Chapter 1: Strange Luck

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Marinette sighed as she allowed the huge portfolio bag to slide off her shoulder and angled it to carefully lean against the heavy easel. Between the rigid art board, the booklet of sketching paper and second booklet of heavier drawing paper for more formal works, and numerous loose items, the bag probably weighed over thirty pounds. From her other hand she released her tackle box full of drawing charcoals, pencils, pastels, chamois, and various erasers, at least another ten pounds of materials. Next went her backpack of notebooks, text books and laptop. Setting down all the things she had to carry to this art course was such a relief it was almost like floating by comparison.

It's not that Marinette was weak… On the contrary, she was exceptionally strong and fit. Moonlighting as a superhero will do that for a girl. It was just that the akuma that had struck last night had been a doozy; a construction worker who'd been injured on the job and subsequently let go because of it. He felt pretty rightfully bitter and enraged, and Hawkmoth had taken advantage of him in that moment of weakness to turn him into Sledge. And good lord did he ever hit like one… Even after Chat Noir was able to knock off and crush his hard-hat to release the akuma and Ladybug's Healing Light had passed over the entire site to magically repair the damage, she could still feel tenderness in her ribs where she'd gotten caught by the akuma victim's 30lb sledge hammer and along her back where that hit had slammed her into a concrete wall. Her Healing Light repaired all the damage, but big hits like that, where she or Chat took serious wounds, always left some residual pain and tenderness for a few days, like a lingering ghost of the injury that had been healed.

The magic from healing the injury did draw from her own body's ability to repair itself, which was diminished slightly by her somewhat lean calorie intake. Her food budget was basically depleted until she received her next meager paycheck from her internship, so she was subsiding off of cookies, fruit, and sweetened black coffee until she could replenish her pantry at the end of the week.

Happy to be free of her heavy burdens, Marinette pulled her travel mug out of a side pouch of her backpack and smiled at Tikki, who was sleeping curled up in a little ball in the pocket of her backpack that would usually be used for sunglasses. Healing Marinette's injuries from last night had taken a lot out of the tiny goddess; she'd gobbled down a half dozen shortbread cookies and been passed out for the last seven hours. She zipped Tikki's sleeping compartment shut and sipped on her coffee as she began setting up her easel and drawing pad for today's class.

Marinette hummed absently as she worked. She'd been initially skeptical at the suggestion from the manager of her internship at Agreste Fashions that she should take a class on anatomy and figure drawing, but after the first three weeks of the course this semester she was happy she'd taken the advice. She could already tell that it was positively affecting her design career, and her ability to draw a more realistic looking figure made her designs look much more appealing and professional.

The internship at Agreste Fashions had been going for five weeks now, and she was learning so much. Fashion Week was coming up at the end of the month, and with deadlines looming she had to put forward the very best work she could muster. If she was good enough, some of her designs could be featured in an Up and Coming exhibit!

Setting down her thermos of coffee, Marinette carefully stretched her arms over her head, trying to ease those sore ribs.

Foots steps in the hall and the quiet singing of a woman warned Marinette she was about to have company.

Claudia Minagawa stepped lightly into the room with her portfolio under one arm. Marinette had met Claudia in her second year of university and they had become pretty good friends. Both fashion design majors, they agreed to apply together for the internship at Agreste Fashions, and were thrilled and stunned to both be accepted. Claudia was very much a kindred spirit to Marinette and a calm voice of reason to Marinette's sometimes frenetic exuberance. "Good morning, Marinette!"

The raven haired woman dropped her stretch and tugged her pants straight. They had become a little baggy recently since she couldn't seem to keep from slowly losing weight and tended to slide down her hips. They were old and worn, and not really worth the effort of taking in. "Good morning, Claudia. How was your weekend?"

"Eh, same old, same old. Nothing exciting happened in my neck of the woods." Claudia set her things down at the easel beside Marinette and wandered over to the windows to open the blinds and let in some sunlight. "That party at Georgette's dorm was pretty great on Saturday, though! You sure missed out."

Marinette smiled apologetically, "Yeah, sorry but I had work to do for the internship and my parents asked me to watch the shop so they could go out for dinner."

"Mari, you're too nice." Claudia shook her head. "You could have told them you had plans already, or even come after they got home."

"Covered in flour and exhausted from baking all afternoon? No thanks." Marinette chuckled. "I was happy to slink back to campus and pour myself into bed. There will be other parties."

"Your loss, sugar. But I bet we could have found you a new man, since you gave Nathanael the axe." Marinette had dated Nathanael at the end of high school and the first year of University… But during the second year, with their classes being more difficult, diverging interests and less time together, Marinette had lost the connection she thought they were forging together and her affection for him had waned too far to rekindle. Not that it had been terribly blazing to begin with, unlike her feelings for a certain blonde.

After Adrien had gone off to a private high school on the other side of Paris, Marinette had tried to work up the courage to contact him and stay in touch, but had never managed to actually do it… So many unsent emails and letters… She hadn't seen him in person in over four years. Despite all that time apart, she still felt her heart flutter and tummy quiver when she saw his picture in a magazine. After all this time, she was sure he must have forgotten her and their time together for one year of middle school.

When Nathanael had asked her out their senior year of high school, she had tried to set that childish infatuation for Adrien Agreste aside for good. To a degree she had succeeded, but she still wondered if her break-up with Nathanael this past summer hadn't been entirely her fault. Nathanael was wonderful, kind and sensitive, genuine and loving…. But she had felt no passion for him. Their relationship had been tentative and slow, and it had slowly petered off for her. Sometimes that made her feel like a horrible person. She never really felt she could bring him close and into her full confidence; because of her secret life as a superhero she had always kept him at arm's length.

Well… At this point it couldn't be helped. Her relationship with Nathanael had ended sadly and a little bitterly. But after all this time, four years at separate schools and never communicating, she still burned for Adrien. But he wasn't really part of her life anymore, unfortunately.

"I don't think I'm much of a party-er." Marinette admitted.

"You just haven't found the right crowd." Claudia dismissed. She was very insistent that Marinette should have a social life despite (or perhaps because of) her recent-ish break-up. "You stick with Mama-Claudia, I'll find you a man. Hey, my big brother is still single!"

Other people were filing into class and Marinette exchanged some polite greetings with her diverse classmates. This was a pretty basic art class, Figure Drawing 101; lots of different majors could select it as an Arts elective, or just something fun to do for credits. "Claudia, I don't want to date right now. I'm just not ready!" 'Not to mention I'm too busy with university, my internship and being a superhero of Paris!'

"Alright Mari, you tell me when you change your mind." She eyed Marinette around the side of her easel. "Curt did say he thought you were hot when I showed him your picture. He'll still be willing in a few weeks."

Marinette just laughed. "Okay, if I change my mind I'll let you know. Now quit harassing me!"

They continued to make small talk while their classmates trickled in and began setting up. The teacher was busy sliding a platform across the floor of the studio and carefully placing a chair on it before draping it in white fabric. She was also making adjustments to the lights and checking messages on her phone.

Eventually everyone was set and class was ready to begin. Madame Fortier stepped up onto the platform she'd been assembling and pivoted to address the whole class spread in a semi circle around her. "Good morning, everyone! A couple of announcements to begin the day: The fantasy formal pieces are due in three weeks time. Remember for that assignment that you are expected to take something real as a reference and give it a supernatural spin. You can use any medium you wish, but so far we've only covered charcoal, cray-pas, and pencils. If you want to bring in another drawing medium you're comfortable with, please feel free to do so. Secondly, I'm afraid that Monsieur Picard, the model we had scheduled for his week, had to cancel," Marinette was momentarily disappointed by this. Monsieur Picard was an older gentleman who'd been their model most of last week and he had been a former athlete. He'd made a very interesting subject to draw.

"He's very sorry to disappoint, but his daughter just had a baby and he and his wife are taking a vacation to visit them. Lastly, we have a very rare opportunity presented to us!" Madame Fortier, who was a seasoned artist and at least 70 years old, blushed slightly and clasped her hands in delight. "When I contacted the model agency we usually book through, they had someone available who had asked to do some volunteer work on the side of his professional modeling career! You've had a range of models so far this term, from young women to old men and a few in between, but we haven't worked with a young male model yet, so I'm very excited for all of you to draw this subject. Take a few minutes to make sure you have all your materials ready, and I'll go get him!" With surprising spryness for an over-weight older woman, Madame Fortier hopped down off the platform and scurried out of the studio into a side office.

Marinette was pleased to have a chance to draw a young male figure. It was a genre of clothing she still struggled with as most of her designs in middle and high school had been made with herself in mind, in other words young thin women. Being better able to capture male figures would greatly improve her rendering of more diverse designs for her internship.

She was looking down, tying the belt of her black smock around her waist, when Claudia whistled lowly and put a hand on her forearm. "Oh damn…" she whispered.

Surprised, Marinette looked up at her friend. "What? What's wrong?"

Claudia didn't reply, her eyes focused across the room.

Marinette followed her gaze and felt her mouth slowly fall open.

Across the room, illuminated by a pool of artistically cast light, his feet shod in soft leather slippers, calves bare and body wrapped in a knee length cotton waffle knit robe, golden hair shining and kind green eyes focused on the art instructor, stood her long lost love Adrien Agreste.

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Author's Note: Updated 9/8/2018... Correcting Typos: no major changes.