Then There Was You

Chapter 2

Walking with Nathalie into the Agreste estate, Adrien was looking forward to getting into a shower and crashing into bed. Akumas had been fairly quiet recently, so he was counting on getting some decent sleep for a change.

"Adrien, Nathalie, come to my office." Gabriel called down ominously from the top of the staircase. Adrien felt himself sinking as he shared a look with Nathalie. His father didn't sound too pleased.

Heading into Gabriel's home office, the man himself stood behind a large computer screen, looking up as the two entered the room. His face was as uninviting as ever.

"Nathalie in the future, please insist that there is no deviation of pre approved questions for interviews. Adrien was put on the spot today, and I want to make sure it doesn't happen again." Nathalie nodded her head silently under Gabriel's steely stare. He then turned his attention to his son. Adrien could see from the look on his father's face he wasn't entirely off the hook.

"Adrien, you do realise that what you say and do is a reflection upon this company. Young fangirls mean money and you being the object of their fantasies has meant big money spent in our stores on our adolescent lines in particular." Adrien shifted his gaze to the floor and shuffled his feet. He was never comfortable with his sex symbol status being plastered in the media, which had become more of a focal point as he got older, and listening to his father talk about it so casually made his skin crawl. Honestly, he felt more like an employee then the man's son.

"Magazines are going to forever want to link you with the girls you are seen with, so it is important that you choose your company wisely." He shoved a magazine under Adrien's nose. The headline read "Adrien's Bevy Of Beauties." The young model was shocked. The article was making him look like he was some kind of Playboy!

Across the double spread there were pictures of almost every girl he had spoken to over the last few years. Chloe was there, of course, draped over him on the school steps and the photoshoot with a Lila, although the pictures looked different somehow, more seductive which made his stomach churn. There was a recent photo of him and Kagami from a week or so ago, although he has no memory of having his arm around her like that. Then there were the girls from school. Seriously these reporters must have been using long range lenses. There was a picture of him laughing with Alya (Nino having been conveniently cropped out of the picture), playing music with Rose and Juleka on the houseboat, and helping Mylene and Alix in a study group at the park (Again Ivan, Kim and Max being cropped out). If it wasn't so serious it would almost have been laughable. In fact, every picture had been photoshopped in some way to make more of the image than actually was. Really, Adrien felt this kind of doctoring of photos should be illegal.

Then there was one picture that caught his eye. It was him and Marinette standing at the Trocadero. He remembered the day well. He had been at a photoshoot last year when he spied her working furiously in her sketchbook. At first when he went over to her she hadn't seen him and almost jumped out of her skin when he said hello. After that though she showed him what she was working on, an autumn dress inspired by the changing colours of the leaves around them. He had just looked up from the sketchbook to look at her when the picture was taken. They were smiling at each other, a slight blush on Marinette's cheeks as they both held the sketchbook. What really stood out to him though was that unlike the other pictures, this was the only picture in the spread that hadn't been tampered with in some way. He wondered if Marinette ever made the dress, she would look really cute in it. Adrien felt a flutter in his chest he couldn't explain.

"You obviously...like these girls?" He heard his father's flat voice but it seemed far away.

"Yeah." He said absentmindedly before his brain caught up to him. "I mean...of course I like them, these are my friends." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously but his father only glared at him.