Chapter Text
Emilie Graham de Vanily and Gabriel Agreste first met at a fashion shoot. Emilie had been watching a poor inexperienced stand-in model struggle to get good poses (Gabriel was not always the company it became) before she strolled right into Gabriel’s office and demanded a job.
“You think you can model?” Gabriel had smirked.
Emilie had always admired a cool head; it helped counteract her spontaneity, even if she did have a bad habit of only dating manipulators, gaslighters and other crafty bastards. “I can, and I will.”
Fifteen years later, she walked into his office again to demand a divorce before she lost her nerve.
Their relationship had been crumbling apart for years - mostly starting after the birth of their son, Adrien; it wasn’t his fault, and Emilie made sure he knew that - and after yet another argument, this time about their son’s schooling, Emilie had finally had enough.
Gabriel had been audacious enough to laugh in her face, but Emilie remained undeterred. “Sign the papers, or the press finds out exactly what kind of man you are.”
Now that had incensed Gabriel. “What do you think you can do without my money? Do you think you can survive for long without the company to support you?”
“I can, and I will.” Her scowl deepened in the way Gabriel often commented would give her face wrinkles. “SIGN.”
Gabriel’s face twisted into a grimace. “I’m assuming you will want custody of Adrien.”
“Good to know you haven’t completely lost your sense.”
“Alright. You can keep him, but the fruits of our trip to Tibet stay with me.”
“Oh, you must think I’m stupid.”
“Emilie.”
“Gabriel…”
“You can’t possibly expect me to let you keep a dangerous magical artifact now that this is happening, do you?”
“And I’m certain you can be trusted with them,” Emilie scoffed. “I’m not changing my mind, Gabriel.”
“You can take one, and I will keep the other. Checks and balances, yes?”
Emilie took a deep inhale. “Okay. Fine. Sign the damn papers, and tell Nooroo I’m sorry.”
And that was that.
It had been some small mercy that the divorce didn’t end up making the headlines. Evidently, Gabriel wanted a scandal as much as Emilie. Emilie’s sister Amelie helped where she could, but there was little she could do from England, and the risk of Adrien getting caught up in the scandal was enough to give both sisters pause.
In the end, Emilie and Adrien settled in a small townhouse in downtown Paris, close to the Seine. Le Gorille - or Placide, as he told Emilie he’d prefer to be called - had silently followed her and Adrien out of the Agreste Estate. Though Nathalie gave Emilie a look of regret at the fact, she had stayed at Gabriel’s side. Emilie hadn’t known whether to feel betrayed or not, but she’d promised the woman a hand if her ex-husband ever got to be too much for her.
Adrien had taken the news as best as Emilie could have expected, all things considered. He was doing his best to keep the mood upbeat as they started unpacking their stuff. After they got most of the boxes unpacked, Emilie sighed a little too loudly, and Adrien had caught it. Adrien, even if he didn’t know every last bit, was very emotionally intelligent for his age. “You do know it's not your fault, right, Maman?”
“I know but… a part of me thinks I should have tried harder to make our marriage work,” Emilie said. “He’s your father…”
“And you’re my mother,” Adrien countered. “Besides, this place is so much nicer than the manor!”
He’s lying, of course, Emilie thought. The place was much smaller than they’re used to, and the wallpaper was peeling in places. The previous owner clearly hadn’t taken good care of the place, but that was why Emilie had been able to buy it at such a reasonable cost. It would take a bit of fixing up, but between them and Placide, she was sure they could get the job done.
Emilie rolled up her sleeves. “Alright, let’s get to work.”
Two weeks later, the house was in some semblance of order. Emilie put the most effort into Adrien’s room, but the rest of the house wasn’t neglected. The grand piano gifted to her by her father on her sixteenth birthday took a place of pride in the living room, and Emilie was sure to include plenty of seating as well. Gabriel had never been a fan of hosting, but Emilie was looking forward to having guests over on occasion… far more occasions than Gabriel had been okay with.
The major part of Emilie was pleased by it.
They got their opportunity when someone knocked on the door. “Maybe it’s Chloé?” Adrien suggested. “She’s been asking to come over…”
“Hmm… I’ll go and see,” Emilie announced, leaving Adrien in the living room as she went to answer the door. She took a moment to smooth out her clothes, wanting to make a good first impression on her potential new neighbor.
Well, it was now or never…
Emilie opened the door, immediately being met by a genial woman about her age, who grabbed onto her hand to shake it with a great deal of enthusiasm. At first, she worried it was a fan of her old movies or a spy from Gabriel, but the woman didn’t seem to care about that. “It’s so good to meet ya, Mme. Agreste! It’s not often we see a new face in this part of town!”
Blinking owlishly, Emilie removed her hand from the woman’s grip. “It’s Mme. Graham de Vanily now, b-but thank you,” Emilie corrected. “I’m recently divorced, you see…”
The woman’s face fell with something akin to the usual pity or distaste Emilie had received from other women that were privy to the information. Most of them were closer to Gabriel, of course - or rather, they felt closer with Gabriel.
This woman’s face was different, though - hers had a more genuine attempt at sympathy than any she’d had to deal with. “Ach, my bad! I guess that which yeh hear on the grapevine aren’t always true, huh?” The woman took a moment to regain her bearing before adding, “The name’s Anarka Couffaine, by the way.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mme. Couffaine.”
“Pleasure’s all mine.” Lowering her voice a tad but not leaning in or anything, Anarka told her, “You’ve got a son, don’t yeh? I know how tough it can be to be a single mom, so if you ever need a hand, my houseboat’s usually tied up on the Seine.”
“Houseboat…?”
“M’pride an’ joy,” Anarka laughed. “Seek The Liberty, and I’ll help you out however I can.”
Emilie was still a little stunned. “Alright, I’ll bear that in mind. Th-Thank you.”
Anarka nodded before turning to make her leave. “Alrighty, I’ll leave you to you and yours. See ya, Mme. Graham de Vanily.”
Emilie smiled a little. “Call me Emilie.”
Anarka only paused for a moment before grinning, “Alright, I’ll see you around, Emilie.”
“Quite…” A little stunned, Emilie watched Anarka leave, before slowly closing the door.
At least the neighbors here were friendly… Emilie hadn’t moved to a richer district for more than one reason, after all.
Adrien’s first day at Collège Françoise Dupont was exciting for a whole variety of reasons. For one, he was able to spend time with Chloé again! Hopefully her more-than-occasional snootiness hadn’t isolated her. Chloé had a kind and happy side, but she never let it out around adults for some reason…
Naturally, he was very surprised with the way Chloé acted after being surrounded by other teens within seconds of stepping into the school. “Hey, everyone…” Chloé greeted. “Jeez, it's the first day of school… aren’t you guys tired?”
“Oh, very,” snarked a kid with pink hair in pigtails. “You really thought we woke up chock-full of energy?”
“No, that’s why I was surprised!” Chloé laughed brightly. Pulling Adrien closer to her, she introduced him. “This is Adrien, by the way! He’s new here, so you better be nice to him, okay?”
The pink-haired girl - Alix, as Adrien would later learn - gave a mock-salute. “Yes, ma’am!”
Chloé stuck out her tongue. Trust his best friend to be the belle of the ball, in more ways than one. Chloé refused to let her best friend eat lunch alone, dragging him to the table their class usually ate at so he could know his classmates better.
Though he was thankful for the company, Adrien did notice that there was one girl eating alone on the other side of the lunch hall - he’d seen her in their class, but she’d never said anything, and nobody had said anything to her. “Isn’t she in our class?” he asked.
Following his gaze, Chloé’s face fell. “Oh, Marinette… it’s a long story. I don’t wanna talk about it…”
“Chloé, we all love you, but you really do need to talk to her some day,” Mylène piped up.
Chloé shot her a deadly glare. “It’s not my fault that she won’t talk to me anymore, I swear!”
“Woah, woah, woah…” Adrien yelped. “Can you guys explain what’s going on before you tear each other’s throats out? I’m your classmate now, and I’m gonna find out sooner or later.”
Chloé sighed. “Okay… back in école élémentaire, Marinette and I were, like, best friends… out of everyone in our class, that is. You’ve always been number one, Adrichou.” She shook her head. “She was vibrant, fun, and talkative. Then, one day after school, she blew up at me. I don’t know what I did, but she stopped talking with everyone.”
Adrien frowned. “Did you try to talk to her about it?”
“I did, but she kept avoiding me. Eventually, I gave up… but I don’t know why she won’t talk to me, or anyone.”
“That’s sad…” Adrien said softly. “Do you think she’d give you a chance if I was there?”
Chloé shrugged. “Maybe… I dunno if it’s worth it, Adrien. I don’t want her scaring you away, too-”
Adrien gave her and the rest of their class a disappointed look. “You guys welcomed me with open arms, and I haven’t spent a day here yet. Are you gonna give up on me, too?” Sadly, he admitted, “I know far less than I should about how people are supposed to treat each other, but… I don’t think friends give up on friends. If you won’t be her friend… I will.”
“Adrien…”
“I’m going to talk to her!” Adrien announced, standing up and striding over to Marinette’s table. The girl looked faintly terrified, so he tried to give her an easygoing smile. “Marinette, right? I’m Adrien.”
“I-I know,” Marinette mumbled. “Chloé’s friend…”
“Weren’t you her friend, too? What’s the story with you and Chloé?”
The girl let out a sigh. “You’re pretty blunt, aren’t you…?”
“I prefer to call it direct,” Adrien joked, making Marinette giggle. “Seriously, did Chloé do something, or was it a misunderstanding?”
Marinette’s face grew sad. “It’s not like Chloé would get it. None of my- uh, our classmates would get it. I don’t wanna hold them back or waste their time just because I don’t wanna be alone.” She looked at Adrien with a mix of wariness and resignation on her face. “You wouldn’t get it either, I’d bet.”
Adrien shrugged. “Try me.”
There was a tense silence before Marinette mumbled, “Everyone in our class has a future. I don’t. Once they realize that, they’ll drop me like a hot potato, so I’m saving all of us the trouble.”
Adrien flinched. “What makes you think that?”
As if she’d written this down somewhere and memorized it by heart, Marinette began tapping her fingers. “Chloé’s smart, and she’s got a mind for business. She’ll probably inherit her dad’s hotel. Nino’s good at sound tech stuff, like film and music. Alix and Nathaniel are artists, and Alix is really good at science and history, too. Ivan and Mylène volunteer for causes I never thought about until they told me about them, and Juleka and Rose are good at fashion and stuff, though that might have changed. Don’t even get me started on Kim and Max - they’re so good at athletics and academics, respectively. Sabrina’s probably the smartest of us all… I’m not super-athletic, super-smart or anything like that. I’m just a burden on my f-” She shook her head. “… on my old friends.”
Adrien’s mind raced with all this new information. “What are you good at?”
Marinette’s shoulders hunched up. “Nothing.”
“Well… what do you want to be good at?”
Marinette looked at him curiously. “Does it matter? I’ll never be the best…”
“You don’t have to be the best, do you?” Adrien asked innocuously.
“If I want to keep my friends, I do…”
“Did they say you had to have your life figured out in order to be around them?”
“No, but M. Corday did.” When Adrien tilted his head in confusion, she explained, “He was one of our teachers two years ago. I can’t do well in class, and my grades stink, and even if they don’t let me see it, my own parents ought to be disappointed in me.”
“I’d bet you that he was wrong about you, Marinette.” Marinette froze. “Nobody knows everything. That’s why we have so many teachers for each class, right?”
“I… guess…?”
“It sounds like M. Corday was being mean to you.” Oh, no… Adrien could see tears filling in her eyes. He hated making people sad. “Hey… promise me something?”
“My word’s no good, but I can hear you out…”
“You don’t have to be the best, okay? If you can do your best, then that should be good enough for a start. Anyone who tells you you’ll never be good enough… you should try to prove them wrong. If it’s hurting you so much to believe that you’ll never be good enough, why don’t you turn that on the naysayers?”
“Even if it’s Chloé and the others?”
“Even if it’s Chloé and the others. If they mind, they won’t be worth it, and if they’re worth it, they won’t mind.”
Marinette seemed only a little hesitant now. “Even if I want to be around them, do they even want to be around me anymore?”
That, Adrien could disprove. “If they did want you around, even if you weren’t anything like them, would you go back to them?”
“… I guess.”
“Come on, then,” Adrien said, offering Marinette his hand. Hesitantly, Marinette took it, allowing Adrien to lead her to the table where the rest of their class were eating. When she and Adrien explained the story with M. Corday, Chloé immediately burst into tears and started apologizing profusely. A little awkwardly, Marinette accepted the apology.
At the end of lunch, she whispered a thank you to Adrien, who just grinned. He’d made things right.
The day before the following school year…
“You know she wouldn’t approve of this…”
“We’re not married anymore… if I no longer matter to her, even after everything we’ve been through, then perhaps her opinion need not matter to me. Nooroo, Dark Wings Rise.”
Hawkmoth scowled. “I will make things right.”