Father-son-Chat

Adrien's footsteps echoed off the sanitized concrete walls of the high security prison. The facility just outside of Paris was a maze of locked reinforced doors and security check-points. A stout officer with muscular arms ushered him into a pale yellow room, with spaced out tables. Marinette had offered to come along, but he knew this was something he needed to do himself. The guard nodded to a distinctive prisoner at the far end of the room, and Adrien crossed the rest of the divide on his own, towards the man who riled up so much conflicting emotion within him.

"It has been a while," Gabriel glanced up smugly as Adrien sat down across from him.

For a minute or two they were silent with only the murmur of other prisoners conversing with their visitor, and the annoying buzz that accompanied a flickering fluorescent light overhead.

"How have you been?" Adrien finally asked dryly, not looking at him just yet.

"Just peachy," Gabriel sneered sarcastically.

"This was a mistake," Adrien said moving to leave.

"Wait!" Gabriel hurriedly stopped him. "I've wanted to talk with you."

"There were lots of times you should've talked to me," Adrien accused, but sat back down anyway.

"That is true. Maybe then you would have been more honest with me too," Gabriel replied unflinching.

"Right after you transformed my own bodyguard into a giant gorilla to hunt me down, you told me we should be more honest with each other!" Adrien challenged, insensed that his father would dare hold him to any model of honesty. "And right when we were watching mom's movie together! I thought I could trust you!"

"You didn't trust me with the one thing that really mattered!" Gabriel looked calculatingly.

"Like what?!" Adrien asked.

"Like the fact that the very ring I had been scouring the city of Paris for was under my own roof this whole time!" Gabriel met Adrien's eyes in a icy standoff.

"What are you talking about," Adrien refused to look away.

"Come now Adrien! Don't patronize me any longer. Whether you admit it or not I know without a doubt that you are Chat Noir and there is nothing that will erase what I saw with my own eyes that night," Gabriel replied firmly.

"Wait! You know?!" Adrien gasped, stumbling backward, knocking the metal chair to the ground with a crash.

The guard near the door, and some of the other prisoners having visitors glanced up.

"Pull yourself together, and sit yourself down," Gabriel hissed. "This is the last place you want to cause a scene. Honestly, after all I've taught you about decorum."

"You want to discuss 'decorum,' Adrien growled lowly, bracing himself over the small table between them. "You terrorized an entire city for years and nearly killed your own son on multiple occasions!"

"Yes, well, I didn't realize it was you till after," Gabriel brushed his hand to one side, as if trying to swat away an annoying Nat.

"And you think that makes what you did any less horrifying?!" Adrien seithed.

"No, no it doesn't," Gabriel admitted tensely.

Adrien cautiously eyed this man who he felt he shared very little a part from some genes. He picked up the hollow sounding chair, and slumped back into it uncomfortably.

The rest of the room, resumed their chatter, oblivious to the dysfunctional family drama in the corner of the room.

"How did you find out?" Adrien asked under his breath.

"I've had a lot of time to think lately, and put things together without any distractions. I'm really quite impressed. Not that I didn't suspect you before, but I have to give you credit for throwing me off your scent," Gabriel replied somewhat proudly, yet still slightly annoyed.

"So what's your angle?" Adrien crossed his arms and eyed him warily.

"Whatever do you mean Adrien? I do wish you'd stop sulking," Gabriel criticized stiffly.

"I mean," Adrien gritted his teeth and leaned forward so he only had to whisper in a low voice, "What are you going to do with the information about my..."

"Extracurricular activities," Gabriel supplied.

"Sure, we'll call them that. Who have you told," Adrien demanded.

"No one," Gabriel answered.

"No one?" Adrien asked suspiciously.

"No one," Gabriel met his steady gaze with a steely stare.

"Aren't you at least sorry for what you did?" Adrien searched his eyes for some trace of remorse.

"Do you honestly think I would have gone this far, if I had a shred of uncertainty that I was doing what had to be done!" Gabriel challenged. Then pressed his index finger against his head, like he felt a migraine coming on. "I am sorry though that I didn't realize your potential sooner." He looked up at Adrien. "I would have gotten the miraculous' if you had been on my side. Together we could have gotten her back Adrien!"

"You don't know what would have happened, but it doesn't matter anyway. I would have never helped you trap all those people inside their own emotions, akumatizing them, and using them against others. I never would have betrayed Ladybug." Adrien countered vehemently.

Gabriel shrugged, "There were so many times I almost told you. I was sure that once you knew you'd understand."

"I'll never understand," Adrien looked darkly across the table.

"And what happens when something befalls your lovely Ladybug?" Gabriel asked pointedly.

"Is that a threat?!" Adrien growled.

"No, merely a fact of life." Gabriel did not break his intent gaze. "One day you will have to face losing her...or she you. What would YOU do to save her?"

Adrien was about to argue, but the memories of nearly loosing Ladybug strangled his words in his throat. The fact that now he knew she was also Marinette made it all the more terrifying. Instead he bit his lip and glared back.

"Exactly," Gabriel hummed. "Don't forget, I've seen first hand exactly how much of yourself you are willing to lay down for her. I've seen the way you look at her. It's the same way I always looked at your mother."

"I'm not like you," Adrien said sullenly.

"Maybe more than you realize...but you always were more like your mother. I guess that's what worries me," Gabriel replied distractedly. When Adrien gave him a questioning look, he said, "How do you think she ended up like that. She took the peacock brooch, and used it to save my life. She sacrificed herself for me!"

"She did?!" Adrien whispered, feeling himself well up inside, but fighting to keep the pricking tears from flooding from his eyes.

"I swore to her I'd bring her back!" Gabriel said passionately, "no matter what the cost...but I failed her...I failed you," at this point Gabriel hunched his shoulders, and looked smaller than Adrien had ever thought possible. "I lost...everything."

Adrien was not sure what to say. How could he feel an ounce of pity for a man with no remorse? A villain he had fought against countless times...and yet in a way he did...somewhere in the midst of tainted memories was still...his father.

Adrien went to get up and Gabriel reached out to touch Adrien's arm, causing the guard to glance over; So Gabriel retracted, and drew his arm back.

"I won't ever tell," Gabriel said quietly looking up at Adrien.

"I wish I could trust you," Adrien said conflicted.

"Maybe in this small way it is all I can do to prove...prove that I love you," his father murmured.

"I wish I could have saved you," Adrien said over his shoulder. Then he left him sitting at the table, and walked silently out the door.

Adrien had hoped that facing his father would have brought him closure...but it didn't. It stirred up more raw emotions not only from his actions as Hawkmoth, but the suffocating neglect and domineering control he inflicted as a parent.

"Adrien?" Plagg asked from within his pocket as they left the prison behind them. "You okay?"

"No," Adrien sighed. "But I think I finally know what I need to do."

"And that is...?" Plagg asked.

"It isn't just my father I need to try to forgive, I need to forgive myself."