After all, Adrien mused, getting his father to talk to him was not that hard: he just had to be someone else.

Could you be jealous of yourself? The ease with which Chat Noir had managed to start a conversation was… distressing, that was the term. Then again, what would Gabriel and Adrien have talked about? The only thing they had in common was their secret, and Gabriel had kept his well. Even now, even after letting a bit of his mask slip, he kept walls around himself, and slammed metaphorical doors in Adrien's face as soon as the topic strayed too close to discomfort.

So, instead of talking of Alice Agreste, the Ladybug, the boy asked about his fighting skills. Instead of demanding explanations about the 'very good reasons' why his father had seen the ring taken from him, and about the seal placed on Plagg, they discussed magical watches.

"It needs charging, endless charging", Gabriel had explained, pointing at a gem on the ceiling, right above the pocket watch. "It's defective. Whenever the tracking spell activates, the magic starts leaking out."

"Can't you fix it?"

Adrien was only just learning of the existence of magical items that were not Kwami-related, but his father acted like they were a common occurrence, and he seemed to be quite the expert on those things.

The more you knew.

It was still easier to process than his having been Chat Noir.

"Not really", Gabriel replied. "I went to one of the creator's descendants, but the only way to 'repair' the spell would be to remove it and cast it again. It couldn't be linked to the butterfly Kwami."

Maybe it would not have been such a bad thing. Adrien did not want his father to track Hawk Moth down. That 'lunatic Gabriel had fought for ten years of his life'. It was way too dangerous.

Was it what his mother had done? Gone after Hawk Moth, and not come back?

He couldn't ask, even if he desperately wanted to know. The only moment his father had replied to a question about his wife without closing up, it had been when the question had been a joke. On that note, Chat Noir would have to remember to think about his puns before blurting them out, because he had not wanted to hear about catcalling and his father in the same sentence, ever . But, of course, 'calling' out, 'cat', 'catcall'. He wished he could wipe that moment from his memory, as well as the traumatizing answer.

It had been an occasion to understand a little more about his father, though. It had been so shocking to see him grin. Not 'grin', exactly: be amused, consider the possibility of grinning, and then consciously allow himself to. Anger slipped out of him much more easily than smiles.

You could not talk to him, you had to bait him into talking to you. He did not have conversations he could not control, he ran away from them. He had no scruples about lying whatsoever.

You had to wear a mask to see his true face.

Adrien could not recall a single conversation between them, as father and son, where the man had been at ease, let alone this at ease.

His son took the scraps of attention he could get.

"So what will you do, if you find him?" he asked, finally crossing the few steps that separated him from his father, and sitting on the table next to him.

There was not a sign of recognition on his father's face, even from that close up. Then again, when you were plastered on magazines in one identity, and all over the news in the other, without ever being recognized, you had to admit your mask was super-effective.

"Inform one of the Kwamis of his identity", Gabriel said. "Most likely Kappa, if I can get my hands on master Fu."

"Why not Ladybug and I? I mean, it's kind of our job."

For a second or so, Gabriel's eyes lost focus. He composed himself quickly enough.

"It is 'kind of his job' too", he drawled.

"But we are here, and we have been fighting Hawk Moth since he resurfaced. That is why we were given the Miraculous to begin with."

"You only just discovered that your dodges left you wide open to being gutted, boy. Forgive me for not giving you my vote of confidence."

"I can get better."

"I'm sure you can", Gabriel replied, taking the watch and opening it.

He sighed and looked up at the gem on the ceiling as if it had personally offended him.

Chat Noir stared at him, then grinned and blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.

"Your could train me", he suggested, wriggling his eyebrows. "Seems like you're purrfectly suited for the job."

His heart started thumping, terror flooding in - that had been a mistake - but he couldn't swallow the words back. Gabriel went rigid. It lasted a second, then he relaxed, adjusting his glasses and turning to Adrien. The boy tried to pass it all as a joke, forcing his smile to grow larger until his cheeks hurt.

It had been a stupid idea, the stupidest of all, but a tempting one, because he felt like it had a chance to work . More than awkward fencing lessons squeezed between business meetings and photoshoots.

His father rolled his eyes.

"If I had spare time to waste, boy, I'd spend it with my son."

Adrien swallowed and nodded, turning to the room without commenting on how much spare time had been spent on all of that research and work.

With my son.

"Say…" he muttered.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Gabriel shift in his chair. Chat Noir pursed his lips, growing serious.

"I tried to call Ladybug earlier", he announced, leaning over the table to grab a sheet of paper at random, to give himself something to look at. "I couldn't reach her, so probably wasn't transformed, but I'm about to go and try to find her, so I can relay your message…"

That earned him a nod.

"And", Adrien continued, gathering his courage. "You know I need answers. At least some answers."

His father sighed, resigned. It was somehow better than his terse rebuttals earlier, but not by much.

"There is no point, Chat Noir. Tikki knows me and knows me well. Why is it with children and that need to unearth every truth better left buried? My story was over before you were even born. Let it go."

"How? How did it stop?" Adrien asked, turning to him. "What did you do?"

Gabriel met his eyes but still shook his head. The teenager did not look away, and waited, and waited, and waited. His father gave in.

"Let's just say that powers such as yours should not be given to someone cold enough to use them, and leave it at that."

Adrien felt a chill crawl up his spine at those words. He looked down at his own hands.

What have you done, Father? Mom stayed with you, it can't be what I think. So what did you do?

"Whatever you did… Do you regret it?"

"No. I regret the consequences, I regret having the ring taken from me, I regret losing Plagg, but I took a decision I deemed necessary and am still convinced it was the best course of action. I'm not sorry."

"Not at all?"

"Not at all."

Gabriel's face did not betray his feelings, if he had any. He observed Chat Noir, studying his reaction.

"I should go", the teenager said. "I'll try to find Tikki. If she agrees to see you, we'll find you."

"Thank you."

Chat Noir nodded, jumping off the table and waving. Then, he ran away.

###

Gabriel fed a butterfly to the charged watch, put it back into his pocket, and returned to his car. He sat into the driver seat with an exhausted sigh, and considered driving to Nathalie's.

He needed the distraction.

Then again, Nathalie - like most sensible people - slept at night. She was not a retired vigilante saddled with defective magical artefacts and good old-fashioned insomnia. Showing up at three in the morning was not going to win him points. He also suspected his assistant knew how to get away with murder, and would not ponder overly long about committing one, should she be woken at an ungodly hour after such a long day.

He still felt sorely tempted. He wanted to be alone in someone's company, and Nathalie had mastered the art of being present without ever being intrusive. It had taken him fifteen years to notice it, and now it made him want her more and more.

He loved the void and the quiet.

He loved 'uncomplicated' too.

It had been a long, long day, and he was drained, and maybe he was allowed some comfort every now and then.

Being accused of being Hawk Moth had hit him harder than he cared to admit, and he was still reeling. He had been reeling all evening. Congratulations. Your own son believes you are the monster who most likely killed your wife. A round of applause, if you please.

What did you even answer to that accusation?

'Nothing'.

It had taken collapsing in Nathalie's arms for the best part of an hour for Gabriel to even manage to process the idea. She had put him back together piece by piece, organizing his thoughts for him until they were straight and understandable again.

"I think in diagrams", she had informed him when he had commented on those uncanny abilities. "I'm not kidding."

That piece of trivia (and the mental gymnastics required to forget that no office chair, no matter how expensive it was, was made to comfortably accommodate two entwined bodies) had pierced through his mental fog.

"Really?"

"Really. Mostly in yellow tones with sans-serif fonts and grey outlines. Entire flowcharts."

He remembered smiling at that.

There had been no extensive advice, no criticism, no lengthy comments. Just a 'talk to your son'. And then she had put herself back together, hairpin by hairpin.

He had talked to his son.

He hoped it had gone well. He had tried . Apologies and promises, all of them from the bottom of the heart, with the utmost sincerity, because Gabriel loved that boy, even if he could not understand him at all. Fifteen years to figure him out, and every single interaction was still a disaster. Granted, ten minutes a year of actual interactions did not amount to much, even over a decade and a half.

Still. They had nothing in common. Adrien was warm where Gabriel was ice cold, kind when his father was best described as a remorseless bastard. He had no notion of personal space and craved for physical contact. Gabriel was best known as 'the boy who cringed away from his mother's hugs'.

He had thought he and Alice were polar opposites, but they had been cut to fit. His son? His son was a mystery.

Interacting with the new Chat Noir had been easier. Much easier. Talking about combat and magic was simple. Gabriel had breathed combat and magic for ten years of his life and still did, even though he no longer had Plagg's powers, even though roaming the roofs grew more and more difficult with the years.

The new Chat Noir was the same.

It was a shame he would die young. A heart like his had no place on a battlefield. If Dislocoeur's arrows had been lethal, he would have been killed once already. Shielding the girl was a mistake.

Maybe training him wouldn't be such a bad idea.

Maybe you should focus on finding Hawk Moth and solving everyone's issues instead.

He sighed.

He drove home. He stopped a few streets away from the mansion, realizing he was being stalked by a dark silhouette with pointy ears, and made his way to his office instead. The house was off-limits to Chat Noir and his partner, and Gabriel was not about to lure them there.

His company headquarters were close by, and he had a sofa there. It would be a good meeting point if the brat came back for another talk, or to deliver news from Tikki. If he didn't, sleeping would still be an option.

Ten minutes later, Gabriel parked in front of the building, and made his way to his office. He opened a window, sat down in the sofa, and waited.

It didn't take long for a crouching silhouette to appear in the window frame.

It wasn't Chat Noir.

"You wanted to see me", the girl said, frowning under her red mask.

Gabriel stood, clasping his hands behind his back. He swallowed the bile and the hatred down, raising his eyebrows in mild surprise. All the while, he felt like roaches were crawling over his skin. His breathing was a bit hard to control.

"Not exactly. I seem to recall having asked for Tikki."

"Then I hope you have excellent reasons, because you are not getting near her without my say-so."

He clicked his tongue. He could shove her out of the window. It wouldn't hurt her much. It would get her out of his sight.

"Ask away, then", he replied. "I'm sure we can clear this up quickly enough. Hasn't Chat Noir explained the situation?"

"He has. I'm just not sure what you said is true."

"You should trust your partner more."

"I trust him. I don't trust you. It looks like you have stalked us for a long time"

"The third of October last year, if I'm not mistaken. You were on the news."

He dug his nails into his palms and showed nothing of his feelings about that day.

"As I was saying: a long time", the girl commented. "You are going to have to prove that this is not a trick, mister Agreste, because your butterfly watch and your butterfly brand don't exactly scream 'Chat Noir', regardless of what you say."

Tearing the Miraculous off her ears felt like a compelling idea.

Gabriel decided to ignore the girl entirely.

"Tikki", he called. "I know you can hear me. I release you, as Alice's next of kin. You're free to reveal her identity. You are free to speak about her. Please convince your chosen."

He heard a beep coming from the teenager's Miraculous.

She scampered.

###