AN: To avoid any confusion, this does not reference the same photo shoot from "An Adrienette Anthology" chapter 7; that one was in the fall; this story takes place around the end of February.

To anonymousfriend27: This is a very Alya-centric story, and let's just say that you haven't seen anything yet… Also, Anansi's probably going to take that secret to her grave!

"Can't you do anything right?"

"I'm s-s-sorry."

Marinette looked up from the sketchpad laid out on her desk to see M. Janet, Agreste's office manager, glaring down at the university intern at the desk across from hers. The intern in question, Marie, looked close to tears, her eyes wide and lower lip quivering, a pair of shears quivering in her loose grip. Janet, for his part, was leaning over the desk, his chest centimeters from Marie's shoulders and his face level with her own. His clenched fist rested right next to her sewing machine, across which a skirt was draped. Marie trembled with terror as she looked away from Janet, down at the floor underneath her desk.

"What's wrong?" Marinette asked, setting the sketchpad aside.

"I-I cut the hem on this skirt unevenly," Marie squeaked out, with a tiny head bob toward Janet. She looked up at him and immediately shrank back. "I-I-I'm sorry. I was nervous."

"Can I take a look?" Marinette asked, reaching across and grabbing the skirt in question without waiting for an answer. She recognized it as one she had designed for the spring line and which they needed for a photo shoot the next day. The model who was supposed to wear it had gotten sick. Juleka, their replacement model, was a centimeter shorter so they needed to re-hem the skirt to make sure it fit properly. Marinette eyed the unsewn bottom edge critically as she reached for her shears, trying to ignore the increasing volume of the conversation across the desk from her.

"What are they teaching you at this university? Do you need to go back to primary school and relearn how to use scissors?" Janet slapped the desk for emphasis.

"I-I–"

Marinette found the problem spot and set to work straightening the edge, removing a tiny strip of fabric.

Janet threw his hands in the air, encompassing the whole room in his anger. "I tell you, it is an embarrassment to this fashion house to have such incompetent people working here! If you can't repair the mistake you just made, it is coming out of your paycheck!"

"But–"

Marinette flipped the switch on her sewing machine and loaded it with the proper periwinkle thread. As the motor whirred to life, she concentrated on keeping both the hem and the line of stitches even. However, even over the sound of the sewing machine she could still hear Janet's tirade.

"Imagine it: an entire photo shoot– all that money, all those man-hours – wasted because of your mistake! Why, if I were in charge of this design team–"

"But you're not," Marinette muttered, a little louder than she'd intended to, turning off the sewing machine a moment before she spoke. The silence left in its wake was deafening.

"I'm sorry?" Janet turned his glare on her. "I'm not what?"

Marinette met his gaze steadily. "You're not in charge of the design team," she told him, pointing across the room to where Mme Legrand had just walked through the doorway. "She is."

"I'm the manager of this fashion house!" he declared, bringing himself up to his full height. "I'm in charge of everything that happens at this company! And I will not stand for incompetence on my watch!"

"You're the office manager," Marinette retorted, raising her voice angrily. "You run the office while Adrien is unavailable. You make phone calls and negotiate contracts for him to review and maintain records. That doesn't put you in charge of the company! Your name isn't on the side of the building! And as for incompetence, Marie is not the incompetent one here. Her work is perfect whenever you aren't in the room!"

"I will not stand for such insubordination from a lowly lycée intern!" Janet shouted, slamming his fist on Marie's desk. Marie yelped and jumped back, barely catching herself before she fell out of her chair. Marinette burst to her feet, sending her own chair clattering across the floor, placed both her hands on the desk in front of her, and glared across the desks at him. "I should fire you right now, Mlle Dupain-Cheng!"

"Actually, you can't," Mme Legrand interjected, stopping to one side of the desks, between Janet and Marinette. She folded her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes at Janet.

"I – what?" bellowed Janet, turning his anger against Mme Legrand. His face had by now turned a dark shade of purple.

"You don't have the authority to fire members of my design team, or to terminate Marinette's internship," she explained calmly.

"And you do?"

"Me? Certainly not!" Mme Legrand replied placidly. "The only one who can end Marinette's internship is M. Agreste."

"M. Agreste?" Janet repeated blankly. He rolled his eyes. "Why on earth he would reserve that power to himself is beyond me. But in that case, that is exactly where we are going right now. You–" he pointed at Marinette "–are coming with me."

Janet grabbed Marinette tightly by the upper arm and dragged her out of the design team room, with Mme Legrand trailing after them. Marinette caught a flash of red near the purse she had left sitting on the floor beside her desk; doubtless Tikki was on her way through the floor to Adrien's office. Marinette had to hurry to keep up with Janet's pace. She knew she shouldn't have risen to his bait. But she couldn't stand listening to the way he treated the other designers, and especially the interns. It reminded her uncomfortably of how Chloe had treated everyone years earlier, before she'd received her miraculous and become a full member of the team. Like they were subhuman. Like he was better than them. Janet led them down the hallway, past his own office, through the reception area where Mme Batteaux, the executive secretary, stared at them slack-jawed from behind her desk, to the door at the far end labeled "M. Agreste, Owner." He knocked on the door and, without waiting for a response, barged straight in.

Adrien looked up from the paperwork on his desk in surprise as Janet walked in, with Marinette in tow and Mme Legrand following behind. Marinette briefly caught his eye and saw a flicker of concern there. His nostrils flared the tiniest bit as his eyes trailed down to her arm, caught sight of Janet's hand, and returned to her own eyes. She gave him a subtle reassuring smile, and he relaxed the tiniest bit, leaning back in his chair.

"M. Janet," Adrien said without rising from the desk, "to what do I owe this… unexpected… visit?"

"The design team at this fashion house is in disarray, and I have conclusively determined that the problem is none other than this intern!" Janet answered, dragging Marinette forward by the arm to stand in front of him and shifting his hand to squeeze her shoulder painfully. "She is rude and disrespectful. She is insubordinate and talks back to me! You must get rid of her if our design team is to function properly."

Adrien's eyes narrowed, but Marinette saw the hint of a smirk ghost across Adrien's face as he leaned forward, placed his elbows on the desk, and steepled his hands in front of his chin. He looked at both of them impassively for a moment before responding. "This is a very serious accusation you make, Monsieur. And what does the intern in question have to say for herself?"

"You would take an intern's word over mine?"

"I will listen to everyone," Adrien answered evenly, turning to Marinette. "Mlle Dupain-Cheng?"

Marinette wanted to take it all back, but knew she couldn't. Not now. She'd gone too far for Janet to just forget about it. In for a sou, in for a livre. "M. Janet has been badgering the design team all afternoon," she began. "He was invading Marie's personal space and made her so nervous she made a mistake. A mistake that I corrected in less time than he spent berating her for making it! He scares the designers. He's a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen! He constantly criticizes. He is condescending to everyone, and especially the interns. Everything functions perfectly well when he is elsewhere, but it falls to pieces as soon as he shows up. Everyone gets nervous when he's even in the room! If there is a problem here, it is him!"

Adrien's expression remained neutral as he continued to look between Marinette and Janet. Then he met Marinette's eye and twitched his eyebrow in a question. She shrugged the shoulder Janet wasn't holding as subtly as she could. Finally, Adrien lowered his hands and said, "You both have serious allegations here. I don't think I can make any decision on this without my partner at my side."

"I'm sorry?" Janet asked nonplussed. Marinette heard a sudden hint of doubt in his voice. His grip on her shoulder tightened reflexively. "But… you don't have a partner."

"Oh, you're quite right that I do not have an official partner in this business," Adrien replied, smiling a little too calmly. "But I do have a partner whose presence is absolutely crucial to the long-term success of this fashion house."

Adrien reached under his desk and pulled out a folding chair. He stood up, rolling his own chair a meter to the side as he did so, and set up the folding chair next to the other chair. Marinette carefully reached up and peeled Janet's now-slack hand off her shoulder, one finger at a time, before walking around the desk. She rolled the shoulder he had grabbed to work out the soreness from his grip. Adrien pulled out his office chair, gestured for Marinette to sit, and pushed her chair in before taking the folding chair for himself.

Marinette relaxed into the chair, looked across Adrien's desk, and took a moment to savor the look of shock, confusion, and horror plastered on Janet's face. His eyes bulged from their sockets and his mouth worked uselessly to form words. His face had lost all its previous color. His arms hung limply by his sides. Behind him and slightly to the side, Mme Legrand stood with her arms crossed and struggled to contain the mirthful smile that threatened to break out across her face as her gaze flitted between Janet and Marinette. Marinette forced her face to show nothing but calm, avoiding even the hint of a smile at Janet's discomfort and Legrand's amusement.

Adrien fixed Janet with a deathly serious look. Marinette could feel the tension radiating from him in waves. The hands he rested on the desk were both clenched into tight, white-knuckled fists, and she caught him running his thumb over his miraculous. All his earlier calm had vanished in an instant. If he were transformed, she had no doubt he would Cataclysm Janet without hesitation. She slid her hand over to rest on his knee under the desk and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Adrien curled his lip in a tiny smile for her and released some of the tension in his hands before focusing all his attention back on Janet. He narrowed his eyes as he said, "Now, what were you saying about my partner?"

Marinette wrapped her arms around Adrien tightly as he escorted her out of the building. A few employees looked at them in surprise, but she ignored all of them. Now that the adrenaline of the confrontation was leaking out, all Marinette wanted was to go home and put the stress and anxiety of the last hour behind her. Adrien gently squeezed her shoulder as they got into the car and the Gorilla pulled away from the curb.

"Hey, are you okay, Princess?" he asked, looking at her in concern.

Marinette sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. "I will be," she told him. "After… that… I feel like I just want to sleep for a week."

"Yeah…" Adrien rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I'm sorry I let it go on for so long."

"I forgive you," she yawned. "So, do you believe me about him now?"

"I always believed you, Princess," he assured her. "I just didn't know what I could do about him. I mean, we do kind of still need a manager for during the day when I'm not there."

"For now, why not let Mme Legrand and Mme Batteaux handle things during the day?" Marinette suggested, closing her eyes and snuggling into his shoulder. "You can find a new manager in a week or two. Hopefully you'll have better candidates to pick from this time around."

"You're right," he agreed softly, hugging her gently. "As usual."

"Are you still planning a video game night with Nino?" she asked when the car pulled up in front of the bakery.

"That was the plan," he answered, picking her up bridal style and carrying her inside the bakery and up the stairs to the apartment. "But if you want me to stay with you after that… mess…"

"No," she told him as he set her down on the living room couch. "Go and have fun with Nino. I'm probably just going to eat and then fall asleep right here."

A "sou" is a pre-Euro French coin roughly equivalent to an American nickel. A "livre" is an old French coin that was later replaced by the franc. If there's a better French equivalent to "In for a penny, in for a pound," please let me know and I will correct it!