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“Paintball?” Gabriel blinked at his sixteen-year-old son, who was currently giving him the kitten eyes across the atelier.
Real kitten eyes, as unknown to Adrien, Gabriel had discovered that the boy enjoyed moonlighting as a cat-themed superhero.
The realization had shocked Gabriel to his core. He’d killed his son?
Gabriel had no desire to destroy what little family he had left in the pursuit of something that might not even work. So Hawkmoth had hung up his hat, returning the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous to Ladybug in a locker that he’d given her the key to the last time he’d transformed.
Ever since, he’d said yes to whatever Adrien wanted to do, within reason. And now, apparently, the boy wanted to play paintball.
With him.
“Yes, Father!” Adrien bounced on the balls of his feet. “Everyone who’s anyone plays paintball. And my friends are planning an excursion to Atomik.”
Gabriel glanced over his shoulder at Nathalie, who’d taken up residence next to his portrait of Emilie. Nathalie’s eyes were shining and the skin around them was ever-so-slightly crinkled. She looked highly amused at some secret known only to her, and when he caught her eyes, the corners of her lips turned up in a way he could only describe as a smirk.
Gabriel was floored. Nathalie, of all people, smirking? he thought, vowing then and there to find out what, exactly, had charmed her.
Gabriel turned back to Adrien. The boy was staring at the floor, scuffing his shoe against the marble. Gabriel hated how downcast he looked, as if Gabriel was going to reject him once again.
“Anyway, I was hoping… I mean…” Adrien cleared his throat roughly, as if he were trying to dislodge a frog. “You don’t have to come play paintball with us. But if you did, I think it might be fun, Papa.”
Gabriel was sunk. The minute Adrien called him Papa, his world turned topsy-turvy. Gabriel wanted to wrap himself up in the endearment and live there. “Of course I’ll go, son.”
Adrien raised his head, lighting up like a kid on Christmas--or, how Gabriel would expect a kid on Christmas to light up. Their last few Christmases had been gloomy. Gabriel promised to himself that he’d change that.
“Really?” Adrien’s smile was all Gabriel ever wanted, joyous and carefree. “Thank you, Papa! You won’t regret this!”
“I’m… sure I won’t.” Gabriel furrowed his brow. He knew nothing about paintball except that it was messy. Doesn’t paintball hurt?
Adrien bounced from the room, shouting over his shoulder, “I’ve got to call Nino!”
“Yes. Go do that,” Gabriel said superfluously. Adrien was already gone.
Gabriel turned to Nathalie, who seemed as if she were struggling to contain her laughter. “And what’s so funny?”
Nathalie’s expressions were as subtle as ever, but Gabriel could read her well. Her pink lips were slightly curved, her brown brows were slightly raised, and her pale cheeks were rounder than normal. She was delighted, so Gabriel decided he could be delighted with her.
“You, sir,” she said. “Have you ever played paintball?”
“I don’t suppose you’ve played.”
Nathalie’s lips parted to show a flash of teeth. “I was quite good in university. My crew called me Never-Failing Nat. We still meet up for drinks sometimes, and yes, paintball, too.”
“Nat?” Gabriel stared at the woman he thought he knew. That Nathalie had a social life outside of work wasn’t news to him, but the thought of her running around and shooting people with balls of paint was shocking. “So you know what paintball is like, then. Good. You’re invited to the arena. Please acquire some equipment for me and Adrien.”
Nathalie straightened her shoulders. She may as well have thrown off a salute. “Consider it done.”
***
Paintball, Gabriel was unhappy to find out, did hurt.
The first shot he took was from Nino, Adrien’s DJ friend, directly in the buttocks. Gabriel was chagrined at the unholy howl that left his lips, but that only made the teenagers laugh.
Little monsters!
Adrien had defended his father, nailing Nino in the chest. Then Adrien had taken Gabriel’s hand, and he was helpless to follow.
Nathalie was savage on the field. As Gabriel hunkered down in a wooden bunker beside her, he was floored to see her picking off her opponents in a systematic way that he’d expected from her methodical nature.
He was glad she was on his team.
Yellow and pink paint spattered the wood by his head; the hiss of the compressed air from Nathalie’s rhythmic shots could have been soothing if he weren’t so afraid of being hit in the butt again.
Maybe, just maybe, Gabriel could be eliminated and go back to the dead zone. But that would require being shot again. His butt was still sore and he knew he’d have a bruise on the cheek.
A girl--Alya? Was that her name? She had glasses--whooped next to Gabriel. Adrien’s answering cackle drew Gabriel out of his shell. He was letting Adrien down, hiding like this. Nathalie couldn’t pull the weight of the entire team.
Gabriel rose to his feet, still crouching slightly, and peeked over the boundary of the wooden bunker. He hefted his heavy gun and raised it to his shoulder, peering through his eye protection at the other team.
Given encouragement, Adrien had invited everyone from his collège classes. Gabriel did not miss the way Adrien’s hands had lingered on the shoulder of a girl with pigtails. She was currently across the field in the other bunker and seemed like the perfect target to try and shoot for Adrien.
But Gabriel couldn’t pick her out. All the players on the field looked the same to him: short people in camouflage with vests and black helmets. He’d be sunk if not for Nathalie on his team.
And wasn’t that just the truth every day? Without Nathalie, Gabriel would be completely adrift in life. Nathalie had been there to coax food into him in the days after he’d discovered Adrien was Chat Noir. Gabriel hadn’t even showered then, but Nathalie had convinced him that he had to move on from his guilt and regret from killing the boy.
Nathalie was the one who’d talked him into returning the Butterfly Miraculous. She’d comforted him when he’d tried and failed to let Emilie go.
Gabriel wouldn’t be able to function without Nathalie. She was his buoy, his anchor. She kept him grounded and made him want to be a better person. Nathalie was the one who’d told him how to grow closer to Adrien, and both father and son were better off for it.
She was steadfast. He didn’t know what he’d do without her stalwart support.
Gabriel looked at her, really looked at her. Her eyes glittered with challenge. From the creases around them, she looked as if she were grinning. Gabriel cursed the helmets for keeping that smile from him.
He’d never seen Nathalie so in her element and found her focus on the firefight endearing. She knew what she wanted and never stopped until she got it. Her logical brain appealed to him on a level he couldn’t quite quantify. He always knew where he stood with her.
Before Gabriel knew it, the paintball game was over before he’d fired a shot. The red-helmeted mentor raised his fist in the air, ending the battle. Nathalie shot Gabriel an amused glance, and he felt his heart slam in his throat.
Adrien leapt out of the bunker, running over to Pigtails. They bickered playfully over who was the better shot, but Gabriel was more concerned with what the mentor would say.
“For this next game, we’re switching up the teams. Adrien, red. Alya, blue. Marinette, red. Mr. Agreste, red. Ms. Sancouer, blue.”
Gabriel didn’t hear any of the other assignments. Nathalie wouldn’t be on his team? His stomach sank.
Nathalie seemed to sense his distress and laid a hand on his shoulder. Her eyes were soft, softer than he’d ever seen from her, and he felt inexplicably comforted. Then she said something that lit a fire in his blood.
“Bet you can’t hit me.”
Gabriel furrowed his brow. “I bet I can.”
Nathalie’s answering laugh was all he never knew he needed. He stomped over to the red base, watching her meander over to the blue base, hips swaying. She was cocky, so much so, it drove him insane.
He would show her just how good of a shot he was.
***
Gabriel was a terrible shot.
The problem was that Nathalie was always on the move, darting around the 10 hectares of forested, playable land as if she owned it. Gabriel had to chase her down, and found himself getting pelted as a result. By the middle of the day, Gabriel was sick of the dead zone.
Gabriel had insisted they be on separate teams from then on, which the mentors didn’t have a problem with.
So Gabriel practiced shooting on the other players. He improved his marksmanship significantly but Nathalie still eluded him. He hadn’t seen her in ages; the sun was starting to dip down below the treeline by the time he found her again, holed up in a concrete bunker next to the Black Hawk helicopter.
Gabriel ducked behind a tree just as she fired a shot. Her paintball exploded on the tree, leaving little flecks of neon orange on his mask.
They traded shots, both firing and ducking into their respective hiding spots. Gabriel began to grind his teeth. Since when had Nathalie been so frustratingly good?
But the challenge was what made the contest entertaining. Gabriel found himself thoroughly enjoying himself. He’d never had this much fun with Emilie.
The thought brought him up short.
Was he comparing Nathalie to Emilie? Gabriel had done that previously and found Nathalie less favorable. But now… Now Nathalie was his pillar of support. She was the backbone to his business.
No, to his life.
Since when had they grown so close? Nathalie was indispensable. Where would she have gone if you had gotten Emilie back?
The thought of Nathalie leaving him made a cold pit open up in his stomach. She couldn’t leave him. She couldn’t. Gabriel needed her too much.
He loved her.
And he had to tell her.
After he shot her.
Orange paint splattered against his tree, bringing Gabriel back to the present moment. Gabriel wondered if he was running low on ammunition; his gun felt significantly lighter than it had starting out.
Nathalie had him pinned down. She fired quickly and accurately.
But there was one thing Gabriel could try.
He tucked and rolled out from the tree, lifting his gun and firing blindly while getting peppered in return. Her answering gasp was all the confirmation he needed to know that his shot had met its mark.
Nathalie came out from behind the bunker. “Very good, sir.”
“You, too, Nathalie.” Gabriel grinned down at her, matching her expression. Her short stature appealed to him; she’d fit right under his arm.
Gabriel had never had so much fun in his entire life.
And all he’d had to do was switch targets.