Yeah, good job, Gabriel, and everything but Adrien is 1000% sure that’s not his dad.
“It’s either a Shapeshifter, or he was brainwashed, Plagg, one or the other, either eay that’s not my dad.”
“Uh, you sure that’s not just your old man, for once, trying to be a good dad?”
“You mean my dad, who made me work without flaw for a year to just go to normal school? My dad, who made me work with Lila even though I hated it and begged for anyone but her? My dad, who forbid me dating Marinette?”
Plagg knows that kid’s right, and that Gabe knows. Is he about to pass the opportunity to payback the asshole for all the pain he brought to his kitten? HELL NAH!
“Hmm, I see your point, did you notice any extra fingers, or his eyes being the wrong color? Shifters tend to make mistakes about small things.”
“Wha- you saying shapeshifters are real?!”
“Duh, why’d you ask if you thought the aren’t?”
“Its a figure of speech! Damn… actually? He always has his hands behind his back.”
“See, that’s what I’m saying!”
“Alright, what are we looking for, extra fingers, wrong eye color, what else?”
“Hmm, let me think about it… If its a young mimic, then we’d see more obvious signs, so we’re probably dealing with adult one.”
“Okay, and how long do these things live for?”
“Depends. If its a wild one, then hundreds of years, but they tend to stick to your average looking human, not some high society folk like your dad. If it’s a manmade one, then all the way from few months to average human years.”
“Right, so adult mimic, most likely man made. Is it like hard to make one? Because dad doesn’t have any enemies ready to replace him if its super complicated.”
The conversation dwelled all the way into the deep night, but by the end of it Adrien at least had some sort of plan.
It all begun with him staring at Gabriel for entire breakfast.
“Is anything wrong, Adrien?”
“No, why do you ask?”
“You’ve been staring at me the entire time we’ve ate.”
“Is it wrong for son to want to look at his parent?”
“I guess not. I wish I could stay longer, but I must leave for business, your friend Marinette is coming over to continue her work on designs, so give her a lift, alright?”
“Sure.” - he said dryly.
As Gabriel left, feeling a bit uncomfortable, he still held his hands behind his back, and after some time did leave with Nathalie.
“So what do we got?”
“… He looks fine, but his choice of words a bit suspicious.”
“What do you mean by suspicious?”
“Well, I’ve been staring at him the whole time, but he mostly looked at his food, but then asked if something was wrong as you’ve heard. But it’s his behaviour, he looked nervous as if I’m onto something.”
And after school Gabe corners Plagg and asks what’s going on to what cat kwami claims no fault, but Gabriel knows something is up.