The fact that Nathalie did, in fact, own an apartment and did not vaporize into thin air whenever she left her workplace came as a surprise to Gabriel. Obviously, he had never paid the slightest interest to her personal life up to this point. He had likely assumed she didn't have one. It was not far off the mark. Still, she had to sleep somewhere, but he had been baffled when she had suggested they could go to her place for once.
He would not have brought her home, not when his son could have figured out what was going on. Nathalie had been fine with furtive, hastened meetings in a locked office. The thought of spending the night somewhere had never crossed her mind.
Then, it had just popped out of the blue, and made so much sense.
The drive from the restaurant to her street had been short, and she could not recall a second of it. She only remembered the way the back of Gabriel's hand had been pressed against her thigh.
There was no point being that cautious while being driven to her home, but it was just who he was.
A few hours later, she found herself tiptoeing to her bedroom after a quick shower, and slipping into a bed that was not empty.
Spending the night together, she mused, had its perks. It allowed for variations in the state of undress you could afford, and for luxuries such as time. It let them indulge in flights of fancy, such as caresses and kisses and exploration. They had never spared a second for matters as trivial as mutual discovery, so they had not known about each other's birthmarks and freckles and scars. Gabriel had wanted to trace them all, and he had not known Nathalie was ticklish either.
He had loved to discover that, just as he loved everything that unravelled her, he who would not unravel, and who tried to only grin when she could not see him do so. She could hear that smile in his silences and feel it in the way he moved, even when he made sure she could not look at him. She could feel it in every brush of his fingers against her skin, in the possessive arm he wrapped around her waist, and - yes - in the way he moved .
Another perk was obtaining the proof that the man did, in fact, sleep.
Nathalie had wondered.
She tried her best not to wake up as she slipped under the covers, then contemplated the fact that she would have to sleep with someone else in her bed. She had lost that habit. The prospect worried her for a second, but… Gabriel slept just as he lived: his back turned to the rest of the world, closed up and still as a stone. There would be no hogging of the covers, no wriggling, no unbearable cuddling .
She rolled to the side, with her back to his, and turned the light off.
Falling asleep was surprisingly easy. She didn't mind his presence at all.
She woke two hours later, nearly jumping out of her bones when the alarm of his pocket watch went off.
###
It took Gabriel a whole minute to locate his jacket, extract his watch out of the inner pocket, and turn the damn alarm off. By that point, Nathalie considered herself a paragon of virtue for not having murdered him.
She stared at him, heart pounding in her chest.
"Should I order a new watch for you, sir? Rolex has a fantastic line this year."
He came back to the bed, sitting next to her and pressing the watch's latch. As soon as the cover flipped open, a hologram of a butterfly appeared above the watch, wings flickering. It cast a faint pink glow all over the room.
"What is that thing?" she asked, as the device did not look like a mere high-tech gadget meant to impress the crowds. It was too delicate, too intricately decorated. The hologram was too vivid.
"It's a quantique", Gabriel replied, all of his attention turned to the watch.
"I'm sorry, a what?"
"A quantic anti… Nevermind. It's a family heirloom. Some kind of enchanted device, quite fascinating. Quite priceless."
Magic . Didn't they have enough magic with the constant supervillains attacks?
Nathalie sighed, too exhausted and jittery to be really curious.
"What does it do and why is it ringing at two in the morning?"
"It's a barometer of sorts. It changes colors depending on the weather", Gabriel replied, the tension in his shoulders telling another story entirely. "As for the ringing… It needs to be charged", he explained, clapping the pocket watch shut.
"You are telling me you vanish for hours, every few days, to go charge a watch that predicts rain."
And you call it R&D and come back barely keeping your temper in check.
"I am", Gabriel said, standing up to collect his clothes. "As a matter of fact, I have to go. I've been told if depletes its 'battery', it will never work again. And it does cost more than my home, that's quite the incentive not to break it."
Nathalie sighed, sinking back against the mattress.
There was something very, very wrong going on there. And it was two in the morning, and she hated trouble.
She listened to the shuffling of fabric, the zipping, the lacing, the buttoning. She considered falling back to sleep, but she had to walk Gabriel to the door and lock it after him. He was not about to just walk out and leave, either. Their driver had gone back to the mansion, and was supposed to pick them up at eight.
She ran a hand over her face, sitting up and wrapping herself in a blanket.
" Where are you going?" she muttered, turning the bedside lamp on.
He pulled the shadow trick again, taking a step back so the light would not hit his face at all. All Nathalie could see (and it was not that much: her eyes were gooey and she had no idea where her glasses were) was his silhouette.
"Home", he told her.
Nathalie sighed. She stretched, her neck cracking a little, then got out of bed and walked to him. She clutched the blanket, one fist balled against her chest. Gabriel stepped back as she got close, and hit the wall. He huffed, glaring at her with a deep frown and pursed lips.
She took the watch out of his hand. Maybe it was precious, maybe it held dark and compromising secrets, maybe it was worth more than a mansion in the middle of Paris… but she met no resistance.
The slightest brush on the latch was enough for the watch to spring open. The butterfly reappeared, shining pink and bright. Gabriel could no longer hide his face. He did not bother concealing his rage either, though he did not try to take the device back, and did not comment on Nathalie's actions.
She breathed in, looking away from him to stare at the watch instead. The clock hands were not giving the time, but pointing to the window. Nathalie moved to the right, and the hands turned to the left. She took a step left, and they turned to the right.
She closed the watch.
Gabriel took it back and pushed it into his pocket.
"I gather I'm supposed not to ask questions", she commented.
"We're both good at that", he replied, leaning down to press his lips to hers.
It wasn't any colder than most of his kisses, so there was no deducing his mood from it.
"Very much so", she murmured.
What have you done ?
"I'll show myself the way out", he announced. "Just go to sleep. I'll see you tomorrow."
###
Chat Noir had not meant to spy on his father.
For a start, he didn't need to be told that you didn't want to spy on your father and his girlfriend. Maybe Gabriel was not forthcoming with informations about his new relationships, but Adrien prefered not to know anything than to know too much.
He had also calmed down about… everything.
As much as he wanted to strangle Marinette for intervening, there had been some progress. His father had talked to him. Maybe he had not opened up about everything , but Adrien was willing to wait and see if topics like "Nathalie" would come up on their own. His father had talked about his mother , and that was a big step forward already.
Also, he had taken Adrien to his fencing club in the morning. They had trained together for an hour, and the experience had brought the teenager to two conclusions.
The first one was that his mother had been onto something when she had forbidden her husband to practice with him, because Gabriel did not understand the concept of 'going easy on someone'. And he was absurdly good at fencing.
That conclusion led to the second: there was no possible way Gabriel was Hawk Moth, because Hawk Moth would have triumphed and obtained the Miraculous ten seconds into his first attack on Ladybug and Chat Noir. Adrien's father was ruthless. He did not tolerate defeat, unless he inflicted it. The boy had watched the other club members avoid Gabriel and wince whenever a match with him was suggested. It was clear that he did not lose, ever. On top of that, he was not very pleasant, but that was hardly news.
All in one, it had been a nice morning, even if Adrien had fallen flat on his back more often than during that fight against Supersavon and his dish soap spray guns.
He had not set out to spy on his father. Actually, he was out patrolling, not spying on anyone, when he spotted Ladybug perched on the building facing Nathalie's apartment.
He landed next to her, fuming on the inside, but grinning for her benefit.
"Hi there, Ladybug. How is the stalking going?"
She squeaked at the question, then whirled to him, frowning.
"Hush!"
"I'm hushing", he whispered. "D'you think it's a good idea to spy on mister Agreste's girlfriend?"
"I'm not spying on her ", his partner hissed back. "Please be quiet."
Chat Noir blinked. He had thought his father was home. He had heard the car come back. He had not checked, however.
He turned to Nathalie's building, trying to remember which floor her flat was on.
"Mister Agreste is here?"
Ladybug nodded.
Adrien winced.
"It's deeeefinitely not a good idea to spy on them, then", he pointed out. "I mean, you could end up appawlled."
She groaned.
"I know. And I'm not watching the window , I'm watching the main door. Downstairs. It's just… I promised Adrien Agreste that I would prove his dad is not Hawk Moth, and the fastest way to do that is not to let the man out of my sight until the next Akuma attack."
"It's two in the morning", Chat Noir replied. "It's… Nice that you are so determined, and I'm sure Adrien would appreciate that, but… I don't think it would make much of a difference if you left until sunrise."
She sighed, massaging the bridge of her nose through her mask.
"You never know. I just want an answer, here. I need the answer, and that boy needs the answer, and I'm going to get it."
Chat Noir swallowed, uneasy, and leaned over the roof's edge to look at the street underneath. He had told Ladybug he believed his father was Hawk Moth, and she had seen how furious Gabriel had been to see her in their home. She had reason to worry.
"Have you talked to Adrien today?" he asked.
"No. No, I haven't, I was busy hanging upside down above mister Agreste's office window. And then I just followed. How is it that there's usually an Akuma attack every ten minutes, and suddenly, Hawk Moth seems to forget about us?"
"Maybe you should talk to that kid. Maybe he could shed some light on this. Maybe he has information. Maybe…"
"I wouldn't have involved Adrien Agreste in this at all if you had not let him guess I was suspecting his dad! I'll go back to him with answers ."
Being cared about, Chat realized, was more tiring than he had thought.
"I'm sure you-"
"He's leaving", Ladybug exclaimed.
Chat Noir turned to the street again. His eyes went wide: his father was indeed leaving the building, his white suite recognizable enough even in the dim light. He took something out of his pocket and held it in front of him. Whatever he was holding started shining, casting a pastel pink glow on Gabriel's suit.
Ladybug opened her mirror and zoomed in on the scene. Chat Noir did the same with his staff's internal screen.
His stomach sank. His legs nearly gave in.
What his father was holding was a watch, very similar to the one Alix had broken before turning into Timebreaker. It was made of silver, it looked intricately decorated, and it projected a glowing illusion. Adrien started trembling. He had been more than willing to believe he had been wrong about the Hawk Moth thing. He had been eager to believe he'd been wrong. Then again, he had to admit magical, luminous butterflies were pretty incriminating.
###