Adrien and Kagami ran for what felt like an hour, their parents shouting after them had faded out within the first few minutes, when they finally came to a stop they found themselves on a bridge overlooking the Canal St. Martin, the effort of running for so long catching up with the pair. Kagami leaned on the railing trying to catch her breath, Adrien seemed to be doing a little better but not by much he was still to collect himself.
"Adults are so Selfish. Forcing their expectations on us, then again what do I know I guess..." Adrien leaned on the railing next to Kagami watching the boats go by.
"If my mother had her way she'd control every last aspect of my life, my friends, my school, what I do for a living, I couldn't even ask you out without clearing it with her first. It's not fair, It's my life she's already had hers." Kagami's complaints sounded pretty familiar to Adrien; clearly Tomoe and Gabriel had a lot of the same ideas when it came to parenting. "Guess there's not much we can do though. We have to go back at some point."
Adrien had been thinking about that since he'd shouted at his dad earlier though he still wasn't sure how realistic his idea was. "Listen i've been modeling for my fathers company since I was 8, I've got more than enough money to live on, we can just go, we can run away from our parents and everything else until we're 18, we'll be legally considered Adults then, nobody can tell us what to do. We can get married and spend the rest of our lives together." Adrien was rambling by this point not even noticing Kagami's reaction.
"Married? That's a little sudden isn't it?" Kagami sounded a Little flustered, not too surprising given what Adrien had just said.
"Really? It'd be four years from now and it's not like we have to." Adrien reasoned as he stood up straight. "That reminds me I got interrupted earlier when you told me you loved me. I didn't get the chance to say it back."
"That's okay really Adrien I know how you feel you don't need to worry about saying it outloud." Kagami's reassurance did little to dissuade him.
"When we were dating I tried to learn a little Japanese. I'm Still much better with my Chinese but I think I know enough to say it." Kagami was a little surprised but it made sense of course he'd do something like that he didn't need to, he just wanted to impress her. "Kagami, ai shiteru." Adrien was pretty sure that was right but when he saw Kagami turn beet red he second guessed himself. "Wait, was that wrong? I could have sworn that was it"
"No that was right but, That's such a serious way of saying it, you'd only say it like that to someone you're married to and even then only on special occasions." Kagami turned to look back at the boats to hide her embarrassment.
"Should've stuck with what I knew I guess." Adrien quietly mused to himself. "Hey Kagami" Kagami turned to look at him and Adrien kissed her, it didn't last long, maybe a second or two. Still, she was taken off guard. "I love you"
"Why so sudden!?" Kagami asked a little louder than she meant to, causing a couple people to look at the pair.
"You didn't like that?" Adrien looked off to the side a little worried he'd made another mistake.
"I didn't hate it…" Kagami trailed off for a moment as she tried to articulate her thoughts. "I was just confused by the sudden timing"
"You two are gonna make me sick with the sappy stuff" Plagg complained as he emerged from Adriens Bag. "Shouldn't you be trying to find a place to stay? at least temporarily."
Plagg might have killed the romantic atmosphere but he had a point, they couldn't go home and if they stayed with a friend they'd need to stop their parents from alerting Gabriel and Tomoe, Tom and Sabine wouldn't but Adrien got the feeling Marinette wouldn't want to see them, Alya was out to, no doubt comforting Marinette. So really all that was left was Nino.
Luckily for the Pair Nino's parents had taken Chris to visit his grandparents for the weekend, which gave them more than enough time to figure out what they would actually do. "So You two figured everything out huh? Happy to hear it." Nino smiled as he placed a couple drinks down on the table. "Still though what now? you needed to tell your parents off eventually but you'll still need to go back, I mean you two aren't seriously considering eloping."
"I guess that wouldn't be very realistic" Adrien Conceded as he took a sip of his water, running away had delayed their problem sure, but their parents would find them eventually and then what?
"It might not be, but we could use it as a threat, they wouldn't listen to anything we have to say unless we hold some leverage over them." It wasn't exactly enjoyable to talk about her mother this way and her tone made that clear but unfortunately that was the situation they were in. "We clearly state our demands and threaten to run away if they don't meet them." Kagami stated simply though she doubted it'd be as simple as it sounded.
"If all you've got to bargain with is an empty threat then are you sure they'd listen? They might just call your bluff" Nino observed looking up at the sealing, he wasn't great at coming up with plans so it wasn't like he had any better ideas he just wanted to make sure their plan would work.
"If they don't take us seriously, we'll actually leave, not forever of course they can contact us when they're ready to listen." Adrien stated definitely, though he knew he wasn't being realistic, Chat Noir was needed in Paris so he couldn't really leave for more than a few days and it wasn't like he wanted to leave all of his friends were here.
Nathalie was stood outside of Gabriel's office she, like most of his staff, had learned to stay out of the man's way when he was in a bad mood she could hear him smashing things through the door, she didn't know the details but it didn't take a genius to figure out his talk with Adrien hadn't gone very well. Once the sounds of destruction had died down Nathalie decided to risk entering. Gabriel's desk was on its side, his computer was wrecked, his desk chair was almost broken in two and pretty much every painting was torn aside from the one hiding the entrance to the secret room, Nathalie estimated the damage to be around 4,500 not that that meant much to Gabriel.
"So I'm assuming Adrien didn't come home, do you have any idea where he might be?" Nathalie spoke up in her usual neutral tone, careful not to draw Gabriel's Ire.
"He's been acting like a petulant child. He threw away his phone and ran. He seems to think I'm some sort of Neglectful monster. Have you ever heard such idiocy?" He paused for a moment and when Nathalie didn't speak up he continued "I said have you ever heard such Idiocy?" Once again Nathalie was quiet. "Nathalie if you have something to say."
"Oh… nothing sir" Nathalie was a firm believer in 'if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything' so she elected to remain quiet. "Not to state the obvious but Surely Hawkmoth would be able to find Adrien without too much trouble."
"Of course I could but I can't have Hawkmoth show up to resolve Gabriel Agreste's problems. It would arouse far too much suspicion, I can't risk Akumatizing myself again given everything that happened Adrien would suspect I had accepted it willingly like Chloe did." Gabriel adjusted his glasses, which nathalie now noticed were cracked no doubt part of his tantrum. "Adrien hasn't given me many options here. Really all I can do is sit and wait for him to contact me." Almost as soon as he finished talking his phone rang, it wasn't a number he recognised but since he was waiting for the call anyway he answered.
"Answering the phone for once Father? That's pretty impressive for you." Adrien sounded more confident than Gabriel had ever heard him and he wasn't sure how to talk to this version of Adrien. "We need to talk."
"Adrien I hope you are calling to end this fooli-" Gabriel Began in his normal demanding tone, before he heard a click as Adrien hung up. "Is that your idea of manners?" Gabriel exclaimed before redialing the number.
"Hello?" Adrien answered in a mocking tone only irritating Gabriel further.
"Now you listen to me!" Gabriel began again, causing Adrien to yet again hang up. "If he does that one more time." Nathalie could tell Gabriel was losing his temper again, he was gripping his phone hard enough to crack the screen
"Something the matter, sir?" Nathalie was only hearing half the conversation but she'd be lying if she didn't find this slightly amusing.
"No he's just acting like a child" Gabriel said through gritted teeth redialing the number again. "Adrien it's a relief to hear from you what was there something you needed?" Gabriel forced a polite tone, hearing stifled laughter over the phone.
"See you can be polite when you want to, though I can understand why you don't do it often, that didn't sound natural at all" Adrien was struggling to avoid laughing, which seemed to be the last straw for Gabriel.
"I AM NOT POLITE OFTEN BECAUSE YOU ARE A CHILDISH!" Click once again Adrien hung up. Gabriel almost threw his phone in temper before it rang again he brought the phone to his ear speaking through gritted teeth. "What. Do. You. Want"
"I want to meet up. Somewhere open so you can't try to box us in, I was thinking 10am Luxembourg Gardens, invite Kagami's mother, don't bother showing up unless you're willing to talk to us respectfully and listen to what we have to say." Adrien hung up for the fourth and final time without giving Gabriel any time to say anything.