It was fast approaching Adrien's birthday again, and although none of his friends had dared broach the subject with the boy himself, they definitely had talked about it more than once.

"Mr. Agreste wouldn't even hear me out," Nino complained, slouching on his bench as they waited for Adrien to finish his fitting session for an upcoming photoshoot so he could join their study session. "The man doesn't listen to reason! I mean yeah, I accidentally called him dude a few times, but I always corrected myself right after! I was totally polite!"

"Maybe you just didn't approach the subject very well," Alya suggested. "Or maybe Mr. Agreste just formed a bad opinion of you as soon as you called him 'dude' for the first time." A grin spread across Alya's face, and she turned on Marinette. "Mr. Agreste does like you, Marinette! You could go ask him!"

Marinette sat up as though shocked, dropping the sketchbook she had been doodling in. "I couldn't! What if I offend him and he blacklists me so I never can become a fashion designer? That would be awful!"

"You wouldn't do that," Alya said cheerfully, shaking her friend's arm before she could go into one of her famous meltdowns. "Think about it, Marinette! He already knows you from all of the competitions of his that you won and he seems to like you. Besides, you're class president. You've had tons of practice persuading the teachers and the principle to let us have things that they hadn't let us have before, even if other people have asked!"

"That's because I ask for something that would be more acceptable and go in offering a compromise," Marinette sighed. It was true, she had won a lot of battles for her classmates in her time as class president, but asking their pushover principle to allow headphone usage at a reasonable volume in the library and getting permission to do fundraisers for buying seat cushions for the classroom benches was totally different than approaching Mr. Agreste and asking him to allow them to throw Adrien a party.

"Just think about it, Marinette. I'll even give you a play-by-play of what I did so you don't do the same thing!" Nino offered eagerly. "Please?"

Marinette sighed. "I'll think about it."

"This is impossible," Marinette groaned, banging her head against her desk as Tikki looked on warily. In front of Marinette was the list of notes she had taken from Nino's description of what had happened last year on Adrien's birthday, half-covered by another sheet of paper with crossed-out ideas about how she could ask Adrien's father about a party. "Mr. Agreste is going to hate me if I do this."

"Not if you ask politely, Marinette!" Tikki encouraged her charge, sure that if anyone could come up with an idea that would work, it would be Marinette. "Why don't you start with looking up interviews Mr. Agreste has done? It's like a job interview- research first so you know who you're talking to and know a lot about them! Maybe you can figure out why Nino annoyed him so much!"

Marinette picked her head off the desk, nodding as Tikki's suggestion sunk in. "That's a good idea, Tikki! And then I can do the same thing I did with Mr. Damocles and come up with suggestions for a party that he's more likely to like!"

And thus the research began. Marinette started with the fashion icon's most recent interviews and worked her way back, taking notes on anything that might be relevant. Soon enough, she noticed a pattern emerging. Mr. Agreste was a stickler for his schedule, hating anything that disrupted it. He loathed sudden, unexpected appointments, since they threw a wrench in his schedule and took him away from what he was planning on doing. He even scheduled his designing time and particularly disliked disruptions during that time.

Possibly most importantly, he preferred that his appointments be scheduled at least a week out through his assistant.

"Nino probably interrupted Mr. Agreste during his design time," Tikki suggested, peering over Marinette's shoulder. "That started him off on a bad foot."

"Thank goodness Adrien's birthday isn't for another month," Marinette sighed, writing down Schedule appointment with Mr. Agreste at least a week out; make sure to ask Nathalie when the best time would be. Also, mention that a party could be scheduled around Adrien's previously scheduled activities (photo shoots, etc.) and could even be on a different day around his birthday if that would work best.

"Here it says that Mr. Agreste prefers to eat healthy," Tikki said, reading another article from a magazine on Marinette's desk. "And that both his and Adrien's meals are prepared by a personal chef that makes sure that they aren't getting too much processed food or sugar."

"I can ask Papa to cook one of his special cakes, the ones he makes for customers that want low calorie or low sugar treats!" Marinette exclaimed. "We can all chip in to buy it, and we can cook some other treats that would be healthy but tasty, if Mr. Agreste prefers." She wrote it down. "This might actually work, Tikki!"

Two hours later, Marinette had everything planned.

Mr. Agreste consulted his schedule for the day as soon as Nathalie handed it to him. Most of it was typical, day-to-day business: checking on the progress of several interns, a meeting with a department store for the possible addition of one of his lines to their inventory, a meeting with the photographer to approve the latest shoots and plan the next one. However, one thing stuck out. At four-fifteen, Marinette Dupain-Cheng had scheduled to meet with him for a time block of fifteen to twenty minutes.

"Any idea what she wanted to talk about, Nathalie?" Gabriel asked, tapping one long finger on the meeting block. He had been aware that the meeting was coming, as Nathalie had approved it with him the prior week.

His assistant shook her head. "No idea, sir. I didn't ask. She contacted me just over a week ago and asked when the best time would be for you to meet. I offered to set her up with a sooner time, but she seemed to be aware that you don't like surprise meetings."

"She did her research. Good girl." Gabriel nodded approvingly, glancing back down at the day's schedule. "I look forward to the meeting. It should be interesting."

Marinette arrived ten minutes early, Nathalie noted, letting the girl in and heading down into the main foyer to greet her. The girl had forgone her normal outfit in favor of something a little more mature and professional and had pinned her hair back into a neat bun. If she was trying to get onto Gabriel Agreste's good side and stay there, she certainly was off to a good start.

"Mr. Agreste will be with you shortly," Nathalie informed Marinette, gesturing for her to sit in one of the chairs outside her boss's door. Marinette sat, keeping her posture straight and not fidgeting. Instead, she took out a small notebook, scanning over whatever she had written there.

Five minutes to the quarter-hour, Gabriel paged Nathalie. "Whenever Marinette arrives, I am ready."

"She's already arrived, sir. Five minutes ago. She said she didn't want to risk running late."

Gabriel's expression looked impressed. Well, as impressed as he ever got, at least. "Send her in."

"Right away, sir."

Gabriel sat at his desk as Nathalie ushered Marinette in and instructed her to sit in the purposefully uncomfortable chair in front of his desk. His son's classmate and friend had already done everything right, from scheduling an appointment and ensuring that it was at a convenient time for him to putting extra effort into her appearance and arriving not only on time, but early. He already had a positive impression of the girl from how she handled herself in the design competitions she had entered, but this only cemented that.

Marinette certainly didn't waste any time in getting straight to the point. Squaring her shoulders and taking a deep breath, she informed Gabriel that she wanted to plan a birthday party for Adrien.

Gabriel's first instinct was to say no, to cut Marinette off before she went any further. He knew what kind of parties the kids had these days, especially kids like his son's friend Nino. He was not letting Adrien get involved in those sorts of things. But Marinette had already gotten so far, and he had to admit that he was curious about what she might have come up with. If she had gone to all the effort to research him, maybe she had a good enough understanding of him to actually have a shot.

"We would keep all music and activities appropriate," Marinette started, glancing down at the notebook she brought. She glanced up at him. "Appropriate by my parents' standards, not mine or my friends."

Gabriel nodded, face impassive.

"For activities, we would stay away from the typical teenager games, so no kissing games. Everything we have on our list would be appropriate even at an eight-year-old's party." Marinette slid the notebook across the table for Gabriel to inspect. A glance down told him that she wasn't lying. He saw Twister, Charades, and Monopoly among the listed games. He also saw water guns written down with a question mark.

"We could take any of those off the list if you prefer," Marinette offered. "I would understand if you don't want us using water guns, since they can get kind of messy."

Gabriel made a noncommittal noise and gestured for her to continue. So far, he couldn't find anything to object to. The games were appropriate, and if her parents were in charge of the music then the songs should be appropriate as well. Marinette had already addressed two of his biggest concerns about his son having a friend-thrown birthday party.

So he continued to listen, and grew increasingly impressed at how much research Marinette unquestionably had done in her party planning. It seemed that she had thought of everything that he could have an objection to, from the food to the music to the activities, and had thought up a solution that he would find acceptable.

"We can work around Adrien's schedule. If it would be more convenient to have a party on the day after or two days after, we could do that." Marinette glanced down at her notebook. Gabriel suspected that she probably had a list of points she wanted to cover written there. "My mother has agreed to be chaperone if we have a party, so no one tries to play different music or start games that haven't been approved. We would be happy to have Nathalie or Adrien's driver come as well if you wanted them to supervise."

Gabriel took the notebook Marinette offered and scanned the pages, filled with party planning ideas. Once again, he was struck by how much research the aspiring designer must have done. There were notes around the margins, crossed-out ideas that he would have likely vetoed had she not already done so. Everything else looked up to Gabriel's standards. It was like she had crawled into his head and picked out exactly what he would and would not allow.

"If there's anything specific you have an objection to, we can certainly change it," Marinette spoke up. For the first time, Gabriel caught a nervous edge to her voice. She had played all of her cards. Now, it was up to Gabriel to decide how to answer.

To put it simply, Gabriel didn't think he had ever been more impressed. Changing his mind once it was set was not an easy task. He remembered Adrien once mentioning that Marinette was class president and had actually gotten student requests approved by the teachers and principal. He suspected that she had probably used a similar tactic in those situations as well, and her composure was probably a result of her experiences as class president.

If she ever changed her mind about becoming a fashion designer, she would make a damn good negotiator.

"I like your plan," Gabriel finally said, sitting back in his chair. "I think the low-sugar cake would be best. I like your ideas for the snacks, but I believe I might have a better suggestion." He allowed himself to smile at her startled expression. "As you may know, I have a personal chef that regularly cooks for Adrien and I. He often provides snacks when I am entertaining guests, and I'm sure he would be able to come up with some healthy teen-friendly snacks. Consider that my way of contributing to my son's birthday party." He wrote a memo to himself so he would remember to ask Nathalie to handle it.

Marinette nodded, eyes wide. He had surprised her, he could tell.

"I'll have Nathalie contact you once Adrien's schedule for his birthday and the days surrounding it is set. Your plans look good." Gabriel concealed the smile on his face. "I'm sure my son will enjoy his party. Nathalie will escort you out. Have a good day."

"Thank you, sir." Marinette stood as Gabriel dismissed her. "I hope you have a good day as well. And if you want to drop by the party, you're certainly invited as well."

Gabriel allowed himself to smile again as Nathalie opened the door, leading Marinette out. He hadn't anticipated allowing Adrien a birthday party, much less one planned by one of his friends. Still, he suspected that he wouldn't regret it.

Marinette had to remind herself to stay calm as Mr. Agreste's assistant accompanied her through the hallways to the front door. Gabriel Agreste had agreed to her plan and even volunteered the help of his chef. Even in her wildest dreams she couldn't have predicted that! He had approved of all of her plans.

"Will Adrien know about the party ahead of time, or will it be a surprise?" Nathalie asked as they drew closer to the front door. Marinette hid her surprise that Mr. Agreste's assistant knew of the plans already, but perhaps she should have expected that Nathalie would eavesdrop on the conversation.

"I'd love to make it a surprise, but I'm not sure how we would manage that." They could always have Nino hang with his friend while they got things set up and then guide him in the direction of the party, but it would be nice to have Nino help set up. The DJ was the only one who knew how to set up his music system correctly.

"Well, Adrien's driver and I could certainly help with that. I can make it look like Adrien has an appointment during the time of the party, and then surprise Adrien by dropping him off at his own party." Nathalie laughed at the surprised expression on Marinette's face. "The boy deserves a birthday party, and honestly? I want to see the look on his face when he thinks he has a huge photoshoot on his birthday and it turns out to be his party."

"You're pranking him," Marinette breathed, not entirely sure how to respond. This was unexpected. Shoot, this entire day was unexpected. She would have to have Tikki pinch her as soon as they were out of sight of Agreste Mansion, because there was no way this was real. First Mr. Agreste approved of her party plans, and now this? Unbelievable.

"Yes, yes. I might even try to get a picture of his face when he figures it out." Nathalie glanced down at the ever-present clipboard and jotted something down. Then she glanced up and smiled at Marinette. "Thank you for doing this for Adrien. I know he'll really appreciate it."

Adrien was not having a particularly good birthday. Although he had put in a request to have the afternoon of his birthday be free of commitments other than his fencing, he had a ridiculously long photoshoot blocked in. His birthday lunch was, as always, unmemorable. He had two tests in school and while neither was in a particularly difficult subject, it still meant studying and at least a little stress. The only person he got a gift from was Chloe, and of course it was an incredibly impersonal but extremely expensive set of cufflinks and a ring ("Because the one you always wear is ugly," Chloe had said). Most of his classmates hadn't even wished him a happy birthday.

He had honestly thought that maybe since he had been at the school for over a year now, more people would at least mention his birthday. Apparently not.

Adrien sighed as he packed up his fencing gear and headed out to the waiting car. No doubt he would have to shower at the photoshoot, then wait around while the hair and makeup people poked and prodded him into perfection. He would have to wait hours to eat or even really rehydrate after his fencing practice, so that he wouldn't get even slightly bloated in the pictures.

To top it all off, Nino hadn't even responded to the text Adrien had sent to him before fencing practice started.

Adrien had to keep himself from slumping in the car seat. While it wasn't the worst birthday ever- Nino had promised to come over and play video games if Adrien's schedule was free over the weekend, and they had also invited Alya and Marinette- it wasn't what Adrien had been hoping for. He found himself hoping for an akuma attack, even just a little one, because seeing his lady always made his day brighter.

And then the car pulled to a stop in front of the park.

Adrien frowned and glanced out the window of the car. His heart dropped for a second at the sight of what was clearly birthday party going on. He didn't want to be jealous... but he definitely was jealous.

And then he recognized the partygoers and saw the glitter-covered banner that read HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ADRIEN!

His jaw dropped. No way.

"Ah, we're here!" Nathalie exclaimed in a jarringly cheerful voice, waving to someone in the group as Adrien gaped. "Well, what are you waiting for?"

"I thought I had a photo shoot?"

To his surprise, both the Gorilla and Nathalie laughed. "No, nothing of the sort. I thought it would make the surprise better if you thought you had work instead of a free afternoon."

"You helped plan this?" To say that Adrien was shocked was an understatement. He was positively floored.

To his surprise, his father's assistant shook her head. "Not really, no. You friend Marinette planned the party and then persuaded your father to allow it. I simply decided to help her make it a surprise."

Adrien's jaw fell to the floor again. Marinette? He definitely owed her. He was surprised that she had approached his father, considering what happened with Nino last year.

"Well, go on," Nathalie urged him, smiling. "Your friends are waiting for you."

Adrien needed no further permission. He jumped out of the car and bolted towards his classmates, his friends, a wide grin splitting his face.

Everyone in their class had shown up. Even Chloe and Sabrina came, but only to say hi to Adrien and for Chloe to turn up her nose at the activities that Marinette had planned.

"I would have thrown a much better party if I were in charge," Chloe sniffed, trying to cling to Adrien's arm. He twisted his way out of her reach. "Honestly, all Marinette has are kid's games. She doesn't even have spin-the-bottle! How lame."

"They might be kid games, but they're really fun," Adrien responded mildly, not letting Chloe rile him up. He wasn't lying; even if the games were intended for kids, Adrien hadn't had the chance to play them with other kids when he was younger and they were definitely still fun for teens. He was pretty sure he hadn't laughed so hard for a long time. "And I'm fairly certain that any of your plans wouldn't have gotten past my father." Adrien was only slightly familiar with the concept of spin-the-bottle, but he was fairly certain that it involved kissing, an automatic no-no by his father's rules. Gabriel Agreste didn't even let photographers have Adrien kiss other models during photoshoots.

Chloe huffed. "He would have to listen to me. I'm the mayor's daughter!"

Adrien was fairly certain that if Chloe ever tried to use that line on his father, he would probably laugh in her face and have her swiftly escorted out of his presence. "I don't think that's how he works, Chloe." He glanced back at the rest of the group. "I think they're about to start another round of Twister, so I have to go."

Before Chloe could respond, Adrien was among the rest of his classmates, watching as Marinette and Alya finished spreading out the last of the borrowed Twister mats. They were having tournaments, and it was much easier to have a number of games going at once.

"Ugh, do I have to be paired up with Kim?" Alix whined teasingly. "I'll have to be next to his smelly armpits!"

"We're only doing it so you can get him out right away and the rest of us don't have to smell his smelly armpits!" Nino called back, filling out the rest of the bracket with the students who wanted to participate. There were some cheers at his words.

"Hey, Adrien! Didn't you just get back from fencing? How bad do your feet smell?" Kim called out over the crowd, ignoring the snickers.

Adrien rolled his eyes, trying not to smile and failing. "I wear different shoes for fencing."

"That wasn't the question, birthday boy. Were you wearing the same socks?"

"Whoo, you're getting into the stalker questions now, Kim!" Alix taunted. She stood near one of the mats, shoes and socks already off. "I bet you-"

"HEY HEY HEY! Let's get the games started!" Marinette cut across Alix, effectively silencing the argument. "Are we all ready for some Twister?"

The party wound down slowly, a couple classmates leaving at a time until only Nino, Alya, Marinette, and of course Adrien were left. They were playing Apples to Apples, rounds getting progressively slower as they just chatted and laughed, a bit exhausted from all of the activity. Nathalie talked with Marinette's mom as she watched the four friends, occasionally checking her tablet for messages.

"Dude, I can't believe your dad dropped by," Nino said as he pulled out a card to play. "I wasn't expecting that!"

"I know, right? It was pretty cool." Adrien grinned as he put down his own card. True, Gabriel Agreste had seemed very out of place in his business suit at the birthday party, but he had given Adrien a present and even accepted a slice of cake before taking off again.

"Did you know that was going to happen, Marinette?" Alya asked. She picked up the cards they had played, searching for something that fit the description dainty.

Adrien glanced over at Marinette in time to see her shake her head. "I invited him, of course, but he never gave any indication that he had heard."

Adrien had to smile at that. Of course, she had said, like the idea of not inviting Gabriel Agreste to his own son's birthday party was absurd. Marinette had been the one to offer his father cake as well, welcoming the older man cheerfully and breaking the tension his arrival had caused. Her mother was just as welcoming, not missing a beat as she asked Gabriel how much cake he wanted and serving up the slice with a flourish. The pair of them had managed to coax a smile onto Gabriel's face and relax his shoulders with a few kind words, and when Gabriel wished Adrien a happy birthday, he sounded like he actually meant it.

Marinette's family was magic, Adrien decided, grinning as Alya announced a winner and Marinette started another round.

This was his best birthday ever.