Having successfully dodged the Gorilla' scrutiny, Adrien was free to relax after a long and rather arduous day. With his supply of energy rapidly waning, he used its last remnants to hurl himself onto his bed, resting the back of his head on his hands. The past few days had been quite eventful. School had been going well and he had proven to be a more than capable student, the project had proven to not be much of a challenge, and he had already grown quite attached to his peers. All things considered, life could not be much better.
And, yet, the one thing that consistently leaped to the forefront of his mind was Marinette.
That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, however. His focus on the night's events, though almost fatally awkward at times, carried a correlation with a strange sensation in his stomach. There was something about interacting with the fashion designer that made his insides somersault pleasantly. A feeling further enhanced by the fact that he now had her phone number and would in all probability be able to speak to her again on Monday. Again, there was no one particular reason for it, but it made Adrien want to get up and dance once he regained his energy.
The annual College Francoise Dupont charity gathering! Bring your friends and support the cause!
Adrien arched an eyebrow at the bulletin board. He had been to enough gatherings of the bourgeoisie in his life that he felt no legitimate compelling interest to attend. Unless, of course, she would be there.
"You gonna go?"
He shrugged at Nino's query. "Meh, I don't know." Couldn't give himself away seeing as Nino's classic mischievous grin indicated nefarious intentions.
"Mmm. You know, I'm pretty sure Marinette is going."
He should've expected it, but it still shot a shock through his spine. It as certainly a fact worthy of note, assuming he wasn't lying.
And the prospect of seeing her in a fancy dress made him feel like his head was going to-
"And I'm also pretty sure that she would just love it if a certain someone I'm talking to at the moment asked her to go."
With a grin of proportionate sadistic glee, Adrien turned from the sheet of paper to his current combatant, completely prepared to strike back. "Actually, I was wondering if Alya wanted to go," Had to keep the eyebrows up for this next part. "Do you think anyone has asked her yet?"
Nino clearly hadn't expected such a rebuke from the mild-mannered Adrien, and was obviously taken aback. "Er-I've gotta deejay. It would be unfair to her if I promised to go and then ditched her the whole night."
He returned his eyes to the sheet a moment later and put his finger to secure victory. "Band will be provided, so you're available to ask her." Adrien crossed his arms in a declaration of triumph. Nino had no rebuttal prepared.
"Hey, Adrien!"
Still brandishing his self-righteous grin, he met the source of the sound to find Marinette greeting him with her brilliant smile, and once again the fireworks show returned for yet another performance in his chest. Of course, he was always happy to see her, but it was rather unusual for her to engage the conversation. Typically, he would say hello and watch her stammer and blush her way through something that vaguely resembled a coherent response, but today the situation had been reversed. He was stunned. She was clearly anticipating some sort of sign that Adrien was both a human being capable of properly responding and pleased to be in her company.
"Hey, Marinette, Adrien wanted to ask you if-"
"If Alya was going to the dance in two weeks," Despite the pure dread that seized him once he deduced what Nino had planned, Adrien's quick wits had outdone the DJ's feeble attempt at warfare. "Nino wants to ask her, but he's obviously a bit nervous."
Having been a superhero for quite some time now, Adrien was accustomed to being on the receiving end of what he had colloquially dubbed the 'death stare'. He was certain that had the laws of civilization not suppressed him, Nino would've strangled him to death in that exact moment.
"Of course she would go with you!" Marinette piped in, potentially rescuing Adrien from a gradual and painful demise. "Nino, I promise she will say yes if you ask."
Being an utter disaster at duplicity, Nino saw no reason to believe she could be lying about Alya's desire. His face returned to a more stable expression and his rage towards Adrien had vanished.
"Who will say yes to what?" As fate would have it, Alya crashed the conversation, giving Adrien the perfect segue for some one-on-one with Marinette.
"Marinette, why don't we give them some room?" The two hastily departed, leaving a flustered Nino alone with a highly confused Alya.
"It was going to happen eventually." Marinette was clearly pleased by the events of the day so far.
"Who are we to deny true love?"
It was always good to hold up the code of honor among friends. Nino was all but certainly going to ask Alya eventually, but friends were there to force you into awkward situations for your own good.
"Are you okay, Adrien?"
On the subject of awkward situations, Adrien was certainly wallowing in one. Normally, he would be the one to ask her something of that nature, but now it was Marinette who was the peppy and assertive one. Don't get him wrong, Adrien quite liked it, but it left him uneasy. What was wrong with him? What was it about her that flustered him so easily?
"Uh, Marinette?" He brought his hands together. "Nino wasn't lying. I was actually wondering something." He forced himself to edge out the words.
No visible reaction from Marinette beyond her steady smile. "Sure. What's up?"
It would be a lot easier if she was as anxious as he was in the moment, but Adrien understood his duty. "I wanted to know if you wanted to go to the dance," So far, so good. "With me, I mean." The most critical of addendums.
Again, no discernible reaction beyond her smile slightly wavering to contemplate the offer. "Sure!"
She said yes! Once again, he felt an insatiable desire to dance like a buffoon, though embarrassing himself in front of Marinette was more than a sufficient deterrent.
"B-but we can go as friends if you want. It doesn't have to be a date."
That got something out of her. It wasn't much, but Adrien's caveat had clearly come out of the blue and seemed to hamper her mood. "Oh." Was all he received.
Why.
Why.
Oh dear goodness why. Had Adrien just hurled his only chance with Marinette out the window? He obviously desired to attend the dance with her, but he also didn't want to utterly demolish their friendship by him being an insensitive jerk who disregarded her desires. He quite liked being friends with her even if her mere proximity was enough to turn him into a tongue-tied fool.
"I'll see you there," She lightly punched him in the shoulder, indicating that everything was indeed cool. "Friend."
Once again, their exchange had been interrupted by the appearance of Alya, who practically danced her way over to where they were standing.
"Hey, lovebirds," She put an arm over their shoulders. "Don't wanna be late, do we?"
Adrien and Marinette exchanged subtle smiles as Alya skipped ahead.
Not far off, a fellow student was also scrounging up the courage to ask out the girl of his dreams. In his eyes, a more gentler, more gracious, more benevolent soul had never graced the Earth with her presence, and her limitless kindness was rivaled only by her beauty, which even the greatest artists and poets could never even begin to dream of encapsulating. Though he, Geno, was less than an iota of an atom of a germ before a mighty and fair queen utterly unrivaled in beauty in the court of love, he would place everything at risk in the name of his heart's truest desire.
"If I said it once, that probably means I've said it at least ten million times! Find out what Adrien is doing in two weeks! What do I pay you for, anyway?"
He sighed. Chloe's voice was one an Angel ascribed to match in splendor.
Author's note: Please forgive the potential butchering of the French language that took place when Adrien read the announcement sheet. I'm horrible with languages, as you can probably tell from the fact that I can barely work with English. And I promise the last part involving Chloe will have some significance later on, although I'm sure you can see where I'm going with it.