Cat Noir sat on the roof of the church, watching the procession leave. This was a funeral for his father, but to Cat, it felt like it was for someone else. Ladybug sat beside, his loyal partner, her pigtails waterlogged, hanging like snakes. They were far enough away from out of the public eye, and Cat wanted it like that.
"You okay?" Ladybug asked. Cat had been so stoic today and quiet, anything like himself. Cat nodded. "I came to support Adrien. I might not be inside, but he knows I'm here." Cat shuddered.
If he had gone inside, to many awful memories of his own mother's death would come back to haunt him. Besides, he didn't want to remember Father this way, cold and still. He wanted to remember him alive. But after Emile was gone, a rift grew between Father and Son, one turned to kindness and helping others, the other their heart hardened with evil and grief.
They waited awhile, making sure the crowd would have departed by now, the casket out of sight. Cat shivered, giving a soft meow. How could miss someone, when you didn't know them?
They walked to the graveyard arm and arm, Cat glad Ladybug was holding tight to his arm. Thunder rumbled and forked lighting flashed above them, as Cat stared straight ahead, tears hanging but not falling. Ladybug watched her partner. It was like all the joy and laughter had been sucked away, gone to another world, a happier place. Her throat felt swollen as she asked him, "Did you know him?"
Time and weather could wear away at the tombstone reading "Gabriel Agreste." But Cat knew this sort of pain could never been washed away. "Not well," he turned to her. Breathe, Cat. "We weren't close."
The ground was turning to mud, and Ladybug gently tugged on her partner's arm. "Its time to go," she whispered. "Give me one more minute, alone." Ladybug nodded, squishing through the wet mud.
Cat clenched his hands at his sides to keep them from shaking. "Goodbye, Father. Goodbye."