Seeing Red

"Good morning, Nathalie! How are you feeling today?" Gabriel Agreste asked his assistant, who had been badly injured by using the broken peacock miraculous for too many times in the past, before they had found out how to repair it and the designer himself had begun to use it, transforming himself into ShadoMoth now instead of Hawkmoth.

"I've been better, Sir, but I've also been worse, so I consider today a good day," she replied, giving him a kind smile.

The tall man sighed deeply and sat down on the mattress beside her, taking one of her hands into his own.

"I should have never let you use that brooch again after the first time! When Emilie used it, she had a good reason and on top of that, we had no idea what would happen! But you just risked your life to save me from being caught, and further to support my useless attempts to get a hold of those miraculous."

He cleared his throat while gazing wearily towards the floor. Then he looked back into her unique, turquoise eyes.

"I've made a decision, Nath! It's about time to..."

Before he was able to finish, Adrien barged into the room, exclaiming.

"Good morning, Nathalie!"

He froze in the spot, seeing his usually cold and emotionless father sitting beside his tutor, holding her hand and staring at her, as if they were in love.

But the boy had asked him about that before, had even told him that he was okay with it, as to him Nathalie was part of their family anyway, yet his father had angrily denied it.

Hesitantly, he added.

"Good morning, father! I didn't expect to see you here!"

"Good morning, Adrien!" Gabriel said with a slight anger audible in his voice, "you should knock before entering someone's room! Imagine, Nathalie would have just been changing or in a private conversation!"

The assistant, though, smiled at him kindly, as she greeted him too:

"Good morning, Adrien! What got you all worked up like that?"

He gazed at his father, then lowered his head.

Noticing how his son's enthusiasm began to diminish, Gabriel felt bad all of a sudden. Almost as bad, as he was already feeling about his assistant's and old friend's continuous health issues.

He moved one of his hands from the woman's and patted the teenager's shoulder very clumsily.

"I guess, you wanted to tell just Nathalie? But maybe..." he paused, watching the boy thoroughly, "maybe you can start to trust me again too? I know, I haven't been the best father since your mother...is gone..."

Without letting him finish, Nathalie and Adrien scoffed.

Gabriel raised his eyebrows, then sighed.

"Yeah, I agree! You're both right! I've screwed up big time! Happy now? But as I was just trying to tell Nathalie, I noticed my mistakes, and now I think, it's about time to move on and let the past be in the past. So, Adrien, what were you so excited about? You also look as if you were incredibly happy! Did you make up with Kagami?"

The teenager shook his head, then glared at the young woman in her bed.

Nathalie patted the mattress with her free hand, gesturing for him to sit next to her.

"Relax, Adrien! Your father didn't handle his loss very well. Wouldn't you like to give him another chance anyway? I promise, I will make him pay, if he dares to hurt your feelings again!"

Her words made the boy giggle.

"Okay, I would love to tell you the news, Nathalie and fa... dad?"

"Go on, tell us! It's been a while since we had our last father-son talk, don't you think?" Gabriel encouraged his son with a loving smile.