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greenstickered2021-09-09 03:55 pm
camalyng) wrote in greenstickered2021-09-09 03:55 pm
Entry tags:
I don't know if I want to call the whole fic or just this first chapter It's a Small World
Rating: this chapter is PG-13 for one naughty word but might take much later bits of the fic up to M
Words: ~1440
Summary: WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORLD as Cultural Representatives on France pavilion
After a long day at Disney University, her head stuffed full of Disney company mythology and workplace safety rules in her second language, the only thing Marinette's really checking the bus back to the Commons for is a vacant seat, not whom she ends up sitting next to. So she's not expecting that person to say her name like he knows her.
She's especially not expecting that person to be Adrien Agreste.
"Adrien?" she blurts out, looking him up and down: blond hair somewhere between the styled perfection she'd seen every day at school and Chat Noir's hot mess, two (!) shirt buttons undone in concession to the Orlando heat and opposition to Disney Look, still devastatingly handsome. "I haven't seen you since..."
Since he moved away from Paris for university just over a year ago, capping off the end of a terrible time for him after they'd defeated Hawkmoth in the middle of the BAC, Adrien revealed his own identity as Chat Noir in the shock of finding out Hawkmoth was his father, and both Hawk Moth and Chat's civilian identities became public knowledge as Gabriel Agreste was brought to justice. He'd originally planned to go to one of the local universities, but no one could really blame him for leaving town as soon as his father was in jail. Though he kept in touch with Nino and sent her occasional puns on the Bug-Phone, he didn't seem to return home often, and she never quite managed the two hour train trip to Lyon.
"It's been a while," Adrien says, rubbing the back of his neck. "What are you doing here?"
She indicates her name tag with Paris, France in smaller text beneath her name. "I'm going to be a server at Les Chefs de France - all that time in the bakery got me into table service instead of quick service food." Not what she first pictured when the recruiters called this internship program Cultural Representatives, but at least it's tipped.
"No, I mean - what are you doing at Disney instead of in Paris? I thought you were studying fashion design."
There's the question everyone's been asking her since she first applied for this internship program on a whim. She shrugs one shoulder, still embarrassed even now that she's physically in Orlando. "I've been a little, ah... low on inspiration." Even her teachers, who have only known her work this year, had noticed. "I thought I'd go somewhere new: immerse myself in a new culture, meet people from around the world, maybe see if the pixie dust rubs off on me... try and crack my designer's block."
Good old Adrien, always understanding, nods with a thoughtful look. "That makes sense. My, uh..." He steels himself, twists his ring - his Miraculous - on his finger. "My father used to say his trips overseas could be as much about inspiration as they were about closing deals... in interviews, anyway, not to me. I hope it helps," he finishes in a rush, as if trying to skim over the brief but clearly still painful mention of his father.
"What about you, what are you doing here?" she asks in an effort to change the subject away from how awful Gabriel is.
He perks up. "I'll be working at Impressions de France," he says. "I hope I don't get sick of the film too quickly."
She raises an eyebrow. She shared her reasons for interning here, he gets to share too.
"Fresh start," he admits. "Even in Lyon, everyone I met heard about... well, you were there."
She was: being a good friend to him had seemed like the very least she could do in the face of all his emotional realizations in the middle of a very public experience of the justice system. Her own shock at her crush and her partner being one and the same had seemed trifling in comparison.
"I thought over here, sure, they have the Internet, but hopefully they don't pay as much attention to where French fashion and supervillain scandals meet. No one's brought it up yet the way I started getting it on my first day in Lyon, so..."
"Your secret's safe with me," she promises.
He gives her a small, but genuine smile. "Thanks, Marinette. Knew I could count on you. Well, speaking of fresh starts, we're officially Disney cast members now that we've got our IDs. I was thinking I'd go check out one of the parks tonight. Do you want to come with me? After getting changed, of course."
First holding an intelligible, even personal conversation with Adrien, now invited to a Disney park with him. Lycée student Marinette would have been over the moon right now. As it is, even Cultural Representative Marinette has to keep a handle on her smile as she agrees.
Marinette walks into the middle of a heated discussion in her apartment and immediately gets a shiver down her spine when all four of her roommates look up at her with anticipation.
"You're the tiebreaker, Marinette," says Yasmine. "Each of us wants to go to a different park tonight. Which one should we go to?"
"Epcot," Manuela says without waiting for a response.
"We're going to be there for work all the time anyway--" starts Anouk.
"Which is why we should start getting familiar with it now!"
"Oh no," Marinette realizes.
"If you say Disney Springs, I will kill you," says Christelle.
"I said I'd go to a park with you tonight," Marinette murmurs. "I'm so sorry, I ran into an old friend from lycée doing the program too and I said I'd go with him to a park--"
"'Him'?" Christelle echoes with interest.
"An old friend," Marinette emphasizes. The six hour time difference is the only thing saving her from Alya blowing up her phone to tease her, she doesn't need it live on this side of the Atlantic. "I haven't seen him since we started university, I really want to catch up with him."
"Oh, come on, how do the Americans say..." Yasmine puts a triumphant finger in the air. "Chicks before dicks."
"When in America," Manuela says helpfully.
"We'll go together another time," Marinette says, starting to back away to her and Yasmine's room.
"You're terrible," says Yasmine.
Even after closing the bedroom door, Marinette can still hear Manuela starting back on "Epcot!"
Chuckling, she slips her hand in her pocket and says, "Tikki," only to find Tikki's already left. She looks up to find eighteen pairs of round eyes looking up at her, the kwamis somehow managing to be more intimidating than her roommates despite being a fraction of the size.
"Plagg is here?" asks Pollen.
"His owner did smell like cheese," Tikki says solemnly.
"I thought that was just the bus," says Marinette: a lot of the buses in service for Disney interns look like they've seen better days. "Look, Adrien's here and he has his Miraculous, so Plagg's probably here; I didn't ask."
"Because he'd ask how you know about Plagg," Sass deduces.
Fluff tilts her head. "I thought you told him who you are already."
"That's in the future, my friend," Wayzz tells her.
With a sigh, Marinette goes to her wardrobe and begins rifling through her clothes. "It didn't feel right to do it when he was dealing with his father, or over the phone," she mumbles. It's not even the first time Fluff's made that mistake, which both gives her hope that she does find the right moment to reveal her identity to Adrien one day, and also makes her feel bad that she's taking so long to do it.
"Are you going to a park with him, or with your roommates?" Tikki asks.
Ah, Tikki left to tell her siblings about her Adrien sighting before Marinette turned her roommates down. "Adrien."
Flying into the wardrobe to join her, Kaalki nudges her hand aside from a tee she'd paused on. "Oh, no, you can't go to meet Plagg's owner in that shirt, not nearly glorious enough, especially after your reunion in that."
Marinette groans. "This is my professional businesswoman outfit! We had to wear Disney Look today!"
As she goes for another blouse, Tikki floats up by her face, puppy dog eyes in full force. "Marinette... If Plagg's with his owner tonight, can I talk to him?"
Well. She can't possibly stop Tikki from reuniting with Plagg just as she's reuniting with her own partner. Marinette kisses Tikki's forehead. "Of course you can."
Tikki beams. "Thank you --"
"Just don't let anyone see you," Marinette continues, more out of force of habit than anything else.
"Of course," Tikki says, nodding furiously.
and then I'm, like, waffling on what to do next! like I might do the very classic ML fandom thing of alternating chapters between them and do the next chapter from Adrien's POV. and which park will they go to, what rides will they go on, what will they talk about. despite that ominous conversation at the end there I don't actually plan on the kwamis getting sighted yet, but Plagg will probably tell Adrien afterwards that he hung out with Tikki and then maybe Bug-Phone/Cat-Phone convos leading to in person Ladynoir reunion. it's all v up in the air atm!
but way down the line there will be the reveal and then love square getting over themselves and getting together 🥰
also I feel like I have lost the knack of writing more than about three people in a scene together and the bits with M's roommates and the kwamis are a bit dry lmao
Words: ~1440
Summary: WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORLD as Cultural Representatives on France pavilion
After a long day at Disney University, her head stuffed full of Disney company mythology and workplace safety rules in her second language, the only thing Marinette's really checking the bus back to the Commons for is a vacant seat, not whom she ends up sitting next to. So she's not expecting that person to say her name like he knows her.
She's especially not expecting that person to be Adrien Agreste.
"Adrien?" she blurts out, looking him up and down: blond hair somewhere between the styled perfection she'd seen every day at school and Chat Noir's hot mess, two (!) shirt buttons undone in concession to the Orlando heat and opposition to Disney Look, still devastatingly handsome. "I haven't seen you since..."
Since he moved away from Paris for university just over a year ago, capping off the end of a terrible time for him after they'd defeated Hawkmoth in the middle of the BAC, Adrien revealed his own identity as Chat Noir in the shock of finding out Hawkmoth was his father, and both Hawk Moth and Chat's civilian identities became public knowledge as Gabriel Agreste was brought to justice. He'd originally planned to go to one of the local universities, but no one could really blame him for leaving town as soon as his father was in jail. Though he kept in touch with Nino and sent her occasional puns on the Bug-Phone, he didn't seem to return home often, and she never quite managed the two hour train trip to Lyon.
"It's been a while," Adrien says, rubbing the back of his neck. "What are you doing here?"
She indicates her name tag with Paris, France in smaller text beneath her name. "I'm going to be a server at Les Chefs de France - all that time in the bakery got me into table service instead of quick service food." Not what she first pictured when the recruiters called this internship program Cultural Representatives, but at least it's tipped.
"No, I mean - what are you doing at Disney instead of in Paris? I thought you were studying fashion design."
There's the question everyone's been asking her since she first applied for this internship program on a whim. She shrugs one shoulder, still embarrassed even now that she's physically in Orlando. "I've been a little, ah... low on inspiration." Even her teachers, who have only known her work this year, had noticed. "I thought I'd go somewhere new: immerse myself in a new culture, meet people from around the world, maybe see if the pixie dust rubs off on me... try and crack my designer's block."
Good old Adrien, always understanding, nods with a thoughtful look. "That makes sense. My, uh..." He steels himself, twists his ring - his Miraculous - on his finger. "My father used to say his trips overseas could be as much about inspiration as they were about closing deals... in interviews, anyway, not to me. I hope it helps," he finishes in a rush, as if trying to skim over the brief but clearly still painful mention of his father.
"What about you, what are you doing here?" she asks in an effort to change the subject away from how awful Gabriel is.
He perks up. "I'll be working at Impressions de France," he says. "I hope I don't get sick of the film too quickly."
She raises an eyebrow. She shared her reasons for interning here, he gets to share too.
"Fresh start," he admits. "Even in Lyon, everyone I met heard about... well, you were there."
She was: being a good friend to him had seemed like the very least she could do in the face of all his emotional realizations in the middle of a very public experience of the justice system. Her own shock at her crush and her partner being one and the same had seemed trifling in comparison.
"I thought over here, sure, they have the Internet, but hopefully they don't pay as much attention to where French fashion and supervillain scandals meet. No one's brought it up yet the way I started getting it on my first day in Lyon, so..."
"Your secret's safe with me," she promises.
He gives her a small, but genuine smile. "Thanks, Marinette. Knew I could count on you. Well, speaking of fresh starts, we're officially Disney cast members now that we've got our IDs. I was thinking I'd go check out one of the parks tonight. Do you want to come with me? After getting changed, of course."
First holding an intelligible, even personal conversation with Adrien, now invited to a Disney park with him. Lycée student Marinette would have been over the moon right now. As it is, even Cultural Representative Marinette has to keep a handle on her smile as she agrees.
Marinette walks into the middle of a heated discussion in her apartment and immediately gets a shiver down her spine when all four of her roommates look up at her with anticipation.
"You're the tiebreaker, Marinette," says Yasmine. "Each of us wants to go to a different park tonight. Which one should we go to?"
"Epcot," Manuela says without waiting for a response.
"We're going to be there for work all the time anyway--" starts Anouk.
"Which is why we should start getting familiar with it now!"
"Oh no," Marinette realizes.
"If you say Disney Springs, I will kill you," says Christelle.
"I said I'd go to a park with you tonight," Marinette murmurs. "I'm so sorry, I ran into an old friend from lycée doing the program too and I said I'd go with him to a park--"
"'Him'?" Christelle echoes with interest.
"An old friend," Marinette emphasizes. The six hour time difference is the only thing saving her from Alya blowing up her phone to tease her, she doesn't need it live on this side of the Atlantic. "I haven't seen him since we started university, I really want to catch up with him."
"Oh, come on, how do the Americans say..." Yasmine puts a triumphant finger in the air. "Chicks before dicks."
"When in America," Manuela says helpfully.
"We'll go together another time," Marinette says, starting to back away to her and Yasmine's room.
"You're terrible," says Yasmine.
Even after closing the bedroom door, Marinette can still hear Manuela starting back on "Epcot!"
Chuckling, she slips her hand in her pocket and says, "Tikki," only to find Tikki's already left. She looks up to find eighteen pairs of round eyes looking up at her, the kwamis somehow managing to be more intimidating than her roommates despite being a fraction of the size.
"Plagg is here?" asks Pollen.
"His owner did smell like cheese," Tikki says solemnly.
"I thought that was just the bus," says Marinette: a lot of the buses in service for Disney interns look like they've seen better days. "Look, Adrien's here and he has his Miraculous, so Plagg's probably here; I didn't ask."
"Because he'd ask how you know about Plagg," Sass deduces.
Fluff tilts her head. "I thought you told him who you are already."
"That's in the future, my friend," Wayzz tells her.
With a sigh, Marinette goes to her wardrobe and begins rifling through her clothes. "It didn't feel right to do it when he was dealing with his father, or over the phone," she mumbles. It's not even the first time Fluff's made that mistake, which both gives her hope that she does find the right moment to reveal her identity to Adrien one day, and also makes her feel bad that she's taking so long to do it.
"Are you going to a park with him, or with your roommates?" Tikki asks.
Ah, Tikki left to tell her siblings about her Adrien sighting before Marinette turned her roommates down. "Adrien."
Flying into the wardrobe to join her, Kaalki nudges her hand aside from a tee she'd paused on. "Oh, no, you can't go to meet Plagg's owner in that shirt, not nearly glorious enough, especially after your reunion in that."
Marinette groans. "This is my professional businesswoman outfit! We had to wear Disney Look today!"
As she goes for another blouse, Tikki floats up by her face, puppy dog eyes in full force. "Marinette... If Plagg's with his owner tonight, can I talk to him?"
Well. She can't possibly stop Tikki from reuniting with Plagg just as she's reuniting with her own partner. Marinette kisses Tikki's forehead. "Of course you can."
Tikki beams. "Thank you --"
"Just don't let anyone see you," Marinette continues, more out of force of habit than anything else.
"Of course," Tikki says, nodding furiously.
and then I'm, like, waffling on what to do next! like I might do the very classic ML fandom thing of alternating chapters between them and do the next chapter from Adrien's POV. and which park will they go to, what rides will they go on, what will they talk about. despite that ominous conversation at the end there I don't actually plan on the kwamis getting sighted yet, but Plagg will probably tell Adrien afterwards that he hung out with Tikki and then maybe Bug-Phone/Cat-Phone convos leading to in person Ladynoir reunion. it's all v up in the air atm!
but way down the line there will be the reveal and then love square getting over themselves and getting together 🥰
also I feel like I have lost the knack of writing more than about three people in a scene together and the bits with M's roommates and the kwamis are a bit dry lmao