Holding On

Epilogue

The days that followed were pure chaos. Especially once the body of Emilie Agreste was found in the secret basement underneath the house. It was the only thing people in Paris (hell, in the world) talked about. What happened to Emilie? Will she be okay? Gabriel did it for her? Did Adrien know? How is he?

Adrien himself couldn't answer any of these questions.

He didn't know either what had happened to his mom or how she had ended up in some form of coma. He hoped she was gonna be okay, but he didn't know that either. He guessed his father did it for her, but he thought that along the line, Gabriel had taken a liking to power and more specifically, to the terror he inspired. But no, he hadn't known. Should he have suspected it? Marinette always said no, absolutely not, that he was innocent. But Adrien thought differently. He should've known something was up. After all, everything had been happening in his own damn house. If he hadn't been so obvious to the whole thing...

Well, let's just say this wasn't a conversation he could have with his partner.

Now, how was he? That was the trickiest question. And even to this day, he couldn't answer it.

Although he knew that his father deserved to be in jail, he couldn't help but feel sad about it. How could he not? His father, his only living parent, was in jail! He was basically an orphan now! But he was also so, so mad at him. Had Gabriel really needed to do this? Was it really necessary? Couldn't he just be a dad to his son who, oh so desperately needed him?

He was also worried about Mayura and Lila. Where were they? Would they come back? They both had disappeared without a trace and no one in the world knew where they were hiding. Mayura, alias Natalie, had a warrant against her and was searched everywhere, with no luck whatsoever. And Lila was even suspected to be dead, perhaps killed during the final battle. Everyone pitied her. The last victim of Hawkmoth, who even Ladybug and Chat Noir couldn't save. Ah, what a joke!

But above all, he felt this gut-wrenching guilt. He had put his father in jail! Didn't give him the chance to save his mother! Hell, he practically abandoned her! He had spent hours crying about it in Marinette's arms a few days after the battle, once Emilie's body was recovered. But despite Plagg's encouragement, Tikki's kind words and Marinette's loving presence, the pain he felt just wouldn't go away.

That is until he got the phone call.

He had been a month by then. Gabriel's trial was starting soon and Adrien had never been more anxious.

He was currently staying at the Dupain-Cheng, where they had turned the spare room into a small bedroom. It was pretty sweet of them, and Adrien never had the nerve to tell them he hadn't slept in his own bed once. But of course, that's not something Marinette's parents needed to know. Besides, they were only sleeping. Holding each other through their nightmares.

Well, okay, they did kiss like, a lot, but they definitely didn't need to know that.

Anyway, Marinette and him were playing video games when the phone rang. He didn't pay much attention to it until Sabine's voice screamed his name from the kitchen. After exchanging a worried look, the teenagers both ran downstairs, only to see the woman smiling at him, tears in her eyes.

"Is everything okay?" he asked, gripping Marinette's hand for reassurance.

"Adrien, your mother... Honey, she's awake."

He almost fainted right there and then. He went to see her every single day. Just last night, there had been absolutely no indication of things changing. And now, now...

The second he saw her, sitting in her bed, smiling at him, he broke down. Ran into her arms like a little boy and cried for hours. She didn't let him go either for a long time. Kissing his hair and cheeks, looking at him, crying just as much.