Chapter Text
All things considered, Marinette’s last year of lyceé went quite well.
After Shadow Moth’s defeat and exposition as Gabriel Agreste at the tail-end of première, Marinette had settled rather easily into her new everyday life. While she was still active as Ladybug (as were Chat Noir, Ryuko, Rena Rouge, Viperion and Carapace), it took a lot less time out of her day than it used to. Nowadays, the heroes mostly took care of crimes on much smaller scales. Muggings, breaking up frights, rescuing cats from trees; that sort of thing.
That also meant that she had way more time for the things she loved, like sewing and spending time with her friends. When Madame Bustier asked what she wanted to do after lyceé, Marinette already knew the answer.
“I’m going to study art and fashion design at I.F.M.!” she had declared.
Madame Bustier had given her a small smile, showing how she knew Marinette would say something like that. “With your attitude, I’m sure you’ll be able to do anything that you set your mind to,” she praised. “I’ll help you with your application, if you want.”
Luckily for Marinette, I.F.M. had an open week that it ran for students in their final year of lyceé, and she had excitedly put her name down for a placement. When she got the acceptance letter, she had been so excited that she could barely breathe, and Maman and Papa had hugged her for what felt like forever.
After letting herself freak out, she snapped a pic of the letter and sent it to her most frequently-used Erisia group chat.
Alya: Congrats girl!
Kagami: You’ve done excellently.
Luka: Way to go, Mari!
Marinette: I’m so excited! This school is famous. All the best designers in Paris graduated from here!
Adrien: That’s true. M. Bâtard graduated from there before I was born. He used to pay for students’ scholarships too, I think.
Nino: It’s a good thing you put most of his money into helping others, then.
Marinette knew exactly what they were talking about. Apparently, Gabriel had been tucking away all the money Adrien made from his modeling work for himself rather than placing a trust fund for the sentibeing. While most of Gabriel's wealth was tied up in assets and not accessible, Adrien still had his fair share.
Adrien: Sorry for being such a downer. This is a big day for you, Mari! We could celebrate!
Marinette: That’s a great idea! I’ll ask Maman and Papa if I can have you all around.
Luka: Hey, speaking of Tom and Sabine… do you think they’ll get empty-nest syndrome when you go? Ma freaked when I told her that I was thinking about leaving for uni.
Marinette: I hope not! You and Zoe still come over a lot, so I don’t think they’ll get too lonely. Plus, our classmates stop by all the time, and not all of them are moving elsewhere for uni.
Kagami: True, our classes must account for close to half of their sales alone.
Marinette: Especially since someone has a sweet tooth.
Alya: Actually, I don’t have too much of one.
Marinette: Lies.
Alya: Your parents just make the best goddamn pastries, that’s all. Yours are amazing, too!
Marinette: You flatter me too much… >O<
Kagami: Sometimes a little flattery is necessary.
Nino: Especially if you’re gonna have us all over, dudette. A little flattery can’t hurt, especially not if it gets us extra pastries.
Laughing a little, Marinette set her phone down and went to ask her parents if it was okay for her to have her friends over. Marinette was glad they agreed, and offered to help a bit on Saturday when she could.
After their more-then-eventful celebration, Marinette checked that everyone got home safely, before changing into her pajamas and getting ready for bed. Just as she was about to turn in for the night, she got a text from Luka.
Luka: Are you still awake?
Marinette: Yep. I was about to go to bed, actually.
Luka: Oh, good.
Luka: I wanted to congratulate you one final time, Marinette.
Luka: If you meet someone you like at I.F.M., I’d love to meet them sometime.
Marinette smiled a little. While she and Luka hadn’t really worked out romantically, they were still very close in their queerplatonic relationship, and his support meant a lot to her.
Marinette: Of course!
Marinette: And if I meet a cute musician, I’ll be sure to send them your way ;)
Luka: You know me too well. Goodnight, Melody.
Marinette: Night, Lu.
Turning off her phone, Marinette finally went to sleep, thankful that her sleep schedule was so much more evened out now that there were no longer nightly akuma attacks.
The following morning, Marinette was up bright and early to eat breakfast with her parents and catch the first bus of the day to I.F.M.. Vibrating with excitement, she signed in at the reception, was given a lanyard with her name on it and shown to the Fashion Design department.
Seeing all the beautiful clothes on display was sending her brain into overdrive; there was so much inspiration everywhere she looked. Coming to this open week was definitely the right idea. In fact, she was considering applying to I.F.M. next year, too.
The teacher who was teaching the Intro to Fashion History class was a notably tall man with curly brown hair and a tad bit of potbelly. Marinette aced his pop quiz (though she would never admit it, she had used Fluff’s miraculous to peek into the past once or twice, so she knew plenty about historical fashion) and she was feeling pretty good about herself as she headed to lunch.
There was only one slight problem.
I.F.M. was a big place, and Marinette still hadn’t gotten used to the map she’d been given, so she managed to get pretty lost on her way to the cafeteria, ending up in the Fine Arts department. Maybe she’d be able to ask one of the students there for directions?
Pushing open the door to the painting studio - well, she assumed it was the studio based on the easels and canvases that were currently set up there - she looked around to see if there was anyone inside.
At the very far end of the room, slumped before an easel, paintbrush still in hand, was a young man of maybe a year or two older than her. He had long, dark hair, a lot like hers, actually, which was braided over his shoulder, and he was wearing a white shirt adorned with a fleur-de-lis that was speckled with paint.
He also looked dead… or at least unconscious.
Tentatively, Marinette crept over to the boy, reaching out a hand to poke his shoulder. For the briefest moment, he didn’t react, and Marinette had the sinking feeling that he might actually be dead. Then the boy awoke with a jolt, collapsing out of his stool and landing in a crumpled heap on the floor.
“Akiraaaa… did you have to startle me like that…?” he grumbled, rubbing his eyes sleepily. “I was going to get up in a minute…”
Wait… who was Akira?
“Hi, um… not Akira here!” Marinette blurted out. “My name’s Marinette. I was a little worried because I thought you’d fainted or something. Have you not eaten lunch yet? My mom told me that if your blood sugar is low, it can make you faint.”
The boy gave her an odd look as he got up. “I… forgot to eat lunch,” he admitted. His stomach growled right on cue. “… and breakfast, too.”
Her Dupain-Cheng instincts kicking in, Marinette offered, “I have some croissants in my bag, if you’d like one. They’re from my parents’ bakery.”
“… I am quite hungry,” said the boy at last, sitting down in his stool again. “If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, I’d love to share them with you.”
Marinette and the boy - who she eventually learned was named Yusuke - sat in the art room and chatted until lunch ended.
She ended up learning a lot about him in that hour. For one, he was attending I.F.M. for the next year as part of an exchange program run by his school in Japan. Much to his delight, Marinette had excitedly stammered out the few Japanese phrases she knew, courtesy of Kagami.
“Your pronunciation is excellent,” he complimented, making her blush.
“I’m not that good,” she mumbled, playing with the ends of her hair. “My friend Kagami taught me a little, though.”
Yusuke smiled. “Then she must have been a good teacher.”
“Don’t you miss your friends?” asked Marinette, the thought suddenly occurring to her. “You know, since they’re so far away? I couldn’t imagine being away from my friends for a whole year.”
A pained look appeared on Yusuke's face, but he brushed it away as quickly as it appeared. “While I do miss my friends, we keep in contact as much as possible. Maintaining a long-distance relationship definitely isn’t easy though.”
Marinette raised an eyebrow. “You have a girlfriend?”
Shaking his head, Yusuke replied, “Boyfriend, actually. Here, I’ll find a picture I’ve taken of him.” Taking his phone out of his bag, he scrolled through his gallery until he found one to show her.
The photograph showed Yusuke standing next to a young man with messy black hair and glasses. He had his arm around Yusuke’s shoulder, grinning from ear to ear. Behind them was a painting - an explosion of light and color captured on canvas - which entranced Marinette.
“I took this after I found out that a painting of mine, Desire and Hope, won a competition I had entered it in,” explained Yusuke, looking down at the image with a fond expression on his face. “Akira had insisted that we capture the moment for posterity, and now I’m glad he did.”
Marinette was utterly mesmerized as she stared at the painting, but she was drawn out of her thoughts by Yusuke asking, “So, how about you, Marinette? Would you consider yourself lucky in romance?”
Laughing out loud, Marinette replied, “Absolutely not. Everyone I romance becomes a friend or we end up in a QPR. The boy I was crushing on for all of lyceé ended up being gay, and my ex and I decided we worked better as a QPR than a romantic relationship. I do not have luck with men.”
Once Yusuke was filled in on what queerplatonic relationships were, Yusuke asked, “And if it’s your type… any luck with women?”
“I don’t- what?”
“Simply something to consider.” Yusuke waved his hand around, much to Marinette’s confusion. “You’re in the art area for a reason, yes? Would you mind telling me about your interests?”
With a grin wider than the Seine river (being in the art block seemed to make her think in flowery metaphors), Marinette jumped headfirst into a lengthy explanation of everything she knew about fashion and all that she wanted to learn. Her descriptions would have made university interviewers squeal, and she made a mental note to include some of it in her personal statement and resume.
Before they even knew it, their lunch break was over, and Marinette had to return to class. “Could you point me in the direction of M. Sottile’s class?”
“I’ll do you one better, and walk you there myself,” replied Yusuke, sitting his palette down on the table. “The layout of this building can take a while to get used to. On my first day here, I got so lost I ended up stuck in the janitor’s closet.”
A few minutes later, they were outside M. Sottile’s classroom, and Marinette took a moment to tear a page out of her notebook and scribble down a phone number and an address before handing it to Yusuke. “My phone number, and the address of my parents’ bakery,” she explained. “If you ever want some free food, feel free to drop by.”
Yusuke shook his head. “I couldn’t possibly impose.”
“Not at all. My parents like feeding people, it makes them happy. Besides, my friends drop by for free pastries all the time, and I’d consider us friends.”
With the faintest smile on his face, Yusuke folded up the scrap of paper ever so carefully and placed it in his pocket. “Thank you, Marinette. Truly. Now, you might want to head into class; M. Sottile is rather strict about tardiness, even if he will be more lenient towards you for your first day.”
Marinette wrapped Yusuke up in a hug. “Thank you so much. See ya, Yusuke!”
She really hoped Yusuke would take her up on her offer.