Birth

2

“Father?” Said Adrien while he watched Gabriel put his baby brother in his crib.


Andrea had done a good job putting a nursery together in so little time. It wasn’t painted yet, but she’d arranged for the queen bed to be removed to make space for a brand new grey wooden crib that along with a changing table and a comfortable armchair. She’d even bought a beautiful mobile to put over it which, in Adrien’s opinion, was very sweet on her part.

“Yes.”  Said Gabriel without looking up at his eldest.

“Why do you think Nathalie never told you she was expecting your child?”

Gabriel had been expecting his son would eventually ask him about this, but the question  still made him uncomfortable.

“I don’t know, Adrien.” He said “That’s something we’ll have to ask her.”

Adrien had so many things so ask. There was so much he wanted to know. He’d seen the change in his father and Nathalie’s relationship over the years, but his father had never admitted that there was anything romantic between them. Yet even before the shock of his brother’s existence it was clear that their working relationship had evolved to at least some kind friendship some time ago.

Although Nathalie was still formal around him and his father, there were some moments when they were alone and unaware of Adrien’s presence nearby, that he’d seen their postures loosen, and his father’s countenance soften, sometimes even looking at her with obvious affection.

Once, when his father was being particularly stubborn about something he’d even heard her telling him to “Stop acting like a drama queen.” When his father turned around to see her Adrien had been surprised to see not the angry face he’d been expecting, but that his father was trying hard to keep his face serious while a smile was escaping by the corners of his mouth until it was finally out and his whole face was smiling too.

“I thought she’d loved you.”

His father just looked at him. Adrien thought his father must have been waiting for him to broach the subject of his and Nathalie’s relationship at some point, but it looked like it still left him speechless.

“I don’t think so.”

Maybe his father was stupid, or maybe he was just blind because Nathalie was known as the best PA in Paris, which meant she didn’t need this job. If she’d decided his father’s eccentricity and eternal grumpiness was not worth the pay, she’d have left them in a heartbeat and there would be lots of competitors and politicians fighting for her pass.

No, Nathalie cared. It didn’t matter that she kept up that serious and cold demeanor. She loved them. She didn’t have to fight with his father for him to go to school, or see if he’s eaten, or if he needed help with his homework. No, those were things she did because she cared about him.

And the amount of temper tantrums and other absurd things she let his father get away with couldn’t be explained any other way...so yeah, maybe his father was stupid., or maybe he was just blind because Nathalie was known to be the best PA in Paris, which meant she didn’t need this job. If she’d decided his father’s eccentricity and eternal grumpiness was not worth the pay, she’d have left them in a heartbeat and there would be lots of competitors and politicians fighting for her pass. .

That’s why that answer got Gabriel a raised eyebrow to what he responded with a raised and a face of “What?”

“It’s just...well, I thought it was obvious she loved you.”

“Oh, now you’re just being ridiculous. I love your mother and that’s not going to change.”

Oh…Adrien thought. His father hadn’t realized, but he’d just answered his question. That’s why she had left. So, shielded by his sleeping baby brother, he dared to go further.

“Why’d you sleep with Nathalie then?”

And he saw his saw his father’s whole body go taut and assume a defensive posture and his countenance become hard and serious.

“Don’t forget I’m still your father, boy.” he snapped.

“Why? I know this is your life, but it’s mine too!” And Adrien couldn’t keep his voice low any longer. “Nathalie is the closest thing to a mother I had since mom’s left us and you’ve made her go away because it seems you can’t get over the fact that either mom’s deliberately left us or is dead.” And then with his voice in a lower tone and eyes tinged with drop of despair for his father, “It’s been three years dad.”

Gabriel had not been as angry as Adrien supposed he’d be after being talked by his son like that. His posture and face were completely rigid, his skin white and he could actually see the thoughts moving around inside his father’s head through his eyes.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about”

“Don’t I, father? Or is it you that refuse to accept that?” His father responded that with silence, so Adrien kept pressing “Do you want to risk losing Nathalie again?” And then, pointing to the crib where his brother laid without taking his eyes from his father “I don’t want to him to be kept away from us.”

For a moment, Gabriel hadn’t reacted but suddenly, he saw his father’s posture change again to one of tiredness and sadness, as if he’d lost some internal debate with himself, and then move to the door with his head down. And that was it, Adrien thought sadly, their conversation was over, until he heard a low “Come with me.”

At first, he thought was preoccupied that his brother would wake up with all the noise they were making. When they got to the atelier, his father positioned himself in front of the portrait of his mother and just stood there, looking at it as if he was asking her some question only, she had the answer to and after a minute or two or ten Gabriel turned his head to face him and said, “Come here, son.”

Then he extended his hand to Adrien, who took it. His father then positioned him very closely in front of him and warned “Be still, we’re going down.”. Then, extended one of his long arms past him to touch the painting. To his surprise, the ground below him moved and then they were in a cavernous room, with a huge window with the design of a butterfly.

“What is this place, father?”

Adrien was so amazed and intrigued by this place he hadn’t known existed below his house and at the same time didn’t understand what that had to do with anything they’d been talking about up until that point when his father said “Follow me. I’m going to take you to see your mother”

“What?”

“Come. I’ll show you your mother.”

“What are you talking about, father?”

But he was ignored while his father just started walking away through a catwalk and Adrien couldn’t see from past his father, where they were going. When they got to the other end of the catwalk, to a place that looked like a garden, Gabriel finally stepped aside and now  Adrien was finally able to see he felt the he air leave his lungs and the floor move beneath his feet, because in front of him he saw his mother sleeping angelically in what looked like a crystal coffin with bright beautiful butterflies flying around her as if she was something out of  a fairy tale. Only in fairy tales there wasn’t cables and tubes going to and from the princess’ coffin.

“That...that’s mom.” Adrien said a hand over his mouth.

It was not a question, but Gabriel answered any way. “Yes.”

“And she’s been here the whole time.”

Again, not a question.

“Yes.”

“And you knew she was here all this time and never told me.” Not a question again, but this time Adrien looked at his father with fury in his eyes and voice. “How could you? How could you keep her from me? I thought she’d abandoned us. ME.” He screamed but then as suddenly as the anger came it went and his voice turned darker and sadder when he said, “Or that she was dead somewhere. I thought…I thought so many things, I didn’t know which one of them I was crying for sometimes.”

His father, it seemed, was not in any state to give him answers, until Adrien asked, “What happened to her?”

“She used a broken miraculous.” And then, in a mechanical drone his father started telling him the truth about his mother “It stated affecting her health, we didn’t connect the two things until her illness was already too advanced but then she refused to stop using it. We had the best doctors in Europe see her but nothing they prescribed seemed to do more than alleviate her symptoms briefly. Then they’d start to stop working at all and whatever the peacock did to her started all over again.”

Adrien was still in shock when he heard the word miraculous but his eyes where almost out of their sockets when his father said peacock.

“What?”

“Your mother used the peacock miraculous, Adrien. We found them on a trip to Tibet.”

“Them?”

“Yes. We found the butterfly miraculous too.”

“So, you’re…” Adrien’s eyes couldn't be more open.

“I’m Hawkmoth.”

Adrien couldn’t believe his ears. If his involvement with the people involved in this mess wasn’t so close as it was, if he’d known what was coming or at least that something, anything was coming he could have prepared better. Detached himself from the situation. He could have had a better answer that an anxiety crisis.

He started to feel lightheaded; nauseous and sweaty. His heart felt like it was going to overwork itself any second now and his thoughts were everywhere at the same time. His mother used the peacock miraculous. The peacock miraculous killed her. His father was Hawkmoth. Hawkmoth had a child with Nathalie. His baby brother was Hawkmoth’s son too. The sound of his blood running through his veins was deafening. Too fast. He was Chat Noir. He was Chat Noir, and his father was freaking Hawkmoth! Then it clicked. Everything went dark.

When he woke up, he was in his room. Everything was dark but as soon as he tried to move, he heard his father moving from his chair to the side of his bed and then sitting down bedside him.

“How are you, Adrien?”