Chapter 4

The following week was torture for Marinette. Between school, homework, helping out in the bakery, and most especially her assignment to review the designs in the thick book Gabriel had given her, she had very little time for sleep. However, despite wishing desperately to catch a little bit of zzzs, Marinette was found in her room working hard on said book, the night before she was asked to meet Gabriel. Luckily, she was nearing the end. She just had to stay awake a little longer. Unfortunately, the next thing she knew Tiki was poking her to wake up as the early morning sunrise was shining in through her window. Panicking she looked at the time and realized she only had a couple more hours before her meeting with Gabriel.

"Tiki why didn't you wake me up sooner!"

Huffing in disgruntlement Tiki replied, "You needed sleep. I don't care how upset he is going to be if you miss a couple of pages. Honestly, how can he expect a teenage school girl to finish all this. It's unreasonable."

"Unreasonable as it is, this is Gabriel Agreste we are talking about. He doesn't take almost good enough as good enough. You know how he acts even towards his son. If he doesn't get the book back completed in full then I am done for." Groaning in annoyance Marinette set her head down on the desk and looked at the remaining pages in despair.

"Don't worry Marinette. Now that you have rested maybe you can work at a faster rate and finish what is left. You still have a couple of hours remaining."

"You're right Tiki. I'll just have to do all that I can. There is no other choice." Sitting up Marinette pulled the book towards her and frantically started to work.

No sooner had her alarm sounded to let her know to leave for the Agreste Manor, then she finished the very last page. It seemed like luck was on her side today.

As she walked through the door of the Agreste Manor, Nathalie was there to greet her and immediately escorted her to Gabriel's office, not even giving her enough time for a proper greeting. Walking towards his desk she noticed her sketch book was open and laid out for her to read. As she came closer, bright red ink covered most of the blank spaces around her designs in Gabriel's neatly written handwriting. Trying not to let this disturb her, Marinette squared her shoulders as Gabriel looked up from what he was working on.

"Ah! Glad to see you are here right on time. I don't have much time so if you would kindly give me the design book, then I can review it while you look over the notes I have left in your sketch book."

Doing as requested Marinette pulled out the thick design book and handed it to him. With no where to sit and no request to leave, Marinette stood and looked over her sketch book and almost cried. Every sketch had a mountain of criticism to heap on her carefully thought out and inspired designs. Not one word of praise could be found. Reaching the last design had her almost wish to walk out the door and never come back. However, reason and a strong desire to know if there happened to be anything he liked of her designs, kept her rooted to the ground.

After a while longer Gabriel looked up from the design book she had spent hours on and simply said, "I applaud you for finishing this on time, but if you are going to turn something into me I expect you to have left better feedback then one I can receive from anyone with a little bit of knowledge on fashion." Shaking his head, he looked at her with disappointment. "I believe your last words to me were, "you wouldn't let me down", and I'm sorry to say you have."

"However, I can't say it comes as a surprise. I realize you are just a simple girl with very little means to acquire more than a basic knowledge and have been mostly self-taught." As he said the words "little means" and "self-taught" he said them with such disgust Marinette just wanted to shrink away in embarrassment. Like being self-taught and poor was all she was, and could amount to.

"Due to these unfortunate factors I will take some more time in thinking about weather to keep you on or not. Weather the work, teaching, and financial support put into you will be worth it in the long run. You are dismissed until further notice."

And just like that Marinette was rushed out of his office before she could even mutter so much as a syllable in defense to her case. Shell shocked all she could do was stand in the foyer paralyzed in disbelief. Was this really it? Was she really that bad of a designer that she would never make it in this industry? Was there no hope for her at all?

As these thoughts circled her head they started to eventually reach through the clouds of shock and sink into her heart, leaving a feeling of despair as all her dreams came shattering down around her, leaving sharp and broken pieces at her feet. And that was when the tears finally came. Slowly at first but then almost quickening enough to drown her as she sunk to the ground sobbing. Distraught as she was, she didn't notice the little purple butterfly emerging behind the door to Gabriel's office. But then right as it was coming out from the door another person was emerging into the room from the stairs. Which caused the butterfly to stop in its tracks.

"Marinette! What happened?"

Turning up to look behind her, through hazy eyes, she noticed the blonde and black blurb of Adrian as he came running down the stairs to meet her. Trying to stand up she failed, as if there was no more energy left in her. Given her sleep deprived and emotionally wrecked state there probably wasn't.

As she fell back to the ground Adrian reached her and knelt down, worry and confusion etched on his handsome face. Taking her hand in his, he kindly asked, "What's wrong? Was it something my father said?"

Unable to speak Marinette simply nodded her head to the affirmative. In little to no time at all, his worried face turned to anger as he asked, "What did he say to you?"

Startled Marinette didn't know what to say. She had never seen Adrien so angry before even as Chat. Finally being able to form the words she replied, "He said the feedback I gave him on the designs he had me review were basic fashion sense and that he was disappointed in me but given my background and being self-taught it didn't come as a surprise to him. He said he would have to think about if I was worth spending his time and money on. Also, the comments he left on my designs were all hard criticisms, there was nothing good mentioned."

Astounded Adrian accidently muttered under his breath, "And here I thought he was only that hard towards me." After realizing he said that out loud and not wanting Marinette to comment on it, he cleared his throat and quickly said, "I'm so sorry Marinette, I never expected him to be so ruthless to you. I know he can be a harsh critic, but I never expected him to be this bad. I also can't see how he could say such things about your work. I've seen some of your designs and they are all wonderful, better then most I have seen by first year university designers."

Looking down at her sketch book that was lying next to her, he hesitantly asked, "Can I look at what he wrote?"

Nodding her head, she picked up the sketch book and handed it to him. As he looked over it, she saw his frown get deeper and deeper until he closed the book with a hard snap.

"This criticism is beyond a beginner level designer, let alone one that isn't even in university. Also, how long did he give you to work on that design book he wanted you to review?"

Meekly and quietly she replied, "A week."

Eyes bulging in dismay he looked over to Marinette and realized how dark the circles under her eyes were and for a good reason. Those design books were huge.

"Marinette, the people at his company that review those get more then a week to work on them unless there are many people working on the same book at the same time and there is a rush for the designs to be made and out on the floor. Why would he expect you to do this in a week? It doesn't make any sense."

Astonished Marinette had no clue that all of this was not typically what was expected of an intern at her age.

"Do you think he was testing me? Seeing if I knew my limits or my knowledge of how the fashion industry works?"

Thinking on it, Adrian nodded and said, "I wouldn't put it past him. However, he went too far. What he said to you wasn't fair, especially about your circumstances and being self-taught. Despite being self-taught your work is far ahead most people your age. Believe me, I've worked with enough self-proclaimed designers at my modeling gigs to know."

Feeling much better Marinette mustered up the strength to stand and pulled Adrian up with her since their hands were still intertwined. Putting a smile back on her face she said, "Thanks Adrian. Without you telling me all this I probably would have quit and maybe even given up on my dream. Now I can keep going. I'll talk to your dad and demand to be treated properly according to my appropriate age and level. If he is upset and I can't intern anymore for him, I'll still keep going and someday I'll make it as a famous fashion designer and surpass him for sure!"

Feeling relieved and happy to see her normal enthusiasm return, Adrian grinned and said, "That I can believe. If my father does let you go, I'm sure in the end he would end up regretting it."

As she took in his words, at that moment, she felt what was like a bolt of electricity surge directly into her heart, and she realized that she had fallen in love with this boy even more.

Pacing his lair in rage Hawkmoth was obviously fuming that his plan to Akumatize Ms. Dupain-Cheng had failed. He was so close. If it wasn't for Adrian's meddling he would have succeeded. How could he have forgotten to factor in their relationship? Adrian was much too like his mother. Too kind and sticking her nose in where it didn't belong.

Not to mention he was fairly sure Adrian had romantic interest in the brunette. Which he didn't like at all. Especially with Ms. Dupain-Cheng being Ladybug. The less Adrian knew about his mother's condition and the magic involved the better. Ladybug could inevitably drag him into all this and the last thing he wanted was his son to get hurt.

Balling his hand into a fist he leaned against the observatory window, trying to calm down and think what his next move should be. After Adrian pointed out to Ms. Dupain-Cheng his unreasonable demands on her, he was certain that it would be harder to break her down in the future using such means. Akumatizing Ladybug as her civilian self he assumed would be the easiest way to have her just hand over her Miraculous to him. However, it seemed he miscalculated the resilience of youth.

As emotional as they are, they also bounce right back up the next minute someone acknowledges them and their feelings. As he pondered upon this, suddenly a brilliant idea formed. Maybe he could use that to his advantage. After all, another factor of youth was being accepted by their peers. So, what would happen if he took that safety net away and turned it against her? Deviously grinning to himself in the reflection of the glass he started to put together his next big plan.

It had been another week of stressing for Marinette. She hadn't heard back from Gabriel since he had told her, in no kind words, to leave and don't come back until he made up his mind what to do with her. Even though she knew he was being too harsh, and it might just be better not to intern with him, she still wanted to. Despite his less then stellar personality, he was still her fashion role model. She admired his work and couldn't help but want to learn from him.

However, by the end of the week she was starting to lose hope. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be. Then her phone rang displaying Nathalie's name. Fumbling to pick up her phone, she finally managed it and answered with a breathy hello.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng I assume?"

"Yes that's me."

"This is Nathalie, Mr. Agreste's secretary. I just wanted to inform you that Mr. Agreste would like to meet with you tomorrow evening at 5 sharp. Is this a manageable time for you?"

"Yes 5 works for me."

"I will inform Mr. Agreste. Thank you for your time."

With that said, a loud click was heard on the other end disconnecting the call before Marinette could respond back. Staring at her phone she wasn't sure what to think. Was this a good thing? If she was fired wouldn't he just have Nathalie tell her during the phone call? So maybe she could believe she still could continue to intern with him…. Or maybe not. Gabriel always was hard to read. He could just as well want to let her go formally and personally. What should she do?

Turning to Tikki for answers she said, "Tiki, Mr. Agreste wants to meet with me tomorrow! What should I do? What should I expect? Should I prepare for the worst? I just don't know!"

Sighing at her chosen's dramatics, and sick of Marinette's constant panicking, Tikki sternly but lovingly said, "I think you should just stop worrying about it. Worrying does nothing other then make you upset. No one knows what the future holds and if you worry about every little thing you can't control, then it is just waisted energy. I think you should just go, being okay not knowing what to expect."

Marinette blinked back for a couple minutes not yet comprehending what the little kwami just said, then still confused asked, "Isn't going into something without a plan a bad thing? If I did that as Ladybug I'm sure I would have failed a million times over."

"When it comes to being a superhero that is a good skill to have, but if you remember there are those times when you don't know what the supervillain is going to do. You have to improvise as you go along. I know you are one that likes to plan ahead, but not everything in life can be planned first and then adjusted later. Sometimes you just have to forge a head and make decisions as you go along."

Patting Marinette's head Tikki finished by saying, "I know this might be hard for you, knowing how you like everything to be planned out and don't like surprises, but I promise as you work on it then it will be easier for you and you will find that you panic less and can think with a clearer head."

Thinking on it, what Tikki said did make sense. How many times has she frozen during a battle because things have taken her by surprise? Thankfully, she had Chat around to protect her during those moments while she planned on what to do next. If there was a way she could not freeze and more quickly adjust to what was going on, then it might help her be a better superhero. Also, it would be nice to not stress so much.

"Okay Tikki, once again you are right. Thanks!"

Grinning down at Marinette Tikki was so proud to have a chosen that took her advise so easily. Knowing that her decades of experience weren't falling on deaf ears for once, made Tiki happy. This was another reason why she just knew Marinette was the best Ladybug she has ever had. Not that the others weren't great in their own way. But with this as one of Marinette's abilities it would push her farther as a Superhero than all the others. As well as being the best Guardian of the Miraculous that they have ever had.

Standing in his office at 5 pm sharp, Marinette tried to take Tikki's advise, to not expect anything and just take things as they are. It was incredibly hard, especially when Gabriel was staring intensely at her in silence for a couple of minutes. Somehow, she managed it though. This was the most calm she has ever felt around Gabriel.

Finally, after another minute of silence Gabriel spoke. "Ms. Dupain-Cheng, have you thought over what I said to you last time about your work?"

Taking a deep breath Marinette looked Gabriel in the eyes and calmly replied without any regret, "Yes and I think you were too hard on me. This past week I looked more into the expectations of an intern in the fashion industry at my age and found that the work you had me do was too much. Also, my designs and the level of criticism towards them was too harsh for the level I am currently at. This level of work and criticism has nothing to do with background and financial circumstances. It would have been too much no matter who it was and in what circumstances for those my age. Actually, comparing my designs to others my age I'm farther ahead then what should be expected."

Seeing Gabriel smile was a bit disconcerting considering she had never seen him do so, but it was not a bad thing. Actually, he looked a bit more handsome.

"Very good Ms. Dupain-Cheng. I was concerned when it comes to how you are able to handle unjustified criticism. The criticism I presented you with was mainly based off of, those within the public, whose job it is to be a fashion critic. That is why I tested you. I wanted to see if you could objectively determine what is helpful criticism and what is not. As you know the fashion industry is one of the hardest when it comes to criticism. As we put ourselves in the public opinion and are viewed more than most industries, then there are going to be a lot of cultural biases we are going to have to face. Like what I said about your background."

Taking a moment Gabriel stepped around his desk and came over to Marinette, leaned down, and quietly said, "I'll let you in on a little secret. I didn't come from a wealthy background, just like you. I made Gabriel industries myself from the ground up."

Straightening himself he continued, "However, because I know just how hard it is and how much harder I had to work then most of my colleagues, I expect you to also work just as hard. I'll set my expectations reasonably according to your age but also according to how much more advanced you are then most of your peers. I also expect you to be working on expanding your relationships to those in the industry."

Pausing for emphasis he then said, "When it comes to fashion the real determination of your work is not necessarily those outside the industry but those within it. Sure, public opinion has its merit, but they for the most part, don't understand the true art of fashion unless someone in the business shows it to them, or in this case sells it to them. Those within the fashion industry are really the ones whose opinion matters most. I hope you keep this in mind as you continue to intern with me."

Patting her shoulder, he then walked back to his desk and said, "Nathalie has the instructions for your next project which she will go over with you before you leave today." No sooner had he pressed the button on this desk then Nathalie walked into the room to take Marinette outside Gabriel's office. This only left Marinette just enough time to say, "Thank you sir for this opportunity and your advice, I will work hard."

Feeling a bit stunned at Gabriel's few emotional displays and heartfelt advice she followed Nathalie on auto pilot. Maybe he wasn't as cold as she always believed him to be. Sure he had a lot to learn about being a good father, but as her idol in fashion he hadn't let her down. If anything her opinion of him rose.

Reaching their destination, which turned out to be Marinette's work room, Nathalie handed Marinette a tablet that looked new and had an agenda on it. As Marinette looked through it Nathalie explained, "This tablet is for you to have and use. It has appointments I am able to add and update on my side but will display on this tablet. From what you can see it outlines the days you will be coming in to work on your projects as well as the days you will go to meet various people within the industry."

Touching the tablet Nathalie moved the screen to where she needed it to be as she continued to say, " It highlights when your projects are due as well as the days you will need to attend certain parties and fashion shows. It also has certain special events that you will be planning. If you click on each project it will show you the requirements that you will need to meet. Same thing for the special events. The rest is up to you on how you are going to make it all work out. Mr. Agreste also put in good references to refer to if you need help, as well as tips and tricks. After you finish the projects and assignments you will present it to him on the scheduled due date in which he will review and give feedback. Do you have any questions?"

Feeling a bit overwhelmed but happy at the same time, Marinette simply responded, "No, I'm good."

"If you have any questions then please contact me. My e-mail is listed in the tablet as a contact."

After nodding her head to the affirmative Marinette once again looked down at the tablet in amazement as Nathalie said her goodbye and took her leave. This was so much more then she had expected. She was going to be busy beyond belief and she still had to figure out what to do if an Akuma attack happened during any of these times, but at the same time she was excited.

It was like she could finally really start on her dream. She could see the end. Before it was just a possibility but now it seemed more like a reality. It scared her a little but mostly she felt exhilarated. Her dream was coming true and it was all thanks to Gabriel Agreste.