Unexpected Surprise: Fanfare

"Here you go." André stretched out his hand to offer an ice cream cone to Adrien. "Chocolate for a brown mop of hair, blueberry for the eyes that will entice, crème Brule for the sun-kissed skin. The little lady is just a child, but destiny is already smiling upon her."

"Thank you, André." Adrien nodded, taking the cone. "Now I know who to look out for. Emma," he called, turning to his side, "Here's your ice cre-"

The words stuck in Adrien's throat. He turned around. Emma was nowhere to be seen. In her place, Louis, her three-year-old brother, enjoyed his oversized cone of strawberry vanilla ice cream alone.

"Emma?" Adrien looked around, panic slowly gripping his insides because, for everything she was, Emma wasn't the one to just wander off. Especially, not when there was an ice cream cone waiting for her after they'd spent almost an hour searching for André's cart. Picking up Louis, Adrien called his daughter's name again. No answer followed. Frantically, he looked around for Marinette, but she and baby Hugo didn't seem to be back yet.

Don't panic, Adrien tried to calm himself down, scanning the area more thoughtfully. There was an open square to his right. Emma wasn't there. A busy street flooded with cars was behind them. Adrien shifted his sight to the left—Emma was smarter than to wander into the traffic. To the left, there was a park loitered with people and filled with rides.

"Emma!" Louis laughed and pointing somewhere into the park. Adrien's gaze snapped towards the area. His breathing hitched, eyes widening the instant he spotted his ten-year-old daughter.

"Emma, no!"

Forgetting the ice cream, Adrien held Louis tighter as he sprinted towards his daughter, naively helping out an elderly man in a Hawaiian shirt to stand up. It took him only a few seconds.

"I respect you- Master Fu, but- you can't do that—" Adrien blurted out as soon as he'd reached the duo could, "Master Fu- she is just ten. She is too young. Please, don't-Don't you already have a perfectly capable pair of adult superheroes? As her father- I can't allow this. Why would you want her in the first place? There has been no threat to Paris since we took down the Hawkmoth."

"Nice to see you again too, Adrien," the man calmly smiled and stretched out his hand. "You seem to be doing well. Though, I remember you being much more relaxed and calmer back in the days. You should take care of yourself, young man; stress isn't good for you."

"You don't say," Adrien replied, shaking Fu's hand. "Glad to see you are still doing well, Master Fu."

"You know him, Daddy?" Emma asked.

"Yup," Adrien nodded. "Master Fu used to- teach me Chinese?"

"I did," the older man smiled satisfactorily. "And your father, little lady, was one of the best students I've ever had. We haven't seen each other in a long time, though, right, Adrien?"

"Yeah. Probably since a few months before I left for New York City. So, a little over eleven years? You didn't age a day, though, Master Fu. You look amazing."

"Oh, I did. I certainly did," Master Fu replied with a sigh, leaning onto his cane. "It might not show it, but I definitely started to feel the years recently. That's actually a part of the reason I'm here-"

"Master Fu," Adrien interrupted with a sigh. "With all due respect, let's be reasonable - I was fourteen, so was Marinette. Emma's still a child, and you already have older students doing their work perfectly fine. You don't need her, and even if you did, you could wait a few years."

Amusement was hard to miss in Master Fu's smile. "You don't even know what I'm here for exactly and you already refusing?"

"Yes," Adrien stated firmly, looking at a very confused Emma. It was incredible she'd kept quiet as long as she did, but the frown on her face and slightly parted lips meant it wouldn't last much longer. "As her father, I cannot allow this at her age."