Marinette didn't know if this was a stroke of amazing luck or a terrible twist of fate. Her heart had nearly stopped when her teacher spoke, and she didn't have to look to guess that Alya was staring at her with wide eyes. "And the final pair is Marinette and Adrien." the teacher spoke as she turned to place papers on her desk. Adrien looked back at the shocked girl behind him and they're gazes locked before Marinette quickly averted her eyes, a bright dark cherry red blush spreading over her cheeks and the tops of her ears.
When the teacher called for everyone to get with their respective partners for their physics project everyone quickly got busy working on the paper of questions that each group had to answer before they could actually start on their project.
Adrien turned around in his seat to look at Marinette. "Hey Marinette, you ready to get started on the questions?" Marinette just stared at the boy in front of her. His soft blonde hair that flipped up ever so slightly, his deep green eyes that almost seemed to gaze right through her. It wasn't until she felt Tikki nudge against her leg in her purse that she remembered Adrien had asked her a question. He stared at the girl, expectantly waiting for an answer.
"Uh..." Marinette started. "H-hello A-Adrien! Uh, yeah, b-but I'm n-n-not very physics at g-good...I mean I'm not v-very good at p-physics." Marinette mentally scolded herself for stuttering so much. She could feel Alya's sympathetic look boring into her side without even glancing at her best friend.
"I'm sure you'll do just fine, now let's get started." Adrien said kindly, studying the three questions typed on the paper. He rattled one of them off in a way that sounded like he already knew the answer. "Number one, the absorption of ink by blotting paper involves what?" Adrien looked up toward Marinette to see if she knew the answer.
"Uh..." Marinette tried to think of what the answer might be. "V-viscosity of ink?" Marinette asked, seemingly shrinking down into her chair as she hesitantly said her answer.
"Um, no. You were close though. It's capillary action phenomenon." Adrien said smiling kindly up at the blushing girl. Marinette sank even lower in her seat, and she was fairly certain Adrien was only being so nice to make her feel better.
Adrien looked up at the girl behind him. He couldn't help but notice how nervous she seemed. He knew this wasn't how she acted all the time. She jerked and laughed with Alya, and she was snarky and opinionated when she was talking to Chloe, in fact he kind of admired her for standing up to the bratty rich girl who thought she deserved everything she wanted because daddy was the mayor. And he knew for a fact that Marinette didn't act that way around Chat Noir, in fact she acted startlingly like Ladybug around Chat. Adrien sighed. Maybe Marinette would be more comfortable if Chat Noir was her partner. Adrien paused and looked up quickly as an idea formed in his mind. A smirk curled the corners of his mouth, excited for the night to come.
Some how Adrien had gone the entire class without making Marinette faint, though there were a few scares. Quickly Adrien began making his way to a secluded area to transform when he stopped suddenly, something else catching his attention.
"Change partners." a voice said from Adriens previous classroom. He slowly walked over to the door and cracked it open, peaking inside. He would be lying if he said he was surprised by what he saw. Inside, standing in the center of the classroom was Chloe, her hands were at her hips and she was tilted forward slightly, obviously trying to be intimidating. And the poor girl on the other side of the drama queens wrath was...Marinette? Adrien stared at the two girls. He noticed how Marinette's posture changed, she stood up straighter, and her cheeks began to turn a dark shade of crimson. However it wasn't like how Marinette was blushing earlier during class, this wasn't embarrassment or fluster. Marinette looked angry. Adrien couldn't think of a single time he had ever seen Marinette angry.
"Are you just not going to answer me?" Chloe asked once more, leaning forward slightly more. "Request a different partner. I don't need some low class common girl anywhere near MY Adrien." Chloe made sure to exaggerate the my in her statement.
Adrien could feel the anger bubbling up inside him, but if he went in there and yelled at Chloe to leave Marinette alone that would only cause more problems for him and for Marinette. So very calmly, Adrien opened the door and cleared his throat to let the girls know he was there, leaning against the door frame, his arms crossed in front of his chest. Chloe jerked around, honestly Adrien was surprised she didn't topple over in the process.
"Adrien," Chloe started, her eyes wide at the sudden sight of the boy who's attention she always tries to attract. "I was just-"
"Being rude?" Adrien finished walking over to the two girls, shoving his hands in his pockets. He stood in front of Chloe for a moment, looking her in the eyes before sauntering over to Marinette and slinging his left arm over her shoulder. A deep red color of strawberries burst across Marinette's face, seemingly darker than when she had been mad at Chloe. Luckily Adrien was focused on Chloe so he didn't see it.
What was he doing? All of this he was doing seemed all too much like something Chat Noir would do.
"Chloe," Adrien said, pulling Marinette closer, and frankly she was fearful she might faint. "Marinette is my partner, and I don't expect that to be changed any time soon, so please stop bullying her.
Marinette stared up at Adrien awe struck at the fact that the boy who barely even noticed her, her crush, was defending her. Granted everyone hated Chloe, but still. Marinette was suddenly brought back to reality when Chloe turned on her heal and stormed out of the room, slamming the door loudly behind her.
"Sorry about that." Adrien said suddenly. "But you know Chloe."
Marinette just stared at Adrien for a moment before answering. "N-n-no, I'm pretty used t-to her a-actually."
"Well I guess I'll be going now, unless of course you would like me to help you with the Physics work." Adrien said genuinely, giving Marinette a warm smile.
"I-I would, um, b-but I have to go soon, m-my parents a-are expecting me back at the shop and..." Marinette had no idea where she was going with this, it really just sounded like she was rambling. Well she kind of was, but spending that much time alone with Adrien? Marinette had a feeling that if she blushed anymore today it might get permanently stuck to her face. "I-I'll work on it tonight though, a-and you can check my work t-tomorrow." Marinette tried to manage a grin, rubbing the back of her neck with her hand, the smile on her face was beginning to make her cheeks cramp. She didn't think she could take much more of this.
"Okay," Adrien said with a smile. "I will see you later." and with that Adrien turned and walked out the door, his bag slung over his shoulder. Marinette gave a sigh of relief when she figured Adrien was out of ear shot. She was fighting the urge to just slink down to the floor and sit there the rest of the night.
Marinette dropped her head onto her desk, gowning as she dropped the pencil, considering just giving up on the physics problems on the paper and go work on that new design she had created. But if she did that Adrien might be disappointed in her and she didn't think she would be able to take that. Tikki came and floated around her head, looking down at the physics problems on her paper.
"Marinette? Didn't Adrien say he would help you?" The Kwami asked looking down at her charge, who currently had her eyes closed and her hair was beginning to fall from her neat pigtails they had been in during the day.
"Yes, but I don't want Adrien to have to do all of the work. Even if i suck at physics I have to at least try." Marinette said staring down at the paper once again. "BUT NONE OF THIS FREAKING MAKE SENSE!
"don't worry Marinette, you'll get through this. I believe in you." Marinette looked over at her cute pink Kwami hovering over her head with a bright smile on it's face.
"Thanks Tikki," Marinette said with a sigh. "I wonder if Ladybug would be better at Physics."
"Marinette, you know as well as it do that you are just as amazing as Ladybug because you are Ladybug, and Ladybug is you. You're amazing Marinette." Tikki smiled brightly, Marinette smiled back warmly as a determined look crossed over her face and she picked up her pencil and began her work on her physics work again.
Marinette was in the middle of reading one of the questions when a sharp tapping sounded from her window, giving her so much of a start she nearly collapsed out of her chair and onto the hard floor. Tikki darted away and disappeared under one of Marinette's many pillows on her bed. The tap came again against the window and Marinette turned around to see a familiar black cat crouched outside her window, his green eyes seemed almost luminescent glowing against the blackness of the night, his pale blonde hair shimmering in the moonlight, nearly giving him a halo like glow around his head, interrupted by the two large black triangles that were cat ears on top of his head. One of his hands rested against the window, claws tapping the glass.
Marinette was started by the pale blush that dusted her cheeks. Brushing it off Marinette stood from her seat and walked to her window, opening it to be greeted by the smiling blonde.
"Hello princess." Chat said climbing through the window and past Marinette, sauntering toward the middle of the room.
"I'm busy right now Chat I don't have time to entertain you." Marinette said walking back over to her desk and sitting down to focus on he physics work.
"You're presence is entertainment enough my princess." Chat smiled at the light blush that appeared on Marinette's face. "What are you working on?" Chat asked placing a hand on one side of Marinette's desk, leaning his weight on it. He was close enough to Marinette not to make her uncomfortable, but close enough that she could feel the heat radiating off of him. She caught the scent of his cologne. She didn't know quite what it was, but she could swear she had smelled it before.
"I'm doing a project for physics." Marinette said trying to make sense of the question in front of her, getting annoyed when she couldn't.
"Aren't projects usually done in groups?" Chat asked hoping he wasn't giving too much away.
"Yeah, I'm doing it with a classmate, Adrien Agreste, but I don't want him to have to do all of the work, so I have to try to get this done." Marinette said, dropping her pencil back on the desk with a light thud, and leaning her head back against the chair.
Chat felt a smirk curve the corner of his mouth. "Well Princes," He started, picking up Marinettes pencil and twirling it around in his clawed hands. "I'll have you know that this cat is quite good at physics and would be more than happy to help a beautiful lady such as yourself." Marinette rolled her eyes at the leather clad boy's flirtatious offer.
Marinette looked up toward the blonde, who was currently hovering over her expectantly. She sighed. "You? Good at physics?" Marinette stifled a laugh that arose when thinking about getting homework help from her partner who could barely think of a plan before charging into any kind of battle.
"It's my favorite subject actually." Chat said quickly as he snatched the physics paper from Marinette's desk before she could grab it back. He pranced toward the middle of the room studying the page in his hands.
"Hey give that back you dumb cat!" Marinette said about to get up out of her chair to chase the cat.
"What causes radiocarbon to be produced in the atmosphere?" Chat said as Marinette jumped to try and snatch the page form his clawed hands. "Well that's easy, it's obviously the collision between fast neutrons and nitrogen nuclei." Finally Marinette jumped high enough to grab Chat Noir's wrist and yank it down, pulling the paper from his fingers. "So what do you say Princess, let me help you?" Chat asked with a wide grin. Marinette opened her mouth to speak when she realized she was still holding Chat's wrist, a slight blush crept across her face and she quickly dropped it.
She looked at him, she didn't want to let Chat help, she wanted to do it herself, even if she got it wrong. She was about to say no when Adrien came to mind. But if she tried to do this herself and got it wrong that would just be more work for him, and she didn't want that. Marinette sighed. "Fine." She said. The grin on Chat's face widened as he plucked the paper back form Marinette's hand.
"Good, now lets get started, princess," Chat said looking at the paper. "What are nuclear sizes expressed in?"