IT'S WINTER BREAK YALLLL!
I had to reread my whole story just to remember what to write about. it is a very mixed up thing after all. I'm so excited to be back! Thanks to those who commented in my absence. It really lifted me up :)
Last chapter left off at a sort of conclusion to one of the problems. They finally found the stalker and Adrien confronted her. Now, we start a new section of the story! If you've watched the drama then this section will be the start of my OWN stuff. I won't be following the episodes as strictly now. OOOOOOOO I'm excited!
Anyways, enjoy! This chapter is SO FLUFFY ;)
Marinette and her grandma, Wei, stood wrapped up in each other's arms for who-knows-how-long inside the bakery before Sabine was clearing her throat.
"Are you planning on breaking apart anytime soon, or...?" Marinette simply squeezed her grandma tighter and relished in the feeling of doing so without squashing any internal organs. She could tell her grandma felt the same when her wiry arms tightened around Marinette's waist. "Alright, guys. It's been a good two minutes now."
The two women finally broke apart. Marinette smiled up at her grandma, whose warm face was creased and hair was white, but eyes sparkled with youth. Wei teasingly turned on Sabine, saying, "No need to feel jealous." Sabine rolled her eyes.
Marinette beamed. "Your French is really good now!"
Wei sniffed. "Of course. Your grandma's body is slow, but my mind is still quick."
"How about a walk?" Sabine suggested. "I'd feel safe enough about it with two super-strong women by my side." Her daughter and mother agreed to it and they all made their way back outside. Marinette checked in vain to see if Adrien would be there—she knew, logically, that he'd have left a long time ago, but it was sort of reflex. Sabine caught her slightly craning her neck and smirked.
"Did I tell you this yet, Mom?" She said. "Marinette has a full-time job as a bodyguard to a man."
Marinette whipped her head around. "Mom, don't you begin-"
"A kind young man of the same age," Sabine continued, smirk growing wider, "And he's handsome." Marinette groaned loudly, smacking her forehead. Much to her chagrin Wei leaned over and elbowed her, waggling her eyebrows. She couldn't roll her eyes far enough into her head. Why did everyone have to gang up on her all the time?!
Thankfully, her grandma didn't dwell on it too much. Instead, she asked, "A job as a bodyguard?"
"Yes," Marinette nodded. "He sort of found out about my powers by seeing me use them one day, and, well..." She shrugged. "The job pays well. I'm kind of invested, honestly, even if it's not not character design."
"You're invested because your job is protecting Adrien," Sabine muttered. Before Marinette could protest too much, she continued, "It's good that you've found a use for your power, though. I know how you used to feel as if it were a burden." She sent a smile to her daughter. "It's not bad after all."
Wei nodded as Marinette took her mother's words in. "It may seem difficult," she said, "But remember that we were chosen for this. It's in fate." She pressed a finger against Marinette's chest, above her heart. "One day you will be able to use this power to protect that which you love, and you will never have been more thankful for it."
"Have you used your power to protect something, then?"
"Of course!" Wei straightened up and grinned, heavy wrinkles forming at the corners of her eyes. "How else do you think I kept your mother out of trouble?" She smacked her hands together. "A little discipline goes a long way."
"Ugh, Mom," Sabine complained. Marinette giggled, silently happy about her mom being the embarrassed one for once.
They lulled into a silence as their walk led them to a park. The three of them sat down on a bench, Wei in the middle with her daughter and granddaughter leaning their heads on her shoulders. After a long silence, Wei said softly, "I hope you have a daughter one day, Marinette. This power is a great thing to pass on."
Marinette stayed quiet. In truth, when she was younger she used to daydream about a future with Luka where they'd have three sons. Or two sons. Maybe one—but always a son. She didn't want to have a daughter. She didn't want to subject anyone else to what she thought of as a curse. And maybe it technically was considered a "curse"; her ancestors had recorded it in a Book of Curses. But, Marinette didn't think of it as such a bad thing anymore. It had led to a lot of good things in her life. She met Adrien because of it. Even if it got her into a lot of trouble, Marinette decided that what she went through was worth it anyways.
She wanted to be strong—not just physically, but mentally and emotionally too. She wanted to be strong for the people she loved. And, well, if she happened to have a power determining that she'd be able to do just that under the right circumstances, she wasn't going to be one to complain. Not anymore, when she needed to use it more than ever.
"I hope I have a daughter one day, too."
…
Adrien sat at his kitchen, sipping on tea. He was still in his work clothes—the formal suit that he didn't really like—but found that he didn't want to change out yet, weirdly enough. He was still preoccupied thinking about Nathalie, and changing would make it feel like what had transpired an hour ago was a dream, not reality.
I'm sorry. That was it, then. After all that she'd put him through for months, and all the time they passed together back when he lived with his father (albeit she was only pretending to care), that was all she had to say. Two words. Infuriatingly enough, Adrien found himself dwelling on those two measly words.
Was she really sorry? Was there still something she wasn't telling him? Couldn't tell him? Maybe Gabriel had put her up to it after all, and in order to save his image Nathalie decided to lie—
Adrien stopped, then sighed. He was still trying to justify her in his head. Damn you, Nathalie. It was like he was a lonely child all over again trying to hold on to his one lifeline.
But I'm not lonely. He looked at the headband on the counter and picked it up, straightening out the wire of the antennae again. A small smile appeared on his face. At least one good thing came out of the stalking situation; he ended up hiring Marinette as his bodyguard.
Bodyguard. He tapped his fingers on the countertop. He did promise her that she'd be transferred to Character Development and Design once they uncovered the identity of his stalker. Adrien wasn't one to go back on his promises, but for some reason he made up some random fact about "training" to prolong her stay. He didn't really know why he did that. The more he thought about it, though, the more it made sense. She did need training to control her powers, or else she might end up with explosive diarrhea or—
'We're sorry, Adrien. We don't exactly know how your mother died. It seems like an unknown affliction. We will definitely work to find out how this happened.'
—or worse. He quickly set down the headband before he could accidentally crush the wire he'd been straightening. He redirected his shaky hand to the mug of tea and sipped, only to grimace when he realized it'd gone cold.
…
"Umm..." Marinette blinked at the boxing gloves sitting on her personal desk inside Adrien's office. "What exactly is this?"
Adrien got up from his chair, spinning as he did so, and strode over to Marinette. He picked up the gloves and held them out to Marinette so she had to accept them. "This," he announced, "is the gateway to your special training."
Marinette looked confused. "Wha?"
"Did you already forget? Once you train your powers, you can stop being my bodyguard."
"Oh, that," Marinette said, rolling her eyes. "I dunno. Maybe I'll finish training and then you'll decide I have to beat you at UNO before I can be transferred."
"This is for your own good," Adrien insisted. "You're the one terrified of explosive diarrhea. If you can control your power, you'll really be unstoppable."
Marinette grudgingly admitted he was right. "Fine, fine! But you better stick to our new promise. It was a pinky promise, you know. That's more serious ."
"I know pinky-promise etiquette," Adrien grumbled. At Marinette's unimpressed look he sighed. "We can even do it again if you want." He held up his pinky. It turned out to be a mistake as the irked Marinette hooked her own pinky and jerked down so that his whole body jerked down with it. When Adrien was properly scared out of his wits Marinette released.
"Alright then," she smiled down at him sweetly. "Let's go train!" She flounced out the door, Adrien watching incredulously all the while.
What am I subjecting myself to? Does she really need to be any stronger?
…
"With boxing gloves, I thought we'd be boxing," Marinette said, looking at the punching bag in front of her in apprehension. They'd driven over to a nearby gym (which was empty, so Marinette suspected Adrien had rented the whole place out) and now she stood in front of a cylindrical punching bag, bigger than her own body, hanging from the ceiling.
Adrien balked at her comment. He was standing on the other side of the bag and holding it in order to stop it from swaying.
"Are you joking? I'm not trying to die here. This is day one. Maybe we'll get in the ring around... say, day fourteen."
"Two weeks?" Marinette asked skeptically. "Come on, I'm not that bad. I can control my power already to some extent."
Adrien opened his mouth to say 'then prove it', but it seemed like Marinette was already on the same page as he suddenly felt a jolt. He squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for some kind of catastrophic damage, only to crack open one eye, then another, after three seconds of silence. He was still in one piece.
"Wow! Did you just punch?" He said excitedly, releasing the punching bag and walking around to join Marinette. She was being oddly quiet—he would expect at least some bragging. "That was actually pretty good! I guess you were right about controlling your—"
When he got to her side, he saw why she was silent.
She'd punched a hole straight through the bag. Stuffing was pouring out in a steady stream into a pile at a very sheepish Marinette's feet.
"-power..." Adrien finished dumbly. Marinette winced.
"Alright... I'll take your word for it." She nervously giggled and grabbed the arm of Adrien, who was still listlessly staring at the punching bag, mouth opening and closing silently like a fish. "Uhh, let's go over there!"
For the next couple of hours, they worked inside the gym. Adrien had Marinette do all sorts of things and try to restrain her power. Unfortunately, the damaged punching bag was one of the lesser incidents. When Adrien had Marinette kick pebbles, an exercise which she complained about being stupid, the little rocks shot into the wall opposite them like bullets. Marinette quickly stopped complaining then. Weightlifting was like a joke for Marinette, and she accidentally threw the heavy two-hundred-pound weights into the air when lifting, almost breaking Adrien's foot. One of the things that Marinette didn't demolish was the tire-run—where Adrien had her run while lugging a bunch of tires on rope. The tires were no problem for Marinette, but she utterly hated running, so there was less energy on her part.
After two excruciating hours of various exercises they both collapsed against a wall. Hilariously enough, Adrien looked more exhausted than Marinette. His jacket was falling off one shoulder, hair was sticking up in random places and he seemed to have gained eyebags over the course of their training session.
"Make it a month," he croaked. "I'm not boxing with you...until a month has passed."
"Uhh, right." Marinette had quickly learned to go along with what Adrien said after the punching bag and pebble incidents. He turned out to be right most of the time. "Whatever you say, Boss."
"Please don't call me that," Adrien groaned, rolling his head back against the wall. "It's so weird." That drew a giggle out of Marinette.
"What, like how people were calling you the 'Big Boss' yesterday just because you wore a suit?" Adrien groaned louder and covered his face with a hand, causing Marinette's giggles to increase. "Geez. I wonder what they'd do if you wore a suit all the time."
"Don't even suggest that idea," he mumbled against his hand. "It was the most uncomfortable thing ever."
"But you looked good," Marinette pointed out. She then realized what she said and slapped a hand over her mouth. But it was too late. Adrien had cracked an opening between his fingers so that he could look at her through one eye.
"What was that?"
"I-I mean..." Oh, God. She could almost feel a word-vomit rising. She breathed in deeply despite her burning face. I have to own it now. I can't play dumb. "J-just speaking objectively, of course. Everyone looks better when they clean up a bit." Not that you really need to, she added in her head, then almost slapped herself for the thought. Shut up!
"Hmm." Adrien dropped his hand and squinted at her. She grew increasingly uncomfortable as a Cheshire grin grew on his face until she couldn't take it and yelled, "WHAT?!"
"You have something on your face," he said cheekily. He leaned forward and swiped a thumb down her nose, retracting with a smudge of dirt on his finger. However, he didn't lean back. He stayed close as he stared into Marinette's eyes, his own moving back and forth from the proximity. She blinked, fighting to keep her face cool.
"W-what?"
He was silent for a few more seconds before softly saying, "Don't tell anyone about this."
"Huh?" Was her intelligent response. Her brain was going into overdrive from sheer anxiety and nerves. "About what?"
He seemed to be contemplating something. "Us."
Okay, now she was really confused. All she'd been saying until now was 'what' or 'huh', and this time was no exception: "Wait, what?"
Adrien blinked and suddenly jerked back, the intense eye-contact broken. The moment passed as he coughed into a fist. "You know, about me training you. Like this." He quickly got up and brushed his pants off. "Seems weird for a boss to have to train his bodyguard... you know... qualifications and all that..." His words dissolved into mutters as he moved towards the door. After a few seconds, Marinette collected herself and followed him. Neither of them mentioned what had just happened.
…
When they made it back to the office, Plagg was inside with the same woman from the day before. They weren't bickering this time, but simply sat together. From the looks of it, Plagg was doing some kind of work on his computer, which, well, it was an odd sight to see. Marinette had never seen the secretary actually working before. They both looked up when Marinette and Adrien entered.
"Yo," Plagg greeted, then went back to doing whatever he was doing on his laptop. It involved a lot of typing and some cursing under his breath. The woman smiled at them.
"You're the lady from before," Marinette said. "Um, sorry, I didn't catch your name..."
"It's alright, that's my fault," she said smilingly. She got up and extended a hand, which Marinette shook. "My name is Tikki. I'm the head for Character Design and Development."
Marinette froze, barely restraining herself from suddenly crushing Tikki's hand in her surprise. The head? THE head of the department I want to get into?! Marinette whipped her hand back and covered her mouth, eyes widening.
"O-oh my gosh! You're—I didn't even realize-" Marinette wracked her brain, trying to think if she'd done anything to embarrass herself in front of Tikki. She saw the woman when she was searching for Adrien the day before. Had she been rude? Inconsiderate? She couldn't remember! What if Tikki was here to tell her that she should quit trying to get into Character Design? What if Marinette had made an awful mistake—
"It's okay!" Tikki laughed, snapping Marinette back to reality. "No need to be so formal. I was just in here with Plagg." Marinette relaxed. No getting fired before I can get hired! Nice. Tikki glanced over at Plagg's screen and her face took on an unimpressed expression. "Really, Plagg? Why are you playing Tetris again?"
"I'm taking a break," he muttered, hissing out a curse again. Marinette realized his 'typing' was just the intense mashing of the arrow keys. Adrien had a similar reaction to Tikki as he sighed and rolled his eyes.
"I guess you two are friends," Marinette mused to Tikki and Plagg. All Marinette really knew about Tikki was that she was a creative genius, able to pump out new and incredible designs seemingly without pause. She was a legend amongst the visual-communications community. However she was like, she was very different from Plagg. Somehow they appeared to be very close despite all that.
"I suppose you could say that," Tikki said, rolling her eyes again. "We've always been friends but only came together as colleagues when Adrien started this company." She smiled at the CEO. "I still don't know why someone like him would choose Plagg as his secretary."
"I don't know what you mean," Plagg said. He didn't even have the decency to sound affronted as his arrow-smashing sped up, then suddenly stopped. "Aw, dammit...!" His hand moved to the trackpad. Tikki tracked his movements, then cuffed the back of his head.
"OW! What was that for?!"
"Don't start a new game," Tikki hissed. Plagg closed his laptop with a grumble and turned to Adrien.
"I heard your stalking situation is solved," he said. "How'd it go?" Marinette discretely turned her head so she could see Adrien's face as well. Currently he looked like he had a sour lemon in his mouth as he processed Plagg's question.
"It went... fine. The problem is solved now, so that's good." He glazed the question over. Plagg didn't seem to be bothered by the vague response at all as he stood up and patted Adrien's shoulder in a rare comforting gesture.
"Well, that's that," he said resolutely. "Although, now I do have to ask." He turned around and stared at Marinette with a shit-eating grin growing on his face that Marinette decidedly did not like at all. "What do you need Miss Bodyguard for?"
"Training," Adrien said bluntly, and quickly continued before Plagg could open his mouth. "And I was thinking Tikki should assess her skills as well. You are the head of the department and all." Marinette blinked. She didn't know about this. When the petite woman smiled at her, Marinette's eyes widened and she could feel a giddy rush coming on. Is this real?
"We'll be spending more time together, then," Tikki declared in that same authoritative-yet-sweet tone. "It's a pleasure to be working with you, Marinette."
"Y-you too!" Marinette squeaked. She could hardly believe it. THE Tikki is going to be assessing my skills. Looking at my designs. It was like a dream come true. Just as soon as the excitement set in, though, so did the nerves. Oh God, what if my designs are really horrid?!
A reassuring hand was placed on her shoulder. Marinette snapped out of it and realized Tikki was speaking. "I'm free tomorrow at lunch. How's that? I can look over your designs then."
"Um, yes!" Marinette blurted. "I mean, I can come tomorrow at lunch. With my designs. Yeah. Sounds peachy!" Marinette wanted to slap herself. Oh shut up already! Tikki didn't look fazed and instead patted her shoulder, smiled one last time, and bid farewell to Adrien and Plagg (warning him not to play more games once she left) as she went out the door. Marinette turned back to Adrien in a sort of daze.
"Did that just happen?"
"Mhm." Adrien was coolly examining a bobblehead on his desk, but a smile was growing on his face. "I thought I told you. Did I forget?"
Marinette didn't know whether to shout in joy, or jump, or just hug Adrien right then and there. Right then, though, Plagg dryly interrupted the moment. "Don't mind me, lovebirds. Just a guy sitting in between you here."
"WE'RE NOT BEING LOVEBIRDS!"