Accident of the Evening

Surprise! [BONUS CHAPTER]

Marinette sighed as she shut her front door behind her. She couldn't believe the night she had had. Not only had she danced with Chat in front of everyone, but had danced with Adrien Agreste in front of everyone. She could feel her cheeks burning as she remembered. He was such a good dancer, so elegant, so gentlemanly...

Marinette sighed happily as she scratched Tikki's feathers and made her way to her bedroom, a giddy smile on her face. She flopped onto her bed, unwilling to take off her costume and let the night end, but she had to, she knew. Sliding her gloves off and tugging the ribbons from her hair, Marinette carefully placed them on her bedside table before getting up and heading into the spare room to collect a garment bag.

Marinette tugged at the tiny button holding her choker in place and was about to unzip the back of her dress when she was alerted by Tikki squawking in distress.

"Tikki?" Marinette called as she ran out of the spare room only to freeze in place when she saw a familiar boy standing in her living room.

"O-oh, Ladybug. Wh-what are you doing here?"

"N'Nino? I-I came to see Marinette. Wh-what are you doing here?"

"I also came to see her," Nino said awkwardly.

"A-and you got in...?"

"With the spare key? A-Alya showed me where it was," Nino explained, holding the key in his hand.

"Oh," she added, both of them falling into uncomfortable silence.

"So, um, is she here?" Nino asked.

"Huh?"

"Marinette? Is she here?" Nino asked uncomfortably.

"O-Oh! Yeah, she was just in the bathroom, I-I'll go get her..." Marinette said, unsure of how this would play out. She walked around the corner and peeked to see Nino awkwardly take a seat on the couch.

She took a deep breath.

"Mari, your friend Nino is here!" she called.

"Nino? Okay, I'll be right out!" she called back before rushing into her bedroom and hurriedly stripping out of her dress and pulling on her pyjamas. Marinette yanked off the mask and quickly rubbed the dark eyeshadow with her fingers, hoping to hide all evidence of being dressed up. She tugged her hair into her pigtails and left her room.

"Nino! Hi, what are you... what are you doing here, so late?" she asked, trying to seem calm. She turned on the kettle and got three mugs out, trying to act as though she was serving for two friends.

"I wanted... I wanted to thank you for your advice, about Alya," Nino said after checking the hall to make sure Ladybug wouldn't come out and disturb them.

"Oh? It's just you weren't here when she left, I wasn't sure..."

"I turned up at the dance - late, of course. But I apologised to her. You were right Mari, I needed to think about why I was doing this. And well, I just love her so much... I decided that I want to go further with her," he said quietly.

"What?" Marinette asked, eyes wide. "Nino, are you-"

"I'm gonna ask her to live with me, like full-time. She's already at my place about half the time anyway but I want her there, always. I want to wake up to her every morning and kiss her goodnight every night."

Marinette gave a kind smile. "Nino, I'm so happy for you. Did you tell her that?"

"Well, I didn't get the chance," he said with a sigh.