"Wanna dance?"

Nathanäel doesn't mean to say the words so abruptly; they were a lot smoother in his head. Then again, everything is smoother in his head, from the lines he sketches on paper to the words which trip out of his mouth.

He's spent the evening not quite on the sidelines of the school dance arranged by Marinette, dancing with his friends in a group before stepping away to perch on one of the benches laid out on the edges of the room. Pulling a sketchbook out of his satchel before he was even aware he'd done it, Nathanäel was content to spend the night drawing his friends. The occasional classmate had bounced over to check he was okay, and with a grin and a nod Nathanäel sent them back, happy to try and capture the exact shape of Alya's grin as she dipped Nino backwards.

Nathanäel was shading the ruffles on Rose's dress when Marinette moved into view. He couldn't fight the smile that formed on his face as she looked around the room, her gaze falling onto him after surveying the dancers. She waved at him, and Nathanäel raised his pencil in response. Marinette's eyes snapped towards it, and her soft smile widened as she nodded in understanding.

The moving throng of people meant that Marinette couldn't stay still for long, and after a few seconds she was twirling around as Alya grabbed her friend's arm, pulling her back into the mass of dancers. Nathanäel's gaze lingered as he saw the periwinkle blue of Marinette's dress slip back into the crowd, and he wondered if he'd be able to draw the sparkle in her eyes when she smiled…

But Nathanäel couldn't keep his eyes on the paper as he tried to recall the tilt of Marinette's head when she looked at him; he searched for her in the crowd, the gentle sparkles sewn into her dress making her easy to find in the bright lights reflecting off of the disco ball hanging from the ceiling. His gaze switched between the paper in front of him and the girl weaving her way through the crowd as he drew, wishing that the monochrome of his drawings could show the warmth in Marinette's smile.

She'd flitted between her classmates like a butterfly throughout the evening, dancing briefly with everyone she could grab. That was the thing about Marinette; she could pull anyone, even Alix, into the midst of the dance floor with nothing but a grin. She had spent the first few dances with Alya, until Marinette pushed her friend - literally, Alya had nearly tripped over in her heels as Marinette thrust her forward - into Nino's arms, before grabbing hold of Ivan and spinning him round towards Myléne.

Marinette had gone around the walls of the gym-turned-ballroom, pulling those waiting uncertainly at the sidelines into the fray of laughing classmates. Nathanäel smiled softly as he watched her pull Juleka, shy at the prospect of dancing, into the crowd. Unlike the previous classmates she'd dragged onto the dancefloor, Marinette stayed with Juleka until the taller girl smiled, bopping along to the peppy beat of the music. When Marinette removed her hands from Juleka's, she replaced them with one of Rose's. The blonde turned as she felt a hand embrace hers, eyebrows raised while her soft pink dress swirled gracefully around her knees, and Marinette winked and faded back into the crowd, leaving the two girls dancing happily.

Nathanäel wondered if they even realised what she was doing. It had taken him most of the night to figure it out, after all, and his friends weren't paying half as much attention to Marinette's actions as he was.

She was playing Cupid.

And she was doing it well.

It was subtle, with Marinette using the dynamics of their class to pair up their friends - even Alix and Kim didn't realise what was going on, as their partnership via Marinette became some sort of competitive dance-off, much to the amusement of those surrounding them. Marinette let out a soft laugh as she moved away from the pair, shaking her head so that her soft curls, let loose for the first time in front of her classmates, brushed over her shoulders.

It occurred to Nathanäel that Marinette herself wasn't properly dancing with anyone. She spun on the floor like a guest, accepted into the smaller groups before moving to another one moments later. Yes, she'd briefly danced with nearly everyone, but there was a distance in her smile as she took the hands of her classmates and paired them up. And with the number of individuals declining each time Marinette popped up to move another more than willing couple together, Nathanäel wondered if she was waiting for someone.

But the evening was ending soon, and as Marinette headed to the drinks table having successfully paired up most of her classmates - she'd have a full set if Adrien and Chloé were around, but the two had been kept at some formal event their fathers insisted that they attend - Nathanäel realised that he and Marinette were the only two people left who weren't-

Oh.

Oh.

He turned to shove the sketchbook in his bag, as the realization hit, pushing himself off of the bench as he dropped his satchel to the ground. He spun back around to face the dance floor to see Marinette moving towards him tentatively in her silver kitten heels. She stopped in front of him, smiling shyly as she tucked her loose hair behind her ear. Her mouth opened, but before Marinette could speak Nathanäel was already talking, his words rushed.

"Wanna dance?"

The question hangs in the air between them, and for a second Nathanäel thinks that he's got it completely wrong, that surely Marinette, sweet, pretty, kind Marinette wasn't actually coming over to him to ask him to dance.

But then she smiles, and it's like the sun splitting through rainclouds as Marinette's face lights up.

"Yeah," Marinette says, lacing her fingers through Nathanäel's and nodding. "Yeah, I do."