"Ahhh!" Marinette shouted, ripping a paper from her sketchbook. "It's not working!" she cried, burying her face in Alya's shoulder.

"Chill, girl," Alya snickered, patting Marinette's head in sympathy.

"I can't get it right no matter how hard I try!" Marinette whined. "Why'd the contest have to be for Ladybug and Chat Noir?"

Their school was holding a competition for designing two outfits: one for Ladybug and one for Chat Noir. And it was killing Marinette. Coming up with something for Chat was easy; coming up with something for Ladybug that matched was difficult.

"Maybe you should take a break," Alya suggested.

"What's wrong with Marinette?" Nino asked as he and Adrien entered the classroom.

"She's having a meltdown trying to do these Ladybug and Chat Noir designs," Alya explained. "I'm telling her that stepping away from it might help."

"Ladybug and Chat Noir designs?" Adrien repeated.

Marinette nodded and pushed the small pile of papers toward the boy. "I have to make two outfits based on them. Chat's was no problem; it's Ladybug's that's giving me a heart condition…" she explained dramatically.

Adrien snickered and picked up one of the wads, flattening it out. On the page was an elaborate dress for Ladybug covered in spots and string he could only guess was to represent the yoyo. This wasn't the first contest like this he'd heard of. In fact…

"I think they did something like this when my father was in school," Adrien said, laying down the paper. Marinette looked up in confusion. "Yeah, there used to be Papillion – a hero then – and Peacock…don't really know what happened to them, but my dad still has the outfits he designed if you want to see them for, y'know, inspiration or something…" The offer made Adrien go shy. He didn't know why, but Marinette had started having a weird effect on him. He'd turn shy and blurt random nonsense in front of her, not that she really noticed, luckily.

Marinette didn't know what to say. She'd lost the ability to speak, actually. Lucky for her, she had an Alya. "Oh, that'd be great! We should all go over at lunch to see them!" Alya cooed. Marinette just nodded along, a dazed grin on her face.

"Sounds like a plan," Nino said after realizing Adrien wasn't going to respond.

In the time between first period and lunch, Adrien had enough time to collect himself. Everything would be just fine. So what if his sort-of, possibly, crush would be in his old nursery to look at hideous 80's clothes? So what if there was tons of embarrassing stuff in said old nursery? So what if Marinette and Alya laughed at him?

He was calm.

Marinette, on the other hand, didn't even bother denying her nerves. She rode beside Adrien as stiff as a board. Alya and Nino did their best to keep conversation going, and it worked on Adrien for the most part. Marinette just couldn't get over the fact that she would be in Adrien's house looking at Gabriel Agreste's old designs.

To use as inspiration.

For a dress based on herself.

She was surprised she hadn't screamed.

The car pulled up to the mansion and the Gorilla held open the door. Adrien slipped out and, before the man could extend a hand, he helped Marinette out of the vehicle. Alya caught the gesture and shot the boy a smirk, to which he shook his head at. He didn't need any Alya-Brand help.

They all headed inside, to which Alya questioned, "So where are these outfits hidden?"

Adrien spun around as he headed toward the steps, "My old nursery, actually…" he answered, stepping up backwards on the steps effortlessly. Hey, he had weird talents. "Mom put them there when I moved out of the nursery."

They entered the elephant-painted room, and Adrien could hear Nino's snickers from the back. He chose to ignore the boy, instead tossing open the closet doors and pushing all the baby clothes out of the way to find the outfits. "Here's the dress…" he groaned, tossing it out into the open. After rummaging a bit more, he pulled out the Peacock suit.

Marinette dropped to her knees and scooted toward the outfits, eyes wide. "Wow, that is one puffy dress…" she giggled. The plum-purple dress's sleeves flared out and glimmered even in the dim lights of the room. The skirt bunched up to created even more puff, and the indigo ribbon around the hem was held on by silver butterflies. Dead in the center of the waist was a big bow with a very glittery, very silvery butterfly holding it on.

The Peacock suit wasn't much better on the color department. The jacket was bright green with pin-stripe in electric blue. The back was much longer than the front, giving the impression of a tail. Then there were the pants. They were the same blue and held a lighter green-and-brown combo for the eyes of the peacock tail. At least the shirt that went with it was a plain gray.

Marinette couldn't help but laugh. She didn't want to, but the outfits were just so ridiculous! The others joined her, and soon all four of them were doubled over, gasping for breath. Once they were all able to calm down, Marinette asked to take pictures of the outfits.

"Even better…" Adrien started, sitting up straight, "How about we try them on…"

"W-wait, what?!" Marinette squeaked. "I-I, we! We can't!"

Adrien snickered and stood up, picking up the suit. "Well, I'm putting this on. You can put on that dress and be ridiculous with me, or I will look stupid alone!" With that, he ran off toward his room. "Bathroom is to the right!" he shouted before the slam of his door was heard.

Dumbfounded, Marinette picked up the dress. She scanned it over once more before sighing and turning to Alya. "This is the silliest thing I've ever done…" she groaned as she stomped out of the room.

"Tikki, can you get the zipper?" Marinette asked her kwami. Tikki nodded and zipped up the back of the dress, snickering all the way.

"I haven't seen something like this in quite a while!" the kwami teased.

Marinette bunched up her regular clothes and clutched them to her chest, staring into the vanity mirror. "It doesn't look that bad, really…" she mumbled. "Maybe take away the shoulder puffs and slim down the skirt…take away some glitter…"

"You know that part would be impossible," Tikki giggled. Marinette sighed, nodding.

Then there was a knock on the door. "You dressed in there yet, Marinette?" Adrien asked.

"Um, yeah!" Marinette answered. She picked up the skirt and tossed open the door. As soon as she did, she was met with a Peacock-decked Adrien, and the snort that escaped was unavoidable. "Oh, that looks so hilarious…" she breathed out, her smile spread as wide as possible.

"Like you're much better," Adrien said through his laughter. "C'mon, Alya's about to combust," he held out a hand for Marinette, guiding the girl back toward the nursery.

Alya and Nino burst into laughter as soon as they saw the two. "O-OK!" Alya said through her laughter. "I-I need pictures!"

With that, Adrien slipped into his model-mode. He held Marinette by the waist and pulled her closer, practically dipping the girl. Alya snapped several pictures of them, ordering them into different little poses that not only showed off the outfits, but thoroughly embarrassed either participant. It was great.

After they were done, Marinette slipped out of Adrien's hold and twirled away. "I think I figured out why this is so puffy…" she started, continuing to spin. "It's a very good twirl-dress," she explained, lifting on to one foot.

However, she ended up spinning right into Gabriel. Oh no.

"F-father!" Adrien squeaked, jumping over to Marinette's side once again. "I didn't know you were home!"

"I didn't know you brought friends over, Adrien," Gabriel deadpanned, having yet moved his eyes off of Marinette.

"Uh, yeah, about that…" Adrien laughed awkwardly. "Th-there's this, uh, contest for Ladybug and Chat Noir at school a-and Marinette was having trouble with designs, s-so I thought seeing your old Papillion and Peacock stuff might help or something…" He started to trail off, shrinking under his father's intense stare.

"We'll go change back, sir! I'm sorry!" Marinette squeaked, attempting to slip past. Before she could get away, a hand stopped her.

"Father, don't get mad at Marinette, please!" Adrien pleaded. "All of this was my idea; she just went along with it!"

Gabriel turned to his son, and after a moment, a small smile began to grow on his face. "Now, who said I was mad?"

Record scratch.

"Wait – what?" Surely Adrien hadn't heard that correctly. He turned to Marinette, whose face was bright red. She twisted a bit of the fabric on the dress nervously, eyes never leaving her socks.

"Marinette, correct?" Gabriel called, snapping the girl's attention up.

"Um! Y-yes, sir!"

"Do you have your designs with you?" he asked, placing his hands behind his back. All four teens nearly hit the ground in surprise, especially Adrien. Marinette recovered as quickly as she could, nodded as well as she could in her light-headedness. Had the hall always been this tight? Was the world always spinning this quickly? "Let's see what you've come up with so far," Gabriel said.

"OK!" Marinette squeaked, slipping past the man to go back to the bathroom. She reemerged with her sketchbook in hand, flitting through the pages until she found the Chat design. "Th-this is what I have for Chat so far…the Ladybug part is what Adrien was trying to help me with…" she explained.

For the rest of the afternoon, Gabriel Agreste, Gabriel freaking Agreste, helped Marinette with her designs. He helped her refine the Chat suit, suggesting she make the jacket longer and change the shirt from black to green. He gave her ideas for the Ladybug dress, going off of her original thoughts based off of the dress she had yet to take off.

All the while, as the two designers talked detail, Adrien stood in the doorway in utter confusion. He hadn't changed out of the suit, still too in shock to do anything other than question what the heck had happened to his father. Alya and Nino had gone back to school, which left just Marinette and Adrien in the mansion. Gabriel had already promised excuse notes for the next day.

"You have quite the natural talent, young lady," Gabriel commented as he stood. "You must show me how these turn out when you make them."

"Thank you, sir," Marinette said. She hadn't stopped smiling for hours, and at this point she wasn't sure she could. Her face might've just frozen that way. Oops.

"Gabriel."

Now, that one made Adrien choke. Marinette wasn't in much better shape. She was just given permission to call Gabriel Agreste by his first name. She hadn't died somehow, right?

"Father, it's almost 6 o'clock…" Adrien decided to chime in. "Marinette should probably go home, right?"

Gabriel turned to Marinette with a nod, placing a hand on her head, "Would you like to stay for dinner, Marinette? That is, if Adrien would want to have you…"

Adrien's face lit up red. Was his father messing with him? Was the man actually trying to tease him? Even worse…did his father think Marinette was his girlfriend? He could see how that would be easy to think, but still! She was just a friend!

"I-I'll have to call my parents, but I think it'd be alright…" Marinette said. She wasn't even going to be given a chance to stop smiling, was she?

"Alright, then, you can call them while you change. Surely by now that dress has gotten uncomfortable…" Gabriel said, stepping away from the dining room table. He stepped toward Adrien, a small snicker bubbling up. "Your little friend is quite a lot like your mother…" he commented quietly. "You better hold onto her." That was a bit louder, loud enough that Adrien could tell Marinette had heard.

With that last comment, Gabriel headed toward his office. All Adrien could do was sputter and redden, "P-Papa!" he cried, running after him. "It's not like that, I swear!"

Marinette didn't quite know what to do. She giggled, twirling as she headed toward the bathroom. This had been one of the best days of her life!

This took an hour and half my fingers are twitching by themselves. I've had this idea for a few weeks, and I finally got it to translate from my head to to the computer. Hallelujah!

Review and Favorite if you enjoyed!