Hush {{ Ladynoir }}

Chapter Six

Home videos, the box reads.

Adrien is almost finished going through the belongings of his despicable father.  He couldn't have cared less about what was kept; it could've all gone to the dump for all he cared, but the fact that there could be belongings of his mother kept him from doing so.

The first tape is labeled May 13, 2001 -- The Boys' First Birthday.  He had found an old VHS player in another box and hooked it up to the TV in his room.  These videos were nearly his only hope to find out something -- anything -- about her.

The screen lights up to reveal a little blonde boy wobbling around on a carpet, the one he recognizes as the rug in the foyer.  "Hi, Adrien!" a smooth voice sings from behind the camera.  Adrien looks up, smiles, and mutters, "Mama!"  And continues wobbling.

He feels his heart swell with joy.  Mama.

The picture skips to the dining room, where several people are gathered around the table as Adrien beams, everyone singing happy birthday.  Another little boy sits to his right, looking not so pleased.  His cousin, Adrien figures.

"Make a wish!" says the voice behind the camera.  The two boys close their eyes, lean over the cake, and blow out the candles.  Was it his birthday too?

Adrien contemplates, trying to find some sort of memory of this mysterious cousin.

The strange boy leans back in his chair and giggles.  "Did you make a wish, Felix?" his mother asks.  He nods vigorously with a little smile. 

Felix.  Why had he never heard anything about him?

His train of thought is interrupted by a soft tapping on the door.  He pauses the video and says, "Come in."

Natalie enters, her hands folded nearly in front of her.  "Dinner is ready."

As she turns to leave, Adrien speaks before he can think.  "Wait, Natalie."

"Yes?"  she stops and turns to face him.

"Do you know anything about Felix?" he asks.  "Who is he?"

"Felix."  A confused look crosses her face.  "I'm afraid I don't know."

She's hiding something.

"Yes, you do, Natalie.  Who is he?"  A long pause passes between the two and fills the air with a silence that makes the room stiff and hard to breathe.  "Tell me!"

"That's not my place to tell you, Adrien."

"As the closest thing I have to a family member, yes, it is!"

Her gaze falls to the ground.  Sighing, she gives up.  "Come with me."

~~

"Felix Agreste was a quiet, serious child.  I met him and you several times when I was a secretary for your father's company."

Adrien had never bothered going into the attic.  It was dusty and dark and small, a space he would prefer not to enter.  Now, the walls are nearly closing in on him as he sees countless pictures of himself as a child and the strange boy known as Felix.  Photographs and papers are strewn across the ground as he tries to find more clues.  He stops shuffling through the mess when one photo jumps out at him -- his mother lying in bed, her beautiful blonde hair in a mess, wearing a hospital gown.  She holds two bundles in her arms and smiles down at them, tears filling her eyes.  At her side stands his father, beaming at his new family.

"Felix," whispers Adrien.  "He wasn't my cousin."

Natalie shakes her head.  "On May 13, 2000, Mrs. Agreste gave birth to twin boys.  Adrien and Felix."

"Where is he now?"

"He passed away in an accident when you were two, along with your mother."

Adrien stares at the photo, his eyes landing on the man to his mother's right, actually smiling.  "Did you know?"

Natalie takes a seat next to him.  "Yes.  I was at the funeral."

"No.  I mean my father."

"What about him?"

"You know what I'm taking about."  He refuses to look at her.

A long, agonizing pause fills the stuffy air.

"He was always disappearing.  I never knew why, until a few years ago when I was akumatized."

"You were akumatized?"  Adrien thinks hard as he tries to remember the villain that was his caretaker.

"I don't remember it, obviously, but I do remember the moment he came to me.  Hawkmoth.  After the attack was over, I started piecing things together, and that's when I realized."

"And you didn't do anything about it!?"

"I had no proof, Adrien.  And if I did, there's no telling what he would have done to me if I tried revealing him."

Tears are welling in his eyes, so much to where he can barely see a white butterfly land on the photo clenched in his hands.  It isn't fair.

Another butterfly perches itself on his hand.

Another flutters by.

Another rests on his knee.

He looks up to see Natalie's reaction, but she is already halfway out the door.  She looks over her shoulder and gives him a solemn nod before leaving.

More of the creatures swarm to Adrien, gracefully surrounding him.  Dazed, he picks up a flashlight, determined to find the source, where his father had kept the vile butterflies all these years.

There is nothing but wood and insulation as far as he can see -- until a cool draft blows in from the right.  Upon shining the light, an open hatch is revealed, and he ventures inside.

On the other side is a darkly lit room.  The floor is made of marble and the walls are cold and hard, just like Gabriel's office.  A stained glass-like window barely lights the space, casting ominous purple shadows.  And there, at Adrien's feet, are hundreds of white butterflies.

They flutter about, perching themselves on him, as if welcoming him back.  He swats at them with tears running down his face.  "Get away from me!" he screams through clenched teeth.  "I'm not your master!  I --"

In the midst of the commotion, a sharp pain in his thigh causes him to wince.  Gingerly, he reaches into his pocket, and pulls out the brooch.

The tears subside, and all that's left is a numbing emptiness.  He was never a hero of Paris.

"Dark wings, rise."