After Chat Noir left that night, Marinette started looking through the application again to make sure that she would be able to complete everything in time. In addition to 10 designs, Marinette needed to submit a recently completed garment that would be judged on its construction and returned to her after the fact.
Most of the garments that she'd made recently had become gifts for her friends (or her current favorite top that she didn't want to give up long enough to submit for judging). She had a design for a blazer that she had been wanting to make and decided to use this as the perfect excuse.
She put a sticky note into her sketchbook and wrote out the fabric length measurements so that she could go to the fabric store first thing in the morning. When she started to get tired, he went to sleep, knowing that the days leading to submitting her application were going to be a lot of late nights when she actually had to make the blazer.
She was thankful that the applications were due the weekend at the end of spring break so that she could spend the rest of her break working on hers instead of trying to finish the application during the school week. Hopefully, there wouldn't be any akumas for the next few days so that she could just focus on working.
She picked up 3 meters of an eggshell linen fabric as well as a slightly lighter shade of silk that she planned to use to line the blazer. Based on her design, she was planning for it to be professional enough for her to wear if she got the internship, but not too warm that she would overheat wearing it during the summer.
Chat Noir showed up at 19h00 that evening and knocked on her trapdoor. "Come in," she called out to him and she heard the telltale faint squeak of her trapdoor opening. She was in the process of clipping seams together for the lining when he entered and he was happy to see that she seemed excited about her design.
"It's looking eggceptional so far," he told her with a bright smile on his face as he looked over the outer shell that was sitting on her mannequin. "What can I do to help?" Helping her stay sane was really the only request she could think of, but he was already pretty much doing just that by hanging out with her.
She didn't react to his pun and he smiled even brighter, correctly assuming she hadn't even heard him make it. He wondered how many puns he would be able to make before she would notice or react and decided to make a little game of it. She handed him a piece of paper from her desk and he recognized it as the guidelines for the applications.
"Just read these out loud for me so that I can talk through everything I have plans for," she explained.
"Eggcellent plan," he responded. He sat down on her chaise and began reading from the top of the list. "All applicants must have at least a 16 in a fashion, design, or related track in their lycée and a copy of their transcript is to be submitted with their application."
"I have an 18.3 and submitted a request to my school to get an official copy of my transcript. The email said I should get that sent back to me by tomorrow," she responded. It was already clear to him that she had already been going through each requirement, but he was happy to go over it with her as many times as she needed while she worked.
"Great," he said with a bright smile on his face. "All applicants must submit ten (10) original designs to showcase their range of abilities. There should be two copies of the same ten (10), one physical and one digital that will be submitted with a flash drive with the application. These designs may be feminine, masculine, or androgynous in nature. The applicant may submit several designs of different natures with their application, but the total number of designs may not surpass ten (10)."
Marinette put down the lining and picked up a binder that contained the 10 designs that she had chosen. Each design was placed into a sleeve protector so that she didn't risk damaging the pages. She rolled over to Chat Noir on her desk chair and handed him the binder. He admired each of the designs. "Eggsactly as requested," he responded.
He removed the flash drive from the final page protector and plugged it into his baton to make sure the digital copies of the designs had been uploaded in the correct order. He ejected it to make sure he wouldn't accidentally mess with the files and replaced the flash drive in its proper place.
"All applicants must submit one (1) completed garment of one of the ten (10) previously stated. This may not be an additional garment. Submitting 11 total designs will result in immediate disqualification."
"This is design number six in the binder," she explained, holding the lining back up. He opened the binder and looked at design number six. Just as she said, it was a page that contained an off-white blazer that looked just like the outer shell of linen that was sitting on her mannequin.
"And no eggstra designs are necessary," he responded with a bright smile on his face. "All applicants must be at least 17 years of age and have eggligable hours available during the summer season to maintain a full-time internship, 09h00 - 17h00." He was certain that Marinette would hear that pun because it was while he was reading, but she didn't react.
That was the requirement she was most nervous about. She knew that her role as Ladybug didn't guarantee that availability when akuma attacks could happen anytime anywhere, but she couldn't explain that to Chat Noir. "You eggsplained that yesterday," he added after a moment, "your parents won't need you in the bakery if you get the internship."
She swallowed her saliva and nodded in agreement, but something felt off suddenly. She mentally ran through what Chat had just said to her. "How long have I been eggnoring your silly yolks?" she asked with a small wince, feeling a little bad about the fact that she hadn't been hearing them before that.
He felt a surprising flutter in his chest in response to Marinette making puns without him having to prompt her. She was never opposed to making puns, but she had never made them so openly with him before and he found himself really appreciating it. "The first thing I said was about the eggceptional design of your blazer," he admitted with a smile.
Marinette dropped her face into her hand, caught between being embarrassed for not noticing or cringing at (1) how bad the joke was, (2) the fact that she didn't hear it, and (3) the fact that he apparently felt the need to repeat the joke. "You noticed around my sixth egg pun, I think."
"Are you always this fregging eggstra?" she asked with a fond little smile on her face. Again, the flutter in his chest was back. "What else do I need for my application, you dork?" Chat Noir kept reading the requirements to her and she kept telling him and showing him everything she had already prepared for the application.
As long as she was able to finish the blazer by the end of the week, she would be able to easily get the application submitted in time. Chat kept her company while she worked on the blazer and the two of them talked and joked around, enough to keep her from stressing, but not enough to distract her from the work she was doing.
List of words made into puns in order: exceptional, excellent, applicants, exactly, extra, eligible, explained, ignoring, jokes, exceptional, frigging/freaking, extra
