Work Text:
This was a habit she really needed to stop.
Daylight hours had begun to fizzle out by the time she had even finished one piece of sketching paper, huddled up in the corner of the classroom with nothing but her mannequin. Asking for permission to stay behind in the textile room hadn’t been hard to finish her project, especially since she had won the design contest all those months back, but by the time Marinette had to flick on the lights, she knew she had almost outstayed her welcome.
“Why can’t I get this done…!” She groaned, before putting her head on the table and letting the pencil roll out of her grasp. “It shouldn’t be this hard to get the design down…”
Marinette paused for a brief moment, before sighing into the cold surface of the table again. Now she was talking to herself, alone, in the middle of an empty classroom.
She really had hit an all-time low.
“Is anyone in here?”
A yelp involuntarily crawled out of her lips and shook the air around her, as she jumped in her seat. She had to grip the table for support.
Peering around the doorway, with a slightly amused expression, was Adrien. Or, to Marinette, the “I-draw-hearts-around-your-name-whenever-I-can-to-cope-with-my-own-incapability-of-even-holding-a-conversation-with-you” Adrien. Staring right at her.
I’ve been a good person, universe. Now please, strike me down, before I embarrass myself even more. You can always just make Ladybug from the part of me that DOES feel confident in moments like these.
“A-Adrien?!”
“That’s my name.” He chuckled, leaning on the doorframe and putting a hand on his hip. “I thought I saw the lights on in here. What are you doing here so late, Marinette?”
“O-Oh, I…” She shyly put a hand over her sketchbook. “J-Just trying to, uh… get something finished.”
Adrien stuck his hands in his pockets and wandered in. A small part of her was wondering why he was there so late, but it was drowned out by the fact that he was talking to her and Chloe wasn’t there. Her heartbeat drummed so hard against her chest, she put a hand over it to quell the feeling.
“Another design?”
“S-Sort of.” Her ears began to burn, and she scuffed the soles of her shoes on the red-carpet floor. “I-It’s not homework, though.”
“Mm?” He hummed, perching on the edge of the tabletop. “Is it a complex design?”
“Not… really?” She sighed. “B-But it, uh, it’s taken longer than I thought it would.”
“How so?”
And all of a sudden, all hesitation faded away, and the words began to roll off of her tongue.
“I’m trying a new angle. Not literally, but in terms of my work.” She turned over a page, to the uncompleted lineart. “See, I entered fashion design because I like how it expresses parts of your personality that you can’t really do in words or hobbies. Someone could just like shirts and jeans because they’re comfortable. Or they wear tracksuits because they love to run. But what about beyond that? What about breaking those boundaries? That’s what I’m trying to do, but…”
Her posture wilted. “I’m a little nervous about this design, which is why I can’t really… put it to print.”
Adrien peered closer. “What’s so bad about them? They look fine.”
Marinette twiddled her thumbs, and the bashful shyness had returned. “They’re not… specifically just a women’s line.”
His eyes widened in surprise, and he looked down at her. “You’re designing gender-neutral clothing?”
“Y-Yes, I am! Well,” she rubbed her arm. “I’ve had a lot of help researching, but… I mean, I usually have people model a few prototypes for me before I create a small line. Alya usually helps me out, but she’s been busy with the Ladyblog, and I’ve been busy–”
Being Ladybug.
“…h-helping my parents out at the bakery, and being the class president, s-so… finding guys to model for me is a little… harder than I thought it would be. This isn’t just something you can spring on people, y’know?”
Adrien nodded. “They’ll think people will make fun of them for it.” He then looked down at her. “Why so surprised?”
“Huh? O-Oh, I just… wasn’t expecting that sort of… nonchalance.”
He chuckled. “Marinette, I’m a model. Ideas like guys wearing skirts aren't odd to me.”
Despite herself, she smiled over at him and cleared the eraser shavings from the tabletop. “You’ve got more experience in that industry then I have, remember?”
Adrien opened his mouth to respond before it snapped shut all of a sudden. Something glossed over in those green eyes of his, and he launched himself off the table, grinning like a gambler. It took everything she had not to swoon.
“You said you had people model the prototypes.”
She blinked. “Y-yes…?”
“I just remembered that I never got to wear your hat for the last contest. If you wanted, I could…?”
He gestured over to the lineart, and it clicked in her head. She wanted to refuse, to babble and run out, but… something made her stay. Maybe it was the fleeting sense of recognition or the fact he had extended an offer to something she had been working on for a while now, but why refuse?
“I…” She gulped down the remaining hesitation and stood up. “Are you sure?”
He grinned, Chat Noir style, and she still wanted to swoon.
“Like you said, I’ve got experience in the industry. But these clothes are something you’re designing, and I want to wear them. So, Marinette, why wouldn’t I be sure?”
Somehow, Marinette had been thrown from a stuttering mess around Adrien, to practically coordinating a project with him in the span of a week.
The two of them, along with Alya and Nino, would discuss the shape and cut in-between lunchtime banter; talk about materials and additions on walks home from school; and locations and the best time for lighting for the shots whenever there was a free moment in class. Between the four of them, it had juggled to a free-time project… and it was only growing from there.
Alya had mentioned it in passing on her blog more than once. Nino had insisted on filming segments for his video channel online. What was even more amazing, was volunteers from a minor community for LGBT youth in the area had come together to pose for her.
Even at sixteen, she thought she had seen it all, until now.
“Alright, so if we maybe… no, Adrien, can you just stand there? Maybe with your back facing the camera, and looking up at the sky? …Perfect!”
She had fashioned up a simplistic black skirt for Adrien (with pockets), white-trimmed and coupled with a simple white shirt, and the four of them (along with other volunteers) were currently on the last day of their shoot.
It was amateur, of course–nothing compared to what Adrien may have been used to, but the grin on his face was unlike anything she had seen from the photographs that she used to stick on her wall. With the project underway, she’d found that she needed to clear away all those things for planning.
“I can’t believe you’re going to be posting these tonight, Mari!” Alya whispered as Marinette clicked the camera again. “Are you nervous?”
“…Yeah.” She admitted, glancing through some of the takes. “But… I think it’ll be alright, you know?”
“You sure?”
She took a glance around at all the volunteers, at the smiles on their faces.
“…Yeah, I am.”
The school was buzzing the next day.
It hadn’t been long since Marinette had opened a small shop online, procuring small items of clothing that she sold in her local area, but hearing the words being whispered about her so-called “controversial” new line had her sweating in her seat.
She didn’t regret it. Fashion was about breaking free of standards. But the anticipation for the photographs had made her nervous. Some of the e-mails she had gotten that night were even worse.
Marinette sighed, and put her bag down underneath her desk, before flicking her phone out, and logging onto her website.
They were only a few photographs. Adrien, Alya, and a few other volunteers from her classroom had posed in her small line of winter items, which, had included skirts and dresses, but finding what was so wrong with that still had her puzzled. She knew why…
…but why?
If they could accept Ladybug and Chat Noir, if they could fathom the idea of war and Supernatural mishappenings… why not this?
It confused her.
“Hey, floozy.”
Marinette blinked, as a hand slammed down on her desk. Glancing upward, she rolled her eyes.
I should have seen this coming.
“Good morning, Chloe.” She muttered.
“I saw the new line you put up onto website last night and the photographs. How you got Adrien to model for you, I’ll never know…”
Here it comes.
“…but what you did was actually pretty cool.”
The way her face contorted, she assumed, was not natural, as Chloe folded her arms and huffed. “Don’t get me wrong, I still hate your guts, but that’s only because you’re trying to chase someone that is way out of your league. I’m not giving up Adrien for the likes of you.”
Marinette was still too stunned to speak.
“But if anyone gives you trouble about your website, just tell me. I’ll get them sorted out.”
Marinette had to remind herself to close her mouth. “Uh… sure. Thanks.”
Chloe merely walked off in a huff back to her desk, and Marinette traced her path with her eyes. As soon as she got back to her seat, she devoted her return to reality back to her phone and smiled a little when another order had been placed.
I’m pretty sure these wouldn’t have been a success so fast without Adrien’s help, but…
Marinette lifted her head to see Adrien, holding up his phone with her website on the screen, and the smile that curved her lips widened even more. It even left him a little stunned.
…I think good things will come from this.