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The giant fern sitting obnoxiously in one corner of the ballroom moved when Kagami sat down on the bench beside it, which was unsurprising. And though Paris had certainly seen stranger things than sentient plants (and had in fact had seen actual sentient plants, courtesy of some Akuma or other), tonight’s culprit was something else. Someone else, rather.
Someone Kagami had been avoiding all night.
It hadn’t taken long for her to realize Marinette had snuck into the party. The first thing Kagami had done upon walking in was search the room for familiar faces, because if she was doomed to spend hours trapped in a red satin gown, mingling with insufferable businessmen at her mother’s side, then she at least wanted a safe exit. Instead, she’d found Marinette dressed up to match the caterers, her face obscured by a ridiculous fake moustache.
Although Kagami would normally enjoy spending time with Marinette, the disguise came with an obvious caveat—Marinette was obviously here with yet another ill-fated plan to confess to Adrien. And frankly, Kagami wasn’t in the mood to help her out with that tonight. She wasn’t in the mood to be reminded over and over that Marinette liked someone else.
The fern shook again, and Kagami glared at it. The stark white of Marinette’s dress shirt peaked through the leaves, and her head poked overtop of the plant. A terrible plan.
Kagami pushed some fronds out of the way. “Marinette, if you’re going to spy on Adrien, you should at least do a better job of hiding.”
“I’m not spy—” Marinette cleared her throat and deepened her voice. “I mean, who’s Marinette? I’m Marino!”
Kagami wanted to smile at her antics. Okay, she did smile. But she hid it just as fast.
"Someone's going to catch you." Kagami turned away, staring at the people milling about on the dance floor. "Your disguise is terrible."
Marinette sighed, her voice returning to its normal register. "Well, I wasn't trying to hide from you."
"Of course not." She probably expected Kagami's help.
Once upon a time, Kagami had enjoyed helping Marinette with her schemes. They had a fun time coming up with them, tossing absurd ideas back and forth until they finally landed on something that could work…in a romcom maybe. The planning sessions, while inefficient, were an excuse to spend more time with Marinette. An excuse to hear her laugh and see her eyes sparkle and to sometimes feel a thrill when she grabbed Kagami’s hand amid her excitement.
But all of that was before Kagami realized why she enjoyed those moments so much.
After a moment of silence that risked becoming awkward if left to its own devices much longer, Kagami looked back at Marinette. They locked eyes, and Marinette set her shoulders back, stepped out from behind the plant, and straightened her moustache. She took a hesitant seat beside Kagami.
"I actually…had something I wanted to ask you," Marinette said, sliding a little closer. Right on schedule.
Kagami looked away again. "Why don't just go and talk to him?"
"Well, that's not ac—"
"Not what?" Kagami interrupted, her voice perhaps a little colder than intended. “How do you ever expect to date him if you can’t even have a conversation with him?”
“I can have a conversation with him!” Marinette protested. “I spent most of tonight talking to him, because you—whatever. The point is, I’m not even trying to date him anymore.”
Kagami snapped her head around, studying Marinette’s suddenly defiant expression. The moustache still looked stupid, but the conviction in her eyes was thrilling. Then Marinette glanced off to the side, and guilt churned in Kagami’s stomach. She wanted Marinette to be happy—she shouldn’t let her own feelings get in the way of that.
“You shouldn't give up,” Kagami insisted, hating herself for saying it.
But Marinette would have done the same for her. In fact, Marinette had done the same for her—had put their friendship above her feelings for Adrien after he and Kagami had broken up.
“I wouldn’t call it giving up,” Marinette said, still not quite meeting Kagami’s eyes. Her lips wore the ghost of a smile, making Kagami’s heart race. “It’s more like…changing directions.”
“That still sounds like giving up,” Kagami decided. “Don’t you think you owe it to yourself to give it your best shot?”
“Maybe.” Marinette tilted her head to one side as she watched the crowd. Her voice was so quiet when she spoke again that Kagami almost missed the beginning of her sentence. “What would you recommend, then? If I wanted to take one more chance at…wooing the person I love?”
Turning to face her properly, Kagami bent one leg up on the bench, a position Marinette mirrored a moment later. Kagami had to keep herself from reaching forwards to tuck a loose strand of hair behind Marinette’s ear.
“Lose the moustache,” she said instead.
“Really? You don’t think it’s becoming of me?” Marinette twirled the ends of it, turning her nose up like a rich snob and pursing her lips like an utter fool.
Kagami stared incredulously. “Marinette, if you truly want to grow a moustache some day, I’ll do everything in my power to support you. But that thing is hideous.”
Marinette giggled. “Alright, alright. Fine.” She raised a hand to the side of it, tugged a bit, then bit her lip. “Actually, um…could you help? It’s kind of…hurts less if I get someone else to do it while I’m not expecting it.”
“Sure.”
But as Marinette closed her eyes and leaned closer, Kagami processed what exactly she’d agreed to. She needed leverage—otherwise she’d just be pulling at it in a way that was bound to hurt more. And for that…Kagami froze, her fingers hovering centimetres from Marinette’s cheek.
A few seconds passed before Marinette peaked an eye open. “D-do you…not want to do it, or…?”
“Keep your eyes closed.”
Marinette complied, and Kagami cupped her cheek a second later. Marinette’s skin was softer than she’d expected, and Kagami wanted nothing more than to brush her fingers gently across it. But this wasn’t about that, so she slipped her thumb under the edge of the moustache, tugged the skin sideways a touch, then used her other hand to pull it off in the opposite direction.
Marinette winced and blinked furiously. A single tear slipped from the corner of her eye, and her hand brushed Kagami’s as they both moved to wipe it away. Shockwaves travelled through their point of contact until Kagami tore her hand away. She tried to calm herself as Marinette used her knuckle to dab the area dry.
When Marinette finished, she took back the moustache and smiled. “Okay, that’s done. What, uh…what else would you do?”
“What do you mean?” Kagami wasn’t sure if she just hadn’t processed the sentence, or if it really hadn’t made sense.
Marinette fiddled with her fingers. “I mean…what else would you suggest I do? To prepare me to confess.”
A pit formed in Kagami’s stomach, but she forced a smile. “Nothing, Marinette. You’re perfect.”
“Really?” The hope in her eyes would be Kagami’s undoing.
Kagami stopped herself before she could nod. “Well, there might be one thing.”
That one thing was mostly just selfishness on Kagami’s part, but it couldn’t hurt. She reached towards the messy bun piled on top of Marinette’s head. “Can I…”
“Sure.”
Trying to hide how much everything affected her, Kagami bit down on her lip as she pulled the pins from Marinette’s hair, one by one. She passed them to Marinette, their fingers connecting each time they made an exchange. When the rest of the bun fell out, Kagami moved a little closer and ran her fingers through Marinette’s hair, teasing out tiny knots and rearranging strands until it fell evenly on her shoulders.
“Perfect,” Kagami reiterated.
“Thanks.” Marinette’s voice trembled.
Kagami nodded to the bobby pins and the moustache resting on Marinette’s palm. “I can take those if you want? I have a purse over at my table.”
“It’s fine; I have pockets. Perks to wearing a suit, right?”
“Right.” But that wasn’t the biggest perk—not as far as Kagami was concerned. Because now that the moustache was gone and Marinette’s hair hung loose…the outfit was doing something for her.
It would look nice if the top button or two were undone as well. If her collar were turned up and a little dishevelled. If the bowtie hung undone and—
“What else should I do?” Marinette asked, interrupting Kagami’s fantasies. “To impress…my person.”
“You mean Adrien.”
Marinette only shook her head, seeming disappointed.
Kagami stared briefly to the side, trying to find Adrien in the crowd. “I would ask him to dance.”
That comment earned Kagami a long silence that drew her gaze back to Marinette’s. There was a desperate sheen in Marinette’s eyes, imploring Kagami to understand something. But it was like trying to write a test she hadn’t studied for, something Kagami had no experience with in the first place; she was always prepared.
Eventually, Marinette let out a tiny, frustrated huff and stood, tucking her hair behind her ears and fidgeting before reaching out a tentative hand.
“Kagami, would like—no, wait! Would me, uh…would you dance to like—ugh! Why did I think this would be any easier?”
“You want me to dance with you?” Kagami translated. “But what about…” Kagami trailed off, because maybe…maybe she was finally starting to catch on.
Or it was just ridiculously wishful thinking, and Kagami was about to get her heart crushed again. But if this was her chance, she couldn’t squander it. So she allowed Marinette to pull her to her feet with a shy smile.
“What about Adrien?” Kagami felt like an idiot for asking that question when Marinette’s fingers were laced through hers, but it was better to be upfront than to be blindsided.
Marinette’s laugh was a little manic as she led the way to the dance floor. “What about him? He’s the one who helped me sneak in here tonight.”
Kagami stopped near the edge of the dance floor, pulling Marinette back to face her. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“Well, uh.” Marinette took a deep breath and stared at her feet as she finished. “Do you at least know how to dance? Because if I have to lead, we’re screwed.”
“I can manage that.
She pulled Marinette closer, inhaling sharply when Marinette set her free hand on Kagami’s shoulder. It felt foreign for Kagami to put her own hand on the small of Marinette’s back—any dance lessons she’d taken over the years forced her into the opposite position—but it also felt right in some sense.
Kagami still couldn’t completely shake the fear that this was just another one of Marinette’s elaborate ploys to win over Adrien’s heart. Marinette wouldn’t toy with Kagami’s emotions if she knew about them, but there was a chance she didn’t. Communication wasn’t really Marinette’s strong point, and maybe Kagami was just reading the situation the way she wanted to.
Still, Marinette didn’t seem to have eyes for anyone else right then.
She squeezed Kagami’s hand. “Is this okay?”
“It’s great,” Kagami reassured her.
“Good.” Marinette sighed in relief, her breath warming Kagami’s collarbone. “I was so nervous. I mean, I thought you felt the same way. Alya said she suspected it, and at first I thought she was being ridiculous, but then…the more I thought about it the truer it seemed, and…the more I hoped it was true.”
Kagami let that sink in for a moment. “On the interest of being on the same page…what does feeling the same way entail, exactly?”
Marinette pulled back, not quite meeting Kagami’s eyes. “I-it means that I…” She closed her eyes. “That I love you. I don’t know when or how it started exactly, but…” She laughed, her eyes flying open again. “I haven’t been trying to confess to Adrien for over a month. I just really liked spending time with you, and I didn’t know how to tell you exactly. I was scared things would change.”
“Me too,” Kagami whispered. She was rewarded when Marinette’s timid smile grew into one that nearly stole Kagami’s ability to breathe.
“Well,” Marinette said, “I knew you wouldn’t want complicated plans, or…whatever. But that’s kind of me. I tried not to make it too crazy, though.”
Kagami grinned. “So what you’re saying is, if I want to date you I have to accept you as is? Moustache and all.”
Marinette’s breath hitched. “I m-mean. You already got rid of the moustache, but…the rest of it’s non-negotiable. Yeah.”
“I think I can work with that,” Kagami said, feeling giddy all of a sudden.
She raised their clasped hands above Marinette’s head and spun her, catching her waist as Marinette giggled and half-fell against her. Their lips landed closer together than they’d been before, and time seemed to freeze a moment.
Kagami swallowed. “To be clear, I love you too.”
“Oh, good.” Marinette laughed. “Would have been awkward if you didn’t.”
“Yeah.”
“Yup.”
This was probably the the opportunity for Kagami to say something suave, like, “Especially since I’m about to kiss you right now.” But that sounded stupid and presumptuous, and her tongue wasn’t really working all that well.
Instead, she and Marinette played some weird game of chicken where their eyes kept darting up and down as their lips gradually grew closer and closer. Soon there was no more space left between them, and Kagami couldn’t have said which of them was responsible.
Marinette’s lips felt smaller than Kagami had expected. They were soft and tasted faintly of strawberries. The contact sent a thrill through her, but once that settled Kagami realized she had no idea what to do next. She ended up pulling away, then worried she’d done it too soon. But Marinette’s eyes were filled with awe, and Kagami could only smile dumbly at her for a moment.
“We should try that that again,” Kagami decided. “For practice.”
Marinette smirked. “Are you sure you don’t want to try it with the moustache?”
Kagami tried to protest, but Marinette cut her off with another kiss.