After his discussion with his father, Adrien's first reaction was to put as much distance as he could between himself and his home. He left his room, he walked out of the mansion, he crossed the courtyard, then he realized that his absence would - for once - be noticed. He could not just request his father and Nathalie's full attention and then vanish. Of course, Gabriel had run off to deal with that problem that "couldn't wait", but his assistant was still home.
Adrien had not asked about Nathalie at all. Ultimately, her relationship with his father was not the issue here, just the proof that Gabriel had laid his feelings for his wife to rest. It meant that Adrien was the last person to think there was hope left, and it felt like believing in fairies: if no one did, they vanished. The thing was… He could clap all he wanted, no one else would anymore. And with every day, with every sparkle of faith extinguished, he felt like Alice faded.
He found himself a corner away from the dimming sunlight, and sat there, leaning against the courtyard's wall.
Plagg, looking every shade of concerned, popped out of under his shirt.
Now, Plagg was not who you thought of when you talked about "compassion" and "comfort", but you could tell he wanted to say something. He did not manage to come up with anything, though he was clearly sad, so he landed on Adrien's shoulder and curled up there.
He made a strange, continuous snorting noise that was probably meant to be purring.
It did cheer Adrien up, if only because the mix of surprise and ridiculousness nearly made him laugh. The boy held the burst of hilarity in. He could see that Plagg was trying his hardest, and was grateful for that. He smiled and scratched the Kwami's head.
"Thank you, Plagg", he murmured.
"I wish there was…" the cat started, pausing to think. "I wish there was something I could say to you."
"It's okay. It's alright. I… I'm glad you're here."
The Kwami nodded, and remained silent. After a few moments, he bumped his head against Adrien's chin. The teenager felt a little warmer at that, a little less distraught. Then, Plagg dove inside his collar, hiding under his shirt.
"Everything alright down here?" a familiar voice asked from above.
Adrien looked up and froze. Ladybug was perched on the wall, and waved hesitantly.
"L-Ladybug", he exclaimed, jumping to his feet and turning to her.
"H-Hey there", she replied. "Are you okay? I was just passing by, and-"
That was when he remembered she was convinced that his father was their archnemesis, and that he was not pleased with that assumption.
"You meant you wanted to make sure my father was not busy releasing Akumas upon innocent Parisians?" he asked in his warmest, most friendly voice.
Ladybug went very still, her face twisting in horror. She was so shocked that she forgot to keep her grasp on the fence that lined the walls. She dropped like a stone and crashed head first.
There was a "AOUCH!".
There was a "OH MY GOD ARE YOU OKAY?".
Adrien helped her up, apologizing profusely. Then, there were explanations - lies - on the Hawk Moth thing.
"Why would think I-" Ladybug began.
"Chat Noir asked me a few questions", he pretended, realizing when she gaped and frowned that he would be murdered as soon as she would get her hands on his other self. "I mean, he didn't say as much, I came to that conclusion myself."
He watched as her expression moved from 'I want to kill my partner' to 'I want to kill myself'. It was a face of her he scarcely knew. Chat Noir was the goofy one and, as a consequence, Ladybug always seemed to be the one with her head firmly on her shoulders. The way she interacted with Adrien Agreste was… surprising.
He idly wondered if she knew of his career as a model, and if there was some celebrity crush at play. He doubted it - she was one herself - but it was not like he was unused to that kind of attention.
Eventually, she regained her composure. She sighed, and sat against the wall, patting the ground next to her. He sat too.
She looked up at the orange skies.
"Truth is, I'm grasping at straws about Hawk Moth's identity, and I investigate the tiniest clues", she said in a soft voice, bringing her index and thumb together to underline how small the clues were. "Someone who works at your father's company posted something on a conspiracy blog, and I looked into it for a day or two. Well, what I discovered is that your dad is a very, very busy man."
Her words sounded perfectly genuine. He knew they were not, since her most recent discussion with Chat Noir had been radically different, but he could appreciate her trying to comfort him.
"I don't think he is", he murmured, turning away from her to look at the sky too. "I'm not saying he is… I mean, he has his faults. He does. But I don't think he is Hawk Moth. There are evil people, and then there are people who are just…"
He couldn't find the words.
"People who just don't seem to know how to… to…" he tried.
He felt like his tongue was getting stuck to the roof of his mouth.
"My father is not good with people", he concluded, sighing.
Ladybug put a hand on his.
"Are you alright?" she asked again, returning to the original reason for her presence.
"I… Yes, thank you."
She squeezed his hand, studying his face.
"Are you sure?"
Adrien took a deep breath and forced himself to smile.
"Yes. I had a chat with Father, and it didn't go so well, but it's nothing to be worried about."
He saw her blink at the formal form, but she was not nearly as stunned as Alya that time he had used "Mom" and "Father" in the same sentence.
"That… doesn't sound so good", she replied. "Do you want to talk about it?"
He shook his head.
"It will blow over", he lied. "Thanks for caring."
He saw her hesitate, clear worry on her face, and he had to admit the feeling of her hand on his was one he cherished. He considered telling her, but discarded the idea. She had enough on her plate. And paint too accurate a portrait of Gabriel was not the best thing to do when she suspected him of being her mortal enemy.
"You should go", he insisted. "I'll be okay, and 'patrol won't patrol itself'."
That was a quote of her own words to him, days earlier, and she flushed when she heard them.
"P-Paris. Paris won't patrol itself", she stuttered.
Adrien froze and gaped, turning red as he understood that she had been so embarrassed about that mistake that she had to correct it several days later.
He had not thought he could love her more.
He smiled.
She cleared her throat, mumbled a "you're probably right", and jumped back on the wall. He turned and looked up to watch her go, but she stopped there.
"I'll drop by tomorrow", she promised. She hesitated. "Does it happen often? You arguing with your father?"
The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.
"No. Usually, we don't see each other", he heard himself say.
The look on her face was so concerned and anguished that he felt sorry he had opened his mouth. He took a deep breath and leaned back against the wall, looking at the ground so he wouldn't have to meet her eyes.
"He's a very, very busy man", he told her. "You saw that yourself. And it's fine, I understand that, it has always been that way. So, yes, I'm okay. I just wish he could… Talk to me, you know?" - He had meant to keep the words in. He couldn't. He tilted his head back to look at her. - "He spends his days talking to other people. I don't know why he avoids me."
His partner turned. So did he.
Nathalie was coming towards them, her ever faithful tablet under the arm. And Gabriel did not approve of Ladybug at all.
Adrien jumped to his feet.
"N-Nathalie. I was just… Am I needed inside?"
His father's assistant - his father's something - took a long look at Ladybug. Her expression didn't change at all. It remained inscrutable, even when her eyes returned to Adrien. His heart was thumping in his chest. He knew she would tell what she had seen to Gabriel - she always did - and he didn't want to have another talk with his father so soon. Not when he knew he would only get disapproval. Then again, Gabriel had fled their earlier discussion. Maybe he would drop the Ladybug issue not to have to reopen the discussion about Adrien's mother.
Nathalie didn't mention Gabriel at all. She just announced dinner was served, made a quick reference to Ladybug's presence, and left.
"Please don't tell my father about this!" he called after her.
She said she wouldn't.
He knew she was lying. He watched her go, taking a long, trembling breath.
Ladybug landed next to him.
"So that was your father's assistant, right?"
He turned the tip of his tongue against his palate so his mouth would not feel like dried clay. He forgot to answer.
"Adrien?"
"Yes", he said, because Nathalie was his father's assistant, even if that wasn't all.
"Adrien?"
He blinked and turned to Ladybug.
"Have you ever seen the sunset from the top of the Eiffel tower?"
"Yes. I mean no."
###
After his discussion with his son, Gabriel's first reaction had been to put as much distance as he could between himself and his home. It had also been his second, third, and twentieth. In his position as the owner of a corporation, he was rarely idle to begin with, but he spent the next days making sure to be busy from dawn to dusk. Most people actively attempted to cancel their work meetings. He came up with more (his place in the heart of his employees grew smaller).
Nathalie was left to wonder what the hell she was supposed to assist, seeing how his schedule updated itself. On a particularly frustrating occasion, she had to fight for the control of a square in one of the columns of Gabriel's calendar. Her boss was set on moving it to an earlier time, while she attempted to keep that appointment right where it was, namely "not while the other person involved was on a plane over the Atlantic".
The numeric battle went on on for four minutes, then Nathalie collected herself, her thoughts, and the remains of her sanity, to go knock on Gabriel's door.
"Sir", she said when he told her she could come in. "I won't be able to reschedule that meeting. However, I believe there's two appointments I can fit in that time period."
He probably noticed the faint notes of mild annoyance in her voice, because he looked up from his screen halfway through her sentence, and turned to her.
"Very well."
Also, please do not change your planning, I change your planning, I have to actually warn the people whose schedule you are impacting, you capricious jackass.
Gabriel was turning back to his screen.
Nathalie breathed in and moved back towards the door.
"Also", she added. "I would appreciate if could you let me handle your appointments. If you need to be kept busy, I will keep you busy. You just have to keep me updated."
His eyes snapped to hers.
Judging by how stunned he looked (not at all: his face was blank, but the perpetual air of disdain was gone), his mind was happily swimming in the gutter. She knew the signs.
She couldn't help but purse her lips and frown. That was why you didn't sleep with your boss.
He nodded, biting the inside of his cheeks, then focused on his laptop.
She retreated.
###
The bobby pins thing was about control. The lack, the loss, and slow unraveling of it.
Nathalie figured that out quite late. At midnight or so, more precisely, in Gabriel's arms, over her desk, in her office. Not the mansion's office, of course. They were in no hurry to see their relationship discovered, but the idea of Adrien being made aware of it was… It didn't register, could not happen, and would not.
It meant they spent more time at the office, though most of Nathalie's duties could be accomplished from the mansion, thanks to the wonders of cell phones and the internet. A minor part of her time involved carrying a tablet around Paris so her employer could have video conferences with people he couldn't meet in person, but it still didn't require her presence at the main office. Once upon a time, she had followed Gabriel everywhere, but she had since been "promoted" to the rank of babysitter. Not only had her presence in the company's office not been required, she had been expected to stay close to Adrien, always. Now that the boy was older, went to school, and had more full-time jobs than most adults, maybe it would change. She left his side more often.
Her presence in the company building past midnight was rare, however. Or it had been, up to the point she had let Gabriel Agreste kiss her for that first time. Now, it was a near-daily occurrence.
Gabriel displayed some restraint, as far as her hairdo was concerned: her bobby pins had stopped vanishing at work, at least during the day. She felt them go missing after sundown and, when they were still in place at night, they were the first thing to go when Gabriel got his hands on her.
It was a compromise as good as any. She didn't mind being disheveled as long as she did not have to go about her day looking like a ragdoll. Not that she didn't feel like sighing and rolling her eyes a little whenever his game started. Yes. I get it. You like long hair.
At least, that was what she had believed up to that point. Gabriel always went for the hair first. Loved to touch it, loved to bury his face in it, loved to brush it out of the way so he could kiss the nape of her neck. It was simple enough.
Or so she had thought.
Gabriel had this way of being an extremely practical man and still thinking it was a good idea to pin you down on your desk while you were sorting three years worth of contracts copies, and had arranged them in neat piles all over said desk. So you found yourself trying to kiss back while trying not to move, wanting to pull him close and to push him away, and protesting. Definitely protesting.
"Can we just-" she whispered. "Those files are…"
Then you heard the deafening sound of fifty photocopies scattering on the floor as one of your perfect, neat, alphabetically sorted piles of documents fell off the desk.
Nathalie managed not to swear, but she twisted in Gabriel's arms, trying to assess the damage.
… annotated and the post-its please let the post-its still be where they should be…
"I'm sorry, can we-" she exclaimed.
Then she saw the look on Gabriel's face. More precisely, the grin. That was when she realized her mistake about the bobby pins, and the hair, and everything else she had believed about him up to that point.
He slooooowly reached for a second pile of documents, and slooooowly pushed it off the desk.
I will kill you.
It was not the hair. It was the look on her face. He wanted her aggravated, he wanted her mad, he wanted her out of her mind. He loved to drive her crazy.
She grabbed his wrist before he could destroy another hour of work.
"Don't you dare."
He raised an eyebrow. The grin grew more smug. His hand inexorably moved towards a stack of folders. She was still holding his wrist. However, she had to admit that was about it: she was not exerting any semblance of force to stop his motion.
I will kill you, Gabriel Agreste.
The stack went down with a thump.
I will not even hire someone to do it. I will do it myself.
"That was terribly immature", she said, keeping her voice neutral.
Gabriel chuckled. And then he kissed her, and she let him, because even his kisses had been cold up to that point, and she found she liked them more when they weren't.
###