To Rose Tiger: Well, the title is "The Fashion Disaster," so it can't be all sunshine and rainbows!
To anonymousfriend27: If he used Cataclysm on Janet, that would kind-of be murder! Personally, I think it's a little more frightening that these people choose to do bad things without superpowers or compulsion…
To Speckleflower: That is the mystery…
The next morning, Marinette arrived at school early for once. She was waiting on the front steps with an extra pastry and coffee when Adrien's car pulled up and he got out. He took one look at the school, smiled, and made a beeline straight for her. Marinette held the gifts out to him, but before accepting them he wrapped her up in a big hug. He picked her up and swung her around once, slowly so as not to spill the coffee, before setting her back on her feet. Then he took a bite out of the pastry, sighing in contentment and pleasure.
He pulled her into another hug with his free hand. "Good morning, Princess," he whispered into her hair.
She hummed. "I should get up early and bring you coffee more often!" she giggled.
"I'm probably going to need it today," he acknowledged, accepting the cup and taking a gulp of the still-hot coffee.
"Long night?"
"Long but boring," he told her with a nod. "Absolutely nothing exciting happened." He stifled a yawn. "And then after school today I've got to put in a couple hours at Agreste to get this whole Janet affair sorted out. I'm telling you, Princess, I'm not exactly upset about yesterday, but you did saddle me with a lot of paperwork!"
"Aww, is my poor Kitty scared of the big, bad paperwork?" she teased, wrapping and arm around his waist. "What if I make it up to you with a special dinner tonight after we get done at Agreste?"
"That sounds, purr-fect, My Lady," he agreed, squeezing her tightly. "Just the thing to see me through today! But I'll only have an hour or so to eat this evening; I'm supposed to meet up with Kagami for some extra fencing practice later tonight. There's a tournament this weekend, we need to be ready, and this is the only time that fits both our schedules."
"That sounds like fun," Marinette hummed. "I haven't seen Kagami in forever. Maybe I'll come watch!"
"Are you sure, Bug?" he asked in surprise. "It's not like we'll be hanging out or anything. It's just going to be a ton of fencing."
"Oh, I'll see how I feel, I guess," she decided as they entered the building arm in arm.
"It feels weird to be walking into Agreste together and holding hands," Marinette whispered, leaning into his shoulder and glancing down at their interlaced fingers when the elevator let them out on Agreste's main office floor after school.
Adrien shrugged. "After yesterday, there's not much point to hiding it anymore, right?"
"I suppose not," Marinette agreed. "But still, what will people think?"
"Probably they'll think that I have good taste in women," Adrien joked, squeezing her hand.
"Maybe," Marinette agreed, flushing. She frowned. "Or they'll think I'm some gold-digger trying to take advantage of your name and reputation."
"What 'name and reputation'?" Adrien asked rhetorically, raising an eyebrow at her. "Father did a pretty good job of tarnishing the 'Agreste' name, and any reputation the 'Agreste' fashion house has at this point is thanks to you. Besides, you and I both know none of that is true. And it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks about our relationship as long as we know the truth."
"Maybe," Marinette conceded, though she was still not convinced.
When they arrived at Adrien's office door, he pulled her in for a hug and she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Now to find us a new manager," he said with a grin. "Preferably one who isn't going to torture the interns… Wish me luck!"
Marinette smiled after him as he closed the door before she turned to greet Mme Batteaux.
"It's so nice to see him happy to come to work for once, dear," the older woman gushed, giving Marinette a big smile. "It makes my heart sing to see the two of you finally together!"
Marinette giggled in embarrassment. "Actually… we've really been dating since before his father was arrested. We were just trying to keep it quiet here until yesterday when we… well… couldn't," she explained, looking down at her feet.
"Ah, I understand." Mme Batteaux smiled wistfully. "Reminds me of when Gabriel and Emilie first started the company. They were so concerned about appearances that it took nearly a year before they would wear their wedding rings in public! So afraid of being branded a 'mom and pop fashion house.' Gabriel's designs won out in the end, of course. And so will yours, if I'm not mistaken!"
Marinette blushed at the compliment and thanked her before she headed down the hall toward the design team workroom. As she passed the Office Manager's office, she could hear the custodian, M. Lamblin, cleaning it out in preparation for its eventual new occupant. She was about to enter the design team room when Mme Legrand stuck her head out of the consultation room across the hall and called, "Ah, Marinette, just who I was looking for!"
"Sorry I'm late today," Marinette apologized.
"Don't worry about it, dear." Legrand waved a hand dismissively. "But I do need your design for the new summer tea dress as soon as possible. We've been going through the summer line all day to finalize everything, and that is the only piece missing."
Marinette grinned. "I was actually finishing it up last night when M. Janet…"
"Say no more," Legrand laughed. "Any delay from yesterday's business is well-worth the trade-off!"
"Oh, it is finished," Marinette assured her. "Just let me go grab it off my sketchpad and I'll bring it right in."
"Thank you, dear." Legrand closed the door as Marinette entered the design team room.
She stopped and stared at her desk in confusion. She approached the desk in a daze, staring at the flyer someone had left on all the desks in the room. "What is this?" She picked it up and quickly read through it. "'Open design contest for Agreste's new top designer'? What could this be about?" She looked across the desk. "Marie? Do you know anything about this?"
"Yeah!" Marie told her excitedly. "It was on everyone's desk this morning when I arrived. I guess M. Agreste is ready to really start moving forward and find a new top designer! I know you're just in lycée, but are you going to submit a design for it?"
Marinette stamped down her nervousness. "Um, yeah… of course…" But I thought I was already going to be Adrien's top designer… And what about Mme Legrand? Is she leaving now? She shrugged and pushed those thoughts aside. It is still a few years early for that kind of decision, I guess. And Adrien probably can't make a decision like that out of the blue or wait until we're both out of lycée, and this way it's fair to everyone, right? Besides, all anyone needs to do is look at one of my designs and they'll know I'm the best choice… right? She let out a breath to steel her resolve. It doesn't matter. Maybe this way is better: If I'm going to be Agreste's top designer, I will earn it for myself!
She pushed the flyer aside, meaning to consider it further later, and went to grab her sketchpad, but hesitated when she saw over a dozen brochures sitting on top of it. Lacriox, Chanel, Givenchy… all the major Paris designers. All of them offering internships for lycée students. What are these for? Marinette's heart dropped into her shoes. She had certainly considered applying to any of these companies in the past; her future dreams had always included an internship at one of the best fashion houses in Paris. But not like this. Now that she and Adrien were partners in everything, now that she was interning at Agreste, helping Adrien behind the scenes as his creative partner, she didn't want to work for anyone else. They may all have fine reputations, but they're not Adrien's company – the company of which he kept telling her that she was the future. If she went to one of those other companies, what would a lycée internship look like? Would she be designing skirts, or would she be fetching coffee?
With this blow on top of the surprise "Open Competition" announcement, was Adrien trying to send her a message? Maybe after yesterday's confrontation with M. Janet, everything was ruined and Adrien thought it would be too distracting to have her at Agreste anymore. He'd held her hand on the way in today, he'd smiled when he saw her before school, but maybe that was just to ease the blow. Maybe this was his way of asking her to leave the company quietly so he could run it his way without her causing any more trouble when he found a new manager. But why wouldn't he have talked to her if that was the case? Why act like nothing's wrong when something like this was waiting at Agreste?
Marinette blinked when she saw drops on the Sorbier brochure that she had crumpled in her hand. With effort she stifled her sobs and wiped away her unshed tears with a sleeve. A quick glance showed that Marie had turned back to the shirt she was altering and all the other designers had their heads down and were focusing on their own projects. Marinette dropped into her seat, pushed the pile of brochures off the desk and onto the floor, and picked up her sketchpad. Even with these blows on her mind, at least she had her dress design to turn in. She opened the sketchpad to the last used page, and–
"No way."
She was looking at a psychedelic tuxedo she had designed (and toned down substantially from his initial suggestion) for Jagged Stone's next concert. The tea dress she had finished the day before had vanished. She quickly started skimming through the sketchpad. Maybe she had skipped a blank page. Maybe the dress was on the very last page. But as she flipped through the book from cover to cover, again and again, she finally had to face reality: the design was gone. She closed her eyes and forced herself to take a few calming breaths.
"Marie, did you see anyone near my desk today?" she asked when she had regained some semblance of control.
"No," she replied slowly, looking up at Marinette in onfusion. "No one's touched your desk while I've been here."
"My dress is missing, and I know it was in my sketchpad yesterday."
"Maybe Mme Legrand already picked it up?" Marie suggested.
"She asked for it when I arrived."
"Did you leave it out yesterday?"
"I don't think so."
"Could it have fallen on the floor? M. Lamblin wouldn't throw something like that away, but if it were on the floor…"
"I'm always so careful!" Marinette insisted. She could feel tears building in her eyes. "But with my luck… Ugh!" She grabbed her pigtails anxiously.
Marie gave her a sympathetic look. "Sorry, Marinette. I wish I knew."
At that moment Marinette's eye was drawn to Lieutenant Raincomprix and another police officer walking down the hallway toward Adrien's office. "As if this day couldn't get better," she muttered. "What's the police doing here?"
She didn't have to wait long to find out. It was only a few minutes later that Adrien walked past, Lieutenant Raincomprix's hand on his shoulder. Adrien looked outwardly confident, but Marinette could see the tension and anxiety in his posture, in the set of his jaw and the slight downturn of his mouth. She watched him walk past, willing him to look at her and give some reassurance, but his eyes remained focused straight ahead.
Marinette glanced down at her purse to see Tikki with her head popped out of the opening, mouth hanging open as she covertly watched Adrien being escorted off the floor. As if she could sense Marinette's gaze, Tikki glanced up at her. Marinette raised her eyebrows and gave a slight nod toward Adrien. Tikki nodded and dropped back into the purse, phasing through both the purse and the floor to follow Adrien. Marinette watched her go, hoping that she would be back in an instant to say that it was all just a misunderstanding, that he was simply showing them around the ground-floor store. But as the minutes ticked by and Tikki still didn't return, her worries returned full force.
She almost missed the sound of her phone's notification chime. She looked down to see that she had just received an email. There was no text, just an attachment. She opened the attachment, and dropped the phone with a strangled gasp.