AN: First of all I own none of this. Second of all I have never written a story quite like this, The story is rated M due to adult themes and VERY GRAPHIC DEPICTIONS OF SELF HARM! Literally that warning will be in every chapter, however it won't happen until way later in this (I will tell you here when that happens.)
Essentially I wrote this to cope with my own stresses in life. Marinette is a very anxious person at the best of times, she normally manages, but adulting is hard. I pretty much took a cocktail of the most stressful things in life that could happen, threw in being a super hero, and just kinda let my imagination flow to see what would happen.
SUMMARY: Marinette has had episodes in the past, most small and easily handled, only one really reared concern. However when her iife begins to spiral way out of her control, she snaps. And after a fall, she looses her memory, Now Adrien and friends need to find out how to handle an amnesiac Mari, a very persistent Hawkmoth, and their own lives. Lets see what happens. In shorter words, chaos.
Ladybug gave a heavy sigh as she lay on the roof, the hot sun beating down on her. They had just beat a particularly hard Akuma, and she was exhausted. Chat had almost died, she had gotten hit with a stupid support beam across her chest. Several civilians including Alya had gotten in the way and if the miraculous cure hadn't worked they would probably be dead, or at least in intensive care. And it was hotter than hell in this damn city. And the Akuma was literally just a distraught spoiled woman who wanted sprinkles on her ice cream and they were out.
"I hate that stupid man." She snarled thinking on Hawkmoth. They had been fighting him for almost ten years now, and frankly she had bigger things to worry about than saving the city at the moment.
She loved Paris, and she had shown on multiple occasions that she was willing to risk her life for the city. But she was so damn tired, Hawkmoth had been throwing Akuma after Akuma at them. Sometimes up to three in the same day, She had practically passed out on poor Adrien last night and to make things worse, work was trying to kill her. She was grateful for the job from Gabriel, but if he gave her one more design to do she might actually scream. So far he had given her thirty designs in a week alone, all had a deadline of the end of the month, she has already managed to sew her fingers twice and she fell asleep on the machine more times than she could count. She was just so damn tired.
"M'lady?" Chat asked tentative from his place on the roof ledge. She didn't answer just continued to glare at the sky and contemplate jumping into the Seine and just float away. "Marinette?" He asked a little closer this time. She gave a heavy sigh and turned to look at him.
"You know better than to use civvy names in mask." She halfheartedly scolded him. He gave a small smile and plopped down beside her.
"Well you didn't seem like you intended to answer any other way." He shrugged then looked a little more seriously at her. "You okay though? I know things have been pretty hectic for us, and I also know you haven't been getting much sleep. Everything can't be easy on you." He worried his bottom lip and watched her intently. She sighed and sat up to slump against him.
"I'm fine, I just have a lot on my plate at the moment, and the spots aren't helping. Normally the freedom is amazing and a great stress reliever, but right now it's just adding on." She shook her head and looked to her gloved hands, ignoring the beeping in her ear, chats ring matching closely.
"Ya know, if you marry me that would probably take care of at least half of your problems." He said nudging her side. She gave a huffed chuckle and shook her head.
"One: We are too young to marry. And two: I don't want to use your name to handle my problems. You know full damn well that I fix my problems myself." She said nudging him back. "And I already agreed to marry you, just not yet." She said, magic shimmering over her body as her transformation dropped and Tikki dove for the cookies stashed in Mari's purse. "Let the diamond sit for a while okay?" She asked admiring the gem on her ring finger Chat leaned back to transform, then he was back beside her, he took her left hand in his admiring the gem that was a promise to their future together.
"Fine but I get to help plan everything. And pick the venue." He reasoned, kissing her cheek. She giggled and nodded.
"Fine model boy." She laughed, leaning back into his chest.
"Thats model man to you." He murmured and nuzzled her neck.
"Yeah yeah." She teased back and closed her eyes, relaxing in his arms, One of the great things about being engaged to her partner was he knew just how stressed she was and always knew just what she needed, and right now all she needed was to take a moment to breath and relax with her fiance. The moment was ruined however when her phone began to ring in her bag and Tikki drifted out, dragging it with her. "Is five minutes too much to ask for? "She growled and took the phone from Tikki with a quiet thank you.
"Hello Mr. Agrest." She said politely when she picked up, doing her best to hide the stress from her voice.
"Hello Marinette. I've just gotten off the phone with a client of mine, he has seen your work and wants to order a full line. You have some time to complete it, but he has requested a formal line from you, you have full freedom with the color palette naturally, but he urged me to tell you that it is for red carpet events." he said casually. "You will get sixty percent commission, I will receive the other forty. You will have four months to get the line finished. He requested at least fifteen dresses with matching suits and accessories." He said his voice holding a no nonsense tone to it. "I will email you the details, do not let me down. Remember that not only do you represent your own brand, but you represent the Gabriel brand as well I'm putting my faith in you. Good day Marinette." He said and the line went dead, She stared ahead in stunned silence for a few moment then gave a loud groan and let her head fall back against Adrien.
"He can't honestly expect you to get all of that done and do his own design requests and do all of the secretary work he randomly pushes on you." Adrien groused, having heard the full phone call. Mari stared up at the dimming sky and gave a heavy sigh, shaking her head.
"Sure he does, he trusts me to get the job done. Because for whatever reason, everyone trusts me to do the impossible. To pull a miracle out of my ass and fix everything." She said rubbing her eyes with the heels of her hand. Adrien hugged her a little closer and kissed the side of her head.
"It's because you are amazing, and the most capable person I have ever met." He reasoned lovingly. "And technically you pull a miracle out of thin air every day that fixes everything." He added she gave a small snikker and punched his chest.
"Silly kitty." She mumbled and rubbed her eyes again. "I guess we should head home, I have a clothing line to work on." She said sounding tired, Adrien frown and nodded.
"Alright, I'll make dinner while you work your fabric magic, and after dinner I can draw you a nice romantic bath, and after that I can help you relax." He said, nuzzling her neck. She hugged him to her and kissed the side of his head.
"That sounds nice kitty." She said contentedly and stood, after stretching her limbs out she smiled down to him and held her hand out to him. He gladly took it and hoisted himself up. He turned her hand and admired the ruby that sat on her ring finger.
"You know we eventually need to tell our parents that we are engaged." He mused running his thumb over the back of her hand.
"I know, but until we have a date set, I see no reason to. It would only have them hounding at us." She said with a halfhearted shrug, he pouted slightly and looked away.
"Alright, I guess you are right. Dad already hounds me about everything else, one less thing for a while." He said and smiled. "Lets head back so I can start your relaxing dinner and bath." Mari nodded and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek.
"Spots on." She said calmly and the magic surrounded her. Adrian watched in awe, he never got tired of seeing her transform. She pulled her yoyo and swung away, he watched her leave and transformed, waiting about twenty minutes to follow. That was always how they did things since they had started living together. One of them would leave first and take a weird route home, one that was always different, then the other would wait anywhere from five minutes to an hour and follow. Once he got in Mari was already in her craft room surrounded by silk fabrics of various colors. She glanced up when he walked in and dropped his transformation. He smiled at her and watched Plagg drift off to the kitchen.
"So any ideas on what you are going to do yet?" He asked looking at a midnight blue fabric that held an iridescent shimmer to it.
"I'm thinking of some classic looks, like romantic glamour type. So long skirts and low necklines. And of course they need a modern flare so I was thinking a solid bodice and skirt but sheer details like the sleeves and maybe a few high neck collars, but to leave those sleeveless." She said thoughtfully, drawing on a tablet and looking to the fabrics.
"Sounds like you already have this order down easily." He said with a smile to her, she gave a small shrug and looked to her designs she already had roughly drawn out.
"The dresses aren't the problem, it's the suits and accessories, your father knows for a fact that I suck at most accessories, aside from hats." She groused and set her tablet aside. "And I can't just make all of the dresses with matching hats now can i?" She added and leaned on her hand.
"I mean if you are going for a more traditional dress you could easily get away with simple things like clutch bags and simple diamond necklaces and bracelets. And since dad is getting commission as well you could easily leave that up to him." He said with a shrug, "You are designing and making everything, you are even designing the jewelry, he can use his resources to make the jewelry you design." He said with a shrug, Mari gave him a deadpanned look and shook her head.
"I don't think your father would let that fly." She said doubtfully, turning back to the designs on her tablet. "Gahh I wish he would have asked me before accepting such a big project on my behalf." She whined and sat forward, thunking her head on the desk. He smiled softly and ran a hand over her back comfortingly.
"Look at it this way, this is a big opportunity for you, actual stars will be wearing your brand, and yeah dads is attached as a father brand to yours, but it is still your work that will be photographed and shown in the tabloids and on TV. That is exciting and very big. I'm so happy for you, this could honestly be what puts your name out there." He said trying to encourage her and cheer her up.
"Or it could be a huge disaster that causes your father's brand to plummet and I become a laughing stock in the fashion world, and I end up having to move to some rural country and can only find a job making ponchos for pennies. And you will have to leave me because you cant be seen with such a bad designer." She said feeling herself begin to hyperventilate slightly.
"Mari!" Adrien said sternly after a moment, turning her chair to face him, he put his hands on her shoulders and gave her a small shake to break her out of her out of her rant. "Hey take a deep breath, its okay, breathe." He said calmly, running his hand through her hair, she blinked a few times and took a deep breath, calming down at his gentle touches. "Okay first of all, I don't care what your reputation as a fashion designer is, I love you, not your reputation. Second of all, you are amazing with fashion design, I have seen you make some of the most beautiful pieces out of literal scraps of fabric. You will do amazing with this too, dad wouldn't have chosen you for the job if he didn't think you could do, and besides the client has seen your work, meaning he is already impressed with what you can do. I believe in you, you need to do the same. You will make beautiful amazing dresses and suits, and they will get amazing reviews and it will be amazing." He told her smiling, she sniffled a little and nodded.
"I love you." She whispered, still amazed that he could talk her down from any panicky tangent her mind went on, that was one of the many things she loved about him.
"And I love you." He said back and leaned forward to kiss her, cradling her cheek gently. She pulled from the kiss and gave a small sigh.
"I guess I should try to get back to work, maybe I can get this project done quickly and have the next three or so months as a vacation." She mused.
"That would be nice, we could just be lazy together and only have to worry about the Akuma attacks." he said and stood straight. "You work on your designs, I'll start dinner okay?" He said and kissed her forehead. She nodded and turned her chair around to face the desk, giving a small sigh, she began her sketches, it was going to be a long night and she had work to do.