Now Gabriel's miraculous really was glowing all week. It wasn't because of his own troubled emotions, however, but those of someone he could never akumatize. Adrien, his son. Ever since he had akumatized his friend Marinette a couple weeks ago, Adrien's mood changed for the worse, and Gabriel was painfully aware of it.
Anytime his miraculous flashed, he would stop and feel the triggering emotions. As soon as he sensed that it was Adrien, he pulled away, not wanting to know. It felt so intrusive to his son's privacy, his inner thoughts about the only freedom still afforded him. He wanted to help, to talk to him about it, but he never knew what to say. No matter how much he cared for his son, he didn't even know how to relate to him.
From the small bits of emotion he felt through his miraculous, Gabriel did know that what he felt was intense regret and loneliness. It obviously had something to do with the Marinette girl. He had since questioned Adrien's bodyguard about the events of that night and it seemed he had gone on a date with her. He reported the two seemed to get along, but the night ended with the girl running off on her own and crying. He had rejected her, as Gabriel already knew quite well, but he didn't understand why, nor did he know how to breach the topic.
Even without the miraculous, it was quite obvious that something was bothering Adrien. After that night, Adrien had asked to resume his homeschooling. Gabriel was relieved at the idea, glad to keep him home where it was safe, but it spoke volumes about how troubled he was. Apparently, he didn't even want to face this girl again, preferring to avoid all his friends just to get away from her.
Without knowing how to deal with his son's problems like a father should, and desperate for a distraction, he had since been akumatizing everyone that he could. Normally he would ignore some potential victims if he felt their emotions weren't potent enough to succeed. He had had poor success with some of those in the past, like the Evillustrator. Now he was akumatizing everyone he had the chance to, glad for the distraction and hoping that the sheer quantity of villains would exhaust Ladybug and Cat Noir.
Thus far, his plan failed on both accounts. The superheroes were remaining strong, and he still couldn't forget about Adrien's pain. Perhaps it's time to try a different tactic with Adrien, he sighed.
Marinette's life was very different after that night. Following her date and subsequent akumatization, she had a very hard time going back to school the next day. She wasn't worried that anybody would fault her for being akumatized. By then, almost the entire class had been and they would understand that she had no control over her actions. What was hard for her was having to see Adrien again.
The first day she was surprised – though relieved – when he didn't show up. Too scared to show his face, I guess, she told herself. Marinette was confident she had gotten her emotions controlled enough that she wouldn't risk being akumatized a second time, but she wasn't sure how she would react when she next saw Adrien. Still, she was grateful for the extra time to prepare herself for the inevitable.
Chloé, in typical fashion, made a point of telling Marinette how she was crazy and out of control as a supervillain, but the day was saved thanks to Queen Bee. After that, she left her alone, until she got a text from Adrien at lunchtime. Turns out his absence was not a one-time occurrence: it seems he was returning to home-schooling. Chloé tried to blame this on Marinette, claiming she had assaulted Adrien while akumatized – a fact that Marinette was disturbed to discover that it pleased her – and that he probably wasn't allowed out of the house because of that.
Once Chloé's tirade was over, though, Marinette relaxed considerably. She had always been forgetful, but otherwise she was a hard-working student with good grades before Adrien showed up as a distraction. It seemed he was gone now, so she could concentrate on her schoolwork again and try to put him from her mind.
It was probably better for him not to return anyway. Alya had, of course, asked how the date went, and she got the whole story. Marinette was still feeling bitter at the time and just wanted to unload. Alya then spread it to the rest of their girlfriends, all of whom reacted with shock and anger. If Adrien did come back to school, at least one of them – probably Alix – was liable to kill him.
Despite all of the anger and hate she was feeling, though, that wasn't what bothered Marinette the most. What bothered her most was that she knew she still cared about him, and that was why the rejection had hurt so much. As much as she was mad at him now, she still felt that, deep down, she wanted somehow to reconcile with him. She hated that feeling. There were women who got involved with an abusive guy, emotionally or otherwise, and ended up feeling trapped in that relationship. She didn't want something like that to happen to her, so someone like Adrien was not right for her. She had to move on, as hard as it was, and forget she ever loved Adrien.