Chapter 10: Duty Calls
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No matter how bad Marinette thought Wednesday had been, Thursday was so much worse.
Her pantry was basically empty. The only food items available were the raw ingredients for making cookies for Tikki, and there was no time or butter to do that, so she went to work empty handed. She didn't have any specific plan for lunch, but thought she might have something hidden away in her desk at work that she could nibble on at some point.
As she was passing through the lobby on her way out the door, she paused beside the trash can where she had tossed Adrien's ruined umbrella. She felt a renewed sense of loss for the silly thing he'd given her in passing five years ago and that she had treasured ever since, probably more than anyone had ever valued an umbrella, and seriously debated fishing it out of the trash. She poked the handle back and forth, hesitating; it was broken beyond hope for repair. Fishing it from the trash would be a little ridiculous. Decisively but with a little lingering sadness, she walked away from the umbrella.
It was time to let it go and move on.
After being at work for only an hour, she realized that even if she had brought food she would never have been able to get it down. M. Bredeauteau watched her like a vulture watches a dying animal; dark eyes sharp and exuding terrible intent. Her teeth felt on edge and skin crawled with discomfort that only got worse as the hours ticked away. His malicious attention followed her every move, watching for her to slack off for even a moment, before he would swoop down like that vulture and take a chunk out of her hide.
"Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng, please stay focused on your task." His voice oozed condescension.
"Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng, now is not the appropriate time for your discussion with your co-worker. We have deadlines to meet." Delivered with a sneer.
"Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng, where are you going at this time?" A sharp glare.
When her lunch period rolled around she was too anxious to even think of getting up from her desk, and worked frantically straight through lunch. She felt sick to her stomach and her head pounded. She ached from hunching over the sewing machine and drafting table in her cubicle. Brushing off all of Claudia's attempts to check on her or try to help, body tense and driving her headache to migraine levels, Marinette worked at one-hundred-fifty percent effort for her full shift.
M. Bredeauteau examined her progress on her project at the end of her shift, and apparently she passed muster. He grunted sourly and handed the garments back to her, dismissing her for the day.
Marinette staggered outside into the early evening rain and took a deep breath of the damp air. The coolness felt good against her throbbing head and helped calm her rolling stomach slightly. She somehow made it home despite her unsteady legs and as soon as she closed the door of her apartment, slumped to the ground over her knees and folded into a child's pose, pressing her forehead to the wooden floorboards.
Tikki freed herself from Marinette's purse and flitted around the young woman's head fretfully. "Marinette, are you okay?"
Marinette's head rocked back and forth in the negative.
"You should get up off the floor." Tikki urged her, gently petting her dark hair. She hated when circumstances drove Marinette to this degree of extreme anxiety. It was painful to see her so sad and tense. "It's cold here. You should change clothes into something comfortable and find something to eat—"
Marinette pressed up and rapidly crawled around the corner into the bathroom. She held together long enough to lift the lid of the toilet before heaving. There was nothing in her stomach to throw up though, so she wound up just spitting bile into the bowl and gagging miserably several times. She hovered uncertainly on her knees for a few minutes trying to decide whether she was done or not, before pressing a hand to her churning belly and flushing the toilet. Tikki brought her the cup she used for rinsing her mouth after brushing her teeth, filled with cool water. She rinsed her mouth out and spat it into the toilet and flushed again while closing the lid, then rested her cheek against the chilled plastic.
Tikki took the cup back to the sink and drained it before setting it aside. "Maybe an early night is in order." She murmured softly, drifting back to Marinette and brushing her bangs off her forehead. She felt too warm, her face pale but cheeks flushed. "Get yourself upstairs and I will bring you a cool cloth for your forehead."
Marinette was able to pull herself to her feet and carefully navigate through the apartment. Upstairs she shed her work clothes into a pile and sluggishly pulled a pair of yoga pants and a comfortable hoodie on before rolling into her blankets. She was so exhausted that sleep came to her quickly. She was never aware of Tikki gently bathing her face with a washcloth and soft words.
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Adrien's driver dropped him off at the front door of the spa where he met Chloe for their weekly couples' massage appointments. Forgoing the umbrella he carried, he slammed the car door and quickly ducked inside before the rain had a chance to soak him. The smooth action of the heavy glass door admitted him into the warm herbal-scented lobby, where dark wood and potted foliage created a serene ambiance.
"Good evening, Monsieur Agreste." The pretty receptionist smiled at him pleasantly. "How are you?"
"I'm well, Hei-Ran, thank you." Adrien returned her polite smile. He shrugged off the light weight rain jacket he was wearing and passed it to her with a nod of thanks as she came around the counter with a wooden hanger.
"Mademoiselle Bourgeois has already arrived and is waiting in your usual suite." She informed as she placed the coat on the hanger and tucked it away in the closet. "Please, follow me. Can I bring you a cup of Lemongrass White tea?"
"Please." He followed her down the hall past several rooms and around several corners, where she then knocked lightly and opened a door to gesture him inside. Most of the room was lined with tatami mats, with a strip of pale wooden flooring stretching in from the door. Watercolor paintings of cranes and bridges hung on the dark walls, potted bamboo and rice paper screens set about carefully to direct the eye through the room. The receptionist left the door open while she went to retrieve his cup of tea.
Chloe was seated on a low tufted sofa at the far end of the strip of wooden flooring. Her legs were crossed elegantly at the knee and the diffuse light illuminated her figure beautifully, flaxen hair shining against the dark backdrop of the wall and bamboo fronds. She looked up and smiled at him as the door was opened, slipping her phone into her clutch and setting it aside.
"Mon Amour!" She exclaimed brightly and rose gracefully off the couch, crossing the space to lay her hands on his shoulders and pull his face down where she could bestow a brushing kiss on each cheek, then one lingeringly long kiss on his lips.
He smiled at her as he returned to his full height, backing away and passing her to one side so he could sit on the small couch and remove his shoes and socks, careful as he leaned over to not crush Plagg in his pocket. "Hi Chloe, how has your week been?"
She sashayed toward him again, leaning against the arm of the couch and pursing her lips into a tight smile. The air around her smelled too strongly of Chanel Grand Extrait, her favorite perfume of the moment, and the chemical floral cloud began piercing him in the forehead, right between his eyes. "After Monday's fiasco with Carlotta Bocchetti and her ridiculous insistence that she won't agree to cater our wedding until we've decided on a venue and date, things have been getting better." Her expression pinched at the name of the famous Italian chef she kept trying to hire as the caterer for their wedding, and Adrien internalized the wince and long-suffering sigh he wanted to heave: it was going to be one of those conversation days…
The wedding weighed on Chloe heavily and she wanted him to agree to a date that was much sooner than he wanted it. She would have had them throw millions of Euros at it and be married before Christmas in an obscenely lavish ceremony to put the British Royal Weddings to shame. Adrien wanted a more casual wedding, a small one, with his closest friends in attendance. Something small and private in the early summer, not the opulent extravaganza Chloe kept trying to talk him into before the year closed out. They were never going to agree, and Chloe was never going to lower herself to the kind of wedding he would prefer. She felt herself worth only the very best, and that meant the best locale, the best gown, the best food… It all made his head spin.
Before Chloe could continue her complaint about the potential caterer, Hei-Ran glided back into the room with a tea cup and saucer balanced on a pale bamboo tray. She leaned toward him slightly to offer the tea and a polite smile, and he was aware of Chloe bristling beside him. Adrien nodded his thanks as he lifted the saucer from the tray, turning his gaze back to Chloe as a sign she should continue speaking. With his attention focused on her, he found her less likely to have an outburst: she was prone to over reacting any time he interacted with pretty young women. It was worst for some reason when they were pretty young women of Asian descent, with dark hair… He had no idea why, but he was aware of Chloe's fixation against it.
The receptionist was nothing if not good at her job though, and this was not the first time Chloe Bourgeois had given her dark looks. She read the situation, tucked the tray beneath one arm, and walked to the door. "Your masseurs will be with you in a few minutes. Please undress and lay down on the futon, using the towels to cover your selves. I hope you enjoy your massages." She turned and pulled the door shut with a soft click, leaving them alone. Adrien sipped the steaming cup of pale tea, enjoying the gentle flavor.
Chloe sniffed dismissively, as though a bad smell had been cleared from the air. She stood from where she had been leaning against the sofa and began plucking at her cardigan's buttons. "As I was saying, the caterer I want for the wedding won't sign a contract until we've decided on a venue and date. I shared my Pinterest board about the wedding with you; have you looked at my locations category at all yet?"
Adrien stood up and set his tea on a low table so he could shrug off his suit jacket, then draped it over the arm of the sofa. "No. I forgot my password for Pinterest and I haven't reset it yet." He almost felt ashamed of how easily that lie slid off his tongue. He used Pinterest all day every day, looking at humor and ridiculous memes; when he found really funny ones, he sent them to Ladybug using their encrypted messaging app. She often sent him eyeroll and facepalm emojis in response, which made him grin.
Chloe turned to look at him closely and her eyes were searching. After a moment she reached past him to drape her cardigan next to his jacket on the couch. "Could you please help unzip my dress?"
She turned her back to him, pulling the gleaming length of her silvery blonde pony tail away from her neck and exposing the zipper. He took the toggle in his fingers and tugged it down to the small of her back for her, but something about her scent in his nose made him very uncomfortable beyond just the chemically sharp floral perfume. He was cautious not to touch her skin or linger with the zipper too long. "You're good."
She slipped the straps of the dress down her arms and turned to face him as she slid the fabric past her hips. He could see it was a calculated move, lightly sliding her hands against her very slim figure, and her deliberate attempt to be seductive made him feel awkward and self conscious. She stepped out of the dress and watched him undo his own buttons and tug his shirt out of his slacks, while she leaned into his space again to drape the dress on the couch. Her perfume stabbed him in the sinuses again, made more invasive by her increasing attention on him.
Uncomfortable, he turned away from her when he pulled off his shirt and tossed it on the couch, careful to make the motion natural. As he undid his belt, Chloe picked up the conversation again. "Please do that soon, Darling. We really need to set a date soon. All the good places will be taken for next year and we'll have to push the wedding out further to get a suitable venue." Her flimsy bra and panties were tossed on the couch next, directly atop his shirt, and he heard her move away to step up onto the tatami and cloth rustling at the futon.
When he stepped out of his trousers and underwear he swore he could feel her eyes raking across his backside like claws. Because of his work as a model he was not unaccustomed to stripping in front of people; changing clothes backstage at a fashion show he had to swap outfits in less than a minute while other models were doing the same all around him, male and female alike, and stylists were shoving the clothes into his arms and fixing his hair while he was half naked or attacking him with brushes to correct his makeup… But their attention was divided and on their own tasks, and he was almost more like an animated mannequin.
Here, alone with Chloe, the fact that he was naked made him feel so much more exposed… More so even than posing naked for Marinette's drawing class, odd as that was. It didn't make any sense, even in his own mind. 'How can being naked with one person I know for a few minutes be more awkward than being naked in front of a group of strangers for hours?'
He turned after setting the last of his clothes on the couch to catch Chloe leering at him, completely bare and unconcerned about it. She was reclining on one elbow, her other arm draped indolently over her hip, spray-tanned skin gleaming. Dark blue eyes dragged the full length of his body and he felt their weight like a phantom caress. Forcing himself to act completely casual, Adrien picked up his tea cup and stepped up onto the tatami and over to the futon. He knelt and carefully set his tea down, then picked up the towel there and lay down on his belly, draping the towel across his butt.
Once settled he picked up his tea to sip again.
Chloe sighed before copying his motions, lying down and using the small towel to cover her rear. She leaned on her elbows, gazing at him fondly. "I still think it's cute that you're so modest, mon trésor." Her eyes flitted over his naked back, watching how his muscles moved subtly as he drank his tea. "You've been a professional model since you were eleven, I would have thought you'd have lost all your modesty ages ago."
All Adrien could do was shrug. "I just don't enjoy flaunting my body in private. I do that enough in public for the clothes I model."
She smiled again and eased her arms down so she could lay her head on them, face turned towards him. She was about to speak again when there was a soft knock at the door. "Come in."
Their two regular masseurs entered the room and Adrien set his tea aside, and relaxed down onto his folded arms.
Massages were magic for Adrien. The cat in him relished in the physical act of being stroked and petted; it satisfied something left behind in his psyche by the magic of the Miraculous. It almost didn't matter who gave the massage, as long as they had strong hands and were able to really dig into the knots in his muscles, it made him happy. He just relaxed and accepted the massage. He already had a well established relationship and set of expectations with his masseur, so he didn't have to tell the man anything other than that he wanted to focus on his back and shoulders today.
Chloe was a vocal receiver of massages, though. She sighed and moaned a lot, giving verbal encouragement and directing exactly what her masseur should do. Somehow she made it all sound inappropriately sexual.
Adrien did his best to ignore her gasps and exclamations while he relaxed, and the hour long massage passed quickly.
After donning their clothes again, Adrien moving quickly but casually to prevent Chloe's eyes from branding his naked flesh, they moved together down the hall and out to the lobby. He stopped by the desk and spoke briefly with Hei-Ran to confirm their appointment for next week, and retrieve his rain jacket. As he was shrugging it on, he scooped Plagg stealthily from the pocket of his slacks and into the inner breast pocket of the jacket so he'd have more space to get comfortable. As Adrien made that transition, he gently ran this thumb over Plagg's head and felt his kwami nuzzle back lightly.
"You're confirmed for next Thursday, September thirteenth, at six o'clock." The young Korean woman told him, again with a pleasant professional smile. Chloe's arm looped through his and she leaned into his side slightly, icy eyes on the receptionist. Hei-Ran's dark eyes flitted over Chloe coolly once before returning to Adrien. "Have a good week and we'll see you then."
"Thank you, you do the same." Adrien retuned her smile and turned to lead Chloe from the spa lobby, completely missing the dark look she shot at the receptionist in passing.
Out on the sidewalk, Adrien popped open his umbrella to shield them from the rain. Chloe leaned more firmly into his side to fit under the umbrella's canopy with him. "I don't like that receptionist. She's too free with her smiles."
Adrien's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "What on Earth are you talking about? She seems perfectly nice, to me."
She sniffed in a way that spoke volumes of her distain for the other woman. "She looks at you like you're a slab of meat. It's inappropriate."
"I've never found her to be anything but completely professional." Adrien assured her. 'And the way you look at me like I'm a piece of meat is okay?' Maybe Chloe felt that was her right as his fiancée, but it still bothered him. Seeking to change the topic, Adrien asked Chloe where she wanted to have dinner tonight. Thursdays were their one regularly scheduled night of the week to spend together, so they made a full date night of it. Between his already very busy schedule and her modeling career beginning to take off, their time together was pretty limited. With Fashion Week coming up, time was only going to get shorter.
Chloe pulled him off down the street. "Let's dine at Le Foyer Vert." They ambled along through the rain as it was only about a block away, Chloe's body pressed close to his. The fresh air outside kept her perfume from bothering his nose.
When they arrived at the restaurant moments later they were immediately shown to a secluded table toward the rear of the restaurant. Between Adrien's fame and Chloe's connections, their service was perfect. Adrien ordered a glass of wine for himself and Chloe ordered still mineral water. She almost never drank: the extra calories weren't worth it. After requesting a few minutes to look over the menu, the waiter left them alone.
Chloe's dark blue eyes rested heavily on him as he dithered about what he wanted to eat. She didn't make any pretense at leading into the topic on her mind, and the abrupt question blind-sided him. "So, what's going on with Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"
Adrien felt clueless at her tone. It was quite neutral, but nevertheless the question from Chloe made him uneasy. "What are you talking about? Nothing's going on: I ran into her on Monday and asked her out to lunch in order to catch up."
Chloe was already reaching for her phone, the plated gold phone case gleaming as she unlocked it and swing it around to face him. She had an article pulled up already, this time from a local tabloid website. There was a photo of him and Marinette at lunch on Monday, again. This one was taken in a different moment from the one he had seen on the television on Tuesday morning. Here he was very obviously smiling at her, and holding the door open for her to step into the restaurant. The article headline snagged his eyes:
Adrien Agreste's New Mystery Woman?!
Paris loves to love our home town celebrities and no one is adored more than Adrien Agreste. Teen heartthrob, male supermodel, and charity champion of Agreste Fashions, Adrien (20) was voted overwhelmingly as Paris' Sexiest Man Under 25 earlier this year. Hearts all across the country cracked and crumbled when word came out that he had proposed to his long-time girlfriend Chloe Bourgeois (21, daughter of Parisian Mayor André Bourgeois). Chloe (also a fashion model) is known to loudly exclaim to anyone who will listen how much she adores her beau, but recently we caught word of pictures of Adrien with a mysterious new lady. Who is this dark haired beauty, and how did she catch Adrien's eye?
He thumbed past the rest of the article looking for more pictures and shaking his head in disgust. "Really Chloe, why on Earth do you read this garbage?"
"Even if all you did was have lunch together, it's still going to spur gossip." Chloe pointed a perfectly manicured finger at her phone, eyes focused on his face. "I told you Tuesday, and you know it already: when you're famous, everything is news-worthy. Everything is a big deal."
Adrien tossed her phone onto the table dismissively. "I know it looks bad, but they're only doing it for the hits. There's nothing exciting to find out about, she's just my friend. The attention will die off after a while when they don't find anything interesting."
The waiter stopped back at the table to take their orders, momentarily halting the conversation. After he left them again, Chloe sighed and leaned back in her chair, eyes dark in the intimately dim lighting of the restaurant. "You saw what was written in the article, though. If they don't find anything interesting, they'll make things up. The only way to avoid the tabloids is to not give them anything to write about."
"I'm not going to let a tabloid control who my friends are." He refolded his napkin in his lap, picking at a seam with his thumb.
"Is she really, though?"
"What?"
Chloe frowned at him, but he could tell from her expression that she wasn't angry or upset. She seemed more worried. "Is she really your friend? We haven't seen or spoken to Marinette in years. Four years… I'm sure she's changed a lot from what we remember of her in high school." She leaned forward to rest a cool hand over his on the table, tucking her fingers into his palm. "I know we have changed a lot. We have no idea what she wants out of renewing this friendship with you."
He felt Plagg settle on his knee under the table and the slight weight of the kwami gave him some strength. "Well, we can find out tomorrow!" He tried to make his smile seem positive and engaging.
Her perfectly shaped eyebrows quirked. "What about tomorrow?"
Adrien smiled for her. "Marinette has invited us to dinner at her apartment! I sent you a message on Tuesday, but you never responded… It'll be a perfect chance to catch up, get reacquainted with each other. I know you and she didn't get along well in high school, but when she invited me to taco night, she specifically said I should invite you along as well. I'm sure since we've all changed so much, Marinette is trying to reach out and establish friendship with both of us. Bury whatever hatchet it is you've both been carrying all this time."
It was subtle, but he saw the moment she began to withdraw as he was talking. Faint pale color rose high in her cheeks and she pulled her hand back from his. Her eyes glimmered darkly, and he felt the prickly sting of her irritation in his nose along with her perfume.
Before she could speak, the waiter came back with their salads and Adrien's bowl of crab bisque. The timely interruption seemed to cut off whatever Chloe had been about to say, and for that alone Adrien was thankful for the waiter's timing. The waiter efficiently inquired if they would like freshly cracked black pepper on their salads, which Adrien accepted and Chloe waved away.
After the waiter left again, Chloe began eating her light vegetable salad. After sipping her water, she picked up the conversation once again. "Darling, I had bought us movie tickets for tomorrow."
"What? When?" This was the first he was hearing about it.
She finished chewing her bite of salad, then glanced demurely at her phone on the table top. "I got them weeks ago, when I found out that that science fiction movie you wanted to see was coming out… The one with that guy who does the dinosaur movies, too. I had wanted it to be a surprise."
He slumped in his seat slightly. "Chloe… I already accepted Marinette's invitation. I can't make it to her dinner party and to the movies the same night. Can't we go to the movie another time?"
"Tomorrow is the premier." She insisted. "The tickets are only good for the one time."
Plagg began purring on his knee, hearing Adrien's distress. He put his left hand below the table and Plagg clambered into this palm, nuzzling against his fingers in a show of solidarity. Adrien set his spoon down, trying to rearrange his schedule in his thoughts. "What time does the movie start?"
"Oh, I don't recall the exact time." Chloe gestured dismissively with the hand that wasn't holding her fork. "Somewhere around seven o'clock. I'll text you the details after dinner."
Frustrated, Adrien finished off his soup and began stabbing the lettuce, cheese and nuts on his salad plate. It didn't taste as good as he may have liked, as her perfume was beginning to interfere with his sense of taste, too. Every bite was tainted by Chanel Grand Extrait. "Chloe, I wish you had told me about this sooner, so I could plan for it. I can't fit in surprise dates; you know my schedule is already packed. That I had Friday free at all was unusual."
"Oh I know, but I wanted to surprise you!" She was clearly not hearing his frustration.
"But I accepted Marinette's invitation first. I don't want to flake out on her."
The façade of even pleasantness she had been maintaining cracked slightly. Voice sharpened by what Adrien perceived as disappointment, she snapped, "But you'll flake out on me?"
Plagg's purring amped up a notch. Adrien could feel his little tail lashing back and forth against his wrist. "Chloe, that's not fair. I didn't know about—"
The waiter finally stopped by again, saving Adrien from trying to soothe her irritation for a few moments. There was a faint piercing throb behind his right eye, the beginnings of a migraine. He offered the waiter a smile of thanks for the delivery of his Chicken Marsala served over farfalle and a large heap of roasted broccolini. Chloe didn't acknowledge the waiter at all as he set down her small serving of grilled chicken and broccolini, her eyes focused on Adrien with cool calculation. When the waiter left after granting Adrien a generous amount of freshly grated Parmeseano Regiano, he cringed expecting Chloe to begin carving into him about tomorrow night again.
Chloe merely picked up her knife and fork and applied her carving skills to her dinner instead, choosing to change the subject back to her favorite topic: the wedding.
Adrien relaxed slightly. He listened to her talk as he ate mostly in silence, making sounds of acknowledgement or offering his opinion when asked for, and they ate the rest of their dinner without further conflict. Half way through dinner Adrien sent off a text to have a driver come retrieve them in a small limo. The limo was a gesture purely to further pacify Chloe: she preferred to be chauffeured around in limousines rather than the less flashy town cars.
As they pulled up in front of Le Grand Paris Hotel, Chloe gathered up her purse and pulled on her light jacket after peeling herself away from his side. While she waited for the door man to approach with an open umbrella for her, Chloe turned to Adrien and rested a hand on his knee with a direct look into his eyes. "About Marinette…" She paused, making sure she had his full attention. "Just be cautious in how you interact with her. We don't know what she wants from you."
"She doesn't want anything, Chloe." Adrien tried to assure her. Chloe's generally mistrustful nature was in full force tonight. He could only guess it had something to do with her old rivalry with Marinette rearing its ugly head again after all this time. "Really she doesn't. On Monday, I was the one who approached her. She had no idea I would be at her campus and she was just as surprised to see me as I was to see her. She was one of my first friends in public school, and I just want to renew that friendship."
She nodded through his explanation, mouth drawn into a subtle moue and eyebrows crinkled slightly in concern. "I understand that was your motivation, mon trésor. Her motivation for accepting may be different. Even so, even if it's all innocent as you say and she also just wants to be friends… The media will not interpret it that way." She glanced at the window when the doorman rapped a knuckle softly against the glass to let her know her umbrella was ready, and gestured at him to wait there a moment. Turning back to Adrien, she continued, "This can look very bad if the media decides to take it in a scandalous direction. It can look bad for you, bad for me, and also very bad for Marinette. They can choose to paint her as a floozy who's coming between us, and that looks terrible to everyone. It would impact her career."
Adrien frowned, realizing that Chloe's argument was not wrong. It was actually all very true. He sighed, deflating slightly and leaning back into his seat. "Okay. I hear your point. I'll put some thought into it and be careful."
She shifted and leaned into him, her hand on his knee sliding up over his thigh and tickling across his stomach to land on his chest. "That's all I ask, my love." She murmured, pressing a cool kiss of farewell to each of his cheeks, then a last lingering one to his mouth, each of which he returned.
Her perfume in the closed space of the car flavored her kisses with a sharp chemical taint that drove a spike of discomfort through his sinuses and into his eyes again, his headache throbbing uncomfortably now. He granted her one last warm press of lips, and then leaned back again. "Have a good night, Chloe."
She smiled at him and patted her slender hand against his chest before leaning back and pulling the door handle. "Good night, Darling. I'll see you tomorrow for the movie. I'll text you the details later." The doorman held the umbrella for her and she was out and gone into the night.
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Inside the warmly lit lobby, Chloe Bourgeois ignored the greetings offered to her by the hotel staff and pressed her phone to her ear. After two rings, the call was answered.
"Hi Chloe, I was just on my way—"
"Never mind that, Ethan. I have an emergency: I need you to get two tickets for me for a showing of The Origin, tomorrow around seven o'clock." She stepped into the elevator as she listened to the rustle of him moving and eventually the soft clicking of his laptop.
He sighed at the other end of the call. "That's going to be difficult. Tomorrow night is the premier."
"I don't care what you have to do, or how much it costs." She snapped, stepping from the elevator and striding down the hall to her suite in her father's hotel. "Go to the cinema and camp out all night if that's what it takes, but get me those tickets!"
There was a pause before he asked, "How many do you need?"
"Two. Make sure they're good seats."
"I'll get on it right away. Do you need anything else from me this evening?"
Chloe unlocked the door to her suite and stepped through, closing it behind her. "No, just get me the information for those tickets as soon as you can." She threw her keys and purse on her table as she disconnected the call. Trusting that Ethan would be able to deliver, Chloe doffed her clothing and began drawing herself a bath.
As she waited for the tub to fill, she thought over her evening with Adrien. His renewed interest in Marinette Dupain-Cheng was troubling to her. She was not pleased that her precious treasure was trying to establish a friendship with another woman, especially since that woman was her rival from all those years ago. Not pleased at all: Marinette had always had a habit of getting in her way and spoiling her plans. Chloe would not tolerate her getting in the way again.
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As soon as Chloe was out of the limousine, Plagg erupted from Adrien's pocket and darted to the button for the sunroof. "Oh my god, I don't care if it's raining; open all the windows!" He pushed on the button and the sunroof tilted up to admit fresh damp air and the sound of the wind as the limo pulled back into traffic on its way toward Adrien's condo. He pushed his little face into the opening, breeze ruffling his fur. "That woman reeks!"
Agreeing with the kwami, Adrien jabbed a finger down on the window controls next to him as Plagg darted to the other side of the car and lowered that window too. The cool air felt good on his face and breathing the freshness of the outside helped his migraine immediately. He rested his forehead against the side of the car and closed his eyes, enjoying the breeze that tossed his hair and not caring that his suit was getting damp from the rain coming in.
Plagg landed on his chosen's knee and looked up at Adrien's too pale face. His eyebrows were pinched slightly with discomfort and Plagg frowned. "How's your head?"
Adrien sighed, breath fogging the glass near his face. "My brain hurts and my eyes sting."
"Yeah, mine too." Plagg commiserated. He huffed, expelling the tainted air from his tiny lungs. "She put her clothes on your clothes. Your clothes even reek of her perfume."
Adrien just grunted softly.
It wasn't long before they were back at his condo. Plagg hid in his coat pocket again while Adrien thanked the limo driver for coming out with one of the Agreste company's fleet cars to drive them around, then darted through the light rain to the door of his condominium building. He moved through the lobby quickly and hit the button for the west elevator, eyes turned down and away from the bright lights overhead. Inside, he inserted his key and hit the button for the top floor while Plagg floated free and sat on his shoulder, tiny hand gripping the lapel of Adrien's jacket.
The key made access to his condo restricted: without it there was no access to the top floor, so it served as a mostly private entrance. When the bright chime of the elevator announced his arrival home, Adrien passed through the foyer and into the hall that led to his bedroom, head throbbing and not bothering to turn on any lights. He prepared for bed in the dark, leaving his clothes behind in the bathroom after his quick shower to wash the perfume and massage oil off and segregate the odor away from his sleeping area.
He rolled naked into his sheets after tugging the heavy curtains closed around the bed and sighed as his body relaxed slowly into the cool cotton. No longer taking in the perfume with every breath, his migraine began to recede fairly quickly. Plagg settled onto a pillow beside him, curling into a tiny ball and purring softly as Adrien fell asleep.
Three hours later, Plagg was pushing on Adrien's face to wake him. "Wake up, kid. You're on duty."
"What?" Adrien's eyes rolled blearily toward the tiny clock on the shelf of his headboard. 1:37 in the morning. "What's going on?"
"Time to go meet Ladybug." Plagg told him, pulling back the nearest curtain of the bed. "You've got work to do. There's an active akuma."
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-oOo-
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Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this installment of Drawn Together! Here we finally meet Chloe of the present in person, and she's an interesting character. She's expressed some concerns about Adrien renewing his friendship with Marinette (I wonder why? ~_^) and is trying her very best to monopolize Adrien's time so he can't make it for tacos! So sad: smol cat son needs tacos. And poor Marinette's anxiety has made her really sick. How will she handle this upcoming akuma battle?
As always, I appreciate you reading! Please take the time to leave me a review if you enjoyed it, or have some interesting thoughts and observations to relay. I love reading your reviews and I try my best to respond to all reviews that I can. They always make me smile and give me the warm squishies.
Thanks again go to Katie H for being my writing buddy. While I do my writing she works on hers, and we help each other be better writers. This story couldn't be what it is without her help. Also, I extend my thanks to ArtemisWinter for helping out as my beta reader: she is WAY better at finding dumb typos than I will ever be, and I appreciate her attention and hard work.
Next time you get to see the full rehash of the akuma battle and its fallout, Marinette's crappy morning, and Adrien being moody and dramatic while getting free pastries and posing naked (not at the same time).
Until next time, my dears!
~Malkharah