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the-delta-42 · 1 year ago

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Why? - Chapter 1

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Why?

Chapter 1

Adrien looked expectantly at his father, Marinette’s sketchbook in hand. His pigtailed friend had dropped it while she was packing up her bag and Adrien had the sudden bright idea to show the designs to his father and get Marinette an internship or apprenticeship at his father’s company.

“These designs certainly are,” Said Gabriel, flicking through the pages, “impressive. Your friend is very talented.”

Adrien grinned, “so, you’ll give her an internship?”

“I’ll think about it,” Dismissed Gabriel, making Adrien deflate a little, “go to your piano lesson.”

Adrien sighed, before leaving the study. Once he was gone, Gabriel opened the book and looked at the designs. If he published these, his business profit would skyrocket. But, if he said they were Mlle. Dupain-Cheng’s, the funds would go to her. Gabriel smirked, before he started to make subtle changes to the designs. After all, who’d believe a young girl over a fashion mogul?

Marinette slammed her head against her desk, she’d torn her room apart looking for her sketchbook. She’d had it at school a few weeks ago, and she’d looked everywhere she could think of. At home, in her bag, at school, on her way to school, at Alya’s, she’d even asked Chloé if she knew where it was.

Marinette closed her eyes for a second, before her mother gently shook her shoulder and told her she was late for school. In her rush, she didn’t see the texts her classmates had sent her. Marinette barrelled into the classroom, rearing back under the combined stares of her classmates.

“Hey?” Waved Marinette, looking around.

At first, she thought Lila had made up another lie about her, before she noticed that all of them were pitying her.

“Is everything okay?”

Alya winced, “Um, you know about your sketchbook?”

“You’ve found it?” Grinned Marinette, looking around for it, “Where was it?”

Alya winced and swallowed, “It’s, er, with Adrien’s dad.”

“Why would he have it?” Asked Marinette, confused.

“I, er, I took it,” Confessed Adrien, “I, I was hoping father would give you an internship or make you an apprentice. I-I never thought h-he’d d-do somet-thing like t-this.”

Marinette stared at Adrien, suddenly stuttering and having trouble speaking.

“W-what happened?”

“His new line is out today a-and,” Alya pushed a catalogue towards Marinette, “page 73.”

Marinette frowned, before flicking through the pages until she reached page 73, and froze. There, on the page, were her designs. Each of them subtly modified, but still recognisable as hers. She started checking other pages, finding gloves, hats, scarves, dresses, everything. All of them from her missing sketchbook.

“J-Jagged Stone’s already said the designs were yours.” Stuttered Adrien, “H-he said he saw you designing them. Kitty Section, Clara Nightingale, Neil Richards, Roderick Kingsley, Charlotte Witter, Janet Van Dyne and Enda Mode have condemned f-father, a-and h-he l-lost two of h-his s-s-sponsors. But half of the designs had already been sold out when that happened.”

Marinette continued to stare at the pages. Alya gently took her arm and guided her to her seat. Lila then walked in, sporting a new jacket. One of the ones on page 47 of the catalogue that was now discarded on the classroom floor.

“Mr. Agreste’s new line came,” Smirked Lila, “what do you think?”

“Adrien’s dad stole those designs from Marinette.” Said Nino, as Marinette’s breathing suddenly sped up.

“Did she tell you that?” Questioned Lila, cogs in her mind turning.

“No, if you look at the designs, they’re all in Marinette’s style.” Said Alya, between trying to get Marinette to calm down.

“But that doesn’t prove he stole them.”

“We saw her designing them, Lila,” Snapped Nathaniel, passing a paper bag to Alya, “We saw her designing them, she showed them to us, and we know he has Marinette’s missing sketchbook.”

“He’s made minor changes to them.” Muttered Chloé flicking through the pages.

“So, they’re different designs now, right?” Asked Lila, getting a sigh from Max.

“Lila, it doesn’t work like that,” Stated Max, “they are still the same designs Marinette made and the only things Mr Agreste has done is change the logos on them, that’d be like taking the Mona Lisa and changing her skin-tone or taking your stories and replacing you with someone else.”

“There’s still some with that MDC mess on it.” Said Chloé, making everyone freeze.

“Chloé, what are you talking about?” Asked Adrien, looking at her.

“Dupain-Cheng has a habit of putting her initials on the stuff. Like that scarf Gabriel stole.” Said Chloé, opting to file her nails.

“W-what scarf?” Asked Adrien, dread pooling in his stomach.

“Toby, darling, I need to borrow Jack.” Said Edna, shooing Toby away from his boyfriend, “Go make some tea or those baked goodies you do.”

Toby snorted, before walking towards the kitchen. Edna turned her focus onto Jack, “Gabriel Agreste has finally gone insane.”

“What was the first clue, his wardrobe or the clearly forced look of his models?” Snarked Jack, leaning back in his chair.

“He’s been accused to stealing a small designer’s work and passed it off as his own.” Retorted Edna, leaning forwards, “I honestly thought he was better than that, especially after that Prague incident.”

Jack winced, before removing a phone from his pocket. Toby’s phone looked up at him, “Shit, I forgot I had this.”

Before Jack could call Toby back, the screen lit up and a cartoon wolf’s head appeared on the screen. The phone vibrated and made a howling sound, making Toby barrel into the room, “Don’t answer that, that’s my brother and he doesn’t know about some stuff yet!”

Jack blinked as Toby wrenched the phone from his hand. His hair caught fire and he threw a glare at Toby.

“Michael, hey!” Toby nearly yelled, his voice going a tone higher.

“Christine?” Asked a gruff voice, “Are you ill? Because your voice sounds different.”

“Yes, Michael, I’m fine,” Dismissed Toby, wincing at Jack, “um, not to seem rude, but why are you calling?”

There was silence on the other end.

“Check social media, we’re needed back home.” Michael then hung up the phone, getting a frown from Toby.

“Your family doesn’t know, huh?” Asked Jack, as Enda extinguished his hair.

“I’ve been meaning to tell them,” Defended Toby, opening up twitter on his phone, “I… just haven’t gotten around to it yet.”

Enda frowned, before jabbing Toby’s side, “You need to tell them darling, it’s better they know from you instead of finding out from someone else.”

“I get the feeling that was aimed at me.” Muttered Jack, igniting his hand.

Toby froze, before he dropped his phone. He stared into space for a second, before diving for his phone and punched in a number.

“Is everything alright?” Asked Jack, making Toby look at him.

“Some, some candy cane motherfucker’s stolen my sister’s work!” Seethed Toby, accidentally cracking his phone in his hand, “Fuck!”

Edna frowned, before getting out of her seat, “Jack-Jack, darling, call your family, we’re going to Paris.”

Caline pinched the bridge of her nose; she’d arrived at her class and found Marinette hyper-ventilating. Everyone had taken to yelling what happened, all at once, resulting in an indiscernible racket that led her to do something she hadn’t done in years. She lost her temper. It’d been almost funny seeing how pale everyone got, which the exception of Marinette, before everything quietened down.

She then looked to Sabrina for an explanation. While she wasn’t supposed to find fault with anyone, she knew that Sabrina loved to, to put it politely, be curious about other people’s business. She’d already given her numerous detentions because she caught her rummaging through other people’s belongings.

Sabrina had given her a condensed version of events, which then led to Caline asking Alya to take Marinette to the nurse, which then led to an ambulance being called because Marinette then had an asthma attack and, to cap everything off, paparazzi had swarmed the school entrance. Some looking for Adrien, some looking for Marinette, which all led to Damocles going ballistic, with an unfortunate incident requiring a second ambulance. The school was then given an impromptu half-day. Caline sighed, her hand resting on her bump. D’Argencourt had offered to hunt down Josiah, which Caline had declined, if Josiah didn’t want to know his own child, then he wouldn’t.

She looked up when someone knocked on her classroom’s door. Mendeleiev leaned against the doorframe.

“Dupain-Cheng’s parents have been in touch,” Said Mendeleiev, “she’s making a recovery, the hospital’s also issued her a new inhaler. Still no news on Damocles, though.”

Caline closed her eyes and sighed through her nose, “At least we’ve got one piece of good news.”

Mendeleiev hummed, before disappearing from view. Caline suddenly wanted nothing more than to go home and have a nice long bath. Her phone buzzed, getting an annoyed huff from her. Caline pulled it from her pocket and glared at the screen. She didn’t recognise the number, but she decided to answer it on a whim.

“What?”

Jack tried not to scowl as Dash’s children running around the plane. Dash was rapidly messaging someone on his phone, probably an Avenger or JL member. He heard about a race that was taking place in a couple of months between the Flash, Quicksilver and Dash. Violet was quietly speaking with Tony, occasionally throwing a dark look at Jack. Tony nervously glanced at Jack, then at Toby, Jack’s parents and back to Jack.

“Well,” Said Toby, clapping his hands, “since Paris is, sort of, being terrorised by an emotional terrorist, we might as well air any grievances we have with each other.”

“And bring us back in the loop?” Scoffed Violet, getting a wince from Tony.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Demanded Jack, as Bob groaned, and Helen covered her eyes.

“I’m just saying, it’d be a first to hear anything about you from you.”

“Look, if this is some massive problem you have with me being gay-”

“I don’t care that you’re gay, Jack,” Snapped Violet, “I care that we were told by a fucking tabloid.”

The plane fell silent, Toby letting out an awkward cough, while Jack glanced around. No one was meeting his eyes, Dash’s wife had her face buried in a book, while Tony and Violet’s eldest had opted to sink into his seat and listened to music.

“That’s what his is all about?” Asked Jack, getting a flinch and a gasp from some of his extended family, “Look, modelling is something that often requires the media being let to know somethings before anyone else.”

“So, you thought that allowing that magazine to portray us as homophobes was necessary?” Asked Dash, looking over at Jack, “Because it made things so much more difficult when we were out in public.”

“Come on, it’s not like anything happened.” Retorted Jack, before a force field snapped around his legs.

“Mom and Dad’s house was firebombed, and you think nothing happened?!” Snarled Violet, “Dash was practically forced into resigning, and that not even starting on the CPS visits because ‘worried’ neighbours ‘believed’ we were abusing our children.”

Jack swallowed, glancing around. He looked at his father, old burn scars were on his arms, Jack had always assumed there were from hero work. He’d heard that Dash had resigned from his job, but he didn’t think too much into it at the time.

“Then why didn’t anyone answer my calls?” Questioned Jack, looking around.

“I think the answer is obvious.” Said Dash, leaning forwards, “We had to move, change phone numbers. Believe it or not, you have fans that are batshit crazy.”

Jack winced, looking around, “I, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

Violet sighed harshly through her nose, glaring at him.

“Did you even try to contact us?” She asked, suddenly looking tired.

“None of you answered.” Jack, getting a groan from Helen.

“Okay, there’s obviously a lot we need to talk about,” Said Helen, getting to her feet, “so we might as well get the heavy stuff out of the way first.”

Michael scrawled something on a sheet of paper, as Marinette sat on the sofa with a weighted blanket covering her. Skye had rocked up to the bakery with a briefcase full of legal notes. Christine had sent a text to the Family group and said she needed to talk with them.

Marinette was slowly nodding off, Michael and Skye were sitting across from each other, while Maman and Papa were down in the bakery. Marinette found it oddly funny, this was the first time her entire family had been in one place in just over five years.

Sabine tiredly came up the stairs, “Nadja’s managed to get most of the paparazzi to back off, she said she’ll interview us herself.”

“How thoughtful.” Snarked Michael, getting a frown from his mother.

“I had an interesting phone call, as well.” Said Sabine, “your grandmother’s been in contact.”

“What, Nonna?” Asked Skye, as Marinette slowly looked around.

“No,” Answered Sabine, “your other grandmother.”

Her children all stared at her, before Marinette spoke.

“Holy shit.”

Gabriel frantically scrambled through the documents on his desk. The Cheng’s and Ricca’s had unexpectedly withdrawn their support and many of his peers were denouncing him as a fraud. He’d already tried to justify his changes to the designs made them completely different, before changing tactics and saying he was giving her exposure.

His previous changes to the designs then came back to bite him, which then had the added effect of all his assets being frozen.

It didn’t help that nearly every one of his employees had resigned, only Nathalie, Adrien’s Bodyguard and Adrien remained. He was jerked from his thoughts when his phone pinged. He glanced at the message. The bank was repossessing the house, on the grounds he was living there illegally. Why did Emilié decide to leave everything to Adrien and not him?

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