"What do you mean you haven't applied yet?" Chat practically demanded of Marinette as they sat on her balcony in the cool air of the April evening. "Marinette, applications for the Internship are due this weekend!"
Marinette knew that. Of course, she did. She'd been wanting to apply for this Gabriel Internship program since she first started designing when she was 10. Now, at the age of 17, she was old enough to apply for the internship position she'd always dreamed of. She wondered how Chat knew that, but figured she probably mentioned it before.
"I know, but…" she sighed and bit her lip while she tried to think of an excuse that didn't involve her being too busy with trying to recover the Miraculouses that she felt she had single-handedly lost to Shadow Moth. "I just don't think my designs are up to his standards yet. He's Gabriel Agreste, Chat. He's been my fashion idol for as long as I can remember."
"Yeah, and you're Marinette Dupain-Cheng. You've basically been doing purrfessional work since you were 14 when Jagged asked you to design his Eiffel Tower glasses. Do you know what your 'idol,' Gabriel Agreste was going at 14?" She thought back to every biography she had ever read about the designer, but most of them started around age 20 when he'd met Émilie.
"I don't think so?" She wondered if Chat somehow did know what Gabriel Agreste had been doing at 14 years old.
"Exactly," Chat responded excitedly. "No one knew who Gabriel Agreste was, no strangers cared about little Gabriel Agreste, some random collège student. You've been further along in your career than he was at such a young age, and you still have 4 more years before he even gets discovered."
"I'm not that far in my career," she told him, "I just got lucky with an assignment that happened to get me attention from Jagged Stone."
"Jagged Stone could have worn your sunglasses one time and never thought about you again," he told her, "he could have thrown them away and probably found Gabriel Agreste himself to make him a new pair, but he didn't. You gave Jagged your design and he hasn't played a show in Paris without those sunglasses ever since."
Marinette knew that Chat was right, but that didn't necessarily make her feel better. "He still can stop wearing them, though."
"He will," Chat agreed, "but the cover of Rock Giant isn't going to be replaced. When he stops wearing the sunglasses you made, Penny is going to show up at the bakery and ask you to make him a new pair because he loves them, Marinette."
"They're not anything special," Marinette tried to argue, "what if he's just wearing them because they're convenient? Just because he happens to already have them on hand, not because he likes them or because they're well designed or anything."
"This," he said, leaning a little closer to her, "is bullying, and no one is allowed to bully my purrincess except for me." He booped her on the nose. "Now, tell me what's really going on because we both know that you're one of the best designers in Paris and I know for a fact that you have more confidence than this."
Marinette was surprised by Chat's willingness to call her out like that. She didn't think he knew her well enough to know she was just making up excuses not to apply for the internship. She spent a short while considering what she could say. As Ladybug, she could tell him about all the stress she was feeling about losing the Miraculouses, but Marinette couldn't.
"I messed up a recent commission," she lied, hoping that it was believable enough. "It isn't one that I'm supposed to be talking about, so I can't share details, but now I'm just doubting myself and my abilities." She curled her knees into her chest and Chat was shocked by just how small she looked.
She's Marinette Dupain-Cheng, just like he had said a minute ago. No one except for her should be able to decide how she feels. He knew, from working with his father, that fashion was definitely a dog eat dog industry, but Marinette was more talented than most of the designers he'd seen or walked for, sometimes even including Gabriel.
"Woah, woah, woah," he began, "who are you and what have you done to Marinette. You're definitely not the girl that saved me from Evillustrator without a Miraculous, or from Kwamibuster as Multimouse. I just told you that no one gets to bully my purrincess except for me." He reached out and placed a hand onto her knee, close to her face.
"Marinette is the most brave, confident, and happy person that I know, just behind Ladybug. She faces every challenge head on, and she doesn't back down even when she's scared. Sure, she might be late sometimes, and she might have purrcrastinated her Internship application far longer than she should have, but she would never let her nerves stand in the way of something she's wanted to do for almost half her life."
"Minou," she began, trying to think of an explanation as to why Marinette wouldn't be brave, happy, or confident, but she couldn't immediately think of anything. "I don't even have anything to submit. Plus, if I get accepted, it would be such a huge time commitment and what if maman and papa need me in the bakery?"
"Your parents will suppurrt your dream," he told her, and she knew that he was right. They all thought that she was going to take over the bakery when she was a kid, until she came home with a drawing of the first dress she designed back when she was 10 years old. Since that day, Tom started searching for a new apprentice and he and Sabine started helping Marinette achieve her dream however they could.
"I know that they will, but what if I'm not good enough? What if I can't be a big enough part of the team at Gabriel? I'll let someone down, then everyone will be disappointed in me and what if I can't get back the... design abilities I once had." She felt like she was being too honest about her fears with losing the Miraculouses, but if Chat knew what she was talking about, he pretended not to.
"If you apply," he began, "I can just about purromise you that you're not going to let anyone down. If you don't apply, you'll only let yourself down. I'm not going to make you apply because I can tell that you're getting stressed about it, but I'm purroud of you, no matter what you decide." He ruffled her hair affectionately and she rolled her eyes.
"If I promise to apply, will you stop making puns with that word for tonight?" she pleaded, eyes filling with hope at her own question.
"If you what?" he teased, cupping one of his big cat ears in his hand. She knew what he wanted her to say, but she wasn't sure if she was willing to stoop to his level. When she looked at him, though, he just looked happy to be there, with her, even though she was feeling down about herself. She could let him have this one.
"I purromise, I'll apply to the internship," she told him with a small smile on her face. He was surprised when he felt his heart skip a beat in reaction to her using a cat pun. "But you're done with your 'purr' puns for the rest of the night. And you're not allowed to distract me until after the deadline. Helpful minou only."
He nodded emphatically, agreeing quickly. With Marinette's background, he knew she could probably jump straight into the world of fashion without an internship and still make a name for herself. He also knew, however, that the interns were the people that he, as Adrien, spent the most time with at the company.
"That sounds purrfect to me," he responded with a bright smile on his face. He could see the 'done' expression on Marinette's face and wondered, momentarily, what he did to deserve it. "That one was an accident," he told her, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, "I didn't mean to pun that time. It was just a habit."
"No more puns tonight," she corrected, "at all." He nodded, agreeing reluctantly. He pouted slightly for a moment, but after a short while she opened up her sketchbook so that the two of them could look through different potential designs for her to submit with her application.
She was happy that he was there with her so that he could help her calm down when she became too overwhelmed by the combination of the application and her Ladybug responsibilities. He was the best purrtner that she could've ever asked for, not that she would say that out loud to him.
Words made into puns in order: professional, princess, princess, procrastinates, support, promise, proud, promise, perfect, partner
