Adrien's eyes widened as he saw Marinette dolled up by his mother's side, his mouth gapped like a fish at her beautiful face and clothes as his parents left them together. She looked down at her dress, sheepish. But took at step forward and offered her hand. "Do you wanna dance?" she asked.
His heart skipped as his cheeks burned his face. "I- I was supposed to ask . . . "he murmured.
She looked at him, confused but smiled at him, making his ears burn as well. "Well, I guess you can ask me then." she said, lowering her head only for it to be snatched by his two.
He bowed too low and asked, "Will you marry me?"
Her cheeks turned pink as she looked around and saw only a couple of stranger chuckle and coo at them for his little out burst. She looked between him and the crowd for a moment before saying definite "Yes." Her face began to turn red, but it lessened as he looked up and smiled wide and helped her get in position to waltz.
Marinette felt her heart warm at the memory as she swayed in rhythm with Adrien, growing taller than her by the year. He had his eyes closed, letting the music fill him in on the beats as he lead her on their dance floor. The viola strung in the room, matching rhyme with the piano as they danced around the small sitting room. Marinette caught sight of Alya smirking as she went on, but the lady knew too well that the moment they stopped dancing, she and Adrien would have to separate for the whole day.
Slowly, the song ended, leaving Marinette a bit saddened as Adrien finally opened his eyes to her, reminding her they weren't the same in awe as when he saw a child. He bowed as she curtsied, and they both stiffened a laugh from all the formalities.
She made the mistake of saying, "My, I sure will miss these silly practices."
"What do you mean?" he said, a bit defensively. "It is not as though you are leaving the estate any time soon. There will be plenty of dances where you can trip on my feet."
Nino laughed, but was hit by Alya. Marinette threw a quick smile before saying, "I am going on a trip to visit my parents. I am sure you understand. The trip may take a few weeks . . . "
He frowned at the news, taking her hands into his own. "I forgot." he murmured to himself. "You are to leave with Alya how soon? In a few days?"
She slipped her hands from him and grinned before saying, "Tommorow, actually." She shook away her thoughts and thought of seeing her mother and father again. How excited the would be. "I can hardly contain myself. I have not seen them since I was but a girl. My mother will be in a fit if she sees how I have grown. She will be having me eat plates on plates if she thinks I am the tiniest of too thin."
Adrien chuckled with her. "You said it will only be for how many weeks?"
"Three at the least." she answered. "Though I would not be surprised if they extended my stay."
"For how long?"
"A few months perhaps."
"Months?" he asked through a drying throat.
Alya jumped in singing, "Or maybe a year. Do understand, this is their daughter they have sent to study for fashion design. She has not seen them since she had been eleven, now she is twenty. How do you think your father would react to such an extended leave?"
"I suppose he would react in a similar fashion." he said.
She felt hurt as he was ready to bid her farewell, and more so as he helped her in the carriage to travel all the way to northern France. She climbed into her seat, watching Alya let her hands lace with Nino's one last time until their return. She smiled as she climbed the carriage steps, holding Adrien's hand and falling still in her seat as he held it a moment longer. She turned to see his eyes glow with a similar glance from when he was a child. It was faded, but still light. Maybe it had changed in a different way. As he squeezed her finger, the carriage was whipped to start. He released her hand and waved a controlled goodbye as she waved back with similar restraint. Alya and Nino had no problem making fools of themselves, crying out goodbyes at one another.
They both held their hands, as if the ghost of the other was still there.
———
Nino watched in the sitting room as Adrien walk passed the sitting room as he tuned his instrument. His hands were folded back and his strides were slow. His heart dropped as he left behind his music and attended his friend, he breathed in and out for a moment before he left. He needed to do this for Alya's sake. "Adrien, I wanted to ask you a question."
He stopped in his walk and looked curious. "Yes?"
"Alya . . . " His heart swelled at her name. "She has been telling me about Marinette . . . and after thinking on it for a while."
"What about Marinette?" Adrien asked.
"Alya has been telling me that Marinette has been . . . Seeing me favorably or what ever that means," he said with a nervous laugh. Why those words she asked for him to say, he would not know, but they struck a cord in Adrien. His back snapped and his face fizzled to a frown. Just as Alya predicted. "I was wondering if you could, I am not fully sure what, but if she sees me favorable, then that must mean she would like to spend sometime with me, yes?"
Adrien was frozen in time, but shook his head free and looked away from him coldly. "I . . . Suppose it does." he agreed, though through hard teeth.
"Would you mind sharing her favorite activities with me? So I could come to know her a bit better." Nino said.
He looked unsure, but his saddened countenance let him say, "I would have to say that a walk in the garden is a favorite of hers. She also likes to play elevens and draw."
"And dancing too?" Nino asked with pretend excitement.
His friend stilled. "What?"
"She seems to really like dancing." Nino said. "And playing the violin. Perhaps we could duet on the strings as you and Alya dance, and vice versa when we dance, but with you and Aly on the piano-forte."
Adrien shook his head, throwing a forced laugh. "No, no." he said. "She does not really enjoy dancing, not all that much. It was just practice we do for events, really. She finds it tiering. And violin was just something she picked up for Father, like I did for piano."
Nino frowned instead of smiling, hiding his smug face. "I thought you picked up Piano for your mother."
He gulped and said. "That is was I meant. To say."
Nino nodded, fully satisfied. "Then thank you for your help. I will be sure to win favor with Marinette and take her on a few walks I suppose." He rubbed his neck as he turned to walk away. Alya's last commands stayed on his tongue, unsure what the man would do if he said the follow-up, "However, after such a small connection, I do not think she would take my hand." Instead, he just pestered him occasionally the next few weeks as the girls were away.
and Adrien stayed in contact with lettes, becoming routine for him. From the moment he received a letter, he would drop most of everything and hide away in his study to spend the rest of the night writing a perfect response to whatever she wrote and sent it straight in the morning. It would take three days, but they always came in a solid pattern, suggesting she would similarly drop all activities to write him back and sent it right after him. It was eerie how he began to make sure to make special events planned around the days he expected his letters, similar to how he did so when ever his lady was acting up during the month.
He was in his study one night when Nino didn't hear vigorous scratching and pen strokes. He peeked in to see him staring at the letter, pen in his other hand, shaking. Nino walked in to see his friend let out a shaky breath as he let go of the papers and let them drop on his desk. His hand ran through his head and he gave a spare glance to his friend. On his desk was a rough portrait sketch of Marinette smiling gently at him, along with one of Alya. His fingers flinched at it, but he kept his body still. "Adrien? Are you alright?"
He didn't look up. "I am doing fine, Nino. Could you please leave, just for a little while?" he asked with a course voice, edged to make a rough, unclean cut on his skin.
Nino frowned but opened his mouth to say an instruction, but close at the sight of such a disheveled state. He needed to be a brother first. "Could I see that portrait of Alya? I believe she mentioned it in her letter to me, but Marinette must have gotten it mixed with her notes instead."
Adrien's face softened and gave the page to his friend, looking back at the notes in a new order. When he thought Nino's back was fully turned he smiled fully and finally touched pen to paper, slowly but surely writing another letter. Within minutes, he wrote a storm of words, which, sure enough, were sent the next morning.
But by three mornings after, Adrien was in panic around Nino. He tried to practice his music, but every so often, he turned out a note too flat or a note too sharp. His fingers moved too fast, his heart was also moving so quickly he was going to explode from anticipation. But as evening began to settle in, he began to pace around in the sitting room where Nino worked on the fire wood to warm his instrument.
"The letter isn't here." he said as he began to walk frantically.
"It's not." he said. It didn't slow his panic.
"She must hate me for it."
"She does not." he said.
Adrien groaned as he collapsed in a chair. "She will never speak to me again. She will think I was insane, that I lost my mind or something."
"Why would she think that?" Nino laughed before it faded from the seriousness of Adrien's face. "What did you write?"
"A poem." he said. " . . . Of her. Describing her, all her vices and virtue's and how . . . I felt about. Them." He looked away from Nino who seemed surprised. "I know it seems absolutely insane—"
"How do you feel about them?" he asked, giving off a bit of smugness.
Adrien paused for a moment, before saying. "I love all of them." Nino smiled like a proud father. He sat by him, patting his back as the man soaked in his own words. "I love her." he whispered.
They sat in silence for only a few minutes until they heard a muffled door open and close, hushed voiced of ladies whispering among themselves. Adrien and Nino shot up to hear them walking towards the sitting room, where the latter took the opportunity as the girl's neared to push him out of the room.
He paused as he saw Marinette and Alya round the corner towards him. They stopped to look at him, before giggling to themselves. Adrien smiled back before saying, "Hello, ladies. I was worried something might have happened to you since I had yet to receive a latter from you."
Alya smiled maliciously. "And what was so important of this letter to her, seeing as I never received one? Am I not worth your time, Monsieur?"
Adrien had been caught in headlights, but Marinette calmly said, "Oh, hush. You had gotten many from Nino, so don't you worry." She turned to asked and smiled sweeter than candy. "I believe I was the last one to write you letter, Sir. I told you that I would be arriving by the time I would have received and given you my response, so I simply came home. Why? Did you send a letter?"
He shook his head. "No. I was just worried for you, since you did come in a bit later than my letter, actually."
"By how much?" Marinette asked.
"Only a few hours, but how you worded it, I expected punctuality."
Marinette waved him off as Nino and Alya watched them banter on, unsure of how anything of value was evaded from being said.
Nino was certain for it to end the moment he intercepted a letter that came a short day later. After reading it, he demanded audience with his friend, taking him away from the small return gathering with the girls, Monsieur Agreste, Nino's father and Alya's mother.
It read as a short response to Adrien. "Although, as a Father I am inclined to say that no one would be worthy of my daughter's hand, I cannot say that of you. My little girl has grown so much since I have last seen her, but there is a time when I cannot keep her within arms reach. And while I have been distant, keeping a hand on her for as short of a dance it seem, I do believe I can trust you to hold my daughter as you both waltz together in the wonderful dances of life. I am sure you would feel the same, should you have a daughter of your own."
Adrien's face burned and his hands shook. "I cannot show this to my father." he said Determined.
Nino glared at him. "And why is that?"
"I cannot just approach her and ask for her hand, already seeming to have asked her father."
"So what!" Nino cried. "It won't change her answer." Snatching the letter from his hands, he tucked it and walked away.
"Nino!"
"Nino?" They both stopped to see the girls watching them from the door. Before anything could be asked, Adrien jumped in to save himself.
"Marinette, I do believe that you seem tired from tonight. Here, I'll see you to bed." He quickly took her hand in his and walked her down the hall to a room that was not her. She tried to get him to go the other way but gave up seeing at he clearly wanted nothing to do with Nino.
"Had you and Nino fallen divided over something?" she asked.
"You could say that." he said.
She smiled, having seen them fight as children. "And what was it over this time around?"
Adrien looked into her wonderful eyes as he said, "Over whether i should or shouldn't change something."
She looked confused why he would not specify, but didn't press. "And what do you want to do?"
"Well, Nino is determined to have me change it, but I'm too afraid that if I do . . . " His eyes locked on hers. "If I do, things will never be the same."
She frowned. "Is that a bad thing?"
He frowned back. "It could be," he said. After a hard look from her, sceptical and hopeful, he took a breath and pushed forward. "I just do not know whether if you think it should change."
"Me?"
He nodded, taking a step froward. "Marinette. Would you marry me?"
She stared in shock as he took her hands, slowly squeezing them as he reassured his strength from her silence. However, his ears ringed from her been voice giggling. "oh, Adrien. I thought you knew." His heart wavered. "I said yes a long while ago."
His eyes widened. "W-when?"
She looked curiously at him. "Do you not recall?" she asked. "It was when I just came here as a little girl, we were at our very first ball, a tiny bit away from the crowd where you asked."
His head was scrambled. "But you said yes." She nodded. "And we danced." She nodded again. He stared into her joyful eyes, glimmering from the entire situation. He finally laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. He stepped closer and held her in a tight hug. "Imagine, all this time, we were engaged."
Marinette snickered a little. "For the longest time, I believed we were. It was not until a grew up a ways older that I realized you may have not been serious."
Adrien darted his eyes playfully. "I have no idea to what you are referring. We were engaged the moment our eyes locked onto each other as far as I am concerned. I say we are soulmates."
She grinned and took his hands into her own, reaching up to capture his lips with hers. Behind them, Alya and Nino watched, cheering and clapping which broke them apart. Nino was tearing up as he gave Marinette the letter. Adrien was tense as he done it, but remained calm as she read it. Her eyes looked wide as he explained his last letter was meant for her, declaring his love for her.
She laughed. Then and more so as she explained the engagement to a slew of people as they celebrated. Adrien stood by his father as he watched her with a love stuck smile. "She is a well made choice, son. I was not sure whether you would make it or not."
The boy rolled his eyes. "I thank you for such boosting confidence, Father." he quipped.
Gabriel did not seems to notice it. "It was not me who set this entire process, you should be thanking your mother." he said, earning wide eyes from Adrien. "She made sure to find me only the best apprentice, and deliberately chose a girl for you to bond with over time. She did not expect her bedridden sickness, not her leaving, but knew that you two were going to be."
Adrien smiled to himself, as he watched his lady talk and laugh with friends. "Then I thank her for everything." he said sincerely. He walked forward and asked properly for a final dance before they would start to dance as a husband and wife.