Chapter Text
Nathalie walked into the room, clipboard in hand, “Hey Gabriel, have you- Gah! Gabriel, no. Put the child down.”
He glanced up guiltily, a blond girl in his arms. A blond girl who wasn’t Chloe, who Nathalie had already tried and failed to return to her family. He looked down at the girl, back up at Nathalie, and then shrugged sheepishly.
“You and Emilie both I swear-” Nathalie threw her clipboard to the ground, stomped over, and stole the child from Gabriel’s arms. “Where did you get this one?”
“Bourgeois again,” he mumbled. “Audrey’s, illegitimate.”
“Of course.” Nathalie pinched her nose with her one hand and used the other to bounce the girl on her hip. She giggled. “You two will be the death of me. What’s her name?”
“Zoe,” he supplied immediately. “And I actually asked this time and Audrey doesn’t want her back- Nathalie!”
She strode out of the room, bouncing and cooing at Zoe. When she glanced over her shoulder, it was only to level a glare at Gabriel.
“I’m taking her, and you’re going to go to that meeting you’re already 30 minutes late for. And for the love of everything sane Gabriel, stop stealing children from your business rivals. ”
“It’s to undermine them!” He protested. “We’re enemies, I have to break their will!”
“By taking their kids?”
“Well um-” he scratched his neck and stared at the ground awkwardly. “...Emilie started it?’
“ Emilie will have to deal with me next. For now, contain your offspring kleptomaniac and deal with your actual allies before they become your enemies too! And no- you can’t take their children either.”
He pouted. Nathalie sighed and walked away to go put Zoe with Chloe, Adrien, Léo, Solenne, Cécilia, Alexis, and some girl Emilie had come in with that morning named Marinette whose parents did, in fact, want her back.
Adrien heard her coming down the hall—his hearing was always uncanny—and opened the door for her as she came in. Immediately, he squeaked with delight and bounced up and down eagerly. “New sister??”
She set Zoe down carefully and let Adrien squeeze the girl into a big hug. “Yes. She’s Chloe’s sister, mostly, and now she can be yours too. Take good care of her.”
Chloe peeked over Adrien’s shoulder and then wrinkled her nose. “Ew, she’s small.”
“She’s a toddler, Chloe.”
“Why isn’t she talking?”
Zoe just giggled and grabbed fistfuls of Adrien’s hair. He struggled to pick her up but balanced her in his arms well, not seeming to mind as she pulled on his locks.
“She’s a toddler ,” Nathalie repeated. Léo came dashing up and she scooped him up instinctively. He’d never started talking, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t plenty expressive. She rocked him back and forth and he clapped happily. “I don’t think she’s hungry, but if she starts fussing, one of you come get me. Chantal should be here in an hour to check on all of you. I have work I need to do.”
She kissed Léo’s forehead and set him back on the ground. He stamped his foot and crossed his arms.
“Oh, and Marinette?”
The black haired girl poked her head up from where she was playing in a pile of Gabriel’s fabrics. Where had she gotten those? “Yes Miss Nathalie?”
“Your parents will be here tonight to pick you up and take you home. You’re welcome to come back to visit on the weekends if you’d like.”
Her head bobbled quickly. “Okay. Thank you!”
“You’re welcome.” Nathalie sighed and shooed all the children away from her so she could leave the room without accidentally squishing one of them in the door. “I don’t get paid enough for this.”
She turned to go back to her work. Now that Gabriel had, presumably, gone to attend his meeting, she just needed to verify that weekends shooting schedule, call the organizers for the runway in the fall, figure out if Zoe was going to be a picker eater or not, and-
“Nathalie!” Emilie called cheerfully. “Look who I found!”
She came down the hall, practically skipping with excitement. And walking obediently beside her was a young Japanese girl.
“No. No.”
Nathalie turned on her heel and walked the other direction, ignoring Emilie’s surprised shout of her name behind her.
No no no no-
She really didn’t get paid enough for this.