Gabriel frowned, his eyes focusing on a spot on the table as she told him everything.  Never had he thought Adrien would start talking to other people with the same lack of respect he was starting to show him. Not to mention the jab at his inability to parent properly actually hurt; no matter how much he deserved it.

"I'm really sorry about how he acted towards you. He's usually very polite around other people... He's picked up a rebellious streak after everything that's happened between him and me. I think he's decided certain rules don't apply to him."

Adrien stared at Marinette in confusion. "We just run into each other sometimes and decide to talk.  It's only been a few time so far. Is there something wrong?"

Iris fidgeted in her seat. She knew he was hurt and it killed her, but she had to tell him. She wanted him to be aware. She then briefly looked away. She should just tell him the truth right this minute. Gabriel couldn't fix this alone. Iris clenched her hands on her skirt. But she had to protect them..

"Don't apologize," she said and looked back at him. "Things happen. I scolded him that instant. I convince to talk to Ladybug about going out at night. That way he's not alone." she sighed. "I'm sure things will turn around for you two." she looked away. "You can't give up.."

Marinette smacked herself. "Sorry..I don't know why .." she paused and sighed. "I don't know why I'm jealous. She tends to give you a great deal of attention.."

Gabriel watched as she fidgeted. She seemed way too invested in this for someone who wasn't related... Add another point to the Iris being Peacock theory. Then again, there were overly nosy people who forced themselves into others' business, but that didn't feel like the case here.

"I do need to apologize. He's only acting like this because of me. I've never been a good parent without help. You were a better parent to him in the five or ten minutes you scolded him and made him promise to talk to Ladybug than I have been in the last six years."

He paused as the waiter brought out their food and left. He grabbed his fork and moved towards his food before sighing and putting it back on the table. This was not the type of lunch conversation he'd been hoping for. It was getting more personal than he was usually comfortable with, but he felt like he wanted to talk at the same time. He had needed the support and advice Iris always provided, and now he had someone who may or may not be Iris giving that support.

He picked up the fork again and poked at his food while forcing the words. "I'm not convinced he wants things to turn around. I've been giving him space and time. I let him pick his modeling and extra curricular schedule. I've given him the freedom he wants and he's just used it to push his boundaries even further while still wanting nothing do do with me."  He stopped there, not voicing the last part of his thought. It was quite fair for Adrien to not want anything to do with him.


Adrien shrugged. "She does... It's kind of annoying. Like last night. But at the same time, she has a son that she can't visit or talk to. She's probably just projecting her feelings on me instead. I hope we defeat the brothers quickly so she can go back to her family."

Iris just stared at her food as he talked. She didn't mean for this conversation to go this far. She was shocked that he opened up this much. He was investigating her identity after all so maybe he knew who she was subconsciously. She had to say something. "Then you're just going to have to make an extra effort of being in his life. Move things forward." Iris was still staring at her food as she talked. She couldn't look at him. All of this was killing her. Why was she being so stubborn? Was Fu right? No! Why would she afraid of going home?

"I'll patrol with you," said Marinette she then stopped herself from smacking herself. She needed to work on his gift!! A curfew! They should have a curfew! "But either of us shouldn't be out too late. We're students after all. So how does midnight sound?"

Meanwhile Tikki floated back into Marinette's room. She smacked herself. How could she forget to ask Marinette to patrol with Adrien? She hoped Plagg wasn't mad.

Make an extra effort?  Oh, Adrien would probably hate that...  How would he even begin to integrate himself into his son's life without getting a negative reaction?  He took a few bites of his food as he thought about it.  "What should I do if he doesn't want to move forward?"

Adrien nodded. He would try very hard to abide by the midnight deadline, but he was used to much later. "That sounds good. I'll come and knock on your balcony window around 10:00."

Plagg followed Tikki a moment later. He wasn't happy she forgot, but he wasn't mad either. It was so rare that Tikki, the most responsible kwami other than Wayzz (probably), had forgotten something important. "You forgot, huh?"

Iris felt a knot form in her stomach. "Don't back down. You love him right? You have to prove to him you want to make things right again." She finally looked at him. "It will hurt him more if you don't."

"Make it 10:30," Marinette said. She wanted to get more time for his gift.

Tikki laughed sheepishly. "Yeah. Sorry.." She sat down on Marinette's bed. "I had a lot of my mind. I've been trying to think of ways to get Pain to drop us hints about Peacock. Do you think Lycca could get her to talk?"

Gabriel stared at her as she spoke.  Her words made a lot of sense when she put it that way.  He had never considered Adrien being hurt by acting the way he was. Adrien didn't seem to have any issues with the current hands off state of their relationship. If anything, he seemed to be encouraging it... Still... Maybe she was right. 

"I would do anything to fix my relationship with him. If you think pushing myself back into his life will help, then I'll try it," Gabriel finally answered; though, he didn't feel very confident Adrien would forgive him.

Adrien nodded. What was he going to do until 10:30? Really, he liked to go out around 9:00. They needed to beat the brothers as soon as possible so this wouldn't be a problem anymore. "Sounds good."

Plagg shrugged. "Could Lycca get her to talk? Probably. Would he help when he knows she doesn't want to talk? Nope. Him and Pain are still good friends. He would be upset if he pushed her to answer and made her cry. Face it, Tikki. Pain doesn't want to talk. At least it's pretty obvious Peacock's an ally."

Iris beamed when he said that. "Don't be forceful with him. Don't ever scold by him saying because I say so. Teenagers hate that. You need to have a reason behind a punishment. If you don't they're going to keep misbehaving." Iris finally started to eat her lunch.

Marinette smiled at him. "It will be fun to see the night of Paris with you. I'm surprise we don't have Ladynoir dates off." She gasped and smacked her head. She didn't mean to say that!! Marinette turned a bright shade of pink out of embarrassment. She actually gave them pairing names.

"I know she is!" Tikki floated up to him. She looked annoyed. "It bothers me that she doesn't trust us with her identity! Why wait? There's no point."

Gabriel couldn't keep a small smile off his face.  She looked so happy by his answer, and the flurry of advice was well appreciated.  He made sure to make a mental note of all of it before continuing his own food.  "Thank you for the advice," he murmured, briefly looking up at her from his food.

Adrien stared at her for a split second before a wide grin spread across his face.  She had ship names for them?  Wonderful!  "I didn't realized you shipped Ladybug and Chat Noir.  So, do you ship them more or less than you ship us?" He asked, his grin turning to a teasing smirk.

Plagg shrugged.  "I don't know.  I'm not a master of human decision making.  Maybe it's pure stupidity.  Just like our stupid children thinking it would be better to hide their identities from each other.  There has to be a reason; even if it's a stupid reason."

She returned his small smile. "No problem." Iris picked at her food. She was really hating herself right now.

Marinette felt so flustered. She was mad at herself for letting that slip. She thought about cute pairing names awhile back. It was for her own amusement. "Uh I.." She covered her face with her hands. Marinette couldn't clam down. "I don't know.."

"Exactly, Plagg! If our kids knew each other's identity earlier we probably could have prevented Chat Blanc!" Tikki spoke still sounding annoyed.

Adrien laid a hand on her shoulder and squeezed reassuringly. "Don't be embarrassed. I think it's a great ship name. Do you have any others?"

Plagg narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms, his tail lashing back and forth. "I could have prevented it if I'd actually been a decent kwami. But that was completely different from what we have now. Gabriel was the only one that could have pulled that off. Nothing bad is going to happen from Peacock hiding her identity for a little bit."

Marinette still hand her face covered. She couldn't face him. "Marichat.." She felt her face growing hotter bad the minute. She shouldn't feel this way. He loved it!

Tikki frowned at him. "Alright fine. I'll just to my investigation without you." She flew back outside angrily and not saying around word to Plagg.

Adrien laughed.  "That's great.  We should write fanfics for our superhero selves. I bet we'd have the best characterization of our entire fanbase."

After lunch, they headed back to school. The rest of the day passes slowly; though, it was nice to still not have a beast attack.  Fighting beasts just wasn't as fun as fighting akumas was (with the exception of akuma week and Psychic). He kind of missed their weird powers and banter.

He headed straight home after school thanks to a text his father sent telling him to do so. He didn't know what his father wanted, but he didn't like it, and his first instinct was to try and sneak in without being notice. Of course, that was impossible with the cameras and hired help everywhere.  The head maid was quick to tell him his father was waiting for him.

So, he walked slowly to his father's office and knocked on the door, entering when his father told him to. "You wanted to see me?" He asked.

His father nodded. "I had lunch with Peacock today. Apparently, you were rude to her?"

Adrien bit his lip. So she did tell on him... 

"I take your silence as confirmation."  His father said with a sigh. So, they were back to the lecturing. "Adrien, I know you're mad at me, but you're not the type to be rude to others. You've always known better."

"Well, I didn't exactly have the best evening. I was paired with Bridgette for a photo shoot. I thought she wasn't going to work with your company anymore..."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow, "Why is that a problem? You've worked together before, and it wasn't a romantic shoot."

"Because Bridgette's terrible. She's in my class, and she always acts like a bitch to Marinette and me." Adrien didn't know where this willingness to give an explanation was coming from. Maybe just because he wanted to make sure he never worked with Bridgette again? 

His father opened his mouth as if to correct him on his bad language. Instead, he paused for a moment before speaking. "Well, perhaps you should talk to me about stuff like that more often. I would have made more of an effort to keep her from working with you if I'd known."

Adrien stared at his father while trying to keep the confusion from his face. His father had actually listened and would probably keep Bridgette out of the photo shoots in the future..? 

"Anyway, I expect you to be more polite to her in the future. She's just worried about your safety. Did you happen to speak with Marinette to team up at night?"

Adrien nodded. Again, his father seemed surprisingly calm and almost pleasant as he spoke. Nowhere near the typical anger he was used to. "She said she would patrol with me from 10:30-12:00."

"Good. Then I expect you to be be in bed by 12:15. That will give you enough time to get home and get ready to sleep. Does that sound fair?"

Adrien wondered how his father would know if he was in by this time. Would it even be enforced?  But he question of fairness caught him off guard. All he could do was nod.

"Good. I'm going to join you for dinner tonight."

"Okay..."

Gabriel didn't question Adrien's hesitance. "Alright. You're excused," he said.

Adrien nodded and left the room to go do homework.

Marinette was sitting on the floor in the middle of her room working on Adrien's hoodie. Her was complete mess. The fabric was scattered across the floor along with other sewing materials. She was having a hard time cutting the fabric according to the pattern. She was used to cloth not fleece. After a few attempts she cut out each section. Now to work on the ears. Since the ears were her own design she had no pattern to follow. She kept cutting out pieces of fabric and not one them looked right.

"Maybe you can find a cat ear pattern," Tikki suggestion. She was sitting on Marinette's desk watching her this whole time.

"Good idea," said Marinette."

"Marinette, dinner's ready!" her mother shouted from downstairs.

"Ugh!" Marinette muttered to herself. She stood up and went downstairs to dinner.

Adrien didn't know what to expect as he made his way down to dinner. Many excuses flitted through his head as he tried to think of a way out of the inevitable awkwardness that would be him eating with his father. Unfortunately, he couldn't think of anything. He sighed to himself when he entered the room to see his father already sitting at the table. He would just have to eat fast so he could leave.

Gabriel looked down at his watch as he waited for Adrien to come to dinner. There wasn't really a defined time for dinner, but it felt like he was late. Or avoiding the entire thing... Maybe dinner was a bad idea at this point. What should they even talk about? Was this really the best way to earn Adrien's forgiveness?

He didn't get a chance to overthink too much before Adrien walked quietly over to a chair and sat down without a word.  They sat quietly for a moment, neither sure what to say, before Gabriel cleared his throat and Adrien looked up, expectantly.

"So, how was school?" 

Adrien shrugged. "It was the same as usual."  That was all Adrien said before turning his attention to his plate and picking at his food.

"I see." Well, that went nowhere. He needed a topic that would actually keep his son interested in the conversation. It shouldn't be this hard to have an actual discussion with his son.

There was more silence, and Gabriel began to pick at his food in basically the same fashion as Adrien. Gabriel wracked his brain for something, anything, to talk about. When suddenly, it hit him. It was September. Adrien's birthday was coming up.

"Adrien," he began, pausing to wait until his son looked up at him, "What would you like for your birthday?"

Adrien stared at him looking stunned, and Gabriel reminded himself he hadn't really done anything for Adrien's birthday in years. To the point where asking about it probably seemed completely out of character...

They stared at each other in silence for what felt like hours (most likely a couple minutes) before Adrien finally spoke, "I'm not sure... I didn't really think about it..."

"Well, you should think about it and let me know so you get something that you want."

Adrien continued to stare at him, food forgotten. Gabriel could almost see the gears in his head turning as he tried to understand what was happening. "I guess... I don't know... I could use a second platform for my DDR machine..."

Did he really want that, or was he just trying to end the conversation?  Gabriel knew he like DDR, but it just seemed like a weird thought.  Maybe he should ask Marinette for a second opinion... He tried not to think about how terrible it was that Marinette probably knew his son way better than he did.