For Marinette, the smallest size of the uniform was a little on the large side with sleeves that easily fell past her wrists when not pinned up. Just the sight of her was enough to fill Nino's stomach with butterflies.
Despite being too big on her or may be because of that fact, it looked probably better on her than anyone despite the fact that they did have a model in their class. Marinette looked especially cute when they were to march and play during football games, hair pulled back into a tight ponytail to keep it out of her face and because of the fact that long hair had to be pinned back in some way for Marching Band, eyes somehow made brighter or perhaps just deeper from the dark blue of her uniform.
Nino, hands down, would call her the cutest clarinet player in existence, and he just knew that he'd melt into a tiny, little puddle if her blue eyes lit up when she looked at him nearly as much as they did at Adrien, one of their best trumpet players, and the resident model that Nino was best friends with.
He had never been able to tell Adrien nearly as much of just how happy his existence made hers, and so he'd somehow avoided the fact that the crushing was probably at this point more mutual than not. Alya, Nino's other best friend and a flute player in band, was a little hopeful that despite her friendship with Marinette that somehow the tables would turn.
The past few years had been amazing as far as Nino was concerned despite the fact that he was still pretty sure that Marinette didn't magically gain a crush on him at all in that amount of time. He'd mastered percussion which really wasn't that hard when he used to practice all the time with his mom when he was a kid though he still had moments or days when he made his mistakes or songs that were a little harder for him.
He'd also been privately taught trumpet, mostly by Adrien actually, and flute, by Alya, and so far his dreams of being a conductor as well as being able to play a wide range of instruments to make that dream easier and that would look way better for a music school than to just have one instrument that he could play were becoming that much closer to reality.
Alya somehow had sauntered into Adrien's heart, and the two were almost inseparable despite Adrien's father being a little wary since Adrien was supposed to be practicing piano or trumpet, an instrument that Adrien had picked out for himself actually, and not basically flirting with Alya.
Nino figured that Adrien's old man would just get over it in time as the two seemed destined to grow closer and closer together. Marinette, on the other hand, didn't seem to have grown any taller, and her marching uniform still drowned her in its wake.
"So how prepared do you feel for the next game?" Nino asked awkwardly even though they had long since been friends, but he'd never really gotten over his crush and still had a really bad tendency of sometimes putting his foot in his mouth with the words that he'd say.
"Pretty good. It's just the same songs, and the season's almost over. Then we can focus on concert band." Her bright, beaming smile melted what remained of Nino's heart into a big pile of goo. Her long white skirt and light purple top just somehow managed to make her look cuter especially with her hair down which wasn't a sight that Nino got to see all that often. Since they were practicing for concert band now and since it had been really rainy and wet lately, they didn't need to go outside after school today to practice marching. They would still likely have band practice after school anyway, just inside though.
Marinette loved concert band more than marching band, and so she was probably just looking forward to dressing up and playing some of her preferred type of music. She generally just preferred music that you'd play on stage rather than on a field.
Nino kind of liked both types of music, back and forth depending on whatever one he seemed to like more at the moment, and yet, he couldn't help the excited pit in his belly at concert band starting up as well as at just seeing her excitement.
"Yeah, I'm looking forward to concert band too." Nino's face flamed pink as he was mostly looking forward to it since she was.
"It's our last concert band season coming up." Marinette looked kind of sad at the thought as she stepped closer to him, and Nino could have sworn that her fingers brushed his hand though he couldn't quite tell you what that meant exactly, "I'll miss everyone."
"Where are you going to school after this?" Nino asked though he wasn't entirely sure whether he'd been sold on any of the schools that he'd been applying for: some in France, some in Paris, some overseas, some in Europe, it was a mix.
"I don't know. I'm still deciding." When she looked back at him, he saw a flicker of hope in her deep blue eyes that put butterflies in the pit of his stomach.
"Do you want to look over your choices together?" Nino felt like an idiot, but it was the first sentence that came to mind, the first question, and he wasn't entirely sure why he asked it other than something in her hope filled eyes moved him.
"Sure, that would be nice." Marinette smiled up at him, and in that, he saw a chance that he could take, a chance for something other than just somewhat awkward friendship between them. "Do you want to practice together for our last game here?"
"Y-Yeah, that would be great." Nino smiled, and even though they both knew the marching band songs by heart now, Nino was looking forward to practicing with her. No matter where they went in life, he had hope that she'd be there by his side, hopefully as someone a little different that what other people meant to him.
"Thanks." She murmured and when she pressed close to his side, he just knew that it wasn't an accident. Yes, there was hope, and he'd try his best to keep that flame alive between the two of them.