"Okay, so I was thinking, and hear me out on this, that my dress should be mostly back," Alya said with a grin. "Maybe with a touch of purple or something, but mostly black. What do you think?"

"I don't know, Alya. Black doesn't seem to be a, um, ball gown color." Marinette frowned thoughtfully, tapping her pencil on her paper. "I think that red would suit you better."

Alya snorted and nodded towards a roll of dark red fabric, one of many other colors in the corner of Marinette's room. "Like that one? Girl, I think you would look better in that color. Red isn't really my thing. Reminds me of the monthly, if you know what I mean."

"Alya, you wear red every day."

"That's normal red. Dark red resembles blood too much for me." Alya suddenly snapped her fingers. "That's it! Black and white! With a touch of purple! Just like Lady Wifi!"

"How did you go from blood to your evil counterpart?"

"Not important. Here." Alya grabbed the notebook from Marinette and, turning over to a new page, started furiously sketching.

A minute later, she proudly showed off her sketch.

It was a sketch of what looked like a dress. Hastily colored in with the pencil, it was a little too messy to be sure of what was what. Several arrows helpfully pointed to the parts that were purple, while others labeled the untouched space white.

"Well? What do you think?"

"It's...very nice, Alya," Marinette said slowly. "Do you mind if I, er, redo it?"

Alya laughed. "Go ahead. You know I'm no good at this whole drawing thing. Knock yourself out."

"Thanks," Marinette said with a smile. She took the notebook back and turned over to a new page, starting on another sketch.

"So? What about yours? Got any ideas?" Alya asked curiously. She sat on the edge of Marinette's bed, slightly leaning forward.

"No, not yet. But I was thinking of blue...Midnight blue to be exact."

"Ooh, sounds nice. Got a sketch?"

"Half of one...I'll have to look up some basic tutorials on making ball gowns before I finalize anything," Marinette said. "It shouldn't be a problem finishing these before...Um...When is it, Alya?"

"Ah, shoot!" Alya said, lightly smacking her head. "I totally forgot to mention the date! It's next Friday, so one week from now. Can you make them in time?:

"Yeah, no problem. As long as I work on these every day, I should finish with time to spare."

"Thanks, girl. You're the best. Have I ever told you that?"

"Every day."

"Good, cause you are. Should I go out and buy some fabric or something? I feel useless being here like this," Alya said.

"Oh, that's alright. I was going to go later because I have a lot that I need to buy. If you want, you can help figure out what we're going to do about our makeup and hair." Marinette pulled a face. "That, I have no idea how to do. So I'll leave those to you."

Alya gave a thumbs up along with a grin. "Leave it to me! Makeup artist Alya here at your service! I'll have to try out some different foundations and concealer on you at a store and figure out if you have more of a yellow or pink undertone; are you free tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Marinette said nodding, not quite understanding what the heck was an undertone. Or concealer for that matter. Yellow or pink? "I don't want to stay out too long, though. I want to get the bulk of the work done this weekend."

"You got it, girl." Alya glanced at the clock. "Well, I should probably get going now. I'll have to brush up on my makeup skills if I'm going to make you gorgeous enough to seduce your Adrien. So I'll meet you here at 10 tomorrow?"

Marinette blushed. "He's not my Adrien! And I'm not going to seduce him."

"Mhm. Sure. Why else would I push you to go if it weren't for Adrien?" Alya rolled her eyes. "Think about it! It'll be like a ball – You're the princess and he's prince charming! He realizes his love for you at the ball and then you two live happily ever after. The end."

"Alya, life isn't a fairy tail!" Marinette exclaimed exasperatedly. "And he doesn't love me!"

"Yes he does. He just doesn't know it yet. Make sure to not lose your invitation. You know how absent-minded you can get," Alya said jokingly as she stood up and brushed off her jeans. "It would suck if you lost yours. Keep it safe, alright? I'm not asking Adrien for another one for you."

"I'm not that bad at keeping things!"

"You are with anything even remotely related to Adrien." Alya rolled her eyes. "But seriously, keep it here until Friday, okay? Try not to drool over it too much."

Marinette blushed. "I won't!"

"Mmm. Sure you won't. But yeah, I'm gonna go now. Bye, Marinette!"

"Bye, Alya."

As the door closed to her room, Marinette's smile faded and she sighed. She looked down at her sketch and frowned. She had said that it wouldn't be a problem, but she wouldn't get anywhere if she didn't have an idea to start with.

A black ball gown? Combined with white? With a touch of purple? Just black would have been fine but the purple was a bit much. She pulled out a different sketchbook, one that she had dedicated solely to designing dresses. It was worn in many ways with the edges of the pages starting to curl. Long gone were the pristine white pages. Instead, many pieces of paper jutted out from the pages, along with various sticky notes.

"That looks nice," Tikki said, hovering just over Marinette's right shoulder. She pointed to one of the sketches, causing Marinette to pause in her flipping frenzy. It was a picture of a simple sleeveless silky gray dress which gathered at the left hip in a small rose, revealing an underlayer of black.

"Yeah, but I don't know how the colors would play out," Marinette said with a frown. "No matter how I combine them, either the black or the white would be too much to look nice."

"Then how about you use this design for yourself? See, just replace the gray with dark red and keep the black and it'll look really nice!" Tikki said cheerfully, pointing at the sketch. "I think it'd be cute if you added a cape...Or something that trails from the back."

Marinette shook her head. "I was thinking of a color to match my hair with. Maybe if I do blue instead of red…"

"If you say so, Marinette…" Tikki shrugged as Marinette bookmarked the page before continuing to flip through the book. "Oh! That one looks nice! Alya would like this one."

Marinette agreed. It was one of her more flashier designs, one that Marinette herself wouldn't wear but fit Alya perfectly. The sleeveless dress was a royal blue, with a satin top that made up the top half before gathering at the hip and cascading downwards. Underneath was a blue of the same shade but unlike the top, it lacked luster which gives it a more modest yet elegant look. Chains of white roses bloomed across the bodice and downward, below the waist.

"This is perfect, Tikki! I'll replace the blue with black, which would probably bring out the contrast of fabric anyways. Then I'll add a purple center to the larger flowers but keep the white in the petals…" Marinette trailed off as she began furiously scribbling down the changes next to the dress, adding onto the page that was already crowded with older notes on the finer details of the dress' design.

"And done! I'll just send this to Alya to see what she thinks of it. Thanks, Tikki!" Marinette said happily, pulling out her phone and swiftly taking a picture before sending it.

"No problem, Marinette. I didn't really do anything, these are all your sketches, after all," Tikki replied.

"Ah, speaking of Alya, I should really put this invitation away before I lose it. I feel like Alya jinxed me," Marinette said pulling a face. She quickly grabbed her backpack and pulled out the invitation.

It was an elegant cream colored envelope, sealed with a wax seal bearing the simple letter 'A' in one of the most complicated scripts she had ever seen. The paper itself was a heavier material than what Marinette was normally used to and when held to the light, it just barely shimmered as if microscopic pieces of glitter were embedded into the material. In cursive written with gold ink on the front side were the simple words, "You're Invited."

"Well, it certainly looks fancy. I almost feel unworthy of holding this," Marinette muttered. She pulled open her top desk drawer and gently placed the envelope among the various tools and pencils. Satisfied, she closed the drawer.

"There. Now it'll be safe from me," Marinette said confidently. "Until the ball, at least."

"That's great, Marinette. Let's go out to buy the materials now before the sun sets," reminded Tikki.

"Ah, that's right! I almost forgot! Let's go, Tikki!" Marinette scooped up the kwami in her hand and grabbed her faithful, pink bag. "If I go get it now, I can have time to work on the dresses tonight!"

"And you'll have them done by Friday with time to spare," added Tikki. "And who knows, you might even win the contest! What's the prize, by the way?"

"I don't know, Tikki, I never asked," admitted Marinette. Truth be told, it had completely slipped her mind to ask, or even how the dresses would have been judged. She'd almost forgotten that it was even a contest.

"Well, it's fine, Marinette. As long as you have fun, I'll be happy."

"Thanks, Tikki. I appreciate it." Marinette smiled and nuzzled the small kwami against her cheek. "Alright, let's go! To the fabric store!"

"The fabric store!" Tikki cheered before slipping into her bag.

Author's Note:

I'm experimenting with shorter chapters in this story (which is why the chapters may seem short) because chapters of twice this length in my other stories tend to have fewer readers so either 1) I'm bad at writing long chapters or 2) People like shorter chapters

So, welp, here ya go. Updates will be faster, though~

Reviews make me smile :)

FicsFromAnAnbuNin - Thank you! Haha, I would do that but I'd feel really guilty so I may just try to finish this as fast as I can

yellow 14 - It did make me smile; it was the first thing I read when I woke up this morning :) Thank you~

Ern Estine 13624 - Thank you! I'll try to update this as often as I can~

Poisonberryismahname - Here ya go :3

MysNis1206 - Thanks~ It was actually an idea I've been playing around with inspired by another fanfic I very faintly remember reading inspired by Cinderella. I wish I remembered that other fanfic… I'll keep writing!

Guest - Thank you~

Luiz4200 - Thank you~ Haha, I thought of that but I don't think that Marinette would be worried enough about anyone taking it from her room to lock it up .