"You wanted to speak with me?" Adrien asked, trying to remove some of the stiffness from his voice and failing horribly. He withheld sighing, instead hooking his thumbs over his pockets as he stared at his father across the study.
As usual, Gabriel was standing at his computer on the other side, seemingly distracted with whatever he was doing. He hadn't even glanced up when Adrien had entered, which wasn't so surprising. But Adrien had less and less patience with his father's attitude these days.
He had considered ignoring the summons, again, in order to force his father to come to him directly, but had thought it might be fairer to simply do as he'd been asked. He'd thought—despite their differing opinions—that he and his father were doing... "alright" as far as their relationship. But now Adrien was regretting giving in. It didn't matter how many guardedly caring words Gabriel happened to let slip out, he was still Gabriel. And Adrien still disapproved of being constantly treated like an employee.
He should have stayed in his room.
Three seconds more of silence and he was going to turn around and leave.
1... 2... 3...
Sighing, he twisted on his heel and took a step toward the doors.
"Where are you going?"
"I was gonna go back to my room," Adrien replied, words clipped. He had paused in his retreat, leaving him in a sort of limbo as he pointed toward the doors. "Since you apparently don't have anything to say to me after all."
His father finally looked at him, sighing as he did. Reaching up, he pulled his glasses off, before rubbing at the bridge of his nose. He looked tired, but that was pretty typical. Generally speaking, Gabriel was either tired or irritated.
"I'm very busy, Adrien," Gabriel finally said. "A little patience would be appreciated."
"Then don't call me in until you have time to talk," Adrien rebuked. "I'm busy too and don't like to stand around, being ignored, when I could be doing something else. So are you going to tell me what you called me in here for or not?"
"I see your attitude hasn't improved any."
"How about this," Adrien said, gesturing out as though he were making a peace offering (hint: he wasn't). "I'll improve my attitude when you improve yours. Start treating me like your son instead of an employee and I'll consider watching what I say and how I say it. Sound fair to you?"
Gabriel was not impressed.
"I called you in here," Gabriel started, apparently deciding to ignore his son's compromise, "to talk about your summer schedule."
"Usually that's something Nathalie does," Adrien reasoned, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Yes, well, I expected you might be difficult about it," Gabriel replied, causing Adrien to purse his lips. "As you should be aware, Men's Haute Couture is this week. I didn't bother scheduling you after... I'm aware that you were recently recovering. Now that school is over for the summer, however, your modeling schedule will pick back up to its usual pace." Gabriel looked directly at him then. "You've missed almost all of our June shows because I considered it more important that you attend school." Which meant no trips to Milan or London this summer. Adrien knew the schedule well. "There is still the showing for Haute Couture this week, however, and then the final men's show in New York."
"I'm not doing any of that this year," Adrien said, knowing full well his father wouldn't appreciate his words. As if expecting his response, however, Gabriel took a deep, exasperated breath. "You can't honestly think I'd agree to spend the summer abroad." It didn't matter if that was their usual course—things were different now. "I can't leave Paris. I'll do whatever you want for Haute Couture, but that's it."
