Marinette hadn't heard the end of Alya since she had told her about the date she had with Adrien. She was convinced her tan-skinned friend was more excited about the date than she herself was. The blogger claimed that the past year of forcing Marinette into social situations regarding Adrien finally seemed to have paid off. Mairnette knew that it was to do with the Soul Links, and not much else, but she was content to let her friend think that way.
While Marinette knew and completely understood, and was thankful for Alya's support and help, her constant asking about was getting embarrassing for the blunette, to the point where she wound up having to ask Alya to stop.
She should have known that wouldn't work.
"You realize I'm never letting this drop, right girl?"
With a sigh, Marinette nodded. "I had a feeling you wouldn't..." Today was Wednesday, and their final class for the day seemed to be dragging out as slow as physically possible, but it was almost done. Almost over. The week had gone by at the speed of a snail, dragging out everything as much as possible, before time would snap back to a move, allowing Marinette to carry on with things.
She had been looking forward to today for, quite frankly, far too long as far as she was concerned, but at the same time, she was nervous as hell, yet at the same time, she was totally relaxed about it in a combination she could not even begin to comprehend. She was nervous because she was going on a date with Adrien - Adrien - Of all people, and relaxed in the sense that she already knew how she felt about him, and how he felt about her. Conflicting emotions like this just further compounded the poor girl's confusion and beating heart-rate.
Alya and Nino had switched seats with Adrien and Marinette basically for the entirety of the week, forcing both the two lovable idiots to sit by one another. It had been Alya's idea, of course, but she had swapped back because she had wanted to arrange and speak with Marinette about how they were going to doll up the blue haired girl. Marinette had assumed she had been joking. She hadn't been.
"Just a couple minutes to go, girl."
"I hope so." Marinette confessed, scribbling on her work-pad absent minded, not really taking in the information as much as she was just copying it. Two minutes might as well be an hour to Marinette in her current frame of thought. "I think I'm gonna go insane if I end up waiting much longer."
Eventually however, those few minutes passed, and Marinette was saved by the bell. Everyone rose from their seats, pushing various things back into their bags and collecting their various applicants like pencils and rulers, and all eagerly leaving the classroom. Many of them had clubs that went on after school on Fridays, since it was the best time for them. Adrien also had Basketball practice today, which he was going to now. That only lasted an hour, and they had arranged to meet at around 6PM that night.
Leaving the room, Adrien shot Marinette a smile from the corner of his mouth, before he disappeared behind the door frame. The action didn't go unnoticed by Alya. "Damn girl. He seems into you."
Marinette blushed, not really having anything she could say that would get her out of this situation. "Shut up."
Patting her friend on the top of her head, Alya smiled herself. "Come on, let's go get you ready."
While no one expected them to go out looking like a gentleman and a lady when going to a funfair, a place known for fairground rides and carnival games, Marinette had put in some special effort, because she wanted to look nice for Adrien - For Chat. It was still weird to her that they were both the same person. She shuddered, remembering how close Chat had been to kissing her in this very room not too long ago, and how badly she had wanted it.
And then she had basically stolen it from Adrien. A dark flush came across her cheeks.
"You alright, Mari?" Alya asked from behind the blue haired girl, a pair of straighteners in her right hand, and a hairbrush in the other.
"Y-Yeah, sorry Alya."
"Still nervous?"
"Of course I am."
"Worry not, my dear baker's daughter! I'll make you so cute even the girls at this funfair will be tripping up over you! Adrien won't be able to resist you!" Alya said rather dramatically, while using the hair-straighteners to make Marinette's hair curl around the rapidly heating up object. Marinette knew Alya had a flare for the dramatic, but she normally kept that side to her for when she was dealing with younger kids.
"Are you making fun of me?" Marinette asked, pouting like a small child would.
"Maybe just a little bit. But you gotta relax, girl."
"That's the thing. I already am relaxed."
"How can you be nervous and relaxed?"
"Can I let you know when I figure out how myself?" Marinette asked as she scanned over the clothes she had laid out for herself. They included nothing too special, but she had made them herself, because she wanted them to be perfect for her. It was basically a long, dark blue dress, which cut off at the knees, but was also designed to be something that you'd normally see someone wearing in the public anyway. Getting the right balance between the two had been rather tricky, but Marinette had gotten the idea right within a night, so she was pleased with herself. Making it had taken slightly longer, only having finished it a couple of hours ago.
"Sure thing." Alya said, curling another clump of Marinette's hair. She wasn't keeping it in her regular pigtails. Rather, she was keeping them off, allowing her hair to freely run around her head, like a shorter bouffant cut. At least, that was the idea that Alya was saying. Marinette trusted her, but this was a very poor time for her to trust Alya, fearing one mistake could ruin her looks for the entire night. "Just try to be more relaxed than nervous when Adrien gets here."
"I'll let you know if I can control that." Marinette sassily muttered to her best friend.
"Okay, I should be about... Done with this last load of hair... Okay, your hair is finished, Mari." Alya declared, stepping back from her work. She took out her phone, and took a couple of pictures quickly, and then pulled them up on her photo gallery, and showed them to Marinette, proud of the results. "What d'ya think? Come on, I'm not bad, am I?"
The curls were a style Marinette had never really touched before, so she had to admit, she was surprised by how well it seemed to look on her. Her hair in certain places was so dark it looked essentially black, but she had to admit, she did look good.
All that was left was her dress.
Having showered and freshened himself up, Adrien changed into the clothes he had bought a few nights ago. He looked good. Well, by model standards he looked somewhat scruffy, but seeing as this was a date, he figured that didn't matter so much. He tucked Plagg into his jackets pocket, and filled said pocket up with small cheese shapes of various variety, to keep the Kwami quiet and satisfied with the rake of cheesy benefits he made from tonight.
He messed with some hair, and rubbed some product onto his blond head with his hands, giving him that slightly spiky, swayed-to-one-side look he was famous for having. Now he looked good.
He took a deep breath before he left his room, calming himself before he made his way to Marinette's house. He knew the route off by heart, so getting there wouldn't take him long. He left ten minutes earlier than he should have though, just so he could take a short walk to clear his head before actually going to pick up Marinette.
On his way out, however, he walked past Nathalie. She looked at him. She knew exactly what he was doing, but simply assumed Gabriel had permitted it, so she didn't say a word. She just walked straight past him.
Adrien sighed, and left the estate. He wondered aimlessly for a few minutes, trying to calm his nerves and beating heart. He knew he had nothing to worry about, really. They had already basically confessed their feelings for one another, hadn't they? They already knew how the other one felt. Why was he nervous?
Of screwing up. Of embarrassing himself. Or embarrassing her. Of her realizing just how much of an idiot he really was. Of her seeing that he wasn't much more than a pretty face. Those all came to he was going out with anyone else, he probably would have let those worries sway him.
But he knew Marinette. He knew Ladybug. He knew that she wasn't that sort of vain person. She cared about other people. She noticed when others put some effort into things. She was a caring, loving, soft person. It wasn't like a few completely hypothetical situations would make her change her mind about Adrien.
Would they?
"Stop being paranoid, Adrien." He reminded himself, tapping his knuckles against his temple a couple of times. If he was Chat Noir, he'd be taking this with stride, probably. Now that she knew it was him under the mask, maybe now she could make him flustered.
He took a sharp intake of breath as he made his way towards Marinette's house. His hands were sweating lightly, but he didn't notice too much. He focused only on getting there on time. If he kept up this pace, he'd get there, no issues.
"Adrien?"
Turning his head rapidly and instantly upon hearing his name, Adrien made eye contact with Alya. He hadn't even noticed her, but she was stood only about a meter to the right of him, walking in the exact opposite direction to where he was. "A-Alya?"
She quickly scanned him over. "You look all dressed up." Alya complimented with a smug-looking smile, noting that he seemed slightly more rugged than he normally looked. For someone of Adrien's standing, looking just a tiny bit worse than normal was actually a good thing. "Going somewhere important?" As far as the tanned girl was aware, Marinette hadn't told Adrien that she had told her about their date, and the look on the blond Parisian's face simply confirmed it.
"I- Uh... I'm, uh... I'm meeting someone." Adrien said, not lying, not saying everything. He was reluctant to tell Alya. He had pushed the boundaries telling Nino, and he wasn't sure if Marinette would be okay with him telling Alya about them, of all people. That was up to her to decide...
"Oh? Someone special?" Alya asked, placing a hand on her hips, her insinuation clear.
"You could say that..."
"Well, you look good." Alya complimented, before carrying on walking. "Have fun."
Adrien sighed in relief.
"Oh - And I'll expect Marinette to be calling me later to tell me all about how you two hooked up! Don't do anything indecent to my bestie, Agreste!"
The blogger could have sworn she heard Adrien's skin sizzle with the increased heat his face gained, and that she saw steam shoot from his head. She smirked to herself and got out of sight.
Seeing Marinette when he called for her, Adrien had been absolutely and completely gobsmacked.
She was freaking beautiful.
She had always been cute, yes, but damn, this was a whole new level, even for Marinette.
She had done just enough to call this getting dressed up, but had also managed to keep the casual look one would expect from something as trivial as a funfair date.
Her beautiful blue hair was done in curls Adrien hadn't been able to envision being on Marinette before, but they looked adorable. He hadn't seen her before, not when she wasn't wearing pigtails, and he think he preferred seeing her like that, because her hair alone was absolutely stunning. The dress she wore, no doubt designed by herself, since Adrien couldn't see any designer tags, signatures, or anything else that would normally give away a professional designers work, complimented both her bluebell eyes, and her azure colored hair. How she had managed that spoke volumes to her talent as a fashion designer.
She had the most adorable expression he'd ever seen on her face when she first saw him. She was clearly as nervous as he was, and she was blushing a rosy pink color, but all the same, she had a smile on her face.
Adrien's face, meanwhile, was scarlet.
He had never been more infatuated with Marinette in his entire life.
"M-M-Marinette..." Crap, he was flustered. 'Think of something to say, Agreste, think of something to say...'
"You - You look...Really... really good..." Was the best he could come up with. His mind drew a complete blank. It didn't help that her parents were right behind her when she showed up. It wasn't that they were intimidating in the slightest, they were two of the warmest people Adrien knew, but despite that, he knew the trope. He had half expected her father to break his wrist the second he had shaken it when he first knocked on the door.
Marinette went a darker shade of red this time, blushing at the compliment she had been given. "Th- thanks... You also do... L-Look good, I mean..."
'Oh God, this is awkward as hell.' Marinette fretted in her head as the two of them struggled to even look at one another. How was it possible to be so nervous about a date when the two of them had already kissed?!
"So, where are you two going tonight?" Sabine asked, moving the conversation forward for them, seeing how embarrassed the two of them both were.
"Uh, a - A funfair. By one of the riversides..." Marinette said. "Adrien hasn't been to one before, so... I thought that might be fun."
"If you're going to go, you should probably get going." Tom commented, nodding towards the clock they kept over their register. They had apparently spent the last five minutes just gaping at one another without actually saying anything, a fact that caused both of them to go crimson when they realized this.
"R-Right, Papa!" Marinette agreed, quickly making her way to Adrien's side. "I-I-I-Um, we - we'll be back before eleven..."
"Don't worry about that too much." Tom reassured his daughter. "Just make sure you enjoy yourselves, both of you."
"We will, Mr. Dupain, Mrs. Cheng." Adrien said with a slight bow. "Thank you very much."
Exiting the building, Marinette and Adrien both loved the feeling of the cool air hitting them in the face. Both took a deep inhale, and exhaled simultaneously. They looked at one another once again, and bushed further. "S-Sorry I didn't... you know, bring you anything... I thought, you know... It'd get annoying to carry all night if I brought you a bouquet or something..."
"It - It's fine, really." Marinette reassured with a nervous laugh. "I wasn't you know, expecting anything like that or, you know. I was more nervous about you actually showing up or not..."
"I was tempted when I saw Alya coming from your houses direction..." Adrien teased, feeling a bit more comfortable now her parents weren't around.
"I - Um..."
"Relax. I told Nino."
"Wha - Why are you trying to embarrass me over telling Alya then?!"
"Because you're adorable embarrassed. Chat's seen that plenty of times, M'lady."
"Do you want another punch, Kitty?"
"But the first one ended so perfectly..." Adrien commented, referring to the kiss. "That reminds me." He said, flattening his hand, and very gently karate-chop-motion playfully hitting her on the forehead, with barely enough force to crumple paper. "That's for not telling me Alya was here. I swear she could have boiled a kettle on my skin with how much I was blushing."
Marinette blushed and playfully slapped his hand away. "We should get going if we're going to get to this funfair sometime this year."
I hope this fluffiness makes up for yesterdays failure of a chapter ^-^'
I've decided to keep this story going just a liiiiiitle bit longer, but we'll see how things end up going. I've got a couple ideas I want to see what I can do with, but this date will take up a chapter or two, so we'll see how that goes first ^_^
Those of you who saw last chapter will know I uploaded my Traits/Superpowers AU yesterday - I highly recommend reading it, it's my pride and joy right now, so If you are interested in the world I'm building, be sure to go check that out.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you did, be sure to follow me on Wattpad, GamingEmpire, for earlier updates, interactivity, and more stuff from me ^_^ My Traits AU has artwork in that story, and Wattpad is the place to check it out if you're interested in that.
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Links to everything are in the profile, and I hope to see you in whatever it is I do indeed decide to make next. See ya!
