"Mrs. Agreste?" A man called out, "Won't you take a moment to explain to me why you married Gabriel Agreste's son, your rival in the fashion industry? Is it sabotage?"

Marinette sighed, shaking her head, as she quickly disappeared into her home. They never gave her rest at all, and that was why they'd kept their relationship secret as much as they could before they got married, between the reporters and the paparazzi, Marinette wasn't entirely sure how they got through this all.

"Mari." Adrien grinned, and Marinette couldn't help but smile right back at him, letting that stress fade away under the warmth of her husband's smile as he quickly and yet carefully cut some vegetables for the stew that he was making: a recipe that he'd asked Marinette's best friend for.

"Hi. Do you want some help?" She asked as she came closer, eager to avoid the reporter outside that had followed her from work, and hadn't yet left her alone no matter how often Alya wrote that Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste had happily married the love of their lives. Alya liked to use the word soulmate for those articles as if that word, full of meaning and love, would stop Marinette and Adrien from being hounded constantly.

It hadn't worked since apparently the reporters and paparazzi weren't quite sure of the meaning of that word.

"I'm good. You just relax." Adrien told her gently, "Don't let them bother you. They'll go away once everything's settled down or hopefully sometime after little Emma's born."

Marinette shook her head with a smile; Adrien already doted on their baby girl even though she wasn't born yet. He'd doted on her since he'd first heard about her, and between his shopping trips for baby clothes or his endless requests for both Marinette and Gabriel to design baby clothes lines, it was a wonder that no one had caught on to the fact that Marinette was pregnant yet.


There was one lone paparazzo for once though Marinette hadn't seen him right away as he followed her from her work to her father-in-law's office building. All that she wanted to do was talk over whether he was making a line of baby fashion for his soon to be granddaughter and have lunch with her husband and likely father-in-law too since Adrien had visited his dad at work today.

When she'd caught sight of the paparazzo, she had to bite back a groan and just tried to ignore him. It was one thing that she still hadn't figured out how to handle since she'd first became famous in the fashion industry and doubly so since she'd married Adrien, a former model to his dad's famous fashion company.

Old theories aside of her having an affair with Jagged Stone years ago, this was the worst that it had ever gotten. Jagged Stone was just a good friend of hers and so was his wife, and she'd worked on designs for him a few times in the past. It shouldn't have been that hard to figure out, but they'd been hounded about it for what seemed like a year.

Marinette tried her best to avoid that prickling feeling that resurfaced once she knew for a fact that a paparazzo was following her and likely taking pictures of her and coming up with crazy theories that made no sense. She'd never really hated Gabriel Agreste, had grown up admiring his designs, and after falling in love with his son, they had a good relationship. They hadn't been spiteful or angry, and Gabriel had even told Adrien once that he'd picked a good woman.

Marinette had yet to figure out why everything had to be a drama in the eyes of the media and why everything had to be so full of this or that to cause one issue or another. She wasn't going to stop visiting her father-in-law's business or stop being married to his son no matter how many crazy, conspiracy theories the media threw at her.

It just got kind of old and annoying the more they talked about her marriage and the fact that her father-in-law was also a fashion designer. She'd known that the media would likely go crazy, but nothing had really prepared her for how crazy they'd be.


"You should both design clothes for Emma to wear." Adrien murmured, "She'd always have something of her grandfather's and of her mother's to wear then. She'd be so happy and look so cute."

"She's always going to look cute." Marinette murmured back, "She's your daughter."

"She's also yours, so she'd look cute because of you." Adrien's green eyes sparkled, and Marinette shook her head back at him.

"They'd think we both came up with the baby clothes lines as rivals." Gabriel shrugged.

"You're family. Let them think what they'll think though." He challenged, "They'll stop questioning it eventually."

It still felt like an electric shock of warmth straight to her heart to hear that she was a part of the family now, to know that that's how she was seen.

"They might take a while to stop talking." Gabriel muttered, but Adrien's insistence had made him smile.


Once Emma was born, the attention refocused to the 'Agreste' or 'Dupain-Cheng heiress' as none of the news outlets could figure out what fashion company she'd take over. They didn't know that when it came down to it, Marinette and Gabriel would combine their businesses one day into one business and that Emma had a choice if she wanted to work for it or not.

Emma adored both her mother's designed for her clothes and what her grandpa had designed for her, and her bright smile at just seeing those clothes could brighten the whole world up for a day.

Already, the paparazzi and reporters would missing what really mattered, what mattered about all of their 'fake' drama, what meant the world: love.