Chapter Text
Marinette walked into the classroom early today. This was unusual, but she’d only been able to do it since she got a full night’s sleep. Hawkmoth had been inactive lately, so she’d finally been able to catch up on work and sleep. She stepped in just in time for the warning bell to ring. Not that anyone noticed, as they were facing away from the front anyway. Her class was once again all gathered around Lila, except for Adrien, Chloe and Sabrina. At least some people had some sense. Chloe and Adrien were discussing some charity gala that they were attending that weekend, and as a result Adrien only gave Marinette a little wave as she walked past.
Surprised, she blushed and smiled in return, sitting down in her seat behind him. As they waited for Ms. Bustier to show up, Marinette caught snippets of the conversations around her.
Chloe and Adrien talked about the charity gala, which sounded like a fashion show where proceeds would go to the less fortunate… kids in foster care, maybe? Marinette wasn’t sure. And behind her...
Lila. Telling her lies again to the awaiting masses. She listened to everyone laugh at a fabricated joke, and rolled her eyes. Glancing over at Chloe, she was almost envious of how easily the blonde ignored them all. Maybe it was that Chloe didn’t have the fear of separation from the rest of the class like Marinette did. After all, they were pretty against her before Lila showed up, so there was really nothing Lila could threaten her with. Marinette couldn’t help but wish to have the same indifference sometimes.
“... And so there I was, standing on top of the Empire State Building, looking around for security, but there wasn’t any time to wait! He was going to jump, so I knew I had to do something .”
Marinette rolled her eyes to the back of her skull. So Lila was now an expert in talking down potential suicide jumpers, hm? What a joke.
“Not a fan, Dupain-Cheng?” A sharp voice shook Marinette from her internal screaming and back to reality. She looked up to see none other than Chloe, turned in her seat, and looking at her with a cat-like smile.
“What?” Marinette asked.
“Of our resident liar back there,” she gestured with a small tilt of her head, sapphire eyes narrowed.
“Oh. Well, I mean, I can’t prove any of her lies --”
“Stop being such a pushover. You clearly don’t like her, you might as well own it -- especially with me.”
Marinette was surprised at this, but had to admit Chloe had a point. “Yeah, our… personalities … don’t match,” she said with a glance back at Lila.
Chloe have a light hmph , and shook her head. “Fine, keep being nice. Just know that girls like that , aren’t.”
And girls like you are? Marinette thought. She glanced over her shoulder, and caught Lila’s eye past their adoring classmates. She gave marinette a wicked smile, that instantly morphed back into kindness as soon as someone said something to her. Marinette shivered. “Yeah, I know,” she said softly. The event in the bathroom was still frustrating, but there wasn’t anything she could or wanted to do about it now. Adrien was right, in some respects. She didn’t want to upset Lila -- as she was getting stronger as an Akuma every time Ladybug and Chat Noir fought her -- but it also wasn’t okay for Lila to get away with her lies. They weren’t going to hurt Adrien like they were going to hurt Marinette, but she had to keep her chin held high.
“It’ll be okay, Marinette,” Adrien said softly.
Marinette’s gaze snapped down to him, meeting the brilliant green of his eyes and nearly got lost in them. “Huh?”
“Remember, as long as you and I know, it doesn’t matter what Lila does.”
She smiled at him, wanting so badly to believe that. Her and Adrien against the dreaded Liar Lila. They could be like her and Chat Noir, but their everyday akuma was a lying pest instead of a supervillain. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
“Uh, we’re here too,” Chloe said. “Don’t think Sabrina and I are falling for that social climber’s lies.”
“Right! Of course,” Adrien said, turning back to Chloe, hand on the back of his neck. Marinette realized that she had been staring at Adrien intently the whole time… and Adrien had been staring back. She immediately felt her face flush a bright red, just at the bell for class rang.
Alya came to sit next to Marinette, a bundle of energy. “Marinette! You won’t believe--!” She stopped as she noticed the colour of Marinette’s face and goofy smile. Alya’s eyes glimmered with journalistic intrigue -- but mostly nosey best friend intrigue. “Girl what happened while I was back there?” she asked, sliding her shoulder up against Marinette’s.
“N-nothing!” Marinette exclaimed, putting a hand on her face to try and help cool it, but Alya persisted.
“C’mon, girl! Spill!” Alya dropped her voice to a whisper, nudging Marinette in the ribs with her elbow.
“Oh, uh, you know. I have… the, uh… you know!”
“Uh huh, I know. Did Adrien say something to you?”
“No! It’s um, well, it’s…”
“Good morning class!” Saved by Ms. Bustier, Marinette relaxed, giving Alya a sheepish grin, accompanied by a shrug.
Alya pursed her lips in response, silently telling Marinette that they’d talk about it at lunch.
Marinette simply gave her a nod, agreeing to that. It’d give her time to think about what had happened, and settle it out in her mind. In the meantime…
She looked at the back of Adrien’s head, and imagined how soft his hair would be under her fingertips and sighed. Gosh, he was beautiful, and kind, and one day they’d fall in love, and get married, have three kids, a dog, no a cat, no forget that, maybe a hamster! And they’d name it…
“Earth to Marinette?”
Marinette jerked up a bit in surprise. Had she really just wasted the whole morning daydreaming about Adrien? It had happened before, but she was always surprised when it did. Alya was looking at her half expectant and half amused. She knew exactly what had happened. “Again, girl?”
Marinette smiled, embarrassed. “Yeah.”
Alya simply smiled and stood up. "Don’t worry, I’ll send you pics of my notes after class.”
“Thank you!”
And with that they walked up to the cafeteria, Alya gently teasing her friend about her crush, just out of earshot of anyone they knew.
“Okay, so spill,” Alya demanded once they were sat down far away from the rest of the class. It wasn’t hard these days, considering they all flocked around Lila.
“Well, Adrien and I were… talking…” she didn’t need to mention the part where they agreed on Lila’s lies. It would only upset Alya, and she didn’t want to go through that whole fiasco again.
“Talking? About what?”
Shoot, she’d given Alya too much time to interject something. “Oh! You know, about, the, um, fashion charity thing he’s going to this weekend!” She smiled brightly, and Alya seemed to buy it. Wait, why was her mouth open? Why did she look so shocked?
“Girl, did he get you an invite?!”
“What? No! We just -- we were talking -- and then, well, he, we , I mean --”
“Marinette, if he didn’t ask you, why were you blushing so much?”
“It’s silly,” she admitted. It certainly sounded silly against Alya’s conclusion that he’d done something amazing for her. “We just um… well, I got lost in his eyes, and I…”
“... You?” Alya prompted.
“...I think he was staring back.”
Alya blinked. “You think he might have a crush on you?”
“I don’t know, Alya.” She pushed peas around her tray. “It just really… caught me off guard, you know?”
“Girl, don’t give up hope! Maybe he does!”
Marinette straightened, “You think so?”
“I mean, maybe, but you’re amazing so why not?”
Marinette smiled at her friend. “Thanks Alya.”
“What would you do if he asked you?” Alya asked.
Marinette blushed at the idea, and rested her head on one hand. Her gaze drifted to the windows, and she sighed wistfully, eyes bright as they caught the light. “I’d have to design my own dress,” she said. “After I finished freaking out about Adrien asking me. Then, I’d go buy fabric, and sew like crazy! Because, yes, it’s a charity gala, but what if a model there, or someone sees my design and loves it! What if Mr. Agreste sees it and wants to hire me? Alya, it could open so many doors, plus I’d get to spend the whole night with Adrien! And I’d have to look perfect for that!”
Alya chuckled, “Ah, typical Marinette.”
Marinette lifted her head a bit out of her hand as she returned her gaze to her friend. “What do you mean?”
“You’re so driven! But you never do forget about the boy you like,” she said with a wink. “I admire that, honestly.”
Marinette blushed a little at the compliment. She certainly had to be driven, though, didn’t she? Between homework, a budding career in design and fashion, and being Ladybug, she didn’t have much time for screwing around.
Their conversation wandered after that. The two were giggling about a silly picture of Nino that Alya had taken that weekend as the bell for the end of lunch rang. Since they had electives next, they wandered downstairs to the locker room, chatting happily all the while, only splitting as Alya went to go see Nino as his locker. Marinette smiled at her friends as she opened her lock by muscle memory.
“Hey Marinette!”
“Ah!” she jumped and caught herself on the edge of her locker door, causing her to swing into the other lockers as a consequence. Leave it to her to cause a scene. She looked up at her visitor, to see Adrien offering a hand to help her up. She took it gratefully, feeling fireworks spread up her arm as their fingers touched. “H-hey! What can I for you do? -- for do you? I-I mean do you in for? For you! Do! Do for you!” She smiled and tried to ignore the ever increasing temperature of her face.
“Oh, well I was wondering if you’d want to come to the charity gala with me this weekend?” Wait, was he blushing? He was certainly smiling and rubbing the back of his neck.
“No! I mean, yes way! I mean no way! Not that I would hate to go with you! I just mean that -- we’d be a date! No! It’s--” she took a deep breath, and centered herself. When she looked back up at him he was simply smiling at her, waiting for her to finish. God, he was so good, and patient, and handsome, and… she shook herself. Focus! “I would love you. To! Would love to. Thank you.”
His smile widened. “Great! I’ll make sure to text you the details later! Is a message on WhatsApp okay?”
“Y-yeah!”
“Perfect.” He set a hand on her shoulder and then turned to go to class.
She waved at him as he left, and then realized their exchange had take so long that they were the only ones left in the locker room. Wait. Oh no!
Marinette ran off to the art room, thankfully, the teacher was pretty lax, and knew perfectly well that Marinette was the scattered creative type. Today was an open studio day anyway, and he simply smiled as she came in, out of breath, but not disruptive. She sat down and flipped through her sketchbook for anything to wear to a gala. No sleek or eye-catching dresses. Just cute casual clothes she’d been working on. Well, Alya was right, she was driven. And if there was anything that was going to take her attention, it would be designing the perfect dress.
***
Marinette ran out the door that day, ecstatic. It was like her earlier conversation with Alya had just come true! Oh god! She was so excited, and she had a design that she loved, and she just needed to begin the pattern making process, and then choose fabric, and then find the right beads. She hadn’t had a design she was this excited for in a long time. She was so excited she could just --
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Dupain-Cheng.”
Nevermind.
Rolling her eyes, Marinette looked over the Chloe. “What do you want now?”
“To say I expect something incredible out of you this weekend.”
Marinette’s brain temporarily stopped working. She blinked. “Huh?”
Chloe looked slightly uncomfortable, and glanced off to the side. Marinette tried to follow her gaze, but Chloe quickly snapped it back to her. “It’s a fashion charity gala, and Adrien told me he wanted you to be his plus one at lunch today. So you had better make something incredible, and not embarrass him. Or me, because there’s no way I’m leaving you alone with my Adrikins all night.”
Was that… almost a compliment? It certainly was contorted. “Um, thanks? I won’t let you down?”
Chloe turned up her nose. “Good! And…” she sighed. “I’m glad it’s you and not Liar Lila that Adrien asked.”
Marinette blinked again. “Me too.”
Chloe shook her head and started walking away. “See you this weekend, then.” She stopped and turned sharply on her heel. Despite now being a few steps lower than Marinette, Chloe held a confidence that made her feel as though they were still at the same height. “Do not disappoint.” And with a hair flip she walked to her car, where Sabrina was waiting.
Something , Marinette decided, had to be in the water today. She headed home, confused but not upset, because somehow Chloe’s half-threat only impressed upon her how important this event would be. And Marinette was sure as hell excited for it.