So now we come to the conclusion of this two-shot angst fest. I must say, this was fun to write. I hope you guys enjoyed it
"Do you even love me anymore?"
He responded no as he walked into the nursery. He knew she wouldn't go in there so both he and Adrien took it as the only safe place in the house.
His three year old son cries and begs for his mother telling him he doesn't like the scary lady. He replies that he knows and that he's sorry. He doesn't know how to get rid of her. He wishes he could though. He knows that Felix and Angevin needed her more than he did.
"I want mommy…"
Adrien hates hearing those words more than the "I love you" he still receives from the woman. He knows they want their mother. He wants her too. He misses her. She's his mother, too.
He recalls when he would fly across the sky with another name and find her standing on her roof with snacks.
He recalls her fighting his father vehemently for his right to his youth.
He recalls when she hugged them both forgetting that she was nothing to them.
He recalls that first Christmas he spent with her and his father. The smiles and the laughs that he didn't think would be possible for a very long time.
He recalls when he could call this place home. Those memories once belonged to a ghost but now they belonged to a lost light.
He can't take it anymore.
This house.
The ghost that forces them to stay.
He makes a choice he knows will hurt but he can't stay. None of them can.
"I'm going out."
"Be safe…."
"I love you, dad."
"I love you, too. Take care of your brother and sister."
Gabriel knows Adrien isn't coming back. He has that same look that his mother had when she left… the only difference is that despite the fact that he's leaving, there is some hope that he will return.
He watches them leave. It hurts even more knowing that they're going to find the one he had to let go of.
He's happy for them. They could go. He was bound to the house until it burned with him in it.
"My babies. All my precious babies."
They're there. In her crappy apartment standing looking at her as if they have found something they had lost.
She smiles and cries as she hugs all three of them. They're all she has left besides the unborn life in her. And they're here.
She smiles as she tells them that there is another coming.
"Since when do you drink?"
He doesn't respond as he pours himself another shot of whiskey. It seems to be the only way to cooperate in that house now that it's just them.
He goes to his office and locks the door.
He breaks everything and screams every curse in every language he knows.
This is his fault.
And he wants to die.
"Why won't you look me in the eyes?"
She knows why. He's thinking about another woman. Her usurper; the trophy, the whore, the woman who stole her family from her. She sits on the bed shaking. She recalls seeing it all over the news. That girl wearing a blue dress—crafted by HER husband's hands; and those children that had no right to exist—there being worshipped as if they had done something great.
They had done nothing. They were just a lame attempt to replace her. She was the one who they all loved. She was their love. She loved her husband and son. Why did they betray her? Why would they bring someone else into their house? Into their lives?
Why would Gabriel bring someone else into their bed?
A girl who could've been their own child had stained her sheets with indiscretions that she could not dare imagine.
"I'm sorry, but you've lost the baby…."
Maria keeps her mask. She's about ready to break everything but she sees her infant children. She thinks to the unborn and finds that perhaps its better this way. That child would have only been born into more suffering. It's good that she accidentally slipped.
Adrien is heartbroken. She can tell. The boy was too much like his father sometimes. He wore a front when in grief and told no one of his sufferings.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Adrien's mother."
"You're not Maria."
Before Clarisse can think she raises her hand but it's stopped. She turns to see Gabriel glaring at her. He's never done that before. He stands between her and the blue haired girl. She looks to the girl who is scared and confused.
Then to Gabriel who has murder in his eyes.
"Don't ever touch her."
So this girl is another whore of his.
She looks at him in disgust.
"How many other whores have you forgotten to mention."
"Where is Adrien?"
Gabriel wants to yell at her for trying to hurt Marinette. He knows Adrien loves the girl. And he knows that if Clarisse had slapped her, Adrien would never be able to forgive his birth mother. He says nothing and instead nudges Marinette away from Clarisse.
He tells her that Adrien left. She doesn't know the situation. So he tells her.
To his surprise the girl hugs him hard and weeps for him.
He's grateful for it even if hugging is still uncomfortable.
"I'm fine."
Adrien knows she's lying. She's hurting and he can't help much. He's already quit school and gotten a job at nearby bar. It's nothing glamorous but at least he can help during the day. He wishes he told Marinette but he doesn't feel like it's worth it.
He can't go to her for all of his problems. She's the one who has the weight of the world on her shoulders. She doesn't need his problems.
"WHY WON'T YOU FUCKING LOOK AT ME?"
He says nothing and locks himself in his office. He can't take it anymore. He begins to drink out of the bottles hoping to go into a drunken stupor.
He drinks another.
And another.
And another.
His mind is lost. He finds a bottle. He knows he's not supposed to drink from it… it will hurt him. But he's lost all fucks to give about his own life. He opens it knowing full well he might not be able to come back from it.
But it's fine. Everything will go to his true wife and their children. So they can live on without him.
Nothing will go to the ghost. He laughs as he takes a swig of whatever it is.
Everything burns.
He feels like he is one fire.
And he can feel it. Death knocking on the window.
Or was it the door?
He's surprised when he sees Nathalie and Philippe. They're not dead… he's supposed to be though. He'll die soon enough.
"He's in the hospital…."
Adrien wants to say he's fine. But he's not. He's about to scream at the woman who sits across from him. He sees people he hasn't in a while.
The anger in him turns to shame. To his surprise they all hug him. He kisses Marinette. He needs to feel her. And she kisses back.
"S-she's your girlfriend?"
Clarisse feels the world drop. For the first time since she's returned, she's felt guilt. The girl looks at her and says nothing. Adrien…
Her son…
He has that look in his eyes. That same look as his father filled with nothing but hatred.
It all tumbles down on her. She's not the one who was replaced. She looks to the woman who's holding the baby girl. And then to Nathalie who hadn't even looked to her once during this whole time. It was strange to see the woman, who was once her best friend, ignore her.
She looks to her son again.
"She stole you from me…."
"I didn't take anything you weren't willing to give up."
Maria is Angry. So very angry.
She hands her daughter to Adrien and then grabs Clarisse by the forearm before leading her away.
She kept quiet for the sake of her son and her husband. She had kept quiet because she knew this woman was once the most prominent person in their life.
"YOU FUCKING LEFT THEM. THEY NEEDED YOU. YOU MARRIED A MAN WHO YOU KNEW HAD AMBITIONS AND HAD A CHILD WITH HIM KNOWING THAT SOMETIMES HE BECAME TOO ENGROSSED IN HIS WORK. YOUR SON NEEDED YOU AND ONE DAY YOU UP AND FUCKING LEFT. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY WERE LIKE WHEN I CAME INTO THEIR LIVES? THEY COULDN'T ACTUALLY HAVE A CONVERSATION. THEY DIDN'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT EACH OTHER. GABRIEL SHUTS DOWN WHEN HE'S BROKEN HEARTED, YOU KNEW THIS. ADRIEN'S THE EXACT SAME WAY. THEY'RE JUST DIFFERENT ABOUT HOW THEY SHOW IT."
Clarisse is shaking. This isn't true… they didn't need her. They acted like they would be fine without her.
"ADRIEN RAN AWAY FOR FUCKS SAKE. GABRIEL AND HE HAD TO WORK HARD TO GET TO WHERE THEY ARE NOW. AND YOU RUINED IT. YOU DON'T LOVE ANYONE. YOU JUST CONSTANTLY HAVE TO TEST EVERYONE'S LOVE FOR YOU. YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT EITHER OF THEM. I HAD TO FIGHT TOOTH AND NAIL FOR BOTH OF THEM TO LET ME IN. I LOVED THEM SO MUCH I WAS WILLING TO GIVE UP EVERYTHING FOR THEM TO BE HAPPY. WHERE WERE YOU? OFF CHANGING YOUR NAME AND ACTING LIKE IT WAS OKAY FOR YOU TO PRETEND TO BE GONE?"
Clarisse can't speak. She looked at the girl for what felt like the first time. Guilt piled on her. She was unsatisfied with being a stay at home mother… even though she had told Gabriel that she had wanted to do exactly that. He had respected her wishes.
The more she remembered the more she realized she had been wrong. She looked to the girl and realized that she was crying.
Crying for the man who almost died from drinking an alcohol he was allergic too.
"You should just leave."
She wants to cry when she realizes those words are from Nathalie. Nathalie was glaring at her. They were friends once.
And she ruined everything.
She burned all the bridges.
"Stay with me and my family."
He wants to say yes. But he can't. He's needed here. His brother and sister need him because he knows his mother can only be strong for so long. He tells her he can't and she kisses his cheek and says she understands.
He wishes he told her in the first place.
"Please don't shut me out again."
He won't. He can't. He needs her. She's the yin to his yang. He nods in promise that he won't. Nino gives him a hug. He is grateful. Alya does the same and smiles.
Marinette stays and he is feeling truly at peace for the first time in months.
"He's going to be fine."
Maria almost lets out a loud cry of joy but instead she gives a nod as she sits down next to Adrien. She asks if it's fine if they move. She hates the current Agreste Manor. There's too much she wants to forget in there.
She's surprised that he agrees.
"I want to divorce Gabriel."
Clarisse knows she has no choice. She lost her place the moment she decided she was going to leave. She knew her brother would side with her and used it to get back what she thought was hers.
She had to own up to her mistakes.
Because she was too late.
She had ruined everything. Why did she convince herself that it would be okay?
She only came back out petty jealousy that someone else had taken her title. She had ruined her son and her husband because she acted on an impulse… a 10 year long impulse.
"Gabriel….?"
Gabriel was pretty sure he was going to die. When he saw Maria sitting there next to him it felt all too surreal.
She smiled at him that loving smile that seemed to always fill him and kissed his forehead. It felt good to feel her so close.
"I love you."
Adrien feels his heart burst when Marinette says it. It's the first time in a very long time that hearing that makes him happy. He sits on the park bench with her as they watch the kids play. Felix is happy to be playing with his best friend, Brigitte, and Angevin is having a ball playing with some yarn Marinette gave her.
"What type of house do you want to live in?"
Maria is surprised when she hears that. Gabriel was finally released and they had all gone back to the Agreste manor.
So when she hears that she smiles. She wants a house where she can plant lots of flowers and have a small vegetable garden. Somewhere that's big enough to accommodate them and future grandchildren and her family every once in a while.
"That sounds like home."
If you feel like I left any loose ends please by all means tell me! I hope you guys like the ending thought!