"The Baker's girl?" Gabriel exclaimed, catching Adrien in the front hallway. "Why is it always the baker's girl," he muttered, exasperated.
"Come on, Gabriel, she's good for the press. And you must admit, your son has truly made Paon an icon for Paris to look up to. The miraculous are closer than ever," Natalie chimed in.
"Well, I'm sure Ladybug would come save her if we put her in danger, now that everyone in Paris is obsessed with her now." Gabriel stated, already scheming.
"Absolutely not." Gabriel winced at his son's authoritative response, fiddling with a ring that no longer did anything to the peacock miraculous holder. "It'll just be for a few weeks."
"Son, I need your full attention for the next three months. You know how important this is." Gabriel, the closest to pleading he has ever been, placed his hands on his son's shoulders to focus him into the moment.
This time, he did listen. Adrien knew he could not get distracted with what was at stake.
He was not celebrating one more anniversary of his mom's death.
Because in three months, they were getting her back.
"So, a superhero huh?" Marinette's pigtails flipped around at the sound of Adrien's voice. "Is that your type or something?"
She almost choked on her croissant as he slid down next to her at the cafeteria table.
"Oh, don't tell me you started your thing with Chat Noir up again," Alya didn't even glance up from her phone from across the table, sick of her best friend's romantic antics.
Adrien hid his own blush. Marinette was too flustered to notice.
"What? I barely had a thing with him. I mean, I didn't have a thing. At all. And anyways, this thing with Paon is like, super caszh."
"Girl, you have never been 'super caszh," Alya teased, finger quotes included.
"And that kiss did not look casual at all, brogelina," Nino chimed in. Of course he and Alya would know, being the experts on PDA. In fact, she was leaning against his chest as they spoke, Nino's arms wrapped around her waist. The moment for some reason reminded her of the time at the Louvre, the first day she met Paon, where she was too distracted by Adrien leaning on her for like a minute to properly fight off Hawkmoth. The odds of Adrien disappearing and Paon showing up made a lot more sense now.
"Speaking of Chat Noir, where the hell has he been?" Alya questioned, meaning to be pointed at Marinette but inadvertently making Adrien question his life decisions.
"I heard he was, like, in L.A. or something," Adrien said as casually as he possibly could. Thankfully, Nino and Alya were too wrapped up in the Paon drama to push that weak excuse. Marinette seemed less sure, but barely had enough time to process the lie before being surrounded with more first years.
Adrien's hired security team for her (not that she knew he was paying) had been enough to ward off annoying paparazzi but unfortunately they could not keep first years out of high school, otherwise Adrien would have hired them for that long ago. And anyways, Marinette was so kind that she encouraged the kids to 'become their own superhero' and that 'their lives were not defined by their relationships.' She didn't even seem bothered by all the kids looking up to her.
"So what's the plan for tonight?" Alya asked once the first years dispersed (at the young journalist's shooing). "Since we can't really go anywhere anymore thanks to Ms. Popular, want to do a movie night at my place?"
"I'm sorry guys, I can't," Adrien offered apologetically, "I have to do this thing for my dad."
"Aw man, how is your dad still such a bummer? Anyways, I'm always down to hang out with my hot g.f. and her best friend."
Nino and Alya's expectant faces went to Marinette. She didn't answer, slinking deeper in her chair.
"You so have a date!" Alya shot up, playfully hitting her arms. "Marinette's got a date with a superhero," she teased sing-songy.
"I thought it's like a whole debate if he's a hero anyways." Marinette protested.
"Dude, dating a villain is even hotter," Nino chimed in. Alya had really gotten him into dark fantasy recently, and that's all Adrien or Marinette wanted to know.
"Well, Marinette," Adrien chimed in, thinking he was the only one in on the irony of it all, "we can't wait to hear all about it tomorrow."