Miraculous

Chapter 12 - A Little Robot Named Markov

"Markov-t-told-"
"Yes, however it's not my secret to share, you don't need to worry." Max said calmly, he seemed to have accepted the information rather quickly and now thought it was the most normal and sensically thing he'd ever heard. "Right-um-thank you." Adrien replied, his voice was sped up and he was talking fast, so fast max chuckled.
"No need to worry Adrien, Markov has just simply spent enough time with you to realise the corraltion between you and your alter ego." Adrien nodded, he was sure max wouldn't tell anyone. Max wasn't a gossip, in fact, he was the farthest thing from and he hoped Markov wouldn't either.
"Well Marinette's waiting I should-"
"Ah, I see the trick you're both pulling on us all, it's very humorous." Adrien smiled, "Not to brag but it was my idea." He tried to sound as joking as possible. "Well before I knew I was highly confused. After all, the probability of you and Marinette dating a due of superheroes at the exact same time like that is 1.0089%" Adrien remarked that he had to go and said goodbye.
He met with Marinette in the hallway where she had been talking with Alya and told her everything.
"Max knows!?" She almost jumped out of her skin. "Yes, but he won't tell anyone." Marinette was clearly tense, her eyes were wide, her shoulders were tightened and she was almost shaking.
"Don't worry bugaboo, if I didn't trust max I would see it as a problem, but I do." Marinette blinked, "Alright-yeah-okay." She sighed.

The pair parted ways at the end of the school day (though, unwillingly.) and both headed for their homes.
On the way home Adrien was almost ambushed by people with cameras, paparazzi and civilians. Despite narrowing avoiding this he could hear the questions they all kept yelling towards him. Questions like:
"What's your next modelling project?" which were standard questions he'd heard before, and other questions like,
"Do you know Ladybug identity?" and "have you met chat noir? Do you get along?" Adrien found that quite amusing. He was still getting used to the questions about Ladybug, they still often caught him off guard and he had almost slipped up a few times when he forgot that the public didn't know he was chat noir.
The limo pulled up to his house, the cold and dark exterior was far from crying "welcome home!" but it was still his home,and he walked inside with his bodyguard practically glued to his hip, which was sadly, also standard.

As soon as he entered he was met with Natalie staring down at her tablet and adjusting her glasses.
"Your father wants to see you." she said, as cold and stone-faced as she always was. When he was younger, Adrien had wondered if Natalie was perhaps a robot.
"He does?" Adrien asked, more surprised than any child should be at the fact that their parent wants to talk to them.
"Yes, go to his office." And with that Natalie walked away.
Adrien quickly sipped-walked over to the door of his dad's office, there was high chance this was something model related but there would always be that gleefully, cheery, bright hope at the back of Adriens mind.

"Hello Adrien." was the first thing he heard, "Hi father." He waved lowly but his father's eyes were drawn to his work stand. "Why did you need to see me?"
"Our brand is doing a promotional advertisement for Parisian heroes," Gabriel said, "It's important to show the public that we support our heroes." Adrien was a little surprised that his dad was a hero supporter, it wasn't that his dad was a supervillian fan he just didn't seem the type to root for supers, then again, it was probably just a marketing ploy.
"And naturally you need to take part in the campaign." Adrien had a sinking feeling that he knew where this was going.
"You will play chat noir, we have already cast a few other of the heroes, you can meet them shortly." Adrien froze, oh no. "I-I don't think I'm a good fit for that role." Gabriel raised an eyebrow at him, "What?" he asked, shooting a cold glare. "I- I've met him and we're just not the same." As he heard it Adrien realised that this was a bad lie and a worse excuse. "It's acting." Adrien almost tripped as he felt his heart sink into his stomach. "I just think you should cast someone else, you don't want people to think it's nepatism." His father sighed, "I don't have time for this." He muttered, "You're playing the role and that's that." Adrien sighed, he had to admit defeat here, he'd never been good at saying no to his dad and this was no exception, even if he thought Ladybug wouldn't like it.
"Yes father." He turned to the door and went to leave when Gabriel stopped him, "We still havent cast Ladybug, thoughts?" Adrien didn't know if this was his father's attempt at communication and kindness but he answered simply, "I'll ask her, see what she thinks." Gabriel 's ears seemed to perk up,
"Yes, that's brilliant." His father finally looked ip from his screen with a grin.
"Yeah I'm sure she' ll come up with a great actor."
"We should cast her."
Adrien almost chocked,
"What?" He asked
"Well who better to play Ladybug then Ladybug?"
What mess had Adrien gotten them both into now...