Work Text:
It was almost lunchtime, and Giulia Rossi could finally see the light at the end of the paperwork. Weeks and months of long hours of organizing (and reorganizing) countless documents, not to mention learning the new systems that were recently installed, and after what seemed like an eternity, things were nearly complete. She smiled to herself as she locked her screen before grabbing her purse. A quick bite at the nearby café with a few coworkers sounded lovely. Who knows, maybe Giulia might even get home in time to have dinner with her bella daughter.
Thoughts of Lila made Giulia’s brow furrow. Lila was a good girl, and she could be trusted to handle most things, but the months that her school had been closed due to akumas were troubling. Once the fast and furious round of work was done, she vowed to herself, she’d go to the school and ask what they were doing to help the children make up for all that time being shut down. She would also do a little more investigation into those so-called ‘heroes’ Paris had- if they were truly so incompetent as to let people stay akumatized for months on end, well…Paris needed a better solution. Perhaps she could make some suggestions to the ambassador for him to bring up in negotiations.
Giulia sniffed to herself. She’d seen many of her coworkers sporting black-spotted red accessories. It really was astonishing how people were idolizing such incompetent heroes. She hadn’t said anything to those people, but she took careful note of who they were, just to make sure she didn’t hand over any critical paperwork to people so lacking in judgment.
Stepping out of the embassy, Giulia waved to the coworkers she was joining. They were gathered at the corner of the building, and a few waved back as she approached.
“Are you finally coming out into the sunshine, Giulia?” asked Flavia. She headed a different department in the embassy, handling tourism requests and information. Giulia hadn’t had too much to do with her yet, but their short meetings at least made them acquaintances, so that was all right. It was better to meet people away from their offices to actually get to know them.
“Yes, I think I may actually begin to go home before dark this summer!” Giulia laughed.
“Well, it’s about-“
Flavia was interrupted by a blaring honk that came from down the street, and a bus barreled into view, weaving back and forth across the lanes and even up onto the sidewalk. The bus tires squealed as it lurched to a stop just shy of the embassy building, and a –man?- in a lurid blue costume jumped out of a window.
“They think the traffic is my fault, do they? Well, Bus-ta Ride will take these stupid tourists for a spin!” the electric-blue villain screamed. The people on the bus were pounding at the doors, clearly desperate to get out. A distant part of Giulia’s mind (the part not frozen in terror) wondered why they weren’t leaving by the same window the akuma had- but something black dropped out of the sky onto the roof of the bus.
Flavia tugged on Giulia’s sleeve. “Come, we need to stay out of the way. Let’s go back inside until it’s over.”
Giulia sighed, but followed Flavia’s group. There goes my free lunch hour, she groused. Probably won’t get home until midnight, the way these heroes fight. She headed for the stairs; perhaps she could get more of the paperwork out of the way and actually not have to stay late tomorrow.
“Where are you going?” Flavia caught up to her.
Giulia shrugged. “Back to my office; it’s pretty clear we won’t be going out today. It’ll take forever for that creature to be defeated.”
Leaving Flavia looking flabbergasted on the stairs, Giulia climbed back up to her office.
Once seated at her desk, Giulia tried to ignore her stomach growling. She’d really been looking forward to lunch, and having it interrupted by an akuma attack just soured her mood.
The phone on her desk rang; she answered it automatically. “Giulia Rossi.”
“Giulia, aren’t you coming for lunch?” Flavia sounded baffled.
“Why? The akuma attack will take hours; I might as well get some work done.”
There was a pause at the end of the line. “ Um… the attack’s over. Ladybug and Chat Noir took care of it already.”
“Already?” Well, Giulia supposed the heroes must get lucky on occasion, despite their clear shortcomings. “I’ll be right down.”
She locked her computer again and left the office. Sighing at the stairs, she started back down. At least I’m getting some exercise.
She met Flavia and the rest of their group just by the door of the embassy. As they left, Giulia caught the reporters surrounding a girl in ladybug spots and a boy in black cat ears. She sniffed; if Parisians were trusting these… children… to keep the city safe- well, she was revising her estimate of the inhabitants’ intelligence downward.
Flavia and her fellow coworkers slowed down as they approached the media circus. Giulia caught the last part of the reporter’s question: “-feel, to have a spotless record of cleansing akumas?”
Giulia snorted at that; clearly, the reporter had no idea how incompetent these ‘heroes’ were. The boy’s black cat ears twitched in her direction, and he glanced over as the girl in spots answered something about keeping the city safe. Typical.
“Madame, I’m guessing you do not ap-purr-rove?” How had that cat-boy appeared out of nowhere in front of her like that? He’d abandoned his partner to the reporters, and spoke in a low tone so others couldn’t hear.
Well, Giulia could take this opportunity to voice her real opinion. “I suppose you children do your jobs adequately, but when my daughter’s school is shut down for months because of monsters, it’s hard to believe your record is so admirable.”
A confused look crept over the mask of the blond. “LB,” he said a bit louder, “Were there any schools closed for months due to akumas?”
“No, Kitty,” came the response as the girl in black-spotted red came over. “Not that I’ve heard of- Alya?”
A young woman with glasses and reddish hair shook her head. “Nope. Most attacks are less than an hour. I think the longest one was Vanisher; she just laid low for a couple days and no one knew.”
The pigtailed hero looked grave. “If your daughter’s school needs us, we’ll go immediately. What’s the name of the school?”
“Collège Françoise Dupont.” Giulia huffed through her nose; she couldn’t believe this! Of course the so-called heroes would cover their inadequacy in front of cameras!
The redhead sucked in a sharp breath. “That’s my school! It’s never been shut down for even a full day- at most akuma attacks only shut it down for a couple of hours, and only if the attack’s nearby!”
A beeping sound- Giulia realized she’d heard it once before in this conversation- prompted the catboy to tug on the ladygirl’s arm. “We need to go,” he said to Giulia, “but I would recommend strongly that you talk with the Ladyblogger here- and that you also call the school directly. She can give you the number.”
With a flick of his baton, the boy launched himself to the rooftops; the girl swung away on a yoyo string right after. The- Ladyblogger?- watched them go, phone camera pointed towards their receding forms, then she tapped the screen and turned to Giulia. “All right, I’ll talk with you about the heroes, madame- I don’t think I caught your name?”
Was it her imagination, or was the sidewalk shifting under her feet? “Giulia Rossi.”
The redhead started backward and blinked. “Lila’s mom?” She bowed. “It’s nice to meet you, Madame Ambassador.”
Ambassador?
Flavia and the rest of her coworkers were long gone, but perhaps her lunchtime would be better spent getting to the bottom of this. “I’m not the ambassador-“
“What? But Lila said you were. She said you were really busy, and that’s why you’re never around to meet any of us.” Alya furrowed her brow, as the reporters nearby packed up and left.
Giulia sighed. “…I think that talk would be a really good idea.”
Settling down at a private table in the café, Giulia regarded the girl sitting across from her. This Alya stared back with an intensity she’d only seen before in reporters and police.
Perhaps she had been too immersed in her work to find out what was really going on- and in her position, misinformation could be deadlier than ignorance. Time to correct that.
“So,” she began. “Tell me, please, what you know about the heroes.”