Adrien chuckled. "I think you guys are a special case. I've never seen two people so different get along as well as you guys."  He took a bite of his food and then a sip of wine before continuing. "I'm more worried about getting to a point where she enjoys working with me. It's so hard not to mess with her. Maybe she doesn't like jokers."

Iris just grinned. She played with the wine in her glass by swirling it around. "Don't let this get to you, Adrien. Worrying about it will make things harder. To get to know her first before joking around her. Maybe she's just nervous since this is all new to her. I bet she knows how hard your father is on interns." Iris blew her hair out of her face. "I wish he wasn't so tough on them. He made one cry once.."

Adrien nodded. "He hates interns. From what I can tell, he only hires them to make sure he doesn't miss out on new talent. Not that he finds someone he feels is worthy of a full-time position very often. She's very lucky. But, you're right. She was really nervous just being called into dad's office. I shouldn't mess with her until she's comfortable and we get to know each other."

Iris nodded her head. She then took a bite of her food. "Delicious, Adrien! You are quite the chef."

The next morning Marinette woke up and slammed her alarm clock. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. She felt exhausted. She got home late last night due to working on her samples for Adrien. She got two outfits done out of five. Marinette got out of bed and got ready for the day.

After she freshen up and changed clothes, Marinette left her room and went downstairs for breakfast. She still lived at home to save up money. She greeted her mother who had breakfast ready. They chatted a bit before heading off to work.

When Marinette got to work, there was a large crowd of a girls standing outside the building. She frowned. One of the older male models was signing autographs. One the girls pushed Marinette to the side so she could get through the crowds. Marinette grinned her teeth. Then she got pushed to the side again by blond.

"Hey watch it!" Marinette shouted angrily.

The blond girl stopped and turned. Marinette's eyes widen. It was Chloe Bourgeois. They went to school together back in the day. She had a smirk on her face. "Why hello there, Marinette. I never dreamed to see you in a place like this." 

Marinette felt her blood boiling. Chloe used to pick on her. "You know that I had interest in fashion, Chloe."

"Oh I know that! I mean standing in a crowd like this! It's sad to chase after a man for an autograph."

"Oh?" Marinette crossed her arms. "What about you? What are you doing here?"

Chloe gave her a blank stare. "You work in the fashion industry, Marinette. You should know I'm Leon's girlfriend!"

Marinette rolled her eyes. She didn't care about who the models date.

Chloe shook her head. "How sad. Well I'll see you around!" She turned around and ran over to her boyfriend.

Marinette let out a frustrated sigh. Great Chloe was seeing one of Mr. Agreste's models. They would probably run into each other more often. Marinette then fought through the crowd to get inside the building.

Adrien arrived at work the next morning to find the crowd of people getting autographs from Leon. 'Does my father know about this...?' He wondered. There was no way his father would have let this happen if he knew. Models were not supposed to hold their own meet and greets. That job was for the PR department. He sighed. Well, it was his job to break this up...

He exited his car and walked toward the building, ignoring the few members of the crowd who had noticed him and walked right up to Leon.... and Chloe. He hadn't noticed his ex... Nothing he could do about that now. She'd already seen him.

"Oh, look what the cat dragged in. Hello, Adrien."  Chloe sneered at him and clamped onto her boyfriend's arm.

Adrien gave her his best fake smile, "Hello Chloe." His gaze traveled to Leon who was handing a random fan the signed piece of paper with his free hand.  "Does my father know you set up an autograph session?"

Leon rolled his eyes. "It's called publicity. Mr. Agreste should be happy I'm connecting with the fans.  Besides, they swarmed me as soon as I got here. They just can't resist my good looks and charm."

Adrien sighed, glancing toward the crowd of people still waiting for an autograph.  Some of them had even turned the focus to him, probably wanting his autograph too. They needed to leave, but he didn't want to be rude to them. So he turned back to the source of the issue. "Don't you have a photo shoot to get to?"

"In an hour. Plenty of time to be adored by my fans."

Adrien opened his mouth to say something but Chloe cut him off. "Stop being selfish. You probably want Leon to go inside so you can get all the attention."

"No. I want him to go inside so my father doesn't notice what's going on.  Though, I'm sure you wouldn't mind if he were fired for his actions. I bet you hate sharing him with all his fans," he answered. His patience was wearing thin.

Chloe looked ready to rip him a new one, but she didn't get that far.  "What is going on here?"  Gabriel Agreste was walking straight towards them from the front doors of the office building. He must have just gotten out of a meeting and noticed the crowd. Adrien took a step back to disassociate himself from Leon and Chloe and waited.

Leon suddenly looked a lot less confident. "Nothing, Mr. Agreste. Some of my fans saw me coming in and wanted to say hi."

Gabriel noticed the pen in Leon's hand and raised an eyebrow. "I see.  And you were giving autographs.  Tell me, Leon, what is the company policy on meet and greets?"

"They are scheduled events.  We are not to have our own, impromptu meet and greets.  We are allowed to sign something if it's just one or two people on the street," Leon answered quickly.

"Right.  And is this one or two people on the street?"

"No sir."

Gabriel nodded and turned to the crowd. "I am sorry, everyone, but Leon has business to attend to. Please disperse."

There were quite a few unhappy mutters from the crowd, but Adrien's father was quite intimidating to most people so they were quick to leave.  Gabriel turned to Chloe next. "And you, Miss Bourgeois, must have better things to do right now."  Chloe didn't look happy, but years of being around Adrien's family was enough to make her huff in annoyance before saying goodbye to Leon and walking away.

Adrien didn't stick around to see if his father scolded Leon further.  He had a photo shoot to get to.  Being late would disrupt the entire schedule and then make him late for his afternoon meeting with Marinette.  She might be even less happy if he was late, even if he was held up with the photo shoot.  

He hurried to the elevator and up to the photo shoot.

When Marinette got into her office, she started to work on the remaining three outfits. She let out a yawn as she was cutting out the fabric. Marinette shook her head. She needed to wake up! She glanced down at the fabric. It was cut uneven. She sighed and pushed the fabric to the side. Maybe some coffee would wake her up. Marinette left her office and went downstairs to the cafeteria. 

Once she got her coffee, Marinette decided to stay in the cafeteria to drink it. She needed some time to wake up after all. Maybe all nighters were a bad idea. She took a sip of her drink. In the distance she could see Leon. Marinette frowned. Why did he have to date Chloe? She now had a greater risk of running into her.  She thought she would never see that brat again after completing school. Oh well. Marinette took her time drinking her coffee before going back to her office.

Adrien's photo shoot ended about fifteen minutes before his meeting with Marinette. He briefly considered getting a drink from the cafeteria but decided against it. The cafeteria could be busy at this time, and he really just didn't want to be late. He needed to make a better impression today.  That was his goal.

He made it to her office with a few minutes to spare.  Multiple people had stopped him to ask a question or talk about issues in their department.  Those things should really be discussed with HR in his opinion, but he answered them anyway. Thankfully, he was still on time.  He knocked on the door and waited for her to answer.

Marinette was in the middle of sewing two pieces of fabric together, when she heard a knock on the door. She glanced at the clock which was up on the wall. If was Adrien she was impressed. He was on time. "Come in." She then focused on her sewing.

Adrien entered, eyeing her work. She got a lot done in the short amount of time between now and the last time he saw her. He walked across the office to stand beside her and study the fabric she was sewing. "You've been busy," he said cheerfully. "Are you ready to show me some of the things you've been working on?"

"Yes," she said. "I have five outfits designs, but I was only manage to complete two. I'm currently working on the third." She felt like it should have been finished by now, but her tiredness was still getting in the way. Marinette shifted her body and pointed toward her desk. "In that bag over there are the two outfits. Pick whatever one of you want to try on first."

Adrien walked over to her desk and gently pulled each outfit out of the bag. He ran his hand along the fabric and stitching of the outfit, looking for any minor flaws.  They looked pretty good, but he was worried she might have been trying to move too fast. He laid both on the desk for a final look before grabbing one of them.  

"I'll try this one first," he said. He took the outfit down the hall to one of the changing rooms. Some designers would let their models change in the same room, but he wasn't going to test that privilege when he barely knew her; especially since she wasn't fond of him. 

He came back a moment later. "How does it look?" He asked.

Marinette looked toward him and studied the outfit. He was wearing a pair of jeans, a green shirt, and a brown jacket. She walked over to him and circle him. The more she looked it and the more she wasn't happy with it anymore. She just took the jacket off and threw it on her desk.

She then shook her head. "The jacket is stupid." Marinette glanced down at it and then back at him. "Or is just the color?"

Adrien shrugged and looked himself over in the mirror. His father was a designer and he kept up with fashion trends, but he didn't have a designer's eye for detail. He knew when something looked good, but ask him why it looked good and he would flounder.

"I'm not sure... I don't really know much about design, to be honest," he answered.

Marinette just stared at him. "But you're the son of a fashion designer. You have to have some clue about fashion." She glanced down at the jacket in disbelief. Great now she was back to square one with the jacket.

Adrien shrugged. "I know what's in season and what looks good, but I couldn't give you a technical reason for why something looks good or bad. I don't have the mind of a designer, just the body of a model. It frustrate my parents sometimes."