Adrien packed his bag for the school carnival, making sure he had plenty of water and sunscreen. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and grimaced at the ugly shade of yellow of the shirt he was being forced to wear. A bit was ok but this was too much. Although he was a model and had to wear numerous different colours of clothing, he mostly tried to avoid the bright colour. He knew that yellow would wash him out just as it was doing now. His hair was already a pale yellow/blond colour so it didn't particularly stand out well, and his skin looked less perfect than usual as every red blemish on his face and skin suddenly stood out while his white skin seemed to look even paler than usual.

He knew that his many fangirls wouldn't notice and would probably still think he looked great, but for him it was awful. And his sulky facial expressions probably weren't helping either. Adrien forced his modelling smile onto his face, and decided to try to keep smiling throughout the day. Yellow was the colour of happiness, so he would try to be that.

Plagg zoomed up from the bed and snickered from behind him, causing Adrien to scowl again and lose the smile.

'You look beautiful kid, yellow is so your colour. Maybe I should change the colour of your Chat Noir suit?' Plagg said, before he was unable to contain his laughter anymore and burst out into full laughter.

Adrien's face grew darker.

'If you do that, Plagg, I will only buy you those flat packs of fake cheese that I know you hate.'

'Ohhhh not the fake cheese!' Plagg said sarcastically, although Adrien could hear some panic in his voice and noticed that he quickly stopped teasing him.

There was a knock on his door and Plagg dived into a pile of clothes nearby. Adrien walked over to the door and opened it to see Nathalie standing outside.

'Adrien, good morning.' She said, giving him a curt nod.

'Good morning Nathalie.' He replied, wondering what was bringing her to his room this morning. Usually, in the mornings he only saw her at breakfast when she gave him is daily schedule and when she said goodbye to him when he got into the limo. If she was here now that was usually a bad sign that he was in trouble.

'Your father wishes to speak with you. Be in his study in five minutes please.'

Adrien kept his face studiously blank and nodded.

'Ok, I'll be there. Thank you, Nathalie.'

She nodded once more and turned to walk back down the corridor, her heels clicking on the hard floor.

'I wonder what he wants?' Adrien said to Plagg as he shut the door behind her and finished packing.

Five minutes later he was standing outside his father's study door. His bag was packed and in the car with the waiting Gorilla. Adrien took a deep breath and knocked twice on the door. His father had told him that two knocks was the proper way for a gentleman to act. Apparently, one knock could be taken as an accident and so would be ignored, while three was an unnecessary time waster and showed an uncomely arrogance and tenacity. Any more than that, and Adrien shuddered to think of how his father would react.

'Come in.' Came the cold voice from inside.

Adrien opened the door and stepped inside, quietly closing the door behind him and walking up to stand exactly two meters away from the large desk. His father gave him a quick glance before setting down his IPad.

Adrien had always found these meetings highly uncomfortable. For starters, the word 'meeting' gave it a formal feel which he detested. Adrien was not allowed to get too close or his father would tell him off for invading his work space. Yet if he were to stand too far away he would also be told off for his timidity. His father seemed to loom above him from his desk while being still so far away. Adrien couldn't wait to get this over with and get to the carnival.

'Good morning, father.'

'Good morning Adrien. I have a serious matter to discuss with you.'

Adrien braced himself for whatever was about to happen.

'Your maid informed me that she found blood on your sports uniform yesterday afternoon when she washed it. Are you injured?'

Adrien was surprised that his father cared about this.

'No father, it's not my blood. I girl fell over and cut her knee and I assisted her.'

His father nodded as he folded his hands on his desk.

'I see. I was concerned we would have to reschedule your photoshoot tomorrow. I'm sure you meant well in helping that girl, but in future try to refrain from such things. You may be concerned that it will be seen as willful malice that goes against our code, but I assure you it is much worse to be seen with a shirt covered in blood. As an Agreste I expect much better of you.'

Adrien stared at his father in shock.

'But…she was hurt!'

'I understand that, but next time get someone else to help. Agreste's are above such filthy labour. Now, I understand you have a sports festival on today so I will allow you to leave. Be sure to shut the door properly behind you.' And he picked up his IPad and began working again giving Adrien a clear signal to leave.

Adrien did as he had instructed but took a moment to calm himself down out the front of the study before leaving the house. He sometimes forgot how callous his father could be when it came to other people, but it was times like these that he got a nasty shock and was brought back to the reality where his father was a cruel man. He began to walk slowly down the corridor to the waiting car with his head down and hands deep in his pockets, thinking about what his father had said.

Nathalie saw the downcast boy and spoke to him a little softer than usual, almost allowing some emotion to enter her voice.

'Take care, Adrien. Have a nice day at the carnival.'

He nodded absently to her and gave her a quick, mumbled 'Thanks Nathalie you too.' before getting into the car.

As the Gorilla drove them towards the school Adrien continued thinking about the events of the day before. To him it wasn't that big of a deal to help a friend out, and especially since he had become Chat Noir he was always ready to help any citizen. Helping Marinette had been no different and even as Adrien he had let slip a quick joking tease to keep her mind off the pain. When he thought about it he hadn't really done that much either in allowing Nathaniel to do most of the work.

Thinking of Nathaniel reminded him of his own feelings yesterday afternoon. He realised that thinking of Nathaniel now he felt no jealousy as he had done yesterday when he had thought about him and Marinette as a couple. He was puzzled by this for a moment but then realised what it must mean. Nino had sometimes sat next to Alya instead of Adrien once they started dating and Adrien had felt some of the same feelings then. And since he had then sat next to Marinette he guessed that he must also be feeling close to her, so when she started to pay attention to Nathaniel he was feeling her absence as another friend chose someone else to talk to instead of him. Adrien felt relieved that it wasn't some sort of permanent jealousy. He was sure that if he dealt with his emotions properly he would soon be fine with the concept of the two of them dating. He just had to do the same as he had done for Nino: tell himself that she would still be his friend, and just because she was dating someone didn't mean that she didn't care for him as a friend. After being alone for so long every friend was precious to him, but he knew it did not give him an excuse to be jealous, and as a nice guy he resolved to fix his insecurities.

Adrien then thought of another solution to solve his jealousy over Marinette. When Nino had started dating Alya he had introduced Adrien to her and ensured they had become friends so that he wouldn't feel too left out. If Marinette was going to eventually date Nathaniel then it would benefit Adrien to befriend him. Adrien brightened up at the thought and decided that he would work his hardest to make friends with the other guy.