Love by Design - Adrienette

The Cutter

"You are going to tell me everything about yesterday!" Alya demanded, plopping down on the chaise longue in Marinette's room as though that was where she belonged.

"I-I'll try." Marinette was sure that her version of 'everything' wasn't going to include any mention of kwami or her and Adrien's true first kiss, but she was willing to offer her curious best friend enough information to quell her inquisitions.

Marinette recalled the opening moments of the visit, becoming flustered all over again about her lack of self-expression; this resulted in a scrambled retelling. Used to her friend's excited sentence reconstruction, Alya nodded along - understanding most of what would be unintelligible rambling to one unacquainted with Mari.

"First, I got there and the door answered me! Uh... I mean, I couldn't answer the door. The door asked who I was... I mean... that camera." All right, Alya had seen the Agreste's security camera before, and she knew it terrified Marinette. That much was easy to understand. "I couldn't answer, but I was recognized! The secretary did! She let me in and Adrienhuggedme! Next, we played Ultimate Mecha Strike III." That sentence came out not scrambled at all, indicating that Marinette had been calm for that portion of the experience. Fair enough; she had proved herself a master at that game, and it created a comfort zone for her where she felt a higher level of control. "We introduced each other t-oops, hehe, and we ate lunch. The end!" Introduced each other to whom? That was the only part of what Marinette had said that Alya was unable to make sense of. She took that as meaning something happened toward the end of the visit that was of great embarrasment to Marinette.

"What are you hiding?" Alya accused her friend.

Marinette squealed a bit and sat down in her swivel chair, taking a breath to gain composure. When she was ready, she announced clear as day, "Adrien and I kissed."

Alya pumped her fist in the air "Way to go, girl! WOOHOO! That's a step in the right direction! How exactly did it happen? How did it feel?"

The answer to the first question might very well qualify as classified information, so Marinette chose to answer the second one. "I really didn't know how I was going to go through with it. I was afraid I'd chicken out like I always have - about trying to confess to him, but it felt so natural." Outside, somebody screamed. As screams had become all too commonplace in their lives, neither girl took too much notice. "It was like a jolt of electricity when we kissed, and it just felt... right. He seemed to like it too! In general, it just feels like we have a chance together." Marinette's cheeks were now stained the color of the blood rushing up behind them.

"Amazing, girl! But don't think you can get away with only answering one of my questions. You need to tell me every detail that led up to the kiss."

Well, what was she supposed to say? "It all started when I realized that he had already been my first kiss, except that time I was Ladybug and he was Chat Noir." Marinette needed not to tell Alya every detail leading up to the kiss. A second scream sounded, giving Mari an opening for escape. "Hey, we should go see what that was!"

"Fine, but I'm coming with you, and then we'll get right back up here and continue our little interrogation."

Out on the street, they found a local seamstress garbed in the dramatic apparel of an akumatized villain and wielding a pair of sewing shears threateningly. "I am The Cutter! This morning I finished my greatest masterpiece yet - an outfit specifically to the specifications of Miss Bourgeois. She takes one look at it and demands I redo it! She'll never speak again! Tell me anything without a please and thank you and I'll shut you up for good!"

"Not Chloe's work again," Alya sighed. "She deserves to be shut up - right, Marinette?"

"Yeah, but I'd like the opportunity to do that myself!"