An awkward, not-quite-family dinner at Agrestes'. Content notice for language and mentions of neglect.
It was a bit overwhelming. Aunt Valérie asked him a lot of questions and although none of them were invasive, Adrien wasn't used to have so much adult focus on him. He expected questions about his school results and modeling experience because that was the norm. Being asked about his interests wasn't.
"I have six years of Christmas and birthday presents to catch up on," she told him. "And I believe in personalized gifts."
Adrien nodded. That fit in with what he remembered of her. Before he could reply, the door to the dining room opened and his father walked in. He stopped briefly and looked at where Adrien and Valérie sat at one end of the table. Aunt Valérie had dragged one of the chairs from the middle of the table over to Adrien's customary place so they could talk more easily. Now she stood up and dragged it back, dropping it down and continuing past it towards Gabriel.
Adrien watched as they exchanged the perfunctory greeting of cheek kisses. His father looked uncomfortable and Adrien realized this was most likely the first time in a long while that he was interacting with someone who wasn't an employee or a business partner.
Aunt Valérie obviously picked up on his father's discomfort. She let out a short laugh and patted his arm.
"Still as stiff as ever, eh?" she asked. "It's good to see you, Gabriel."
"Likewise, Valérie," he said. "I see you and Adrien have already started to catch up."
"We have," she said. "From what he told me, I can see that he grew up to be a model child."
Adrien almost missed the slight emphasis she had put on the word model. Almost. Did Aunt Valérie just make a pun? The self-satisfied grin she wore indicated so.
The adults took their places and Valérie turned towards Adrien.
"I heard you're almost done with your first year of public school. How do you like it there?"
"It's great. The subjects aren't that difficult and I get along with most of the kids in my class."
"What about friends?"
"Well, there's Nino, who's my best friend-" Adrien paused when his father scoffed.
"I still think he's a bad influence on you," he stated. Valérie looked between the two of them and smirked.
"Do tell. Does he try to get you to drink? Or do drugs? Maybe skip the school every day?"
"No?" Adrien said, bewildered. "We just hang out, listen to music or play video games."
"I see," she said and nodded sagely. "He's a normal boy who gets you to do things all teenage boys do. Yep, I can see why your father disapproves. What a disastrous friendship it is. How dare he gets you to have fun?"
"Your sarcasm is not appreciated," his father said in a tightly controlled voice. Valérie merely raised an eyebrow at him.
"You could do with some relaxing and fun yourself, Gabriel. Do you spend all the time working?"
There was an uncomfortable pause and Valérie shook her head.
"Unbelievable. Next thing you'll be telling me is that this is the first time you had a dinner with your son in a month."
Adrien looked down at the table. He was used to his father not paying attention to him. He knew it wasn't how normal families worked but as there was nothing he could do to change it, he did his best not to think about what he was missing.
"What the fuck, Gabriel?" The english profanity made Adrien wince. He knew enough of the language to know that it was one of the worse ones. He looked up and the anger in Aunt Valérie's face took him aback. She was that furious on his behalf? She glanced at him and her face softened. "We're having a long talk after this," she told his father who looked ready to retort angrily but after he looked at Adrien, he nodded in aquiescence.
The carefree atmosphere of earlier was gone. The three went through their meals quietly. Adrien usually took every opportunity to eat his fill, his diet not accounting for his Chat Noir activities, but he didn't feel very hungry. Everything had seemed to go so well before, he should have known his luck wouldn't hold up.
Mid-way through the main course, Aunt Valérie cleared her throat.
"So, Nino is your best friend. What about other friends? Isn't there someone special? A girlfriend? A boyfriend? Both?"
Adrien gratefully latched on the change in the topic, even if the inquiry was embarrassing.
"I don't have a girlfriend yet. Or a boyfriend," he added quickly. "I spend a lot of time with Alya, who's Nino's girlfriend, and her best friend Marinette."
Valérie cocked her head to the side, considering.
"Marinette? She's the yet, isn't she?" she asked and then explained. "You said you didn't have a girlfriend yet and the look in your eyes when you said her name..." she trailed off and shrugged. "It's the trademark 'Agreste in Love' look. Your father wore it often enough around Lydia that I can recognize it easily."
"We're just friends," Adrien feebly protested. "I do like her and I know she likes me but we don't want to rush things. We became good friends only recently and we want to strengthen our friendship before we go any further."
Both his father and Aunt Valérie stared at him and Adrien felt himself blushing under the scrutiny.
"That's surprisingly mature and responsible of you two," Valérie said at last. "I hope I can meet these friends of yours some time."
"Of course," Adrien agreed.
"The girl's name sounds familiar," his father spoke up.
"She won one of your design contests, the one for the derby hat."
"Ah yes, she developed the ingenious stitching with a hidden signature. A very distinct tell, especially for someone so young."
That sounded very approving, especially by his father's standards.
"Yeah, she's amazing."
Valérie coughed into her napkin but did nothing to suppress her wide smile.
"You're so deep and you don't even know it," she murmured as she stared at Adrien. "Well, go on, tell me more about her."
"Uhm, she's very nice and kind to everyone. She is the class president and she makes sure to listen to everyone's concerns and does her best to solve any problems..."
It probably should have been embarrassing, just how long he could talk about Marinette and that was even without touching upon what she did as Ladybug. But it was not like he was making up any of it. Marinette was simply that amazing.
"She sounds almost too good to be true," Valérie remarked when they got to the cheese. Adrien surreptitiously snuck a handful of cheddar cubes to Plagg who had been keeping quiet in his pocket.
"She certainly seems like a very special young lady," his father said. "If or when your romance develops further, I'd like to meet her."
"Of course, Dad," Adrien said, a little bit stunned. He was sure his father would like her - who wouldn't - but that he would offer to meet her of his own volition... That was a first. Aunt Valérie stared as well but then she inclined her head a bit. Maybe what she had said earlier had gotten through to his father. Adrien certainly wouldn't mind if that was the case. He didn't think his father was distant on purpose. The drift had happened gradually and maybe it took an outsider to get his father to see it.
"You know what's really funny?" Valérie said as she played around with her plate of select cheeses. "I used to dislike cheese when I was a kid. But it eventually grew on me. Especially the moldy kinds." She punctuated the sentence by popping a cube of cheese into her mouth.
Adrien stared at her in awe. That was a glorious pun. Valérie grinned and winked at him.
"I consider puns the highest form of comedy. And it was a fun little exercise in uni."
"What did you study?"
"Languages. I'm rather gifted in that area," she said. "I work as a translator and interpreter all over the world. It's a good job. I get to see some really interesting places and I get paid rather well, too."
"That sounds like a good job."
Valérie snorted a bit.
"I dare you to say it after you spent a week brushing up on your Japanese and hoping you remember all the courtesy phrases because the success of a multi-million Euro deal depends on your skill. And that's nothing on my latest job. Fourteen months in Andes, going stone by stone through an Inca temple and cross-checking every symbol because getting even one thing wrong would ruin all the previous work." She stared at her glass for a moment before she shook off whatever was on her mind. "Anyway, it's a good job but it has its drawbacks. Like everything in the world. So it's a matter of weighing the pros and cons and then deciding if the thing is worth it."
She was looking pointedly at his father as she finished her little speech. He met her eyes and let out a sigh.
"We can talk in my office. If you'd follow me," he said and stood up. "Adrien, you go to your room. I will talk to you later."
"Yes, Dad."
Adrien broke into a run as soon as he was by the stairs. He didn't have long, not if he wanted to listen in on that discussion.
"Did you have enough to eat?" he asked Plagg once he was in the safety of his room. The kwami poked his head out of his pocket.
"You shouldn't listen in on them," the cat grumbled. "It's not going to be pretty."
"They're going to argue about me," Adrien pointed out.
"Exactly, you'll only feel guilty and then you'll mope and I'll have to deal with you."
Adrien rolled his eyes. Sometimes it seemed that Plagg did nothing but complain.
"I'll buy you a whole block of camembert tomorrow."
Plagg sniffed derisively and turned away.
"You think you can bribe me with so little?"
Adrien grinned. He got him now.
"Fine, I'll buy you two. Claws out!"
It was easy to scale down the wall of the house and get to his father's office's window. With the summer weather they had recently, it was kept open. He seemed to be just on time as the first thing he heard was the click of the door being closed. And then came Aunt Valérie's voice.
"The only reason I stayed away so long was because I thought you were a decent human being. I didn't expect you to neglect your son. Seriously, Gabriel, what the hell is wrong with you?"
"Adrien is well taken care of. I admit I haven't been very diligent in balancing my parent duties with my work but that is hardly a reason to insult me."
There was a long pause and then Valérie spoke again.
"Gabriel, I know."
"What do you mean?" There was a defensive note to his father's voice and Adrien considered how much the risk of peeking through the window to see what was going on was worth.
"You weren't the only one keeping Lydia's secrets. With that knowledge, it wasn't difficult to connect the dots."
"I see," his father said. "And what do you plan on doing with this knowledge?"
"That's the beauty of it. I don't have to do anything. You messed up, Gabriel," Valérie spoke, her voice growing fainter and then stronger. She must have been pacing. "You didn't do enough research and it's going to bite you in the ass."
"What would you know about these things?"
"Certainly more than you do. For example, I know why you couldn't wear the brooch. Speaking of which, I'd like to have it."
"No."
The swift refusal didn't seem to deter Valérie. Adrien quickly looked inside, catching a glimpse of her facing his father. He could only see her back but her stance was confident.
"It's useless to you."
"It's a memento of my wife," his father said pointedly. Valérie let out a snort.
"You have a son who looks a lot like her. Why do you need something that amounts to a useless trinket?"
"Why are you so interested in that useless trinket?"
"Because unlike you, I don't have a wonderful child to remind me of a woman I loved so much."
"Are you trying an emotional manipulation?"
His father's tone was tinged with surprise.
"I happen to believe in one old adage. The end justifies the means. I think you can relate."
There was a brief lull of silence and Adrien took the chance to look in again. Valérie and his father stood several paces apart. His father had his hands behind his back in what was his favourite pose. Aunt Valérie appeared relaxed, only her tightly crossed arms betraying her tension.
"Very well," his father said, breaking the stand-off. "What exactly do you want?"
"Two, well, three things. One, the brooch. Two, I want to spend some time with Adrien and I think his schedule should be relaxed a bit. He's a kid, let him enjoy his childhood."
"And three?"
"Make more of an effort with him. Even if it's only a half-hour every second day, be more present in his life."
"And if I were to refuse?"
"First, I would curse you out in thirty-seven languages, twelve of them no longer spoken anywhere in the world. Second, I would probably smack you. Or kick you, I'm still debating on that point. Third, I would sue for Adrien's custody on the grounds of neglect and make this into the biggest scandal to hit the press in the past ten years."
"You would go that far?"
"The end justifies the means, Gabriel. You're hardly in a position to judge me on this."
His father was silent for a moment.
"The threats are the only reason I'm giving you the brooch," he spoke at last. "As for the other two points, I'm agreeing because you were right to chastise me for my failures in that regard."
Adrien was sure he would have been able to hear Valérie's sigh of relief even without his amplified hearing.
"It's good to know you still have some humanity left in you."
His father didn't reply. There was some rustling, the sound of something being opened and closed and then his father spoke again.
"I suppose you have no idea what happened to an old book I kept in the safe?"
Adrien winced. Marinette had confessed she had taken the book out of the bin where Lila had thrown it and had then brought it to Master Fu but the old man had been very tight-lipped on the whole issue. The only thing he had told them had been that the book had gone missing a few years back and it had been suspected to be in a collection somewhere.
Marinette had thought that his father might have bought the book after the emergence of the Miraculouses in Paris. It was as good a theory as any other.
"I haven't been in France in fourteen months," Valérie said. "So no, I have no idea."
"Very well. I'll let Nathalie know about the changes to Adrien's schedule. You can talk to her about everything to do with that later."
"Thank you, Gabriel. I'm going to take my leave now."
"Valérie," he called after her. "When you said I didn't do enough research, what did you mean by that?"
She stayed quiet for a few seconds and then...
"The more you want something, the more you have to pay to get it. Even if you were to succeed, it's very likely you'll lose everything else in the process. The end justifies the means but sometimes, the end is not worth it, not after you do the final count of what it cost you to reach it."
"I see," his father sounded contemplative. "I'll keep that in mind."
"You do that. Good night."
"Good night."
Adrien quietly crept away, scaling the wall to get back to his room and releasing his transformation. A lot of what he had heard had gone over his head. He wondered why that brooch was so important to Aunt Valérie that she would threaten his father to get it. And what was that whole thing about his mother's secrets?
"That was strange," he voiced out loud. Plagg flew over to him.
"I told you so."
"No, you didn't," Adrien said. "You thought I would get upset but I'm not. I just don't know what to think about it."
Plagg shrugged and went over to the bed, making himself comfortable on one of the pillows but out of sight of the door.
"Will we go out later?"
"Yes, I want to talk to Mari about everything but I need to wait for Dad."
"I'm going to take a nap," Plagg announced, closing his eyes but then he opened them, glaring at Adrien. "And I expect those two blocks of camembert the first thing in the morning."
"Of course," Adrien said. He got out his phone, sending out a quick text to Marinette to let her know he would be dropping by later. He knew she didn't mind even unannounced visits but if he let her know in advance, she would make sure to have some snacks ready. And no one in Paris would dispute the fact that baked goods from her parents' bakery were the best in the city.
The expected knock came a few minutes later and Adrien opened the door to let his father in. He took only a few steps in, looking down at Adrien.
"I apologize for the scene at the dinner. It's never pleasant to have one's shortcomings pointed out but your aunt was right. I was remiss in my duties as a father. The only excuse I can offer is that in everything I have done in recent years, you were the first and foremost person in my thoughts."
"It's okay, Dad, I understand."
He didn't, not really, but this was more than Adrien had ever expected to get from his father. Just the fact that the man was willing to go through with this... It gave Adrien hope that things might get better one day. His father nodded.
"Your schedule will be adjusted to give you more time with your aunt and your friends. Nathalie will go over the details with you."
"Yes, Dad."
His father nodded again. He moved as if he was to leave but then paused and looked at Adrien.
"You are important to me, Adrien. Never doubt that I care even though I may not always show it."
With that, he quickly walked out, leaving Adrien to his confusing thoughts. It was a good thing he would see Marinette soon because as things stood, she was the only constant in his rapidly changing world and he needed that stability more than he ever had before.