"I don't see what's so great about him."
Marinette is leaning over the counter of her parents' bakery, chatting on the phone with her best friend, Alya Cesaire. It's a slow day at work, and her parents are out on their twenty-seventh wedding anniversary, leaving her all by herself. Instead of dying of boredom, she decided to call up her normally busy friend, who just so happened to have a day off from work.
"Adrien Agreste?" Alya asks with a laugh. "Marinette, you're probably the only girl in all of Paris who doesn't fall at his feet."
"The only thing I like about him is his clothes," Marinette says, flipping through the magazine laid out on the counter before her. "Good job on the latest fashion collection, by the way."
"Thank you!" Alya exclaims on the other side of the phone. "You know, no one believed me when I said that he'd look great in black and green. Nice to know I proved them wrong."
Alya Cesaire is the stylist for the model Adrien Agreste, and an Internet-famous blogger. She and Alya went to fashion school together, and Alya was truly gifted when it came to styling. Her confidence was a plus as well, and after graduation, she was offered a spot by Gabriel Agreste himself, who was thoroughly impressed by her portfolio.
Marinette feels jealousy bubble inside of her whenever she speaks to her best friend—Alya was just born lucky. She got the life Marinette had been dreaming of since she was five. Instead of working in a famous fashion company, Marinette found herself handing out resume after resume without receiving any calls. She spends most of her time helping her parents out at the bakery, and she doesn't mind it too much because she does love her parents after all, but deep down… she knows she wants so much more.
"But you know, Adrien's actually a really nice person," Alya defends. "I work with him. He's very polite, kind, and thoughtful."
"His childhood friend is Chloe Bourgeois. He dated Ice Queen Kagami Tsurugi," Marinette says flatly. "That's enough to tell me that his personality must be just like theirs—snobby, mean, and fake."
"You can't decide a person's personality based on who they associate themselves with," Alya says. "I'm friends with you. Does that automatically make me clumsy? Definitely not."
"Ha, ha. You're hilarious," Marinette says with a roll of her eyes.
"Just give him a chance, Marinette," Alya says. "If one day you do land a job at Agreste Fashion, you're going to be working with him every day, so you shouldn't judge him before actually getting to know him."
While Alya tries to reason with her over the phone, Marinette flips through her magazine, stopping when she reads the words Spend 100 Days with Adrien Agreste!
"Spend one hundred days with Adrien Agreste?" Marinette asks, accidentally cutting Alya off. "Is this a contest?"
"Huh? Oh, that," Alya says. "One lucky girl or guy in France will get to spend one hundred days with Adrien Agreste. They'll accompany him in photoshoots, travelling, parties, and all that. You just have to sign up online and—I think in about three days from now—a name will be randomly drawn, and it'll be announced on live television. They'll be staying with Adrien in this sick penthouse, and—"
"Well, I feel bad for the poor sucker who has to go through that," Marinette interrupts with a bored tone. "Why are they holding this kind of contest anyway?"
"It's business. It'll make him look good."
"There you go—he's fake. I rest my case."
"It wasn't his idea," she sighs. And then she lights up. "Hey, wait! Why don't you sign up? Maybe winning this could show you that he's nothing like Chloe or Kagami."
"Alya, even if I did sign up, I wouldn't win," Marinette says, scanning the page.
"Then it shouldn't be a problem," Alya says, and Marinette could hear the grin in her voice.
"Not going to lie, the penthouse, free food and new wardrobe sounds pretty tempting. But if I'd have to spend almost every hour of my day with Adrien Agreste, then forget it," Marinette scoffs. "I don't see why I should waste my time signing up if it's not going to lead to anywhere."
"You know, you could win," Alya says.
"Impossible," Marinette laughs, fanning the air with a hand. "There are thousands of people signing up for this, I'm sure. There's no point."
"Oh, yeah? Prove it to me then," Alya bets. "Show me that you aren't so lucky. Humor me."
Marinette looks down at the page, and shrugs. She's bored, and this wouldn't make a difference in her life, so she might as well just do it for fun.
"Alright then," Marinette says, putting Alya on speaker so that she could continue talking to her while she goes on the contest's sign up page on her phone. "I've got nothing to lose, after all."
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the thing about second chances
chapter one
winner
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Three days pass by in a blur, and Marinette is in her room, talking to Alya while live-streaming Gabriel Agreste's summer fashion show on her computer. The winner of the Spend 100 Days with Adrien Agreste winner would be announced at the end of the show, and Marinette thought that she'd at least watch that part with Alya to prove her best friend wrong. When Alya finished styling the models for the show, she decided to call Marinette to hear her friend's constructive criticism.
"Look at all the people in the crowd," Marinette rolls her eyes. "They're not even there for the show. They just want to know who they're going to be hunting down tonight."
"Watch it be you," Alya laughs. "Then again, you're never this lucky. I overheard Nino talking to Adrien about the number of sign-ups, and there are over a million people signed up for this competition."
"Why am I not surprised?" Marinette says flatly as she watches the current model catwalk down the runway in awe. "Oh, I like this one."
"Which one is it?" Alya asks.
"It's the ocean blue to white gradient, short in the front and long in the back, halter dress—I love the design," Marinette gushes. "Too bad it's on Chloe Bourgeois. I hate to say it matches so well with her eyes."
"Sad to agree with you," Alya sighs. "What's up next?"
"We're heading into the business casual looks now," Marinette says. "We've got Wayhem Marot in a black tie, burgundy dress shirt rolled up to the elbows, black pants, black dress shoes, and black bowler hat. I love it, but the hat's a bit too much."
"Thank you!" Alya says, and Marinette could faintly hear her scribbling her comments down.
The fashion show finally comes to an end, and Marinette and Alya watch all the girls (and some guys) scream and cry as Alec Cataldi, the host, walks to the middle of the stage with a milky white envelope in hand.
"Thank you, everyone, for attending Gabriel Agreste's summer fashion show!" Alec exclaims, followed by loud cheering. "As you all know, one lucky person will be spending one hundred days with Paris' top model, Adrien Agreste!"
"You rolled your eyes," Alya says.
"You know me too well," Marinette laughs.
"Not only will they be staying at a penthouse with him their entire stay, but all their expenses will be paid! That's right—new designer clothes, free food; it's a dream come true!"
"The clothes and food sound great, not going to lie," Marinette says.
"It really does," Alya agrees.
"I have in my hands," Alec says dramatically, holding up the envelope. "The name of the person who will get all these."
The cheers in the crowd grow stronger, but they slowly die down when the lights dim. The music fades into silence, and everyone is on the edge of their seat, impatiently waiting for the host to reveal the winner.
"The lucky winner who will be spending one hundred days with Adrien Agreste is…" the host, Alec, unfolds the little piece of paper in his hands and reads it with a grin on his face. "MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG!"
Marinette drops her phone.
"MARINETTE, DID HE JUST—WAS YOUR NAME—?!" Alya screams from the other side of the phone.
Marinette's mother, Sabine, flips open the trapdoor to her room with wide eyes and a look of terror in her face. "Marinette," she begins. "You might want to come downstairs."
She follows her mother down the stairs and into the bakery to find it overflowing with paparazzi and news reporters. Her father, Tom, is trying to stop them from causing further damage to the bakery, but all attempts prove to be in vain. The more he fought, the harder they all fought back.
"There she is!" one of the photographers exclaims, pointing in her direction. They all practically run over Tom to get to her, and Marinette is blinded by the flashes of the camera.
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, how does it feel to be the winner of the Spend 100 Days with Adrien Agreste contest?"
"Are you a long-time fan of Adrien Agreste's?"
"Any girl would die to be in your shoes right now. How does it feel knowing that?"
Marinette is completely over-whelmed by the camera flashes and questions thrown at her. She sees Alec's grinning face on the little television in the corner of the room, and she could faintly see that she's on live. The girls in the crowd are all sobbing hysterically, and her parents are asking her questions, adding onto the pile she has yet to answer.
Out of fear and surprise and disbelief, Marinette takes a step back, and she could feel her whole world spinning.
"Oh no."
A/N: And I'm back after a two-year hiatus! (Has it really been that long?)
This story idea has been on my mind for two years. I couldn't write about it because of the obvious (school and work), and I also had no idea who to cast as Adrien's ex-girlfriend. Thankfully, Kagami was introduced, and I went straight to writing! I'm really excited to share my very first original Miraculous Ladybug multi-chapter fic with all of you.
For those of you who have read my last fanfic titled Who Needs Love? I've received a lot of messages asking if I'm going to be writing Season 2, and I'm excited to say that I've already started writing the first episode! Please look out for it in the near future!
Thank you for reading!