Title: Shifting Tides

Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug, Bleach

Characters: Gabriel, Marinette, ect

Chapter: 20

Word Count: 1865

Warnings: nothing

AN: Yes, this is very late. Life eats at me.

Enjoy.

"Are you both ready for tonight?" Gabriel asked as soon as Marinette and Adrien had joined Natalie and he in the front room. Ichigo, Kagami, and Sado were standing by the door, Chole and Juleka waiting close to them.

Marinette and Adrien shared a long look before they nodded. "We are, father. We had time to come to terms with our original schoolmates and we know who our true friends are. I'm sure that they'll either show that they can think for themselves or continue to be attached to her either way," Adrien said, smiling softly. "I'm actually really looking forward to this trip."

Marinette giggled next to him, smiling at them with a soft look. "I think that we all are," she said. She noted that the hair comb that was Pollen's miraculi had been changed slightly to hide what it really was by Chloe. It looked good, having shifted into something a bit more modern than the ancient comb that it had been.

She smiled in approval at the change, getting a small smile and nod from Chloe.

While Chloe couldn't be Queen Bee anymore, and having to change her outfit and name, she had worked hard to change quite a bit in the last few months. In return she had become a proper holder of the Bee Miraculous and was now going by Belle Abeille.

A change that had happened the week before they had left for Tibet when Chloe had waved Ladybug down and explained everything before sending Marinette a message through Adrien.

She had been named by Chat Noir on the training patrol, though Ichigo tended to call her Sutekina Hachi-chan when they saw him.

Turning back to Gabriel, the two smile up at the adults who nodded at them and lead the way out of their suite and to their private elevator. The joy of being in the penthouse was the fact that they had elevators that only those with a keycard could get access into. They all kept their copies in their various wallets or purses for just that reason so that they didn't get locked out.

Marinette leant against Adrien as the doors closed behind them, looking over to Juleka.

"How is Luka doing with his new school?" Marinette asked, the other female sending a grateful look to her.

"He's doing good. Sad that he transferred out of The Rose before you joined up, but he's really happy with his new school since he's working with Jagged so much," she said, shifting on her feet. "Look, I know that Chloe hasn't told you everything that's gone down, but you should know that me and Rose ended up breaking up right after you left. She listened to Lila about something and broke it off with me randomly. Like...the day that you had transferred out of Dupont so that I was already thinking about things that were going on. I cornered Chloe two days later and we got to talking. We worked some things out."

"Needless to say, she finally saw the truth of that Italian wrench," Chloe drawled, looking at Gabriel who was studiously ignoring her. She tugged Juleka close and patted her back. "Poor girl didn't know how to feel about it all and is still really working through some things. Max and Kim have been thinking a lot lately too. Not sure how that is going to go down though. She wanted to talk to you earlier but decided to wait when she heard you were joining in on the trip."

"I can tell you right now that I'm going to take advantage of being able to feel emotions fully since this all started," Juleka said as she was leaning into Chloe. "I do know that Alix was reminded of that one day and that she's also starting to think," she continued softly. Gabriel tilted his head to the side before ignoring them again when the teens all smiled angelically at him. "But still, it'll be nice to just...process some of my feelings and thoughts."

"I know that I'm going to enjoy having some time to actually process a lot of things

myself," Adrien said, sighing softly as he leant into his girlfriend. Ichigo's smile was small, having stayed out of the conversation so far, but nodded his head. "I think that we're all really lucky that Marinette here hasn't been akumatized though."

"Why?" Sado asked. The soft question made Adrien jump before he cleared his throat, blushing, still finding himself surprised when the larger male spoke.

Adrien hummed softly. "She would be the most powerful Akuma out there," he said. "Not only is she brillian, but she's scarily powerful in her own right. She's also imaginative, so anything that she comes up with will be devastating to the heros. I have a feeling that if she was akumatized that Papillion would end up in a lot of trouble when she turned her attention to him."

"What do you mean by that?" Natalie asked as she turned to them, unable to stop her curiosity.

Sado hummed quietly. "I think that I understand. Even under his hold, she would be exceedingly upset that it had been her friends who had been targeted and would want to take down the one who had hurt them. Or had taken advantage of them in this case," she said. "Ichigo is the same way."

"Butterfly man would end up very surprised to find out what I have up in my head," Ichigo stated in Japanese, most the people around him giving him curious looks while Kagami smirked. Natalie took a moment to mentally translate what he had said while Gabriel eyed him, getting a knowing look from honey-colored eyes. The man bowed his head before he turned to the front of the elevator as they came to a final stop.

They found that Bustier's class were all waiting for them by the bank of elevators, Gabriel nodding in greeting to the students before he turned to their teacher. "Are we all here and ready for dinner?" he asked.

The red-headed woman smiled thinly at him but nodded. "Yes, we were just waiting for your group," she said, noticing that Marinette had slid her hand into the crook of Adrien's arms while the rest of the teens with them were eyeing up the class. "I didn't know that Chloe and Juleka had joined you..." She stopped talking at the sniff of insult from Chloe.

"And I told you that daddy was nice enough to pay for part of the penthouse for myself and Juleka. I really don't trust most of the idiots here as far as I can throw them and you wanted to stick me with someone who would have loved ruining my time in Tibet," Chloe reminded her, turning to Kagami and ignoring the rest of her classmates. "I do love our bed and I'm so glad that we went for the family suite."

"It was the only penthouse in the hotel that would hold all of us comfortably," Adrien teased her as they all turned to the restaurant led the way towards where they were to be sitting. The host smiled at them and showed them to the room that they were eating in, the smaller group being placed in a smaller room that was next door before the host left. Marinette had set it up so that the food that the group would be offered to eat was buffet style since there were so many of them, and they had a good choice of food.

Marinette was pleased to know that any leftovers from the buffet, as with the normal buffet, was packed up and given to staff or guests who could use some extra food.

For the group under Gabriel and Natalie, they had been able to decide on various dishes for their own smaller buffet. The food was laid out once they had settled into the room and everyone grabbing a little bit of everything to try. Bustier came over to complain that Lila couldn't eat many of the foods, causing Marinette to stare at her as she tore some Balep Korkun apart to dip into the broth of Thenthuk, Adrien and Chloe frowning at her.

"M. Bustier, Lila was given the same questionnaire that the rest of us had been given when Marinette was working on getting the trip all set up. That questionnaire did include asking about any allergies or food aversions," Adrien finally said. He turned back to his plate and picked up a steamed bun like food item, taking a bite out of it.

Chloe continued the conversation. "Seeing as I helped her to send them off, she didn't read any of them. She had just stuck them in the envelope at the end of the day, in front of all of you as you should remember and sealed it. I took it to the hotel that night and sent it off at her request. She bribed me with a personal sized cherry cheesecake for the help," she said. "So. Rossi really has no one but herself to be blamed for not having her diet catered to."

Bustier opened her mouth before she snapped it shut at the cool looks that came from Gabriel and Natalie. "You will find that the entire trip was set up and approved by the museum that ran the competition for the chance for this trip," Gabriel said. "The questionnaires were to be filled out so that everyone could be accommodated properly. If Mlle. Rossi did not fill out her questionnaire properly, that is hardly the fault of Mlle. Dupain-Cheng, and I do not appreciate you coming in to try and guilt my charge with your insistence that she cater to a single student."

M. Bustier frowned as she stared at the man in thought. "I would have thought that you liked Mlle. Rossi considering she keeps saying that she's rebuilding her contract with you." Gabriel sneered, his anger flaring in his eyes.

"Her contract was terminated, and her name blacklisted in the modeling world due to some information that had come out," Gabriel stated, eyes staring Bustier down as Nathalie wrote down some notes to send a cease and desist against Lila. They really couldn't have her spreading rumors that she was in negotiations with the Gabriel brand. "I do not tolerate any kind of harassment. Sexual, mental, emotional, or physical. I do suggest that you really take a good look at your class, Madame."

Bustier snapped her mouth shut after letting it hang, blushing heavily at the implication that she didn't know her class, before leaving the room, letting the door slide shut behind her. The teens all stared at him for a moment before they clapped their approval.

"Well said, father," Adrien chirped. The praise made Gabriel feel warm and decide that should Ladybug and Chat Noir be the two that he was thinking they were once more, that he was going to do all that he could to set things right at the temple before making up for all his past mistakes.

And finally get help for Duusu. He so desperately needed it.