Chapter Text
Ridiculous, this was utterly ridiculous…
...
...
...
He really had thought that, hadn't he?
With a sigh the blond-man tried to turn back his focus at the battle taking place, although maybe he should re-consider transforming Audrey and her daughter for a while, his powers of Transmission were taking a bit too much from their personalities.
Everything that day had been going so well, his Akumas were sitting on the verge of victory the couple that had been affected this time by his butterfly and artist and a writer, both had managed to corner Ladybug and the Sentimonster that had been given to them had managed to overwhelm the girl allies.
Chat Noir was nowhere to be found and with the ladybug hero defeated the Hero of Destruction would have no choice but to relinquish his own magical jewel, and with that current owner of both Emotion and Transmission would be able to make his wish come true...
Papillombre was now completely focused on the battle taking place between the holder of creation and his Akuma boys, he was completely ignoring the battle between the Sentimonster and the other two heroes, whoever they were, he had not even noticed where their battle was heading, he wasn't paying attention to anything, not even to the tremors shaking the mansion...
Later he would wonder if from this point everything had to do with...
Bad luck …
It was morning and at the Agreste Mansion the day of the people living there had started as usual, everyone in the mansion seemed to wake up and begin their jobs at six o'clock even the young heir of the family waked at those morning hours to get on his morning workout while the members of the staff went on to prepare the residence for the day.
The eldest of the Agreste was at that time of the day already in his lair expanding the emphatic abilities granted by the Peacock Miraculous, to search for possible cha-Akumas, however, it was a surprisingly calm day in the French capital, he hadn't been able to feel any negative emotions yet, it wasn't even a cold day, so it was a nice Parisian morning because he didn’t have any elaborate plan to trigger a massive Akuma attack like on Hero's Day, he decided to leave the butterfly room and start a normal day.
After wandering in his office for a while, he decided that taking a little break wouldn't be a bad idea, the older blond then made his way downstairs towards the dining room to have breakfast with his son.
Sometimes he wonders if he is doing a good job, if trying to distance himself from Adrien is the correct option, everything he had done it... it used to be for his son and Emile, his beautiful and kind Emile... if just she hadn't used the Peacock, then maybe... if the jewel hadn’t been damaged, If she hadn't...
He shook his head stopping those intrusive thoughts, removing them from his mind. when he arrived he saw Adrien already sitting at the table with one tablet on hand, he may be hearing the news while having breakfast, his son seemed to be enjoying whatever had been served that morning, the older man blinked a bit at this, he honestly hadn't put that much attention to what was on the chef’s menu, everything had been so tasteless after Emile had... succumbed, all his focus had been in using the Butterfly Miraculous to obtain the ones from Cat and the Ladybug, for a short while at the firsts attempts he had been able to taste food again, that joy had been short-lived.
The teenage boy turned his head when he heard footsteps coming from the other side of the room, he had been concentrated on the news and eating, so he hadn't noticed his Father entering, that didn't stop the joy he felt at seeing the older man in the room “Father!, Good Morning!” greeted the teen.
Gabriel felt the warm sensation of his son's happiness inside his chest, the empathy from the Butterfly allowed him to feel the raw emotions coming from his son's surprise, excitement, confusion, elation, the boy always felt like that when Gabriel dignified himself to be around him, it was one of the reasons that kept the older Agreste away, he wasn't able to bear the overwhelming amount of sentiments that Adrien excluded when he was around him.
He didn't deserve to be anyone's reason for being happy, how could dare allow his son to feel happy having such a bastard as a father...
Today; however, the older blond was able to resist the urge to run, flee, keep away, it felt like a good day, a day where he was able to take it easy, to hug his son without feeling... pain, these days were so few and far from each other.
“Hello Adrien, what do we have for breakfast?” managed to ask the older man to his son.
“You’ll be having breakfast with me?" asked the boy with clear confusion "uh... I mean..." the older man saw the boy hideaway another plate, and if the smell was anything to go by, of cheese "We.. hum.. have yoghurt with granola and fruit cocktail.” finally spoke the boy to his father.
Was it really so weird of him to spend time with his son nowadays?
But everything was for the better right…?
Oh, Emilie... what was he...
Gabriel in his distracted state didn’t notice that one of the chairs was slightly out of place, he moved forward and tripped over it, he tried to regain his balance but ended up hitting the plate prepared for him, the breakfast landed all over his vest which was now covered in yoghurt.
The little smile that escaped his son’s lips should have made him angry but he could feel the corners of his mouth rising just a bit at the little sound that also got out of his son's mouth, a silly accident had happened nothing more, no reason to be angry at anyone, and if he felt a little bit lighter than before, feeling like he would be able to do anything today, well it seemed like it was going to be a lucky day.
After getting another plate of breakfast and saying goodbye to his departing son, the older man left half the plate of food and went back towards his office, he would have to go back to sketching and reviewing the designs sent by the other members of the brand. In fact, it was nearing the time for one of their internal competition, so they would be asking for his opinion and approval.
The day kept going as normal, Gabriel hardly remembered the incident at breakfast, it was just one of his many vests nothing noteworthy about it.
After a few hours of work and with a mug of coffee in hand, the taste of coffee was one of the few things that still was able to leave him an aftertaste, he saw from the corner of his eyes movement, focusing a bit more on it, he noticed a couple of his butterflies, which were very likely coming from the balcony in the room above his atelier.
This was pretty normal, it had happened before, it was very common for the little bugs to wander around the mansion from time to time, the little beings felt naturally attracted to him, if he were to go out in spring he would probably end up with a full swarm frolicking around him.
He made his way towards one of the windows and just to be careful left his coffee on the table where he was working. a couple of butterflies were no reason for him to transform doing so was a waste of time and energy, so he simply opened the window and went back to his work table, on his way back, however, he lost his footing, he managed to catch himself before falling on the ground... by holding himself on the work table, where he had left the cup of coffee.
So now said half-cup of coffee ended up all over the sketches he was working on, the only good thing about this was that they had been his and not from any of his designers, the problem would be the extra time that he would have to spend working on the drafts for the new summer line.
Maybe he could just focus on being Papillombre for a while and forget about all of this...
No still no negative emotions in Paris, aside from his own, and just thinking about transforming and de-transforming seemed so exhausting and pointless, and it had been such a nice day, he just wasn't feeling t, with a sigh Gabriel went back to his drawing board, he still need to generate money to sustain himself and his son, even if he was going to be destroying the universe and recreating it later, that was his long term goal after all.
Maybe I should just erase the need for money... no It would only pop up again on its own later...
The rest of the day wasn’t any better.
Emails were being sent to the wrong people, corrupted files in his computer that had been working just a few seconds earlier.
Things seem to escalate bit by bit and worse started to happen, it reached the point where one of the paintings in the hall nearly fell on top of him, he didn’t want to feel that close to an imitation of Van Goh, ever again.
All the incidents seemed like nothing more than that, weird accidents, as the day keep moving forward he was able to feel it again, a surge of negative emotions, he was able to feel them coming from two people, very close to each other, it seemed like maybe he would be able to get a two for one deal with this Akuma.
In his liar Papillombre sent both Akuma and Amok towards the… couple that was angry at their friend, a friend that Gabriel knew fairly well, it seems she had lied to them about... setting a meeting with a publishing company... in the states... now that was mean.
Mille. Rossi seemed to become maybe a little too creative with her lies...
Papillombre frowned, it seems Rossi was again causing a ruckus, the first time causing the near expulsion of the Dupain-Cheng girl and then doing her best to worm her way into a model job for his brand, the worst about it was keeping appearances, he saw how uncomfortable Adrien was when working with her but if she threw a tantrum in his office and when she wasn't Akumatized it may be a very obvious relationship between the two events.
Cutting her away didn’t seem like a bad idea… even if he didn’t get the miraculous this time, cutting off loose ends seemed really necessary,
The feather guide by the butterfly moved swiftly over Paris' skies, reaching the art room in Françoise Dupont, once the Amok and Akuma entered the nearest available objects that they were wearing when he felt the Akuma make contact he finally reached out to them, while connected via the Purple butterfly he was able to feel their emotions, their rage, anger, disbelief, disappointment, he could also feel sadness, and even the love in between them, a bit similar to other couples that he had Akumatized before, but at the same time different, above all else was desire, the sheer need to make Lila disclose all her truths, with all of those feeling coming from both of them, he would be able to create a Sentimonster capable of taking Mille. Rossi story and bring the truth to life…
That should have been his first hint.
“Inverso and Le Dessinateur, my favourite artists it’s been a while since the last time we spoke, what would both of you say if we make her speak the truth of everything…”
Akumatizing a couple who didn’t antagonize each other at every turn was very new, granting them a Sentimonster was a better idea, three versus an unknown number of heroes(Who knew how many heroes will be called in by Ladybug) were good odds, especially with their particular set of abilities.
He was proven right after Inversor had cursed Mlle. Rossi and made her unable to tell a single lie, he began to feel so much negativity, from her and several others, it seem that her flimsy lies were falling all around her, how he wished Nathalie was near, he would recall the Akuma, made her Catalyst and then he would have some of the more powerful champ… Akumas in one room.
It seemed that everything was going so well.
Ladybug had just shown up as and then both of his Akuma got out of the school, however, their initial mission had been fulfilled, Mlle. Rossi had lost all face when everyone in the room had asked about her ‘glamorous life.
“Ladybug is here, I have fulfilled my end of the bargain, now I ask you two to do the same…”
Chat Noir was nowhere to be seen yet, but the Parisian heroine was hardly alone, the new holder of the Bee and the holder of the Fox were with her already, he could see their plan going into action.
Why was the sound of battle so near...?
The room darkened and Palliombre knew no more.