Chapter Text
There would come a day, Marinette knew, when she would meet Gabriel Agreste again. She wasn't sure when that was going to happen. She also wasn't sure what her reaction would be. Would she hug him in gratitude? Or would she slap him? There was no way to be sure.
The day began like any normal Tuesday. She woke up late, cursed whoever decided to make morning start so early in the day, and ran out the door with a piece of toast in her mouth. The "normal" ended as Marinette crossed the street, her mouth falling open, her toast hitting the pavement. In front of her was a 20-foot tall billboard of Adrien.
New Gabriel ad campaigns always made her a little weak at the knees. Who wouldn't love a new set of pictures of their crush to stare at? But this one was different. It was an advertisement for a new line of pants. To make sure that buyers could see how well they sat on the hips, Adrien was shirtless. Or maybe that was only the excuse they were making to have their most attractive model pose half-naked. Her eyes raked up and down the giant photo, taking in his well-toned muscles, his seductive smile, his disheveled hair. Marinette's mouth went dry.
When the school bell rang, she was close enough to hear it, but mentally far enough away that it took her another full minute to realize that it meant she was late for class and that she needed to move herself.
A few minutes later than she had originally planned, she slipped into the classroom, eyes on the ground. Adrien's shoes peeked out from under his desk, but that was all she allowed herself to see of him. There was no way she could look him in the eye right now.
That had been three hours ago, and she'd spent the whole morning red-faced and spluttering. When she wasn't stealing looks at Adrien, she was stealing glances at his pictures (and reinserting her eyes back into her face). The new photos seemed to be everywhere. They popped up as ads when she googled something. They were passed around in the hallways. She could even see one on a billboard from her science room window. That class had ended with a lecture on lab safety after she accidentally set her textbook on fire.
Marinette was looking forward to a nice, relaxing, calming lunch at home, where she could control her exposure to "the ad" and maybe collect herself. The universe had different plans for her. Or at least Hawk Moth did.
As she started to shovel her books into her backpack, an emergency alert went out on her phone, informing all of Paris that there was an akuma attack. All were advised to shelter in place. Marinette swore under her breath. So much for a soothing lunch break. Her fraying sanity would have to wait.
The bell sounded a second later, and she slipped out of the classroom, escaping from Alya (who'd been laughing at her reactions all day). All she could do was tell herself to focus on the fight and hope the akuma stayed away from billboards. She could ignore the puddle of goo that was her insides for a few minutes while they cleaned up Hawk Moth's mess, right?
When Ladybug got outside, she discovered she was in severe trouble. She'd already known that the new Gabriel ads were everywhere, but she hadn't realized they were EVERYWHERE. Mr. Agreste had apparently bought every other billboard in the city overnight. She was absolutely doomed.
Ladybug got to the fight first, and within the first minute she'd let herself get tripped, tossed three blocks over, and knocked into the Seine without her yoyo. Cat Noir turned up just then and made some stupid pun about cat-fishing. He laughed when she threatened to push him in herself, but she was grateful to finally have something else to look at.
When they found the akuma again, he was perched on top of another one of "the ads," pacing, drawing her attention, and her face started to warm up again. It was going to be a looong day.