My fic, Enchanted To Meet You, was based on a prompt from a friend of mine. When I wrote that one, I also wrote this fic which followed the same prompt, but went off in a completely different direction. I hope you enjoy.


"Excuse me," a man said, approaching Marinette who was sitting at a much larger table at the coffee shop than it seemed like one person should take up by herself, "do you mind if I sit here for a few minutes while I wait for a friend?"

"That's fine," she said, looking around the table. There were a total of four chairs around a circular table and he asked to sit in the one farthest away from her. "I'm waiting for my friend and her fiancé, I'm not just trying to hoard all the seats for myself." She didn't know why she felt the need to explain herself to this stranger, but she did.

She watched him sit down and his features looked generally familiar. He had a strong jawline that had probably a day or two of stubble on his diamond-shaped face, he was wearing a pair of black classic way frame glasses that did nothing to tamp down the vibrancy of his bright peridot green eyes.

As a designer, the next thing that Marinette noticed was the fact that he was wearing a pair of designer jeans. They seemed to be Gabriel Agreste, based on stitching and the seams near the pockets, but that would be crazy. There was no way that this man in a Spiderman t-shirt put on the shirt with a pair of Gabriel Agreste brand jeans.

After Gabriel Agreste was arrested for tax fraud a few months back, someone else had taken over the brand. Marinette didn't really pay attention to what was going on with that brand anymore, not since she started up her own business and started to have more important things to focus on.

Apparently, the CEO was in the process of rebranding and was trying to rename the company to Agreste instead of Gabriel. She thought it was a good plan, overall, but it would be difficult to do, especially given how many people seemed to enjoy the brand and how distinct Gabriel had made the pieces that he had designed.

The man didn't talk to her beyond his first question, so Marinette took that as a good sign that he wouldn't be insulted if she continued what she had been doing before he approached. She picked up a small handful of colored pencils and started to swatch colors on the side of the dress that she had been working on.

Marinette, in addition to maid-of-honor, had been asked to design the dresses for the bridal party, so she was looking for colors that looked nice with her own skin tone as well as Ella and Etta's. Nora was invited to be a bridesmaid, but politely refused. Instead, she was going to be the officiant at the ceremony.

Marinette was a little bit nervous about leaving the groom's party to find their own tuxedos instead of letting her design them, but if they wanted to hire her, she'd made sure that Nino knew that he or the best man could reach out to her whenever they wanted to ask her to make them.

Marinette was really just glad that Alya and Nino had opted for an engagement of just over a year instead of trying to shove all of their wedding planning into a few months like she was worried they were going to do. Marinette was so excited when Nino had called her to plan his proposal to Alya and from his excitement, Marinette was half-convinced he was going to propose that day.

Instead, about two weeks after the call, Marinette got a text of high-quality pictures that apparently Nino's best man helped him get. The proposal included a sign inside of the panther exhibit, popping the question and the panther just laying in front of the sign until Alya noticed. Nino had gotten Alya's dad in on helping with the proposal, or else he was certain they would have been permanently banned from the zoo.

Marinette smiled, just thinking about the picture of the panther rolling around on the ground in front of the sign while Alya and Nino kissed in the foreground. She considered how possible it would be to have the panther at the wedding, but decided against trying to make the suggestion. While distracted, she started doodling little cat faces on the edge of her page.

Adrien had seen the fact that the woman at the table had been drawing dresses and as the new CEO of a design house, he couldn't help but be curious about her ideas. He wasn't going to steal them or anything, but he knew that a lot of Agreste's current designers were planning to leave the company soon if they hadn't already.

He looked over what he could see of the woman's outfit. If it was something that she created, maybe he could schedule an interview to try to hire her on his design team for the next women's line. "Do you mind if I ask what you're working on? Sorry if I'm overstepping, I just don't see many people designing clothing in public."

She looked up when she realized he was talking to her and smiled. "That's fine," she said. She brought the sketchbook to a different position so that he could see the page she had been working on. "One of my friends is getting married soon. She asked if I would make the dresses for the ceremony and I was just playing with some ideas while I had some time."

He looked at the book. "I really like the princess cut," he said, "were you thinking tea-length or full length for the skirts?" She was clearly taken aback by the question. She assumed he was mostly just asking to see them in order to get her attention so he could maybe flirt with her, but she had a smile on her face when he seemed genuinely interested.

"I think that the full-length would be better for the bridal party, but I know a few of the bridesmaids prefer shorter skirts. I'm hoping that the bride will have some input so I know if this is the right aesthetic that she wants before I start on more details."

"Even if they aren't the right aesthetic for this wedding, they seriously look amazing."

"Thank you," she said with a small giggle, "I'll be sure to tell the bride that the stranger I met at Dichotomie liked the dresses." He blushed at the fact that he was practically wanting to offer her a job on the spot, but hadn't even introduced himself.

"Sorry," he said, "I'm-"

"Adrien," Nino said, coming up and clapping him on the back. "I didn't think you could make it, mec. Thanks for showing up. And you've already met Nettie, that's great." Adrien stood up to get a hug from his best friend.

"Yeah," Adrien said with a bright smile on his face, "my meeting got canceled, so I decided to surprise you. Hope that's okay." Marinette stood up next to give Nino a hug and the two exchanged les bisous.

"Where's that lovely lady of yours?" Marinette asked Nino when they sat down. Nino sat in one of the seats left at the table and Marinette moved seats to give Nino and Alya the chance to sit together.

"She ran into her old mentor, Trixie, outside and stopped to chat for a second. She sent me in to see if you were here yet, get us a table, and grab drinks. Speaking of which, do you guys want anything before I go up to order? Drinks? Snacks?"

"I'm fine," Marinette said with a smile and Adrien politely waved a rejection at Nino's question. Nino got back up to go get their drinks and Adrien lowered his voice a little bit to speak with Marinette once again.

"So, Nettie," he asked to make sure he'd heard her name correctly, "you're Alya's maid of honor?"

"Marinette," she corrected politely, "Nino's one of the only people who gets to call me Nettie. I've known him my whole life. You're Adrien?"

"I'm Adrien. Lovely to meet you, Marinette," he said, reaching out. The two of them shook hands and shared a smile. A few minutes later, Alya walked in and Marinette was the first to stand up to greet her. The girls exchanged les bisous and shared a long hug.

"You're getting freaking married," Marinette said with a smile on her face. She held Alya's face in her hands.

"I'm getting freaking married," Alya repeated with a tear in her eyes. "It feels surreal right now. It still feels like Nino and I just dragged you along to our first date and now we're getting married."

Marinette raised on her tiptoes to give Alya's forehead a kiss. "I'm so happy for both of you."

Alya wiped away the tear from her eyes. "You're making me cry, stop," she told Marinette with a half-joking tone in her voice. She sniffled and the two girls let go of one another. "Good to see you made it, Adrien." She stepped over and Adrien stood up to give her a hug, too. They exchanged les bisous as Marinette and Nino had done and Alya took her seat between Marinette and Nino.

"Nino is grabbing your drinks," Marinette said, "in the meantime, I have some sketches for you to look at for the dresses." Marinette flipped a few pages back in her sketchbook than what she had shown to Adrien earlier.

On the page, there was an off-the-shoulder trumpet-style dress. Marinette let Alya look at it for a second before she turned the page to show her a dress with a plunging neckline and a larger a-line skirt. The third page that Marinette showed her had a dress with short sleeves and a ball gown skirt.

"And the piéce de resistance for the reception," Marinette turned the page, showing a jumpsuit that she designed for the reception. Alya was tearing up once again, looking at the designs that Marinette had come up with for her wedding. Nino approached and put Alya's coffee out of range of the sketchbook.

He placed a hand on her back, scratching soft circles while he deliberately looked away from the sketchbook because it's bad luck to see the dress before the wedding. He didn't know if that applied to the designs in addition to the garments, but he wasn't going to find out and risk the combined wraths of Marinette and Alya.

Adrien scooched his seat closer to Nino's. "Why didn't you tell me you're friends with a designer," Adrien accused quietly, "you know I've been trying to find new talent for the company. We could have set something up a long time ago."

"She won't work for you, mec. She's trying to get her own design house off the ground. We're all hoping that an up-and-coming DJ and his beautiful anchor fiancée wearing her designs for their wedding will help MDC really take off."

"MDC," Adrien responded. It must have been louder than he expected because the next thing he knew, Marinette and Alya looked over at him.

"What's up, Buttercup?" Marinette asked from across the table, not missing a beat.

"I'm a huge fan of your designs," he said, as though he hadn't been practically fawning over the bridesmaid dresses before their friends showed up. "I didn't realize it was you until Nino just told me a second ago. Your work is so innovative. I've been thinking about the jacket that you designed for Jagged Stone since he posted the picture of himself wearing it on Twitter."

"Thank you," she said politely. "That was one of my favorite pieces that I've made recently. Jagged always does his best to promote me when he gets the chance." She turned the page of the sketchbook. "We can talk about your dress later," she told Alya, "but these are the bridesmaid dresses I was thinking of."

Alya looked at the dresses that Adrien had looked at earlier and Nino leaned over to take a look. He knew the final decision was going to be up to Alya, but he wanted to see what they'd be talking about for the time being.

"Marinette, I love them," Alya gave Marinette a hug and plopped a sloppy kiss onto her cheek. Alya looked at the margins where Marinette had made a few small notes on the design. "Have you landed on a skirt length yet?"

"I was talking about that with Adrien before you guys showed up. I know Ella and Etta prefer shorter dresses, so I was thinking maybe they'd have tea-length and as your maid-of-honor, I can keep the design the same, but give myself a full-length skirt instead so that they look cohesive, but I'm not totally sure yet, I still might change the designs."

"That sounds perfect, Mari," Alya told her. She brought the sketchbook a little closer to Nino, but he leaned away.

"You know I don't trust myself to have anything within a meter of Nettie's designs," he told Alya, "I ruined a hat design in 8me and I've felt bad about it ever since. I'll look at them after we finish our coffee. For now, we can talk about other wedding things, like the venue or the croquembouche."

"Papa has been making choux and custard to try out recipes since I told him about the engagement," Marinette said, putting her sketchbook back into her bag.

"Yay," Alya exclaimed, "I was really hoping they'd be willing to do our tower. We'd really hate to get our croquembouche from a sub-par bakery. I don't think I'd be able to deal with the disappointment in Tom's eyes if he tried it at the wedding."

"It's fine, they're happy to make it for you. I swear, they would have adopted you guys by now if you had ever asked them to." Marinette's smile was bright and she took a break from speaking to have a sip of her coffee. Adrien found himself intrigued by the woman next to him as he learned more about her.

"Can we schedule a tasting with them?" Alya asked excitedly. Marinette looked at the clock and thought for a moment, considering if it would be possible to meet with her parents that day, she landed on no.

"Of course," Marinette said excitedly, "do you guys want to come over for dinner sometime in the next couple of weeks. We can have a tasting and I can finalize the designs with you while Nino tries to figure out where to get the tuxedos. I'd also like to know if I'm making matching bowties or not, as soon as possible."

"I have tuxedos handled," Adrien contributed, "but I don't know that we'll be able to come up with bowties in the exact color you land on, so I'll leave those to you if that's okay. In fact, I can probably have at least our suits ready by the time Nino and I come to the tasting."

"What makes you think you're invited," Marinette said seriously. Adrien's face dropped and he slightly spluttered. A smile grew on her face, "I'm kidding," she assured, "my family really likes the concept 'the more the merrier,' so you're plenty invited as far as we're are concerned."

"Thank you," he was surprised by the warmth in her offer when she said he could come to the dinner with her family. He had been planning to before, but the kindness in her offer and the smile on her face. He had already planned on attending the dinner and croquembouche testing, but now, at this point, he would be willing to rearrange his entire schedule if he had to.

"When would you guys be free?" Marinette asked. Nino and Alya immediately looked at Adrien, knowing he would be the most difficult schedule to work around and he pulled out his phone to check his calendar for the soonest availability (or the soonest thing he would be able to reschedule without causing too many issues for Nathalie.

After a moment of scrolling, "it looks like I'll be free on November third," Adrien said shyly. "I can probably finish my last meeting by 3, if you all have any availability after that." Marinette nodded enthusiastically and Nino and Alya shared a high five about the fact that Adrien would be able to spend time with them twice within a three-week timeframe.

"November third should be doable," Marinette told them. "I'll talk to Maman and Papa about making sure they have flavors of choux pastry and custards so that you guys can try any combination that you'd want. Just text me if there are any unique flavors you'd want to try that you don't think they'd come up with on their own."

"I should get your number," Adrien said abruptly. Marinette blushed, but she nodded quickly and held out her hand for his phone. In no time, he placed his phone into her hand and she quickly typed in her number with the name 'Marinette (maid of honor) [ladybug emoji]'. He didn't know why she included the ladybug emoji, but it was cute and made him smile.

He sent her a quick text so that she had his number. 'Hey, this is Adrien, Nino's best man. [smiling cat emoji]' She felt the telltale vibration in her pocket but didn't take out her phone while she was with her friends because she didn't want to seem rude. , especially when she knew the text was from the boy she had been sitting next to.

"Do you have any back-up dates?" Marinette asked, "in case my parents can't do the third for one reason or another?" Adrien pulled his calendar back up to the foreground and looked at his schedule, which overwhelmed him more and more everyday. It looked like the next day he could easily do after that would be in mid-December.

However, the meetings he had on the 15th of November could be rescheduled if he had to, worst case scenario. It would be inconvenient, because he knew he needed to speak with that team's manager about ordering fabrics for the line, but it was easier to reschedule than a video conference with 4 different shareholders throughout Asia.

"I could make something work on November 15, but the third would be easier, if that's at all possible. Things are just really stressful at work right now and I'm in charge of making sure everyone is doing what they're supposed to be doing."

"When do you want me to come by to find a tuxedo, mec?" Nino asked while Adrien already had his schedule pulled up. Instead of trying to figure something out, Adrien just handed his phone to his best friend, who started scrolling through to look at different possibilities. Nino saw a full 45 minutes free on a day when he wasn't working, so he put himself into Adrien's calendar.

Immediately, Nino, Adrien, and (somewhere in Paris) Nathalie all got an email with an appointment reminder for a meeting between AA and NL for Tuesday, October 25, 2022 from 12h30 to 13h15. Nino gave Adrien a thumbs up when they both got the email and Adrien responded in kind with a thumbs up of his own.

As soon as Adrien got his phone back, he checked the time and winced at the fact that he had a meeting scheduled in 30 minutes that was all the way across town that he still needed to change before he could attend. "I have to go," Adrien told Nino, Alya, and Marinette. "It was great meeting you, Marinette." He stood up and gave Nino a quick hug from over his shoulders then did the same for Alya. "I'll see you guys soon."

Adrien practically sprinted out of the coffee shop, cup in hand. "Is that how he always is?" Marinette asked with a giggle, watching him almost run into a few patrons as he left the coffee shop. He managed to keep his coffee to himself, but it looked like he may have dropped a little bit onto his jeans in his haste.

Marinette unconsciously wondered if he knew how to properly care for jeans that were as nice as the pair he was wearing. "Like what?" Alya asked, "perpetually in a hurry because he's on the cusp of being late for a meeting and ruining his schedule for the rest of his day?" Marinette nodded as she couldn't think of a better description.

"Always," Nino agreed. "I'm shocked he was able to come out today, but I'm really glad you got to meet him earlier instead of later. He doesn't have a lot of people in his life, so I'm always happy to get him more friends and I know you, Marinette, happen to be one of the best that a guy can have."

"Shush," she joked, gently nudging Nino. A short while later, Nino left Marinette and Alya to talk about the dresses and they came up with a few color ideas for the bridal party. Alya knew she wanted her dress to be ivory, so the rest of the girls were going to have a color that went along with that shade.

The two girls walked over to the fabric shop and Marinette took her sketchbook back out, listing out specific fabric roll numbers in the margins so that they could look over the shades again online and come to a conclusion later, then be able to come back to find the correct fabric that they had been looking at.