Sorry for the long wait, I just moved and am currently doing my last MLS course. Very busy, you know? Still working on this and fine tuning the ending that is fast approaching.=^-^=

Big things in here as well as weird... and lots of shouting.

Ch. 32 - Intervention with a Chat


Tom looked over their employee schedule with a furrowed brow. It was midway through August which meant that the break was almost up and the bakery would be slammed with patrons who want their fix of what they've been missing for a month. This was pretty normal, and not something he did so far in advance, but this time it had a small hitch; his son-in-law needed to be home more with his daughter. Tom and Sabine both knew how Marinette could be, and Aaron had mentioned on several occasions all the times he'd had to pry work out of her hands or insist on helping her so she wouldn't hurt herself. Marinette was very proactive and independent when it came to her work. She has gotten a little better since the month began, but all three of them were worried about September.

This was why, even two weeks early, Tom was scratching his head over how he could arrange the schedule so Aaron could be home with Marinette as much as possible. Tom, Richard, and Aaron were the top bakers in the back and the ones who worked the most hours. Edmond, who was capable but had a second job to keep up with, was able to handle things for a mid-shift if need be. As for the front, Collette, Mannon, and Sabine could usually handle it. The bakery would usually work like clockwork with these seven people, but take one away and Tom could see problems coming up. It had been a bit of a strain when Richard had his last child too, but that had been when the bakery was newer and less established.

"Tom, are you still going over those?" Sabine asked as she cleaned around the kitchen storage shelves.

"Yeah, and I really want to keep Aaron home as much as I can."

"He told you not to worry about it, you know? I'm worried too, but Marinette is an adult, and she's married." She had had a few mental flashes regarding her daughter's teenage clumsiness that gave her pause, but she wanted to trust her daughter.

"You know he won't be able to work at his best if he's worried, and he doesn't like to take advantage of the fact he married Marinette. He has a good work ethic, and I don't want it to make him feel guilty."

"Tom, just admit you're over worrying."

"I'm… not… What if I just have him come in for early morning and after close out shifts? Marinette likes to sleep in, and then an hour or two in the afternoon should be fine?" Of course a few hours might be all it took…

"Tom, listen to me. Talk to Aaron about it." Sabine was now standing in front of him with a stern expression. "He should be coming by soon to help you with new menu items. Talk. To. Him." She loved her husband dearly, but he was already regressing to the worried wreck he was when Marinette was about to be born.

"I should at least have a few ideas-"

Sabine took the clipboard with the schedule and handed him a mop. "I've got a better one."

Tom let out a sigh and nodded taking the cleaning tool. "Yes, dear."


Adrien had let his guard down, he knew. It was the moment he arrived at the designer studios and saw Nathalie standing at the front desk instead of Stephen with this 'thing' Marinette left in his office forever ago. "Good afternoon, Mr. Bassett. If you could please follow me?" Business like as usual, the secretary gestured him to the studio doors.

"I don't suppose Stephen sent you?" Nathalie gave him a strained expression that told him that was not the case and he let out a sigh. "Figures." He could just leave, and he really wanted to, but that would put Nathalie in a spot, and she didn't deserve the grief. He also didn't want to cause a scene since most of the office employees knew he was Marinette's husband. As he followed her to the elevators, he thought over what his father could want from him now. Last time he'd come to their house, but this time he must've orchestrated this through Stephen. It wasn't like he felt there was anything to really say between them. Adrien certainly didn't have anything he really wanted to say aside from a few choice curses. Years away hadn't really tempered his anger for the man, that was for sure.

"Adrien," She started as soon as they entered the private elevator that went to Gabriel's office.

"He put you up to this? Stephen too, I take it?"

Nathalie wore a conflicted expression. "Actually, I was the one who put Stephen up to this."

The ravenette raised a brow and crossed his arms. "What do you mean?" He then looked to the floor. "We're going to Gabriel's office, right?"

"We are…" The elevator beeped and opened up to the lobby outside Gabriel's office. Nathalie was the only one who worked in this room so it was spacious and open.

"Oh, did you get tricked into coming too?" Adrien turned to his left as soon as he left and found Felix leaning against a wall playing on his phone.

"What's going on, Nathalie?"

She followed him out and gestured to Gabriel's office. "I arranged this because the incident regarding Ms. Covington the other day showed me this," She gestured to them and then the door. "Is only going to get worse if someone doesn't step in."

"Oh, some intervention garbage. This will be loads of fun…" Felix looked positively vexed just thinking about being crammed in a room to talk about his feelings with the ice block named Gabriel.

"Nathalie, this doesn't really have anything to do with me-"

"You should have thought of that before you allowed your wife to get a job here, Adrien. I called both of you here because I know you're both more reasonable than Gabriel." She gave them both stern looks. "I know you have had to put up with a lot, but I'm asking you to try one more time and work with me. I will do what I can to handle Gabriel. I only need for you to try this once…. Please." She finished looking very uncharacteristically sullen at the end.

Adrien glanced at Felix who looked frustrated at the sight. His cousin had been dealing with his father for the past five years, and earlier that week had walked right out on them. Marinette even mentioned how he wasn't showing up for anything at the studio. And yet… He showed up and hasn't left yet. Adrien then looked back at Nathalie. This woman had tried to help him out, kept his location secret, and sent him designer underwear every year for Christmas. He at least owed her something. With a sigh he nodded his head. "I need to be at the bakery at 2. That gives me an hour or so."

Felix grunted at hearing his cousin agree. He was hoping Adrien walked out and it would give him a reason to turn it down too. Now if he said no, it would make him look like the unreasonable one, and Gabriel would weaponize that somehow. "Alright, fine. An hour. That's it."

Nathalie looked relieved as she took a breath. "Thank you both, now," She turned to the office door with more resolve. "If you could follow me, I'll make this as simple as possible." Her stride morphed from professional to aggressive just before she shoved the doors open without so much as a knock of warning.

"Nathalie? What are you doing just bargaining in here?" The older man looked bewildered and irritated at the interruption to his work.

"Gabriel, take a break." She didn't even bat an eye at taking his stylus right from his hand and placing it on the tablet which she then pushed aside. "Sit down. You too, boys." She had already placed two chairs in the room that morning.

"Nathalie, start explaining yourself right now!" Felix chuckled at his reaction while he pulled up a seat.

"She even blind sighted him." He was already a little happy he'd agreed.

"She would have had to." Adrien muttered more seriously while also enjoying his father's irritation.

"I will be happy to explain, Gabriel." She then pushed his desk aside so that all three men were sitting in chairs facing each other with nothing to obscure their body language. "For the next hour, the three of you will talk out your problems with each other like civilized people. You will also listen to each other instead of ignoring each other and doing as you please."

Gabriel scowled at the young men and then glared at his assistant. "Nathalie, I have far more pressing matters to-"

"If you do not cooperate for the next hour, I'm tendering my resignation immediately. I cannot work for you while also putting out fires from your personal skills, Gabriel. You need to do this." Both Adrien and Felix were surprised at Nathalie's threat, but even more so at how pale Gabriel got upon hearing it.

The man looked like he'd just seen a ghost. "But Nathalie-"

"I'm serious." She flipped her tablet around to show him a document that had him visibly shaking.

It took a moment for him to compose himself and he straightened his posture. "Very well then… Nathalie. One hour."

Adrien smirked looking at the woman. Nathalie sure knew her worth to Gabriel. "Alright, this is how it will go. You will each take turns airing your grievances. For every grievance listed, the offending party may have exactly 90 seconds to counter it. You will remain seated unless I tell you otherwise. You will not interrupt anyone while they are speaking. For the opening exercises, you will each be given two minutes to hurl whatever insults you want at whomever you wish with no consequences. No physical contact is permitted. Do you all understand how this will work?" The men all nodded though Gabriel looked especially irritated. "Also, I will mention that should you break any rules, you will be forced to wear a random item from this assortment of reject baby items." She pulled a box from Gabriel's bottom desk drawer. "The others may then take any photos they wish." Adrien couldn't help nearly laughing at that penalty and Felix was smirking at Gabriel's bewilderment. "For clarity's sake, we will be using the names you were born with." She gave Adrien and Felix a look. "Now then, if there are no questions, we shall begin with the insult portion. For the sake of fairness, I will allow Gabriel to start." Adrien rolled his eyes and Felix clicked his tongue.

"Then I shall start with Felix, you're an insufferable brat who wouldn't know professional if your mother had it tattooed on her breast while she was breastfeeding you. You constantly complain about every single thing I tell you to do, and throw a tantrum when you don't get your way! Dealing with you is akin to nails on chalkboard and I'm only grateful your mother isn't involved anymore since she is ten times worse!" He then looked to his son. "And you, Adrien, I don't even know where to start with you. You act as though I've done nothing for you, you ungrateful child! I practically handed you a promising future and you ran away? So many people in the world would kill for the opportunities I handed to you on a silver platter you spoiled, ungrateful, spiteful, ignorant child!"

Nathalie checked her watch when he stopped. "You have ten seconds."

"No, I'm done."

She nodded and glanced to Felix. "Then I will allow Felix to go next."

The blonde stood up looking as calm as could be and brought up his phone before clearing his throat. "I don't think you really understood what this was for, Uncle Gabe so I'll give you an excellent example." He then proceeded to throw every insult in the French language at the older man before switching to English. Nathalie had to call time on him and he still looked like he had a list to go through displayed on his phone. "Hmm, I suppose I got close to half at least." He was very pleased with the astonished expression Gabriel now wore after the timed tirade.

Even Nathalie looked a bit uncomfortable after it. "Well then, it is now Adrien's turn."

"Hmm, it'll be hard to follow that up. Of course, I could swear at you in any of the five languages you had me learn instead of having a life, but that would take too much time. I'll just use French." He revisited several words Felix had already thrown at the man, but used a surprising amount of self restraint to keep it short so he could stop when he saw Nathalie about to hit the timer on her tablet.

"Alright, hopefully that got some of the animosity out of your systems so that we can have a more civilized discussion."

"I will admit, I feel better." Felix remarked still looking quite satisfied.

"Good, then for the grievances portion, you will take turns airing one grievance and to whom you have it with. This time, I'll allow Felix to start."

"Uncle Gabe, you act like you're inconvenienced by accommodating me despite the fact I did you the big favor of filling in for your son who you drove away."

Nathalie gestured to Gabriel so that he could defend himself. "That's because you complain about every little detail of everything you're told to do. If you simply did the job, there wouldn't be a problem."

"A problem? The real problem is how ridiculous your jobs are. I still remember the itemized time stamped schedule Nathalie gave me on my first day as Adrien's replacement. About the only thing missing was when he was supposed to go to the bathroom!"

"That was on there once." Adrien interrupted with a dry chuckle.

"Adrien, you are not being addressed in the grievance." Nathalie scolded and then pulled out the first thing from the penalty box and tossed it to him. The baker looked at the baby blue bonnet with the crooked frill and laughed at the idea before putting it on without a complaint.

"Damn, she was serious…" Felix muttered having lost a bit of his muster at the sight of his cousin in a baby bonnet.

"Now then, Gabriel, your counter?"

"Y-yes, the schedule is put together in order to optimize productive activities and work."

"You mean optimize your control over your son?" Felix glanced at Adrien. "Looks like it backfired."

"That is time on that grievance. Adrien, you're next."

"Sure. Okay, Gabriel, I'm just going to lay it on you as simple as I can. You are a terrible father and I want nothing to do with you."

"Adrien, airing a grievance involves something Gabriel can defend." Nathalie pointed out.

"What, he can't defend how shitty of a father he was?"

"I raised you, gave you an education, a roof over your head, food to eat, and access to anything money could buy." Gabriel shot back despite Adrien's intent to stump him.

Adrien just found how much he missed the point laughable. "And here I thought you were smart, Gabriel. I'm a million times happier in my current life and I'm a baker. Do you honestly think money had anything to do with it?!"

"A parent's duty is to provide their child with everything they need to succeed. I did that and more!"

"No, you bought everything I needed to succeed, but didn't give me the one thing that really mattered. Just one day with Tom and Sabine got me more care and attention then I'd had here in years! In my entire 17th year, do you remember how many times you even hugged me?" Adrien made sure Gabriel had a moment to at least attempt to answer the question so Nathalie didn't penalize him. "Heh… The reason why you can't answer is because you didn't. Not one time! A hug! It's free for Pete's sake! Takes three seconds of your precious time!"

"I'm sorry, Adrien, but the time for this grievance is up."

"Whatever…"

"Gabriel, it is your turn."

He nodded and looked at the boys. It was difficult to decide who he would address with only one turn and it felt one sided. "You two are awfully eager to complain about my expectations of you when a little self reflection would do worlds more. I never asked for the impossible, and yet you barely managed anything. Especially you, Felix, you performed simple tasks so badly, the schedule I provided for you was basically garbage by the end of the first week."

Felix scoffed. "This is Adrien's fault."

"My fault? I did practically everything that tyrant said for 17 years!"

"Exactly. You, Mr. Doormat, are the reason Uncle Gabe has this ridiculous expectation of what a son is! You constantly met his expectations ever so barely to the point he expected any teenager to perform like a member of MI6! Can you tell me, aside from running away, what was the most rebellious thing you ever did?"

"I… Enrolled in public school?" Yeah that was weak…

"Please, Adrien, please tell me there is something worse." Felix looked exasperated despite being proven right.

"I snuck out to a club to hit on girls a few times!" The baker added recalling the last thing he'd done before running away. There were plenty of times he'd rebelled but that one was one of the biggest.

"Did you go home with any of them? Make out in the bathroom? At least dance?" Adrien slowly looked away. Honestly, all the girls he'd talked to had asked, but he never got past buying them a drink before someone else popped up. He was going for numbers thinking that was more effective. "Honestly, Adrien, going to school isn't rebelling! Being a flirt at 17, isn't rebellious! It's perfectly natural! You piss me off even more than the prick who made you this way!" He then turned to Gabriel. "Now I'll admit, I enjoyed messing with you at first. It was fun! I was 17, and bored out of my skull, okay, but you were miserable before I showed up. I'm not your problem." Felix stood up and turned to Nathalie. "To be honest, I think Adrien and Uncle Gabe need to work out their issues more than me. You can call me back when they're done."

"Hey, I still got a grievance with you!" The ravenette interrupted before his cousin could escape.

"Like what?" Felix asked already exhausted.

"Like how you tried to kiss my wife back when were dating and all the flirting you did with her!"

"Seriously? That was five years ago!" Even Felix will admit he was a little fixated but it's not like he actually kissed her.

"I owe you a punch in the face."

"Wouldn't have happened if you'd dealt with your father back when you lived at home. Just call me when you're done if you still care." The model dismissed. Hopefully the next time he saw him, he'd forget or stop caring. After all, he gets to take his anger out on Gabriel who basically tortured him for 17 years under unrealistic expectations.

Nathalie watched with a sigh as one member of her intervention party ditched; the most rational one too. "Let's continue, Gabriel, it is your turn."

"I don't see the point without Felix. Didn't you mention this was for professional issues?" He glared at Adrien. "As far as-"

"Look who's running away now?" Adrien jabbed at his father bitterly. "That must be where I get it from."

"You certainly didn't get that attitude from me." Gabriel countered at his petty remark.

"Oh really? Do you have any idea how you acted towards me? Was it some ridiculous instinct to talk down to me like you did?" The younger man stood up so he could look down at Gabriel and tore off the bonnet. "You would constantly cut off anything I tried to suggest or request the moment you determine it wasn't part of your plans, and you didn't even do it with an angry tone. You did it with cold indifference. Angry was an improvement!"

Gabriel stood up next though he wasn't able to reverse the situation like years ago. Adrien was now taller than him by at least an inch, which had their eyes just about level. "So you wish I was angry with you more, is that it?"

"Why do I have to spell this out to you!?" Adrien threw his hands up. "How the hell did mom ever fall in love with you!? She always hugged me, talked to me like what I said was important, asked me my opinion! She cared!"

"Don't you dare bring Emily into this!"

"Oh, is that emotion!? Well, let me take some comfort in the fact you at least loved her, if nothing else!"

The echo of the attack reverberated through the room before anyone could fully register what had happened. Gabriel's shaky hand slowly retreated from where it had struck Adrien's face while the baker stood firm. He hadn't moved an inch in recoil like it didn't even hit. "Don't you dare act as though you know my feelings for your mother!" Gabriel declared coldly recomposing. "You would never understand, nor would you understand what her loss meant to me. Perhaps you would comprehend even a fraction of my pain if your Marinette-"

Adrien snatched Gabriel up by his cravat and yanked him up to look him dead in the eye. "Finish that sentence and there will be nothing on this Earth that will be able to save you from me, Gabriel." He then dropped him with a shove that had Gabriel struggling to keep his footing. "I'm not your son anymore."

Gabriel kept himself composed as he fixed his cravat. "You are my son, no matter what you say about it, Adrien. And as much as you would hate to admit it, I can say for certain you inherited at least one trait from me."

Adrien scoffed. "Are you bragging about that? Bragging about how much my anger looks like yours? That's nothing I'm proud of. But you just don't get it. You never will. You don't have the emotional capacity."

"That's right, I don't! Obviously you must be correct so be happy!" The designer raged. "That never stopped Emilie from understanding me!" Gabriel took a breath to recompose himself. "I already regret many things, Adrien, and regardless of what you might believe, I refuse to add dismissing you to that list. You are my son even when you run off to do as you please without warning! I did what I could to raise you to be your best and if there is anything I will refuse from you it will be having my effort dismissed!"

Adrien looked at him curiously for a moment before his cold expression returned. He glanced towards Nathalie who was trying not to look like the whole situation was getting away from her. "Nathalie, I'd like to make my final grievance."

The woman glanced at the clock, and it had barely been 30 minutes but she nodded anyway. If things continued to escalate, it would only have the opposite effect of what she intended. "Go ahead."

"You said it just a second ago, Gabriel, so this shouldn't be a hard question. You expect me to grade your parenting skill on effort, isn't that right? So why then, was my effort constantly met with criticism? Even when I met your expectations you simply raised them."

Nathalie gestured to Gabriel. "I never expected more from you than I would have out of myself."

"You were a grown ass man. I was a kid." Adrien countered.

"Hence the need for a critical parenting approach." He argued back.

"Or an excuse for a double standard." Adrien snapped back looking more disappointed than angry at this point.

Gabriel's frown deepened at the remark and he glanced to Nathalie. "I wish to state my final grievance as well."

Nathalie, seeing this wasn't going to go well if extended, agreed. "Very well."

"Adrien, you have made it perfectly clear that you loath and despise me. It was your intention to never be found out, correct?" He didn't wait for an answer. "Why then, knowing you may be found, would you allow your wife to work for me?" Not that he didn't welcome Marinette and her work for his studio. She was now integral for his company's future.

The ravenette shook his head and it was like all the anger of minutes ago was gone as a wistful smile appeared on his face. "Because I love her, and because I love her I want to support her, not control her. She wanted to work here, and my feelings on the matter were second to my feelings for her."

"So you love her and will support anything she does no matter what?" Gabriel asked back with a minor scoff.

"If it's important to her, yeah. Do we argue? Yeah. Do I tell her I don't want her to do things? All the time, but," Adrien paused pointing at Gabriel. "I always support her when it matters because I trust her. It's not something you've ever shown me despite claiming you're my father. You never trusted me to make my own decisions. I'm not your New Game Plus." He then turned to Nathalie. "That should be time, Nathalie. Sorry I couldn't give you that full hour, but I need to get out of here." Adrien didn't even give his father another glance as he headed for the door as calmly as possible.

Gabriel, meanwhile, was looking bewildered and irritated over his son's closing remark. "Gabriel, while it wasn't as long as I-"

"No, I'm grateful it didn't go on longer, and not because I believe it a waste of time." He added in the end when she frowned at him. "There is only so much that can be said at this point."

"And much of it needed to be said, sir."

The designer drew his lips in a line and glanced to his door. "I will not disagree with you, Nathalie, at least not completely. I will take some of what was said into consideration. Certainly that was your intention with this exercise?"

"Yes, Gabriel. If you wish for your plans to succeed then I firmly believe this was necessary." And she also needed him to stop obsessing and think more openly, but she wasn't going to say that to his face.

"Yes, I would be remiss to ask for their self-reflection and not do my own." Gabriel turned back to his drawing stand while Nathalie placed his desk back in place.

"Then I will head back to my duties, sir. I'll be sure to notify you once Mr. Lenoir reconfirms his appointment today."

"Yes, and Mr. Champ." The man reminded as he brought his previous work up. She nodded and turned to leave. "One moment, Nathalie."

"Sir?" She was only slightly worried he might reprimand her for her actions, though his confusion abated that immediately.

"Adrien brought up several things today that I either could accept or deny, but one still confuses me. What exactly is a New Game Plus?"

Nathalie found herself frozen at the realization that she wasn't aware what that was either. "I will look into it, sir."


Marcel didn't really consider herself to be the kind of girl to attract droves of men. Yes, she did put in effort to her appearance, and has had a multitude of boyfriends since she was younger, but no more than she would describe as average. She was perfectly aware that there were many girls more attractive than her. Something she didn't think, however, was that Bridgette would be seen as more attractive. Marcel knew the girl had potential, but Bridgette never put in the extra effort to reach it. Out of the two of them, she assumed that she would be the first to draw in a model's eye even though she herself wouldn't risk her professional career like that. Bridgette seemed to agree despite her obvious crush on Adrien.

That was why, when she arrived home for lunch to share it with her roommate, she never expected to find her with a model; Adrien Agreste no less. "I'm home…." She trailed off as she watched Bridgette lean over Adrien as he sat on the couch.

"Ouch, that hurts!"

"I told you to keep still or it won't stick properly." He jerked back as she placed a Band-Aid on his cheek, and then picked up the ice pack for him to use. "Now place it gently or the swelling won't go down."

"Um… Bridgette?" Marcel tried to announce her presence, but neither seemed to notice.

"I'm not a child. I know how an icepack works."

"Then don't whine like a child." She countered standing up like a scolding parent.

"If you knew how to apply a bandage correctly, I won't complain about it."

Bridgette shook her head. "You came to me for help, so you don't have any room to complain. And how exactly does a simple meeting for work turn into you coming here with a black eye?"

Felix glanced away with the icepack firmly in place. He'd been fine up until Adrien walked out of Gabriel's office. His cousin had looked rather calm all things considered and even invited him to come by and get any other baked goods for the month if he needed them. The topic had effectively disarmed him from Adrien's previous grievance, and so the punch he'd received was too sudden to dodge completely.

"Could one of you explain what's going on?" Marcel asked louder as to finally get their attention.

"Wha-? M-Marcel? What are you doing home so early?"

The blonde narrowed her eyes. "I thought I would treat my friend to lunch today since she was still unemployed after being forced to quit. Little do I know, you're here flirting on the couch."

"Flirting? Th-that is not what this is!" Bridgette denied.

"Please, you must have a seriously skewed idea of flirting if this counts." Felix supported looking apathetic as ever.

"You're here playing doctor on the couch." Marcel pointed out rather exasperated.

"No, we're not playing anything! Adrien just needed help with an injury."

He stood up and moved the ice pack away so as to show the other woman. "I couldn't afford people to see this and Bridgette happened to live closely." Absolute garbage since it happened in Gabriel's studio. He just really didn't want to deal with how Gabriel would see this injury and he knew Bridgette would at least keep quiet.

"Uh-huh… Hold on, you have a shoot in two days!"

Felix rolled his eyes as best he could. "Yes, state more obvious things why don't you?"

Marcel frowned at him. "Please act like this is a problem. I'm supposed the one to assist Vincent with your shoots since Bridgette was 'fired' and that means I'll get some of the heat when the pictures don't come out."

Felix waved it off. "I don't plan to do any photo shoots until this heals, so don't get so riled up."

"I imagine not, and it will certainly put my possible project on hold." Bridgette muttered in annoyance as well. "How exactly did you get this anyway?"

Felix sat back down and crossed his arms prompting Bridgette to force his hand back up to place the ice pack. "If you really must know… I flirted with someone's wife…" He trailed off at the 'you're a scumbag' looks he was getting from the girls. "Before they were married I'll have you know."

"And the husband found you walking around and decided to pay you back? Likely story." Marcel wasn't even a little convinced of that.

"You have to admit, it's a little hard to believe. It would basically mean you flirted with someone's fiancé at the very least."

"They were dating." He corrected.

"Did you know she was dating someone?" Bridgette asked which had him hard pressed to respond and looking away. She let out a sigh. "I suppose I will agree he was probably being a little petty, but you still brought this on yourself."

"If you agree with me at least a little, then I suppose you shouldn't have a problem looking after me for the next few days while this heals."

Bridgette gave him a hard look. "Are you planning to come here every day to complain about how I apply a bandage?"

"Of course not." He responded with a smile that had her at least a little relieved. "I plan to stay here until it goes away."

"What!?" Both Marcel and Bridgette asked back at the same time.

"I mean, I can't exactly go strolling about and risk some paparazzi getting a snapshot of this, can I?"

"Then go home!" Marcel argued.

"Or a hotel! You have the money!" Bridgette added.

"Oh, where's the fun in that?" He countered with a mischievous smirk.

"Fun!? Suddenly waking up with you in my bed was not fun!" It gave her a heart attack.

"Hold on, Bridgette, when was he in your bed?" Bridgette groaned at her own slip and the amusement that rose to Felix's mouth as a result.


Plagg hovered quietly on the shelf overlooking his chosen and Tikki's. He had something he hated having above all else: information that made him do more than he wanted too. It was just unbearable, and this time it was a real doozey too. So, just like with all the other times he stumbled across said info, he asked Tikki to decide instead. With any luck, she'd take the problem off his hands or at least make him do less work. Tikki peeked over the humans sleeping soundly together and cuddled up enough to make her gush. "Sugar cube, are they sleeping?" Plagg asked in a whisper hoping to get this out of the way.

She looked back at him with a nod, and an expression of pure bliss. Tikki just loved it when her and Plagg's chosen had such a deep relationship… And babies, she loved those too. "Let's go to the living room." She stated quietly with a wave of her paw. They settled on the coffee table so Plagg could eat his snack and not mess up the couch.

"Okay, before you think anything crazy, I didn't do anything." Plagg started proclaiming his innocence. It was often when he said they needed to talk that it had something to do with one of his… mishaps.

"I didn't say you did. I figured Adrien would have said something." Since Plagg's mess-ups usually went noticed by his chosen. "But what is it? You had me a little worried when you asked to talk earlier."

"Yeah well… It kinda has me worried too. The kid will probably go nuts when he finds out… Can we keep this a secret from him?" His previous Chat Noirs have had mixed results when confronted with a family member as their arch nemesis.

Tikki shook her head. "Plagg, you know we can't. Marinette wouldn't want to keep anything from him…. Though, I suppose we can compromise somehow." Marinette was good at that. "Now what is this?"

"Well… Earlier when the kid went out, well… I had contact with Nooroo."

"What!? You ran into Hawkmoth!? Why didn't Adrien say-"

"He doesn't know, Tikki!" Plagg interrupted with a hushed snap. The last thing they needed was to wake up the holders.

"So wait… How come he doesn't know? How did you meet Nooroo alone?"

"I wasn't alone but it was… Look it was just contact. Heck, I wasn't even sure of what happened until it was over. My miraculous came into contact with Nooroo's for a few seconds. That's what I mean."

Tikki rubbed her chin. "So… You were both untransformed… And that means Adrien met with Hawkmoth?"

Plagg nodded. "Yeah, and here's the kicker, it's his dad."

Tikki put both paws on her mouth in shock. This wasn't the first time an enemy turned out to be related to their chosen, but it was always surprising. "Gabriel is Hawkmoth?" And Marinette worked for him!? How was that for ironic…

"Yeah, which is my big worry with the kid. Their relationship already sucks. I'm worried finding out might just set him off."

The creation kwami nodded understanding where the cat was coming from. This had happened before, and yet she still wanted have faith in Adrien. "I'll talk to Marinette alone first then we'll bring it to Adrien. If anyone can keep him calm it's her."

"I leave it to you, sugar cube. I'd rather not deal with all the drama if I can help it."

"I know." The kwami answered with a quick scratch to her partner's ear.


An intervention that will hopefully give Gabriel much to think about, yeah? I started with Tom as a way to show the contrast between the two men's way of thinking. Tom, while trying to decide Adrien's schedule without the younger man's input is centered around concern for both Adrien and Marinette's situation. This is similar to how Gabriel used to determine Adrien's needs without giving his son room for input. That being said, Gabriel's results are vastly different since his process is more calculated and ridged. Tom's is softer with room for improvise and is easily vetoed by another party such as his wife. Canonically, I really hate Gabriel, but as I write his character I can't help but want to redeem him at least a little. (I don't fully understand why) He has his reasons even though that doesn't justify anything.=^-^=