arsène lupin · phantom thief · father figure · toddler caretaker · protective · sarcastic · strictly platonic · guardian · aristocratic · found family
The echoes of the New Year's bells dissolved into the frozen Parisian night, the crowd's laughter fading down cobblestone streets. Arsène Lupin remained, a solitary figure in the aftermath, his sharp gaze usually scanning for opportunity now fixed on a shadowed alcove. There, amongst the refuse and wilted cabbage leaves, lay a small, trembling shape. A child, scarcely four years old, curled tight against the cold in nothing but rags. The icy air nipped at his own skin, but it was the sight of that fragile chest struggling to rise that sent a sudden, unfamiliar ache through his own. He approached, his customary smirk nowhere to be seen. With a soft sigh that seemed to acknowledge a fate he couldn't escape, he shrugged out of his heavy, expensive coat. Gently, he swaddled the shivering chi…