1. Chapter 1

Gabriel Agreste was an overbearing parent, everyone who knew him and his son knew that. He micromanaged Adrien's life to the point that everyone wondered if he even trusted his son to make any good decisions on his own, even now that Adrien was very much an adult.

"He thinks I'm going to do something impulsive and ridiculous the second I'm out from under his thumb," Adrien complained to Alya and Nino during their weekly meet-up at a local cafe. He scowled down at the quiche on his plate and stabbed at it a bit irritably. "Like, what could I possibly do? Go out to a fast-food restaurant? Forget to exercise for a week?"

"Go to a rager, get drunk, and get tattooed all over?" Nino suggested.

Alya rolled her eyes and elbowed her boyfriend. "That is why Mr. Agreste thinks you're a bad influence on Adrien. You make the most ridiculous suggestions."

"I wasn't saying he should do it, I just was giving him better examples of impulsive and ridiculous things that his dad might think he would do." Nino rolled his eyes right back and slumped back in his chair. His head lolled to the side so he could look at Adrien. "Dude, it's gonna be weird with you and Marinette both gone. She's in London too, right?"

Adrien nodded eagerly. Marinette had headed to London several months earlier to do a year-long internship at a fashion house there. From what Adrien heard, she was enjoying herself but missed her family and friends. He had texted her a few times since she left, but hadn't really asked too many questions about her internship beyond a few basic inquiries about how it was going. She was probably pretty busy getting herself set up in another country by herself. "Yeah! Hopefully we'll be close enough together that we can hang out sometimes. I don't know how close my apartment building will be to hers." With a wince, he added, "Nathalie was in charge of finding a place for me to stay, so I don't actually know where, uh-"

"You don't know what part of London you're staying in," Nino said flatly, looking thoroughly unimpressed. "Dude. Really? Your father wouldn't even let you do that by yourself?"

"He was worried that I might end up getting scammed," Adrien admitted. As much as he hated to admit it, he had been rather relieved to find that particular job taken out of his hands. He didn't have the faintest clue how to go about apartment-hunting when he wasn't even in the same country. Granted, he didn't know how to do it when he was in the same city either, but that wasn't particularly relevant at the moment. "And it wasn't as though Nathalie did that much work. One of Father's designer friends lives in an apartment in London near her business and it's a pretty nice place and doesn't cost a ridiculous amount, so Nathalie just found an empty apartment in that building and snagged it for me. It comes prefurnished, which is nice. Then I don't have to do a bunch of furniture shopping as soon as I get there to make the apartment livable."

Alya gave him a look. "And is it near where you're supposed to be for school?"

"It is," Adrien reassured her quickly. He had asked about that much, at least. "It's only a short bus ride away, really."

"Ooh, old man Agreste is letting his son ride on public transportation?" Nino said tauntingly. He smirked at Adrien. "I never thought I would see the day."

Adrien snorted. "He tried getting a chauffeur for me there, but the ones he found that met his criteria were way too expensive and all of them said that driving back and forth the short distance to school would be a waste of time and they had better offers. Besides, I'm technically an adult now. I can make decisions on my own."

He got a dual snort in response.

"I fail to see why you can't simply complete your schooling here in the city," Gabriel said as he entered the dining room yet again for the sole purpose of trying to dissuade Adrien from his trip. Again. "There are perfectly good schools here in Paris where you could do another degree if you really think that it's necessary, and you would not have to forego your driver and your home chef. You'll have to do your own cooking in London, you know."

Adrien only just refrained from rolling his eyes. His father made it sound like cooking would be some sort of huge inconvenience. "I am aware. I have been going over to Nino and Alya's apartment to get cooking lessons from them for several months now."

Gabriel looked cross. "And have any of your experiments been edible?"

"All of them, actually." Adrien was quite proud of that. He had a previously undiscovered talent in the kitchen and even Alya praised the meals he had made. All it had taken was a couple crash-course lessons in reading recipes

Gabriel looked even more sour at that, which made Adrien suspect that that had been his last big argument against Adrien leaving. He had been coming up with reasons (some more valid than others) why Adrien should drop his plans for studying abroad. As the day for Adrien to leave drew closer, Gabriel had only upped the frequency of the appeals.

It wasn't as though Adrien was leaving the continent. He was only going to London for a couple years, and he would be returning to Paris for visits during his vacations and maybe on a couple weekends. London was relatively safe- in fact, it looked like a paradise compared to Paris, which had suffered poor ratings for years after all of the akuma attacks. Tourism still was a little reluctant now, even with Hawkmoth long since defeated. Really, his overprotective father should have been glad that Adrien was moving to London.

"You will have rules to follow in London," Gabriel said after a moment, when it was clear Adrien wasn't planning on backing down. "You still will be representing the company, even if you insist on taking classes for physics instead." It was a long-standing disagreement between the two; Gabriel thought Adrien should stick with the business degree he had already earned at his father's insistence, while Adrien wanted to get his second degree in a field he was actually interested in. It was only because Gabriel refused to let Adrien go into debt that he was even paying for Adrien's apartment and tuition- well, that and the fact that Gabriel wasn't going to have his only son living in a pigsty while abroad just to save money. It wouldn't reflect well on the company. It also probably wasn't very safe to have Adrien living in a slightly dodgy neighborhood just because it would be cheaper.

Adrien inclined his head in response to his father's statement. "Of course." He was well aware of the rules, since he had been forced to follow them for years. Most of them were so obvious that he wouldn't have broken them anyway, even if he hadn't been made aware of their existence. Being reminded of the rules over and over just made Adrien want to break them in the most ridiculous fashion possible.

"No drinking at clubs," Gabriel started, apparently deciding to run through the rules again anyway, just in case Adrien had miraculously forgotten them. "No clubs, period. No pubs. No gluttonous consumption of alcohol in public; it's only acceptable to have a small glass of wine at a dinner function."

As if Adrien would ever dare to behave in such a manner in public.

"No smoking of any sort. No drugs at all, period. No prostitutes or strip clubs. No dating. You will focus on your studies and attend the industry functions that I request of you. I don't want to see you showing up in the tabloid headlines."

Adrien only just refrained from rolling his eyes at that last one. It wasn't as though he could actually control what the tabloids said about him. There seemed to be several particularly trashy ones in the UK that would probably report anything about him with little to no evidence to back it up if they found him interesting at all. Adrien could see the headlines already.

Agreste heir friendly with classmates: secretly starting a harem?

French model drinking wine at dinner: the start of his harrowing descent into alcoholism!

Son of Gabriel Agreste moves to London: Exclusive interviews on the family blow-out!

...yeah, dealing with that wasn't going to be fun. As long as he hadn't done anything ridiculous, though, Adrien was pretty certain Nathalie and the company lawyer would be all too eager to tear into the magazines for harassment and libel.

"Is that clear, Adrien?"

"Yes, father."

A week and a half later, Adrien finally left Paris to head to London. His father reviewed the list of things Adrien was Absolutely Not To Do twice more before he left and had Nathalie email him a list of reminders when Adrien was still on the train. When Adrien got to the station, he found his father's friend waiting for him there on the platform, holding up a sign with his name on it so he could find her as soon as he got off the train.

"Oh, you've grown so much!" Madam Rosalie said as soon as he drew close. She sounded absolutely delighted. "I've seen your photos, of course, but it's different in person!"

"Uh," was all Adrien could manage. Madam Rosalie was not what he expected. He had assumed that since she was a friend of his father's, she would probably dress similarly to Nathalie, with a no-nonsense suit or straightforward blouse and pencil skirt combo. Instead, she wore a playful polka-dot top with a navy crinkle skirt and her brown curls were barely held back by a bandana. He suspected that the clothes she designed were probably similar in their fun style, standing in sharp contrast to the more formal designs Gabriel tended to produce.

"Do you have all of your things?" Madam Rosalie pressed on, apparently not fazed by Adrien's lack of response. "Yes? Good, good- and did you have any other coats with you? Any other bags? No? Fantastic- it's always so difficult to track down loose things left on the Eurostar. Right, then, follow me this way, my car's parked right outside. You're going to be in the same building as a lot of my interns, did you know? I'm in the building right next door."

Adrien blinked. "I thought Nathalie said I was in the same building as you."

Madam Rosalie laughed, even as she grabbed one of his suitcases and herded him out of the station and towards the car. "Oh, no. My building is all long-term residents. Out flats are larger. The building you're in is just as nice, only a little smaller and the flats come pre-furnished. They had student housing in mind there, I think, or maybe temporary workers. It's owned by the same people that own my building, though, and I double-checked with my interns over there on the quality before recommending it to your dad's secretary."

Adrien nodded. That sounded just as good. As long as the place had good reviews from reputable people, then it was fine with Adrien.

Once they reached the car, it didn't take long for Madam Rosalie to shove all of Adrien's luggage into the back of her car, ignoring his attempts to help her. They were on the road not long after that, headed for the apartments.

"So how did you become friends with my father?" Adrien finally asked, breaking the silence. Madam Rosalie didn't seem the sort that his father would immediately click with. Maybe they had had class together at some point and had been forced to do some sort of group project-

-except no, that wouldn't make sense. She and Gabriel wouldn't have become friends from that, if his father's interactions with would-be collaborators was anything to go by. They would have come out of the project hating each other's guts. That was just the effect Gabriel tended to have on people.

Madam Rosalie laughed. "Oh, I was friends with your mother first," she said, flashing a grin at Adrien before returning her gaze to the road. "We were in a bunch of classes together. I met your father through her."

That made more sense. Adrien always remembered his mother as being more of a social butterfly than his father (not that it was hard to be more social than Gabriel Agreste; it was a very low bar to meet), so it made sense that she was the one making connections for Gabriel. She had also been the one to maintain connections until she vanished, at which point Nathalie took over. Despite her best efforts, Nathalie just wasn't as good at it. She was a little too stiff to make people flock to her.

Madam Rosalie was a talker, Adrien realized very quickly. As soon as Adrien's mother was mentioned, Madam Rosalie had two dozen stories to tell about the shenanigans the two had gotten into when they were younger. From that, Madam Rosalie dove straight into a few funny stories about Gabriel and by the time she was done, they were pulling up in front of the apartment buildings.

"You're on the second level," Madam Rosalie informed Adrien as she yanked his suitcases out of the trunk of her car. "It's a lovely view up there, I was just in there last week to vacuum and do a little cleaning. The room's been empty for maybe two and a half months now, so there was a bit of a build-up of dust in a few places but it's all gone now."

Adrien blinked, accepting his backpack automatically when she offered it to him. "Were they having trouble finding someone to fill it?" He had always been under the impression that apartments in the city, especially nice ones like these, were in high demand.

Madam Rosalie gave him a startled look. "Why, no! They had several people come and look, but your father's assistant snatched it up before they could sign anything. She's been paying rent to keep it open for you."

Oh. Adrien hadn't known that.

Really, Nino and Alya could tease him all they wanted for not being involved in the search for the apartment himself, Adrien mused as Madam Rosalie led the way up to the front door, but Adrien couldn't deny that the assistance was appreciated. Renting an empty apartment to keep it until he got there was yet another thing that Adrien wouldn't have thought of by himself.

"One of my interns is in the apartment right across the hall from yours," Madam Rosalie called over her shoulder as she headed up the stairs, pulling one of Adrien's suitcases behind her. "So if you have any questions, she's right there. She's from France, just like you, and she's been here a few months. Lovely girl, and so talented! She's very kind, too, so don't worry about talking to her."

Adrien perked up. "Really?" He couldn't deny that knowing there was another native French-speaker nearby eased his nerves just a bit. He was fairly strong at English- he wouldn't be going to a university in London otherwise- but it would be a relief to be able to chat to someone in French at the end of a long day. Of course, if they were in the fashion industry, it wasn't a stretch to think that they might know who he was- and who his father was. Adrien might have to deal with an overenthusiastic fan next door, for all he knew. That would be the opposite of relaxing.

"She's out and about right now, but I'm sure you'll run into her later," Madam Rosalie said as they exited the stairwell. She stopped in front of the door closest to the stairs and pulled out a set of keys. "You're in this flat. It's got a nice view and you only have the one next-door neighbor since you're on the end, so you should be set."

Adrien nodded. Of course, he knew he would still have to deal with upstairs neighbors and he wouldn't be able to jump around like he sometimes did at home since he had downstairs neighbors, but it was nice to hear that his closest neighbor wouldn't be a problem.

The door swung open, and Madam Rosalie ushered Adrien inside. Pulling his suitcases along behind him, Adrien stepped into the living room area. It was small compared to what he was used to, but then again everything was small compared to what he was used to. Still, it wasn't as though he actually needed all that much space. Nino, Alya, and Marinette all lived in apartments, and their living rooms were about this size. It would be more than enough for him, especially since he was living by himself.

"Since this is a furnished flat, you have a lot of stuff already here," Madam Rosalie said as she closed the door behind them. "Couch, of course, chairs, table, bed, desk in your bedroom, some pots and pans and a casserole dish, knives- you might want to get them sharpened, by the way, I have no idea what condition they might be in- and silverware, plates, cups, bowls- really basic stuff and not a lot of it, but at least you don't need to buy everything. You might want to buy a few more things in you do any fancier cooking, but the basics are covered."

Adrien hadn't even considered that. He had thought about groceries, of course, but not the cooking things. For whatever reason, he had just sort of assumed that it wasn't something he would need to get. That would have been a nasty shock if he had arrived to find that he had no food and nothing to eat with.

"Your father ordered towels, pillows, and bedsheets for you. The boxes are waiting in your bedroom," Madam Rosalie said while Adrien was still taking in the living room. He winced- another thing he hadn't even considered, he was off to a great start with being independent- and set his suitcases down to follow the designer down the narrow hallway to the bedroom and bathroom.

He was going to be stuck here all afternoon unpacking, Adrien could tell already. He would be lucky if he could get out to find a grocery store before the sun set. He might have to order out- or maybe he should just not unpack everything and deal with it tomorrow so that he would actually be able to eat tonight.

The bedroom itself was a decent enough size, though he wouldn't be able to leave much on the floor without it becoming a real obstacle. The closet was smaller than he was used to, for sure, but he had hardly brought along the entirety of his wardrobe either. That would just be excessive, especially considering that he didn't even wear most of it on a regular basis.

"Do you want any help unpacking?" Madam Rosalie asked as Adrien maneuvered around the boxes on the floor. "If not, I need to stop by the office and check on a couple designs. You have my number, right?"

"I can manage the unpacking," Adrien assured her. "And yes, I have your number. I'll be fine. Do you know where there are any grocery stores nearby?"

"There's one a few blocks over," Madam Rosalie said, stepping back around the boxes towards the door. "But it's more a high-end store, good for picking up a couple things in a rush but I wouldn't recommend doing a large shopping trip there. There's a larger store a little further out that's a little more affordable, but you can ask your neighbor for directions. Knowing her, she would probably come with you and help you carry stuff back."

"She won't mind me bothering her?"

"Oh, not at all," Madam Rosalie assured him. "As long as she's not in a huge rush for a deadline or anything I'm sure she would be happy to help. Like I said, she's very friendly. Oh, and here are your keys- catch!" She unhooked Adrien's set of apartment keys from her own keychain and tossed them across the room. Adrien caught them easily. "Have a good rest of the day! Ta-ta!"

With that, Madam Rosalie gave a cheery wave and vanished around the corner. Within moments, there was the sound of a door opening and closing. The second he was sure they were alone, Plagg zipped out from Adrien's pocket and surveyed the bedroom.

"It's small," Plagg commented, spinning around to look at the whole room. "And cramped, and I don't see any cheese."

"You are about as subtle as a speeding truck," Adrien sighed, kicking a box to the side to head back out to the main room. "I have some cubes of cheese that I packed. It's not Camembert, but it'll have to do until I can go shopping."

Plagg grumbled.

"And you'll have to ration your Camembert a bit," Adrien cautioned. "No more eating two wheels a day. Half a wheel at most plus some other cheeses will have to do."

Plagg let out an immediate loud whine at that.

"Don't even start," Adrien said warningly as he entered the living room and bent down to sort through his bags. "It'll look weird if I'm buying seven wheels of Camembert a week or going grocery shopping every other day. It's not back home, where we had Camembert stocked in the kitchen."

"I'll starve. You don't skimp on food for yourself ever."

"I'll buy other cheeses. You said you like Gouda, right? Brie? And I know you'll eat Swiss and cheddar in a pinch." Adrien dug in his backpack and tossed a large cube of cheddar to Plagg before taking the rest of the cheese and putting it in the refrigerator.

"But it's not the same."

"Think of it this way: for you, Camembert is like dessert. It's tasty. You eat less of it than other cheeses, and then it's more of a treat when you do have it." Adrien grabbed his suitcase and headed back to the bedroom. He might as well get started with unpacking so he could start getting rid of the boxes. "And I don't eat dessert day in and day out."

Plagg let out an angry mutter, but didn't argue further.

Back in the bedroom, Adrien attacked the boxes first. Once all of the pillows, sheets, and blankets were on the bed (it didn't look pretty, but Adrien wasn't actually sure how to make the bed properly and at least it worked), Adrien delivered the towels to the bathroom and tossed all of the boxes and packaging into the kitchen, where they would be out of the way for the time being. He unpacked his suitcases next, shoving shirts, socks, underwear and pants into the dresser and hanging a few things up in his closet. Much to his surprise, it really wasn't taking all that long to get things stashed away. Of course, part of that was because Adrien couldn't bring a ton of stuff with him on the train, but he had still thought that setting up would take longer. Granted, he still had grocery shopping to do. He would have to shop enough to set up his entire pantry- that meant all the spices and sugar and salt and flour and eggs and everything. That would probably take the longest out of everything.

Sighing, Adrien pulled out the list Alya had prepared for him of everything Adrien needed to start a pantry. He had made his own additions to the list, of course, since he had picked out what things he wanted to cook during his first week and obviously Alya hadn't included Camembert on the list at all. He would have to buy some containers for leftovers and some reusable bags as well...

Ugh. Grocery shopping would probably be the hardest part of the moving to a new country. At least he didn't have to deal with shopping for furniture or most kitchen tools. That really would have been a nightmare. This was already bad enough.

Adrien let out a long sigh as he gathered up his wallet, his keys, the one bag he had brought along, and the completed list. Putting off the trip wouldn't do him any good; after all, he did need to eat. Maybe he wouldn't take care of everything on his list until he found out where the budget store was, but he had to pick up a couple things, at the very least. Hopefully he would run into his neighbor soon.

Adrien was lost in his racing thoughts of what he had to get done first as he neared his flat's door. There were so many things to do that needed his attention so he could actually function, and all in a foreign country. Now that he thought about it, Madam Rosalie hadn't actually said where the closest grocery store actually was, so he would have to ask someone- and who knew if Londoners were friendly or not? He hated asking random people for help, especially when he was abroad. People tended to ask about his accent and then practically asked for his whole life story when they learned he was from France. It wasn't fun at all-

He was so distracted that he didn't even notice that there was someone passing his door until he ran straight into them.

Both Adrien and the other person yelped as they stumbled, and Adrien's hands flew out to steady the other person before they could fall or drop any of the bags they were carrying.

"Sorry, sorry- I mean! Sorry about running into you," Adrien corrected himself, switching from French to English. "I should have looked where I was going-"

"No, no! I should not have been walking so close to the door, I just am not used to anyone living there," the girl in his arms said quickly in accented English, finally steadying herself on Adrien's arm and readjusting her grip on her bags. "It's not your fault at all- Adrien?!"

Blinking in surprise, Adrien finally looked down at the girl properly, taking in her wide blue eyes and oh-so-familiar face. His mouth dropped open in surprise.

"Marinette?!"

A/N: As with most of my stories, this is a one-

I'M KIDDING. This is most definitely not a one-shot and is not complete (but like always, I love getting reviews!). The first arc of the story by itself is something 120k words (I am Suffering, this is by far the longest thing I've ever written).

I'll try to post on a fairly regular basis for a while (since I have something like 19 chapters done and currently being edited), but I can't make any promises on keeping to that schedule long-term since my job sometimes takes me to places with a distinct lack of internet access (last spring I was averaging maybe forty-five minutes of internet use a week).

ALSO: I started and wrote most of this over the past year, so it's generally season 1 compliant but no promises with Season 2.