Chapter Text
Since starting university, Marinette has struggled to find a real, long-term career- she grew up sewing, and always knew that she’d do that until her fingers fell off, but couldn’t focus on what she wanted to sew. While she always dreamed of being a fashion designer, and still held that dream in the back of her mind, she had currently been occupying her creative juices with… fursuits. Which, had she told her younger self this years ago, would have sounded crazy. Her? Into furries? That sounded ridiculous coming from the frilly, girly pig-tailed teen who had convinced herself she’d one day be watching her designs on the runway.
It wasn’t completely a fairytale. It could still happen. She still loved designing, but shifting her attention to suits had been a needed shift to her stress levels. It was still stressful, of course, as she was essentially doing a team’s worth of jobs at once (drawing and concepting, making the costumes, marketing, sending emails, running all of her social media accounts, managing bills and taxes…) but it was different. Her stress could be contained to a room to herself rather than a room of critics, a boss, or a world of influential people with much more money than she could ever dream of making.
With fursuits, she had a bit more freedom. And designing big, personalized animals has been SO fun for her. She found enjoyment in finding unique species to design rather than the common wolves and foxes she saw so often when researching online. She had even decided to make herself a character, an anthropomorphic ladybug (named Ladybug… because when it came to names, she suddenly blanked on any creativity she had floating around her chaotic brain of hers. She had thought of the name Luck, or Lucky, but thought it would be too on the nose.)
While she took on enough commissions to keep her afloat, she often created premade designs in-between commission work. Lately, things had been slow- things were financially tough on everyone right now, and she had anticipated her commissions to slow down. She currently had a handful of zodiac inspired suits up right now, but… she couldn’t seem to sell any of them. Her site currently had a vast array of characters, from a fox to a rabbit, to less common characters like a butterfly and a mouse. She even had a peacock suit, one that she had spent months on sewing large, intricate feathers.
She sighed as she dropped her head against her desk and groaned, refreshing her email hopelessly as she continued to receive no new orders. Rent was creeping up quickly and she didn’t know what she’d do if she couldn’t sell at least one suit.
Alya, her roommate, knocked on her door before opening, peeking her head in. “You good girl? You’ve been catastrophizing in here for hours, I can feel your negative energy from the other room.”
Marinette lifted her head to glance up at her before leaning back against her chair, head hanging to stare at the ceiling. “I’d be better if I could get some work, what am I supposed to do with myself? I can’t make more premades, half of the apartment is already filled with stuff I can’t even sell. What am I going to do???”
Alya leaned up against the door frame. “You know, you have some friends who might be interested. Specifically, some friends with a mansion’s worth of income who would be happy to support you.”
“Alya. I am NOT asking Adrien. He can’t know.”
“And why not? I really don’t get why you’re trying to hide it from him. I honestly, genuinely, do NOT think he’s going to care.”
“But what if he DOES? What if he thinks it’s embarrassing and lame and cringey and never wants to be seen with me ever again? And even if, let's say, he tolerates it, what makes you think he would even want one?”
“Marinette, he would want one because YOU made it.”
“I don’t believe you. He’s going to see me as the weird furry girl the rest of his life and I’ll never live it down.”
Alya threw her head into her hands, letting out a frustrated sigh. “Fine, fine. Whatever.” She turned to leave, grabbing the door handle behind her.
“Don’t stress too much, I know you. You’ll figure this out.”
As the door closed behind her, Marinette let out another sigh as she turned to face back at her computer screen, ready to shut down everything for the night. As her mouse reached for the taskbar, her email notification went off.
One unread message- email title: “Commission Inquiry” from sender Chat Noir.
She practically fell out of her seat, eyes widening and she threw her cursor to hover over the email notification instead. She double clicked on it, eyes scanning the text that popped up on the screen:
Good evening Ladybug Creations,
I was wanting to reach out and see if you were still open to taking any new commission work. I decided a bit last minute to go to a convention that’s coming up in a few months, and I would really love to have a suit for it. I understand that it’s a bit unconventional to send an email like this, and I know you have a form to fill out, but before I did I wanted to know if you’d be open to doing a rush order? I’m sure you’re busy, but money is no issue to me, I will pay a rush fee. Name your price, your work is worth it.
Warms Regards,
Chat Noir :3
It was like the gods had answered her plea. She wasted no time in responding, letting him know her rush fee price and that she could have it done within the month. Not long after hitting send, another email came through- her commission form had been filled out.
She opened the form to find a ref sheet for a simple black cat suit. Outside of the plain black fur with blonde hair atop, the design had piercing green eyes and a little bell around his neck.
She responded to the form, letting him know the quoted price along with sending an invoice link. It was an easy enough design, she charged him just enough for her to cover the materials, their rent, and bills.
She hit send.
A few minutes later, two more emails.
A response from Chat Noir- “Hi Ladybug! Payment should be sent, let me know if you get it! :3”
And a notification that the invoice had been paid.
She clicked on the invoice receipt to verify everything went through andWHAT THE HELL THAT WAS WAY TOO MUCH MONEY!!!
She frantically responded, letting him know he’d added a few zeros by mistake.
Another email- “Ah, it was no mistake! I told you, your work is worth it. Hopefully this helps you out for a few months!”
She opened up the invoice receipt again as she gaped at the screen. This had to be some weird scam, right? She should just refund it and block him, right?
She searched for him online, just to be sure. She found a Twitter account under the name Chat Noir, who was following her and had tens of thousands of followers. His feed was filled with commissioned artwork of the same character he had sent her, all from artists far out of her budget. Based on quick observations from his feed, he was charming, generous, and he definitely was legitimate. So of all of the fursuit makers he could have gone to, why her? She was small, her work was cheaper, and she had nowhere near the amount of popularity as many other talented makers in Europe. She could feel her hands shaking in disbelief as her cursor continued to click around the screen.
His location was in France, just like her.
Who the hell was this guy???
…She followed him back.
Within a minute, she received a direct message.
Chat Noir: That was quick! You should get some rest, it’s getting late!
Ladybug Creations : Sorry! I hope you don’t mind that I had to double check a few things, that was… an incredibly generous amount of money. I just had to make sure it was real.
Chat Noir: No worries! I can’t blame you. I hope you can see now that I’m being serious, though. You deserve better pay for your work!
Ladybug Creations : I appreciate it more than you know, but you sent me almost a full year’s worth of rent. Are you sure that’s alright??
Chat Noir: Absolutely! I like to share the wealth :3 Consider it a generous tip!
Ladybug Creations: That’s… wow. Thank you, really. Why me though?
Chat Noir: I like your style the best. And I think you deserve more attention for the work you do. I’ve followed you for a while, pretty close to when you first started. It’s been amazing to watch your improvement! 😺
She thinks it again- who the HELL is this guy? She still couldn’t figure out why he was being so nice to her.
Ladybug Creations: Wow, thank you so much! Again, I appreciate it a ton.
Ladybug Creations: It is getting late, I’ll head to bed now. I’ll have some updates for you within the next few days!
Chat Noir: I look forward to it, sweet dreams 😽
She finally shut her computer down, head spinning as she floated around her room, getting herself ready for bed. She eventually flopped down on her mattress, staring at the ceiling as her mind raced with thoughts.
- She was gonna be okay, she was gonna be able to pay rent.
- More than okay, actually, she’d be able to pay for whatever she needed for a while now. She didn’t think she’d be able to process that thought fully until next month, though.
- She owes this Chat Noir guy big time. She’s not sure what prompted him to finally talk to her now of all times, besides a convention coming up, but she was going to make sure this was her best work yet.
As the stress melted off her body, she let her eyes drift asleep. She had some work to do tomorrow, and she was beyond looking forward to it.
