A Picture Perfect Revenge

When their schedules don't align for Adrien and Marinette to work on their group project together, Adrien gets permission to allow Marinette to accompany him to his next photo shoot. It's the perfect arrangement. But he forgot that Lila will also be there. And wherever Lila goes, trouble is sure to follow.

"What happened to your arm?"

Adrien flinched as he raised his head. Gabriel Agreste loomed above him, the designer's face etched into a furious glower of white-hot rage as he hissed out the question in a nearly silent whisper, yet the words still struck Adrien as if they had been shouted. Heads would roll, he was certain. He just hoped they didn't belong to anyone he cared about.

"I asked you a question, Adrien," his father said, his voice remaining low and dangerous.

Adrien gulped. "The uh... the set... uh... fell."

"Fell." It wasn't a question.

Adrien nodded and pointed with his good arm. Gabriel turned to follow his line of sight and his eyes settled upon the collapsed ruins of what used to be the backdrop and props for the latest photo shoot. Dozens of workers swarmed the area, but it was just Adrien's luck that the main beam holding everything together had almost landed upon him, injuring his shoulder. A shoulder which he now nursed in a white bandaged sling.

Gabriel's eyes narrowed as he turned back to Adrien. "Explain."

Oh boy. He thought back to how it all began.

Ms. Bustier had announced a new group project, encompassing different aspects of Ancient Greece. He had been paired with Marinette (much to Lila's vocal displeasure), and the two had been assigned to research fashion. Perfect.

He even managed to get Nathalie to sweet-talk his father into agreeing to allow Marinette on the set of his next photo shoot, since that was the only time the two of them could work together. It had taken some pleading and puppy-dog eyes, but Nathalie had caved at last and assured him she would speak to his father.

He knew his father didn't stand a chance against Nathalie.

So, a couple of days later Marinette joined him on the set. Lila, once she discovered Marinette's presence, scowled and sulked in the corner for most of the shoot. Every time she attempted to speak with Adrien, Nathalie popped up from some unknown shadow and shooed her away, claiming the two didn't need further distractions while working.

Adrien was starting to think Nathalie might not like Lila very much.

They worked together all day, with Marinette buried in her sketchbook, pencil tapping against her lip (in the most adorable manner, but he wouldn't dare tell her that) while he posed for pictures, and then she would share her results when he got through. He would suggest changes and give his ideas, and she would scribble away while he went to another backdrop. Occasionally, he would catch Lila glaring at Marinette, but the girl in question never noticed.

It wasn't until after lunch that things turned sour.

He hadn't realized something was wrong until it was too late. Until Marinette shoved him out of the way, saving his life. Until he pulled her toward him when she froze. Until the massive beam smashed right where they both had been standing seconds earlier.

Until his father loomed over him, furious and worried.

Gabriel's face remained stoic as Adrien finished his story. "And so that's how I hurt my shoulder."

The heavy weight of judgment settled upon him as his father studied him in silence.

"Mr. Agreste, it was awful," the saccharine simpering of a familiar voice caused Adrien's lip to curl with displeasure.

His father, however, focused his attention upon Lila, who approached them after clearly having been eavesdropping. "What do you mean?"

Lila bit her lip and averted her eyes. "Well, I didn't want to say anything earlier," she began, and Adrien scoffed.

"Quiet, Adrien," his father admonished. "Please continue, Miss Rossi," he said in a gentler tone. Adrien's jaw dropped at the change. Since when did his father go soft for anyone?

"Well, I was going to the back to use the restroom," she began, blinking tears away from her eyes, "when I saw someone by the set. I don't think they saw me, but they were crouched over the edge of the beam – the one that fell." His father nodded in encouragement, and she continued.

Adrien wanted to gag. How could his father of all people, the most cynical, doubtful person in the entire world, believe Lila's fabrications?

Lila fiddled with her hands for a second before taking a deep breath. "Well, they stood up and... I saw that it was...," her eyes glanced over to Marinette. Gabriel followed her line of sight. "I mean, I'm not entirely certain."

"There you go," Adrien cut in. "She's not certain."

"But she was wearing pink pants," Lila hastily added. "Do you have any other short, dark-haired models that wear pink pants? I'm sure it was just a coincidence."

"No." His father frowned and turned away. His eyes fell upon Marinette, sitting in her chair with her hands bandaged. "Nathalie." Instantly, his assistant materialized beside him. "Call security. Escort Miss Dupain-Cheng off the set."

Marinette's head snapped up as his voice carried over to her.

"Father!" Adrien cried.

"Silence, Adrien. Miss Dupain-Cheng, you are not to have any more contact with my son. I see now what I should have weeks ago: you are a bad influence at best, and an immediate danger to him at worst."

Without waiting for a response, Gabriel turned and vanished down the hallway, leaving Marinette and Adrien stunned. Marinette looked at him, aghast and confused.

"I'll go talk to him," Adrien said, attempting to reassure her. "Make him see that it wasn't your fault."

She sighed as she scooped up her book as best as she could with her bandages. "It's okay, Adrien. I knew this day was too good to last. I'll see you in class, at least."

As Nathalie escorted her away, a melancholic sigh came from behind him. He turned, his expression immediately hardening as Lila watched the two depart.

"You did this."

She had the audacity to turn to him, blinking in perfect innocence. "Did what?"

He wasn't buying it. "I don't know how, but you did this," he said. "I know for a fact that Marinette wouldn't have done anything to that set, accidental or otherwise. She was in her chair the entire morning."

She looked around to make sure no one was watching. Satisfied all the other workers were engrossed in their own activities, she turned back to him and dropped the innocent act. "You can't prove that," she said.

"I thought we were friends." There was a malicious emphasis on that word.

Her head tilted back and she released a loud burst of laughter. "Friends?" she repeated. "Oh, Adrien, I stopped being your 'friend' the moment I realized that there's only one person I needed to convince to get my way." She leaned forward, her lips sharpening into a cruel smile. "I have your father eating out of the palm of my hand. I could say anything and he would believe me. All to keep his precious little boy safe from the big bad outside world." She chuckled, and the sound sent shivers down his spine. "It didn't take too much convincing that Marinette was such a bad influence, and after today? Her dream of fashion designing is all down the drain."

He clenched his fists. "I'll tell my father everything," he said.

"So? He won't believe you. I've spent weeks making sure I was his confidante. He's just as gullible as everyone else." Lila leaned closer to him. "And it's all thanks to you, Adrien. If you hadn't pushed so hard, I might have just left Marinette alone. It's really your fault that she's blacklisted now." She hesitated, then spoke again. "You really should have partnered with me like I wanted."

The urge to push her away in disgust overwhelmed him, so he jerked out of her reach and stalked away. Her low chuckles followed him across the set as he stormed into his private room, pondering a way to somehow fix this all for Marinette.

Gabriel stalked through the hallways, fixated on one thing only: fire the set designers. How dare they create shoddy, unsafe work pieces! Adrien had been hurt, and could have been killed! As he neared the work area, the sounds of raised voices pulled him from his musings.

"What do you mean you stepped away?"

He reached the door and peeked inside. A man was standing glaring at a small group of men. Gabriel recognized them as the set design crew. His anger flared and he nearly interrupted, but decided to let the head foreman – Aymeric – ream them out a little before he added his bit.

One of the other guys gulped. "I'm sorry, I know you said that I was to stand guard at all times, but Mr. Agreste ordered me to track down some special drink for his star model."

Gabriel didn't recall identifying anyone as his 'star model', except of course, his son. And certainly Adrien didn't get any special drink. In fact, the only person who asked for something that wasn't immediately available on the catering buffet was... Lila. He frowned.

Apparently, though, Aymeric knew who his 'star model' was. He rubbed a hand down his face. "What have I told you about listening to that girl?" he growled, and Gabriel blinked at the vitriol in his voice.

"I didn't!" the man defended. "I swear! But Mr. Agreste personally told me to leave." he added.

He recalled this now. The man had been loitering beside the set doing nothing, and Lila requested a very specific concoction of beverage. So, he sent the man off after it.

"What have I told you about leaving that menace alone?" Aymeric snapped.

"I'm sorry," the man wailed, "but I couldn't go against Mr. Agreste. I don't know what you have against such a sweet girl anyway. She told me she knows Ateliers Jean Nouvel personally and she offered up some really good suggestions on the set. For instance, she said you should move the pillar in the center over to the edge. She said it was drawing too much focus away from the scene and that the light was casting shadows-"

"I don't care if she claims she's descended from Aldo Rossi himself," Aymeric interrupted with a shout, "you don't let that girl anywhere near my sets ever again! Am I understood?" The ice in his voice matched Gabriel's ire, though he couldn't quite understand what the man had against Lila. As far as he knew, she never even ventured near the set designers.

"Uhm, Aymeric?" one of the men in the back called out. "I set up the security camera like you asked. I have footage. And uhm... you should see this."

Aymeric sighed and motioned. "Go ahead," he said, a weary resignation in his voice.

The man flipped the laptop screen around, and Gabriel stepped in for a better look, unnoticed by the rest of the workers. He wanted to see this as well.

Lila stepped into view, glancing around to see if she was alone before kneeling down and fiddling with something on the bottom of the beam.

"What's she doing?" one of the workers asked.

The answer arrived soon enough, as Lila straightened, a long bolt held in her grasp. She tucked it away in her pocket and vanished. The video sped up, and the next thing he saw was Marinette walking into view.

"Who is that?" Aymeric demanded

"She's a friend of Adrien Agreste's from school," one of the other workers answered. "They're doing a group project."

"Ah yes, I remember seeing her working out by the set."

Marinette looked around in confusion for a moment. She pulled out her phone and checked the home screen. Looked around again. Adrien walked up, and the two began to converse. From her animated hand gestures they had to have been talking about their assignment. The beam behind her began to tremble. The kids didn't notice. It lurched. Marinette's head snapped up at it.

In a flash, she shoved Adrien. He flew forward and landed in a heap, his shoulder taking the brunt of the fall. The beam dropped. Marinette lifted her hands to shield herself. Adrien reached forward, grabbed her ankle, and yanked. The beam glanced off her hands just as she slid to safety. It crashed mere centimeters behind her, cracking the tile. She cradled her wrists as Adrien clutched his shoulder, both of them staring shell-shocked at the beam.

The video ended.

"I can't believe that that sweet girl could do something like that," one of the workers murmured.

"I hope that Adrien's friend is okay," a second said.

"I saw Mr. Agreste kick her out of the studio."

"What? Why?"

"I don't know, but that Lila girl was crying in the corner. I thought at first that Adrien's partner hurt her, but now I see that it's the other way around."

The mutters continued like that for a few moments, as Gabriel stood in the doorway, attempting to reconcile the images he had seen with what he knew about Lila Rossi. One question he heard brought his attention back to the present.

"Are you going to show this video to Mr. Agreste?" one of the workers asked.

Aymeric thought about that for a minute. "No," he said at last, and Gabriel blinked in surprise. "It doesn't matter. That model has him wrapped around her little finger. I never thought I would ever see the day Agreste lost his touch for good, but that little viper is poison. He would never believe me, even with this video. Nah, I've accepted we're getting canned." He held up his hands as his workers protested. "Relax," he assured them, sounding much too calm for someone about to lose a contract with the Gabriel brand. "Alphinaud and Alisaie warned me my time was soon. I figured maybe Agreste would have wizened up to his model sooner rather than later and I could ride this out until then, but it looks like that won't be the case."

Ah, Alphinaud and Alisaie Leveilleur. The brother-sister team of the best makeup artists in France. He had to fire them the month prior. Some of the models complained that the duo had purposefully applied makeup that conflicted with their allergies, causing their face to redden and puff up and delay the shoots.

Though upon reflection, he recalled that Lila was the model who accused them of sabotaging her efforts to break into the industry, claiming she had recommended they use a special hypo-allergenic product and they refused to accommodate her. And Gabriel hadn't cared much to investigate further.

"Didn't they go over to Ilberd's company?"

Aymeric nodded as Gabriel winced. Ilberd was a fierce rival of his – always a step behind Gabriel's innovative designs, but never hesitating to play dirty. "Yep. Along with Francel, Artoirel, Emmanellain, and Edmont."

Gabriel recognized every name listed as those he had to fire within the last three months. Hair stylists, tailors, and accountants, he had recruited the best within the field. Unfortunately, those had failed to live up to their previous acclaim.

Actually, now that he thought on it, every single one of those people had been fired because of information received from... Lila. A cold chill descended down his spine.

"I really had hoped that we could have stayed, but I see that as long as Agreste is blinded to that little model, this company is doomed," Aymeric continued. He released a long sigh. "Ilberd's already told me he has a spot for us once Agreste's little darling manages to get us fired," Aymeric said. "He's actually gleeful about it. Apparently, he's been hiring all of the people Agreste got rid of. His sales have increased this past quarter, and he's claimed it's because of the talent he's scooped up."

And his own sales have decreased during that same quarter. Gabriel had dismissed it as coincidence, but if Lila really was to blame... he didn't care about a few losses in profits if he believed that Lila truly cared about keeping his son safe. But from what he just saw, not only did she actively sabotage his set and nearly kill his son, but she'd also driven the most talented people in his company to his closest rival! He knew she was bitter over Marinette's presence on set, and despite her claims that the girl was a bad influence on his son, he could see none of that, (though he let the girl ramble when she wanted to vent about it).

For the first time in a long while, fear welled up within Gabriel. What had he done? And how could he fix this?

Well, he could start by acknowledging the video. With proof, he could sever the agreement he had with Miss Rossi. Not even the desire to akumatize Marinette outweighed the safety of his own son. It was time he seized power back into his own hands and ended this farce.

He cleared his throat to acknowledge his presence. The group turned. Aymeric smoothed his face into passive acceptance. He opened his mouth to speak, but Gabriel cut him off. "I would like to see that video, please," Gabriel said. Aymeric's eyes shifted over to his worker, but he nodded and acquiesced.

Once the video had ended for the second time, Gabriel spoke. "Aymeric, I need to speak with you privately." He waited until the workers filed out and closed the door before speaking once more. "I owe you an apology," he said, and Aymeric's eyes widened in surprise. "Too long had I allowed that girl to twist her words into truths, all because I believed she had my son's best interests at heart." He knew Aymeric was on the verge of leaving anyway thanks to Lila, and he needed to do something drastic to keep him in his company. "I'll double your fees for this job, and increase your rates 15% for future projects." He turned to the man. "Would that be enough to keep you on at Gabriel?"

Aymeric blinked at him. "I'm... not fired?"

"No." Gabriel frowned. "I believe I have been misdirected in my priorities. I shall be correcting them within the next few weeks."

"Well, then I certainly accept your offer, Mr. Agreste," Aymeric said.

"Excellent," Gabriel replied. "I'll be setting up a security detail on the set from now on, though I have a feeling it might not be warranted anymore. How long will it take to fix the set and have it ready for use?"
"Couple hours at most," Aymeric replied.

Gabriel nodded. "Please send a copy of that video to my assistant, Nathalie."

"Certainly, sir."

With that, Gabriel left. He had a few more things to take care of before the day was over. Then, he had to coordinate with Nathalie about convincing the ones he had fired to return. It would be difficult, but he knew when he had to swallow his pride.

But he was getting ahead of himself. First things first. He tracked down Lila Rossi, who was currently sitting in the makeup station prepping for the next shoot.

"And actually," she was saying to the makeup artist, "if you use coconut oil it really opens up the pores and softens the skin. "My cousin works as a makeup artist in Hollywood, and she taught me all of the secrets."

"Wow, really? That's an amazing tip, thank you!" the artist gushed.

He summoned security and motioned them to wait in the wings, then stepped up next to her. He dismissed the makeup artist who had been powdering her face, and she scurried away at his dismissal. "Miss Rossi, as of this moment, I'm ending our business arrangement."

Her jaw dropped. "What?"

"When I agreed to bring you on as one of my models, you assured me you would report any bad influences to my son to me."

"And I have!" she spluttered. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng-"

"Has been nothing but a good influence on Adrien," Gabriel cut in, smooth and sharp as ice. "You, on the other hand, have directly injured him."

"I haven't! Marinette was the one who sabotaged the set! She was aiming for me," Lila wailed, the beginnings of giant tears welling up in her eyes.

"Do not lie to me, Miss Rossi," Gabriel snarled, his voice a deadly hiss. Lila gulped. "Our contract is over. Do not attempt to contact me again. Do not attempt to initiate any contact with my son again. Should I discover you have broken these stipulations, I shall happily forward the video of you removing the bolt from the set that nearly killed my son and Miss Dupain-Cheng to the police, the media, and the consulate."

She paled, for the first time looking genuinely frightened and lost since he had met her.

"Security will see you out. Good day, Miss Rossi."

With that, he turned and left the room, nodding to the head of security on his way past. One problem down, several more to correct. He ran a hand through his hair, ruffling the strands.

A spike of pain shot through his head, threatening to erupt into a migraine. He ignored it. After all, he had only brought this upon himself.

Marinette was in her room, attempting to finish her project, when her mother called from below.

"Marinette, there's someone here to speak with you."

She set aside her notebook. "Be right down," she called back. It wasn't like she had gotten too far with the project anyway. The bandages on her hands and wrists impeded her fine motor skills. She couldn't sketch, nor sew, nor bead, nor embroider, nor barely even type on her computer. The dreams she had of sewing brilliant examples of Grecian fashion dissolved into a puff of poorly constructed togas and store-bought costumes. The only communication with Adrien had been via texting, but even he had difficulty replying back due to his busy schedule. With the project due in two days, Marinette knew their grades would suffer for it. She only hoped she could somehow pull off a miracle.

Disconcertingly recognizable red slacks and the familiar rigid stance of Gabriel Agreste greeted her as she descended the stairs. She paused, mouth agape, taking in his stern frown at her arrival. Why was he here? Had he come to tell her mother the details of the fashion photo shoot? Even her parents didn't know the whole truth. They had just accepted her flippant dismissal of her injuries as a clumsy stumble on her way home. She gulped.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng," he said by way of greeting.

That shook her from her stupor and she hurried the rest of the way down the stairs. She glanced over to her mother, who smiled back at her as Marinette stepped around the couch, standing directly in front of Mr. Agreste.

"I'll leave you two to discuss business," her mother said. "Please let me know if there's anything I can get you, Mr. Agreste."

"Thank you, Mrs. Dupain-Cheng."

As her mother passed through the doorway, Marinette fought the urge to cry out after her. What had Mr. Agreste told her mother? Was he here to chastise her further? To cement her position on the blacklist of every fashion designer in the industry? She didn't have to wait long, however, because the door had just clicked closed behind her mother when Mr. Agreste spoke again.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng, I owe you the deepest and sincerest apology."

The confession snapped her eyes back to his and her jaw dropped open.

"I assume a certain level of competence in my ability to read people. My rise of success in this industry has not been without attempts at deception, backstabbing, and manipulation. In my arrogance, I allowed a child to slip past my defenses. And the consequences of my pride have been of paramount detriment to quite a few people, one of which is you."

His eyes lingered on her bandages as he spoke. For her part, she remained stunned. What was going on?

"It has come to my attention that not only has Miss Rossi schemed her way into my good graces, blinding me to her true character by allowing me to believe she had Adrien's best interests at heart, but she has driven away several of my employees."

Okay, but what did that have to do with her?

"I apologize for my actions on the set. I acted on emotion instead of logic. In this city, that is a dangerous stance to take."

"It's okay," she found herself saying, "you were doing it because you cared about Adrien. You only had his best interests at heart."

A flicker of something crossed his face, but before she could identify it, he smoothed his expression back to his usual inscrutability. "Even so, I have done you a disservice, and for that I apologize."

"I uh... it's okay."

"Adrien has clarified additional details regarding your project. Because of Miss Rossi's actions on the set, I realize this places you both in an uncomfortable time crunch to complete the assignment before the due date. As such, I have contacted the school and requested for both you and Adrien to be excused from classes for the next two days, so you can complete your project. Due to his injury, the photo shoot has been delayed indefinitely while my company releases statements surrounding the incident." His eyes flickered over to her bandages again. "I have spoken about this with your parents, and they have agreed to allow you to spend the time at my home, working with Adrien to complete the project. I shall have a tutor provided to cover any material you will miss in class. Furthermore, as the injuries you have sustained on my set have prevented you from working to the best of your ability, I am assigning my best designer to assist. He has been instructed to not give any input, but simply be your hands in sketching and creating."

"I...," Marinette trailed off, uncertain as to what to say.

Fortunately, Mr. Agreste waited with uncharacteristic patience for her to collect herself.

"Thank you," she began. "I wasn't certain if I could finish this project on time, and I didn't want Adrien to get a bad grade because I couldn't do my part properly."

The barest hint of a smile twitched his lips upward. "Your only concern was about Adrien's grade?" he inquired.

"Well, I know that getting good marks in school is important to him. I-I mean, it's important to me, too," she hastily added, not wanting to give him the wrong impression, "But it's doubly important to Adrien."

The faint smile remained, as if he knew exactly why Adrien was so concerned about his grades. "There is one more thing, Miss Dupain-Cheng," Mr. Agreste said, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a thin white envelope. He handed it to her. "Miss Rossi's slander had me convinced you were a bad influence on my son. I now know that is not the case, but that does not excuse my behavior toward you. As a further apology, I am offering you an internship with my company."

She nearly dropped the envelope in shock.

"You are under no obligation to accept," Mr. Agreste continued, seemingly unaffected by her surprise, "and I understand if you choose to decline. However, I shall write you a letter of recommendation to any fashion house in Paris, should you decide to pursue an internship with another company."

She looked down at the envelope in her hands, then back up at Mr. Agreste. "Thank you," she said again.

He inclined his head in acknowledgment. "I know you have lots to consider, and plenty more work to finish, so I won't take up any more of your time. If I could have your answer by the end of the week?"

She nodded. "I can do that," she said.

"Excellent. I shall take my leave now. Good day, Miss Dupain-Cheng."

As he turned to the door to leave, she called out after him. "Wait!"

He turned back, curiosity furrowing his eyebrows together.

"Ah, forgive me if I'm overstepping, but I was thinking about your photo shoot. I don't know exactly what Lila said to you, but I know at school she has been lying about several disabilities. If you release her as your model, she might twist the situation into negatively reflecting upon your company."

Mr. Agreste favored her with an interesting smile – wryly amused, yet knowingly confident. "I can assure you, Miss Dupain-Cheng, that my PR team is the best in the country. They can turn any scandal around. But thank you for your concern."

"I didn't mean to imply otherwise, Mr. Agreste," Marinette assured him, waving her hands around. "But I just thought that maybe when you make a statement about Lila, you can use her supposed handicaps to raise awareness for people with real conditions. That way, you won't even have to call out her fake disabilities and you can still promote a good cause. You could even use Adrien as a model while he's injured."

Mr. Agreste studied her for a long moment, his expression unreadable. "That's a clever idea, Miss Dupain-Cheng. I'll mention it to my PR team." He turned back to the door, but not before looking back at her one last time. "Personally, I hope you'll accept my internship offer."

And then he was gone.

Marinette remained frozen in place for a long moment before releasing a loud squeal and darting upstairs, eager to share the good news with Adrien.

The End

Author's Note: Special thanks to PerditaAlottachocolate for beta reading this!

This story was originally written for the Tumblr Who's Who? Challenge where a bunch of different ML authors submitted anonymous works (on AO3) and people had to guess who wrote which story. Now that the contest is over, I can finally release this one on this site! I was part of the "Civilian" Theme. There was a word limit of 5,000 words, so I had to chop a lot of the exposition in the beginning and condense a lot of the subtle machinations I normally would have written for Lila, which I quickly realized I could have turned this into a 20k story. Hope you all still enjoyed it!