This...was not supposed to happen.
Adrien gritted his teeth in barely suppressed fury as Lila wept her crocodile tears in front of his father and Nathalie, the brunette doing her very, very best, to pin the blame for the damage to a dress, that was supposed to be used in the photoshoot of the day, on Marinette...who looked ready to just give up and break down from the stress of dealing with the psychopath that had been tormenting the bluenette ever since the Italian had transferred in.
This was supposed to be a fun day for Marinette and himself. It was supposed to be just a relaxing day on a photoshoot, nothing extreme like a few past 'artsy' shoots that he'd had to partake in...just a chance for the blond to get to finally have a friendly face on set to talk to between photos and where he could let Marinette have a good day after all of the, his mother forgive him for his incoming language, absolute hellstorm of crap that the lying Italian tramp had been heaping onto his friend by the truckload since practically day damned one for absolutely no reason that made sense outside of, probably, the Joker's mental madhouse.
In other thoughts, he decided that he needed to have a chat with Alya and Nino specifically for their abandonment of Marinette...and if those two didn't have a good excuse, he might just be tempted to go "claws out" on both of them. Tempted? Yes. Actually do it? He was still deciding that...'no, Plagg. You don't have a say in this.'
But supposed to's were neither here nor there. What mattered was that Lila...and why in the actual h-e-double-hockey-sticks had his father told the girl to show up here AFTER Adrien was pretty sure that he had stated at least once that he refused to work with the girl...he paused. No, that explained it. He probably did make those statements and his father (world's okayest sperm donor) had most likely decided to ignore everything coming out of Adrien's mouth in favor of just nodding and agreeing blindly in hopes that Adrien would eventually be satisfied and leave.
It wouldn't be the first time.
Where was he? Oh yeah. Lila was framing Marinette...and his father was going along with it?! Was this actual real life right now? His father, who was supposed to be some kind of creative genius in fashion and a top businessman, was actually believing every ounce of nonsensical crap coming out of Lila's mouth? Was this for real?
And...Marinette was...was his friend...was Marinette crying?!
Oh...HELL NO.
"ENOUGH." Adrien snapped as he stepped into the center of the fray to pull the bluenette into his arms, resting a hand firmly to her upper back in comfort. When Marinette didn't resist, Adrien swore he saw red...before shifting as if to keep his body between the liar, his apparently dumb-as-a-rock father, his father's pet sycophant who couldn't keep a story straight to save her life apparently, and the amazing girl who was much more than just a friend to him despite his many, many arguments (mostly with Plagg) to the contrary. "Shut your lying mouth, Lila. I am sick of you trying to frame Marinette as a criminal-"
"Adrien! I d-don't know what y-you're-" The girl started only for the blond model to cut her off. "I told you to shut your mouth."
Gabriel frowned, looking pointedly at his son. "Adrien-"
"You shut up too, father." Adrien all-but snarled, ignoring the tomblike silence that had swallowed the room the second that Adrien had raised his voice. You could hear a pin drop as most seemed to try to process on whether or not their ears were functioning correctly: had Adrien, sweet and nice Adrien, just told that obnoxious sausage-haired girl AND Gabriel Agreste to shut up?
And over his 'she's just a friend' girlfriend?
Adrien glared between the three in front of him before settling firmly on his father first. "What is actually wrong with you? If Nathalie won't vouch, and really, why would she? She doesn't care about anyone but you, right?, so...let's ask everyone on set? Marinette never left my sight so no, father, if you actually think about something other than yourself for once, for just five seconds, really...it's not so hard!, maybe you'll realize that you're preparing to yell at an innocent girl and that the person you should be going after for damaging that dress is your precious 'muse'."
