A few days later, and it was set to be her first day at work. She wasn't going to be starting at the university for a couple of months, which was good as it gave her time to get used to her workflow and know exactly how much time she'd need to do everything.
She decided to dress her best, in only MDC originals. While she would admit that there were more experienced designers out there than herself, she felt the most confident when wearing her own clothing. She wore a black circle skirt with bright green trim and a pair of white stockings because of the cold she wasn't used to. Her shirt was a black princess vest with green trim, just like her skirt, and a white gypsy shirt underneath. All in all, the look gave her renaissance vibes and chat noir energy.
She would've normally worn brighter colors had this been a fashion house in Paris, but she wasn't. She was in Gotham, and the majority of people here tended to wear darker colors. Granted, she was still loving her outfit, even if it wasn't as bright and happy as she felt, well used to feel.
And then there was the fact she was almost always cold in this city. As a true ladybug, even with her holding the black cat miraculous now, she still felt the side effects of holding onto Tikki for so many years. One of those being the fact that whenever she was cold for an extended period of time, she wanted to hibernate. It'd been happening since lycee and she highly doubted it would ever stop.
"You read or what, squirt?" Plagg asked, zooming up to her where she was fixing her makeup.
If she wasn't already used to him trying to mess her up every time she did her make up, she would've jumped and smeared her lipstick all over her cheek.
"Almost, calm down. It's not like you'll really be able to do much while I'm at work," she said, rolling her eyes at the kwamis excitement. He seemed to be under the impression he'd have free reign of the building, as though she wasn't going to have coworkers.
Plagg just huffed and went to lay in her purse.
Shaking her head with a smile, she finished her makeup and put her hair up in a high pony with the fringe and a couple of longer pieces hanging off the sides. She grabbed her purse, potentially a little quickly to give Plagg a little jump, and headed out.
Generally she could take the bus, but she didn't consider it that long of a walk and she'd woken up a little early with her extra energy this morning. So, walking to work was what she was going to do.
She put her headphones in, listening to an American band she'd found recently that she very much enjoyed. Obviously they didn't hold a candle to her uncle Jagged, but she wanted to broaden her horizons a bit.
The walk took about thirty minutes, and she knew she wouldn't be able to do it every day, but she would definitely try to do it as often as possible. She smiled as she went, unknowingly confusing many Gothamites. She was breaking all the rules you should follow in the city in one fell swoop:
Don't smile at anyone you don't actually know. Maybe even then don't smile at them so openly.
Don't walk alone unless it's a short distance.
Don't make it painfully obvious that you're an easy target.
That didn't seem to stop her though, she just get humming along as she went, smiling at people when she passed them and got a little too close as an apology, swinging her little sewing kit at her side. It held everything she knew or thought she might need for her first day, along with her new design tablet sitting in the side pouch. It'd been a gift to her from Uncle Jagged when she'd told him about the job.
Wayne Enterprises was easily one of the most intimidating buildings she'd ever been inside of. Granted, she'd also been inside the Agreste Manor so it wasn't much worse than that, but it was still pretty intimidating.
There's always the chance that I mess this up on day one and get fired, they don't think I'm qualified enough, or they didn't realize how young I was and now they're having second thoughts. Granted they don't know I'm MDC so if I really had to I could always tell them that in hopes that they don't fire me, Mari thought, going into a minor spiral standing outside the front doors.
"Going inside?" a voice next to her said, and she jumped. He was pretty tall next to her, but then again most people were considering she was under five feet tall. He seemed friendly enough, and he was wearing a suit so it was safe to assume he was going inside as well. He had blue eyes and black hair, but he gave off the energy that he was a little bit of an old soul.
"Oh, ah oui!" Mari said, accidentally switching to French in her nervousness. "I mean, yes. I'm just a bit nervous. It's my first day."
The man nodded, looking up at the building before turning back to her. "Well, I'm sure you'll have a much better first day from the inside of the building," he said, nodding to the door as if he was asking her to follow him.
"I suppose that can only be true, Mr.…" she trailed off, following him towards the door. She figured it was highly unlikely he was a mugger if he was walking her inside.
"Drake," he said, holding open the door. "My name is Tim Drake, and you must be our new stylist, Miss Dupain-Cheng?"
Her breath caught in her throat and her eyes widened as she quickly went through the door. She was already having a mini-meltdown at the fact she'd been caught by her boss freaking out outside on her first day.
"Yes, that's me!" she accidentally shouted, before trying to calm herself down. "How did you know?"
"Well, it's not often we get someone new from France, let alone outside of the city. My family has been very excited to meet you," he said, leading her past the front desk and towards the elevators.
Little did she know, he was the most excited out of all of them. He had been following a designer named MDC for a while now, and thanks to a certain supercomputer he knew her by her real name, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. He loved her application even before connecting those two dots, so it was simply icing on the proverbial cake to have MDC designing the clothes for his family.
"That's very kind of you," Mari said, getting into the elevator with him. She'd calmed down enough now, shoving her worries to the back of her mind like she always does and smiling widely at him.
And if Tim Drake noticed that she went from sheer panic to completely calm in under five seconds, well he simply stored that information for a later, deeper investigation of the girl. Had he done the basic search of her and her family? Yes, but he didn't know much about her besides the fact she wasn't likely to terrorize the city or ruin his family's wardrobe.
"Yes, well, it's not very often we get someone as talented as you applying for the position. Our family has a bit of a reputation you see," he started as the elevator was going up. "My brothers can be a little annoying to work with from time to time."
"I'm sure we'll get along fine, Mr. Drake," she said, putting the cool in cucumber. She had no doubt if they were all as nice as Tim, she wouldn't have anything to worry about.
"Well, we shall see," he said, as if he doubted her words but hoped she was right. She hadn't met Damian or Jason yet, and the two of them together was even worse. "And please, call me Tim."
Leading her into his office, he gestured for her to take a seat. She was distracted for a moment by the view outside his window, being on the top floor. When she did take a seat it was right to business.
"So, the general job won't be too taxing as far as new outfits go. We have some other clothes from other designers that we wear on the day to day, and given how large the family is we won't be rushing you with anything other than commissions for the more formal gatherings," he started, opening a folder and passing her a copy.
"We will be asking that you create a wardrobe fitting to each member of the family listed in that folder, and we've given you a general guideline as to what kinds of things we'll need and how many of them. Once you've done that each of us can approach you and ask for more things. Your salary will stay the same no matter how many orders you get from each of us in a given week. Creating a new wardrobe for each of us is your main task at the moment, and will remain that way until it's completed," he continued, knowing that it sounded like a lot. "Obviously we won't need all of these things in any kind of hurry. Considering it's May now, you'll have until the end of August until school starts and then you'll have those obligations as well. "
"Oh you don't need to worry about that," she said with a smile. "I've always worked on commissions during schooling. I know how to manage my time." She ignored the tiny part of her brain reminding her that it was because she almost never slept nowadays.
"Be that as it may, you might need an adjustment period to get used to the new schooling system," he said, smiling kindly at her. He could see the circles under her eyes beyond the make up, adding that into the growing list of reasons he had to look into her more deeply. It wasn't at all his Bruce tendencies of adopting small people who seemed like they could use a helping hand.
"Roughly how long would I be given to make these clothes? And when would I be able to get the measurements for each of your siblings and your father?" Marinette asked, looking at the folder in more depth.
"If you look there, there are measurements from our last designer," Tim pointed out.
"Of course, but I never take those things at face value. It would be entirely upsetting to go through the entire process and find out in the fittings that the measurements are no longer accurate," Mari said, not even looking up. She would never say anything bad about another designer, but there was a reason the position was open and she didn't want to give them any reason to doubt her work.
"Very true," Tim said, barely containing his excitement. He was getting to know MDC! Professionally! And she'd be making him a whole bunch of clothes! Professionally! He couldn't wait to tell Stephanie after the first set of clothing. "You can get them to us as you make them, although we do ask that maybe one or two pieces are complete a week."
"For each person?" Marinette asked, assuming that was correct. That was easy enough, she'd probably have more than that complete in a week.
"Oh no," he said, surprised. "In total. Given the breakdown that our last stylist gave us before leaving the company, that's how long it would take her to start working on a new wardrobe."
"Well, I certainly won't take that long given the requirements, so long as I can get the measurements done soon!" She said, smiling brightly. She already had some ideas for Mr. Drake and she'd only known him for about thirty minutes now.
Her work as Ladybug did make it a lot easier to read people's personalities, however. And she had a list of his favorite colors, photos of his former apparel and him wearing them. It was easy for her to see from the photos that he looked uncomfortable in most of the suits he wore, and she could see why. They were his favorite colors, but they didn't seem to express him in any way.
Tim struck her as the fun-loving type of person who knew when he had to be serious. Even in formal settings, he didn't seem that strict so long as you didn't cross him. And judging by the very colorful socks she'd caught poking out of the bottoms of his pants, he desperately wanted to add more color to his wardrobe.
They were both silent as she continued to read through the folder. "Will you be wanting me to make accessories as well?" she asked, finally having read through it all.
"Do you have the knowledge to do so?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Marinette nodded, smiling. Judging by the smirk he was wearing, this wasn't a challenge of her skills but merely an inquiry. "If you look at my portfolio, any accessories I paired with outfits were handmade by myself."
"Then you are more than welcome to do so," he said, pulling out another packet. "In here is your company credit card. You're free to use it on any supplies you may need for your work with us. Obviously if it's for a personal project or any outside commissions you shouldn't use this," he said, handing it over to her without any reluctance.
Mari nodded, taking the envelope from him and tucking it into her folder. "I'll be sure to save every ticket from it," she said, smiling.
"Ticket?" he asked, already guessing what she meant but he couldn't help but point it out to her.
"Ah, um… how do you say receipt? " she muttered to herself, breaking off into French to think for a moment.
"Receipt," he corrected her, smiling.
"Yes, that!" she laughed, happy he understood her. "You speak French?"
He nodded. "My whole family knows it," he said, standing up and gesturing her out of his office. "Don't ever hesitate to switch back to it if it makes the conversation more comfortable with one of us."
Mari smiled and shook her head. "I would enjoy that, but I think adapting would be easier if I spoke English as often as possibly," she said kindly, appreciating the gesture.
Tim nodded and took her back to the elevator. He pressed on a random button and then almost instantly it felt like they were on a different floor. She hadn't realized how quickly he moved before and realized he must have been going slow because of her nerves.
"Your office is right here," he said, opening a door.
Walking in, she thought she was in heaven. She had her own personal embroidery station, a sewing machine that probably cost more than her room at her parents, a wall for sorting bolts of fabric and drawers in every direction. Already there was fabric against the wall, more likely than not left by the previous designer. Against the wall was a curtain for people to change behind, and a really well lit podium for her to see any flaws in her work. It was set up exactly how she would've set it up in her own building.
"It's amazing! Thank you so much, Tim!" she said, nearly jumping in place.
"Not a problem. We want you to feel comfortable while you work," he said, leading her over to the desk. The computer was on, and it was open to a calendar. "This calendar is linked to all of my siblings' phones, so I'll give them a text and let them know they need to come in for a fitting today."
She nodded, smiling and looking at the calendar. Almost instantly, the spot for an hour from now was taken up. "Looks like your brother Damian wanted to get it done quickly," she said with a smile, turning back to him.
Mari couldn't understand why Tim suddenly looked like he was upset about this. But, she figured it wasn't any of her business anyways. She was here to sew clothes and go to school, not nose her way into anyone's business.
"Should we get your measurements out of the way?" she asked, moving away from the desk and standing up. She'd have time to look over the computer and all of its capabilities after she was done getting all the measurements she needed.
And so, she set about the painstaking task of taking every measurement she would need. It took about 45 minutes to get done with, but then she had it all written down in her notebook and was rolling up her measuring tape.
"Do you really need all those measurements?" Tim asked, eyebrows raised in a curious expression once again.
"The extra measurements are the difference between a jacket being comfortable and it being a little too tight at the seams, which would restrict movement," she said. She didn't mind that he was asking so many questions. He seemed genuinely interested in what she was doing, so she highly doubted he was mocking her or her work.
Tim seemed like he would be a very kind boss, which Mari was looking forward to greatly. She'd been worried about a strict workplace with little room for creativity, but she doubted that would be the case here. So long as she stuck to each of their personalities it felt as though she would get along great with the Wayne's.
"Alright, I'll let you get settled in. Feel free to dial the extension to my office if you have any questions. I also put the number for IT on your phone in case you had any questions or needed additional programs installed on your computer," he said, giving her a final wave and walking out of the office.
Mari took a moment to look around before grabbing her drawing tablet from her bag and sitting on the couch in the corner of the room, bringing her knees up and starting on some of the designs she had in mind for Tim.
Yeah, this could be something great, she thought to herself, easily getting lost in her work.