Cinnamon and Vanilla

Chapter 24

Marinette raced in a panic through the apartment. "Where are the keys Tikki? I'm going to be so late!" She called out, taking a gulp of her coffee as she pulled on the rest of her jacket. She stopped in her tracks as a whoosiness overtook her. Grabbing the kitchen sink until it passed, she swallowed thickly before straightening back up. That wasn't the first time that had happened in the last week. She hoped she wasn't coming down with anything, she didn't have time to be sick.

"Here they are." Called the little red Kwami, bringing the keys over to her.

"You're a lifesaver Tikki." The bluenette gratefully took the keys, picking up the dresses scattered over the couch before heading for the door. Adrien had left earlier that morning to supervise a photoshoot and of course she just had to oversleep her alarm when she had to meet Spencer to finalise the superhero themed children's line. It was the second time this week she'd done it too. Marientte decided she really needed to go to bed earlier instead of spending half the night star gazing with Chat on rooftops. She stopped and smiled to herself remembering how excited he got when a shooting star went past. It was always worth the late night just to see that smile.

"Marinette, you should eat something." Tikki suggested with worried eyes, snapping Marinette out of her daydream. She shook her head.

"I don't have time Tikki, I'll grab something later." She said, searching around for her sketchbook.

"But you can't just run off on a few mouthfuls of coffee. You need something more substantial than that." Tikki almost pleaded. Marinette grumbled to herself before finally laying eyes on her book.

"Tikki, I seriously don't have time. Today is the last day before we close for two weeks for Christmas and New Year. I need to get this done so we can get the spring line into the next issue of 'Style Queen' before the printing deadline. Now let's go." Tikki gave a defeated sigh, scooting into Marinette's bag as she raced out the door.

Marinette and Spencer spent the most part of the morning finalising the designs for the 'Freestyler' street wear. Casual, functional and affordable was the main selling point and Marinette couldn't have been more excited with the results. The fact that Audrey Bourgeois was willing to give them advertising space in 'Style Queen', a magazine almost exclusive to high end fashion, was a huge bonus for their emerging Agreste Designs label. Marinette was sure that Chloé must have had a word in it, and she made a mental note to make sure she got her something extra nice for her for Christmas.

Once Marinette had finished with Spencer and the design team, she started to head back up to her office. While they lost a lot of the company in the restructure, and most of the funds to Tomoe Tsurugi, they still retained the Flagship building and the original store, which it turned out had been bought outright by Adrien's mother. It was more than enough for a restart and Marinette was feeling quietly optimistic. Looking at her watch as she approached the elevator, it was already after midday. Time seemed to have just been slipping away today, and she still had papers to sign off on. Lunch would just have to wait.

Scurrying into her office, Marinette stopped dead in her tracks as she observed Lila making herself far too comfortable on top of Adrien's desk, her legs were crossed under her impossibly short skirt and stiletto heels and she clearly had not expected to see Marinette.

"What are you doing here?" Marinette hissed. She would have to make sure security didn't let her in again.

"Hello to you too Marinette, so nice to see you again." Lila greeted, dripping in false sincerity as she inspected her long, red dipped fingernails. "Didn't Adrien tell you he invited me up to see him? How very remiss of him not to let his little wifey know." Marinette bit back an audible groan.