Miracle Box - an MLB rewrite

Feeling Butterflies

26 hours before the Fox miraculous was lost, at the Agreste mansion:

Natalie was a brilliant woman. She was, let's just say, the Pepper Potts to the Agreste industry. She was the secretary who acted as a CEO, balancing the economics, employment, growth, stocks, and brand on top of her duties as an assistant. She was behind the economic decisions of the company, and quite frankly, she held a lot of power. And as if that responsibility wasn't enough, she was also acting as Adrien's mother. A very... distant mother. She made sure he ate, cleaned himself, was safe outside of the house in terms of paparazzi, and managed his everyday life with a gigantic planner.

While Gabriel Agreste made the shots, Natalie was the one who aimed.

She didn't like Gabriel making decisions without discussion first. Sure, it was his brand and company, and sure he was the head designer. And yes, Adrien was his son. But that didn't make Gabriel very bright, in her humble opinion. No. He was very stubborn and strong willed. And Natalie was his most trusted person in the world. Natalie sometimes wondered if Gabriel even trusted his wife this much when she was still around.

As said before, she didn't like Gabriel making decisions without her and right now one of those decisions was glaring at her face in the form of an email from Adrien's next photographer.

"Gabriel, I'd like a word with you," Natalie said sharply as she entered his office without permission. She didn't need permission. She was her own woman, and she made that very clear.

"Yes Natalie, what is it?" Gabriel said, hardly giving her an ounce of attention.

"I just received an email from Adrien's next photographer regarding his shoot coming up this Thursday," Natalie began, "it's contents startle me."

"How so?"

"Gabriel, why does this photographer seem to believe Adrien is going to be doing a sexual photo shoot?" Natalie narrowed her gaze angrily. "This is supposed to be for your 'Winter Wonderland' line."

"Yes, and?"

"And Adrien is a boy. He doesn't deserve to have people saying nasty, lustful things about him!"

"It is just one photo shoot, Natalie," Gabriel said, not even lifting his eyes, "my son is eighteen. He can handle it."

"Have you talked to Adrien about this?"

"No, I assumed you would."

"He hasn't even consented!"

"He doesn't need to," Gabriel said, flicking one of his hands over his digital sketch. Natalie swore she saw his wedding ring glimmer.

"That's cruel."

"He's my son. And he's an Agreste. He'll understand. He knows how to handle things like this."

"I will talk to Adrien about it, but if he shows even the slightest amount of discomfort, I am canceling this photo shoot."

"Go ahead, but Natalie-" Gabriel froze, finally removing his attention from his tablet. He moved his ringed hand over his beige necktie, a blank focused expression altering his face.

"Sir-"

"It's happening," Gabriel said, hastily stepping away from his giant tablet and striding across the room swiftly.

"Sir-"

"Natalie, he's awake," Gabriel said sternly, firmly placing a hand on her shoulder to urge her to move quickly with him.

"He's awake?!" Natalie repeated, following him (though he had an incredibly fast walking pace for the man had the height to rival an NBA player).

"Right now," Gabriel confirmed, rushing through the slick white halls of his mansion to an area where guests never saw and workers rarely entered. It was the hall leading to Gabriel's master bedroom, but along the way, there were a few other rooms. Natalie had a bedroom there, then there was Gabriel's storage room which used to be a guest room, the guest bath, the master bath, Emily's old bedroom (yes they had separate rooms), and more importantly, an occupied guest room. That room was where Gabriel was steam focused.