Murphy's Law
On Monday morning, Marinette is not doing so hot.
"Girl!" Alya grins, poking Marinette playfully in the ribs.
Alya, a social media marketing expert for Gabriel Agreste's brand, is Marinette's best friend. In fact, Alya could naturally be anyone's best friend – she's just that kind of person – so Marinette is glad that she's the lucky one; but at this particular moment, she just wants to drown, and Alya is like that one lifeguard who comes to the rescue and drags you out of the ocean, kicking and screaming.
Marinette groans, and falls forward on her desk, determined not to look up, over, or any other direction. "It's not that bad," says Alya after a moment of no movement. She grabs a spare chair from the cube next to Marinette's, pulls it up and plops into it, resting a hand on Marinette's knee.
"Mr. Agreste barely looked at them," Marinette says, her voice muffled by the desk. She is hunched over on it, head in arms. Alya blows out a sigh.
"Did he hand your sketchbook back to you?" Alya asks. For a beat neither of them speaks, and then slowly, Marinette lifts her head from her desk and shakes it. "There?" says Alya, "See? So there's nothing to worry about. He'll look at your designs and I'm sure he'll love them; he's just a very busy guy."
"You think so?" Marinette mutters.
"Of course!" Alya beams. "Now! We're done with the pity party-" Alya pointedly ignores the face Marinette makes as she pulls out her phone, shoving it into Marinette's hand, "I have something to show you~!"
Marinette throws Alya a perplexed look and then her eyes flicker down to the phone. It's not so much that she's nervous or confused, it's more like been thrown off guard – and Marinette has been thrown off guard enough in her life that she thinks, by now, she'd be used to it. It seems only fair that the universe would grant her that one small reprise … but it doesn't. When Marinette looks back up at Alya, her friend is nearly glowing with glee.
"That," says Alya, tapping the phone, the picture therein, and then gingerly retrieving it from Marinette's hands. Marinette's not particularly offended; she's broken five of her own phones in the past three years and at least two of Alya's. "-is Ladybug, have you heard of her?" Marinette's never been a very good liar, so she's really trying to come up with something, anything, when Alya cuts in and saves her, musing aloud: "probably not, she's not very popular … yet." Alya's off on something, never a good sign, and Marinette's almost afraid to ask, but she pipes in anyway:
"Yet?" she echoes, nervous.
"I'm going to write an article on her," says Alya, and Marinette's blood runs cold. Alya is also a freelance lifestyle journalist for a magazine, Harmonic, which is a still-growing, but (in no uncertain terms) successful Arts and Music publication. "We have to see her, Mari, she's amazing. And thanks to one Adrien Agreste, I've already got the inside scoop." Alya winks for good measure, Marinette's head is still spinning. Ladybug's a small fry who performs in a smaller hole in the wall. Who would want to write about that? And why would Adrien be a good source? Marinette's face goes bright red when she thinks about him, and she stutters out: "w-what's he got to do with this?" Alya, being the good little information seeker that she is gives her friend a mischievous grin.
"He owns Murphy's Law – the place Ladybug sings at," she says, conspicuously glancing around, when Marinette gives her a skeptical look, Alya sighs, "I'll fill you in, let's go to lunch?"
Marinette's not sure what she was expecting from Alya; the girl really knows her stuff … and Marinette had never actually met the owner of Murphy's Law, only received payment from him via Nino. She's only ever there on Saturdays anyway, it's hard to find time to meet a person when she spends so little time in a place. She feels stupid and maybe a little embarrassed. Ladybug wouldn't be embarrassed, though, Marinette tells herself. And Adrien has probably never seen her preform. He's a model, a person can own a place and rarely be there. That's not unheard of; high profile people do it all the time!
"Marinette?" Alya frowns, "you're hyperventilating…"
"I'm fine!" she says, a little too loud. Alya, skeptical, chooses not to pry.
"Anyway…" she says, continuing on with their earlier conversation. Marinette takes large bites out of her sandwich, to distract herself from her crumbling world, and pretends to be okay. "I'm pretty sure Mr. Agreste doesn't know about Murphy's Law, you know, unbecoming and all that. Adrien agreed to meet with me for a private interview. I'm to leave his name out of the story. Which is fine by me, this one's all about Ladybug, anyway."
Downtown is vibrant with life. From their spot on the patio of their favorite panini place, Marinette has a good vantage point of Gabriel Agreste's skyscraper, of the trade center, of three bridges, and a water feature in the middle of the business plaza. Pigeons are waddling around, too happy and too pudgy to get very far of the ground. It's a good day. If Marinette and Alya get up, walk five streets down, turn left and walk half a mile they'll end up at Murphy's Law.
Murphy's Law, thinks Marinette, anything that can go wrong, will naturally do so. The irony would be hilarious to anyone else.
"What if," says Marinette, careful not to seem like she's throwing water on Alya's fire, "you know, what if, Ladybug doesn't want to be in the magazine?" Alya pretends to think on it for a moment and then she shrugs, taking a bit of her panino.
"I won't force her into it," says Alya, "but this story could really be my breakout into lifestyle journalism so I'm going to do everything I can to win her over." Her friend is crazy determined, and Marinette knows immediately that she can't stop Alya from achieving her dreams if she's got any say. Alya's great at her job for Mr. Agreste, but fashion is Marinette's dream. Not Alya's. This magazine, it could be everything Alya wants. Marinette laughs and gives Alya a smile.
"You're great," she says, "who could ever deny you?" Alya gives her a wink.
"That's the hope," Alya grins, "and on that note … please say you'll come with me on Saturday to see her? Please?"
Marinette runs her hands through her hair, glances to the side. She's a terrible friend, she feels awful for lying, but what can she say?
"Ah," she stutters, "I can't this weekend, I have to help my parents with a really big order!" Her smile is too big, she knows. Alya crosses her arms.
"Boo," she says. "you're definitely going next time."
Marinette, afraid to say anything incriminating, gives a nervous chuckle instead.
A little world building in this chapter. Also Alya. Because Alya. Next chapter will feature more Chat Noir/Adrien ... in case anyone missed it in the first chapter, those glittering green eyes were his ;P (I don't think it's any big secret to confirm that here).
Please feel free to ask questions/leave comments/criticisms/etc, those are always appreciated.
Next update will probably be in a week or so. This update came so quickly simply because the first chapter was very short, and I thought it'd be best to give the story a little more substance before I got on a regular update schedule.
As always, enjoy!