Chapter Text
“Okay, and I think this is a good time for me to save,” Ladybug said, pausing the game and saving her progress. She gave her gorgeous signature smile at the camera, before winking.
“I’m sorry that this video isn’t as long as the last one, but I have an interview for a job tomorrow! I’m so excited!!” She looked back at the game before sighing dreamily, lost in thought. Finally remembering that the camera was still rolling, she blinked rapidly behind her polka dotted mask.
“Sorry! Got distracted! I hope all of you Miraculers have a good week, stay safe, and try to help someone that might be struggling. Even if they might be jerks. Because jerks still need help.” Ladybug closed her eyes, the illuminating smile still on her face.
“And once again..”
“Spots off.”
~
Marinette yanked off the mask, letting down her hair, and rubbing her eyes. She went to her editing software, not even bothering looking at the clock, knowing full well it was late. She also knew that she wouldn’t get finished editing until early next morning.
She giggled to herself, wondering when was the last time she slept for more than five hours. Even before her double life of a famous let’s player began, in high school she was valedictorian and was staff to her family bakery and filling notebooks and sketchbooks full of drawings and ideas for designs of places and people and costumes that just seemed to loom faintly in her mind with no place. After graduation, Marinette soon realized these ideas were the product of many long hours of her gaming hobby, and that these ideas weren’t actually that far fetched in the way of gaming.
She tried studying a semester at the college she had originally chosen (Marinette majored in graphic design, computer programing, and minoring in Modern arts. Who knew right?), but after encouragement from her friends, family, and professors she decided to study abroad in America for a year, and Japan for a semester.
(What’s a little saddening is that she still isn’t fluent in Chinese, her ethnic language.)
And don’t get Marinette wrong, the experiences were wonderful and she learned so many different things and met so many different people. But the moving started to get to her. Money was usually tight, and video games were one of the only permanent things that she had. Gaming… was her home. Steam was like a second mother to her! Her story isn’t that different from other youtubers, but still as genuine. Around 2015, it was one of her last days in Japan, she uploaded a video onto the major streaming platform known as Youtube.
The video wasn’t anything special, about a 15 minute long commentary on Batman: Arkham Knight, but what stole viewers attention was the ladybug themed mask Marinette was wearing in the thumbnail….
Marinette yawned, finally letting her eyes wander to the clock. 2:03 am. Her eyes widened. She had her interview in six hours.
Marinette quickly nestled herself into her duvet, shutting her eyes.
Tomorrow will determine what direction her life goes in.
Tomorrow will determine if her lifelong dream of creating her own video game can become a reality.
Tomorrow will determine if she can handle working in one of the biggest video gaming design companies in Europe, and possibly, the world.
Marinette drifted off, not even processing that the tomorrow she dreamed about was already her today.
`
It was 2:00 am and Adrien Agreste was wide awake.
(Unfortunately.)
He took a swig of his black coffee (Why?? Why did his father even refuse for the word ‘sugar’ to be spoken in their household?) flinching at the bitter taste, but still utterly focused.
He had a shoot in an hour, somewhere downtown for some posters for the famous AGRESTE funded convention. He had gotten home three hours ago from another photoshoot, and wondered when was the last time he had more than four hours of sleep…
Modeling was an occupation that seemed glamorous through rose colored glasses, but having people yank you around like a puppet gets old quickly. Even though he tries (Adrien tries so hard) to fit inside this impossibly small box of being a walking advertisement for AGRESTE, he has to leave the box to breathe.
But when everyone believes that you’re nothing more than the poster child for dumb-arrogant model-boy, you forget you’re in a box, because the people around you make it seem like it’s no longer a box. And then you feel like there’s no reason to even try to fit in that box, when they’re just going to force you in themselves…..
Adrien took a breath, rubbing his eyes, and sitting down at his giant desktop. Out of habit, his eyes flickered to the controller lazily overlapped on the keyboard, but he reminded himself that he couldn’t. No matter how much he wanted to play….
Adrien threw the controller under the desk, and turned his chair around to where it wasn’t facing the computer.
Video games were his life. They were an escape from expectations, from his father, and from himself. He felt better after playing just a simple MMO, and without video games, Adrien didn’t know if he would ever made it this far with his sanity in tact… But surprisingly, even though his father owned and operated one of the biggest gaming companies on the planet, his father forbid him from any activity of the sort as a kid. It was one of the things that frustrated him the most when dealing with his father, and he still doesn’t know to this day why his father was so against playing games when he owned a company that supported the same thing.
(Somewhere in the back of Adrien’s mind, he knew it had to deal with his mother. But after years of what seemed like brainwashing to never speak of her, he brushed it off.)
And the saddest thing was, he was no longer a kid anymore (okay that could be arguable personality wise but not the point). He was a legal adult and he didn’t have to put up with his father or the AGRESTE company in general. He could legally get his own apartment, legally get his own job, and legally buy his own video games. But he couldn’t. Not really.
Without his father… He didn’t have anything. He was his only family… He provided for him, and Adrien wondered if anyone really would put up with him.. Did he really have any talent? Was he nothing more than a pretty face-
There was a knock on the door.
“Adrien, you leave in ten minutes. Be ready,” Natalie warned him from the other side of the door.
Adrien sighed.
“I’ll be out in five minutes.”