Chapter 3 – Loved Ones

Gabriel drummed his fingers on his desk, deep in thought. He finally knew who both Ladybug and Chat Noir were, despite the many weeks of embarrassment and mind-numbing school events. He frowned. There had to be a way to get them back. Hmm. An idea began to form and he picked up his phone and dialed a number. Time for a bit of my own fun.

He successfully managed to hide his grin from Adrien and Marinette when the two arrived, as he cordially invited them into the dining room. Even after they smirked at him, he resisted temptation and kept his expression in his usual impassive frown, knowing that his payback would be that much sweeter with the element of surprise on his side.

They had settled in comfortably when the buzzer sounded again. Adrien and Marinette exchanged confused glances before turning to him, but he had already risen to greet the new guests.

"Come on in, Mr. and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng," he greeted, leading them through the dining room, even as Sabine added oh, just call us Tom and Sabine, to which Gabriel acknowledged the same request. Adrien and Marinette's jaws dropped and at this, he allowed the confident smile to finally show upon his face.

"Ah, Marinette," her mother trilled, sitting down beside her. Her husband sat beside Adrien.

"Mom?" Marinette exclaimed. She glared at Gabriel who smirked at her, his eyes alighting with anticipation.

"I thought a family dinner would be nice, since I have yet to meet your parents formally," Gabriel explained in a smooth voice as odds with his smug expression.

"You're absolutely correct, Gabriel," Tom replied, oblivious to the invisible power struggle going on around him.

Adrien shot him a look that seemed to say "What are you doing?" but Gabriel ignored his son and offered everyone a drink. After everyone got settled, Marinette pounced.

"Thank you for inviting my parents here, but may I inquire as to the reason?" she asked, in a demure tone that countered the sharp look she aimed at Gabriel.

"No particular reason," Gabriel replied with neutral nonchalance, matching her burning glare with an even one of his own, "I just thought it was a bit of a catastrophe that we hadn't yet met."

Adrien choked on his drink. Marinette's expression twisted into confusion as she attempted to figure him out. Tom handed Adrien a napkin in concern.

"You have to be more careful when you drink," Tom told Adrien gently, "sip it slower and it won't go down the wrong pipe again."

Adrien shot a glare at his father as Gabriel lifted his own glass to mask his grin. This was going to be an interesting evening. "Thanks, Mr. Dupain-Cheng," Adrien said once he had his breathing under control.

"Regardless, I agree with you, Gabriel," Sabine said. "It's certainly a pleasure to finally meet Adrien's father. He is such a nice young man and we love having over anyone who enjoys our baking." Adrien flushed.

"Mom," Marinette chastised. "You're embarrassing him."

"Oh sorry, dear."

Gabriel smiled. "It's quite all right," he assured them, "I know Adrien doesn't like to be put on the spot."

The two teens whipped their heads back over to him. "Uh, no really it's okay," Adrien said, "I don't mind."

"Ah, then I'm glad this isn't bugging you," Gabriel continued. Marinette's face gradually darkened as she glanced between Gabriel and Adrien. "And Marinette is always welcome over here. She's a charming lady."

By now the two had definitely caught onto what he was doing, as both gaped at him, exchanging frantic looks of panic between each other. Gabriel didn't give them an ounce of satisfaction, drinking with calm stoicism.

As dinner came, Gabriel continued to incorporate as many hints related to the superheroes as he could into casual conversation.

"Ah, I'll admit this tends to be my little lucky charm when designing."

"Though we keep to a rigid schedule during Fashion Week, I've oftentimes found myself needing to wing it on certain things."

"I can never get over the sensation of that moment of unveiling my designs. To this day, I'll still get butterflies in my stomach."

"Don't bother masking your enthusiasm, Marinette, your passions will propel you far in life."

"I've formed many contacts in my career, and one thing I've discovered is there are no magic words to open doors and replace solid work ethic and talent."

"It was miraculous we managed to get the spring line completed on time with all the production delays due to winter storms."

"Father," Adrien had finally cut in, as both heroes started to look incredibly pale the further into dinner they got. Gabriel decided to cut them both a break.

"I must be boring you all with constant talk of business."

"Not at all," Tom assured him. "We can relate to that partially, and Marinette here I'm sure is eager to hear about anything having to do with the fashion industry, and your company especially."

Gabriel hid a smile as he observed Marinette's oddly strained expression. Perhaps under different circumstances she would, he thought. "Still though," he insisted, "it is incredibly impolite of me to continue to dominate the conversation. Marinette, has Adrien ever told you about the time when he was little he so desperately wanted to visit me in the office that he hid underneath of one of the mannequin dresses?"

The sudden change in topic created several kinds of reactions. Adrien's face went from a ghostly pallor to a deep flush of embarrassment in seconds. Marinette's jaw dropped. Tom and Sabine cooed in unison.

"Father!" Adrien choked out. "Why would I ever tell Marinette about that?"

"You should have seen it, my dear," he told Marinette, who took this information with a delightful glee that only a friend who planned using it at a later date would have. Adrien buried his face in his hands. "He must have only been about... oh how old were you, Adrien? Six? Seven?" The muffled groan prevented clear enunciation, but Gabriel would not be deterred. "He slipped past the staff and hid in between one of the mannequins. At his age, he could easily conceal himself underneath one of the wedding dresses I had prepared for transport. Fortunately for him, it required delicate touching and thus was already positioned on the mannequin itself. We were moving it to a display room. Adrien managed to cling to the legs of the mannequin for stability and keep quiet the entire time in the elevator."

Marinette hung on his every word with shining eyes, silently urging him to continue. "Well, my client decided to wear a coat that had a couple of feathers in it. While examining my designs, a few must have drifted down and gotten stuck near his hiding place. Adrien sneezed. It scared my client so badly she screamed and knocked over the mannequin."

Marinette stifled a laugh. Tom guffawed and Sabine held one hand delicately over her mouth, hiding her own grin.

"Adrien popped out from underneath the dress. My client fainted from the shock."

Marinette pressed her hands to her cheeks and released her laugh. Adrien groaned again. "Father!" he moaned.

"Needless to say, he was in quite a tizzy after discovering that he had caused one of my clients to pass out. He thought he had killed her. He was inconsolable for hours. Fortunately, my client came to quickly and found the whole thing rather amusing after discovering the whole story."

"Haha," Tom laughed in appreciation. "That reminds me of the time that Marinette insisted on 'correcting' a dress for one of our friends."

The joy in Marinette's face faded into her own mortification. Adrien lifted his head, eager to hear his own personal slice of blackmail. "Dad, no!" she cried.

"I don't know why you're so upset, she loved what you did with it."

"Did she?" Gabriel asked, intrigued.

"Well," Tom amended, placing one finger upon his lips thoughtfully, "of course this was after Marinette tripped and dumped an entire bowl full of flour over it."

"Daaaad!"

"She cleaned it, of course, and even at twelve she told our friend that her dress was ugly so she decided to 'fix it'. Our friend didn't know what to think until Marinette brought out the freshly cleaned dress and proudly pointed out her additions. She added the cutest border of embroidered flowers to the hemline that our customer absolutely adored."

"So it wasn't just me that you fell for?" Adrien asked with a roguish wink, causing Marinette's face to flame even redder than Gabriel thought possible.

"Oh heaven's no," Sabine chimed in. "Though Marinette does talk about you a lot, Adrien dear."

"Mooom!"

Gabriel spotted the brief smile exchanged between Tom and Sabine and instantly felt a surge of affection for the two. They knew exactly what they were doing and he wholeheartedly supported their efforts.

"Did you know that Adrien actually pretended to hide in the shower to avoid a girl he liked?" Gabriel said.

Both Adrien and Marinette blanched.

"Oh really?" Tom asked. "Who was the lucky lady?"

Gabriel couldn't help it. Tom couldn't have asked a more perfect question if he had been schooled in advance. He laughed. After a minute, Marinette joined in with Adrien following a second later. For a long time the three of them just sat and laughed at the utter absurdity before them, with Tom and Sabine watching in amusement.

After a while, Marinette calmed down and wiped her eyes. She looked between Gabriel and Adrien and took a deep breath. "Mom, Dad, we have something to tell you."

"We do?" Adrien asked in alarm.

She nodded, squaring her shoulders. "It's what Mr. Agreste has been trying to do all evening. At least, I think so." She hazarded a glance at him. He nodded once. She turned to her parents. She opened her mouth. But no words came. Her expression grew stricken. She licked her lips and faltered, shooting a look full of panic at Adrien. He reached over without hesitation and squeezed her hand, taking over for her.

"Mr. and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng, what your daughter is trying to say is that I'm Chat Noir. And she's Ladybug," he informed them in a steady voice. Gabriel watched his son, pride swelling in him at Adrien's sudden protectiveness of his partner.

There was silence for a moment. Tom and Sabine stared at each other and seemed to have an entire silent conversation between them. Finally, Tom shrugged and Sabine turned to her daughter. "Oh, honey, is that all? We already knew."

Silence.

Then, "What?" three voices chorused simultaneously.

"You knew?" Marinette exclaimed. "Since when?"

Adrien looked to Gabriel but he was as stunned as the two teens.

Tom chuckled. "For a while now, Marinette."

"But..." Marinette struggled to find the words, "you grounded me!"

"Oh," Sabine chimed in. "Yeah it was around that time."

"What?!"

"Sorry dear, but really, pillows underneath your bedsheets?" Sabine explained. "Not very original."

"It was Tikki's idea," Marinette protested in a low mumble.

"We knew you really wanted to go support Nino at that competition," Tom took over, ignoring his daughter, "but when we turned on the TV we realized that not only were you not at the studio, but there had been an akuma attack as well. There was only one possible conclusion to draw from that."

"And Adrien? Did you know about him, also?" Marinette asked.

Another silent conversation between the two. "Not until recently," Tom admitted after a moment. "You started acting much more at ease around him. We concluded that either you had gotten over your crush-," at this Marinette let out a squeak and Adrien grinned at her, "-which Sabine pointed out was very unlikely, or that you had uncovered something else. I suggested that you were Chat Noir and your mother agreed."

"This dinner only further verified it," Sabine added. Her eyes sparkled. "We did enjoy your antics all evening, Gabriel, even if our children did not."

Gabriel chuckled. "And I enjoyed your conversation as well."

Sabine continued, taking a sip of after-dinner tea. "Though honestly, Gabriel, it's about time you finally connected the dots." She winked. "Tom here thought you would never become wise to it but I had more faith in you. Looks like Tom owes me dinner." She smiled at her husband.

Gabriel's jaw dropped open in astonishment. He turned to Marinette. "Does your entire family place bets on important events?" he cried out, even as Sabine and Tom dissolved into giggles.

The End

Author's Note: The end! I certainly had fun attempting to write a connected story while incorporating the prompts. I salute those authors that managed to write a story for each day. Thanks to PerditaAlottachocolate for her assistance with the puns and jokes! Go check out her contributions to this week, they're really good!

I'm aware there are plot holes throughout the story and assumptions that are made but not explained. I wrote this with the ML Reveal Week in mind, and thought it would be fun to connect the chapters together instead of having three different unrelated prompts. It's a bit on the crack side, but I think still firmly falls into non-crack territory... what do you all think? Should I place a warning up front that this is crack? The first chapter was intended to be serious but these last two chapters were more of a late-night text session with a sleep-deprived brain.

Thank you to everyone who supported this story! I love hearing feedback and interacting with everyone. If you're too shy to leave a review, drop me a PM. I'm not Gabriel, I won't bite your head off.

Thanks again everyone!