Yes, it's what you've been waiting for. Wait no longer, and read.=^-^=

Ch. 14 - The Tell

Adrien wasted no time once the chaos of the akuma died down. He texted Marinette to meet him on one of the closed off portions of the upper terrace. The model didn't even change out of his last outfit before heading over there; just leaving the hat and cane behind. The akuma already cost him time, and he didn't want to miss his chance. Who knew when his father would call a meeting for damage control? "You've got this, kid." Plagg encouraged from the breast pocket.

It was surprising given the kwami's history with encouragement, but Adrien knew he cared. "Yes, I'll just-"

"Adrien?" He froze immediately. "How exactly did you get up here?"

Though security was still dealing with the akuma aftermath, there was a locked door to contend with; a door Plagg made easy work of. "A friend helped me. I wanted to make sure we couldn't be bothered." He finally turned to her with a nervous smile. "What I have to say is too important to have someone interrupt."

Marinette blushed at those words though her slight grimace showed it wasn't just being flustered. "A-adrien?"

The model closed the gap between them in just a few steps and took her hand. "The start of the summer feels like a lifetime ago, doesn't it? When my father told me he wanted me to get more involved in his internship program, I was honestly worried. I've never really liked design or designing, you know? I really thought it would turn out to be my worst summer yet… until it wasn't. Someone was there with me to help me see things differently." Adrien gave a small smile at the girl before him.

"Y-you and Nino have been able to spend more time together, I know." Marinette inferred with her eyes casting to the side.

"Yeah, but… That's not what I meant." He squeezed her hands. "I meant someone else; someone who loves design, and makes me actually enjoy it too. I could watch this person design for hours and not be bored. This person even makes me want to try my hand at it again. I haven't wanted to since my father gave up on me." His sad chuckle made Marinette's heart ache for him. "This person is so kind, and creative, as if the whole world is brighter just because she's in it." The designer's hand flinched at the pronoun. "And she's the most beautiful person I've ever known."

"A-adrien… please…" Marinette cut in with an uneasy breath. "Please stop."

"Huh… What's wrong, Marinette?" Adrien asked hoping he didn't screw it up. He thought he was doing so well.

"I can't… I just…"

"Please, Marinette, just let me finish."

"I can't!" She yelled back as she pulled her hands away.

"But… Marinette, why?"

She balled her hands into fists and she was visibly shaking. With her face turned away, Adrien couldn't tell if it was anger or something else. "Because… If you finish… If you finish…" Her breathing was getting shallower and he though he heard a sniffle. "If you finish I'll say yes… And I'll never forgive myself!"

"What? What do you mean?" She turned away completely and tried to leave. Adrien snatched one of her wrists to stop her. "Wait, Marinette! Tell me what you mean!"

"Please, just stop, Adrien!"

"Not until you explain what you mean!" He argued back as he pulled her wrist to himself with surprising ease.

Marinette lost her footing in the move and fell right on him causing him to fall back as well. "Oh my gosh, Adrien!? I'm so sorry!" She apologized as she pushed up from lying on his chest.

He instantly pulled her back down with one arm around her waist and the other pressing her head to his chest. "Damn it, Marinette. I just caused this whole thing so don't apologize!"

"B-but, Adrien-"

"Don't!" The model ordered angrily.

"Please… let-"

"I won't!" He held her tightly until she stopped trying to get free. Once she calmed, he loosened his hold.

"Adrien…?" She called out after several minutes of silence.

"Are you ready to let me finish, or tell me what you meant?" He asked back as he stroked her hair while still holding firmly enough around her waist.

"I… It's just…" Marinette let out a sigh.

"If you don't tell me, I won't understand, Marinette." He felt her shake under his arms, and instead of saying anything, he heard her quietly start to cry. It killed him that she was crying because he wouldn't let her go, but he just couldn't do it. "I'm sorry, Marinette. I'm being a selfish brat right now, but please don't hold it against me. I haven't had much of a chance to be this selfish in a long time." It hadn't been since his mom went missing, really. "I've spent years doing whatever I was told. My father had practically planned my whole life for me, and I… I'd come to terms with that. There are so many people out there who'd kill to be in my position; to be heir to a major fashion house, a luxurious comfy life waiting for them, and all they had to do was exactly what they were told." Marinette heard his voice crack a bit as he said that. "But I wasn't happy." He hugged her tighter. "I didn't even realize just how unhappy I was until you came along. You came and slowly made each day brighter, and brighter. I had gone so long without that kind of happiness, I didn't even understand what I was feeling. I'm such an idiot! How did I not notice the difference when I started Lycee!? I barely got to see you, and only now do I realize I never want to go back!" He felt her fingers grip his dress shirt where she lay pinned to him. "I'm a pathetic selfish brat, I know, but… These past several weeks have been some of the happiest in my life, even when they shouldn't have been."

"Adrien… I…" The designer sobbed and he held her ever tighter.

"Please, Marinette, please! Say you'll stay with me! I know this is the most selfish thing I could ever ask, but I love you, Marinette. If you'll stay with me, I promise to spend the rest of my life only giving! I'll give you love, money, a career, anything! Just… Stay, please…" He couldn't hold it in anymore as he started to tear up. "Please…" He impulsively hugged her tighter when he felt her try to slide up in his arms.

"Damn it, Adrien…" Tear streaked eyes met more of the same as the designer finally looked at the begging model below her. "Now I can't say no…" She then leaned down, and kissed him with all she had.

Her tears were coming down harder when she finally let him go, and it had Adrien worried. "Marinette… You-"

"Shut up!" She ordered. "Just shut up!" Having gotten everything off his chest, Adrien didn't have the will to disobey. "Why couldn't you just let me go!? I was so close! Once the show was over I was going to drop out! I was going to get as far away from you as possible! I was going to get away from you… and you'd be… you'd be free…" She broke down into sobs as she finished and raised her hands to her face. "But now I can't do it…"

"Marinette, you don't have to." Adrien argued at her break down. "I don't want you to." He reached up to her face to pull one hand away.

"But now you have to! You have to or you won't get to study what you want! I'm not able to let go anymore, and now you-"

"Marinette." Adrien interrupted as he pulled both hands away to look her in the eye. "What did you just say?"

"Shut up! I know I'm shameless!"

"No, Marinette, what did you say about studying?" He clarified with an urgent tone.

"Y-you have to love m-me or you can't s-study what you w-want…" She responded through short breaths as she tried to control her sobs.

"Did you… how did you…?" He questioned as his mind raced. She must know about the contract, but how? He held her close and sat up while keeping her in his lap. "Calm down, Marinette, and tell me how you found out about that."

She latched back onto his, now ruined, dress shirt and he stroked her hair to help her calm down. "Yesterday… yesterday Lila followed me to the bathroom. She had your phone…" Marinette started after a minute or so. "She showed me the contract."

When the hell did Lila get a hold of his phone!? Wait… yesterday… "So that whole thing from yesterday was because you read my contract?" Was she so disgusted with the idea she made herself sick? No wait… If that were the case, why kiss him?

"I was ashamed…" She admitted as her voice started to warble again.

"Ashamed? Of my contract?" The model asked just trying to keep her explanation going.

"I was ashamed of myself, damn it!" She was now holding his shirt so tight, she was sure it would rip soon, but she didn't care. "When I read that clause about marrying the intern you chose I knew I was the one. I knew you would choose me, and it made me so fucking happy!" She started to sob again. "So happy… What's wrong with me?"

"You were happy? Really?" Adrien was hopeful yet curious. Why so upset if she was happy?

"I don't deserve to be happy for that! What kind of shameless bitch am I to be happy about such a thing!?"

"Marinette! Calm down!" Adrien took her shoulders and shook her slightly to snap her out of her self-deprecating tirade.

"I can't, Adrien! Didn't you hear me?! When I heard you had to marry the intern you chose I thought it would be perfect! I was happy you would have to marry me! You didn't have a choice and I was happy! I'm terrible!"

Adrien quickly covered her mouth with his hand to stop her more directly. "Seriously, Marinette. Calm down, and let me get this straight, alright? So what you're telling me is that the idea of marrying me makes you happy?" Since he didn't remove his hand she forced a nod while tears started to build again. "Honestly, Marinette, I can't see anything wrong with that."

"Mrgh! Mmmmm!"

Adrien rolled his eyes at her attempt at arguing. "Did you even hear that whole selfish brat spiel I did before you? I mean I was ready to do anything to get you to stay with me, from bribery to pity. What you're basically telling me, is that you were happy to be in the same situation I'm in."

Marinette furrowed her brow. "Mmmm?"

Adrien chuckled. "Okay, I'll let you talk now, but please stop calling yourself terrible things, alright?"

She nodded and he pulled his hand away. "Adrien… You're just being forced into a corner-"

"Nope, never mind." He covered her mouth back up. "Seems I didn't get my point across yet. Yes that contract states I need to choose an intern, and marry them. I imagine that's why you think I'm being cornered, but that's not it, Marinette." He released her mouth and pulled her head back to his chest. "It took being stuck in that contract and having to actually think about a future with you to realize I love you. I've loved you for a long time, Marinette." As soon as he said those words he realized what Nino had done. He had been so angry with him when he found out, but now he realized why Nino didn't say anything. Nino knew there was nothing to worry about.

"But... I… Adrien..?"

"Tell you what? If you don't mind me being a selfish brat, then I can ignore you being shameless. How does that sound?"

He felt her shake in his hold, but it felt different than when she cried. "If you really are a selfish brat, is it even a choice?"

Adrien raised a brow and let a small smirk creep to his lips. "Not really, but it makes me sound better to ask first."

She raised her head to look at him and the smile she had made his heart flutter. "Then I'll just have to get over it."

Adrien leaned down to kiss her as soon as that agreement left her mouth. He wouldn't waste another second hesitating; not with how long he waited to get to this point. "Consider that the first of many gifts. My atonement through gifts starts now."

Marinette pulled him back down for another quick kiss. "Since you don't mind me being shameless, I'll just shamelessly steal your method of atonement."

"I'm selfish, so as long as I get what I want, I don't care." He teased back as he went for another kiss. The drama of the moment was completely ruined, however, with the rumble that came from his target. Her cheeks were crimson at seeing he heard. "Marinette… Are you hungry by any chance?"

She looked away and covered her stomach. "I uh… didn't really eat breakfast. I was worried about getting sick from nerves…" She admitted only to be met with a laugh from the boy.

"Well, it is lunch time, so how about we start things off with a date? My treat." He offered as he took her hand to kiss it. "By the way, remember I'm selfish so I'm not giving you a choice."

Marinette giggled at his use of the running joke. "Then I'll shamelessly agree."

Anna Rue looked through her camera memory while she waited for the next show she and Alya would cover. "So you said that friend of yours, Marinette, designed the suit Adrien Agreste wore?"

Alya nodded as she placed her note book and recorder away. "Yeah, though I didn't know it was a suit. She was only allowed to tell me that Adrien would be wearing something she designed. I thought I could get an interview, but-"

"Gabriel doesn't allow his designers to do that without his permission." Anna cut in having already known it for years. "If you want information about anything having to do with his fashion house, it needs to go through Nathalie Sancuor."

"Excuse me." Both journalists turned to find the aforementioned woman standing behind them.

"Speak of the devil, huh?" Anna mused before she handed her camera off to her intern. "Finish going through those, Alya." She directed before turning back to Nathalie. "So, looking for damage control? I applaud the models for keeping together on stage, but it's obvious that trip up was in no way planned."

"Yes, though this will be a little more than that. Mr. Agreste will be allowing one of his interns, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, to do an interview regarding her addition to the Noble Miraculous collection in his show. Considering her relationship with your intern, I thought it would be better to offer the interview to you first. Stephen, who has been working with her, will be overseeing it, however."

Anna couldn't stop the smirk that came to her lips as she gave a back glance to her intern. Her initial impression of the teen was of high potential though she had also shown a high level of naiveté as well. Alya had a bad tendency to get too excited about certain stories and miss details. That being said, she had good instincts for finding a story, and was quick to know who to ask about what subject. All Anna would have to do would be to drill in how important it was to double and triple check information before she did the write up. "So, my next show is at 1:30. Is there a chance we can do this before then?"

"Stephen is rounding up Ms. Dupain-Cheng now."

"Does it have to be right now?" Alya suddenly cut in to the surprise of both of the older women.

"And why can't it be now?" Anna asked with minor curiosity and a slight snap to her tone. She couldn't help it; getting an interview with anyone at Gabriel was really hard.

Alya scrolled down her phone to pull up a text. "Um… Well, she just texted me that she was eating lunch."

"Lunch interviews are common enough, Alya. I'd be happy to treat her if it meant an interview."

The younger journalist still looked avers to it as she put her phone away. "Um, yeah, actually… Someone is already buying her lunch."

Nathalie raised an urgent brow. "Who?" Certainly she wouldn't be talking with another journalist so soon.

"… Adrien…" She finally revealed with a sigh. "She's eating lunch with Adrien." She then clapped her hands together and turned to her mentor. "Please, can we wait? This is like her first legit date with him and I don't want to ruin it. I have been waiting for this ship to sail for years!"

Anna Rue glanced at Nathalie, who didn't look at all surprised, and felt herself smirk again. She didn't do write ups for couples, but she did know someone who did, and a favor is always worthwhile in her line of work. "I understand, Alya. I think we can afford to wait just a little bit. Our next show is in half an hour though so I'll call the office to get someone else to cover for us. I'm sure it won't be a problem."

Nathalie eyed her with slight suspicion before nodding. "That should be fine then. I'll have Stephen bring her to one of the back conference rooms as soon as she returns."

Alya sat at her computer while waiting for Marinette to finally get back to her about the date. The interview was all business and then Stephen didn't give Alya any time with Marinette right after. He mentioned something about a meeting, and going over details with Mr. Agreste. Adrien had already blabbed to Nino, and it made her feel even more left out. "Let's see… She marked this one, and this one…" She went over aloud while pulling pictures for her mentor's article. She was tasked with the write up for the Gabriel show, while Anna worked on the details from the interview.

It was nice that Anna was letting her do a little bit more after the couple of false head starts she had near the beginning of summer. Alya had since, learned Anna Rue's rules of thumb when publishing a credible article. First, double check everything, even if it is information about yourself. Prove yourself wrong once, and you'll be judged wrong for at least ten stories after even if those newer stories prove true. Second, "eye witness" is almost the same as "no witness". A photo is worth a thousand words after all, and groundless gossip is for the rumor mill. Third, gossip is always worth a little investigation time. A good story could come from anywhere, but never get your hopes up. Fourth, triple check everything after you double check. A credible reputation is everything for a journalist. Fifth, and quite possibly the most important rule, a good story is built on as many facts as possible. It's always good to have a lawyer on call, but you never want to need them. Alya had these rules written in her notebook, as well as in her phone memos.

Her mentor was a very credible reporter, who had more weight in the journalism world than she'd first seemed. That's how Alya wanted to be. "Ow… She took a lot of them during the trip up." The younger reporter noted as she found a whole group of photos capturing the Noble Miraculous presentation in still frame. At the time, the incident flowed pretty well, but watching it unfold in each picture made it obviously not planned. As she clicked onto another photo she accidently scrolled which activated a zoom feature in her photo viewer when her phone suddenly started to ring. "Marinette?"

"…Yeah?" Her friend muttered back from the other end.

"Is something wrong? You sound sad?"

"Um…"

"Come on, Marinette. You're supposed to be calling to give me details on your date. I don't want to hear them when you're bummed about something else. It is about something else, right?"

"Yeah…" Marinette stayed quiet for a moment before speaking again. "It's about Mandelle, the model who tripped."

"Is she doing okay?" A rather dumb question considering Marinette's tone, but the journalist wasn't sure how else to ask.

"No… Not really. Stephen told me about an hour ago that her agency dropped her. She was still trying to make a name for herself, so this blow to her career… I can't imagine it." The designer sounded like she was close to crying on the other end of the line.

"Oh… That's terrible. All this over a stumble?" Alya could relate a little since her first over eager draft that Anna had literally torn to shreds.

"Yeah, but stumbling during Haute Couture week, Alya. That's like tripping during an Olympic event in the fashion world. It was especially bad because she was modeling for Mr. Agreste, one of the bigger names in fashion. It could take years to recover." And models didn't have years, at least most didn't. Most only had about five years to make it big before losing their chance.

Alya felt a pit in her stomach at the news. Marinette had told her how sweet Mandelle was not even a week ago. "Marinette… Couldn't you try and help her? I mean, you could have her model something and show it to Mr. Agreste. Maybe he would change his…" She knew it wouldn't do anything even before finishing her sentence. Gabriel wasn't the kind of man to simply change his mind, especially not right away. It took him two years to change his mind about Nino!

"If I could, I would hire her in a heartbeat, but… I don't know how helpful I could actually be, Alya. I mean, as an intern, I'm not exactly a big name, and I don't really have money to pay her."

"Girl, you're dating Adrien Agreste. Believe it or not, you're famous. That being said, I know what you're trying to say. Mr. Agreste probably wouldn't let you have any business with someone he fired."

"R-right… exactly." The designer responded sounding a bit flustered. "Stephen spent some time a few hours after our meeting checking over the stage since the shows were over. He told me Mandelle swore up and down than something tripped her."

"I guess he didn't find anything though? There were four shows after yours so that wouldn't be any kind of surprise even if there was something there to begin with."

"And Mr. Agreste doesn't take excuses either, even if something did cause her to trip. You remember when I told you my design submission went missing, right?"

Oh Alya remembered alright. She remembered wanting to do some unpleasant things to one G. Agreste. "Yeah, but aside from that mess up, she was pretty good. In the interview earlier you mentioned how you and Stephen picked her because she comes off as gender ambiguous when wearing the suit. It fit perfectly with the akuma, because Hawkmoth targets everyone. While she couldn't represent age, she covered more than a general male model." Aside from touching on that reason for hiring Mandelle, Stephen avoided bringing the model up at all, and Alya was fairly certain it was a direct order from Mr. Agreste. "I'm actually looking through the pictures Ms. Rue took during the show, and she really does look good. I mean, even Adrien catching her when she stumbled kind of feeds into the theme of the akumas being victims that the heroes catch when they fall, you know?" Actually, that was pretty good. Maybe she could suggest that to Anna for the article?

"I wish Mr. Agreste could see it that way, but…" She was still worried about Stephen to be honest. He was the one to suggest Mandelle, and depending on how the incident is portrayed by the news, he could be in the same boat as her.

"Yeah, but let's talk date details, girl! I want to know everything. What base did you get… to…" She trailed off as something on her computer caught her attention.

"Alya! We really just ate lunch… and it wasn't like we went anywhere fancy. That would have drawn too much attention." A silence cut through the conversation as Alya didn't answer. "Alya?"

"Huh? Oh sorry, Marinette." She picked her phone back up. "I suddenly need to do something. Talk to you later." Then she hung up which left Marinette dumbfounded on the other side of the line.

So three things: Confession, damage control, and what did Alya just see? First one to guess gets a digital cookie! (And a hint of the next chapter if they want it) Now the confession, I wanted to make it more dramatic since most of my previous ones were lacking the oomph, you know? I've done silly, and cute, but I don't think I've been able to do one like this because my fics are usually much shorter. By this point Adrien is worried out of his mind that Marinette won't want to deal with being with him because of press and expectations. Marinette on the other hand, thinks she's a terrible person who doesn't deserve him. A crueler writer could have made her get away and leave them tortured for another chapter, but I was getting impatient too, so I hope you liked it.=^-^=

Thank you for reading, and please comment or if you have questions, be my guest.=^-^=