Day 1: "I don't get paid enough for this nonsense."
The traffic was bad. Nathalie checked the time and suppressed a groan. If they were stuck for another fifteen minutes, she would miss her train to Calais and the deal she had spent months negotiating for Gabriel could easily fall through.
What even was holding up the traffic? She had checked before leaving and it hadn't been particularly bad. She had certainly left big enough time reserve for the car to make it to Gare du Nord in time to catch her train. It had been only a few minutes earlier that they stopped moving.
When her tablet pinged with one very specific alert, Nathalie didn't even have to look to check.
Of course.
An Akuma.
Working for a workaholic, high-strung fashion designer was bad enough. When that same man was also the Paris' current public enemy number one, things got even worse. And when that man didn't even have enough consideration to remember that his overworked and underappreciated assistant - who, it sometimes seemed, was the only one keeping the legal side of his business running smoothly - was traveling to close a deal and made an Akuma who just had to delay the traffic en route... well, Nathalie prided herself on cursing only rarely but she was coming close.
While she mentally composed a very strongly worded letter of complaint to her employer, she was also trying to calculate just how much her schedule would be thrown off by this. She could catch a later train, they ran every two hours after all, but that would waste her time reserve for Calais. She would still be on time but barely. And that was only if no delay occurred in the other city.
*thump*
The car shook as something heavy fell down nearby. Nathalie looked out of the window just in time to see the resident Parisian superheroes arrive and immediately engage in combat with the bright orange, roughly human shaped Akuma. The battle was taking a heavy toll on the road and cars and people were evacuating their vehicles with considerable speed.
Stuffing her tablet into her briefcase, Nathalie opened the door and stepped out. Depending on how long the battle took, she would be better off trying to catch metro to the station.
She barely took one step away from the car when the Akuma crashed down a few meters in front of her. They seemed to be muttering something to themselves. A purple outline of a butterfly appeared around their eyes and Nathalie scowled. Quickly checking around for any eavesdroppers and finding none, she made brief eye-contact with the man who was a safe distance away and watching through the Akuma's eyes.
"I'm going to be late because of you," she said, very calmly considering the circumstances. "You just couldn't have waited until I left Paris, could you?"
Before she could continue, though, both Chat Noir and Ladybug dropped down between her and the Akuma. Chat looked at her with worried eyes.
"You should leave the area, Na-Mademoiselle. It's not safe here."
Nathalie gave a brief nod and started briskly walking towards the nearest metro station. She would somehow deal. That was what she did every day.
She had just barely managed to catch her original train. Turned out the Akuma had damaged part of the tracks and it took an half an hour for Ladybug to finally repair the damage. The deal negotiations and the contract signing went off without a hitch. She managed to catch the last train, which was a good thing, since she had left her overnight bag in the car back in Paris.
She briefly considered waiting until the next morning to confront Gabriel but she knew herself well enough that she would lose most of her anger by then. Unsurprisingly, he was still awake, standing in his study and looking at the portrait of his wife. He turned around when Nathalie walked in and for a moment he looked almost sheepish.
"I trust everything went well?" he asked. Nathalie put the folder with the signed contract on his table.
"No problems in Calais," she said. "No thanks to you, sir."
"Nathalie," he said warningly but Nathalie shrugged it off.
"Next time you decide to make an Akuma, try and remember if there is any time-sensitive business happening in regards to your company. The company, I might add, which is helping you fund your extra-legal activities." She pulled out another folder and laid it down. "Which reminds me, this is my official request for a higher pay. I'm putting up with too much nonsense as it is, a higher salary is the least you can do. Have a good night, sir."
She left before he could say anything.
