"So, are you interested?"

Marinette frowns, rubbing her eyes. She's only been up for twenty minutes, her mum came up and told her to get dressed quickly. She's barely been listening to what Bob Roth has said.

"Uh, wait, wait, wait," Marinette says, trying to recollect what he had said. "You want... me to design the album cover for Jagged Stone?"

"That's right," Bob says. "Requested by Jagged himself. I brought a few visuals so you can get a sense of what we're going for."

He hands Marinette a CD. She frowns at it. It's got XY on it, the pop singer.

"This doesn't seem like Jagged Stone material," she says. "More like a perfume ad."

"This is the direction of his new image," Bob says. "More modern, current!"

"Really?" Marinette asks, skeptical. "I was thinking more..."

"Don't think!' Bob snaps. "This is what is selling these days!"

"Sure?" Marinette says, making it a question, with the CD still in her hand.

"And one last thing," Bob says. "We're in a hurry. We need a proposal by the end of the day. You up to it?"

Marinette nods, wondering if she's volunteering too hastily.

"Um, sure!"

She might as well give it a go, she thinks as Bob leaves. Tom beams at her.

"My daughter, a famous album cover designer! You're going to kill it, Marinette-style!"

Two hours later, after suffering through XY's music on repeat and loathing Jagged Stone's apparent style change, she's presenting her design to him. She can't help feeling proud that he's still wearing her sunglasses.

"What happened to the raw, impulsive artistry that made this?"

"Yeah, about that," Marinette says awkwardly. She knew there was a mistake. "Mr. Roth told me..."

"Marinette's young, Jag!" Bob interrupts. Marinette scowls at him, but misses Jagged's grin. "She represents our target audience. She's come up with a modern concept that is exactly what we need!"

"Doesn't it look a lot like the cover of that YZ guy?" Jagged frowns, looking at Marinette's drawing again. She's cringing just looking at the back of it. "Marinette, don't listen to Bob. Could you do another one? You know, Jagged style?"

"Yeah, sure!" Marinette says, with more enthusiasm than before. Jagged grins.

"You're my girl, Marinette. Remember: raw, impulsive artistry. I think we're all done here, Bob."

"No!" Bob protests. "We are not!"

"Come on, Marinette," Penny says, leading her to the door. "Don't worry! Just do your best, okay?"

Penny smiles encouragingly at her, and it's partly that encouragement that makes her go back another two hours later, with her second design.

"Oh, yeah!" Jagged grins. "That's it! You did it, girl! I can almost smell the leather and sweat just radiating off this design!"

"Uh... um..." Marinette mutters awkwardly. "You are smelling it. I made a special scent sticker for your album."

"I want it. I've got to have it. It's authentic. It's original. It's just so Jagged," Jagged says, leaving no room for argument. Bob seems to find some room anyway.

"No, you can't! It's not what the public-!"

"Fine!" Jagged exclaims, making Marinette want to leave the room immediately. "I'm sure another record company will be perfectly happy with the number two chart topper!"

And, as it turns out, they definitely are. The next day, Bob Roth comes back to the bakery, shamefully admitting that Jagged Stone agreed to stay with him and asking Marinette for a photoshoot for the Metal Lourd magazine.

"See, Marinette?" Jagged had said, after Nadja Chamack had told him that his album had already hit number one after less than a day of being released. "Your designs are killer!"

Still glowing with the praise, Marinette had gone home and drawn an entire new episode of The Adventures of Tikki and Plagg, entitled Guitar Villain, after Jagged Stone. Her own copy of the album, signed by Jagged, sits by her laptop playing on repeat.

She's not quite finished by Monday, and is intending to finish the episode after school. It's while she's considering the ending and what the Lucky Charm will be that Adrien comes over.

"Um, hey there, Marinette."

Marinette almost trips, and spots the CD in his hand. With her design on it.

"So, actually, I'm a huge fan of Jagged Stone, and I saw you designed his new album cover."

Marinette goes pink, and nods.

"I, um, I did," she agrees. "Crazy, huh?"

For a moment, she thinks Adrien seems nervous, but then she dismisses the idea. Adrien is, well, Adrien. He doesn't get nervous.

"I... wanted to ask, um, I could get it... autographed?"

He hands her the CD and a marker. Marinette takes them both, and their hands brush slightly. Marinette turns an even darker shade of pink and hopes Adrien doesn't notice.

"Um, okay, sure, I'll ask him," Marinette says. She will. Jagged's told her to just contact Penny any time she wants, and he's happy to meet up with her.

Adrien shuffles his feet.

"Um, actually, I meant you."

For several seconds, Marinette's brain can't compute what Adrien just said. And then it can.

Adrien wants me to sign his copy of Jagged Stone's new album?

Adrien wants me to sign his copy of Jagged Stone's new album!!

"Sure," Marinette says, trying to act cool. She uncaps the pen, and writes her name on the album. It's permanent marker, and she immediately wonders whether it's too big, whether it's covered something important. She hands it back to him, and if she didn't know better, she'd think he was admiring it.

"Thanks, Marinette!" he says, and wanders off to where Nino is waiting for him. Alya grins at her.

"You've got a fan, Marinette!"

"No way," Marinette laughs, "Adrien isn't a fan of my art."

"Chloe seems to think he is," Alya laughs, pointing. Chloe is biting a copy of Metal Lourd, which happens to be the one with Marinette and Jagged Stone together on the front cover.

Marinette beams.

Late that night, she realises she's forgotten to post Guitar Villain, and then panics when she remembers she's still got to finish Pixelator as well and she would normally have updated with a new episode several days ago.

She opens her phone, reads one message and goes right back to sleep.

ChatNoir: hey, bugaboo. i see u were awake late two days ago, drawing pixelator, and completely forgot about it bc u started guitar villain. no need to stress. i was busy yesterday but ive redone the writing on pixelator bc it was nearly unreadable and ive finished both of them. whatever made u so busy i hope its over and u can relax. sleep well, princess

[A/N: Honestly I need a Chat Noir in my life, who's with me??]