"So, how was your first day at Agreste?" Adrien asked softly as he pushed his plate of nachos toward Marinette so she could pick some of it.
She sighed, despite knowing it would only alarm the young man who knew her so well.
She knew fairly well that Adam had had only good words for her as far as Adrien was concerned, and that she had no reason whatsoever of feeling down.
That her internship was a blatant success whereas she was concerned.
And that true, as far as everyone else was concerned, her first day at Agreste had been nothing short of brilliant.
But she still felt beyond humiliated for the way Gabriel had treated Adrien and her that stupid morning.
Like they were nothing more than unconscious children causing a ruckus.
"I'm okay, Adrien," she said, "the day has been long, that's all."
He chuckled. "It's because of my father, isn't it? Don't worry about him, he's completely out of it."
"Still, I feel completely humiliated by how he treated us," Marinette said. "I don't think I could've made a worse first impression if I had tried. He'll probably loathe me until the end of times."
Adrien laughed, only irking Marinette further. "Believe me, if Father decides to dislike you, he'll find stronger reasons to than a failed first impression. You're doing as fine as you can as we speak."
Marinette allowed herself to revel in her friend's hug, wondering if his words were meant to be as soothing as they were.
Gabriel Agreste crossed his arms over his chest, staring down at the small department team massed before him, tension suddenly oozing from all of them. "Am I making myself clear?" he asked. "This project is more important than anything else going on at the moment in the company."
Marinette felt as if she was shriveling upon herself, feeling as little as a pea in front of her favorite designer. And yet she had to speak, she had to make herself known.
He went on, unaware of his newest intern internal conflict. "Don't worry, sir," Adam said, "we can manage that effortlessly."
Uneasiness pooled into Marinette's gut as she felt how false that statement was.
Her fingers were hurting from having relentlessly sewn from the wee hours of the morning. She had a pounding headache, and from the way she could hear her stomach growl angrily, noon must've passed long ago already.
But there was still so much to be done, and so little time to do it.
Marinette suddenly saw a chicken wrap appear in front of her face, startling her out of the hem she was desperately trying to fix before Gabriel's daily review.
To say it was chaotic around her would be too weak of a word.
There was fabric everywhere, one model was crying while another was very visibly busy throwing some diva tantrum to Adam.
In front of her, holding said wrap, was Adrien, looking at her with worry in his eyes. She knew she looked pale and exhausted, she couldn't recall the last time she had eaten a proper meal.
"I'm suddenly regretting I can't steal you away for a proper lunch instead of the measly wrap I bought you," Adrien said, echoing her thoughts.
"Thanks, Agreste," she said, promptly taking a bit of the offering before going back to the garment she was fixing.
He looked around them, looking confused. She knew he had seen plenty of chaos in over a decade of working for his father, but this was a new extreme. "What's going on?" he asked, concern for her clear in his words.
"Everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong," she replied, barely sparing him a glance as she ate and sew from the other hand. "I won't be out of here before tomorrow at the soonest, there are so many alterations to be made, it's just insane."
Adrien shook his head,
"Marinette, you can't work overnight, I know for a fact that you clocked in at five a.m. I'll talk to my father, you need a break-"
This snapped her out of her frenzied trance. "Don't you dare, Adrien. We talked about this. You promised I would be treated like every other employee. I don't want a preferential treatment."
"I know, but…"
Marinette sighed. She knew Adrien only meant well, and probably knew his father better than she did, but still. What kind of designer would she be if she only climbed the ladder because of her friendship with Adrien? Even worse, what kind of friend would she be? Her friendship with Adrien was something too dear to her, too precious to jeopardize it for work.
And she wanted her future career to be built on her talent only.
"Adrien," she said, softly. "I know you care, and I appreciate it, really. But this is something that I have to do on my own."
Adrien nodded, but from the way his lips were pinched, she knew he disagreed.
But she also knew that he would respect her wish.
Or so she thought.
Her first thought when he trotted into the workroom shortly after his father's daily inspection, announcing that they were closing the building for the evening, hence forcing everyone to go home, was that she would murder him.
Slowly.
And as painfully as she could.
But there had been two akumas that day. Both fashion related.
She was tired.
And if coping with her meddlesome best friend was what she needed to do to pull through this hellish internship, then so be it.
"I'm mad at you, you know," she told him as soon as they stepped out of the Agreste building. "You swore you wouldn't-"
"Talk to my father," he interrupted her. "And I didn't. I merely hinted to Adam that his team was beyond overworked and that a break was long overdue if he wanted to keep them all afloat. You never said Adam was beyond limits."
Marinette sighed. It was useless arguing against that man. One of the wonderful and yet sad side-effects of his neglected upbringing was that he had way too much love to give to the people that mattered to him.
The sad side of it was that Adrien was overprotective of said people.
Almost to a fault.
She slipped her hand into his, resting her head on his shoulder. "So what's next, Adrien? Ultimate Mecha Strike III and pizza?"
He playfully gasped. "Who do you take me for? Some kind of savage? I have nothing short of Ultimate Mecha Strike VI to offer you, and I was thinking Vietnamese takeout for dinner. What do you think?"
Marinette reached forward, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Thanks, Agreste."
They ended up spending a really nice evening together, talking, gaming and even dancing together. When Marinette ended up falling asleep in his arms for what must've been the hundredth time or so, Adrien took her to his bed, dooming himself to the couch.
But neither of them would have things differently between them.
To think her day had begun so well.
She had woken up in Adrien's bed after a full night of rest, and he had fixed a hearty breakfast for the both of them. They had traveled to work together in their playful, easy banter.
Marinette was ready to tackle this new day with renewed energy.
Up until they passed the threshold of Agreste.
Up until they heard a lean, skeletal form screech at the top of its lungs, "Overweight? I'll show you what's overweight!"
The terrifyingly thin fingers touched the face of a bystander, who instantly bloated, becoming twice as wider than tall. The brand new morbidly obese burst into tears and ran into hiding, leaving the akuma cackling madly behind them. "ONE POUND," the akuma yelled, "ONE RIDICULOUS, LITTLE POUND, AND THEY FIRED ME LIKE I WAS UTTER GARBAGE."
Another civilian suffered the same fate as the first one, and it was enough for Marinette. Uttering some weak excuse, she fled from Adrien, barely paying attention to his own parting words.
When she came, bearing her bright spots and signature ponytail (Tikki and she had deemed the pigtails a little childish when she had turned twenty. Chat Noir nearly had a conniption the first time Ladybug had shown up with the long ponytail floating behind her, the collar of her suit revealing her throat and her boots now sporting the lowest of heels.
When she showed back up, spots on and yo-yo in hand, SickStandards, as she apparently called herself, immediately aimed at her. "There she is! The ridiculously thin heroine all of Paris is relying on. You're barely skin and bones, let me give you an upgrade!"
Ladybug tied her yo-yo on a nearby lamppost, and fled herself out of the scene, while SickStandards conveniently chose that time to vanish out of her sight. Kneeling on a nearby rooftop, she waited patiently for Chat Noir to show up.
She couldn't do it without him.
Thankfully, he dropped beside her a few minutes later, grinning at her with his usual Cheshire smile. "Sorry my lady, I was held back."
"No problem kitty. So apparently, this one has been fired for being one pound too heavy and is making everyone overweight as a vengeance," Ladybug summarized.
Chat Noir chuckled, "What an acute way to resume the entire fashion industry."
Before he could speak again, a blast resonated beside them, throwing them both on the ground. The sound resonated within Ladybug's mind, making it hard to bear. Lying pitifully on the concrete, Ladybug spat, "Getting self-conscious, SickStandards? Can't differentiate a healthy, muscular body from a sickly thin one?"
The akuma all but snarled, staring at the heroic pair with hate plainly written in her eyes. "You can't know what it is, having every calorie you ingest being monitored, every exercise. To surrender your body to an ungrateful industry that'll let you down at the first opportunity."
"You're right," Ladybug said, quietly calling for her lucky charm. "I can't understand. But I can help you get rid of those nasty thoughts if you want."
A well placed Cataclysm later, and an upset model comforted, Ladybug was free to go on with her day.
If only she wasn't that late.
When she barrelled into the workroom, Marinette fully expected to be yelled at by Adam. It was completely justified, after all. She was more than an hour, without even calling ahead.
What she hadn't expected though, was to have Gabriel Agreste himself waiting for her with a stern look on his face. Her heart caught in her throat, she tried to slip at her workstation unnoticed, barely acknowledging Adrien coming into the room almost on her heels.
"Mlle Dupain-Cheng," Gabriel's icy voice resonated into the small room. "I do believe you were expected here an hour and nineteen minutes ago."
Marinette felt herself suddenly becoming smaller under the peering gaze of her boss. "I'm sorry sir, but there was an akuma, and-"
"Everyone else made it on time, Mlle Dupain-Cheng. You have to work on your excuses if you're going to keep coming in late."
She visibly deflated, her heart caught somewhere in her throat. "It… it won't happen again, sir."
Somehow her answer must've been the wrong thing to say, because Gabriel's jaw set tight, and it all but spat at her, "Make sure it doesn't, Mlle Dupain-Cheng, because you can be assured that your friendship with my son won't stop me from firing you. There are dozens of interns out there, all of them willing to commit themselves to this job much more than you have done so far."
Humiliation.
There were no other words to describe the feeling that washed over her in that precise second.
She took a step back, violently shaking. "I-I'm sorry. I'm… I'm feeling unwell."
Without another word, Marinette fled from the room, tears nearly choking her. As soon as she was away from prying eyes, she transformed and leaped on the rooftops, heading straight for the Eiffel Tower.