The two men looked at each other for a brief moment then their gaze landed on the women, kneeling on the floor. They both went over there rather quickly.
Gabriel put a hand on Marinette's shoulder, signaling her, that he would be taking care of Nathalie now.
The teenager nodded and went over to Adrien, taking her boyfriend into a tight embrace.
"You ok, Kitty? I would have never thought, you could get that angry!"
"I am fine, Princess. I would just like to know, who is spreading these phoney and mean lies. And why? Can't they just leave our family alone?"
Marinette pulled out her phone to search the internet and see where those rumours were coming from, while Gabriel had lifted Nathalie up from the tiled floor and held her close, because she could barely stand on her feet.
"Oh my", she said thoughtfully, "it's everywhere. Have a look"
She showed her phone to Adrien and then to the two adults. The screen showed pictures of them arriving at the Spa after their night in the forest as well as a blurry shot from the outside through the window, when he had hugged her from behind. The last two showed them leaving the hotel hand in hand and kissing in the back of the car.
The article to those pictures read:
Gabriel Agreste: Scandalous affair or secret love?
Gabriel Agreste, world wide known fashion designer and owner of the label Gabriel, has spent an entire weekend with his assistant, Nathalie Sancoeur, at a Spa in the champagne region. Apparently they not only shared a room, but seemed to get intimate with each other too. They even spent a night together alone in a cave in the woods, because they had to seek shelter from the storm that was passing the region on Saturday before noon. Why they didn't return after the strom had passed two hours later stays in the dark, but apparently, the couple found something to keep them busy.
Two ladies, who were also spending their weekend at the freshly renovated hotel, had even been yelled at by the designer, defending the almost ten years younger woman's honour.
How will his son, the teenage model, Adrien Agreste, cope with this situation, so shortly after loosing his mother? And how long has this affair really been going on between them?
There were rumours before and even though they have never been proven, there seemed to be a little truth within!
"No", Nathalie whispered, "no, no,no! How and when did anyb.."
Her words where choked by her sudden, violent coughing. Her chest was heaving up and down convulsively and her lips slowly started to turn blue.
Gabriel was now carrying her back into her room, as it was right behind her and he could quickly lie her down. Marinette opened the door for them and both teenagers then stood there, not knowing what to do.
"Should we call a doctor, father?", the blond, young man suggested carefully. Gabriel wanted to say yes, but Nathalie shook her head vigorously, not able to speak, because another coughing fit just began.
"My dear", the designer desperately pleaded, "it would be much better if the doctor would have a look at you. Please. It hurts me, to see you suffer like that!"
She again disapproved by moving her head from side to side. Her coughing paused and she huskily demanded: "I-I-I would like.....to be.....alone...please. I t-told you, it was all w-w-wrong!"
Then she buried her head in her pillow started sobbing again, repeatedly interrupted by another coughing fit.
Gabriel wanted to object, wanted to say anything, but before he even could, Adrien had walked beside him and was pulling at his arm.
"Just come, father. Let Nathalie calm down a little. Maybe Marinette can stay with her so you don't have to worry. I would like to hear the story from your side, Please?", he calmly talked the older man into following him. To his girlfriend he uttered the request:
"Would you stay here with Nathalie for a while? We won't be gone too long."
"Of course", the girl responded with a weary smile. "I will keep an eye on her until she is feeling better or for her own sake, agrees to see a doctor eventually!"
"Thank you", he quickly pecked her cheek before he left the room, dragging his father with him.
"Why, father? Why did you keep that a secret? Even when I directly asked you about you and Nathalie, you denied it. You could have still told me about your...what is it? Relationship, affair, when you told me, that you were Hawkmoth! I at least hope, you didn't take any advantage of her, bec..."
"Stop right now!", Gabriel shouted, making the boy flinch. His father noticed and tried to calm down. "There hasn't happened anything between me and Nathalie until this weekend. We were even making fun of the question if we should tell you or let you find out on your own, but nobody wanted to keep it secret from you. I really love that woman, Adrien, and right at the time, that I finally admitted that to myself and found the courage to tell 'her'..." he placed his forehead in his palms as he shook his head.
"I am sorry, father, I..."
Gabriel had hugged his still slightly smaller son tightly. the young man didn't know, how to react at first, but then he just put his arms around him too.
"I know, I already said that, but I am still sorry for all the things you had to go through while I was never there for you. And I am scared, Adrien. I can't loose Nathalie too. What if she decides to.....go away? If only I knew, who took this pictures. I would..."
"I know, this all sucks right now, but we will get through this, father. We all together. And now let's go back to Nathalie, I still think she should see a doctor." Adrien smiled at him encouragingly.
The grey haired man took a deep breath. "You're right son, come on. Will Miss Dupain-Cheng be spending the night? If so, be sure, to inform her parents about that."
"You're ok with her staying for the night? Who are you and what have you done to my real father?"
With a scoff Gabriel replied: "Maybe you should ask the father I was for the last almost four years, what he had done to your real dad!"
They both let out a short laugh, that somehow felt liberating.
As they reached the door to the assistants room, Adrien hesitated and said: "I think it's better, if I stay here. That's something you should sort out in private."
The man nodded. "I'll tell Marinette, that you are waiting here for her." Then he knocked softly at the door and quietly entered the room, to see the woman he loved still sobbing into her pillow, while the young girl, he all of a sudden remembered to be quite talented, sat beside her and soothingly rubbed her back. She looked up, when she heard him enter.
"Adrien is waiting outside for you, Marinette. Thank you for staying with Nathalie", he quietly uttered. The teenager just gave him an assuring smile and stood up, to leave the room.
Gabriel sat down on the mattress right beside the woman, who was on her stomach, her head still hidden in the cushion. He placed his left hand on her back and started rubbing up and down slowly.
"Hey", he began softly, "just try to calm down. I don't care what they are writing about us, and neither should you. Come on, my love, look at me please." He placed a light kiss on the back of her head, then leaned his forehead against it and for a moment they were both breathing evenly in unison.
"...ng"
"What did you say, I couldn't really understand you Nathalie", the designer asked her.
Finally she turned to her side, to face him, but without looking into his eyes.
"I said", she began almost soundless, "it's the best, to go back to how it was, because it was all wrong!"
All colour left his face at once, as he listened to her words. He cupped her cheeks and looked into her eyes.
"I don't believe you. Please my love, don't let those rumours get between us. I love you, Nathalie. Nothing is going to change that.", he rasped.
She just seemed to look right through him, as she croaked: "Please leave. I can't." Then she suddenly cleared her throat and said with a monotone voice: "As far as I know, I am still on leave to recover for another week, Sir. But I will be at my desk on time next Monday."
With that she turned to the other side and hid her face once more.
With tears running down his cheeks, he stood up.
"I'll let you get some rest for now, but I cannot give up on us, Nathalie. And I beg you, that you won't either"
He left without another word, but hearing her cry, as he was just closing the door, almost make him collapse. Holding on to the wall he somehow made it to his bedroom where he let himself fall onto the bed. Hugging the sheets, that were still smelling like her, he cried until he was so exhausted, that he drifted off to sleep.
Marinette and Adrien were lying awake on the model's bed.
"You know what? This sucks. I feel so sorry for you father and Nathalie!", Marinette furiously snarled, "I would like to get my hands on that bitch of a reporter. And may, I know exactly, how to do that!"
She added the last words with an evil grin, that send chills down the young man's spine.
"Woah, M'lady! Just calm down, you're scaring me!", he whined.
"Sorry Adrien, but I just imagined those things would be told about us, just because the people like to gossip or are jealous. You told your aunt, that Nathalie was like a mother to you. Aren't you feeling the urge to get some revenge for that?" she ranted.
The young man bent over her and kissed her. He chuckled at her face when they parted again, as she was still blushing to his affections.
"Your willingness to stand up for someone, is one of the many things, why I love you, Marinette", he whispered into her ear, knowing very well, that they both hadn't been at a point where they had said the three magic words. She gasped and immediately blushed even more.
Then she tried to stutter a response to that: "W-w-w-what d-did you j-j-just s-s-"
He beamed at her and deeply looked into her eyes.
"I love you!", he repeated his words but a little louder and even more lovingly as before.
She cupped his cheek with one hand, then to her own astonishment mumbled without stuttering: "do you know, how long I wished for you to say that to me?"
He leaned his forehead against hers, then looked at her again, brushing a loose strand of hair of her cheek with his fingers.
Marinette took a deep breath: "I.....I love you too!" Closing her eyes she closed the small gap between them and softly kissed his lips.
He pulled her on top of him and deepened that kiss, holding her tight with both arms. After some time they parted again, both a little out of breath, but rather from their unexpected confession, than from the kissing. The young woman scooted a bit down and placed her head on his chest. Adrien kept both arms around her and caressed her back with his fingertips.
As she noticed that her eyes kept falling closed, she slipped out of his embrace carefully.
"What are you doing, Purrincess?" he asked, furrowing his brows.
"I'm gonna check on Nathalie quickly. I just can't stop worrying."
He nodded and sat up. "I'm coming with you", he stated.
Together they walked towards the assistants room. Without knocking, the teenagers opened the door a tiny bit, to see if the devastated woman was alright.
Both were shocked, as they saw Nathalie alone, still shaken by coughs and desperately sobbing into her pillow. Marinette held Adrien back, who was about to storm inside. She closed the door silently again and mouthed: "Let me go first and do the talking. But you can come with me and be there for her too. That's just a task for a woman, okay?"
"Okay", he hissed and opened the door to let her through.
The dark haired girl knelt down beside the frantically crying woman.
"I asked you to leave me alone", she whined not even looking up, to see who had entered the room.
"It's me", said Marinette calmly, "and Adrien, we just wanted to..."
Before she could finish, Nathalie had thrown her arms around her and was now crying into the side of her shirt, her head on the girl's upper thighs. The young woman just laid both arms around her and let her cry, softly rocking her back and forth, while she lightly rubbed her back, hoping the assistant would eventually calm down and be able to breathe even again.
It worked, the crying and coughing had exhausted her that much, she was soon falling asleep. As Marinette noticed her taking deep breaths, she hinted her boyfriend with a tilt of her head, to come to her.
"Help me please. I don't want to wake her, when I try to get up", she whispered.
Together they placed the sleeping woman on her side, her head on top of the pillow, and tucked her into a light blanket. Then they went back to the model's room and got ready to sleep.