Both being very exhausted they were falling asleep quickly, Gabriel spooning his loved one, his left hand caressing her belly. They woke up to the alarm, Nathalie had set just in case, at half past seven PM.
"Now we should really hurry up", Nathalie said and stretched yawning, making the towel, that had still been covering her a little, fall off completely,
"Hm, when I look at you like this, I am thinking of different things I could eat", the man purred seductively into her ear. He then kissed her skin right underneath and along her neck to her shoulder. The woman's back arched immediately and she pushed against him, though she began to rant:
"Stop that. That's really mean, I just told you, I can't get this under control and we have to be in the dining room in half an hour, so please..."
Gabriel chuckled as he bent over her and kissed her lips.
"I'm sorry, it was just so tempting, when that towel slipped down and I could see your beautiful, naked body."
Now Nathalie scoffed.
"I have seen pictures of my back, Gabriel, there's nothing beautiful left to look at and well, not even my legs and my stomach are free from the.....beloved memories of my past"
"I don't see those scars, when I look at you my dear. I only see your beauty and I only feel the softness of your skin", the compassionate man whispered as he began to kiss along her back.
"Oh Gabriel please stop doing that, I....you shouldn't.....that feels so good.....I....STOP IT!", she had almost given in, before she shouted those last words at him. "I really need to go and get dressed. Can I please have my towel, so I can at least try to get to my clothes halfway decent?"
"I'm sorry, love, I just go and get you what you need, alright? Or would you rather...come here..."
He wrapped the towel around the young woman and was about to lift her up again.
"I can just walk, Gabriel, I am not sick, I am just...", she began but he was faster and he finished the sentence for her:
"...pregnant I know. But you've been through a lot lately, and you have no shoes and the floor is really cold, so..."
"Fine", she groaned and held out her arms.
He picked her up and held her close, to take her back to her room, where he sat the adorable woman down at her own bed.
Nathalie, who had wrapped her arms around his neck, held on to him a little longer and kissed him passionately.
"I love you so much", she whispered, before she let go of him.
"I love you too. I'll be back in a few minutes, so we can go downstairs together, okay?"
The assistant just nodded. Then started to search her closet for some clothes that still fit her, without shouting out 'I'm pregnant' to the world.
It was already a quarter past eight, when Adrien and Marinette eventually arrived at the table. Both panting and with reddened cheeks.
"Sorry for being late, father, Nathalie.", Adrien blurted out, before he had even sat down.
"Yeah, so sorry, G-G-Gabriel, N-Nathalie, w-we just had to finish s-something!", Marinette exclaimed. her words though made the young man blush even more. Gabriel watched them sternly, while Nathalie couldn't hide her smirk.
"Well, that must have been something rather important, if it kept you busy for so long", she teasingly told the young couple.
Now it was Adrien who stuttered: "I-Important, y-y-yes, uhm, v-very!"
He heard his girlfriend snort as she couldn't hide her laugh completely. He grinned too, but his smile quickly faded, when he saw his father's face. The model looked down to his feet and mumbled:
"Sorry father, it won't happen again."
Neither Marinette nor Nathalie could stop smiling though. And the young, half Chinese girl knew immediately, that Gabriel had told her, when their eyes met.
Feeling just in the mood for some more teasing, the woman who was sitting next to Marinette, as the males were seated on the opposite side of the table, questioned:
"Have you at least been so considerate, to think about your future and not to ruin it right away?"
Adrien almost spit out the water he was just drinking as he heard her say that. Gabriel looked at the women in utter shock, not knowing how to react at all. But Marinette was already speaking, not even thinking through, what she was about to say:
"Well", she said with a firm voice, "unlike some people, we were prepared for that and remembered how to use a condom!"
After she had heard herself sputter out those words, Marinette quickly slapped both hands to her mouth. She took a careful glimpse around, seeing her boyfriend hide is face, feeling embarrassed, that she was talking about stuff like that in front of both adults. She also noticed Nathalie taking some effort to not giggle and Gabriel, who instead of getting angry looked lovingly at Nathalie and then he looked down towards her belly....
"Oh my God", she squealed, "you know!"
The teenage girl gazed at Gabriel and then at the woman next to her.
Nathalie nodded and whispered so that Adrien wouldn't hear her:
"Yes, he knows"
Now Marinette was confused and her gaze fell on her boyfriend, because she didn't understand, why they were still keeping it from him. The teenager looked even more puzzled than her, as he had heard Nathalie's words and didn't understand anything.
Gabriel gazed at the young woman in front of him and took a deep breath, then held out his hand for her to take. Nathalie sighed deeply and took it, to then give the man she loved an assuring blink of her eyes and said quietly:
"Wouldn't it be fair, if we all knew?"
Gabriel's eyes widened. "Are you sure?", he mouthed towards her and she tilted her head in response.
"Just tell him", she formed the words soundless only for him to understand.
The designer stood up and walked towards Nathalie, to crouch down beside her and put his left arm around her back, his hand resting on her waist, and laid the other on Nathalie's tiny baby bump. Marinette was fighting the urge to squeal again and shifted back and forth on her chair. She covered her mouth with both hands, as Gabriel started to speak:
"That.....uhm....is a bit....of an....unexpected turn of events....because we.....uhm.....of course wanted....to uh tell you.....but....only in a couple of days.......but well.....", he didn't quite know how to tell his son.
Adrien just looked from one to the other, not really able to tell, what was going on. So he uttered:
"What exactly are you talking about? I noticed that you are getting closer again ages ago. So if it's that, you are talking about, you know I'll be thrilled!"
Gabriel and Nathalie looked at each other.
"Well, Adrien, it's not 'only' that", the woman now tried to tell him. "It's also, well...." She didn't know how to say it either.
"Oh for heaven's sake", Marinette blurted out. "If you are both not able to, should I tell him?"
Now the boy looked even more confused, than he did before.
"How do you know, if it's obviously a secret? What is it? Did you two get secretly married? Are you pregnant?" Seeing the couple blush and look at each other, he just heard his father reply:
"Well, we didn't get 'married'. 'Yet'!"
Now Adrien's eyes widened. He looked at his girlfriend and saw her nod.
"Does that mean, you are going to have a", he only whispered the last word, "baby?"
Nathalie looked a little worried about his reaction, when she locked her eyes with Gabriel's, who finally managed to speak it out:
"Yes, Adrien, we are going to have a baby!"
The young man's world seemed to stop for a moment. He could hear Marinette squeal but as if she was far away, he could see all their faces, though they were blurry. Then he shook his head and everything turned back to normal. Still he stood up as if he was in some kind of trance and walked out of the room.
The other three immediately went silent.
"I'll go after him", Marinette exclaimed and jumped to her feet, but Nathalie called her back.
"Wait, just give him a few minutes.He maybe needs a little time to process all of that."
The young woman complied, but was pacing through the room, eager to go after him.
Only two minutes had passed, when Adrien returned, holding something behind his back.
"Sorry for that", he mumbled, "I was just a little overwhelmed."
He awkwardly stood in front of his father and his long year tutor now.
"It's okay, we understand that you need to get used to the thought", Nathalie said calmly and laid a hand on his arm. But Adrien shook his head vigorously.
"That's not what I meant. I was overwhelmed by being so happy for you. And for becoming a big brother. And, uhm, there is something I kept for am occasion like this one. Back then I thought I would give it to.....uhm.....never mind....uhm, this is for the baby!"
And then he handed her his own old plush toy, partly a comforting blanket, partly a stuffed kitten. It was white with blue and very soft.
"I know, it's for a boy, but maybe, she'll like it anyway", he muttered sheepishly and looked to his feet.
Nathalie stood up and hugged the young man tightly. Then she softly pecked his cheek.
"Thank you Adrien, that's so cute from you. I still don't get it, why you both think, it's a girl", she croaked, as she was about to cry.
Gabriel wiped his own tears before he pulled his son into his arms as well.
"So i understand it right, that we are all happy about this, yeah?", Marinette now interjected and made them all laugh.
"Yeah", Nathalie and Gabriel said in unison. Now the girl hugged them both at once.
"I am so glad, that you finally told him", she said quietly to Nathalie.
"Well, I didn't exactly tell him, but I told him to think about all my symptoms and that none of them had to do with the broken miraculous.", the woman said sheepishly.
"Ah, I see", Marinette giggled.
"So, when are you two getting married?", Adrien eagerly shouted out.
The adults looked at each other and blushed.
"What? Don't you want to?", the young man wondered and looked kind of shocked.
It was Gabriel who found his voice first:
"I would marry that woman right away, but she doesn't want to."
Now Adrien and his girlfriend yelled at the same time: "But why?"
"It's.....uhm.......because I want to....let a little more time pass.....between, well....your mum....and...", Nathalie hesitantly squeezed out.
"What?", Adrien went pale and his voice sounded angry. He looked towards his father who shrugged helplessly. Marinette didn't know how to respond either. So the adolescent continued to speak his thoughts out angrily:
"My mum is dead. Do you hear me? DEAD! She won't come back and there is no need to think about her, when it comes to both your happiness."
"It's because of you, to give you the time to....well get over it. And then there would be all those rumours again about us. They will be bad enough as soon as this", she laid a hand on her small belly, "gets public! I don't want you to be reminded of your mum being dead every day!"
Gabriel interfered:
"You didn't tell me that it was because of Adrien. I thought you were still scared of people like Amélie. That's even more considerate and sweet than I thought, my love." He wiped the tears of her cheeks with his sleeve and laid both arms around her again. Then Adrien spoke anew:
"I don't want this. I have made my peace with this a long time ago, even before I knew, what had happened. You", he was looking at the crying woman now, "have suffered by far enough because of what happened to my mum. She would have never wanted this!" Now he accusingly looked at his father, who instantly averted his gaze.
"It's about time, that you get, what you deserve, Nathalie. Even if you tried to not let your emotions show, you 'were' like a mother to me over those last years. So please, just stop thinking about me, I am fine and I am happy", he took Marinette's hand as he said that, "just think about that tiny person in your tummy and let us all be a real family soon!"
He was now crying too.
Gabriel was rubbing Nathalie's arm to comfort her a little and suggested now:
"Well, my dear, what do you think? Would you like to....."
"Stop!", Marinette now yelled at him.
"What?" Both adults seemed confused.
"G-G-Gabriel, I-I need t-to t-talk to y-y-you in p-p-private for a m-minute first, o-okay?"
He shrugged and looked at the young woman in his arms, who nodded.
"Just go, but please hurry up you two, I am starving!"
He pecked her lips with a smirk and followed the teenager into the hallway.
"Are you completely out of your mind?", Marinette whisper yelled at him and punched his shoulder. Then she noticed, what she had done.
"O-Oh f-fuck, I am s-s-so s-s-sorry, S-sir. I-I was j-just so f-f-furious."
She took a deep breath.
"You can't just ask her like that!", she then continued, "you need at least a ring, if you aren't prepared in any other way. Just give me two minutes."
With that she ran off, to return a moment later with one of the rings, she had created on her own, and that had while she and Adrien were modelling it, almost brought them their defeat, when Juleka was akumatized into Reflekta for the second time. She held it out to Gabriel.
"Here", she uttered panting, "she will forever remember this moment, it's just a small thing, but very important to her, believe me!"
The designer hugged the young woman tightly.
"You're right, thank you."
They entered the dining hall together. While Marinette went to Adrien and leaned against him, giving him a soft kiss on the lips, Gabriel walked straight to Nathalie and pulled her up from the chair, so she was standing in front of him.
As he now got down on one knee, to do this the proper way, the young woman covered her mouth with her left hand, while Gabriel took the other. He then said:
"Luckily, that young woman over there, who will most likely very soon be my daughter in law", he smirked as he saw the couple blush, "reminded me, to do this right and gave me this", he held up the ring, "so uhm, Nathalie Sancoeur, will you please be so kind and become my wife?"
He carefully put the band with the small, turquoise on top, on her finger. Thanks to Marinette's ability to guess the right size, it was a perfect match.
Nathalie, who was still crying uncontrollably, nodded and squeaked: "Of course I will!"
She knelt down right in front of him and started to kiss the man she had been loving for so long.
"Aren't they cute?", Marinette asked her boyfriend.
"Mhmh", he couldn't answer as he was crying himself.
So after a lot of crying and congratulating, they finally sat down on the table and started their dinner.