Gabriel gets used to... (Adrien having a girlfriend)

Three Years, Nine Months and One Day...

Nathalie had spent the day briefing Gabriel. Discussion covering what he should talk through with Adrien and how he should approach the subject. At the moment he thought walking over red hot coals might be a better idea than discussing the pros of birth control with his twenty year old son.

Adrien had miraculously been found in his bedroom this morning — alone— escaping off to university like nothing had happened. Gabriel made an additional note to try and figure out how his son was getting in and out without anyone noticing his absence or exit. It wasn't like he could just vault out the window and over the fence; someone must be working with him from the inside. He must have an accomplice.

"Stay calm and be open," Nathalie said, slipping her arms into her jacket and wrapping the purple scarf Marinette had knitted her around her neck. He despised that scarf. Every perfectly formed knit kicked him in his perfectly veneered teeth.

"Easier said than done," Gabriel huffed, crossing his arms over his chest like a defiant tween.

Nathalie shrugged, placing on her Jagged Stone baseball cap and grabbing her '#1 fan' foam finger. "You're the one that had a kid. Deal with it!"

She dropped him one last smug smile before heading out the door and towards the waiting car, abandoning him in his hour of need and leaving him to partake in the most awkward talk of his life.

He'd messaged Adrien earlier, explaining he needed to discuss some 'house' stuff with him. He'd worded it smartly, knowing full well he would entice Adrien in with the idea he wanted to talk about the possibility of him moving out. He was almost 100% sure Adrien wouldn't come if he knew the truth.

It was approximately 10 minutes until Adrien arrived, Gabriel flinching with every slight sound he heard in the house. The last thing he wanted was Adrien turning up early, he needed the extra time beforehand to get his own head around what he was about to do.

Wasn't this a job of his teachers? Did he really have to talk to his own son about this? He took his glasses off and placed them on the table, rubbing over his eyes with one hand as the other spun the ring on his finger. He'd never had this talk with his own father, it was all kind of left to trial and error. Trial being the fun nights out in the backseat of his Skoda, error being the two dark pink lines on a plastic stick that indicated Adrien's impending arrival. Plus it wasn't like he'd slept around in his youth, there'd only ever been one woman and that was his wife. Who knew about Marinette? For all Gabriel knew, emo kid might have given her a long lasting disease.

Stopping the anxious rubbing for the sake of his eyebrows, Gabriel grabbed his glasses and repositioned them on his face. His hand wandered down to his desk drawer, opening it up and closing it again, before repeating the action once more. Inside lay a whole array of different sizes and styles of condom. Nathalie said it would be good for Gabriel to give Adrien some, just to indicate that he now understood that was part of his relationship with Marinette.

He picked up a box which he'd already opened—only for research purposes of course—and twisted it around in his hands. A sudden, startling knock hit against the door; the condoms flew out of Gabriel's hand, the box opening and scattering its contents out onto the floor. He almost fell over as he rushed to stand up and collect the many foil packets that were sprawled around on the ground. Damn him for buying the jumbo pack.

"Just a second." Gabriel was on his hands and knees, moving around, trying to collect the items like he was in the final stage of 'The Crystal Maze' — plus points for gold, minus points for silver.

By the time he'd inserted the last token condom into the box Adrien opened the doorway and stuck his head around.

"Is everything okay here?" he asked. Gabriel attempting a 'Model' smile back at him.