(Adrien and Marinette are dating to start.)
Niyana means obedient.
George means farmer.
I'm not too good at naming characters, so their names are just descriptions of their roles.
"Adrien! How long have you been hiding this from me? You let me find out from a magazine?" Tears fell from Marinette's eyes, staining the photo of her boyfriend that grinned up at her from the open page. In front of her, the real boy was not as happy as his picture, his own eyes watering like hers.
"I never wanted you to find out at all, because, I didn't want to worry you for no reason. I'm not going to let it happen, I'm happy with you!"
'Adrien Agreste engaged to heiress of rival company'
'"Père has been arranging this behind my back for ages. He first told me about a month ago. I told him no, of course, but he's not giving me a choice. I might have to go when he says he's going to take me to meet her, but that's where my compliance will end. I'm going to keep telling my père, and I'm not afraid to tell this girl and her family that I'm in love with you. Worst case scenario, no one can force me to take a vow. Even if I have to wait until I'm of legal age, I will come back to you - but the plan is to get the wedding called off way ahead of time."
Nothing Adrien could say would get through to his father, now he was a long way from home, about to meet his betrothed. He felt sick, knowing his father would dump him off for the sake of a business transaction. The wedding was supposed to be in six months, and until then, Gabriel and Adrien would be staying in one of the guest rooms of the affluent family he was expected to marry into. Then, his father would return back and leave Adrien behind with his new family.
"Père, I really don't -"
"Don't embarrass me, Adrien," Gabriel growled. "I expect you to be a gentleman when you meet Niyana. None of this nonsense about refusing to marry her."
That was the first thing Adrien was planning to say, but, when he saw her, something held him back. She was hiding behind her father, letting him do all of the talking - Adrien didn't want to scare her, and she seemed to have the emotional maturity of a child. He'd have to speak gently, and reserve the belligerence he was planning to use.
Eventually, both their fathers moved on to other matters and left their teenagers to introduce themselves. "Hi," Niyana whispered. She looked terrified, and Adrien didn't like that.
"You don't need to be scared of me," he told her. "I'm not going to let anything happen." Her expression drifted in favor of curiosity, so he chose to continue. "I'm sure you're a perfectly nice girl, but I'm in love with my girlfriend back home, and I've got to get back to her as soon as I can convince my father to call off our wedding. Besides, you hardly know me, I doubt you want to marry me any more than I want to marry you. Am I right?"
"I don't know," Niyana shivered, "I don't have time to think about what I want. I'm scared, but Daddy said this is best for me. I don't want to disappoint Daddy."
Adrien recognized the sentiment. After all, he'd spent unquantifiable effort of his own trying to please his own father, with very little to show for it. He wondered if that was Niyana's reality as well - they were both the rich kid, with an impossibly high reputation to live up to. He knew that had this arrangement been made just a little sooner, he wouldn't have questioned it, and married whomever his father wanted. He felt bad for this girl, if she was still this beholden to her legacy, it meant she still hadn't found worth outside of it. "It's okay, let him be disappointed in me instead."
The next day, Adrien was sent to school with Niyana. There he found out that she actually had a decent sized circle of friends. After their morning classes, she took him around and introduced him to each one as "the boy Daddy wants me to marry". Adrien stood around uncomfortably as some of the girls giggled and whispered, and even congratulated Niyana on her engagement. He wanted to set them straight, but he didn't want to make a scene, or cause any more trouble than he needed to. Then he noticed one boy was continuously glaring at him. Niyana had introduced him as George, and said he was her best friend ever since the third grade. Adrien knew that look, he figured he'd better go speak to George before the day was through. He caught his chance after school, when the loud group of girls swept Niyana away again, and George was off by himself.
"Look," said Adrien, "I'm not interested in stealing your girl. You like Niyana, I can tell. There's no other reason for you to be looking like you want to kill me. Well, as far as I'm concerned, you can have her. My dad and her dad are the ones who think I should marry her. I've got a girlfriend back home that I'm not willing to give up, and if Niyana had a boyfriend, it would be that much easier for me."
"I wish I could help you. I do like Niyana," George admitted, "but there's nothing I can do about it. I've never been subtle, ever since we were eleven? twelve? She's never looked at me that way, and I don't intend to push it. I'm good enough for a friend, but for a boyfriend? She doesn't want a farm boy."
"He's absolutely head over heels for her. She considers him her best friend, but she's completely oblivious to how he actually feels. I'm going to see if I can get them together - that could only help our case." Adrien was using Niyana's computer to video call Marinette. Gabriel had used his parental controls to lock Adrien's phone, attempting to cut off contacts whom he considered nuisances. Of course, that included Adrien's unapproved girlfriend. Luckily, Niyana was turning out to be a good friend and allowed him to borrow her computer, provided he didn't get caught. She was still petrified of getting in trouble herself for helping him out.
"Change the topic, now!" Marinette hissed under her breath. She had seen someone come into the room behind Adrien.
"Oh, hey! Is this your girlfriend?" Niyana asked. "Can I meet her?"
"Sure come over here. Mari, this is Niyana. Niyana, this is Marinette."
Niyana gave a little wave to the screen. "Hi, sorry for the trouble I'm causing you."
"I don't have anything against you, I guess..." Marinette muttered. She really did kind of hate Niyana for getting between her and Adrien, but also knew that wasn't really fair.
"So, are you two really in love? Tell me about it!"
"We were perfect together. I'd do anything to be with Adrien again," Marinette sighed.
"Anything?" Adrien asked with a smirk.
"Well, almost," Marinette amended, "you know what I mean."
They talked a while longer, then logged off. "I get it now!" Niyana squealed, "you two are just perfect together! I could never break the two of you up! I'm," she took a deep breath, "I'm going to go tell Daddy why I can't marry you."
"It would take nothing short of a scandal to get Daddy to call off the wedding. He idolizes Adrien's father, and this is a dream come true for him." The walls in George's house likely didn't have ears, making it the perfect place to hold a strategy meeting.
George drummed his fingers on the table as he listened to his friends recount the details so far; he claimed it helped him think. "Then why not cause a scandal of some sort?"
"Sure, but what kind? It can't be anything that would really ruin either family."
"I don't know, but try not to stress about it too much, okay? Inspiration tends to come when you relax. Oh, I know! Adrien's a city boy, he's probably never seen a real farm up close, let's show him around."
"But our biggest operation here is, believe it or not, our stud farm. We invested in a few quality bulls, collect them all year long, and pop it in the freezer until breeding season. There's all sorts of advantages to artificial insemination. This way one bull can service several dairies or beef farms, when he could only service about twenty individual cows a year if he were bred naturally. It's cheaper for our customer, they don't have to shoulder the cost of keeping a bull all year long, just to use him only two months out of the year. But my favorite part, because it seems like science fiction, is that we can sort the semen by quality and sex! Bull calves are worth more in the beef breeds because they're bigger, and heifer calves are worth more in dairy breeds for obvious reasons. The biggest problem is that we ship out most of our orders in April and May, so we have a little while that we feel like we're rich, but we have to live off of that money for the rest of the year."
"How do you keep the semen alive in shipping?"
"It just needs to be frozen really well. Most of the big shipping companies have specialized freezer trucks. They're made for transporting food, but hey, they work."
"What does it cost?"
"About 16USD for a basic straw. I think that's roughly 13,5EUR? A sexed straw runs about 50USD or 42EUR. Could be more, depending on how valued the bull was."
"Not counting the actual value of the semen, what does it cost you to process a load?"
"What are you planning?"
"A scandal."
"Mari, when you said you'd do almost anything for us to be together, how serious were you?"
"Um, pretty serious, I wouldn't kill anyone over it, but I really do want our relationship back the way it was."
"I have a plan, but I need to know exactly how much trouble you're willing to get in."
"Okay, what is it?"
"I don't want to talk about it too much in this house, there might be a snitch. I'll see if I can call you from a friend's some time soon."
"Adrien... are you planning something illegal?"
"No! I'm pretty sure it's all legal, but not something any of the adults in our lives would want us to do."
"Then I'm in."
"Are you sure? We can discuss this in detail when I get the chance."
"If it's legal, it can't be that bad. Just fill me in on what I need to do when you can."
"Okay, then I need you to clear a space in the freezer about this size," he showed her with his hands over the screen. "A package should get to you some time within the next couple weeks. There will be a note attached to it; remove the note and put the rest in the freezer immediately. There will be instructions on how to continue."
"The freezer?! Adrien, what could you be sending me that goes in the freezer?"
"Sorry! I can't tell you that right now! I love you! Bye!" Adrien disconnected the call, hyperventilating. Was he really planning what he thought he was planning? It all sounded crazy to him, but all he could think about was that he wanted Marinette back.
On the other end, Marinette was confused. What could her boyfriend be sending her from another county that had to be kept in the freezer, and would help break off his engagement to another girl? At the moment, she had no idea, but she hoped it would work.
Marinette carefully concealed the box in the back of the freezer. She didn't know what she was hiding, but Adrien had warned her adults probably wouldn't approve. She took the enclosed letter with her up to her room to see just what she'd gotten herself into. Her hand flew up to her mouth as she saw the contents of the box outlined on a piece of paper. This didn't just mean the end of his engagement, this was a lifetime commitment between herself and Adrien. Not that she was complaining, but she hadn't emotionally prepared herself for this. The package contained fifteen straws of Adrien's semen, bundled into three groups. The first set had a 90% percent chance of producing a boy, the second a 90% chance of producing a girl, and the third set had been sorted for sperm quality only, leaving the ratio of x and y chromosomes the same as it had come out of his body. Marinette blushed harder than she already was, but also laughed when she read what Adrien had labled the groups.
Louis or Hugo
Emma
Surprise!
She forgot she'd once told him the names she thought she might someday name her kids. She was surprised he'd remembered. On the flip side of the page, there were instructions on how to track when she was fertile and how to defrost sperm without killing it.
P. S. You don't have to do this. This is about more than getting me out of an unwanted engagement. Do it if it's worth it to you.
Marinette chewed on her lip. Was she ready for a baby? Absolutely not! Was she sure she wanted to be with Adrien for the rest of her life? Yes! She wanted him so badly, and she wanted his kids at some point. Her hands wandered down into her pants, she just might have to get herself ready.
In the weeks since Adrien had sent his package to Marinette, he'd heard no word about it. He continued to talk to her almost daily, but the topic just never came up. He wanted to ask her, but at the same time, was paranoid what would happen if some one else discovered what they were up to. Then, one day, their video call opened with a soft blush and a quiet, "I did it."
Hearing the news he'd been waiting for, Adrien's breathe caught in his throat. He then made himself to exhale slowly, his spine tingling. "You used it?"
"One of them, I'll try again next time if it didn't work." The two struggled to speak vaguely, but still make absolutely sure they were talking about the same thing. "So, what's the next part of the plan?"
Adrien leaned in close to the monitor. "I'm thinking we lay low for a while. I'll keep telling Père I don't want this, but I'll let him think for now that he might be able to convince me otherwise. I don't want anyone to know what we're planning or that we're planning anything, until it's too late to be stopped. Keep acting however you would if you thought I was really going to marry Niyana. I'm thinking we go right up to the wedding day, and see if we can fly you in to object. If not, I'll object to the wedding myself."
"Do you think I should tell my parents yet?" Marinette chewed on her lip, "I mean, they're going to find out on their own if I don't tell them. I can't keep hiding it forever."
"If you must," Adrien agreed. "It was never meant to stay secret for long, but, do you think that your parents would contact my father about it? I don't want him to have a chance to hide this from Niyana's father, it's best they find out at the same time. That why I want it to be announced at the wedding. It's just one more month away, you could still conceal until then, right? ... do you think your parents would be more likely to let you come if they did or didn't know?"
Marinette pondered those options. One, her parents helping their innocent daughter to salvage her pure love story, because they were suckers for romance. Two, her parents helping their pregnant daughter to reclaim her stolen boyfriend, so that the baby could grow up with a father.
"I might be able to convince them either way, but, if I fail with them not knowing, I can try again by telling them the truth. If I tell them the truth first, I've lost the chance for the other appeal. Okay, I'll tell them as much as I need to convince them, the rest, they will find out at the wedding."
"Today, my boy, you officially join the family," Niyana's father slapped a hand down on Adrien's shoulder.
"Yeah, not going to happen." It was the day of the wedding and tensions were running high. The last Adrien heard from Marinette was a few days prior, she was just about to leave France on her way there. Since then, she'd been away from her computer, and her number was still blocked on his phone, but she should be nearby now.
"Adrien do you take Niyana to be your lawfully wedded wife?"
"I don't," Adrien rehearsed in his head. The wedding shouldn't have to get that far, objections come before vows, but in his recent research he'd learned there was no real requirement that an opportunity for objections be part of a wedding at all. Their historical purpose wasn't for guests to declare their love for the intended, it was to prevent incest. Just in case a family had lost contact, and the couple didn't know they were cousins or something. There were far easier ways to keep track of it in the modern age, and "speak now or forever hold your peace" was being slowly phased out. Adrien was counting on the opportunity being given at his wedding, but had to be prepared in case it wasn't.
"Come now, don't be that way. Surely you've been here long enough to know my Niyana is a wonderful girl. You'll be very happy with her as a wife if you just open your mind to it."
Adrien stood by the altar, scanning the doorway for Marinette. Parts of this, he realized, could be considered normal. Here he was, on what was supposed to be his wedding day, waiting for the girl he loved to walk through the door. The only thing that was off was that it wasn't supposed to be her wedding day as well. Well, maybe that wasn't the only thing that was off. He was after all a teenager, being pressured to get married at an age where he couldn't have gone off and done the same of his own accord. There were many things off about this.
He saw them. He saw Tom first, the large man being hard to miss from the moment he entered, and with him were Sabine and Marinette. He tried to see if he could see any sign of his child, now four months along. He couldn't, at least not at this distance, Marinette was concealing their secret well. He saw Marinette glance his way, but it was too far to read her expression. He wanted to go over to her, but he planted his feet into the ground. Soon. Marinette and her family took a seat in the back of the venue.
The wedding march started, Niyana was escorted into the room. Adrien glanced over the crowd, locked eyes with Marinette for a moment and continued to scan. George was gaping at Niyana in her wedding dress; he suddenly clenched his fist so hard Adrien could see his knuckles turning white. 'You should make an objection too,' he silently encouraged.
The officiant began to speak, "blah, blah, blah, blah, speak now or forever hold your peace."
Marinette jumped to her feet, "I OBJECT!" she yelled.
At that moment, Adrien busted out his biggest grin, and sent it at his father. The sentiment was clear, he may as well have flipped him off.
"What's she doing here?" Gabriel asked.
"She's here because we have an announcement to make," Adrien answered loudly, making sure at least the first couple rows could hear him. "Marinette is carrying my child." Marinette hid her face in her hands, and her parents went flush next to her. 'Sorry, I didn't want to cause trouble for you.' He mentally apologized to them.
"WHO IS THIS GIRL?" Niyana's father asked angrily.
"Adrien's ex-girlfriend," Gabriel grumbled.
"Nope, just girlfriend, no ex to it," Adrien corrected.
"You said you had Adrien break up with his girlfriend a month before you came over, so he hasn't been with this girl in seven months?" He looked Marinette up and down suspiciously. "You don't look like you could be in the last trimester of pregnancy, are you sure you're not just after Adrien's money?"
"No, and no, to both," Marinette answered. "I'm just now four months pregnant."
"Four months!" the man laughed aloud. "This one's not just dishonest, she's stupid! Adrien was already here with us four months ago, and you were back in France. Tell me, how exactly could he have gotten you pregnant across the sea? You're so desperate that you let some random boy knock you up so you can claim it's Adrien's? Come now, Adrien, I won't hold you responsible for your crazy ex, we all have them. She's shown you how pathetic she truly is, so give the word and we'll throw her out."
Adrien glared at the man trying so hard to become his father-in-law. "She's not dishonest, she's not stupid, she's not my ex, and she's not pathetic. She is carrying my child. If you don't believe us, we can do a paternity test. Oh, and if you are still determined to have your daughter marry me when I'm expecting a baby with another girl, you're the one who's pathetic."
As guests realized that their would in fact be no wedding, and thus no reception, they slowly started to file out, some lingering to see if there would be more drama.
"No! Wait! I paid a lot for this wedding!" Niyana's father yelled. He pointed at Tom and Sabine, his face red and finger trembling. "YOU! You will be reimbursing me for your daughter's lies, and, if it's not a lie..." he pointed at Gabriel, "if your son somehow managed to be unfaithful to my daughter, I'm holding you financially responsible."
"Honey, is this true?" Sabine whispered, "are you really pregnant?"
Marinette nodded.
"But, how? It's not like you could sneak out of the country to see your boyfriend, and it stands to reason Gabriel would notice if Adrien went AWOL that long."
"Adrien may not have come back to France, but enough of him to get the job done did." She wouldn't meet her parents' eyes as she told them "he sent his, uh... well... you know, through the mail and... what I didn't use is at home in the back of the freezer."
"You artificially inseminated yourself? So, this was very intentional."
"It was. We couldn't think of a better way to tell his père that we were serious about staying together, since, he didn't seem to believe us when we actually told him." Marinette teared up a little bit "I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused, but I'm not sorry I did it. I couldn't stand it if Adrien married another."
Her parents were stunned. They knew Marinette was is love. They'd watched from the early stages of infatuation as their daughter's relationship grew into something more stable, but they didn't realize how far both she and Adrien were willing to go to make it work. They wished they could have caught this matter sooner, and perhaps found a less drastic way to solve it. Now, they recognized, there was a baby who needed a father. It was in the family's best interest to get Adrien back.
"You've still yet to explain how you performed this little stunt, but I'm forced to acknowledge your girlfriend isn't the crazy one. You have made a grave mistake, Adrien, being unfaithful behind my daughter's back!"
The results of Marinette's prenatal blood test had come back; both Adrien's own father and Niyana's were furious with him. He was currently endured a lecture from the latter.
"He wasn't unfaithful," Niyana interjected unexpectedly. "He was faithful to Marinette the entire time." Her father looked at her in complete shock, surprised Niyana would disagree with him about anything. "It wasn't behind my back either, Adrien told me about Marinette the first chance he got. I even helped arrange the conception of their child. It's lucky my boyfriend is an expert in artificial insemination."
"Excuse you?" asked her father, "your boyfriend?"
"George and I have been together for ages, Daddy. You never noticed?"
"I had no idea," her father spluttered, "you know you were supposed to tell me if you were seeing someone."
"Sorry, Daddy, we thought you wouldn't let me go over to his house if I told you."
"Well, you've got that right! I can't allow my precious daughter to be alone with her boyfriend unsupervised!"
"You didn't tell me you and George were a thing," Adrien commented once they were alone. George had even told him that Niyana wouldn't look his way romantically.
"I don't know what on earth compelled me to say that!" Niyana giggled. "He just asked me out yesterday!"
"Oh, well, congratulations! Between everything, it's safe to say the to say the wedding's good as called off."
"It's called off between us, but Daddy's desperately looking for someone else to get married. He spent an fortune on food and decorations. All the perishables were thrown in the freezer, but they've only got about a week before some of the things start going bad."
"Well that's an interesting dilemma. I'm sure there's some couple who would love a prepared wedding. Now I've got to sort through the other consequences of my plan. It's just catching up with me, Mari and I really made a completely new human! I'm going to be a dad! Père's not too happy about the whole illegitimate child thing, but the AI might be my saving grace. Proof that the child was intentional salvages the family's reputation somewhat. Calling me a sperm donor who happened to be dating the recipient is aparently more honorable than being caught sleeping with my girlfriend."
"Maybe you're going to need a wedding to patch all this," Niyana teased.
"Too soon?" Adrien asked. "My father might not want to think of planning another wedding for a while. If he says I have to marry Mari because of the baby, I wouldn't complain, but if not, I'm not going to bring it up myself for a few years."
A/n - That worked out having a lot less of Marinette, and a lot more of my OCs than planned. I hate having an OC driven fanfiction, but I don't think it could be much helped in this case. I'll try to make it up in future chapters.