Vanished (Lukadrien) • Miraculous Ladybug

Chapter 12 | hard days work

"Would you be ok with it? I know you're new and all and you'd need to be on your feet a bit, as long as that won't hurt your legs. but we need to fill an openi-"

"I'D LOVE IT!"

Safe to say Adrien was enjoying his new job. He raced through training in the first few days, and his boss, Alyssa was rather pleased with his progress. Just a week before he started an old employee quit, leaving a vacant spot for a specific type of waiter. This cafe was fantasy themed, so kids would often come to have birthday parties. The waiters serving them would be all dressed up in fantasy outfits to fit the theme.

"Well you're certainly eager" Alyssa replied.

"Getting to dress up as my uniform sounds fun! I'd love to take the opening" Adrien replied.

"You got hired at a good time Chaton, we just got a shipment of new costumes to choose from. And since you've raced through training in the first few days of working you're already on track to rise through the ranks. If you stick with us you might be able to host birthday parties by the end of the year"

This job just kept getting better! Adrien missed socialising, after being alone with no one but your kwami for a month and a half you get a bit stir crazy. Work was just what he needed right now, not only because of the money, but because of the socialising. Adrien was a bit of an introvert at times, but he did value being able to get out of the house and talk to people.

Despite the challenging situation he was in, at least he could look forward to coming to work and getting to dress up. The model in him still liked the dressing up part, it was the spotlight and lack of creative freedom he had he didn't like.

"Come back here, pick out something that will fit you and consider it yours. No need to play a character or anything, just be ready to answer some questions kids have about fairy dust and stuff" Alyssa said, leading him to the back room of the cafe.

Hanging up on racks was a bunch of fantasy like outfits, fairy dresses, elf shirts, tiaras and wands galore. The model in him was going crazy.

"You still have to wear your apron and name badge, but other than that you can be whatever magic creature you like. Maybe something cat related if you want to play into your name" Alyssa suggested.

Adrien looked through the racks of clothes, mind full of prior fashion knowledge going wild with possibilities. In the month and a bit he'd been missing, his hair had grown out a bit letting his blonde roots show through the dyed black. Maybe he could wear something that matches his hair? Or maybe something to do with cats like his boss suggested? No maybe he could break the gender norms and be something girly?

His head was full of decisions and he wasn't sure what to do until he saw it. At the back of the rack was a long shirt, almost like a dress with puffy long sleeves. Printed on the bottom we're teddies and stars, and suddenly he had an idea.

"A dream fairy! My theme could be making dreams come true!" He smiled, taking the shirt off the rack and holding it up.

"Hey I totally forgot we even had that. It's definitely a new concept, I like it. I'll let you coordinate an outfit. Come out when you're ready and we can start working" Alyssa replied.

She closed the door, leaving Adrien to himself with Plagg coming out from hiding in his pocket.

"A dream fairy?" He questioned.

"I never even had a childhood dream, so maybe if I can make other kids have childhood dreams I can still help people even when I'm one Cat Noir" Adrien replied.

"You know for a kid raised by a shady father you have a heart of gold Adrien"

"I told myself as soon as I realised what my father was doing to me that I'd never ever become him. I just want to help people and be free to do as I want. That's why I was so excited to be Cat Noir, I could do both of them. But while Cat is out of action for the time being, this is the next best thing"

Digging through some of the other costume pieces he managed to put together an outfit. The shirt was long enough to be a dress on him, going down to his knees. He paired it with some loose fuzzy socks, elf ears, blue fairy wings and he could probably add some slippers and maybe an eye mask when he got his first pay. He already knew he'd love this job.

Putting his apron and name tag back on, he put his normal clothes in his bag kept in the back room and had Plagg hide in his apron pocket. Heading back out into the cafe, he seemed to have changed just in time, as the doors has just opened for the morning. It was a full shift today, he'd be working hard.

"Hey, looking good. You have a lot of creativity you know? I'll have you and Jay serve the left side of the cafe today alright? I don't think you've met him yet but he's nice I promise. And remember, when interacting with kids make sure you're selling the fantasy illusion" Alyssa said.

"Leave it to me, I'll be the best dream fairy waiter you've ever seen!" Adrien replied, picking up his notepad and pen to go serve the morning customers.

His boss watched as Adrien got straight to work, she'd never seen someone so bright and cheery this early in the morning before. In fact, she's never seen someone as eager to get to work as him.

"That new kid sure is optimistic"

She turned to see one of her workers coming in for their shift.

"They are aren't they? Only a few days in and already blazing through training straight to being a costume waiter. Must be into the whole helping people out thing, most of our young staff are bored after the first day but he's always so cheery. And he's even willing to do this despite that pain in his legs he put under the medial part of his application form" Alyssa replied.

"He's only like 15, shouldn't he be in school right now?"

"In his interview he said he's out of school for a while to save money. Poor kid must be in a bit of a tight spot, that why he's asked for a good handful of shifts"

The server and his boss watched Adrien already hard at work taking orders, grabbing plates and playing into the fantasy illusion for the kids. They were rather impressed.

"They look kinda familiar..." the server said.

"I thought so too, but I can't place it. Guess we must have just seen them around town once or something. Anyway, no time to waste let's get ti work"

No one knew that Adrien was basically homeless, no one knew that he was a runway, no one knew that only a month and a bit before now he was a kind of awkward kid stuck in a dangerous household. All because of this 'Chaton' alias and some style changes.

He'd really started to find himself, break out of his shell and grow more resilient and confident now that he was out of his dads controlling environment. He was aware of just how lucky he was. Not every runway leaves with some extra money, not every runway manages to fins shelter, not every runway finds a job so fast. And of course, not every runway had a miraculous to protect them.

Luck had really been on his side so far, and he was grateful for that. The circumstances weren't amazing obviously, he was living alone out of an abandoned building after all. But at least he wasn't sleeping out on the street in the open every night.

Despite his luck there was still a lot weighing on him. Missing his friends, his crush on Luka, making sure he had enough to survive, hiding the fact he's one of the most famous models that's the canter of an international missing persons case, the ladybug situation, his scratching habit, the trauma his dad gave him... eventually he'd have to face that all. But right now he just wanted to focus on saving money and finding a proper place to stay.

He told himself to wait. Wait until you're in a safer environment to start processing everything you're going through. Push it aside until you're 100% safe. He knew it wasn't the healthiest thing to be doing, but he was too focused on survival to care.

Once he was stable on his own, then he can process the dark stuff. That was he wanted. Stability.