•••
Marinette gasped at the sight before her eyes. The medieval Paris looked as lively as ever, picture perfect, just like in her textbooks.
'The time after the revolution. Wow.'
"We need to stay low." Aurora said and Bridgette nodded in understanding.
"I know that you're not really used to this, but we would have to work like the normal folk here. I know that this is not the best type of life for someone—"
"Who lived in a huge house where with each passing second, they were reminded of their worthlessness and frowned upon existence, continuously and without fail? Where they had no control over their own life and say in decisions? I beg to differ but I think that working for myself might be the best life after all."
This seemed to have quietened Aurora down, until she smiled sadly.
"I'm sorry Bridge. I know that it was hard for you there. Especially with her around."
"Hm."
"Well, we'll just look around for now, okay? Try and find work?"
The rest of the day, the two young girls, looked around and went from place to place in search of work. Luck wasn't in their favour, in the outskirts of the town, but they were fateful enough to find a decent place to live and work not far out the town square.
Marinette knew about the miraculous but Bridgette didn't. She could feel herself spacing out and muting out the outside world, despite trying to resist. With no luck whatsoever, she gave up eventually and let herself be drowned in by Bridgette's thoughts and confusion.
What the 17 year old bluenette found the most amusing was how Bridgette freaked out just like she did. The latter was ready to throw the box away in a frenzy had not Aurora shown up at the convenient moment and postponed the reaction. Now Marinette knew why Tikki wasn't offended by her calling the little kwami a 'bug mouse' on their first encounter.
Thinking about her lovely and lively little friend, her heart filled with sadness and longing. Sure, Tikki was here, with Bridgette, but Marinette missed the kwami that she knew and had grown to love so much. Her Tikki.
"—tte? Bridgette? BRIDGETTE?!"
"Wh—a? What is it?"
Aurora sighed, wearing a slightly annoyed expression.
"You've been spacing out a lot Bridge. I could've really appreciated some help and input from your side when we were searching for work."
"S-Sorry."
"Now help me arrange the cupboards please?"
"Sure thing!"
As they both busied themselves on with the work, Marinette heard Aurora sigh and sit down with a thump, a while later. She then clapped her hands together and closed her eyes, as if praying.
"I thank our stars that we managed to make it this far with ease."
"Yeah." Bridgette smiled. "Now, we can finally start anew."
"Yes we can." She smiled back. "I'm glad we're away from that sorry excuse of a home."
"I'm excited to see how it all works out."
And true to her word, immense excitement and ecstasy filled up Marinette's heart, as Bridgette happily imagined the bright possibilities of her future that lay ahead.
The stinging pain in her arm seemed to fade away too.
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"Wake up! Up! Bridgette! BRIDGETTE!"
"Jeez, jeez I'm up, alright!"
A fuming Aurora glared daggers at her disheveled best friend. Bridgette rubbed her eyes and groggily looked up to her.
"You're going to get us fired on the very first day itself! And then kicked out of here!"
"Alright, alright..."
Bridgette sleepily mumbled some incoherent words as she proceeded to get ready.
"Where were you last night?" Aurora asked out of the blue.
"H-Huh?"
"I saw you leaving yesterday night and coming back in very late. I tried to follow but it seemed like you vanished soon after you stepped out the house."
Despite the seriousness of the question, Bridgette just smiled brightly at her best friend.
"I went to experience the true taste of my freedom."
And she loved it.
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"Bridgette?"
"Hm?"
"Can I have a cookie?"
"But you were just munching on one five minutes ago!"
"I know, I know! But being surrounded by them all around is really testing my self control."
Bridgette sighed before caving in.
"Fine, I can sneak in one for you, I guess. But you'd have to wait a while, okay? We'd have to wait till Mrs Pearson is gone."
The bluenette smiled down at the red kwami who looked up intently at her with sparkling blue eyes. Looking at her filled Bridgette's heart with so much happiness while Marinette's with longing and sadness.
'I miss you Tikki.'
Last night, flying though the city, feeling the wind in her hair, gave Marinette the stinging feeling of nostalgia and if possible, she missed her life even more that before.
"Until then, stay down Tikki." Bridgette instructed and the kwami complied, going back to hiding in her apron's pocket.
Mrs Pearson finally left the woman all to herself in the kitchen after some time and Bridgette took in this opportunity to sneak in a chocolate chip cookie for Tikki.
"Last one, okay?"
Tikki smiled widely before disappearing in the pocket once again.
Smiling slightly to herself, Bridgette removed a strand of hair from her face before resuming her work in the bakery's kitchen.
"Bridgette! We can switch now!" Jenny, her co-worker, called out.
Sighing, she untied her hair from the bun and went over to the front to switch with the blonde woman.
"Thanks."
Sitting down there, Bridgette stared out the window, bored. It wasn't the peak hour so there were very few customers. Aurora was busy working at an eatery.
"I wonder when it'll be break time?"
A little while later, the bell to the bakery jingled, signalling a customer's presence.
"Welcome, how may I—"
She saw two hooded figures enter the bakery which made her trail off mid sentence. Alarmed at the sketchy presence, all of Bridgette's senses were on high alert. Marinette would call it hyperventilating, but it was for a good reason. After all, they did look shady.
"—help you?"
The figures then turned to her and she backed away slightly.
Fear, panic and determination to stop any possible wrongdoing filled up Marinette's heart. For the first time in a long time, she wished with all her might for her own body or control over this one. Or just a way so that she could console Bridgette and tell her that everything'll be okay.
"Are you afraid?" The taller of the two asked her.
"N-No."
"Good, Don't be." A cheerful voice replied which belonged to the other person.
They both took off their cloaks which left the young bluenette startled and mesmerised.
"We're sorry. We didn't mean to give you a scare."
In front of her stood two of the most handsome men that she'd ever seen. One was slightly tanned and taller than the other. He had twinkling hazel eyes and was very handsome, but the one who completely took away Bridgette's breath away was not him.
The other had pale skin, and grey eyes. His light blond hair sat a bit messily on his head, giving him a playful look. He was simply gorgeous.
"Is Mrs Pearson not here today?" The tanned one asked.
Bridgette was at a loss to say anything and didn't trust herself with words. So she just nodded her head.
"Aww, bummer."
"Well then , could you help us out instead?" The blond boy asked Bridgette.
"Of-Of course! That's what I'm here for, a-aren't I?"
"She still hasn't recovered from the scare we gave her." The tanned boy spoke up.
"No. That's not true!" Bridgette suddenly blurted out. It was the truth though, the reason for her flustered reactions wasn't the scare.
"Are you new here?" The blond boy asked.
"Y-Yes. I just moved here recently ."
"Oh well, welcome young maiden, to the bustling and busy city of Paris!"
"T-Thank you!"
"Are you going to order already? We haven't got all day" The tanned man complained.
"Yeah, Yeah. Hold your horses Nash. We'd like to have some buttered croissants and macaroons. To go, please!"
Bridgette nodded and hurriedly began preparing the order. Good thing that she wasn't clumsy like Marinette.
'I would've ruined it all in merely nano seconds.'
Stumbling but succeeding, she handed the order to the two young men.
"Pay up, pay up! Your treat!" Nash said, laughing.
"Yeah, yeah."
Their hands touched just for a fleeting moment but the fireworks exploding in Bridgette's heart said otherwise.
"Well off we go then! See you around!" He chirped.
The two of them exited the bakery, while Brigette could only watch them leave and trying to control her heartbeat.
Before they walked away, he turned around and winked at her.
"The flour does a very poor job of hiding your beauty, Miss! I'm Felix by the way."
As he said it, Marinette felt that familiar feeling coursing through her heart once again. That warm, fuzzy feeling that she first got when she watched him go, standing under the umbrella. The feeling she gets whenever she sees him and thinks about him. The feeling that she gets only because of Adrien, and now Bridgette was getting because of Felix.
"And I'm...." she watched him run after his friend.
"Bridgette.." she mumbled as she touched her face with the flour on it.
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Phew!
Heyo! This might be the longest chapter till now! And yay! I finally introduced Felix! Yipseeee!!
I hope you enjoyed it! Please vote and comment and share this story!
Love!
Belle💕