Adrien made it back just after lunch. When he stepped into his office, Nathalie was seated at his desk going over a binder of notes.
"How goes the hunt?" He asked as he approached.
"A few promising candidates." Nathalie never looked up from her task. "I still have a few to conduct over video chat, but I can handle that from my temporary office space."
"Sounds like you have everything handled here."
"How are things at the venue?" She sat up and pulled away from her binder.
"They seem to have it together. I think this is going to be a great celebration."
"It sound like you want to tack a 'but' on there." Nathalie observed.
She looked over her glasses at him to emphasize her point. Adrien collapsed into the nearest chair and sat silently for a moment. He brought his hands to his face and rubbed his chin in concentration. Nathalie waited patiently for him to choose his words.
"I feel like I shouldn't be here, doing this. My father started this company, made it what it is. What have I really done? I haven't even finished school and I'm in charge of an international corporation. I keep second guessing myself at just about every turn. Then, just as I think I have a handle on things something new pops up."
Nathalie stood up and came around the desk to stand next to him. She placed a hand on his shoulder and crouched so she was looking him in the eye.
"You are doing better than you think." She paused to let the comment sink in. "You were able to recognize your own limitations and took appropriate action to strengthen your perceived weaknesses. That takes a lot of insight and courage that very few people gain throughout their entire lifetime, much less at your age. If your father didn't have confidence in your abilities, he wouldn't have left everything in your hands."
The creases in Adrien's forehead softened as she spoke. The speech did little to quell his latent anxieties, but it was one less thing for him to worry about at the moment.
"So, I'm not just dropping my responsibilities onto other people?"
"Even if you had the time to handle every little thing yourself, there is no harm in employing others with more experience. Recognizing quality work is an asset in itself."
"I did promote you." Adrien smiled weakly.
"Game recognize game." Nathalie lifted her fist up to him.
Adrien blinked in confusion for a moment. This was way out of character for the reserved Nathalie. He recovered quickly and met her fist with his own.
Marinette left the hospital feeling like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. The scooter brought her back to the office just in time to see Nichole returning from her own break. Marinette took a moment to consider the implications of riding up the elevator with the other woman and decided to hang back a moment. She took out her phone and sent a text asking if she should pick up an order of coffees before coming back into the office.
Nichole was about to enter the elevator when her phone buzzed in her pocket. It was Marinette. There was some definite regret in giving the intern access to her personal number, but in the moment it also worked in her own favor. She had been made to wait for her interview and didn't have time to grab anything to eat before she had to be back in the office.
Nichole tacked a lunch order for herself onto the usual afternoon coffee list. The other drawback to the texting, solid proof if she provided an incorrect request. Not that she would be so tacky as to try the same trick twice on one intern. Still, if the interview went as well as she thought it had this little bird was never going to bother her again.
Nichole stepped onto the elevator and took the quiet ride by herself. She allowed herself to entertain a few what-if scenarios about what it would be like to switch jobs. She had been with Lyon Creations for some time, but had felt recent stagnation in her career. A move to a more recognizable company could only move her up. She would be dealing with an entirely different level of talent and clientele. No more people like the unrealistically lucky Marinette to bother her.
By the time she stepped off onto the seventh floor, Nichole was genuinely smiling. This was the most optimistic she had felt in a while and nothing was going to bring her down for the rest of the day. Not even an annoying birdie.
The last thing Alya expected when she opened her apartment door was for a hand to grab her wrist and pull her inside. Attached to the offending hand was a familiar figure.
"Don't you ever go home?" She glared at Nino as he dragged her into the office.
"Been there all day. Came over when I noticed something." He said quickly before pointing at the computer screen. "Look at this."
When Alya looked at the screen she saw graphs, numbers, and other code filling up the page. Considering she hadn't even been given the opportunity to take off her shoes after a long day, her brain was not quite absorbing the importance of what she was looking at.
"What am I looking at?"
"This is the traffic report for the LadyBlog." Nino explained. "It's a good thing I upgraded the servers when I did. The new ones are struggling to keep up. It would have straight up crashed the old set up."
"Whaaa?" Alya brought up the blog on her cellphone. "I've been monitoring all day. There haven't been any posts outside of the normal daily convos. Where's this coming from."
"That's just it. This is just people visiting. Nearly every registered user is logged in and there are even more unregistered users going through the site. I'd say they were all looking for something, but I haven't been able to figure out what's going on."
"I know we're connected to a majority of the Akuma community, but there could be hundreds of people that we haven't even been in contact with before."
Alya looked at some of the other numbers dealing with the site. There had been a considerable uptick in the number of hits within the last twenty-four hours. She berated herself internally for not having picked up on this sooner. Her internship took up most of her day, but this still shouldn't have slipped past her so easily.
"Don't beat yourself up over it." Nino put a hand on her shoulder, having noticed her obvious discomfort. "I only found out because the server sent me a warning. I have it configured to send me maintenance emails and error codes so you can focus on your internship. We may be dealing with this right now, but we both know it won't take up the rest of our lives. Eventually, everyone will start moving on with their lives and I don't want you to struggle to catch up when that time comes for you." He kissed her lightly on the temple. "Until then, we're in this together."
Alya looked at Nino and smiled warmly before pulling him into a hug. He lay his cheek on the top of her head and the two stood for a moment, just holding one another. When she pulled away, Nino lifted his head so that he could look down at her.
"What did I ever do to deserve you?"
Marinette was greeted with a wonderful smell as she entered the apartment. Adrien was standing over a pot, stirring it slowly. He turned to smile brightly at her.
"How was work today? Outside of the whole 'Mystery Girl' thing."
"Surprisingly uneventful." Marinette admitted as she took off her shoes at the door. "Alix really liked the stew."
"She was able to eat it?" Adrien checked on whatever was cooking in the oven.
"Yes. In fact, she inhaled it. Told me she'd like the opportunity to thank the chef."
That statement caused Adrien to pause. He stood slowly and really turned to look at Marinette. He was silent for a moment as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"I don't know." He finally said. "Even if I had the time, wouldn't I bring a bunch of unwanted attention to the hospital?"
"Wouldn't want anyone thinking she's your 'Mystery Girl,' huh?" Marinette walked up to Adrien and hugged him tight. "I get it. You'll talk to someone else when you're ready. Just know, I'll be here to support you in every way I can."
"I know." His expression softened as he returned the hug. "For tonight, would you mind eating the roasted chicken and red potatoes I made?"
"I think I can handle that." She beamed as she stepped away from him. "Should I go ahead and set the bed?"