Note: This story is going to wrap up next chapter. Thought I'd give out a warning, so that it was less abrupt. :) I hope you have all enjoyed this story, as short as, it was. But I have lost the drive to make this story what it was intended to be. So, I changed the original plan to what it is now. One last chapter of Gabriel talking to Adrienette. Anyway, thanks for all of the favorites, follows, and nice comments. Thank you for reading and for everything. :)
Adrien and Marinette walked back into the mansion, exhausted from their date, and Nathalie met them. Adrien ran his hand through his hair, making it messy before he looked up to see her.
"You're father wants to talk to you." Nathalie began to walk towards the office and Adrien sighed. Marinette searched from him to her and followed them to Gabriel's office.
Nathalie knocked on the door and after a short come in, she opened the door for them.
Adrien and Marinette found him hunched over a slew of photos from photographers. Photos of Adrien with Marinette pressed against a wall at the Louvre. They walked over and peered down at them. Adrien put his hands in his pockets and cleared his throat and Marinette blushed at them.
The photos didn't show much. It was mostly Adrien's back each time. The only thing that was showing any indication that something lasciviousness was going on, was her expression. But even then… it was mostly Adrien with his lips on hers. To the untrained eye, it looked like a couple making out in public.
She looked up at Adrien and smiled when she realized that he had shielded her from the press. "You blocked it?" She mouthed at him in silent words and he just smiled at her.
"Of course. We'll talk Later." He mouthed back and Gabriel's clearing of his throat brought them out of their private conversation.
"Adrien. I know you know better than this." Gabriel sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I'm sorry, father. It won't happen again. Trust me. I-" Adrien played with his silver ring and began to spill his emotions at letting his father down, as usual, but Gabriel interrupted him.
Gabriel rose his hand into the air, noticing the tension between the two adults, and spoke with a serious canter. "I don't approve of what you have done, Adrien. But, your mother and I were young once. And seeing as how they didn't capture much… I'll let this pass, but don't do it again!"
Adrien's mouth fell open in shock, "Wait! What?"
Gabriel cleared his throat and handed the photos over to Adrien. He didn't want to cause more pain. Didn't want to drive them over the edge more. This was their fight and not his. He could only give them a life lesson of his own in hopes of making them understand. "One time when your mother and I were on a date… We too had press following us around and I made the decision to do something, on a whim, that probably wasn't the best." He sighed, took off his glasses, and pinched the bridge of his nose. He couldn't believe that he was telling his son such a personal story.
"We were at the theatre taking in a show when I thought it'd be fun to bring her onto my lap. She was shocked to say the least. I then said let's make a real show for them to talk about and she blushed. It was only after our satisfaction that she cared about the cameras. She slapped my cheek and ran off to the bathrooms. Naturally, I followed her and tried to calm her down. I apologized to her. In the end she was fine. A little angry, but we seemed to work it out." Gabriel sighed and pointed at the images in Adrien's hands. "I went ahead and had the evidence of that moment destroyed. I paid them all off to ensure their silence. The only thing people will know about are the romantic moments after that. Like I said. I know how that can be, but you need to learn from this. You already screwed up once at that party and now you've done it again. I won't have this happen a third time." Gabriel looked at them with a stern expression and Marinette nodded, while Adrien was lost in the very idea of his parents having sex around cameras. Something that he would never fathom doing. Too risky for his taste. "Now, get out of here. I think you two have a lot to talk about. I can tell by Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng's expression."
Marinette jumped at her name and looked at Adrien with her lip between her teeth. Her cheeks were a bright shade of pink. "Y-yes. We do."
"I'm sorry, father." Adrien emerged from his thoughts, bowed, and took Marinette's hand. He walked out of the office, leaving Nathalie there with Gabriel.
"What are you thinking?" Nathalie watched the man rub his chin in thought.
"I'm thinking that this may be more than a lie. When she told me she loved him… I wasn't sure it was the truth. But now… he screwed up and instead of leaving… she stayed. She reminds me of Emilie in that sense. I screwed up so many times and yet she stayed by my side and handled the pitfalls with me. She was strong and lively and I see that in Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng." Gabriel peered over at the massive portrait of his wife. "I may have been wrong about this whole thing, Nathalie."
Adrien sat at Marinette's kitchen island, playing with the photos of them. He didn't say anything for a moment and the sounds of Marinette digging out mixing bowls and pans filled the silence. She was stress baking and he knew it. He had seen it enough times to know. In his mother and in Marinette.
"I'm… I'm really sorry, Marinette." Adrien didn't look at her.
Suddenly the slamming of a metal whisk on the counter woke him from his remorse. "YOU KNOW WHAT'S SO STUPID?"
He peered up to find an irritated Marinette and he shook his head.
Marinette sighed and tied her pink apron around her waist. "You know what? It doesn't matter." She began to crack eggs into a mixing bowl. "If I didn't want you to do that… I would have pushed you away sooner. It was fun and wild and I never felt so alive, but it was the shock of realizing that cameras were there that set me into flight mode. So, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for running away and making it look worse than it was. I should have trusted you. Should have- You've been doing this for so long." She added the milk, water, vanilla extract, and flour to the bowl.
"It's true that I have been doing this for a long time, Bugaboo. Longer than I care to have." Adrien sighed and began to tear up the images, when Marinette suddenly dropped the whisk and grabbed the photos.
"WAIT!" She took them and his mouth was open in shock, as she ran into another room and came back with tape. He watched her meticulously piece them back together.
"What are you doing?" Adrien raised an eyebrow in shock at the project that the love of his life had begun to do.
"Just because it's being erased from everyone's mind… doesn't mean that I want to forget it. You're father's right. We're young. We make mistakes. Aren't we allowed to? I don't want to forget the time we had in front of those cameras. I don't want to forget you. I'd rather learn from it." She smiled and held up the fixed image. "There. Fixed. And you know what? I'm gonna frame it."
Adrien shook his head and chuckled, while he rubbed his eyes. "Seriously?"
"What? Look at the love in my eyes. When are we ever going to get a picture like this again." Marinette smiled and ran off to get a frame that she had lying around.
"Marinette." Adrien ran after her and grabbed her by the wrist as she was digging through drawers in her craft room. He pulled her to him and touched her cheek. "I know I embarrassed you and I know what I did wasn't much better than at the party."
Marinette stopped searching for a moment and turned to peer up at a very sad Adrien. She touched his cheeks with her hands and rubbed his cheekbone with her thumb. "I was embarrassed because I knew what had happened. Not by what they probably captured. I- I panicked once the high faded and I pushed you away and caused a scene. I said things I shouldn't have. I said that- well what I said…" She rolled her eyes and moved her head from side to side, before she continued. "And it was better than at the party because we weren't under the influence. Neither of us had drank or had been drugged." Marinette sighed and let his face slip from her fingers. "I'm glad that your father erased it like it didn't happen. I owe that man more than is possible, but I'm not going to chastise you for what you did. After all, I'm just as guilty." She found the frame and carried it out to the kitchen.
Adrien followed her like a lost puppy and Marinette hummed as she began to set the photo inside. She folded the prongs in and set it up beside the stove. "There. It's pawsitively purrrfect." She winked at her soulmate with a smile to let him know that all was forgiven.
Adrien sighed and sat back down on the stool he had been sitting on before. "It's- it's okay if you think what I did was wrong." He played with his ring and looked down at his lap. "You can tell me. I'll listen."
Marinette sighed and picked up the mixing bowl. She had hoped that her little pun and wink would have brought him out of his self-pity, but he didn't seem to have even noticed. Her heart broke for him. She had never seen him so low. "Come over here."
Adrien looked up at her and pushed away from the island. He slowly sauntered over to the stove. Marinette put him in front of the stove and took his hands. "You're going to make crepes. Because cooking and baking always makes me feel better." She smiled and made him pour some of the thin batter into the small pan. She rotated his hand, causing the batter to coat the round surface. "There you go." She made him set the pan back onto the burner and she pointed at a tiny, pink, kitty themed spatula. "Use that when the edges start to pull away from the sides and curl up."
Adrien sighed and watched the crepe cook on the stove. Tears fell from his eyes and he tried to hide it, while Marinette was behind him cutting strawberries. "I can hear you." She lifted her foot and kicked him gently in the butt. "It's okay. You're fine. I'm fine. We're fine. A little mistake never hurt anyone. We all make them. Why can't we?"
Adrien rubbed his nose with the back of his hand and flipped the crepe. He still kept quiet as she walked over to drop the strawberries into a saucepan with some white sugar. She whisked them on the stove beside him. "I love you. All of you. If you're going down? I'm going with you. And, Kitty, we're going down swinging." Marinette winked at him with a warm smile.
His nickname brought him out of his spiraling, negative, thoughts. Thoughts where he blamed himself and tried to think of logical ways that he could have made an alternative choice. He placed the finished crepe onto a plate, before he put another spoonful of batter into the pan and rolled it around to coat the bottom. Marinette leaned over and kept stirring the berries. "You know you're cute when you cook, Mr. Cat-tastrophe."
Adrien jumped at the new nickname and pursed his lips. "Ha-ha very funny, Ms. Trip-over-my-words."
Marinette burst out laughing and took the cooked strawberries off of the burner. "How can I compete with such a clawsome partner in crime?"
Adrien rolled his eyes and flipped the crepe. "I think you mean clawsome LEADER." He smirked and leaned over at her.
Marinette tapped his cheek with her palm. "There's... my silly kitty."
Adrien placed the second crepe onto a plate and Marinette went about filling both with the sweet strawberry mixture. She folded each one and drizzled dark chocolate along the top. Marinette dusted the top with powdered sugar and opened a drawer to grab a couple of forks. Adrien was busy shutting off the burners and rinsing the pans for her.
"Come on. Let's sit on the couch and watch a movie. We haven't just sat and relaxed in a long time and it's severely overdo." Marinette carried the plates over to her couch. Adrien dried his hands on her pink kitchen towel before he put it back along the stove's handle. He walked over to the couch and sat down beside her. She smiled at him and passed him a plate. It smelled sweet and delicious. He couldn't wait to eat it.
"I just want to say that even if those photos had gotten out? I wouldn't love you any less. I wouldn't want you any less. You mean too much to me. You keep me on the right path. Without you I'd follow my heart and while that is a good thing… it can also be a downfall. Sometimes my heart makes me do dumb things and when I start to? You bring me back down from the clouds with your logic. And… I guess I'm saying…" Marinette cut her crepe with her fork and drug it through the chocolate syrup. "You keep me safe. You make me come back to reality. Without you… I could make some pretty bad decisions." Marinette put the bite of crepe into her mouth and watched Adrien do the same.
His eyes closed and he sighed as he took in the taste of the bitter dark chocolate and sweet strawberries. He swallowed and smiled at her. "And I wouldn't have made it this long as Chat Noir without you saving my tail once or twice along the way. None of us are purrfect, Marinette. Just like you said. And that's okay." Adrien smiled at her and took another bite of his crepe.
"Wanna watch a bad movie and forget about this mess?" Marinette set her plate down and stood up.
"I'd love that, Bugaboo." Adrien sighed and watched her slide in an old, cheesy, black and white film.
Marinette pushed play and sat back down. She picked up her plate and he wrapped an arm around her, pulling her to his side. He kissed her on the top of her head and focused on the woman on the television screen in 1930's clothing. "I'm so lucky to have a bug like you. Thank you. For everything."
Marinette blushed and peered up at him. He peered into her bluebell eyes with bright green ones. She closed the space between them and kissed him on the lips. "You have that wrong."
"Ooooh?" Adrien leaned back with a dark smirk. "Do I?"
"I'm the lucky one." She kissed him hard on the lips. He took her plate from her and set it on the table beside them. She touched his cheeks and he leaned her down on the couch. The movie was left forgotten as the woman on the television proclaimed her love for a stubborn man.
Songs I wrote to:
Sorry by Meg Myers
Make a Shadow by Meg Myers
The Morning After by Meg Myers
Lemon Eyes by Meg Myers
Sugar, We're Going Down by Fall Out Boy (Fits Perfectly)
