Chapter Text
There was a point in time when the sound of the bedroom door creaking open would have woken Jean up immediately with dread, fearful eyes would had been forced to watch the horrors play out as he quietly told himself to keep it together. Survive. Survive. Survive has been his mantra for years.
But that wasn't the case anymore. No, nowadays when the door to his room opened, it was welcomed by the sound of soft footsteps on the carpeted floor making its way excitedly to his bed, the mattress dipped then small hands gently shook him awake.
"Papa," came a quiet whisper over him, but then a little louder after a moment, "Papaaaaa."
Jean hummed. "What is it, Adrien?" he asked drowsily as he turned on his back and brought his son close to his chest, hugging his small frame so he'd stop shaking him.
Adrien's voiced came out muffled when he replied, "It's already morning, Papa. You have to wake up now."
It took all his energy for Jean to open his eyes to check the digital clock on the nightstand. He sighed knowingly when the time read 6:55 AM. It was a Saturday, and by routine Jean knew Adrien wanted to go to the playground right now.
"Maman always says 'the early bird gets the worm'! And I am the bird and the playground is the worm," Adrien had said the first time a couple months ago before Jean knew it would become a regular thing on his weekend morning schedule. He should've known Renee being an early bird would have influenced their son.
Looking down at Adrien who was looking back at him with an impatient pout, Jean affectionately stroked his son's messy black hair and said, "give me 5 minutes and I'll meet you downstairs, d'accord?"
Adrien grinned as Jean let him go. "Okay! But don't take too long or the big kids will be hogging everything!"
"Oui, I know." Jean watched his son bounced off the bed and bounded out the door, leaving Jean a moment of peace before he got up and got ready.
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The walk to the playground was relatively peaceful and quiet, the only exception was Adrien's retelling of his dream he had last night as Jean listened attentively beside him. It was small moments like this when Jean was grateful to be alive, to actually live and not just survive. And it was all thanks to Renee for helping him out of a very bad situation, and for bringing the little bundle of joy and energy that was their son into this world.
Adrien had stopped midsentence when the two arrived at their destination, he let go of Jean's hand and immediately ran to the monkey bars excitedly. Jean let his son be as he took a seat on the bench nearby, after a few minutes of keeping an eye on Adrien, Jean took his phone out and snapped a quick picture of his son struggling to make it to the next bar before sending a quick text to Renee.
[Jean Moreau] <photo attached>
[Jean Moreau] Guess where we are again.
[Renee Walker] Aww, look at him go! He's improving so much!! 😄💕
[Jean Moreau] He needs to eat more vegetables if he wants to be strong enough to make it to the end of the monkey bars.
[Renee Walker] Well, that's your problem to fix since he's with you for now while Allison and I are away ❤️
[Jean Moreau] He won't listen to me on this topic.
[Renee Walker] Good luck babe! ☺️ x
Jean sighed as he pocketed his phone and continued to watch Adrien who had already given up on the monkey bars with a dejected huff. The little boy started to collect scattered pebbles and fallen leaves, bringing them over to the small sitting area and meticulously placed them on the table.
"Papa!" Adrien shouted from the other end of the playground. "Let's play café!"
"Alright, je suis en route," Jean stood and made his way over. The sitting area was designed specifically for little children, so it was awkward for a tall man like Jean to sit on the small stool and squeeze his legs together, sandwiched between his body and the table.
"Today's special is our chocolate crepe," Adrien pointed to a brown leaf then a yellow one next, "And custard tart which is new on our menu. I'll be back with your drink, monsieur!"
While Adrien ran off to find more stuff for his pretend café, Jean scrolled through his Instagram feed and liked a few of his friends' posts without giving it a second to fully look at them. Until one post in particular caught his eye.
It was of Renee and Allison on their honeymoon in Madrid, they looked so happy and in love and free, Jean was genuinely happy for them both. But as he scrolled through the pictures, he couldn't help but feel lonely. He wished he could share that same love that his two friends had with each other with someone to call his own.
"Papa! Papa! Papa!" the sound of Adrien excitedly calling him brought Jean out of his thoughts, he locked his phone then looked at his son who now had a friend beside him.
"Who is this you have here, Adrien?" Jean gave a polite smile to the little girl who was shyly looking back at him.
"Hello," she said softly. "My name is Emma, sir."
"Nice to meet you Emma," he looked over his shoulder and saw a blonde man a few feet away talking on his phone, he had his back towards the group. Jean gestured to him and asked Emma, "is that your brother?"
The little girl shook her head, "That's my daddy. He's speaking with Auntie Laila."
"Can Emma play café with us, Papa? S'il te plaît!" Adrien dragged on the word, Emma on the other hand was more reserved but she was eager for an approval from Jean.
Jean nodded his head, "Yes of course. More the merrier, right?"
"Yay! See Emma, I told you he'd say yes! Now let me show you our menu so you know what's what." Adrien began and Emma listened to which leaf, stick and stone was supposed to be which French dessert.
Just then, there was a presence behind him, and when Jean looked up he was greeted by Emma's dad smiling at him, bright and welcoming, Jean could compare him to the sun.
He had short brownish blonde hair, golden tan skin and brown eyes that reminded Jean of autumn leaves. Emma shared a lot of resemblance to her dad.
"Hi there," he said. "Mind if I join you?"
"Not all all," Jean replied, for some reason he was unable to look away from the other man as he took a seat on the other side of the table.
It was still a bit of a squeeze for the other man, but it didn't look as awkward as it was for Jean.
"My name's Jeremy!" The man, Jeremy, was still smiling at him, it was almost blinding.
"Jean."
"Welcome to our café, daddy and Adrien's papa." Emma smiled at her dad, "Our café has, um, what did you call it again?" she turned to Adrien.
"Éclaires!" Adrien made a grand gesture towards two sticks with dirt smeared on top of it sitting on the table. "It's our BEST sellers, messieurs!"
"Oh, really?" Jeremy grinned as he picked one up, "They look really good too!"
"They taste even BETTER!" Adrien grinned back. "Made by the BEST pastry chefs in the WHOLE. WIDE. WORLD!"
"Who are also called pâtissiers," Jean said.
"Tomato tamata," Adrien waved his dad off, "Now try them!"
"Please," Emma added politely.
Jeremy giggled, it made Jean's heart skip though he didn't want to acknowledge it. Jean and Jeremy pretended to take a bite of the 'éclaires', Jeremy hummed delighted like he was really eating a real pastry and Jean simply nodded.
"They really are good," Jeremy said after pretending to swallow. "Five stars!" the kids cheered at that, then everyone's eyes were on Jean. "What's your verdict, Jean?" Jeremy asked - again, still smiling at him.
"It's really good, you two deserve five stars." Even though Jean's words weren't as enthusiastically filled as Jeremy's, it still gave the kids that gratification.
"Come on Emma, let's go to the slides! I like to imagine I'm Indiana Jones escaping from a booby trap!"
"Can we pretend we are escaping a castle that's on fire?" Emma asked with a shy smile.
"Okay! It would be just like Shrek!"
Before the two could go off, Jean and Jeremy stopped them both at the same time.
"Sorry Adrien, you have piano lessons soon," said Jean.
"And we have to get you ready for ballet class," said Jeremy as he smoothed his daughter's dress.
The two kids looked at each other, saddened and disheartened. Jeremy gave them an apologetic smile, then at Jean he said, "We'll see each other tomorrow, yeah?"
"It's already in the schedule," Jean said, he ruffled Adrien's already messy black hair before standing up with Jeremy, it was then Jean notice that the other man was only a few inches shorter than him.
The kids hugged each other goodbye while the adults good naturedly shook hands. Jeremy smiled, "Jusqu'à demain...um, did I say that right?" he grimaced awkwardly to himself.
Usually Jean would brush off someone's bad French pronunciation off with a chastise frown, but he found the way Jeremy said it endearing and didn't mind it.
So he gave a small genuine smile to Jeremy and said, "Jusqu'à demain, Jeremy."
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"What do you think about Emma and Mr. Jeremy, Papa?" Adrien asked Jean when they were back at home and Adrien was gathering his notebooks for piano lessons. "Because I had lots of fun with Emma! I can't wait to play with her again tomorrow! Like you promised."
Jean had just finished packing Adrien's lunch when he answered, "I'm glad you found a new friend to play with. Maybe she's better at the monkey bars than you and she can show you how it's done."
Adrien pouted, "I don't want to embarrass myself in front of a girl."
"Then you should eat the veggies I packed for you, hmm?" Jean smirked at Adrien pouting even deeper.