Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1

The price of greatness is responsibility. - Winston Churchill

Marinette darted through the halls of the Gabriel building, skirting around people and dodging precariously positioned trashcans with practiced ease. Thanks to the akuma attack on the other side of the city, she was returning from lunch nearly an hour late. Again.

During the summer before her last year of school, she had applied for an internship position at Gabriel Agreste's company and had been accepted for the summer program, much to her immense joy. Adrien had congratulated her personally with a warm smile and a heartfelt belief that she would do wonderful. His sincere encouragements had propelled her though many long days and nights once the internship actually started.

She was one of a dozen school-aged interns brought on for the summer to learn the ropes and get a taste of life in the high-paced fashion industry. Most of the interns were like her – nervous, wide-eyed, and friendly – but it was a cutthroat industry, and the teenagers weren't exempt. Several took this opportunity to attempt to sabotage others to eliminate competition. But Marinette didn't view this as competition – merely an opportunity. She oftentimes helped out her fellow interns when they were stuck on a design issue or got handed a problem to solve by a supervisor. And she quickly gained a reputation as being one of the interns the others could go to when they had problems.

Except she still had her duties as Ladybug and Hawkmoth didn't appear to take a summer break. She thought she could slip in unnoticed to meetings and sneak out of work to fight akumas, but she was wrong. Her boss had noticed and so had many of the other interns. And though they valued her judgment on fashion advice, she had begun to gain another kind of reputation: unreliable.

Try as she might – she hadn't overslept her alarm even once this summer! - the akumas always struck at the worst possible times. And the frequent absences and tardies were beginning to take its toll on her work and mental health as well. She had long since lost track of how many times she stayed late to finish her assignments or completely passed out once she arrived home.

She slowed her run into a deliberate walk as she entered the intern office. Several heads glanced up at her arrival and a few shot her sympathetic looks. One smirked at her. Uh-oh.

"Marinette," a clear voice called out. She jumped and turned. "Did you have a nice lunch?"

She looked over as her boss approached, a stern-faced woman that could give Nathalie a run for her money on stoicism. Though she often criticized nearly everything the interns did, it was constructive and usually on-point instead of harsh and unrelenting. Marinette viewed her as a kind of surrogate mother – firm and unyielding, yet sympathetic when she needed to be. Right now, she frowned at Marinette in clear disapproval.

"Uh, hi, Armelle," Marinette said, lifting a hand in a feeble wave.

"You're late," her boss pointed out. "Again."

"Sorry," Marinette said, "I got a bit distracted from the latest akuma attack and -"

"Save it," Armelle said, cutting her off mid-way through her explanation. Her expression shifted into one of pity. "Your luck ran out today." Marinette gulped. "Mr. Agreste stopped by immediately after lunch looking for you. When he discovered you weren't here, he wasn't too pleased. He wants to speak to you the moment you get in."

Ice flooded through Marinette's stomach. "N-now?" she stuttered.

"I'm afraid so. I wouldn't keep him waiting any longer than necessary," Armelle said. She shot another look of pity at Marinette. "Keep your chin up, it might not be that bad."

"You don't really think that, but thanks," Marinette said. She sighed. "Time to face the music. Thanks for everything, Armelle. It's been a dream working here. Do I have time to go to my desk?"

Armelle shrugged.

She hurried to her desk regardless, ignoring the sideways glances the rest of the interns gave as she passed. She flopped down on her chair and buried her head into her arms. If ladybugs were supposed to represent good luck, how come everything she did turned into a disaster?

After a moment of self-pity, she raised her head and began to gather her things in a pile. Most of her belongings consisted of the designs that she had scribbled down on papers and strewn around her desk. The pens, pencils, and other miscellaneous objects all belonged to the company. She stuffed the papers into her bag with an angry vengeance, visualizing punching Hawkmoth's face as she did so.

"Marinette, are you okay?"

She turned toward the whisper to find one of her intern friends peering at her with concern. His light brown hair fell to just below his eyes and his brown eyes peeked through a fringe of bangs. His desk was positioned next to hers so they became fast friends over the last few weeks. To say Leon was talented was a bit of an understatement; he did land an internship at Gabriel with the rest of them, but Leon had a style so different from Marinette's. He specialized in business attire – crisp fabrics, smooth lines, and a sense of effortless suave maturity that Marinette often envied.

"Where have you been?" he whispered.

"The akuma attack held me up," she whispered back.

The boy in front of Leon turned. "Again?" he said in a low voice.

Leon shooed the boy around. "You'll get us into trouble, Garrett," he admonished.

Garrett rolled his eyes. "I'm trying to support my friend."

Despite herself, Marinette smiled. The two boys had bonded into fast friends, and didn't seem to mind a bit of friendly competition. They would frequently have little contests between the two. The loser usually bought the winner a pastry from the cafe in the lobby. Garrett had one sitting on his desk right now. Marinette pointed to it.

"My parents make better cupcakes," she said.

Garrett pulled a face and shot a doleful look at the cupcake. "So you keep saying, but you never seem to bring any in for us to taste so I don't have anything to compare it to." He poked a bit of the icing and stuck a finger into his mouth. Leon scrunched his face and put his head back down to continue his drawings.

"C'mon guys, can't you see she's nervous," the pale-haired girl in front of Marinette turned, the two boys having distracted her from her work. She gave Marinette the sweetest smile, not for the first time sending a striking wave of familiarity through Marinette as she thought of her classmate Rose's same gentle smile. "Mr. Agreste didn't seem that upset," she said.

But Marinette buried her head again. "I've seen him when he's only mildly irritated and that's enough of a nerve-wracking experience for me. Thanks for trying to cheer me up though, Claire. What happened?"

At once, the three turned to her and began spouting out the description of the afternoon. "Whoa," Marinette said, holding up her hands with a small laugh, "one at a time."

"Mr. Agreste came in almost right after lunch," Claire began, "I think he was waiting for us to come back."

"Does that dude ever eat? He could stand to take an extra lunch break or three," Garrett cut in, only to be silenced with a glare from Claire. Garrett ducked his head and went back to eating his cupcake.

Satisfied that she wouldn't be interrupted anymore, Claire continued. "Anyway, he looked around the room for a moment before going over to Armelle. She pointed to your desk and he came over. He asked Leon where you were."

At this, three pairs of eyes swiveled to the teen. Leon sputtered and waved hand in protest. "Hey, what are those looks for? I can't lie to Mr. Agreste."

"What did you tell him?" Marinette asked.

Leon winced. "The truth. I didn't know where you were, since we didn't eat lunch together today." The akuma again. She had abandoned her three friends with a feeble excuse she had long since forgotten. "He asked if this was a frequent thing with you."

The three teens looked at their desks. Marinette gulped again. "What-?" she asked, almost afraid to know the answer. "What did you say?"

Leon met her gaze. "It wasn't us," he whispered. His eyes flickered over to a spot behind Marinette. "It was Odetta," he said, and instantly all remaining hope drained from Marinette. Odetta wasn't above sabotaging or demeaning other interns. She had already caused two interns to quit (and thus two more akumas to fight) and brought several more on the verge of tears, Claire included. Marinette was used to dealing with Chloe during the year, so she brushed Odetta's remarks aside, which further inflamed the girl. The fact that Marinette already had a tenuous personal connection to Mr. Agreste through his son also grated on Odetta and she made it a point to make Marinette's life as miserable as possible.

Leon continued the story, "Odetta overheard Mr. Agreste talking to me and told him every single time that you've been late or missed meetings. She didn't paint you in a very good light," Leon admitted. "Even though I tried to tell Mr. Agreste things were blown out of proportion."

"And I flat out told him that Odetta was a liar," Garrett chimed in with a grin.

Marinette gasped. "You didn't!" she exclaimed.

"Guilty." Garrett didn't even look ashamed, folding his arms confidently across his chest. "I told him that Odetta couldn't be trusted and she was always causing more trouble than offering solutions."

If she wasn't so worried about her own predicament, she would have flung her arms around Garrett. "You're the best," she whispered instead. He beamed at her.

Leon cleared his throat. "We tried, Marinette," he said. "But the fact is that even after twenty minutes of being here, you still hadn't shown up. He shuffled through a few things on your desk and grabbed some of the design sketches you were working on and then went back to Armelle, spoke to her for a few minutes, and then left."

Despite herself, Marinette felt overwhelming gratitude well up for each of them. "Thanks, guys," she murmured. "Hey, if I don't see you guys anymore, maybe we can still hang out? As friends?"

"Absolutely," Claire assured her. Leon and Garrett nodded.

With one last look around her desk, she stood and headed to the door. Armelle stopped her on her way out for one last pep talk. "Marinette, your designs are wonderful," she complimented. Marinette blinked in surprise. Armelle never praised anyone without also criticizing something. "You have an amazing style and you'll go far with your talents, even if it's not with this company. Now go on, and stay positive. I know that's the one thing you can do." With a small smile, Armelle pushed Marinette out the door.

Despite Armelle's words, it was with a heavy heart that Marinette slowly worked her way toward the elevators. The corridors previously packed with people now seemed so empty. She tapped the button to go up and flopped down on a cushioned bench beside it to wait.

"Oh, Tikki," she murmured, "Mr. Agreste is going to fire me. I'll be blacklisted from the entire fashion industry. Marinette Dupain-Cheng, aspiring fashion designer, can't even make it past her first internship."

Her kwami peeked out from her purse. "You heard what Armelle said, Marinette," Tikki cheered, "you have to stay positive. Maybe it won't be as bad as you think."

Marinette thought back to the faces in the room. Her friends looked sad. The one or two who hoped to see her gone looked happy. She buried her face in her hands. "Nope, I know it's as bad as I think."

Tikki flew up and nuzzled her cheek briefly before disappearing back into her purse. "Marinette, you can't go into Mr. Agreste's office already believing the worst."

"He's going to fire me," she moaned. "He's going to tell me what a mistake it was to hire me on, and that he is so disappointed in me and that I'm a bad influence on Adrien and not only will I lose my dream internship but also my friendship with Adrien."

"Calm down, Marinette."

Marinette finally looked up from her hands and focused on Tikki. "It's not fair, Tikki," she muttered. "I have to pick between saving Paris or saving my dream?"

"You're the chosen one, Marinette, it's your destiny to be Ladybug."

"I know, Tikki," she said with a long sigh. "It's just that I made such a big effort to make it to all the meetings on time and arrive at work early and put in extra hours to make sure my sketches get finished and my projects completed and I have done more work here in the last month than in the entire last year, but Hawkmoth had to go and ruin it." She clenched a fist in anger, for the first time feeling the enormous weight upon her shoulders.

"Marinette, you've gotten through other problems before, you'll make it through this one," Tikki assured her. "You'll always have me."

That cheered her and a bit of the gloominess faded. "Oh, Tikki, I'm so lucky to have you," she said, cupping her purse and bringing it to eye level. "You've always been there for me." A dejected sigh. "I guess somewhere deep down inside, I had hoped maybe I could have both."

The elevator dinged open and she stood, snapping her purse closed. She pressed the button to the top floor and rode in silence, trying not to let her misery overwhelm her. Even if Gabriel blacklists her, she'll still make it on her own. It might not be an easy path but she was Ladybug and she would work things out.

Despite her mental pep talk, she didn't feel much better as the doors opened on the floor. She spotted Nathalie at her desk and walked over. Nathalie looked up and tapped a button on her intercom.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng is here," she said.

"Send her in," came the reply.

"Through the doors," Nathalie said, going back to her typing.

"Thanks," Marinette said in a near-whisper as she passed.

Nathalie paused and turned to her. "Marinette," she said, "you are one of his favorite interns."

Is that enough? she thought. She pushed open the doors with a deep breath, steeled herself, and entered.

Gabriel looked up as she walked in, studying her with an expressionless poker face as she walked across the seemingly endless expanse of office. She tried mustering up as much Ladybug confidence as she could but still wilted under his intense scrutiny.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Agreste," she began, "I was told you wished to speak with me."

He placed his pen down on the desk, still studying her. "Yes. Imagine my surprise when I came down to speak with you and discovered you had yet to return. Did you forget about the time while you enjoyed your food?"

Her stomach betrayed her then, grumbling loudly as it reminded her that the akuma attack left no time for eating. Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "I'll take that as a no. What were you doing then if you weren't eating?"

"It was personal and I apologize. I lost track of time." She averted her eyes, cursing Hawkmoth and his attacks in her mind.

"Hmm," he frowned. "I might dismiss it if this was the first time, but after asking around, I've discovered this isn't the only instance of you 'losing track of time'."

"I apologize, sir. In my defense, I stay late whenever possible to get all of my work completed."

"Yes, your designs are astounding for an intern, and your peers praise your diligence and compassion. Additionally, your work is always completed on time." He folded his hands on top of his desk.

She remained silent.

"Ms. Dupain-Cheng," he said in a sharp tone, causing her to flinch involuntarily, "is this internship important to you?"

She lifted her head and fixed him with an intense look of her own, meeting his steely glare with a fierce determination in hers. "Yes, Mr. Agreste. It is very important to me."

"The most important thing in your life?"

She deflated. "No," she admitted at last in a whisper. "I know you want me to say that it is," she began in a louder voice, hastening to explain herself before he could interrupt, "and I really really want it to be." She clenched a fist in determination.

"But it's not?" Puzzlement filtered through Gabriel's voice as he watched her. Clearly he had expected her to say that it was, and that would give him leverage to lecture her on prioritization. The fact she had not played into his imagined pre-planned script confused him and it showed in his tone.

She shook her head again. "I'm sorry," she apologized again. "I know that Adrien probably vouched for me and I'm disappointing both you and him with my unexplained disappearances, but I have another obligation."

Gabriel's face flashed in surprise for a moment before he frowned again. "And that is more important than your internship?"

She nodded. "It's... sir, your internship is a dream. It's my dream. I know what it means and what it can do for me and I value everything that I've learned while working here, but," she raised her eyes to meet his, squaring her shoulders as her decision is made, "it is only a dream. I have a more important commitment. And if that means that I have to give up my dream to fulfill it, then I will."

"What is this prior obligation? Perhaps we can work out an arrangement that accommodates for your time here and those duties."

Marinette shook her head sadly, absently fiddling with her earring. She missed the way Gabriel's eyes followed her hands, his eyes narrowing at her earrings before widening in shock as his mouth dropped open. "I can't say. I'm sorry; I truly am. I know what a disappointment I must be."

"You would really throw away this chance at your dream just for a sense of duty?"

"Yes, sir." She focused on him, his face once more smoothed into passive neutrality.

"That's quite commendable," he said.

It was Marinette's turn to be confused. Commendable? That wasn't what she expected him to say.

Gabriel stood, walking around his desk to stare out the window. His brow furrowed as he viewed the city before him, his hands folded behind his back. His eyes glazed over. He wasn't seeing anything, instead lost into his own deep thoughts. Marinette let him think in silence. After all, he was probably debating her fate. At last he turned.

"I would like to show you something," he said.

"Uh, show me something?" she repeated.

He nodded. "Unfortunately, I don't have it here. It's at my home. I trust you know the way?"

"Yes, I do." She was still quite a bit confused.

"Excellent. Be there at seven. I won't tolerate tardiness this time. You're dismissed. I believe you have quite a lot of work to catch up on."

With that, he turned away. She stood for a moment, stunned, before gathering her wits and scurrying from the room in a daze, passing by Nathalie without a word and nearly sprinting toward the elevator. She collapsed onto the bench.

"Tikki, what was that all about?" she exclaimed.

The kwami popped up again, giggling at her. "I don't know, Marinette, but you're not fired! That's great."

She stood and clutched her purse. "That was the weirdest thing though. What does he want to show me that is so important?"

Tikki dipped her head from side to side. "I don't know, Marinette, but that has to be a positive sign, right?"

"You're right, Tikki!"

But she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. The rest of the day she went through the motions of her job – absently sketching designs and assisting the other interns (who all were in various stages of shock and dismay at her arrival) – until it was time for them to leave. Normally, she would remain behind even after Armelle left to catch up on work that akuma attacks forced her to miss, but this time she didn't want to be late for her second meeting with Mr. Agreste.

She bid a quick goodbye to Claire, Leon, and Garrett with a promise to explain everything to them tomorrow and headed in the direction of the Agreste mansion, wondering if she would still have her internship the next time she saw them.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2

As Marinette walked toward the mansion, she stopped at a nearby bistro and grabbed a quick snack, sitting at a table on the sidewalk and inhaling her food. Tikki admonished her to slow down before she choked but quieted after Marinette slipped her a cookie. She really didn't want a repeat of their earlier meeting with her stomach growling for food. After finishing her quick dinner, she ducked into their restroom to freshen up. Satisfied she didn't appear as if she had run through an obstacle course set out by Hawkmoth (though that's certainly how she felt), she nodded at her reflection and left, quickening her pace to make up for the time lost eating. At five minutes to the hour, she rang the bell, staring up at the mansion in the fading twilight with a faint smile of nostalgia and a large sense of foreboding.

The familiar camera swiveled out, startling her even though she had seen it several times during previous visits to the home.

"Ah, perfect timing," Gabriel's voice filtered through the speaker. "Please come in." The camera retracted and the gate buzzed. Marinette pushed it open and stepped through, walking to the front door with slow, hesitant steps. She knocked and Gabriel immediately answered the door. "This way," he said without anymore introduction. She followed him inside, her footsteps echoing in sharp clicks across the buffed marble in the cavernous foyer. He led her into the side room that she had been in before – but only as Ladybug. She instantly recognized the distinctive brilliant gold portrait of his wife.

She noticed Nathalie's clean desk and dark computer monitor. "Where is everybody?" she asked. Marinette had never seen him without either his assistant or his bodyguard.

"I sent them away for the evening."

Lights illuminated the room with the same brightness as it would be in the daytime, but knowing that no one else was in the house made her feel like the shadows beckoned further and something lurked around the corner. She stifled a shudder.

Chat Noir had once convinced her to walk through an art gallery with him after hours when the place was closed and empty and dark. It was a favor from the curator for purifying the akuma in him, yet despite the thrill of getting to see priceless and beautiful artwork up close, she hated the sensation of walking alone in those halls. She never managed to shake off the constant feeling of unease as they viewed each piece. She never voiced those thoughts to Chat, not wanting to appear silly in front of him. The entire night kept her on edge as her skin prickled with anticipation.

The same prickly sensation settled across her arms right now. Marinette was glad she had worn a light jacket to work that day as it would disguise her current unease.

"I feel this is something best discussed away from prying eyes and ears. Adrien is also out with a friend."

She gulped and a brief wave of regret coursed through her. She hadn't been out with her friends since her internship began. Alya bombarded her with dozens of texts everyday but Marinette couldn't even be bothered to answer more than two or three. She often collapsed onto her bed in exhaustion once arriving home. Her parents believed she was trying to get ahead. Little did they know she was doing everything she could to just scrape by. Maybe Gabriel wanted to fire her in person. Drag out the process. No, she decided. He may be harsh and direct but never needlessly cruel.

She shook herself from her thoughts as he turned to her at last, folding his hands behind his back in his familiar stance. Once again, she resisted the urge to shift under his steady gaze.

"I'll get right to the point. I was like you once," he said. "I, too, had a choice between following my dream or fulfilling my duty." He turned to the portrait, glancing at the picture for a brief moment before pushing it away to reveal a safe. He fiddled with the combination. "I'm sorry to admit that I chose my dream, instead." A hint of sadness touched his voice as he reached inside and pulled out something, turning back to Marinette, who still watched him with confusion. "I do often wonder what things would be like had I not selfishly decided to pursue my own ambitions. Yet today was the first time I was faced with a harder question: did my decision then prevent someone like you from achieving your dream now? Would Hawkmoth even exist if I had been more diligent?"

Was that guilt? It couldn't be. Of all the emotions she had ever seen Gabriel Agreste display as both Marinette and Ladybug, guilt was never one of them.

He opened his hand and Marinette tore her eyes away from his face and look down at his palm. Resting on it was a blue pin in the shape of an open peacock tail. She looked back up to him. "I don't understand," she said in a quiet voice, embarrassed to admit as much in front of her idol. "What is that?"

He released a soft sigh. "Perhaps you should ask your kwami."

Marinette gasped and jerked back as if she had been burned. She blanched and her eyes widened. "Tikki," she whispered, her trembling fingers straying to her earrings. Tikki flew out from her purse the moment she heard her name and zipped around Gabriel, whose gaze flickered to the kwami for a second before focusing his attention back on Marinette. She continued inching toward the door in small, shaky steps. He remained motionless, his hand still outstretched with the pin resting on it, unperturbed by both her panic and the small red kwami floating precariously close to his head.

She drew sharp, erratic breaths. Her eyes darted around the room. Mapping out an escape.

"It's okay, Marinette," Tikki assured her, and Marinette placed her faith in her kwami, dropping her hands from her ears and halting her backwards retreat. Her body remained tensed, coiled like a snake ready to bolt at a moment's notice, but her breathing slowed to normal and her eyes gradually lost the feral look of a caged animal. Tikki continued her inspection of Gabriel, zooming in close to peer into his eyes. He met her scrutiny with calm serenity and continued holding out the pin for her inspection. Tikki zipped down and released her own gasp once her eyes fell upon the object.

"That's a Miraculous," she exclaimed. Marinette's mouth dropped open and she leaned forward to get a closer look despite her reservations. Tikki pressed her tiny face close to it for a moment that seemed to stretch into eternity, then darted back out to float beside Marinette. The little kwami folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at Gabriel, looking quite intimidating despite her diminutive size. "Where did you get Duusu's Miraculous?" she demanded.

"I don't know," Gabriel admitted.

Tikki zipped back into his face so fast Gabriel jolted back. "How did you get the Peacock Miraculous?" she demanded.

"It was left on my desk many years ago. It's mine," Gabriel snapped defensively, "or it was, until I decided to surrender its power."

"Yours?" Marinette blurted out.

"Surrender its power?" Tikki exclaimed at the same time.

Gabriel sat down in one of the seat cushions and motioned for Marinette to do the same. She reluctantly sat, still wary at the developments. Tikki perched upon Marinette's shoulder. Both waited for Gabriel to make the next move.

"Like you," he said to Marinette, "I was given a Miraculous. And like you, eventually its responsibilities conflicted too much with my personal desires. I had a choice." His face tightened.

"You chose to give up the Miraculous," Marinette said.

Gabriel nodded, casting a forlorn look at his palm. "It wasn't a decision I made lightly and I still agonize over it years later." He closed his hand around the pin. "Perhaps if I hadn't, Hawkmoth wouldn't be around now."

"You don't know that," Marinette exclaimed, her fear vanishing for a moment as a surge of Ladybug confidence coursed through her. "You can't hold yourself responsible for the actions of another."

"Marinette is right," Tikki chimed in, "you couldn't know what would have happened. What about your partner?"

"You had a partner?" Marinette asked.

Gabriel's expression grew stricken and he turned away. "Yes, but that's a story for another day."

"Hawkmoth only appeared recently," Marinette said, tilting her head in thought. "What were you doing with an active Miraculous back then?"

"I had a different mission."

"Which was?"

He slipped into silence. Marinette got the impression he was selecting his words very carefully. "Research, mostly." That was it? Marinette opened her mouth to ask another question but Tikki beat her to it.

"Why didn't you give your Miraculous back once you decided not to wield it anymore?" Tikki asked. "A new user would have been chosen."

Gabriel threw the kwami an exasperated look. "I told you, I found this on my desk. I didn't trust anyone else enough to give them this power, so I kept it safely hidden." Marinette and Tikki exchanged a quick glance that wasn't lost on Gabriel. "What is it?" he asked.

Marinette bit her lip, casting her eyes to Tikki for advice. "We know the man who gave you that Miraculous. We could return it to him and have him pass it along to someone else," Marinette said.

He frowned, uncertain with their suggestion.

"There is another answer," Tikki suggested, a sly grin on her face.

Gabriel immediately shook his head. "No."

"Just consider it," she said.

"No," Gabriel repeated, a bit firmer. Marinette opened her mouth to ask what they meant when Gabriel turned to her. "Regardless, I have called you here to offer you a potential solution to the dilemma that mirrored my own years ago." He reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew a few papers. He unfolded them to reveal several of her designs. "I see you've been taking inspiration from Hawkmoth's akuma victims."

She flushed. "It's not a homage to him or anything," she muttered.

"I didn't say it was. I have been drawing inspiration from those events as well. Your unexplained absences could be a special project assigned by me." She perked up and for the first time that evening, hope bloomed in her. Could... could she really continue to live both of her lives? She almost missed the rest of the explanation. "- collecting info from akuma attacks. You would be given a title of a field researcher or something similar. Even today's meeting could be explained away by you reporting your findings thus far. What do you say?"

Marinette threw a joyful look to Tikki, who beamed at her in reply with a nod of her head. "Yes!" she cried, jumping to her feet. Tikki floated up beside her. "I can stay and finish my internship?" she asked, raising her fists to her mouth to cover the smile that stretched across her face.

"That's to be expected if you're researching for me," Gabriel said.

She shrieked, scooped Tikki in her hands and whirled around in happiness. "I can do both, Tikki!" she cried.

"See, Marinette, everything is working out for the best," Tikki assured her.

"I'm going to bake you the biggest chocolate chip cookie in the entire world," Marinette promised her kwami.

Tikki giggled. "I couldn't eat it all. I'm not a glutton like Plagg."

That stopped Marinette in her tracks. "Who's Plagg?" she asked.

"He's Chat Noir's kwami," Tikki explained.

"You don't know the identity of your partner?" Gabriel cut in, interrupting the moment between the two.

Marinette turned and shook her head. "No, it's for our own safety. Did you know who your partner was outside of their mask?" she asked.

Something ghosted across Gabriel's face for the briefest of moments before vanishing. "Yes," he said. "Though our dangers weren't nearly as grave as yours are."

"When did you find out about me?" she asked.

The corners of Gabriel's mouth lifted a tiny bit. "Honestly? This afternoon. Your speech struck a chord in me. When you touched your earrings, it all connected."

Marinette frowned and brushed her fingers against her earrings again. "But these don't look anything like my Miraculous when I'm transformed."

Gabriel laughed. A short, refreshing laugh that lightened the lingering tension in the room. His eyes glowed with mirth. "Marinette, I own a Miraculous. Furthermore, I used to own a book containing information on all of the Miraculouses. I've studied them for many years."

Marinette zeroed in on the one detail that stood out among everything he just said. "That was your book?" she blurted, then immediately blushed and clamped a hand over her mouth.

"You know of it?" Now it was Gabriel's turn for surprise.

She flushed. "It's a long story, but Tikki recognized it in someone's possession. It changed hands a few times and was finally discarded in a trash can." At this, Gabriel paled and gasped, squeezing the edge of the cushion. "Don't worry, we retrieved it." He breathed a sigh of obvious relief, relaxing his white-knuckled grip. "It's in safe hands now."

"May I have it back?"

"I don't have it."

"But you said it's safe."

Marinette shifted on the bench. "It is. We gave it to Master Fu to protect."

At the name, Gabriel's eyes widened. "Impossible," he uttered.

"You know Master Fu?"

Gabriel gulped. "It's not the same man. It must be a title handed down. Master Fu was the man who gave me my assignment after I received my Miraculous. But that was many years ago and he was an old man then. He must have passed away by now."

Tikki giggled, her laugh sounding like tinkling bells. Two pairs of eyes swiveled to her. "It's the same man," she assured Gabriel. "He's the one who actually gave you your Miraculous."

He slumped down in shock. His mouth opened and closed several times. "How?" he managed to say at last.

"The power of the Miraculous," Tikki said as if that explained everything. Maybe it did.

Gabriel examined the pin in his hand. "Why didn't he come to claim this back, then?"

Tikki flew in close to him. "Because you are the chosen one," she said simply with a warm smile.

He frowned and closed his fist again. "Not anymore I'm not."

"We could use an extra hand against Hawkmoth," Marinette suggested in a timid voice.

"No." Gabriel drew himself up. "It's not my fight." Tikki stared at him. "I'm too old." Tikki rolled her eyes. "I'll just disappoint everyone." Tikki folded her arms. "I'm not needed," he insisted. "I'm not!" he repeated, but it seemed he was trying to convince himself more than the kwami. He spotted Marinette scribbling in a small notebook. "What are you doing?"

She paused and looked up. "Writing these down," she replied with a cheeky grin that belonged on Ladybug and not the stammering intern. "I was running low on excuses." In that moment, she felt more at ease watching her kwami berate Gabriel like Tikki often chided her and knowing that even the great Gabriel Agreste couldn't stand up to the stubborn kwami. It was as if all of the remaining nervousness flowed out of her as he voiced many of the same fears she herself had felt over the years.

Gabriel glowered at her. "I rejected my Miraculous," he reiterated. "I don't even know if Duusu will accept me again. If she can accept me again."

"She can," Tikki promised him with a confident warmth in her voice that lifted Gabriel's lips into a faint smile for a moment. His shoulders relaxed as if some unseen weight had been lifted.

"All you have to do is want to become that person again," Marinette added in a reassuring tone that echoed her kwami. "Trust me on this, I know a thing or two about rejecting Miraculouses."

"What?" Gabriel blinked. He studied her in a new light. "When did you reject your Miraculous?"

Marinette shook her head. "That's a story for another day," she repeated his words back to him with another grin. "Say, if you helped us take down Hawkmoth, I wouldn't be late for my internship anymore."

"If you're trying to bribe me, you're going to need a better incentive," Gabriel said dryly. "You clearly don't know how to negotiate."

She huffed, throwing him an affronted look. "I'm not trying to bribe you." She thought on it some more. "But if I was, I would offer up some of my pastries as a bargaining chip."

"Trying to sweeten the deal?" A brief look of horror flashed across his face, as if the words slipped from his mouth before could stop them.

Marinette groaned and smacked her forehead with her hand. "Not you, too," she muttered. "I take that back, we don't need your help."

"Good, we agree on something."

Sensing the change of mood, Marinette sobered. "So I'm not fired?" she asked.

"I thought that was obvious this afternoon," he replied.

"Sir, no offense, but with you, nothing is obvious."

He let out a quiet chuckle at her blunt assessment. "You're not fired," he confirmed. "But I will still hold you to the same standards as the other interns, tardiness excluded. I expect your work to reflect as such."

Marinette nodded. "I've been staying late to finish my assignments most nights."

"Yes, your coworkers have told me as much and from my perusal of your designs, I see that my concerns are unfounded. However," he paused, examining her with a frown, "you've been neglecting your health."

"No, I haven't," she insisted. "I'm fine!"

"You look like you haven't gotten a good night's sleep in months."

"One month, actually," she corrected. "That's when the internship began."

"And if this afternoon is any indication, you skip meals as well," he continued. "Have you eaten anything at all today?"

"I grabbed some food on the way over here," Marinette said brightly.

Gabriel rubbed a hand over his forehead. "I hate to imagine what your parents think." Marinette released a sheepish giggle and Gabriel's scrutinizing gaze sharpened. "Do they even know?"

"Well," Marinette drew out the word, "they don't know I'm Ladybug, so obviously they don't know I skip lunch sometimes. And they just think that I stay late to get ahead."

She trailed off as his frown deepened, clearly not liking her explanation. "This is intended to be a learning internship," he said. "Tough, yet not overwhelming. I've seen what you can manage under pressure and this internship should have been an opportunity for you to thrive and hone your skills."

A shadow of darkness clouded her face. "Tell that to Hawkmoth," she ground out. She straightened with renewed determination. "I mean, I can completely handle this! I can take on both. I do it at school all the time," she attempted to assure him, waving her hands in front of her and plastering a smile upon her face.

"Marinette, stop." At his firm command, she froze, lowering her hands. The smile slid from her face. "Remember, I have been in your position before. I don't wish for you to make the same mistakes as I did. If your workload gets overwhelming, please tell me. I understand that your duties as Ladybug come first and I am willing to make exceptions for that. I would rather have a handful of quality ideas from you than a dozen half-assembled pieces."

She swallowed at his stern admonishments and nodded. "Okay."

Tikki, who had been silently observing the entire time, flew into Gabriel's face and whispered something in his ear, which caused his face to slacken in shock. He cleared his throat and stammered something in reply. This seemed to satisfy Tikki, for she nodded and flew back to Marinette. Gabriel glanced at the clock. "It's growing late."

She stood, taking her cue. "Thank you, Mr. Agreste."

"Marinette," Gabriel stopped her, standing as well, "for the record, Adrien didn't say a word to me about your internship. Do you really have such little faith in your talents that you feel my son would need to speak on your behalf?"

She flushed even as Tikki laughed. "See, Marinette?" the kwami chirped.

"Thanks again, Mr. Agreste."

She vanished through the doors. Gabriel opened his hand and stared at the pin for a long time afterwards, only pulling himself from his deep thoughts once he heard Adrien arrive home. He stood and headed to the safe. He stopped before reaching it and glanced back down at the Miraculous in his hand.

"Father?" Adrien's voice filtered into his study.

With a deep breath, Gabriel turned on his heels, stuck the pin in his pocket and walked out to greet his son.

The End