moon and stars if he could have purchased them. As things were, he had given her everything money could buy, and what was free, he had given her too. He had been a young man in love with his polar opposite, conscious their differences would tear them apart. As he had not been able to become everything she wanted, he had given her everything she wanted, which was not nearly the same.
Alice had been naive enough to fall for the persona he had assumed to seduce her, and to believe in that mask long enough for Adrien to seem like a good idea.
Nathalie had been there to hear her joyous "Gabriel! Look at your son!" turn into "Gabriel. Look at your son", and then "Gabriel. Look. At. Your. Son".
When Alice had vanished, people had assumed she had left Gabriel, not without good reason. Their marriage had been rocky at best. Gabriel had lied, tricked and bribed his way into her heart, and it had all come to light. But she had not left, Nathalie was certain of that. Alice would have tried to fix things to the end, and she could never have abandoned her son.
She had vanished, that was it.
The how and the why mattered little. The result was that Gabriel had found himself holding the hand of a child he had thought would be hers only. He, who had been so good at putting on a facade to seduce his wife, did not manage to lie to the boy.
The result of the result was that Nathalie, who was a qualified executive assistant (no one could prove otherwise) with the matching salary, spent several hours a day being cautiously distant with Adrien, so the boy's father wouldn't have to be present. Better results could have been achieved by hiring a seventeen year old crack-addicted nanny, yet Gabriel had insisted that she was the best choice.
She couldn't fathom why.
Alice having hated her guts from the second she had met her, Nathalie would have expected Gabriel to somewhat trust his wife's opinion.
Instead, the assistant found herself in a strange and unpleasant situation where she took care of a child who wasn't hers, after years spent attempting to convince his father to give the task to someone who actually wanted it, and while trying very hard not to feel sorry for the boy. To be honest, she was trying very hard not to feel anything for the boy.
It mostly worked, except when it didn't.
When, after his talk with his father, Adrien failed to appear for dinner, Nathalie grew concerned.
She went and knocked on his bedroom door, found the room empty, and tracked the teenager down through the security cameras. She found him in the courtyard, dejectedly sitting in the darkest corner available.
She joined him.
Much to her surprise, he was talking to someone when she arrived. As it didn't look like he was holding his phone, and as there was no one in sight, Nathalie was confused. Then, she looked up. Ladybug was perched above Adrien's head, crouching on the mansion's wall, and was leaning in to listen to his words.
"So, yes, I'm okay", Adrien was saying. "I just wish he could… Talk to me, you know? He spends his days talking to other people. I don't know why he avoids me."
Because Gabriel can speak with someone for days without telling them anything , Nathalie thought. Because when he talks to you, his words have to mean something. It's that simple.
Silence took many forms.
Nathalie considered not showing herself, but Ladybug, warrior that she was, spotted her. Adrien saw her turn, and followed her eyes. He jumped to his feet, nervous.
"N-Nathalie", he stuttered. "I was just… Am I needed inside?"
She looked up at Ladybug, who was a child - even more than the previous hero who had worn the costume - but who was studying her with the cold, assessing eyes of a soldier.
"I just wanted to check on you", Nathalie replied, her eyes returning to Adrien. "Dinner is served if you want it, but I see you are entertaining a friend."
Ladybug shifted on her perch.
Adrien flushed, looking up, and down, and everywhere but at Nathalie's eyes. The woman, knowing a crush when she saw one, turned back towards the doors, ready to walk away.
"Please don't tell my father about this!" the boy called after her.
She had told his father "about this" every time Adrien had ever uttered those words. Her loyalties were determined by the signature on her paychecks.
"I won't", she promised, this time without lying.
A hero was better equipped than she was to save the day.
###