Chapter Text
“Miraculous Ladybug!”
The all-too-familiar swarms of magical ladybugs fixed any damages and healed up those affected by the latest akuma, while it hadn’t been dangerous, it had definitely been a challenge.
“Thanks again for your help, Langur! Great work, Tora!”
“No problem at all Mar- I mean Ladybug!” Tora beamed, thankfully catching his slip up before anyone else could notice. “I feel bad that I took… um… Assassin’s place, but Sensei… er, Clearwing said that Assassin was away, but I still feel a little guilty.”
“Well,” Langur rubbed the back of his head, “it can’t really be helped if he’s away. I mean, the fact that I’m using this Miraculous proves that wielders are fluid. We could get him something, but it might raise suspicion.”
“I can interchange if the need arises, but it mainly depends on who is available at the same time. I’ll send you both back now, I believe it’s getting late in Inaba and your family may get a little suspicious if you’re not back.”
Before following Ladybug, Langur gave a wave to a young child he had saved and flashed her the peace sign, not realizing he had made her day.
You feel your bond with Yosuke and Teddie improving…
Marinette stared at her screen, reading and rereading the request sent to her. Sure, she’d set up this website not expecting much - this was the first of this kind of commission, too - but she hadn’t expected something like this.
- I see that you do clothes for commissions, but I was wondering if you did stuffed animals. You see, my granddaughter was saved by the new Monkey hero - Langur, I think it was - during an akumatization with that Tiger hero (I forget their name…) and her birthday is coming up soon. I finally know what to get her and have enough saved for a commission. We were trapped in our car during the attack and we couldn’t get out. My little granddaughter, who is my world, was hurt badly, but Langur got us out and took us to safety.
- I apologize for this unusual request and understand completely if this isn’t something you want to do.
-
- Thank you for listening,
- Lilianne Voclain
Marinette continued to mull over the request. It was true that she was more into fashion designing, but this was for a child. However, she wasn’t that great with stuffed animals - this was beyond her area of expertise…
She kept going back and forth when suddenly she recalled something. Kanji mentioned that he made little stuffed animals and cell-phone charms when he visited Paris! Maybe…
Biting her lip, Marinette pulled out her cell phone and messaged Kanji. She knew it was late in Inaba, but maybe Kanji would be up. After all, creative types seemed to thrive strongly at night.
- Deadly_Thread: Hey. If you’re up, can you let me know?
- Brawn_and_Thread: i’m up
- Brawn_and_Thread: wut’s goin on
- Deadly_Thread: I got a request, not sure if I can fulfill it. Was wondering if you might be interested.
- Brawn_and_Thread: depends. tell me & i’ll let u kno
- Deadly_Thread: There’s a request from a grandmother who wants a Monkey plushie of Yosuke
- Brawn_and_Thread: a yosuke plushy? srsly?
- Deadly_Thread: Well, it’s technically of Langur. He saved their life a while ago and this request is for her grandchild
- Deadly_Thread: I create clothes but struggle with making stuffed animals. You mentioned before about doing keychains and some plushies, I thought maybe you might be able to do this if you’re interested
- Deadly_Thread: You’d be the one getting the payment of course, I refuse to make you work for nothing
- Brawn_and_Thread: i’ll do it
- Brawn_and_Thread: even if i can already hear Yosuke’s head swelling
- Brawn_and_Thread: ur getting paid 2. it was on ur site so ur getting paid
- Deadly_Thread: No
- Deadly_Thread: You’re the one doing the work so YOU get paid
The two went back and forth for ten minutes, arguing over Marinette getting some payment or Kanji getting all of it. Eventually Kanji was the one who gave in first.
- Brawn_and_Thread: …
- Brawn_and_Thread: i won’t win, will i?
- Deadly_Thread: Nope. I can and will outstubborn you any day
- Deadly_Thread: And we both know it
- Deadly_Thread: I can feel your sigh from here
- Deadly_Thread: We know I’m right
- Brawn_and_Thread: fine. tell me more 2morrow
- Deadly_Thread: No problem. Talk to you in the morning?
- Brawn_and_Thread: 👍
- Brawn_and_Thread: night
Marinette set aside her phone before sending her reply to the potential client. She told Mme. Voclain while she did not specialize in plushies, she knew someone who did. Knowing Kanji was in a different country, Marinette warned that the person wasn’t as readily available so she’d have to be the liaison between the two.
She’d have to wait for a reply back, but she had a feeling that this client was going through with it. Deciding to help Kanji out, Marinette pulled out her sketchpad and began looking for any footage on Langur; may as well get started on Langur’s appearance for a reference, right? If there was any material needed, she was more than happy to give Kanji a Voyage to Paris and help him find it.
Marinette pulled out Kaalki’s Miraculous from the box, having received a text from Kanji about the plush a bit ago. While the initial sketches were done, he wanted a second opinion on it before either starting it or getting the materials. From what Kanji had sent in the text, he preferred traditional over digital and didn’t want to send the sketches through the chat.
When asked if she wanted to see any sketches about the plushy, Mme. Voclain had stated that she trusted their judgement and wished for it to be a surprise. While Marinette had been confused at first, she shrugged it off. She had expected the grandmother to want to be in every part of creating the plushy, but Mme. Voclain had stated that she knew that they would make the perfect plushy. Apparently, her granddaughter and Manon were friends, and they’d heard a lot of praise from both Manon and Nadja.
After giving everyone notice about where she would be, Marinette slipped on familiar glasses.
“Let’s go. Kaalki, Full Gallop!”
Kanji was already waiting on her once she slipped through the portal, a familiar fox near his side. After detransforming, Marinette spotted the food the fox was happily munching on and raised an eyebrow. Catching her look, Kanji raised his own eyebrow.
“What? Senpai isn’t here. He’s been a bit busy lately, so I figured I’d feed the fox. The entire team takes turns doing it since they help us out.”
“That’s reasonable.” Who was she to judge? She swiped some meat from the fridge for the fox as well. After slipping some to their mutual animal friend, she followed Kanji to his house, noting how they were avoiding the police.
“I figured it was safer to be cautious,” Kanji explained while they removed their shoes. “There’s an increase in police presence and the police seem to be suspicious of any visitors.” He guided Marinette up to his room and pulled out a folder. “I did a few basic sketches and a colored sketch. I also made a few notes for substitute colors if I couldn’t find what I needed. Tell me what you think.”
Marinette skimmed over the sketches and noticed a few differences between each one.
“Let’s see… in this one it looks like you gave a bang style similar to Yosuke’s but didn’t give him a mask.” She skimmed over the first with a critical eye, before moving on to the second one. “On this one, it looks more like a langur monkey, but you have the mask. And this one has no mask or bang style but more… costume details? I don’t really recognize the stuff on his costume…”
“Oh those, I took more from Jiraiya as I couldn’t get a lot of details at times. Jiraiya was Yosuke’s original Persona before it evolved into Susano-o. I thought it would be a nice little touch or nod to him, I guess.”
“I remember it briefly,” Marinette nodded along. She studied the sketches closer, trying to give helpful input. “I’d say use a little details from the third but don’t go overboard, too many details could be hard to create or may look like too much. The bangs could possibly work, but it might link people to Yosuke even with the power of Miraculous protecting our identities…” Marinette gave a hum while continuing to study the sketches. “I say you should keep the mask, however, hero masks are actually a popular item in Paris. If you want you could make the mask removable and depending on the size, maybe make it wearable for a child. No, maybe not make that wearable…”
“I could instead make a secondary mask to come with it, kind of like a… what is it called… an accessory? Maybe add a little toy staff to go with it?”
Marinette nodded her head. “But don’t push yourself too much to do all of this. if you don’t want to do it then don’t. I say trust your instincts on that.”
Kanji smirked. “Coming from Miss Burden-Bearer?”
Marinette swatted him on the shoulder lightly. “H-hey! You know I’m changing that!”
Laughing lightly, Kanji reached over to ruffle Marinette’s hair, snickering at her squawk of protest. The two creative minds continue to discuss materials and use the colored sketch as a base for the color scheme, notes being jotted down along the side of the sketches as reminders to themselves. It was decided in the end that while the final product would look similar to Langur, there would be some things pulled from Jiraiya as it seemed like that had been the inspiration for the Monkey hero. They both seemed to agree that the Junes Prince would appreciate the little nod to his initial Persona as a sort of tribute.
“I get the feeling that once Yosuke finds out about this, he’s going to want one for himself. Probably with more details involving Jiraiya and/or Susano-o.” Kanji rubbed his forehead in annoyance. “I can already see his ego swelling just thinking about that.”
“Possibly, but he did help save a kid’s life. Oh, that reminds me! We should probably give him some of the commission pay since we’re technically using his Hero identity.”
“You ain’t wrong. Already planned on that… if only someone else would take her part of the payment instead of trying to give it all to me, that’d be appreciated.” Even though Kanji was looking directly at Marinette, his pseudo-younger sister seemed to be playing innocent as she deliberately looked over a sketch of the final design that Kanji had sketched while they were talking. “Gee, I wonder who that could be?”
It seemed Marinette wasn’t going to take the bait, though Kanji did spot a subtle smirk that she was trying - and failing - to hide. Sighing as he lost this battle, he instead stood up. “Come on,” he said, gesturing out of his door, “I think we have most of the material, but I want your second opinion on them.”
“No problem, if you need anything, let me know! I may have gotten some more commissions in, but I’ll be more than happy to help. Oh yeah! Before I forget, a lot of the fabric and craft stores are having sales for the next few weeks so if there is anything you need, just let me know.”
The two made their way out to where most of the fabric and materials were, quietly discussing as best as they could so as to not disturb the main shop. Kanji’s mother spotted Marinette at one point, but instead of questioning anything, she surprised the two by inviting the younger designer to stay for dinner.
Marinette attempted to decline, but it seemed that Tatsumi Kanon was far more stubborn than her son. It didn’t help when Marinette’s stomach reminded her that she had skipped out on lunch, further proving Kanon’s reason for Marinette to stay. With a slightly defeated look and an approved message to her parents (especially since her mother pointed out how rude it would be to reject said offer), Marinette was cleared to spend her dinner with the Tatsumis.
One fantastic meal later, Marinette found herself holding a box of green tea cookies when it was time to head home.
“Thank you for this,” Kanon repeated for possibly the third time (or was it fourth now?), handing over a small roll of silk cloth.
Before Marinette could even question why she was receiving this, Kanon told her, “This has been the most lively meal we’ve had in some years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Kanji smile or laugh that much during a meal, and he is always so open about his talents with you. I’m pretty sure the reason why he was lighting up the room was because you were here. He’s always going on about his imouto and talking about how talented you are. We barely got to know each other last time you were here, so I’m glad to have been given the chance for this visit.” Kanon rested her hands on Marinette’s shoulders, giving them a squeeze similar to how her own maman did at times. “Please, don’t be a stranger; any time you’re in Inaba, please stop by for a visit or meal. You’re always welcome here, and Kanji adores you, even if he doesn’t really say it out loud.” Marinette giggled at how Kanon seemed to grumble that second part, more as if she was talking to herself than to Marinette.
“Thank you, Tatsumi-san! Hearing you say all of that is really like high praise! You’ve got a really talented son, and I’m glad he’s become my older brother… well, I guess older brother figure might be more accurate.”
Kanon chuckled at that just as Kanji came out to see Marinette off. Judging by the faint remains of a blush on his cheeks, Marinette assumed the bottle blond had heard them both. Marinette gave the matriarch of the two person household a wave and smile before leaving.
The two left with Kanji once again taking Marinette back to the shrine, keeping out of the police’s sight (their presence seemed to have increased in comparison to that morning). It seemed they had just managed to get out of sight when Kanji spotted Adachi heading their way, hiding in the bushes near the shrine stairs. Luckily, Adachi never picked up on their presence and continued to walk on by. Marinette wanted to hear what Adachi was muttering to himself about, but that would raise too many suspicions that the team did not need about now (especially since Adachi knew she wasn’t from around Inaba).
Other than that, Kanji managed to get her back to the shrine safely. Before heading back, Marinette gave the bottle blond a quick hug and thanks, noting the slight stiffness that quickly melted away. Kanji still seemed a little awkward with physical touch, but it was clear he was slowly making progress. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, Marinette supposed.
When Marinette got home, she happily shared the cookies with her parents and the kwamis. In between telling her parents of what was going on and the commissions, she sent an email to the client to inform them of the finalization of the design and that she had ‘been informed’ that the final project would probably be started that night.