The story wasn't right anymore. It's missing something.

Marinette chewed upon her pen cap, staring at the board in front of her. Five of her pieces sat in front of her, mostly completed.

Belladonna: Silence.

Carnation: Alas my poor heart (red); Innocence, pure love (white); I'll never forget you (pink)

Forget-me-not: True love memories; Do not forget me.

Gardenia: You're lovely; Secret love.

Bittersweet: Truth.

She had completed her concept designs for the male outfits after her work lunch with Adrien two weeks prior and put together two of them since. The Gardenia look took close inspiration from the outfit that Adrien has worn their first night together—all black with delicate embroidery. Fine silver thread covered the jacket lapels, pocket swatch, jacket lining, the front of the vest, and down each outer pant seam in a network of flowers. Shining silver buttons of varying sizes were placed strategically among the flowers on the lapels so as to simulate their centers. A uniform row of matching buttons closed the suit shirt up to a mandarin collar. Considerable work still needed to be accomplished in adding detail to the embroidery, but the tangible pieces were all there. It would definitely be a reveal piece, the model divesting himself of the jacket to reveal the lining as well as the vest.

Bittersweet had turned into a sort of companion piece. Gardenias meant secrets and love under the cover of darkness. The outfit was all black and silver, multilayered and sleek. Bittersweet meant truth. Bittersweet was also known as Nightshade, a deadly substance. Her truth may kill whatever they had, but it was truth, and it was real, and it would shine in the light of day. So, this piece was all white and red and uncovered. This piece lacked a jacket but sported a mandarin collar just like its partner. The pure white pants were similarly covered in red embroidery up the outer seams. The white shirt began sprouting red embroidery at the top of the shoulder, growing bolder and thicker as they approached the cuffs. The look would be completed with red faux leather gloves. She had chosen to use the red berries of Bittersweet rather than its purple blooms when she had settled on this design. The red droplets resembled splashes of blood against the startlingly clean backdrop of the white fabric. A heart bleeding out as she bared it for judgement. A perfect allusion to the past, her red dress from the masquerade, and the future, her inevitable unmasking. The model would wear this one unbuttoned by at least a handspan if not two, symbolizing the freedom that came with truth.

A sixth piece had all of its fabrics compiled but uncut. She could not bring herself to start on the crimson fabric for her rose inspired outfit.

Rose, dark crimson: Mourning.

That's just not right anymore…I'm not in mourning. She glanced at the rest of the board, surveying the other concepts which had yet to be brought to life.

Camellia: Longing for you (pink); You're a flame in my heart (red); You're adorable (white).

Sweet pea: Blissful pleasures; Goodbye; Thank you for a lovely time

Cyclamen: Resignation; Diffidence; Goodbye.

Columbine: Foolishness, folly; Resolution (purple); Anxious, trembling (red).

I'm no longer resigned to saying goodbye. I certainly hope this isn't foolish. Maybe I was being a bit jaded to describe love as such. Sweet pea can stay since most of it still makes sense.

Rose, Columbine, and Cyclamen were all plucked from the cork and repositioned off to the side. What a pity about Cyclamen. I really liked that design. Seven designs remained viable for the collection, three female and four male pieces. Five of them were already roughly completed but still needed several hours each in finetuning.

Damn it, I'm not as far along as I had hoped I would be. She had been working on the collection for almost a month, and there were only two and a half weeks until the August showcase. I need at least five pieces for the showcase, and I told Adrien at our check in that I wanted at least two weeks beforehand to polish my looks. But I if I don't finish any other outfits before then, then I'll have to do another five pieces before fashion week. Assuming I get in. I'll get in. And sure, there's seven weeks of time between the two events, but then I'll still be running at a pace of an outfit a week with barely anytime for perfecting details, and this is fashion week, it needs to be perfect, and—

"Marinette? Are you okay?" The amused voice of fellow designer Simon cut through her internal word vomit as she squeaked in surprise and whirled around. "You've been so absorbed in your project board. Didn't you hear us calling you over for the meeting?" He took a second to look at her blushing face then smirked good naturedly. "Why do I even ask, of course you didn't hear. Come on, let's head over." He began walking to the table at the far side of the room, and as Marinette's eyes focused on his destination, she became very grateful for the blush which had already consumed her face. Because standing at the table with the rest of her colleagues stood the man who had revealed his insecurities to her the night before and then buried his cock in her not three hours prior. Wiping her hands on her dress—the spare she had stashed in the bag she had taken to his place as a cover—she slowly walked towards the group, providing a sheepish smile to her peers. And Adrien. He smiled back when he saw her approach and she suddenly became aware of her Tether humming. How distracted was I that not only did I fail to hear Simon calling me, but I also missed the Tether alerting me to his approach?

"Alright, now that we're all here we can get started with the meeting. I wanted to let you know that I will be back for a final check in two days prior to the showcase to go over details for how the day will run and make sure everyone is ready with their five pieces. Today our focus is on some documentation we are going to need from everyone. I will pick up all of this information at that final meeting. So, here is what everyone will need to prepare." Marinette and the rest of her colleagues grabbed for loose scraps of paper and nearby phones to jot down his missive as Adrien paused for a moment. "First, we will need your sketches for all five pieces that will be at the showcase. Second, we will need your sketches for the other pieces which may go to fashion week. We do not expect this compilation to bind you for the final collection, but the more sketches we can see for the rest of your vision, the better we can critique the overall quality and integration of the collection. Those who can present five sketches will certainly be viewed more favorably, assuming the sketches themselves are impressive of course. Third, please draft up a short statement outlining the message of your piece. Please keep in mind that showing is still better than telling. If you write that your collection is all about a certain topic, we should be able to look up at the pieces on the runway and see that. This is just for us to better understand what you are trying to convey and judge how successfully you delivered it. Afterall, the general audience will not have your dossier in front of them."

"When you say a short statement, what are you looking for specifically?" a voice piped from the other side of the table.

"No more than two hundred words or so. I am going to have my assistant email all of the documents to fill out and the cover letters to fill out and place in front of your sketches. Feel free to scan those in and then print them back out one sketch to a page if you had several sketches on one sheet by the way. The day before the showcase, Marie our VP of fashion, my father the current CEO, and myself will be looking through all of your portfolios in preparation, so please make sure to put some effort into this. It will be our first real impression of what you've accomplished so far. I'm going to come around to check in with each of you, so let's all head back to our stations."

As everyone dispersed, Adrien made eye contact with Marinette who had yet to move and smiled at her. "Shall I stop by you last and we can grab lunch again?"

She could feel her cheeks flaming once more. "Oh! Uh of course! I'd love to…" she trailed off as he smiled once more and headed off to meet with his first designer.

Her Tether pulsed warmly in her stomach. He's happy.

While Adrien circulated among the tables, Marinette pulled out Carnation and worked on making sure that all of the hems and seems were finished and neat. Snipping a loose thread, a shadow came over the dark pants. "Hard at work?"

"Oh! Yeah! Are you already done?" She looked up at the standing man, a confused look in her eyes at his sudden appearance.

"Yep. I mean it's already been" he looked down at his wrist watch "almost an hour since I started my one on ones."

"Has it really?" She looked down at the piece which was only half hemmed. "Damn."

"Is something wrong?"

She began packing away her materials and gathering her purse as she stood and stretched. "Time just seems to be passing by so quickly and there's still so much left to do" she huffed out tiredly.

"Well, you can tell me all about it while I treat you to lunch. And after we finish up with the business talk, I've got some stuff I want to talk to you about, friend to friend."

"O-oh?"

"I'm hoping you can give me some advice…about women y'know? But that can come later, tell me about your collection while we head out.

Following after him, her stomach sank in dread. She suspected that her two lives were about to cross paths sooner than she had expected.