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“How may I help you, sir?”
The man in question jolted a bit in surprise, as if he had been roused from some deep musing, before he looked at the receptionist. His shaggy blonde hair peeked from underneath the black hood of his jacket, and as he took off his sunglasses to stow them in the pocket of his jeans, a charm bracelet studded with musical notes slid off his hand. The receptionist handed it back to him with a smile. He took it with a meek thanks, before stuffing it in his pocket.
“Uhh...I am here to meet a close relative of mine. He’s under...police custody,” the man stated in a quiet tone, his eyes downcast.
The receptionist nodded in an understanding way, before turning to her computer. “What would be his good name, sir?”
“Uhh…it’s, it’s Gaston Abbott. Yes.”
“I see. And your good name sir?”
“Ad-Athanase Abbott. The police called me here, informing me that Mr.Abbott wanted to see me,” the man replied as he tapped his fingers on the reception desk nervously.
The lady nodded, before checking through the list of the patients in the hospital. “His room is 303-A on the third floor, sir. Go through this corridor and turn right, you will find the lift.”
“Ah! Thank you so much.” Saying this, the man stuffed his hands into his pockets and humming a soft tune, walked off in the direction of the lift.
Showing his identity card to the police officer outside, the young man entered room 303-A. He pulled down his hood and plopped down on the chair by the door, holding his head in his hands.
Athanase Abbott, or rather Adrien Agreste, pulled at his hair lightly, letting out a strangled sound of frustration. He let his hands fall to his knees, before looking up at the man who lay in the hospital bed, surrounded by numerous beeping machines.
Gaston Abbott, or rather Gabriel Agreste. Former fashion mogul and ex-supervillain Hawk Moth, who had kept the city of Paris under a constant grip of terror and fear for about four years.
Adrien hated that man. He detested Gabriel Agreste, and absolutely loathed Hawk Moth.
And Adrien felt sick at the harsh truth, that Hawk Moth was none other than his own father.
Six years of terrorising millions of innocent people, just for the selfish wish of bringing his comatose wife back to his life. Six years of distancing himself from everyone, just so that he could complete his family once again. Six years of neglecting his only son, for the stupid, wretched excuse of making the same son happy in the end by bringing his mother back.
Bad luck couldn’t have hit Adrien harder.
Letting out a bitter scoff, the blond got up from his seat and made his way towards the other man in the room. The patient, the man who had earlier haunted hundreds of Parisians’ lives, now looked extremely pale and fragile. As if he might break with a small gust of wind.
From the day that Hawk Moth had been unmasked in front of the Miraculous Team, Adrien had decided that he wanted nothing to do with the man named Gabriel Agreste. Adrien simply fulfilled his duties and left the Agreste brand in the hands of his former lady-love, his partner Ladybug. Who had post-battle revealed herself to be one of his best friends, Marinette Dupain Cheng.
Sweet Marinette had been understanding through the tough times of his life. Giving him much-needed space and support, being there for him whenever he needed her, supporting the decisions he took for his future life. Adrien could have never asked for a better partner, a better yin to his yang. After his lover, Marinette was the one he trusted the most. She was one of the few people who had been with him through thick and thin, and Adrien cherished her friendship and partnership with all his heart.
Having signed off from all things Gabriel and shifted to a quiet corner of Paris with the love of his life, Adrien Agreste had been leading a peaceful life. A life devoid of chaos and tight schedules. A life full of activities he cherished -- friendly hangouts, baking sessions, music lessons, fencing and photography. And of course the romantic dates and cuddle sessions with his lover. His life had been happy, until the blasted phone call that had come in the morning.
“Hello, is this Monsieur Agreste speaking?”
"Um, yeah?”
“I am from the Police Department, sir. Your father’s health is critical. The doctors say he wouldn’t make it.”
“And why are you telling me this? I mean, if the doctors can’t do anything, what am I supposed to do?”
“Your father wants to meet with you, sir.”
Adrien’s worry-fuelled thoughts came to a screeching halt. The phone suddenly felt heavy in his clammy hands and his mouth felt dry, as if he had swallowed an entire desert.
“Sir, are you still there?”
“Yeah, yeah I am. And sorry, I can’t meet him now. Reschedule some other day, please.”
“He might not make it past another day, sir. And he insists that you see him at least this once.”
“I-I… okay. Okay. Just… send me the details.”
Adrien had fumbled up some random excuse under the sun before quickly making his way to the hospital. And now he regretted sneaking out like that.
Adrien let out a groan as he slumped into a stray chair that lay beside the bed, his heart pounding in his ears. He tried to get his quickening breath under control, but in vain. He jiggled his leg, splayed a trembling hand over his eyes and tried to think of anything, anything that could make the onslaught of emotions go away.
So many emotions, so much going on, yet he was strangely numb.
Because what was he supposed to feel?
Grief? Because his father was about to die? The same father he had always tried to please, and who had in return betrayed him?
Relieved? ‘Cause the one man who had an iron grip on his life was finally getting out of his hair for good?
Angered? ‘Cause his father had never been there for him when Adrien had needed him in the darkest moments of his life, and yet, Adrien was here when his father was about to die?
Was Adrien supposed to be anxious? Or sad? Or happy? Or neutral? Was he supposed to smile? Or was he supposed to cry? Or be as stoic faced as his father had always been?
The young man clenched his hair tight, letting out a frustrated snarl. He hated being emotional. He hated being sentimental. He hated being soft-hearted.
Soft-hearted like his dead mother.
“You're just like her.”
Adrien jerked up straight, shaking his head. He didn’t want to be like his mom! Not ever.
Too many emotions were bad. Too many emotions meant despair. Too many emotions meant destruction. Too many emotions meant Chat Blanc.
“Are you sure you want to talk about it?” Ladybug fiddled with her ponytail, letting out a nervous chuckle.
Chat simply put a hand on her shoulder, giving her an understanding smile.“I know how much the incident bears on you, M’Lady. Don’t go into the details though. Just...how did you feel?”
“I...I dunno. Confused? Surprised? But most of all...scared?”
The last word shot through his heart. “You know I would never hurt you, MariBoo.”
“Yeah kitty… but…” Ladybug looked afar, and Chat could feel her shiver a little, as if she were recounting the worst moments of some terrible nightmare. “Chat Blanc...he wasn’t you. His eyes were so cold, so icy, so distant….And me and Hawk Moth were turned to ashes and….”
Her eyes filled with tears as she looked at him, “You said it was our love that destroyed the world… there were too many emotions...I just...”
“Adrien? Love?”
Adrien jerked out of his thoughts, his eyes wild and his entire form trembling. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and that was when he became aware of the firm yet comforting hand on his shoulder. And the very next moment, he found himself gazing into deep pools of teal. A special shade of teal he had fallen in love with over all these years.
“L-Luka?” Adrien stuttered out, his heart both light yet heavy at seeing his boyfriend being by his side. “I didn’t hear you come in and...what are you doing here? Wait, how did you get here?”
Luka smiled as he kneeled down in front of Adrien, placing his hands on his knees comfortingly. “I overheard your conversation with the police department and well…”
Luka looked down, as if he were more talking to himself than Adrien. “I realised that you needed to deal with this situation yourself. There was only so much that I could do to help you. However, something didn’t sit right with me and I decided to come to just check on you. Seems like my intuitions were right.”
Adrien ducked his head, resisting the urge to pull his hood back over his head. Despite being a young man of 22, Adrien still sometimes had serious self-esteem issues. He realised and appreciated that Luka wanted the best for him, and that Luka had even given him space to grow before stepping into the situation. Yet, Adrien couldn’t quell the growing disappointment in his chest. The disappointment he felt at himself, for not being a man about the situation, for panicking so quickly. For letting his past shadow overwhelm him just at the mere sight of his father. The once-controlling supervillain father who was now sick, frail and on his deathbed.
Adrien felt like he was 18 once again, back to the time when his father had been revealed to be Paris’ most wanted supervillain.
“Second Chance!” Adrien heard Viperion whisper as they landed on the topmost observation deck of the Eiffel Tower. The blond immediately shook the superhero in teal off himself, immediately walking to the farthest corner on the platform as he hugged himself tight. He could feel himself shaking, but he didn’t care. He could feel his stomach clenching in sick ways, but he didn’t care. He could feel the hot tears streaming down his cheeks, but he. Didn’t. Care.
He just wanted to curl into himself and become an invisible speck in the world. Stay away from the world’s sight, in total desolation and isolation. End his life quickly, and save himself from the plight of living on as Hawk Moth’s son…
“Are you crazy? Throwing yourself off the Eiffel Tower like that?” Viperion yelled, causing Adrien to flinch in terror. The blonde hugged himself tighter and inched further into his corner, not wanting to meet Viperion’s eye or hear his rebukes.
An ominous silence stretched between the two, a silence that made Adrien more and more conscious of himself with every passing second, a silence that pulled him closer to the frenzy of his thoughts with every passing breath. He didn’t want anyone to get close to him… he couldn’t bear for his already shattered trust to be broken once again.
So when Adrien felt a hand on his shoulder, he couldn’t help the hiss that escaped him as he flinched away. The very next moment, he expected to be shouted at, to be rebuked and called names.
He had never expected the sad yet comforting voice that followed.
“Why did you do that, Adrien?”
Why had he done that? He didn’t know. It had just been so… intuitional. The moment he had seen the purple light give way to Gabriel Agreste, Chat Noir had known that his entire world had been Cataclysmed in a matter of seconds. Some voice within him had told him to run. Run away from the sight, away from his troubles, away from Paris and…
...maybe away from the world.
That’s why Chat Noir had run to the Eiffel Tower. That’s why Adrien had been standing there, numb to the weight of the magical jewel in his hands or the kwami’s pleas near his ears. That’s why Adrien had let gravity claim him as he fell and fell and fell…
“Adrien, kitty, look at me,” Luka’s soft voice spoke through the bad memories, over the beeping of the machines.
Adrien willed himself to move, but his mind was lost in the battle of his own thoughts. The ceiling moved in his view, giving way to a concerned pair of teal. A calloused thumb swiped the skin under his eye, and that was when Adrien realised he was crying.
“Adrien, hun, you’re doing your best.” Luka spoke softly, and his words hummed within Adrien’s heart like a soft lullaby. “It’s okay to be confused, and it’s okay to be frustrated at the confusion. And trust me, you have handled this so well . I know you’re angry at him, and don’t want to talk to him. And your anger is totally justified. But at the end of your day, he’s your father as well. His actions were wrong, and the intentions behind them were highly selfish, but if he wants to talk with you, don’t you think he wants to smooth things over?”
Adrien took a deep breath in, dwelling over his boyfriend’s words. Words that held sense, for Adrien himself felt like his father deserved another chance at their estranged relationship. Adrien knew he couldn’t forgive his father for what the latter did, but maybe he could listen to his dad one last time. And maybe get the closure he so desperately needed.
Luka kissed his forehead and Adrien managed to return the gesture with a small, weak smile. “You can do this, love. I know you can.”
Adrien watched Luka walking out of the room. The door closed shut and the blond turned back to gaze at the pale face of his father. He gently grasped the old man’s hand, breathing deeply. He could do this.
“Hello father,” Adrien began, and immediately felt himself choking up. Everytime he had had a talk with his father, he had been used to all the professional talk. But this was a family meeting. A last one on that matter. What was he supposed to say now? How was he supposed to continue?
He could do this, for himself, for the closure he required.
Taking in a gulp as he felt his throat go dry, Adrien continued. “It’s… been some time, right? I just...so much has happened by this point that I don’t even know what to say and--” He breathed in deeply. “I guess I will start from the basics. After you were...defeated, Vi-Luka found me devastated...near the Eiffel Tower. I was at his house, the Liberty, the entire time the ruckus went on after your arrest.”
“Ladybug supplied a faux story for your arrest -- something related to design forgery, I don’t know. But no one knows you were Hawk Moth -- well except Team Miraculous and the high officials. So it was all hushed up.”
Adrien looked to the side at the ECG connected to his father. His eyes took in the jagged green lines that indicated the frail heart beats of his father who lay in the white hospital bed. Adrien looked back at his father, a bitter sad smile playing on his lips. “We gave Mom the burial she deserved. And Nathalie? She went into a coma two years back. The old monks of Tibet are trying their best to bring her back though…”
Adrien fiddled with the silver ring on his finger as he felt his kwami shift in the inner pockets of his hoodie. “We freed Nooroo and Duusu, and the Temple Guardians are giving them post-trauma therapy. Marinette took over the company and rebuilt it from scratch. Miraculous Creations is a worldwide sensation now. And as for me…”
He sighed and rested his elbows on his knees, staring into the distance. “I moved out of the damned mansion and broke most of the ties with the company and the Agreste name, Father. It’s only because of Marinette’s insistence that I have a 25 percent share in the company’s profit; I didn’t want to take up even that. I just…”
He sighed exasperatedly, clutching his hair in his hand. “I just wanted to break free and enjoy not having to be the Adrien Agreste, just Adrien. A simple, happy guy named Adrien, who did fun stuff with friends, who could be a dork without giving two shits about the public and spend most of his day cuddling with the man he loved. Who had nothing to do with Hawk Moth or Gabriel Agreste, not even his shadow.”
Adrien let out a half-laugh choked with sadness and anger. “To be honest, I never even missed you. Not even for a moment. After all that happened, I slipped into depression. I don’t remember anything about my high school graduation. For one year post battle, my life was all about sleepless nights and constant fear. Fear of people leaving me alone, fear of being isolated, fear of… fear of…” Adrien let out a heavy breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Fear of turning out to be just like you, Father.”
“Had it not been for my friends and Marinette and…” Adrien’s tone grew soft. “...and Luka... had it not been for them, I would have decided to be with mom a long time ago. But they were the ones who made me realise my true worth. Who made me realise that I’m not like you. And father, trust me when I say that life without you was better.”
Adrien paused, getting his bearings back. Standing up, he shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down. “I...I know I’m being disrespectful, Father,but… this is your doing. I wish there could be some way to amend things between us but… it’s too late.” Realising he didn’t want to say anything more, Adrien shook his head slightly and turned to walk out of the room.
Only for a frail voice to interrupt him.
“Son?”
Adrien turned around abruptly to find a familiar pair of icy blue eyes gazing at him. The blond tentatively walked towards the bed again, his steps light and cautious. All the while, he maintained stable eye contact with his father; his cautious greens conversing with Gabriel’s regretful blues.
As Adrien slowly dropped into his seat beside Gabriel’s bed, the old man managed to bring a small smile to his face. Gabriel weakly lifted a hand towards Adrien. However, Adrien couldn’t hold his reflex as he flinched back. The distraught look on Gabriel’s face caused a pang of pain to shoot through his heart. However, Gabriel’s gaze wasn’t directed at him.
Adrien followed his line of sight to find his father chained to the bed with a pair of handcuffs.
Gabriel frowned a bit before letting his hand drop to his side, letting out a heavy sigh. Silence stretched in the room and Adrien started to feel queasy. Was it normal for his father, who was so frail and helpless and literally chained to the bed, to still have such an overpowering influence on him? Even when Adrien was now an independent young man who could easily have his own say over things?
His father’s voice broke through his thoughts. “Adrien, son, I don’t hold you in the wrong.”
The young man looked at his father with wide eyes, taking in the elder man’s small smile. “It was me who was in the wrong all along. I’m sorry for not being there with you when you needed me, and for neglecting you throughout your teenage life. I was blinded by selfishness and...I know my crimes are unforgivable, Adrien. And no matter how much I apologize, it holds no meaning. But…I just want you to know that I...regret my actions. Every hour. Every minute. Every second.”
Adrien didn’t know what to say. A large part of him scoffed at his Father’s words, refusing to believe that the ex-supervillain really meant them. However, a tiny part of him wanted to believe in those words, to reach out to his dad and fill the void the two men had between each other.
“I appreciate your concern, Father,” Adrien spoke at last. “And I really wish we could mend the bonds between us, but sadly, it’s too late.” As Gabriel gave him a sad smile, Adrien returned it with his own. “I hope you find peace after being with Mom, Dad.”
And saying so, Adrien Agreste walked out of the room, his heart feeling light at finally having left his past behind.
“Why did you save me?”
The hand on his shoulder immediately disappeared. Adrien let out a heavy sigh. Of course he didn’t have any right to question people, not when they knew that he was Hawk Moth’s son. Yet he felt some need to explain himself.
“I mean, I don’t have a family. A family I can trust. My own father killed me multiple times and...and…” He sniffled, before continuing. “It’s okay if I died. No one would mind, no one would care. So why? Why did you come after me? Why did you save me, Luka?”
A suffocating silence followed his question. A silence that was broken by the faint whisper of “Sass, scales rest”.
Adrien felt a gush of wind flow around him as Viperion’s transformation faded. For some reason, the blond screwed his eyes shut, despite knowing the person behind the mask. Maybe it was because he didn’t want to see someone's disappointment in him. Especially when that someone was Luka.
Adrien felt himself being turned around, and his chin being lifted. He timidly opened his teary eyes to find Luka gazing back at him. The tears in the musician’s eyes caused the blond to gasp.
“I came after you because I care. I saved you ‘cause… ‘cause I love you, Adrien. And I can’t bear the thought of you being hurt.” Adrien gulped at the confession as Luka continued to speak. “I know you’re devastated right now, and I won’t push you for anything. But… just know that you don’t lack a family, Adrien...
...Let me be your family.”
“Whatcha thinking, babe?” Luka’s voice cut through Adrien’s thoughts, causing the blond to jolt a bit in surprise, before he smiled at his boyfriend.
“Nothing much, just thinking about how lucky I am to have you by my side,” Adrien admitted with a blush as he snuggled close to Luka. The dark haired man smiled as he put his guitar aside, allowing Adrien to scoot into his lap. Luka wrapped his arms around his boyfriend’s waist and nuzzled his shoulder, causing the other to laugh.
“So Adrien,” Luka spoke after sometime, placing his chin on Adrien’s head. “How are you?”
Adrien hummed, before looking up at Luka. “Okay? Yeah, I guess I am. I mean, you know I never considered him as my father, right? Not after--”
Luka pressed a quick kiss to Adrien’s head. “I know. But trust me, you handled it perfectly. Just as awesome as the way you are. I’m glad that you’re finally ready to move on.”
Adrien hummed softly in satisfaction, nestling himself more comfortably in Luka’s lap. “Keep showering me in positive comments and I am not leaving you, ever.”
The blond felt Luka’s arms stiffen around his waist. “A-are you sure?”
Surprised at the unexpected question, Adrien turned to face Luka, cocking his eyebrow inquisitively. The older man laughed as he put his arms behind himself and leaned back, causing Adrien’s confusion to grow.
“What I meant was that Adrien, you’re the best thing that has ever happened to me. I don’t want to lose you. And I know today’s been a heavy day for you...with that hospital visit and all...and I know the sites on the web say that there are supposed to be flowers and dim lights and music and--”
Adrien gave Luka a flabbergasted look. “Love, what are you getting at?”
Luka smiled as he held Adrien’s chin lightly, blue eyes locked with green. “What I’m getting at is that...a few years back, you took me as your boyfriend. And now, I want to take one step forward and give you an actual chance to call me your family.”
Luka put his hand out, causing Adrien to gasp in surprise. The blond took in the aquamarine studded gold ring with eyes wide as saucers and feelings rickrolling his heart. He looked up to find Luka’s encouraging smile beaming down at him, and Adrien felt his heart burst with happiness.
“So, Adrien Agreste, will you marry me and give me a chance to be your family at last?”