A/N: So, timeline clarification. This is sort of meant to be loosely set before Volpina. Maybe before Princess Fragrance, too, if that tickles your fancy! This little mini-series I'm doing is meant to slide somewhat seamlessly into canon events, we'll see how well I do.
"Marinette! Girl, you look amazing! You made that?" Alya's voice greeted Marinette as she stepped into the small hall of La Grand Paris that Rose's parents had rented for the blonde's birthday party, and Marinette couldn't help the proud grin that crossed her face as she nodded. Nor could she resist making a quick twirl on the spot to show off her outfit.
Rose's birthday was always an ordeal. And Marinette loved it—Rose always had a theme for her birthday parties, and every year her parents ordered a themed cake from the Dupain-Cheng bakery. And every year, Marinette always started early on making her own outfit to fit Rose's theme—but never anything that would outshine the birthday girl, of course.
This year, Rose's decision had almost certainly been informed by her rapidly-developing crush on the crown prince of Achu; the chosen theme was princes and princesses, which meant the dress code was black tie, and Marinette had gotten to eagerly sift through all her dress sketches for an outfit to bring to life.
The winner had been a pale pink dress with white spots, poofing out slightly at the waist and falling just past her knees, held up at one shoulder and tied at the waist with two red sashes with black spots. It was a dress she felt thrilled about wearing out.
It was a dress she felt thrilled about Adrien seeing her in.
If he even came, of course, because she remembered his father hadn't exactly been fond of the idea of Adrien having a birthday party of his own, and she wasn't sure if he'd be allowed to visit a classmate's. But all the same, she hoped he did, and she hoped it wasn't too much to ask that the dress might make an impression.
A bright laugh escaped Alya as Marinette completed her spin, and she stepped forward to loop her arm through Marinette's. "You are going to be turning heads," Alya assured her, like she knew what Marinette was thinking as she pulled her past the table where Rose's birthday gifts were stacked, towards the birthday girl herself. Her dress, sleeveless, simple, and floor-length, was a pale purple that contrasted pleasantly against her dark skin, and it felt soft against Marinette's arm.
"Well, there's only one head I want to turn," Marinette replied with a hint of nervousness in her tone as she dropped her present—a hatbox containing another of her own designs, a bright pink newsboy cap with a tiara worked into the front—on the table along the way.
"Relax, girl, if this dress isn't enough to get that boy's attention, I don't know what could be."
Unfortunately, that had the opposite of the desired effect on Marinette. Seriously, how does a girl get a boy to fall in love with her? Marinette had no idea, and a dress probably wasn't all it took, but, as Alya said—what could be all it took?
"Oh, no. Nuh-uh." Alya lifted her free hand to flick Marinette's forehead, hard enough to make her blink, and shook her head. "Stop being so negative, girl, I'm giving you a compliment. I told you, remember? Some day Adrien's definitely going to see how amazing you are."
Marinette didn't get to reply, as Rose spotted them just then, letting out a squeal of delight and running to meet them. She certainly was a sight to behold as she bounded over—her dress as pink and poofy and sparkly as any glamorous princess's should be, with a small train dragging behind her.
"Alya! Marinette! You came!" she cried happily, as though it weren't a given that of course they'd come. She threw her arms around both of them, and the girls laughed as they returned the hug.
"Of course. It's not every year we're invited to a royal birthday party," Marinette replied with a smile, nodding to Rose as she stepped back. "I love your theme this year."
"Thanks!" Rose beamed. "Your parents' castle cake is the cutest! It makes the whole—" Interrupting herself with a small gasp, Rose's eyes lit up as she spotted something behind them.
"Juleka!" she squealed as Marinette and Alya turned to look behind them, their eyes landing on the aforementioned classmate. Juleka looked more than a little uncomfortable and uncertain—she'd never been much of a dress girl, at least not the formal type, and she clearly felt out of place in her long, sweeping black dress that faded to purple at the bottom much like her hair, which was braided and hung over her shoulder for once. Her unease seemed to melt away into a genuine smile as she spotted Rose scurrying towards her, and Alya and Marinette decided with one shared look to move on let the two best friends visit.
Calling happy birthday over their shoulders to Rose, Marinette and Alya turned back towards the room, both of them looking over it. Alya gave a low whistle. "The decorations are cute."
"She went all-out this year," Marinette agreed, eyeing up one of several papier-mâché knights stationed around the room, which she was pretty sure Rose had made herself. And, though they were childish, Marinette couldn't help smiling when she spotted 'Pin the Tail on the Noble Steed' and a dragon-shaped piñata off to the side of the dance floor. Just then, Alya straightened, and her hand reached out to wrap around Marinette's forearm so she could drag her along.
"Look, there's Nino," she pointed towards the dance floor, where Nino was holding an animated conversation with the DJ, and just like that, Marinette was getting towed towards the boy. "Wherever he is, Adrien's usually not far."
Somehow, Marinette got the impression that that wasn't the only reason Alya was eager to direct them towards Nino, but she let herself be pulled along regardless. She bobbed her head to the beat of the dance mix outpouring from the speakers beside the DJ booth as they walked, trying not to get herself too worked up thinking about whether Adrien would be here or not.
"Hey, Nino!" Alya called, drawing his attention. Marinette offered a smile in greeting when he looked their way, and his expression lit up as he turned to them. "You look good."
Marinette would never understand where that kind of plainly stated compliment came from, or how to gather the same kind of confidence Alya possessed to say that kind of thing to her crush whenever she wanted. Nino was wearing a suit, of course, because Rose made it clear she'd have nothing less from the boys, but his shirt was half-untucked and his jacket unbuttoned, and his tie—
"Oh, hey girls," Nino grinned as he stepped towards them, and Marinette's eyes slid back and forth between Alya's dress and Nino's tie, a pale purple shade that matched it perfectly. "I'm trying to get this guy to let me DJ for a few minutes, but he's not budging! It's whack, it's not like I'd ever break his equipment or anything. I'm not exactly an amateur."
"He probably just doesn't want some upstart kid being better at his job than him," Alya said decidedly, sounding, if only for his sake, similarly offended that the DJ would dare to refuse Nino. Marinette caught her eye, looking pointedly from Alya to Nino's tie. Alya—who clearly knew very well exactly what Marinette was getting at—simply lifted her eyebrows innocently before turning back to Nino.
"You are still a contestant on that game show," Marinette agreed with a nod, a hint of a smirk playing at her lips as she let it sink in that Alya and Nino had clearly made plans to match for this party. Well, good. They were cute together. "I'm sure he's seen you, it's probably exactly what Alya said."
Their flattery did dismiss whatever lingering frustrations he had with the professional DJ as quickly as they'd hoped, and Alya and Nino both launched into a conversation about something new Nino was doing with the school radio station that Alya wanted to cover on the school blog. A conversation Marinette didn't exactly want to be third-wheeling, and her eyes drifted as she looked around the room, noting that most of their class had gotten there already.
That was when her eyes landed on him.
Adrien was off to the side of the room, seated next to an empty table, bobbing his head to the music similarly to how Marinette had been just a few moments before. He looked to be pretty content, but—well, he was alone. Should she… go sit with him?
She barely registered the small click at her side that indicated Tikki had popped open her purse to stick her head out, not until after her kwami's quiet voice reached her ears. "Go on."
Marinette's eyes flicked to Alya and Nino, verifying that they were too engrossed in their own conversation to have heard her over the music, and then she looked down to meet Tikki's eyes. The small kwami gave an encouraging smile, one which Marinette returned somewhat apprehensively, giving a nod of acknowledgement before Tikki slipped back into the purse and Marinette took a step towards Adrien. And then another.
Oh, wow, this was not nearly as difficult as it would have been just a few weeks before.
It still surprised her, her newfound ability to actually act like a normal person in front of Adrien—but things were different, of course, now that she'd actually spent a decent amount of time alone with him. Still, she worried that the more she marveled over the gaming tournament and her great uncle's visit granting her the ability to talk with him like a competent human, the more likely she was to psych herself out, jinx the whole thing and turn back into a stammering mess. And worrying about that didn't help her keep her cool.
A few feet away, Marinette faltered for a moment when her eyes landed on his outfit—his suit was tailored perfectly, of course, and it looked great on him, but that was hardly surprising; what was surprising was his tie, red with black spots, much like the sashes that held her dress over her shoulder and cinched it at the waist. Well, much like the entirety of Ladybug's outfit, which was probably the real reason such an ostentatious design for a tie existed, but her heart still thrummed with senseless excitement at the thought that Adrien Agreste, love of her life, future husband and co-dog-owner, was matching with her, however unintentionally.
Oh, great, and now she could feel her hands grow clammy as she tried to fight down the stupid, joyful feeling that brought on and took a few more steps towards him.
"Uh, hey—Adrien." Well, the words had come out at least, and in correct order, too, even if they were uttered somewhat awkwardly. It was better than it had been, so there was that. He glanced up to meet her eyes and see her small, tentative wave, and a bright smile crossed his face. "I, uh, like your tie."
Somehow, she actually managed a playful smile to match the remark, and when his eyes landed on the spotted sashes on her dress, his mouth briefly fell into a perfect, adorable 'o', before a laugh, friendly and open, escaped him.
"Hey, Marinette. Yeah, I—it was with some Ladybug merch in a store I was passing by, and I thought it'd be kind of funny." He returned her smile with one of his own, which she took as invitation enough to sit beside him, trying not to beam too widely as she did. "What about your spots? Inspired by the same bug?"
"She's pretty popular," she said with a nod by way of her answer. She generally tried to avoid talking directly about Ladybug when possible, for her identity's sake. But this was good, she decided silently with a pleased air as she smoothed her hands over the skirt of her dress. They were talking, she was getting actual words out, she wasn't shifting back into a trainwreck. All she had to do was keep this up.
Think of something else to say.
Anything else.
Marinette opened her mouth—and she floundered. Her mind raced through all the topics they'd talked about in the past, grasping for one that she could make work now, but she'd been right to worry about psyching herself out. Her thoughts flitted from one thought to the next too quickly to formulate a coherent sentence, faint panic welling at the idea that she was falling right back into her old habit of making a complete idiot of herself in front of him—until Adrien, seemingly unaware of her internal crisis, stepped in to save her.
"So, why aren't you out dancing?" he asked, his face the picture of friendly curiosity as he nodded back towards the dance floor, towards Alya and Nino and a few of their other classmates, as well as a couple of Rose's cousins; she had a handful around her age, and they usually came to her party, sometimes bringing friends of their own. "Not your thing?"
"Oh, I just—you know me, I'm the klutziest girl in class," she laughed at her own expense, shrugging. "Better not to try to trust my limbs to follow the beat in any sort of not-embarrassing way."
Good, she echoed her earlier thought, this was good. Bless Adrien for actually being capable of conversation. Bless Adrien for existing. Another pause, and then she grasped quickly for the subject again, not wanting to fall back into silence. "What about you? You're not dancing either. Not your thing?"
Adrien let out a small huff that she decided sounded more or less like a laugh, lifting a hand to rub at the back of his head. "Well, you know, I've only been to one birthday party before this, and that… was a mess."
Marinette's stomach twisted; she almost felt guilty. She had crashed his party in costume, after all, engaging his DJ in a fight that pretty effectively ruined any semblance of fun the party might have had. But it wasn't her fault that the Bubbler was imprisoning parents and partygoers alike. And Chat Noir had been there, too, so it was his fault as much as hers.
Ah, the old 'throw your partner under the bus in your internal monologue' method of guilt-relief. Simply classic.
If Adrien noticed her brief internal debate, he didn't show any signs of it, giving a small shrug. "I'm probably not any good at dancing anyway, since I only got to try it out at a party once, so I guess I'm just not sure what to do with myself." He offered her a smile, as though what he said wasn't on some level a little heartbreaking, as though it didn't even bother him in the slightest. Marinette fought to keep her brow from furrowing.
"Well—then we can just sit together." Even though they were already doing just that; she was only so capable of knowing the right things to say to him. "And we won't have to dance."
His smile brightened so much that all her doubts about her lackluster reply melted instantly, the same way she felt like she was about to melt right under his gaze, so completely happy with what she'd said, as though it were the best suggestion in the world. Her heart skipped a beat. She hoped she wasn't blushing. She was pretty sure she definitely was.
Adrien settled back into his seat, his hypnotic green eyes tearing away from her own as he looked out over the room like watching everyone else having fun was enough for him, and Marinette released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Clasping her hands in her lap, she allowed herself a moment of triumph that their conversation, however brief so far, had gone smoothly enough. But she was stuck again.
Searching, more calmly this time, for something to say, Marinette's eyes drifted over the entrance in the hall just in time to watch Chloe enter with Sabrina at her side, fashionably late of course. And, Marinette noted with faint annoyance, Chloe seemed to be the only girl at the party who hadn't cared about letting the birthday girl be the best dressed; her long, overly-elaborate yellow ballgown looked suited for a runway, or an actual princess, and the tiara she had rested on her blonde locks had to be worth a small fortune.
Wrinkling her nose, Marinette opened her mouth to say something, before remembering that Adrien and Chloe were longtime friends however they occasionally clashed, and badmouthing her in front of him was probably not the direction to take this conversation if she wanted him to like her more.
Which just led to her crossing her arms and pursing her lips in silence, a brief glance cast in the direction of Alya, who she definitely could have complained with. But Alya looked like she was enjoying herself dancing alongside Nino, and it was enough to make Marinette grin, frustrations with Chloe quickly forgotten. Adrien started tapping out the beat of the song currently playing on his leg, and without thinking, Marinette found herself tapping along with her foot.
She wished she had something to say. Did he mind the silence? She hoped against hope that he thought it was a comfortable silence. He was probably getting weirded out by how quiet she was, he was probably already regretting letting her sit with him when she couldn't even hold up her end of a conversation, he—
Marinette forced herself to take a deep breath, glancing down at her bag if only for a moment. She couldn't very well open her purse and ask Tikki right here in front of Adrien for help with conversation, but she tried to at least let the kwami's presence bolster her confidence a little. She'd made it this far, she could keep finding things to say.
You know, in theory.
Marinette barely noticed the song changing around them as she shifted in her seat, casting out for a topic, but the slower music definitely had a calming effect. Which was helpful, as she started drafting her next sentence to him in her head, slowly but surely.
Before she had the chance to come up with something worth saying out loud, though, Adrien seemed to stiffen, his eyes caught on something out across the room, but before Marinette could follow his gaze, he was standing, turning to face her. There was almost a sense of urgency in the motion, something odd about his smile, but Marinette couldn't think too deeply on it when he was suddenly extending a hand towards her.
"Hey, wanna dance? I mean—I know you said it isn't for you, but it's a slow dance, and—"
"Yes." Marinette was on her feet faster than she actually registered what he was saying, her hand slipping into his a split-second before her mind caught up enough to launch into a frenzy. Because, oh, god, Adrien just asked her to slow dance, she was holding Adrien's hand, he actually wanted to slow dance with her and he'd reached out to her and evidently wanted her to take his hand and this was an awful lot to wrap her head around all at once and she hoped he didn't notice her cheeks burning. "Of course. I'd love to."
A look awfully similar to relief flashed across Adrien's face, but before her frazzled mind could make any attempts at making sense of it, he was pulling her out towards the dance floor, and then reaching for her waist—her hands found his shoulders almost mechanically, her mind racing too fast for her to consciously decide to do anything.
She was slow-dancing with Adrien.
His hands were comfortably warm where they rested just above her hips, and her heart was stuttering out an erratic beat as her eyes practically burned a hole into his chest. She half-wanted to pinch herself, just to make sure this was actually happening.
"Sorry," Adrien said, making her furrow her brow as she blinked up at him. What on earth did he have to be sorry for? "I know you said we could just sit and not dance, but I, uh, guess I changed my mind."
"Oh," she half-laughed, shaking her head. There was still something not quite normal about his tone, but she wasn't going to look too deeply into it. "No, that's fine. This is fine. I mean, slow dances are—slow, so I'm not exactly a hazard to my surroundings. I don't mind slow-dancing with you at all."
He looked pleased, a different sort of relief crossing his face, the kind that seemed to stem from not having offended her with his sudden change of heart. But just as he opened his mouth to respond, his eyes caught on something over her shoulder and his hands suddenly tightened on her waist as he pulled her abruptly closer—Marinette couldn't react further than a small squeak and a furious blush before suddenly something hurtled into her side hard enough to knock her off balance. It would have bowled her right over if Adrien hadn't preemptively braced to steady her, keeping her from budging more than a couple steps to the side.
"Sorry, you don't mind if I cut in, do you?" the something asked in the kind of haughty, unremorseful voice that could only have belonged to Chloe, abruptly making the entire prior series of events make more sense. Marinette's eyes moved from her feet, which had just barely regained their footing, to Chloe, her nose wrinkling as she took in the blonde, who, despite her apology only looked sorry that she hadn't succeeded in knocking Marinette down and as far from Adrien as possible. "Adrikens and I haven't gotten a chance to dance since his birthday, after all."
"Actually, Chlo, Marinette and I are kind of already dancing right now," Adrien explained gently, seemingly already ready for the blonde and not offering Marinette the chance to snap at her. "We only just started, so… maybe the next slow song?"
Chloe seemed to swell with fury as she narrowed her eyes at Marinette like it was all her doing, before pouting at Adrien.
"But, Adrikens, our dance at your party got cut short, don't you want to get a good one in?"
"Maybe later," he echoed, his tone still gentle but with a tone of finality that had Chloe bristling, ever unused to not getting her way. Marinette felt odd standing there with her eyes snapping back and forth between the two during their exchange, still pulled close to Adrien, his hands still gripping her waist—but he'd handled Chloe more efficiently and, well, kindly than Marinette really thought she was capable of at the moment.
After another moment of pouting at Adrien and another baleful glare at Marinette, Chloe blew Adrien a kiss, turning on her heel and walking away, back towards where Sabrina stood. "Next slow dance," she called in a sickeningly sweet, sing-song voice over her shoulder to Adrien, words that Marinette could only feel sounded like a threat.
Adrien seemed to sag with relief, his hold immediately loosening on her waist as he stepped back a respectable distance once more, and Marinette had to fight an urge to step closer again.
"So—ah—you wouldn't… mind if we happened to already be busy slow dancing right after every slow song starts tonight, would you?" he hazarded, the same tentative plea in his smile that had been there when he asked her to dance the first time, and just like that it hit her—the reason for his sudden desire to dance.
He'd spotted Chloe making a beeline for him the moment the song had started, and he'd jumped for the first easily available excuse to get out of dancing with her.
Maybe Marinette ought to be disappointed by that, but instead, she couldn't help a laugh, her eyebrows raising at him as she lightly smacked his shoulder. "So that's why you suddenly changed your mind! I'm shocked at you, Adrien Agreste—is this all I am to you, a human shield?" But, really, she was delighted. Even if he hadn't exactly wanted to dance with her, he definitely wanted to far more than he wanted to dance with Chloe. And he trusted her to be his excuse to get away from Chloe. And it was nice, to have him trust her.
"No!" he protested, though his cautious smile made him seem more at ease with her teasing. Oh, god, she was teasing Adrien, she was actually talking to him as easily as if he were a normal person and she were a normal person and playful banter was a normal interaction for them. "No, not a human shield, more like—like my own personal superhero."
Her eyes sparkled with mirth, and somehow her hand moved from his shoulder to his tie, which she gave one light, playful tug. "Like your personal Ladybug?" And it set her heart racing, even though she was the one poking fun at him, because she definitely could not have seen herself lightheartedly pulling at his tie or joking with him or anything like that even as early as five minutes ago.
"Well, you do have the spots for it," he replied with a small grin, before his expression shifted to one a little more earnest. "Please, Marinette?"
Her cheeks dusted with color again, she knew, but she nodded immediately, laughing a little. "Of course. Whatever you need."
Again, the relief washed over his face, and then his eyes sparked with amusement. "So, if you're my Ladybug tonight, does that make me your Chat Noir?"
A scoff escaped her, and Marinette blurted out before she had a chance to think too much on it, "I'd much rather spend tonight dancing with you than Chat Noir."
Adrien laughed as though at his own private joke, though Marinette had no idea what was so funny about the truth, and he tilted his head at her in a gesture that, now that they were mentioning Chat Noir, somehow reminded her of a cat. "Why's that?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Well, way to put her on the spot. Because you're the one I'm in love with was the obvious response, but also not the one you spring on a guy you're just learning to talk to.
"Because—you're—my friend," she managed, a shrug pulling at her shoulders. "And I've only met Chat Noir a few times, and you're the one who asked for my help." Good enough, right?
More than good enough, clearly, if the way Adrien's eyes lit up at her calling him her friend was any indication, and she fought to ignore the fluttering of her heartbeat at seeing his face so overjoyed at anything she said.
"Well, I guess I can be Adrien tonight," he conceded, like it was a chore, but one he was willing to do for her. "But I think being Chat Noir would be pretty awesome."
"I think being Chat Noir would make you a goofball," she replied almost instantly, the words out without her even having to think about them.
"You wound me, Marinette!" And then his eyes widened, and he scrambled to tack on, "Well—Chat Noir, but since he's not here…"
"Since he's not here I wound you by proxy?" Marinette asked, voice thick with amusement. "Maybe you're already a goofball without even having to be Chat Noir."
Adrien let out a laugh that sounded slightly tense and relieved, before pulling a perfect model pout, and her heart skipped a beat as her eyes fixed on the pout. "Now you are wounding me, Marinette."
"I never said being a goof was a bad thing," she was quick to reply, still trying to pull her gaze away from his pouted lips. "I think you're great—I mean it's great—I, you know, the being a goofball thing." Well, she couldn't exactly say she was glad to be in familiar, stammering territory.
The song ended just then, and after an extra moment or two, Adrien's hands slipped from Marinette's waist. His smile returned as she was letting her hands fall from his shoulders and stepping back, and he glanced around the room as the next, upbeat song began. "So… do you want to sit back down, or we could…" His brow furrowed as he continued looking around, and she realized he'd definitely meant what he'd said earlier—he wasn't sure what people even did at parties, had no idea what to suggest.
"If you want," she replied as helpfully as she could, beaming at him when he looked back to her. "But whatever you want to do, it's probably best that we agree to do it together if I'm going to be your superhero for the night."
And just like that, she'd found a legitimate excuse to spend an entire party with Adrien Agreste. Now she definitely wanted to pinch herself.
His smile widened, and he nodded. "See, why can't my dad just hire you to replace my bodyguard? This is the kind of valiant dedication one could only hope for from a protector." And then he was nodding his head back towards the seats they'd occupied a few minutes prior, though his eyebrows lifted into a quizzical expression as though he were asking permission. Smiling, she took a step in that direction by way of answer, and her fingers itched to reach for his arm, so she could loop her own arm through his, but she wasn't that brave just yet.
"No, you know me," she dismissed playfully with a wave of her hand and a small shake of her head. "I'm too undependable for that kind of work. Always late or missing—you wouldn't be very protected."
"Suits me," he laughed, tucking his hands into his pockets as they made their way back to their earlier seats. "It's not like I can't handle myself. You're much better company than my current bodyguard, though."
"Too bad I'm too busy being a noble superhero to offer my services up for hire, then," she replied with a bright little grin, before dropping lightly into the chair she'd sat in earlier. Taking a seat right next to her, Adrien returned the smile so enthusiastically that his eyes shut for a moment, before shifting slightly in his seat to face her more directly, and leaning forward just a bit.
"Thank you again, Marinette," he said earnestly, "I know you can probably find better things to do than hang with one awkward kid for the whole night."
Adrien? Awkward? Was that even possible? No—no, between the two of them, she was definitely the awkward one. Shaking her head once again, she found herself leaning towards him a little, too, mirroring his posture. "Don't mention it; nowhere I'd rather be." No, wait, was that too much? "I mean—it's all the same, I—" Too dismissive of his company? "—with you's as good as hanging around anyone else—" Definitely too dismissive. "—I just, I mean I like spending time with you. You're not awkward."
She really needed to get a lid on this stammering for good one of these days.
But he looked pleased, and not even entirely too weirded out by her fumbling. He was probably used to it by now, which was the worst thought of all. But it also made her determined to get ahold of herself and talk with him like a normal person the way she had when her great uncle had visited, and after how easily they'd been talking up until now, that finally seemed a little more attainable.
So she leaned back slightly, craning her head to get a look at the food table across the room, before looking back to Adrien. "Alya's mom said Rose's parents are having the hotel cater the party—do you think they're serving my uncle's celestial soup?" She remembered eating it with him and her uncle, and she remembered him enjoying it as much as she had.
"I hope so," he replied eagerly, and just like that, she was settling easily into a conversation with Adrien, debating the likelihood of soup as a party dish, discussing whether the hotel could make the soup as well as her uncle had, talking about the last she'd heard of how he was getting along back home in China after being named the world's greatest chef.
And, with a warm feeling settling over her, Marinette decided tonight was going to go just fine.
By the time Marinette finally bothered to check the time on her phone, she was shocked to see the party was almost over. She guessed maybe it had been a while, but it hadn't felt like any time at all—miraculously, she and Adrien hadn't lacked for subjects to talk about or ways to entertain themselves the entire night. She felt bad for whoever had to clean up their table after the party, though—she wasn't even sure who'd started it anymore, but for a solid half hour between talking about new downloadable content for Mecha Strike and the work she'd put into her dress and classes they'd both missed, the two had been littering the table with poor attempts at origami figures made with the napkins around the table.
Neither of them were particularly adept at the Japanese art, but that hadn't exactly stopped them. They needed something to do between their handful of trips to the dance floor during the slow songs.
Marinette placed her latest pitiful attempt at the paper folding craft beside her and Adrien's paper plates from the slices of cake they'd had earlier, both plates littered with candy wrappers from the piñata they'd both taken a swing at earlier, and looked up at him. She had to stifle a giggle at the look of determined concentration on his face as he attempted to make the flimsy material hold its shape, but before she could comment, Alya was suddenly upon them, her hands landing with an excited thud on the table beside Marinette.
"Girl, Nino finally got the DJ to finally hand him the reigns—he's letting him DJ for a few songs! Come on, you've got to dance with me." She didn't wait for a response as she leaned down to grab Marinette's wrist, pulling her up and out of her chair, but Marinette wouldn't have resisted anyways. She stumbled to her feet and followed Alya for a couple of steps, before coming to a halt, Alya's hand still tugging at her wrist as she paused and turned back to Adrien, extending a hand to him.
"Come on." She smiled, hand reaching out to him in invitation. "As your protector for the night, I insist—where I go, you go. Besides, you wouldn't sit out your best friend's moment to shine, would you?"
He clearly hadn't needed any convincing, already reaching to take her hand—her heart stuttered a couple beats, but her fingers grasped his nonetheless. "Wouldn't dream of it." Beaming at her, he stood, and then just like that the three were all moving, Alya towing Marinette, who was towing Adrien. Marinette paid careful attention to where she walked as she was towed along; the last thing she wanted was to trip over her own feet in Alya's haste and probably drag Adrien down with her, knowing her luck.
They didn't let go until they were right in front of the DJ booth, between the speakers, and Marinette released Adrien's hand as Alya dropped her wrist. Nino grinned over the booth at them, shooting a wink and finger guns their way from his spot behind the turntable, and Marinette bounced on her feet as she flashed a smile in Adrien's direction, before she started dancing in earnest.
She wasn't the best; like she'd said, she wasn't exactly coordinated, but Marinette did her best to match her movements to the beat and to Alya's much more graceful dancing, and it wasn't long until all three were laughing, sharing grins and looks of delight as they let themselves get swept up in the music, dancing along to Nino's tunes with glee.
When Adrien caught her eye and winked, Marinette let out a breathless laugh and decided right then—this was the best birthday party Rose had ever thrown.
And when his hand grasped hers briefly to give her a quick spin to the beat of the music, she was pretty sure no night was ever going to top it.
A/N: Not my best work, but I wrote it when horribly sick and months out of practice. These kiddos were bouncing around my head too much for me not to give in and write something. Please review if you liked it!
Edit: Wow! Thank you all so much for the kind words! I wrote this when I was really sick, and as a result I wasn't very confident in it, and I'm super grateful to all of you who helped me feel so much better about this piece; I'm glad I did it justice. This was only ever meant to be a one-shot, but thanks to all the positive feedback, I'm extending it by a couple chapters! Look out for a bunch of sequel mini-fics set into the same universe, as well. ;)