Gabenath/Adrienette AU

Part 2

Marinette jumped to her feet, but Nathalie's hand on her forearm soothed her and she sat back down.

"Actually, that is what I came for. Just not the way you accuse me of. I am here to ask you to hire me. I would never ask for anything, without working for it. You know my work and you know what I am capable of. This is a one time opportunity, Gabriel, to get a good worker far below the usual salary. I just need to earn enough money to find a place to live and to provide for me and Emma."

"Where are you living now?" Nathalie interjected, her eyes narrowed.

Marinette blushed.

"Well, Alya and Nino just moved into a new apartment and me and Emma are crashing in their old one until the end of the month, because they won't get their deposit back anyway.

"I'm sorry that you're struggling, Marinette, but after the things you did to Adrien... It broke him completely, when you cheated on him." The designer raised his voice and got to his feet. "That you even dare to come here and ask for anything..."

His head turned dark red in anger and his breathing became rigid,

"I never cheated on Adrien. These accusations were nothing but lies. On three of the days on which I was allegedly cheating on him, according to that bi... I was with you in your office, working on my wedding dress. But I understand. You've found your culprit. As long as 'you' are on good terms with your son, you don't care about the price others paid for that. He never even gave me the chance to talk to him. He never even..." Her eyes flickered shortly towards her daughter, before she squeezed them shut and swallowed the remaining words. "I'm sorry for bothering you at all."

Marinette got up and wanted to call for Emma, when Nathalie pulled her back into her seat and proposed.

"Why don't you just move in with us? There's enough space in this mansion."

Gabriel stared at her angrily, getting to his feet as he prepared to yell at her, but the assistant couldn't be bothered by his antics and stood up herself. Being almost as tall as he was, she placed herself in front of him.

Marinette got all of a sudden very nervous, not wanting to cause any issues between them, when she saw how Nathalie gently caught his wildly gesturing hands and pressed them to his chest before she got closer to him herself and wrapped her arms around his middle, pulling him taut, which he instantly reciprocated.

Marinette watched them open mouthed, even gasping when Gabriel eventually bent down and kissed her on her lips. Like for real.

"Now sit back down, darling!" Nathalie hummed soothingly. He did, again inhaling to object to her offer, when she shushed him.

"Stop, Gabriel. I know, you try to keep up your reputation as a cold and tough businessman, but I know you better. And even if you still remain stubborn, 'I' won't send your granddaughter away into the cold."

She watched the young woman as she spoke her assumption out loud. Marinette's jaw dropped, but she quickly proclaimed.

"I never said anything about that. And I didn't ask for anything for free. Emma is my daughter and that's it!"

She tried to cover her insecurity with anger.

"Oh come on. I can tell by looking into her face. I could, the very second, I saw her. There's no use in denying it."

Gabriel hadn't spoken at all since he heard Nathalie's words. But as his wife, another new thing, nobody knew about yet, tried to get the girl to admit it, he got up and walked over to Emma, sitting down next to her, enthusing.

"Wow, you can draw very well already, Emma. Would you like to tell me who all those people are?"

Beaming, she began to explain, and Nathalie and Marinette stood there flabbergasted, watching Gabriel Agreste having a deep conversation with his five year old granddaughter about the people in her life.