Chapter Text
Adrien flopped back into his bed after getting up simply to check the LadyBlog for what seemed like the hundredth time in however many minutes. This was how he’d spent all of his time since coming home from school and he was tired of it, but he didn't know what else to do with himself. He stared at the large expanse of white ceiling above him. After another moment, he sighed.
Plagg groaned from across the room and flew out of a camembert box on the coffee table. “Will you stop it already? All this fidgeting and sighing is so annoying. I get it already, you’re angsty!”
Adrien turned his head just enough to fix Plagg with a very disapproving glare. “You don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
Flying over, Plagg landed right in front of Adrien's face. “I know exactly what I’m talking about,” he replied happily. He also knew exactly how irksome he was being. “You’re going through Ladybug withdrawal.” He teased.
“Shut up,” Adrien moaned. He rolled over and pulled his pillow over his head.
This disturbance on the bed was too much for Plagg, who retreated to the nightstand, “Hey don’t take your frustrations out on me. It’s not my fault Hawk Moth hasn’t akumatized anyone in over two weeks.”
Adrien pulled his head out from under the pillow looking even more forlorn than before, “Sorry.”
“Besides,” Plagg continued, barely seeming to notice Adrien’s response. “Isn't this what we want anyway? We don’t really want innocent people turned evil and we don’t really want to have to save them and everyone around them.”
Adrien moaned and rolled his eyes, “You’re right. But then I start thinking, what if something has happened to Hawk Moth and there’s never another akuma. I’ll never see Ladybug again. That can’t happen, Plagg. I’m not any closer to figuring out who she is than when we first met!”
He shifted so he was sitting on the edge of the bed. He propped his elbows on his knees and shoved his face into his hands, looking at the floor.
Plagg was relaxing on the nightstand, “Hey, I'm not saying there'll never be another akuma, I’m just saying to enjoy the peace while it lasts.”
No move from Adrien.
The small black kwami sighed and floated up next to his partners hanging head, “Even if Hawk Moth does miraculously stop without any intervention from us, which I seriously doubt, there’ll be other disasters to draw Ladybug out eventually.”
Adrien lifted his head and his blonde locks bounced with the movement. “That’s true.” He seemed to have perked up some.
“You’re a seriously weird guy,” Plagg shook his head as he floated back to his box of camembert.
“I’m in love.”
“More like insane,” and with that Plagg disappeared into his box.
A chime from Adriens desktop computer alerted him that Alya’s LadyBlog had been updated. He sprung from the bed and leapt across his bedroom. But it was just some article she’d found about how Ladybug’s got their name. He dropped himself into his desk chair with a sigh. It wasn’t what he wanted, but at least it was something to do.
The article talked about how in Middle Ages Europe there were insects destroying all of the crops, so Catholic farmers prayed to the Virgin Mary for help, and then Ladybugs showed up and ate the plant destroying pests, saving the crops. This caused them to be known as “The Beetles of Our Lady” which eventually evolved into the name “Ladybug” that we see today. Adrien couldn't help but chuckle to himself. There’d always been a Ladybug to save the day. Why was he not surprised?
He glanced down at the clock in the corner of his monitor. 6:56. He’d better get downstairs before dinner was served. Just in case his dad decided to show up tonight. With another sigh he managed to pull himself out of his chair. He could hear Plagg mocking him from inside the camembert box, but ignored him and slid out the door instead.
Down the hall, a staircase, another hall, and another staircase, and he'd arrived in the main foyer. As usual, he did his best to avoid looking at the large portrait of him and his dad hanging at the top of the staircase as he passed. The fact that it was just the two of them in it was bad enough, but the added affect of the full black outfits and black backdrop often proved too much for Adrien to handle. It made it too painfully obvious that his mom wasn’t there. And why.
Adrien took the double doors to his left into the large dining room. The table could easily fit sixteen people. It was set for only one.
Natalie, Adrien's father's assistant, was standing next to the set place. Her usual air of serious with a touch of nervous clung to her as she stood checking and rechecking something on her tablet.
“Hey, Natalie,” Adrien greeted as he solemnly took his place for dinner. He gazed down the long table and thought about how achingly empty it was. With a shake of his head he directed his attention toward his food. He was just in a melancholy sort of mood that night, he supposed. He’d never thought about what too long without Ladybug and the adventures that accompanied her would do to him. Apparently, this was it.
That left him a question. Was he sad due to the recent lack of Ladybug related adventures or had he been this depressed all along and use the excitement of love and crime fighting to cover it up?
As usual, he decided that it didn't matter, because regardless it wasn't anything that Ladybug couldn't fix. He wished his phone would chime with an akuma alert. This latest stream of thought sent him into another reverie. How wonderful would it be to know Ladybugs secret identity? He smiled as he chewed. That would be the best. Then they could actually be together. And they could hang out after school. And he could invite her over so they could have dinner together. And…
“Adrien,” Natalie broke his train of thought. She spoke with the edge of someone who’d had to repeat themselves multiple times.
“Ah, yes, sorry, Natalie,” he cringed
“I was just informing you of your father's plan for your birthday party.”
That caught his attention. He sat up straighter in his chair. “Birthday party? My birthday isn't for another couple of months.”
Natalie raised a perfectly arched eyebrow, “You don't want a party? After you begged for one last year?”
“I would love a party. I’m just confused I guess,” he smiled up at her.
She handed him her tablet. “There's a catch.”
Adrien felt his chest tighten. He looked down to see a picture of a young girl on the tablet screen. From his modeling experience he recognized it immediately as a professional headshot. She was about his age with dark blue eyes, long caramel colored hair, and a face that was easily model level beauty.Nothing compared to his Ladybug though.
“This is Valerie Marchand, the daughter of a very important designer that M. Agrest has been communicating a deal with over the past few weeks.” She gestured to the picture on the tablet. “Like you, she is a model for her father. She will be visiting Paris soon for a photoshoot and will be in attendance at your party. You must make sure she has a good time. The deal I mentioned will be highly beneficial to M. Agrest so you must do everything you can to help it go through. Her father is said to do anything for his little girl so if she’s happy with us he's happy with us and he makes the deal. Do you understand?”
Adrien sighed in relief and gave Natalie another smile, “No problem.” he didn't have much social experience but he was confident in his ability to handle this situation.
She nodded. “You may invite your classmates, I’ll take care of the rest of the guest list. Please inform them that it will be a masquerade ball-”
“A masquerade ball?” he questioned.
“Yes,” she replied confidently, “What girl hasn't wanted to go to a masquerade ball?”
Adrien shrugged.
Natalie nodded as if to assure him it were true. Then finished with, “We’re leaving everything else to the party planner.” before heading for the door.
“Oh, yes,” she paused in the doorframe and looked back. “What’s your favorite flavor cake?”
“Lemon.” he responded.
Another nod and Natalie was gone.
Adrien sat for a minute staring this empty plate at the empty table. He barely understood what had just happened. A party? A birthday party for him? Who cared if it was nearly two months early or if it was just to impress some prospective business partners daughter, this was going to be awesome.
****************
Back in his room, Adrien was gushing to Plagg, who was also very excited.
“A party?!” Plagg spun around in the air “Woohoo! You know what they have at parties? Cheese!”
Adrien laughed, reclining back on his sofa, “I'll Put in a word about camembert for you.”
Plagg dropped happily onto his chest. “Whoo! That’s all you need for a great party, so you have nothing to worry about with this model girl.”
“Valerie Marchand,” Adrien reminded him.
“Whatever,” Plagg whined. “Doesn't matter who you are, cheese is the best.”
Adrien chuckled, “yeah ,right.”
“”Have you told your friends yet?”
“No, I’ll do it tomorrow. I want to invite them in person.” Adrien sat up, catching Plagg in his hand as he began to slide off his chest. “That reminds me, I should set a reminder on my phone so I don't forget to tell them it's a masquerade ball.”
He set Plagg on the coffee table and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He’d just finished setting his reminder when Plagg zipped back over and peered at him around his phone.
“I know you're really happy right now and all, but do you really think a masquerade ball is a good idea?” Plagg asked.
Adrien shrugged. “Natalie seemed to think it was, I’m just glad I get a birthday party.”
“No,” Shaking his head, Plagg hovered up to be on eye level with Adrien, “I mean don’t you think you might look awfully familiar in a mask?”
“Oh,” his eyes flew wide, then he slumped back into the couch again dejectedly. “Oh… i didn't think about that. Don’t want Chat Noir making a surprise appearance at my party, I geuss.”
He let his head fall back and sighed. Plagg flew up and landed on the back of the couch next to Adrien’s head.
“Don't start that again,” Plagg demanded.
“What do I do, Plagg?” Adrien moaned.”I don’t know if-”
Two chimes from his phone told Adrien he had an email. He glanced down, saw it was from Natalie and unlocked his phone to read it. She only ever sent important scheduling information to him. The topic was “Birthday Party” and the message told him to “please pick one of your fathers designs to wear to the party”. A file attached to the email held around eight different formalwear options for him, masks included. Gabriel Agreste was clearly not going to allow his son to look anything less than perfect in front of this girl.
Adrien felt a smile slowly creep across his face as he examined the contents of the computer file. It wasn't just because of the beauty of the designs, although Adrien did always love his father's work, but also because of design No. 6. It was a completely white from the pants to the jacket to the waistcoat to the shoes. The only exceptions was slight gold accents in the tie and gold trim around the jackets edges and cuffs that almost reminded Adrien of a prince from a fairytale. The accompanying mask was also gold, with a vine-like pattern wrapping around it to match the pattern on the jacket.
Adrien laughed allowed and spun his smartphone around to show Plagg. “Does this look like something Cat Noir would wear?” he asked jokingly.
Plagg smiled back, “Not in a million years.”
Unable to wipe a big goofy grin off his face, Adrien replied to Natalie's email with his choice. “Didn’t think so.”
*********************
Marinette sat anxiously in her seat. The lack of akuma victims recently had given her a nice break from being Ladybug. There was a noticeable improvement in her schoolwork and attendance, but she knew it wouldn't last long. In fact it had been too long already. She knew an attack would be coming sooner rather than later and she was on the edge of her seat.
But that wasn't what was causing her nervousness at the moment. Actually being on time meant she could watch some of her other classmates come in and she’d realized that Adrien wasn't there yet. He had precisely two minutes to get there or he would be late. And if he was late who knew if he was even coming at all. That would be an absolutely awful day if she didn't get to see Adrien at all.
Positive thoughts, Marinette, she reminded herself. She wondered if Adrien ever wondered where she was when she was late, as she so often was. That would be amazing. She tried her best to sit still as she became giddy with just the thought of it.
One minute left. Marinette pouted and turned to her best friend, Alya, who was sitting next to her “Do you happen to know if Adrien’s coming?”
Alya tossed her head, “No luck,girl.”
Marinette slumped in her chair for a moment before leaning over her desk to talk to Nino, the boy who sat in front of Alya and Adrien's bestfriend, “Hey, Nino.” She smiled at him.
“Sup Marinette,” he turned around in response.
“Do you happen to know if Adr- ah- aaaah!” she fell back into her seat in an awkward spasm.
“Wha- oh,” Nino looked around and spotted Adrien walking in the doorway.
Adrien made his way into the room and to his seat right in front of Marinette. She waved shyly at him as he turned to sit and he gave her a warm smile and a “good morning” back. Her face went up in flames. Lucky for her he was already facing the other way. Alya was snickering at her, but she didn’t care. It was still a good morning.
Adrien turned to Nino in his seat, “You’ll never guess what, man.”
“What’s goin on?” Nino sat up, grinning.
“I’m having a birthday party,” Adrien beamed.
Marinettes heart sped up. Thoughts of her and Adrien together at a party flooded her mind, but before she could go into full daydream mode a thought broke through her lovey haze: it was still two months from Adrian's birthday.
“Isn’t it still like a couple months till your birthday?” Nino voiced Marinette’s concerns.
Adrien scratched the back of his head and looked down, “Yeah, well my dad is only giving me the okay so that we can use it to entertain the daughter of some prospective business partner of his while she's in town.”
Nino clapped Adrien on the back. “Alright,” he broke enthusiastically, “Well a party is a party and we’re going to make it all about you! This is gonna be epic!”
“Yeah, it is,” Adrien laughed, reassured.
The two friends fist bumped. Marinette hadn't realized that her hand had gone to her mouth. She’d been biting her fingernails and staring intently at Adrien. A party. His party. She glanced over at Alya and the two girls made eye contact. Alya smiled and, before Marinette could do anything to stop her, leaned over their shared desk into the boys conversation.
“A party?” she smiled back and forth between the two of them.
“Yup,” Adrien confirmed.
Nino took Alya’s hand, “Which you'll be my date to, of course.”
“Of course,” she agreed. “Only if I'm invited that is.” she added making pointed eye contact with Adrien.
He flashed another shiny white smile, “Of course you’re invited.”
Marinette had been slowly but surely inching herself forward throughout this in an attempt to nonchalantly join their conversation. It was then that Adrien noticed her.
“You're invited too, Marinette,” he said redirecting his smile at her, “That is if you want to come.”
She fell back into her chair feeling as if all of the wind had just been knocked out of her. Suddenly her mind was blank, as it always seemed to be when encountering Adrien, so she reacted the way she always did, by blathering on like a idiot. “I would love to be with you- at your party- and you know, of course, everybody else- On your birthday- well, I mean, it's not your real birthday but it is your party and it is celebrating you’re-”
“She’d love to come,” Alya cut in with a smile and a nod.
Adrien, who had been slowly getting more confused with each new thing out of Marinette’s mouth, took a moment to take in what Alya had said. Then he laughed. “Great!”
Marinette giggled along with him and sighed when he was done .She could feel the heat emanating off her face, which only made her blush more, but there wasn’t much to be done about it so she just kept smiling. It wasn't like she wouldn't be smiling anyway. How could she not smile while in the same room as Adrien?
Suddenly, Chloe slammed her hand down onto Adrien and Nino’s desk, redirecting all the attention to her, as usual. “What’s this I hear about a party, Adrikins?” she fluttered her fake eyelashes. “And why on earth would you invite those losers and not me?”
Adrien held in a sigh, “Of course youre invited, chloe.”
Chloe fixed Marinette and Alya with her nastiest smile showing off the way she’d played the situation and the fact that Adrien had said of course she was invited.
“In fact,” Adrien raised his voice for the rest of the class to hear. He knew the majority of them were already listening in because of Chloe’s big scene, “Everyone here is invited.”
There was some clapping and a few cheers. Chloe’s face immediately fell into a slightly deeper version of her customary scowl and she stalked back to her seat across the aisle. Marinette and Alya looked at each other and giggled. After sitting for a few seconds, happily soaking in this new experience, Adrien got up and turned to address his seated classmates.
“You’re all invited to my birthday party,” he repeated. “I'm supposed to tell you it will be a masquerade ball. And, um-”
Just then their homeroom teacher walked in, “Adrien, it's time for class to start. Please save any… announcements for later.”
“Sorry,” he offered a sheepish apology. But before he went to sit he turned around once more and quickly spat out, “If you want to come see me later for more details.” Then he flopped back into his seat.
“Thank you, Adrien,” their teacher nodded to him then set her bag on the front desk and began taking out her lesson plans.
Nino gave his bud a pat on the back. Alya gave her girl a hand squeeze. And class went on as normal. Of course, normal included several daydreams featuring Adrien in Marinette’s mind and just as many about Ladybug in Adrien’s
*********************
Alya and Marinette were walking home from school. Marinette kept clutching her bag and giggling with a big goofy grin on her face. She couldn't have made any other expression if she tried.
“Can you believe it?” she gushed to her BFF as they walked. “I’m invited to a masquerade birthday ball.. For Adrien!” she giggled and held her hands to her face..
Alya laughed, “You’re crazy, girl. But it does sound like a lot of fun.”
Marinette began spewing out her feelings getting faster with every word. “It’s perfect! And when we’re dancing he’ll realize that we’re meant to be. Won’t that be such a cute story for our kids? We’ll be able to tell them we fell in love at a ball. And they’ll think we’re just like a fairy tale which of course we will be because how can two people not be when we’re sooo perfect for eachother. Well I mean he’s way more perfect than me but-”
“Whoa, whoa, Marinette,” Alay interrupted, laughing again at her friends usual antics. “How are you going to ask him to dance when you can’t even speak properly in front of him? No, wait, how are you even going to dance with him if you can’t even keep your balance whenever he’s too close?”
Marinette gave her BFF an angry pout and an elbow in the side. Darnit, she hadn’t thought of that. It only took another moment before she was giggling again. She did a twirl. Alya was grinning at her, she clearly hadn’t meant what she’d said meanly, but it was kind of true. Nevermind that though; Marinette had a solution.
“I won’t need to ask him because, with any luck” Marinette took Alya’s arm and gave her a mischievous grin, “he’s going to ask me.”
“Whoa,” Having complete faith in her friend, Alya grinned back “How are you going to swing that?”
Marinette stopped and put her nose up in mock snootiness. “Because I’ll be the prettiest girl there and he’ll feel compelled to ask me to dance. I’ll be the prettiest girl because I’ll have the very best dress. It’s a one of a kind, totally unique, and designed by this great new up and coming fashion designer, Marinette Dupain-Cheng!”
“Sounds great, girl” Alya high fived her friend. “Adrien totally loved your designs when he saw your sketchbook during the hat designing competition awhile ago! Plus, everything you make looks amazing!”
“Thank you!” Marinette giggled.
A few steps further and they were at Marinette's home. Alya patted her on the head, “Have fun designing your dress.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to hang out for a while?” asked Marinette.
“I’d love to, but I have to babysit tonight,” Alya declined. ”See ya!”
Marinette smiled and waved as Alya began walking away. “See ya tomorrow!,” She called.
Alya waved back over her shoulder and continued walking. Marinette then swooped in the bakery door. She quickly hugged her mom then took all of the stairs up to her room two at a time. She flung open her door, then let it fall shut behind her. Running over to her desk, she set down her book bag next to it and her purse on top and unclasped her purse so Tikki, her little red kwami, could come out. Then she dropped into her desk chair and began spinning for joy.
Tikki spun out of the bag. She’d been listening in the whole time and was already filled with joy for Marinette. “A masquerade ball sounds like so much fun!”
“Oh, Tikki, this is going to be amazing,” Marinette squealed in response as she stopped her spinning and pulled up to her desk. Sliding her sketchbook out of her book bag, she flipped it open to the first blank page. “But first I have to get designing.”
The small kwami landed next to the sketchbook and joined her partner in staring at the expanse of white. “What do you think you’ll do?”
A small hmmm escaped Marinette as she tapped her pencil to her lips, not taking her eyes off of the empty space in front of her. There were so many possibilities to fill that blank page with. “Well, first off I’m think red for both the dress and the mask. Mom says I look good in red.”
Tikki turned to Marinette with a patient sigh. “You do. But you know who else looks really good in a red mask?”
Leaning forward and putting her elbows on her desktop, Marinette stared down at Tikki questioningly.
“Ladybug!” Tikki finished, allowing her concern to show through on her face.
Marinette slumped back into her chair and threw a hand over her cringing face in shame. “Why didn’t I realize that!” she whined. Another moment of contemplation and Marinette shot up from her chair and began pacing around her room. “This is awful!”
“It’s fine,” replied Tikki, still seated on the desk. “The important thing is that we caught it right away and you didn’t waste time on it.”
Marinette was freaking out, “But now I can’t go! I mean how could I? What if something figured out our secret? Everything's ruined!”
“Marinette,” Tikki called out almost scoldingly. She flew up to face her friend at eye level. “There's a simple solution here. Just design a dress and mask that look nothing like ladybug.”
“You really think that would work?” Marinette asked, chewing on her thumbnail in doubt.
Tikki flew up and put a reassuring paw on Marinette’s hand. “Of course!”
A new wave of determination overtook Marinette. She took her hand away from her mouth and gave Tikki a confident nod. She smiled at her Kwami, “Then let’s do this!”
Taking her seat back at her desk, she settled in for a long night of design work.