All The Way

A Tough Choice and A Rainy Afternoon

Gabriel was not happy.

Lila had been so incredibly close to getting Ladybug's earrings. Once she had those, it would have been easy enough to trick Chat Noir into giving her his ring.

But Nathalie just had to interfere. If she wasn't there to help, Lila would have succeeded.

After watching the events of the akuma attack unfold from backstage, he left the building disappointed.

Everything was falling apart. He had no one that he could depend on anymore.

Adrien barely tolerated him. Nathalie was indifferent towards him. And Lila... well, she was only helping him for her own selfish reasons. She didn't care about anyone but herself.

Then there was Marinette, the girl behind the Ladybug mask that stood in his way at every turn when he was Hawk Moth. Yes, Marinette Dupain-Cheng was his sworn enemy. And he hated her more than anyone else in the whole world.

But then there was that fateful day in the repository. The day when Marinette gave him the chance to wake Emilie up. She sacrificed herself so that he would finally get what he was after, and to end the fighting between him and Adrien.

And because of that, Gabriel finally respected her.

Then his sworn enemy agreed to help in their attempts to cure Emilie and wake her up. She came up with idea after idea and worked tirelessly alongside them. Even though all of their attempts failed, she was always there.

And because of that, the respect slowly transformed into appreciation.

Then as the years went by it became more and more obvious that Marinette genuinely loved Adrien. She loved him, supported him, and took care of him. And he did the same to her.

And because of that, the appreciation slowly transformed into acceptance.

Against all odds, and after years of fighting it, Gabriel finally accepted the fact that Marinette and Adrien were perfect for each other. His sworn enemy was going to become his daughter-in-law, and he was okay with that.

And then, with absolutely no benefit to herself, and despite Adrien's objections, Marinette agreed to sign the prenuptial agreement. Simply because she knew that it was important to him.

And because of that... dare he admit it? Gabriel actually started liking her.

But now all of those feelings were gone. They crashed and burned when he finally followed up on that other address on his notepad. The address that Marinette visited over and over again throughout the last several weeks.

His first impression of Marinette turned out to be right. She wasn't good enough for Adrien. She never would be.

And no matter what happened, he couldn't let Adrien marry her. It would be the biggest mistake of his life.

The past few weeks had been torture. Gabriel desperately hoped that Lila would successfully capture Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculouses. Her desire to date and marry Adrien was the primary reason that she agreed to help him in the first place. So if Adrien and Marinette broke things off on their own, he couldn't be sure that Lila would keep helping him. But she was absolutely essential to his plan, and he needed her to honor her part of their agreement.

So Gabriel had to make a choice. He could either stay with the original plan, and risk Adrien marrying Marinette. Or he could break them up right now, and risk Lila abandoning their arrangement.

He was running out of time. The wedding was only a month.

So he made the tough choice.

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