Miraculous Ladybug: Popular

Chapter One

Gabriel Agreste gave his son a cold stare as he gently, yet strongly reached over and adjusted his son's lime green tie.

Adrien, Gabriel's only son who was very shy and calm spoke up for once in his life. His deep voice started out strong, but it quickly cracked and weakened. "Father, is it really.. uh, necessary, for us to be going to a party? I'd much rather model and do other things on my schedule."

"Silence. We are going to this party and you are going to enjoy it. It's summer, and we haven't done anything at all. You need to hang with children your own age. You need better friends anyway."

Adrien grabbed onto a piece of his golden locks and he gently rubbed it between his thumb and pointer finger, mentally rolling his eyes. Adrien wasn't a child exactly anymore. He was already 17, and he was going onto his third year in high school. He didn't want to make any new friends either. He was perfectly fine with the friends he had: Nino, Alya, and Marinette. Of course Chloe was his friend, she just wasn't exactly calm and polite like him.

Gabriel pushed the two doors leading into the room that held the party. He was invited to a birthday party that his wife's half sister was having for her daughter, so the least he could do was show up and bring his son. He was sure everyone missed her, so he had to bring his son who shocking resembled his dear wife.

Adrien walked in slowly, following his father shyly. He awkwardly scratched at his nose and his vibrant green eyes seemed to light up every dark corner in the room. He could almost feel all the colored dullness of blue narrow eyes burning into him as he continued to follow his father.

The two males sat down at a round table. The table had a satin cream colored cloth with small embroidered white roses at the ends. There were four ceramic golden plates set on the table. The plates were evenly spread out from each other, and each plate had two forks and a spoon accompanying it. Gabriel said nothing at all, and Adrien felt him grow sad at the silence. He wished his dad was more talkative. Then maybe he wouldn't of been so shy and feel like everyone in the room hated him.

"Adrien! Gabriel!" A tall lanky woman wearing a lavender mermaid dress that dragged onto the floor screamed as she waddled over to them slowly. Her four inch white wedges hit the tile floor loudly as she continued to clomp towards them.

Gabriel stood up slowly and loosely stuck out his hand for her to grab on so she could shake it and greet him.

"I'm so glad you came it." She spoke loudly. She spoke so loud it was almost irritating.

"Ditto." Gabriel said flatly as he stopped shaking her hand.

"Ah! Adrien! My favorite nephew!" Adrien's aunt smiled brightly. She bent over completely and hugged her only nephew. Adrien felt so stupid having to hug a lady that was 5'11. She was probably more than 6 feet due to her wedges though.

Adrien smiled sweetly and nodded at his aunt. "I'm glad to be here."

Adrien's aunt melted as she saw him smile. She softly mumbled to him as she flipped a piece of his golden hair out of his face. "You look just like your mom."

Adrien chuckled and felt himself grow warm at the thought of his mother. He was glad to know he looked like his mother. His aunt looked nothing like his mother at all. She had dull gray eyes. They weren't crystal like or bright. They were the color of a old antique computer keyboard that hadn't been used. The strawberry blonde hair she was born with was already showing through her thick short platinum blonde hair. He knew his aunt was only his mother's half sister, but he thought she would look more like her. He found it kind of funny how everyone on his mother's side had blue eyes, like his aunt, and his father had blue eyes to, and he got his beautiful charming emerald eyes that could make any person melt.

"I need to go check on the other guests, so you guys can just wait here and order whatever you'd like from the menu that is provided." Before either of the males could even take a breath to speak, she quickly clomped away.

Gabriel sighed as he closed his eyes, feeling around on the table to find the menu. Adrien sat there dumbfounded in awkward silence. He was finally about to break the ice when suddenly the sound of soft classical music entered the room, and the chatter around them began to buzz louder. His father was slightly smiling with his eyes closed, swaying his head side to side as he enjoyed the toon.

Adrien fiddled with his spoon as he glanced around the room. He watched all the adults and young children, (much younger than him) run around the dance floor, bumping into the adults' legs, not even bothering to apologize.

"Mr. Agreste, I am sorry to interrupt and come here to your party. And I promise what I'm going to say is relevant to your son."

Gabriel raised a brow as he finished the last bite from his dish. He slowly slid the plate away from him as if he was going to lose it at the sight of it.

"What is it? Can you not see I am busy? I am enjoying a nice dinner at a family party with my son." Gabriel gestured to Adrien who sadly looked down at his soup. He saw his reflection, and a loud sigh slid out of his open mouth.

The photographer for Adrien and Gabriel nervously cleared his throat and he wiggled his dark mustache between his fingers. "I am sorry to say, but no one is buying your magazines. It's the summer, so I'm assuming your son has not been out and active, so most of the teen girls may of not been interested anymore like how they were when it was school time. You will be bankrupt, and I will have to drop you. Your agent also said he would drop you too. She said she was going to go with fashion magazines and dating magazines since those are more 'in' at the moment."

Adrien sat there wide eyed with his spoon in his hand. He raised his eyebrows, trying to understand. It was hard for him to take in. It was like one of those toys you were given as a child to learn your shapes; it was like shoving a cube block into a circle hole. It wasn't working.

Gabriel raised his huge hands up to his head, and began to roughly press his thumbs against his temples and a loud growl of annoyance emitted from him.

"What do you think I should do? I can not go through this again. I already lost a business four years ago thanks to Adrien getting sick and not being able to be on the cover of the most popular magazine." Gabriel whispered loudly to the photographer as he nervously started to sweat, feeling a few eyes rest on him.

"I suggest you either get Adrien a summer job so he can get that publicity, surround him with children, or get him a girlfriend."

Gabriel's scowl turned into a sly smirk. "A girlfriend? Hmm.. Interesting. We will invest in finding a famous and successful woman to accompany Adrien at all times."

Adrien felt his eyes go wide as he felt his face get red and stomach flip at the thought of having a girl he had no interest in following him around.

Adrien shyly looked at the photographer and then at his father who was lowkey scheming.

"F-father, I don't feel comfortable having a girl I don't have feelings for accompanying me at all times."

"I do not care, Adrien. We need this money. We need this publicity."

Adrien frowned slightly and raised his voice slightly, causing his father to almost drop dead at the sound of his son's voice going from a soft child to an angsty teen.

"But father-"

Gabriel stood up, the sound of his chair being scraped across the tile floor caused dozens of eyes to lay on the father and son. Gabriel then slammed his fist on the table and looked at his son through foggy lenses.

"If you don't want a random girl, who do you want then to be your companion?" His father questioned with annoyance in his voice.

Adrien stared, completely dumbfounded. He knew who he wanted, and it was Ladybug, but he could never say that, especially to his father and his family watching his every move."

"No one."

Gabriel smiled. "That's what I thought."