Being the son of a world-renowned fashion designer and former model was a difficult and demanding job, but Adrien Agreste was used to it. All his life he had been tangled up in the clothes business of his father, working for him like a well-behaved robot. He knew nothing better. Whenever they weren't at parties or fashion shoots or runways, his father, Gabriel, kept him at home in their mansion in Paris, locked away from the world.

"If anyone saw you on the street, unprotected, they could kidnap you and take you away forever, and then what would I do? What could I do without you?"

Gabriel had made keeping Adrien safe his top priority since his mother died. Before then, Adrien and his mother and their bodyguard could go outside and visit parks and galleries to help him understand his home schooling. Not anymore. Whenever he went outside now, it was to accompany his father. Recently he had branched into controversial fashion which angered groups of protesters waiting outside of fashion shows. Today's was fur. He was using real fur on his runway outfit even though he wouldn't use it (as he had assured Adrien when he asked) on the final products.

"Ignore them Adrien. Find your changing room, I'll be right back," his father ordered.

Adrien begrudgingly obeyed. His bodyguard followed him. He stood stoically between Adrien and the protestors. Suddenly there was yelling. One of the protestors had tripped over something. She was laying across the floor now, in pain, with a friend kneeling over her.

"You ok girl?" He heard the friend ask.

There was concern in her tone. They weren't related - they couldn't be, they didn't look anything like one another - but they cared about one another. Adrien frowned. Gabriel always said the world was too cruel and wicked to care.

"Move aside!"

His bodyguard was rough when he wanted to be. He practically shoved the girls aside. Adrien frowned deeper. They were about his age, and they were out here fighting because they cared, and being treated badly for it.

As he got closer to the girls, he reached out. "Hey, are you ok?"

The main girl didn't even glance up at him. She put her arm around her friend and helped her to her feet, and said, sharply, "she's fine. No thanks to him."

Adrien shank back slightly. This girl was sharp. She was a fighter. And she didn't like him.

"Is there anything I can do to-"

"Come along Mr Agreste!"

The bodyguards arm was almost as wide as Adrien's head. When he put his arm between him and the girls to shield him, Adrien couldn't even see their clothes anymore. He couldn't recognise the details of their face. Like they never existed. Adrien sighed. The only friend he had was Chloe and she had more friends than just him, which she never failed to mention when they were stuck together at parties and in the studio.

"I need to talk to my father. Is Nathalie around?" Adrien asked the bodyguard.

There was a grunt as he was ushered into the changing room set up for him, which roughly translated to "I'll check", but Adrien knew from experience that he wouldn't. Or if he did she would tell him she was too busy to be interrupted. Alone in the smallish changing room, Adrien realised he could hear the chanting of the protesters outside. He glanced up. High up on the wall there was a window. He dragged a chair to the wall, to climb on it to see through the window. Down on the street by the door they had come through, there were the protesters. Sitting on a bench, sharing water from the same bottle, were the two girls that he had tried to talk to. The girl who had spoken to him was on the left. He recognised the brown hair that flowed so seamlessly into red as they passed her glasses. The girl beside her had dark blue hair in bunches tied with ribbon. She was the one that had tripped.

The door opened behind Adrien and a runner popped her head around. "Mr Agreste, we will be ready for you in ten minutes is there anything you need in the meantime?"

"No - oh, wait, can I send things to the protesters?" Adrien asked.

"The - the protesters? Um, sure. What would you like to send?"

He glanced at the window again. The girls were sharing their water...

Marinette and Alya eyed the box of bottled water that was placed on the step for the protesters to grab at their leisure. Alya was more suspicious than Marinette, but Marinette heeded her advice when she pointed out that it was odd that someone inside would send them something nice.

"Do we trust it?" Marinette asked.

Alya rubbed her chin thoughtfully, "I don't know, it came from his son. He seemed concerned when you fell..."

"Was that his son?" Marinette gasped.

"Adrien I believe," Alya tapped through her phone looking for interviews and stories about him, to see how similar he was to his father. "He seems to be a good kid. Maybe he doesnt want us dehydrated."

"That's nice."

Alya agreed a she slid her phone into her pocket and bent over to take a bottle. "He must take after his mother."

Adrien beamed as he watched the two girls taking a bottle each. They had seemed sceptical, even from this distance. When they took a bottle, he beamed viciously. Suddenly Adrien heard a squeal from the next room, followed by shouting.

"Girl, we've got work to do!"

"Pass me the paint and glue!"

"Miss Chloe you shouldn't glue that, it'll burn!"

"Will it hold them down?!"

"Yes, but you won't get it off!"

"When one knows the world is watching, one does what one must. Even with glue. Some minor adjustments - not for my vanity, but for humanity!"

Adrien rolled his eyes. That girl was a pain, but she was at least a pain he was willing to put up with. One he didn't see often enough to annoy him that much. The dressing women let him in. He hovered by the door while she hid behind the screen, but all too soon she came striding out to show off the girl's alternative to the outfit he would be modelling.

"Do I look amazing Adrien?!" She cooed, "utterly amazing!"

After each little step she would pose to show off her high-class breeding, even as Adrien refused to comment.

"Sometimes its too much for even me!" She smirked, smugly.

He watched as she leaned over the dresser to fix her glittery eyelashes with her pinkie finger.

"But when all of the world says yes, who am I to say no?" Adrien mouthed along to the speech she had given a million times since he first met her.

"The world is saying no," he pointed out, "Haven't you seen the protesters?"

"The noisy crowd out front? No, I was talking to the reporters," she let out a snide chuckle, "Yes, they can covert my image but they're barking up the wrong tree. The poor paparazzi all over the city, I have their hearts and they have my pity."

"They follow pretty, which is why they follow both of us," Adrien pointed out.

Chloe choked suddenly. The dressing girls made a quick get away before she could tear him apart. Adrien took an urgent step towards the door in case she attacked him.

She didn't move though, other than to give him a pitiful, condescending smile and explain, firmly, "Pretty?! Pretty is nice, but still, it's just pretty. No, my dear Addikins, PERFECTION, that's me!"

Adrien rolled his eyes and chuckled. Chole was so full of herself here that he was convinced that she couldn't be like that everywhere. After all, she went to proper school. Those other kids wouldn't let her be so arrogant.

"Hey chole, what school do you go to again?"

"ugh, why? I don't want to think about that place while I'm here. If you do go and talk to my teacher. She's in the third row back with some of my classmates. They came to cheer me on," she rolled her eyes in disgust.

Adrien tilted his head in confusion. "You don't cheer at a fashion event."

Well, they did. Loudly. Repeatedly. Adrien trotted down the runway and they were muttering between themselves and beaming, and then Chole appeared, and they cheered like the English at a football game. Gabriel scowled at Adrien to keep serious and ignored them. Even when he tried he couldn't help it. his smile kept crawling back when the nerdy boy in green looked up from his book because the built-up boy in red shook his shoulders, making both of them cheer loudly. They seemed delighted to be there and excited to support Chole, even it upset everyone else there. They got hushed by critics and responded by chanting CHLOE-CHLOE-CHLOE!

"Miss Bourgeois I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't invite your friends along to this sort of event again. they are the wrong sort of people for this situation!" Gabriel stated, sharply backstage.

Chole scoffed in offence, "Those people are NOT my friends! I didn't invite them they brought their own tickets!"

Adrien frowned. She was so ungrateful. No one ever came to cheer him on. Not even his father half the time.

"What are you waiting for Adrien?! Get the coat! The winter coat, quickly now!" he snapped.

Adrien bowed his head and obeyed. There was no use talking to his father when he was in this mood. Although it wasn't often that he wasn't in this mood recently. The coat was black leather down to his knees with black smooth fur running around the collar and down both lapels. The fur was warm and soft and silky, which made him shudder. Of course, it was warm and soft. Until recently it had been in use by a living breathing animal. He hoped that the leather hadn't, but of course it had. Adrien frowned. He really didn't want to put on that coat.

"Need a hand Mr Adrien?"

Before he could answer, the dresser had taken the coat from the hanger and draped it over his shoulders so he could fit his arms through. It still smelt of cow. His stomach lurched in disgust.

"This way Mr Adrien, we have to get you on and Chole on stage at the same time!"

The runners ushered him in front place, ignoring how queasy he looked. Not maybe they just didn't notice. No one seemed to notice when something upset Adrien. He didn't want to make a fuss, but standing in this cow skin with whatever fur they had stripped from an animal to cover him in, made him extremely uncomfortable. Across from him, Chole stood waiting for their cue. Her coat was white. She stroked the white fur lovingly, lifting it up around her chin to breath in the smell.

"This is gorgeous!" she gasped.

Adrien winced. She was smaller than him, and the coat came down to her waist. He couldn't help thinking about the size of the poor cow that got killed to make something that small. All he could do was hope it was heading to the butchers anyway. when their cue came, Chole took centre stage by force. She strode down the cat-walk, to the whoops and cheers of her classmates, and Adrien posed beside her, with the best smile he could muster at the time. The fur and leather may not have been faux, but his smile was. he came to a decision for himself. he was going to talk to his father and finally say everything he wanted to.

"Father I don't want to wear leather and furs, and I don't want to be paraded like cattle!" the irony was not lost on him, even if it was on his father, if he was listening, "I want to go to a real school!"

"good, good, you do that Adrien just don't leave the house without your body guard," Gabriel stated.

He was trying to get on cataloguing the outfits again, to make sure that they had all come back after the fashion show so he could go to the after party. He wasn't listening.

"you can't expect me to take a bodyguard to school, father," Adrien scoffed.

Gabriel frowned. "school? What about school? You're not going to school."

"but you just said-"

Gabriel straightened up and looked down on him sternly. "Look at you, as fragile as a flower! A sapling. We keep you inside to keep you safe and sound."

"I know, but-"

"trust me Adrien, I know what's best for you."

"Father, I know it'll be scary at first, but-"

"something will go wrong, and I will lose my son and my top model. How will I cope then?"

Adrien dropped his head. The guilt came flooding in, but he had to keep fighting. He had to argue his case. If he didn't, no one else would. Well, not anymore anyway.

"father-"

Gabriel frowned deeper. He dusted Adrien's shoulders down and straightened his back by poking him in the centre of his spine. Adrien fell back into the boarding school posture he had been trained to stand in since he was a toddler. All the while his father encircled him like a vulture.

"You're sloppy, and overdressed, and immature. You are far too naïve and gullible to leave the house alone, even for school."

"But it's not fair father!"

He stood over his son, too imposing to argue with. His hands remained behind his back. He hadn't so much as ruffled Adrien's hair since… his voice was hard and unwavering.

"Do not ask to leave this house again. ever."

Adrien hung his head low. "Yes, father."

"remember, son, I know best. To make sure you don't forget, you are not to attend the after party. I will call the car to take you home."

His father turned his back again. Adrien said nothing. tears burned the back of his throat, pinned back by the ball. All he could think about was his mother. No matter what Gabriel said, Adrien's mother always knew best, and always proved it. he was so deep in his own thoughts that he didn't notice the woman he was about to bump into. She yelped and leapt forward, before turning to grin at him.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to bump into you," she smiled.

He gave her an apologetic smile. "It's fine… hey you're one of Chole's lot, aren't you?"

"I'm her teacher," she stated.

Her teacher?! A smile twitched up on Adrien's face. If his father wouldn't let him go to school, he'd just have to take matters into his own hands.