Marinette ran around her room, grabbing random items and clothing off the floor and tossing them into her wardrobe or random bins, not caring if they were in the right spot or not.
"Geez girl, calm down-"
"I can't cAlM dOwN Alya, Adrien will be here any minute and my rooms a mess!"
"It's not that bad, I'm sure Adrien won't care," Alya chuckled as she bent down, picking up Marinettes pajamas from the floor and neatly folding them before placing them onto Marinettes dresser. She turned around only to see Marinette on all fours with a shirt in her hands running around the floor and gathering any loose items.
"Marinette...get up..."
"No! I need this room to be spotless!"
Alya sighed and walked over to her friend, dragging her up and onto her feet. She bent down and picked up the things Marinette had collected and put them into their rightful places then returned back to Marinette.
"How much longer till they get here?" Marinette asked.
"Any moment n-"
"Marinette, Alya! Your friends are here!"
"Oh, speak of the devil!" Alya joked, opening the hatch to let the two boys in. They all greeted each other and sat down in various places of the room, Adrien making sure to sit next to Marinette.
"So, how are we going to go about this?" Alya questioned.
"A few months ago, my father worked with someone who created plays for a living. For him, he found it more effective to think of a mood or a tone first and go from there. Maybe we can try that?" Adrien suggested, everyone nodding in agreement.
"So, what should we do then?" Nino asked.
"Well if we want our play to really resonate with the viewers, maybe we should try a sad one!" Marinette chirped.
"Great idea Marinette, I completely agree!" Adrien smiled over at her, her face growing redder by the second. She stared at his emerald green eyes and for a split moment, she could've sworn she saw something familiar about them. Something about the way he stared at her reminded her of her old partner, but why?
"Okay, well now that that's settled we should focus on the actual play," Alya said as she pulled a notebook and pencil from Marinettes desk, flipping to an empty page.
"Ohh, maybe something like Shakespeare! A sad romance!" Marinette gushed, instantly stopping when she remembered who she was sitting next to.
"I like the way you think, dude! How about an unrequited love?" Nino spoke, smiling at Marinette.
"Or better yet, a forgotten love! Maybe our two main characters were once in love but then something happened that separated them and then they forgot about how they once felt for each other!" Alya added.
"That's perfect, Alya! If it's Shakespeare inspired, then we have to make sure this takes place in the past!" Marinette beamed.
"Great thinking, Marinette. But how would the two find their way back to each other?" Adrien questioned.
The group thought for a moment, trying to figure out a solution to this problem. They had been on a roll but were now stuck, that is until Nino came up with an idea.
"Rapunzel dudessss!"
"What?" They all asked.
"Like how Flynn finds a random tower and how Rapunzel was waiting for her life to begin. Maybe our dude is walking and finds a tower with his love in it, but he doesn't recognize her and maybe it's been so long that they don't understand each other anymore, you know? They don't see eye to eye anymore! We can maybe show this in a weird poetic way by having her speak a different language, like French! The language of our people!"
Everyone stared at Nino in silence, all impressed by the fact that Nino was able to come up with that all on his own. Maybe it was wrong of them to expect so little from their friend, but could you really blame them?
"Okay well, now that we have that settled, let's shift over to costumes! We can continue the story after we decide this," Adrien said, eager to interact with Marinette more.
"Well for costumes we need roles, and for roles, we need more story-"
"Okay, whatever Nino! Let's figure out the characters and then pick the costumes!"
After a while of back and forth, the characters were decided and it was onto costumes. Adrien was about to opt on going first, but Alya beat him to it.
"Gosh, I can't wait! Your outfits are always so cool!"
Marinette laughed as she opened up a large chest that sat near her bed, filled to the brim with costumes. She rummaged through the box, tossing the ones that didn't work well with the play onto the floor. After a bit, she pulled out a dress that looked old enough to pass for the time period they were going for; the 1690s.
Alya's dress was simple. It consisted of a dark gray, almost black, waistcoat and petticoat. The waistcoat had a few buttons trailing up the middle, keeping it from popping open. The dress also came with an off-white apron with a matching coif to go along with it. Keeping it simple, Alya just wore black dress shoes to match.
"Wow Marinette, when did you make this?" Alya asked in awe, admiring the simple yet impressive outfit.
"I entered a competition a few months ago but I never sent in the dress so, a few months later, I'm still stuck with it," Marinette explained, adjusting the outfit on Alya to make sure it looked perfect.
"Okay, who's next?"
"I am-"
"Ohh, my turn!" Nino interrupted Adrien and shot up, running in front of Alya and holding out his hands, expecting Marinette to take down his measurements.
"Nino you can put your hands down, I don't have enough time to make custom outfits for anyone."
"O-oh right, sorry!"
After a few moments of searching, Marinette finally found an outfit for Nino. His outfit was just as simple as Alya's. He wore a dark doublet with white cuffs and a cravat that puffed out a bit, the ends of it being neatly tucked into the doublet. He also wore dark puffy breeches which had a pair of white stockings layered on top of them that stopped right at his knees. To top it off, he wore an equally dark-felt hat and a pair of buckle shoes.
"Was this for the same competition?" Nino asked, adjusting the cravat.
"Oh no, I just did that one for fun. A-anyways, it's your turn now, Adrien," Marinette smiled, not making eye contact with him as she spoke.
"I can't wait! I know it'll come out awesome, Marinette!"
But it didn't come out awesome. No matter what Marinette grabbed, nothing seemed right. None of it was good enough for Adrien. She needed his costume to be perfect and none of these were that perfection she was looking for. Once she reached the bottom of the chest, she finally gave up.
"Is everything okay, Marinette?" Adrien asked as he bent down next to her, ignoring the mess of clothes she had made. It had been almost 20 minutes of Marinette going back and forth between outfits only for her to turn up empty-handed. Nino and Alya had gotten bored after a while and decided to go down to the bakery and indulge themselves with snacks as well as help around a bit, but Marinette at the time was too focused on finding the perfect outfit that she hadn't even realized she was left alone with Adrien.
"Im- I'm fine. I just don't know what to pick for you!" Marinette groaned, laying her head down on the edge of the chest.
"I'm sure whatever you pick will be wonderful, Marinette," Adrien smiled as he placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to blush.
"Well, I can't anything pick!"
"Do you mean you can't pick anything?"
"Yes, exactly!"
"You're stressing over nothing, Marinette. You're such a creative person and I'm sure you have something in here for me, even if it's a dress." Adrien joked, picking up the articles of clothing that Marinette threw across the room and gently putting them back in the chest. Adrien's words struck Marinette like lightning and she swore a light bulb went off over her head.
"You just gave me the perfect idea! But it may require a little bit of tailoring, do you mind if I take your measurements?" Marinette asked, reaching out for her measuring tape and holding it above her face.
"O-of course!" Adrien beamed, more than happy to help Marinette. The two of them stood up and Adrien held out his arms in the same manner Nino had, feeling as Marinettes delicate hands ran across his body. She went back and forth between her desk and him, writing down whatever measurements she got.
Adrien looked down at Marinette who was currently standing in front of him fumbling with the tape, her pencil placed between her soft lips. He watched as her face scrunched up as she tried to read the small numbers, her head slowly leaning closer to his chest to get a better view. If she had came even an inch closer, she definitely would've heard the pitter-pattering of his heart as he admired her beautiful face.
She looked up, her eyes catching his, but he didn't break eye contact with her. Instead, he stared her straight in the eye and smiled, watching as her face slowly turned red. But even that looked adorable on her. His hands reached down, one finding its way to her hand which rested on his chest, and the other to her warm cheek.
"Hey," he whispered.
"...Hi." her voice was soft as she stared into his bright green eyes, her mind completely captivated by his stare. Her breath was slow yet shaky as he gently moved his thumb across her cheek. She was too nervous to move, to speak, or to look anywhere but at him. Yet for the first time, it felt good. Her being nervous felt good. But the more she stared at him, the more nervous she got and the more nervous she got, the less it felt good.
"A-anyways! I should have all your measurements now!" Marinette practically yelled, shoving Adrien away and scrambling to her desk, trying to calm her racing heart. For a moment, Adrien felt a little hurt. But then he was able to laugh it off. It was typical Marinette after all, what had he expected?
Just then, Alya and Nino bursted into the room and threw themselves onto Marinettes chaise, completely stuffed from the number of sweets they had eaten (and paid for).
"Are costumes decided yet?" Alya grumbled.
"O-oh, yes! I just need to get my outfit picked and then we're all set!" Marinette said, never in her life having been more excited to see her best friend than in this very moment
"Perfect! So now all we need is the script and then we're good to go! We got a lot of work done in just one day." Alya said, getting up and slinging an arm over Marinette.
"For sure we did! But it's getting kind of late now, maybe we should all head home and continue with the script tomorrow." Nino suggested, everyone agreeing.
"I'll walk you guys out!" Marinette said as she shut her notebook and put away her measuring tape, walking the group downstairs. She didn't see her parents anywhere in sight so she assumed they were just in the kitchen getting ready to close the shop due to the lack of costumers now that it was late.
The entire walk down, all Marinette could do was think about what had happened in the room, or rather, what would've happened if she hadn't pushed Adrien away, what would they have done?
Pushing the thoughts from her mind, she opened the door for her friends and they each walked out, Adrien being the last to leave. She watched as Alya and Nino went one way and Adrien left the other way, and then the thoughts from earlier came back. She couldn't leave it like this.
"Adrien, wait!"
"Yes, Mari-"
She ran up to Adrien and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek.
"I'll uh, s-see you tomorrow! Bye!"
"...Bye." Was all he could say as he watched Marinette run back inside, his hand on the cheek that she had kissed and his face a bright shade of red. He was completely in love with this girl.