In the Home of Chat

ESMOD

The bell that rang through the halls of her new school sounded akin to those of Notre Dame. Chiming the next class in a cheery tone that made her lips pull into a smile and her steps to take on a skip to their pace. Marinette has never been happier to be in an institution of learning than she was after her previous class. Her first two had been on the basics of fashion theory and the history of art, but she was finally headed to the class that would allow her to physically create something with the knowledge that the last two had given her. So, even when she bumped into the back of the tall brunette male, the smile still didn't leave her cheeks, even as they both bent down in unison to retrieve her scattered school supplies that now littered the floor around them.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. I'm just so excited." She explained without looking up at him. She just felt so right being in this school that it was hard for her to even feel like she was supposed to be embarrassed. The brunette for his part, gave her a soft chuckle as he scooped up her large portfolio-like-sketch pad and held it out to her.

"It's fine," He assured her around a warm smile of his own, " it must be your first day huh?" She looked up into his warm brown eyes and he made a motion to emphasize the smile still prevalent on her face, "I remember being the same way last year. It's exciting isn't it?"

"Oh," she took a moment to try to get the large goofy smile under control. It was a fruitless effort, "is it that obvious?" she asked as she tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear shyly. He finished gathering her scattered pens and tucked them into her waiting hands before resting his own gently on her shoulders. His warm smile caused small wrinkles to spread out from the corners of his eyes as he studied her face with a open interest.

"It's totally fine, refreshing even. After you're here a while, everyone gets so competitive that it's a little disheartening." He waved his hands about as he spoke in a very active manner that caused her to giggle and hide the lower half of her face behind her large sketch pad. His cheeks took on a light dusting of pink as his right hand reached up to rub at the side of his neck slowly. He looked like a teddy bear, sweet, approachable, and with a pair of eyes that drew you in and made you feel safer than you had before you looked into them. She found herself leaning towards him without pondering her actions and smiling even broader with each chuckle that fell from his lips. If everyone at ESMOD was like this young man, she could see her school life going VERY smoothly.

"What class do you have next?" He asked suddenly, pulling her from her thoughts of that smile and back into the present. She blinked away her ideas of a not so far away future and studied his face as she searched her mind for an answer to his question. Distractions had made her mind a blank slate, but he was looking at her expectantly and she knew that the answer should have been a simple one to tell.

"Oh, uh, um..." she stumbled over her own words as she struggled to get something out, "next is uh, um..." Finally giving up on her mental olympics, she felt a moment of relief when a thought surfaced from the mire that had become her mind, "I have Intro to Pattern Cutting next." She mumbled the words as she read them off from the sticker on her book.

"Hey, me too. I skipped it my first year to catch up on some academic courses." His energetic explanation sent a fresh set of giggles falling from her lips as she hugged her supplies to her chest and met his gaze. He took her reaction in stride and gave her a playful wink as a lopsided smirk played on his lips. He bowed slightly to her and offered her his bent elbow as he stood to his full height. Her eyes widened slightly as his locked onto them, full of something she couldn't quite place.

"Can I walk you to your class, my lady?"

Her heart stopped for a moment at his words. Words that she hadn't heard in years, words that she forced herself not to seek out for the sheer shame of how long she had avoided the one who used them so casually with her. She took a moment to study the man before her with a bit more care. His hair was fluffy like Chats, but it fell in a odd angle about his head compared to the black clad superheroes. His warm brown eyes looked the same shape, but nowhere near the same intensity of the emerald green hues that would burn their way into her soul whenever he glanced her way. The smirk was similar, but something about it she couldn't quite place was just off about it. No, it had to be a coincidence that he used those words, a simple coincidence that he had no clue he was tearing her apart on the inside.

"S-s, um, uh, sure." she finally managed to speak after she paused for just a bit too long, this time from a different kind of distraction, and his brows raised in confusion. Flashing him as sweet of a smile as she could manage, she placed her hand on the bend of his elbow and nodded to tell him she was ready to go. He had a skip to his step as they weaved themselves through the crowd of bodies in the hallway. The air about him becoming infectious as they continued through the campus,so infectious in fact, that they were both laughing at nothing until the time they stepped into the room.

It felt like the sound of a pin drop could equate to a canon going off, the room fell into complete silence as everyone stopped what they were doing to look at the pair who stood awkwardly just inside the doorway. Her companions warm smile fell into a thin line as he looked around at all the paired groups scattered about the room at random workstations. She could see the stress causing beads of sweat to pop up along his forehead as he took in the sight. Her heart went out to his turmoil, clearly he was worried that the obviously partnered class would leave him working alone for the year, she decided to set his mind at ease.

"Hey, how about we partner up this semester?" She asked with her head tilted slightly to the side as she glanced up at his face. She could see him snap out of his thoughts at the sound of her voice and glanced down at her as his lopsided smirk returned to his lips. The light that was in his eyes before was slowly returning to them the longer that they held each other's stares. She liked seeing him that way far more than how he looked just a moment before...

"You don't even know my name." He chuckled as he leaned in to whisper the words in her ear.

"You don't know mine either." She giggled as she pulled back to get a good look at his face once again. He scrunched up his nose as he took a moment to ponder their situation before looking around the room once again at all the strange faces.

"I'm Michal." After a long silence he finally introduced himself to her. Her hand slipped into his offered one, he kissed the back of it lightly as a shy smile pulled her lips up towards her eyes.

"Marinette, nice to meet you Michal." She replied with a playful wink. His own smile pulled his teeth apart slightly as they shook hands firmly.

"Marinette, pleasure to meet you, partner." His words had memories pulling at the back of her mind once again, memories of a blonde with blazing green eyes who could handle a fight better than she could most of the time, yet was still humble enough to claim she was the real hero between them.

"Y-yeah." She forced herself to reply to him. She had to turn away from him in order to discreetly blink away the tears stinging the corners of her eyes, Chat was better off without her. He had moved on by now certainly, and probably had a new partner who helped him from the sidelines, plus a string of lovers behind him that made her years at his side barely a blimp on his emotional radar.

They moved as a pair to the nearest empty workstation they could find and settled into their seats just as the professor strode into the room with a phone placed firmly against her ear and a no nonsense frown upon her liver spotted face. She hung the phone up without looking at her quiet as the grave students and began going into a practiced monologue on the importance of a proper pattern cut and how one little miss-measurement could throw the entire project off. Marinette attempted to listen, but her eyes were constantly drawn to the notebook of the young man beside her.

He was sketching out casual dresses with soft pok-a-dots along the bottom of the skirt and the rim of the neckline. It was a beautiful design, with a sheer covering to the skirt and soft pearl like lace around the shoulders that accentuated the dots that lined it on the other side. Three large buttons lead down from midway up the chest to the skirt that forced your eye to notice how it flared out around the models legs. He was talented, and the way his brow furrowed and his tongue jutted out from between his teeth showed that he loved what he did enough to give it his full concentration. She wondered if she looks like that when she was immersed in her own work as she rested her cheek on her fist idly. A smile played on her lips as she watched him work, her mind drifting away from the monotone voice of their professor and zoning in on the sound of his pencil led scratching lightly against the paper as he worked.

That sound could make everything else simply fall away....