Adrien stood in his room, his hands shaking as he tried to straighten his collar, doing his best to listen to Nino's reassuring words coming through the speaker of his phone.
"It's gonna go great dude what are you tripping about?! She's going to have a great time and so are you and it's gonna be fine."
"I really don't want to screw this up Nino," Adrien confided in his friend, taking the phone with him into the bathroom to look himself over for the thousandth time.
He was wearing a favorite outfit of his, one he had received the most compliments on when he had modeled it for a shoot and had asked to keep afterwards. It was a simple but expensive black buttoned shirt tailored to fit him perfectly and a gray double breasted vest with eight buttons and notched lapels. He had an elegantly cut black suit jacket to go with it, though it lay discarded on his bed for the time being, and formal gray slacks to compliment his smart looking black dress shoes. Over all he looked sharp, or at least he hoped so.
"Damn..." Nino's voice echoed in the tiled bathroom, "You must really like her huh?"
Adrien paused for a moment, looking at himself in the mirror and sighing heavily, a small smile on his lips.
"You have no idea man."
Nino laughed, and Adrien could imagine that he was likely shaking his head.
"Geeze you fall hard dude, but don't sweat it, so does she."
Adrien tried to fix miniscule imperfections with his hair, his foot tapping nervously as he did, and he once again asked, "Did she seriously have a crush on me this whole time?"
"DUDE yes, I promise you, you were the only one who didn't know. I'm surprised you even noticed Chloe did with how oblivious you can be."
"Hey!" Adrien protested, only earning a laugh in return. Plagg was sitting on the sink and covered a snicker of his own.
"When are you leaving? It's like seven."
Adrien glanced at the on screen clock above Nino's displayed contact, and it stated a daunting '7:15 PM'.
"Soon, I have to pick her up by 7:30, our reservations are for 7:45." Adrien's voice was taunt with his nerves, the tapping of his foot being picked up on the call.
"Chill out man, everything's going to go great, you've got this in the bag. It ain't about impressing her or anything it's about you guys having a good time. She likes you, remember? Just be yourself."
The sound of tapping slowly faded and Adrien held his own gaze in the mirror, Nino's words slowly sinking in. 'Just be yourself.' That was more relevant than Nino even knew, that's what made the dinner so nerve wracking. It was him and Marinette, the real versions of themselves, sitting down together for dinner. For a date. Cat Noir and Ladybug, Adrien and Marinette.
"Yeah..." Adrien breathed the word, nodding his head in some silent confirmation of something. "Myself."
He stared at himself for a moment longer before he gave one final adjustment to his vest and picked up his phone, switching the call to a video feed.
"Alright man how do I look?" Adrien asked, holding the phone out to show himself in the camera, careful to avoid Plagg. Nino's face was now filling the screen, lying in bed with his hat and headphones off for once. His friend's reaction was delayed a little thanks to the lag of the call, but when he saw it he scoffed, shaking his head.
"Unfair is how you look. How the hell are normal guys like me supposed to get anywhere with jerks like you walking around."
Adrien chuckled, grinning at the praise, if that's what it was.
