Gabriel had had a plan for how Adrien's life would go, ever since his son turned eight and Gabriel knew what he could accomplish and be if he was molded and steered in the right direction. It was a good plan, all of the details ironed out and put in place with a mind for Adrien's future success and happiness.
He would pick up Mandarin, after mastering English and Spanish. He would be active, winning awards from basketball and karate and fencing. He would be accomplished, talented at playing the piano for a cultured crowd and above age level in his studies. He would know world history and be up-to-date with fashion trends and know who to pay attention to in order to make the right connections. He would have impeccable manners and handsome looks, and everyone would admire him as Adrien came into adulthood.
The first hitch came when it became apparent that, unlike his parents, Adrien had no flair for designing. His drawings were... well, childish, despite the art classes that Gabriel had insisted he take as a child. Emilie had been the one to allow Adrien to discontinue those courses after he complained about not liking it, which Gabriel hadn't been thrilled about. But she had been right- they had both been drawn to art from a young age, and the fact that Adrien wasn't suggested that designing simply wasn't his calling. Besides, the drawings that Adrien had done had been utterly unimaginative, drawings of what he had seen instead of inspiration for what could be.
But Adrien was showing a head for numbers and an ability to pose and model, and so Gabriel simply altered his son's life plan. Instead of design school and a place as a lead designer in the company, Adrien would start modeling early and then take business school when the time came. He could still be the head of Gabriel once Gabriel retired, keeping the business part of the company in hand and leaving the actual designing to others. It would be a good set-up, since Adrien would earn a generous salary quickly, acquiring savings that his peers could only dream of.
If all went to plan, Adrien would graduate from the younger grades early, heading straight into business school and balancing it with his modeling with all of the ease that Emilie and Nathalie were working hard to drill into him. He would be popular, but undistractable as he graduated with his degree at only twenty years old. There would be a few months of an internship, perhaps, just to stave off talk of favoritism, and then Adrien would rocket through the ranks of the company until he worked under only Gabriel and Emilie. He would meet a woman when he was well established in his career- twenty-seven or twenty-eight, perhaps, old enough to be established but not old enough that the bachelor status wouldn't be regarded as a positive thing anymore- and then get married, with his parents designing the outfits for the entire wedding party. They would have a child, a golden-haired Agreste heir, and that child would grow up just like Adrien, well on the track to success.
And then Emilie vanished, and that was when Gabriel's well-laid plans started to go off of the rails. An injury in karate meant that Adrien had to be pulled from that before he could further harm himself. Adrien insisted on going to public school, where his tutors couldn't continue to push him ahead of the curve. He got distracted by new friends and got his first crush.
Gabriel had hoped that it would be a full decade more before Adrien started to get his head turned by women. Fortunately, the crush was on a superhero, and therefore she was out of reach and Adrien's pining was a harmless celebrity crush. Still, it was only a matter of time, surely. Adrien had some perfectly nice-looking classmates both in collège and lycée, and unlike Ladybug, they were accessible.
Still, Gabriel's plan stayed largely on track. Adrien was a popular model already by sixteen, and there was talk about him even starring in some movies in the future once he had finished university. He was top of his class, and was fluent in Mandarin (and English, and had at least a decent understanding of Spanish), and a star player in basketball and fencing. His piano was fabulous, and Gabriel had even had him play at the runway for a couple years before his son reached the age and height to be able to join the other models on the runway. Adrien applied and got into business school, and flew through while balancing an increasingly heavy modeling load, even modeling for other companies that weren't Gabriel's direct competitors. He graduated-
-and that was where Gabriel ran into an unforeseen snag. Adrien had evidently decided that a business degree- the business degree that his parents had been preparing him for for his entire life- just wasn't enough for him, and so he had applied to a school in London to get a Physics degree.
Not even a school in Paris. No, Adrien wanted to leave and go to London, of all places, opting to stay a student instead of sliding into the fast-track job that his father had prepared for him.
Gabriel tried to talk him out of it. He pointed out every logical point of why Adrien shouldn't go, why he should just stay and not move to another country and get another (completely unnecessary) degree, but his stubborn son just wouldn't listen to him. No doubt his so-called friends had his ear, insisting that he cling to his completely unnecessary dream instead of thinking logically.
He had known that he should have insisted that Adrien be sent to a private school instead of going to public school when his son pushed to end his homeschooling. No doubt the company that Adrien would have found at a private school would be more inclined to listen to logic and know that going into business was a much better route than going for some low-paying Physics job.
Nathalie had talked Gabriel into a compromise of sorts- if he let Adrien go and even helped fund the little spurt of rebellion, then Adrien would try out the degree, realize that it wasn't what he had expected, and come home. If Gabriel continued to dig in his heels, then Adrien would turn up the stubborn as well and insist on finishing up the degree just out of spite. So Gabriel backed down, but only just.
Surely he could make his son see reason. He wasn't going to sabotage Adrien's arrival in London, though. If he cancelled Adrien's apartment or didn't have Nathalie sort other moving details out, that could put Adrien in danger, and he wasn't going to let anything happen to his son.
But even with his conviction that Adrien would drop the program in short order, Gabriel couldn't help but think up worst-case scenarios.
Adrien might decide to finish the program and spend three years away. He might get a Physics job in London and permanently relocate there. He might not finish the degree but find a woman to date there, and knowing Adrien's romantic tendencies, he would agree to move there and get a job in Business in London instead of bringing her back to Paris. Adrien might go a little crazy with his newfound freedom in London and get picked up by the gossip rags there, the ones that were widely considered to be some of the worst in the world. He could get in so much trouble, and there would be no way for Nathalie and Gabriel to do damage control in time to do any good from all the way over in Paris.
So perhaps he went a little over the top with a list of rules for Adrien but really, they were all common-sense rules. Ones that were in place to protect Adrien. Really.
After all, if Adrien were serious about the degree, surely he wouldn't want to get distracted by a relationship, right? He would stick his nose in a book and study like a good boy.
Except Gabriel didn't take into account Adrien's streak of mischief, or his annoyance at being given a list of rules. The fake marriage had sent Gabriel into a tailspin, scrambling to try to fix it before Adrien ruined his life. It was a prank, of course, but Gabriel had learned one thing, something that kept him up at night worrying.
One of Adrien's longtime friends had already chosen to move to London and had a job there. To make matters worse, she lived right next to Adrien, literally just across the hall from him, which meant that they saw each other all the time.
Gabriel could see the probability of Adrien staying in London rising by the minute. Adrien's friend- Marinette, Gabriel thought she was called- might persuade Adrien to stay in London with her long-term instead of returning to Paris. She would lessen the chances that Adrien would get homesick and move back to Paris, and she no doubt was one of the friends encouraging Adrien to stick with his Physics degree, so there was less of a chance that he would get frustrated and drop out without working on it.
And Gabriel could see the fond way that Adrien looked at his friend. If they spent too much time together, the chances of Adrien falling in love with her would be pretty high. And though they could move back to Paris- after all, Marinette was a native French speaker- she did already have a job at Madam Rosalie's fashion house and if the conversations that he had had with his wife's old friend were anything to go by, it was a very good fit.
As in, Marinette would probably stay there and if Adrien fell in love (when Adrien fell in love, because who was he kidding? Adrien was clearly already fond of Marinette), then he would get a job in London just to stay with her, and Gabriel would barely ever see his son. The last bits of his plans for Adrien- the dropping Physics and returning to business at Gabriel, the modeling until Adrien had aged out- would fall to bits. There would be no family legacy unless he tried to foist the fashion house off on Adrien in his will (and what would the point of that be, if Gabriel weren't there to see the transition and make sure that Adrien wouldn't just sell the fashion empire?). There would be no molding his grandchild to follow in his footsteps, either, not at that distance.
And if he just had to guess, Gabriel assumed that Marinette would do all of her own designing for her wedding and her future family. Maybe Adrien would continue modeling, but it would be for Madam Rosalie's fashion house, not Gabriel.
All of his work was falling to bits, and there was nothing that Gabriel could do to stop it. Nathalie had warned him that pulling Adrien's funding could easily lead to an unrepairable rift between father and son, and there was no way to change Adrien to another building without his permission. After all, Adrien was an adult.
Gabriel grumbled at that. Adrien had been much easier to wrangle as a child, so eager to do the things that his parents wanted.
He wondered if they could have kept Adrien on his plan if Emilie hadn't vanished.
After the wedding prank, things just kept on coming up in London. Tabloids were running pieces about Adrien and his friend, and Gabriel had to apply pressure to make sure that Adrien would take care of the mess that he had created. It was clear that Adrien wasn't happy about it- no doubt he would prefer that Nathalie and Gabriel clean up after his stunt, Gabriel thought sourly- but he did it.
Gabriel could still get his son to do some things, it seemed. That was a relief, even if Adrien seemed to be trying to stay in London as much as possible, away from Paris. He was even modeling for Madam Rosalie's house.
It seemed like Gabriel's worries were coming true. Adrien was getting integrated into things over in London, setting up the connections he would need for a longer stay there.
There were more tabloids, more articles romantically linking Adrien and Marinette. Gabriel called Adrien up every time, heart in throat, terrified that this time, the papers would be right and Adrien would never return to Paris. They were never right- well, not that Adrien admitted, anyway- and Gabriel always beat himself up a little bit for paying attention to them, but they were getting a bit too close to his worries.
He had already lost his wife. He didn't want to lose his son, too, but Adrien was drifting away too far, too fast.
Then Adrien decided to get a summer job in London, a position using his Business degree. Gabriel had argued, pointing out that it would make much more sense for Adrien to come back to Paris for the summer and work at Gabriel. Adrien could see what it would be like to work at Gabriel, and perhaps he would decide to stay, away from the allures of London and the wide smile of his friend who lived there. But Gabriel's arguments were to no avail, and Adrien accepted the office job.
At least he had agreed to come back and do some summer photoshoots before starting the job, though. Adrien was still willing to be part of his father's company, and that was a huge relief.
Despite Gabriel's best efforts, Adrien went back to university for a second year, then a third. He got a summer Physics job between the two of them and slowly, slowly, Gabriel began to admit that there was probably very little chance of Adrien returning to Business as a career.
At least Adrien hadn't started dating that friend of his. As far as Gabriel knew, Adrien would be returning to Paris and moving back into the mansion.
There was no reason for Adrien to decide to live elsewhere, after all. Apartments in Paris weren't exactly cheap- particularly the high-end ones that were fitting for an Agreste- and whatever job in the Physics field that Adrien might have been able to snag surely wouldn't comfortably cover that, even if Adrien was going to be modeling as well.
Gabriel sent Nathalie a quick reminder that he wanted to have a whole slew of outfits ready for Adrien to get fitted when he got back. There was no point in him sitting around while he looked for a position, after all.
When Gabriel heard that Adrien was back in Paris and had arrived at the mansion, it was as though a mountain of stress had fallen off of his shoulders. Adrien hadn't stayed in London after all, which was what Gabriel had worried and worried about.
Of course, his worries weren't entirely gone. He had only learned a couple days prior that apparently remaining entirely single until one's late 20s was no longer in style, which meant that Adrien's image was in danger and as Gabriel's main model, his image was important. That change was ridiculous and annoying- Gabriel had remained single until his early 30s, when he met Emilie when she modeled for him, and there hadn't been a single comment then- but entirely fixable. A couple short stints of dating- or appearing to date, anyway- would put the press off, and if not, well, that was what Nathalie was for.
And then, when Gabriel called Adrien into his office to welcome him home and instruct him to get settled, his son had a huge bombshell to drop on him.
"Father, I wanted you to meet my fiancée, Marinette."
His fiancée. They had been dating after all, keeping it a secret and out of the tabloids as much as they could. A secret from him.
Just like he feared, Marinette was going to whisk his son back to London, where Gabriel would only rarely get to see him. There would no doubt be a switch from modeling with Gabriel to modeling with Rosalie, and- and-
And then Adrien mentioned the curveball that apparently shouldn't have been a curveball at all: Marinette's presence in London hadn't been permanent at all. They were both coming back to Paris, and Gabriel breathed easier.
Well, mostly. Apparently his son- his handsome, innocent son- was going to be sharing Marinette's old room at her parents' house until the two of them found an apartment to move into in Paris. Gabriel protested- he and Emilie hadn't moved in together until after the wedding, after all- but apparently Adrien couldn't be persuaded to stay at home until he was actually married.
The choice to stay at the Dupain-Cheng home was truly an odd one, if Gabriel thought about it. The Agreste mansion had far more room, including guest rooms for Marinette to choose from while they were there.
"He is an adult, Gabriel," Nathalie reminded him as Adrien left the mansion, hand-in-hand with Marinette. They were clearly close, the picture of young romance."He's going to be making his own decisions now, and it's not going to go over well if you try to direct him, particularly if you want to direct him away from what he wants to do."
Gabriel knew that, deep down inside. That didn't mean that he wasn't going to be irritated by it.
"Being an adult hardly means that he's suddenly mature," Gabriel sniffed, turning his attention away from the security camera footage as Adrien and Marinette headed out of range of the cameras' view. "This surprise engagement nonsense- that's something a kid would come up with. He should have told us that they had started dating."
"Sir, with all due respect, you did forbid dating."
"So that he wouldn't run off with some English girl, obviously," Gabriel sniffed. "Had he made it clear that Marinette was going to be coming back to Paris once he finished with school and she finished her internship, I would have approved it from the start. She would bring him back here to stay. An anchor, of sorts." He paused. "Do you think she would accept if I offered her a position at Gabriel? I could keep an eye on them that way."
Nathalie's expression went even flatter. "Not if you phrase it that way, sir. And if she didn't apply for the opening that we had for the designer position, I'm assuming that her answer will be 'no' no matter what."
"She might have just not advanced enough for me to see the portfolios. It was quite a competitive field." Suddenly focused, Gabriel headed for his computer to ask for a list of names of all of the applicants, just to see what his chances of success were, if Nathalie's hunch was correct.
He would still ask, of course- Gabriel could be very persuasive, it was how he got his fashion empire started after all- but he liked to know more about his targets before approaching them.
Once the email was sent and both Nathalie and Gerald had left for the night, Gabriel went to wash up for bed, planning on how he was going to approach Marinette and persuade her to join Gabriel for the good of the company and the Agreste family (as long as she hadn't been hired elsewhere, of course). He went to bed with a smile on his lips, new plans for Adrien and his bride-to-be dancing in his head.
Marinette, advancing to head designer. The fashion papers, singing the praises of fashion's new power couple, designer and model. Gabriel getting to stay in the family, except with an interested party. Adrien eventually leaving his Physics job so that he could work in the same company as his wife, and their child following in Marinette's footsteps. Probably not golden-haired- Marinette's hair was too dark for that to be a high probability- but between her and Adrien, the genetics would be gorgeous. They would go into modeling first, then start designing- all with their Grandpa Gabriel's oversight, of course- he would pay for art classes as Christmas presents, maybe- before joining the company.
Perhaps it wasn't quite what he had initially planned or expected, but this new future looked bright.