She was wearing a mask.
But today it wasn't so that people couldn't recognize her.
Today everyone was wearing masks.
All of the masks were bright and beautiful, and Marinette got completely carried away looking at them until she could see nothing but the masks… In fact, now, lost in the crowd, she couldn't even see her classmates anymore…
Of course, she heard that during the carnival in Venice there would be a terrible number of people, but now, frantically looking at the crowd, she really felt all the organized chaos of what was happening…
Marinette took out her phone from her purse in the hope that at least one of her classmates would hear her call in this noise and was just about to press call on Alya's contact when the phone was simply knocked out of her hands by running by tourists.
Marinette hurried after the bouncing device on the pavement and almost grabbed it when another passerby tripped over it and accidentally pushed it into the water.
"No!" The girl exclaimed, watching as her phone slowly sunk under water.
The young man who pushed the phone stopped next to her.
"I apologize, miss." He spoke in English. "Let me pay for the cost of the phone and SIM card recovery." He offered.
Marinette turned to him, slightly confused, not yet fully realizing the horror of the situation, – the man seemed to think faster than her.
"I… What?.. Oh, no-no, don't worry about it..." She said distractedly, thinking about how to find her classmates now. "You didn't do it on purpose…"
"I insist." He said confidently, almost sternly. "It's the least I can do. During the carnival, all salons are closed and you'll be in enough trouble waiting to restore your SIM card."
Right. Marinette frowned deeper under her mask.
"My SIM card can't even be restored here." She sighed. "I'm from Paris and only here for the carnival, so…" She turned to the water where her phone had sunk.
"Curiously enough I have relatives in Paris." The man behind her spoke in French now. "In fact, some of them are at the carnival as well. I was about to find them when I accidentally destroyed your last connection to the civilized world."
Marinette chuckled at the way he called her phone and relaxed slightly.
"Yeah… we spend too much time on the screen nowadays, don't we?" She smiled at the stranger. "Maybe you came into my life to save me from being addicted to technology." She suggested playfully, then sighed again. "Although now it's unclear how I can find my friends."
"Do you remember the name of the hotel where you stayed?" The man asked. "I can take you there, and from there you'll begin your search."
Marinette didn't really want to go back to the hotel.
First of all, it was in Mestre – the mainland of the city, which meant moving away from the center of events. Secondly, none of her classmates have been there for a long time, because everyone has long rushed to the masked crowd. And thirdly...
This meant that the gallant stranger would leave her, and for some reason she didn't want that at all.
"It's uhh… Venice something?.." Marinette didn't remember the exact name of the hotel, which of course was on her phone too. "But it wouldn't help much, 'cause we left the hotel all together, so I won't find anyone there." She admitted. "Unless after the carnival events, when everyone is tired…"
The man looked at her silently for a while, then checked his watch.
"Did you have any specific plans with your friends?" He asked finally. "Maybe you were going to eat at a certain place or…"
"Yes!" Marinette interrupted enthusiastically.
It was a brilliant idea, as the company's plans were to visit the main square of the city.
"We didn't agree on food, but everyone really wanted to visit Piazza San Marco!" She said happily. "I can certainly find them there!"
The stranger opened his mouth to say something, then closed it, then opened it again.
"We can try to find them there," He said. "But that square is quite large and the crowd there will be very dense today." He reported.
Marinette frowned. He was right, of course, and how did she not think of this?..
Wait.
"We?" She asked in surprise.
"I can't leave you alone without communication in a strange city." The man said confidently and lifted his shoulder, inviting her to take his arm. "At least I'll help you get back to your hotel if you can't find your friends in the square."
Marinette took a hesitant step towards him and accepted his arm.
"But… What about your meeting?" She asked worriedly.
"It can wait." He said calmly. "In any case, I won't leave you until I make sure you're safe."
Marinette looked into his confident green eyes and for a moment forgot the essence of their conversation.
Maybe because of the color of his eyes, so similar to those she used to adore, maybe because of the gallantry or unexpected concern, the stranger didn't seem to her a stranger at all.
Even his voice sounded familiar...
Marinette woke up and realized that she was staring at his face – even if mostly hidden behind a gray carnival mask – for too long. As if coming back from his reverie too, the man smiled faintly.
"Shell we?" He said and led her across one of the endless Venetian bridges, probably in the direction of the square.
The handsome stranger was right. The closer they got, the more impassable the multilingual crowd became.
Another gaggle of carnival youths almost knocked Marinette off her feet, tearing them apart for a split second and her companion caught her hand with a skillful movement, preventing the girl from falling. He pulled Marinette towards him, practically enclosing her in his protective arms as another wave of excited tourists washed over them in a continuous stream.
This gesture seemed sort of necessary, because otherwise they would have been pulled apart by now, but pressed tightly to his chest, Marinette found herself in the intoxicating feel of his scent, mingling with the smell of an exquisite body wash.
Her eyes closed on their own and for a moment the girl allowed herself to melt into his scent, pressing against the chiseled muscles, clearly felt through his shirt now that she stood so close.
It seemed to her that he froze, as if her closeness had the same effect on him as his on her, but Marinette didn't have time to analyze these sensations properly, because in the interval between waves of people, her stranger moved, pulling away and depriving her of his pleasant warmth.
Before Marinette could get carried away with her disappointment, the man grabbed her hand tightly and pulled her along with him.
It was clearly a necessary thing now, – it would be impossible to go further side by side, and this gesture was an obvious solution to the problem if they didn't want to lose each other in the crowd, but the feel of his hand, tightly squeezing hers with such unwavering determination, returned Marinette to an intoxicating feeling of romanticism.
The stranger tucked her hand behind his back, as if hiding Marinette behind him and protecting her with his body as they made their way through the noise of people. And it probably shouldn't have caused as much fluttering in her chest…
But it did.
Since Marinette decided to move on from her crush on Adrien, she didn't really like anyone and it was the first time in months that she had felt this kind of emotion. It was so sudden, and the fact that she was feeling it for a man she was seeing for the first time in her life was even more unusual...
It was something from a romantic movie, really, – a tall handsome stranger taking care of her when she gets lost in a beautiful foreign city…
But here he was, leading her through the crowd, holding her hand in his...
A few minutes later, instead of the square, for some reason they came to a small pier, which was completely empty, – apparently today the demand for water transport was especially high.
The only gondola was just about to moor.
Even before the previous passengers left the boat, several men immediately rushed to it at once, vying with each other shouting numbers, one bigger than the other.
"Stay here." Her stranger ordered, releasing Marinette's hand, and went to the noisy men.
The girl opened her mouth to stop him, – he wouldn't be able to take this gondola with such competition, and the prices that the men called were exorbitant, – but he had already disappeared behind the backs of his rivals.
He must be tired of walking in the crowd, – Marinette thought. Even despite his mask, she noticed how his face tightened with each influx of people.
Not that she was constantly staring at his face, of course...
Marinette felt the touch of his skin and realized she fell deep in thought, staring into the water. She looked up to find her companion holding her hand and carefully looking into her face, as if searching for an answer to some question of his own.
"Sorry, I…" Marinette muttered, glancing at the gondola, from which the disappointed men dispersed in different directions and from which the gondolier smiled politely at her. "Is it... Is he waiting for us?"
"Indeed he is." The young man answered and nodded slightly. "The road to the square will be more comfortable on the water."
Marinette reflexively moved towards the boat, following him and climbed into the gondola leaning on his arm. She sat down on a soft seat in the form of a small sofa. Opposite was the same seat for two more passengers, but the man sat next to her.
He exchanged a couple of phrases with the gondolier in Italian, of which Marinette understood only the name of the square, and turned to her.
"Can I see your foot?" He asked so unexpectedly, almost unceremoniously, that for several seconds the girl blinked, not knowing what to say.
"W-why do you need to see my foot?" She asked, stuttering in embarrassment.
Marinette rubbed her foot from walking along the endless bridges. Of course, wearing the shoes bought the day before wasn't the best idea, but yesterday they seemed so comfortable, just right for the trip...
"You're limping." He calmly explained.
"I… How did you notice?" Marinette asked in confusion, feeling her cheeks burn with embarrassment.
She was sure that she managed to hide it! Besides, when she finally relaxed and allowed herself to limp, he was walking ahead of her...
"I pay attention to what I find important." He replied, smirking. "So? Will you let me estimate the size of the disaster?"
"I…" Marinette was even more embarrassed at the prospect of a handsome stranger looking at her sore foot as another realization visited her mind. "Did you rent a gondola because I was limping?!"
Until that moment, she was sure that the reason was his dislike of the crowd.
The man looked at her carefully.
"Was it the wrong thing to do?" He asked, peering into her face.
"No!.. Yes?.. I don't know…" Marinette felt embarrassed that he had to do this for her. "How much will the trip cost? I want to pay for it!"
"Absolutely out of the question." He cut off. "Besides, at some point I had to return to the square anyway."
Return? – Marinette thought, but anxiety for the trouble she had caused him forced that thought away.
"I didn't mean to bring you so much trouble…" Marinette said shyly as she looked away towards the street – the view of carnival Venice in the evening from the water was something absolutely amazing.
"I don't feel like I'm in trouble." The man said in a serious voice, and took her hand, causing Marinette to turn to face him again and her lips part, drawing in air. "Will it sound weird if I said that I can't help but feel like we've met before?"
Perhaps in this situation, she should have been even more embarrassed, but Marinette also felt that in some strange way they knew each other, and she didn't ask his name just why, so as not to destroy this illusion.
His question didn't sound like one of pointless pick up lines or any kind of flirting at all. His gaze was attentive, searching for something in her eyes, his touch felt confident, but not intrusive.
"Would it sound weird if I said I felt the same?" She spoke softly, mesmerized by his eyes and the magic of the moment.
The man's gaze slid down to her lips and Marinette caught her breath. She, too, was staring at his lips, which seemed so inviting that her mouth went completely dry...
The stranger swallowed, cleared his throat, and straightened up, and Marinette realized that while she stared at his lips, their faces had come much closer to each other than strangers were supposed to stay...
It's good that he was more sensible, – Marinette thought, coming to her senses, – because she seemed to lose her head enough to be ready to kiss a complete stranger in an unfamiliar city, less than an hour after she met him...