When Adrien arrived home, he was immediately called into Gabriel's office by Nathalie. He took a deep breath and once again ran through the script that he had mentally prepared for the conversation he was about to have with the two of them. He took a deep breath and stepped into the atelier.

"We've received Mlle. Dupain-Cheng's acceptance to the internship program," Nathalie began with no preamble. "Was this why you went to their residence this afternoon?" Adrien gave a quick, simple nod in response.

"Yes," he followed after a moment. "Marinette had reached out to me because she was nervous about the number of Gabriel employees that get akumatized. I assured her that I would help be by her side to ensure that she wouldn't be stressed enough for Monarch to go after her."

Nathalie opened her mouth to speak, but she didn't have a chance to get any words past her lips before Adrien continued speaking. "Now, if Marinette noticed how many of your employees are getting akumatized, I'm certain that she isn't the only one. So, you're going to stop going after your own employees."

Adrien's expression was cold and serious as the next words continued pouring out of his mouth, "And so help me, if one, single butterfly goes after her from here on, I'm going to encourage her to leave, quit my modeling job, and spend all of my time as Adrien Agreste trying to tear down the Gabriel brand."

"Adrien-," Nathalie began before she was cut off by Gabriel raising his hand to silence her protests.

"I understand, son." Gabriel's tone was mostly cold, but there was an undertone that sounded almost proud of Adrien. Gabriel knew that having Cat Walker join him was bringing a rebellious side out of Adrien, but this was the most he'd ever seen his son take after his strict nature rather than his mother's kindness.

"I will ensure that Mlle. Dupain-Cheng is never made the target of one of my butterflies." Gabriel smiled, in a way that looked almost uncanny to his son. "Tell her that we're excited to have her join the Gabriel design team. You are dismissed." Adrien nodded once again, thankful that the conversation went better than he'd ever expected.

When Nathalie was certain that Adrien wouldn't be able to hear her, she questioned Gabriel's response to Adrien. "I suspect," Gabriel began, "that Mlle. Dupain-Cheng is Adrien's Émilie. If I'm any indication, it seems best to not get in between an Agreste man and the woman he's fallen in love with. Wouldn't you agree?"

Nathalie agreed with the sentiment, albeit reluctantly. She had been working for Gabriel for years and 'love' was not an explanation he had ever used except in the case of Émilie herself, specifically in regards to his reign as Paris' supervillain.

Adrien, meanwhile, was ecstatic. Even if he couldn't be Ladybug's partner anymore, he was happy he was doing what he could to be a good Anti-Akuma Partner to his princess. When he returned to his bedroom, he closed the door behind himself and retrieved the letter from his pocket. In Marinette's clear, print writing read the words 'My knight' on the outside flap of the page.

He supposed that he should be glad that she hadn't addressed it to 'Chat,' but part of him was nervous that she'd addressed the letter like that because she didn't believe that the original had been written by him. Hopefully, though, by retrieving the letter from her balcony, she would know he was the real Chat, even if it had been Adrien who'd technically gotten it. Even more technically, it was Plagg, but shhhh…

He read the letter and couldn't help but to smile. She'd decided to believe him. That knowledge made his heart skip a beat and he was practically certain that, alone, would be enough to make him cry, but he'd kept himself composed, knowing it would be for the best. The way that she'd talked about Gabriel was ruthless. She was right, but it was ruthless.

Sure, there was a chance that the villain was going to take advantage of the change of allegiances, but Adrien was learning to defend himself. In just the short time that he had been Cat Walker regularly, he felt stronger, more confident, less afraid of every little thing that Gabriel said or did. Even if he did try to implicate the once-hero, no one would believe that after the years Chat Noir worked at Ladybug's side.

At the very end of the letter, Marinette mentioned that she'd been accepted to the internship program. He knew that he'd known that for weeks from the meeting, and for hours from Marinette, but this time felt different. Neither of them could be sure how often they'd be able to communicate, but that didn't stop Marinette from telling him about getting accepted to the program.

He was hit by another wave of pride for her. He wanted to hug her, tell her how happy he was for her, and spin her around if she would allow, but that wasn't something she could allow. None of it was. Chat Noir had to do his best to keep his distance from his princess and no matter how much he wanted to run across the rooftops to the bakery right then and there, he knew that would only lead to bad things for both of them, and possibly more of Paris.

He wondered as he tore out a piece of notebook paper, how soon would be too soon for him to bring the next letter to the Dupain-Cheng bakery. Would Tom and Sabine find it suspicious if there were just a random letter for Marinette left on the counter like there had been that day? He supposed he was lucky they'd even been willing to bring it to her, given the suspicious circumstances.

He wrote out the next letter, this time longer than the last. He was careful not to say anything that would out his identity. He barely mentioned Monarch in the letter, in fact. He congratulated Marinette on the internship and otherwise, tried to keep the topics of the letter generally light, wanting to make sure that he wouldn't stress her out.

After all, Chat Noir didn't know how anxious she was about being akumatized, so there was no reason he should mention the agreement he'd come to with Monarch. No matter how desperately he'd wanted to assure his princess.