Gabriel loathed his fashion empire for the soul reason that it forced him outside to watch some incomponent model ruin his reputation as they attempted and failed to model the latest design. He'd wished he could have just hired Adrien to model the outfit but there were two problems with that. One, the infernal school Adrien insisted on attending day after day and two, the fact that the outfit had been very much designed for a female body. Therefore, instead of being able to trust his son to do a good job, as usual, he was instead forced outside under the boiling hot sun to watch some ammanture soil his good name.
There was one upside about it he guessed. At least while outside he would be able to critic her and wear her down enough for 'Hawkmoth' to strike and akumatized her. He hoped she'd make a better akuma than she did a model. However, another problem with being outside, it meant that he was unable to retreat to his epic villain lair which had the perfect ambience to actually akumatized her. Instead he was forced to find somewhere outside to hide for the duration of her transformation and akumatization. At least he'd be able to observe Ladybug and Chat Noir in action instead of being forced to watch the idiotic 'Ladyblog' run by one of the urchins Adrien considered his 'friends.'
After a particularly harsh critic about how a blobfish would've made a better model than her she was finally angry enough for Hawkmoth to strike. He snuck away under the guise of getting out of the heat even though there was nowhere to actually go to do so in the near vicinity… not that that mattered. It wasn't like that was where he was going anyway. "Noroo, dark wings rise," he proclaimed after he'd hidden behind a bush actually out of sight. He often wondered how Ladybug and Chat Noir had gone so long without their identities being discovered because how on earth could they find so many places to hide and detransform while battling akumas? He'd once considered sending an akuma to follow them when they were feeding their kwami but he'd never get a chance given the other would continue to fight it. How he loathed them. Oh well he thought from his concealed bush, at least he was good at his one time need to find a place to transform.
Problem two… the butterflies were back in his lair! This is why I never leave the mansion, he thought bitterly as he settled for infusing the dark magic into a regular butterfly instead. Unfortunately, regular butterflies aren't perfectly white so lack the evil finesse he prided himself on. However, they would have to do until he could get home and lock himself away. He sent out the regular butterfly that was technically an akuma but regular butterflies ruin the akuma's evil look as it made them too colourful. He had an image to uphold! Still he sent the butterfly out to the girl and turned her into role model.
Role model, fortunately, made for a better akuma than a model given that she turned everyone she touched into statues or mannequins. He wasn't really paying attention, it didn't matter. All that mattered was that Ladybug and Chat Noir would finally meet their undoing! MWAHAHAHAHA. He decided that if she succeeded in getting the miraculous for him then he wouldn't actually fire her if she failed then all bets were off. However, he knew that there was no way that Ladybug and Chat Noir would survive the harsh heat at the same time as battling his all-powerful akuma. The plan was foolproof.
Okay, so maybe his plan wasn't exactly foolproof given it took Ladybug and Chat Noir a full half hour to actually have the decency to show up. How rude of them, he thought they were supposed to be heroes putting that above everything else and all that crap. He did that with his villainy, after all, the least they could do was show the same respect and drop whatever they were doing instantly to come deal with his mild inconvenience…. Akuma of the day.
While he'd been stuck waiting for them in his costume he'd been reminded of another reason he loved his lair. It wasn't boiling in there! He had air conditioning and no natural sunlight, everything he needed to create the perfect villain ambiance all while not dying in the suit. Now that he was stuck outside he finally realised how hot his suit actually was. Sure it was objectively the best villain suit ever but god was it hot and he was stuck out in the sun for who knows how long it would take Role Model to get the miraculous. Even worse.
The bush being as small as it was provided no shelter from the sun's burning heat but it was the best he had so he stayed hidden as he watched Role Model lose….. Win against Ladybug and Chat Noir. In the end, the fight lasted two hours with Chat Noir ending up frozen and Ladybug casting her lucky charm which was a glue stick and very much living to her miraculous title by miraculously defeating Role Model with it.
He watched from his very clearly amazing hiding place as she released the akuma, as usual, being her usual bratty self by foiling his evil plans. "Aren't they normally white," she wondered out loud as the butterfly fluttered away. That was new he thought. On every video, on that infernal blog, he'd seen when she'd released the akuma she always said 'bye bye little butterfly.' What was with the change in script?
"We could search far and white for an answer but truthfully I think Hawkmoth just ran out of butterflies after all the times we defeated his akuma," he heard the goddamn punny cat answer back. He never liked Chat Noir, he reminded him too much of his precious golden child Adrien. It was a travesty the fact that somebody as terrible as Chat Noir seemed so much like someone as amazing as Adrien. Though he did have to admit Chat had a fantastic sense of humor. His puns were always on point. Hawkmoth always pictured the final battle against the two to end in a pun war between him and Chat, one in which he would obviously be victorious.
He grumbled to himself about how he hadn't been able to use his usual lair which he stocked up with butterflies monthly. It was a miracle that Adrien had never asked him why there were always a ton of butterflies in their house or why there was a giant suspiciously butterfly shaped window on the top floor of their house. He wondered if Adrien was just oblivious or too busy to notice. Or perhaps he had noticed and just didn't want to say anything because pshhh butterflies all over your house and butterfly windows are totally 100% normal house features. He said his usual dramatic speech about how he would defeat them before he decided to detransform and return home for the day. He was sick of being outside after 2 and a half hours stuck in the boiling hot costume of Hawkmoth as well as however long he'd been stuck watching the idiotic girl attempt basic modeling techniques.
When he arrived home the timing happened to coincide with Adrien arriving home from school. Normally he would've just ignored his son and walked off to his room because human interaction was hard and he didn't feel like dealing with an emotional child on a good day but he noticed something odd about Adrien. His entire face was bright red aside from a suspiciously mask shaped outline around his eyes. He figured that he should probably ask about it because whatever it was could ruin Adrien's modeling chances…. That was why he was asking, not because he was concerned about Adrien or anything. Well he was concerned because was it sunburn? Was he sick? Were his friends running a weird face painting ring? Who knew? He had to so that he could take methods to ensure Adrien's safety. He really hoped it was the third option because then he'd finally have an excuse to get Adrien away from the urchins he called friends and Marinette.
Marinette was okay he guessed. She certainly had fashion skill. He decided that out of all the idiotic animals Adrien had made friends with Marinette was by far the best and the only one he would ever actually permit Adrien to talk to. As while she may've been a lowlife like the rest of them she actually had fashion talent and he had to give her credit for that. Maybe her talent would rub off on Adrien and stop him from his strange desire to pursue physics, didn't he know that fashion was clearly the career of choice? Not that he had a choice or anything.
"Adrien, why is your face red," he asked. Adrien jumped at the sound of his voice and stopped talking to some weird black thing hidden in his shirt. He guessed that it was probably his phone and that he'd been talking to one of the so-called 'friends.' Sure Adrien had a phone in his hands but he probably had others. He probably bought them in between buying thousands of euros worth of camembert every month. Perhaps the redness was caused by over-consumption of the cheese? He knew he should've put a stop to Adrien's sudden cheese obsession but it had never affected Adrien in any way before other than the constant smell of cheese, especially cooking cheese on a hot day.
"Red," Adrien echoed. Did that school he insisted on attending not have millions of mirrors lining the walls? He really needed to look into that school he thought absentmindedly. Seriously first Adrien didn't know what the word red meant and he didn't realize his face was blooming with it. What was wrong with the education system? He knew he should've just had Adrien homeschooled like any sensible parent would've.
"Yes, your face it's red," he repeated. Adrien's face suddenly filled with realization as he snapped his fingers in realization because apparently, that's a thing children do. He really should have to start trying that with Nathalie he thought absentmindedly.
"We were outside at lunch today and then the akuma attack happened and I couldn't get inside so I guess I just got sunburnt," Adrien explained with his ears tinted red and his hand that didn't hold his phone nervously rubbing his neck. He wondered why his ears were tinted red because he was pretty sure sunburn didn't spontaneously occur on ears while indoors but he didn't comment on it. Nor did he comment on Adrien's strange hand movements.
"Why the mask shaped outline," he asked. He'd wondered before if his son was Chat Noir due to the similarity between his ring and the one in his book but he'd dismissed it. There was no way Adrien had the time to run around in a black leather catsuit and 'save' Paris. Also not to mention the fact the two acted like polar opposites as much to his disappointment he'd never been able to coax a pun out of Adrien while the black cat never stopped making them. Clearly they couldn't be the same person however, perhaps Adrien was Ladybug and that was why he had the mask shaped patch of unburnt skin. Sure he didn't have time and Ladybug's voice was different than Adrien's but hey magic. However, he would've thought the magic would've taken care of the sunburn if that was the case.
"Sunglasses," Adrien replied still rubbing his hand against his neck. He wondered if Adrien had always done that or what it meant. Man, he really should've gotten to know his son better he thought given he couldn't diagnose his weird behavior. He must've picked it up at that horrible excuse for a school. However, Adrien's explanation of the burn made sense, sunglasses could do that. At least he assumed they could it wasn't like he ever wore them or went outside to actually find out.
"I see," he said as he began to leave to go to his own room now that he knew that his son was definitely not parading around in red spandex. He didn't have time and he'd been wearing sunglasses. Adrien was a sensible child Gabriel knew that he would've taken shelter as soon as his amazing akuma struck. There was no way he'd recklessly throw himself into danger, except for the Riposte incident but a repeat of that was to be avoided at all costs and he was pretty sure Adrien had only ended up in danger because the akuma herself had targeted him not because he'd willingly thrown himself into it. How much of an idiot would Adrien have to be to do that?
He began walking towards his office eager to lock himself inside and talk to nobody except Nathalie and maybe Adrien for the next week. However, before he could leave Adrien stopped him by tapping him lightly on the shoulder. He turned around expectantly to look at his son who'd had to stand on tiptoes just to tap him. He really should look into how short Adrien was because he was pretty sure he should've been far taller at that age but hey whatever. He could tower over his son and make his point far easier.
"Why is only your chin and mouth sunburnt," Adrien asked abruptly. Gabriel was taken back. He really hadn't been expecting that and he had no actual excuse to counter it. It wasn't exactly like he could just tell his son the truth. 'Oh yeah, I got it because I'm Hawkmoth but don't worry I'm only Hawkmoth so I can steal the miraculous and bring back your mother.' He couldn't imagine that going over well with Adrien. However, he couldn't reasonably explain how he'd ended up with it especially given that Adrien knew full well of his hatred for the outdoors. He just couldn't fathom why anybody would go outside when you could have everything you'd ever wanted brought to you inside without exposure to sunlight or any other horrors the outside contained.
Instead of answering his son's question he decided to go with his classic Gabriel technique being to just send the problem away. "Go to your room," he instructed. Adrien visibly deflated once that was said. He wondered if that had always happened or if it was a recent thing. He knew children deflating wasn't a good thing so he guessed that he should try to avoid that in the future but for now he'd deal with it.
"Are you okay though father, the burn looks pretty bad and I'm not sure how you would have only managed to get burnt there," Adrien pressed. Gabriel didn't know how to both reassure his son and come up with an excuse that he'd buy. Adrien continued talking as if knowing he wasn't about to get a response. "I know that you don't have any fashion items that would result in such a burn or why you'd wear an item like that in this heat so it can't be that. In fact, the only person I can think of that could get a burn like that would be Hawkmoth because of his mask," Adrien explained.
Gabriel froze. Two questions came to mind. The first being how had his son even known about Hawkmoth's mask being that way because he was pretty sure that wasn't exactly public knowledge. The second being the pressing question of whether or not Adrien knew he was Hawkmoth. After all he knew that he wasn't exactly subtle or quiet for that matter. He put butterflies all over his brand and their house. He had a giant as butterfly window. Also not to mention the many times he'd loudly cursed Ladybug and Chat Noir at 2am. Shit, Adrien had probably heard the sounds of the alarms and missiles as they attacked him during the Robustus situation. How Adrien hadn't put two and two together earlier he didn't know.
"Me, Hawkmoth. Have you seen some of those akuma, I'd never design something so horrid," he exclaimed even though he was actually quite proud of many of those designs. After all, he had an akuma design mapped out carefully for every person in Paris and he was proud of the many months it'd taken to do so. Of course, he'd had to do something to prepare for his supervillain debut. He was proud of those outfits so insulting them hurt his ego a bit but it would be worth it if it threw Adrien's suspicion off of him.
"That's true, the bubbler one was truly horrid. He looked like a giant baby toy," Adrien joked. It took everything in Gabriel's power not to yell at Adrien about how that's what he thought of that boy whatever his name was. Nina or something. That friend was truly the worst and Gabriel thought the second he saw them that they looked like a giant baby toy so naturally, he'd designed the akuma to look as such. "I hope your sunburn isn't too bad," Adrien said with a smile as he walked off to his room.
Gabriel stood frozen in the middle of the foyer for a moment. Then it clicked. Adrien had just been trying to throw suspicion off of the fact he clearly knew. There was clearly no other logical explanation. Adrien had to know. Shit. He dealt with the situation by locking himself in his lair for a month.