Stories from Other Writers

The Great IKEA Game - Chapter 5

"They won't have any clue about this." She could hear the pleased smirk in his voice.

"Exactly."

The light-flooded upwards from the vent floor. The slats in between are large enough to view the room below. Marinette crawled over it and maneuvered herself around to face Damian.

"Nice to see your face again."

The dim light from the vent illuminated his face. "N-Nice to see yours too," he said. It was at that point, it dawned on Marinette that Damian's view the whole way through the vent was an up-close look at her butt. From the heat radiating off her cheeks, it was likely her face was as red as his. She was torn between laughing hysterically and curling into a mortified ball and never emerging.

Instead of either of those rational actions though, her mouth, her stupid, stupid mouth, decided to betray her.

"Enjoy the view?" she asked with a grin. "What are you doing?' She yelled at herself, that was the last thing she wanted to utter.

Damian, if it was even possible, turned redder, and coughed lightly. "You have, uh, your bottom is quite shapely." By the end of his confession, his voice was a high-pitched squeak, more appropriate for a preteen, than an adult. It took every bit of self-control for Marinette to keep from falling apart laughing.

"Thanks, I exercise," she responded cheekily. A familiar magical hum settled in her breastbone. Her connection to the Kwamis magic. Marinette held back from rolling her eyes, even as her inner panic grew. One of the Kwamis was helping her to flirt. Probably Plagg judging by her cheesy replies.

'They are the physical embodiments of the powers of the universe, and they choose to help me flirt. What even is my life?'

"It's working well," replied Damian, with more of a teasing tone than an embarrassed one, although his cheeks still appeared redder than normal.

"Yeah, well..." Marinette sat there struggling for a reply when noise from below cut off their impromptu FLIR- teasing session.

"I swear to God, if I find out who caused the mess in the Market Hall, I'll strangle them with my bare hands," complained a voice from below.

Marinette winced when she saw Damian looking at her with a raised eyebrow. She hadn't meant to cause that much damage.

"Oh, come on, Ian, it's not like it was unscrewed on purpose. A bolt probably loosened and the shelf got bumped into. Blame it on bad luck."

"Well, can I strangle bad luck then?"

Marinette held back an undainty snort. Plagg's constant whining and complaining come to mind. 'There I certain days I definitely want to.'

"I don't think so. I'm more worried about the giant cart pile up." At that, Damian raised a second eyebrow, and Marinette shrugged, she didn't control what the Bad Luck Balls did. "We're gonna need to test all the carts to check for any more loose wheels, that's gonna take forever. Anyway, are you headed home?"

"Yeah, I'm half an hour over the end of my shift," responded Ian. Marinette could see two people moving around in the room below. "Ooh look, someone brought in doughnuts! You want one Casey?"

"No thanks, still trying to stay on that diet. I just came in here for a drink and then I'm back out on the floor." The sound of a fridge door opened. "See you next week."

"Yeah, you too Casey."

The sound of another door opened leaving the room below silent once more.

"Shopping carts?" Damian asked, half-amused, and half bewildered. "I didn't hear about that."

Marinette rolled her eyes. "Escape was the highest priority, okay?"