March 28th
Waking up was just as difficult in England as it had been in France, even if the time difference was only one measly hour.
Marinette had been so tempted to snooze, but it was her first day on the job and she couldn't jeopardise her punctuality score on the first day — even if it did mean a couple more hours in her warm, Magic Mike inspired dream. Though a pleasant dream in full, Marinette couldn't ignore the way the lead dancer, who spent most of the night grinding up against her, was a spitting image to Adrien.
Finally prying herself out of bed, she moved around grabbing her hair brush, and combing through the sleep induced knots. She'd shower and then prepare herself for the day ahead; a day where she would finally become a designer at a world renowned fashion house. She still couldn't believe this was happening.
Glancing at her suitcase, she thought about starting to pack her items away — including the now infamous feather jacket. She still couldn't believe Adrien had ended up being the one to wear it. How much bad luck could one person possess? Twice she'd managed to cause almost irreversible damage to him with a feather; a ranking she was rather reluctant to hold. She had a couple of days left in London before heading back 'home' to Paris and with the stress of the past few days, she couldn't wait to go home and chill.
During her call with Nathalie, she found out her work visa could possibly be completed in just over a week, and then she'd be upping from her roots and heading to London. It was both exciting, yet terrifying at the same time. How would Paris cope without her? It had been three years since the last akuma but she couldn't help thinking as soon as her back was turned suddenly Paris would become a villain's playground once again.
Lifting a hand absentmindedly to her ear, she stroked her bare lobes wishing for the added support of her small friend. The reason Tikki was not with her? Quite simple really, she wanted to make sure she got this job on her own, without the added influence of the Ladybug luck; although, according to Tikki, out of transformation that didn't exist. But Marinette wasn't taking any chances. Not this time.
Traipsing into the bathroom, Marinette did what she needed to before heading out of the room she was staying in and straight to the kitchen – a silent prayer that Félix wouldn't be there again, yesterday was enough embarrassment for the year.
Slowly edging into the kitchen, Marinette looked straight ahead, coming face to face with thick, blond hair. She studied it carefully to make her assessment. There was a slight flick at the ends, the top almost super glued to his head. Oh, yes! She was 100% sure she knew which cousin was making delicious smelling eggs.
"Morning Félix," Marinette yawned, moving to the fridge and selecting the carton of orange juice before moving to the cupboards and finding a glass. She'd been here a lot since Kagami had moved in with Félix, their house becoming almost a home away from home.
"Right cousin today, well done." He placed the spatula down in the pan and gave her a slow clap. She was tempted to take the pan and tip its contents onto his head.
Rolling her eyes, she wandered over to the breakfast bar and hopped up onto the stool Adrien had occupied the previous night. An odd feeling unsettled her as she replayed their conversation in her head. She looked back up to tilted her own head to the side.
"It wasn't hard," she said. "Adrien doesn't eat eggs." She placed a hand over her mouth unsure where that information had come from; since when had she taken notice of Adrien's eating preferences.
"Correct," the blond responded, turning to his plates and depositing the scrambled eggs equally onto the two. "Guys a freak!"
"I prefer the term unique ."
Marinette was a hot blooded female, and she knew an attractive male when she saw one — hence why she was suddenly drooling over said male who'd just entered the room. In normal clothing he was attractive, but in a suit he was nothing short of pure sin – and since when did he wear glasses?
He sauntered into the room like he owned the place and she wanted to be able to remove her arm just to have something to throw at him, she couldn't deny the stomach flop as she looked at Adrien Agreste. And the smell! Talk about pheromones. Sometimes he made himself really hard to hate.
"Good morning, 007. How can we be of service?" Marinette snorted as Félix greeted Adrien with a raised eyebrow. "I thought you were going to a shoot. You don't usually dress up in the full shebang for acting like a pompous jackass all day."
Shaking his head, Adrien grabbed a glass from the cupboard before heading back to the breakfast bar and sitting opposite Marinette. He stretched forwards, his aim to reach for the orange juice, when Marinette felt her own hand raising ready to smack him away and growl mine.
"May I?" Adrien asked, pointing to the orange; obviously not catching the crazy protectiveness of the lioness already at the table.
Coming to her senses and pushing the orange juice towards him; she said, "Sure."
"Seriously cous, why are you looking so dapper? I haven't seen you this suited and booted since mine and Gami's wedding." Félix walked towards the work surface and placed a plate beside Marinette and the other in front of himself. The eggs were obviously ready for his wife's arrival.
"I'm surprised you noticed what he was wearing that day. Was that during the ceremony or whilst you were defiling his hotel room," Marinette snickered, placing the glass to her lips and taking a small, satisfying sip. Nothing beat getting one up on the cousins; Adrien's car last night, Félix this morning... Maybe her luck was improving?
"Marinette please," Adrien said with a wince. "Three days I was washing my eyes out with soap, just because these two couldn't wait a couple of hours to be together."
"What can I say?" Félix shrugged, a grin taking over his lips. "My wife's hot!"
Adrien shook his head, most likely to get the image out of his head and not against Kagami's attractiveness because no one could deny the beauty of their friend.
"Anyway, if you must know, I'm in the office today. Something's come up and I'm needed there." Adrien continued drinking his orange juice, completely unaware of the bomb he'd just freely dropped in the middle of the breakfast table.
"The office?" Marinette choked out, her eyes burning into Adrien. Had the idiot done this on purpose?
"Yep. Part of my duties is to give new employees a warm welcome."
So he had done it on purpose! Jackass!
"I don't need a babysitter," Marinette crossed her arms in front of her like a despondent teen, fully pouty lips and everything.
"The company hired two people yesterday, Miss Dupain-Cheng. It's not all about you."
"Oh!" Feeling her cheeks warm, she was glad for the arrival of her friend to take the attention away from her. Or so she thought...
"Why are you dressed in cosplay?" Kagami's tone was as humourless as always.
All eyes suddenly found Marinette the most interesting thing in the room. Each set looking her up and down, her own eyes itching to do the same. What was wrong with her outfit?
"I - I - what?" she stuttered, arms crossing over her green top.
"Ohhhhhh," Félix exclaimed with a click. "I see it now."
Adrien's head tilted and eyebrows frowned... until... his eyes danced and mouth broke into that huge annoying grin which made her want to knock his perfectly white teeth out.
"I don't know if they give work visas to fruit," he said.
Marinette looked down at her red polka dot skirt before rolling her eyes and standing from the table. "You're so funny, Agreste." She fake laughed. "If the modelling doesn't work out, you should become a comedian."
She headed towards the doorway, set on getting out of the kitchen and away from Adrien Agreste. She knew fully what he was implying and no she did not agree that she looked like a watermelon!
"Marinette!" She heard her name called as she headed out into the marble laid hallway, knowing full well which blond had just followed her out with his expensive shoes clicking against the hallway.
Spinning on the balls of her feet, Marinette came face to face with Mr License to Kill.
"What do you want, Adrien?" Crossing her arms over her chest, she examined her new boss from top to bottom; not a single fault popped to her mind as she studied from the top of his ridiculously perfect styled hair to the base of his shiny clown shoes. How big were his feet!
"To offer you a ride of course. Now grab your bags and let's go."
Grabbing his keys from the side table he began to walk to the door.
"Why do you think I want to go in the car with you?"
Marinette looped her arm through her bag and checked everything was inside there. Her documents, passport, birth certificate; her whole life pretty much contained in this one bag.
"You want to get to work on time right?"
"Yep, that's why I'm leaving now." She walked past him towards the doorway, set on making her point.
I am a strong, confident woman and I can see myself around a new city and get to work early. I do not need to ride in Mr Sexy Pants Beamer and arrive at work with one of the CEO's of the business.
"You do realise the tubes are on strike?"
Abruptly, she stopped in the doorway and turned slowly to face him. A look of disbelief crossing her eyes as she glared at him.
"This way, sweetheart."
Walking beside her, he placed a hand on her lower back and led her out of the house, whether she wanted to go with him or not — it seemed she had no choice.
Thank goodness once this was done and dusted she'd have a week at home to get her head around working with 'pretentious ass' Agreste. How was she ever going to survive?
Miss Dial (2:35pm): Hey Mr Unknown, are you around?
Mr Unknown (2:42pm): It's good to see you're still messaging me, Miss Dial.
Miss Dial (2:45pm): Don't flatter yourself too much, I know all my friends are working so I took a chance.
Mr Unknown (2:46pm): Ouch! At least sugar coat the 'your my last resort' comment. I thought I was quite the entertaining conversationalist.
Miss Dial (2:48pm): I suppose, I've had worse.
Mr Unknown (2:52pm): You're either in a bad mood or something's pissed you off? Or are you on your period?
Miss Dial (2:47pm): Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner...
Mr Unknown (2:48pm): The third one?
Miss Dial (2:49pm): The second!!! And lucky for you I'm not going to even be fazed talking about my period. It's due in two weeks so you can wish me luck! Anyway, can I ask you something?
Mr Unknown (2:53pm): Sure. If you can't ask the faceless guy on the other side of the phone, who can you ask?
Miss Dial (2:58pm): As funny as you can sometimes be, now is not the time. Okay, so I went to this place today, and I found out what I actually thought I would be doing there is... not what I'm actually doing.
Mr Unknown (3:00pm): Do you need me to come and save you? Are you in some sort of trouble? You may not believe it but I do have a certain set of skills.
Miss Dial (3:01pm): No... not at all! But nice quote. Taken?
Mr Unknown (3:01pm): Of course! I will certainly be a father like Liam Neeson, you don't mess with my litter.
Miss Dial (3:02pm): As funny as that is, I really need to vent. I have just spent the last hour of my life hearing about what I can and can't do. I don't know about you, but when someone tells you not to do something I just want to do it to piss them off?
Mr Unknown (3:03pm): It depends on the situation... If someone told me not to eat croissants I would personally go out of my way to eat double the amount I usually do. If someone trusted me with the hard job of looking after their goldfish for a week and not killing it... I think I'd draw a line there and respect their request.
Miss Dial (3:05pm): What about if it had to do with, oh I don't know, dating?
Mr Unknown (3:08pm): I definitely wouldn't kill a date... I've heard there's this thing called murder and it can come with quite a hefty prison sentence.
Miss Dial (3:09pm): Should I be worried that your mind went straight to murder?
Mr Unknown (3:11pm): Just my feeling at the moment. I've been in the most pointless meetings all day; my brain is mush and my stomach's begging to eat!
Miss Dial (3:14pm): If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Mr Unknown (3:17pm): Easy! Croissants! Come on Miss Dial, I thought you would have known me enough to answer that yourself by now.
Miss Dial (3:22pm): I think I know just about enough 😆 so what do you think?
Mr Unknown (3:30pm): About your question? Dating should only be with someone you like and someone you can see something with... the magic spark everyone talks about. It shouldn't matter about the job if there's something truly there.
Miss Dial (3:33pm): So you're telling me I shouldn't just date someone to piss off HR?
Mr Unknown (3:46pm): That is exactly what I'm saying. Now I've answered yours, can you answer mine?
Miss Dial (3:48pm): Sure 👌🏻
Mr Unknown (3:51pm): How do you tell someone sitting opposite you in the boardroom that they've had lettuce (or something to that capacity) stuck in their teeth for the past two hours?
Miss Dial (3:54pm): Go for the jugular #ruthlessisasruthlessdoes