The next time that Marinette saw Adrien was for the New Year's Eve party at Nino and Alya's apartment. Most of their collège class was there, in addition to some people that Nino knew from work and a group Alya knew from the news station. Adrien was there, too, but he showed up later than most people expected.

He arrived in a full black suit with a forest green tie. He was wearing black rimmed glasses and had a beanie on when he arrived at 23h00. "Hey, mec," he greeted Nino when they found each other in the crowd. Nino seemed actively surprised to see Adrien, but that could have just been the alcohol he'd already consumed.

"Glad you could finally make it," Alya told him with a smile. "How'd you get out of the gala so early?" Adrien, as the CEO of Agreste, had been forced by Nathalie to attend another fashion house's New Year's Eve gala to schmooze and try to impress other people. It wasn't what he considered to be fun, but he had to.

"I told them I had to duck out because I promised my girlfriend a New Year's kiss, but she had to stay home because she was feeling under the weather," Adrien informed them. "I just hope no one asks about her next time I have to go to one of those stuffy events." He loosened his tie a little bit and unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt.

"Well, if you're looking for one, I've heard Mari doesn't have a New Year's kiss either," Alya offered, "and she's a sucker for a well fitted suit." Adrien politely chuckled, not sure if Alya was just making a joke or not. "In the meantime, though, you should go get a drink and mingle. Try to make some friends before the wedding."

Adrien went over to the counter of drinks and made himself the closest thing to a Long Island Iced Tea that he could. With his drink in hand, he started to walk around, looking for someone to talk to who didn't seem to already be in the middle of a conversation. After a short while, he recognized the back of Marinette's head while she was talking animatedly to a man in front of her.

"Hey," Adrien greeted, approaching the two. When he was close enough, he could hear that she was talking about video games and he felt better about joining into that conversation now that he was pretty sure she wasn't flirting with the guy. Marinette's face brightened when she looked at him and he felt his heart momentarily flutter.

"Adrien. I'm so happy you could make it," she said excitedly. She turned toward him to exchange les bisous with him and he was happy to return the gesture. "Your suit looks amazing. It might even be better than the tux." She turned back toward the man from before. "This is Max," she said, "he's Kim's partner."

Max and Adrien shook hands in introduction and Adrien smiled. "It's very nice to meet you, Max. I heard a lot about you from Nino and Kim when they helped me move into my apartment a few weeks back."

The two of them spoke for a while and Marinette was happy about how well they were getting along so far. While they spoke, Marinette spent a little time examining Adrien's suit. She heard Alya mention that she wasn't sure if he could be there or not. If he could, she knew he wouldn't be able to show up until closer to midnight, but Alya hadn't mentioned anything about him wearing a suit.

Adrien saw that Marinette was looking at his suit and took off the jacket while he was wrapped up in conversation. He held it out to her in an offer so she could examine it more closely and she took it with a smile on her face. She was surprised that there wasn't a tag on the suit jacket, but she could tell from the texture of the fabric that it was high quality.

Marinette finished examining the jacket that was in her hands and gave it back to Adrien. Instead of putting it back on, he just laid it over his arm. At 23h45, Max excused himself from the conversation to find Kim to ring in the new year together. Marinette, on the other hand, was starting to get warm in the apartment surrounded by people.

"I'm going to go out onto the balcony. Do you want to come with me?" she offered Adrien and he smiled in response. She started to walk across the room and he followed, closely behind her. When they got outside, she was pleasantly surprised to learn that there were only a few other people on the balcony.

They looked out over the railing, admiring Paris on New Year's Eve. From the apartment, as they spoke, they could see that there were many people on the streets and if Marinette looked closely enough, she could see that there was a group of what looked to be hundreds if not thousands of people out by the Eiffel Tower.

It wasn't an unusual sight, especially on a holiday, but Marinette had never seen it that crowded in person and she was surprised by how many people were there. She was starting to feel chilly and shivered lightly. Adrien, hoping to be helpful, took the jacket that was still in his hands and placed it over Marinette's shoulders.

"Thank you," she said quietly, slightly closing the jacket further around herself.

"You're welcome." Within a few moments of that, they heard the countdown to the new year.

"Dix, neuf, huit, sept, six, cinq, quatre, trois, deux, un! Joyeux nouvelle année!" Marinette and Adrien shared a hug as they rang in the new year. When they pulled away, she felt like they were having a moment. She felt like they could have kissed, but it must have been in her head. She kissed his cheek quickly then returned to looking over the city.

That ended up being the last time Marinette saw Adrien for a short while. Quarter one was extremely busy at Agreste, especially since they were in the middle of re-staffing many of the departments. In addition to that, Nino was trying to find Adrien a girlfriend (hopefully Marinette). While he was doing that, Alya was trying to find a significant other for Marinette.

Adrien and Marinette had given their best friends permission to set up Tinder profiles for them. Marinette's profile was set up and showed pictures of herself helping in the bakery, one of her cooking, a photo under the Eiffel Tower, a few pictures that Alya had taken of her in her designs, and one group shot of Marinette and a few girls she was still friends with from collège.

Marinette's profile said 'I'm looking for friends, but I'm open to more if you're willing to deal with my chaotic work schedule. I'm starting my own business and I love to talk about fashion. My best friend made me set up this profile, so I might not be on a lot. '

Adrien's profile was only given permission to exist if all of the photos were from when he was wearing his glasses, so no modeling shots. Nino had chosen a picture that he had taken candidly from the night when Adrien met Tom and Sabine for the first time. He had been laughing at something Tom said and his smile was huge and natural.

One of the pictures was from the New Year's Eve party, when he was getting ready to leave. He was in his suit pants, dress shirt, and loose tie, after Marinette had accidentally worn his jacket home. One of the pictures was him in a beanie on the day when he had moved into his apartment, just proudly standing in front of the moving boxes in his living room.

The rest of the pictures were miscellaneous candid shots from their friendship. There was a picture of Adrien with Nino that involved Adrien doing an anime pose while Nino took the picture. The last picture was of Adrien holding a small black cat with green eyes. The cat looked to be a little older than a year.

Adrien's profile said 'I'm sorry in advance, I'm so busy with work right now. I've been told that I need more friends, so that's what I'm here for, but if we get along well I'm open for more in time. My best friend set this account up for me, so I'll try to be around when I can, but I make no promises. Drop me a pun to start a conversation. '

Halfway through January, Marinette got to see Adrien again for the first time since Alya and Nino's party. He came over with his full tuxedo to try it on with the cumperbundt and the bowtie. When he arrived, he was once again wearing his beanie, this time paired with a Captain America t-shirt and a pair of jeans.

She greeted him with a hug and exchanged les bisous. She gave him the cumperbundt and led him through to her bathroom. He closed the door behind himself and Marinette opened Tinder while she waited for him to come back out. She had gotten a notification that she had a match and she wanted to check if it was someone she'd be interested in talking to. Soon enough, she was swiping through the boys on her screen.

He came back into the second bedroom turned studio and she placed her phone onto her desk to look at his outfit. He saw that she had Tinder pulled up and couldn't help but to be distracted by the number of notifications she seemed to have in the other tab. He wasn't trying to look, but he saw the little red number and couldn't help himself.

"You can swipe through, if you want," she offered while she adjusted the cumperbundt.

"Really," he asked with a blush on his face. He was glad she trusted him that much, but he felt weird about going through the Tinder of a girl he was pretty sure he was starting to develop feelings for.

"Of course," she said with a shrug. "Alya set it up for me and I trust you not to set me up on a date with a total weirdo, especially if you're just swiping for me." She grabbed her phone off of the desk and placed it into his hand. He took that as a good of a sign as any that she was serious.

He started swiping while biting his lip. He didn't know Marinette's type, so what was he to do? He saw a guy who shared a few features with himself, blond hair, glasses and found himself hoping that was Marinette's type, so he swiped right. *match* The next person didn't have a bio and that didn't vibe with him, so he swiped left.

The next profile had a picture of a hamster as one of his first few pictures and Adrien couldn't help but to swipe right. *match* The next few guys weren't good enough for Marinette, based on what their bios showed, so he swiped left on all of them. Then, his own profile showed up and he felt his heart stop.

Would Marinette swipe right on him? Would she swipe left? Would she Super Like him? What if he made the wrong choice and she thought he was just trying to get into her pants. She finished adjusting and he had to make a decision quickly, he swiped right and bit his lip while he considered the consequences.

"Okay, Adrien," she said, finally. She led him over to a full length mirror that she had set up in the living room where she had the most natural lighting. "I think your tuxedo is ready for your day in the limelight as the best man for M. Nino Lahiffe. Looks nice enough to draw attention to your features, but it doesn't look better than the tux I'm making him." She winked at the boy and he couldn't help the smile that spread across his lips.

"It looks amazing, Marinette," he told her sincerely. He handed her phone back to her while he admired the fit of the tuxedo on his body. "How are the dresses coming along?"

"Do you want to see one of them?" He nodded and she went back into her studio to grab the dress she had been making for Ella. She brought it out, still on the hanger and held it up so that he could see the color of the dress in comparison to the silks that Jeremie had chosen for the groomsmen.

"It's gorgeous," he said, a little awed by how well the colors matched and how far she had already come in a short period of time since getting the fabrics from him. "How long have you been sewing?"

Marinette was happy to give him a full summary of the time she'd spent sewing from when she was a kid to when she started to design as a little 10-year-old Marinette. He seemed enraptured by her every word and soon almost an hour passed of just talking with neither of them even noticing.

The sun was starting to set in the sky when he noticed the time. "Do you want to stay for dinner," she offered with a smile. "I was planning to make some vegetable risotto, you know, zucchini, roasted tomatoes, carrots, onion, and parmesan cheese. That type of thing."

"That sounds delicious," he admitted. "I would love to stay if you'll have enough for me. I can even help chop vegetables, Nino says I'm practically the best at that." Marinette smiled at him.

"Before you're allowed anywhere near the kitchen, you need to change," she told him. "You're not allowed to ruin this look by getting tomato stains on the shirt."

"Deal," he laughed. He started walking back to the studio to grab the clothes he came in.

"Can you hang this back up for me," she asked him. She held out the hanger with the dress and he took it from her carefully. He held it like it would fall apart if he moved it too quickly and brought it back to where the other dresses were hung in the closet. He wanted to stop and admire the maid-of-honor dress, but he figured he shouldn't look too closely without permission.

He got changed back into the clothes he showed up in, minus the beanie, then went back out into the kitchen. He went over to the sink and washed his hands before he saw the small pile of vegetables on the cutting board. "If you could dice them, that'd be great. A big dice is fine."

"Got it," he responded. He picked up the knife and started chopping the vegetables while Marinette started boiling the stock for the risotto. As Adrien finished chopping each vegetable, he passed them over to Marinette and she started cooking them independently. After about 40 total minutes of cooking, dinner was done and Marinette handed Adrien a completed bowl of risotto.

The two of them went over to her dining table and she held out a fist for him to bump, "Bien joué?" He smiled brightly and lifted his own fist to bump hers.

"Bien joué." While they were eating, they continued to talk about a little bit of everything. None of the conversation was very serious, but they spent the entire time laughing, joking, and smiling with each other.