Chapter Text
“We’ve come to warn you, Adrien.”
Adrien jumped, dropping his history textbook and bumping his head into the door of his locker. He turned, rubbing the sore spot on his head, to see Alya and Nino sharing a laugh.
“Never do that to me again.”
Alya shrugged. “You don’t want us to warn you against your impending doom? Fine, c’mon, Nino.” She started pulling him away by his sleeve, but he yanked her back.
“This was your idea, you have to see it through.”
Adrien turned away from them and picked up his history book. “Are you two done with the theatrics yet? I’d like to know if I’m dying before class.”
“Not before class, but possibly before the end of the day.”
Adrien turned back and gave them his full attention. Nino shrugged one shoulder, and Alya gave one more dramatic pause before stating, “PEPA.”
Adrien laughed. “I’m going to die because of PEPA?”
“No,” Alya countered. “You are going to die because of the PEPA party.”
Adrien returned to loading books in his satchel. “I thought that wasn’t until next week. Besides, I doubt Père will even let me go.”
“Irrelevant details,” Alya waved him away. “Tickets go on sale at lunch today, which means the girls will be on the warpath.”
“How d’you figure?”
Alya’s smile was predatory. Nino looked like he was trying not to laugh. “Word around the girls locker room is that this is the type of party you go with a date to.” She leaned in to him. “Just how many girls in this school do you think want to go on the arm of Adrien Agreste?”
Adrien looked at Nino. “I’m doomed.”
Nino didn’t hold back the laughter anymore. “Sorry, my man. Lots of people would love to be in your position, though.”
Adrien looked around at the locker room. There were a lot of girls still around, some he knew and some he didn’t, but none of them had approached him yet. Suddenly he felt like they were all watching him, waiting for the right moment to pounce.
“What should I do?” he whispered.
Alya smiled at him. “My suggestion? Get a date as soon as possible, that way you don’t have to worry about letting everyone else down easy. Think about going with someone you will actually enjoy spending time with instead of one of the faceless masses.”
Adrien stood quietly for a moment, his mind whirring. He needed to figure out a way to get out of this unscathed and with permission from his father. A plan was falling into place.
Alya was still talking. “…Lila who clued me into it. She would probably be willing to go with you as a favor.”
Adrien tried to hide his horror, but wasn’t sure he did a good job. “Thanks for the heads up. I’ll see you in class.”
He slammed his locker shut and hurried away, ducking into a boy’s bathroom where he would (hopefully) be safe. The bathroom was empty. Plagg flew out of his bag.
“Are we hiding from the girls?” he asked.
“Yes, Plagg,” Adrien admitted, bracing his hands on the sink and looking in the mirror. “But I also need to think. I need a date, and a way to convince Père to let me go.”
Plagg floated up next to him. “So go with Lila,” he said, sarcastic. “You father seems to approve of her.”
Adrien huffed out a laugh. “I’d rather stay home.” He waved his hand under the faucet, moving it away quickly to avoid the water that rushed out. “But someone he approves of…”
“Is it going to be Kagami again?” Plagg groaned. For some reason, his kwami liked to complain about Kagami, something about cheese and bread that Adrien didn’t understand.
“No, she doesn’t really like parties. Remember the royal wedding?” They shuddered in unison. “No, I think I have the perfect plan. C’mon!”
He held his over shirt open and Plagg flew in. Adrien rushed out of the bathroom and pushed his way against traffic down the stairs to the courtyard. The PEPA table was set up on the far side, by the stairs to the cafeteria.
Marinette and Aurore were seated next to each other. A younger student stood in front of the table, listening to Marinette explain about PEPA’s message. She caught Adrien’s eye and smiled, and he motioned that he was waiting to talk to her. He snagged a pamphlet off the table while he waited.
P.E.P.A.
Positive Emotions Preventing Akumatizations
What is PEPA?
PEPA is Mayor Bourgeois’ new initiative to spread positive thinking and improve morale in Paris. PEPA programs have been instituted in all schools and government offices this year. Programming includes meditation classes, psychoeducation about controlling your emotions and restructuring maladaptive thoughts, morale boosters, and fundraising events. For more information about how to get involved in your organizations PEPA branch, contact your PEPA rep.
Your organization’s PEPA rep is: Caline Bustier
“Adrien?”
He looked up from the pamphlet to see Marinette looking at him with a questioning smile, done talking to the other student. Aurore was on her phone, trying to pretend she wasn’t paying attention.
“Hey, Marinette.”
“Did you want to learn more about PEPA?” she asked. Adrien liked PEPA. He wasn’t sure how effective it actually was in preventing akumitizations, but anything aimed at helping him and Ladybug defeat Hawkmoth was a plus. He would have been happy to get more involved with the school’s organization, but didn’t have the time. Nino wasn’t that interested, and Alya claimed to dislike the programming because it would mean less of a chance that Ladybug and Chat Noir were needed in close proximity. Marinette, however, had thrown herself into it, helping Mlle. Bustier organize events, plan fundraisers, and make posters.
“Actually, I had a question for you about the party,” he started, feeling inexplicably nervous. Marinette cut him off before he could continue.
“Oh! The party! It’s one of PEPA’s morale boosters to help fight against the winter doldrums. It’s a proven scientific fact that people’s happiness goes down in the winter months. Seasonal Affective Disorder is more severe, and here’s a pamphlet about how an already depressed mood can increase akumatization odds.” She handed him a pamphlet with a picture of a woman on the front emblazoned with ‘SAD’. “The party is next Friday, and tickets go on sale this afternoon. All proceeds go to the Akuma Relief Fund,” she said, rifling around on the table. “We have a pamphlet about ARF somewhere…”
Adrien laughed. “That’s okay; I’m sure they’re worthy. Um… I kind of heard that this was something people go to with a date?” He hated the way his voice got squeaky.
Marinette chuckled, her cheeks turning pink and her smile falling. “Oh, yeah, that. I think Lila started that one. She was saying something about visiting London and America and school dances… I don’t really know. Who knows if it is even true. But I think that’s what everyone is planning on doing now.” She shrugged. “Hard to stop something once it started.”
“Right. Cool, cool, cool,” he answered, half to Marinette, and half as a reminder to himself. “So were you, um, planning on going with a date?”
Marinette choked, and started coughing. Aurore reached over and thumped her on the back, giving Adrien an inscrutable expression before turning back to her phone. “Me?” Marinette finally managed. Her face was completely red. “Oh, I don’t know. I guess I hadn’t thought about it. Well, maybe thought about it a little but I guess it all depends on if anyone asks me. Not that I need to be asked but… Is it hot in here?” She picked up a pamphlet and started fanning herself. “I mean most of our friends are dating. People, not each other. Well, some are dating each other. Like Alya and Nino and Ivan and Mylène. So they kind of have built in dates, ya know? And we will all probably just end up hanging out together so I don’t think it really matters if we have dates. Not that I wouldn’t want… that is I wouldn’t be against it if someone wanted to go with me but it’s probably just about matching clothes and corsages and stuff and embarrassing pictures taken by parents and…”
Seeing Marinette in a typical panic made him feel calmer. Adrien put both palms flat on the table between them and leaned forward. “Marinette, do you want to go with me?”
Marinette cut herself off mid sentence. She stared at him, eyes wide and unblinking, mouth slightly open in the shape of the last word she said. The moment of silence stretched between the three of them. Him waiting, Marinette frozen, and Aurore trying to pretend she wasn’t eavesdropping. The first bell rang.
“Right,” he said, realizing Marinette wasn’t going to respond. He felt his heart drop. “Nevermind. Forget I said anything. I just thought… well it’s like you said that we would all be together as friends and you and I are friends and I thought we would have a good time together but that’s okay. I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable and this doesn’t change anything.“
Aurore was no longer hiding her laughter.
“I’ll see you in class,” he said, his voice quiet. He turned away and started toward the staircase.
“Adrien, wait!”
He turned back; Marinette had jumped from her seat and looked almost ready to climb over the table, one hand outstretched toward him. Her eyes were still wide.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to… that is… I’d love to go with you.”
“Really?”
Her startled face softened into a genuine smile. “Really, really. Sorry for not answering you. I panicked, and…” She grabbed her backpack and came around the table to join him. Aurore winked at him.
Marinette fell into step with him as they started walking to class. “I wasn’t expecting you to ask, so when you did I kind of shut down. And it takes me a little while to reboot.”
Adrien laughed. “That’s alright. As long as you really want to?”
She nodded emphatically, her pigtails slapping against her shoulders. “I really want to.”
“Good.”
They reached class and took their respective seats, but Adrien pulled a few euros out of his wallet and turned around. “Here,” he said, sliding the bills to Marinette. “I have fencing practice at lunch so can you buy two tickets for me?”
Marinette lay her hands on the money, her fingers brushing against his. “You don’t have to pay for me.”
“Please,” he said, smiling. “I want to.”
“Oh.” She smiled back at him. Nino and Alya were clearly watching them. “Okay. Whatever you want, I’ll do. I mean I’ll do whatever you ask.” She groaned. “I’ll take it.”
Adrien held her gaze for a moment longer before turning back to face the front. Nino nudged him.
“Dude,” he said, holding out his fist and waggling his eyebrows. Adrien rolled his eyes but bumped his fist against Nino’s.
Some furious whispers, a slap, and a high pitched whine came from behind him, but when he glanced back, a red faced Marinette just smiled and waved.
~~~
A high pitched whine filled the ears of the patrons of Tom and Sabine’s Boulangerie Patisserie after school.
Sabine looked up from the counter to see her daughter framed in the doorway, a not completely uncommon expression of shock on her face and a small piece of paper clutched in her hand.
“Salut, dear. How was your day at school?”
Marinette did not respond, but continued whining. A customer Sabine had never seen before was looking between them with an increasingly concerned expression. This most likely wasn’t something important enough to lose a customer over.
“Marinette?”
Marinette waved the pieces of paper around. “A…Adrien.”
Sabine nodded, understanding completely. “Marinette, darling, why don’t you come back here while I help this customer?”
Marinette did not seem capable of moving on her own, so Sabine walked over to her and steered her toward the back. She caught a glimpse of the words on the paper in Marinette’s hand. PEPA Winter
She nudged Marinette toward the back door and poked her head into the kitchen. “Tom, can you help a customer? Marinette’s having an Adrien moment.” Tom closed the oven door and wiped his hands on his apron, smiling at her in affirmation.
She marched Marinette up the stairs with minimal resistance, and led her into the front door of their home. The sight of the living room seemed to bring Marinette back to consciousness.
“MAMAN!” she screamed, almost deafening Sabine. “Maman, Maman, Maman!”
Sabine helped Marinette remove her backpack and set it on a kitchen stool. “Marinette, Marinette, Marinette! What happened?”
“Look!” She thrust the paper into Sabine’s hand, who could now officially confirm that it was a ticket to the school’s PEPA party next week.
“You got your ticket for the party?” Sabine asked, trying to figure out what exactly was the cause of her daughter’s excitement.
“Adrien.” Marinette took a deep breath, apparently trying to regain the ability to speak more than one word at a time. “Adrien bought the ticket.”
“Adrien’s ticket?” Sabine asked. Marinette nodded. “Oh, Marinette. Didn’t we talk about taking Adrien’s things?”
Marinette shook her head rapidly. “No! I didn’t steal it. He asked me…. HE ASKED ME!”
“He asked you to take his ticket?”
“No! He asked me to buy two tickets. For him. And me. Maman, he asked me!”
“Asked you?”
Marinette seemed to be reaching her breaking point. “To go with him! As his date! He asked me out! Adrien Agreste asked me out!”
“Oh, darling,” Sabine said, hugging her daughter. “I’m so happy for you.”
They stood together for a quiet moment, Marinette finally calm, before she let out another ear shattering scream.
“I have nothing to wear!” she lamented, pulling at her pigtails. Before Sabine could respond, Marinette pulled away and dashed up to her room, probably about to tear apart her entire wardrobe.
Sabine shook her head fondly for a moment before leaving and returning to the bakery. Tom stood behind the register, ringing up the customer from earlier.
“I heard a lot of shouting?” he asked.
“Adrien asked her to be his date to the party.” Tom’s face lit up. “No, Tom, you are not going to scare him like you did to Chat Noir.”
Tom frowned. “But, chérie, it’s Adrien!”
Sabine laughed, patting Tom on the arm and handing the receipt to the customer. “I know.”
~~~
“Nathalie!”
Adrien sang her name from the front door, but his voice echoed around the house. The expression on Gabriel’s face was nothing short of appalled. Nathalie left the atelier to see what Adrien wanted.
Adrien stood at the front door, surrounded by his school bag and his fencing gear, wearing the expression he used when he wanted something.
Nathalie sighed. She was not paid enough for this.
“Nathalie,” he repeated upon seeing her, thankfully no longer singing. “Keeper of schedules and sanity in the Agreste household. How was your day?”
She took off her glasses and wiped them on her blazer before responding. “What do you want, Adrien?”
He faked an offended look. Really, for a model, he was very bad at acting. “You wound me, Nathalie. Don’t you know you are my favorite of Père’s employees? Don’t tell Le Gorille that. But really, you’re more like family than employee anyway. You’ve become like a second mother to me.”
“That is definitely not going to work,” she cut him off.
Adrien laughed. “What am I saying? You are much to young to be my mother.”
She bit down on her tongue to prevent the laughter from escaping. “Adrien...” she warned.
He dropped all pretenses immediately. “Okay, there’s the PEPA party next week.”
Nathalie felt something inside of her die at the mention of that word. She feigned ignorance. “Pepa? Is that one of your friends?”
Adrien rolled his eyes. “No, it’s the mayor’s thing to prevent akumatizations. My school has a program.” He suddenly looked thoughtful. “Maybe Père can start one at Gabriel? There seem to be a lot of his employees who become akumas.”
Wanting to steer Adrien away from that concerning line of thought, Nathalie said, “So there’s a party?”
Adrien nodded. “Yeah. Next Friday night. I checked, my schedule is completely free! So I could go to the party. Actually it’s less of a party and more of an event. A school sponsored event. And it’s for charity! All proceeds benefit the Akuma Relief Fund. Here,” he pulled a pamphlet out of his satchel and handed it to her. It said ‘SAD: Everything you should know about Seasonal Affective Disorder.’
“Oops, wrong one,” Adrien laughed. “Actually I don’t think I ever got one for ARF. But that’s okay, they are real. And Père loves charities.”
“This is very well prepared, Adrien, but I don’t think he will want-”
“Oh wait, there’s more!” Adrien was really getting into it. “Apparently this is the kind of party – no event – you take a date to.”
Nathalie frowned. “So you want us to find you a date?”
Adrien waved her away. “No, no, I already have a date. I asked her and she said yes and that’s a promise I made. And you know what Père says: ‘A promise made is a promise kept.’ How would I look if I went back on my promise to Marinette?” Adrien grinned. “You know Marinette. Père knows Marinette. Better than that, Père likes Marinette. He thinks she’s talented. There’s no way one of the houses won’t snatch her up soon for an apprenticeship. And then when they find out she knows us and they ask her what we are like, you know, personally, and she says, ‘oh the Agreste men don’t keep their promises.’ How will that look for the brand?” He stopped to take a deep breath and give her a winning smile. “I’m just trying to save the future of the brand, Nathalie.”
Nathalie rubbed her temples. “I’m very impressed, Adrien.” He beamed. “I’ll talk to him, but I make no promises.”
“Thanks, Nathalie, you’re the best!”
Adrien grabbed his bags and ran up the stairs toward his room.
Nathalie gave herself a moment to compose her thoughts before returning to Gabriel’s side.
“What was Adrien talking about?”
He hadn’t even looked up from his screen. Nathalie embraced the calm before the storm.
“He wants to attend a school event next week. His schedule is already free at that time.”
“Hmm, a school event...” Gabriel was scrutinizing fabric swatches. “Is it mandatory for his coursework?”
Nathalie bit her lip before saying it. “No, it’s a PEPA event.”
Gabriel’s head snapped up. “PEPA?” His eyes narrowed dangerously. “My son wants to attend one of those wretched PEPA events?”
“With all due respect, sir, he doesn’t-”
“Positive emotions! I’ve never heard of such nonsense before in my life.” He pushed himself away from the screen and started pacing. “No self respecting teenager should be able to regulate their emotions. Just last week I had a girl calm down when she realized she was catastrophizing! She shouldn’t even know what that is.”
Nathalie watched him pace. The portrait of Emilie watched them both.
“This was André’s worst idea. I tell you he won’t be getting my vote again.”
“Sir, about Adrien-”
“No. Absolutely not. Why does he want to go anyway?”
Nathalie stopped herself from telling him it was a party. “It’s a charity fundraiser. He thinks it will be good for the brand.”
Gabriel snorted. “PEPA, good for my brand?”
“With all due respect, sir,” she repeated, “Adrien doesn’t know you dislike PEPA.”
Gabriel wrinkled his nose. “Of course he doesn’t. But I still don’t want him involved.”
Nathalie sighed and brought out Adrien’s last hope. “He says he already asked Mlle. Dupain-Cheng to accompany him. He doesn’t wish to disappoint her – or you – by going back on that promise to her.”
Gabriel sighed. “He’s trying hard. Well… Mlle. Dupain-Cheng is an acceptable choice.” He was silent for a while, and Nathalie knew better not to push. Finally he spoke. “He can go.” Nathalie smiled in her victory, but it was short lived. “And you will accompany him.”
“Sir?”
“Think of it as a reconnaissance mission, Nathalie. You will be able to study what PEPA does so that we can figure out how to work around it.”
Nathalie did not think that was necessary. “Sir, do you really think that is necessary?”
“Absolutely.”
Nathalie tried a different approach. “I don’t think they allow anyone to come to these events. You probably have to be affiliated with the school.”
“Ah,” Gabriel said, returning to his screen and minimizing the pattern swatches. He opened his email and gestured for Nathalie to join him. “Read this.”
He opened a message.
TO: parent-listserv@collègefrançoisdupont.fr
FROM: PEPA-parent-listserv@collègefrançoisdupont.fr
RE: Upcoming PEPA Events!
Salut François Dupont Parents!
We have an exciting list of upcoming PEPA events at the collège and we are looking for parent volunteers. Whether that means helping with preparations, donating materials, or attending the events, we are always happy to have you involved!
Here are the upcoming events for the next few weeks:
8/1: Wellness Retreat @ Sensation Spa
15/1: Workshop on Cognitive Distortions (presenter Dr. Cyrille Dossin, PhD)
25/1: PEPA Winter Morale Booster
RSVP to cbustier@collègefrançoisdupont.fr if you can help out!
Gabriel looked at her. She looked back at him.
Nathalie said the first thing that came to her mind. “I’m not Adrien’s parent.”
Gabriel had the audacity to roll his eyes. “You will be going as my stand in. I will RSVP for you as attending this ‘morale booster’.” He started composing a new email. Clearly, he didn’t trust that she would do it herself if he delegated the task to her. He was right.
“And how do I explain to Adrien the sudden ‘stand in parental involvement’?”
Gabriel shot her a dark look. “You will tell him that I asked you to chaperone.”
“Chaperone?” she asked. He didn’t respond. “I apologize if I am being obstinate, sir, but chaperones are not commonplace anymore. I need more instructions.” Nathalie held back her smirk at how annoyed Gabriel was becoming.
“Adrien is a teenager, and vastly inexperienced in how to comport himself in a romantic setting. Therefore, if he insists on going to this PEPA event then he needs supervision. He won’t question you too much.”
Nathalie suppressed the urge to rub her temples to soothe her throbbing headache. So she was going on a date with a pair of teenagers. What’s the worst that could happen?