Lusitania (Adrienette AU)

Departure

Chloé, a girl of just about Adrien's age, was beautiful, rich and spoiled beyond meaning. She had the same hair color as Adrien, but had it wrapped in a ponytail with eyes that were bluer than the sea. For the occasion of sailing day, she wore a honey-yellow coat over a black and white summer day dress. As a scion to the French Republic, she aspired to sophistication and insisted on propriety, finding Adrien as a suitable young man to fill the role of husband in her aristocratic future, and she presented him to her peers with the pride of ownership, basking in others' reaction to his handsomeness and pedigree.

"Adrien, honey, I know you don't act too enthusiastic over some things, but Lusitania is not one of them. She may not be as luxurious as the Titanic, lacking a Turkish bath, Parisian café and squash courts, but it's still a luxury liner."

Adrien's father, Gabriel Agreste was a famous fashion designer from one of the most socially prominent families in Pittsburg. After the death of his wife, the family fell on hard times, but he was determined to achieve financial salvation of his company through his son's yet-to-be made proposal to Chloé. A man who ruled his household with an iron will, he was intolerant of Adrien's rebellious nature, and found in Chloé an ally in his efforts to control his son, including one time when he tried to attend Peabody High School unannounced. Gabriel was very anti-semitic towards Jewish people, especially Germans, Russians and those of lower class education. He came out of the Locomobile, wearing a cream suit with a blood necktie. The sunlight reflected on his face showed that his appearance with Adrien's was very much alike.

"So this is Cunard's marvel of the last decade," Gabriel smiled at the leviathan.

"It was back then," Chloé snapped back. "Now it's the essential equivalent of yesterday's news."

The entire entourage of upper class American-French socialites had impeccably turned out to represent a quintessential example. Behind them were the staff, Chloe's best friend and valet Sabrina, Gabriel's assistant Nathalie Sancoeur, the aforementioned chauffeur commonly nicknamed "The Gorilla" and the houseboy Nino, a Turk-Indian orphaned by the Italo-Turkish War who was also Adrien's friend, but barely had the time to be his friend given his position.

A Cunard porter scurried towards them, observing the large amount of luggage, steam trucks and a steel safe.

"All passengers must check their baggage through the main terminal."

"Oops," said Chloé holding her right hand over her mouth flirtatiously. "Sabrina, you know what to do."

Sabrina, a mousey red-head who seemed to be very bright (at sometimes bubbly), escorted the man over the trunks.

"The trunks from the Locomobile here, twelve from the Detroiter and the safe to the port side Regal Suite B-46, 48, 50, 52, 54 and cabin B-56 at mid-ships."

Chloe checked her watch as the cargo-handlers carted the trunks away. The hour of departure, originally scheduled for 10:00 AM, was now changed to noon. Weather conditions they said it was, but the Admiralty's requisition of the SS Cameronia led to a transfer of forty one passengers and crew to the Lusitania.

"We'd better hurry," she told her future in laws.

Nino, carrying three of the boxes that were too delicate for the baggage handlers, scurried behind Adrien, who had a curious thought enter his mind.

"Do you have my coat?" he asked.

"I've got it, friend," Nino smiled nervously.

Chloé soon stopped at the advertisement under the Lusitania's by the wall of the pier, curious out of the blue as she always kept up to date with important notices, especially from her father's proclamations. It read: