10 Days Before the Masquerade || Miraculous Ladybug

-R-

R is for Roses from a "secret admirer"?

***

5 days before the masquerade

[Marinette's POV]

I sighed and looked at my clock, it was still 7AM. Don't ask why I'm very early; I have lots of designs to finish. I'm actually impressed on how Gabriel Brand just finished up my designs for hours and actually turns it into a real dress. I totally felt like a real fashion designer.

Though I'm really not.

"This is totally a miracle." Alya grinned. "You're two hours early!"

"Yeah, well..." I shrugged. "My job depends on it."

Alya hummed as we both entered the elevator. We just stand there in comfortable silence until we reached our office. I frowned when I reached my table. There was a bouquet of roses there. "Alya, is this yours?" I asked and lifted it up. Alya raised an eyebrow at me and shook her head.

"Why would I put a bouquet of roses on your desk?" She asked and crossed her arms. I shook my head at it, there was a small tag, and I decided to read it.

To: Mademoiselle Marinette

"Who would give me these?" I asked no one in particular, and apparently, Alya has ears that have the hearing as strong as a fox, she gasped and stood up.

"OMGEEEEE!" She squealed. "Don't tell me no one signed there!"

I shook my head. "Just saying it's for me."

She looked at me suspiciously, then she spotted Max on his desk...well, I didn't even notice he was there the whole time. Alya snatched the roses from me and then he walked up to Max's desk and put the roses in front of him before crossing her arms. Max gasped and looked up at her nervously, he pushed his glasses to his nose and looked at Alya with wide eyes. "Oh, wow. Alya, I appreciate the kind gesture but...aren't the guys suppose to be the one giving roses to girls?"

Alya rolled her eyes. "Max, I expect you to be the smartest person on our department, but what the hell, I'm not giving you these. I'm asking if this is from you."

Max looked at Alya confusingly and shook his head. "N-no. That's not from me." He read the little tag on it. "No offense, Marinette. But you're not...really my type."

I smiled half-heartedly. "None taken, feeling's mutual."

"If this isn't from you, then who is this from?" Alya asked him suspiciously.

"Dunno." He replied, his hands starting to type up something on his computer.

"You were here first." She crossed her arms and glared at him.

"The rose was already there when I arrived twenty minutes earlier." He retorted.

"Are you saying the rose just appeared on Marinette's desk by itself?" Alya was almost raising her voice. "You didn't see anyone entering and leaving this here?"

Max stopped typing and raised his hands in surrender. "I swear, when I arrived here, I was surprised that the door was already opened, I thought Sir Adrien was already here but his office was locked and I looked through the glass window and no one was there, I also thought it could be Sir Felix but he wasn't around either and his things weren't on his desk. I also thought it was Kim but I know he wasn't an early person, and of course it couldn't be Ivan because he and Mylene are like a thing now, you know?"