Work Text:
Miranda Priestly. A powerful and feared woman. No one dares confront her, unless they wanted to be blacklisted. The ice dragon queen, whose anger manifests with a quiet but fearsome voice. She never yells to her subordinates, nonetheless she isn't less dreadful. Dire insults concealed as cold icy sarcasm were also part of the menu. Her personal life was a complete mess, contrasting with her methodical, keen approach to work. She was on her third divorce. Her distant demeanor ended up scaring off her husbands. But lack of closeness wasn't the only problem, and Miranda knew that very well. Why? Because she already learned she was, in fact, lesbian. In her days as a designer assistant, when she was eighteen, she even had a fling with a model in the beginning of her career, slightly older. That relationship ended as quickly as it started. It was a one night stand, in a time where she could be more careless, after a fashion show. After that, she never had anything more with a woman.
Back in the day, her signature neatly short white hair wasn't hers, yet. Her hair was blonde, medium length, by her shoulders, slightly wavy. She was still answering by her real name, Miriam.
About the marriages, they were all with older, powerful men because that was expected in her social circle. Of course it also brought some benefits. Meeting another rich, ruling the world people is always good to expand your network, consequently, your value. In her second marriage, she gave birth to her biggest treasures in life, Caroline and Cassidy. Our dragon lady does everything for them, even getting the unpublished manuscript of the latest Harry Potter book through her faithful assistant, Andrea. Unfortunately, she doesn't have time to be a mother too and relegates that task to other people.
Miranda had already accepted she couldn't have it all. Her personal life would always be in scrambles. For self-preservation, she could even throw her most faithful friends under the bus, in order to save her own job. Many people wanted her position, as she told her younger assistant, "Everyone wants to be us". They're eager to take every opportunity to kick her out and assume the leadership. In a hypercompetitive field, Priestly quickly noticed she could not be nice and gentile, if she wanted to fulfill her dream of being editor in chief of the most important fashion magazine, Runway. Being demanding and rigorous was an unspoken requirement for the position. A carefully built mask.
Life, although, always finds a way to catch us off guard. In the Runway's chief case, that surprise is called Andrea Sachs. Well, she knew from the start she was different from the ton of other assistants she had. Andy wasn't skinny, didn't worship the mighty Miranda Priestly nor Runway, and fashion wasn't an interest of hers. However, she decided to take a chance with Andy. After all that useless and incompetent previous assistants, it couldn't be worse, Priestly thought. In the end, Andrea astonished everyone with her commitment and concern about learning her duties. From an unstylish size six to a confident and highly skilled size four, Andy surpassed the first assistant, Emily, and gained Miranda trust, at the point of betraying her colleague, snatching Emily's yearned Paris dream. Sachs wasn't so different from Miranda, who was right saying that she reminds herself at a younger age. Anyhow, that big Paris week didn't wind up as expected. The younger assistant broke the deal and ran away from that cursed life. The Miranda Priestly biggest disappointment. Actually, Miranda was disappointed with herself and not Andrea, for failing the best assistant she ever had. To not be capable of holding her up. To… she didn't see Andrea as just one more person anymore. She felt some admiration at least. She even vented about her derailing private life, wearing a bathrobe, without makeup and swollen red eyes from crying! Priestly showed up that she's in fact a human, with all range of emotions, who has difficulty handling them sometimes. She wasn't a monster or a witch. She was a flawed person with her struggles, like any of us.
Now it is over. That saddened Miranda a little bit. The first woman she ever wanted to be really close, even though she couldn't do it because of power dynamics. Andrea was her employee and as previously explained, she couldn't be friendly in that environment. It would be totally out of character. Officially, she was mad at Andy and didn't even greet, pretending she didn't see it. But in reality, she proudly smiled while hidden in the car. Miranda actually wished the best for Andrea and ensured that her ex-assistant could get her dream job.
Miranda hopes that life will get them together again, and that time she would not screw up. This time she wants to meet Andrea behind her work persona. Construct a real relationship, whatever it is. Time will tell.