14. Chapter 14

Marinette looked weak. Weaker than he'd ever seen her. It brought to his attention just how strong of a woman she was because he never noticed just how small she was until that moment. It twisted his heart painfully. And considering the way Nino and Alya approached her in pity, it must have twisted their hearts, too.

Adrien turned his attention to the two people Marinette had showed up with. Her parents, from the looks of it. Or at least his best guess. She looked a lot like her mother.

"Thanks for coming," Marinette said, giving hugs out to Alya and Nino.

"We got your back," Nino assured, rubbing her shoulder.

She gave him a slight smile before looking over to Adrien. "Thanks for being here."

He sided up next to her, arm extended with the intent of a side hug, but she twisted, wrapping her arms around his torso and squeezing him tight. Only then could he feel the true turmoil going on inside her: she was one step away from breaking.

Even when she was at he weakest, she was strong.

He admired her so much more than he thought possible.

He settled into the hug, holding her close. "This is really good," he whispered to her. "I know how hard it was to dig through my mom's things, and I waited two years to do so. I'm really proud of you."

She sniffed and squeezed him tighter.

He waited until he was certain she wasn't going to cry before pulling back. "Now, no more delays. Go open the lock."

She frowned, her stalling tactics having been caught. She fished her keyring out of her bag, the little ladybug charm hanging from her fingers as she flipped through the keys. Her father gently guided her over to the unit, ready to hoist the overhead door open for her once she removed the padlock.

"You've done so much for her."

Adrien looked down to see Marinette's mother standing at his side, a smile on her face. "She's never found so much support as she has in you. I've watched her make leaps and bounds in her healing because of it. So thank you. I like having my daughter back."

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck, uncertain yet flattered. "I'm not sure how much I could have helped."

"Having you walk with her how you healed, it's helped her so much. There was no way we would be out here today if it wasn't for you. It seems like she's finally found a support, and that girl," she looked to the unit where Marinette was twisting a key in the lock. "When she finds a steady launching point, she soars."

Adrien turned his attention to Marinette, where she was standing with an open lock in her hands while her father pushed open the door.

The woman patted his arm then walked forward to the now open unit, ready to help her daughter tackle the project.

It was a small unit, but there were a lot of boxes and bins and a handful of furniture. Adrien helped Nino and her father—Tom, he learned, and Sabine was Marinette's mother—load up the furniture into the back of the van. By the logo on the side, Adrien guessed it was the store delivery van, but it did the job well.

Then to the boxes. Art supplies, Adrien quickly realized. Art supplies and fabric and finished pieces and sketchbooks galore. A few of those were squeezed into the van, but most of it was packed in Nino's SUV.

And when there was barely any room left, they still had canvases.

"Nathaniel's work," Alya whispered in Adrien's ear.

"All one hundred and sixty-eight pieces," Nino mentioned, watching as Marinette reached for the first crate of them.

"Hunny," Sabine said, approaching Marinette. "There isn't any room left in the vans."

"I can't leave them here."

"We're not. We just have to come back for them."

"I can't leave them here."

Adrien's heart broke. He put a hand on Nino's shoulder. "Go take all that to… wherever it goes. I'll stay here with her."

"I can stay," Alya spoke up.

"No, I'll stay, Adrien said. "Let me help her through this."

Alya stared at him wide-eyed for a second before her gaze softened. "Okay."

Sabine and Marinette were now on the ground, Sabine's hand on her daughter's knee while she spoke soothingly.

Adrien walked up to Marinette's side. "May I?" he asked, pointing to the ground beside her.

Marinette nodded, wiping tears away with the palm of her hand while she choked out a couple sobs.

Adrien sat down beside her. "Alya and Nino are going to go unload all the furniture and boxes, and then they'll come back to get the canvases."

"But—"

"We're going to stay right here," he interrupted, placing a hand on her knee and giving a comforting squeeze. "Until they come back with empty vans, okay?"

She looked at him a long moment. "Okay."

He gave her a smile. "Okay."

Sabine flashed him a grin of her own. "I guess it would go faster if I went to help. We'll be back as soon as we can."

"Okay."

Sabine stood then bent over to kiss the top of her daughter's head. "We'll be back." With that, Sabine walked to the van, and once she was inside, they soon disappeared from sight.

Adrien was content to sit in silence for a little while, but Marinette stared at the ground, eyes hazy and distant.

"May I?"

It took a moment for Marinette to come back to reality, to lift her absent gaze from the cement ground to him. "What?"

"Would you mind if I looked at his work?"

Marinette stared at him blankly, eyes wide and blinking quickly.

"I mean, we're going to be here a while," Adrien continued. "And I'm curious about his artwork."

"I…" Marinette struggled. "I mean… I guess."

"Only if you're sure."

She paused, gaping like a fish out of water. "I… okay."

Adrien gave her a reassuring smile, then stood and opened up the closest crate. From there, he saw all the canvases that had been carefully covered in plastic. He opened one to reveal…

Wow.

He had to take a moment to stare at it, to truly appreciate the piece before dragging Marinette into this. He didn't just ask for no reason. He knew full well that facing these memories was healthy. Maybe it hurt like hell at points, but it was ultimately healing.

"Did he have reasons behind his paintings? Or did he just choose a subject he wanted to draw?"

"It depended," Marinette answered. She stood from the ground so as to face the painting Adrien held in his hands. Her expression fell. "He loved his superheroes," she sighed wistfully. "He loved creating characters and coming up with stories for them. But he also loved the old masters. We spent so much time at the Louvre, Nathaniel sketching the paintings and learning from them. His paintings were his way of combining his loves. He called that one Dark Cupid. It was supposed to emulate a cherub, but grown and villainized."

"It's incredibly well done," Adrien commented. He marveled at it a little more before replacing the canvas back in the crate. He picked the next one and was greeted by a stone man holding a strange creature in the same way one would cradle a cat.

Marinette grinned fondly. "Ivan and Mylene. Friends of ours who got married soon after Nathaniel and I did. Nath did another painting of them after they had a baby, only to add another one a year later when he found out they were expecting again."

"Why the stone monster and… alien?"

"Ivan was large, stoic, and imposing. Nathaniel used to sit behind him because Ivan always hid the fact Nath had his nose in a sketchbook instead of writing notes. But Ivan always had a soft spot for Mylene who played an alien hunter in a short film our class made for a film festival."

Adrien put the canvas away, only to take out yet another. As the pattern continued, Adrien was realizing that Nathaniel had transformed all of his classmates in one way or another, placing them in some sort of a masterfully painted yet emotive scene.

"Alright," Adrien said, smile on his face as he put away one depicting a steampunk girl in a clock tower. "Last one."

By now, Marinette was grinning. Supposedly, that was because she had designed the outfit for the pink-haired girl, but Adrien knew it was more than that. "Okay. I don't know how he organized them so it will be in—"

Adrien hadn't even fully taken the canvas from the plastic when she abruptly stopped, her smile quickly fading as her eyes widened and pink quickly flooded her cheeks.

"What is—"

Adrien didn't finish that sentence. It took only a second to realize why she'd had that reaction.

They stood, each frozen and unmoving as they stared at the canvas.

"Wow," Adrien eventually said.

"I never saw it finished," she said.

"It's beautifully done."

"…Yeah," Marinette agreed, her voice near breathless.

Adrien couldn't help but stare. On the tip of his tongue was the question he'd asked for every picture, but at the forefront of his mind, he realized that maybe he should respect Marinette by replacing the picture in its sleeve and place it back in the crate. But he couldn't. The red in the picture was too bright. Too striking. Flowing every which way around her as though she was weightless. He couldn't tear his eyes away, not when midnight hair tied with red ribbons floated around a heart-shaped face and blue, blue eyes that were brightened by a sweet, inviting smile were staring up at him.

"It was Valentine's day," she whispered, unable to get her voice to come out any stronger. "I was never an early bird, but Nathaniel loved morning lighting. So I set my alarm early so I would wake and have time to put on that dress and do my hair before sunrise. When he asked what I was doing, I told him that I was going to be his model for the day. It was his surprise. He posed me in a handful of ways and went back and forth between a camera he set up and mixing paint colors. He rarely used a camera—he always preferred painting from life when he could—but he said he wanted to capture that moment, the lighting, my pose. Which was nice because I realized just how hard it was standing still for such a long period of time."

Adrien smirked. "You get used to it."

He watched her eyes focus back on him, a small gleam sparking in them when she smiled. "Really?"

"No."

He inwardly cheered when she huffed a laugh, her smile splitting for just a moment before fading back to a small grin.

Adrien returned the painting to its sleeve. That's when he caught a red scribble on the stretcher bar. Lady in Red. Nathaniel Kurtzburg. Dated two years ago, three days after Valentine's.

Adrien glanced back up at Marinette. She was still every bit as beautiful as she was in the picture, whether dressed in an oversized sweater and jeans or a form-fitting red dress and ribbons.

"Would you like to see Chloe's?"

Adrien froze, his mouth suddenly growing dry while his heart slowed. "He painted one of Chloe?"

Marinette nodded. "He did. Chloe may not have been our favorite person, but he did paint her. Let's try to find it."

His heart drummed an unsteady rhythm. "Are you sure you're okay digging through the boxes?"

She looked up at him, her eyes open and vulnerable. "It's easier than I thought it would be."

Suddenly, there was a new reason as to why his heart was sputtering and tripping inside his chest.

"Thank you," she whispered. "For being here."

Before he could figure out how to respond, the rumble of an approaching van called their attention.

"Oh," Marinette said, her shoulders falling. Adrien suddenly realized just how much of an energy burst she'd gotten. "I… I guess they're back."

"It's okay," Adrien assured. "You can show me later."

Marinette fidgeted. "Um… would… would you, instead of game night, maybe… like to come over? I'll show you the rest of the pieces?"

Adrien's heart sputtered to a stop, but before he could remotely formulate an answer, Nino appeared at Marinette's side. "How you holding up?"

"Fine," she said. "Just… going though old memories."

Nino stared at the open crate, his eyes slowly widening. "You're looking through them?"

"Adrien was curious," she said as an excuse.

Nino continued to look at her, and she gave him a smile. It was dull and tired, but it was a smile. "It's okay."

He grinned down at her, looping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her in for a hug.

"Nathaniel was a great artist," Adrien spoke up.

"For sure!" Nino agreed.

"I told him he needed to show his work," Alya said, appearing at Marinette's other side, "but he always turned me down."

"He should have," Adrien agreed. "His paintings are fantastic. The style and the subject matter makes for a really interesting mix."

Nino nodded. "Yeah, but they always looked really cool."

That's when the second van showed up, signaling the arrival of Marinette's parents.

"I think we agreed that these were going to go in their van," Alya said. "That way Marinette could just head home with them."

Marinette nodded. "That sounds good."

They made short work of loading the crates as well as a few other boxes of paperwork. Before long, all that was left to do was for Marinette to go to the office and officially end her lease.

Nino and Alya gave her hugs and bid her well before taking off. Then it was Adrien's turn.

"Thank you for coming," she told him. "I really appreciate it."

"You're welcome," he said. "And for the record, I'd love to postpone game night to look through the artwork. I'm really curious to see more."

"Okay," she said. "This Wednesday?"

"Yeah. Sounds good."

"Okay," Marinette said, her cheeks taking on a slight rosy hue. "I look forward to it."

They stood there for a moment, neither moving. Just as Adrien realized he should just head to his car, Marinette stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his torso. "You have no idea how much I appreciate you being here."

He felt his face flame and his body stiffen under her touch, yet, he slowly found himself easing into her embrace until he was returning it tightly. "Anytime, Marinette. Anytime."

She may not be on a date, but Marinette was still thankful that her parents decided to go out tonight. The last thing she needed was them spying on her like they did whenever Nathaniel came over in her teenaged years.

The doorbell rang, and Marinette bounded down the stairs to answer it. She quickly fluffed her hair and smoothed out her skirt before answering the door. "Hey."

"Dinner," he said raising up a plastic bag. "And wine."

"Oh, fancy," Marinette joked. "Come in."

"Nino suggested a pasta place, so that's what I got for dinner tonight."

"And wine?"

"Actually, this is from my pre-Emma private stash that I haven't broken into since… well, pre-Emma."

Marinette chuckled. "Then it's certain to be good." She began digging through the kitchen to find utensils. "What did you get food-wise?"

"Chicken parmesan and a penne with sundried-tomato dish."

"I'll take that one."

"Good. I kinda wanted the parmesan anyway."

With a giggle, she pulled out two wine glasses to set on the table before going back to look for the corkscrew.

Only to not be able to find it.

"She never put it back," she realized.

"Pardon?"

Marinette tapped the counter. "The corkscrew. My maman hid it away and never put it back."

"Why would she hide it?"

Marinette felt her cheeks warm as she grinned wide in embarrassment. "There may or may not have been an incident with wine a while back."

His grin was incredibly smug. "May or may not?"

"May or may not."

He nodded slowly. "Was Marinette a fun drunk? You seem like the kind that's gets all giggly—"

"And we're dropping it!"

Adrien laughed hard.

Eventually, after he calmed down, Adrien resorted to other measures to open the bottle, leaving Marinette impressed albeit curious.

"I taught myself ways to open a wine bottle as party tricks. My father was not impressed."

"Really? I thought he would be."

"Not after an incident with champagne and a sabre at a very classy event."

Marinette snorted.

Dinner was delicious and entertaining to say the least. Halfway through, Adrien was curious about Marinette's dish and reached across the table to take a stab. He got away with it, smiling with a mix of pride and smugness while Marinette looked over at him with her jaw on the table. She tried to retaliate, only to have him stop her with his fork. This turned into a silverware war that ended when Marinette's fork was thrown across the kitchen.

The giggle fit they dissolved into may or may not have been influenced by a glass and a half of wine.

By the time they were finished, Marinette did get a bite of Adrien's dish, calling it spectacular and commenting that she wanted it the next time they ate there.

After they cleaned up, Marinette lead him into the living room where the crates of canvases were.

"Nino bought all the furniture," she told him. "I just don't have room for it. Besides, Alya liked it, so he's storing it in his own unit until he and Alya find a place to move in to."

"That's kind of you. I know Alya will appreciate it since she's told me time and time again how… run down his furniture is."

Marinette scoffed. "That's a nice way of putting it. Pretty certain he never replaced the hand-me-downs his family gave him when he moved out on his own."

They picked a crate at random and began going through the paintings. One by one, Marinette told Adrien the brief backstories of them until they got to a woman with a flute who resembled a fox.

"Alya," he realized.

Marinette nodded. "Nathaniel thought it fit. Both wild and sly."

"It certainly fits," he said, putting it back in the plastic. "Is there one of Nino?"

"Two, actually. One where he makes an appearance as a musician, and one as a turtle hero. After Alya and Nino became a couple, Nathaniel thought it was a perfect match because Nino was slow and steady to balance Alya's wild."

"No arguments from me."

They continued through the crate until Marinette opened the last sleeve and saw the canvas painted in yellow. "I think this is it."

"Which one?"

Marinette pulled out the painting of Chloe, painted as a queen decked in gold and black stripes. "Nathaniel called this one 'Queen Bee'."

She couldn't read the expression on Adrien's face as he studied the picture. His hand rested under his chin, and his green eyes were guarded. "He captured her perfectly," he eventually spoke, his voice quiet. "She very much was a queen."

Marinette nodded. "Yeah. She was a bit of a diva. But her painting was pretty."

Adrien nodded, staring at it a while longer before tearing his eyes away. "Thanks for showing me."

Slowly, she replaced the painting back in its sleeve. "You okay?"

Adrien nodded. "Yeah. It… it's just still odd. To see pictures of her, that is."

"Oh."

"It all just happened so quickly, you know?" Adrien confided. "I've come to terms that she's gone, so much so that I talk about her like a distant memory instead of a woman who was still a very big part of my life five years ago."

Her heart twisted. It was very easy to forget that Chloe was Adrien's wife. That he had obviously loved her a lot. That she was the mother of Emma. It was an odd disconnect because while Marinette recognized the similarities between Chloe and Emma, Emma was sweet as her father. And Adrien had been single for as long as Marinette had known him. There wasn't any connection Marinette made between her school bully and her new favorite people in the world. It was easy to forget that Adrien… Adrien likely felt the loss of Chloe the same way she felt the loss of Nathaniel. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm so sorry. It never occurred to me it would be hard for you to see it."

"It's fine," Adrien dismissed. "I wanted to see it. Really. It's just… one of those things that hits you from nowhere, you know."

Marinette nodded. "Yeah. I know."

The somber aura stuck around for a while. Even when they got back to smiling, it wasn't as bright as before.

"Thank you for this evening," Adrien said when the time came for him to leave. "It was really enjoyable."

"It was," Marinette agreed. "Thank you for dinner."

"You're welcome." After flashing her a smile, he reached for the door handle.

"Wait." Marinette reached out to grab his hand, turning him back around to face her. "I'm sorry I never realized how hard it must have been for you to lose Chloe," she started. "If you need anything, I'm here for you."

His wide-eyed surprise melted into something soft and sweet. "Thank you, Marinette. That's really kind of you."

"You've done so much for me. I don't know how I'll ever be able to thank you for it."

He hesitated, then opened her mouth to say something but stopped. Instead, he closed his mouth and turned his head. "Don't worry about it," he said. "Anything for a friend."

She knew that wasn't really what he meant. She could read it on his face. But she wouldn't push. "Okay."

He gave her a smile and squeezed her hand.

And before she could think the better of it, she stepped forwards and engulfed him in a hug. "Just know I'm here if you ever need anything."

His posture relaxed, and he soon wrapped her up in his arms. He was a good hugger. Steady, supportive, comforting. "Same goes for you, Marinette. I'm always here."

"I know," she said against his shoulder. "And I'm thankful for it."

They stayed just like that a while longer before they eased out of the hug and they repeated their good-byes. With that, Adrien walked out into the cold, November night, Marinette watching him from the doorway.

When he turned to open the driver's side door, he paused and caught her gaze once again. He flashed her a smile.

"Just returning the favor," she called out.

His smile grew wide enough to light up the night. "You're a gem, Mrs. Kurtzburg."

"So are you, Mr. Agreste. So are you."