MariChat: Soul Link (SoulMates AU)

Does This Work?

There wasn't really a way Adrien was going to get out of this situation without conflict with his father. He'd been caught red handed. Gabriel Agreste was the type of person who would use whatever he could get his hands on to restrict Adrien's movement. He had been opposed to Adrien attending public school since the first day he ever mentioned it, only allowing him to go when he realized, he wasn't going to be able to stop Adrien from going. He only allowed him to go so he could place restrictions on him even while he did that. The limousine rides there and back hadn't been for Adrien's benefit. They were so Gabriel knew exactly where his son was at all times.

All these restrictions, all these rules, all these harsh codes Adrien was forced to live by, all these became the reason he lied. And he had gotten way too good at it for even his own liking.

Getting caught though... His father was going to use this against him as much as he could.

He stared at his son, his eyes piercing, narrow, and a frown on his face. Just a few simple, not particularly observant observations told Adrien everything he needed to know about his normally expressionless father.

He was pissed.

"...Would you believe me if I said we went out to grab some snacks for the project?" Adrien said, trying to joke his way out of the situation. He wasn't going to lie his way out of it, so what was the worst that could happen at this point?

His father didn't even twitch. "Who is the girl?"

Bad. Very bad. The less his father knew about Marinette, the better. Then again, it wasn't like he could deny her existence to him anymore either. It was pretty hard to deny what was right in front of him.

"A friend."

"A girlfriend?"

"Would that be a problem?"

"Consider me curious. I want to know who she is." That wasn't a request. It wasn't a question. It was a demand. Should Adrien deny it, there would be consequences.

"...Yes, she's my girlfriend." He didn't have a choice. His father wasn't going to believe that she was just a friend, he had made that perfectly clear. There wasn't any point in digging a deeper hole than he was already in.

"Name."

"...Marinette." Just telling him her name made him feel disgusting. He felt like he'd betrayed her. It wasn't like he had a choice... But it made him sick either way. 'I'm sorry, Marinette.'

"Her full name."

"What difference does her full name make?!" Adrien yelled, basically out of panic. This was a line he didn't want to cross. He'd already told his father way more than he was comfortable with. He didn't make his panic obvious, but his tone of voice indicated his discomfort, something he knew his father would pick up on.

The truth was, the first name really would be all Gabriel needed to figure out who Marinette was. He had a picture, and a first name. He even recognized her from the Derby hat contest. He had her face. He was willing to let the last name slide. He already knew enough. "Fine. Then how long have you been seeing her?"

What would make him less angry, Adrien wondered, telling him that was technically their first date, which it technically was, or that technically they had been seeing one another for a couple of weeks? There were a whole load of technicalities that Adrien himself wasn't sure what he'd consider the official start of their relationship.

"...A few weeks." It was better to tell the truth in this situation right now. Not like he had much of a choice. Adrien liked to consider their first few interactions as Chat and Marinette to be the start of their relationship.