Marinette threw Adrien's arm off of her and flew out of bed with her hand over her mouth. Adrien woke up suddenly and threw the blankets off and dashed after her. He leaned on the doorframe to see her kneeling over the toilet. Adrien cringed and walked up behind her and held her hair back.
She gasped for air and cried hysterically. "I hate this. I just want it to stop."
He rubbed her back. "I know, bugaboo and it will. Just think of what amazing thing will come from this. Our very own catbug." Adrien smiled fondly at the thought.
She sighed and flushed the toilet, before getting up off of the floor and rinsing out her mouth. She rubbed her stomach. "I just wish they would stop making me so sick." She whined and Adrien chuckled at her.
She pouted at him and slapped him in the chest. "Ow, m'Lady." He rubbed his bare chest with his hand with a wince.
"You deserved it." She stuck her tongue out at him.
Adrien laughed and began to tickle her sides. She began to laugh and he picked her up into the air. "Put me down. Put me down." Marinette giggled.
"As you wish, m'Lady." Adrien set her down and rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish grin.
She shook her head and began to brush her teeth. "I'm gonna go call the doctor."
"Sounds good. I'm gonna go shower. We have to be out in an hour anyway." Adrien pointed to their somewhat small shower with his thumb. "I'll leave the door unlocked. Just in case." He winked at her.
"I don't think I'll be throwing up ag-" Marinette began to talk when another wave of nausea hit her and Adrien raised an eyebrow. She held a finger up in the air and covered her mouth, before running over to the toilet again.
Adrien ran behind her and pulled her hair back in time. He looked away with a grimace.
"I'm sorry…" Marinette whined and hid her face behind her hands.
"It's not your fault. When you feel up to it, make the appointment." Adrien smiled at her, kissed the side of her neck, and dropped her hair.
Marinette stood up on shaky legs and he helped her. She flushed the toilet and washed her hands and brushed her teeth again. It was getting old pretty quick to her.
Marinette sat on their couch, sipped on a glass of water, and tapped through her contact list till she found her OBGYN. She took a deep breath and dialed. "Yes, I'd like to make an appointment. I recently found out I was pregnant. My last period was 2 months ago. Marinette Dupain Cheng." She took a sip and looked towards the bedroom where she heard the shower going. "Can we make the appointment a little later?" She swirled her water. "Yes, four o'clock should be fine. Merci." She hung up her phone and rubbed her eyes with her hand.
She set her glass down and walked into their bedroom. She slipped out of her pink pajama pants and white tank top. She dropped her pink lace panties on the floor and walked into the bathroom. The mirrors were steamed up, as was, the glass of the silver framed shower. She could see Adrien's silhouette through the steam.
Marinette opened the glass door and looked him up and down. He had his back to her and he was in the middle of lathering shampoo through his golden hair. She marveled at how his muscles moved and how his back tightened and shifted. The scars drew her from the view and she wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed each one. He turned to look over his shoulder at her. His shoulders slumped and his hands fell to his sides.
He turned to face her and held her by her wrists. "You okay?"
"Yeah. My appointment is at four." Marinette smiled up into his neon green eyes. "Lean back." She giggled after wiping soap bubbles that had begun to fall down his forehead.
He bent his knees some and she reached up on her tiptoes and ran her hands through his hair beneath the rain can showerhead. He closed his eyes and sighed at the feeling of her fingers running along his scalp and how the warm water felt running down his back and chest, soothing his aching muscles.
"You don't have to do this, ya know." Adrien opened one eye to look at her.
"I know… but soap was about to fall into your eyes." Marinette smiled warmly at him. She removed her hands. "There."
He shook his hair, sending water droplets everywhere. Marinette covered her face with her hands and leaned back. "Hey!" She giggled.
Adrien laughed and she looked up at him. His hair had fallen slightly into his eyes, causing him to look dangerous and more like Chat than Adrien. Her mouth fell open.
"What is it?" Adrien ran a hand through his hair to slick it back.
"I just-" She cleared her throat and looked down and off to the side with pursed lips. "I never realised how much you look like Chat Noir like this."
"Wet and naked?" Adrien raised an eyebrow at her.
Marinette shook her head and blushed. She shoved him back and he nearly slipped.
"You're gonna kill me, m'Lady." Adrien caught himself on the shower wall.
"Sorry." She brought her fists to her lips. "Not-t-t that. Um." She tried to get her thoughts straight. "With your hair messy and in your eyes."
"Oh." Adrien suddenly smirked and ruffled his fingers through his hair, causing it to fall chaotically in his eyes. He leaned into her with a very Chat-like expression. "Am I clawesomely purrrfect, meow, m'Lady?"
Marinette looked at him with wide eyes and a frown. Adrien backed up, slicked his hair back, and laughed hysterically at his fiance.
"Not funny." Marinette sighed and reached around him for her shampoo, before washing herself up. "We're gonna be late."
"Oh, shit. You're right." He quickly finished showering.
They got out and Adrien threw on a black button down shirt and rolled the sleeves up to his elbows. He threw on black slacks and black dress shoes. He accented it all with a black belt with a silver buckle.
Marinette looked at him, as she slipped on black leggings and a thigh length scarlet t-shirt dress with black knee high boots. "Are you trying to look like Chat?"
Adrien looked down at his outfit and then back at her. "I could ask the same of you, Bugaboo." He pointed at her.
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever, let's go." She laughed and walked out of the bedroom with him following behind her.
Adrien and Marinette stepped out of their apartment to find a familiar silver car parked out front with a very broad shouldered man in the driver's seat.
Adrien sighed and opened the back door for Marinette. "After you."
"Merci, Adrien." Marinette got into the back seat and he followed after she slid in across the seat.
Gorilla drove down the road and to the Gabriel business office. Adrien sighed, looking out the window with a knee drawn up. He tapped his fingers on his knee, absentmindedly.
Marinette looked over at him with concerned eyes. She picked up his hand and intertwined his fingers with hers and gave his hand a gentle reassuring squeeze. "It'll be okay." She whispered for only him to hear.
Adrien looked at her with a warm smile and touched her stomach. "I know."
She blushed at him and gave him a wide smile. He chuckled at her expression and blushed himself.
"Are you ready to enter my crazy existence, m'lady?" Adrien leaned into her and whispered into her ear with a smirk.
"I think I can handle it. I've done good this far, Monsieur Agreste." Marinette winked at him.
Adrien chuckled at her. "I guess you have."
The car came to a stop and Adrien got out of the car and held the door open to Marinette. He held his hand out and she took it. Marinette smiled up at him with a blush and climbed out of the car.
"Let's go see what fun I get to have." Adrien sighed and rolled his eyes.
Marinette cuddled his upper arm and smiled at him. "You'll do fine."
Adrien sighed again and his shoulders slumped. "I hope you're right."
Marinette smirked up at him. "I know I'm right, Minou."
There was a mass amount of paparazzi and reporters around the building. Cameras flashed and Adrien covered his face with a hand and Marinette did the same.
"Monsieur Agreste! Adrien!" Reporters and paparazzi voices buzzed and hummed like a swarm of bees.
"What is the future of the Gabriel brand?!" A reporter put a mic in his face.
Adrien sighed, Gorilla stepped out and blocked them from the view of the camera flashes with a scowl on his lips, and Adrien kept walking forward with Marinette tucked close to his side. "C'mon. Ignore them."
Adrien led her inside of the tall white building. The window frames were set in black and the glass of the doors and windows were tinted the darkest hue possible. The name Gabriel was elegantly scripted in silver along the glass of the door and a black sign hung down with it scripted in white.
"You made it." Nathalie came walking out of a long hallway with a tablet in her arms. "Bonjour, Mademoiselle Dupain Cheng."
"Bonjour." Marinette nodded with a faint smile.
"I have everything set up in the first conference room. Shall we?" Nathalie gestured towards the long hallway with her hand.
Adrien nodded and they walked down the long hallway to a set of double geometric black doors. It occured to Marinette that the style of the office closely resembled Adrien's childhood home.
"Your father really favors this modern style." Marinette whispered to Adrien.
"The man likes his geometric shapes and clean lines." Adrien shrugged with his eyes closed. "My mother was more of a free spirit when it came to design. She enjoyed color and rounded edges. Much like my old bedroom. She actually helped me convince my father to let me have color in my room, instead of the monochromatic theme throughout the rest of the house. Except my bathroom. That had to stay in the same fashion as the rest of the house." Adrien laughed for the first time since they'd been there. "But it makes sense in a way. I didn't really care about what the bathroom looked like."
"Yes, he is quite fond of the black and white color scheme." Nathalie chimed in and pulled out a chair to sit down at the head of the black rectangular table.
Adrien sat next to Marinette on the side of the table near Nathalie.
She dropped a stack of paperwork onto the table top. "Your father has agreed to sign the brand over to you while he is in- his predicament." Nathalie sighed. She set a pen in front of him. "I supposed I need to explain what all of this is to you, as we go along."
Adrien looked over the first page of papers that were passed to him. Nathalie poked at it with her black pen. "This is just stating that you agree to take the company over. Sign there."
Adrien elegantly scrawled his name along the dotted line.
"Okay. Now we get down to the business aspect. Where you get to see where the brand stands and what our budgets are. All of the big and small parts of your father's business." Nathalie took the papers from him that he had signed and replaced it with a new one.
Adrien sighed and ran a hand through his hair and Marinette clenched his hand in hers in her lap and smiled at him. She kissed him reassuringly on the cheek.
"These are the tax returns and bank statements. As you can see we are very lucrative right now and are in a good place. Try to keep it that way. Your father ran this place rather efficiently and he expects the same from you." Nathalie ran a hand through her hair, as Adrien clenched his jaw and initialed on the small line.
"Alright." Nathalie took those from him and replaced them again. "This is the current budget, the current business plan, and all of the other business type inquiries."
Adrien flipped through them and initialed each one with a shaky hand. Marinette looked over at him. "You okay?" She whispered.
"Yeah." His fake smile didn't pass for her.
"Do you want to take a break, Adrien?" Nathalie looked at him with a concerned expression.
"No, no. I'm fine." Adrien ran a hand through his hair and picked up the corner of the next paper to look it over.
"This is the less fun part. This is all of the debt, loans, lines of credit, and mortgages. Also, a list of the venues that Gabriel is allowed to use for photoshoots. While they can be adjusted if called ahead or planned out… These are the ones that we always have our hands on." Nathalie passed him another stack of papers.
Adrien rubbed his face and initialed every page and signed his full name on the last page with a flourish.
Nathalie collected the giant stack of papers and held out a key to him. "With that, Adrien, Monsieur Agreste. You are the new owner of Gabriel. The highest and most respected fashion brand in all of Paris."
Adrien held out his hand and it shook. Marinette rubbed the back of his other hand with her thumb. The keys dropped into his palm and he fiddled with them.
"Congratulations, Adrien. Now, it's time to meet the rest of the staff here." Nathalie smiled at him and stood from the table. "C'mon. I'm sure Marinette will thoroughly enjoy this part."
"First." Marinette held up a finger. "May I use the restroom?"
"Sure, it's down the hall and to the left." Nathalie smiled.
Marinette squeezed his hand with a smile and left him with Nathalie.
Adrien swallowed hard and looked around with his hands in his pockets.
"Are you sure you're up for this?" Nathalie looked at him with concern written on her face.
"Do I have a choice?" He sighed and shrugged his shoulders.
Nathalie just nodded.