His Mute Princess

Chapter 13

Things went wonderful for Marinette. She got to meet so many designers that inspired her even more to persue her dream. At first she did feel intimidated by some of the designers. Some were rude and cocky. But others were nice and inspiring and encouraged her to continue.

Everything was just wonderful. For the first hour, anyways.

Not long after they left the VIP section of the exhibition, they were surrounded by people taking pictures and asking them questions.

Adrien immediately pulled Marinette close to him, knowing how some people could get.

"Are you two on a date?"

"Are you two a thing?"

"You make such a cute couple!"

"Why is he with her?!"

"How does Gabriel feel about this?"

To Adrien, this was just a regular headache. To Marinette, however, this was bad. Really bad. She was exposed to the media and not in the way she wanted.

She wasn't going to be seen as her own individual person. She was going to be seen as Adrien's girlfriend, something she was not.

Adrien, taking immediately notice of her panicked state, tried getting away from the crowd. Lucky for them, security guards were quick to get the people away. They were both escorted to a different section where they would be left alone. Their coats were brought to them and Adrien immediately called to be picked up.

After about 20 minutes, the car pulled up and they were both escorted to the car, still being asked and taken pictures of. Adrien still held her close, making the fans crazy.

Once in the car, they drove off, escaping the chaos behind them. Adrien gave Marinette's hand a small squeeze, she gave no reaction and he sighed. "I'm so sorry for that. Do you want to go home?"

Marinette didn't look at him, she was staring out the window. She only nodded. She tried her best to keep her emotions in control when in reality she wanted to run away as far as possible.

They pulled up in front of the bakery and she got off immediately, not waiting for Adrien. She rushed inside without even signaling a goodbye. Adrien sat back hurt and confused. Had his status messed up things with her?

Marinette rushed upstairs, waving quickly at her worried parents who only exchanged glances. She got upstairs to her room and immediately texted Alya to come over.

In almost minutes, Alya showed up. "So? How was it?" Alya asked her with a grin. Marinette had only told her to come over as soon as possible, not why she should.

Marinette's back was to her, she was looking in horror at the news. Alya furrowed her brow and went over to her friend. "Mari?" The second she saw her expression, Alya turned to the tv.

"Adrien Agreste was seen with a girl at the fashion event being held at the Grand Palais. The two were reportedly holding hands and according to some witness accounts, Adrien couldn't keep his eyes off the blue eyed beauty." Nadja placed her hand to her ear piece, "We were just informed the girl's name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, a fellow classmate of his."

"Well fuck."

.

Adrien sat on his couch and stared at the screen. "I fucked up," he groaned. Plagg chuckled, "What did I say? See! I'm always right!"

"Not now Plagg," Adrien muttered. "How am I going to fix this now? Oh my god what if someone recognizes her from the video of me as Chat. Fuck. My. Life." Adrien had begun to pace around his room.

"Oh relax, just do one of those things that you famous humans do to disregard things." Adrien stopped, "What?"

"You know, when you post something or say something on tv talking about the thing."

"A statement?"

"That! You can get your father to say something. She isn't actually your girlfriend so it's no big deal."

"Yeah... she's not..." Before he could say anything more, a knock came from his door.

"Adrien? Your father would like to speak with you," Nathalie spoke. Adrien sighed and headed to the door. He opened it and they both headed downstairs to his father's office. They stood outside and Nathalie motioned him to go inside. Adrien took a deep breath and opened the door, stepping inside to see his father's back was to him.

"What's this about a girlfriend?" He asked, turning to face his son with a cold glare. Adrien stood up straight, "She is not my girlfriend, father." It hurt him a little to say that.

Gabriel raised a brow. "She is a fellow classmate of mine," he continued, "she is a fashion designer and I asked her to accompany me. She is a good friend to me and I wanted to do something nice. There is nothing between us, she has no romantic feelings towards me. I only held her hand to calm her down."

"Calm her down?"

"She was a bit overwhelmed. She's not used to large events." Adrien finished, a similar, cold expression on his face.

Gabriel sighed, "Very well. I will have Nathalie make a statement to get off the girl's back. You are dismissed."

Adrien nodded and stepped out. Nathalie only gave him a small nod. He headed back upstairs to his room, trying to think of something to make it up to Marinette.

.

Marinette had finished explaining to Alya all the events that had happened. It took quite a while as Marinette kept mouthing everything too fast for Alya to understand.

After she was done, Alya sat back on the chair, Marinette lay on her chaise. "Wow, that sounds like a horrible mess. So what, now you're going to have to stop seeing Adrien for 3 weeks?" Alya joked. Marinette sent her a small glare.

Alya chuckled. "Kidding." Marinette's phone buzzed and she opened it to see Adrien had texted her. Her eyes widened and she shoved her phone in Alya's face.

"Whoa girl! Chill! What is it?" she asked taking the phone. Alya looked at the message and smiled.

'I explained to my father the situation. You don't have to worry. He will have this fixed.'

"See this is much better. I knew Agreste was going to find some quick solution."

Marinette sighed and mouthed, 'I'll still have to deal with some people who will want to push the subject.'

"Yes... but you can't speak. So you can't be interviewed by anyone. It would take a lot of work. The reporter or a helper would have to translate everything and that will be too much."

'Being mute comes in handy sometimes,' Marinette mouthed.