AN: Hey everyone, I'm officially Ladynoir trash and I'm starting to give into my obsession and write a story. Given the fact that I'm new to this fandom and haven't written anything in a while this story might have some OOC with some of the characters and plenty of grammar mistakes as well. If you see anything wrong or have advice for me, don't hesitate to speak up. :D I hope you like it!
A soft click gently hit her desk, followed by a quiet, but passionate, murmur of: "These are for you."
Marinette didn't need to look up to see who it was. Nor what type of gift he had given her. The sweet, heavy fragrance was a big give away. They were probably red and black roses. Some Angelica maybe? It was probably something that ladybugs would adore.
'That's just the thing,' She thought while chewing her lip. Her body was leaning over her sketch book, pencil aimlessly drawing up old designs just to pass the time before class began. 'He only has eyes for Ladybug. Not plain, old Marinette. I'm just an ordinary girl. Nothing special except I'm the biggest klutz in school.'
Someone suddenly moved to sit next her. "Hey girl!" Alya greeted, dropping into her spot next to Marinette, "Nice vase of roses. Did Adrien finally get a clue?" Marinette offered her friend a weak smile, "Y-You can say that." She choked.
Adrien had been doodling in his own notebook. Drawing pictures of Ladybugs with crowns on their heads. His skills were nowhere near Nathaniel's level, but at least he could sort of draw.
"Marinette what's wrong?" His head snapped around to his crush, as did the rest of the class, to see his sweet Marinette curled up crying; her knees pushed against her chest as she sniffed and sobbed in her arms. Without thinking, Adrien stood and hurried to his partner's side.
"Marinette." He reached to touch her shoulder, "Princess?"
She slapped his hand away, face red as a tomato. "Don't call me that!" He shrunk back, "I'm sorry! What's wrong?"
Her face squeezed into a sour expression, lower lip throbbing. Her once beautiful blue bell eyes were now red and swollen with tears. "J-Just stop, Kitty…"
"Marinette…"
"May I be excused!" She called, throwing up her arm. The teacher finally came into the classroom and was understandably shocked to find one of her students this upset. Ms. Mendeleiev nodded and watch Marinette rush out of the room. She quickly returned her attention to her class. "Would anyone care to tell me why Ms. Dupain-Cheng is upset?"
Chloe was the first to answer, snorting obnoxiously, "Probably because she just realized how she really is."
That had done it.
Adrien shot up from his desk, nearly knocking Nino out. "Shut up, Chloe!" The class instantly went quiet. The Mayor's daughter gapped for a second, "What?"
"You heard me," He hissed. "Don't you dare talk to Marinette like that again."
"Adrienkins,"
"And stop calling me that. I've put up with your attitude for a while Chloe, but only because we were childhood friends."
She gasped, "Were?"
"Yes 'were'. I'm sick of you belittling everyone in this school. Especially Marinette."
"What do you see in her? She's nothing but a loser! A freak!"
"SHE'S TWICE THE GIRL YOU'LL EVER BE!"
Chloe jumped back.
"You don't see Marinette the way I do. She's amazing. She's beautiful. And she's the love of my life. I'm not about to let you be little her just because you're jealous."
"That's telling her, Adrien!" Alya yelled from her desk. Others began to speak up too.
"Way to go!"
"I'm glad I'm not the only one."
"Chloe sucks!"
Adrien ignored everyone's cheers in favor of looking at Ms. Mendeleiev. "May I be excused, please? I need to find Marinette."
Still in shock over this morning's events, his teacher could only nod.
…
"Marinette, you can't stay locked in her forever. You're going to have to confront Adrien sooner or later." Tikki said gently. They were currently hiding the locker room. There was no gym today due to the coach being ill and no last minute substitutes.
"I know, TIkki," Marinette sighed. "But I can't face him. Not now anyways…"
"Isn't this what you wanted: For him to love you? Why are you so afraid?" The kwami floated near her chosen's face, hoping to read her eyes. Marinette looked away and sighed, "He doesn't love me. He only loves Ladybug."
"But you are Ladybug."
"No I'm not, Tikki." The kwami tilted her large, red head, confused. "Oh, I don't expect you to understand." Marinette sighed. She cupped her hands, allowing her tiny friend to rest in her open palms. "The thing is he only loves the mask. Ladybug is only half of me. She's the person I wish I could be. She's confident, beautiful, amazing and perfect. That's what everyone sees. They could never compare The Miraculous Ladybug to simple, klutzy, dorky, stupid Marinette."
"You're not stupid."
"Thanks Tikki…."
"Marinette, I'm serious." She floated up to meet her chosen's eyes. "You're a lot of things, but stupid isn't' one of them. You are confident. You are beautiful. You are perfect in your own way. Those things you say to yourself are only minor flaws. Everyone has them. And as I said before, every Ladybug is different. You're not better and you're not worse than any of them. They've all had their own flaws which they've over come. You're major flaw, Marinette, is you feel you don't deserve any of this."
Marinette gasped, "How do you know that?"
"I've been around for centuries. I've met so many people. You'll be surprised at how many are just like you. All of them don't think they deserve the things they have. You feel that Ladybug is perfect and there for is more deserving than Marinette. But what you fail to realize is you are Ladybug and you do deserve all this and more."
She turned the heroine's chin with a tiny paw. "Adrien loves you. He's been trying to prove that since you guys finally learned each others' secret identity. If you still don't believe he loves you then ask him yourself. He's standing right there."
Marinette screamed, jumping to her feet.
Adrien stood in the middle a few feet away, giving an awkward wave. "…Hey."
"Hey…"
He pursed his lips together, staring down at his now interesting shoes.
"How long were you here?" Marinette was the first to speak.
"A while." He mumbled. She heard him.
"How longs 'a while'?"
It sounded like she was getting defensive.
He forced himself to look at her. Really look at her. She was so beautiful. Too beautiful. He looked away. "Just Tikki's speech." More mumbling.
Marinette pursed her lips as well. "So you heard all that?"
"Yes."
Silence.
Neither could look at the other. Blue and Green eyes darted around the room. Then mistakenly caught each other's gaze and were suddenly stuck.
"I'm s-" They stopped speaking. "You first," Adrien offered. Marinette nodded, "I'm sorry." She whispered, gazing at the floor. "I shouldn't have run off like that. It was uncool."
"You were upset," he argued gently. "I don't blame you."
"Adrien...c-can I ask you something."
He leaned closer to hear her better. "Anything."
"Promise to be honest with me."
"I swear. Cat's honor."
Their eyes met again. Hearts beating in the same unnatural pace.
"I-If you didn't know I was Ladybug, would you still have liked me?"
He wasn't surprised by her question. Having over hearing his lady's conversation with Tikki, he suspected she would ask this. "Yes. I've always like you."
"More than a friend?"
He bit his lip, "Probably not. I-I've always cared about you, Marinette. You're my friend, you still are. I-I know it sounds shallow that I'm saying this, but I wouldn't have taken you to be Ladybug."
Her blue eyes glazed over.
No. She wasn't going to cry. She was going to take what he said and accept it. Her suspicions confirmed. He only loved Ladybug.
"But," Suddenly he was in front of he, taking her hands in his. "No one would have suspected I was Chat Noir."
"So I guess we were both clueless to the obvious."
"Insanely obvious," He chuckled in agreement. Adrien lean closer to her, staring deep into her eyes which reflected sapphires. "Marinette, I love you. I love all of you. The moment I saw you, I know you were going to mean everything to me and more. I never cared about the mask, it doesn't define us. These costumes; these powers: They give us an outlet. Chat Noir is me and I'm Chat Noir. Ladybug is you and you are Ladybug. The mask is only a mask. However the way we use it is something totally different. We're still us no matter what we wear. And I knew that whoever was Ladybug, was the very person I would love until the end of time. You are M'Lady and Princess. You are Marinette and I hope, even if you don't believe me, you'll still give me the chance to prove how devoted I am to be with you."
It was like the air had been sucked out of her lungs. She couldn't breathe! He had just poured his very heart and soul out to her! Was this a dream? Was this some sort of illusion made my Volpina?
"I-I" She was struggling to say something. Anything! Her stupid tongue was getting tied up again!
Adrien smiled, "I love you too." With that he leans in to press his lips to hers. Finally this silly love square could end and they could finally be toget-
The door burst open. "I knew it!" Marinette and Adrien jumped away. Chloe and Sabrina were crowding in the door way. "Oh, myy poor Adrien!" Chloe rushed forward tackling the poor boy in a hug, knocking Marinette over in the process. "You poor dear!" She continued to coo, shooting Marinette a stinky glare. "I'll be sure that Ms. Mendeleiev hears about this blackmail."
"Black mail?"
"Yes, Adrienkins," She squeezed him into another hug. "Why else would you even consider being with her? She's nothing but a baker's daughter. There's no way she could come close to your tastes."
Marinette's heart plummeted at Chloe's words. Normally she would ignored them and move on, but given today's events she couldn't shake it off. Chloe was right. She was just the baker's daughter. She wasn't the type of girl Adrien would want. She couldn't compete. She just wasn't good enough.
"Chloe, get off!"
"Adrien, sweety, you have nothing to be ashamed off! I'm the perfect girl for you and—"
"I SAID GET OFF!" With a strong shove, he pushed Chloe off his shoulders. He looked around for Marinette only to find she had run off. "Damn."
Chloe snorted, "Who cares about that loser anyways."
"I do." Adrien hissed. "I'm really losing my patience with you, Chloe. We're not together and we'll never be together."
"What! Why?" Tears filled her eyes, "How can you say that about us, we've been through so much!"
He glared, "We were friends, but not anymore. You've done nothing but ridicule everyone in school. You want to know why I don't like you; it's because you're a bitch. Now if you're done wasting my time, I'm going to go find the person who I actually want." He quickly rushed out the door, leaving behind a sobbing Chloe. Adrien knew he was going to regret saying that to her, not because he held any real feelings, but because she had-at one point- been his friend. She had been his link to the outside world. Now that he saw the world through his own eyes, Chloe was nothing more than a pain to nearly anyone she came in contact with.
No wonder so many people had been akumatized.