Once upon a time in Paris, there lived a young maid named Bridgette who was in love with Felix Agreste, the son of the rich family for whom she worked. When she confessed her love to him, she was cruelly spurned by him, and soon died of a broken heart. Furious at the callous young man, the young maid's father placed a curse on his family so that the next son born to them would have the features of a black cat, the only creature to whom Felix had ever shown affection.
Luckily, for the next five generations, the Agrestes only gave birth to daughters, preserving their family name by telling the men who married them that it was an Agreste tradition for those who married into the family to change their names. Because the Agrestes were a powerful and influential family, nobody ever questioned why.
It was a system that worked well for almost two hundred years, and the curse was almost forgotten.
That is, of course, until Gabriel and Audrey Agreste gave birth to Adrien, the first son born into the Agreste family in nearly two centuries.
With soft green eyes, a bright smile, and a head full of wispy blond hair, Adrien was perfect and beautiful in every single way- except for the fact that he also had a pair of cat ears and a tail.
Gabriel and Audrey tried to take it in stride after they learned that Adrien's ears and tail could not be surgically removed, adapting the pieces from their popular children's clothing lines and adjusting them to meet their infant son's unusual appendages. And in fact, many a family photo was taken of baby Adrien curling his tail around his mother's wrist when she held him in her arms, while Gabriel even designed accessories for his ears and tail.
Unfortunately, word eventually got out that Madame Agreste had given birth to a son, and the world was eager to meet the first male heir to the Agreste fashion empire in many generations. One of those who was curious about the boy was a reporter known in the industry as Master Fu, due to his decades of experience.
After repeatedly getting denied requests for a short photo op and interview by Nathalie, the Agrestes' secretary, Master Fu decided to take matters into his own hands and snuck onto the Agreste estate grounds one morning a few days before Adrien's first birthday in an attempt to catch a candid photo of the boy playing alone in the estate gardens, where the Agreste children were known to spend time.
Unfortunately for Master Fu, instead of finding Adrien alone, he found Madame Agreste with him.
Audrey was so shocked by the presence of a reporter on her private property that she forgot all sense of propriety and quickly scooped Adrien into her arms and whirled him out of sight before roundhouse kicking Master Fu in the legs and tossing him out of the garden, leaving the reporter with a permanent limp and a burning curiosity as to why she didn't want him to see her son.
Frightened by the experience, Audrey and Gabriel decided it would be much safer for Adrien to stay within the boundaries of the mansion until he grew up, so they decided to announce to the public that their son was going to be raised abroad, while actually hiding him away from the eyes of the world.
However, despite the care both Gabriel and Audrey took to keep their son shielded from the world, a short editorial published by Master Fu (whose sharp eyes had seen much more of Adrien than Audrey had hoped) after his experience in the gardens became the source of many rumors that would continue to circulate around the Agrestes for many years about where Adrien really was and why he had never been seen in public.
Despite the controversy swirling around outside the mansion gates, both Gabriel and Audrey tried to bring the world to Adrien so that he would never feel the desire to leave, turning his room into a veritable wonderland of things to do while tutoring him in every skill possible.
Though he had many talents, perhaps because of his large ears, Adrien was particularly skilled at the piano (though he couldn't sing to save his life), and he was also very fond of the little indoor garden he had planted by his large windows (especially the catnip, which he had planted as a joke but ended up actually loving and occasionally nibbled on).
Naive and sweet, Adrien never questioned why his parents kept him hidden from the world, though he often suspected his unusual features had something to do with it, considering that he was the only person he knew who had ears and a tail. He accepted at face value his mother's promise that once he turned eighteen, things would change.
Although he lived a quiet and lonely life, Adrien looked forward to the day when he would eventually get a chance to move beyond his daily routine, and to perhaps see the world beyond the borders of the mansion grounds. He loved his parents and he wanted to make them happy, but he couldn't deny that the little seeds of curiosity planted into his heart by the books he had read as a child were taking root, and he wanted to take flight.
As the days went on and his eighteenth birthday grew closer and closer, Adrien's heart filled with anticipation. He had no idea what to expect, but he was sure it would be wonderful. Perhaps he would finally get to leave the mansion- maybe he would even go to the Jardin des Plantes! He'd read about it in a book, and he was dying to see it in person. Or perhaps he would go to a live performance at the Paris Opera Ballet, and see the musicians he had been listening to for years on his mother's records.
What Adrien didn't expect was for his father to come into his room on the morning of his eighteenth birthday and tell him it was time for him to get married.