Adrien woke the next morning to a friend request on discord from MysteryGarden6722. He accepted immediately and typed out:
Good morning. I'm sorry if I upset you last night. I didn't mean to disappoint you. I don't know what this is or where it will go, but I don't want to disappoint you.
The icon next to her avatar was red. She wasn't online, so he didn't wait around for a reply. He didn't want to look at his words much longer anyway. He had spent enough time last night grappling with his almost irrational sense of guilt. He didn't want to waste his morning on it.
It was 6:15am and he needed to be in the shower by 7 so that he could be at his father's office by 8. The morning started with the exercises assigned by his personal trainer as well as a protein bowl that he had prepped at the beginning of the week. His shower and grooming were relatively short; he didn't need to shave today. His chauffeur was idling at the curb when Adrien emerged at 7:43.
Working for his father in his new capacity was not nearly as torturous as Adrien had expected. His entire life, his 'options' had been dictated by his father. Every meal, every social interaction, every activity, and every emotion. Modeling for the family company had been much the same. He was something at which to be looked, not someone to whom people listened.
This was different. Every day, his father asked for Adrien's analysis and input. He was given leeway over large projects and decisions. It was ironic that Gabriel allowed his son so much freedom over his life while simultaneously pulling the strings on his son's relationship.
Another surprise had come in the form of Adrien's office space.
The Agreste fashion company had a lovely campus of buildings in central Paris. After the death of his mother, his father had become something of a recluse. When his father withdrew, the company's VPs and other employees remained while he sequestered himself inside the manor and ran his fashion empire from there. Building collections, choosing companies to whom they could outsource sewing production, and running board meetings; all of these occurred from the manor.
And now, his father had reemerged.
The CEO's office was large enough to accommodate his father's imposing modern desk as well as a smaller one which had been moved in for the duration of their mentorship. For as long as Father lives. Work began promptly at 8am each weekday. This was closely tied to his father's focus on work and strayed from French cultural norms for time keeping.
"Good morning, Father."
"Adrien. How are the plans coming along for the August showcase?"
"Well, Father. My plan today is to go over to the junior designer's building and brief them on expectations and timelines." He pulled out his tablet to confirm. "That meeting is set for 11am, so they will have the afternoon to get started after breaking for lunch."
His father held out his hand and Adrien obligingly handed his tablet over after opening the file with the meeting agenda. He scrolled for a few minutes, checking his son's notes. "These appear accurate. When the time comes, who will you ask to provide a creative eye for judgement?"
He paused "I'm sorry father…I thought…I thought that you would be the one providing judgement."
"I will be there, but I want to see where you will place your trust when I am gone. We can compare notes before making our final decision. So, who would you choose?"
"Well, I certainly do not have your instinct for fashion, Father, but I will be watching to provide my input. I suppose…I should lean on Marie as VP of fashion."
"Hmm. Marie should do well enough. Let's move on to discussing the Fall collection that is coming in for retail this month."
Marinette was hunched over her third outfit. The first two of the collection were mostly complete as far as construction went but needed to be cleaned up; rough edges hemmed, and underskirts sewn in. All things that could wait as her creative juices pulled her to start her cyclamen inspired dress. She was cutting out the pattern for the shell of the minidress when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Pulling her earbuds out and setting down her tools, Marinette turned to see one of the other designers, Simon, standing behind her.
"Hey, do you want to grab lunch with the rest of us after the meeting?"
"What meeting?"
"Someone's coming by in a few minutes to talk to us about the August showcase. Didn't you see the email yesterday?"
I was a bit distracted to be honest. "I guess not. Thanks for the invitation—"
"Hello, everyone! What's a good place for us to gather round?"
Adrien. Oh shit. Confidence. Poise. You've got this girl.
"—but I have other lunch plans. Maybe some other time, Simon." Keeping her eyes on Adrien, she walked towards the table that he had set his materials upon and parked herself on the stool across from him.
"Right now, everyone should be working on their collections for fashion week this October," a glance around the table to see everyone nodding, "and I am here to brief you all on how the August showcase will factor into that. We need you to have five pieces of your ten-item collection completed before the showcase in four weeks. Based on what we see will determine how many of you will be presenting at fashion week. It will also help us to determine what designers will receive more or less favorable time slots at fashion week."
"Are there a limited number of slots?" one of the designers piped up, taking in the half dozen designers in the room.
"It will be purely based on individual success. All or none of you could have a slot." Nods of understanding all around. "Perfect. I'd like to meet with all of you individually for a few minutes to discuss your progress and discuss some logistics for your specific collections."
With that, the designers dispersed back to their tables and Adrien began making rounds. Marinette popped her ear buds back in and continued working on her dress. Every few minutes she glanced up and checked on his progress around the room. Sometime between the last time she had glanced up and now, he had rolled his sleeves up to his elbows. Fuck that's hot. She rubbed her thighs together as she bent over her work station and continued cutting out panels.
By the time Adrien made it to her, the rest of her colleagues were packing up for their two-hour lunch break together. Part of her regretted turning Simon down because she loved talking with her coworkers, but she knew this was an opportunity to put her resolve to the test. The ear buds came out once more as she popped up on her tip toes to kiss him on each cheek.
"Hey, Marinette! How is everything coming? I feel like we haven't had a chance to truly catch up in ages."
"Definitely. We didn't have a great chance to talk at game night last week. What are you up to the rest of the day?"
Slightly startled he pulled up his tablet and recited "I have a meeting to shadow with my father at 1:30 and then I need to contact some magazine execs."
"Perfect. Do you know what I am?"
Adrien cocked an eyebrow and looked at his friend askew. "My friend who is acting rather odd?"
"Hungry."
"Hungry?"
"Yes, I am hungry. And you have an hour and a half until you need to make your way to that meeting. And the only thing on your to do list until then is to talk to me about my collection. But alas I am hungry, so your only option will be to come have lunch with your friend."
"Hmm. Now that you mention it, I appear to be rather famished as well. Shall we head to the café across the bridge?"
"Ooh I love that café. You have a deal."
They both packed up their necessary belongings and made for the exit. As they descended the stairway, Adrien began checking up on her project.
"So, how is the collection coming? Last time I was here I know you were having a bit of a crisis about your theme."
"Yeah! I…uh…I did a lot of soul searching and I think I found a theme which has more depth. Before…it was more of an aesthetic if that makes sense."
"I think so. So, what is the new theme?" They had made it out into the mid-day sunshine. Behind wrought iron fences, trees along the street and the Seine swayed in the wind.
"Well… I am returning to an old standard. A really old old standard."
Adrien quirked his eyebrows once more. "As your future boss, I am a little concerned by the idea that you're redoing something super old instead of creating the next haute couture line. As your friend, I am willing to hear you out. Please tell me you're not making a line of plain black cocktail dresses."
"As your friend, I can put your mind at ease. When I say old, I don't mean fashion old. I mean that the concept has existed in human culture for centuries. Probably longer but I'm no expert…" Stop rambling Marinette. Poise. "FLOWERS!" she blurted out. Damnit girl, POISED. Reigning in her volume and hand gestures, Marinette repeated "Flowers! And their meanings. I am designing each outfit around a flower, and then the collection as a whole tells a story based on all of the flowers included!"
"Certainly not as concerning as I had thought" he said with a chuckle. They were almost across the bridge, and the café was not far beyond the banks of the river. "How are you doing as far as actual construction?"
"Pretty well considering everyone else had a day or so more than me, what with the theme setback. Over the past week I've completed the majority of two of the pieces. Today I started the third. I'd like to use the next two weeks to finish making the pieces, and then I'll use the last two weeks before the August showcase to do final details. Actually, I might try to make six or seven of the final ten so that I have some options before sending down the showcase mini collection. But of course, I'm not going to push myself overly hard. The goal is to finish the five and then I'll have six or so weeks afterwards to finish the collection in time for fashion week. I'm so excited to actually be going to fashion week! I mean of course I'm not going to be getting the main slots or the best stages; that of course will be going to Gabriel's personal collection and all of the other greats. But it's fashion week!" She took a deep breath as she had run out of oxygen and looked up at her walking partner a bit sheepishly. "If I make it of course. Nothing guaranteed."
Adrien smiled down at her then glanced up at the man standing in front of the café. Marinette had been so absorbed in her ramblings that she hadn't realized how far they had come. "Table for two please." As they were led over to a table next to the windows, Adrien started "Now as your future boss, it would be incredibly unethical of me to comment at this time regarding your chances of making the cut." He pulled out her chair and helped her sit before taking his own position across from the blushing girl. "As your friend, however, I can say that I have no doubts as to your chances. You are incredibly talented—there's no way my father would have hired you and trusted you as a designer if he didn't see something in you."
Marinette smiled from ear to ear, her shoulders bunching up at her shoulders. Grabbing her menu so that her hands would finally have something to do, she hid her face and pretended to look at the lunch offerings. As her cheeks cooled, she asked from behind her barrier "Speaking of ethics, is it still okay for you to model my clothes?"
"Absolutely. I already discussed that with my father. I won't be able to model your pieces for the August showcase since I will be helping to critique, but I will be able to model your clothes once you make it to fashion week." A hand appeared on the top of her menu and gently lowered it so that green met blue. "And you will."
She wasn't sure what came over her. She lowered her menu all the way to the table and his hand followed, resting on the tablecloth. Reaching out, she grasped his hand in hers. "Thank you, Adrien. That means a lot to me that you believe in me."
He turned his hand so that he could squeeze her fingers. "Of course," he whispered with a smile. They stayed that way for a moment, then he sat back and retrieved his hand. The Tether ached in her stomach. They both retrieved their menus and proceeded to order once the waiter returned.
"So…is that all you needed to know for your check in?"
Adrien startled and looked back at his lunch partner. "Oh…yes, that should cover everything we needed. I would have liked to actually see the pieces, but I trust you."
"Well since that topic is handled, I was wondering if you could fill me in on how your life is going?"
"Sure. What do you wanna know?"
She gave him a look that said 'you know exactly what.' "How is the bride hunt? Have you made much progress? I guess it's only been a week or so but…I'm worried about you." Her voice trailed off from its confident start.
His eyes dropped to the table and his fingers laced together. "I'm not sure actually. My father and Nathalie are working on some preliminary applications. I think they'll have a list of candidates by next week and I'll start going on some dates and weeding through them. But as far as who has applied or what's going on with the women…I just hope that my father is paying attention to more than pedigree."
The waiter arrived with their food, and both of them ate in silence for a few moments.
"Do you believe in love?"
"I do."
"How do you know it's real?"
Her Tether hummed. "You will. Something will click and it will just make sense."
"It sounds like you speak from experience."
"I do."
"Well he's a lucky guy. I hope I have that something."
I hope you do too. Her Tether pulsed with emotion. He's lonely. He's desperate. He's afraid.
He will not have to feel that way forever.
