Long days were better spent in good company than without, and so sometimes art club meetings became a sort of sanctuary. An Akuma, three hours of classes that went over her head from sleep deprivation, and a true feeling of isolation as she tried to sort out just whatever she felt, how confusing it was, later found her in the art club. If you'd never been, you'd never know how something so simple flickers to life before your eyes there.
The art club held a thousand stories at once and yet not nearly enough as she sat down and watched how Nathanael's comic fluttered to life, the detailed sketch of Ladybug that bared no mixed emotions or massive confusion, and the words carefully etched into the page by Marc beside him brought a new life to the superhero that would never be completely still and never completely lost.
She smiled, and Marinette found herself turning around to watch Alix's art come to life, bold, abstract in a way completely her own, and it was easy to get lost in every line, every crease, every hint of street art. It was easy to see a painted world on a canvas, but Alix brought it to the city in a way that was real, that defined them, and yet still dazzled others when you needed a look just to reminder you, to refresh you.
Marinette needed this, close friends tied together by a string of creativity, a long, drawn out day ending with a hint of creativity that stung and danced and stayed impossibly strong among the trials and tribulations of life. There was no hidden romance here to complicate everything, no Adrien, no Cat Noir, no tied feelings that just confused her. Friendship felt simple here, not complicated, not unsure, just steady in the folds of creativity.
"So what's your big project today?" Alix moved from her place to stand by Marinette, and the fashion designer smiled as she tried to think up something that defined just this, this atmosphere, this air, this bond that didn't need to be spoken to be prominent, and yet still resonated with every word that left a pair of lips here.
"I'm still figuring that out. My head hasn't stopped spinning since I woke up." Marinette admitted, wanting something that just captured the essence of art club, of friendship made steady through presence and shared passion.
"Those days suck." Alix shrugged and sat down next to her, "It's like you can't catch a break. When you do though, even if it's a forced start, something incredible happens." And, Marinette could see that as Alix leaned against her side, and she wondered just which days were the hardest for her friend, the hardest that she'd refused to show. Alix didn't like people to know or question her pain, if she could hide it, it was hidden though everything always came out so raw and real with her anyway.
"So will it have an edge to it?" It was an easy enough question to ask as somehow Alix's art always questioned what was to be expected, and Marinette found it easy to wonder if her designs today would feel like that edge to Alix's art, sometimes prominent, sometimes not so much.
"It depends if you're living it." Alix shrugged as she got up and returned to her art, fluttering to life at the seams, and perhaps an edge will sneak into Marinette's designs, almost without noticing, and perhaps the life it holds will be just as daring and strong as Alix's. Ladybug surely lived the edge that Alix clung to, dared, and challenged. Maybe one day that will appear boldly in designs otherwise fettered to a sense of reality, a sense of calm even when the world wasn't so calm. An edge wasn't a scary place when you could coax out the wonder, the passion, the joy of it with barely a few words, barely a moment stretched out in time.
