Marinette had to consider herself fortunate that someone like Alya existed in this world, and that she was best friends with such an amazing person. She didn't have any sort of problems when it came to keeping a level head in stressful situations. Where Marinette was sweating buckets at the prospect of meeting the fashion designer she admired and respected most, but not as a fan of his work, but as the girl his son was bringing home to meet his father. Just thinking about that being the real prospect here made Marinette shiver in anticipation.

The first thing that Alya had helped her in doing was getting her to a frame of mind that she could compose herself in. Despite the clear exasperation that she emitted, Alya was patient and understanding of her friend's plight. She seemed to find some amusement, at least, in Marinette's frantic paranoia.

It was heavily justified though. A lot more than Alya even realised. Even if she knew about the total disconnect Marinette had gone through from the rest of the world, the fact of the matter was, if this went especially poorly... Would it affect the partnership between her and Chat Noir? Marinette couldn't see Adrien being that sort of person, and mentally punched herself for even considering that idea... But again, her frantic paranoia was in control right now. Only once she was sufficiently calmed did her brainwaves cease to think this way.

In terms of clothing, the blue haired fashion designer knew what smart casual meant, of course, when she wasn't panicking. It was sort of the exact opposite of what Alya had suggested, smart clothing worn casually. It helped keep up that feeling of formality, while at the same time, allowed some extent of self expression. Since Gabriel was a fashion designer, he had probably suggested this choice intentionally, to help gauge an idea of the sort of person she was just from looking at her clothes, as an underhanded trick.

Pulling her phone from her back pocket and searching up a few examples, Alya helped with picking out some of Marinette's most formal clothes, most of which she had designed herself, from scratch. The blogger had persisted on Marinette going in blue, saying it went with both her hair and eyes. While Marinette wanted to mention that she had worn that colour on the first date she had gone on with Adrien, she reminded herself at the last moment that since Spite had done his Link altering, she didn't remember that. Far as Alya was concerned, this was the first time she had helped her friend in this situation. It was for that reason that Marinette agreed with most of her assessments. Hopefully, Adrien would understand. She'd explain it to him once she saw him.

The outfit she ended up with was a long, dark navy-blue skirt that went down to cover her knees before the cut off point. Neatly ironed and pressed, she also wore a regular white shirt, akin to the one she typically wore at school, except this one was totally plain. Finishing off her outfit, was a dark coloured crop jacket, similar to, again, the one she wore at school, except this one had long sleeves, and was the same shade of blue as the skirt she was wearing. There was so much blue on her,

Marinette wondered if she would be able to blend in with the sky if it fell the same shade her clothes and hair were. She had to give it to Alya, under stress, she was a lot better at selecting clothes than she was, and considering her talent for fashion, that spoke volumes.

Doing a twirl to see her outfit from all angles, Marinette came back from the whole dress up rather satisfied. Instead of being kept in buns, or curled, her hair was just allowed to freely flow around her, reaching her shoulders. Brushed to an almost obsessive degree, it was far from unkempt, running silkily across her skin where it met it. Coupled with her outfit, it was probably as, quote, smart casual as she was going to get. All there really was left to do was wait for Adrien.

"Lookin' good, M." Alya said, positioning her index finger and thumb on both her hands, and standing back, using her digits to frame Marinette like she was taking a photograph. "Yep, you look killer. If Adrien isn't drooling over you on the ride to his place, then there's something wrong with him."

Chuckling good heartedly, Marinette nodded, and sat down in her bed, twiddling with her fingers, and looking at herself in the mirror to her side. Would this be enough to sufficiently make a good first impression on Gabriel Agreste?

She knew in the back of her head that she was panicking over next to nothing, if she knew anything about Adrien at this point, it wasn't that he was going to be so submissive as to follow his father's commands if he decided he didn't like her. But even so... It would be nice to know that his father approved of her. It was the same for anyone meeting their other half's parents for the first time, she knew. That or all those romantic comedies were lying. It wasn't like she had anything else to go off of! They were made by real people based on their experiences, right? All she needed to do was not make a total idiot out of herself, and she'd be fine.

"You're nervous." Alya commented, prompting the overthinking girl to snap her head up to face her best friend. "Stop giving it too much thought. You're stressing yourself out."

"I'm not trying to." Marinette defended, albeit rather half heartedly.

"Girl, I don't know a single person who doesn't love you... Except Chloe, obviously."

A small giggle escaped from Marinette as she gave her best friend a sassy response. "So now I'm thinking about Chloe when I'm about to go out with Adrien. Thanks, Alya!"

"Besides the point." The blogger dismissed, wafting her hand in front of her face as if she were literally sliding the point to the side. She then quickly began typing something in on her phone, for what, Marinette wasn't sure. "He's gonna love you, stop worrying."

The compliments and reassurances did help to ease her nerves, if only a little bit. She let out a small sigh to help relieve some of the tension stored up in her chest.

After that, she heard her phone give off a small buzz, and sent out the quick, sharp notification sound that triggered whenever she received a message. Without really thinking about it, she automatically picked up the phone and swiped the screen to the side to unlock the device so she could view her messages.

Seeing the message was from Adrien made her face heat up, and made her forget everything that she had just been told by Alya. The text read, 'Don't be nervous. Father is strict but he isn't unfair with people. He'll like you, I'm sure. I'll be there in about ten.'

"...You sent him a message, didn't you?" Marinette accused her friend, whom was hiding a knowing smile, and looking rather proud of herself.

"Maybe."


Adrien was reminded of a number of fairy tales in which a prince would arrive and whisk his princess away in a carriage, or a ship, or any other means of transportation. Turned out in the modern day, that was a limousine.

Honestly, it felt sort of over the top to him. Why couldn't he have just gone around and brought her back via method of walking? It sure as hell would have drawn less attention to them. This had occurred of his father's insistence, and Adrien had thought that it would probably be best not to upset him before Marinette even showed up. So, even though they'd now stand out like a surplus tank on a highway, Adrien was going to pick her up in the limo. Gorilla was totally silent, as per usual, although the blond model could have sworn his chauffeur was glancing at him every so often with what could almost be called pride.

Shy as his girlfriend was, Adrien hadn't been surprised by the message he had received from Alya, nor was he surprised Marinette had called her in the aid her preparation. She'd done the same thing for their first date, the only difference being that Alya didn't remember that thanks to Spite's effects.

Even when he was long gone and de-evilized, Spite's presence still lingered around Paris. It would take years until he was fully gone. Relationships would have to be restored from a breaking point, events passed would have to be reiterated, and confusion would take time to subside. The road to recovery hadn't been too painful at least. Not for every other person excluding Adrien and Marinette, anyway.

He'd done what little he could to reassure her of his father's approval, but in truth, he knew about as much as she did whether or not his father would actually like her. He knew that his father knew he couldn't stop him from seeing her - If he could, he would have already done so, Adrien was 80% certain - But he also knew how much it would mean to Marinette to get that approval from someone she truly admired. He totally understood that feeling.

For his outfit for the night's event, he wore what could be considered a suit, given to him by Nathalie on order of his father. The man was obsessed with presentation and perfection, in all things. In spite of this, Adrien had totally abandoned the tie entirely. It was a smart casual thing, after all, he could completely forget about that if he wanted to. The white shirt he was given was visible, the buttons on the black over-jacket left undone. He was still a lot more formal than any other person would be to a meeting with family, but then again, the majority of other people didn't have a control obsessed fashion designer for a father.

He'd arrived at Marinette's house a hell of a lot quicker than he'd honestly expected to. He could see a few people staring at the car from what little he could see from the rear - view mirror, causing him to blush in embarrassment. He wasn't particularly one for drawing attention to himself - Not as Adrien, anyway. As Chat Noir, he'd do it out of sheer boredom, when there weren't any consequences that needed to be faced.

He took a sharp breath, with an equally sharp exhale, and forced himself out of the car. He tried his hardest not to look at anything else other than the door he needed to reach, knock on, and pray to God that Marinette was the one who answered. He liked her parents well enough, but he was already at his limits for his nerves as it was. He took the few shaky steps that he needed to to reach the bakeries front door, accessorised with a 'closed' sign, hanging in the view of the glass windows, and enhanced by the light from the other room.

With a rigid finger extended, he pressed the doorbell.

The good news - It was Marinette who answered the door.

The bad news - His jaw dropped at the mere sight of her. Sure he'd seen her in a dress before. Sure he'd seen her with her hair let loose before. Sure, he'd seen both of them before, at the same time, but there was something about her right here, right now, that left him utterly speechless. Perhaps it was that he already knew she was nervous, and when she was nervous, she was insanely expressive, a quirk of hers he found adorable. Her expression right now was incredible, a mixture of joy and absolute shock.

"Hey, Adrien..." She spoke softly too. Like on their first date, and just as downright cutely too. A small red blush on her face... Christ, this girl was going to be the death of him.

"H-Hey, Marinette..."

Both of them took just a second to examine what the other one was wearing, which ended up resulting in a mutual smile, and small laugh between the two of them. They were both thinking the same thing - They really were overdressed for this sort of event, weren't they?

"You're quiet." Marinette commented suddenly.

"H-Huh?"

"No puns. No jokes. No quips. No ice breakers."

"Uh..."

"Aw, what's wrong, kitty? Cat got your tongue?"

"You really are gonna be the death of me." The model muttered quickly. He'd forgotten, for just a few, brief moments, that she was completely comfortable around him. "Are - Are you ready to go?" Adrien asked. "Your parents uh... Not want to see you off or anything like that?"

She shook her head. "Nope. They've already said bye, and know where we're going." Adrien sighed in relief. "So... How're we getting there?"

The blond boy gestured behind him to the lengthy vehicle waiting for them on the side of the road.


The last thing Marinette had expected was to be picked up by a limousine - A freaking limousine! - To get to Adrien's house. It was a serious shock to her system. Again, it seemed like overkill, but then again, everything about this seemed overkill. It didn't do a lot to relax her.

"You um..." Adrien hadn't spoken until now as they had been carried in silence to their destination. He had instead been drumming his fingers on his knees on repeat for the duration of the ride. It wasn't particularly often that Adrien found himself lost for words around Marinette. Normally it was the other way around, with her being the person who could hardly speak, even if she was getting better with that aspect. "You... You look good."

"Ah... Thanks." Marinette went a little red in the face. "Sorry it's similar to the last time we went out... I kinda had to rely on Alya again..." Despite her not intending for it to be, it occurred to her that she had also sent along a quiet message to Adrien regarding Alya's memory after Spite had corrupted her.

"What the heck're you talking about?" Adrien asked, sounding genuinely surprised at her diminishing of herself. "You look freaking amazing!"

That sparked a crimson blush from both of them. Adrien could have sworn he heard Gorilla stifling a laugh from up front, which didn't do much to help his self conscious state. If he'd managed to make Gorilla, out of every person on the planet chuckle, then he knew he'd really made an idiot out of himself this time. He was actually impressed at how much of a dork he sounded like in that moment.

There was a few more embarrassed short seconds of silence before Adrien spoke up once more, this time, being more careful about what words he chose to use. "Father's going to be impressed, if nothing else."

"Y-You think?"

"Yeah, but don't worry about him." Adrien told her, suddenly turning serious. Between his formal Adrien attitude, and carefree Chat Noir attitude, him being serious was an unusual sight.

"What do you mean?..."

"I mean if he approves of you or not. If he does, then that'll be fantastic. But if he doesn't... Then it doesn't change anything. He won't - He can't stop me from seeing you."

"...Thank you." The blue haired girl could just thank the blond model and smile softly at the firm and dedicated response her boyfriend had given her. Hearing those words would do wonders for her, as opposed to her simply assuming that those were Adrien's feelings on the matter. For the first time all night, she felt truly relaxed.

"Speaking of which..." Adrien muttered, angling his gaze out the window, and taking a short breath, he announced, "We're here."


I find it likely that the next chapter will be the final one, since I'm seriously struggling to come up with ideas. I have a nice ending planned, so you can look forward to that - No i don't care that happy endings are sappy and overdone, these little shits deserve one, damn it!

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