Twenty-Eight: Breakfast at Adrien's

Author's Note: So, whoops! Adrien is caught with a girl in his bedroom, and of all days, it happens to be one that Gabriel decides he's going to have breakfast with his son. This won't be a problem, surely...


Nathalie stared at us, icily, and waited by the door. She had no intention of leaving me alone at this point, so I shrugged and took Marinette by the hand. We walked past the iceberg of my Father's assistant and down the steps to the foyer, pausing beneath the massive chandelier.

"I'm sorry about this," I whispered quietly as we headed for the dining room.

"I can handle it, Chat," Marinette said equally as quietly.

I raised an eyebrow. "Which persona can I expect in there, Milady?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"The one that will be needed at the time," she smiled.

Oh, great,I thought.

The door was already open, and my usual place was set. Nathalie came in behind us and quickly set a spot for Marinette to my right; Father's spot was also ready, but he was not present yet. The buffet behind was fully stocked and smelled great. I motioned to Marinette and she followed me to the food, which we both piled high on our plates before returning to the table.

I was buttering a croissant that was nowhere nearly as good as Marinette's when Father burst through the door and quickly moved to the banquet. "Adrien," he said curtly. "Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng."

"Father." I waited for the shoe to drop; Father delayed until he was settled in at the head of the table and had sipped his coffee. "While I am not opposed to you having overnight guests, Adrien, I would prefer that you clear them with me first. Especially those of the opposite gender."

I felt my face redden slightly, and tried to channel some Chat to stay calm. "It's not quite like that," I started. "But at the risk of making the situation worse, you should know that Marinette is my girlfriend."

Something wafted over his normally composed expression. "Your... girlfriend?"

"Yes," I said, imparting some deliberateness to my emphasis of the word. It was not an item up for debate.

"Adrien," Father said, slowly, with fire in those eyes of his, "fourteen-year-old boys do not have girls spending the night."

I willed the flame on my face to abate and looked at Father defiantly. "Aside from your lack of faith in my character, Marinette did not spend the night."

"I'm listening."

This was the tricky part of the explanation. I glanced sidelong at Marinette, and she inclined her head slightly. "We were working on a special research project for school," I said, trying to lean into the truth. "A research paper on the effect of feral cats in Paris." I looked to Marinette. "Unfortunately, we became attached to one pawticular cat we found late yesterday afternoon and by the time we'd made sure it was fine, it was four in the morning."

Whoops! I hope he missed that.

"You were working on a... paper?"

"Extra credit," Marinette piped up. "We still have a day or two of field research planned, but normally it won't go so late." She shrugged. "The vet we took the cat to was very slow," she said, catching my eye. I could see the glint in it.

Father looked at us.

"I didn't want to wake you when we got in, so I let Marinette use the couch in my room to catch a quick cat nap." I caught Marinette's quick smile. "I assure you, Father, I was the consummate gentleman."

He continued to look at us, mulling over what we had offered up as our excuse. Slowly, he sliced off a piece of cheese from the wheel that was beside him, placed it upon a slice of baguette, and deliberately took a bite. I didn't spend much time with Father, so I wasn't comfortable reading him, but I had to assume that not getting an immediate grounding was positive.

Father polished off the rest of the baguette, and pushed back from his chair. "In the future, I would prefer you wake me or any of my staff, and we'll ensure a guest room is prepared." He turned toward Marinette. "It was a pleasure to see you again, Mademoiselle. I have duties to attend to, if you'll excuse me."

And with that, both he and Nathalie swept out of the room, leaving the two of us alone.

I let out the breath I was holding and turned to my Princess. "Well, we dodged a bit of a bullet there."

"Maybe," she said. "Until he asks to see the paper."

I groaned. "He's just likely enough to do that. Great, one more thing to do."

Marinette pulled her phone out of her purse. "We need to get to school," she said. "And I need to tell my parents where I've been all night."

I leaned closer. "Limo or air service?"

Her eyes sparkled. "Air," she said.

We left the dining room and while Marinette took a quiet corner of the foyer to call her parents and repeat our cover story, I informed Nathalie that the two of us would be walking to school together. Oddly, she seemed to have thawed now that she knew of my relationship, and quickly acquiesced. A few minutes later, the two of us were exiting the gates of the mansion and quickly entering a nearby alleyway to transform.

Once we were up above the rooftops as Chat Noir and Ladybug and making our way toward Dupont, I found myself grinning and shot past her. Not to be outdone, Ladybug lassoed a chimney and executed a neat mid-air loop-de-loop, winding up ahead of me by a good body length.

I was running out of space as the façade of our school was looming up. Running across a rooftop, I vaulted up into the air and then helicoptered up and over my partner; at the highest point, I streamlined into a dive and shot down toward the roof. The wind was whipping through my mane as I approached the tile; I curled into a ball and hit the roof, rolling out into a crouch up against the edge of the courtyard.

I looked back to the sky, expectantly.

"I'd give it an eight for execution," I heard coming from beside me.

I rotated slightly, pulling my eyes from the sky.

Ladybug was standing a few meters from me, smiling widely. I realized immediately I'd committed the cardinal error – I'd not looked before leaping. "Nicely done, Milady," I laughed as I stood and headed toward her.

She pulled me into a hug, but quickly let go. "C'mon, we're gonna be late."

"See you in class," I laughed, and I trotted to the far side of the roof to curl myself down and into the men's locker room. Ladybug was mirroring me on the near side for the ladies.

I tumbled over the edge, hooking a claw on the brick to leap through the open window, landing on the marginally grimy floor in a crouch – and immediately went on alert. Something was off, and I scanned the dimly lit space. When nothing seemed immediately awry, I crept over to the door and cracked it open.

Where it had been sunny just a few moments earlier, clouds had covered the sky, or at least, the portion viewable from the courtyard. Snow was gently falling into the space, which brought an odd serenity. I pulled the door open a bit more, and saw that it had accumulated quickly; some enterprising souls had already created some snowmen (and women) in the space.

I blinked.

It dawned on me that the snowpeople were my classmates when I saw Chloe emerge from a classroom, put hand out to the falling snowflakes, and in a flash become another member of the snow crew. I pulled out my baton and speed dialed Ladybug; she hadn't de-transformed yet and picked up.

"Milady," I said, "we have a snow problem..."