One shots

After Protection

"I honestly can't believe, that you had the guts, to do that, Nathalie! I forbade him to have any relationship with that girl, yet you used...", he paused and gazed down at the ring on her left hand, "...your own power, to tell him differently. I was only trying to fulfil that goddamn contract with the Tsurugi family, I still haven't found a way out of. Why would you be sabotaging me like that?"

Gabriel was fuming, though he hadn't shown that, when he had asked Nathalie earlier, if she had given him a counter order. He had pretended to accept her opinion, that he shouldn't be controlling Adrien so far, that he would even want to control, who he fell in love with. Or who he was allowed to fall in love with.

But now, after akumatizing Kagami for the second time in a row, yet without succeeding at all, his anger was boiling and he needed to blow off some steam.

But Nathalie Sancoeur wasn't a person, who gave in easily, neither was she afraid of Gabriel Agreste, like so many others. Being used to his outbursts for years now, she didn't even flinch, when he started yelling.

Her voice was quiet, barely audible, yet he didn't miss the threatening tone in it, when she began to speak:

"I asked you for one thing, Gabriel, one thing only. Don't try to control this part of Adrien's life! Can't you remember, how very much Emilie's family tried to keep you apart back then? She told me all about it, even about the things you did, about the contract with Mrs Tsurugi and the other negotiations and agreements with the Bourgeois'. Like Audrey supporting you as a designer and in return Emilie would take a part in André's movie. Even more, the Graham de Vanily family even financed and produced this movie. It was good, I have to admit that, but not because of the Mayor, trying to live his big dream. Emilie carried the whole thing with her skills. Mrs Tsurugi didn't even let one year pass for you to grieve, before she decided to move to Paris and introduce her perfectly designed daughter to the public. Adrien had a little crush on her, because of how very much she reminded him of himself. Because since your wife has been gone, you treated him more like an object, than like your son. Just answer one question, Gabriel! How would you even justify your way of treating and interacting with Adrien in front of her?"

He simply stared at the woman before him, not able to speak at all, when his thoughts all started to circle around the things she had just told him. Now he began to imagine, how his beloved wife, how Emilie would react, if she found out about him being so cold and distant to their son, how he had abused the power, he had over him, to bend the teenager's will and form him the way he needed to be to fit into his associate's imagination.

"Damn it, Nathalie, I didn't even notice most of the time, what I was doing. I...", he gulped, "...I almost had made another contract when Mrs Tsurugi was threatening me this afternoon, in which I was supposed to sign some sort of prenuptial agreements for him and Kagami. Good thing, before that could happen, we discovered that Adrien and Kagami were only friends now and that he was in love with.....", he shook his head, spitting out the name, "Marinette Dupain-Cheng!"

Seeing the look, Nathalie gave him after he said the girl's name so disdainfully, he already prepared himself for her outburst. Yet to his surprise and shock, it didn't come.

The assistant just kept staring at him, her shoulders hanging low, her lips pressed together so firmly, that they weren't visible at all any more, her eyes shooting icecold lightnings towards him and he thanked the universe, that gazes weren't really able to kill.

"What's your issue with the girl, Gabriel? She is talented, intelligent, hard working, creative and completely selfless to a point, I would almost describe as pathetic, if I hadn't been like her for a large part of my life. She loves him unconditionally and so does he feel for her. Believe me, if I know one thing very well, it's loving someone so much, that I would give my life for their happiness!", she told him snidely, her voice cold and emotionless.