Disclaimer: I don't know anything about sewing machines and dressmaking. Please forgive me.
Ten days until prom: four akumas. None of these victims were Marinette Dupain-Cheng when she found out Adrien was going to prom with Lila Rossi – "Lila! The nerve… She must have known he'd just been turned down, but she asked anyways! She didn't even give him time to breathe!" – but three were Adrien Agreste fans upon finding out he had a date.
Seven days until prom: three akumas.
Four days until prom: eight akumas.
Three days until prom: eleven akumas.
Two days until prom: fifteen akumas.
One day before prom:
Ladybug swung onto the bakery roof, detransformed in midair, and flopped on her bed with a heavy groan. Tikki spun out of her earrings and plopped down on Marinette's pillow, exhausted. Marinette pulled a box of day-old cookies out from under her bed and pushed a few towards Tikki.
Four last minute promposals and rejections. Five dress rentals that fell through. A guy and a girl whose dates switched on them last minute for each other. Two girls who'd bought their dresses online from sketchy websites that sent low-quality dresses. And it was only two in the afternoon.
She and Chat Noir had been building up to this. Ladybug warned him to stock up on whatever his kwami ate; he suggested getting rest whenever she could possibly manage it. The Ladyblog, livetweets, and news reports were constantly open on their computers and phones. They'd discussed homework and agreed it was best to put it off until after prom. They were both skipping school today.
Marinette glanced at the unfinished material hanging over her dress form and around her room. She'd told Alya she was skipping school to finish her dress. Between all the akumas in the past week, she hadn't had enough time. The dress was getting… close… ish. That is to say, all the pieces were cut out, and some were sewn together…
There was a thud on the roof. Tikki shot into the box of cookies; Marinette swept the box back under her bed.
Chat Noir's head poked over the edge of the open loft door. "Bonjour," he piped.
"Bonjour, Chat Noir," Marinette said, sitting up. "What brings you here?"
"I heard you stayed home to finish your dress."
Where did he hear that?
"Yeah, I did. Just taking a break right now."
"How's that going?"
"Going… all right," Marinette said, faltering at the complete lie.
"Hmm…" Chat Noir mused. "Is there any way I can ad-dress this situation?"
Marinette sighed. He'd made that pun before. "It's all right. I have it under control."
"Well, all right." He stood up to leave. "But if there's anything thread-ening your wellbeing, give me a call. I've got you covered."
Marinette nodded. "Okay. Thanks." He was probably just trying to prevent another akuma. It was nice of him to check up on her, though. Especially when he could have been using this time to rest.
"Out of curiosity…" she wondered, "why didn't you just come in?"
He grinned. "You're right here. Besides, it would be impolite to enter a lady's room uninvited. See you around, Princess."
Marinette shook her head, smiling. Well. Better get going on that dress while she still could.
As she sewed, she kept thinking of the time Nathanael was akumatized. Evillustrator had waltzed right in through the window.
One day before prom: thirteen akumas before two in the afternoon. Half an hour of peace and frantic sewing. Twenty-three akumas after that.
They stretched well into the night, refusing to let up until two in the morning. There was one period of twelve minutes in which Marinette got a little bit more sewing in, and a three minute stretch in which she wolfed down a croissant (and nearly choked and died. Tikki had to smack her in the back to get it out).
At four minutes past two in the morning, Ladybug landed in Marinette's bedroom, detransformed, and collapsed on the bed, reaching for the day-old… two-day-old cookies.
"Tikki, I've run out."
"That's okay," said Tikki, fluttering toward the door to the rest of the house. "I'll get cookies. You work on the dress."
Marinette sighed, staring down at the fabric strewn across her room. At the rate things were going, she would have to pull an all-nighter in order to finish her dress, take care of more akumas, and get ready for the prom herself. She knew she could do it… It was just a matter of her prom night turning into a complete nightmare.
Marinette took a deep breath. "Okay, Marinette. Let's get going."
Adrien shut off his computer screen and climbed into bed. Everything was taken care of – his tuxedo, the corsage and boutonniere, his schedule for the following day. All he had to do was show up – well, and take care of Chat Noir's business. But Adrien Agreste's prom night was all set to go.
He couldn't help but worry about Ladybug, though. He had no idea how well she was handling the combination of prom preparation and prom akumas. All he could do was keep telling her to rest when she could, and hope she heard him.
Adrien was drifting off, but he woke up a little when he realized he'd forgotten to check on one last thing.
"Plagg–"
"I'm sleeping."
"And soon you'll be sleepwalking. Transforme moi."
The bodice was starting to come together when Chat Noir landed on Marinette's roof. "Good morning," he said, poking his head into the room.
"Shh, my parents are asleep," whispered Marinette. "And it's night."
"It's past two in the morning."
"It's still night. Morning means I'm running out of time."
He was quiet for a moment. "Need any help?" he finally asked.
"Sewing?"
"You'd be surprised," said Chat Noir.
"I guess. Come in."
He dropped to the floor and slid down the staircase railing to where she was. "What can I do?"
"Umm…"
Marinette got him started on hand-stitching a section of the bodice near the shoulder, while she hemmed the skirt with her sewing machine. Periodic glances in his direction told her that he seemed to know what he was doing.
"I think I finished," he said eventually.
Marinette looked up. "Okay. Wait one second."
She finished off the hem and took the bodice from him. "Nice job," she congratulated him.
"Thanks, m'lady."
Marinette placed it on the table behind the sewing machine. "Let's see… I made a stencil earlier…"
She picked up the bodice again and turned to find the stencil. On her way there, she tripped over her desk chair, causing her to lurch forward. The bodice caught on the sewing machine, pulling them both off the table and onto the floor.
Marinette landed on the ground with a groan. "Ouch," said Chat Noir with a wince. "Sorry if my bad luck rubbed off on you."
"No, I'm usually this clumsy…"
She gasped suddenly. Chat Noir looked, and his heart sank. The bodice had caught at the part of the sewing machine where the needle was, and pulled through in such a way that there was now a ragged line of stitches right across the shoulder of the dress, pinning it closed from the end to the neckline. Even if they pulled the stitches out, the fabric would have been too torn up to use.
The two of them stared at the ruined bodice for a moment. Chat Noir fully expected Marinette to panic – it was preposterously late, and at least an hour's worth of work was down the drain, and she'd have to detach and recut and resew and – okay, maybe he was panicking.
"Okay," said Marinette. "Let me find the stencil first."
She located the stencils and gave him instructions regarding fabric paint and glitter. Chat Noir set to work, a layer of paper protecting the floor. Marinette, meanwhile, used the bodice and a ruler to make a few measurements, then took a pair of scissors to the top.
At three, Marinette passed Chat Noir the altered top to stencil while she took a catnap (both the idea and the pun were Chat Noir's). At three twenty-five, Marinette woke up to gingerly pin the still-drying bodice together on the dress form, and pin the skirt to that. Chat Noir finished up the stenciling on the upper skirt while she sewed everything together.
At four in the morning, they sat side by side on the floor, admiring their work. "We did it," Marinette said happily.
"We did," said Chat Noir. "Bien joué."
Marinette blinked. "It's what Ladybug and I do after a successful mission," Chat Noir explained, holding up his fist. "I think it's… fitting."
Marinette smiled. "Bien joué," she said, bumping fists.
"Fitting, get it?" Chat Noir gestured at the dress. "You still need to try it on."
"The dress form has the same measurements as me. It'll fit."
"I want to see," Chat Noir said, grinning like a kid.
"Uh-uh." She wagged a finger at him. "You'll have to wait until tomorrow."
"But prom is today!"
"No, Monsieur It's-After-Midnight," Marinette chided playfully. "You'll have to wait until tonight. You'll see me there."
Chat Noir sighed dramatically. "Oh, all right."
He got up to leave. Marinette turned off the lights, and he followed her up the stairs to the loft. The world outside was already turning light in that gray pre-dawn way, telling them both to hurry up and get to sleep.
"See you tonight," Chat Noir said, leaping onto the balcony.
"Chat Noir, thank you," Marinette said as sincerely as possible.
"Anytime, Princess." He gave a sort of wave with two fingers, and sprung off into the night.
Marinette would have laughed, but the lateness of the hour turned it into a tired smile. "Good night, chaton," she said, leaning back into her pillows.
Credits for Monsieur It's-After-Midnight go to my friend, who coined the term "Mr. F***ing Midnight" for people who think anything after midnight is a new day. This is the French/PG version.
