Chapter Text
Fingers flew across the keyboard at lightning speed. Five pairs of eyes were glued to the screen, looking over the results of the search before it was refreshed.
“Lemme in, Alya.”
Alya smiled as she scooted over, allowing her friend to take her spot and his fingers flew across the keyboard next as his brow furrowed. “Be skeptical all you like, Sunshine. This looks like it’s on the up and up,” she said with a grin. Her arms were loosely folded over her chest as he scowled at the screen.
Adrien cut a small glare over to her before typing something else into the search. “I still can't help but feel something's off about all of this. Father mentioned that he’s had to double security at our other European branches because of kidnappings that have happened recently. Look at this,” he said. He pressed the enter key, bringing up articles from Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. Even as far north as Finland and Estonia.
All eyes were glued to the screen as missing persons reports measuring in the hundreds dominated the search window.
“Three of our newest models from Poland are among those missing, guys,” Adrien added as he looked at them. Marinette, Rose, and Juleka were recipients of an invitation to a seminar focusing on industrious and motivated young women to award them for their initiative in their communities. The five of them were crowded around Marinette’s computer in her room, researching into this supposed group. Adrien couldn’t deny all his inner alarms were blaring in warning and his inner Chat rose up to defend his princess. His “Everyday Ladybug”.
Maybe he could ask Nathalie to take a look into this?
“Not only that, why weren’t young women like Alya, Mylene—Hell! Even Sabrina!— invited for this? They’ve been just as proactive as you three,” Adrien finished, waving towards their bespectacled friend.
“You forgot about Lila with all her charity work!” Rose piped up cheerfully. Adrien turned his head so they wouldn’t see him roll his eyes. He already knew Marinette was having the same reaction.
He looked back to the girls, surprised to see Marinette’s brow furrowed. More than likely, she knew he was right. “I don’t know, Adrien. Maybe there’s certain criteria that has to be met? Nonetheless, the comments and reviews for this are all exemplary. I understand your worries, and I’m glad you’re thinking about our safety, but I don’t see the harm in us going. We’ll be there together after all and if anything, there’s safety in numbers. Besides, it’s only lunch and a boat ride on the Seine,” she said as she looked between Rose and Juleka before giving Adrien what he recognized to be an encouraging smile.
Adrien sighed as he shook his head. Thankfully, he had the rest of the week to look further into this before the luncheon Saturday. He decided to definitely ask Nathalie for her help as soon as he got home. Maybe she would find something he couldn't.
Alya seemed to sense the shifting mood in the room. “Hey Rose, Jules? Why don’t we go get a smoothie? Adrien and Marinette need to get started on their project anyways,” she offered. Rose squealed in delight as Juleka mumbled her agreement as well and the three girls walked towards the floorset door. “Have a good day, Adrien! Later, M!”
As soon as the door closed, Marinette crossed her arms and popped a hip off to the side. “What?” she asked, her tone daring him to say what was on his mind.
“Nettie, listen, I wish I could share your enthusiasm for this. I’m not saying you’re not deserving of it— Because you absolutely are!—, just hear meowt." He tried to diffuse the situation a bit with a pun, but his princess wasn't having it, if the glare she was affixing him with was anything to go off of. Alright, Plan B, appeal to logic and emotion. "What if those are all bot posts? I’m sorry, but I seriously can all but hear alarms ringing in warning at this,” Adrien said as he stood up. There had to be a way to take the rose colored glasses of her eyes. “You are one of my dearest friends. I just don’t want to see you, any of you, get hurt.”
Marinette scowled as she looked away and she leaned back over the computer, looking over the reports of the young women that came up missing all over Europe. “Does your paranoia really justify this? Trying to talk me out of—" She waved her hands around in circles, clearly trying to come up with the right word for the occasion. It wasn't fair that she looked so adorable trying to argue her point. "—attending? Looking at those reports, they haven’t found anything linking all the disappearances, Adrien. For all we know, they all came up missing for different reasons,” Marinette argued.
“The three missing models from Poland, along with fifteen other girls, all went missing the same day Nettie. That is not coincidence. That reeks of mass kidnapping,” Adrien countered, almost savagely, as he pointed to the floor. He took a deep breath, willing himself to calm down. Fighting would get them nowhere and it put both of them at risk for akumatization. Hawk Moth hadn't sat on his laurels since the battle for the Miraculous some seven months prior and the battles only got tougher as they came. The last thing he wanted was to be an issue for Ladybug to handle on her own. No, Adrien needed to maintain a level head and keep each point clear. It was the only way to drive it home after all. The sound of clicking filled his ears as Marinette looked through the missing persons reports. He himself memorized all of them so as to keep a look out in Paris for any of the young women. A fair chunk were models he knew, some represented by his father's affiliates. It worried Adrien that someone was trying to ruin his father's business while at the same time forcing young women into—
Adrien couldn't stop the shudder that ran through him at the thought. It was even worse when he imagined Marinette in that sort of position. His expression softened as he looked at her, really, truly looked at her.
He and Kagami broke things off four months ago, as he found he was unable to get over Ladybug and Kagami picked up on it. They parted ways amicably, and the Tsurugi heiress returned to Japan with her mother a month ago to tend to an ailing family member in Hokkaido. Adrien didn’t have a lot of close female friends, in fact he could count them on one hand and still have change left over. Marinette was right behind Ladybug at top of the list, the other two being Alya and Kagami.
More than that, Adrien could sheepishly admit to himself that maybe, just maybe , he had a little crush on his princess.
Alright, it wasn't that little. The model was confused as hell because his head and his heart were waging war against each other when it came to Marinette and Ladybug.
Almost three years of partnership kept their friendship strong, but Adrien could admit to himself that he could only take so much rejection. With Ladybug, there were only fanciful daydreams with a blank image where a face should be. But Marinette?
Marinette was real and in reach. Adrien didn't have to strain his imagination when he thought of the future with her. Each thought came to him easy, naturally.
After finally thinking things over, he came to realize it was folly to try to date Ladybug using only their hero identities. He was certain she was around his age, but every girl wanted to be able to talk about their boyfriend. It wouldn't be fair to Ladybug to have only a clandestine romance that she could never confide to anyone about. So he stopped flirting. He almost gave up the nicknames, but Ladybug begrudgingly asked him to not stop calling her those. She explained that it helped her feel special in a way, and that it kept them close in their friendship. She did encourage him to give his other female friends nicknames to help him understand better and to be more like Chat with them. If they didn't like it, well, at least he knew.
So he did, carefully adding in little bits of his persona over the course of several months instead of going all in. It was too drastic a change and would make everyone suspicious. The gradual change allowed him to piss Lila off and led to him delighting in flipping Marinette's "Kitty Switch" whenever he punned. Where the nicknames were concerned, Adrien came up with Wifi for Alya, thanks to her ever constant connection to the internet and Nettie for Marinette. Well, to be fair, it was Chat Noir started calling Marinette 'Nettie' first. Disastrously, he was caught on the Ladyblog doing so after whisking his princess away from the battlefield. Though, to this day, only he and Chat Noir were allowed to call her that. When he inquired as to why, Marinette told him the only reason she didn't let anyone else call her that was because they weren't being sincere in their motives for using it. Adrien, despite having 'heard' the nickname from another person, was allowed to use it because she knew and trusted him not to use it in a teasing manner, and had stuck by her where Lila was concerned. All the other boys in their class, even Nino, were slowly morphing over to the Italian's way of thinking.
Adrien scowled once more as he thought of Lila and her manipulation of the class and her low key bullying of Marinette. He could see now he was wrong to give her the advice he did, and since her expulsion, he had Marinette's back at every battle the italian tried to draw his friend into. In a sense, the silent war Lila was raging against them brought Adrien and Marinette closer than ever. Even her stutter with him was gone.
Though, strangely enough, it was acting up around Chat Noir instead. He couldn't remember her being so skittish around his alter ego before.
Even without being head over heels for Marinette, Adrien was far from blind. He was a flesh and blood young man after all, and he definitely wasn’t immune to the natural charm Marinette held. At sixteen, almost seventeen, Marinette was gorgeous. Pale porcelain skin, entrancing blue eyes, the sweetest smattering of freckles over her nose and cheeks, and luscious raven black locks that he wanted to run his hands through. Add all of that to her quirky, spunky attitude wrapped up in a five-foot-three package and she was a prime target for those with nefarious deeds in mind. There was also her Asian heritage to consider, which would paint an even bigger target on her back.
“I’m really worried, Nettie. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if something happened to you when I could do something, anything about it. Is it wrong that I want to keep you safe?” he whispered.
Marinette’s flush deepened at the use of the affectionate nickname, she knew he was trying to appeal to her emotionally, but her eyes flashed with ire. It was a look Adrien knew all too well, challenging his statement and his heart thudded against his rib cage even as the color drained from his face.
Oh shit.
He triggered what he dubbed the “Strong Woman” complex without meaning to!
Why the hell did she have to look so alluring even when she was pissed?!
“Adrien Michel Gabriel Emil Athaneus Agreste! I am not some damsel in need of constant protection!” she seethed, stomping over to him.
Double shit! She used all five names! How was he supposed to get out of this alive?!
“I never said you were! You are exceedingly capable, and I know that! I just—” Adrien paused as he tried to find the right words and his arms fell limp to his sides in defeat. He couldn't tell her the real reasons without risking his identity as Chat Noir. Which sucked, because if there was anyone in this world he trust as much as Ladybug, it was Marinette. “—I’m sorry, Nettie. But I can’t ignore what I’m feeling. Let’s just agree to disagree for now? Okay?”
She huffed before nodding, pointedly looking anywhere but at him. “Fine.” Her tone suggested it was anything but and Adrien bit back his retort.
He had the rest of the week to find proof this wasn’t a good idea.
Adrien just needed to remind himself of that.
Nathalie gave Adrien a pointed glare as he recounted his argument with Marinette to her later that afternoon. He quivered a little under that icy blue stare before it softened and Nathalie typed a few things into her browser. “While I applaud your initiative in looking out for your friend, Adrien, you could have worded that without coming across as a testosterone driven alpha,” she scolded lightly. She pushed her glasses up with a single finger before turning her attention back to the young man. “Do we need to have a brush up on your social etiquette when it comes to ladies again?”
Adrien paled at that, and he shook his head as vigorously as he could. Nathalie, despite being his father's assistant, was a very head strong woman in her own right and would not stand for Adrien talking down to any one just because of their gender. This in turn lead to a very thorough lesson when they covered sex education a few years back, but Adrien was wiser than most young men his age when it came to Aunt Flow's monthly visit and was better prepared on how to handle most the girls in his class, Marinette and Alya especially. “No ma’am, we do not. I apologized and offered a compromise that would be agreeable to both of us, just as you taught me,” he answered.
Like Marinette, Nathalie was scary as hell when she was pissed off.
He handed her his phone, bringing attention to the image on the screen. “I did take a picture of the letterhead with the invitation, if that will help your search. Please Nathalie, I can’t explain why, but this feels like a set up. There are other young women in our class that are just as accomplished as those three, but they didn’t get an invite,” Adrien said. His voice was pleading with his caretaker, his green eyes wet with worried tears gathering at the corners.
Nathalie’s brow furrowed as she looked at the letterhead and she sent the pictures to her tablet. “Tell me all the young women in your class, and those that received invites,” she said.
“The young women in my class are Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Alya Cesaire, Rose Lavillant, Juleka Couffaine, Chloe Bourgeois, Alix Kubdel, Mylene Haprel, Sabrina Raincomprix, and Lila Rossi,” Adrien listed off without fail. “The only three to receive invites were Marinette, Rose, and Juleka.”
Nathalie was writing this information down and she nodded once she made the notations. “I’ll look into this where I can, Adrien. I’ll be sure to let you know if I find anything,” she replied.
Adrien breathed out a sigh of relief. “Thank you for your help, Nathalie,” he whispered.
Nathalie gave Adrien a rare, tender smile before she sat up straight in her seat. “You’re welcome. Go tend to your homework. You’ll be having supper with your father tonight,” she said and Adrien perked up at hearing that. He didn’t see the way her face fell as she glanced back down at her tablet as he rushed out the door.
Instead, Nathalie reached for her phone and dialed an extension. “Sir, we may have an issue. I need to go to the Poland office before the weekend. Yes sir, tonight, if it's possible.” Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she looked up something and her gaze narrowed further. “I also need to requisition employee files for our branches in Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, and Denmark. Yes sir, all females that are secondary school age. Yes sir. I’ll pack my bags immediately.”
Adrien was mildly disheartened when his father told him at supper that Nathalie had to leave for the Poland branch that very evening, but he kept up hope. Three of their models from the Poland branch were missing after all. Maybe Nathalie was gathering clues?
“Nathalie told me of your worries for Marinette and your other classmates, Adrien,” Gabriel whispered from the head of the table.
Adrien couldn’t help but flush at the unspoken question in his sire’s tone, and he picked at his supper.
“Or is she more—”
Adrien’s whole face flushed as red as his partner’s suit as he turned to his father in a panic. “She’s just a friend!” he squawked, his voice cracking. He held his throat a bit, his rouge deepening at the sound. He hadn't done that since he started going through puberty!
A pale blond brow arched curiously at the interruption and Adrien saw the corner of his father’s mouth twitch. Whether out of amusement or ire, he wasn’t sure. His father was so damn hard to read most of the time. With a shake of his head, Gabriel muttered, “The apple certainly does not fall far from the tree.” He took a few bites of his supper before clearing his throat. “Nathalie informed me she would be back before the weekend, Adrien. The only thing I can suggest is to not bring it up in conversation if you can help it,” he added.
Adrien nodded as he took a sip of his water. “I was already considering that,” he admitted. His brow furrowed a bit as he folded in on himself. “Marinette and I already argued about the seminar. She’s as scary as Nathalie when she’s upset, so being on her bad side is detrimental to my health,” he half-joked, drawing a small snort of amusement from his father. A grin turned up the corner of his mouth for it and Adrien leaned forward to take another bite, relishing in the rare smile on his father’s face.
Gabriel coughed to hide his amusement further and he looked up at his son. “Does this mean the normal offerings of flowers and chocolates?”
Adrien almost choked on his next bite at the unfamiliar teasing and his eyes bugged out.
Who was this man and what did he do with the stern Gabriel Agreste?!
“Navigating the intricacies that make up the fairer sex are mind boggling to say the least, Adrien. You’re already a step ahead of your peers thanks to Nathalie’s tutelage,” commented the fashion mogul. “Though with Marinette, you’d better be bready to rise to the occasion.”
Adrien choked again, though this time in mirth as he was overcome by a fit of laughter. When was the last time his father made a pun?! It had to be just before his mother disappeared! He picked up his napkin, giving his father a challenging grin.
It had been too long since they’d done this.
“I doughnut know, Father. The yeast I can do is let her cool down. I croissant imagine making her upset again,” Adrien replied.
Gabriel chuckled before resuming his supper. “I’m sure you’ll get a filo for the situation soon enough. I’m certain you won’t macaron choice.”
“No! You stole my macaron pun!” Adrien groaned with an ear to ear grin. “That’s a batter pill to swallow.”
“And that’s why I’m rolling in dough , son. You knead another decade of practice before you can bake me on,” Gabriel said with a matching smile. “Though, by the way you talk about her, I can’t help but wonder if she’s stolen my son’s tart .”
Adrien sputtered again, and he set his utensils down. There was no way he was going to finish his supper if his father kept teasing him like this. “Looks like I’ll have to grain and bear this,” he mumbled. “I can’t fold a candle to you when you’re on a roll .” To his surprise, his father laughed out loud at that one. “As much as I would love to keep proofing off, I do need to start my portion of the research for our project. It’s a shame to see this opportunity crumb and go.”
Gabriel was still chuckling as the staff collected their plates. “You’ve gotten better than I thought. You’re excused, Adrien. I have a few things I need to email to Nathalie before I retire for the evening. I’ll see you in the morning, son,” he said.
Adrien gave him a blinding grin before nodding. “Have a good evening, father.”
Maybe, just maybe, this week wouldn’t be so bad after all.