Does This Work?

There wasn't really a way Adrien was going to get out of this situation without conflict with his father. He'd been caught red handed. Gabriel Agreste was the type of person who would use whatever he could get his hands on to restrict Adrien's movement. He had been opposed to Adrien attending public school since the first day he ever mentioned it, only allowing him to go when he realized, he wasn't going to be able to stop Adrien from going. He only allowed him to go so he could place restrictions on him even while he did that. The limousine rides there and back hadn't been for Adrien's benefit. They were so Gabriel knew exactly where his son was at all times.

All these restrictions, all these rules, all these harsh codes Adrien was forced to live by, all these became the reason he lied. And he had gotten way too good at it for even his own liking.

Getting caught though... His father was going to use this against him as much as he could.

He stared at his son, his eyes piercing, narrow, and a frown on his face. Just a few simple, not particularly observant observations told Adrien everything he needed to know about his normally expressionless father.

He was .

"...Would you believe me if I said we went out to grab some snacks for the project?" Adrien said, trying to joke his way out of the situation. He wasn't going to lie his way out of it, so what was the worst that could happen at this point?

His father didn't even twitch. "Who is the girl?"

Bad. Very bad. The less his father knew about Marinette, the better. Then again, it wasn't like he could deny her existence to him anymore either. It was pretty hard to deny what was right in front of him.

"A friend."

"A girlfriend?"

"Would that be a problem?"

"Consider me curious. I want to know who she is." That wasn't a request. It wasn't a question. It was a demand. Should Adrien deny it, there would be consequences.

"...Yes, she's my girlfriend." He didn't have a choice. His father wasn't going to believe that she was just a friend, he had made that perfectly clear. There wasn't any point in digging a deeper hole than he was already in.

"Name."

"...Marinette." Just telling him her name made him feel disgusting. He felt like he'd betrayed her. It wasn't like he had a choice... But it made him sick either way. '

"Her full name."

"What difference does her full name make?!" Adrien yelled, basically out of panic. This was a line he didn't want to cross. He'd already told his father way more than he was comfortable with. He didn't make his panic obvious, but his tone of voice indicated his discomfort, something he knew his father would pick up on.

The truth was, the first name really would be all Gabriel needed to figure out who Marinette was. He had a picture, and a first name. He even recognized her from the Derby hat contest. He had her face. He was willing to let the last name slide. He already knew enough. "Fine. Then how long have you been seeing her?"

What would make him less angry, Adrien wondered, telling him that was technically their first date, which it technically was, or that technically they had been seeing one another for a couple of weeks? There were a whole load of technicalities that Adrien himself wasn't sure what he'd consider the official start of their relationship.

"...A few weeks." It was better to tell the truth in this situation right now. Not like he had much of a choice. Adrien liked to consider their first few interactions as Chat and Marinette to be the start of their relationship.

"And why did you not inform me of this?"

That was easy. "Because I knew you'd have me in here answering questions like right now, father."

His father stared right at his son, before turning around in his seat. "Very well. Do not lie to me about your whereabouts again. Dismissed."

Every muscle in Adrien's body suddenly, and unexpectedly, relaxed all at once, and he found himself able to sigh. That was it? That was all that was going to be said about the matter?

No. His father wasn't going to let that be it, surely. He couldn't just let this go... "...What do you want with her?"

Gabriel didn't reply. Adrien wasn't sure if it was because he was nervous or not, but the fact his father didn't say a word compelling the young teenager to keep talking.

"Father, Marinette... She isn't a negative influence on me. She actually makes me feel happy. I enjoy being around her, but it's not going to affect me. I can still do my schoolwork. I can still do my modelling work. I can still do all those activities you plan for me. The only reason we even went on a date yesterday was because it was when was free." He bit his lower lip, and could taste the iron of his blood. "I'm the one who asked her out, not the other way around. This is on me. So... Don't bother her. Please."

After an uncomfortable, lengthy silence, Gabriel spoke, still not turning to face his son. "...You had better hope she doesn't impact your grades or work, Adrien. Or I take measures against her."

"Then... You... Approve?"

"We will see. If I deem her as a negative influence on you, I will prevent you from seeing her, and will take steps to enforce that."

A passive threat to remove him from public teaching... but it was a hell of a lot more than he had been expecting. Adrien wasn't sure if he could believe this or not, but he refused to look deeper into this than what it was. "Thank you, father!"

"You will also have a modelling session come Friday. Prove to me that you're mature enough for a relationship with someone else there."

"Yes, father! I shall!"

"Dismissed." Gabriel noted this was the first time he had ever needed to tell Adrien more than once that he was dismissed.

He heard the door shut a few seconds later.

It wasn't so much that the famous designer was opposed to his son having a girlfriend. He understood the feelings a teenage boy would have.

It was that he wanted to save his son from the pain of losing a loved one.

He knew that ultimately, he couldn't stop his son from seeing this girl - While he could take steps to prevent it as such, if Adrien was serious about this girl, he'd find loopholes, excuses, and straight up lies in order to see her. It would hurt both of them less if Gabriel made it easier for his son.

He wouldn't tolerate lies, however.

And the first sign Marinette showed of being a negative influence, he wouldn't hesitate to implant restrictions regarding her.

"I guess our secret relationship didn't last too long with your dad, huh?" Ladybug said jokingly after hearing the news from Chat.

"Urgh... I'm sorry... He knows who you are because of me..." Chat apologized again, for about the seventh time that night.

"Stop with all the sorrying." The red heroine said softly, scratching between the two fake ears on Chat's head. "I'd rather him know who I am than you get in trouble because of me."

Making a noise that sounded akin to a purr, Chat sighed. "You're far too good to me, My Lady."

"Against my better judgement."

"Aww, don't be like that." The cat hero purred once again. One huge benefit to being the hero Chat Noir, Adrien found, was that when he was like this, he actually did become more like a cat. And that included his reception to things like this sort of petting.

The two of them had met in their normal sot once again, as the legendary defenders of Paris. A week or so ago, it had been the site of Ladybug's rejection of Chat Noir. Now it was the site of Ladybug discussing the recent happenings with her boyfriend.

"Have you had any ideas regarding Chloe and Alya?"

"And Nino." Chat added, sighing, lamenting the absence of Ladybug's hand atop his head. "Nothing comes to mind. It can't be an Akuma. Ivan's the only person we know who got Akumatized twice, and both times he became Stoneheart."

"But that was because I didn't purify the Akuma..."

"We don't know enough about Akuma." Chat said with another sigh, this time out of frustration. "We don't have a clue if it works that way... But even if it , what benefit would Hawkmoth get from it?"

It all made sense, what Chat was saying. Hawkmoth could be working from an unseen angle... but what angle could he be working from by changing people's personalities? There didn't seem to be a reason. Unless he was trying to ruin their personalities to the point they didn't want to be Ladybug and Chat Noir anymore, but it seemed like a long shot.

There just wasn't enough to work with.

Ladybug sighed. What a mess.