Summary: Marinette joins Adrien on the set for the annual SPCA photoshoot to raise awareness against animal abandonment, and gets roped into being a part of the shoot. After it ends, they decide to visit a cute local tea shop- but they get caught in the rain on the way.

Half an hour into the annual SPCA photoshoot to raise awareness against animal abandonment, it's clear to everyone on set that the animal talent isn't interested in listening to commands.

"Anita! Stop those kittens from messing up Monsieur Agreste's hair immediately! They're climbing all over him!" shouts the director at his harried assistant, who already has her hands full with an ancient arthritic Persian with big sad eyes.

"No, no, it's fine! Let the kittens play, I don't mind!" responds Adrien as Marinette bursts into giggles from the side of the set. It's the third year in a row that her boyfriend has been tapped to participate as a model for the public awareness campaign, and the second that she's joined him on set. And it's as entertaining as ever. Her petit minou looks right at home buried under a pile of kittens.

The director overhears Marinette's merry peals of laughter and turns a critical eye onto her as she pulls out her phone and takes a video of the kittens sliding down Adrien's carefully ironed black shirt and climbing on top of his head.

He's seen Marinette on other photoshoots before, always smiling and always curious as she makes friends with everyone on set while she patiently waits for him to finish up. But he's never actually paid close attention to her.

Now that he is, he likes what he sees. With the striking contrast of her bright blue eyes and dark hair, she could look great standing next to Adrien. They are an attractive couple, and he's not surprised they're together.

"You, there!" he calls to her. "You're Adrien's girlfriend, aren't you? What's your name?"

"Oui, je m'appelle Marinette," she responds. "I'm sorry, am I disturbing the shoot? I can stand somewhere else if I'm in the way."

He shakes his head. "No, no. I'm thinking. Would you like to join the shoot? I've been thinking that this shoot is missing a bit of chemistry. I think you're the solution. What do you think?"

Marinette considers. Usually, when she joins Adrien on photoshoots, she stays on the sidelines and talks to the stylists and fashion designers, who always have the most interesting stories and advice to share—it's one of the main fringe benefits of dating the son of a fashion tycoon.

But she's never considered actually being a model (she doesn't count the photoshoots she does with him as Ladybug and Chat Noir, that's just part of the job)

Adrien smiles eagerly. He thinks this is a great idea.

"Yes, Bugine—I mean, Marinette, come join me! There are too many cats here for me to handle all by myself."

The nickname almost slips out of his mouth before he stops himself. In the years since they've learned about each other's secret identities, it's become a habit of theirs to use their hero nicknames as civilians all the time. Still, they try not to do it in front of other people—at least not his nicknames for her. As far as pet names go, Chaton and minou are fairly innocuous names, but all of Adrien's bug-related nicknames are sure to raise at least a few eyebrows.

Marinette laughs, her eyes sparkling. "If you're sure!"

The director nods. "Yes, yes, that's exactly the kind of energy I'm looking for! And you're already dressed perfectly. All you need is a cat. ANITA! Get Mademoiselle Marinette a cat to hold."

"Yes, sir," says Anita wearily, as an inky-black tomcat with bright green eyes who has been slinking around the cameras gingerly approaches Marinette and walks around her in a circle, before rubbing against her legs and purring loudly.

Marinette smiles and leans down to pat his head. "Ohhh, look at this petit matou! Can I take the photo with him?"

"You want to take a photo with Coquin? Are you sure? He's not a very nice cat, he's quite capricious."

"I'm sure," responds Marinette, firmly, as Coquin starts to bat playfully at her pigtails.

"He reminds me of someone I know," she adds, winking at Adrien, who grins and blushes. She laughs as a tiny white and black kitten reaches up and pats his flushed and rosy cheeks.

She walks over to Adrien and the two of them start to pose for the photographs, and even though most of the people on set are used to seeing Adrien and Marinette together at this point, even they're surprised by how physically in sync the couple is, and how they seem to know exactly what the other is going to do. Within fifteen minutes, it's clear that the photos have an incredible spark that wasn't there before, and everyone is convinced that this is going to be the best version of the public awareness campaign yet.

"Adrien, your girlfriend is a natural!" exclaims Celine, the art director, as the shoot wraps up and the two of them are about to head home.

Adrien smiles proudly. "Yes, she's got a lot of talents. I'm lucky to be with her."

He plucks a plastic rose from a large bouquet sitting by the studio entrance and hands it to Marinette with a bow as Celine smiles and shakes her head. "This is for you, my lady. Job well done!"

"Merci, mon chaton," says Marinette with a giggle as she pecks him on the cheek.

The sky is a murky pearl grey and is quickly getting darker as they head out the studio door, but distracted by the thought of all the cute kittens and warmed by the many compliments they've received over the past hour, they don't even notice.

Adrien looks at his watch. "So, I don't need to be home for another hour. What do you want to do?"

She considers. "Well, the bakery is too far from here, but there's a cute tea shop just down the street that Alya and I went to last week. Do you want to go there?"

"Sure, I'd love to," says Adrien. He shivers as a brisk breeze rushes past. "I could use some hot tea, the wind is really picking up."

"Yay! I'm dying to try the jasmine flavor—" she stops as two raindrops plop right onto her head. She looks up.

"Uh oh."

"What is it?" asks Adrien.

"Did you bring your umbrella?" she asks nervously.

"No, why?" he responds, raising an eyebrow.

In two seconds, Adrien has his answer, and his eyes open wide with surprise as the heavens open up and the monsoon begins. Marinette grabs his hand and sprints down the street, and he laughs uncontrollably as she punts through the sheets of rain towards the door of the café and yanks it open.

The waitresses look on in shock as the two soaked teenagers breathlessly tumble into the window corner booth. After a few moments, the two of them finally gather their bearings, and Adrien calls for two menus as Marinette smiles down at her rose, which is covered with raindrops, but is still intact.

Adrien grins. "Good thing it's plastic, eh? If it was real, it would have fallen apart in the rain."

"You're impossible," says Marinette, laughing and bopping him him on the nose with the rose as the waitress returns to take their order.

As they wait, they sit in a comfortable silence, watching the rain pitter-patter against the window until she returns with two piping hot cups of tea.

As she walks away, Adrien leans across the tiny table. "Hey, Marinette?"

"Hmm?"

"Je t'aime."

"I know," she responds with a cheeky smile, blowing a steamy kiss through the air. "Je t'aime aussi."