"I told you he wouldn't talk to you if you pushed!" Chat Noir exclaimed when Ladybug climbed away from his father's office, a mere minute after going in.
He had told her to wait for him. He had told her not to antagonize Gabriel.
He had told her…
His partner heaved herself onto the roof. Her earrings beeped. The boy gaped, wondering just for a second why she would have used her lucky charm, then remembering their transformation was vulnerable to other things.
"Tikki is pushing me out," Ladybug announced just as he came to that realization. "Agreste said something about releasing her, about allowing her to talk."
"Talk about what? " Chat asked, both desperate and hopeful.
It sounded like he was overly curious at best. Who could have guessed how much he needed to hear what Tikki had to say about his mother?
Ladybug didn't notice the trembling in his voice.
"Mrs Agreste, apparently."
Chat Noir's throat clenched.
"I'll have a talk with Tikki," his partner continued over another beep. "See what she thinks of all of this."
"Can I stay? I have questions too. I… Oh. Right. Can't watch you transform back."
There was another beep. Ladybug looked around, frantic.
"Listen. I'll send her to you as soon as I'm done. And then we'll regroup and compare what we know. Alright?"
How did you go about telling her how important knowing was? Adrien did not want to have to wait. Yet, he nodded and watched his fellow heroine jump to another roof, hide, and presumably untransform. He spotted a pink glow on a balcony.
He waited.
He closed his eyes. He counted the seconds. He went to forty-five, then Tikki (whom he had never seen, but what other Kwami would have been red with a big black spot on the forehead?) bumped against him.
"I'm here," she said. "I'm here. I'm so sorry. I couldn't talk to you before. Your mother made me promise I wouldn't tell you about her secret until you were old enough , and I swore I wouldn't, and we can't break our vows, and…"
Chat Noir stared at her. She was all softness and goodwill, and everything about her felt totally unlike Plagg.
"My father says you know what happened to my mom," he blurted out.
The Kwami stilled, the desolate expression on her face changing just a little bit. She opened her mouth to talk, but Adrien only had to look at her to know what she was going to say.
Of all of the answers he had expected, it was the one he had thought about the less.
"No," he murmured. "Please don't tell me that ."
###
She had called one year, nine months and seventeen days after her disappearance, and Gabriel had nearly missed that call.
Strange how you spent months not sleeping, jumping out of your bones every other breath, thinking you had heard a doorbell, a buzz, a ringtone, and then, and then, when the ringtone was not a figment of your imagination, you tried to sleep through it. It had been four in the morning, one year and seventeen days after her last call, and… Gabriel had left himself be convinced that maybe, maybe it was time to stop keeping watch, and to merely wait instead.
In retrospect, if he had slept through the call, his life would have been much easier.
Or he would have noticed the missed call in the morning and tortured himself with different questions.
He had woken, however, and rolled out of bed, and grabbed his phone, and braced himself to hear the news he had been fearing for months. "We are terribly sorry, sir, but your wife...".
And then he had picked up.
"Gabriel?" she had said.
He had not said anything, anything at all. His parched tongue had slipped and fumbled against the roof of his mouth.
Alice had kept talking anyway.
"Gabriel, I'm so sorry, I messed up, I don't think I have ever messed up that bad, I'm so sorry. I'm alright. I'm safe!"
"Alice."
They had never been the 'romantic nicknames' kind. Pretend flirting notwithstanding ("Miss Beauregard ? What a perfect fit."), they had always used each other's names. No 'love', no 'honey', no 'sweetie', just 'you'. Didn't it mean the same?
"Hawk Moth threw a timetraveler at me. He sent us forward, I just saw the date, I'm sorry , how is Adrien? How are you ?"
It had been a bit of a surprise to hear about Hawk Moth, Alice having retired five years earlier, but not that much of one. It had been one of the possibilities, next to the kidnapping and accidental death theories. The problem with being a pariah to the Kwamis was that you were not privy to their plans anymore.
"We're… Alice, where are you?"
"Somewhere south of Pacaás Novos. Not sure where, I had to hike to the closest road… This is a payphone, though, let me ask around and…"
He had taken the briefest look at his phone screen to memorize the caller's number, then pressed it to his ear again.
"No. Don't move, don't move, sit next to that phone and don't move until I come and get you, is that clear?"
She was fourteen hours away from Paris at least, but if he could have pinned her into place, he would have. Irrational fear had gnawed at him.
"I can -"
"Don't. Move."
She had taken three seconds to answer, and that had been enough for him to miss the sound of her voice.
"Alright. I'm here. I'm not leaving."
"Please talk to me," he had muttered, writing the phone number down and calling his personal pilot to get him out of bed.
Cue a mumbled conversation about needing the jet and a trip to Brazil and make it happen , while he listened to his wife with the other ear.
For Alice, six hours had elapsed since they had last talked to each other, six hours she had spent fighting Contretemps, a fellow french tourist who wanted the next book in his favorite series to be 'out already'. It left her with little to say about her day, but she was alive and talking and her husband had her describe her surroundings, down to the color of the grass and trees, just so he could hear her voice.
He had shoved himself into clothes, emailed the number she was calling from to the detectives he had hired in Brazil, and shoved laptop, tablet and credit cards into a bag.
"Can I talk to Adrien?" she had asked.
"He's sleeping," Gabriel had replied, as he had just walked through to drive himself to the airport and was not in the mood to waste time. "We'll surprise him when you get home."
It had been pure impatience and egoism, depriving their son of a short conversation with her, but it had turned out to be a blessing.
By the time Gabriel had arrived to that tiny village south of Pacaás Novos and its payphone, Alice had been gone. One of his employees had arrived twelve hours before him and, by that point, she had already vanished into thin air.
###
Chat Noir slipped through the window of his father's office, with what was left of his courage, the remains of his heart, and the news.
He had sent Ladybug away. His father deserved to be told everything - what little there was - by someone who cared, even if Adrien was the only one of them who knew he did.
He found Gabriel sitting at his desk with paperwork and a pen, busy signing sheet after sheet. He had changed, the torn suit replaced by a pristine grey one, his hair brushed back. He turned to Chat Noir with mild curiosity.
"Thanks for finding your partner so fast, young man. I was expecting more of a delay. Did she talk to Tikki?"
"I did," Adrien replied, trying to keep his voice in check.
It was easier to handle things with the mask on. It put a few layers of distance between him and the events. It forced him to think differently, to reorder his priorities. He had to be a little more of a hero.
Gabriel studied his face.
"Tikki can't talk to you," Chat Noir announced. "But I think you know that already."
His father nodded.
"I'm considered a corrupting influence," he murmured. "Waspp and Kappa encouraged drastic measures to make sure I could not get in touch with Tikki, nor Plagg. But that's a story for another day, and you heard enough of it, we already discussed that, and I think we covered how it was not something you should hear about, and..."
He was trying to keep talking to delay the actual conversation, his son realized. The teenager braced himself.
"Tikki doesn't know anything, " he cut in. "Your wife… After calling you, after that fight against Contretemps…" - A call Adrien knew nothing about, because his father had never told him about it, never, never. - "She wanted to go home, but Hawk Moth hadto be tracked down, so your wife gave the Miraculous back. And Tikki went on to find herself a new chosen. They parted ways. I'm so sorry."
He was. He was . He tried to tell himself that it changed nothing - they hadn't known anything to begin with, they did not know less - but hearing Tikki explain all of that had torn a hole through his heart.
Gabriel paled, baffled. When he spoke, his voice was strangled and weak.
"What?"
His hands started twitching. So did a muscle in his cheek. He took a shaky breath, bit down on his lower lip, then dissolved.
"SHE CAN'T NOT KNOW!" he yelled, standing and shoving all the documents of his desk. "SHE WAS THERE, SHE WAS WITH HER!" - He kicked his desk, which swayed. - "SHE HAS TO HAVE SOME KIND OF ANSWERS! " - The twitching had turned to shaking, and his whole body was trembling. - WHAT THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO TELL MY SON? HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO KEEP-"
Chat Noir took a step away, horrified, and his father just stopped . He straightened up, collected himself, shut everything in. He forced his hands down, hid them behind his back. He wiped all emotion off his face. Not that it worked: even if his features mimicked impassiveness, there was nothing he could do about the muscle twitches and the shaking.
He still pretended to be fine.
"My apologies for that outburst," he said. "It won't happen again."
His teeth chattered. He caught himself and clenched his jaw.
Adrien stared in disbelief and horror - What are you doing to yourself? - then crossed the space between them and tried to put a hand on Gabriel's shoulder. His father sidestepped away and shot daggers at him, then moved back farther still.
"Thank you very much for your help, Chat Noir. I appreciate t-the effort you just spent helping me. If you don't mind, however, I'd like some t-time to process the news."
The teenager shook his head. There was no possible way he would leave his dad alone in that state. Gabriel glared at him with pure loathing, however, withdrawing deeper into himself.
Adrien raised a hesitant hand.
"I-I'll call your assistant," he murmured. "She… I…"
"T-that won't be necessary. Good night , Chat Noir."
The young hero looked at the window, then at his father. He had to do something , but could not figure out what . He stood there, frozen, fumbling for words, until Gabriel snapped again.
"WILL YOU JUST GET THE FUCK OUT ?" the man screamed.
Adrien ran to the window and climbed out. Gabriel slammed it shut. The lights of the office went out.
###
Adrien sat on the roof of the building facing his father's office, untransformed, as the sun rose.
The lights were still off in his dad's office, but the daylight was now bright enough to show that the room was empty. Gabriel's car was still there, however, so he had not slipped out. The teenager supposed he had gone down to the workshops: he liked it there.
"We should go home," he murmured. "He's gone."
Plagg shifted on his shoulder and nodded. Maybe the Kwami couldn't talk about the previous Chat Noir, and maybe he couldn't talk to him, but he could be worried. When Adrien had perched himself on that roof to watch his father's window, the black cat had dropped down on his shoulder and kept just as anxious a watch. His tail had wriggled nervously for the two hours they had spent there. He had not said a word, just watched and kept his ears perked up, listening to the silence around them with the utmost attention.
He cared.
"Why?" Adrien asked, still looking at the windows in front of them. "Why did you pick me?"
The son of a disgraced Chat Noir and of a missing Ladybug. It seemed cruel.
"Why 'why'?" the Kwami replied.
"Why me? "
"Because you are Chat Noir?" Plagg said, sounding mildly confused. "Should there be another reason?"
Adrien frowned, turning to him.
"What do you mean, 'you are Chat Noir'?"
Plagg huffed.
"You are. You were. That's it. Kappa and Waspp and all the others are so set on convening on their candidates and having every active hero chime in and judge if the humans we want are worthy before giving them the Miraculous." - He shrugged. - "Tikki indulges them."
"You don't?"
"Tikki picks her human and then they try and try and try to convince me that this little human fits the other little human and that they will work well together," Plagg explained, rolling his eyes in boredom. "So I just steal the ring and give it to Chat Noir. They still haven't figured out how I snatch the Miraculous every time, by the way. There's a triiiiiick."
"A trick?"
The Kwami nodded.
"It's Tikki who steals it. Don't tell."
Adrien blinked. Plagg jumped up and hovered in the air, stretching his neck.
"Tikki gets her human, and then I get the human's partner. It's that simple. Tikki tells me about her chosen a little, and I find one that matches. And I had been… stealing some cheese in your house for a few months" - 'Spying on your father', Adrien translated. - "and I knew what you were like, and you were perfect for this Ladybug. That's all."
"You didn't take my parents into consideration at all?"
Plagg flickered, turning to sparkles and then back to himself.
The boy quickly found a better question.
"Did you want to stay in my home so you could keep stealing cheese?"
"Of course I did."
"And how long exactly had you been hiding around in the mansion?"
"Since Volpina - not the tiny human, the old lady before her - 'lost' my Miraculous."
"With Tikki's help."
Plagg giggled.
"Don't you accuse my sister of theft. I don't see what you are talking about," he exclaimed, falsely indignant. "Tikki would never!"
Adrien smiled, scratching the back of his Kwami's head.
"So you were in Italy before that?"
"It's a great place to be. Lots of cheeses. Not as good as camembert, though. France is so much better."
What his chosen had gathered from the conversation was not that cheese was better north of Italy, however, but that Plagg's Miraculous had to be stolen from the other heroes on a regular basis. It was just as if he had been a prisoner. And that seal…
He cupped his hands so Plagg could land.
"Are the other Kwamis afraid of you, Plagg?" he asked.
The black cat snorted.
"We are afraid of our own shadows," he replied. "And I'm bad luck."
Adrien frowned. He didn't like to hear that at all.
Plagg yawned.
"Also I broke the Sphinx and Kappa is still ranting about it. Long story."
He turned towards the sun.
"You should go home before Nathalie arrives to wake you up," he pointed out. "We're coming back right after, right?"
"Right," Adrien confirmed.
Absolutely.
He had to check on his father as himself too.
###
Nathalie walked into Gabriel's office at ten past nine in the morning, after dropping Adrien on the second floor for his photoshoot of the day.
She felt the change as soon as she passed the door.
Oh .
She had not realized how blatant Gabriel's attraction to her had been until that point. Now that it had vanished all at once, however, the contrast was striking. His eyes didn't turn to her when she entered the office. His posture did not change. His tone did not ever so slightly warm up. All she got was a 'good morning' and a question about Jagged Stone.
That faint spark in him was gone, overnight, for no apparent reason.
Like a spurned fourteen years old, she panicked, wondering if it was her fault, what she had done, what she could do. Was it the way she had seduced him the previous evening? Had she pushed buttons she shouldn't have? Had she…
She didn't like feeling like a teenage girl. She swallowed the panic down and focused on her work instead.
"As you can see, Carine requested your opinion on the dancer's outfits prototypes, so I pushed things around a little. You still have a free forty-five minutes gap for lunch, since Aria Rossignol just canceled that restaurant meeting."
He nodded. She studied his face with a twinge of something akin to worry. His features were gaunt. It didn't look like he had slept at all.
Things had seemed alright when she had left the previous evening. There had been some kind of reconciliation with Adrien. Gabriel had seemed a little less destroyed. Now, she didn't know. Something had changed. Whether something had happened in the real world or in Gabriel's mind, however, she couldn't tell.
"What is Adrien's schedule for lunch?" he asked.
"He's free."
"Then send him to me. Order whatever food he likes. We can eat in my office."
"Very well."
"Thank you. Could you also bring me new sketching books? I ran out of them. Also, a set of neutral gray Copics, I seem to have misplaced four of my markers, I've been looking everywhere."
She joined him, frowning, knowing full well that Gabriel Agreste did not 'misplace' his belongings. As soon as she circled the desk, she spotted a large dent in the front drawers.
So something had happened.
"I'll fetch that, sir," she murmured.
Then she ran a hand over his shoulder, watched him go still and indifferent, and pulled away. This from the same man who had sank into her for hours the previous day.
"Anything else we should discuss?" she asked.
"Not that I can think of."
Alright, then.
"Very well, sir," she said, returning to the door. "I'll be back with your supplies."
###