Chapter Text
When Marinette Dupain-Cheng got the email that confirmed that she had been hired to work as a junior designer at Gabriel, the biggest fashion house in Paris, she had been ecstatic.
She had done very well at ESMOD, and even though she hadn't been top of her class, she was awarded "most creative" and had great recommendations from all of her professors. She would've gotten top of her class, if it hadn't been for the akuma attacks.
Because, Marinette had a secret.
While she worked her hardest as a full-time college student, working part-time at her parents bakery while interning with different fashion houses, she had a different job on the side.
It was charity work. She would call it a volunteer experience, but that made it sound like she had a choice in the matter. A more accurate description would have been mandatory spontaneous community service.
Okay, fine. Marinette was the superhero Ladybug, but that wasn't exactly something she could put on a resume. Her parents had always been pretty lenient with her hours, and she usually pretended to get caught in traffic during Akuma attacks. It had worked so far, but she was worried that it wouldn't work at a professional job.
She had almost had to retake several years of school, due to a multitude of absences, but was able to get straight A's anyways, and her teachers had let it slide.
As she prepared for her first day of work, she wasn't so sure that Agreste would let it slide.
"Oh Tikki," Marinette frowned, packing herself a lunch for the first day on the job, "what will I do if there's an Akuma attack? I can't exactly run out of work to fight it."
"If there's an akuma you have to fight it." Tikki responded. "There's no other option."
"I just don't want to be fired. I know Gabriel Agreste does not tolerate late employees."
"I'm sure it'll all be fine." Tikki winked. "You've got that Ladybug Luck, remember?"
"I know, but what if it's not?" Marinette's mind started racing. "What if there's an akuma right now and it takes all morning to fight. I could completely miss work and get fired before I even start. Gabriel Ahreste will hate me and i'll be blacklisted from the fashion industry-"
"That seems a little extreme.."
"-I'll never get a dream job again and I will have to work at the bakery forever."
"Snap out of it Marinette." Tikki smiled. "It'll be fine. Worst case scenario, you open a boutique online. People love your designs."
"But-"
"But nothing." Tikki nodded. "You have clients, like Jagged, Kitty Section, and Kagami. Even if your job with Gabriel doesn't work out, you have backup options."
"You think I'm going to get fired?"
"Probably not today." Tikki muttered under her breath.
Marinette blinked. "What do I do if I get fired?"
"We can cross that bridge when we get to it." Tikki smiled, "For now, look at the bright side. You got the job!"
"Yeah," Marionette grinned, "I did. You're right Tikki, this is a cause for celebration, not panic."
"If everything goes wrong, then it goes wrong," Tikki shrugged, "Thats just the way the cookie crumbles."
"You're pretty smart, you know that?"
"I am the goddess of creation, older than the universe itself, so yeah, I'm aware. Thanks though Marinette."
"You're welcome." Marinette grabbed a little box of macarons. "I'm putting these in my purse for you. You can have one for lunch, but the rest are for emergencies only, got it?"
"What qualifies as an emergency?"
"An Akuma attack." Marinette sighed, ignoring Tikki's puppydog eyes. She would have to try harder than that to get what she wanted. "Now that I'm not working at the bakery, I can't get you cookies every day."
"I mean you could-"
"I'm not going to bother my parents every day. I agreed to help them out on the weekends, so we will be able to stock up on cookies then."
"I can't believe you're putting me on a diet. Plagg's holder has never put him on a diet."
"Chat Noir?" Marinette shook her head. "How does he get enough cookies to feed his kwami?"
"Oh, he doesn't. Plagg only eats camembert cheese."
Marinette gagged a little bit. "Gross. Where does Chat get all the cheese?"
"Why do you expect me to know?" Tikki crosse her arms, "I just know Plagg has and entire fridge full of cheese."
"I'm not giving you a fridge full of cookie dough."
"You could."
"I can't. How does Chat Noir afford that much cheese? Isn't Camembert expensive?"
"Money has no value to me."
"What?"
"Plagg has his own Amazon Prime account."
"How?"
"I'm pretty sure he commits credit card fraud."
"Yeah, we are not going to do that." Marinette frowned. "I think I can manage to get enough cookies from my parents without breaking the law."
"Plagg just orders it online and it's delivered right to Chat's doorstep."
"You can buy cheese online? How expensive is it?"
"Apparently. I don't know, like I said, money means nothing to me."
"Right-" Marinette pulled out her phone. "Yikes! That's expensive. Chat's parents would have to be cheese farmers or something."
"....or something." Tikki repeated nonchalantly.
"I could never afford that much cheese."
"Yeah, that's why I chose you, instead of Plagg."
"What?"
"Originally, Plagg was going to choose you, and I was going go choose A-" a big bubble burst out of Tikki's mouth- "Chat Noir. Due to circumstance, we decided it was best if I was your kwami and Plagg was Chat's."
"Because I lived in a bakery?"
"Well-"
Marinette laughed, "All this time, I thought I was special, but you chose me because I lived in a bakery?"
"You had a good heart." Tikki insisted. "You passed the tests."
"I had a box of macarons."
"Yeah, that might've helped."
Marinette rolled her eyes fondly. "I'm not going to forget this Tikki. Next time I see Chat Noir, I'm going to have a serious talk with him about affording Camembert."
"I'm sure it's fine."
"Seriously, if he has a whole fridge of that stuff, he must be a cheese farmer. Or rich. Or in terrible financial ruin and he's struggling so much that he and Plagg are resorting to credit card scams and they really need my help and -"
"Marinette. Deep breaths. It'll all be fine."
"Right. Right." Marinette glanced at the clock. "Oh would you look at the time?"
"8:45?" Tikki read.
"Its an expression." Marinette scooped the kwami into her purse before sprinting out the door. "I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be a good look to be late on the first day of my job."
Tikki, who sat in the purse, chowing down on the cookies she had promised not to eat, silently agreed.