When the Phoenix Falls (Adrien Agreste)

Chapter 18: Fashion and Fathers

Adrien sometimes wondered what his life would be like if his mother was still alive. It was impossible not to, especially with how close all of his friends were to their parents. Maybe if Marinette could go a day without mentioning the bakery, or Alya could pass up an opportunity to tell them about something her sisters had done, it would feel less like there was some kind of hole inside him, less like he would never really have what they had.

His father had never really been the kind to shower people with affection, or display his emotions to the whole world, but there had always been a kind of quiet love in his manner before Emilie had died, the sort of affection shown in presents and big gestures, because that was the only way he knew to express it. And yet now Adrien felt as though he could go a whole week without seeing the faintest hint of his father in the house he was supposed to call home.

Sometimes, in the worst moments, he felt as though he might as well be an orphan, with how little interaction he ever had with his father. The man didn't understand that filling his room - which was far too big for a boy who had nobody to play with - with objects and toys was in no way the same as spending just a few minutes in his company, and Adrien had always wished that the man would just listen when he tried to tell him he just wanted him to be there for him. He just wanted to feel loved.

Nathalie was always there for him when it happened, her hand resting lightly on his shoulder when she could see he needed someone, even if she never spoke a word to him outside of the necessary, and there was only a hint of warmth in her eyes when she looked at him.

But things had changed since his father had agreed to let him go to school. They had happened subtly, and normally not even if ways you would notice unless you were looking out for it. It was the little things that Adrien noticed, like his father appearing at breakfast once a week - always on an important work call, or working on a design on his tablet, never really up for conversation - but it was more than before and Adrien was grateful for the change.

And he let him go out to more events with the school as well than he had done in those first few months, meaning Adrien was able to actually spend time with his friends outside of classes - where he wasn't even allowed to speak to them most of the time - and lunchbreaks, which never felt long enough for everything he had to say. It had been awkward at first, Adrien not really knowing how to interact with people other than Chloé, and no-one else knowing quite which topics to avoid with each other. Their group had been thrown together without any sort of warning, and somehow they had made it through the cringey moments to get to a point where they trusted each other with almost anything.

Adrien knew that a lot of the changes in his life had been down to Colette and yet he couldn't really understand why. He wasn't sure what it was that his father saw in the girl that had thawed his usually icy exterior. Of course, he knew what an incredible person she was, and he couldn't deny that she was the best friend he had ever had, but he was certain there must have been something more than that for his father to like her.

He hoped that whatever it was would continue to work on his father, because he wasn't sure he could go back to the way things were before. He had grown used to the never-ending squeak of his the hamster wheel in his room, and the quiet presence of his father in the moments they spent alone together. And more than anything he had become used to having friends. To being invited on weekend outings and to school events, knowing that he would be missed if he wasn't there, and knowing that they were there for him if he asked.

Which was sort of how Colette had ended up agreeing to showing up at the Agreste Manor that afternoon. In bargaining with his father for Adrien to be able to attend the gaming tournament, she had also made a deal to discuss the most recent photoshoot with him and organise another one when it was convenient for the two of them.