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liquid-luck-00 · 3 years

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Finding Home 2

Part 2

@maribat

Ao3 *** Part 1 *** Here *** Part 3 *** Part 4 *** Finale

~~~~~~~~~~

Okay so Mari knew that Talia had a son, but she had never met him, but that was fine. Yet one night she was setting down her project for the night when two figures crashed through her open window across the room. The Parisian summer breeze circling the room.

She took one look at them and at the clothes they wore before going over and closing the window and blinds.

“Agles ola al-tawlah wasajelab lek shiya akther anpa lartde. [Sit at the table and I’ll bring you something more discrete to wear.]" she commanded in Arabic. The older of the boys looked to be around 17 maybe 18. The younger one looked no more than 7 or 8. They looked like they were going to argue or even threaten her but she gave them both a glare and they obeyed without much resistance. She brought back some clothes and set them in front of them. "You know you remind me of Talia." she directed at the younger boy.

"That would be because she is my mother." He responded, quietly as if unsure he should divulge such information.

"Ah. So your Damian." she smiled, he looked a bit shocked but hid it easily enough. "And your name?" she smiled at the older boy.

"He can't..." Damian was cut off.

"Jason." The older boy responded quietly. "Arabic is tricky, I can understand it but speaking it is another story." He had responded in english.

"Tell me about it." she responded back in english, rolling her eyes laughing, Damian just stayed watching them silently. "Is english okay with you Damian?" she turned to acknowledge and ask the younger boy in Arabic.

"It is fine." He nodded, answering in English , "If I could ask you a question?"

"What is it Damian?"

"Why would Talia give us your location and name Ms. Cheng for after..." He didn't finish but she knew more than enough.

She chuckled. "First, Mrs. Cheng is my Nǎi Nai [grandmother] call me Marinette. Second, I may have handed Ra's his ass when he 'captured' me so he gives me a wide berth." she grinned when both boys, stared at her in shock. "Besides I am the Yīng Táo of the House of Cheng. And you never cross a Cheng?” Yes she was still bitter but then again her mother was striped of her name and standing after disowning her so…

“Um what does that mean?” Jason was the one who asked.

"The Cheng family is one of the handful at families to guard the Miracle Gems. My family guards the most powerful and oldest of these Gems." she explained.

"So why does Ra's give you space?" Jason pressed.

"The Ying Tao, or cherry red, is the most compatible with creation. Meaning I am the guardian of the gems."

"Grand father won't come here for me?" Damian spoke in a small low voice, that if she wasn’t listening for it she would have missed.

"That bastard is not going to get you. Even if I have to die again." Jason reasoned him.

"You aren't dying again if I can help it, you reek of Lazarus," she waved. "Besides, I won't let you go back even if I have to fake your legal records and adopt you myself." she finished.

"Why would you do that?" Jason seemed defensive on the subject and Damian just watched her.

"You two are still kids, who just escaped a murdering cult, have traveled thousands of miles. Like hell am I going to let you two fend for yourselves when I have the means to protect and care for you both." she finished in a huff. "Now which or are both of you going to help me make cookies." She got up and started pulling ingredients, Damian was the first to help by blending the sugars and butter. Jason stepped in a few minutes later.

That was how her little family began. It hadn't taken long to get their documents together and to officially adopt both of them.

It didn't help when less than 5 days after the adoption went through did Plagg decided to fly out landing on top of Damian's head proceeding to complain.

"Pigtails," she rolled her eyes at the old nickname. "We're out of cheese," he whined.

"Well if you would restrain yourself then you would still have some wouldn't you," she scolded the cat kwamii.

"But cheese," he drew out.

"Um, M what is this cat on Dal Sghaier." Jason reacted. Damian had frozen as to not disturb the cat laying on his head.

'Sigh' she exhaled. "You guys can come out now." The rest of the kwamii floated out of their hiding spots. "Well you see."

She proceeded to explain how the kwamii are pocket sized gods bound to pieces of jewelry. How she is the guardian protecting and maintaining order of the world. Her boys actually took to them quite well. In fact she had to dissuade both Plagg and Trixx on multiple occasions, as Plagg claimed Damian as his kitten and Trixx took Jason as their kit. She went back to wearing Tikki's miraculous. She also took to wearing a second or even a third so that the others could leave the loft apartment, one for each of her boys, when they left for school.

Speaking of which, Jason didn't want to go back to school and Damian seemed to not want to. So she made a deal. If they went and maintained good grades and behavior, they were allowed to start patrolling Paris after they do their homework.

That surprisingly had them both agree.

That was also how the new miraculous team came to be, but the public wasn't aware of that fact. Their costumes were darker and no longer easily resembled animals. Each one of them got a grapple gun, Plagg almost too easily changed the baton for a katana. Trixx and Tikki were harder to convince, but Tikki eventually conceded to two escrima sticks with tasers. Trixx was the hardest but their flute was to obvious, in the end they agreed to two glocks with rubber bullets.

They acted along the lines of vigilante's aiding and taking action against criminals, terrorists, and the odd villain who thinks they can try something in their city. Their small family as vigilantes become known in Paris as the ‘Pack’. The leader was Cerise, who looked to be the oldest. Then the two boys, one who was clearly younger and stuck to Cerise's left, Shadow, as he wasn't noticed until it was too late. Then the older boy, Red Hood, was at her right. Others would join from time to time, Krait, Amber, and Tatsuya, but they were constant. It is believed that they may be working with Ladybug, but that is just a theory.

~~~~~~~~~~

Permanent Taglist: @itsmeevie01 @adrestar @miraculouspenta @vixen-uchiha

Taglist: @lady-bee-fechin @stackofrandomstuff @toodaloo-kangaroo @meismu @jjmjjktth @mizzy-pop @galla02006 @blackmagicforever

#dc x miraculous #dc x mlb #mlb x dc #miraculous x dc #maribat #maribatmarch2021 #ml marinette #damian al ghul #jason todd #disowned Mari #Mari has a support system

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pippastrelle · 2 years

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A rhyming toki pona translation of Encanto’s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”! (literal translation at the end)

o toki musi! o pona!

jan pepa: mi toki ala lon jan puno. ala!

mi toki ala lon ona.

mi kama meli sin.

jan pelikisi: mi kama mije sin!

jan pepa: la mi open pona, la mi weka e waso sewi!

jan pelikisi: laso taso lon sewi.

jan pepa: jan puno la kulupu li kama - -

jan pelikisi: nasa!

jan pepa: jan toki li seme anu mi?

jan pelikisi: mi vida o, mi a kute~

jan pepa: ona li toki. mi sona.

jan pelikisi: wile li seme?

jan pepa: la telo lon sewi li kama.

jan pelikisi: o awen. o lon noka len.

jan pepa: pilin li kon pakala!

jan pelikisi: pilin olin. taso, o sona!

tu: mi toki ala lon jan puno. ala!

mi toki ala lon ona!

jan tolowesa: monsuta ale li toki pakala jan puno.

mi kute e ona. uta sona li insa kon.

luka en noka en kiwen telo li tawa.

a a a

wawa pana sewi li ante e mije.

mama mama li ken ala sona e ale.

tenpo tawa li nasi li awen li ante.

seme li ante?

jan kamilo: mije linja!

soweli jaki.

sina li anpa tan nimi moli.

ni li moku e sitelin lape.

mute: mi toki ala lon jan puno. ala!

mi toki ala lon ona!

jan kala: toki ona la kala mi li moli!

jan suli: toki ona la sijelo mi li suli!

jan pi tomo sewi: toki ona la linja lawa mi kama weka a!

mute: kute li pali e tenpo monsuta!

jan isapela: toki ona la lon wile mi li lon nasin pana tawa ni.

toki ona la wawa pana mi li suli sama kasi.

mama mama apuwela: jan marijano li kama!

jan tolowesa: toki ona la mije wile mi li olin ante.

uta mi li pini!

mi kute e ona.

jan ispela: sina o kalama lili ala.

jan tolowesa: mi ken kute e ona.

mi ken kute sin!

jan miwapela: jan puno...

toki lon jan puno.

mi wile sona sin e jan puno.

o pana pi sona pona lon jan puno!

jan kamilo: o jo e lukin pona a!

ale: tenpo moku!

*ale li toki musi*

ale: mi toki ala lon jan puno! ala!

nimi ala lon ona!

***

LITERAL TRANSLATION

Pepa: We don’t talk about Bruno. No!

We don’t talk about him.

Ah!

I was becoming a bride.

Félix: I was becoming a husband!

Pepa: And I was starting to be happy. I’d dispelled all the clouds!

Félix: Only blue above.

Pepa: Concerning Bruno, the town becomes - -

Félix: Wild!

Pepa: Am I the storyteller or someone else?

Félix: Mi vida, I’m listening~

Pepa: He speaks. I know.

Félix: What did he want?

Pepa: Then the rain comes.

Félix: Stay, everyone. Get under the covers.

Pepa: The feelings become a hurricane!

Félix: Feelings of love. But remember!

Both: We don’t talk about Bruno. No!

We don’t talk about him!

Dolores: Everyone’s fear is the harmful words from Bruno.

I hear him. That knowing voice is in the air.

Hands, feets, and sand are moving.

Ah, ah, ah.

A given power differentiates the man.

Grandmother can’t know everything.

The future is wild, it doesn’t change, yet it changes.

What will change?

Camilo: Stringy man!

Rats.

You bow to the deadly name.

It eats your dreams.

Many: We don’t talk about Bruno. No!

We don’t talk about him!

Fish Person: According to what he said, my fish died!

Large Person: According to what he said, my body become fat!

Priest: According to what he said, my hair disappeared.

Many: Listening creates a frightful time!

Isabela: According to what he said, my wanted life is on this given path coming.

According to what he said, my given power will grow like plants.

Abuela: Mariano’s coming!

Dolores: According to what he said, my wanted man will love differently.

My mouth will stay closed!

I hear him.

Isabela: Hey, you, not even a little sound.

Dolores: I can hear him.

I can hear anew!

Mirabel: Bruno...

Talking of Bruno.

I want to know new things about Bruno.

Give me good information about Bruno!

Camilo: Hey, put on a good look!

Everyone: Dinner time!

*Everyone sings*

Everyone: We don’t talk about Bruno. No!

No words about him!

#encanto #toki pona #conlang #constructed language #translation #we don't talk about bruno #ngl i'm so proud of this #i spent a good time constructing a toki poka rhyming dictionary which i'm planning to also upload at some time #i promised i'd get around to this and what better time than when i'm on bed rest with covid?#i'm still practicing my toki pona so the phrases might not be as complex as others'#but i do like the details and phrasing i got to include #especially with dolores #and it's singable!#i was so happy with that #the logo is also by me #linguistics

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dem0nsiget-wolvden · 4 years

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Wolvember Day One: Dreams

Abaise hadn’t noticed anything off when she’d woken up in the dead of night in camp, curled up with her back pressed against Kotsim’s. She had merely stood and left camp for a short walk, what she always did when she woke in the middle of the night.

It wasn’t until she noticed that she’d passed a rock a couple of times that she stopped, looking around. She stood in a spot she knew well, a small meadowy clearing only a stone’s throw from the edge of the grasslands, a place she’d taken Singwe and Anpa to practice stalking many times.

What was different though, was that instead of seeing a sparse band of trees that separated the clearing form the grasslands, and the grassy hills beyond, she only saw mist. It obscured her vision, closing the clearing off from the rest of the forest.

Abaise bristled, looking up to see the night sky and stars shining down on her, unease creeping over her hide.

She heard a soft whine, turning, but seeing no one, another whine echoing in the night from behind her. She whirled to face that direction, but saw no one again. She was about to snap out for whoever it was to show themselves, when a chorus of whines and pain-filled howls filled the air around her, coming from all directions, no wolves visible.

Abaise flattened her ears to her head, sinking down into the soft grass of the meadow. As she did, the grass transformed, pulling at her fur. She looked to her side and yelped, jumping away from the skeletal remains of a wolf, looking around frantically, the beautiful meadow now replaced with charred and black earth, the remains of wolves scattered across them.

Beware what will come to be.

Abaise winced at the sound of the voice, the noise seeming to come from her head, seeing no one to speak the words. She tried to call out to the being, ask what it meant, but found that even as she opened her jaws, no sound came out, no words formed.

She waited, thinking it would offer some kind of explanation to the ruin she saw before her, but all she heard was the now distant chorus of whines and pained howls.

~~~~~~~~~

Abaise was about to try to walk closer to them, when she snapped awake, shooting up, hearing a pained yelp, thinking she was still stuck in the dream, until she whipped her head around to look around her den, seeing Kotsim rubbing his nose on his leg.

“What was that all about?”, he asked his mate, turning to look at her, bristled slightly, his eyes a bit wet from the hit he’d taken directly to the nose by her skull. “You were thrashing and murmuring in your sleep, then you smacked me in the nose with your head.”

Wowasi sat in her nest above them, staying quiet, but watching, looking a bit concerned.

Abaise just breathed slowly, calming herself down, before she stepped forward, burying her face in the fur of her mate’s chest.

Kotsim looked surprised, as Abaise usually was very proper and put together, but she seemed terrified. He just sat down, leaning down slightly and started licking her shoulder comfortingly, as Wowasi gliding down to land on her back, dragging her beak through her fur in her way of petting.

“What happened?”, the dark scout asked softly, feeling Abaise trembling.

“I don’t know. A horrible dream.”, she said softly, finally calming down enough to speak, sitting back slightly, but leaned into Kotsim slightly. “I was in the clearing by the grasslands, and I could barely see anything, and then I just heard... dozens and dozens of wolves, whining and howling in pain, but I couldn’t see any of them. And then...”, she started, and broke off.

“And then just death, and destruction. Burned earth, wolf bones.”, she said softly. “I don’t know what it was.”

Kotsim listened quietly, leaning down and nuzzling her slightly. “It was just a dream, Abaise. Probably worry. This is our second winter, and our first here. We don’t know what this forest holds for us in the cold yet.”, he said.

Abaise just sighed softly, nodding slightly. “You’re... you’re probably right.”, she said softly, as Wowasai swooped back into her nest.

Kotsim just nudged Abaise, and yawned slightly. “Come on, let’s lay down. You don’t have to sleep, but at least lay down and rest. It’ll be better than nothing.”, he said.

Abaise just nodded slightly, laying down and curling up with Kotsim, tucking herself into the curve of his stomach, laying her head on his side after he’d settled down.

Kotsim smiled softly at that, doing the same, the two of them looking almost interlocked, curled up together for comfort, and in Abaise’s case, security in her much more levelheaded mate.

#wolvden #my wolves #my pack #wolvember #wolvember prompts #abaise #kotsim #wowasi #soft river pack #my writings

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karmahope · 6 years

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INSTAntané (05/?)

Part 5 of @anpa-01‘s Instagram AU!

It’s the chapter you’ve all been waiting for ...

Words: 2,914 (13,905 total) Rating: T Summary: Marinette never intended to become the Instagram-famous model known as Ladybug. It just kind of … happened. Overnight. She’s still a little bewildered by it all. But now her longtime celebrity crush Adrien Agreste is following the account, she’s made friends with the anonymous cosplay account @lechatnoir, and she has an internship with Agreste Designs coming up.

When she meets Adrien in person during her internship, she’s torn. What’s more important? Her privacy as the anonymous Ladybug, or a superficial celebrity crush she’s had since middle school? What if that crush ends up being something more?

The bottom line is, she’s screwed, and it’s all Alya’s fault.

[Read on Ao3] [Read on FFN]

“… Yes, thank you! I’ll let her know. Okay, bye.”

Marinette set the phone back on the desk with a clatter and groaned softly to herself. She was in the third week of her internship, and it was … not quite going the way she had always imagined it would.

It wasn’t that she had been naïve. She had known that fashion internships were mostly phone calls and errands and pulling pieces together for supervisors. The work itself, she didn’t mind. Menial tasks were menial, but necessary. It was just that, when compared to the thrill of designing and sewing and modeling her own pieces, the internship felt stifling.

But she was interning at Agreste Designs! Of all places! That in itself was enough to keep her morale high.

Well, for the most part.

“Girls, you will never believe what Mme. Sancoeur just said to me!”

Chloé Bourgeois flounced into the office the interns all shared, carrying with her the now-familiar air of arrogance that Marinette had already complained about to Alya several times over at this point. Most of Marinette’s fellow interns were sweet and kind enough when she talked with them one-on-one, but the de facto queen bee Chloé had – for some reason – singled Marinette out as The One She Didn’t Like, So No One Else Should Like Her Either.

So Marinette was having trouble on the ‘making friends’ front, but still – she was working at Agreste Designs! Besides, Chloé only had a couple hundred followers on Instagram compared to Ladybug’s couple hundred thousand, and she derived a small amount of petty satisfaction from that.

“What did she say?” Sabrina Raincomprix asked eagerly, looking up from her work organizing the company closet.

“She said that Adrien has a shoot tomorrow, and that I’m going to be helping out as a personal assistant!” Chloé pulled her sunglasses from where they sat perched on her head and snapped them shut with a sense of finality.

Sabrina gasped, and several of the other interns congratulated Chloé as well. Marinette resisted the urge to roll her eyes. They were all helping out with the shoot tomorrow, it was nothing special. Well, it was, because they’d get to meet Adrien fucking Agreste, but it was par to the course for interns to help out at shoots. They’d already helped out with several lower-profile shoots.

Marinette quirked her lips into a smile and shook her head slightly as she opened her email. Sighing softly, she tried to get over herself. What did it matter if Chloé got a position like ‘personal assistant’ while she only got something like ‘wardrobe assistant’? Nothing. Being Ladybug didn’t give her bonus points – not here. The only two people who knew who she was behind the mask of Internet were Nathalie Sancoeur and Gabriel Agreste himself.

And, as evidenced by this development, Nathalie Sancoeur was not one to play favorites.

Speaking of, Marinette had an email waiting for her in her inbox.

From: Sancoeur, Nathalie To: Dupain-Cheng, Marinette

Subject: Wardrobe for Tomorrow’s Shoot

Marinette,

Please find the following pieces in the company closet and make sure they are in top shape for tomorrow. We accept nothing less than perfection.

- Nathalie

Attached: 1 File

Marinette had quickly learned that ‘nothing less than perfection’ was the unofficial company motto. Nathalie closed almost all of her emails with it. Every company-wide email closed with the line as well. It made for an intimidating atmosphere, and Marinette had had a hard time adjusting to it at first.

In fact, her misplaced words and general awkward bumbling air of incompetence was what Chloé had latched onto her first week and turned against her. Marinette would never admit it to anyone else, but she had gone home and cried on that very first night. She had tried to be quiet, but their apartment was small and Alya had heard her anyway.

After a small amount of pity and commiseration, Alya had dug through Marinette’s closet and threw a military-style jacket at her with a high collar and two rows of gold buttons down the sides of the opening. Soon after came a white shirt, gold leggings, and a pair of combat boots. Because it was summer, the sun hadn’t quite set, and so they had gone out and done an impromptu power-pose photoshoot in front of Les Invalides.

Marinette had gone into work the next day with far more determination than she’d felt the night before. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until the end of that week that she felt like she’d finally settled into the groove of things.

But that didn’t matter now. She printed the list of items Nathalie requested and closed the email. Pushing herself away from the desk, she ignored the eyes upon her and Chloé’s titters as she left the room.

Fun fact: Chloé Bourgeois followed Ladybug on Instagram.

The company closet was impressive, to say the very least. Marinette had been in there a couple times now, and yet she was still stunned by the sheer amount of color and texture and fabric in the room. Even more stunning was the fact she recognized several of the pieces from past Agreste collections and magazines and, admittedly, Adrien’s photoshoots. And she was here! In the room with them!

She shook the stars from her eyes and gathered the pieces on the list, hanging them on the trolley she had grabbed along the way. Once she had everything she needed, she rolled them out to the workroom, where she painstakingly steamed and ironed and lint-rolled under the watchful eyes of the senior seamstresses.

Thankfully, she managed not to screw anything up the way she had the first time she’d been left to her own devices. She knew how much steam and heat each fabric required, but under the stress she had accidently gotten them mixed up. It was a mistake she wouldn’t make again.

The rest of the day went quickly. Marinette kept her head down and did what needed to be done. She asked Nathalie if there was anything else she could help with. She didn’t complain when she was sent out on a coffee run – at least she got some fresh air.

The next day, a day she’d dreamed of since her years in collège, came all too quickly.

Likes: 10,660 Followers: 717K

Oops.

Marinette swallowed hard against the sensation of her stomach leaping up into her throat. All of her fellow interns were dressed and made-up so well. Rose wore a cute blue sundress. Juleka wore a sharp suit. Sabrina wore a fashionable romper. Chloé had gone above and beyond and wore a bright yellow bodycon dress.

“You do realize we’re meeting Adrien Agreste today, right?” Juleka asked.

“Uhm, yeah,” Marinette said.

It was clear the others thought she hadn’t dressed for the occasion. Which, well, maybe she hadn’t. She wore a white cropped t-shirt over a pink bralette with a pair of matching pastel pink high-rise pants that came down to just above her ankles. Navy blue pumps and a navy blazer completed the outfit. Her hair was in its usual pigtails, and she only had the lightest brushing of makeup on her face.

She had meant to dress up a little more that morning, but she’d been up late sewing and had slept through her early alarm, giving her far less time to get ready than she’d wanted. She had supposed it didn’t really matter – they were just interns, after all. At least she was wearing heels, although she’d brought Converse for when her feet started to kill her.

Unlike the others, who had been assigned roles like ‘personal assistant’ and ‘camera assistant’ – every intern position had the term ‘assistant’ in it – she would be working behind the scenes in the wardrobe department. Honestly, she didn’t mind. She would get to be hands-on with the clothes, which was what really mattered.

Unfortunately, part of her wouldn’t be happy unless she actually met Adrien.

Then again, what could she say?

“It’s not like I can just walk up to him and tell him I’m Ladybug,” she muttered to herself as she fetched the rack of clothes she had collected the day before. “He’d think I’m crazy, or that I’m just trying to get his attention.”

She sighed heavily. She would just stare at him, starstruck, like every other foolish girl who had hung pictures of him in her room during collège and lycée. She hadn’t taken them down by the time she moved out for université, so they were still up there – an embarrassing shrine to a celebrity crush that had since faded, but had never gone away completely.

Marinette hummed quietly to herself as she rolled the trolley from the workroom to the men’s dressing room. She knocked on the closed door. When she didn’t get a response, she opened the door and propped it with a nearby wedge so that she could wheel the rack in.

Carefully, she began arranging the pieces by outfit. She understood the value of time in this sort of thing, and was careful not to miss a single detail. Her mind drifted back to her own closet – it was still growing, but thankfully far more organized than it had been a few months ago.

She finished laying everything out fairly quickly, but she … really didn’t want go back and join the others. Catching sight of herself in the mirror, she made a face. One of her pigtails was falling out. She sighed and pulled both ties out of her hair to let it fall around her shoulders. She shook it out, then pulled it up into a high messy bun.

Still humming to herself, she started to dance a little in front of the mirror, pulling exaggeratedly seductive faces at herself as she wiggled her hips and waved her arms about.

As she came out of a twirl, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Looking over at the other end of the mirror, she froze when she saw green eyes staring back at her.

Green eyes.

Blonde hair.

A face like no other.

Marinette squeaked. She froze, her face flushing bright red. “Uh. Sorry, I was just. Uh. The mirror –”

Adrien – Adrien Agreste – smiled and chuckled. God, his laugh was adorable. “Don’t worry about it,” he said, addressing her though the mirror. “The door was open, so I thought I’d find someone in here. You’re one of my dad’s interns, right?”

Marinette turned to face him proper and rubbed the back of her neck nervously. “It’s that obvious, huh?” She giggled.

“Dude, relax,” Adrien said, leaving the doorway and – oh god – walking closer. “I grew up around basically everyone in this company. It’s easy to recognize new faces.”

“Oh. Yeah,” Marinette said sheepishly. “I suppose you’re right. I forgot about that.”

Suddenly he was standing within arm’s reach, and Marinette didn’t know what to do with herself. Whenever she’d played out this exact situation in her head, she’d known exactly what it was she would say. Now, all of that flew from her brain like pigeons flying the coop.

“At risk of sounding conceited, I realize you probably already know who I am,” Adrien said, holding his hand out, “But I’m Adrien Agreste. What’s your name?”

Marinette took his hand on instinct. Oh. It was warm. And soft. And his cologne smelled good. “M-Marinette,” she managed to say. Merde, she forgot her last name. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Adrien grinned. “Pleased to meet you, Marinette!”

“Pleased to meet you too,” Marinette replied weakly, letting go of his hand. “Uhm. I should go find Mme. Sancoeur and find out what I’m supposed to be doing now.”

“Well, don’t let me keep you,” Adrien said. “Nathalie can be scary when things aren’t running smoothly!”

Marinette felt some of the tension leave her body. “Yeah, that’s one word for it,” she said. “Well, I’ll see you later, I guess!”

“See ya!”

While she had been managing just fine in her heels all morning, Marinette felt like she tottered out of the dressing room. Adrien Agreste. She’d just met Adrien Agreste. And now he knew her name! (He had also caught her dancing awkwardly in his dressing room, but that didn’t really seem to matter). Honestly, she could die happy right there and then.

But she didn’t. She pulled herself together and reported back to Mme. Sancoeur for her next task.

Likes: 21,002 Followers: 723K

Marinette hovered in the back of the room, away from the cameras and the bright lights and Adrien Agreste’s even brighter smile. Professional photoshoots were fascinating to watch. Everything went like clockwork.

Outfit.

Several poses in quick succession.

New outfit.

Rinse.

Repeat.

Adrien moved so naturally in front of the camera. With an easy smile and a casual brush at a stray piece of hair, Marinette’s heart nearly fell out of her chest when he glanced in her direction. Not at her, in her direction.

This was bad. This was very, very bad. She felt herself falling faster and harder than she ever had before. Back in collège and lycée, all she had were posters and fashion shows and filmed interviews. The crush could only have been superficial – she didn’t know him.

But now she did. Well, she’d met him. Briefly. And he’d graciously overlooked the way she’d made a fool of herself.

And that was all it took.

Chloe stood up front and off to the side, watching Adrien with an unsettlingly hungry look in her eyes. Marinette noticed Adrien did his best not to turn toward her, which gave her a strange sense of satisfaction. Each time it became obvious, it was all she could do to contain giggles.

The first three outfits went smoothly, but it was the fourth that really got Marinette in trouble. It was a shimmery, almost reflective white suit with a bright emerald tie, extremely well-cut and flattering. The man looked like an angel, and Marinette’s heart ached. That suit would go so well with the flowy white dress that Adrien himself had re-grammed. With deep breaths, she tried to center herself, but the very thought threatened to consume her.

This shoot called for athletic poses that would cause the light to reflect off the suit in as many ways as possible. Marinette could only stare as he jumped about on the platform, sometimes with serious faces, sometimes with goofy excited ones. There were a couple green lights added to the collection of white ones, which added a spot of color.

“Non, non, non!” Mme. Sancoeur cried, breaking Marinette from her thoughts. “This isn’t working! The tie keeps moving off center! Marinette, the pins!”

Startled, Marinette grabbed the small box of pins as fast as she could. A sharp, stabbing pain in her finger stopped her short as she impaled herself on a loose one. Checking her finger, she saw to her dismay that she had started bleeding. She couldn’t get blood on that suit!

Rather than hand the pins off to someone else, she grabbed a bandaid from her pocket. She had started keeping them with her about halfway through the first week of the internship. Hastily, she wrapped it around her index finger, where it joined the couple others she already had on other fingers.

“Marinette!”

“I’m coming!” she cried, and hurried up to the front, her heels clicking frantically across the floor.

When she got there, Mme. Sancoeur was turned away on her headset talking to someone. Marinette gulped. This would be up to her, then. Okay. She could do this. Easy.

She took a deep breath and stepped up onto the platform, her legs shaking beneath her. The clack of her heels against the platform sounded infinitely louder than it had against the floor just moments before. She clutched the box of pins at if it were her lifeline, knuckles white against the cardboard.

Her heart thumped fiercely. When she dared to look up at Adrien’s face, it kicked into overdrive. She kept her breathing measured – if she didn’t consciously think about it, she might stop breathing altogether.

“So,” Adrien said quietly, one corner of his mouth pulling into a half-smile. “We meet again. Didn’t you say we would?”

“Uhm.” Marinette scrambled for words. “Y-yeah, I guess I did.” She let out a small laugh.

Adrien leaned in conspiratorially. “Just try not to stab me,” he said. “I’ve been stabbed more times than I can count at these things.”

“T-that was my intention,” Marinette stammered as she reached for his tie. “Not stabbing you, I mean!”

It was obvious he was trying to put her at ease, she thought as she carefully adjusted the emerald tie. Unfortunately, his easy, borderline flirty tone just made things even harder. She kept her eyes on the tie as she pinned it in place, and if her hands lingered a little longer than need be, it was only by fractions of a second. When she finished, she looked up to see Adrien looking back at her with an inquisitive look on his face.

“What?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Nothing,” he said. “Thank you, Marinette.”

At hearing her name leave his lips, Marinette blushed, nodded, and quickly retreated from the platform to her safe spot in the back of the room.

Unfortunately, this time when he glanced in her direction, she knew he was actually looking at her.

God, she was so fucked.

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