Awkward Conversations

"Marinette! I heard something. Are you okay?" Tikki shrieked as she phased through the trapdoor into Marinette's room. The little kwami paused upon seeing her young charge slumped over the waste-paper basket in her lap and sighed a little.

"Oh, Marinette. Have you had any water?" she asked.

"Mmmhmm," was the croaked response from the girl still hidden in the plastic and wicker basket in front of her.

Flying up to face height, Tikki gingerly took the edge of the bin in her little paws and with a tremendous amount of strain managed to lower it to the floor next to the chaise, a look of disgust on her face when she caught sight of the contents.

"Your dad has some broth downstairs for you. It's ready to heat up whenever and it's supposed to be really good for your stomach. I gave him a recipe for some tea as well. Some of my other holders used to use it for hangovers and it doesn't have any pharmaceuticals in it so it won't interfere with whatever else is in your system."

"Why?" Marinette groaned as she lowered herself back to the chaise on her side, "What's in my system?"

Tikki gave her a very conflicted look as she came to rest by her face on the chaise.

"Tikki?"

"Phillipe...gave you something."

"What!?"

"He put it in your drink," Tikki said with an ashamed look, "I kept trying to warn you but he wouldn't leave you alone and then once you'd drank it, it was like you couldn't hear me or didn't want to."

She reached out and placed her tiny paw on Marinette's cheek in a gesture of comfort.

"You broke the catch on your purse and I couldn't peek to see when it was safe to phase out without being seen. But then you were sort of...rescued and it was honestly a huge relief."

Marinette groaned loudly and flung her hands over her face, startling the little kwami, who eyed her suspiciously.

"Yeah, but I was rescued by Adrien. And made a complete fool of myself."

Tikki's eyes widened until they nearly eclipsed her entire face.

"So you...remember that then?"

"Vaguely," Marinette said in a mumble.

"Ah," said Tikki, "Why don't we start with the basics and get you that tea?"


It was about fifteen minutes later when Tikki returned with Sabine in tow, the latter of which was carrying a steaming mug. With a little help from her mother, Marinette managed to prop herself up and drink. The "tea" as Tikki called it looked murky and completely unappetising but it didn't actually taste too bad, which she was thankful for and it did help clear her head a lot. She couldn't really complain.

Sabine stayed for a while and tried to soothe her daughter's fears over her disastrous night. Gabriel Agreste had called this morning to inform them of the full situation. They'd been assured the young man in question was being dealt with and it would be completely up to Marinette if she wanted to press charges or not, which helped her feel a little better. There was no pressure on her this way, but she knew that if M. Agreste said he was dealing with an issue there was no way Phillipe was going to come out of this unscathed and she liked to imagine it wasn't wishful thinking if she assumed he'd be too terrified to ever try anything similar again.

Sabine also confirmed what Tikki had told her and what Marinette had already suspected – that it was Adrien who had brought her home. She instantly whined at the thought, mortified and remained conflicted on whether she actually wanted any details or not.

"It was your father who answered the door, not me," Sabine told Marinette with a smirk, "But he says Adrien was very worried about you, you know."

"Of course he was Mama," she said, "I'm his good friend."

Unfortunately, it was a phrase Adrien had used to describe her a lot. He obviously had no idea what it did to Marinette's heart each time he used it and she couldn't find it in her to hold it against him. The boy was eternally clueless.

"Maybe so," her mother said, "but I'm sure good friends don't blush the way your father says he was."

"Maybe he's not used to his good friend having no filter and practically attacking him in the back of his car," she said cringing as she spotted the sly smile her mother adopted at her words.

"Attacking? Hmm," she said, that same smile firmly planted on her face as she got up and moved towards the trapdoor, picking up the waste-paper basket on route, "You'll have to enlighten me about that later, dear. I need to get back downstairs, but your father will be up in a moment with some soup for you."

As she waited, Marinette found that the tea diluted her hangover rather quickly so that by the time her father arrived with her soup she had upgraded her health from wishing for death, to simply feeling a little nauseous. The soup seemed to take care of that as a perfect accompaniment and thankfully her father only attempted to tease her once, at which point Tikki scolded him. He waited as she ate, glancing over at Tikki every once in a while, to see if she was still glaring at him or if he could push his chances and try teasing his daughter again.

Marinette finished the last of the broth at the bottom of the bowl and placed it on the floor next to her before turning back to look at her father.

"I'm feeling much better now," she said, "Before I go take a shower Papa,you have to tell me everything I said and did in front of Adrien while you were there."


Adrien woke to the sound of purring against his temple. Slowly blinking open his eyes, he glanced at the digital clock sitting by his bedside and groaned when he realised it was already 11:30am.

Last night had been...interesting and he'd found it difficult to get to sleep once his driver had finally returned and taken him home. Of course, it hadn't helped that he'd had to deal with a ridiculous amount of smirks from the man on the way home before being teased mercilessly by the old kwami who shared his room once he was out of sight.

The same kwami who appeared to be asleep on the side of his head at this exact moment.

Groaning again, Adrien rolled onto his back, dislodging the tiny God who yelped as he was flung to the pillow.

"Hey!" Plagg complained, "just because you were up most of the night thinking about your girlfriend, doesn't mean you can interrupt my sleep!"

"It's almost afternoon Plagg," Adrien said, "and she's not my girlfriend."

"Ooooh, but you were thinking about her?"

"Not this again. Drop it."

"Not a chance," the little cat said, "that girl couldn't keep her hands off you last night. I'm surprised you didn't spend all night m—"

"I'm begging you not to finish that sentence," Adrien said uncomfortably. Instead Plagg only smirked at him as he sat upright in his bed.

"You better get yourself showered and dressed anyway."

"Why?" Adrien asked, narrowing his eyes in obvious and open suspicion.

"Because," his kwami smirked, "you said you'd go see how she's doing this morning."


It hadn't quite turned twelve when Adrien emerged from his room, showered and dressed. Plagg had spent a ridiculous amount of time teasing him on his choice of clothes, as he'd decided to pair his jeans with a shirt Marinette had made for him on his last birthday. He'd simply rolled his eyes, refusing to let his Kwami dictate his clothing choices. It was his favourite shirt after all.

"Adrien."

He stopped dead in the foyer at the sound of his father's voice and turned to face the man quickly leaving his office in order to meet him.

"Father," Adrien replied with an awkward smile. Had that driver said anything to anyone? Was his father about to try out his own brand of teasing that he'd been developing over the last couple of years?

"I take it you're on your way to see your friend?" Gabriel asked and Adrien nodded in response. "I called her parents first thing this morning to make them aware of the situation. And I've paid the lab handsomely for a rush job on the results of what was in her drink. I'll have the results by dinner tonight, but I'm pretty sure I know what was in it already."

"You do?" Adrien asked, surprised by the speed in which his father had managed to deal with everything.

"Of course. I simply interviewed Mr Moreau and asked him."

Adrien quirked his eyebrows. "And...that worked?"

Gabriel chuckled and it wasn't entirely pleasant, sending a chill down his son's spine. "Adrien," he said, "I can be extremely intimidating when I want to be -as you must remember. It also helped that I could tell exactly when he lied, was honest, or stretched the truth. I simply told him each time until it unsettled him and he began to talk."

"You interrogated him...with empathy?" he asked, watching as the man in front of him smirked, "So, he confessed?"

"Yes. And his fashion career is over. He can finish his degree if he wants but I'm currently making sure it will be completely useless to him." Gabriel scowled suddenly and Adrien felt his mind whiplash back to being barley sixteen, back to before his father had stopped being a villain and changed for the better. "You know what the worst thing is, Adrien?" he said, looking both angry and saddened, "He didn't feel guilty the whole time I was there. Frightened he'd been caught - but not actually sorry for what he'd done, or what he'd planned to do to that girl. Even at my worst there were lines I would never have crossed."

Adrien reached out and placed a hand on Gabriel's shoulder, a comforting gesture which would normally have seen their places reversed as father and son. "Then let's be glad we stopped him," he said, "And hope Marinette isn't so upset she won't speak to the police. I'd like to see him put away for this."

"If not, I'll have him monitored. Every employer and friend of his will receive an anonymous tip about him," Gabriel replied. He shook his head slightly, as if to remove the grim thoughts running through his mind before smiling -a slight curling of the edges of his lips- and looking at Adrien directly. "You would be best to hurry over to see Marinette," he said, "surely there is something you need to discuss with her?"

Adrien's mind raced and he felt his stomach drop violently at the suggestive way his father smirked at him. "What...um, what do you mean?" he asked, pretending to be unaffected despite knowing it was useless given his father's abilities. Gabriel sighed at the thinly veiled attempt at nonchalance.

Nooroo appeared suddenly from his father's jacket pocket, sending a warning frown at his holder. "Gabriel," he said in a low tone, "be nice."

"I've no idea what you're talking about, Nooroo. I'm simply talking to him." The kwami didn't appear to believe him, raising his brow on one side before glancing at Adrien with a sympathetic look. Before Adrien could think too much on it, he had disappeared back into his father jacket again. The dread in his chest rose significantly when he felt Plagg laughing against his chest from his own pocket.

Gabriel sighed for a moment before regaining his usual composure. "As we've just discussed, Adrien, I can sense emotions. But I'm sure that even people without empathic abilities can tell she likes you." Adrien just continued to stare in panicked silence. "And given the cocktail of confusion, panic and elation you've been feeling since you first left the gala, I'm assuming that she finally said something."

Adrien's eyes widened as he processed the other man's words. "You KNEW!?" he screeched.

Gabriel's smirk transformed into a genuine smile with an added eye roll and Adrien found himself feeling nauseous. "Since you were fourteen," he said, "I believe she started out more infatuated than in love with you but I've kept tabs on her since it was apparent she was going to remain your friend all through school."

"There goes my theory about her being too loopy to mean it." He pushed his hand through his carefully styled hair until it reached the back of his neck and rubbed aggressively to ease his mind. She had meant it. What was he supposed to say to her now?

"I'm not entirely sure why you're so worried," Gabriel said, his own face showing the tiniest signs of confusion in such subtle ways Adrien was only capable of pinpointing after years of studying his father's expressions, "I was under the impression this was a good thing."

A good thing? One of his closest friends was in love with him and he had no idea how to address it but his dad thought this was a good thing? "Why?" he asked.

Now Gabriel really was confused. Was Adrien really so unaware of himself? "Because," he said slowly and carefully, "you have had romantic feelings for her, to some degree, for years now."

"Wut," Adrien said eloquently.

"Empath," Gabriel stated, "You can lie to yourself, but not to me."