Dance with Me, Chaton

Homework

"How is your progress on locating Ladybug?" Gabriel asked from the screen of Adrien's phone.

"Not very successful so far," Adrien replied. "I followed a few leads in Public Relations and designing departments, but they ended up being dead ends."

Gabriel let out an exasperated groan. "Why did you go to Public Relations, Adrien? If anywhere, Ladybug would work in the design department. Do your homework. No one apart from that department has seen all the designs."

Adrien broke the eye contact. Father could've told him that from the start. He wouldn't have wasted his time elsewhere. "I've been trying to infiltrate the company in a believable way, Father. If I can earn your employees' trust, they might lead me to her."

Gabriel scoffed. "They'll always look at you as an outsider, Adrien, but do what you want. It's your future on a line. I must go now. We're almost at the airport."

"Father, wait. Just two more questions."

"Make it quick."

"You promise you won't fire her?"

Gabriel groaned. "I already said it once and I'm not repeating myself. Next."

"I fired Lila Rossi yesterday for assaulting one of your junior designers. Apparently, she'd been bullying her for years now, so I thought it was necessary. Can you write the executive order?"

Gabriel frowned. "Lila Rossi? Who's that?"

"One of your accessory buyers."

"And whom and how did she assault?"

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, one of the junior designers. She'd spilled coffee all over her, following with verbal threats and diminishing after that."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "I know Mlle Dupain-Cheng. She's quite the talent."

"Yes. That's why we can't have her being bullied on our premises. She might quit, and I thought you'd hate to lose a valuable employee. An accessory buyer is a much easier to replace position than a good designer."

Gabriel hummed. "Have you've witnessed the assault yourself?"

"I did. Both parts."

Gabriel nodded. "All right. I'll sign the order first thing Monday morning. Good day, Adrien."

"Thank you, Father."

The screen went dark. Adrien flopped back into his bed. The sun was just starting to peak from the horizon, so he could probably catch a few more hours of sleep. He'd need all the energy he could get to figure out how to steal the designs from his father undetected. Because Ladybug isn't going to trust Chat Noir based on his words alone. He'd need to act no matter how much Adrien didn't like the idea.

When he opened his eyes again, it was almost nine o'clock. Adrien lingered for a while before getting up and getting breakfast. Then tidied his apartment, did laundry and cooked lunch and started on making dinner. Then he sorted and organized his schoolwork, got rid of the clutter, and when there was nothing else to do, Adrien got to research basic hacking techniques. None of what he saw made much sense, despite him being smart enough to graduate with Masters in Business Management at the top of his class.

Chat Noir: Working on our mission ;3 How are you this morning?

Ladybug: It's 4 pm, Chaton. Did you have a late night?

Chat Noir: LOL Sorry didn't notice the time, but no. You? How did the club visit go?

Ladybug: Amazing. As always. You won't believe what a few hours of dancing can do for you after a stressful week.