"Remind me again why you're carrying my books?" Marinette questioned the blond beside her, eyes sparkling with amusement and a matching smile on her lips.
"Well I heard that a princess should never have any burdens," he said, offering a charming smile. He moved closer to her, occasionally knocking elbows and hips while walking down the busy streets of Paris.
"It's just a book, Adrien." She gazed up at him with a bored look and attempted to sound serious, but she didn't do a good job hiding the growing smile on her face or the blush rising in her cheeks from his sudden closeness.
"Yeah, and it has pages with sharp edges that could harm you," he said with an exaggerated worried expression and gazed down at the books between his arms with disdain. "Your precious and delicate fingers could get slit by those vile pieces of wood," he continued as he reached for her hand with his free one and raised it, brushing her fingers with his lips.
"Adrien, all the books are closed, they can't possibly hurt me," she sighed slightly, not even bothering to look at him this time. "And I'm not a damsel in distress that needs saving from something like a book," the blue haired girl muttered, snatching her hand away from his grasp.
"Aw princess, why are you so mean to me?" he asked pouting, placing a hand over his heart and leaning down to her height, bringing them eye to eye.
"Get away, you dork," Marinette said while she placed her hand gently on his cheek and pushed him away from her.
"Don't I at least get a reward for trying to be chivalrous?" he asked grinning down at her.
"You said it yourself, 'trying', so you didn't earn anything." She folded her arms over her chest and smirked at him.
"You hurt meow, my lady," Adrien said with an adorable pout on his face.
Marinette rolled her eyes. "And here I thought I'd be having a nice and calm morning but no…," she mocked, drawing out the word, "you have to go and start up with your puns."
"So it bugs you?" he asked, the words rolling off his tongue smoothly as he shot the girl a sideways glance. She stopped dead in her tracks, narrowing her eyes at him and putting her hands on her hips in a scolding manner, causing him to stop as well and fully face her, his expression still smug. His smile was so wide the corners of his lips came impossibly close to his eyes, the green orbs staring at her intently, waiting for her response in anticipation. He fully expected her to roll her eyes at him and feign annoyance (he knew she loved his puns) like she always did.
Instead, her lips broke into a smile and her eyes softened, raising her hand to his shoulder then sliding it into his perfectly combed hair. His eyes widened in surprise as her nails scratched his scalp lightly, delicate fingers tangling with the golden locks falling down on his face.
"I don't really mind your puns, kitty," she said truthfully, not conveying all of her emotions on the subject. She loved the particular way his face lit up when he came up with a new one, how he would stand taller and lift his chin, looking at her with pride. How he sought for her approval every single time, no matter what.
His eyes closed to enjoy the feeling of her fingers running through his hair before jeering laughter reached both their ears, breaking the intimacy and sweetness of the moment. Marinette pulled her fingers from his hair and returned her hand to her side, looking for the source of the offending noise that had interrupted them.
Adrien's eyes fluttered open, a frown crossing his features at the interruption and, more importantly, the loss of her hand in his hair. He followed Marinette's eyes and saw three girls walking past them, snickering and sending them strange glances, especially towards him. At his stare the girls covered their mouths and turned away in an attempt to hide their blushes, clearly recognizing the model.
Adrien looked to his other side to see an old man shooting him a nasty glance through the shop window for some reason he didn't understand. He blinked in confusion before looking down to find a frowning Marinette.
"Hey what's wrong?" he asked, leaning down to her eye level for the second time that day, hand going to her shoulder and squeezing to get her attention. She bit her lip, raising her head a little but still avoiding eye contact.
"I'm sorry, Adrien."
He leaned back slightly, surprised by her seemingly random apology. "What do you mean sorry? What are you sorry for?" he asked, titling his head to the side and frowning.
At her silence he started to run through all of the possibilities as to why she would feel the need to apologize. It took him a moment before he realized what she was talking about, comprehension dawning across his face. "I don't mind you calling me kitty, Marinette," he said lightly, trying to clear up the situation. A blush made it's way onto his cheeks and he coughed awkwardly, his voice dropping as he muttered, "I like it a lot, actually."
"But... doesn't it bother you how other people react to it?" Her eyes finally raised to meet his, apprehension and worry written all over her features.
Adrien smiled softly. "You can't let other peoples' opinion get to you princess, especially strangers who have nothing to do with us. Why should they care what we call each other?"
When she still looked upset, he looked around, trying to figure out how to make her feel better. "Look at that man over there," he said gesturing to the guy inside the nearby store they were standing just outside of. "He looked at me with this offended expression as if I had just insulted him, even though he wasn't a part of our conversation at all! In fact, I don't know how he could even hear us through this window." Adrien shook his head, heaving a sigh. "What I'm trying to say is, what we call each other is no one's business but our own. It doesn't matter what other people think. What does matter is you and me, okay?"
He was truly amazing. He could be silly and flirty but if the situation called for it his attitude would change to being serious and perfectly collected.
Marinette stared at him in awe, cheeks flushing a nice red. "Y-Yeah," she nodded her head, smiling up at him. The crimson tone made a nice contrast against her pale cheeks and left Adrien wishing for more opportunities to make her blush.
As much as he wanted the moment to last longer, they both had to get to school on time. Nino and Alya were waiting for them as always, and as soon as they came into view they quickly let go of each other's hand. It had been barely a month and a half since they found out each other's identities and they weren't ready to tell Nino and Alya about their newly found relationship. It would be weird if they 'suddenly realized their feelings for each other and got together', so they agreed on keeping it a secret for the time being.
Once in class Adrien had a hard time paying attention to what the teacher was saying. His mind was elsewhere, focused on a certain someone sitting right behind him. He ran his fingers through his hair and inhaled softly, fighting the urge to turn around and stare at his beautiful lady. A minute later he gave up struggling and gave in, turning his head slowly until his beautiful girlfriend's face came into view.
Marinette was sketching a few new designs and ideas for dresses in her notebook, concentration plastered onto her face. While carefully running her pencil over the skirt of the dress to darken the lines, she felt someones eyes on her. Placing the pencil down she looked up and leaning her chin on the back of her hand, shooting Adrien a knowing smile.
He locked eyes with her and started to smile back when the teacher announced that she had to run an errand and walked out of the classroom.
Everyone started talking at this point, now that there was no teacher it didn't matter what they did. The blond turned around completely about to make a flirty comment but stopped when he remembered that Alya and Nino were there as well and could hear everything he said.
The model coughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his neck before looking down at Marinette's new designs. His face lit up almost instantly as he pointed at one dress specifically. "I didn't know you were into cats," he said teasingly.
Marinette's confident gaze turned into panic as she sucked in a breath. Alya scooted closer to her taking a look at the sketch, now curious.
"Neither did I," her friend muttered before taking the notebook and examining the dress with the black cat design.
"I…" Marinette thought really hard about which words she should pick to try and explain the reason behind the dress, but quickly realized that no matter what she said Alya would know it was a lie.
Three pairs of eyes stared expectantly at her, waiting to hear her response. "Well?" Alya asked, adjusting her glasses.
"A stray cat has been coming into my house lately…" she began, coming up with the words as she went. "He has these gorgeous green eyes and this beautiful black fur that reminds me of the night sky." Every single word that came out of her lips seemed to ignite a spark in her eyes, and as she looked directly at Adrien she tried to hide the now very noticeable blush on her cheeks.
"He inspires me a lot, so yeah I'm into cats," Marinette said barely above a whisper, more to herself than for her companions but they managed to hear it regardless.
"Of course you are," Adrien said sounding overly-confident and startling everyone. He gave Marinette another smirk and winked at her, so sure of himself that Alya and Nino both eyed him carefully.
"And just what, exactly, does that mean?" the brunette girl questioned aloud, shifting her demanding gaze between her best friend and the blond boy, raising a perfect eyebrow when they both fell into a deep silence.
Marinette giggled nervously and looked down at the notebook her friend was still holding before redirecting her gaze to her friend and then back to the notebook again, letting out a "nothing" that sounded more like a question than a denial.
Nino peered closely at Marinette and Adrien's expressions. They seemed unwilling to give Alya any piece of information, that much was clear. This was clearly irritating the pretty tan girl, as she slammed her hands down on the desk and pointed an accusing finger at Marinette.
"Ok girl, spill. What aren't you telling me? What's between you and Adrien?" she demanded.
The petite girl went red at her friend's statement, furiously denying anything as she shook her hands. Nino burst out laughing, grabbing the sides of his stomach as he stared at the equally blushing boy besides him.
"C'mon Alya, ease up. You're gonna make her pee her pants or something," Nino said between laughs, nudging Adrien with his elbow to get him to relax.
"It's not funny," Marinette muttered while sinking down in her seat and folding her arms, wishing she could disappear. Never before had she wanted an akuma attack to happen so badly.
"Welp, looks like we've been caught," Adrien said, chuckling at the now impossibly red faced girl. Oh how he loved making her blush.
This caused Alya to break her stare at her friend. "Woah what? I thought it was like an inside joke of something-"
Alya was interrupted by Marinette who had stood up and was staring Adrien down, holding the edges of the table to keep herself from shaking more than she already was. "WHAT THE HELL KITTY? JUST WHAT ARE YOU THINKING – I THOUGHT WE WEREN'T GONNA TELL THEM-" She stopped speaking the moment she saw Alya's mouth drop and eyes widen, realizing her mistake.
Ahh shit.
Marinette plopped back down into her chair, gnawing on her lower lip as she internally beat herself up about how stupid she is.
A million thoughts and questions raced through a baffled Alya's mind:
1. How did this happen?
2. When did it happen?
3. Who made the first move?
4. And WHY THE HELL DID MARINETTE NOT TELL HER ABOUT IT
5. HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE THEY GOT TOGETHER
6. MARINETTE GIR T
Alya could only stare at the very flustered and agitated girl, her mouth slightly agape and eyes so wide they might pop out of her skull. Shifting her gaze between her best friend and the blond boy, who was sitting there staring at Marinette with a strange expression on his face that she just couldn't place, she wondered how long they had been together for them to have pet names oh my god.
Eventually collecting her thoughts and emotions, Alya inhaled deeply and closed her eyes before looking straight at Marinette and bombarding her with all the questions she had been holding in, grabbing and shaking her by the arms all the while fangirling and struggling to breathe between her words.
Nino, who had been quietly observing through most of this, turned to look at Adrien with the biggest knowing smile he could muster.
"So you and Marinette are a thing, huh?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows up and down. Before Adrien could answer though, Nino kept on talking, lightly punching him on the arm as he did so. "That's great man! I'm happy for you, but dude, why didn't you say anything?"
The taller boy opened his mouth to speak but was quickly interrupted.
"And why 'kitty' of all nicknames?"
Adrien closed his mouth again, waiting for another interruption but when it never came he assumed it was free to speak. He laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck, breathing out an "I dunno?"
Thankfully Nino laughed it off, slapping him on the shoulder playfully and saying something about Marinette being a 'kinky one' which he ignored (not without a blush of his own though).
Marinette seemed to be having a hard time with Alya leaning over her, the brunette feeling like she was being hit by a truck of emotions. Alya gripped Marinette's arms, crying and repeatedly hugging the girl, praising her for her bravery to finally speak to him about her feelings while also attacking her with a flood of questions that only Alya, aspiring journalist, could come up with.
When Adrien finally caught the bluenette's eye she sent him an apologetic look and mouthed "sorry". He reached up and tucked her hand in his, having to get past Alya's little scene to do so. He brushed her knuckles with his thumb and looked at her through his lashes.
"It's okay princess, don't worry about it," he said gently, then bent down and gently pressed her hand to his lips. Marinette stared at him with wide eyes, expression full of love and thanks.
A thump broke them off their little spell, both of their heads turning in the direction of Alya's fallen chair with a screeching Alya next to it, cradling her hands to her chest and rolling around on the floor.
Nino looked at Adrien with shock, mumbling to himself about how he didn't know Adrien could be THAT smooth.
Marinette covered her mouth snickering and Adrien leaned his elbow over her table smiling at her boyishly.
"Guess the cat is out of the bag huh princess?"
"Shut up you," she giggled, placing a hand to each cheek and pulling his face close to hers, before closing the gap between their lips with a content sigh.
They did their best to ignore the rest of the class freaking out around them.