Aidren didn't question the thought that he liked Marinette close. Despite her being a bumbling mess most of the time, he found it cute in its own way. Somehow or another it put a smile on his face.
He never realized that he stayed closer to her than normal. Touched her more often than anyone else he was close with (on his own violation-not Clohé plastering herself to him whenever she got the chance).
None of those things he noticed until Nino said something.
They were walking down the halls of school, early in the morning before classes started. Five minutes left they had to be in the classroom and prepared, but they weren't in any rush as they talked about nothing in particular.
"The class president has to make a speech today," Adrien said.
His eyes were far away. His mind not all there as he stared at the repetitive patterns on the floor.
Nino elbowed him. "Speaking of Marinette, you're pretty good friends, right?"
The question took him off guard. He'd never really thought about it before. They were friends, sure, but close friends? That he wasn't so sure about. Half the time she looked like she was terrified or about ready to piss her pants around him when it was just the two of them together.
"I don't know," Adrien said, finally looking at Nino. "She's a nice girl, but besides the fact that her parents own a bakery, she's a pretty good class president, and she likes fashion, I don't know anything about her."
"It doesn't look that away to me."
Now Adrien wanted to laugh at that.
"Come on, man." Adrien shook his head. "What are you getting at?"
"I thought you might have liked her a little bit, but I guess I was wrong. Sorry, dude."
Adrien stopped. People were looking at him now, more than the usual stares that he was used to getting from the people around him. Since he was young, he'd always gotten more attention from people he barely knew then he knew what to do with. It only increased when he'd became a model. He looked Nino deep in the eyes.
"What do you mean? I only ever thought of Marinette as a friend, why would you say you thought I liked her?"
It came out a little more defensive then he would have liked. He wasn't trying to be hostile, he was just genuinely curious. Ladybug was the one he liked after all. How much more obvious could he have been about it? Though, as much as tried, he'd failed in hiding the part of him that was a little ticked off that he'd be accused of liking someone besides his pride and joy, his one and only Lady.
But Marinette? Sweet, cute, little Marinette… He never began to imagine anyone would misinterpret their friendship, especially his best friend of all people!
Nino shrugged. He held up a hand to Adrien, a reflexive action he didn't pay attention to.
"You just touch her a lot." Nino shrugged. "You obviously never noticed, but you seriously toucher her a lot. And you give her these really sweet smiles that don't look forced or faked like usual. It looked like you were really comfortable with her, so I just assumed you liked her."
If Adrien was being honest, he didn't know what to think. Of course he was comfortable around her-she was his friend, it would have been weird if he wasn't comfortable around her. He wanted so much to remain oblivious and write it off as just that, but he knew inside of him that Nino meant a whole different kind of comfortable. It was a part of him that couldn't deny that subconsciously he really did feel a lot more comfortable around Marinette than normal people.
And for the life of him, when he thought about it, he could not think of a good reason why. He didn't know her personally. She could barely make complete sentences around him. Though, her leaderships skills had always had his respect. Her thought for others had always warmed his heart. The devotion and talent she showed to her passion made him smile as a sense of pride swelled in his heart.
All for a girl that, at the end of the day, he hardly knew.
His love was dedicated to Ladybug, but his heart was already full of Marinette. It wasn't the first time in his life that Adrien didn't know what to do, but it was the first time in his life that his heart started aching when he saw Marinette's smile.