Not Alone: A Miraculous Ladybug Story

Chapter 7

 Once in the office, Gabriel made a bee-line towards his desk, but Marinette stopped dead in front of the large portrait of Adela.

"Wow," she gasped. She had seen it before, but in the heat of the moment trying to protect the Agreste men, she hadn't really stopped to appreciate the magnificence of the painting.

Gabriel looked up and froze for a moment, before slowly making his way over to the two teenagers. Moving at a glacial pace, he approached the painting as if it might disappear if he moved too quickly.

"Yes, my Adela," he whispered adoringly, and Marinette caught the look of pain on his face. Of loss or guilt?, she wondered.

"It's beautiful," Marinette said softly.

"Yes, she is," Gabriel responded in a haze.

"I'm very sorry for your loss."

"She's not dead yet, not if I can help it," he said still staring at the portrait. Recovering himself, he amended, "What I mean to say is, we haven't lost hope."

Adrien could see the veil slipping back down over his father's face and decided it was now or never.

"Where's mom, Papa?"

Gabriel froze, and looked to Adrien with tender eyes. He reached up and cupped his child's cheek in his hand. He opened his mouth to respond when he glanced again ath Adela's portrait. Closing his eyes, Gabriel sighed, fisting his hands by his side and coming to a decision. When his eyes opened, the tenderness was gone, and the man who had been with them a second ago completely transformed into the Gabriel Agreste of the past year.

"Excuse me," Gabriel said formally, walking out the door and towards the spiral staircase that led up into the attic.

Marinette stood in silence, waiting for Adrien to digest whatever had just passed between father and son. He turned to her with a forlorn look on his face.

"So that was my father," he told her dejectedly. She reached over and grabbed his hand. "That's about all we're going to get out of him."

Marinette hummed in thought and glanced over at the fashion mogul's desk, still a disarray of papers and designs. She dropped Adrien's hand and sauntered over to start rifling through the mess.

"What are you doing?" Adrien called, a note of panic in his voice as his eyes darted back and forth between Marinette and the door his father had just walked out of.

"You wanted answers? Well, let's find them. Keep a look out, you can distract anyone if they come."

"Always the distraction..." she heard him murmur to himself and she smirked. Oh kitty, it's because you're so distracting.

Pulling herself away from that dangerous train of thought, she turned her attention back to the task at hand. Evidence. There had to be something here. She rifled through design after design. Couture, everyday wear, wedding dresses, hats, shoes. Willing herself with all her willpower to stay on task, she was starting to lose hope of finding anything of relevance when sticking out from underneath a large volume of past Agreste collections, she spotted a crumpled envelope with handwriting in crude thick marker on it. Gently disengaging it from it's oversized paperweight, she pried the envelope out and extracted its contents. She read the first few lines and gasped.

Adrien stared out the door, leaning his back on the frame with a look of, what he hoped was, nonchalance in case Natalie walked by or his father returned. His foot tapping nervously, he spared a glance over at Marinette. Her brow was crumpled in concentration, forming that cute little line between her eyebrows. So cute, he thought. Suddenly he had a vision of his Lady, with the same expression on her face, and he tore his eyes away from Marinette. Where did that come from? He began to wrack his brain for explanations, but even he couldn't deny the truth anymore, the answer was obvious, sitting right beneath his nose this entire time.

He had feelings for Marinette. That's why her expression reminded him of Ladybug. He'd fallen for both of them. While it felt dishonest, for he still loved Ladybug, he couldn't deny that this girl in front of him enchanted him in a way only his Lady had ever done before. Actually, they're similar in a lot of other ways too...

He was pulled from this train of thought by a gasp. Darting over to Marinette's side he asked, "What?What is it?"

She looked over at him and handed him a crumpled piece of paper with block lettering on it.

If you want to see your wife again in one piece, I suggest you start taking my demands more seriously. The zombies were a nice surprise, but when I command you to cause mass panic in this city, that doesn't mean fluffy villains that give you a makeover or cause a few rain showers.

Do not disappoint me again, or precious Adela will be disappointed in the hope to ever see another daybreak. She always did adore those sunsets in the valley; it'd be such a shame if I had to start sending you pieces of...motivation.

Give my regards to your boy.

-Le faiseur de rois

Oh my god, Adrien thought in shock, my mom is alive.