Hedgehogs Dilemma

Welcome to England

'There must be something here. Anything, no matter what, that will help me further!' Nathalie cursed loudly in her head as she put down another stack of papers to turn to the new one.

It was already late at night. Around 2 a.m. The light of the moon shone brightly into her room with the light of the stars as they lit up the night sky.
The woman was sitting in her room, surrounded by boxes and stacks of old papers. Some were, even so, old that the white had already turned yellow. However, all are still in extremely good condition.
Her only source of light in this mess was the lamp on her desk, which shimmered dimly in front of her.

Duusu had made herself comfortable on the desk on which she was already sleeping, like any normal person.
But not Nathalie. She tirelessly went through stack after stack. Always looking for new information.
The documents she had in front of her had been created by the discoveries of her father, who had written everything about what he discovered and saw. The old diaries that he had written on his travels lay next to the women. A gentle smell of nostalgia filled the room.


"Day 23.
We made a discovery today. We received confirmation that this temple did indeed appear to have connections to the Miraculous. Hopefully, we will have the success of actually holding one of these exceedingly rare gems in our hands this time."


This was written on one of the many pages of the diary, with various drawings scrawled alongside it.
'Damn dad! Couldn't you have written a little more? Which Miraculous, for example? You used to be a master of many words!' Nathalie continued to curse before turning another page to compare with the papers.


"Day 56
I got the message that Elise has found out the sex of the baby! I am so happy! I could hug the world! It's gonna be a little girl!
Hopefully, I'll be back soon to be able to attend the birth of my child."


'Well Dad.. honor your anticipation, but we all know how this story ended' Nathalie admitted with a tired smile while she was about to turn the page until a certain sentence caught her eye, which immediately captivated her.

"After a long time, we managed to get hold of a Miraculous. A beautiful silver ring. The kwami that resides within this seems to have a cat-like shape. It's called 'Plagg' and has a undying Desire for Cheese. I can't wait to reveal it to the museum.
Finally, we succeeded!"


As if spellbound, Nathalie stared at the pages of the book, which she now had in a firm grip. So her father had managed to find a Miraculous after all? But where was this now? She had never seen anything like it in the museum, nor had she ever heard of such a particular exhibition. Was it thanks to the long lapse of time since the find and the here and now? But you wouldn't just let something like that go moldy in boxes in a corner.
Nathalie hastily turned around to grab her laptop from her bag and turn it on.
This would require further research!





"I'm sorry..." Zeroo announced in awe. His little head was pointed towards the floor. "I couldn't find anything..."

"No, my little friend,"

Tyler said with a huge grin on his lips. His long black hair swirled around as she traded his suit jacket for the green and black coat he much preferred, and slowly untied his long hair from its braid so that it fell onto his shoulders and back. "It just means the ring isn't where we think it is. That's another realization and a step forward."

He directs his eyes to the little being who still didn't dare to look into his eyes. Instead, it was averted while he was playing nervously with his little fingers.

"You can be proud of that, my little friend."

Zeroo only responded with a quick nod, whereupon Tyler looked away.

"Come, my friend. We have preparations to make."

With big strides, he went to a board that served as a pinboard on which he had placed a few pictures. Among other things, those of Gabriel and Nathalie. He hastily tore down Gabriel's picture to place a large cross on his face with a red felt pen.

"So our dear Mr. Fashion King doesn't have it. And doesn't seem to be able to record any other successes either." he commented with a laugh, "Then let's just focus more intensively on the mademoiselle."







Quickly, Celine swung herself from the kitchen over to Nathalie's room. She held two coffee cups in her hand while banging on the door with her hip

"Nathalie~ rise and shine!" she announced in the best of moods that she usually was when it was the Weekend. It was also the only time where she got the chance to wake up her sister. While the door slowly opened she continued to talk "I have delicious cof- What happened here?!"

Her gaze focused on the mess Nathalie had made last night.
The women herself was still sitting at her desk, her laptop on the floor next to her. Unfortunately, her intensive search was not able to find out anything about the museum. Her eyes were still on the papers.

"I was just looking something up"

"Just looked up something? Your room looks like your bed is hosting a garage sale!"

Celine slowly handed her sister the coffee cup to drink from her own "What exactly did you look up?" she now explored curiously.

"Only old documents on Miraculousen"

Curious, her sister picked up one of the papers that Nathalie had already put aside to read through. "So you're going through your father's old stuff. How long have you been working on it?"

"All night"

"All night? You haven't slept?!"

"I can sleep on the plane. The flight is more than enough for that and Gabriel won't want to talk to me the whole flight anyway. And I am off work for a few days when I am back. So it is alright."

"Maybe he'll talk to the gala~," the woman said with a broad grin on her lips, which resulted in Nathalie's face forming an annoyed look again while her gaze wandered from the papers to her sister

"I told you before, nothing happened that needs to be talked about. It was a simple event."

"Oh sure!" Celine protested while leaning her arm on the desk. "That's why you were suddenly in such a good mood. And Duusu's look alone spoke volumes that evening. You may be able to deceive him, my dear, but I know very well that you rarely went as well as it did that night. And it can hardly have been due to the champagne that was served. So I'll find out why!"

"Do what you must."

"By the way, I wanted to wake you up because your flight is leaving soon. You want to go to England with your lover, who isn't your lover at all. Have you already packed up in your confusion?"

Nathalie pointed behind her with her thumb while she took another sip of coffee. "The bag was ready at 4 a.m. I took a break and packed."

"... You should have taken a break to get some sleep.."

"Why? The hour on the plane is enough," she announced before draining the cup and getting up to tuck a few journals and documents neatly into a file and her bag.

".. do you want to take them all with you?"

"Sure. It'll be my flight reading. And I'll read the rest at the hotel."

Celine only answered Nathalie's behavior with a slight shake of the head. "What will happen to the hero of Paris? What will you do when Hawk Moth shows up? Have you thought about it?"
Nathalie slowly stowed away a few more documents before she put the bag next to hers and undid her braid so that her hair fell to her shoulders.

"I'll take Duusu with me. Miraculous give you superpowers. If an Akuma shows up, let me know and I'll create a sentimonster, which will get me back in no time." she explained to her sister while the woman brushed her hair and wrapped it in a neat bun again.

"Wouldn't it be easier if I just played 'Mayura' in your absence?"

"That would be easier. But more noticeable. Our outfits as 'Mayura' are too different. And that would be noticeable.."

"But it would also be noticed if you suddenly disappeared from a meeting as Nathalie."

"It's just a meeting. Round-trip flights. I'll be back tomorrow. And thank God Hawk Moth doesn't perform every day."

"And what do you do if your Akuma alarm goes off in the middle of the plane?"

"Then my love," Nathalie announced while putting her hand on Celine's shoulders, "I'll come up with something spontaneously. But I'll take Duusu with me."





The trip to the airport went smoothly. Nathalie had picked up Gabriel at the villa. Both were then driven onto Gabriel's private jet campsite by Gabriel's bodyguard, who always remained silent rather than saying something Gabriel appreciated.
The reason for this was that Gabriel already wanted to discuss a few things with his assistant, regarding appointments, the implications of the trip would be, and how best to reconcile everything. He also made sure that the bodyguard knew about all of Adrien's appointments and the rules that would apply to young Agreste now that his father would be away for 48 hours.

Nathalie also assured him that her cell phone was always on in case of an emergency and that Adrien could reach her. Always. Which calmed Gabriel at least a little.
What he didn't address, however, was what happened at the gala. It was still clear to him. He couldn't remember much. But the kiss was clear in his mind.
Gabriel caught himself slowly glancing at Nathalie, who in turn was looking at her tablet.
It would be a good time. Yes, maybe even a perfect time. Carefully, he aimed the powers of his Miraculous at the woman in front of him. Cautiously he tried to get access to her feelings, to find out something. A clue. Anything.

"Sir?" She tore him out of his thoughts, which made him flinch for a moment.

"Yes?" he spoke quickly and hastily.

"Adrien forgot to ask if he might invite a friend of his. They wanted to study together," Nathalie repeated the question.

"Uh yes. He should have my permission for that, tell him that," Gabriel said while now directing his gaze out of the window.






The arrival of the two at the airport where Gabriel's private jet was placed went without further incident.
Once at her place, Nathalie went through some more preparations on her tablet, entered a few new appointments, and did the rest of her work. She had placed two more coffee mugs next to her. One-half full, the other empty.
Meanwhile, Gabriel went through the documents that were important for the meeting to prepare for it.

It was a conversation to discuss the upcoming advertising campaign. Still, he would be expected to be prepared. Even if in his eyes, this meeting could have been a simple video conference.
That's the only reason why he would have to take this flight now.

'A simple meeting about teams would have done it. I wouldn't have even had to put on real pants for that...' he grumbled to himself.
However, Mr. Lee had insisted on a face-to-face meeting to receive the two in his country, after Gabriel had written again personally.
Annoyed, he sways his head to the side. He didn't want to keep thinking about something he couldn't change. As a result, his gaze was now on his assistant. Through which he noticed the documents, which smiled at her from Nathalie's pockets.

"What is that?" he asked curiously, putting his own aside.

Slowly she turned her head to Gabriel before she could guess from his look what he was referring to. "That? Those are just old documents."

"old documents? For the meeting?"

"No.. they're about historical events. I thought he'd take a little reading with him."

"I didn't know you were interested in something like that," he asked with a light smile and looked her straight in the eyes.

"They are my father's old documents. I am reading them... for... private reasons."

"Oh..." Gabriel chuckled softly. "May I.. have a look?" he asked cautiously, whereupon Nathalie jumped briefly and unnoticed.

"You. I don't know if that wouldn't be boring for you, sir. You have nothing to do with general knowledge."

The man beamed at her sincerely, "I'm very interested in history. Please, Nathalie."
Defeated by this move, she carefully pulled out some of the documents and handed them to him. Excitedly, Gabriel took these and began to read them.

"Oh? I didn't know your father was interested in the history of the Miraculous."

"It was his job. He made it his mission to find her," she explained to him while she pointed to the paper with her index finger and thus came a little closer to him, which didn't bother Gabriel.

"He managed to get locations and information about them. According to him he also made them available to the Louvre, but I couldn't find anything regarding this."

Excited, Gabriel opened his mouth to take a deep breath. "Oh! Then your father must have been the famous historian I read about in the newspaper.
10 years ago there is said to have been a burglary in the Louvre. Rare, undefined valuables were stolen. The exhibition was then closed and replaced. Today there is the old exhibition on the theme of Egypt!"
Nathalie's eyes widened slightly at this information.

Gabriel had just handed her one of the missing puzzle pieces. Excitement spread through her and for a moment, Nooroo's powers shot through Gabriel like a bolt of lightning. Without any warning, he could feel something for a split second. Too fast to define or pursue further. But there had been something.

"Can you tell me more about that?" asked the woman and finally put her empty coffee aside. She would need a few more. But that would be all right.

"I don't know much either, but I can tell you what I know"

"That would be wonderful."

Visible uneasiness spread across the faces of Nathalie and Gabriel when both finally arrived at the hotel where they would spend the night after their flight.
Mr. Lee had already reserved a room for her.
It's a big cozy room with a beautiful view of the whole city.
The only downside was it was the couple's suit.

They both looked at each other for a moment before putting their suitcases down.

"I will request a new room immediately, sir!" Nathalie spoke with the last remnant of professionalism that was left after the intensive conversation with her boss on the plane and too little sleep.

"There's no hurry. You can do that later..." Gabriel contradicted her, massaging his temples annoyed at the thought of the forthcoming conversation. And this quite unpleasant situation was simply the icing on the cake that annoyed the man. "We should just get ready and then head to the meeting. I just want this to be over with." he added while slowly undoing his tie and unbuttoning his shirt "Would you like to take a shower too?"
Immediately, Nathalie turned her head to her things so as not to completely lose her mind. "I think I can wait until you're done in the bathroom. Sir."

"I'll gladly let you go first"

"No, no. It's okay. I still have a few things to take care of anyway." Nathalie lied, still unable to look him in the face.

"Nonsense" Gabriel announced while grabbing her arm and gesturing towards the bathroom door "Lady's First"

Without further protest, Nathalie quickly grabbed her bag and disappeared into the bathroom, closing the door behind her and leaning against it.
Only now did she let her feelings get the better of her, causing her cheeks to turn slightly red.
Gabriel didn't notice how his Miraculous, which he had hidden in his jacket pocket, started to glow.

Nooroo looked up at him sincerely but remained silent as he watched Gabriel rub his hair. "Keep it to yourself Nooroo..." he hissed softly at the little kwami

"I'm not saying anything."

Duusu didn't bother giving her owner a certain look either. Only this was accompanied by a wide grin.
"Keep it to yourself..." Nathalie also hissed at her kwami in a low tone. But that didn't stop the kwami from continuing to look at her. However, Nathalie ignored it and began to undress.


After the woman was done, it was time for Gabriel to occupy the shower.
Nathalie sat attentively at the desk in the suite and was already looking for a hotel room to which she would rebook alone. Contempt spread through her when she thought of Tyler. 'that was purely intentional..' it shot through her head again and again.
She had also decided to change her clothes. Because of the trip and the effort, she had now decided to exchange her pullover for a white blouse and continue to wear her Blaser.

"Nathalie?" she suddenly heard it from the bathroom, calling Gabriel.

"Yes, sir?"

"I remembered something else. About the museum burglary and the Miraculous"

"Oh yes?" she gave him as an answer, only to startle a little later when the bathroom door opened and Gabriel was standing in the room.

With a towel around his waist and his hair wild and tousled, he now put a hand on his hip and looked directly at the woman. Nathalie's heart almost stopped.

"I can still remember articles on the subject mentioning two specific pieces of jewelry. These were the ones that were stolen."

The woman hastily held the tablet in front of her head and turned her head away "Oh really. What was that reported?...." 'Oh Lord in heaven help me....'

"It was a pair of earrings and a ring. So it was assumed that the thief might have been a woman. However, the investigation was quickly dropped. Too few leads.

And any investigation came to nothing. To this day, nobody knows who had been the culprit. But because these two pieces of jewelry were probably the main exhibition, it was decided afterward to replace the exhibition with another one. So that something like this wouldn't happen again."

"That's.. really interesting. sir. Would you like to wear something? We have to go to the meeting soon."

"Oh yes of course! You're right." Unconcerned, Gabriel turned around and disappeared back into the bathroom.

'So stolen.. a ring and a pair of earrings... Interesting' Nathalie thought as her pulse slowly returned to a normal pace.