Arianna:
"H- here you go s-sir, I have your c-coffee as w-well as the Dumphry files, and I s-sent those invoices to Mr H-Harris as you requested." Arianna stammered, sitting the folders and coffee on her boss's desk.
"What about my dry cleaning, Amanda?" Calvin demanded. "A-actually Sir, it's Arianna. M-my name i-is Arianna."
"I don't care Ariel, what's the situation with my dry cleaning?" Arianna passed him the stub to the Taiwanese Dry Cleaning store she'd taken his suits to. "Um, t-they said it'd be th-three to four hours before they're r-ready." She stuttered.
"What is this? Why are you giving this to me? You are picking it up Aaliyah!" He burst, causing Arianna to cower back. "B-but Sir, I'm o-off in t-two hours." He pursed his lips angrily. "Am I going to have to find another secretary, Alyssa?" She shook here head weakly. "O-okay, I c-can work o-overtime I g-guess."
She normally didn't stutter but her boss was a very intimidating man, on top of the fact that he seemed slightly... unprofessional at times.
"Very good Allison. Now send in Gerald." Right at that moment there was a knock at Calvin's office door and Arianna went over to open it, a leering Gerald standing in front of her.
"Hm, good afternoon Andrea." He smiled creepily at her, as an uncomfortable shiver ran up her back. "Hello, Gerald." She clipped, moving to step past him. He placed his hand in front of her to stop her movement, his hand grazing against the side of her chest unexpectedly. She looked up at him in disgust, as he moved his hand like nothing had happened.
"Where're you going?"
"To my job. I have work to do." She answered brusquely, successfully making it past him this time. She sat at her desk in front of Calvin's office, however realising too late that the door was still open and she could hear what they were saying.
"Ooh, she's feisty." Gerald remarked, to which her boss replied with a non committal 'hm'. "She has a nice ass though," he added as an afterthought. Her boss replied a little more eagerly to this. "Oh I know, you should see her rack when she places files on my desk, I can see right down her blouse." Arianna was filled with disgust. He ogled her at her work? What did he take her for?
"I definitely would've fired her by now if it weren't for that chest. She's a great secretary but she's so mousy and boring. Good thing she's nice to look at, or she'd have nothing going for her." Calvin continued, as Arianna felt tears well up in her eyes.
I'm just something to look at? That's it?As she felt the self shame and hurt develop in her, a smirking Hawkmoth looked out his open window. "Oh Arianna, you're feeling under appreciated and objectified, a perfect combination to create a successfully evil akuma.
However I can tell that this situation will only escalate, and you'll be much stronger if I wait for the negative emotions to truly develop. Luckily for you, and unluckilyfor Ladybug and Chat Noir, I'm a very patient man. I can wait." And with that the window closed as Hawkmoth transformed back into a very smug Gabriel Agreste.
"I can wait."
XxXxXxX
Marinette:
"Girl are you sure you're gonna be okay?" Alya asked, concerned. They were standing outside the Dupain-Cheng's bakery and Alya didn't want to leave her friend alone after the events that had occurred that morning.
"Yeah Alya, I'll be fine. Thanks." Marinette smiled sadly at her friend. The red head nodded, disbelieving but accepting. "Well okay, but I'm only a phone call away if you want me to come over and talk trash about him with you." She grinned, finally getting her friend to laugh. It was a sob of a laugh, but a laugh all the same.
"Thanks Alya," she chuckled. "I love you girl," the red head pulled her in for a hug as Mari sniffled. "I love you too," she replied meaningfully, squeezing her friend's midriff. "And I promise that I'll kill Nino for you." The Ladyblogger added, as an after thought. Marinette shook her head. "Don't worry about it, he didn't know." Alya frowned, but nodded.
"Fine, he can live. But don't think I'm not going to torture him a little bit." Mari rolled her eyes but silently thanked her friend, Alya was the reason she didn't break down in class. "Bye girl," she said as she stepped away from the embrace, Marinette glumly waved back and headed inside.
"Marinette? Are you okay, sweety?" Sabine questioned worriedly. Marinette nodded and continued up her stairs. "Yeah, I just need a minute." She choked, making it to her room and closing the trap door, before flinging herself on the bed and letting her tears pour.
He has a girlfriend. Or at least, someone he wants to be his girlfriend. And he meets up with her every night.
Tikki flew from the purse and started playing with her chosen's hair. "Oh Marinette," she squeaked comfortingly. Mari sobbed, and the kwami grabbed a box of tissues, bringing it to her favourite Ladybug out of all of them.
"H-he meets her every night, Tikki." Mari wailed, using the tissue to delicately dab her eyes. She looked around her room, Adrien's gorgeous face smiling back at her with every poster she'd hung up, his schedule she'd compiled carefully over the past three years, her favourite picture from his swimsuit photo shoot she'd had as her laptop's screen saver.
"I mean I knew I never had a chance with him, but I thought that no one else did either. He's just too perfect and wonderful and, and now he has a girlfriend." She bawled.
The kwami sighed and continued to play with Marinette's hair. "The universe plays its cards in questionable ways, but it knows what it's doing." She answered vaguely. "W-what?" Her chosen asked.
"You may not realise it right now Marinette, but I've been around for thousands of years. Everything happens for a reason. Sometimes you hurt the ones you love the most. Sometimes you hold the ones who leave you lost. And sometimes you learn. But it's too late." Tikki replied, the last part sounding like a mantra she'd repeated over and
over again.
"Tikki, what're you saying?" The girl sat up, looking at her kwami confused. "I'm saying that maybe this happened for a reason. I understand that you're heartbroken, Marinette, it's to be expected considering you've loved him for three years. But maybe this is to show you that you can't wait for things to happen on their own." The kwami explained.
"You waited and waited to tell him you liked him and you waited too long. Generally when people learn what they did wrong, it's too late." She finished, looking at Marinette with a sad smile. "I'm sorry, Marinette. But you needed to hear that." Her chosen was looking at her with a torn expression and it cut her up, but Marinette had to understand that Adrien couldn't be expected to wait for her to be ready.
Marinette inhaled a deep breath, held it, exhaled, and smiled. "You know what, Tikki? I did need to hear that. Thank you." The kwami squeaked with relief that her favourite chosen didn't hate her. "You're welcome, Mari." She responded genuinely, a giant grin adorning her red face.
Marinette glanced around her room again, realising for the first time how weird it was that she'd practically stalked him to get his schedule. And that he honestly couldn't have been expected to wait for her. "I mean, I'm obviously going to hurt for a while," she sighed, the pain in her chest still evident - despite her sudden realisation. "But, I think in the end, I'm gonna be okay."
Her kwami looked at her with such pride that Marinette blushed, but returned her smile with a genuine soft grin. "I love you, Tikki. I don't know what I'd do without you." Tikki's eyes welled up, none of her other chosens had said they loved her. "Oh Marinette!" She chirped, flying straight into the bluenette's chest as Mari giggled. "I love you too!" Tikki tried with all her might to hug the amused girl, but was simply too small.
She huffed, but accepted that she couldn't reach, opting instead to fly around in excited circles, as Marinette laughed harder. "Tikki stop it! You're gonna make me dizzy!" She chuckled as her kwami landed on her bed with a soft thud and a broad grin.
"Now, I think it's about time I take down these posters. Then I'm going to give myself one night to grieve, and then I'll start the moving on process." Marinette stated determinedly, as her little bug friend closed her eyes and nodded, moving to help her chosen with the posters, still on cloud 9 from being loved.
XxXxXxX
Aah! I've done it again! Why I'm on a roll! I understand that the Arianna thing may have been a bit confusing at first, but trust me she's a MASSIVE part of this story later. I hope you liked it and if you did then please drop a comment and tell me your thoughts, also I'm always on the lookout for grammatical errors so if you spot any please tell me. (Haha, spot. I just unintentionally made a pun xD) aaand yea, enjoy! Luv ya bubs .
