Arranged - Adrienette

-chapter 1: an important meeting-

First ml fic and it's basically entirely adrienette. So let me give you some context I guess. This is POST ladybug and chat noir, and the two ended up never confessing. Marinette now works for Gabriel Agreste and obviously her and Adrien still talk some, but have absolutely no idea that the other is their ex partner. Marinette is (mostly) over her feelings for Adrien. Adrien is also a lot bigger of a model in this AU, he's a household name type model, everybody knows who he is.

First chapter is boring because context. Second chapter is around just as boring. But it gets better I promise you! I hope you enjoy a read. ALSO: somethig only for wattpad readers, usually I'll attach a photo of what she's wearing (usually it's just something I saved from a kfashion blog lmfao) as the photo.

- chapter 1: an important meeting -

"Mrgh" the 23 year old rubbed her eyes as she woke, not remembering much from the night before, but assuming due to the several crunched papers around her and the neat pile stacked on her desk, she must have had a inspiration spark again. The corners of her mouth tugged up for a single moment but were overtaken by a yawn, as her arms naturally lifted themselves to the ceiling, everything tensing up and all relaxing at once.

As the girl checked the time, she was up suprisingly early, 8:30 am. Then she triple, even quadruple checked the date. Her spring line was due today. She flipped through each and every last design over and over again, they had to be impressive, fresh, new. Gabriel was trusting his small intern (or was she an assistant now? She never knew anymore) with the line big time.

Pinks, purples, blues and greens stained the pages, brought them to life with every design. A girl with an Umbrella, in a soft purple dress. A boy with a button up, a daisy in his hand, "Adrien" scribbled next to this design, as a few were in every set she worked on, they had the exact intent as they sounded: she thought these were the designs Adrien would look best in.

As she gently pressed the few pages back into the pile, she walked to her closet, taking out a dress and throwing it on, casually curling her hair and doing her makeup, today she needed to look good, professional. Today they'd talk fashion.

--

As she triple checked her binder to make sure she wasn't missing any designs, that everything was correctly labeled and pressed together, she mindlessly grabbed some coffee, (wow, she actually had time to get coffee this morning? Usually she was running out the door hoping and praying she'd make it in time) she decided to get one for Adrien and Mr. Agreste too, thanking the barista as she took the holder, tucking her binder under her coat and making her way to the mansion.

She was there so often now, she was an intern of course, but also almost, a house assistant. Sometimes she'd make both Agreste boys dinner, sometimes she'd even tidy up the house a little when it got out of control. She was almost virtually the only staff around anymore, after all.

As she knocked and was let in by their lone butler, she thanked him when he took her coat and the coffee she had gotten Adrien, thanking him once more as he said he would deliver it. she took a few deep inhales, then made her way up to his meeting room, the most intimidating room in the house. Thank the lord she was 10 minutes early. This would be a good day. Lady Luck was on her side.

The meeting room was huge, and cold, and sleek. It was always so quiet when they met in there, it was made for huge meetings, but she had never ever seen anyone but herself and Mr. Agreste set foot inside it. She felt so small. Everything seemed and felt small in there. Maybe Lady Luck wasn't on her side. It would be the flip of a coin, she guessed.

As she knocked on the door, she felt her heart drop. What if her designs didn't have flare to them? Her and Alya were looking at pictures of France in spring for HOURS, trying to get her as inspired as she could be, so she could just sketch and design for a week or two. And now it was finally time? She felt so.... off. He had given her the assignment so last minute, she was so unsure. What if this was a test?

Once he answered the door, she waved, taking a deep breath and gently handing him the sketchbook. "I did my best. I picked my favorites-" he took the coffee along with the sketchbook with ease, walking to the table and setting the coffee down on the gigantic table, his fingers gently cracking open the black binder.

"Shh" he placed his finger to his lips for a moment, as he flipped through the pages, his fingers gently touching a few designs, his eyes examining everything. He hadn't even sat down yet. Click clack, click clack. As he paced the room, her heart matching the speed of his shoes, then doubletime. She never knew how to read the man, he was always so.... quiet. Even to his own son.

"This is a very unique spring line, Miss Marinette. This one has caught my eye the most." He showed her the picture, the one of a couple, the woman in a white top and a large skirt, the male in a button and jeans. Lots of green and pink.

"Thank you. Mr. Agreste." She didn't know what to say. Did she not do enough? Did she do too much? He had never given her a project like this one, never in this short amount of time. Was it a test? she felt so confused, so... Unsure. The air was unsure, he opened his mouth to speak several times, but closed it and continued flipping through.

"Is there something on your mind?" She looked up at him, and he seemed to hesitate again. Was that the complete wrong question to ask? She swallowed all the spit in her mouth, she had never been so scared. She watched his every move, the way his fingers twitched and how he sipped on his coffee, then slowly put the book down, the page open with the couple on it. His fingers pointed to the couple, her looking at them for any mistakes, but then his hand seemed to trail back up to his coffee, both of his thin, pale hands wrapping around the cup, lacing into one another.  He seemed to make a decision in that moment, as he inhaled and started to speak to her.

"I have a proposal for you. A business proposal." She had no idea what he meant. Was she getting a raise? A promotion? Several ideas bounced in her mind, as she looked everywhere but at his face, trying to hide her excitement. She did her best to hide her slanted smile, by tucking her hair behind her ears and licking her lips, trying to keep them closed. She couldn't think of anything that could possibly harm her career.  She looked at her shoes, then finally up at him.

"I would like to arrange a marriage between you and my son."