Marrinette had not slept a wink! Her phone had been bombarded all weekend by calls from her mentor, the internship, material contacts, and of course Alya. She had promised a new concept design for Style Queen the very next day! After the events that had transpired with the miraculous trials and the fallout of releasing Merlin into the world she knew it would truly be a miracle to pull things together for her civilian life in time.
Adrien had begged to be able to help her, but she had firmly channeled all the self-control in her being and told him he would help her by not distracting her with his handsome face. (Although, still wishing he could relieve some of the pressure from Marrinette after the crazy weekend they had experience, Adrien could only promise to meet her with coffee for the next morning).
As the night wore on with only sketches and rough ideas, she frustratedly tore pages off her presentation board and started again.
"Where was that one sketchbook?" She muttered to herself, and dug through her haphazard closet that was closing in on 309% capacity. Using the shelves She bumped a basket holding samples of cloth she had picked up in Bhutan and South Africa, and they in turn bumped open one of the loose roof tiles at the top of her closet. Marinette leaned forward on her toes and tried to reach them, pushing the tile further and further out of place. She would never know if what happened next had been because she was so preoccupied with her project deadline or if she had truly forgotten what she had hidden at the top of her closet after the Peace trials of Canada. But the rolls of fabric nudged the tile too far, and the hidden miraculous box holding the single miraculous dropped behind her. This then set off the precarious balance of the mayhem of items stacked inside the closet, and an avalanche of clothing and boxes tumbled down on top of her.
"Marinette! Marinette!" Tiki squeaked buzzing in, and hovering worriedly over the mountain of random items tumbling out of the closet door frame. "Are you okay?! Where are you?!"
"I'm here," a muffled voice called back from beneath an unrolled bolt of white and blue cloth. "Ahh! I've got to get some time to organize all this before it..." and then there was silence.
"Marinette?!" Tiki urged in alarm.
"It's okay! It's okay! Everything is good...great actually! This is it!" Marinette shouted in triumph.
"What is it? Are you should you didn't hit your head?" Tiki popped back as Marinette burst out of the clutter and raced to her desk, dragging a trail of blue and white cloth behind her.
Tiki made a half-hearted attempt to close the closet door, but there were far too many things barring the way. Tiki shrugged, and decided it was more interesting to hover over Marinette's shoulder and watch her inspiration take shape.
Marrinette's hand flew over her sketchbook, and she quickly traced her sweeping lines in thin black ink. With a few dashes with an eraser, Marinette nodded with satisfaction. She carefully took down her world map from her wall, and attached it as a background on her board. Then she pined one drawing after another to the map's surface. The next step was trimming samples of cloth to each corresponding sketch. She ran back and forth between her desk and the closet.
Soon Tiki's eyes lit up. It was clear now where Marrinette was going with her ideas. She was taking inspiration from the places around the world she and Chat Noir had travelled. She was taking the concept of traditional cloths, colours, and styles, and bringing the world to Style Queen!
The warm orange sliver of daylight crept forward across Marrinette's desk when she finally dropped back into her rolling chair in utter exhaustion to survey her creation. It was certainly not her sharpest presentation, and other designers were sure to have used more refined software to present a digital image of their concepts...but there was something about the idea itself...the raw, honest authenticity of people she had met, and their opportunity to share a part of themselves. Even if Audrey Bougious didn't go for it, Marinette was especially proud of the pieces she would present for this collection...maybe more proud than any of her other designs before. Like the design she had long ago put together for her parent's bakery, there was heart behind it!
Both Marrinette and Tikki were startled by the insistent alarm announcing that morning had caught up to her. Tikki tried to help Marrinette drag herself to the sink to brush her teeth, but even the little kwami was not with it enough to stop the sleep-starved girl from stepping into the shower and turning on the stream of water...only to realize she was still wearing her clothes!
"Eeeekk!" Marrinette screamed, startled by the cold water hitting her in the face, and leaping out of the shower, realizing she had totally drenched her go-to outfit.
Her mortification would have been short-lived if it hadn't been for a very egger, helpful coffee-toting boyfriend, rushing up the stairs upon hearing said scream, from where he had been waiting with her parents in the kitchen.
Adrien rushed to rescue his Lady from whatever had caused her to scream in such a piercing manner. He threw open the hatch to her room, and jumped up, taking his classic Chat Noir attack stance. The concern in his face, instantly turned to shock as he saw Marrinette standing totally drenched and dripping in the middle of her room. Her soaked t-shirt stuck halfway over one arm, but the wet fabric had clearly given her trouble around her shoulders. Instant scarlet flashed across Adrien and Marrinette's faces at the same time. Marrinette abandoned her futile attempt to pull her shirt free, and instead hastily yanked it down to cover her light pink bra, and her stomach (which Adrien was doing his best not to gawk at...unsuccessfully).
"I...I..." Adrien stumbled, "I...um...brought you coffee..." he held up the offering, and willed himself to drop his eyes...then peaked cautiously back up at her. "Are you alright?"
"Um...hmm, great!" Marrinette grabbed a nearby piece of fabric from everything strune around the room, and held it up in front of her, "everything is peachy, how bout you?! You good? Your mornings been good?" she sputtered, hoping that she was playing things super cool. Then she cautiously reached out to take the paper coffee cup from Adrien's outstretched hand.
"Very good," Adrien croaked, with his voice breaking, and initiating an even redder blush.
"Ahh...sorry what?" Marrinette hesitated holding the coffee tentatively.
"You um..asked how my morning was," Adrien explained. "My morning has been very good..." then his eyes betrayed his cheeky Chat-like tendencies, "and it has just gotten better and better!"
"Well if you'd have just given me a moment you would've seen me looking a little more put together!" she said flusteredly.
"You look beautiful as you are princess," Adrien smiled at her.
She giggled, and gave him a shove toward the exit. "I'm looking more like a drowned rat than a princess at the moment! A little privacy please, and I promise I will be down to join you in in a few minutes!"
"Mari I really didn't mean to...to...barge in," Adrien implored.
"The Kid has been so excited to see you he woke up at like 5am to ask me how early wouldn't seem desperate!" Plagg smirked, poking his head out of Adrien's pocket.
Adrien shot the black cat a deadly glare, and Adrien pushed him back in the hiding spot. "I don't know what Plagg is talking about..." Adrien laughed embarrassedly. "He must've been having weird cheese induced dreams or something'!" Adrien reddened, trying to lean his arm casually against the wall in a cool manner, but nearly slipped backwards down the stairs. Luckily when he stumbled back, Marinette was quick to grab hold of the front of his black t-shirt.
Nose to nose with Marrinette holding a handful of Adrien's tshirt, both their eyes widened. Then without warning Marinette crashed her lips against his. He swooned, like he was about to pass out, and stumbled again grabbing onto her to steady himself. Marinette giggled against his lips, making them buzz electrically. He smiled back against her, and met her eyes again.
"I really think my clumsiness is contagious!" Marinette giggled again.
"Your kisses just knock me on my heels!" Adrien smiled happily, raising back to rub the back of his neck.
"Well, just go wait downstairs for me before you fall back through the hatch!" she steered him around toward the stairs.
"Aw, but then you could kiss me better!" Adrien whined. "We don't need to rush! I don't want you ruining your reputation of always arriving fashionably late!"
"Even if I rush, we're still going to be late at this point, and if I don't make your irresistible self go wait downstairs right now, I'm not going to make it to class at all! I'll just be kissing you up here all day long!"
"Oh yes! Let's do that!" Adrien perked up, and grinned.
"As much as that is really all I want to do too, you know we can't today. We've got finals coming up this week, I've got my major internship presentation, not to mention patrol and you know...saving the world!" Marrinette reminded him responsibly, but the tone of her voice was wistful. If only the could just lie wrapped up in each other's arms and enjoy finally being together!
"You're right, you're right Mi'Lady," Adrien conceded. "But I do intend to carve out some time in our hectic lives to kiss you senseless!" With that he leaned slowly in, before surprising her with a quick peck on the lips, and trotted down the stairs.
Marrinette's face heated up, and his cheeky parting kiss, only made her regret her list of responsibility's that that cut between them. Marrinette was frozen a moment to bite her lip, and then Tiki's urging brought her back to reality. Class was going to be starting any minute!
Closing the door securely this time she threw on a cute dusty rose haltertop dress she normally saved for summer, and hastily tied up her damp hair into a knotted bun at the top of her head. While touching up her lip gloss, she glanced in the mirror. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the corner of the lost miraculous box poking out under the pole. The bottom hidden compartment had broke open!