Why did Marinette feel like her chest was about to explode? Her heart was ramming into her rib cage and her ears were burning a cherry red. She pressed her back to the wall and willed her heartbeat to slow.

    “I think you found someone else to make your compass go crazy.” Tikki giggled as she hovered above Marinette’s shoulder.

     Marinette let out a sigh and threw her head back, lightly hitting the wall. “God, I don’t know why I did that!”

    “Whatever the reason was, he sure seemed to enjoy it.” Tikki giggled again. Marinette felt her face burn.

      “I’m sure you’re exaggerating, Tikki. But it doesn’t matter. I have to finish up those outfits for Gabriel.” 

     The red kwami shook her head with an exasperated sigh. Marinette was smart, but naive when it came to people liking her. It was one of the many reasons it took Marinette and Adrien so long to get together.

           Pushing herself off the wall, the bluenette started walking towards the staircase. She was still staying at Alya’s place. She swore to herself that after she finished with the new line of fashion, she would go apartment hunting.

     Just when she began to walk out the door, she heard her name shouted behind her. “Marinette!” Confused, the bluentte turned towards the voice.

    Rose was rushing down the stairs, showing her teeth in a wide smile. “I’m sure you missed breakfast helping Luka. Jueklea wanted me to bring you some food!” She thrusted her hands forward, a plate of food with a layer of steamed up syrin wrap covering it. 

    “Oh, you didn’t have to!” The bluenette exclaimed as Rose slipped the plate into her hands.

    “Nonsense! You can bring the plate back next time you stop by Luka’s!” Rose stated with her hands behind her back. 
 
  Marinette couldn’t find the will to say no. Her stomach let out a dying whale noise and her face flushed as Rose laughed. 

    “Thank you, Rose. Tell Jueklea thanks as well.” 

    They bid their goodbyes and went their separate ways.

    “That was awfully sweet of her,” Tikki noted, bundled up in the fabric around Marinette’s neck.

    “Yeah, it was.” Mariette agreed, taking a piece of the pancake and giving it to her little friend.
   
   “Mmm. This is good.” Tikki claimed through a mouth full of food.

  ------
     “Explain to me again what this is made out of,” Alya said, bringing up the pitch at the end, making it sound like a question.

     Alya was standing with her arms straight out and had Marinette’s new dress on. Her legs were wobbling as she tried to stand straight as possible so she didn’t get stabbed with any pins.

    “Gabriel Agreste wanted a line of clothes that is made out of Graphene fabric. It’s lightweight, flexible, warm, and has many unique qualities. We’re not even sure if it’ll work properly. It’s very expensive fabric, it’s actually an honor to use it. Gabriel said I was one of the few fashion designers he could depend on.” Marinette said through the pins she was holding with her teeth.

     “And he only gave you five weeks to work on it?” Alya asked, shifting her weight slightly.

    “Stay still!” Marinette hissed looking back for where she was just sewing at.
  
    “I’m trying” Alya spat back. “It’s been over a half-hour, are you almost done?”

    “After I fix this.” Marinette continued to do the back stick, stopping every few seconds to make sure the line was straight. “Yeah, he only gave me five weeks with the fabric. But he gave me three months to work on outfits to use them on. I was free to work on other things, he just advised I get some ideas down.”

    “Is grey the only color they had?” The brunette asked, darting her eyes between things in her living room to try to forget the burn in her legs.

    “More colors are available, but he wants to save it for when we figure out how to properly use it. It’s a really thick fabric, I had to use scraps to see which stitch would work the strongest on it.” She said as brought her hand up under the skirt to see the stitches properly.

    “What will the designs on it be made out of?”

    “I was thinking about crocheting something. Once there are several suites and dresses with their proper colors, I was going to associate each one based on one of Paris’s superheroes.” Satisfied with her work, Marinette pushed herself up in time to catch a smile on Alya’s face.

     The superheroes were still all the rage in Paris, keeping their place up there with Jagged Stone, Adrien Agreste, and Gabriel Agreste. You would think it would have died down after the first year or so, but people were still obsessed with finding out their identities.

    “Alright,  you’ll have your freedom back right after you take this off without ruining it,” Marinette affirmed, clutching the zipper and pulling it down to her lower back.

    “Thanks, girl. I’ll be out in a minute.” Alya rushed to the bathroom, not wasting a second to be free.

     The fashion designer collected her things together and carefully put them away in her little duffle bag for fashion. She got down on her knees and ran her hand over the carpet, making sure there were no pins that fell. Chico would eat anything he could get his small hands onto.

    “How free are you tonight?” Alya asked when she walked out of the bathroom, the dress she just wiggled out of place carefully on a hanger.

   “I’m sitting in your living room at six o’clock in your apartment, preparing to fall asleep on the couch. I’d say I’m pretty free.” Marinette rolled her eyes as she tucked her bag away into the coat closet. 

   Alya laughed as she motioned for Marinette to follow her into the kitchen. 

“You got me there.” The blogger admitted. “Ariana is staying the night at Nino’s mom, you know how she can get with us when someone’s sick. Tonight is Nino and I’s date night. And I was thinking-”

   “Oh no.” Marinette groaned, bringing her hand to her forehead. “She’s been thinking.”

   “No need to sound so dramatic. I was only thinking that you could watch Chico.” Bluebell eyes narrowed at her. “What?”

   “And?” No way that’s the only thing she was thinking. This was Alya Lahiffe for Pete's sake. Her brain was not simple, especially when she wanted something.

    “You caught me. I had a thought. Why don’t you bring Chico to Luka’s? I heard earlier that he broke his leg. I imagine Rose and Jueklea are going to keep him under house arrest for a while.” Alya paused before smirking. “Who knows, you may even get lucky.” 

     She wiggled her eyebrows and Marinette scoffed. They both settled onto the couch, allowing themselves some time to relax.

     It was six, nearly seven, in the afternoon. Marinette could feel the lack of sleep from this morning kick in. She had stayed up a good proportion of last night stressing where her partner was. 

   Where had he been? Did an akuma get him? The questions didn’t stop swirling through her brain and it had made her physically sick. She knew now, of course, that he was simply too drunk to realize anything was wrong. But it still wasn’t right.

    It wasn’t like Adrien to drink, and when he did, it was only a beer or two. He had the worst hangovers in the morning, so he usually dodged drinking altogether. He was going to get a good scolding from Marinette, what he did was stupid for a normal civilian. But for a hero? It was the most downright reckless thing he could have done.

     Marinette knew she was being a hypocrite. He had found in her the bar only a few days ago. But that was different. She was hanging out with friends, and only had one drink. If an akuma had suddenly come out of nowhere, she would have been sober enough to fight it.

  “Gosh, don’t overthink it girl. It was just a suggestion.” Alya patted the bluenette’s knee before pushing herself.

    It wasn’t a bad idea Marinette found herself thinking. In Fact, she still missed hanging out with him. It’s been two days since they properly hung out, so perhaps going over wasn’t the worst idea.

   “Thanks, Alya.” Sarcasm bled into her words and she received a closed-eyed smile.

   “Anytime girl. Now would you mind helping me get ready?”

-------
   After nearly an hour of getting prepared, they finally found the perfect outfit for her. It was a loose shirt that managed to hold the curves of her breast and waist perfectly. Fabric was bunched at the top to be like a built-in scarf. The bottom of the shirt flowed perfectly, dropping the further down her body until it reached halfway down her thighs. Which drew attention to her ripped skinny jeans that hugged her waist just right.

   She wore brown boots that cut of just halfway up her calf. A dark blue beanie with a large white pom-pom lolling to the side rested on her head, covering the freshly curled brown hair. A glossy wine red lip gloss covered her lips and she put contacts on. Her eyelids were delicate shades of burnt orange and fiery red coming together.

      "I would 10/10 shag that if I swung for the other team," Marinette said as she handed over a clutch purse to Alya.

       "It's a shame you're missing out on such a nice piece of ass." Alya shook her head with a sigh. 

     Marinette chuckled and pushed her friend towards the door. Was there friendship quite odd? Yes, and they were proud of it.

      "Right? Anyways, Nino is at the restaurant reserving your table. You don't have to worry about anything, Chico loves hanging out with his favorite aunt." 

     Alya turned around and checked the room, chewing on the inside of her cheek. "Are you sure? If you do go somewhere else you can't forget anything, especially not this late. I know you've watched him before, but not for this long what if-"

    "Alya." Marinette cut her off with a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright. I took child development classes in high school, remember?" 

    "Yeah, I guess." Alya pressed her lips together and shook her head. "You're right. Nino and I deserve this anyways, we've not been on a date night in months. I think it was the beginning of my second trimester with Chico."

     Marinette waved as Alya walked out the door. When it closed, she walked over to Chico.

     "Do you want to see Luka?" She cooed. Chico didn't even spare her a glance as he rattled his teething toy in his hand.

    She smiled adoringly and packed the always-ready-just-in-case baby duffle bag. Marinette somehow managed to put his tiny little coat on him and shoes with his limbs wiggling so much.
-------
    "Mari, what are you doing here?" Luka tilted his head as she opened the door after he yelled come in.

    Chico was in the stroller, eyes looking at everything in curiosity.

   "I figured since you're bedridden, for lack of a better term, I'd bring you some food!" The bluenette exclaimed as she grabbed a picnic basket and rested it on the kitchen counter. "You don't mind, do you? Is it alright that I brought Chico?" Her bottom lip worked its way between her teeth.

    Luka watched the simple action and felt a strike a familiarity hit him. Who did he know that had the exact same habit? It was frustrating. Like the bell was ringing in his head, it just wasn't making any noise. 

     When he saw her saddened eyes he realized he waited too long to respond. "It's fine!" He jerked in his seat like he wanted to bolt to her and comfort her.
    
     Luka saw the spark return to her eyes and felt content with himself. She had the most beautiful smile and he was determined to keep it on her lips as long as possible.
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                     Author's notes:
    Hello lovley little dorks, who else wants to bang their head on a table? Just me? I've been writing instead of studying. Anyone know the difference between pinocytosis and phagocytosis? Endocytosis and exocytosis? Cause I sure don't. Friendly reminder to get your procrastinating butts up and do what you've been ignoring.
     Don't forget to comment and vote! I love hearing what you have to say! Fluff moments you want? PM me or comment them! Have a great day and night! Tell me if you see typos, most of this is written off sunny dekSee you next update!