Adrinette April - a Miraculous Ladybug fanfic

Day 18 - Umbrella

It was a sunny afternoon in Pep's and Monsieur Millet was beaming with delight when his door chime sounded, hinting him that another client was in dire need of his magical assistance.

"Bonjour, Mademoiselle. How can I help you today?"

She was a beautiful petite lady with a smooth midnight hair, and on her hand was a single black umbrella.

"I - I was wondering if you can repair this for me?" she said meekly as she handed him the item. "I - It won't open anymore."

Monsieur Millet adjusted his glasses as he inspected it. "This is a good quality umbrella, and pretty much easy to repair."

Her bluebell eyes lit up "Really?"

"You see here?" the old man turned the umbrella to the handle when the lady moved closer. "This is the release button which controls the bottom spring and top spring simultaneously. Now this round part here," he pointed the white cap around the shaft "Is what we call the runner. The runner is the one that supports the stretcher, or braces if you use into layman's term, to push the ribs out and make your umbrella to open. If we twist this runner a little bit then push it all the way up..."

"It opens!" she exclaimed with glee. "How did you do it, Monsieur?"

"By magic," he winked as she giggled. "Joking aside, this shop has been here since the sixties so my eyes are very much trained to see the runner problem."

"The runner? Not the latch or the spring?"

He smiled as he opened the umbrella again. "The latch is fine since it can hold the runner and its braces. But if you shake it gently...or let's see, I'm going to pass this umbrella to you."

She took it then shrieked when it suddenly shut closed. Good thing her reflex was good that she was able to avert her head before the umbrella could slam her face.

"The runner is not fitting properly to the top spring, so a simple movement on the handle can trigger your umbrella to collapse on your head," Monsieur Millet explained as he took the umbrella from her dainty hands.

The lady blinked her eyes with disbelief then murmured "So that must be the reason why it closed on my head back then."

"There are three possible reasons why people go here to fix their umbrellas - it's less expensive to have it be repaired than buying a new one, it's a great help in the environment," the old man said as he pulled out his hand tools in the drawer. "Or it has a sentimental value."

"That black umbrella was given by someone dear to me back in collège," the lady bemused as she reminisced a blond-haired boy under the rain. "I caught him with a gum stuck on my chair so I jumped to a conclusion that he was a spoiled rich bully like his friend. I didn't know that he was only trying to remove it until he told me after class. That it was his first time to be in a public school and he has no idea how to blend in a new environment."

"And you were struck by a thunder."

She nodded shyly.

"Le coup de foudre," the man sighed dreamily while fiddling the umbrella with his wrinkled hands. "Did you forgive him?"

"There's nothing to forgive there since he wasn't the one at fault but yeah, I lost all of my resentments to him that day. Only that he rendered me speechless the next day," she pouted indignantly when the old man laughed. "It wasn't funny, Monsieur! I can barely speak a sentence without jumbling the words...or speak phrases without any stutters!"