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Nathalie Sancouer had a migraine.
She’d named it Adrien Agreste.
The reason for this wouldn’t be apparent to anyone outside their own little dynamic, but lately, Adrien had started setting up opportunities for her to be put in compromising positions with her boss.
Nathalie didn’t know why Adrien had decided she and Gabriel should get together. But Adrien was apparently hellbent on doing just that.
For the latest attempt, Adrien had “accidentally” nudged Nathalie right into Gabriel’s lap at one of the rare dinners he’d attended with his son. Gabriel had “accidentally” placed his hand on her behind when catching her.
She believed Gabriel’s accident really was an accident. But Adrien?
The child was hankering to be picked up by the scruff and yeeted across Paris.
Nathalie knocked on the door of said child’s room and entered. “Adrien?”
“No, Nathalie would never--” Adrien’s very good friend--and probable crush--Marinette Dupain-Cheng was whispering to him, causing Nathalie to stifle the urge to glare a hole through the back of the girl’s head.
So Adrien had secured help in his endeavors. Interesting. And bothersome.
Nathalie stuffed a huff, keeping her voice as impassive as ever. “Miss Dupain-Cheng needs to go home now. I will escort her to the front gate.”
Adrien shot up from his bed, where he was in his own slightly-compromised position with Marinette, with her head in his lap. She almost spilled onto the floor as he shouted, “I’ll do it!”
Marinette frowned as she stood. “Thank you, ma’am, but Adrien and I have to talk.”
Nathalie nodded. “If you don’t mind, Adrien, I have to talk to you as well. I’ll wait here for you.”
“Sure.” Adrien started crossing to the door of his room with Marinette trailing behind. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
While waiting for Adrien, Nathalie busied herself by checking the company’s stock price. He returned a short while later, as promised, and she sat him down on the bed, choosing to remain standing.
“Adrien,” she began, ready to chide him, until she noticed how anxious he was for some reason. She decided to try another tact. “What do you think of your friend?”
“Nino?”
Ah, so Adrien was playing dumb. Nathalie could work with that.
“No, Miss Dupain-Cheng.” Nathalie allowed herself a small smile for effect, and it worked: Adrien’s shoulders relaxed a fraction from their tense position. “You seem to be awfully close lately.”
“Marinette?” Adrien goggled up at Nathalie. “We’re just friends.”
“Mmmm.” Nathalie squinted at him. “Adrien, how does your father describe me?”
Adrien blinked. “You’re his very good assistant?”
“Yes, now what is Marinette?”
“She’s my very good--oh.”
Watching the light come into Adrien’s eyes was priceless. Nathalie mentally patted herself on the back for making him realize what he’d been doing to the poor girl.
Now if only Nathalie could get him to realize what he’d been doing to her…
“Would you like me to schedule some time for you with Miss Dupain-Cheng?” Nathalie said, raising a sculpted brow. “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind--”
“No, that’s fine!” Adrien’s voice was a tad on the high side; if Nathalie didn’t know any better, it had cracked an octave up. He cleared his throat, coughing into his fist. “No, I’ll be okay. Thanks, Nathalie.”
Nathalie gave a long-suffering sigh. “Very good.” Nathalie swiped over her always-in-hand tablet. “Now, you have a photoshoot at four tomorrow…”
***
Unfortunately for Nathalie, Adrien’s attempts to get Nathalie and Gabriel together only increased after her talk with the boy. It was almost like Adrien had decided that since she’d encouraged him to pursue his own relationship with Marinette, he’d encourage Nathalie to pursue hers with Gabriel.
Adrien had left them alone at candlelit dinners (after begging Nathalie to sit down), had bought ice cream from Andre for them (which melted), and had snuck into Nathalie’s room and left 1001 Ways to Be Romantic on her bedside table (absolutely horrifying her).
Fortunately, Chat Noir had no such desires for Hawkmoth and Mayura.
“Hey, Grandpa!” Chat called, on one of the rare occasions Hawkmoth had decided to make a personal appearance. Mayura wondered what exactly he was doing there; clearly he had some special plan or-- “You and your ugly wife should give up!”
“Give me your Miraculous!” Hawkmoth roared at Ladybug, making grabby hands.
Ladybug’s tone was resolute. “No.”
“Well.” Hawkmoth furrowed his brow. “Now you’ve made me uncomfortable. Mayura, handle this.”
As Hawkmoth spirited himself away, Mayura gave a long-suffering sigh. She flipped her fan open. “Yes, sir.”
***
After Adrien invited Gabriel and Nathalie to his room to watch “Romantics Anonymous”--a movie about a woman working in a chocolate factory who falls in love with her boss, naturally--and had left them there, Nathalie had had enough.
Nathalie strode into Gabriel’s office, scrolling through Adrien’s schedule in her tablet, ensuring she’d have a moment to talk to the man alone.
“Sir,” Nathalie said as Gabriel stood at his monitors. Business first, Nathalie decided, making a note to ease Gabriel into the conversation. “The stock price of Gabriel has suffered a significant dip.”
Gabriel huffed, pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose. “Time to let the boy out in public again. What’s our next PR move, Nathalie?”
“I’ve already scheduled Adrien to open up an animal shelter that we’ve made a sizable donation to.”
“Excellent.” Gabriel turned back to his monitors, swiping his fingers across the screen. “Anything else?”
It was now or never, Nathalie figured. “Sir, have you noticed… Adrien’s attempts to… force us into a relationship?”
Gabriel’s head snapped up. “What?”
Nathalie swallowed at the look in his eye. “Adrien has apparently decided we’d be better off together and has been placing me in compromising positions with you.”
Gabriel blinked. “Why?”
“Why what, sir?”
“Why me and you?”
It was exactly the question Nathalie had feared Gabriel would ask, and she didn’t want to answer.
Nathalie refused to bite her lip. That wasn’t in her repertoire and she refused to show her anxiety about this. “It’s possible he sees me as a mother figure, sir.” She could lick her lip, though, so she did that. “It’s also possible he’s… figured something out.”
Gabriel abandoned his monitors and crossed to her. He towered over her, a pillar of strength, and Nathalie breathed in the scent of his cologne. “Figured out what?”
“That…” Nathalie’s gaze flicked to his cravat, wondering if she should lie and say Adrien had figured out Hawkmoth’s identity. But that wouldn’t make any sense; Adrien would be going to the police, not trying to set them up.
Nathalie had to fess up. She hadn’t planned on this; she hadn’t brushed her teeth since breakfast and she was a bundle of nerves.
She was a grown woman. Confident. Poised. She could handle a little confession.
Couldn’t she?
Nathalie straightened her shoulders. “That I like you.”
Gabriel stared at her, his jaw gone slack. “Do you mean…” He raised his brows. “You like like me?”
Nathalie felt like she’d been given a middle school note. She could work with that.
She tilted her chin up. With Gabriel in such close proximity, their mouths hovered mere centimeters apart. Nathalie couldn’t take a breath without breathing in the air that had left his lips. “I… Of course I do.”
Gabriel’s eyes peered straight into hers, and he reached out as if to touch her cheek. “I think…”
“Yes?”
“I think I’ll have to think on this… But…”
Gabriel cupped her cheek and craned his neck downward. Nathalie’s eyes fluttered closed.
Just before their lips met, someone opened the door behind them. “Father?”
Nathalie’s eyes shot open. She and Gabriel sprang away from each other as if scalded, cheeks flaring with heat.
Gabriel cleared his throat. “Yes, son?”
Adrien looked as if he’d just won Christmas. “I was wondering if you’d like to look over my homework with me?”
“I can, absolutely,” Gabriel said, and then pointed to the doorway. “Later. I’m busy now. Very busy. Go. Away.”
Adrien beamed and… did he skip out? Nathalie was flummoxed.
Gabriel cleared his throat again. Nathalie wondered if he had a frog stuck in it and whether he’d croak and she’d have to find another job and someone else to build up a fantasy life with and to almost kiss. Clearly, she needed to get Gabriel a lozenge, because wasn’t it part of her job description to take care of him? If he got sick, like she had been before the Peacock Miraculous had been fixed, then she didn’t know what she would do--
“Nathalie.”
An undignified squeak left Nathalie’s lips as Gabriel laid a hand on her shoulder. She stared up at her clearly sick boss unblinking for a moment, trying to get her nervous tics under control before they betrayed her. No one could know what a ball of anxiety she was. “Yes, sir?”
Manners were good. They were an excellent fallback, and Nathalie used them like the shield they were. Saying “yes, sir,” “no, sir,” “of course, sir,” delineated the relationship between her and Gabriel the way it should be, keeping them segregated and certainly not almost-kissing.
“Where were we?”
Nathalie gulped. “I believe we were discussing my feelings for you, sir?”
“Ah, yes.” Gabriel nodded, as if he hadn’t just turned her entire world topsy-turvy. “Feelings.”
She almost expected him to say, “pesky things,” so what he said next stunned her.
“I… I may have sort of kind of caught feelings for you, too.”
Nathalie’s eyes widened. Breathing was suddenly very difficult. “Sir?”
Gabriel turned to her with a look she could only describe as tortured. “What do I do about Emilie?”
Nathalie tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “Well. You can continue on as you have been.” She couldn’t believe she was about to advise Gabriel to do what was in her own heart. “Or you can let her go.”
Gabriel sucked a breath over his teeth. “Let her go.”
It wasn’t a question. Nathalie nodded anyway. “You probably shouldn’t kiss me until you do.”
Gabriel broke away from her. “I need time.”
Nathalie gave a long-suffering sigh. She gathered her feelings, held them in her hands like the precious things they were, and then stuffed them in her mouth and swallowed them. “Of course, sir. Don’t let me disturb you.”
She turned on her heel and began striding out of Gabriel’s atelier, but he caught her sleeve. “Wait?”
Nathalie glanced over her shoulder at him. “Yes, sir?”
“Please.” She’d thought he was above begging. Apparently not, though she didn’t know why he was begging her of all people, or what for. “Please. Call me by my name.”
A smile tugged at Nathalie’s lips. “All right. Gabriel.”
***
Nathalie walked in on Adrien and Marinette making out, but turnabout was fair play: he walked in on her and Gabriel doing the same.
Once.
The official story that ran around their little family years later was that Adrien had gotten them together and Nathalie had nothing to do with it. After Gabriel had let Emilie go, Hawkmoth and Mayura officially retired, giving up their Miraculous in a secure location that they’d curtly informed Ladybug about.
Nathalie lived happily ever after with her husband and son, and gave up her long-suffering sighs.
(Unless Adrien or Gabriel did some boneheaded Agreste man thing.
Then they were fair game.)