"I can't, Alya. I'm teaching today. Maybe tomorrow, yeah?"

"I guess. Seems you're tatting all the time, though."

"I have a very motivated student," she grinned, "And I'm going to be teaching tailoring soon, too."

"Girl, I hope they pay you in gold because the time you invest in these tutoring sessions is unreal," she sighed.

"They pay me handsomely, Alya. There are some things that money can't buy and I am getting paid in triplicate."

"All right," she sighed sadly, "I guess it's just a movie date between Nino and I."

"What about Adrien? He can't come?"

"No. He has some party going on. His dad invited a bunch of designers to the house and wants Adrien to be there and show off his flawless self."

"I could see him..." Marinette sighed happily.

"What?!"

"Uh, nothing. Not a thing. Have fun at the movies!"

She laughed at Marinette being Marinette, "I will. You enjoy your lessons."


Marinette snuck around the back of the house and pulled out the top of an acorn. She placed her thumbs together and blew twice, hard. Moments after the whistle a door opened and golden light poured out across the lawn.

"Pssst," a hand appeared and waved for her to come in and quickly.

She hitched her bag over her shoulder and high-tailed it through the door. She was met with a very large man, his gray sweats a polar opposite from his work attire, broad shouldered, strong hands, and gray hair at his temples. The normal tense set of his jaw, no-nonsense furrow of the brows, and shifty eyes gone. Instead, he looked relaxed and even cornflower blue eyes glanced, and his head jerked, in the direction of a side door. Marinette nodded and followed.

When they entered the small room, Marinette saw Mr. Agreste's assistant Nathalie sitting with a newspaper, a cup of coffee, and her ever present tablet on the table.

"Evening, Marinette," she greeted.

"Good evening, Nathalie," she smiled, "I brought some more swathes."

"I am almost done here. Go ahead and start with Arthur."

"Will do," Marinette nodded.

Arthur's lessons garnered her much insight into Adrien's life through a series of grunts and short conversations. At first, when his bodyguard had approached her asking how to make lace, she thought it was a mistake. She thought he was pulling her leg and it was a practical joke. Then she realized he wasn't the type to joke with someone he didn't know. Her awkward laugh had truncated into a garbled, "Oh, okay. Sure. Yeah, I can teach you how to tat." The man was hoping to learn how to darn socks, repair his poor departed mother's personally created doilies and handkerchiefs. Some had holes and needed mending while others had whole sections gone that he'd have to learn to tat entirely. He was a quick learner and had surprisingly impressive fine motor skills for as big as his hands were.

Marinette glanced over to where he'd already set himself up. Arthur had procured a few rocking recliners and set them around the room. He sat at the table, shuttles in hand, and worked away on his most recent project. Marinette had already taught him enough that she was here mostly for help when he got stuck and as a companion. Nathalie, however, was a new pupil with the desire to learn how to tailor her own clothes. If there was one thing Nathalie was most bitter about in her life it was that she worked for the best fashion designer in France and still had no idea how to do simple alterations. Not that she hadn't hinted to Gabriel over the years. That man was just beyond infuriatingly oblivious at times.

"Adrien inherited that obliviousness from his father," Nathalie stated as she settled into one of the arm chairs. Marinette had been saying that she was using more eye contact and trying to spend more time with him, but he wasn't catching on. "You might have to go up and tell him."

Marinette gasped, "I couldn't! I've thought about it. I've tried. I just don't think I can."

Nathalie sighed, "Then he might never figure it out. You could let Gorilla or I slip him some subliminal messages for you."

"No," Marinette gritted her teeth. The offer was highly tempting, but she wanted to do this on her own. "Let's just not worry about it. Tell me more stories of when he was little. Those are my favorite."

Gorilla chuckled to himself.

"Anything you'd like to start with?" Nathalie quirked her eyebrow.

"The fair," he grunted and a grin broke out across his face.

"Oh, God," Nathalie pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, "That was...okay, so Mrs. Agreste and I took Adrien to a carnival. Gabriel was supposed to go, but then at the last minute he sent me in his stead. Celine was livid. It had been one of the few times I'd seen her so upset. She didn't appear to be, but she was seething."

Arthur nodded and grinned maniacally.

"Well, she said, 'I really wish daddy could go with us today, angel.' Four year old Adrien pouted and boy could he pout; with those puppy dog eyes and puffy lips. He said, 'I want daddy here.' That was all it took. Celine called Robert, who ran Gabriel's security, and had him bodily removed from his office. Then, to make matters worse, she sent Arthur back to fetch him."

Marinette's eyes widened, "YOU DIDN'T!"

"I did," he laughed.

Nathalie's eyes were starting to mist over and she shook with silent laughter, "Well, Arthur had flipped the child locks for the trip with Adrien and 'conveniently' forgot to unlock the divider between the front and back of the car."

"He fumed," Arthur smirked.

"Arthur said he fumed the whole way. We don't know if it was silent or not as Arthur refused to roll down the window. Gabriel has to have forgotten about this or you would be out of a job." Arthur shrugged. Nathalie returned to her story, "Then there stood Celine, calm as a cucumber, to receive her red faced husband. He had the most crazed look on his face; murderous even. Then she simply picked up Adrien and deposited him in Gabriel's arms. Gabriel sputtered incoherently for a minute before Celine stated simply, 'Your son wanted you to come.' And that was it! He just said 'yes, dear' and followed her. It was magic!"

"You manhandled Gabriel Agreste!?" Marinette gawked in disbelief.

"I did no such thing," Nathalie pressed a hand to her chest. Then she shot a pointed look at Arthur before smirking.

"She organized it," Arthur mumbled with a glint in his eye.

"I might have organized a bit of a coup; supplying numbers to Celine, busying security guards, and whatnot. I did not, however, man-handle anyone."

"I did," Arthur nodded unrepentant.

Marinette giggled, "And how did Adrien react?"

"He didn't think anything of it. His face lit up and he squealed with delight when Gabriel stepped out of the car."

Marinette begged for another story, "Please! More. I have to hear more."

Nathalie sighed, "There was the time Gabriel was working extra late. Adrien had a stomach bug and Celine had sent the nanny home, also sick. It was just her and Adrien. Well, Celine was tired and needed Gabriel to help. When he didn't show up, in the ten minutes he'd told her he would, she took Adrien and deposited him unceremoniously in the middle of his desk. I thought I'd die! I went to excuse myself as Celine disappeared muttering something about sleeping it off. Then, as if it weren't bad enough already, Adrien blows out his diaper all over Gabriel's desk."

Marinette gasps in horror, "OH NO!"

"Oh, yes," Nathalie nods, "All of his sketches, the print book, his samples; all marinated in...in..."

"Baby butt gravy," Arthur supplied with a chuckle.

"Lord," Nathalie shook her head to clear it, "That was a nightmare. Naturally, I was enlisted to help his highness cleanse his desk. The drawings were a bust. He may have kept them, though, since he's very possessive and protective of his work." She shuddered, "Ugh, I don't even want to think about that. Yuck. It got EVERYWHERE! I had to take Adrien, bewildered and unaware of the chaos, to throw him in a bath. That was the first, and one of the last times, I've seen that boy naked so don't even go there." Nathalie leveled a pointed glare at Marinette, who blushed accordingly. "I'd like to keep it that way. Anyway, there was this seedy like residue all over the surface of the water and I just couldn't get it to go away. It clung to everything. I rinsed him half a dozen times and it just stuck to him. Eventually, I just grabbed a bottle of dawn out of the kitchen and dowsed him in it. It cleaned him up, slicker than a whistle. I have not ever told Gabriel that I went wildlife rehab on his eighteen month old son."

"He doesn't know?"

"Hell no!" Nathalie exclaimed. "He doesn't know the half of what I've done. I've been writing it all down in my own 'Agreste Employment Anthology.' Maybe when I've finished my lessons here I'll loan you one," she winked.

"I'd love that!" Marinette grinned, "Hey, if there was a gift I could give Adrien, what would it be?"

Nathalie sighed, "That's easy."

Marinette waited expectantly.

"Hugs. He is a very tactile person," Nathalie shook her head, "He may not look it, but he's super cuddly. I find him curled around his pillows and wrapped up in his blankets every morning. A few hugs would do him some good."

"Uh, I don't know if that would go over so well. I'd be too afraid to and he'd think it was weird if out of the blue I just grabbed him."

"Tell him he looked like he needed one," Nathalie grinned.

"I couldn't do that!"

"Of course you could." Nathalie sucked on her teeth and pursed her lips in deep thought. Then, aha, "Tonight. He'll be bored out of his mind and in need of a reassuring squeeze."

"He sure will," Arthur agreed.

Marinette smiled shyly, "I couldn't."

"Of course you could."

Her eyes flitted around the materials in her lap before she glanced up at Nathalie, "How?"

"You'll crash the party going on upstairs. The only person you have to get the okay through is Gabriel and Gabriel will look to me. I have to head up here in an hour. Surely, we can manage to make you presentable by then. You have been working on that gown for ages and, though I don't sew a wink, anyone with eyes can see that you are finished with it. That signature is always your final touch."

Marinette blushed, "I have been working on it. I don't have any shoes, though."

"What size do you wear?" Arthur asked out of the blue. Nathalie and Marinette both whipped their heads to look at him.

"Oh, um, thirty-eight."

Arthur set his tatting gently on the table next to him and disappeared with a quiet, "Excuse moi." When he returned he was carrying a box of size thirty-eight black dress shoes. They were simple wedges with a matte finish.

Nathalie's eyes widened slightly, betraying her stoic expression, "Where did you get those?"

"The brat left them in the trunk a couple months ago. She never inquired about them. I assume she forgot."

"Arthur," she reprimanded as he referred to Chloe Bourgeois as 'the brat.'

Marinette giggled, "I can only assume you mean Chloe."

Nathalie tried to hide her entertained smirk ineffectively. "She isn't the most pleasant companion for Adrien."

"Or anyone else," Arthur grumbled.

Marinette busted out into hysterics. Never a truer word had been spoken. She felt bad for Chloe sometimes, but not when in the company of those who could empathize. It was nice to be able to relate to each other over their shared dislike. "No...she's not. I had no idea we wore the same size."

"Well, let's not chit-chat. Arthur, are you okay here?"

"Yes," he grunted and nodded.

"I'll have my tablet on me all night if you need something."

"I'll have my cell phone, too," Marinette added.

"Come on, my dear. We have a party to get you ready for."

Marinette squealed excitedly. She never would have dreamed of crashing an Agreste party, but Nathalie was the right hand to Gabriel Agreste and if she said she could ensure Marinette's success then she was inclined to believe her. She'd get to meet her favorite designers and spend time with Adrien. Tonight could easily turn in to a night Marinette could only dream of; a chance to make an impression and have the time of her life.