Marinette woke up early but stayed snuggled in bed. It's not like I have any projects I can work on without my sewing machine. Well, I guess I could cut stuff out. But whatever.

Chat had been strangely silent the night before, and she realized that he probably had a shoot he hadn't mentioned. All's fair in love in war, I guess.

She threw an arm over her face, yawning. Getting up was such hard work, especially when—

Her phone pinged, and she scrambled to check it. "Chat! Haha!"

He sent her the picture Nino had taken the night before. 'My friend took this last night. Thought you'd like an exclusive first look~'

Marinette hurried her reply. 'You look amazing! I wish I could get glitter to look that good on me'

'Oh, it'll look good on me for the next 4653126785632 years. I swear it's the real STI of the modeling world'

She burst into laughter. 'I totally understand. We still have some in our carpet from something I did last spring.'

'I'm sure I'll be finding glitter in my sheets for months to come. It makes dates kinda awkward. "Oh, can we go to your place? I don't want you getting a UTI because of all the damn GLITTER I CAN'T GET RID OF"'

'I'm pretty sure I'm immune to it at this point, if that's what you're suggesting ;)'

Marinette put her phone aside and took a deep breath, whispering to herself, "I am a strong, confident woman. Any guy would be lucky to have me and to get me to offer to go to bed with him, even if I am faced with rejection. I am a strong, confident woman. Anyone who—oh!" She read his message as soon as it came in, convinced that it didn't ruin her air of confidence.

'Oh, that's not all I'm suggesting ;)'

Marinette burst into Alya's room even though she was still asleep. "Alya! Chat Noir just! And! And he!"

Alya rubbed her eyes and sat up halfway. "Huh?"

Marinette shoved her phone in Alya's face. "See?"

Alya rubbed her eyes again, squinting at the screen. "That's nice, dear. Go back to sleep." She handed the phone back, falling over to sleep immediately.

Marinette skipped to the kitchen, too excited to even think of going back to sleep.

'Oh, it's not? What else are you suggesting?'

She poured herself some cereal with almond milk and pulled up her laptop, crunching away as she scrolled through Instagram. Her eyes went automatically to her phone as Chat's message came in.

'You know, I had a whole message typed out, but I thought it might be better to surprise you~'

Marinette blushed. "Wow, he's smooth. Like, he's still a total dork, but he can really turn it on if he wants to." She typed her message and sent it. 'In that case, I can hardly wait to be surprised~'

'Anything for you, my Lady'

Marinette had the fabric all laid out and sighed. She was half a meter too short for this pattern no matter how she arranged the pieces.

How could I have missed that? I've been doing this for years!

She sighed and sat back on her heels, checking her phone for the time. She had just enough time to run to the fabric store and get what she needed if she could figure out the best way to arrange the pieces to get as little extra as possible.

"Screw it. I'll just get as much as I could need." She grabbed her keys and hurried to the store, thankful that they were still open by the time she got there. "Hi Michel, sorry. I know you're closing in like, ten minutes, but I needed something while my machine's getting repaired. I'll be quick."

"I'm not Michel, but that's good to know." Adrien stuck his head up from behind the counter. "Can I help you find it?"

"A-Adrien! Haha, hi!" Pull yourself together, Marinette. You're embarrassing me. "No, I can find it. Thanks, though!" She scurried off, fighting the blush creeping up her neck. My goodness, you're such a mess.

When she found the desired fabric, she brought it up to the counter. "I need three meters, apparently. I was short earlier and it was a disaster and I'll shut up now. You have to listen to things you don't care about all day. I'm sorry."

Adrien shrugged. "I don't mind it coming from some people, you know. You're not as bad as you think." He wrestled with the scissors. "What in the hell? What's wrong with these?"

"Have you sharpened them lately?"

"Someone else was supposed to, but I'm beginning to think that they didn't." He threw them aside and picked up another pair that worked better. "There we go."

"Oh, have you tried spring-loaded scissors?"

"No? Why, are they good?"

Marinette grinned. "They're amazing, honestly. Highly recommend them. It's mostly all I use."

Adrien smoothed out the last folds on the fabric. "Huh. I'll have to try them sometime. They sound delightful."

"They really are. So worth the money, too. Oh, you have something right, uh..." She pointed to his nose. "It looks like glitter."

He made a noise of disgust. "It gets everywhere." He rubbed his nose. "Did I get it?"

"Um, no. Here." She licked her finger and rubbed it off his nose for him. "There." Marinette's face turned red. "Um, here's my card." She handed it to him, internally screaming at herself.

His face was just as red. "Do you even care how much it is?"

"I mean, yes, but you don't have to tell me."

Adrien shrugged a shoulder. "Very well, then." He gave her the receipt to sign and bagged the fabric for her. "So, uh, one more question."

She finished her signature with a flourish and handed him the pen and the receipt. "Oh, yeah?"

"Well, I was wondering, if, uh—"

A loud crash sounded from across the store, followed by swearing from an adult and screaming from a child.

Adrien ran over on instinct, Marinette following him.

"Oh my."

It looked as though the child had knocked the shelf over and gotten hit with some fabric in the process.

Adrien cleared his throat. "What happened?"

The woman screamed in English. "Your faulty shelving fell on my child!"

Adrien heaved a great sigh, switching languages. "Ma'am, that's not the case. I can barely move that particular shelf without help when it's full, and I'm a grown person."

"So it must be faulty!"

Marinette watched with wide eyes.

He rubbed his forehead. "Ma'am, your kid is what, seven, eight? Do you like to climb, kiddo?"

The boy nodded, getting over his tears.

"Don't answer that!"

"Ma'am, we do record what happens in here, and we will hold you responsible for any damages if you don't leave immediately."

The woman stared at him for a long second and grabbed her son by the hand, storming out of the store.

Adrien sighed again. "Looks like I gotta clean this up."

Marinette coughed, switching back to French. "Want some help?"

Adrien looked back at her as though he'd forgotten she was there. "Um, no. But I appreciate the offer. See you next time, Marinette."

She frowned. "Okay. See you, Adrien." She picked up her fabric and left the store, only realizing when she got home that he had never finished asking his question.

A/N: We had a lady yell at us yesterday for...you know what, I'm gonna write it into the fic. It's strangely theraputic! But anyway, the summary version is that retail is awful—and I'd rather eat my own appendix than deal with people sometimes.

As for me, I'm having a slightly better week than I was last week. I have some good news that I'm not sure if I should be sharing yet, so I'll hold off until a later date.

I love you all; thank you so much for your support. Feel free to leave your thoughts down below!

xoxo -wwot