When the two of them were wrapped up in a conversation, Alya walked away to talk to her boyfriend over at the DJ stand. She put in a pair of earplugs she kept in the side pocket of her purse while she walked. She loved Nino's mixes, but he knew she needed to keep her hearing as good as possible to be a journalist.
She smiled as she approached her boyfriend's place at the party. She got close enough to him to give him a cup of water and he leaned over to kiss her cheek softly. "I see you got the two of them to meet," he said, raising his voice to be heard over the sound of the speakers. "Way to go, babe."
"Yeah, after I spent hours convincing Marinette to make more friends. I swear, she almost didn't even come out tonight, but I ended up reminding her that you were DJing and she's always happy to come out to support either of us." Alya said, sighing over her best friend's attitude. "I'm just glad they seem to be getting along so far."
"What did you get them to talk about?" Nino asked after taking a big gulp from his cup of water.
"The heroes." Neither of them were surprised that the heroes managed to break the ice between their friends. "I walked away from them once Adrien told Marinette that if he could have a beer with a hero, he'd choose Carapace." She added a quick wink to her boyfriend and he laughed in response.
"Doesn't sound like it should be too hard," he said, "I'm pretty sure he had a beer with Carapace two nights ago. Now that you mention it, though, he did seem to really like the Carapace tie that Marinette made me. I wore it the day that we met. That honestly might be why he started talking to me in the first place."
"Think he has a crush on the turtle hero?" Alya asked Nino in a half joking tone.
"I hope not," Nino said, "I'd hate to have to leave you if supermodel Adrien Agreste asked me out." Alya playfully batted at Nino's arm as the two of them continued to watch their friend's talking next to the table of drinks. Adrien was holding his chin as he looked at the outfit on the screen. After another few seconds, Marinette pulled out her phone and held it out to him.
"Future CEO of Agreste and a designer," Alya said, "they're practically soulmates. I can't believe she keeps telling me that she's not ready to date again. He would be so perfect for her and they could have their own little 'superhero appreciation parties' all the time." Nino shrugged. He knew that Adrien hadn't dated anyone in years.
"I'm sure that if they want to get together, they won't need our help, Alya," Nino assured his girlfriend, who was barely even listening to him. He placed a hand onto her shoulder to make sure that he had as much of her attention as possible. She looked up to meet his eyes. "I need you to repeat after me."
"What do I need to repeat?" She was immediately suspicious of her boyfriend.
"Please?" She rolled her eyes and laughed lightly. She nodded, knowing her boyfriend wasn't going to make her agree to anything she would sincerely regret. "I, Alya Élodie Césaire, promise not to interfere with my best friend's love life…"
She crossed her arms over her chest and pursed her lips. "I, Alya Élodie Cesaire, promise not to interfere with my best friend's love life…"
"Marinette is an adult and she can figure out who she wants to date all by herself, no matter how much I want to try to help her…" Nino moved his hand down to gently rub Alya's upper arm as she made the repeated promise to him.
"Marinette is an adult and she can figure out who she wants to date all by herself, no matter how much I want to try to help her…"
"Even if I think she and Adrien might be made for each other, that's between the two of them now that they've met. I trust the two of them to make their own choices like the responsible people I know they are."
"Even if I think she and Adrien might be made for each other, that's between the two of them now that they've met. I trust the two of them to make their own choices like the responsible people I know they are."
He knew he shouldn't have serious expectations that she would listen to the promise that they made. He was hopeful that she would at least leave the two of them alone long enough for them to become friends and maybe give each other a chance before she started to try setting them up.
"If I'm not allowed to interfere, what should I do while you're DJing. I don't want to interrupt them talking if I can't work on setting them up." Alya looked around again, noticing that Marinette and Adrien were no longer standing by the table with the drinks. She saw that they had moved off to the far side of the room and Marinette was still showing Adrien something on her phone.
Adrien seemed to have an excited expression on his face as he pointed to the screen and Alya considered going over to talk to them. She wanted to find out what they were talking about, maybe see if she could help get them to spend more time together, but she knew she had just told Nino she wouldn't interfere.
Marinette, on the other hand, was standing next to Adrien, showing her the gown that she had made that was based off of the AstroChat suit. Adrien was enthused by the fact that she had managed to make the gown look like the night sky like the suit did. There was a green belt on the dress that tied into the detailing on the suit.
"It's gorgeous," he told her, "I bet Chat Noir would think it's purrfect. You're seriously tailented, Marinette." Marinette tried to keep from wincing at the puns that he made, but she was so distracted by the Chat Noir-ish jokes that he made that she hadn't really been able to pay attention to the specific things he was mentioning about the gown.