If you haven't read Gabriel Gets Used To... Adrien having a Girlfriend, I suggest you read that first 💕

It had been a month since Adrien announced his engagement to Marinette, a month in which Gabriel had managed to dehydrate himself three times from 'crying a river'. Nathalie had all about lost it with him, telling him to man up and be supportive or else when the grandchildren appeared they'd want nothing to do with him. He couldn't eat for three days straight after that revelation. He wasn't sure what he thought about Marinette having the offspring of his son, a child which would situate themselves in the Agreste bloodline and be able to sponge off the family fortune just like he was sure Marinette would.

But, here he was. The Gabriel Mighty Agreste; four years, five months and thirteen days after Adrien told him about his girlfriend, about to host a dinner party for his soon to be in-laws. The joy was radiating off him (said in a deadpan, sarcastic voice).

"At least look like you want to be here," Nathalie hissed as she stood shoulder to shoulder with Gabriel at the base of the staircase.

"Of course I want to be here,'' Gabriel proclaimed. "Where else would I want to be?"

"Oh I don't know," Nathalie said, rolling her eyes. "Bermuda! You've never thrown a dinner party in your life," she acknowledged. "You've never thrown any type of family dinner come to think of it."

"I told you -" Gabriel replied, "I'm doing this because George needed some overtime to treat the grandkids for a trip to Disneyland. I'm a kind caring person. How could I refuse?"

"You can't keep blaming George, Gabriel, the man is 78 years old, partially blind and has a bionic hip."

"That's not my problem, is it?"

Gabriel slowly moved his arms behind his back, one hand holding the other as he puffed out his chest. He side eyed Nathalie, wondering what she thought of his newly found muscle. He'd been pumping extra weights in the gym, and even though he still looked like a beanpole, sometimes, when he tensed just right, he could really get his biceps to pop.

He was tempted to ask Adrien what his secret was; his weedy son suddenly looked so manly Gabriel couldn't help but want his fitness regime for himself. Perhaps it was his diet? Had Adrien been on the protein?

He looked nervously at the clock in the hall once more. They'd be arriving any time now.

This wasn't the first time he'd met Toby and Sarine... sorry... Tony and Sabrina, but this wasn't going to be a quick hello in the bakery, or a 'how are you?' Like when Tony came to collect Marinette from the house in the past.

Nope.

This was a meeting to get to know each other, and to start planning the wedding between his son and their daughter — bile rose to his throat again; Marinette really wasn't good for his acid reflux. The thought of having to join in with these festivities was doing nothing for his internal bodily functions. Worst of all, his coping mechanism of eating cheese had kicked up a notch and, if he wasn't careful, it would all be adding to his waistline taking away all those hours spent in the gym.

He blamed it on the perfectly aged Camembert hidden away in Adrien's old room, the taste and smell of said delicacy were divine and he couldn't help gouging on it.

The door opened, the sound of laughter flowing through before Adrien and Marinette made themselves known.

Both of their faces radiated with happiness as Adrien wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and almost tripped them up, resulting in them stumbling into the hallway. Grabiel watched the display with complete disgust; Adrien placing kisses on her neck and nuzzling her cheek like a damn stray cat. Marinette giggled, following with a slap on his bicep, trying to push him off her; but his son had taken on the features of a limpet – his lips seemingly stuck to her neck.

"Adrien," she squealed, only for a bellowing laugh to follow shortly after them. Tony had arrived, following the two idiots in with one arm slung around his wife's shoulders.

The guy was huge and Gabriel couldn't help but wonder how Weredad hadn't managed to beat the two pests who were causing him so much grief. He could have just squeezed them between his thumb and forefinger, bursting them like a grape. Maybe he could anger the man once more today and flush the cat and bug out?

"Hello father," Adrien said, finally detaching himself from Marinette.

"Adrien," Gabriel nodded, stepping forward and offering a hand out to his son.

With a very awkward handshake, Gabriel turned his attention over to Marinette — his eyes scanning over her outfit. Not too bad, but not exactly a Gabriel piece.

"Ms Dupain-Cheng." He nodded once more, Adrien moving behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist again. He rested his head on her shoulder and smiled, Gabriel wanting nothing more than to rip them apart and scream 'witch'.

Did they still lock witches away? Maybe he could look into it because he was almost entirely certain Adrien was caught up in some old ancient witchcraft. What was the story of Joan of Arc again?

"Not Ms Dupain-Cheng for too much longer if I get my own way," the ex-model said.

Tony laughed, smacking one of his big paws down on Adrien's shoulder. If it wasn't Marinette attacking his son, it seemed the possible father-in-law was making himself known as a man beater too. He'd have to keep an eye out for any marks or bruises on Adrien; he'll start a list on his phone and document any suspicious activities.

"That's my boy," Tony laughed, looking over towards Gabriel.

The designer had to smile, it would be odd if he didn't – so here he was attempting to crack his steely face into one of joy.

"Father, what's wrong with your face?"

"There's nothing wrong with my face Adrien, this is a smile, you should know that, you see it often enough."

"Pfft," Adrien exclaimed under his breath, "in my dreams."

"I heard that, son!" Gabriel responded through gritted teeth.

Gabriel turned to Toby and held out a hand in greeting only to be swept into the man's arms and lifted from the floor.

The giant shook him up and down, cracking his vertebrae and freeing the trapped nerve Gabriel had had in his back since the shower incident with Adrien a year or so ago.

"Put him down," the smaller woman said, coming to her husband's side, her eyes dancing as she smiled at Gabriel.

"It's lovely to see you again, Gabriel, you have a lovely home."

As Gabriel attempted to get his balance back, Sabine swooped in and took the opportunity to kiss Gabriel on his cheek before moving to Nathalie. The two greeting each other with a familiarity that made him nauseous.

A sudden bell began to ring in the hallway, everyone turning their attention to the little old man holding a hand bell four sizes too big for him, thrusting the bronze instrument up and down with oompfh as he rang it between his two hands.

"Dinner is served." George (the butler if you can't remember) turned slowly and limped his way back into the dining room, ricocheting off the door frame as he headed back inside. Gabriel watched the man stumble back to where he came from only to consider whether he needed to send the old man to the opticians once more.

"After you," Gabriel announced, directing everyone to take George's lead, and head in the direction of the dining room.

Following into the room last, Gabriel looked over at the pawns who'd gone in before him. If he played it right he could get them all out the door within the next hour, which would allow him time to pour himself a sherry and settle in front of the tv ready to catch the latest episode of 'True Crime'.

He watched Nathalie move to her regular seat and sit down, her head doing some sort of weird bob as she indicated for Gabriel to come and sit beside her. If she kept up with these weird head actions she was going to cost him a small fortune in private health care. Why didn't she just open her mouth and speak?

Walking past where Adrien was helping Marinette into her chair – was she an idiot or something? Could she not work out the chair herself? – he couldn't help but smile at the muttering from the wannabe designer.

"Adrien, which fork do I use first?" Her whispered voice met his ears like a beautiful string melody in D-major. He hoped Adrien was taking note that his soon to be wife couldn't even use the correct fork; even Capboy Keith knew which fork to use. Best of all, he began to muse, if Marinette didn't know now, there was no chance –

A loud laugh sounded out around the table and Gabriel was tempted to dive underneath and hide from the earthquake suddenly rattling his fine crystal glassware.

Gabriel continued to move towards his chair only for a hand to come down and hit him square in the back, winding him and almost sending him flying into the fire at the opposite end of the room.

"Can you believe her?" Tony guffawed. "You'd think after all those fancy restaurants our son's taken her too, she'd have an idea about what fork to use!"

Our son? Gabriel looked towards the larger bear man in complete bewilderment.

Our... son?

How dare he!

Tony hit him another couple of times on the back, and Gabriel was tempted to just transform and smack him with his cane to see how he liked it.

Pushing his glasses back up his nose from where they'd fallen during the attack, Gabriel noticed a tiny bit of moisture on one of his lenses. Was he crying? He couldn't dare to show emotion in front of these people. He wasn't weak. He was an Agreste!

Taking his glasses off to clean them on the fold of his blazer before returning them, Gabriel continued on his way to his seat and sat beside Nathalie, her look one of complete amusement – not appreciated in the slightest.

"Marinette, my dear, if you don't know now..." Gabriel started, picking up his outside fork and cleaning it on his napkin, his eyes firmly focusing on the object. "...how will you know by the wedding? Maybe that 5-course meal needs to be cut down to, oh, I don't know," he swung the fork around beside him, Nathalie moving quickly to avoid it jabbing her in the eye, "a 3-course."

The sound of Adrien gasping pulled Gabriel's attention to the two of them; his son's hands firmly placed over his fiancée's ears.

"Father," he hissed, "how could you!"

Gabriel smugly shrugged his shoulders as Tony laughed again. He swore that the chandelier shook at the sudden sound of the man's laugh. He was a couple of decibels away from being declared a fog horn and deafening everyone in this room.

Once again the big man attacked his son by slamming a hand down on Adrien's shoulder. Gabriel checked his watch, mentally making a note of the time and physical contact, dead set on adding it to his evidence list later on.

"She'll be fine," Tony said, grabbing a fork and a knife from the layout and holding them up. Gabriel couldn't help but wonder what he was about to do? Play drums with them?

"Here," Tony started and Gabriel couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Was he going to try and explain it to her? Oh, this should be good. What would a baker know about fine dining?

"It seems our humble host here will be supplying us with a fish dish tonight. Is that right Gabe?"

Gabriel internally cringed at the nickname. Only close friends and family were allowed to call him Gabe; consisting of Nathalie and on a good day... George.

"It's –"

"We are indeed," Nathalie interrupted, glaring at Gabriel with enough fire to turn him to ash.

"How could you tell, Papa?" Marinette asked sweetly.

Oh, how he hated when she turned on her 'I'm so cute, I'm everyone's favourite Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Paris' sweetheart and the love of Adrien Agreste's life' voice. He was quite sure this voice was the reason why he had a slight twitch to his left eye and a tingling in his top lip.

"You see, this here is a fish knife and this is a fish fork, they're both designed to make it easier to eat fish. The small knife has a sharp, curved edge and the fork is slightly larger than a salad one. Look," Tony placed the knife down and grabbed a second fork showing the difference in sizes as he held them side-by-side.

"Oh, yeah!" Adrien exclaimed before turning to look at Gabriel. "Did you know that?" His eyes were wide like he'd just been told the meaning of life and Gabriel's nose began to flare.

"We did teach you this when you were younger, Adrien."

"Oh!" His son shrugged. "Well, I can't remember so I'm glad of the recap. I always get those two mixed up."

"You should have listened –"

"It's no problem, son. Most people do. It's an easy mistake to make." Gabriel was interrupted again, this time by Tony. Tony who seemed to have his son's undivided attention. What was going on here?

Tony placed the salad fork back down and grabbed the knife once more.

"Now, the curved edge of the fish knife is perfect for sliding between the skin and the flesh – of the fish, of course," he added, jabbing Adrien in the arm with his elbow and sending them both spiralling into a fit of laughter. That was a truly horrible joke.

"Anyway," Tony continued, "the knife's blade ends in a moderately sharp point, that way you can lift small fish bones from the flesh."

"That makes sense," Marinette noted, grabbing her own knife and inspecting it, Sabrina demonstrating with her own how it would work on a poor defenceless bread roll.

"This fish fork has this incurved-shape, and it was mainly to differentiate the fish fork from other utensils in the Victorian times. Also, you'll find that the majority are embellished or engraved with decorations related to the sea."

Everyone around the table suddenly picked up their own fish knife and fork and began to study them, George moving from where he was standing at the doorway to grab Gabriel's fish fork and lift it to within an inch of his face.

As everyone around the table reacted like they'd found the long lost city of Atlantis, the door to the dining hall swung open and one of the butler's walked in holding a bottle of wine.

"Sir, would you like to taste before we serve?"

The butler presented it to Gabriel, white napkin supporting it underneath and a label showing to the lord of the manor. He couldn't help but smile, now this is something he knew about.

Adrien was going to be so impressed when he turned around and announced to them they were about to drink the most suited wine to their meal. He'd researched the whole of the past week and visited a few (twenty-five) local vineyards in France (Luxemburg and Belgium) before choosing this certain winner.

Now it was his time to shine.

"Oak-aged Chardonnay, how perfect!" Gabriel announced, turning to the table with a smile on his lips and a satisfied, smugness in his eyes. One which only lasted a measly five minutes.

Tony clapped his hands together and began to rub them. "Oh fantastic!" The big guy exclaimed. "We're having salmon."

The smile disappeared from Gabriel's face along with the hope from his spirit.

Well, damn!

•••••

The Agreste's and Dupain-Cheng's were now chilling in the main lounge area; Adrien, Marinette, Sabrina and Nathalie enthusiastically conversing about different ideas for the wedding as Gabriel took on the challenge of drinking himself silly. He couldn't help but see Nathalie for the traitor she was. She was meant to be on his side here. She was meant to agree with him – that's what he paid her for after all, to be his number one supporter.

Not wanting to be part of whatever this was, Gabriel headed towards his liquor cabinet and grabbed his crystal decanter, pouring quite a reasonable amount into his tumbler and bringing it to his lips.

Hello whisky, my old friend!

A shadow of doom loomed over him as Tony Dupain came to stand alongside, a smile on his face and a little tipsiness in his stance.

"Just look at them, Gabe! We did this! We created these wonderful itty bitty people."

In response, Gabriel lifted his glass to Tony before downing the remainder of liquid. He turned and filled his tumbler once more. He couldn't understand why they couldn't go home already? They'd been here for hours.

Tony's laugh once again made the paintings rattle on the wall, poor Èmilie being unknowingly taken on a rollercoaster. Gabriel reached for his decanter to make sure the laugh didn't shake his family heirloom off the table and create a crystal mess on the floor.

"Though, if we're not careful they'll be creating their own itty bitty people before the wedding – if you know what I mean?"

As Tony carried on laughing, Gabriel turned robotically back to the table and replaced the tumbler, swapping it out for the decanter and draining as much of it in one swig as he could. His life had just plummeted straight down towards hell.