genevrier | 💀 pour oublier ma peine immense

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💀 pour oublier ma peine immense

It had been a long and hard three years.

Ladybug had run out of fingers with which to count the sticky situations she and Chat Noir had been in because of Hawkmoth. But finally, finally, she and her partner had him dead to rights. As time went on, they had grown desperate, and they'd made mistakes - but nothing they hadn't been able to fix. He'd made mistakes, too, and that was how the two of them had managed to track him down.

Heart pounding, she cast her gaze down at the man that had been their adversary for so long. Hawkmoth stared back at the both of them with a dark glare full of loathing. There were a lot of things she had wanted to ask him when she finally caught up to him, but there was only one question she was actually able to form.

"How could you?" She whispered, her voice ragged. She was breathing heavily - the fight had taken a lot out of her. Out of her partner, and out of their enemy, too; had it gone on much longer, they all might have dropped dead out of exhaustion. "You hurt so many people."

Hawkmoth's eyes glittered, and he pressed his lips together into a thin line. Ladybug felt something roll down her cheek - sweat, she hoped, and not blood or tears, but she'd taken a hit to the temple earlier and she couldn't be certain that it wasn't bleeding (and in fact it was). But she was in better shape than him, at least. He was beaten down, he had lost.

All that remained was to take his Miraculous and make sure that Nooroo's power never, ever fell int the hands of someone like him ever again.

His refusal to answer stirred anger in her where there had once been pity.

"Men. Women. Children. You used them all - and for what? What on earth could have been worth it? I don't understand. Explain yourself, Hawkmoth."

He didn't answer. He looked between the two of them, seething. Ladybug scowled and knelt down in front of him, curled her fingers around his brooch, and yanked it away from his suit.

The magic holding his transformation together fell apart, and Nooroo emerged from the butterfly Miraculous at long last. Ladybug cradled him in the crook of her arm and watched as the facial features of their nemesis became clear.

A well-dressed man, middle-aged. Nobody she recognized. Without his Miraculous, he should have been powerless. Defeated. Done for.

She didn't catch his smirk until it was too late.

His hand darted into the suit jacket that hadn't been there before, and his fingers closed around something she couldn't see. "I'll make you understand," He snarled, and the next thing she knew his hand emerged from the jacket and the crack of a gunshot split the air. "Perhaps now we'll share the same wish."

There was a gun in his hand, Ladybug realized, as a dull roar and the man's twisted, bitter laughter filled her ears. He hadn't aimed at her. She turned toward her partner with dread.

He had aimed at him, and his laughter was not the laughter of a man who had missed his mark.

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Adrien's eyes widened a little.

Alya?

The name prickled at him, familiar but not, a faint voice from a faraway dream. He didn't know...

But if he asked, would he make her sad again? Adrien fidgeted, then watched her.

"Sure," he said softly. "Call her, I'd like that."

"I'll give her a call later."

Marinette smiled, thinking about the kinds of sandwiches they would make - and then she hesitated.

...did he mean right now? He could have meant right now. Her expression became a little uncertain, and she looked down at her hands, then up at him.

"I mean, unless you want me to call her now? ...we could probably make some sandwiches to go with the cookies, if... that would be better? Um..."

"Um... maybe not right now." Adrien gave her a smile. "My stomach couldn't handle that, probably."

That, and he liked having time with just her. Was that weird? That was weird.

"Unless- you probably miss your other friends, right? It must be boring hanging out with just me." He lifted his hands, completely meaning it.

"No, not boring! I love spending time with you-"

Marinette realized what she'd said a moment after she said it, and her cheeks flushed a deep red as she looked back down at her hands again.

"...a-anyway, my point is I'm not bored... I-I'll call her later."

Adrien flushed too, watching her cheeks go dark, and felt another rush of happiness, followed by the guilt. What if... no, he couldn't afford to think it through, not right now. There was nothing wrong with enjoying spending time with his friend.

"I love spending time with you too," he answered, shifting closer.

"... I needed this."

She raised her head, and her lips slowly spread into a smile. When he shifted closer to him, she scooted closer in return, and reached over to brush some of his hair away from his cheek.

"I did too," Marinette admitted.

They'd both very clearly needed something other than his injuries to talk about, something other than the bedside vigil and recovery to focus on.

"...thank you for making cookies with me today."

Adrien tilted his head into her touch, shutting his eyes with a smile. It was such a simple gesture, but he loved it. It made him feel... good. Cared for.

"Thank you for being here."

He didn't want to make her do anything, didn't want to keep her out of school, keep her away from her friends, but he truly appreciated her company, her voice filling the silence, her touch warming the cold.

"Of course." Marinette was still smiling, but her expression became more gentle, and she shifted her hand so that she could cup his cheek as they both settled down. "...I'm glad to be here. I like being close to you."

For more reasons than one, but it was a lot more complicated than she was really prepared to get into.

"I'll stay here for as long as you want me to."

Adrien settled into the touch as it banished the uncertainty. He lifted a hand, settled it over hers, eyes still closed. He was still so sleepy all the time, constantly in pain, but her touch honestly made it better.

As long as you want.

... that was it, though- he wanted her here, and he didn't doubt for a moment that she'd do it for him. But she had other things to live for, to love, and he couldn't steal her life from her like this.

The silence settled between them, warm and comfortable, and Marinette made no move to pull her hand away from his cheek, because it felt wonderful to be able to touch him, to have his hand resting over hers.

She watched him for those few long moments, and then her brows furrowed a little.

"...hey," she said softly. "Do you need to get some rest...?"

"Probably," he murmured, muffling a yawn behind his hand, though he didn't pull away from her touch. Regretfully, he straightened up.

He blinked a few times, then looked around the room. His eye caught on the design work his father had left on the desk, the patterns half filled out.

"... was my father here?" he asked, a little shocked.

"Huh?"

She turned her head and followed his gaze to the design work, then nodded slowly.

"Yeah. He comes to check on you a lot... you've been asleep most of the times he's shown up, though."

A smile flickered across Adrien's face, lit up his eyes.

He composed himself quickly, turned back to smile at Marinette, his eyes all the brighter. "And you said he's having you work on things?"

Things might not be so dark, if Gabriel was having Marinette work on projects, keep in practice.

"That's right."

Marinette rubbed at the back of her head, smiling a little sheepishly.

"...he's a lot nicer than a lot of people give him credit for. That's one thing I've learned about him, at least."

"He's been nice to you?"

Adrien's mouth dropped open. Of course, he knew his father, he knew that he had a kinder, softer side, but it hadn't come out that much lately. It had certainly never come out to anyone outside the family, that he knew of.

"He must really like you."

"Well, he hasn't kicked me out yet or anything..."

All things considered, he was being nicer to her than he could have been. Plenty of people wouldn't have blamed him at all if he'd told her to get lost, especially since Adrien's injuries were her fault in the first place.

"And he's... tried to help me keep busy. He's kind of gruff, but he... means well."

Gabriel must know about her schooling... no wonder. But the real mystery was why Gabriel was letting this girl, who he supposedly didn't really know, have this much access to him. She was staying in the house, staying alone with him.

While he didn't have any objection towards it, he couldn't help but be confused.

He had to see some advantage in keeping her here. Right?

... maybe it was just because Adrien needed a distraction. That could well be it. He tended to get into trouble if he wasn't kept busy.

"He's good at giving people things to do," Adrien said awkwardly. His bedroom and his packed schedule were a testament to that.

"You can say that again," she mumbled.

Marinette could still very distinctly remember when he'd first brought her a pattern to color in - and she was sure he's done it because he was worried about Adrien waking up and seeing her as despondent as she had been, but it was still kind of him.

He was trying really hard for his son's sake.

"It's a good opportunity, anyway. A lot of other people who want to get into designing would be thrilled if there was even a slight chance he might see something they worked on out of the corner of his eye."

A smile spread across Adrien's face, and he leaned forward.

"... you're a fan of his," he said quietly, on the edge of laughing, just because of the novelty of it. Most girls their age were into him, not his father.

"You know, if he's having you fill in his patterns, he already thinks a lot of your talent. He'd never let even his interns touch his things."

"Oh, geeze, is it that obvious?"

About as obvious as her crush on Adrien, so... yeah. She rubbed at the back of her head, a little embarrassed, but... it was the truth, so what was the harm in saying it? It wasn't like Gabriel was on the other side of the door or anything, able to hear what she was about to say.

"He's been my favorite fashion designer since... well, since forever. His designs are seriously amazing."

Had Marinette's caring for him not been so transparent, Adrien might have done the disservice of wondering if that was why she was here.

Instead, his heart warmed as he watched her face, the way she seemed flustered.

"He's an artist," Adrien said softly, happily. He was proud of his father's talent, though he rarely had the chance to hear someone praise him so genuinely. He was the subject of awe and envy and often, anger, but this was harder to come by.

"He works too much, though," he added. "Sometimes it wears him thin."

"He is," she agreed.

When they were in school together, she'd been... a little disillusioned, seeing how unhappy Adrien could be sometimes. But Gabriel had really stepped up and shown that even though the things he'd done had been pretty awful, they'd come from a place of caring.

She was a little more inclined to think well of him again.

"...I can see how that might happen," she said after a moment. "Well - with any luck... he'll be able to take a little more time off soon."

Like, uh, when Adrien recovered enough to travel. Maybe father and son could take a well-deserved vacation together.

Adrien looked puzzled, as if he wasn't quite following what Marinette had in mind. Then again, Gabriel didn't really take vacations. Not the way normal people did.

Even when his son had been nearly shot to death, he had gone back to work the next day.

"... do you know something I don't?" he asked, and tried not to wince.

She still knew a lot of things he didn't.

"I just think..."

Marinette hesitated. She wasn't a member of this family, not really - maybe she shouldn't say anything about Gabriel or what he could or should do, but...

"I just think if there was ever a time for him to take some time off, it'd be after you got better... so you two could spend some time together."

Adrien looked all the more puzzled, then bit his lip, thinking it through.

He could trust Marinette. She wouldn't go spreading this around, or think less of them for it. Adrien lifted a hand, brushed his hair back from his face, and sighed.

"I'd like to see more of him, but honestly... I have no idea what we'd do. I haven't spent time with him in years."

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