Marinette messes around with her pigtails, trying to figure out what to do with her hair before her big date with Adrien.
"Maybe leave it down, Mari?" Alya says through her friend's video call.
"But I never have my hair down. I think it looks stupid."
"You're being silly, and I'll prove to you that it's fine. Can I see?"
Marinette sighs, but takes the ribbons out of her hair anyway and brushes it through with her fingers.
"Holy crap, girl..." Alya says, slightly dumbfounded.
"See, I told you."
"No no, I mean holy crap, girl: you look incredible."
Marinette blushes slightly at her friend's compliment, "So, you think I should keep it like this?"
"Hells yeah! I'll hang up so you can get ready, but call me when you're done: I wanna see the final look!"
With that, Marinette grabs a flowy red dress from her closet and slips it on, along with some heels and a swipe of winged eyeliner.
She looks at herself in the mirror and adjusts her Miraculous earrings.
"You look beautiful, Marinette." A tiny voice says from behind her.
"Thanks, Tikki," She says to the kwami, "I thought we could use a day off."
"I suppose we could. Also, between you and me, I think you and Adrien are perfect together," She says with a wink. She's been rooting for the two to get together since she saw Chat Noir without his mask.
Marinette gives her kwami a smile and reaches for her phone, "I'm gonna call Alya back, just keep your voice down, okay?"
"Sure, I'll be in your bag. Good luck on your date!"
~ ~ ~
"Plagg, why am I so nervous?" Adrien asks his kwami.
"Well, it could be one of a couple reasons: you're sneaking out of your house to go on a date with a hot girl, or because I haven't had any Camembert in a whole 20 minutes."
The boy gives Plagg a sideways glance, "There were so many things wrong with that sentence, I don't even know where to start."
"The 'hot girl' part was spot on, though."
"Well..." Adrien rubs the back of his
neck, "Yeah, she's really cute, and I like her a lot. But she's no Ladybug."
"Ladybug, Shmadybug," Plagg teases, "This girl Maria li-"
"Marinette." Adrien corrects.
"Marinette... She likes you, right?"
"Y-yeah, I guess."
"So just go for it, then. If Ladybug was actually in love with you, she'd have done what that girl did today, years ago."
"Maybe you're right." He reaches into his suit pocket, "Here, some Camembert for good luck."
He throws the cheese to his kwami, who eagerly catches it in his mouth.
"Plagg, claws out!"