"I can't force you into anything, Adrien." My father's words reverberated in my head as I made my way to the ballroom with Nino. "But keep in mind that this is a precious situation. You don't owe these creatures anything. Go and do as you're expected to."
Expected by whom? I kept as silent as I had remained in his presence during that last week, and made a considerable effort to push his metallic voice and all its warnings and hidden threats away from my mind.
"There they are!"
Nino's voice brought me back to Earth. I followed his gaze, eyes wide open and jaw dropping as he caught sight of Alya, dressed in a very long and slick black dress.
"Hey, close that mouth! You don't wanna eat any of these mosquitoes, do you?" she smiled at him "They've already bitten me everywhere, jeez..."
Nino didn't seem to hear a thing and instead kept staring in absolute awe at his girlfriend "You look beautiful" he mumbled, as if his expression wasn't enough proof. Alya and I both laughed at the same time. And so did Mari.
I turned in her direction, noticing her for the first time... and feared that the same dumb expression I'd just seen on Nino's face would now be on mine.
"No way!" I said. Mari smiled shyly as I swept my eyes over her knee-length, red yet black-spotted dress.
"Well, I've heard you admi- like- that you kinda like Ladybug, so I thought... I thought you'd like it."
I loved it. And I was 100% sure that she'd redesigned that dress herself. She really was talented.
"I love it." I smiled back.
"Come on, you two, let's get inside, we're already late!" Alya intervened, a big smile in her face as she looked in our direction. Alya was holding Nino's arm as she approached the entrance. I looked around me and realized that every couple was either holding hands or linked by their arms. I held out my arm towards Marinette.
"Shall we?" I offered
Her look became tender as she nodded and caught my arm. I thought it would be impolite and rather stupid not to say anything, so I did: "For the record, you look beautiful too."
She stared at me for a few seconds before her eyes dashed to the ground. "Thank you, Adrien. You look good too." As always, I caught her whispering, but I pretended not to hear her by suppressing a giggle. She was too cute.
Inside the ballroom there was... chaos. Lights flashed from every corner, and the place seemed overcrowded with people dancing, drinking or simply standing around and having a chat, but dressed up in a way that didn't match the rocking music that sounded in the background. Chloé –her father, really- must have convinced the headmaster to start the prom dance with Jagged Stone's music. It was no surprise, really.
It was one thing to hang out the four of us in a concert and dance however we wanted, I thought to myself, and another, very different thing was to dance in front of every single person in high school in the clumsy way I did. Mari seemed to have read my thoughts. "Don't worry, Adrien." she tried to encourage me "We're here just to have fun. And you don't dance as bad as you think."
"If you say so..."
"Come on." She gently pulled me by the arm she was still holding onto towards Nino and Alya, who had already started dancing. Once we were by their side, Marinette let go of me and started swaying to the music's rhythm. She closed her eyes as she let the neon lights turn her body from red to blue, from silver to gold... She seemed a different person when dancing, her shyness completely swept away. I had forgotten how much a fan of Jagged Stone she was.
Whereas for me... I stood there awkwardly, completely conscious of all the looks that were on me and which would probably expect Adrien Agreste, Paris' top model, to be a perfect dancer. Well, I wasn't. Not with this type of music, at least.
"Come on dude, have some fun!" Nino bumped me as the girls laughed.
"I- I really don't know how to."
Marinette seemed to wake up from her elation and looked at me.
"Here," she held my wrists, her body still slightly moving to the beat "just let yourself go." She swayed both our bodies left and right, to and fro. I was definitely erasing all the glamour her individual dance had had, but she still seemed to enjoy herself.
"I'm not sure whether we're looking half as good as you did on your own..." I warned.
"Never mind about that." She winked at me.
I was so surprised by her gesture that I found myself blushing. And, in return, Mari blushed too and let out a small, light giggle.
"Come on!" she laughed, probably more at me than with me, but I didn't mind. It... it actually felt good. I found myself enjoying the rhythm of the hectic song whilst I laughed like a teenager alongside my three best friends.
I liked this. I liked all of this. My friends. The song. Prom. School. The simple, stupid fact that I, I could be here celebrating prom with three human beings that meant the world to me.
'I am happy', I decided. I was very, very happy.
By the time the song ended we were all covered in sweat and panting for air after the effort we'd made both by dancing and laughing at once.
I also noticed that I had come excessively close to Marinette.
Our bodies were less than half a metre away from each other, and my face reddened considerably when I recalled the moves we had just followed unconsciously. I could only find a word to describe them: sexy.
I looked sideways to Marinette, feeling completely foolish and, now that the neon lights had gone off in order to create a more formal, classy atmosphere, I checked that her cheeks were pinkish too. The main difference was that her eyes were wide and her smile big, and all I could identify in her expression was gratitude, tons of gratitude. I felt overwhelmed and smiled back. "Thank you", I thought, knowing that was too formal a word to be said out loud.
A few seconds later the spell was broken and we realized that Nino and Alya were nowhere to be seen.
"Where...?" I looked around, but couldn't find them amongst the crowd.
"They... uhm... wanted some space."
"Oh." Well, it seemed reasonable. I couldn't expect my two friends to be always pretending to be just friends for our sake. "We shall let them have it, then." I conceded.
Only then did I notice why the lighting had changed: the music had shifted from rock and roll to a classy waltz. I saw Marinette looking from side to side anxiously. An evil grin crossed my face.
"What is it...? Don't know how to dance?" She pulled a grimace. I couldn't stop myself from chuckling. "That means that this is my territory now." I gave her yet another playful smile and ceremoniously bent towards her. "May I have this dance, m'lady?"
She stared at me for a few seconds. I sometimes found it really hard to read her expressions, so I didn't really know whether she'd been flattered, amused or simply thought I was a complete idiot.
"I'd love to" she whispered. And this time her look and the way she'd pronounced such words somehow made my heart flip in a silly way. I answered with an awkward smile and held her waist with one arm. With my free hand, I entwined our fingers together. I became suddenly aware that we were even closer than before, and my heartbeat raced. Mari's eyes, suddenly fearless and never leaving mines really didn't help changing the way I felt. Darn, they'd never taught me about how nervous you could get when dancing with a girl you actually knew.
'Concentrate!' I told myself. And so, one step after the other, first very very slowly and then finally catching up with the rhythm, I guided Mari and I through the ballroom, just as she'd done with me before, although this time the laughter was replaced by contemplative silence. Our eyes never left the other's face, and though my heartbeat finally settled, I could feel both our souls swelling with joy. 'Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou...'
After having danced to a few songs, we took a break to have a drink.
"How... How can you dance so well? I mean, this isn't the kind of music they normally play at parties, so..."
"Particular classes. I took many before coming to school, and most of them I kept as extracurricular classes, like fencing..."
"How come haven't you ever told us about it?" she cut me off.
"Well... Dancing is not a virtue a man can usually be proud of, especially if it's classy dances we're talking about so... Let's say I was waiting for the right moment to show off."
She smiled. "Thankyou for letting me be part such moment."
Of course, I sometimes forgot that Marinette was the kind of person with whom you could say whatever you were thinking out loud, no matter how formal or deep it sounded, she would always accept it respectfully. I realized, as I'd done many times before, how much I liked this girl.
I had probably been staring at her for too long, for she suddenly seemed to become nervous and asked "Could – Would you – ehm – out? Like to? That is... Would you like to go out? A bit?"
"Sure I would." I needed some fresh air too.
There were no moon or clouds that night, which made it so much easier to see the stars. No matter how many nights I stroll around as Chat Noir, I'd never get tired of Paris' sky.
"Do you know how to identify the constellations, Mari?" I asked.
I caught her blushing. Oh. I didn't usually call her Mari out loud.
"It's okay" she smiled, and I wondered whether I could actually start calling her like that from now on. "I can only distinguish those which appear in winter, when I used to go hiking with my parents when I was little, but not so much those on summer" she continued.
"Here, let me show you."
Scorpius, Hercules, Lyra... some were harder to find, but we were in no hurry and I swelled with pride watching Mari's sincere admiration.
"We are really lucky to be this small, if only in order to see this, right?" I thought out loud.
"Indeed we are."
We contemplated the night sky in silence for a few more minutes, until I noticed that Marinette was embracing herself and making a considerable effort not to shiver. I recalled Ladybug telling me how "a girl's dress doesn't cover up the whole body" the day before. 'Stupid.'
"Sorry Mari, I hadn't noticed before. Here." I took off my jacket
"Oh! No. No, I'm fine, really."
"Shh..." I quietened her as I pulled my arms around her in order to cover her up myself, in case she tried to pull the jacket off.
"Adrien..."
I looked down at her, searching for her eyes, but it took some time for her to finally stop avoiding my look. "What is it, Marinette...?" I could tell from the tone of her voice that something was wrong.
"I... I'm really not cold."
I smiled.
"I'm not either, so you'll have to be carrying the jacket, I'm afraid." I bantered.
"I mean... I wasn't trembling because of the weather..." she looked intently at me, as if wanting to make sure that I wouldn't look away "but... because of... something else"
I was already trying to quieten the dozens of questions that suddenly started to flash through my mind when Marinette reached out for my hand. I let her hold it as if I were just a puppet, unable to move or control my body.
"Adrien, I... I need to tell you something. Just to tell you. I mean..."
Bump. Bump. No. No way.
"I need you to know that I..."
No.
"...That I love you, Adrien. I like you very much."