Chapter Text
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, or the Met, is a place of wonder. Nico has lived in the city her whole life and while she doesn’t romanticize it the way tourists and transplants do, she has a soft spot for the Met. She remembers spending hours there as a child, staring with wide eyes at the detailed portraits, the ancient marble sculptures and her favorite section, Asian Art. Nico can close her eyes and wander through the displays of katanas and teacups, the cherry blossoms and Buddha statues.
When she turned 14, Nico asked for a membership so she could visit the museum whenever she wanted. A strange request for a teenage girl, but Nico was never very social, very normal, very happy, and this place made her happy, so they obliged. Besides, they thought, one year and she will become bored with the museum and move on. Except, Nico never did. She used the pass almost once a week, barring holidays and vacations and learned the Met from all angles. The rotating exhibits meant she never got bored and she eventually scaled it back to a more reasonable once every other week.
Now, she’s 22 and entering into her final semester of college at Columbia and she gets to spend the next three months working at the Met. Interning, to be clear, but it feels like a big deal. Like, all those years of wearing in paths of contemplation are coming to fruition.
It’s with all of this in mind that Nico sits, dressed in all black professional attire in the Greek and Roman Art hall, waiting and gaining confidence to walk into day one of her internship. The ageless marble sculptures keep her company and she imagines herself as one, solid and strong, yet beautiful. With a quick, self-assured nod, Nico stands and slings her black satchel briefcase over her shoulder, walks to the elevator and presses the button for the basement. As the doors begin to shut, she hears a woman call out,
“Hold it, please!”
Suddenly, a hand reaches out and stops the doors, making them slide back open. A young woman, probably Nico’s age, smiles as she steps in beside her. She’s tall, blonde and sun-kissed despite it being January in New York, and is wearing light pastel colors. She’s pretty, in the conventional ways and while she’s not interested, Nico can appreciate a beautiful woman. She pushes her bisexual thirst back, though. Nico glances over her, taking in the wide smile and bright enthusiastic eyes and has to suppress an eye roll. Nico is not a cheerful, social person and she can already tell this woman is going to talk to her. Her prediction is correct once the blonde checks that the basement button has been pushed.
“Hi! Are you here for the intern orientation too?”
Great, the cheery stranger was an intern…
“Yep,” Nico nods, popping the “p” and keeping her eyes forward. It only takes a second for the elevator to stop and slide open with a ding.
“That’s great! I’m Karolina, I’m going to be working in the photography curation department,” Karolina sticks her hand out to introduce herself.
“Nico, exhibition design,” Nico says, shaking the offered hand once, before walking forward, leaving Karolina behind. She’s relieved to hear that the blonde won’t be working in her area. She figures that the interaction is over, but Karolina quickly catches up. Damn, her short legs.
“That’s so cool. This internship is like a dream come true, ya know? I’m a photography major at Tisch and the collections here are unreal. I can’t wait to look at the Imogen Cunningham prints. She’s an icon,” Karolina goes on, speaking quickly, and obviously excited. Nico stops in front of the door for the meeting hall and turns toward the tall woman.
“Okay, look. You seem really... nice. I’m just not in the business of making friends, so if you’ll just excuse me,” Nico lays it all out, watching as a brief look of hurt flashes on Karolina’s face before she gives a small half smile and nods.
“Totally get it. Sorry if I bothered you,” Karolina says, “It was nice to meet you, Nico.”
Nico lets out a sigh as the woman walks into the room and finds a seat by a couple of other nervous-looking students. She doesn’t mean to be rude, but after years of putting up with unwanted pleasantries, Nico just doesn’t care. She’s here to learn and experience her favorite place in a whole new way. That’s it.
Nico selects a seat next to a guy who looks quiet and takes out her laptop to take notes. The orientation starts a few minutes later. It’s fairly straightforward, covering all the bases and then they split off into departments. Nico meets her supervisor, an older white man (ugh) and the rest of the interns in design. They all seem cool and no one tries to talk to her too much, so she’s happy. They end the day with finger foods and drinks, everyone back from their department meetings. She’s not actively looking for her, but Nico does spot the eager blonde laughing with a couple other people from the curation department. Nico isn’t going to let her gaze linger long, but the moment she goes to look away Karolina looks up and they make eye contact. Nico’s jaw tenses and she darts her eyes away, but not before noticing the other woman’s hand lifting in a small wave. She doesn’t need Karolina to think there’s hope for friendship. Surely, she made herself clear enough earlier.
Nico dumps the plastic cup of tea, it was black anyway, and makes sure to say goodbye to her supervisor before leaving quickly. She keeps her head down all the way until she’s walking down the grand steps of the museum before she sighs and slows her pace. As she heads toward the subway station, she thinks about why she reacted that way to a wave. She’s Nico fucking Minoru and no one should make her leave if she’s not ready. Nico lifts her shoulders and sets her eyes forward, more determined to make the best of her time at the Met. Next time, she will ignore the strange blonde girl. It’s just the right thing to do.
Over the next two weeks, Nico is busier than usual. Balancing her classes and working hard at her internship is hard, but entirely worthwhile. She’s behind the scenes of one of the most impressive art collections in the world and that fact is not lost on her. Nico finds herself struggling to leave for the day while lost amongst the library stacks or taking notes in meetings with high-level donors and artists. She learns about the process of pitching an exhibit and just how precise the angle of lights is within them. If she had any doubts about joining this world of art and design, they’re gone by the end of her second week. The feeling of showing her pass to security and walking through the museum, the heels of her boots clicking with purpose and ducking into the staff only section is addicting. Nico has always had a thing about authority. Growing up under the watchful eye of Tina Minoru, she didn’t always get to make a lot of decisions and she often felt like a secondary person, a backup in case Amy wasn’t as perfect as she seemed. Except her sister was always just that, perfect. The only way Nico could see herself making an impact was through rebellion. In this case, rebellion meant goth styles and embracing the art scene.
But in the end, she is a Minoru and she likes to be the best. Nico is planning on proving this fact by having the best end-of-year project amongst her peers and earning a coveted recommendation letter from the director of the internship program. Today, they are finding out what the project is and what other departments they’ll be working with. Nico is hoping Asian Arts, imagining all the amazing culture she could work with. She wouldn’t mind designing an exhibit filled with badass armor and weaponry, either though. In fact, part of her is leaning toward this option so she can persuade her partner into focusing on women’s armor through the ages and now she’s picturing Boudicca and Joan of Arc and yeah, that’s hot. Women warriors are well-known to be a weakness of queer girls, at least this one.
Everyone in Exhibition Design and Curation is gathered into one of the classrooms downstairs and Nico is on the outskirts, quietly chatting with a guy from her department, Victor. Finally, the presentation comes onto the screen and Elise, Head of Curation, clears her throat signaling everyone’s silence.
“Good Evening, interns. I hope everyone has had a good first couple of weeks. As you know, we like to give you time to learn the ropes before sending you head first into the independent projects. You will still get plenty of time working under your supervisors, but here at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, we believe in challenging students to forge their own path and explore their unique style of work. For this reason, we have designed a semester-long project that gives you creative freedom and challenges your knowledge. The Mini Museum. On May 18th, each of you will present in a grand opening night, your own exhibit” Elise pauses allowing everyone to clap and take in the project.
“Now, you won’t be expected to complete this by yourself, so everyone will be assigned a partner. Yes, they have already been assigned and no, there will be no switches granted. Let’s begin,” Elise finishes up her speech and begins reading off a list of partners.
She lists off five groups including the armory one to Nico’s disappointment. The Japanese-American still has hope for Asian Arts until she hears her name called,
“Nico Minoru and Karolina Dean from photography”
She hears a light laugh come from across the room and whips her head around to see Karolina covering her mouth with her hand and blushing with wide eyes. Elise has already moved on so no one else notices the tense staredown happening between the two familiar women. Karolina quickly wipes away the embarrassment and shifts her expression to a smirk. She shrugs and waves, earning nothing but an eye roll from Nico, who turns back toward the front to wait out the last couple of groups. Once the list is over, Elise dismisses them to go seek out their partners. Nico doesn’t move, instead, she waits until the blonde slides into the seat next to her.
“Hello, Nico,” she smiles, looking genuinely pleased.
“Karolina,” Nico greets, grumpily. She raises her eyebrow at the other woman urging her to go on.
“This is pretty funny, right? I mean the first person I meet at this thing makes it abundantly clear she has no interest in being friendly and now we’re paired up for a three-month long project? Surely even you see the humor in this,” Karrie leans into Nico’s space just slightly, her eyes twinkling with amusement.
“Well, I’m glad you think this is funny. Can we just exchange emails and get going?” Nico holds out her phone for the blonde. She grabs it and types in her contact info, adding her phone number as well.
“Before you run out of here, I wanted to let you know that Elise has given me permission to alter the project just slightly…”
“What do you mean?” Nico narrows her eyes at Karolina who at least has the decency to look nervous.
“Instead of curating the exhibit I’m actually going to be filling it with my own photography series,” Karolina explains, straightening her posture and setting her gaze. She’s daring Nico to protest. Nico stares back unfazed.
“As long as you didn’t request me as your partner I don’t really give a fuck,” the intimidating goth girl says eventually with a shrug. Immediately, Karolina blushes again and looks down at her lap.
“You didn’t.”
“Not for the reason you think! Look, I asked around and everyone said you’re the best. This has nothing to do with friendship. I don’t want to be your friend,” Karolina defends herself. Nico wants to be angry, she is angry, but she also can’t help but puff her chest at the fact that she’s already making an impression.
“Did you ever think that maybe I didn’t want to work with photography? Like maybe, this isn’t all about you?” Nico accuses, her voice cold. Karolina fumbles with her words, before sighing.
“I guess I didn’t really think that far. I’m sorry…”
“Whatever. I’ll email you in the next few days,” Nico stands abruptly. Pushing away from the table and walking out without another word to the blonde. She’s only left the Met in anger like this one other time when her parents ambushed her there to convince her to consider a career in tech like them and Amy. Nico hates when people make decisions for her.
She scrolls through her contacts to her best friend, Alex, and presses call.
“Nico, what’s up?” Alex picks up after a couple of rings, the sound of gunshots in the background tells her that he’s playing video games, again.
“Just wait till you hear what this bitch did,” Nico fumes, marching through the freezing sidewalks and glaring at anyone who gets in the way. She may be 5’2” but she can clear a path on these streets.
“Which one?” Alex asks with a chuckle. She can hear him pause the game and lift the phone to his ear, obviously sensing a rant.
“Remember the blonde I told you about at my orientation?”
“The annoyingly pretty one who wouldn’t shut up?”
Nico rolls her eyes, despite that being her actual description of Karolina that day.
“Yeah, well apparently she doesn’t understand boundaries like at all,” she continues,
“She requested I be her design partner for her stupid photography exhibition, so now instead of working on one of the departments I actually love, I’m stuck with her. Oh, and she’s apparently been given special privilege to use her own photography? Like who the fuck is this girl?” Nico let’s out all her frustration to her longtime best friend.
“Wow… I gotta say that’s pretty crazy that she requested you, but did she say why she requested you?” Alex responds with a more level head.
“Yeah… I guess she thinks I’m the best design intern or whatever,” Nico grumbles out the last part. Alex chuckles on the other end, beginning to understand. In his time being Nico’s confidant, Alex has seen her self-made list of enemies grow and shrink as she finds new people to hate and as she forgets about them. He’s gotten pretty good about knowing how high someone will make it on the list based on how they first get on it.
“So, basically, you’re mad because someone thinks you’re awesome?” Alex questions Nico’s reasoning. He hears a frustrated sigh come from the woman who shakes her head at the statement.
“No, dumbass. I am angry because she took away my options. I have no interest in photography, but now I have to spend three months designing an exhibit for her and her dumb pictures!”
There’s silence on the call as Alex thinks this over and formulates his response. He knows he has to be careful here or Nico may just hang up on him,
“Did everyone get to choose what department they wanted or was it randomly assigned?”
“Random…” Nico stops walking outside of a tea house she knows it good but doesn’t go in, yet. She stands with her phone to her ear, trying to hear what Alex is implying.
“So you might have been assigned to photography even if she didn’t ask or you may have been put in the European Art Wing, which we both know is your least favorite section,” Alex starts to break through to her with his sound logic.
“Too many white guys,” Nico grumbles, thinking about all the painters in the European section.
“I know,” Alex agrees. He’s been to the Met many times at Nico’s request (see: insistence), so he’s familiar with most of the wings at this point.
“Look, I’m not saying what she did was okay. She should have talked to you first, but you are about to work together for three months, so I wouldn’t start that with hostility,” Alex suggests and while Nico knows that he’s right, she still groans and quickly says,
“Bye, Alex,” before hanging up.
Nico spends the next hour in the tea shop, nestling a hot cup of green tea and calming herself down. It’s a small shop, run by a Chinese couple who keep ornate glass jars of tea leaves behind the register and serve with beautiful kettles. Nico dreads the day she comes here and sees they’re shutting down. She’s watched it happen all around her city. She even cried the day she went to her favorite indie record shop and saw they were going out of business. For now, Nico tries to give her money to businesses like this one that she knows have heart and aren’t fueled by capitalistic greed.
By the time she leaves, she feels sensible enough to email Karolina once she gets home.
It’s a short message, just exchanging contact information and asking when the next time the blonde was free to sit down and get a framework going. Nico makes sure to sound professional and not let any unresolved anger bleed through, but she’s not friendly either.
With that, she closes her email and focuses on homework and fixing herself dinner for the rest of the night.
The next time Nico opens her email is on the way to class, scrolling with her tech-friendly gloves through junk, reminders and finally, the reply from Karolina. It was sent only 30 minutes after Nico emailed her, but she doesn’t feel bad about making the blonde wait a little longer, so she ignores it for now.
Studio is the first thing she goes to on Tuesdays and Nico likes to use that time to express herself and get out all her emotions. Columbia has amazing graphics computers, of course, and she manipulates her screen with a pen, adding strokes and shades. The studio project she’s working on centers around outdoor spaces and architecture, so her screen is painted with mossy greens and browns as she tries to capture the serenity of a city park. Growing up in the city, Nico knows the magic of walking away from the busy streets and crowds and into greenery and relative calm. The time passes quickly and as she leaves, her instructor remarks on how much Nico is coming into her own style. It makes her preen and she’s in a great mood as she shoulders her bag and pushes through the double doors.
Opening up her email app, Nico decides to finally read Karolina’s email.
“Hi Nico,
Thank you for emailing me so quickly and I just wanted to say sorry. I was being selfish when I requested you be my partner and I understand that now. I hope we can work past this rough start because I’m really excited to see what we can make together.
I’m free Friday after 2:00, does that work for you?
Hope you have a great week,
Karolina Dean”
She’s not surprised to see that Karolina apologized, despite Nico not bringing it up in her first email. It might be her good morning influencing her, but Nico thinks it’s nice and she is free Friday afternoon, so she decides to reply quickly.
“Hey Karolina,
I’m free on Friday. We could meet in the museum lobby after we both get off and find a place to go from there. I accept your apology. It would suck to be mad at my partner for the next three months, so hopefully you can manage not to piss me off again. I’m kidding. Sorta.
Nico Minoru”
She sends the email after some deliberation about keeping the joking part, but eventually, she forcefully hit the send button and locks her phone. Nico lets out her breath and looks around her surroundings. She frowns when she realizes she’d walked 5 minutes in the wrong direction. She shrugs, accepting it as being distracted by her phone and turns around to head to her next class.