Hey!

So, thanks so much for the positive feedback and support I've gotten from you guys -just from the prologue. I also had one lovely reader give me feedback and a wonderful PM that made my day- if you want to do the same, don't be afraid to drop a message in my inbox at any time!

Ok, that's enough of the cheesiness. As I promised you, things are going to be heating up in this chapter and our two main characters are going to be spending a lot more time together than they bargained for . Here's Chapter 1!

A x

Chapter 1

Agreste Offices

Marinette

What had struck her as she had entered the building was the pristine cleanliness of the place. Everywhere she looked, she could see gleaming white walls dressed with glossy shots of models displaying some of Agreste's most iconic designs. But she was unnerved by the glaring sound of quiet that echoed around the halls. Already, she was lost, and as she looked around, she noticed that she was in what seemed to be the foyer. Marinette shivered slightly, the blast of the cool AC a stark contrast to the melting Paris heat outside. Where was she supposed to go now? She could only see an endless number of doors, none of them obvious on where they led to.

Luckily, a woman wearing a white jacket and a lacy black pencil skirt passed her, rapidly chattering into her headset. Marinette hesitated slightly, wondering if she should interrupt her. But already the woman was advancing towards an unmarked door, about to disappear.

'E-excuse me! Um, I'm slightly lost, could you help me out?'

Slowly, the woman turned. She looked slightly irritated, but nevertheless, told the person on the line to hold the call.

She looked Marinette up and down, taking in her outfit (she had thrown on her signature jacket and jeans in the morning, she had overslept). She looked confused more than anything, clearly wondering what a weirdly dressed, lost looking girl was doing in one of Paris's most prestigious fashion institutes. Marinette, comparing her own hasty outfit to the woman's impeccable style, tried not to blush and quickly started talking.

'Um, I was hoping you could show me to where the apprenshit, uh I mean, apprentice programme is taking place?'

Great, first day, and she had already managed to swear in front of an employee. This hadn't been in one of the 97 scenarios.

The woman, returning to her professional demeanour, replied kindly.

'Ah, I see. You are one of Mr Agreste's selected candidates. That must mean you have some real talent, no?'

Again, Marinette tried not to blush (and failed).

'Uh, I mean, I guess. Wait, not that I'm trying to be cocky or anything but, um I'm OK at it. I think.'

The woman raised an eyebrow.

'I see.' She repeated. 'Well, in that case, you're looking for floor 5, fourth door on the right.'

She pointed out a polished silver elevator that Marinette must have missed (she put it down to nerves).

'OK, well, you're all set.'

And with that, the woman brusquely turned to go.

'Wait!'

The woman turned once again, now looking quite impatient.

Marinette mentally berated herself. What was she supposed to say now?

'Um, help for your thank you, oh, I mean, thank you for your help. I was just wondering, um, what your name was?'

Now she thinks you're stalking her, Marinette thought. Great job.

However, the woman's face was slowly changing into a bemused smile.

'Kate.' The woman, who now had a name, replied. Unexpectedly, she added, 'If you ever need any help, I'm your girl. It looks like you might need it.'

She smirked and walked off.

Now Marinette really was blushing. Well, at least she had a friend. Sort of.

A few minutes later, the elevator doors dinged and the doors opened to reveal yet another long, white and immaculate hallway. God, she thought, the place practically screamed elite.

Walking out, she suddenly noticed what was different about this floor to the one she was just in. It was, well, noisy.

Marinette's ears were immediately assaulted by an onslaught of talking voices, the click of shoes on the floor, and the sounds of people busy typing away on their computer. She could see well dressed, attractive looking people with more headsets walking up and down the corridor, and workers hauling clothes in dust jackets from one door to the next. It seemed to be chaos.

Of course, Marinette thought. How could she have forgetten? This had to be where the preparations for the launch of GA's Summer Collection were going on.

Gabriel Agreste's Summer Collection was one of the upcoming annual events that all of Paris waited in anticipation for. It was an extremely high-profile event, with some of the best designers and top magazine editors from all over the world flying in to attend. Legend had it that the Italian Vogue editor was on the guest list.

And, best of all, each year GA himself would choose from one of his apprentice's designs at the end of the course to be featured in the show.

That was what Marinette had been dreaming about. All her life, her hopes, her ambitions and her dreams had been coming towards this one moment. She didn't know what she would do if her very own design would be chosen to feature in his line. When she had been chosen to participate in GA's apprenticeship programme, she had completely freaked out. She was one step closer to achieving that one goal in her life, everything she had been working towards. However, it did puzzle her how she had come to be selected. She didn't remember him even knowing her name, let alone coming across her designs. However, she wasn't complaining. All she knew was that competition was tight, and there was plenty of other able and talented young designers who had been selected with her. And if she won, then it opened an entire world of opportunities for Marinette.

The sharp squeak of rubber on the floor brought Marinette back to earth. Despite the hustle and bustle of the corridor, she had zoned out again. Luckily, everyone was too busy rushing about to have noticed this time.

Checking her watch, she saw there was only five minutes until the introduction meeting was supposed to begin. What had the woman, or Kate, as she had come to know her, said? Fourth door on her right?

Marinette took a right and slowly began to walk down the corridor. She was not going to muck up this time. She was going to find the right place, walk in and sit down like a totally dignified person.

She counted the doors she passed. First, second, third and -yes, fourth door. She could hear nervous voices inside, so she was pretty sure she had got the right room. Grinning, she twisted the handle and pushed open-

Only for her smile to fall faster than an ice cream on a hot summer's day.

Because sitting on the table right in front of her was the one person she thought she wouldn't have had to see.

Marinette

What the hell was he doing here?, she thought.

Already, and not unexpectedly, Adrien was surrounded by a small group of people. Most of them, Marinette noticed, had probably not overslept as they were fully dressed for the occasion, wearing what had to be their best clothes heavily based on Agreste's own designs. Albeit that, they really did look fabulous, the girls' faces artfully made up with professionally applied make up, the boys in top of the art sneakers and skinny jeans.

Marinette could have facepalmed herself. No wonder Kate looked confused when she saw me, she thought.

Quickly turning away in the hopes that Adrien hadn't seen her, she took in the room. It reminded her of a classroom not unlike their own at school, with a smartboard placed at the front of the room and a few rows of tables and chairs situated in front of it. However, corkboards with sketches and designs were hung up all over the walls, definitely not something that would be seen in Madame Bustier's classroom.

There were a few people, who, Marinette noticed, could not care less for Adrien's model son and his charm, and were seated at distances from another, looking shy. One such boy was bent over a sketchbook, his hand quickly moving across the paper.

Marinette suddenly wondered where she was going to sit. There was no way in hell that she was going near Adrien and his fan club, but at the same time there were only a few seats left on the other side of the room. She noticed that the boy who was drawing had a spare seat next to him, and shyly, she approached it, and when she pulled out the chair, the boy looked up at her.

She was surprised to see that he was quite attractive (what was the deal with good looking people and this place?, she thought). He had clear, bright blue eyes. His hair was a ruffled bed of dark curls, and he was quite tanned. He had a smattering of freckles across his nose, and Marinette realised with a start they were quite like her own.

She realised she was staring and quickly looked away.

The boy chuckled. 'Hi, I'm Xavier.' He said, offering a hand. Marinette slowly took it, and felt it was quite warm. 'Sit down.' He gestured to the seat next to him.

Marinette did so.

'Does the lady have a name? I mean, if I'm going to let a pretty, quiet stranger take the prized seat next to me, then I should at least know her name.'

Marinette went bright red. So he was a charmer.

'Marinette. And, um, thanks.'

'No problem.' Xavier seemed close to laughing. His eyes were shining. 'It's the truth. So, that dude seems to be doing quite well. You would have thought that he was Gabriel Agreste's son or something!' He joked, gesturing to Adrien.

This time, Marinette couldn't help but stare in shock at Xavier. Did he really not know?

'What? What's wrong?' Xavier slowly stopped smiling.

'Um, do you not know?' Marinette replied.

'What? Is something wrong?'

'Well, you kind of hit the nail on the head, um, unintentionally. That's Adrien Agreste. He is actually Gabriel Agreste's son.'

'Oh.' Xavier smiled again. Did he ever stop smiling? 'You must excuse me, I'm not actually from around here.'

'You're not from Paris?'

'I'm not from France actually. I'm Spanish.'

This surprised Marinette. 'Really? But your French is so good!'

'Yep, well that's because my mum insisted I took private lessons in French and English for a year. It's important to be well informed on the language of your neighbours.' He winked.

He really was quite cute, Marinette thought.

Marinette was suddenly distracted by a sensation on her back. She could feel someone staring at her. She slowly turned her head, and could see in the corner of her eye a certain blonde looking over in their direction. She started to panic. Damn, Adrien did know she was here! She was hoping to stay quiet, lay low, but clearly all plans were now out the window. She surreptitiously watched him from the corner of her eyes. Was it just her, or did Adrien seem nervous? He didn't seem to be enjoying the attention he was receiving from his fan club. And here she thought that he was always an attention seeking prick.

She started to feel guilty, then immediately reproached herself. He was probably just not looking forward to seeing his father. Rumour had it that the two did not get along.

Marinette remembered that Xavier was talking to her and turned her attention to him.

'Sorry, what was that?'

'I said, do you know him?'

Xavier was now looking at her in an interested way, as if he was just realising something.

Marinette laughed nervously.

'What makes you say that?'

The expression on Xavier's face seemed to say 'Really?'.

'Oh, OK, fine. We both go to school together.'

'I thought he was looking at you.'

'But it's nothing more than that! To be honest, I don't really, um, get along with him.'

Xavier looked like he was about to respond, but before he could, the lights went off and there was a collective gasp. Everyone turned to each other in confusion, wondering if there had been a power cut until the lights switched on again to reveal the tall, menacing figure of a man.

A voice quietly spoke from the shadows.

'Welcome. My name is Gabriel Agreste, and this is the beginning of the most important days of your life.'

Sorry for the abrupt ending! I'll be updating a short bonus chapter between now and Friday at some point, including the one that's supposed to go up on Friday.

So, as you can see, Adrien is not the guy we all know and love, sad, mopey and moody. Nope, he's had a big personality change in this fic. I guess he reminds me of a certain Spandex loving superhero . Also, what do you guys think about Xavier? Yay or Nay? Things will be a lot more confusing (as if they weren't already) in the world of Adrinette with him around!

Anyway, for those wondering about their superhero lives, they'll be more on that in the bonus chapter, explaining why Ladybug and Chat Noir have been tucked away (for now). If anyone's got any idea for funky akumatised villain names, drop a PM or comment down below!

A x

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters.