crosswise | an opawn post, if mew please--

[She woke up in a gloriously creative mood on that particular Wednesday, but after an hour of sitting at her desk and crumpling half-finished designs she feared she had been too hopeful on her day off from school. She sulked mightily at her sketchbook and the pile of torn-out pages for a full sixty seconds before Tikki chimed in a suggestion that she go to the park.]

[And so her hopeful mood returned. She opted to wear a dress she'd finished making last week and forgotten to remember to wear, and hoped that the steam she'd had to finish it would continue to fuel her in more designwork.]

[And so...!]

[And so...]

[Seven more torn out pages, three location changes, and an hour and a half later, she still had nothing, and had flopped over backward with a dismayed cry to lay sprawled across a bench in her favorite park, overlooking the Eiffel Tower.]

I'm never going to finish anythiiinnggggg.

[ adrien agreste is too rich to have days off.

... on a more serious note, he's sometimes lucky enough to have time after a particularly productive photoshoot. sure, it's one of those scenarios where his father would probably rather he just call The Gorilla, get on to the next part of his schedule immediately... And sure, usually he would (slightly unwillingly) listen to the Gabriel Agreste voice in the back of his head telling him to do so, but today he finds he'd much rather take the small gap for himself.

there's no chat noir shenanigans to be had, to plagg's obvious relief. instead, he's spending time just walking around the park nearby, until he spots two rather familiar things.

one: polka dots, always. it was difficult not to pause on them, especially when placed in conjunction with that familiar hairstyle, and it's not until he gets hit with familiar thing number two (marinette's voice) that he realizes he hadn't somehow accidentally stumbled into a ladybug miracle.

... though it's still a fortunate thing. and curious too, as marinette usually was. he's careful not to be too sneaky as she seemed pretty jumpy around him, but probably fails. have fun with the sudden familiar voice that's letting out a friendly (and inquisitive): ]

Finish what?

[ as he settles beside the bench she's sprawled on. good start? Good start. ]

[She was running through a number of doomsday-like scenarios in her head-- If she couldn't finish this one design idea, she'd never have a portfolio! She'd never be able to present herself to an existing designer to achieve her dream of becoming one herself, and what did it matter anyway? Even if she did she'd probably stumble and throw her sketchbook at someone, smack them in the face, horribly offend everyone, and be blacklisted as the annoying little polka-dotted girl who tried just a little too hard and got just a little too far (but in the end, it didn't even matter).]

[She had oozed a little farther sideways on the bench when Adrien walked into her line of sight-- she paid him no mind, right at first, because blue jeans were common and she hadn't seen his face.]

[It was his voice that made her shriek like someone had dropped ice down her jacket, and flail her way most spectacularly so that she rolled right off the bench, skittering her way to the other side of it to grasp the armrest.]

A-A-A-- [She looked left, then right.]

Adrien!!?

[Luckily for Paris' beautiful little poster boy, she kept her voice to a harsh whisper when she spat his name in stuttering alarm.]

[ ... right, this happens. there's just a hint of surprise when she lets out her part of the marinette-meets-adrien-routine even though he's very much used to this, because that was a particularly strong reaction. then again, he did just kind of come out of nowhere and ask her a question out of the blue about something she seemed frustrated about, so that might've been on him.... ]

That's... me. [ is what he says after a blink, still slightly confused, before he moves on to a lighter: ] Sorry, Marinette, I didn't mean to surprise you. I was just walking by and recognized you, so I thought I'd say hello.

[ a pause. maybe a compliment would help relax her? and it had been on his mind since he saw her, so he adds in an honest: ]

Uh... I like your dress?

[WALKING BY AND RECOGNIZED HER. He literally stopped walking, in whatever he happened to be doing, to talk to her! She might die. She makes her way carefully back onto the bench and collects herself, smoothing her skirt idly.]

Ah-- it's! Okay, you just. I didn't see to expect you here. [A beat.] Expect to see you here--

[He likes her dress. Scratch that, she is actually going to die. She forgets how to talk for a long moment, staring wide-eyed at him before she looks down at her lap and gathers the fabric self-consciously.]

U-um. Thank-- thank you.

[ a small chuckle at her mixup, but not at her expense. she really didn't show a lick of this personality when he spoke with her as chat noir, and he still had no idea what he's doing as adrien that warrants this (wouldn't the superhero thing be more intimidating than the model thing?), but he tries not too think too hard about it.

he considers something for a moment, and then slips to sit on the space on the bench beside her.

probably too bold. ]

I remember you made that nice hat for my father's competition... Did you end up making this yourself, too? [ he didn't recall seeing a dress like that, anyway. then, with the Innocent Wink that's more like Chat Lite: ] Polka-dots suit you.

[ that'll be "phrases which are unintentionally right on the mark but adrien has No Fucking Clue" for 500, alex. ]

[Being adorable and sweet and the absolute throb of her teenage heart is what you're doing, handsome boy. Never mind that there's something about Chat's well-meaning flirtatious attitude that is so much easier to brush off than Adrien's honesty.]

[And, you know, the whole concept of Tikki granting her a preposterous amount of confidence she largely lacks otherwise.]

[She jolts when he takes a seat, but makes a point of keeping herself where she is, even if she did look about ready to leap out of her skin and possibly off the planet.]

A-ahh, y-yes! Yeah. I just finished it last week...

[If she weren't so flustered, maybe she'd recognize the diet version of the Chat Noir wink she was just given, but for the moment she's just trying to swallow her heart back into her chest where it belongs. She tries in vain to tuck her hair behind her ear and it slips back around.]

D-do you think so?

[ if she spontaneously combusts here it is not his fault. he's trying. ]

Definitely. It sounds kind of silly, but I don't know much about actually designing. I can tell if something looks good, at least.

[ somewhat sheepishly. all he does is put the clothes on, the other stuff is his dad's area of expertise. it isn't like he was going to get any tips on the designing aspect of things from him, even if he wanted it.

it's here that he notices her sketchbook, clicks that right with "finishing", and puts the pieces together. well, that makes sense, doesn't it? ]

I'm guessing you were working on some other stuff.

[Her sketchbook, which is probably sitting between them flipped open to a half-finished something. To Adrien, it probably looks pretty good! But Marinette could probably rattle off countless flaws in the design, even if she weren't wound tighter than a clock from trying to carry on a conversation with Adrien as normally as she could.]

No? I-I, um. Could show you, if you wanted. [She had no real idea if he was actually interested in design, or even if he wanted to be a model. She had no real idea of anything about Adrien, except that he was cute and sweet and she wanted to do preposterous teenage girl things with him like hold his hand.]

[And, you know, that she was making her blood pressure skyrocket by sitting two feet from her on a bench in front of the Eiffel Tower. But that was beside the point.]

an opawn post, if mew please--

HERE take it before i chicken out of posting it again.

clutches it to my chest

yodels into the sunset

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