"You've got this, babe," Nino whispered to Marinette.

She nodded. The show had gone off without a hitch. Agreste had more designs displayed than Masson, obviously, it was a bigger label, but there weren't any unforeseen complications. Everyone Marinette had talked to complemented her on her ingenuity. She talked to a lot of people. It was a bit overwhelming.

She thought she saw a familiar blonde head over by the caviar. "Adrien?"

The head in question whipped around at the sound of his name then, clearly panicked, tried to move in the opposite direction only to meet a wall of people.

Marinette and Nino walked over to him and she smiled. "I thought that was you! What are you doing here?"

"Um…" Adrien balked.

"Oh my gosh!" the blonde woman glued to Adrien's side squealed. "You're that DJ from the radio, you know everyone worth knowing in the music world!"

Nino was taken slightly aback. "Yeah, that's me."

"Chloe Bourgeois," the blonde introduced. "Come, you simply must tell me about Jagged Stone and Mr. XY."

Nino silently called out to Marinette for help as Chloe dragged him away but she was distracted by someone coming up to Adrien.

"Mr. Agreste! Your father's spring collection was impeccable, as always. I must find him to congratulate him."

"Agreste," Marinette said flatly. "You're Adrien Agreste."

"I never said I wasn't," he said sheepishly. "To be fair, I didn't know who you were until we approached your parents' bakery. I live nearby. Great pastries."

"I can't believe you!" Marinette fumed. "Pretending to be all nice to me with that umbrella then stabbing me in the back. You think I haven't seen those ads? I'd sue but I already talked to the legal department—" really just Nathanael, but he didn't need to know that "—and there's nothing we can do. Sure, we did well in this show but our advertising is kaput and the boss is out of town on emergency and oooooh!" She was too incensed to speak.

"None of this would have happened if you had just taken my father's offer," Adrien countered. "But oh no, the high and mighty Marinette Dupain-Cheng had to be all hipster and work in an obscure, unimportant fashion house out of spite. Now the whole business is going to go under and it will be your fault."

Marinette gasped. "How dare you!"

"How dare I?" Adrien laughed sardonically. "Yeah. How dare I do my job. How dare you put your own preferences above all the people you work with. Just wait. See how happy you are when Masson collapses and you come crawling back to Agreste but everyone else is out of a job." He took another swig of his drink.

Chloe's voice burst back into the conversation. "Nino was just telling me the most lovely story about Jagged Stone's crocodile and some bad room service. He knows the most fascinating things."

Nino flushed. "Hey Marinette, are you ready to leave?" Because I am was unspoken but Marinette understood.

"I was ready a while ago," she sniffed and with her head held high, strode away from that snobby Adrien Agreste. What did he know? He didn't know anything about her. He didn't know anything about Masson! They weren't really in danger, right?

She refused to back down. On the taxi ride home, she detailed her plan to fire back to Nino, who was perfectly willing to go along with it. Well, at least she had that under control. No way would Marinette ever forgive herself if everything was in tatters when Tikki came back.

Once home she slumped in her chair and waited for the computer to dial up. Thankfully, there was a message from Chat Noir.

Do you ever feel you become the worst version of yourself? That a Pandora's Box of all the secret hateful parts—your arrogance, your spite, your condescension—has sprung open. Someone provokes you, and instead of just smiling and moving on, you zing them. Hello, it's Mr. Nasty. I'm sure you have no idea what I'm talking about.

She sighed before responding.

I know what you mean and I'm completely jealous. What happens to me when I'm provoked is that I get tongue-tied. My mind goes blank. Then I spend all night tossing and turning trying to think of what I should have said.

Marinette shut off her computer and went to bed. The next morning she yawned, rumpled her hair, and booted up her computer.

Message from: chatnoirxx

Re: Advice

Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could pass all my zingers to you and then I would never behave badly and you could behave badly all the time and we'd both be happy? On the other hand, I must warn you that when you finally have the pleasure of saying the thing you mean to say at the moment you mean to say it, remorse inevitably follows. Do you think we should meet?

That woke Marinette up completely. Meet? Meet?! Her hands flailed around her face as she panicked. That could be terrible. What if she didn't meet his expectations? What if he didn't meet hers? What if they hated each other? What about Nino? She needed advice. Who to talk to? Not her parents. They didn't know about her internet activities. Nathanael? Mylene? Mylene might get it.

As soon as Marinette got to work she approached Mylene. "Um, remember when I asked you if talking to someone on the internet was cheating and you said no?"

She looked at the flustered designer skeptically. "What happened?"

"Um…ChatNoirwantstomeetandI'mtotallyfreakingoutwhatdoIdo."

"A little slower," Mylene encouraged.

Marinette took a deep breath and repeated herself. "Chat Noir wants to meet and I'm totally freaking out, what do I do?"

Mylene's eyes nearly bugged out of her head. "He wants to meet? When!"

"I got the message this morning," Marinette said desperately. "I never go more than a few hours without answering him during the day. What do I say?"

"Meet him!" Mylene encouraged. "Come on, you've been more dreamy about this guy than you've ever been about Nino."

"There's nothing wrong with Nino," Marinette said defensively.

"Yeah, but you and this guy seem to really have a spark. I think it's worth a shot."

Marinette wavered. "If you think so. I'm going to go work on my new designs. It's only a couple months until the fall designs need to be finalized and I'm spearheading the project."

"Good luck," Mylene said cheerily.

Marinette sketched, scribbled out, tore, and started over multiple times in the next few hours until she finally needed a break. She busted out her computer and bit her lip. She was going to do it.

I need help. Do you still want to meet me?

The message was sent. It was too late to back out now. Freaking out a little, Marinette tried to get back to work. She still had a lot of designs to finish.

After closing up shop for the day, waving goodbye to Nathanael and Mylene, Marinette cursed the slow dial-up, anxiously awaiting Chat Noir's response.

Message from: chatnoirxx

Re: Advice

Where? When?