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Adrien thought himself a good person; he worked hard at school, attended Father’s ridiculous photoshoots, even let Lila cling on him like a leech. So why was he being tested like this?
“At the gala with Mlle Rossi, Adrien,” Father was instructing him on how to act at an upcoming fashion event with his ‘Muse,’ Mlle Lila Delano Rossi. “You must watch for- are you listening to me?”
“Yes, Father.” Adrien had in fact, not been listening. He had zoned out after “Mlle Rossi is your date” and “treat her as a future companion.” As if. Adrien wouldn’t date Lila if the President of France ordered it.
“Good, as I was saying. Watch out for people who might try to cling onto your fame. Mlle Rossi has informed me of a couple who have been trying, including Mlle Dupain-Cheng, who I believe is a class-”
“I’m sorry what?” Adrien’s Father paused pacing across his office to stare at him. “Did you say Marinette is clinging onto me, for my fame?”
“Yes Adrien, Mlle Rossi practically confirmed it. Although with her aspirations to become a designer I should have seen it.”
“Father please, Marinette would never think of piggybacking off of me. And for my fame? She already has so many famous clients.”
“Please, a good designer she may be, but as the daughter of two bakers, she could hardly have the connections to-” he turned to face his son, “Adrien where are you going!?”
“I can’t do this anymore Father, I can’t pretend I like Lila, I can’t pretend I’m okay with how you treat me, I can’t pretend you insulting my friend doesn’t make me want to scream in your face.” Adrien sighed as he started to walk out, “I won’t pretend anymore Father, I won’t. This has gone on long enough. My friends were right, you aren’t worth it.” He walked out of the manor as his Father and Nathalie shouted at him to come back.
“Adrien come back!” “This is absurd!” “Get back in here this instant!”
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“So?”
“What Mari?” Adrien faced his best friend, practically sister at this point.
“You come in my house looking like your kitten died and flop face forward on my chaise?” Marinette stared at him unceasingly, “What’s wrong?”
“I should have believed you guys about my father, he just, went too far and I don’t think I can handle being in the same house with him anymore.”
“Operation Get Rid Of The Dickhead?” Marinette and the rest of the Miracu-gang, as Adrien called them because apparently they needed a superhero group name, had come up with a plan to get Adrien out of his house and ruin his father. But at the time he still believed his Father could change. Not anymore.
He laid face-first on the chaise for a while before mumbling out a quiet, “Sure.”
“Yes!” the sound of Marinette tapping away at her phone fast-paced was the only one that filled the room.
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“Adrikins your phone is going off again.”
The rest of the gang had assembled in Marinette’s room so they could put Gabriel’s downfall in action. They had been calling people and doing other, stuff, that they wouldn’t tell Adrien about for the last hour and a half. During that time Adrien’s father and Nathalie had been calling him nonstop.
Adrien himself had been sitting in his boyfriend, Luka’s, lap while Luka did the mysterious stuff too.
He turned his phone off so it’d stop ringing.
“Adrien, can I have your Instagram and Twitter passwords? And permission to post?” Adrien glared at Marinette suspiciously as she blinked at him as the perfect picture of innocence. Slytherins.
“...Sure…” he said giving them to her.
“What are going to do about the gala?” Everyone paused and looked at Kagami as she stared at him.
“I don’t know, why ‘Gami?”
“The rebellion is wonderful, but are you still going to attend? It is an important event.”
“Umm, Mari? Will you go with me so Lila doesn’t find a way too?” He pouted at her and made sure to look as miserable as possible.
“You know I’m going with Damien,” she looked at him before going back to her phone.
Chloe looked at him in confusion, “Why don’t you just go with Snake Boy here?” she asked pointing to Luka. “You’re rebelling anyway why not come out to the world in a way that Gabriel can’t cover-up?”
Marinette pointed at her, “Genius,” she breathed out. “Do that, it’ll work perfectly,” the other four in the room could see sparks flying in her brain, it looked just like when she created a plan to take down an Akuma.
“Luka?” Adrien looked up at his boyfriend, he wouldn’t want to take him somewhere he’d be uncomfortable at.
Luka shrugged, “I’m down, why not?” Adrien snuggled even farther into him as Luka wrapped his arms around him and watched their friends plan together.
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A week later showed Adrien, Luka, Marinette, and her boyfriend Damien arriving together for the gala. Only the best fashion icons in the industry had been invited, so it was obvious that Marinette had gotten an invitation too.
Marinette had quickly risen to the top of the fashion industry under the pseudo name, MDC. Her company, MDC Designs, had been a hit with the combination of Jagged dropping her name and contact information to every celebrity he meets and Chloe’s amazing PR skills. Dating a Wayne helped too, Adrien supposed.
The four made their way to the entrance of the building stopping every few feet for the press, “Adrien!” they called, “Adrien! are you wearing a Gabriel design!?”
“No,” he made sure to clearly say in front of quite a few microphones, “I’m wearing an MDC creation, made just for this event.”
The questions kept coming but eventually, they made it to the building were celebrities and fashion icons were milling around, talking to one another. Adrien’s father was most likely somewhere in this room, he wouldn’t pass up a chance to go to an event like this.
“Adrien, how lovely to see you,” one of the attendees started, he vaguely remembered meeting her a few years ago, “I see you’ve brought some friends. I’d love an introduction.”
“Of course, I’d love to give one,” he smiled at her and pointed to his companions individually, “My lovely friend Marinette Dupain-Cheng, also known as MDC.” Marinette smiled at the woman sho looked taken back, “Her date, Damien Wayne.” He nodded his head, but didn’t change facial expressions, “And my handsome date and boyfriend, Luka Couffaine.” He smiled as well as the woman gathered herself up to reply.
“What a lovely and diverse crew you have, would you mind sharing your contact information with me?” she asked towards Marinette.
“Of course! I suppose Jagged’s promotions of me haven’t reached you yet?” the woman chuckled, it was well known that Jagged Stone had been practically throwing MDC business cards at just about everyone he worked with.
As they made their way around the building they met and discussed future meetings and contacts with plenty of people, it had been a rather nice evening for Adrien, who usually had to deal with this alone. It was actually quite fun with his friends and boyfriend. Of course, it couldn’t last.
“Adrien there you are,” the dreaded voice of Gabriel’s voice cut through a conversion the four were having in a secluded corner as they took a break from the masses, “I have been trying to contact you for days. You will cease this nonsense and come back to the manor with me immediately.” His Father looked furious, since not only had Adrien stayed at Marinette’s for a week. But his friends had also been releasing footage and photos of Gabriel berating his son for things such as his weight and photoshoots not going perfect, and threatening to pull him out of school and cut off contact to Adrien’s friends. The media had taken it in a frenzy, especially when all the evidence came from Adrien and his more famous friends’ social media accounts.
It had been a shit storm for Gabriel and Nathalie who had tried to refute the evidence but were stopped by Adrien, his friends, and multiple celebrities that Marinette and Chloe must have contacted.
“No Father,” Adrien told the one person he had been afraid to stand up to his entire life, “I’m not going to stop, and I’m not going to live with you anymore.” Gabriel looked flabbergasted, so he continued, “you’ve knocked me down for the last time, I will be living at one of my best friends, Marinette’s, house and nothing you try to do to stop me will work. Either agree or my friends and I go to the CPS.”
Gabriel stuttered for a bit before storming off leaving Lila, who had been standing next to him, behind. Looking over to Damien it was clear he was filming this, probably at Marinette’s request, most likely to be posted by her later.
“Adriboo, why are you doing this? Your father’s just trying to help you.” She tacked on, “And you promised to take me as your date, instead you’re taking Marinette? Are you cheating on me?” She got increasingly louder, “How could you? You said we were meant to be!”
“Stop lying for once Lila, no one with any sort of brain cell ever believes you. And besides, I didn’t take Marinette, I took Luka!” To make even more of a scene as they already had, because at this point why the hell not, he pulled Luka down and kissed him as slowly and passionately as he could in a room full of unfamiliar people.
They garnered claps and whistles from the surrounding crowd as Adrien looked up at his very handsome boyfriend, who looked back just as intensely. They would’ve started full-on making out if Marinette hadn’t ‘delicately’ coughed into her fist to break them apart.
Adrien smiled at her with as much innocence as he could while she rolled her eyes, before looking towards Lila. She seemed as though she wanted to start a tantrum but wasn’t sure how to go about it, luckily security came to pull her away as she started kicking and screaming.
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All in all, it seemed like a very good night. Luka seemed to agree too as he kissed him goodnight.