Masquerade!
Paper faces on parade.
Masquerade.
Hide your face so the world will never find you.
His father had always insisted that he attend the parties that he held in order to obtain social connections with the designing community, even if he wasn't a designer. Quite frankly they were a pain. No one there was his age, and all they ever spoke about was how well their designs were selling, or how they wanted him as part of their agency. Truly it was all business talk.
This time was different however. This time, his father permitted that he could invite those in his class, as long as they took an interest in design. There was a warning regarding behavior and the fact that this was a trail run, but Adrien was only happy that he had the opportunity at all. Of course, he opened the invitation to his class, and a good amount were excited to join him. Obviously, Nino would attend, but Adrien could not be certain of the other numbers.
Every year the party was thrown, there was a theme, and Adrien was particularly anxious about this year's masquerade ball, going out of his way to specifically prepare an elaborate mask as opposed to the plain one with which he had been initially presented. He hoped dearly that it would not give away his identity.
"You worry too much," Plagg said, paying more attention to the slice of camberet in his paws than to Adrien's concerns. "No one's going to recognize you in that thing." He referred to the heavily embellished, metallic, silver and black mask that barely hid his face as a mask ought to have. It was much more conspicuous than his usual disguise, but much less comparable to it as well.
"You're right," Adrien decided. "It'll be fine. I'll just enjoy the party and try to avoid wearing the mask."
"Right," Plagg agreed before swallowing his slice whole.
The night of the party, while the night was still young, the lobby of his home was packed. It was an event that many of the guests referred to as highly anticipated, which resulted in some chiefly extravagant costumes. His mask would not stand out in the room. Dotted throughout, Adrien could just make out his classmates, who could only be differentiated by height and plainness of dress. He went down the stairs to greet them.
Chloe made nearly no attempt to be civil and was upon him in seconds of his arrival. She was dressed in clothing nearly as extravagant as the other guests, though she was a great deal shorter than them. As per the norm, he greeted his peers while simultaneously pushing Chloe off of him in the politest manner he could muster. He had hoped she would refrain from that behavior given the environment, though he had to admit she was tamer than usual. Most of his class had decided to attend, for which he was very grateful.
"Marinette is late again!" Adrien turned to face Alya as she spoke, her voice rather terse. Her dress was orange, which seemed to suit her quite nicely. She was on her phone and typing angrily, clearly in disbelief that her friend had not yet arrived.
In truth, he had nearly been late himself. An hour before the party was due to begin, an akuma attack struck and he was forced away in the commotion. Thankfully, he had already lain out his suit and mask and beyond brushing his hair, there was not much that needed to be done. He had barely made it.
"Don't worry about it," Nino said, trying to calm her down. "People are still straggling in. She's not too late. You girls always take forever to get ready anyway." Alya raised an eyebrow but said nothing. It wasn't the right time to put him in his place.
Adrien did his best to distract his friends and entertain them as a host should have. It proved to be difficult, especially when the usual guests tried to catch up with him. He felt torn between it all. But despite that feeling of panic, he had never had so much fun at one of his father's parties.
He hadn't noticed his classmates murmuring until someone nearly knocked him over when walking. Clearly they hadn't been watching where they were going. Alya was buzzing about her friend soon arriving. Adrien glanced at the door, planning to continue his excellent hosting skills. What he saw, he could hardly believe.
When she walked into the room, his eyes nearly left their sockets. Adrien took a deep breath and did his best not to run through the crowd, though he walked towards her firmly, his gaze never wandering.
Her hair was down. Her dress and mask were a pure red and lacked the usual adornment of black spots. But he knew. It was her eyes. When she wore the mask, it was all he could see and it didn't matter that nothing else was the same. He knew those eyes.
It was her.
It was his Ladybug.
Author's Note: More Miraculous Ladybug! I saw an illustration of a masquerade ball and felt inspired to write something very small and very quick. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue it. I don't have plans for it, I just wanted to write this out. I hope you like it!
P.S. For those unawares, I'm also working on a larger ML fanfic titled Beyond the Mask.