A Recorded Life - Miraculous Ladybug

2.5 - Timelapse

Words: 1125
Chapter Summary: Another day at the office for Marinette and Adrien, and Marinette even has some time to record a video! Afterward, they run into some trouble.
Author's Note: we are back in business! Thank you everyone for being patient with my hiatus, the end of my school semester kicked my butt, then holidays kept me busy. I hope everyone had great holidays and a happy new year! I loved writing this chapter and I'm excited to be back at this story. Halfway done with the sequel!

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It was a slow day for Marinette. She didn't have any deadlines coming up too soon, and actually had a day to breathe and just work. For the first time in a few weeks, she even had time to set her camera up to record her process of working on her mockup design on a mannequin. Like the good ol' days, she'd timelapse the video and do a voice over for her fans.

Sure, her team would come in to ask questions and get some help, but those were usually easy answers. It seemed like the universe was giving her an easy day, which was a nice difference.

As for Adrien, it was a little different. Ever since he decided on the rebrand of Agreste Fashion to Emilie's, Adrien and his marketing and branding team had been working around the clock to get everything switched over. There were new logos that had to be made, followed by a new look for the website, business cards for everyone employed, and coming up with the perfect tags for clothing. To say it was stressful was an understatement, and they had planned to release the rebrand fully in a week. 

It had already been a few weeks of working on the rebrand, and it was taking longer than anyone expected. Though stressful, they were very excited for Agreste Fashion to change and evolve.

Plagg had gotten bored of listening to Adrien talk about the perfect font and flew through floors and walls to get to Marinette's office. She always had extra cheese in her lunch bag (and it was unguarded, unlike Adrien, who likes to pace Plagg). Plus, Plagg enjoyed talking to Tikki and watching Marinette work when she was focused. 

Plagg flew through the wall with a big smile. "Hi, Marinette!" He said and flew past her to land on her desk to sit next to Tikki.

"Hello, Plagg," She greeted, "Get tired of Adrien?"

"He was driving me crazy, asking me which font looked better. If it's not camembert, I don't care!" He crossed his arms, then got up to go find the cheese he was thinking of.

Marinette chuckled and turned away from her work for a second. "At least he's asking you, and he's taking this thing seriously. I swear, he's never thought about fonts more before this," She said.

"I'm proud of him," Tikki said, "Even though Plagg is bored of it, I love the changes Adrien is making. It will fit the company much better," Tikki added.

"I agree; it's going to be a great look," She said and stepped back to look at her work. It was getting to where she wanted it to be, though there were always changes she could make. She was excited to be recording a process, as it has been a while, and was looking for something new to post to her fashion channel. Sure, every so often, she could post things about unfinished projects, or after lines were launched, but there wasn't too much she could do.

On her second channel, though, she was more active. Not as much as she used to be, but there were still things she enjoyed posting there. She and Adrien played a lot of video games, and whenever she saw Alya, they tried to do something fun. Outings, games, storytimes, they always had fun creating videos. One time, they got Adrien to work at the hotel with Chloé for one of the fan's favorite series, and it was determined he could not do that job.

"See, I think it will be good. It's just such a boring process," Plagg complained as he ate his cheese.

Marinette shook her head at him. "I know, it can be a lot of work to sit and listen to Adrien figure things out," She joked. "Give him a break and let him just talk it out; he'll get through it all eventually," She reminded Plagg. Before she could get too much more work done, there was a knock at her office door.

"Good afternoon, Marinette. Would you mind coming to see our sketches for approval?" Two of her team members asked. She was the team lead; she had to approve of everything for her lines and work.

"Of course," She smiled and paused the recording on her camera. "Tikki, don't let Plagg eat it all. Save some for dinner!" Marinette warned as she walked out of her office.

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Adrien was exhausted. He liked to be out of the office at a decent time, but he was still there later than he wanted to be with so much going on. Finally, he forced himself to close out of his document and head home. Surely, Marinette was already home and waiting for him.

His thoughts were wrong as he walked through the central part of the office and spotted her light still on. With a sigh, he shook his head and headed to greet her. Adrien knocked on the door, but she didn't look up. Adrien pushed the door in slowly. "Marinette," He said, making her jump slightly.

"Oh, hey, Adrien!" She smiled, "I'm still working on my video; you heading out?" She asked.

"I am, and so are you," He walked over and stopped the recording. "It's getting late; let's grab a late-night snack and get some sleep," Adrien said.

Marinette gave in much easier than last time, as much as she wished she could keep working. If it weren't for Adrien, she would probably spend all night working on her designs and mockups. "Alright, what snack are you thinking?" She smirked.

The Kwamis quickly flew to their respectful spots in bags as Adrien and Marinette locked up the office. As Marinette began to walk to her car, Adrien grabbed her hand to stop her. "Let's walk to that place around the corner. It's a nice night, and I think we both could use some fresh air," Adrien said.

"Good idea, Adrien," Marinette replied, and the two of them walked in the opposite direction of their cars. Though it was dark, Adrien was right about it being a nice night, and they both definitely needed to walk and smell the air. Since they don't run around on rooftops anymore, they could use the breaks.

As they rounded the corner, Marinette fell behind as she heard something hit the ground, assuming it was something from her purse.

She glanced down and realized it was not hers, and decided to keep on walking. But before she could get too far, someone grabbed her arm. "Ah!" She yelled.

Adrien's head shot around fast enough to give him whiplash. "Mari!" He started to walk towards her, but someone grabbed him too, preventing him from getting any closer.