"As long as I am breathing, in my eyes, I am just beginning."
― Criss Jami, Killosophy
The alarm went off and Marinette let an arm out of her bed to reach out her phone, without actually opening her eyes, so in that way she could hit the snooze button.
"Marinette, you're going to be late for school" you could hear Marinette's mom calling for her.
"I know, I'm going," the girl responded, but it was clear that she wasn't planning on moving just yet.
Suddenly, a red spot flew from her hiding place onto Marinette's hair, pulling from it to get her out of bed.
"Come on, Marinette, Alya is waiting for you. Don't you wanna see Adrien? " said Tikki, her kwami.
/If you don't know what a kwami is, well, it is a sort of ancient Chinese god or… oh, you already knew? Well, thank God, because I really don't feel like explaining that. Anyway, let's move on. /
The simple mention of that name made her open her eyes, but it still wasn't enough for taking her out of bed. She had spent the night before fighting an akumatized villain alongside Chat Noir, so she wasn't all about getting up this morning. Or any morning, for that matter, but this one was a special case.
"Would it be too bad if I didn't go to school just one day?" Marinette buried her head again in her pillow, which made her comment barely audible. Thankfully, the day was quiet, so Tikki could hear her perfectly.
"Girl, you have been absent too many times already. I know being Ladybug isn't easy, but are you going to draw away Marinette from her normal life just because of that? Besides, today is the day when you choose a career for career week! It will be the most wonderful week of all if you choose right!"
"Tikki, I had completely forgotten about that!" chimed Marinette as she got out of bed and started changing her clothes. She took the first thing she could found, a red skater-type dress with white flowers on it, white sneakers and her hair in the typical pigtails.
She ran down the stairs, greeted her mom and took off, not without taking a croissant and an apple with her first. She was already out of the door when a feeling of a lack of something assaulted her. That's when the girl noticed she had left all of her stuff in her room. From her backpack to, well, Tikki. Marinette ran for it and finally she was headed to school.
When she arrived, the doors were still closed and few people were there, which really pleased her because that meant she would still have an opportunity to choose her career. Her friend Alya wasn't there yet, so she sat on the stairs to wait while eating her apple.
Suddenly, a familiar face came into her sight. It was her best friend's boyfriend, Nino. It was weird to think of him that way thanks to the fact that they had known each other since she could remember; but kids grow making space for teenagers to take their places and things change for better or for worse.
Marinette waved at him, and when Nino saw her he waved back, just before approaching to her and sitting by her side.
"You're here early," Nino said when he settled.
"Couldn't miss career day, could I?" Marinette responded, with a smile on her face. She really liked being around Nino, especially if that meant spending time with Adrien, even if she couldn't find a way to speak to him.
"You really couldn't. I heard Adrien will be a mentor of the 'modeling' career. Would you be interested in applying for that?" Nino informed with a smile on his face, the one that she always gets from him whenever she makes the slightest contact with Adrien. He knew she liked him, and yet Adrien was oblivious of the fact.
As marvelous as spending a whole week with Adrien sounded, Marinette couldn't forget the true purpose of career week over a boy. She wanted to be a fashion designer when she grew up, and that career was one of the most asked ones, as far as she knew. If she wanted to be the best as a grown up, she had to start by now, and then, one day, she would hear her name everywhere and see her collections and designs in every magazine she dared to open, alongside her handsome husband, of course. That's what she wanted, more than anything in life. Perhaps more than Adrien himself. Although, if she didn't get into her career, then she wouldn't mind giving modeling a try just to spend some more time with Adrien.
"I don't think so, I'm really eager to give fashion design a try. Who do you think will be this year's mentor?" Marinette inquired, more to herself than to the guy sitting beside her.
In that moment, a familiar white limo stopped in front of the school. Adrien had arrived pretty early himself too. He had no need to find the perfect career since he would be mentoring one, but maybe that was why he arrived that early, to meet his new pupils. When Marinette spotted the boy, she couldn't help but blushing. He looked really handsome to her, with his jacket and his blond hair and… she let out a sigh.
"Adrien! What's up, dude?" exclaimed Nino when he saw his friend stepping out of the limo.
"Hi Nino. Hi Marinette," he said, looking at the blue-eyed girl. He wouldn't admit it, but he actually wanted to get to know Marinette a little better, although she never seemed to want the same thing. She was always fast to push him away, in a way that made Adrien feel like she didn't like him very much. Little did he know, right?
"I… ummm… h-hi-llo… I-I mean! Hi, Adrien!" shouted Marinette, still with pink stains on her cheeks. The blond boy smiled at her and she felt like there was no air in her lungs and she was about to faint.
Luckily enough, her friend Alya arrived just in time to sit by Marinette's side and give her the strength she needed, because oh boy! Adrien Agreste was just… so dreamy!
"Hi guys, already know what you're going to be signing up for?" said Alya, saving Marinette's dignity in the process. From now on, and to avoid any possible embarrassment, Marinette would only look at her best friend while talking, because looking other way might be too dangerous for her.
"Fashion design, you know it" said Marinette with a smile. The pink from her cheeks has almost completely gone, but came up again quickly when she heard Adrien's voice again, directing his comments to her.
"You are signing into fashion design?" he asked.
"Well, y-yeah, it's kind of a dr-dream I've always had" stuttered Marinette.
"Makes sense. I've seen your designs and they are amazing! I wish I was as talented as you are" admitted Adrien. He was kind of feeling bad because now Marinette wouldn't even look at him, and that made him sad. He had seen how she acted when she was around people that she trusted and it wasn't anything like what she acted when he was around. Heck, even Chat Noir had better luck with her! Perhaps it was that Chat Noir is a superhero, and superheroes make everyone feel safe.
"Tha-thank you. They're not as are as you amazing… I mean! You is… I mean!..." Marinette started sweating, with a look of panic in her eyes. She really wasn't able to handle herself whenever that boy was around.
"What she means is just thank you" interrupted Alya, saving her friend, to which Marinette greeted with a smile and a nod of her head, followed by letting her head fall into her hands. What would she do without Alya? Maybe stutter more…
More people started to arrive and the 4 friends kept on talking for a while. Few minutes after, the doors opened and the first bell rang. Each and every student ran to the inside of the school to write their name on a paper sheet and secure their place in a career, except for Adrien, who just found his booth and stood on the other side patiently waiting for people to go sign up.
When Marinette found her dream booth she approached to it. She looked at the sheet and there were three names already written, out of the 10 that could take place. She took out a pen, but someone ran into her, making it fall. She got down on her knees to look for it, but the pen was already gone to another dimension. She looked at the booth and there was already a line of people waiting to put their name on the list. She was about to stand and claim her place, but was sure that no one would lend their pen to her if she did that. Suddenly, she saw a pair of orange snickers stopping in front of her. She looked up to see the owner of them, only to reveal the image of a perfect blonde boy handing her a pen. For some seconds there, she wasn't able to understand what he was doing, she just wanted to be there looking at those beautiful shinny green eyes, but a stroke of reality brought her back. She grabbed the pen and then Adrien helped her get up.
"I saw you were struggling with a pen" Adrien joked. Marinette only gave him a shy smile, afraid of embarrassing herself, put up a finger to ask him to hold and turned to see the sheet, there was only one free space to make the list, so she wrote her name before anyone else could, securing her place into the fashion design career.
"Thank you, I… That was… You… thank you," the black-haired girl ended up saying, returning his pen and giving him a sincere smile.
"It was nothing, you can keep it" said Adrien and returned to his place under the gaze of a 15 year old girl, madly in love with him.
...
Adrien went to settle up in his booth when the doors opened. There were already plenty of girls lining up to sign their name in the list. He greeted the girls with a smile, answering if they had any questions about the career. They were mostly interested in knowing if he was single or if it was true that he was dating Chloé, which was a rumor that he didn't even know about.
He then saw a blonde ponytail approaching to his position. She had a pink pen in her hand and her presence was imposing to the girls in line. She pushed her way until she was the first one on the line and wrote her name in pink ink. He looked over to the fashion design booth, seeing a girl in a red dress checking out the list and looking for something in her backpack, maybe a pen.
"Oh hi, Adrien. I don't think we'll need anymore company throughout the week. Maybe you could tell them they have no chances on this career right now so they don't waste their time," Chloé blocked his view to the black-haired girl to make the model have full attention on her. Adrien laughed nervously, not knowing what to do.
"I…" began Adrien, but then saw how someone pushed Marinette, making the pen she was holding, fall. She went down on her knees to look for it, and after some moments, the boy realized she couldn't find it. He searched in his pocket for a pen he always carried, he took it out and began to walk. "I'll be right back," he said as he was getting far from his booth, under the exasperated look of Chloé Bourgeois.
When he returned to the booth, the sheet was already filled with names, so he kept it in a folder under the sad looks of the girls who were still waiting in line to get to write their names.
"Busy day?" he heard the voice of his pal Nino coming from behind his head.
"Looks more like the beginning of an insufferable week" whispered the kwami hiding in his pocket: Plagg.
/Soooo… this is my first Ladybug fanfic and I really hope you like it. If you do, don't be afraid to leave a comment and yeah :) you can also leave your suggestions on the comment section. I apologize if there are any mistakes, but I wanted to post this right away.
~M Noir/