Princess

t r o i s

Marinette stirred and her eyes fluttered open. A dark figure was peering through her skylight. Ignoring him, she took a quick shower and got dressed. When she returned, he was still there, so she let him in.
"How are you, Chat?" She sighed. "I need to be at university soon."
He pouted. "Don't you what to be with me."
She laughed and tapped him gently on the nose. "Of course, but if I don't go to uni I won't get a degree and I won't get a good job."
He frowned. "If you say so."
She cocked her head, looking at him critically. "What's wrong, Chat?"
"Nothing." He lied.
Marinette sighed and walked towards him and wrapped her arms gently around him. She gasped. "Chat, you're so cold! What happened?"
He hesitated. "Isleptallnightmsnjfjs." He muttered.
"Say again?" She frowned.
"I slept outside all night." He said, subdued.
She  frowned disapprovingly at him. "Chat, why didn't you go home?"
"I don't like my home." He sighed. "They don't love me and they won't miss me."
She hugged him again. "I have to be going, I'll be late. I'll see you later." She smiled at him and kissed his cheek gently.

Marinette hurried into class and swung her bag onto the desk, sitting down and unpacking her equipment mere moments before their lecturer arrived. Alya gazed reproachfully at her. "Late again?"
"Sorry." Marinette whispered. "Chat stayed outside all night and I had to tell him to go home."
Alya gawked.
"What? I told you I saw him yesterday." Mari rolled her eyes.
"Yeah but- but- but Chat Noir!" Alya attempted to convey her awe.
"He's just a friend. It's not that big a deal."
"Girls!" Their teacher reprimanded them. "Please be quiet!"
"Yes miss." They replied quietly.
"As I was saying, the Winter Ball is coming soon and your class has been chosen to run it. As you are a fashion class, I expect you will want to design the clothing as well. You will also all need to attend-"
Some members of the class cheered. Others sighed.
"- and I will put you into groups with your jobs." She raised her voice over the class's response. She peered at them. "Hmm. Chloe, Sabrina, you can be in charge of advertising and ticket sales."
Chloe grinned. "Parfait."
"Mylène, Ivan, Alix, Kim, you can be in charge of food."
The group turned and smiled at each other.
"Rose and Juleka, can you do the decoration?"
They nodded quietly, Juleka sighing.
"Max, Nathanael, you can organise music and a photographer. And Adrien, Nino, Alya and Marinette, you can design and make the dresses? Obviously, the school will cover costs and we are also planning to sell some designs to Agreste Inc."
Adrien sighed.
"You will be paid a little for each dress or tux sold, although most profit will go towards the costs. Okay, everyone?"
The class nodded and quickly turned to their groups to begin planning.
"Any ideas? A theme or anything?" Marinette began quickly. She looked at Adrien.
"Why are you looking at me?"
"You're the model. I thought you might have some ideas from a photo shoot or whatever. What's your favourite photo shoot you've ever done?"
He thought for a moment and pulled a photo out of his pocket. "It's quite recent and the shots haven't been released yet, but a shabby city chic theme?"
Marinette looked at the photo and lost her words in a haze of dreamy wonder at his perfection.
"Awesome!" Alya grinned, jolting Marinette from her daze.
Nino sighed. "What do you want me to do? I'm not really the best for this job."
"Don't say that! I'm sure you'll be a huge help. If nothing else, you can help fetch materials." Marinette teased and pulled out her sketchbook. "Why don't you two go and find some swatches of material from textiles and Adrien and I can come up with some ideas."
Alya winked at her and grabbed Nino's hand before he had a chance to complain.

Chloe strode over to the couple sitting together and pouted. "Miss insists I find out what your theme is before making tickets."
"Great way to ask." Adrien replied as Marinette ignored the girl.
Chloe sighed loudly. "What theme are you going with?" She snapped and grabbed Marinette's sketchbook. "What are these? City chic? Really? You expect me to wear- ohmygosh I love this! You are making me this one." She ordered, her voice changing tone very suddenly. Adrien rolled his eyes and handed Marinette the sketchbook.
"Chloe, why don't you go and tell the other groups our theme and give them ideas? The decoration and food could be impacted a lot by our theme."
Given the opportunity to take more power, Chloe hurried away to boss the other groups around and Marinette continued her designs.

{bonjour, everyone! I hope you're enjoying this story so far. As a general rule, I think I will try and update each time I get five favourites and a couple comments. I love to hear from you guys, with ideas, critique, praise, anything (but maybe not critique so much).
Please comment what you think of this story, especially with Marinette not being Ladybug. Also, I'm going to try and incorporate some of my French vocabulary into this, to add to the idea of it being in France and also to help me learn more french😂
Je vous aime💕}