An Unlikely Intern | Miraculous Ladybug

Chapter 1 - Just one moment

It was the last day of school for the students of Françoise Dupont High School, and they were all very excited to finally finish their Sophomore year and to get summer started. All of the students were planning to travel over the summer. That is, all except Marinette and Adrien. Adrien's father does not allow him to leave Paris so as to be at every photoshoot. He didn't mind, either way, because he would still be able to carry out his duties as Chat Noir, his superhero alter-ego. Marinette, on the other hand, was planning to stay home and enter Gabriel Agreste's internship competition. Starting tomorrow, all of the contestants would have four days to design and hand create an entire outfit. The winner would be Gabriel Agreste's intern and would spend every day working with him and learning from him. It was Marinette's dream to become a professional fashion designer, so she decided to stay in Paris so she could enter. She also took it as an opportunity to continue as Ladybug, her superhero alter-ego.

-Friday Night-

Marinette was sitting in her room dancing to the newest Jagged Stone album, Play for the Wicked , when she got a knock on her window. The blue-haired girl must have leaped a foot in the air at the sudden and startling sound and fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs and dark blue hair. She quickly picked herself up, looked at the window, and gasped. She saw the amused smirk of a particular black cat. What is Chat doing here? she wondered as she walked to her window to open it. Chat Noir leaped into Marinette's room and grinned at her. Marinette quickly fixed her pigtails, that had become untidy when she had fallen, and tilted her head at the superhero. "Chat Noir? What are you doing here... in my room... at 9:30 at night?" she asked.

Chat gave the girl a kind smile. "I was bored at home and I saw your light on. Would it be okay if I hung out with you tonight? I don't want to put a stop to your dance party, though" he added, laughing. With that last statement, Marinette turned bright red as she realized that he had seen her dancing like a crazy person. "Don't worry, Marinette. It looked like you were having fun." He added when he saw her embarrassment.

Marinette calmed down a bit, she had practice holding back blushing after two years of having a crush on Adrien Agreste, and motioned for him to have a seat on her bed. He happily sat down and she sat next to him. She felt a little awkward because she didn't talk to Chat much outside of her Ladybug persona and she wondered why he was taking an interest in her tonight. As she wondered to herself what was going on, the silence dragged on. Finally, Chat piped up. "I hope I'm not making you uncomfortable by being here? I just needed a place to go... My own house doesn't feel so safe at the moment. My father is in another one of his moods and I really didn't want to deal with that right now. If you don't want me here I can go." He said, his usual amused sparkle in his eye gone and replace by sadness.

Marinette knew she couldn't just leave him out in the cold, and she thought of it as an opportunity to get to know her partner outside the mask. She quickly shook her head and smiled at him. "You're welcome here anytime, Chat, don't worry about it!" He grinned back at her, and the silence returned.

Chat wasn't lying about why he was here, although he didn't tell the whole truth. His father was actually in one of his moods and he hated being home for those, but he also wanted to see Marinette. He thought of her as a best friend, along with Alya and Nino, but he didn't seem to know her very well outside of all the praise Alya always sings to him about her. Marinette was always so shy around him, and he couldn't figure out why. Anytime he tried to talk to her, she didn't say much back. He really wanted to get to know her, and it seemed like she didn't have a problem talking to Chat Noir, so he knew he couldn't do it as himself. He smiled at her and then decided to take a look around her room.

The first thing he noted was her sewing desk. He remembered that she really liked designing fashion, Alya always talked about how talented she was. He studied everything on the desk. He saw a white sewing machine with pink details, he saw many different colors and types of thread, a pack of differently sized sewing needles, he saw many different ribbons, and he saw a half-sewn midnight blue dress with a length of black ribbon sitting on top of it, not yet sewn. He decided to use this to start a conversation with Marinette.