4. Chapter 4

Marinette was more than a little bit nervous as she stood with Adrien on the sidewalk in front of Rosalie Fashions as they waited for Mr. Agreste and Nathalie to arrive. She could feel Tikki giving her encouraging pats to her side through the purse that hung at her hip. Adrien had told her that she didn't need to be out here, but she was hoping that maybe having someone else present would make Mr. Agreste tone down his anger.

It was a long-shot hope, but she was Lady Luck.

"I'm sure Nathalie will be on our side," Adrien said, squeezing Marinette's hand. "She's helped me out a lot before. She was the one who talked my father into letting me go to public school back in collège, and I'm fairly certain that she was the one who talked my father into paying for this round of university." Adrien grinned before wincing and adding "Of course, that might be gone now. I don't know. Hopefully not, but I wouldn't be terribly surprised."

They fell silent as a cab rounded the corner and sped up the block towards them. It screeched to a stop in front of them, and Gabriel Agreste unfolded himself from the backseat with a scowl. They could see Nathalie passing some cash forward to the cabbie before she got out as well and rounded the car to pull their bags from the trunk. She crossed the street as the cab zipped off.

As soon as Gabriel laid eyes on Marinette, his scowl deepened. Marinette couldn't help but shrink back a bit, edging a little behind Adrien. It was starting to look like her presence would just make things worse, not better. Perhaps she should have anticipated that. He probably blamed her for giving Adrien the idea of a fake wedding, even though it had been entirely Adrien's idea and Marinette had (very briefly) tried to dissuade him.

"Adrien," Gabriel greeted his son stiffly. "I take it you've settled into London well?"

"I have," Adrien said, squeezing Marinette's hand. "It was really helpful to have someone else from Paris already here to show me the ropes." He smothered a grin. "It's also nice to have one of my old friends nearby. Marinette's shown me around the area and introduced me to loads of people already."

Gabriel blinked, clearly surprised. "And old friend? But you said-"

"That I ran into her yesterday, not that I met her yesterday." Adrien finally let the grin slide onto his face. "I kind of thought that wording wouldn't fool you, especially since Marinette's won a couple of your design contests."

Gabriel blinked several times before turning his attention to Marinette. She tried to straighten up and exude confidence, but it was a little difficult after seeing the string of furious texts Gabriel had sent the previous afternoon.

It really was no wonder that Gabriel Agreste (almost) always got his way. He really was quite intimidating.

"Ah, yes," Gabriel said after a moment of scrutinizing her face. "Now that you mention it, I do recognize you. You went along with Adrien's immature prank?"

"She did try to talk me out of it at first," Adrien said quickly before Marinette could respond. He gave her hand another reassuring squeeze. "Actually, Madam Rosalie jumped on the idea faster than Marinette did."

Gabriel's displeased look only deepened and he shot a scowl at the building behind them. "Naturally. I assumed she was probably involved once I heard it was a prank. She's not exactly mature herself."

"It would have been better if you had told us it was a prank before we paid for plane tickets over here," Nathalie said before either Adrien or Marinette could say anything. "Or at the very least, before we had to reschedule several of today's meetings."

"Sorry, Nathalie," Adrien said, sounding properly abashed. "We just didn't think it would have quite the same effect if I backtracked right away."

"I fail to see why it was necessary in the first place," Gabriel said stiffly, turning his deep from back on his son. "If the press had caught sight of you getting 'married', they would have been all over you. Despite what you seem to think, you are recognized outside of Paris. Any tabloid reporter worth employing would probably recognize you at a glance."

"The ceremony was in a private part of the gardens," Adrien said hastily. "No one saw us, my Facebook profile is private and so is Marinette's, and we both switched our profile photos back to normal photos this afternoon. Only people we've accepted friend requests from can see our pages."

Gabriel knew that. He had had to make a Facebook just to monitor what his son was getting up to. It was really quite irritating.

"Any of your Facebook friends could have leaked the photos," Gabriel insisted. "Any of the models, or the photographer, or your school friends-"

Marinette didn't see the big deal. If the tabloids reported a fake wedding as real, so what? It wasn't as though what the tabloids said would actually affect Adrien that much. Most everyone knew that what the tabloids wrote rarely reflected the truth. Adrien certainly hadn't seemed concerned about it, and he was much more familiar with being reported on by the trashy magazines.

"Madam Rosalie already said that had planned for that," Adrien said. Marinette blinked and glanced over at him, puzzled. That was news to her.

Gabriel raised a thin eyebrow. "Do tell."

"The dress and the tuxedo that Marinette and I wore were Madam Rosalie's designs," Adrien said, spreading his hands. "And the outfits the rest of the 'wedding party' were wearing were her designs as well. She needed to have a photoshoot with them anyway, and the photos she got were good enough for that."

"And the video? It's hardly common to take videos at photoshoots, or to act out an entire wedding for the sake of a fashion ad."

Adrien shrugged. "She wanted more natural photos and I wanted to pull a prank."

Gabriel gave Adrien a look. He didn't look particularly impressed. "You've just thought of everything, haven't you?"

Adrien only shrugged again.

"Gabriel! I didn't know you were visiting." A new voice made them all jump, and they turned to see Madam Rosalie hurrying out of the building. She had an impish grin pulling at the corners of her mouth as she scanned the scene on the sidewalk in front of her. Clearly it wasn't as much of a surprise as she was pretending it was. "I would think you would have a million things to get done this early in the week!"

"I do," Gabriel said, sounding as unamused as ever. "But I rather thought that my son had decided to elope the second he set foot in London. I came over to investigate in person since he couldn't be reached otherwise."

Madam Rosalie didn't seem at all perturbed by Gabriel's tone. "Yes, I've been keeping him busy! Now come on in, I actually wanted to get your opinion on a couple pieces that just came out of the sewing room. There's something off about them and I can't quite put my finger on it." She steered Gabriel forward towards the building, ignoring his stuttered protests. "I need another set of eyes, and my interns are all out at lunch or busy."

Both of them watched as Gabriel vanished into the building, leaving them with Nathalie on the sidewalk. They turned to look at her as one.

"I've booked us plane tickets back for later today," Nathalie said, looking at her tablet instead of the two people standing in front of her. "I guessed last night that this might be a prank, but I didn't tell Mr. Agreste that."

"Uh, why?" Marinette asked, completely and utterly confused. Nathalie clearly had not been happy to have to reschedule meetings on such short notice. "Why not tell him and eliminate the need for a trip?"

Nathalie peered over her glasses at her. "Because I wasn't 100% positive that it was a prank, and Mr. Agreste was too wound up to listen to reason." She glanced away. "And it was funny."

Marinette blinked, taken aback. Adrien only grinned.

Madam Rosalie took up all of Gabriel's time until late afternoon, shortly before he and Nathalie had to head back to Paris. She bounced ideas off of him, gave him a tour of the building, dragged him around again to meet some of the interns, and then brought him to a nearby bakery to try their tarts. Once Gabriel had finished all of that, he didn't have much time to talk to Adrien before he and Nathalie had to go.

"I suppose I can't force you to return to Paris," Gabriel told Adrien as they stood outside the building, waiting for a cab to come pick them up. "And I suppose I perhaps went a little overboard with the list of things you aren't allowed to do. Please just exercise common sense in your actions."

"I can manage that," Adrien said with a grin.

With a nod, Gabriel accepted his son's words and turned to Marinette. She stood up straight, determined not to back down under his gaze. He gave her a once-over before giving her a small nod of approval. Marinette blinked in surprise.

Well, that was unexpected.

"Despite your earlier, ah, participation in Adrien's scheme, I believe you have a good head on your shoulders," Gabriel told Marinette, holding out his hand for her to shake. "You seem to be a decent enough influence most of the time, and Madam Rosalie speaks highly of you. I approve of your friendship with my son."

"Thank you, sir," Marinette managed. If she hadn't gotten a very similar response when she was younger, she would have been more than a little puzzled. As it was, she had to wonder what on earth Madam Rosalie had said to Gabriel to make him forgive them for the wedding prank. She had expected to be banned from visiting Adrien, like Gabriel had tried to do with Nino back in collège. Gabriel wouldn't be able to enforce that, of course- he hadn't been able to enforce it even when Adrien lived under his roof- but that never stopped him from trying before.

Gabriel nodded, shook Marinette's hand briskly, and stepped away. With another nod to Adrien, Gabriel stepped away and into the cab that had just pulled up. Nathalie patted Adrien's shoulder before following Gabriel into the cab.

With the roar of the engine, Gabriel Agreste vanished from their lives again.

Adrien let out a long breath and let his shoulders slump in relief.

"That went reasonably well," Marinette said tentatively. "I thought he would be more angry."

"I think Madam Rosalie did a lot of damage control," Adrien admitted, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and dropping his head on top of hers. Marinette could feel the relief radiating from him. "I honestly hadn't thought about what might have happened if some reporters came upon our Facebook pages. Madam Rosalie said that the best way to keep reporters from using the photos to try to sell a story was to release the photos ourselves. That way we have more control over it." He grinned. "And since it was a photoshoot, she could get away with calling in the makeup and hair people."

"Do the other interns know that it was a photoshoot? What about the cleric?" Marinette didn't really mind not being told that their "wedding" photos would be used for ads, since Madam Rosalie had helped them with their prank so much and Marinette was, after all, on Madam Rosalie's payroll. The others, though...

"They knew," Adrien assured her as they headed down the block, back towards their apartment building. "Apparently that cleric is Madam Rosalie's go-to person when she does wedding dress photo shoots, and everyone else was notified when Madam Rosalie initially called them up."

"Oh, that's good." Marinette paused at the street corner to let a car pass before she darted across the street. Adrien followed her. "Would have been nice to know beforehand, but I probably wouldn't have acted as naturally if I knew the photos would be released to the world."

"That's probably why she didn't tell us." Adrien pulled out the keys to his apartment as they approached their building. He glanced back at Marinette. "Are you okay with it?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course!" Marinette mostly wanted to know what Chloe's reaction would be to the "wedding" photos if she ever saw them. Of course, it was fully possible that the other girl was one of Adrien's Facebook friends and therefore had already seen everything.

She still wished she could have been a fly on the wall whenever Chloe first saw the photos, since it probably would include a whole lot of screaming. Last Marinette checked, Chloe was still under the impression that Adrien was interested in her and they would be getting together any time now. She would have been furious at the idea that "her" Adrien had been stolen away by her collège and lycée nemesis and the tantrum probably would have been a sight to see.

"Are you cooking dinner tonight?" Adrien asked as he unlocked the building door. He opened it and waved Marinette in in front of him. "Because I can take over, if you want to start baking the cake for tomorrow. Is everyone still coming?"

"That would be nice." Marinette flashed a smile at Adrien. "Then it can cool and I can frost it later tonight so we don't have to rush tomorrow. And yeah, everyone is still coming. Lynsey might be a little late, though. She said she had something that she needed to do before coming over."

They split up as they reached their respective apartments. As much fun as it was to work in the same kitchen, they would just end up bumping elbows endlessly if they tried to cook dinner and a cake at the same time. Marinette would just have to get her cake ready and in the oven, and then she would set a timer on her phone before coming over to join Adrien while it baked.

Adrien checked his phone partway through cooking and grinned at the messages he was getting. He was still getting a ton of furious texts from his friends back home- Nino and Alya in particular were still riled up about the prank, though Nino had relaxed some and now was a little more concerned about Gabriel Agreste's visit. Adrien let Nino know that the visit had gone about well as it could have before he went back to preparing dinner. Five minutes later, the dish was in the oven and Marinette was slipping through his door.

"Cakes are in the oven," Marinette reported. "I need to go back in half an hour to check on them."

Adrien perked up. "More than one cake?"

"There's a lot of us, and I wanted to make sure we would have enough." Marinette grinned at Adrien. "And I wanted to make sure we would have leftovers."

Adrien fistpumped and practically danced around the room. Even though they had had cake at the wedding and would be having it again at their little thank-you-for-helping-with-the-prank party tomorrow, more cake was always great. Especially when that cake was made by a Dupain-Cheng.

Marinette had to dash out only minutes after they sat down to eat to check on her cakes. She was back three minutes later.

"I have to get them out of the pan in ten minutes," Marinette managed as she flopped back into her chair and picked her fork back up. "And then I have to make frosting later, and I was planning on doing some piping as well..."

"I'm sure the others won't care if the cakes aren't fancy, Marinette," Adrien said when he noticed how frazzled Marinette looked. "You aren't baking for an actual wedding."

"I know, I'm just used to making things taste and look good." Marinette took a bite and kept talking. "And it really won't take too long to make the buttercream. I can just make a white base and color the stuff for piping. The piping itself can take a while, but it's relaxing."

Relaxing wasn't the word Adrien would use for it- he remembered a particularly spectacular fail when Tom Dupain let him try to pipe designs on a cookie- but perhaps it just came easier to naturally artistic people like Marinette.

"Maybe we should have brought dinner over to your place," Adrien said when Marinette jumped up again to free the cakes from their pans.

"I'll be right back!" Marinette called over her shoulder. "This won't take long!"

The door closed with a click behind her and Plagg immediately popped out from where he had been hiding in the kitchen.

"Ooh, a romantic dinner with your wife?" Plagg teased, swirling around Adrien. The kwami had been highly amused by the whole prank and he hadn't stopped calling Marinette Adrien's wife ever since. "How domestic!"

"It's not like that," Adrien said in annoyance. "You know that. Marinette's one of my oldest friends, so of course I would ask her to be the bride for my prank. We've been over this."

"But that was a very hot kiss you gave her," Plagg taunted. The kiss had been Plagg's favorite topic of conversation; he had even downloaded the photos of the kiss and printed it, hiding the photos around the apartment for Adrien to find at random times.

(He just had to hope that Marinette didn't find any while she was visiting; he wasn't sure how to explain it if she found a close-up of him kissing her behind the couch cushions.)

"We had to make it look convincing."

"Uh-huh." Plagg sounded more than a little smug. "Most weddings have a very brief lip-locking, you know, and no dipping and no tongue."

"There wasn't tongue." He had briefly considered it (not that he would tell Plagg that), but he had already surprised Marinette with the dip. He didn't want to make her stiffen because he pressed it too much. "And we were trying to get my father to think that we were so absolutely swept away by each other after a day that we had to get married. Dipping Marinette to kiss her was the most romantic thing I could think of."

"Uh-huh." Plagg looked like he might want to say more, but the doorknob turned and the door opened. He zipped back to the kitchen in a black blur just before Marinette stepped in.

Adrien was going to spend all of his time with Marinette if he could be free from Plagg's teasing for even a little longer. Of course, that might just make the teasing worse once Marinette left, but Adrien was willing to risk that. Plagg was bound to get bored of it after a while.

Right?

"Cakes came out fine and they're cooling," Marinette reported as she slid into her chair again. "I might have to stick some stuff in your fridge, though. Buttercream is better refrigerated, and I just don't have the space for the cakes in my fridge with all the stuff I have in there right now."

"Maybe you can finish your dinner first," Adrien said teasingly. "I'm finished over here, and you aren't yet. I feel like I'm just staring at you as you eat."

"Eat more," Marinette suggested between bites.

Eventually Marinette finished, and they worked together to clean up their dinner before they headed over to Marinette's apartment. Adrien was strictly banned from sampling the cake ("You'll get to try it tomorrow, be patient!") or the frosting ("Okay, fine, but only after I've finished frosting everything, so get your fingers away from the bowl!"), so he busied himself with shuffling food from Marinette's fridge to his own so Marinette would be able to fit her cakes in her fridge.

"I think that's good," Marinette said after a couple minutes. She was finishing with the base coat of frosting, and it looked amazingly smooth instead of spackled on like it always turned out when Adrien and Nino made cakes. She was already mixing food coloring into the white frosting. "I can just stack things in there up to free up a little more room."

"Or I can do that," Adrien said from where his head was stuck in the fridge. "You just focus on the cake."

It took another half hour before Marinette finished. She covered the cakes loosely and placed them in the fridge before collapsing on the couch next to Adrien.

"Long day," Adrien sighed, wrapping his arms over the back of the couch. "I'm glad Nathalie booked their plane tickets back for today. She's an absolute lifesaver; I don't think I could handle dealing with my father for an entire day and having to worry if he was going to change his mind and take me back to Paris any second."

"I didn't realize she was so cool," Marinette said, mirroring his position. Her eyes were closed and her hair fanned out behind her head. "She figured out the prank and didn't tell your dad, that's hilarious."

"She gets tired of his crazy overreactions as well," Adrien said with a chuckle. "And she likes looking out for my best interests. My father can afford a few last-minute plane flights, so it was only the meetings that my father would have to reschedule."

"That's kind of a big thing," Marinette pointed out. Still, she didn't sound particularly concerned about it. "But I'm sure if it was a huge deal, Nathalie would have told him."

"My father really doesn't have to be at as many meetings as he thinks," Adrien said with a grin. "I'm fairly certain that Nathalie just sent interns to a couple meetings to take notes for my father to read once he gets back."

"She's efficient."

"Yeah." They fell silent for a bit, and then Adrien spoke again. "Have you responded to Alya and Nino yet? I'm not really sure how to respond to a lot of what they sent."

Marinette snorted. "I just ignored what they said during the freak-out and went back to texting them like normal. I couldn't even figure out what they were trying to say during most of them."

"Ahh. Good idea." Adrien pulled off his phone and shot off a few texts. "Oh, by the way," Adrien added a bit absently, glancing over at Marinette. "What did Alya mean when she texted me and said that she hadn't tried to set us up for years just for us to not invite her to the wedding? When was she trying to set us up? I don't remember that at all."

Marinette paled.

A/N: So I appear to have forgotten to mention here that this is, in fact, a slow burn fic, which would explain the 19+ chapters I have written. There's still plenty of shenanigans to come.

Up next: The start of the slow burn (sort of) and a couple superheroes go out for a spin.