Author's Note: Drabbles are usually meant to only be 100 words long, but many of these will have more because I got a bit carried away. I hope you enjoy!
It had all started with Adrien seeing the ring on her finger.
Since then, she and Gabriel had made an effort to look like a couple, if only for the boy.
But the tension always remained, just beneath the surface. She still hadn't forgiven him for his downward spiral into obsession with the superheroes.
So, they pretended. Their "romantic" interactions never went beyond a simple touch - a brush of the hand, an arm around the shoulder.
Until one day, both realized they might no longer be pretending.
All three had been sitting around the counter with Adrien finishing his breakfast. Gabriel had told another one of his increasingly-frequent bad jokes and she'd smiled. For so long now, her smiles had been forced. But this one was genuine.
Adrien laughed at the joke before checking the time. "I've gotta get to school. Bye Dad, Nathalie! Love you!" The boy gave a sweet smile as he left, yet there was a knowing look in his eyes.
Nathalie had finally gotten used to Adrien considering her to be a part of his family, yet words like "I love you" still pulled at her heart.
Gabriel came to her side, as he often did. "That's the first time in a while I've seen you smile at me," he told her.
"Perhaps I've finally found your terrible jokes amusing," she replied. Any formality she attempted to put in her tone faltered.
Gabriel faked an offended look, sitting in the seat next to her. His hand closed around hers, fingers interlacing.
"Adrien's not here," Nathalie pointed out, though she didn't pull away. "We don't have to pretend."
"Who said I was pretending?" He sighed. "I don't like how distant we've become."
She stayed silent, looking anywhere but his eyes.
"Before you say anything, you have every right to be mad at me. And the facade we've been putting up in front of Adrien has only made things harder. But . . ." he trailed off, "it's not a facade to me anymore."
Her cheeks turned pink and she kept her gaze on the floor. But she continued to sit there, her hand in his, until Adrien peeked his head inside the kitchen to say goodbye again.
If he noticed the shift between them, he said nothing.