"Peach Pink like his lips and Mint like his eyes. Here you go, Marinette!"
"Thank you, Andre."
Marinette looked at her ice cream with a semi-heavy heart. Adrien hadn't shown up. Again. It wasn't his fault though; his father kept a very tight leash on him. She was trying to not let that get in the way of enjoying a good time with her friends, but it wasn't entirely that easy. She watched Alya and Nino share an orange-cream and pistachio double scoop, while Mylene and Ivan enjoyed a simple three tier cookies and cream. Both couples looked so happy together enjoying their ice creams. Andre always seemed to know the right flavors that his customers needed.
Marinette looked back to her own ice cream that was beginning to melt. Peach pink like his lips, and mint like his eyes. Andre said if she ate it, her love would materialize. But it was just ice cream; it wasn't really magic. Still, she took a bite.
Mmm. This is pretty good.
The contrast between the sweet peach and icy mint left a tingle on Marinette's tongue and made her giggle. It was really good ice cream. She looked around her again at her friends, at the beautiful evening they were having, and felt her spirits begin to lift. She closed her eyes and let the flavors carry all of her worries away.
"Who has green eyes?"
Marinette's eyes shot open in panic and she looked up at Ivan who asked the question. He was mostly thinking out loud, but he looked down to Mylene to see if she could think of anyone who fit the description.
Mylene and Marinette exchanged glances. They both knew who had green eyes, but her crush was supposed to remain a secret. There was no way that anyone other than Marinette's close girl friends could know that she was in love with Adrien.
"Who do we know that has green eyes?" Ivan asked again.
"Nobody!" Marinette exclaimed, hoping her secret wouldn't be uncovered. She looked to Alya for help, but she looked just as panicked as Mylene.
Just then a whistle rang out, and everyone turned their heads. Thankful for the distraction, Marinette looked too, and saw a familiar outfit walking towards them.
"Hey guys, looks like I could make it after all." Adrien called out to them, waving from a short distance away.
For a moment she was astonished. The ice cream really IS magic.
She watched him approach them with a smile on his face and nearly forgot that she was seconds away from being outed.
"Hey, Adrien has green eyes." She heard Ivan say behind her.
Oh no! Panicking she turned around and started sputtering. It was bad enough when Ivan only had one clue, but now he had the answer literally waving him in the face. She needed to diffuse this situation, and fast!
"What? No, no way. He has green eyes? That has to be a coincidence. It's not—I'm not—there's no way I'm in love with Adrien. It's not like he's the only one with green eyes."
"Yeah," Alya chimed in, "There are plenty of other guys with green eyes."
"Like Chat Noir." Mylene offered.
"Right. Exactly." Said Marinette, internally thanking her girls for coming to her aid. "Like Chat Noir."
Whew, that was close.
"What about Chat Noir?" Marinette heard a voice ask from directly behind her.
She turned around slowly, the expression on her face as frozen as the ice cream in her hand, to find that Adrien had closed the distance between them.
"Ivan was trying to figure out who the dude is that Marinette is crushing on." Nino said, and he quickly received an elbow in the rib for it and a glare from Alya.
"Yeah, Andre said she's in love with someone who's got green eyes, and Chat Noir has green eyes." Said Ivan. He was too tall for Mylene to elbow him, but he also got a "shush" and a glare.
Adrien raised his eyebrows in surprise, clearly not expecting this to be the topic of conversation.
"You're…in love with Chat Noir?" He asked with a surprised look on his face.
With Adrien standing right in front of her, Marinette's brain was moving at painstakingly slow speeds.
This. Is. A. Disaster.
How was she going to explain this one away?
Marinette's mouth dropped open, before she could set the record straight, Andre noticed that Adrien had arrived.
"Adrien, my dear friend! Will you be joining sweet Marinette and friends for some ice cream?"
Adrien tore his attention away from Marinette and she tried to use this time to recover.
"Yes please."
"I've got just what you need!" Andre said as he began his masterpiece, "Strawberry with black chocolate chips, blackberries for her hair, blueberry ice cream just like her sky blue stare."
He handed the triple scoop to Adrien, who stared at his ice cream in astonishment.
"There's love in your eyes. Andre can see it clear as day! This love is true." Andre said as he packed up to move his cart to another location.
Everyone looked at Adrien's ice cream to get a hint as to who he was in love with. There was no mistaking it. It reminded them all, very clearly, of a certain someone.
"You're in love with…Ladybug?" Marinette asked him, not believing her eyes.
Adrien blushed and stuffed a spoon of his ice cream into his mouth.