Chapter 15

This was a day that filled Marinette with happiness, and horror for years. After all, this could go many ways based on the events that had happened prior. She had hope that things would work in her favor somewhere in the back of her mind. However, the fear was stronger even more so than her first date with Adrien. Because today, she was finally meeting face to face with Gabriel Agreste for the first time, and hopefully not the last.

It wasn't exactly planned otherwise she would've properly prepared for the moment. Actually she just stopped by to catch up on studying with Adrien this time. She made it to the front door and expected to be greeted by Adrien, and instead was greeted by Nathalie. And rather than get turned away, Nathalie allowed her to enter the house and led her to Gabriel's study. If not for Tikki's continuous reassurance when Nathalie wasn't looking, she probably would've fainted halfway over.

Now they were at the front door, and Marinette clung to the bag over her shoulders until her knuckles were white. Many questions ran through the bluenette's mind as Nathalie slowly opened the door to his office. What would Gabriel say on first impression? Is there a chance to escape if things go south? What if he wanted to tell her to stay away from her son? What if he hates her designs? Within a few long seconds, her questions would soon be answered as she slowly and nervously entered the room with Nathalie.

Gabriel, who was previously typing something, had looked up from what he was doing to see the women who had entered the room, and said, "Miss Dupain-Cheng. Nice to meet you again."

Marinette nervously replied, "And you as well Mr. Agreste."

Gabriel nodded before turning his gaze to Nathalie as he said, "Thank you Nathalie. You can go now."

Nathalie nodded as she left the room, possibly to inform Adrien that his girlfriend had arrived. And just as the door closed, Marinette felt her legs weaken and her palms get sweaty. Her idol was sitting right in front of her, and she was almost a nervous wreck. As she slowly inched towards the fashion mogul as if he were a tiger, she began to feel a little dizzy. Something that was noticed by Gabriel who asked with slight concern, "Are you feeling alright child?"

"Uh Yes sir," Marinette said as she snapped back to focus, "It's just….well…."

Marinette trailed off as she tried to find the right words to say. She didn't want to seem like an over-obsessive fangirl, but it was hard to be professional around a man so intimidating. Thankfully Gabriel seemed to be understanding based on his amused smile, and said, "I understand. Feel free to sit down Miss Dupain-Cheng."

"Thank you sir," Marinette said as she accepted his offer, "You can call me Marinette by the way."

Gabriel gave an understanding nod, "Very well. It's nice to see that my son has taken a shine to a nice young lady like yourself."

Marinette felt flattered by the compliment, "Thank you. To be honest, I didn't think you'd approve of…well…"

"I'll be honest, I was concerned at first," Gabriel replied truthfully, "But considering how highly Adrien spoke of you, it felt fair to give you a chance. And I remembered your talents."

"My talents?" Marinette asked, looking thoroughly confused.

"Of course," Gabriel reminded her, "Your designs for Jagged Stone, and your little feather hat."

"Oh right," Marinette almost exclaimed as she remembered what he meant, "I didn't think you'd keep track of that sort of thing."

"I like to keep my eye open for any potential talent," Gabriel assured her, "Which brings me to my next question."

Gabriel stood from his seat, and grabbed the electronic tablet from off of his desk. When it was in his hands, he walked over to Marinette who was still sitting on the other side of his desk. He stopped and leaned against his desk as he handed the tablet over to the teen. On the screen was a design of a dress and a suit both meant to be in a theme. Neither were in color but the theme was stated above, 'Ladybug and Chat Noir.'

Gabriel then began to explain, "I was working on a little project to show appreciation for our local heroes. Unfortunately, I seem to have run into a dead end. I can't figure out how to better incorporate aspects of both heroes in this design. It helps me to have a fresh set of eyes to guide me further down, but the rest of my designers might not be as talented. Would you mind providing some of your own input?"

Marinette was stunned as she slowly looked up at the man, "You want me to help you with this?"

"Of course," Gabriel nodded once more, "Be as blunt as possible."

And with that, Marinette got to work, "Well the color arrangement is perfect. Having the green tie on the suit represent Chat Noir's eyes. And adding black spots to the red dress compliments Ladybug perfectly. Though some edits I would make are…"

The discussion, or rather Marinette voicing her thoughts out loud to Gabriel, had lasted less than five minutes. And by the time she finished, Marinette had came up with fancy clothing ideas for not just Ladybug and Chat Noir, But for the rest of Team Miraculous as well. She even came up with thoughts on fancy clothing in the same hero them for the opposite gender. Not to mention, a great deal of the ideas she had were things that he hadn't even thought of himself. To say that he was impressed in this case was an understatement.

"Marvelous," Gabriel said as he thought over everything she pointed out.

"I imagine you'll want to use those ideas for your next line of fashion?" Marinette asked, feeling hopeful.

"Even better," Gabriel said with a slight enthusiastic smile, "How would you like to be the one to design these articles of clothing for my next gala?"

With that, Marinette felt her heart pound out of her chest, "You…you really want me to…to make these? For you?"

"Absolutely," Gabriel answered, "I can't think of anyone more qualified."

"I…I…I don't know what to say," Marinette said as she tried to contain her excitement, "Yes. Thank you so much sir."

"There is one condition first," Gabriel said as he sat back down at his desk, and pulled a stapled stack of paper out from his drawer and slid it over to Marinette.

"What's this?" Marinette asked as she grabbed the paper and began reading it.

While she did so, Gabriel gave his answer to her, "It's a contract which states that you will be properly compensated for any clothing sold that you designed. The one following is an internship agreement at my company. You will be shadowing members of my staff when you have the available time, which is at your convenience. You're free to think over the contract for as long as you'd like though with your skills, I imagine you might get many offers like my own soon."

Marinette was at a complete loss for words from the offer. She didn't expect Gabriel to even acknowledge her presence in the fashion industry let alone make her an internship offer. Yet here she was currently holding a contract that had already been signed on his part. She almost pinched herself to check to see if she was actually dreaming or not. She tried to contain her enthusiasm, unsuccessfully, and quickly stood up from her seat, saying, "Thank you so much sir. This is a tremendous honor."

"Of course Marinette," Gabriel said with a smile as he began to return to his work, "Now I must get back to this, if you'll excuse me."

Marinette walked out of the office, and noticed Adrien at the entrance waiting. In his hands were a small bouquet of roses and a pleasant grin on his face. However, the grin was beginning to fade when he noticed the shock on his girlfriend's face. He placed a hand on her shoulder, and asked, "Mari, are you okay?"

Marinette briefly snapped back to reality, "Yeah. I just had a pleasant conversation with your father when I didn't realize it would happen I mean I was completely caught off guard and…."

She continued to babble and wandered away from the door leading to Gabriel's office. It worried Adrien a little since he couldn't get her to stop the endless stream of words coming from her. Eventually they made it to his bedroom, allowing Plagg to fly up to Marinette's face, and say, "Princess. Calm down, and just explain what happened slowly."

Marinette once again brought her focus back to the present and took a deep breath before talking again, "Sorry Guys. It's just…"

The bluenette paused when she noticed the flowers in her boyfriend's hand, "Are those for me?"

"After you explain what occurred earlier," Adrien requested as he moved the roses behind his back, and waited for her to respond.

Marinette took another deep breath, and said, "Your father wanted to speak to me about…well…me."

Adrien looked bewildered, "I don't understand."

"He mentioned how I had incredible design talents," Marinette explained more thoroughly, "And he offered me an internship at his company."

Adrien then began to smile joyfully as he walked up and gave her a hug, "That's great. What did you say?"

"That I would think on it," Marinette said, giving him a quick hug back before they both pulled away to look each other in the eyes.

"Well hopefully you accept the offer," Adrien said as he kept his arms wrapped around her, "It'd be boring without my little Bugaboo to spend time with."

Marinette then wrapped her arms loosely around his neck and felt their foreheads lean against each other, "You can live without my presence for more than a couple of hours you needy cat."

"But then who would I flirt with?" Adrien said softly as he leaned his face closer to hers.

Eventually the two began making out only to stop when they ended up tripping. Thankfully they just landed on Adrien's bed, and he had already set the flowers down before hugging her prior. But now they were laying on his bed still locked in each other's embrace, and with her currently on top of him. They both looked at each other before Adrien broke the silence, "I guess I finally managed to get some of your luck."

Marinette gave a light chuckle just before they continued kissing. However, their moment was once again interrupted when they noticed a flash from outside Adrien's window. Both looked over to see what happened but couldn't spot anything from his bed. So they had to let go of each other and walk over to the bedroom window. That was when it became apparent what had happened. Turns out the flash was from a camera, and the one holding it was Queen Bee Who was currently flying by the window looking probably a little too smug.

The couple just glared at her frustratedly as Marinette asked, "Really?"

"What? It's just a little souvenir for the team," Queen Bee replied with a grin present on her face, "Speaking of the team, they're waiting for patrol."

"Now?" Adrien asked with disbelief, "We don't start patrols until…"

Adrien paused and groaned after checking his watch. A while back, before the whole reveal even happened, both original heroes had set a time for when patrol would actually start so as to not raise any suspicion. And they made sure that the other three members of Team Miraculous had the time set as well by showing up randomly at their houses, much to the displeasure of the three. Now this time the couple was on the receiving end of the time reminder since it was already three minutes late. Clearly the result of their little kissing session.

"So shall we get to patrolling boss?" Queen Bee teased with the coy look on her face.

"After you delete that photo," Marinette answered, pointing at the camera.

Queen Bee took a quick glance at the camera and flew up close to the window as she said, "Sure. I'll delete it. If you can catch me."

And with that, Bee flew off away from the house. The duo groaned knowing that their little moment of romance would have to continue another time. And they could tell that this was vengeance for the team spying on Chloe's date. Their only relief was that she'd probably have something planned for Alya, and Nino as well. So they decided to indulge in her little game and began chasing her as soon as they transformed.