Author's Note: I might have misinterpreted prompt for Day 4: "Young Gabriel" just a bit, but I couldn't resist.
This is another one of those ideas that were supposed to be full lenght fics (and yes, this one has an outline too), but I've decided to use it for GAW.
Who knows, maybe I will write the full version after all?
Days of Gabriel Agreste, Day 4: "School Day"
This evidently wasn't his day. Which was adequate, he supposed, as he wasn't entirely himself today. Or rather he was entirely not himself. And it kind of had been his own fault. Gabriel already made a vow - no more kids after Swapper. Those akumas always backfired badly. And this time they blew up right in his face. Well, technically this was not his face but still.
The boys bathroom at Collège Françoise Dupont was not a particularly pleasant smelling place. Gabriel cast one last look at the reflection in the mirror. Green eyes looked back at him with a scowl. He tousled the blond locks a bit, to give them a fresh look. He would gladly comb it back and up a bit, but he was afraid of drawing attention to himself. After smoothing a few wrinkles on the black, striped t-shirt he made another attempt at fixing the upturned collar of the white button-down, but it refused to cooperate. With a sigh of resignation Gabriel left it as it was meant to be and went back into the locker room.
'Dude! I've been waiting ages,' the boy in the red cap exclaimed as he came to Adrien's locker. 'What took you so long?'
Gabriel had to bite back a snap reply that was waiting on the end of his tongue. He had promised himself not to cause any (more) trouble today, and he had promised Adrien not to ruin his life (more) today.
It was simply embarrassing, really. And the look on Nathalie's face when he was leaving the car told him, she would not let him forget about it any time soon. Gabriel had a very important meeting with Chinese clients scheduled for the day but he woke up earlier than usual and decided to fish for some negative emotions. What he had found was promising enough and he decided to give it a quick shot and leave it to brew, while he'd be entertaining his guests. He was a master of multitasking, time is money, blah blah blah. No harm done.
Turned out, all harm done.
Had he known the akuma would be at that damn hotel and would break to the plaza at that time, he wouldn't have let Adrien out of the house at all, but moreover he wouldn't be talking to him at the door. How was he supposed to know, the Swapper would make the two of them his first target? (He should have kept an eye on him, that's how).
Now all that was left was damage control on his end, and hope that Nathalie would help Adrien with the Chinese clients, as they decided to go with the swap. The deal was simply too important to cancel the meeting at such extremely short notice, and Gabriel was sure that whatever event Adrien was presiding that day at school wasn't going to present any problems to him. They couldn't wait for Ladybug to reverse the damage and he didn't have a clue how to withdraw the akuma. He would have try it in the evening. Good thing he had the foresight to leave the brooch in the lair, but he was sure Nooroo was going to have a good laugh.
He realized, the boy in the red cap (Nino, was it?) said something more and he tried to focus on his son's best friend. At least he was sure Adrien would be able to actually understand what those Chinese clients were talking about, unlike Gabriel trying to find some sense among all the dudes, bros, lols, fams and whatnot.
A ring? Was the boy asking about Adrien's ring? Oh, yeah, he left it at Adrien's room. Rings were not really his style. Besides wearing it made him feel dizzy.
The photoshoot at lunch had been a disaster. He made a mental note to give more attention to the organisational side of those. The lack of professionalism on every level was simply shocking. The ridiculous photographer had made more poses during the shoot than the actual models, Gabriel included. What was he, a part time yoga instructor? And he had the audacity to ask Gabriel to smile. To smile! Granted he thought he was asking Adrien to smile, but still. It took a good part of an hour for him to actually stretch his facial muscles to do that. Strangely he never had any trouble smiling when he was transformed. Was smiling a superpower? Adrien's photos always looked so effortless, but now Gabriel started to suspect they might not be. Not at all.
He got back to school, tired and hungry, and almost late for that super-important presentation Adrien had on a subject that slipped his mind. He got the memory stick and was supposed to rehearse the thing at lunch, but the photoshoot dragged on for too long, so he decided he'd have to improvise. After all he was good at that, he had been improvising as a villain on the daily basis, and even as a designer he was no stranger to a fashion disaster or wardrobe malfunction.
Gabriel spotted Nino on intercepting course, so he made a dash for the locker room. There was a chance, that if he heard the word "dude" one more time, he would snap and strangle the red cap boy. He never made it to the lockers, as he got attacked by the blonde brat Adrien sometimes hung out with. She caught his arm with surprising strength and dragged him into a classroom, rambling something about the presentation and how it was wonderful of him to do this. Even without her ear piercing shrieks he could already feel the headache approaching. The faster he's done with the presentation the better.
The Bourgeois girl opened the door and unceremoniously shoved him inside. The sight rendered him speechless. Gabriel blinked. His mouth opened and closed a few times as his brain was trying to make sense of what his eyes had supplied.
The room was full of Ladybugs.
Tall Ladybugs, short Ladybugs, plump Ladybugs, skinny Ladybugs, blonde Ladybugs, red Ladybugs. Some pigtailed, some short haired, one or two sporting cat ears for some reason.
Gabriel rubbed his eyes, but the mirage wouldn't disappear. All Ladybugs watched him questioningly in silence. He turned around and just then noticed a huge banner across the blackboard.
"FRANÇOISE DUPONT LADYBUG FANCLUB"
'You have got to be kidding me,' he groaned clutching at his head.
AN: So tell me? Should I write more, or leave it at that? I'd love to hear what you think!
Once again a huge thank you to Remasa who brainstormed this, and my other ideas for this week, and beta read this for your sake. Check out her stories, not only those for GAW, they are a must-read!
Take a look at my other fics and visit me on tumblr (perditaalottachocolate-blog). I tend to post sneak peeks of the stories I'm working on and share mostly miraculous content.