Quarantine In Prague

Chapter 22: The Ball Party

"Ready?" sounded Adrien behind the bathroom door.
"A-almost" stuttered out Marinette as she failed to put on her earrings for the third time in a row. She couldn't keep her hands steady because of her rushing heart.

When she finally made it, she took a step back, carresing her pure white sleeveless dress nervously.

It wasn't revealing, but for the casual Marinette, it was like going from a kid from kindergarten to a popstar-level kind of daring.

She brushed her let-loose hair and bit her lip. What is he going to think? I have never really shown this side of myself... He is going to cringe at it, won't he? I am just pretending I am something else...

She sighed. Ironically, because of her 'job' as Lady-bug, she never truly had a chance to show her Lady-ness. To wear dresses, go to parties, dance, sing, date boys. I never had time to grow up...

Wearing a dress felt so strange. Like that it was way too big of a step, promenading around like that. Sure, she wore a dress for a shoot, but never went out in public with it...

She took a biiiig breath and a motivating high-five from Tikki that then rushed to hide in her purse as she opened the bathroom door.

Adrien glanced up from his phone.

"!?" said his expression.

His thoughts raced so fast and in so many directions that his brain just gave up and left to take a drink.

Marinette's hand shot up instictively to play with her pigtails that were, to her embarrassment, not quite there. She dropped her head. "You don't like it..."

Adrien choked on air. His hand reached up to her, then back as he coughed, shaking his head. "N-No, Mari, actually, you are smoking hot."

Her eyes glanced at him confusedly. He put a hand over his mouth, whispering to himself 'Too soon...' He shook again. "I mean... You look... Good. Yeah. Good."

"Good...?" peeped Marinette.

"Splendid. Wonderful. Charming. Magnificent." Adrien flicked her nose with his finger. "Miraculous."

Marinette giggled with a huge boulder of nerves falling off her chest. "You look... Perfect."

"Marinette!" Adrien blushed, then smirked. "Oh, I see, you are saying that just because of your outfit you made for me." he spun around like a ballet dancer.

Marinette felt as if she was thrown into outer space. Only now did she fully realize he was wearing her outfit. The one she designed just for him, for his body and for his personality.

From a distance, it might seem like a normal formal suit, but up close the details started to shine. The precise cut, showing and accentuating only Adrien's strongest of features and smoothing out any imperfections - if there even were any. The color and pattern danced of each other, playing to Adrien's behaviour of a perfect social chameleon and the dark upper section of the suit played a huge contrast-role to make his hair pop out like a crown.

"How is it?"

"There is only one suit in the world that could match it." said Adrien with honest stupefaction.

Marinette smiled and pointed to the door. "Ready?"

"Ready as ever, princess."

------

"Lesson learned, pointing to all directions with a convincing foreign accent does work like a charm when trying to get to a party through a man who can't speak English nor French."