CatWalk

Forty-Five

Gabriel had two choices. The first one was to attend dinner with his granddaughter and the second was to track down his son who refused to even speak to him. Not that Gabriel blames his son. He's been through a lot and needs his space but to Gabriel, his son's tendency to be dramatic was a hindrance to everyone who he was unlucky enough to cross paths with. Isn't that how the superstition goes?

The man dubbed 'Gorilla' opened the side door of the sleek black car that awaited in front of the school to pick up Monsieur Agreste. Gorilla was an accurate term for the ape of a man that was Gabriel's bodyguard. Once Gabriel entered the car, Gorilla closed the door and as he did so, he looked across to the school's neighboring building. On that building perched a familiar face. Of course, due to the distance he couldn't actually see the face of the person that was up there.

To pass the time, Gorilla would either read murder mysteries or make up stories for the people whom passed him by. This included heroes such as ChatNoir and Ladybug. He theorized that Ladybug and ChatNoir had gotten into a fight the night before her disappearance. This means that ChatNoir was the last one to see the heroine alive. Was it too taboo to think that ChatNoir had murdered his partner? He distanced himself from both the public and the other heroes that roamed the streets of Paris. As if he has something to hide as most guilty people do.

Gorilla had thought about what was ChatNoir's motive. He came up with two possibilities. The first being that ChatNoir was tried of living in Ladybug's shadow so he took matters into his own hands or he became delusional. Thinking that if he couldn't have Ladybug then no one could. Although, most murders that murdered the person they loved commited suicide soon after. In both circumstances ChatNoir would have a easy way to dispose of the body. All ChatNoir had to say was an nine-letter word and a body could be easily turned into ash. No one would be any of the wiser. However, all of this was just speculation of a driver who read too many murder mysteries.

Gabriel had stopped Marinette before he left asking her which restaurant the large group was going to before he left just in case he decided to go. "To Grape Vine Pizza." Gabriel ordered as he sat comfortably in the backseat. Gorilla nodded his head in agreement with his boss's order. Neither exchange any words in the duration of the car ride.

Gorilla found himself thinking back to the time when he appreciated Adrien's company more than Gabriel's. He remembered when Adrien used to rattle on about the molecular structure of chemicals and occasionally sing the periodic table song. Adrien had a passion for Science but something happened after graduation where he just gave up on his goals. Now the never-ending silence filled the vehicle until the desired destination was reached.

Emma found her grandfather quite out of place. He was this old dignified man that sat in a bustling pizza place that was designed to keep children entertained. The ten year old girl only had one word to describe the scene: funny. Emma's giggles across the table caused Gabriel to raise an eyebrow in concern. "Why are you laughing?" Gabriel asked as he continued to cut his vegetarian pizza in bite size sections which he ordered mainly because it contain less grease then the other options on the menu.

Emma replied to him with "That's not how you eat pizza." She then match the long sides of her greasy triangle together. "This is how you eat it." she added before stuffing the slice into her mouth. The sight of grease flowing down her arm made the pizza more unappetizing to Gabriel. He was a man with a refined pallet after all. "That's how an uncivilized monkey eats her food."

She quickly replied by blowing him the loudest raspberry she could muster. Marinette who was sitting two chairs down on the left side of were Emma sat. She called her daughter's name sternly to correct her behavior.  Emma nodded her head in agreement to her mother's underling warning.  Emma knew that if she said "He started it." that it wouldn't resolve anything.

"I'll be good now." Emma told her mother and the rest of the table of whom stared at her a few seconds after she made a fool of herself. She then listened to her very pregnant Aunt Alya yell at Nino for eating the last pizza slice.

"How dare you eat the last slice! Do you not understand that I'm eating for two?"

"I'll massage your feet when we get home." Nino replied knowing that telling Alya that she and the boys ate most of them wasn't going to solve anything. She would of yelled at him for calling her fat which wasn't the case. He also thought about saying "I love you." but he has been married to her long enough to know she'd replied with "If you loved me you'd have let me eat the last slice." Pregnancy hormones sure were a roller coaster.

Gabriel thought about how Son said he was cutting his ties with him and how this would affect the fashion show. Gabriel then thought of replacing Adrien but it seemed almost impossible to find a replacement since the deadline was so close.

Before leaving Gabriel confronted Luka. "Couffaine, could you perhaps do me a favor?"

"Depends?" Luka was suspicious since the great Gabriel Agreste never bothered to acknowledge his existed until this moment.

"One of my models has suddenly fallen ill and can't make it. Since, your around the same size would you be interested in replacing him? Of course if you refuse just remember it will reflect poorly on Dupain-Cheng if she's down one model on her fall debut."

While the two men shook on it, Luka whispered into Gabriel's ear. "Of course I'll do it but just remember next time don't give me any BS about Adrien being ill or use Marinette a leverage."