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They had almost won.
He had almost lost her.
As Gabriel looked at Nathalie, who was currently resting in her bed, all he could think of was How can I fix this? He had spent so long trying to find a cure for Emilie, only for yet another woman to be hurt the same way his wife had been. And unlike last time, this time it was entirely his fault.
He studied Nathalie’s face again. Her features, usually strong and unyielding, were now tired, her eyelashes casting long shadows on her cheeks. He caught himself admiring her quiet beauty.
She still had the trophy tablet in her hand, as well as a smaller, old model smartphone. Gabriel picked both of them up, unlocked the tablet and started carding through the pages. There! There was a chapter on how to restore a damaged miraculous. Emilie might be beyond healing by any means besides the wish, but perhaps fixing the Peacock miraculous would help Nathalie?
He would need rare ingredients by the looks of it. Would Nathalie have any contacts who could help him? He looked at the phone in his other hand. It was Nathalie’s old phone from years ago, back when they were still looking for the miraculouses. It could prove useful now! He pocketed it, switched off the screen of the tablet and hurried to his workshop. There was work to do, and he couldn’t afford to lose a single minute of his time.
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When Nathalie woke up, she was on her bed, still wearing her day clothes. However, her glasses were carefully tucked away into their box, and there was a light blanket tucked around her.
Despite feeling weak, she couldn’t help but smile. It was a rare gift to be taken care of by Gabriel, someone she got used to taking care of herself. For a minute, she succumbed to her secret dream world where that care meant love, but a glance at the clock brought those fantasies to a stop. It was time for work.
She got up, fighting the already familiar dizziness, had a shower and a change of clothes, and prepared to get on with her everyday tasks. To her amazement, when she picked up her work tablet, there was a message from Gabriel waiting for her, inviting her to join him and Adrien for breakfast at her convenience.
By the time she made it downstairs, both the Agrestes were already in the kitchen. Adrien was looking at his phone and giving his father instructions, while Gabriel obediently mixed something in the bowl. At the sound of her opening the door, they both looked her way and smiled, both smiles wavering somewhat when she had another dizzy spell. Adrien hurried to her and helped her sit down, his brows furrowed in worry. Gabriel’s face was full of concern, but his spirits seemed unchanged. What was he plotting?
The mixture in the bowl turned out to be pancake batter, which at Adrien’s instruction and Gabriel’s effort was eventually turned into pancakes and transferred onto their plates. Adrien rummaged around the kitchen for fruit and syrups to go with the pancakes and they sat down to eat.
It occurred to Nathalie they probably looked very much like a family having breakfast together. It was a bittersweet thought, but she decided she would indulge in the sweet side of it for the duration of the meal. Besides, it also seemed to make Adrien very happy. She wished she could feel his emotion through the Peacock miraculous. It would make a welcome change from his usual gloomy emotional background.
As she listened to Adrien chirping about his school and basked in Gabriel’s care, Nathalie found her lips forming a small smile. It felt almost foreign after so many years of maintaining a professional poker face in the Agreste manor, but she decided she had earned this opportunity to forget her professionalism for now.
The farewell hug from Adrien before he went to school caught her by surprise, but not an unwelcome one, she thought, as she hugged him back.
When the door closed behind Adrien, seeing him off to school, Gabriel’s cheerful mood doubled in intensity. He was elated, and Nathalie mentally congratulated herself on reading him right, even when he restricted himself in front of Adrien.
“I did it!” He was almost jumping with excitement.
He reminded her of his son, when Adrien got excited about his friends and school, and Nathalie had to make an effort not to reach out and ruffle his hair. Instead, she raised her brows in amusement.
“What did you do, Gabriel?” she asked, adjusting her glasses.
“I repaired the Peacock miraculous!”
Wow, that was fast. This man was indeed devoted to his family.
“So what would you like me to do with it? What sentimonster should I create?”
Gabriel blinked, as if the thought seemed alien to him.
“No, no! I just want you to put it on and see if a repaired miraculous will reverse your state of health.”
The shock of the realization made Nathalie recoil. Me? He’s trying to save ME? Me, not Emilie?
She diligently put the brooch on and welcomed the sight of Duusu. The kwami looked better than it had looked before, and confirmed it cheerfully.
“I had a strange dream where I felt ill, but I’m so much better now! Oh, hi Nathalie! Where’s Emilie?”
Ever sensitive to everyone’s emotions, the little kwami sensed the sorrow in her and Gabriel.
“Oh… not quite a dream, then?”
Nathalie shook her head in compassion.
“How do you feel?” This was Gabriel, looking at Nathalie with concern and reserved hope.
“I think I’m…” but before Nathalie could finish, she felt the familiar dizziness take over again, and the cough interrupted her.
Gabriel’s strong hands supported her, not letting her fall, and lowered her onto the nearest chair.
The owner of said hands sank down onto a neighbouring chair and buried his face in them in distress. His despair was so all-consuming that Nathalie found herself wrapping her arms around him before she could stop herself. However, instead of protesting, Gabriel melted into her embrace, hiding his face in her shoulder, while his hands wrapped around her to close at the small of her back.
Hugging is very unprofessional , said a stern voice in Nathalie’s head.
To hell with professionalism
, she retorted internally.
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Breakfasts together soon became a nice tradition, and Nathalie found herself looking forward to them every single morning.
Adrien was really good at finding new recipes, and Gabriel gradually got better at executing them. With the exception of one pancake recipe which included orange soda, which took its rightful place in the bin, they were edible at first and delicious after the third attempt.
Nathalie’s favourite thing, though, was the talking. This was the most she’d heard Adrien and Gabriel talk to each other, and it was heart-warming to see Gabriel gradually learn to respect his son, and Adrien gradually open up to his father.
It was during one of those talks that the subject of Hawkmoth was raised. Adrien’s opinion on the matter was surprisingly forceful and heated.
“He makes people suffer!” he almost shouted.
“Doesn’t he give people an outlet for their emotions?”
Of course Gabriel would defend his alter ego.
But Nathalie hadn’t failed to notice there were hardly any akuma attacks these days.
“He makes them into villains! Which makes him a power-hungry villain!”
“Power? Is that what you think he wants?”
“What else would he want?”
They were both off their chairs and shouting now, and Nathalie wondered if she should intervene. But before she did, Gabirel sat down, hands raised in a peace offering. Adrien followed suit and the atmosphere around them cooled down somewhat.
“There are many things he could want. To help a loved one, for example.”
This made Adrien avert his eyes.
“Like… if I wanted to bring mum back?”
Gabriel’s face was a picture of incredulity. Good thing Adrien didn’t see it. Instead, he kept on talking while looking away.
“I have thought about it, you know. How nice it would be to just wish for mum to be here with us again.” He paused, and then continued: “But the universe has to stay in balance. Which means someone else’s mother would have to die. And I couldn’t wish it on anyone.”
Nathalie was intrigued.
“How do you know about the wish?”
“Uhhh… I read it on the Ladyblog?”
Adrien’s answer sounded so much like a question that Nathalie idly wondered if that was the case, or if Adrien actually had more access to the heroes than he let on. Some of his classmates were temporary heroes, after all, including the girl who ran the Ladyblog.
It was interesting that Gabriel’s thoughts took a different direction.
“What if… what if it was someone still alive Hawkmoth wanted to help?”
Someone still alive? This puzzled Nathalie. And by the looks of it, brought Adrien’s attention back to his father.
“Why would he need the wish, then? Why not try to help them some other way?”
“What if no other way had worked?”
“Then he could ask for help.”
“Whom would he ask?”
“How about the heroes?”
There was a long pause, then, as everyone was digesting what Adrien had just suggested. Eventually, it was Gabriel who broke the silence.
“All right. Say, Hawkmoth somehow decided he wanted to ask for help. From two teenagers. Who may or may not be able to help him. How would he go about doing that? Climb the Eiffel Tower and start calling them till they came?”
Adrien thought about it a bit, and then fished out his phone and spent some time searching for something. He then held out a picture of Chat Noir holding his stick to his ear.
“There. The heroes have talking devices in their weapons. This means, Hawkmoth could have it too. If he wanted to.”
The pause after that grew into a full-blown silence as Gabriel contemplated the new information. Adrien didn’t seem to have anything else to say except for a short goodbye and a by now customary hug to Nathalie.
Gabriel didn’t strike a conversation with her like he often did after breakfast, but excused himself and went to his study. However, despite her expectations, Nathalie didn’t see any akumatized people terrorizing the city that day.
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Adrien’s words kept eating at Gabriel as he brooded in his lair. Ask the heroes for help. Could he really ask them? Would they agree? Also, could he really contact them like Adrien thought he could?
A brief talk to Nooroo proved that it was indeed possible. But would the heroes want to help him? He recalled fighting them on the fateful day when Nathalie donned the Peacock and sealed her fate. It’s not too late, Ladybug had said, you can fight for good with us. Would she accept a peace offering in return for her help?
He took out his phone and played the recording of Emilie he’d found on Nathalie’s old phone. “Don’t be sad, Nathalie,” said her familiar voice. “You know I had agreed to it, that Gabriel never forced me to do anything. But he should never try to bring me back.”
“You’re right, Emilie,” he whispered. “You accepted your demise as a fair price to pay. But Nathalie’s life should never have been part of the deal. And if there is anyone in the world that can help me save her, it’s the hero who thinks outside the box.”
With the new resolve, he put his phone away, transformed, found out (to his utter amazement) that his cane could project a virtual keyboard and screen, and sent the message he was hoping would change the course of his and Nathalie’s life for good.
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Sitting on their favourite Parisian roof, the heroes looked at each other, puzzled, and back onto Ladybug’s open yo-yo. Ladybug cleared her throat.
“Do you think it’s a trap?”
Chat Noir seemed unsure for a while, shifting his weight uncomfortably. Eventually, he spoke.
“I think… I think he’s my father.”
“Your
father
? But it says ‘meet me in the Agreste manor’! Which means you’re… you’re…”
Chat looked at her guiltily and said nothing.
After another minute, Ladybug collected her thoughts enough to ask.
“Why do you think it’s your dad?”
“We talked about this at breakfast today, and I told him about the possibility of telecommunication in the suits. It’s just too much of a coincidence.”
Ladybug thought about it and nodded.
“Do you know what he wants?”
“I think I have a clue. And if I’m right, it’s something I also want with all my heart. Shall we try to help?”
“Yeah,” said Ladybug after a short deliberation. “Yeah, I think we should try.”
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The voices coming from Gabriel’s study drew Nathalie’s attention. It wasn’t often that he had visitors, much less often at night, and during the time Nathalie was part of the household never without her knowledge of it. Intrigued, she came closer.
“…tried normal medicine, and it didn’t work!” said Gabriel’s voice from behind the door.
“What about magic medicine?” asked Ladybug’s voice.
Ladybug? Was this a dream? It might well be, Nathalie decided, prompted by Gabriel’s morning talk to Adrien.
“I tried it on Emilie once,” Gabriel’s voice sounded skeptical. “Akumatized myself into someone capable of bringing her back. It did not turn out well.”
Nathalie remembered that attempt. The Emilie Gabriel had brought back had turned out to be a zombie. So much so that they had to reverse the revival. To this day, Gabriel refused to talk about that incident.
In the meantime, the talk went on.
“That’s because you’re used to using your miraculous for evil.” This was Ladybug again. “If it’s someone using it for good, they should be able to…” There was a pause, then Nathalie heard a couple of clicks, as if someone was looking through their phone. “...kamikotize you into a healer.”
Despite the fatigue eating at her, Nathalie smiled. If this was a dream, it was a nice one where Gabriel actually explored other ways of bringing Emilie back. Well, she decided, why don’t I experience the nice dream closer up. She opened the door to the study and entered.
Both of the heroes were there, standing next to Gabriel. As her fatigue made itself known again, both Gabriel and Chat Noir rushed to her side, the latter pulling up a chair, and the former helping her onto it.
Without a moment of hesitation, Gabriel took his brooch off and offered it to Ladybug. She nodded, unified the Butterfly with her own miraculous, charged a white butterfly into a kamiko, and directed it into his glasses.
“Miraculous Healer, I would like to give you the power to share your life energy with others to heal them from anything that ails them. Be careful, the energy you share will weaken you. Do you accept?”
Gabriel nodded, and his shape changed. When the new akumatized ( kamikotized ?) Gabriel emerged, all Nathalie could do was blink. He looked beautiful! His hair turned golden, his skin looked like marble and radiated soft light. His clothes didn’t change much apart from the colour, which was all white now.
This was the moment he had been fighting for. The time he would revive Emilie. Nathalie willed herself to be happy for him, despite feeling sad her time was almost over.
Except instead of heading off to the basement, he reached out to her.
“Nathalie. Will you accept my help?”
The shock she felt was so sharp and sudden that Nathalie was amazed she wasn’t woken up by it. It’s me he wants to heal. He’s choosing me!
She nodded in a daze. Gabriel (Miraculous Healer, but it was her dream and she would still call him by his name!) took her hands in his and concentrated. His hands were warm and surprisingly soft, and the warmth seemed to seep through them into her own hands and arms, spreading through her whole body and filling her with lightness and elation and joy.
Gabriel’s smile was warm as well. He looked so caring and loving that Nathalie resolved to commit this dream to memory at all costs.
And then the warm flow slowly tapped out, and the charged butterfly detached itself from his glasses, though his hands never let go of hers. He stood up and pulled her up with him.
“How do you feel?”
How DO I feel? Nathalie inspected herself for her usual symptoms. Compared with the constant fatigue she was riddled by only a few minutes ago, her body felt light and almost weightless.
“I feel… good, actually.”
The heroes seemed happy to hear the news, especially Chat Noir. However, before he could say anything, Ladybug tugged at his hand.
“We need to go now. There are a lot of things we need to discuss!”
And they were gone, leaving Nathalie in Gabriel’s hands.
At which point Nathalie couldn’t help but ask the question that was at the back of her head the whole time.
“Why me?”
When Gabriel didn’t seem to understand, she clarified: “Why didn’t you revive Emilie? Was it not your original goal?”
“Oh.” Gabriel averted his eyes. Though his hands never let go of hers. He was silent for a short while, evidently trying to find the right words, until he spoke again.
“I saw the videos.”
“The videos?”
“The ones on your old phone.”
“Oh.”
“You didn’t show them to me.”
“I wanted to trust you to make your own decisions.”
He smiled.
“I know. I thank you for this. However, Emilie was right. I should have been concentrating on what I had, not on what I had lost.”
His hands travelled from her hands to her upper arms and his tone turned soft.
“I almost lost you, too.”
“I’m sorry.”
“There is no need to apologize, Nathalie.”
“You lost the miraculous, however. Which means your quest is over.”
“It is.”
“What about your goal? Don’t you want to get what you wanted?”
Gabriel pulled her into his embrace.
“I already have everything I want.”
As Nathalie melted in his arms, she felt him stealthily kiss the top of her head.
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It had been a nice dream. Too bad she needed to wake up.
She was so comfortable, though, her bed feeling soft and warm. And… breathing?
Shocked, Nathalie opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was Gabriel’s tie, which had twisted somewhat and looked slept in. Which, apparently, it had been, being still attached to Gabriel’s neck. The man himself was sleeping next to her, one of his arms holding her protectively. His suit was creased beyond measure and he was still wearing his glasses, which were now in danger of being squished.
Moving as carefully as possible, Nathalie took the glasses off his face, put them down on the bedside table, and hid back into Gabriel’s embrace, doing her best to digest the fact that last night’s events were not, in fact, a dream.
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Nathalie woke up to the sound of the door open and close and an already familiar smell of coffee. Smiling, she opened her eyes to an already dressed Gabriel holding a tray with coffee and fresh pastries. Seeing her awake, he gave her that special smile he reserved exclusively for her.
“Good morning, my fair lady!”
The endearment made Nathalie chuckle, putting her in mind of Chat Noir. Those two couldn’t be more different, which made the rare similarities all the more striking. Not in a bad way, though.
“Thank you for the breakfast in bed, Gabriel. You didn’t have to, though, I am not weak and unable to take care of myself anymore.”
“I know. I just like taking care of you.”
He put the tray on the bedside table and leaned to kiss the top of her head – a gesture Nathalie had grown to adore. Wanting more, she turned her face up and met his lips with hers.
Lost in the feeling of closeness, she hardly registered the sound of the door opening again, and was only brought out of her bliss by someone clearing their throat.
It turned out to be Adrien, who was now blushing and rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.
“Uhh… bad time? Shall I come back later?”
“That’s alright, Adrien. What did you want?”
“That picnic we were planning for the weekend, can I bring a guest?”
“Who would you like to bring?”
“My… Marinette, my classmate.” He made a pause, as if gathering his courage to say something big. “My girlfriend, actually.”
Something big indeed.
At the corner of her eye, Nathalie saw Gabriel go rigid. She put her hand on his in an attempt to comfort him, as she replied to Adrien.
“Of course. If it is someone you feel strongly about, we would be delighted to meet her.”
Adrien looked from her to his father and back, unsure if she was speaking on behalf of both of them. Prompted by her hand squeeze, Gabriel sighed and conceded.
“I look forward to meeting this girl.”
Adrien’s face was a picture of elation and relief. It made Nathalie wonder just how long the two had been dating in secret, too nervous to tell Gabriel about it, but she decided to keep her suspicion to herself. Instead, she offered the boy to talk about the possible picnic activity alterations to match the new attendee over dinner.
If Adrien had looked elated before, he was now pure sunshine.
“Of course, Nathalie! I can’t wait!”
And he ran out of the room, whipping out his phone as he was leaving, no doubt to convey the good news to the girl he was dating.
The two of them now alone in the room, Nathalie focused her attention on Gabriel.
“You do not look happy.”
He shook his head.
“I am not.”
“What’s the problem?”
“It’s… complicated. I have had this vision of Adrien’s future, where he dates Kagami and they take over our business when they are older – but he doesn’t seem to agree.”
Nathalie smiled at that.
“Did you follow in your parents’ footsteps? Did Emilie?”
Gabriel made several attempts to counter that, and then sighed in defeat.
“No. Neither of us did. And I suppose nor will Adrien follow my vision for him.”
“It’s what Emilie would have wanted.”
“Is this what you would want for Adrien?”
“Absolutely!”
“And what do you want for yourself?”
Nathalie wrapped her arms around Gabriel, the corners of her mouth lifting up.
“I want what we have never to end.”
At this, Gabriel’s eyes got a mischievous glint to them.
“If you say so,” he said, taking her arms off his shoulders. He then proceeded to go down on one knee as he fished something small out of his pocket.
Something small that turned out to be a ring.
A ring which he held up, his brows raised in a silent question.
After a minute of silence and disbelief, Nathalie cleared her throat.
“You will have to enunciate it, Gabriel. I don’t want to assume.”
Gabriel adjusted his glasses. He was nervous, she realized.
“Nathalie, will you… will you marry me? If that’s what you want, of course?”
She released the breath she wasn’t aware she’d been holding.
“Yes.”
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That night, sleep evaded Gabriel, but he didn’t mind. He spent his midnight awake time looking at Nathalie sleeping peacefully next to him and recounting every minute of their time together.
He had almost lost her.
But he hadn’t. And that’s what mattered.
That meant to him that against all odds, he had won.