"Almost Like A Family" (Miraculous Gabenath)

Chapter V

That night, Gabriel realized one extremely important thing: he fell in love with Nathalie and was ready to do anything for her. He knew he couldn't leave her like this now, especially since what happened was mainly his fault. He took paper and a pen and wrote a short letter. Then he went back to Nathalie's room, knocked, and slipped the letter through the crack under the door. Meanwhile, the woman was lying on the bed. She didn't have the strength to do anything. All she managed to do was change her clothes. She felt terribly weak, her head hurt, she felt dizzy and she felt like she was going to faint. When she heard the knocking, she only replied in a quiet voice:
-Leave me alone.
However, instead of any response, she only saw a note. With the last bit of strength she still had, she got up from the bed and picked up the piece of paper folded in half. The content of the letter was as follows:
"I know you don't want to talk to me or even look at me, but I wanted to apologize to you for what I did. I put you in danger, I didn't listen, and worse yet, I could have lost you. You are really important to me and I don't want you to be." angry at me. I was very worried about you when I lost connection with you. I was looking for you for almost three hours. I was afraid for you. I promise it will never happen again. Please forgive me and let me in. You are very weak and you can't now to be left alone. Gabriel"
After reading Nathalie's message she smiled to herself.
-Maybe I have some chance with him after all. - she thought, but after a while she added - No. It's stupid. Now he will be nice for a while, and then he will be as cold as before. Just like it was last time. I won't get my hopes up. I've already decided that it's over. I don't feel anything for him and it will be better this way.
Was that really the case? Nathalie wasn't sure herself, but she didn't want to be disappointed again. Nevertheless, she finally decided to open the door. She looked at her boss and said:
-Very nice letter.
Gabriel, instead of answering something, immediately started touching her forehead to check if she had a fever.
-How do you feel? - he asked nervously.
-Badly. - the woman replied briefly. Without waiting for what she would say or do next, the man told her to go to bed and took care of her all night long. When she finally fell asleep, the man looked at her and thought:
-Should I tell her that I love her? Better not... he'll laugh at me. I can clearly see that she doesn't feel anything towards me. In addition, he will think that I am unfaithful to my wife. Oh, Emilie, what should I do? I'm in love, stupid... what will I tell Adrien? He will soon say that he was right. Besides, I won't tell my son that I fell in love with my assistant. So what? Should I suppress it? Until what time? I can't live like this... and how will I finally get Ladybug and Cat Noir's miraculous? What will I do with them? After all, if I revive Emilie, things will become even more complicated. I can use them to heal Nathalie if she doesn't get better on her own. But then she will probably be angry with me for risking her health in vain. Hmm... I guess I'll have to live like this for now. I wish she would love me too someday.

As the weeks passed, Nathalie slowly recovered. These two months were especially awkward for Gabriel and his assistant. The designer was very nice to Nathalie all the time, took care of her, asked how she was feeling, smiled at her more often and made coffee for her. However, he had the impression that despite all these attempts, the woman was still indifferent towards him. Nathalie, on the other hand, was very surprised and confused by the attitude of Gabriel, who had never behaved like this towards her. However, she pushed aside the thought that he might have fallen in love with her because she still stood her ground and didn't want to be disappointed. She believed that this was all just temporary and that since Gabriel didn't notice her feelings when she was in love with him before and didn't feel anything for her, it must be the same now. By the way, Gabriel was still fighting with Ladybug and Cat Noir for the miraculous, still under the pretext of reviving Emilie, because he was ashamed to tell Nathalie that he loved her, which only confirmed Nathalie in her belief that the man still loved his wife. So she decided not to get attached to Gabriel's tenderness and to "fall out of love", which the designer treated as a lack of feelings and reciprocation of love on her part. Nathalie didn't want to show her love to him, no matter how in love he looked, because she was afraid of being rejected again. Adrien saw the whole awkward situation, but after his last conversation with his father about love, he preferred not to get involved. This was the situation until that fateful day. It was Valentine's Day.