Chapter 28

~Marinette's POV~

We had the full day off from school, and Alya started it off by delivering the next five scenes she recently finished to everyone personally, except for Chloe who no longer wanted anything to do with the film, other than to get the grade. Alya and I were now waiting outside the bakery for Kagami to show up and take us to the fire station for us to film the next couple scenes. We could not stop talking about that beautiful dress I was given to wear as Marilee.

"I still can't believe you got to keep it!" Alya said excitedly. "I mean, not even Chloe got to keep the one she got to wear, and she's Chloe!"

"I know." I agreed, unable to wipe the grin off of my face. "I'm not sure why I got to keep this dress when she didn't, but I'm definitely not complaining." I paused and lowered my voice to an excited whisper. "This is a Gabriel designer dress!"

"And yours is much better than the one Chloe borrowed." Alya added, grinning with excitement. "I bet Adrien is really happy his father let you keep it too."

I could hear the teasing tone in her voice and I instantly blushed deeply. "Alya!" I whisper-shouted. "I seriously doubt that!"

"I don't know," Alya said, drawing out her words as she continued to tease me. "He sure seemed to like it on you yesterday while and after you were filming."

I opened my mouth to protest again, but Alya spoke again before I could get out another word, her smile widening slightly. "Kagami's here!" Kagami was about a year older than us and was already able to drive.

Sure enough, a small silver car pulled up to the curb next to where we waited. The passenger side's window rolled down to reveal Kagami smiling at us. "Hey, girls!" She said excitedly. "Ready for this scene?"

"We sure are!" Alya answered for the both of us with a grin. "You two head on over. Nino will be here in no time to bring me over."

"We could wait." I offered, looking at Kagami who nodded her agreement. "We can keep you company while you wait."

"That's sweet of you girls," Alya said with a smile. "But I actually see Nino coming on his way. Well, not him, but his mom is driving."

"Oh okay." Kagami said with a small shrug. "In that case, we should probably head over, Marinette." I nodded in response and opened the door. I gave Alya a small wave before I climbed into the passenger side and closed the door.

As I got in, I happened to notice something in the backseat, and curiously turned to look at it. I instantly smiled when I recognized the cat carrier. "Ambrose." I said with a small smile to myself.

"The one and only." Kagami responded with a smile as she started to drive us to the fire station. "He too is ready for his next scene.

"Okay, do you mind if I ask you something?" Kagami asked me as we sat in her cat, watching as Nino and Alya prepared our scene. They said it shouldn't take long, which meant five minutes at most.

I nodded in response to the question. "Ask me anything. Shoot."

"Why were you so red when I was picking you up?" She asked curiously. "I mean, you're just wearing that dress, so I know you weren't overheating, so either you're sick, or you were really, really cold."

I let out a long breath through my teeth and silently chose to just tell her the truth. "I'm not sick" I said, and slowly nodded to myself as I confirmed my personal decision. "And I wasn't too cold. I was embarrassed by things Alya was saying to me."

"What was she saying?" Kagami asked curiously, and I felt my cheeks heating up slightly as I hesitated.

"She was complimenting how I look in this dress." I said. "And… she was saying that she strongly believes Adrien liked how it looks on me too."

"Well, he'd have to be blind not to think that." Kagami told me. "You look gorgeous in it. He's the blond one, right? The model? Mr. Green Eyes?"

I nodded again and smiled with amusement at the last description she said. "That's him."

"He's kind of cute, isn't he?" Kagami added with a meaningful smile, and I gave her a look.

"Don't you start teasing me about him too." I warned. "Alya already does that enough."

"Why does she tease you?" Kagami asked curiously, but slowly grinned knowingly. "Do you like him?"

"Isn't that an understatement?" I asked sarcastically, blushing more. "Yeah, I really like him."

"And you two both happen to have the leading roles of a romance movie?" Kagami asked with a growing grin. "That can't just be a coincidence."

"No," I agreed and let out a sigh. "It's not. We all knew Adrien would be the leading male, but Alya got the rest of the class to agree to me being leading female. It wasn't hard, really; all the girls in class know about this crush I have on Adrien."

"Alya's the one writing all the scripts too, isn't she?" Kagami asked, and I nodded again to answer her.

"I think Alya is trying to use this film as a way for Adrien to see me as more than a friend." I admitted. "Though I know it would take a lot more than just some roles in a movie that changes how he sees me."

"I wouldn't be too sure." Kagami replied with a smug smile. I looked at her questioningly, but she didn't say anything else. I couldn't even ask her what she meant, or if she knew something I didn't, because Alya was walking towards us to give us the directions to film the scene.

After Kagami and I filmed our scene with Ambrose, we started the second scene of the day. The boys had arrived at separate times during our takes, and spent the time waiting to talk with the firemen and get their scene setup. Thankfully, as we recorded both the scenes there weren't any emergencies.

It was a shame that Adrien wasn't able to stick around long enough to see how they turned out. He had to leave mid-morning to do a photo-shoot then fencing and piano practice, so he'd be able to join us again in the evening for our next scenes together. I could hardly contain my excitement since I knew those scenes would be of our characters' first date together.

Though in the meantime while I waited for the time to come, I sat with Alya, Nino, Alix, Kagami, Ivan, Kim, and Max to watch the two scenes. That were just filmed.

The first scene started off by showing the front of the fire station and Kagami's small silver car pulling into the entrance way and parking. Then, I was shown in the car with Kagami. I had my right arm up against the car's window and my hand on my head as if I had been bored earlier, looking shocked as I looked out the window and to the fire station while Kagami looked pleased with herself.

"Why are we stopping here?" I asked as I turned quickly to look at Kagami for an explanation.

"You don't think I'm going to take you home looking like this." She answered as if it were obvious, which really, it was. "You're going to go in there and make Green Eyes faint."

"No! I-I—" I said quickly, but Kagami ignored it as she unbuckled her seat belt.

"I'll go with you." She said, cutting me off. "I want to meet this guy anyway."

There was a note of panic in my voice as I took my arm down and put it on my lap and spoke quickly again. "I have to study for my anatomy final tomorrow. I have to go home. Now."

Kagami gave me a tired look before speaking. "If you don't go in there and show him how you look, I'm going to drag you in."

"Wait!" I said quickly when she turned towards her car door. She turned back towards me slowly with an amused, victorious grin as if she knew she won. "I'll go in. I'll go in."

"Good!" She squealed and shrugged her shoulders with excitement. "He's going to be so surprised."

I make an awkward, unintelligible sound and smiled nervously as she continued grinning, but it soon vanished, and my eyes shot open with panic as I reached across and stopped Kagami from opening her door.

"I wanna—I need to go in there by myself." I said, calming my voice again when she leaned away from the door and looked at me skeptically. "Because he's gonna wanna… grab me… and kiss me… all over, and it would be awkward… if you were standing there."

Kagami pursed her lips as she tried to hide an amused smile, and I added, "You'll meet him at the Christmas party."

"Okay." She said, nodding slowly. "Fine. Go. I'll wait for you here."

"No, you just—you go home." I said quickly and Kagami gave me a curious look, so I continued as I unbuckled my seat belt. "Yeah, he-he'll give me a ride. He's um…" I paused and looked at my wrist, though there wasn't a watch there, so I awkwardly lowered my arm again. "Getting off shift right now."

"Are you sure?" Kagami asked me with an amused and curious tone.

"Yeah." I answered quickly. "Yes. Yep."

"Have fun." Kagami told me, moving her shoulders in a suggestive way before she turned to put her seat belt on again.

"Thank you for today." I said, and she gave me a smile and nodded. "You're welcome."

"Here I go." I said, very reluctant to get out of the car and Kagami chuckled as I finally opened the door and got out. "Just… see ya." I told her awkwardly. When I was out, I gave her a small wave then took a few steps towards the station, but when Kagami drove started driving away, I stopped and watched her car. I smiled and waved again, then took a few more steps before stopping, a very nervous look on my face.

"Okay…" I said quietly to myself and started to back away in large steps and eventually turned around and started walking back towards the street and away from the station. I walked against traffic on the shoulder of the road, holding onto the bag I had slung over my shoulders when I had started walking away from the station, taking quick steps.

A truck honked at me as it passed and I looked at it with a small amused smile and rolled my eyes, though when I faced forward again, I stopped walking and tilted my head with a confused look. Then the camera angle changed to show that I was looking at Ambrose sitting on the side of the road. When Kagami drove off, she actually spent a little time getting Ambrose out and ready for the scene while I was walking in his direction.

"Ambrose?" I questioned myself quietly then continued walking towards the cat. As I approached, he rolled onto his side and looked up at me with a meow. "Awe." I cooed before I reached him and crouched to pick him up. "Ambrose, what are you doing out here? Are you lost?"

I took a few steps back in the direction of the fire station, quietly talking to the cat before looking up and stopping and let out a long sigh. "Okay…" I said to myself with a whine, obviously not wanting to go there.

The scene ended, and the next one started soon after. I blushed and smiled to myself, remembering how it was as I filmed the scene with Adrien.

It was the first one we were together in while I was wearing that really nice black dress, and I thought it was kind of funny that we had to start over quite a few times because Adrien's forgot his lines. He either said the wrong one, repeated one, or just didn't say anything at all. All the guys around him laughed each time Nino called "cut" and said we had to start again.

When that scene started for us to watch, I was shown walking by the opened, large garage door, and when I looked inside the garage I turned and walked in. The angle changed to show several firemen around the firetrucks, many of which were real firemen, except for Kim and Max who were wiping down the front of the engine I was heading for.

"Hi." I said awkwardly to get their attention. When they turned and looked at me curiously, I continued. "I'm looking for the owner of this cat?"

Kim and Max looked at each other then looked back at me saying, "He's mine" simultaneously.

"Actually," I said as I chuckled. "I think he belongs to a guy named Zachary?"

Both of the guys sighed as if each were admitting to themselves that they tried, then Max looked up and towards a door that led to the interior of the building. "Zach!" He called. "Someone's here to see you."

A couple of seconds later Adrien walked out from the doorway, and I couldn't help but think about how cute he looked in that fireman's uniform. I knew the other two guys were wearing the same one but that didn't change how I saw them.

"Hey, it's you!" Adrien said, giving me a confused smile as he approached me. "And Ambrose."

"I found him wandering outside," I said, watching as he came closer with a relieved smile, and he stopped before leaning closer, reaching for the cat who I handed over to him. "And I thought he might have been lost."

"Hey Buddy." Adrien said to the cat while he was handed over, and I said, "Yeah…" awkwardly.

"I've been looking for you guys," Adrien said, looking down at Ambrose then back up at me. "And here you are together." Kim, Max and Ivan could be seen behind him, watching us with grins.

"You were looking for me?" I questioned, curiously. "Why?"

"Yeah…" Adrien said with a sigh. "I wanted to apologize. I'm… so sorry about your job. It's my fault that you got fired."

"Oh, you don't have to." I said, shaking my head at him. "It—it's not you, it was your girlfriend. She's—"

"Yeah, she's—she's not my girlfriend anymore." Adrien interrupted with a small smile and looked down at Ambrose.

"Oh, that's great." I said, causing him to look up at me again quickly. "I mean it… in a sad way. It's—well you got Ambrose back now, so…"

"Yeah…" Adrien said quietly in agreement while I pet the cat in his arms then turned to walk away, giving him a small wave and a smile. Although I hadn't seen it when we were filming because I was walking away, Adrien turned back to look at the other guys with a distressed look.

Ivan made a quick gesture with his hand and a look as if to tell him to "go on", Kim gave him a look that said "really?", and Max had a small hand gesture and look as if asking, "what are you doing?" All three of their actions made me giggle quietly to myself, my cheeks heating up slightly.

Adrien let out a small breath of amusement and turned back in my direction. "Uh, you know actually," He called after me, causing me to turn around. "I'm getting off work soon. Can I give you a ride, or buy you dinner?"

"Oh, you don't have to do that." I said dismissively. "I'm fine. I can—I can walk home."

"Let me buy you dinner." Adrien repeated with a determined look and a small smile. "It's the least I can do."

"It's the least he can do." The three guys behind Adrien chorused together with smiles, causing Adrien to smile in amusement, still looking at me.

I broke into a smile as well and rolled my eyes as I let out an amused breath. "Well, it's nice of you…" I started, about to turn him down, but I decided to accept instead. "But only if I get to take you to my favorite place."

"Yeah." Adrien said with a smile and started to turn away. "Should I go home and change?"

"Umm, I know the owner pretty well." I answered with a small nod, my eyes narrowed slightly as I thought about his question and my answer. "I think I can get you in dressed like that."

"What about Ambrose?" I asked after Adrien was turned towards me again.

"He's used to being here." Ivan answered for him as he walked over behind Adrien. "He's a firehouse cat."

"He's our mascot." Kim spoke up from where he and Max still stood.

"We're determined to be unique." Max added.

"We like having him around." Ivan finished, and all three of them gave me smiles as if that settled the problem with leaving Ambrose. Adrien let out a small laugh, still looking at me, and I smiled back at the four of them.

"Okay." I said with a smile, and ended the scene. It cut out to darkness, resulting in an applause from everyone around me. I blushed in embarrassment and thanked them, though I really was only thinking about how excited I was to film the next four scenes with Adrien.