Marinette slid into the booth of the coffee shop and Alya slid in next to her. They were a block or so away from the school and had entered the coffee shop out of pure boredom it was a Friday afternoon and the café was getting its usual after school teenager rush.
A waitress with a white headband and apron walked over to their booth she looked slightly exhausted and annoyed with the amount of people who were flooding in through the café door.
"May I take your orders?" She asked with a bit of forced politeness. "Two coffees please." Alya asked and the waitress responded with a quick nod and wrote the order on a little yellow notepad with a pencil that had both been stashed away in the pocket of her apron and walked briskly away.
"I don't know I still think I could have done better…I finished the dress early but then Chloé had to go and 'trip' and now the main seam is all ripped and I'm going to have to start over." Marinette complained. "At least the teacher was nice enough to give you an extension on the project. Chloé was just jealous that your dress was cuter." Alya reassured her friend. "Plus with the time extension you can make it three times as good as the last one." Alya added as the waitress returned with their coffees and a plate full of sugar cubes.
"You think so?" Marinette asked hopefully. "I know so." Alya declared as she reached for her coffee and took a small sip to test the temperature. She glanced out the window and got a huge grin on her face. "Look who it is." She mused as she waved to catch the attention of whoever was on the other side of the window.
Marinette glanced outside the window to where her friend was waving and her heart both stopped and sped up at the exact same time. Adrien was walking past the café when he spotted Alya trying to get his attention. He smiled, waved and then proceeded to walk through the café door and make his way over to their booth.
He was wearing black jeans and a black T-shirt and in one hand he held a thin black strip of fabric, he had a black leather jacket slung over one shoulder which he draped over the back of the booth, he sat down in the empty side of the booth.
Adrien placed his school bag underneath the table and leaned his elbows on the table in a way that made him look both casual and exhausted all at once. Alya raised an eyebrow as she took in his appearance which was so different from his usual simple blue jeans and white T-shirt. "What's with all the black, is it someone's funeral or something?" She asked.
Adrien laughed and shook his head. "Nah, it's for a photoshoot I'm doing in a few days. My dad wanted me to.'wear something different for a change' he said." Marinette stopped blushing at her coffee long enough to compose herself and look at Adrien with what she hoped wasn't an obviously love-sick stare. She took a sip of her coffee to calm her nerves then remembered that she'd forgotten to add sugar to it and almost spit it out. She swallowed, gave a shudder at the bitter taste and reached for the plate of sugar cubes, dropping three into her coffee. "So does it have a theme?-the photoshoot I mean- doesn't the fashion industry do that kind of stuff?" Marinette asked though she already knew that clothing lines usually had a theme. Marinette took a sip of her coffee before she could start stuttering like she always did when she was around Adrien.
Adrien grinned and raised the strip of cloth to his face. "Guess who." He said. Marinette nearly choked on her mouthful of coffee.
The piece of cloth was a mask. That framed his green eyes and made them stand out brightly against the silky smooth black fabric.
Alya voiced what they were both thinking with a enthusiastic victory cry. She jabbed Marinette in the rib with her elbow. Marinette squeaked. "I told you he looked like Chat Noir!" she said, referencing to the time she'd tried to convince Marinette using a photo of Adrien and a Photoshop app on her new phone. Adrien grinned and removed the mask. "This is why I don't like guessing games I always make it too obvious." Marinette just stared at him with an 'O' shaped mouth… "Wow… That's really….accurate. I mean um… it looks nice.. " she bit her lip. So much for not stuttering like an idiot. She thought with frustration. She looked at the mask where it now lay on the table. "Could I make a suggestion though?" She asked shyly. "Go ahead." Adrien replied with a grin. Marinette picked up the mask and slid it closer to her.
She held it up towards Adrien's face and bit her lip trying to concentrate. "There's too much skin showing between your eyes and the mask in the pictures I've seen Chat's mask is right next to his eyes." Marinette reached into her school bag and pulled out a needle and some black thread that she happened to have left over from fashion designer class. "Would you mind?" She asked. "Not at all." Adrien complied. Marinette began to stitch the fabric closer together.
Alya suddenly reached into her bag for her phone although Marinette was pretty sure she hadn't heard it ring. "Oh would you look at the time, I would love to stay but I have to bounce I forgot I was supposed to update the Ladybug blog," she cast a glance at Adrien. "I might even have to say there's another Chat impressionator running around, he might get the wrong idea and show up at this little photoshoot of yours." Adrien crossed his arms across his chest. "Are you saying you'll show up to the photoshoot because there's a possibility that Chat will show up and probably pound me into the ground?" Alya grinned back. "Don't worry I'll video tape it." "Good I'm going to need proof and witnesses."
Alya grinned at both of them "I'll catch you two later, have fun!" She called over her shoulder as she headed for the door. Marinette glanced at her retreating friend with a desperate panic. Talking to Adrien was bad enough with people around… Talking to him alone was impossible. She took a deep breath and finished the last of the stitching.
She handed the mask back to Adrien. "See if that works." She said, reaching into her bag for her compact mirror she flipped it open and let Adrien look at his reflection. "Yeah that does make a difference. That's Marinette your awesome." Marinette clicked the tiny mirror closed and turned away from him to put it back in her bag and hide her blush. "Don't mention it." She muttered. "You should come to the photoshoot on Wednesday." Adrien offered. "Consider it my thank you." Marinette smiled and nodded. There was a chime sound from inside Adrien school bag and he pulled out his phone. He read the text message and scowled. He then looked back to Marinette with an apologetic smile. "I gotta go to some important meeting to discuss part of my modeling contact. We'll talk some other time, maybe I could come over and we could play that video game. You know have a little rematch of our own since we didn't get to play in that tournament together." Marinette nodded again in agreement. "Cool. See you later." Adrien waved goodbye as he exited the café and disappeared down the street.
Marinette sighed and rested her chin in her hand, watching him go. That could have gone worse. She thought. Another bright side to things was now she had an idea for a second idea for the dress project at school.
The next two days were a flurry of fabric, needles, thread and stitches with very little humans interaction to speak of other than texting Alya daily progress updates so her friend could offer tips. The last thread was pulled into place and Marinette grinned in triumph. She took a picture of herself in the mirror with the camera on her phone, before she gave the dress a temporary retirement in her closet. Now all she had to do was wait until Wednesday. Then she'd hand it over to her teacher on Thursday before Cholé could see it and dish out more jealous revenge.
Wednesday afternoon rolled around and Marinette had so many nerves that she was certain she would be sick to her stomach and not be able to go to Adrien's photoshoot and he'd be disappointed with her and hate her forever….she swallowed hard.
Cholé's voice carried across the room in the way it always did when she wanted everyone to her what she was saying even though most of the things she asked people about were honestly none of her business.
"Oh Adrien I heard you had a photoshoot after school today in the park. I'm not doing anything and I knew you were busy so I just took the liberty of inviting myself." Adrien sighed. "Thanks Cholé but this one isn't open for public viewing and I already invited my plus one." Marinette's heart skipped in her chest. He was talking about her! She was his plus one!
Chloé made an angry growl nosie. "Fine but don't expect me to forgive you." She snarled and made a show of turning her back on him. The bell rang.
Marinette rushed home dressed herself for the photoshoot and Alya came over to do her hair. "Girl you look fantastic, Alya gushed. "Do you mind if I get a picture?" Marinette put on her best model smile and Alya snapped a picture. "This is soo going on the blog." Alya grinned. "Local aspiring fashion designer makes one of a kind original based off her favorite superhero." Alya declared the headline as she typed it.
The park was sunny and warm there was a patch of grass that had been roped off on the west side of the park and there was a police officer ushering the occasional person away from the set. Marinette and Alya made there way towards the roped off area. The police officer scowled at them. "This part of the park is closed today." He rattled off the sentence for probably the twelfth time that hour.
"Uh..we.. I um." Marinette stuttered. Adrien catch sight of them and wandered over. "It's okay she's with me." The police officer nodded and ushered Marinette behind the rope. Alya was left on the other side of the barrier until Marinette looked at the officer with bright blue eyes. "She's my plus one." The office groaned, clearly not liking the idea of too many teenagers on the set but he allowed Alya through.
"Sit on the bench and don't touch anything." He instructed Alya who happily obliged.
The photographer was a woman in a white blouse and blue skirt with brown hair and eyes that lit up with excitement when she catch sight of Marinette. She rushed over and looked Marinette up and down.
Marinette was suddenly self conscious. She adjusted the black flower clip in her hair and smoothed out the red silk of her dress. "Adrien who's this?" The photographer asked. "This is Marinette. She's one of my friends from school." The photographer nodded and continued to examine Marinette's dress. Which went to her knees and had short sleeves that covered her shoulders.
Marinette had been going for the sort of thing that you could wear to anything. A day with friends or a late-night party. The dress was made of three layers. An alternating pattern of rose-red silk and black fabric mesh. Silk. Mesh. Silk. The silk allowed for easy movements and the mesh gave that little classy touch. The black flower clip in her hair had been just a little personal touch that just seemed to bring the outfit together. Her shoes were simple black ballet flats.
"That dress," the photographer ventured for words. "It's molded after Ladybug isn't it." Marinette smiled with a bit of a blush and nodded. "Yes it is. I was told it was a themed photoshoot." Marinette explained feeling a bit strange. Did Adrien think it was a bit crazy that she'd woren a dress molded after Ladybug when he's supposed to be Chat Noir? "It's perfect you simply have to pose with Adrien in some of the shots. We already have Ladybug themed merchandise for the clothing line but we could buy the design off of you and make more." Marinette shook her head. "I'm sorry this is an original and I'm not interested in selling it." Marinette explained. The photographer looked a little disappointed. "Well you could still pose for a few pictures." She offered before walking away to run through last minute changes.
Marinette sat patiently on the bench next to Alya waiting for the photographer to call her over. "Did you plan this whole thing?" Alya asked gesturing at Marinette's black and red dress and then over to Adrien in his own costume. Marinette blushed and shrugged "I little I wasn't expecting them to want me to actually pose with Adrien though but I thought about what you said yesterday about him looking like Chat and I thought maybe I looked a little bit like Ladybug and the idea got stuck in my head so I thought why not." Marinette gestured at her dress.
"Look a butterfly." Marinette whispered to Adrien they were in the middle of trying to look all heroic and Adrien was doing a great job. Marinette felt a little bit awkward but Tikki had given her a little pep talk. "You're just pretending Marinette. You're the real Ladybug. Pretending to be her will be easy." "But it's pretending with Adrien." Marinette had reasoned. Tikki had given her a knowing smile. "He's a nice person Marinette if you mess up or feel embarrassed he's not going to judge you for it. You'll be fine."
Adrien went a little tense. Butterflies meant akumas and akumas might trouble which meant he'd have to come up with an exuse to leave the photoshoot without Marinette following him or getting suspicious. He followed her line of sight and spotted the small yellow butterfly as it made lazy little circles through the air and disappeared from view. He exhaled with relief. Just a normal butterfly. "I prefer ladybugs." He said half to himself still staring in the direction that the butterfly had vanished. He didn't see Marinette blush.