"Did you 'Cat'-ch That?" Tuesdays: Mr. Pigeon!
(( Lol, I dunno if this is going to go over well, but I was giggling to myself thinking about it in my head while watching the episode. Hopefully it transfers well into writing. Anyway, thanks for reading! ))
((And, ok, I know this is technically Wednesday, but just barely! It's 12:34 AM here, and I had this written out on Tuesday...just editing...it's time-consuming...and yeah. Heh. o.o;; ))
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Adrien sat in class, smiling. He had been waiting for this moment all day (all week, really) and felt his excitement rise as Principal Damocles walked in. Mlle. Bustier had set up the projection already; they had only waited for the principal before making the big announcement. While normally Adrien hated being the poster child to a famous fashion designer in Paris, he had to admit: sometimes there were some serious perks to having the ability to pull some weight around socially. Like making a design contest for his class.
Adrien tried not to let his eyes gloss over while listening to the teacher explain the rules of this competition, already getting lost in thought in his own secret ulterior motives for this contest.
Wow! Marinette is going to rock this competition! I can't believe Father actually agreed to do this. I can't wait to introduce Marinette to him! She is just so amazing.
If it had been possibly, Adrien was sure little hearts would be bubbling out from his eyes.
After class, Adrien did try really hard to pay attention to Nino, but…did she just say "Agreste"? Well, that's not really a big surprise, right? She's obviously excited about the contest. He glanced over at the girls again, abandoning any intention to be involve in Nino's conversation. Alya and Marinette were looking at Marinette's sketch pad. Oh man! He had wanted to see that for so long…!
Wait, did she just say…"Adrien?"
Without so much as a goodbye (he wasn't even sure if Nino was even still trying futilely to talk to him), Adrien made his way over to Alya and her best friend. With as casual an air as he could, he leaned a hand on the wall and looked down over Alya, catching some glimpses of Marinette's sketch pad. He wanted to compliment Marinette, but couldn't bring himself to say anything to her directly. She spooked easily, and he definitely – definitely – did not want her running off yet.
"Wow, Alya!" Adrien said warmly. Marinette flew off the bench when she saw him. He tried to ignore the twinge of guilt that he always felt when he accidentally scared her. He decided to do what he normally did when this happened and press on with what he was saying, keeping his eyes averted from the cowering form of his blue-haired classmate. "Those are some awesome designs! I didn't know you had such mad skills."
Adrien mentally patted himself on the back. If he could have, he would have shot himself some double finger guns, but he thought that that could wait.
"Thanks, Adrien," started Alya before chancing a glance at her best friend. "But I can't take the credit. These sick designs belong to Marinette." Adrien, having found an excuse, immediately flicked his eyes onto Marinette. Oh, these are Marinette's designs I had no idea, heh heh. "Off the chain, right?"
I seriously have no idea what that means, Adrien thought briefly, his smile never wavering. Instead, like he did every other time he didn't understand something that a normal teenager probably should, he bypassed the comment. Now compliment, and strike that pose!
"You're super talented, Marinette!" Adrien said, arms outstretched. Then he put one hand on his hip and used the other one to point in her direction. And freeze! "You seriously have a good chance of winning."
Like, seriously, I have no idea but I really just want to wear your hat I think that'd be pretty awesome.
Marinette was dribbling on about…something. She is so cute when she does this. I just love it when she talks – er – stammers. A smile was stuck on his face as he watched her go on.
"….designs that go, um…upwards?"
"Huh?" Adrien panicked for a moment, thinking that he had missed something and cursed his eyes for getting distracted. Replaying the dialogue she had been sputtering a moment in his head, he tried to make sure that she wasn't actually looking for an answer. Ah, no, now he could see Alya out of the corner of his eyes shaking her head. Phew. So Marinette was just trying to get words out that made sense. His heart skittered again as it often did when he inadvertently caused her to stutter or blush. Marinette finally eked out a questioning "thanks?" and Adrien put a hand on the back of his head nervously. He was getting way too distracted. He didn't want to risk them actually saying something and waiting for a legit response!
"Sure! And, uh, good luck!" Model pose again, just for effect. "And maybe I'll be wearing your derby at Father's next photo shoot." Small wave, light chuckle and split the premises, Agreste.
Now that he had successfully talked to Marinette, and had hidden out of sight, he finally felt the need to shoot those finger guns mentally at himself. So smooth. Much suave.
Plagg floated out of his over shirt as he was busy self-congratulating and came to rest by his head.
"Why are you hiding under the stairs?" the cat Kwami probed, a knowing tone belying the innocence of the question. Adrien didn't look over at him. He was still watching Marinette, who had just smacked right into the brick wall. She bounced off effortlessly and started on her way again.
Wow, she is so strong!
"I couldn't feel my legs and…I panicked," Adrien finally responded to a heartily laughing Plagg.
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"Kid, why the heck are you just standing there!? You followed her all the way here. Stop staring and go talk to her!"
Adrien turned his head back from looking around the wall he was standing behind to give Plagg an annoyed look. When he answered, his tone implied, he hoped, his obvious disdain for Plagg's lack of understanding of the humans he was supposedly partially responsible to take care of.
"And disrupt her designer thought processes!? No way! She would probably make some huge mistake the moment I spoke to her, and she would lose her train of thought, or break her sketch pad, or her pencil, and then she wouldn't have a design for the competition and not only would my dad not get to meet her or get a good impression of her and her mad designing skills but I'll never get to wear her hat at the next photo shoot!"
Plagg blinked back at his slowly-disintegrating-into-a-panic-attack charge. His look was bordering between sympathy and apathy. Finally, he sighed impatiently, shaking his head.
"Well, if you're just going to stand here and ogle her forever, did you at least bring me some cheese!?"
Adrien narrowed his eyes before gesturing to his bag and turning back around the corner to stare at – no, watch – Marinette. A deep sigh escaped him. She was pulling out paper after paper and rolling them into balls before discarding them in a pile next to her. The curiosity to know what she had drawn that didn't make the cut gnawed at him. Then, when he noticed her head pop up to look at something, Adrien matched her gaze. A strange man had walked into the park. Adrien watched what transpired with a feeling of pity and extreme pity.
Poor Mr. Pigeon-dude.
When the pigeon guy was gone, and the park keeper had walked away, Marinette suddenly got excited. She held up her sketch pad but was too far away for Adrien to see what was drawn there. Suddenly, she rose, then darted away, leaving behind…her pile of discarded ideas.
Adrien tried not to be a fanboy. And tried not to rush over there to steal – pick up – her rejected treasures. Honest. He was just going to help out by discarding these scraps of – OH MY BANANAS IS THAT A CAKE DERBY!?
He was sitting on the stairs, pulling out the sketches one by one, each one better than the next.
Oh my gosh her little doodles on the sides are so cute I can't even right now.
Adrien, warmed form head to toe, looked around quickly – suspiciously – before scooping up all of the designs and shoving them into his bag. He stood then, dusting himself off, and, whistling for good measure, began a model-walk out of the park.
These are so going in the Marinette box, he thought to himself, smiling. He sneezed suddenly then, a wrenching feeling that strained all his muscles in his front and back.
"Ugh!"
A reaction like that? But that only happened when he was around….
A disturbingly huge ball of pigeons swooped down just then, scooping up a completely unsuspecting (really, who would suspect something like that?) park keeper and flying away with him. It was the weirdest thing Adrien had ever seen. In fact, it must have taken quite a few people by surprise; everyone had stopped and they were all collectively starting as the ball of feathered fiends flew further (okay enough alliteration) into the skyline. Shaking his head somewhat disbelievingly, a mixture of incredulity and impatience (didn't Hawk Moth know that Adrien was busy today!?), Adrien knew that strange things usually only mean one thing: another Akuma victim. He didn't like where this was going, with the birds and the feathers and all the sneezing that would, undoubtedly, ensue, but he put on his big-boy pants (well, his Chat Noir suit) and went after the freakishly weird bird-balls flying around.
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["Act natural or he'll never show up!" Ladybug whisper-yelled at Chat. Chat scoffed inwardly.
"What do you mean?" he asked accusingly. "I am acting natural!"
Alright and…channel the inner Michael!
In his mind, something in a mix of Thriller and Smooth Criminal rang in his ears and he was beyond trying to impress Ladybug – now he was just trying to pass time (and having an inordinate amount of fun bugging her).]
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But...where's Marinette?
Adrien tried to keep his smile plastered to his face. The day had been long. He thought he would have to steal an epi-pen just to get his sneezing under control after fighting off Mr. Pigeon. And then he had barely made it to the school to meet up with Nino before the contest commenced. And now, on top of everything, Marinette hadn't even showen up yet.
After tensing for a panicking moment, Adrien forced himself to relax. Marinette was probably just late again. As if on cue to his wandering thoughts, a blur of pink ran past and Adrien couldn't help but give a start as he realized it was Marinette rushing past him. He tried to pay attention as he watched Rose and Juleka present their steampunk-inspired derby…but his mind was only imagining the creation Marinette had made and formulating a plan that, even if she didn't win (which she was going to so why even bother with this train of thought), he would still find a way to wear her derby, maybe even convince Alya to take a picture of him wearing it…maybe even a picture of him wearing it while standing next to Marinette…or Marinette wearing a derby….
Adrien didn't even bother shaking off this thought as they came up to "Chloe's" creation. If Sabrina hadn't actually fabricated the project, and it looked like this was probably beyond her skill, then "Daddy" must have funded the project. Adrien knew too well that Chloe only had an interest in design as much as winning this contest and bragging about it later. So Adrien stared aimlessly, imagining Marinette now not only with a derby, and taking a picture with him, but maybe he could just get a picture of her, derby or no –
Oh.
Adrien blinked stupidly at Marinette's derby as they approached her stand. But…wasn't Chloe's…?
His Father seemed to be working on the same wavelength as himself (a first, really).
"Is this a joke?" his Father asked. There was an edge to his voice, as always, but Adrien recognized the impatience through the tone. Adrien was immediately nervous. Not Marinette, he pleaded to no one.
While Adrien pushed the urge to wring his hands together, he watched as Marinette, a determined, fiery look in her eyes (that made him feel warm for some reason) calmly defended what they all realized was really only her creation.
Oh my gosh, she signed it! That is too cute!
"You definitely have the laboring hands of a hat-maker, Miss…?"
Marinette had frozen. Adrien swooped in to save her (yes!)
"Marinette," he said proudly. He looked briefly to her and then to his father.
Oh gosh, I just finally introduced her to Father. And he complimented her. Adrien screamed internally, buzzing all over, thinking back to what his father said about "laboring hands". He looked down at her hands. They still gripped the derby. They were small and cute and Adrien wanted so bad to just hold one and – oh, oops. Without really meaning to, Adrien put his hands over hers. Butterflies and excitement won over any fear that she would pull away, or embarrassment that anyone else was watching. He was touching her hands! And she was…was…was she blushing?
HHHNNNN SHE IS SO CUTE.
SAY SOMETHING, AGRESTE! EVERYONE IS STARING AT YOU.
"Great job, Marinette," he managed to get out.
Alright, he mentally pep-talked himself. You got this. Do that model thing and put that derby on like the flipperty flippin' hot cake that you are and stun her into silence, so smooth, and –
"AH-CHOO!"
Ugh, suddenly I feel awful…uuuuggghhh why does having a crush have to be so stressful and it hurts so bad man my nose can't take much more of these feathers and I want to put this hat on but – he sniffed, wiping his nose noisily, posture slack – I am a watering pot of snot and I can't breathe and…oh…she's…staring. At me.
"Sorry!" Adrien pushed out quickly. "I'm allergic to feathers."
Adrien barely saw the smile on her face, or heard the "Gesundheit!" she offered, before he turned with a wave and started walking home, suddenly lost in sniffles and sneezes.
It had been an exhausting day…and he needed some allergy medicine ASAP.
He was going to ROCK that hat. Mari was going to LOVE him in that hat.
….After some TLC with meds and a box of tissues.
"AH-CHOO!"
Fin!
(( Thanks for reading! (: ))