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Hi there. Long time no write. I kind of dropped off the face of the earth for a minute there, and by minute, I mean over a year and a half. I've graduated highschool and finished my first year at college as a biochemistry major with straight As, and so much time has passed that now my sister has graduated from highschool as well. The reason for pointing this out is to really highlight how much time has gone by since the last update on this fic so what I'm about to say doesn't come from out of the blue.
I won't be continuing this fic. At least, I don't have plans at this moment to pick it back up again. The storyline I had planned for this work doesn't catch my interest as much as it originally did, and I have tons of other ideas I want to explore. I also want to complete some of my smaller multichapter works I had planned before I go into my newer ideas, and with this intention, I had to cut my loses where I could to make this notion possible.
This fic was going to be a large undertaking with a multiple act story, and its just not something I can work on any longer without the proper motivation and interest. So for the sake of my sanity, I will be leaving this fic unfinished. It will stay up on my profile because it holds a special place in my heart, but this is the end of "Wishful Thinking". As one final post, I'll be posting the part of the 15th chapter I had written all the way back at the beginning of 2022. So without further ado, the last chapter of "Wishful Thinking"
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The bed shook slightly as Adrien’s leg bounced anxiously. Plagg’s soothing purr was the only sound in the room other than the creaking of the springs. Adrien’s white knuckled grip held fast to his phone, the screen still displaying the texted conversation between him and Nino. Well, conversation is an overstatement. On one side was a column of concerned messages encased by gray speech bubbles, cut short by a single blue paragraph.
I’m sorry I haven’t reached out. Can we talk in person? I’m staying here: 67 Rue Ramier, 75018 Paris, France. Suite 116. I know I don’t have a right to ask anything of you, but please… try not to be seen.
No messages followed. Instead, a tag spelled out Read 8:21 PM . In contrast, the time at the top of the screen read 8:52 PM.
“He’s not coming, Plagg,” Adrien decided, resignation keeping his voice steady.
“He will,” Plagg promised between purrs.
They sat in the relative silence for a minute more while Plagg’s purring grew increasingly more desperate. The time changed to 8:53 PM.
With a loud smack , Adrien clapped his phone between his hands, turning it off and throwing it on the mattress by Plagg, causing the kwami’s purrs to falter. Adrien ran his fingers through his hair, gripping the strands on the back of his head. “This is ridiculous,” he scoffed. “Why am I waiting? Obviously he doesn’t want to see me. I ignored his messages. I shut him out. I -”
A knock on the door put an abrupt stop to his spiraling. In an instant, Adrien hopped to his feet, barely sparing a glance back at Plagg, who had flown to a hiding place on the dresser, before charging the door. He hesitated a moment, hand on the handle, before yanking it open.
Nino stood in the hallway before him, a wary expression on his face. “It’s you?” Nino’s voice was uncertain, the statement made a question. He held up his phone, the tab opened to the screen of messages between Adrien and him.
Adrien looked between the phone and his friend, unsure where the conversation was going.
“Because,” Nino continued, a shaky hand pocketing the device, “I don’t want to get my hopes up. I didn’t want to respond until- I just had to make sure it was you.”
Adrien blinked. “Who else would it be?”
“Felix.”
A tired smile crossed Adrien’s face. “I don’t think even my cousin would be stupid enough to impersonate me right now.”
There was a pause. Then Nino dove forward, pulling Adrien into a bone-crushing hug. “Goddamn it, you asshole,” he sobbed into Adrien’s hoodie. “Not a single fucking word- I was scared out of my mind for you, Adrien!”
Adrien’s whole body shook from his friend’s sobs and unsteady embrace. He blinked back the tears that were welling in his eyes and held on tightly to Nino. “I’m so sorry,” Adrien choked out.
“I hate you, and you better believe I say that with the most love I can muster.”
Adrien laughed haltingly, the sound muffled by Nino’s shirt. “I love you too,” he whispered, and Nino’s embrace became impossibly tighter.
Too soon, Nino let him go, and Adrien had to resist the urge to cry all over again. Finally seeing his friend again brought so many repressed emotions back to the surface, and Adrien couldn’t help but feel desperate to grab hold of something before they drowned him. Nino was his safety net, and more family to him than his own father. He needed that connection, the comfort in his friend’s effortless familiarity. But first they needed to talk. Nino deserved an explanation for Adrien shutting him out.
As Nino pulled away, he wiped his hand down his face, trying to compose himself. “If we’re going to talk, I need to sit down,” he said, wearily. “I may or may not have run most of the way here since the buses have been so slow as of late.”
Adrien nodded, gesturing to the bed. He closed the door as Nino went to sit down, lingering for a moment. Suddenly he felt claustrophobic. The door was shut, there was no going back. Self-consciously, Adrien avoided Nino’s gaze as he sat beside him, clenching his jaw as he tried to keep his breathing under control.
It’s Nino. He came because he cares about you, Adrien scolded himself, You owe him an explanation. You just need to-
“So…” Nino’s voice snapped Adrien out of his thoughts. A hesitant smile made its way onto his friend’s face. “Let’s talk.”
Talk.
Taking a deep breath, Adrien returned the smile. “Let’s talk.”
So he did. He talked about the shock and betrayal of discovering his father was Shadow Moth. He talked about waking up on that morning and immediately being faced by authorities who thought he was somehow guilty. He talked about feeling guilty for not having known. He talked about the thousands of hateful messages and death threats sent his way every minute. He talked about being too scared to reach out in the case everyone hated him for what his father had done. He talked about being terrified of losing the people closest to him. He talked about being terrified of losing himself , that it would all become too overwhelming, that he’d have to shut all of it out just to get by. He talked about everything.
And he talked about nothing. As much as Adrien told Nino, what he didn’t talk about was tenfold. He couldn’t tell Nino the reason he felt so guilty was because it had been his duty to stop Shadow Moth for the past three years. He couldn’t tell Nino what his father had said that night, about him being the reason for all of this, because Gabriel had told Chat Noir, and not Adrien. He couldn’t tell Nino that he’d almost gotten Ladybug killed, that Ladybug was Marinette, that he ran away when she revealed her identity. Adrien couldn’t tell him because he was a coward, in more ways than one.
But what he said was enough for Nino. The more Adrien confessed, the more tension left his friend’s body. Nino’s face was still full of concern, but the helpless undertone was slowly being replaced with determination. We’re damaged , his expression said, but we’re not broken. We can be fixed.
If only he knew how far the cracks spread beneath the surface.