Chat Noir landed on Chloé's balcony and winced when the scab on his leg wound split open under his costume. Everyone was fussing over the cut on his throat, but the scrape on his leg was going to be the annoying injury. It was not deep, but it was large and irregular. It was much more likely to get infected and would take ages to heal. Also, it stung whenever he moved.
He shook his head. He had more important things to worry about than little scratches.
Making sure to take loud steps so Chloé could hear him coming, he walked to her room's door, looked away and tapped the glass with the tip of his claws. Not a second later, he heard a pleased squeal. His friend ran to the door, opened it, and kept bouncing into place.
"Chat Noir! You did it! Ladybug and you won! You are amazing !"
She was looking at him with the same kind of childish adoration she usually reserved for Ladybug. She was so clearly happy to see him that he forced himself not to look dejected, no matter how he was actually feeling. He grinned.
"Seems like we did," he replied. "Though there isn't much of a story."
She got her phone out and wrapped an arm around his shoulders to take a selfie before he got a chance to react.
"Are you kidding me?" she replied, right after the flash, with her phone still in the air. He saw her open the facebook app. "The story is insane. Daddy told me Hawk Moth faked his own death and that you were critically inj-"
She stopped and moved away, inspecting him from head to toe. She spotted the layer of gauze that his collar almost perfectly concealed.
"YOU ARE CRITICALLY INJURED!"
"I'm not I'm not I'm not!" he exclaimed, panicking. "It's a flesh wound! It looked worse than it was!"
She gave him a death glare, her blue eyes digging into his soul. Despite her best efforts to camouflage them under a powder box-worth of violet eyeshadow, Chloé's eyes had always been striking.
She crossed her arms and stomped her foot.
"Are you sure."
It was not a question.
"I'm sure."
"Daddy said you were really hurt."
"I was just bleeding a lot. That's all! It's, like, this little gash, and it's already closed up."
"Will it leave a scar? You can't have a scar! It would get you down from a seven to a five."
"I'm a sev…" Chat tried to catch himself before they could follow that line of conversation, but it was too late.
"Yes, you are a seven. See, tens would be Adrien Agreste, or Ladybug. XY would be a nine."
"Chloé…"
"And Alec Cataldi would be a eight…"
"Chloé! I was here for something important!"
"This IS important!"
"Something important- er ! Clo, I need to talk to your father, but his staff won't tell me where he is."
She raised her eyebrows in confusion.
"A friend of his is in the hospital," she replied. "He told me he'd pay a quick visit. Why wouldn't they tell you?"
Adrien nearly slapped himself. How had he not checked Anne-Laure's hospital room first? Why had he assumed the best place to find the mayor would be his home? Ladybug had even gone to the city hall in case the man was there. They were idiots.
"I suppose every reporter in town is trying to find him and maybe he wanted his sick friend to have some privacy," Chat Noir replied.
"Huh. So, why do you need to talk to him? It's about the press conference, isn't it? You're not angry he started it without you, are you? I told him Ladybug had to be there but he was really concerned about her needing rest. And you. Because you were 'injured'."
"It's fine, it's fine," Adrien lied. "We just need to, ah, talk about what will be happening to Hawk Moth, and his family, and everything."
She waved her hands dismissively.
"Pft. Details. You should be out there celebrating."
"A lot of details make for a big problem," he countered.
She shrugged and grimaced.
"Who even cares about what happens to him? He'll go to prison forever and that's it. I don't see why it should be a 'big' problem."
"It's going to impact a lot of people, Chloé. People who will be hurt, who will be dragged under the spotlight and through the mud."
She huffed and rolled her eyes. But that was Chloé, wasn't it?
Adrien pictured only too well how she would treat Alix after this.
He took a deep breath.
"Chloé. There's something I have to ask of you."
Her first reaction was to cross her arms and rise her chin. You didn't make demands, not from her. He suspected she would have listened more easily to Ladybug, but Marinette wasn't there.
"Hawk Moth has a family," he told her. "If you meet them, I want you to be nice to them. They had no idea what their father was doing. I don't want you to rub it in their faces, is that clear?"
Chloé looked up and snarled as if insulted.
"I'll let you know I'm always nice! Everyone loves me!"
Chat Noir merely looked at her and waited. It took a moment but she snorted.
"If they didn't see their dad was a supervillain, then it's their own fault," she declared.
" Chloé. "
"Fine, fine, I'll be nice. I won't say a thing. Whatever."
"Is that a promise? In any circumstances? Not even behind their back?"
She rolled her eyes once again. The promise never came.
He closed his eyes.
"Can you put yourself in their shoes?" he insisted. "Imagine if one of your parents turned out to be a criminal."
Not that André wasn't one to some extent, but bribes and electoral fraud were not the same kind of crimes.
"Duh. It's not going to happen! My dad is a great person."
There was one other scenario Chat Noir could bring up. He did not like the idea of doing it, but said scenario would possibly come to pass. Maybe it was better to get Chloé to ask herself how she would react before Anne-Laure's actions came out in the open.
"What about your mother?" he asked. "What if you discovered she had done bad things?"
Chloé chuckled.
"I don't have a mother."
"But what if she came back? Or what if, wherever she is, she caused trouble?"
His friend shook her head, smiling as if that was ridiculous.
"No, you don't get it. I really do not have a mother."
Adrien frowned, puzzled. She gave him an amused, superior expression.
"Can you keep a secret? Because I never told anyone so the press wouldn't know. It's not that I care, but it would mess with my father's career. So you better not say anything to anyone. "
"I'm a costumed superhero with a secret identity," he replied by automatism, too confused by her blatant indifference to give his answer much thought.
"I never had a mother. Just my dad. That woman he married was just a surrogate he hired so he could have me. Of course that's illegal, so they made it look like more, but that's it. That woman was never my 'mom' or anything," she finished with a satisfied smirk.
Chat Noir gaped at her. That story did not mesh with what he knew, yet it meshed perfectly in many ways. It was horrifying, however, and he could not believe Chloé was happy with that. But then again, he was not Chloé, and her feelings were her own, and he was not inside her head to understand and judge her entire life. He tried to wrap his mind around the way she saw things.
She saw his reaction and snorted, rolling her eyes.
"Oh please , don't look at me like you're sad . I'm fine . My dad adores me, he always gave me the world and more. Actually, he paid quite a lot of money so I could be born, if you even need proof that I was very much wanted." - Of course she would judge affection based on how much mister Bourgeois had spent for her. - "I don't need a second parent when I have him. I mean, I have friends whose fathers won't even speak to them and I would never trade. They're miserable."
Adrien paled and tried not to show it.
"We're straying away from the point," he told her. "I just mean… Try to put yourself in her shoes."
As soon as that 'her' was out of his mouth, he knew he had given Alix's identity away.
Chloé's eyes went wide.
"Is it Alix Kubdel? You're talking about Alix Kubdel? But she was turned into Timebreaker!"
"Yes. And her brother was turned into the Pharaoh. Not everyone's parents are as great as your dad. So, can you be nice to her?"
The blonde chewed the inside of her cheeks and bit her lip.
"Why would I be nice to Alix?" she drawled. Chat Noir nearly strangled her, but Chloé kept talking. "She'd think I pity her. Actually, why would I act any different with her?" she added, pushing her bangs behind her ears. "We never talk anyway. I don't see why things should change."
Thinking about it, it was the most Adrien could expect from her, and the best way to handle Alix. Their classmate would not want attention nor pity. She would probably prefer to take her nerves out on Kim, who would welcome it. Maybe she would accept some support from Mylène and Ivan, who were close to her, but everyone else would be risking a punch to the gut just for opening their mouth.
"That's… Yeah. Do that," he told her. "And maybe be a little careful about what you say around her. Okay?"
Chloé mouthed those last words, with one more eyeroll.
"I don't see how my discussing Grenat's new makeup line with Sabrina could hurt but fine . If Alix takes offense because I have nothing good to say about Vuitton's newest purses, it won't be my fault either."
"Thank you, Chloé," he sighed. "I should get going. See you around!"
###
The last thing Adrien had expected to hear from Anne-Laure's hospital room was laughter. Yet, when he and Ladybug found themselves in front of the door, they were met by André Bourgeois' loud guffaws. They were followed by Anne-Laure's voice.
"And then he got suckerpunched, 'cause, you know, you don't just tell a biker that . So what happens? I have to jump in. Me. Like, I'm half his size and maybe a quarter of his weight and I had to save his ass from a damn biker gang."
"At least you made it out alright," Mister Bourgeois replied.
"Yeah, I did."
Chat Noir pushed the door open and walked into the room with his coldest expression. Ladybug followed him in.
Anne-Laure and her ex-husband turned to him.
"Mayor Bourgeois," Adrien said, shooting daggers at the man. "I didn't expect to find you here."
The man brightened, giving them his warmest smile and opening his arms.
"Ladybug! Chat Noir! I'm so glad to see you."
"Cut it out," Adrien replied in a flat voice. He turned to Anne-Laure, who was in bed in a hospital gown. She looked pale but alive. He gave her an icy glare. "I'm glad you survived."
"Kid, I'm s-"
Adrien whirled to mister Bourgeois, ignoring her apology.
"You. If you think for a second we are going to let you cover the truth so your ex-wife gets away with what she did, you have another think coming."
Ladybug did not say a word but she took one step forward to stand next to him with her arms crossed. Although she was undoubtedly tiny and lithe and at times adorable, she could manage Gabriel-grade glaring. She got the mayor to fidget.
The man raised his hands, giving them a nervous smile.
"Now, now," he said, trying to appease them. "I know the way I presented the events to the press might be slightly inaccurate, but I was acting in everyone's best interests. While I do know that, with a youthful, idealistic perspective, divulging the entire truth might seem like the right choice, the required choice… when you have been in politics for as long as I have, balancing the needs and the rights of thousands of people, you understand the need for the odd white lie."
"Don't even try to make us swallow that. 'Everyone's best interests', of course ! YOU ARE JUST COVERING FOR HER," Chat Noir yelled, gesturing at Anne-Laure.
She frowned.
"André, what the hell have you done?"
Her ex-husband looked at her and smiled warmly, if with slight awkwardness.
"I might have shortened the narrative a little when I broke the news of Hawk Moth's arrest. It was needlessly complicated. As far as the world is concerned, two brave young heroes discovered his identity and then captured him, against impossible odds."
Miss Lenoir groaned and leaned back to stare at the ceiling.
"Figures."
Chat Noir crossed his arms. He had been raised to be polite and respectful of authority figures, but he had come to see that authority figures did not necessarily deserve respect and politeness.
"Don't worry, all of those details you forgot to mention will be brought up when we talk to the press. You can't do this. Everyone has to be held accountable! You can't pile every crime on Kubdel's head because he happens to be guilty of most of them! Whatever he did, he still deserves to be treated fairly."
Bourgeois raised his eyebrows and looked at Ladybug to check her reaction. She raised her chin and smiled to him.
"I absolutely agree with Chat here," she said. "You do not get to lie to the public, especially when it is blatantly for the benefit of your political career and your friends."
The mayor breathed in, eyebrows still raised, and turned back to Chat Noir.
"I have to admit I am surprised you would want to reveal the entire story, Adrien," he said.
The young hero's blood ran cold. So Hawk Moth had revealed his identity. He tried not to show his panic, but his heart was thumping in his chest. Who else knew? How many cops? How many nurses and doctors? How quickly would the information get out?
He managed to keep his expression neutral. Ladybug, however, was not the best liar. Her every feeling of horror and anger showed on her face and when she finally managed to put a facade up, it was a twisted grimace.
André smiled, triumphant.
"Don't be so alarmed. I can keep a secret."
If mister Bourgeois wanted to play the 'secrets' card, the only thing to do was to render it worthless.
"I'm sure mister Kubdel will spread the word to whoever wants to hear it. I mean, he was clearly in a hurry to tell you. So don't worry about the secret-keeping. I'll survive an identity reveal."
Mister Bourgeois tilted his head to the side.
"It is true that I had a talk with him, but you are mistaken if you think I was unaware of your identity before that."
Adrien whirled to Anne-Laure. So did Ladybug. Chloé's mother raised her hands and mouthed 'not me'. The mayor let out a weary sigh.
"I was married to a superheroine," he pointed out. "When you know who Queen Bee was, it's not that difficult to infer her one and only friend was Ladybug. Now, I'll admit I only realized the previous Chat Noir's identity, ah, two hours ago? Your father might have been Alice's husband, but his… reputation does not quite fit that of a superhero. But then again, while you were held hostage, another Chat Noir was filmed by security cameras. And he looked distinctly like an aged-up version of the one I met when I was a teenager. Now, from that point, one wonders why a retired vigilante would suddenly resurface. Or rather: 'for whom?'."
"André," Anne-Laure intervened. "Stop lording your 'superior sense of observation' over the kids. You're not a Bond villain. Also, I called Gabriel 'Sourpuss' for a whole decade and you connected the dots now? "
Mister Bourgeois cleared his throat.
Chat Noir stared him down.
"That 'sense of observation', superior or otherwise, does not matter at all , because I'd rather reveal my identity than let you lie. Our masks were meant to protect us from danger, not to help us or others evade the law. If you want to use it as leverage to keep us silent, I will call a press conference as Adrien Agreste and transform in front of every tabloid journalist in the country. We'll see how useful your blackmail material is after that."
The mayor paled. He pursed his lips and hesitated, half-apologetic, half-annoyed. He settled for a nervous expression and placating words.
"Now, now, let's not resort to such extremities. What I was trying to say was that I am surprised that, considering your father's involvement, you would want his actions scrutinized. He is your dad." - Adrien noted his use of the childish, intimate form of 'father' and tensed. Mister Bourgeois went on. - "But of course, you are an honest young man. You would want the law to apply to everyone, even the people you love."
Chat Noir glared.
"But…" André continued. "Chat Noir. Ladybug. I urge you, I beg you to consider the kind of damage and drama the full truth will cause."
Ladybug stepped forward.
"Maybe the people responsible for that drama should have considered the consequences they would face, then. Maybe mister Agreste should have called the police when he figured out Hawk Moth's identity, instead of abducting the man and faking his death! By the way, how many crimes is that? And maybe when she discovered where mister Kubdel was held," Ladybug continued, pointing at Anne-Laure, "she could have told someone instead of running there to torture him."
The blonde, who had listened with mild interest at best up to this point, finally snapped.
"I just wanted to get information out of him!" she exclaimed. "I just need to know what he did to A-"
"HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW! " Adrien yelled. "Which you two idiots could have figured out if you had checked a calendar! He was in another country when she vanished!"
Miss Lenoir did not give him an answer, just a wide-eyed, horrified look of disbelief. She was shell-shocked. Adrien was well past caring.
"And don't ever utter her name again. She would never have forgiven you for the trick you just pulled. She would never have forgiven Father either."
Ladybug put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. He went silent but barely relaxed.
There was a knock at the door. It immediately opened on an irritated nurse.
"I'm going to have to ask you to keep it-"
She went silent when she saw who she was admonishing. She gaped for an instant, eyes moving from the Mayor to Ladybug to Chat Noir. When she resumed talking, her voice had dropped to a whisper.
"Would be nice… disturbing the other patients… thanks," she muttered before hurrying out of the room.
Her departure left everyone in the room stunned and uneasy. They all stared at the walls in awkward silence. Mister Bourgeois ended up clearing his throat.
"I'm certain there are personal stakes for everyone involved," he said. "God knows I don't want Chloé to be bullied by the press over Anne-Laure's actions. But that was not what I had in mind when I mentioned dreadful consequences. The world does not stop at our families. There is not a single person in Paris who was not victimized or in some way impacted by Hawk Moth's actions. There is a lot of resentment going around, and not only for the last year. Many people still remember the decade before your birth. If word of what mister Agreste did got out… the police would be forced to arrest the man who finally ended Hawk Moth's reign of terror. He would be seen as a hero . There would be outrage, there would be protests." - André thought about that and frowned even more, as Chat and Ladybug listened with growing horror. - "There would be riots. Yet we cannot condone vigilantism, so a trial would be mandatory, and that would give us months of unrest. And the public opinion would be so divided that there is no possible sentence he could receive without more backlash." - He breathed in. - "Oh, and another thing. Have you ever tried to try a billionaire? The judicial system is already struggling, underfunded and understaffed, and you'd want us to throw millions at one single big case that will end with a slap on the wrist? It just can't be done!"
Anne-Laure ran her fist against her forehead, eyes squeezed shut.
Ladybug crossed her arms.
"You're just making excuses. Let's just see how the people of Paris react when they see we are on the side of the law."
She was the straightforward one, the righteous one, the honest one. Her words rang true because she believed them. Adrien was the appeaser, the liar, the boy with the masks who did his best to keep his father pleased. His life was a minefield and, every single day, he stepped around so carefully not to provoke a chain explosion.
He knew better than to dismiss mister Bourgeois' warnings.
Marinette put her elbow on his shoulder and leaned on him, giving the mayor a defiant smile.
"Isn't that right, Chat?"
The boy's silence spoke louder than words. His partner turned to him, aghast. He couldn't meet her eyes.
"We are going to have to give this more consideration," he told her, even though every word of that sentence sickened him. "We could use an unbiased opinion on this."
Ladybug was blindsided but adapted quickly, pretending to agree with him when he knew full well she did not.
"We will do our best to find a solution that allows for both justice and safety," she said. "Expect to hear from us soon."
Hand firmly pressed between Chat Noir's shoulders, she led the way out of the hospital room. Adrien glanced back, catching Anne-Laure's apologetic look just before the door closed behind them.
###
Adrien, having given Marinette the vaguest, most evasive apology of his life, had escaped to find a place to untransform. He was so furious his thoughts had turned to howling inside his head, and he wanted to destroy something, which was not the best state of mind for someone with the power to destroy anything. He needed to talk to Plagg (and maybe to scream at the rest of the world).
He released his transformation in a deserted alley and caught his Kwami as he dropped from the air. The black cat grumbled, rolling between the boy's cupped hands until he managed to sit.
"I knew it would come to that," he mumbled.
Anger coursed through Adrien.
"It's-"
His phone started buzzing in his pocket, again and again and again. He let go of Plagg and checked it. Text messages were arriving in quick succession. Two were from Nino and four from Nathalie.
His best friend's were a "can I drop your math homework in your mailbox?" and a "Things are crazy here".
Nathalie's were, in order: "Can you please keep me updated on where you are?", "Please call me", "Adrien, please drop by my apartment later" and "Yes, your father is gone".
The teenager sighed, suddenly feeling guilty. He called her.
"Adrien," she answered in a calm, unconcerned voice. "Thanks for calling. I was starting to wonder where you had vanished to."
"Ladybug and I had to have a small talk with… someone," he replied. "I'm sorry. I should not have left like that."
"Don't worry about the leaving. I just wanted to know where you were. I don't seem to be able to call her communicator from my phone anymore, and… I could use Hawk Moth's Miraculous to get in touch with you, but…" - Her voice cracked a little. - "I'd rather not."
"I'll come back right now," Adrien blurted out, before giving any real thought to the idea. "We're done anyway."
"Good. Do you want me to come pick you up? How far away are you?"
"I'm not that far. I should be there in fifteen minutes or so."
"Alright. Be careful on the way, will you?"
He couldn't help it. He rolled his eyes in mock annoyance.
"Yes, mom!" he railed.
He froze as soon as the words were out of his mouth. Joke or not, it was not something he could have told Nathalie before.
There was a silence at the other end of the line, but it didn't last.
"And don't wisecrack at me, young man," Nathalie replied.
"I wouldn't dare," Adrien said, still nervous.
He quickly hung up and cleared his throat, staring down at a very amused Plagg.
His chosen didn't give him a second to comment.
"Claws out."
###
Fifteen minutes were a long time. Well, maybe not, but it was enough of a timespan for warm feelings of embarrassment to fade, and for the reality to come crashing back.
When Adrien walked into Nathalie's apartment, he had turned and twisted every single one of the mayor's words in his head, and was feeling awful. He was seething. He was not accustomed to seething. Even Plagg's near-cuddling (he was perched on Adrien's shoulder, pressed against his throat) did nothing to calm him down.
The teenager found Nathalie sitting at the dinner table with her laptop. For the first time in what felt like forever, her hair was done, her makeup was perfect, her clothes sharply ironed. Her composure was impeccable.
Adrien looked at her.
"He's going to get away with it," he announced.
She frowned, thinking about his words for an instant.
"Not Hawk Moth, I assume?"
"Did you see the mayor's speech?"
"I did. I'm sorry."
"My father will get away with everything. There is nothing we can do. Nothing. If we drag him to the police, no one out here will want to punish him when he stopped Hawk Moth ! We're forced to let it go!"
Nathalie pursed her lips, looking down then closing her eyes. She took a long, deep breath.
"I can't say I'm surprised," she said. "Politics are a complicated thing."
Adrien suddenly remembered Plagg's 'if it happens', and Tikki's 'whatever happens', and realized they had all along, that they had probably known from the moment they had realized what Gabriel's plans were. It made him angrier still.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this. It wasn't! We were going to catch him, and to hand him over to the police, and to give the Butterfly Miraculous back to Fu, and everything would have… would have…"
He had to stop and take a shaky breath. When he swallowed, his throat hurt.
Nathalie stood and joined him, putting both hands on his shoulders. Plagg shifted a little closer to Adrien's neck.
"You were never going to have a perfect ending," she murmured, raising a hand to stroke his cheek. "Through no fault of your own. There is no perfect ending to situations like these. Even without your father's intervention, Hawk Moth's defeat would have come with its share of pain. The moment he would have turned from a monster to a man, you would have seen it." - Her hand traveled to his hair and smoothed it. - "You did everything you could and you should focus on that."
"Everything I could wasn't enough . We are heroes. We were supposed to make things right!"
She thought about it for an instant, then guided him to the sofa.
"We had heroes too, when I was much younger," she told him as she sat next to him. "A Ladybug, a Queen Bee. They were urban legends of sorts. There was a third one and he rarely showed himself. They avoided the press. They most certainly did not get caught on camera kneeling next to an Akumatized little girl to comfort her, they did not have statues made for them, there was no Ladyblog, barely a peep in the magazines. They were ghosts. Everyone forgot about them."
Adrien blinked, peeking at Plagg.
"That's true," the Kwami confirmed. "Alice did a little better because she liked people, but they were never as involved as you and Marinette."
"Oh," his chosen murmured before turning to Nathalie again.
She pushed his chin up so he would raise his head, then peeled his bandage off.
"Stopping Hawk Moth was not what this was about," she continued, matter-of-factly. "The good you did is in the small things, in the victims you comforted, in the people you gave hope to, in the children who look up to you and who will follow your example." - She leaned forward to get a better look at his cut. - "That's the difference between a hero and a warrior. Now let me get some betadine", she finished, standing up and vanishing into the bathroom.
While she was gone, Adrien mulled over her words. His father had once described himself as a mercenary, caring more about the results than about the people he helped. Maybe Nathalie was right.
"I like her," Plagg commented. "I really like her. It's rare to meet a human who talks sense without being dramatic about it. Gabriel ought to marry her."
"I don't think he deserves her."
Plagg went silent.
"You have a point. I was about to say he is a billionaire," he ended up replying, "but it still doesn't make him a catch."
Adrien had to swallow a chortle at that.
"What did I miss?" Nathalie asked as she came back into the room with a pack of gauze and a bottle of disinfectant.
"Nothing, nothing," Adrien mumbled. He winced when she sat and opened the betadine bottle. "Do we need to do this?"
"Yes, we do," she retorted, tilting his head up.
He grimaced when she started disinfecting the wound, which got her to click her tongue and mutter something about boys gladly walking on broken limbs but complaining about papercuts. So he wrinkled his nose, sucked his cheeks in, and pretended he didn't mind the stinging. A few minutes later, Nathalie finished taping gauze to his throat. She put the betadine on the coffee table.
"I'll let you take care of your leg yourself. If it's infected, we'll take you to the doctor."
"Alright. Er. Everyone is making a fuss about the scars."
"We'll magick them away," Nathalie commented, without the slightest concern. She saw him gape, so she gave the slightest eye roll. "We have three deities at hand. I'm sure one of them can do something. "
Plagg raised his head.
"Worst case scenario, I'll merge with Tikki again."
Nathalie gave him a pointed look.
"Or Waspp can vomit healing honey," the Kwami amended. "if we ever track her down."
"A discussion for another time," the woman replied. She closed her eyes and braced herself. "Adrien. We need to discuss your father."
"We just discussed him," the teenager snapped, moving back.
Nathalie sighed.
"I know you probably don't want to hear his name right now, but there are a few things I would like to explain. I talked with him and-"
"Where is he, anyway?"
"I don't know. I assume he went home."
Adrien shook his head.
"When I called him earlier, he told me he was in a meeting."
Nathalie frowned.
"He did?"
The teenager acquiesced.
"That was during the mayor's speech," he explained. "I thought Father had bribed mister Bourgeois or something like that."
That declaration was met with a shake of the head and a sigh.
"No. No, I don't think your father is doing anything about this whole business. I doubt he has the energy for that." - Cry me a river, Adrien thought. - "Then again, work is Gabriel's very own personal opiate. If he told you he had a meeting, he had a meeting."
The boy turned away. He had never been so angry in his life and did not like the feeling.
"He does not have to do anything," he stated. "He will get away with it anyway. Anne-Laure, too."
Nathalie hesitated.
"I… I understand that the way-"
"They shouldn't get to!" Adrien cut in. "They shouldn't! I understand that reporting them will cause a lot of trouble. I understand that there will be outrage, that people will think what they did was for the best! But what they did was wrong! They c-committed crimes, they hurt people. The law applies to everyone." - He took a shaky breath, looking for more arguments. "You're not supposed to get a pass. T-there's no justice if you walk away as if nothing happened, you don't learn anything, you…"
His voice died down. Every word he spoke sounded made up. He knew his arguments were right, yet he felt like a vindictive, spiteful liar.
Do you really want your father to be arrested?
Do you really want him to go to jail?
Really?
Is it even about justice, or do you simply want to make him suffer?
Nathalie leaned closer. She reached for his hand, squeezed it, then kept holding it.
"You have the right to be angry at your father for what he did to you ," she said. "You are allowed to say it."
Adrien tried to pull his hand away, panicking.
"N-no!" he exclaimed. "I-it's not that, I'm not… I mean…"
She wouldn't let go.
"I get it," she insisted, in a louder voice but still in the same quiet, non-judgmental tone. "I get it." - She waited for him to stop fidgeting, then breathed in. "You trusted Anne-Laure and she betrayed that trust. You had faith in your father and he shattered it. You are allowed to be angry. You are entitled to being angry. You were hurt and the blame is entirely on them ."
"I… I just…"
She waited, but he could not finish his sentence. He saw her expression shift from expectant to pained. Plagg nudged him a little, but in vain. Nathalie waited a little more then closed her eyes.
"About Gabriel and his getting away with it... " she started, looking up at Adrien. "He might not face consequences from the law, but he will be held accountable. I will hold him accountable. I will be the judge, the jury and the enforcer. I do not plan to let him 'get away with it'."
Adrien stared at her, wide-eyed. She straightened up.
"There is a set of rules I expect him to follow. I want him to demonstrate that he can, wants and will change and that he deserves to be given a chance. And I want him to prove that not for a week, not for a month, not for a year, but for the rest of his life. I was willing to be lenient considering that he is ill - blatantly ill - but it stops now."
The teenager only managed to gape. He felt something but couldn't pinpoint what.
He peeked at Plagg. The Kwami was listening to all of that with a satisfied smirk.
"On that note," Nathalie continued, raising her voice so Adrien would turn his attention to her. "I talked to him, at length, and decisions were taken. For a start, Gabriel will make no attempts at contacting you, he won't try to apologize, not until you expressly allow him to. While you did take the high-ground by telling him you would listen… you are not ready. I can see it, he can see it, and so he will wait."
That something Adrien was feeling bubbled up in his chest.
"Nathalie… It's fine, I swear, I…"
The look in her eyes silenced him. She went on.
"On top of that," she told him, "Gabriel is not allowed to talk to you alone. I won't stop you if you decide you want to have a discussion in private, but as a general rule, if he interacts with you, it will be under close supervision. My supervision at the moment."
Plagg made a noise close to purring.
The bubbles inside Adrien's chest exploded and turned to butterflies. He felt a bit nauseated, but mostly relieved. And, because he felt relieved, he felt guilty too.
That rule was extreme, wasn't it?
But Nathalie thought it was warranted.
"There's a third thing," Nathalie murmured, squeezing his shoulder. "It's about your living arrangements, and it will be up to you."
Adrien had to blink tears away. He forced an answer out.
"Yes?"
"Your father recognizes that his mental health devolved to the point that he cannot be trusted around you. He acknowledges it, he wants to work on it, but he feels the best thing for you would be to remain at a safe distance until he gets better. So, we have come up with three options. One would be for you to go back to your house. I would move into a guest bedroom, and your father would keep living there, but I would act as a buffer between the two of you. Or you could return to the mansion with me, while Gabriel moves to a hotel. And a third option would be for you to stay here with me."
A treacherous part of Adrien's mind murmured that it was all just an excuse Gabriel used to get rid of him but, upon consideration, the teenager found that it did not matter anymore, because he did not want to go back.
The notion that Gabriel's behavior had been horrible enough for Nathalie to stage a rescue was slowly sinking in.
"I… I… If you don't mind," he murmured, finding it hard to breathe, "I'd like to stay here. Please."
He was relieved, so relieved.
"You are more than welcome to stay, Adrien," she replied in her softest voice.
He couldn't hold it in. He started to cry.
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