Someone Like You (Cat Noir)

Chapter 71 AdriChat

Guuuyyyyssss. Can you believe there are only like 5 chapters left in this book? 5! Anyway, this episode is that of Ephemeral, which means we are going to get some more Gabriel perspective, not that anyone has been asking for it.

This episode is another one that really makes the idea of Adrien being a sentimonster seem plausible. Mainly because of the way it focuses on Gabriel touching his ring while he talks to Adrien as if doing so will make him comply. Once again, Adrien is 100% not a sentimonster in this book, though I did dabble with the idea at one point in time.

I still don't think he is, but that the creators just want to mess with us but who knows? Not me. But since he isn't in this story it will give me the opportunity to mess with Gabriel's character a bit so that will be fun. Anyway! On with the story!

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Adrien didn't understand his father. He was certain he never had and probably never would. Ever since the fashion show where he had been turned to gold and almost murdered by Style Queen, his father had been letting himself be seen in public more often.

Perhaps seen in public wasn't quite the right description. It wasn't like he was going for morning jogs. But the elder Agreste had started to have more meetings and interviews outside of skype calls and emails.

Today his father was supposed to be interviewed for his 100th fashion collection. A collection that was being dedicated to his mother. It was just shy of two years since his mother's...disappearance. If anyone ever spoke of Adrien's mother to his father, it was imperative that they referred to her absence as a disappearance, not a death. It didn't matter how much time passed, as far as his father was concerned, his wife was missing, not dead. Never dead.

It broke Adrien's heart to see how desperately his father clung to ghost of his mother. He missed her to. Terribly. But Adrien had come to accept that as much as it pained him, his mother was gone. His father would never have such acceptance. He would never let her go.

Adrien was beginning to believe that his father feared, someday no one would remember that she ever existed. That if he didn't hold on as tightly as he could, that perhaps one day he would forget too. Because memories fall apart. And then you're left with nothing, left not even with a ghost but with its shadow. His father would rather she haunt them both forever than ever give her the opportunity to slip away. Allowing her to fall apart in his memory and everyone else's, somehow dying all over again.

Originally, Adrien was simply accompanying his father to the interview, but as they approached their destination, his father's demeanor changed. Triggered by some force unknown to Adrien.

"Adrien, I'm just not feeling well enough. You will have to represent me."

"But Father, you're launching your hundredth collection tonight! You're the one the journalists want to interview, not me." Adrien argued in confusion. His father had seemed fine when they left. He watches as his father fidgets with his wedding ring. A tick Adrien had noticed over the years. It was something he tended to do when anxious or irritable.

"Adrien, I am your father, and I am giving you the responsibility to attend this press conference. Under no circumstances will you leave that room until it's finished. All I'm asking is that you honor my work and the memory of your mother. Do we have an agreement?"

Adrien sighed. "Yes, father."

In the conference room Adrien could see the look of surprise and perhaps disappointment amongst the crowd when he took the seat that had been meant for his father. He apologized to them, explaining that his father was feeling unwell and that he would be answering their questions.