The employees at The Louvre had been talking all morning and after lunch, and Marinette simply had enough. She leaned in until she felt the tickle of her friends thick hair.
"Alya, as the main admin of the Ladyblog, what is the possibility that the main speaker has been akumatized by the boredom of his job and his power is to bore people to death? Because, in that case, you need to send an urgent message to the people of Paris." Marinette only hoped what she said was below a whisper, because soon enough people other than Alya were giving her giddy smiles.
"Well, nobody bored of their job looks that happy while doing it," Alya yawned, "Maybe instead of being the main victim, he's a victim of the actual victim. You see where I'm getting at?" Alya retreated back in quiet laughter at her best friends confusion. Thankfully, a tap on her shoulder interrupted what would've been Marinettes self-shame in not understanding.
"Hey guys, do you wanna see what I'm working on?" Marinette turned around to see a blushing ginger holding back an awkward smile. His hand was in the air from tapping Marinettes shoulder.
"I guess boredom really is inspiring," Nathaneel chuckled.
"Sure, Nathaneel. Entertain us!" Alya whispered. She, along with everyone in the class, was well aware of his crush on Marinette. Most of the students knew it never really disappeared, especially when he realized that he was only saved due to Marinette. Well, everybody knew except Marinette herself.
Nathaneel proudly held up his iPad to showcase his quick doodles, making sure to pay close attention to the bluenettes reaction.
"Wow, Nathaneel. Very intriguing," Alya commented. Her comment forced his attention away from Marinette. He could tell she was confused by his comics and was trying to be nice. But Alya was known for not being able to hide her feelings. Instead, he sighed in disappointment, and accepted her confusion as defeat.
He was about to put back his iPad when he heard Alya furiously whispering to Marinette to hold it in. The disappointed ginger looked up to see what was troubling Marinette.
She was doubling over, her hands covering her mouth to hold back the potentially loud noise. Her face was as red as Nathaneels hair, except it looked more like she swallowed a cup of salt on accident, thinking it was sugar.
I think I'm gonna cry, thought Nathaneel, she's laughing at it.
"Marinette, you okay?" She turned her red face to the owner of the voice, Adrien. Her face only got redder, Nathaneel noticed. The blonde model scooted closer to the threesome to see why the quietest girl in class was about to be the loudest. Immediately, he understood why.
When Marinette noticed that Adrien was also struggling to hold back laughter, she calmed down. She took deep breaths and closed her eyes, letting Adrien suffer alone. Now and then, a few chuckles escaped her but quickly went away when Adriens laugh synced with hers. To keep herself from overexposing the group she turned to the confused and sad looking redhead. Poor kid, she thought, he must be thinking we're making fun of him.
"Wow Nathaneel, you really have a talent for drawing. Especially comics." Marinette reassured. "Thanks to that, I'm no longer regretting coming here at all. That definitely made my day."
Nathaneel let out a sigh of relief. I forgot my comic was supposed to be funny, he laughed to himself.
"Thanks Mari, er- nette." He let out a toothy smile, in the hope of letting his slip at her name not be noticed. Instead, he had better luck distracting her from the fact that the color of his face matched his hair, when he noticed her giggle at her nickname.
"It's fine," she reassured. "Mari or Marinette. Their both my name, go with whatever you like best!"
"Oh okay. Thanks, Mari?" Nathaneel awkwardly chuckled trying to keep his eyes away from hers. He had this subconscious fear that she'd see the fear in his eyes. But when he looked up, he only saw her pigtails bounce as she nodded in confirmation of her new nickname.
Then he got bold.
"Well in that case," he closed his eyes not wanting anything to stop him from speaking. "You can call me Nath!" He proudly mumbled to the girl of his affections. He knew Marinette since he could remember. They have always been in the same class, and he was never bothered by it. He always felt some sort of connection to her, even though she barely noticed him. All he knew was, she could draw just like him. He discovered this when he caught her doodling in class once. When she caught him watching, he remembered her face reddening and immediately hiding her journal. She was shy and awkward, just like him. That same day was the end of his friendship aspiring intentions towards her.
Marinette giggled. "Sure thing, Nat!" She added, before turning her attention back to the history of the Louvre. Now that she thought about it, why hasn't she ever spent real time with Nathaneel? She always thought of him as a brother, but now she's starting to realize that he could've easily been her best friend if Alya hadn't come into the picture.
We're both so alike, she realized. Although, she knew it'll be hard to adjust calling Nathaneel Nat , she was glad that she furthered another relationship with a classmate.
Have to give him credit, that comic of Ladybug and Cat Noir was so accurate it was funny, she recalled. He really does have a future in comics.
An hour later the lecture finally ended and Marinette had to help the sleepy Alya up.
"Hey boo. Remember our agreement?" Alya had dozed off a bit before and now stumbled towards her boyfriend. The two started to follow the group in their own discussion about said agreement.
"So I guess it's just us then," Marinette jumped up in fear when she realized it was true. She turned her head to the side to acknowledge the perfectly sculpted, blonde cookie.
"Uh yeah sure!" She stated in agreement. She used her arms to motion towards the group and started to move out, expecting Adrienne to catch on. Eventually he did, and he walked by a smiling doll.
"So, how do you think the trip is so far?" Adrienne asked.
"Um- well it's -pretty fun actually!" She lied, not wanting him to know how boring it really was. Her impression on him was way more important to her than the truth right now. But before she can see his expression she felt an unfamiliar vibration in her pocket. Being so focused on her conversation with Adrienne, it made her jump causing her to trip over a tree branch, landing face first onto the dirt.
"Marinette! Are you okay?" Before she knew it, Adrienne's arms were pulling her body from the devious Earth.
"Nobody saw that, right?" Marinette asked as if in a delusion. She was shaking from embarrassment, and refused to open her eyes as if keeping them closed dulled the pain of her stupidity.
Adrienne laughed, "Only me," he hasn't yet noticed her blush under the dirt caking her face. "Luckily we're falling behind."
Marinette quickly wiped away at the dirt covering her eyes, relieving her sense of sight. She looked down, not yet ready to face the humiliation of tripping in mud in front of the person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.
She felt like she was about to cry, and her face was beginning to show signs of potential tears. Deciding that ignoring her hot face would help hold back the tears, she kept her head down at the smudged mud. The first thing she saw, was the object of her scare.
She leaned down and picked up her cell phone. After using her sleeve to wipe at the screen she noticed an email she had received. No wonder I got scared, she thought, nobody sends emails anymore unless it's for a large attachment. She sled the notification open.
Whatever it is, don't get mad and yell at the top of your lungs. You only have yourself to blame for your stupid clumsiness. After her inner pip talk was finished, she grunted, and read the email to herself.
On the bottom was an attachment. She clicked on the attachment and an enlarged photo of familiar characters filled her screen. She closed it quickly and read what the emailer wrote.
"Hope it'll make you laugh the second time- Nat." Opening the photo again, she was able to shrink the original image, to read the speech bubbles coming from the characters.
"Marinette, should we keep going? Are you alright?" Marinette had completely forgotten the person she was with and when she remembered, she ignored his concern. Instead, she started to cry. Tears were rolling down her muddy face, quickly cleaning away her mistakes and for once, her face wasn't red because of Adrienne. In fact, he only made her laugh harder.
She laughed at the pure wit and simplicity of the comic, and she laughed at tripping over a silly email. She laughed at Nathaneels nickname, and she laughed at Adrienne's stupid face. She felt bad for him, he was missing out on a lot.
The bluenette looked back at the comic. How could this naive blonde ever understand how brilliant this comic is? She thought, you laughed because it was hypothetical and made a nice joke. I laughed because I expect this to happen one day.
She marveled at the detail of Ladybugs yo-yo as it hit Cat Noir in the head. She cried at the very real smirk she had for punishing her kitty. And she laughed at Cat's ignorance to the fact any of his attempts at flirting was pathetic and unrequited. The fact that it all happened at a bar, filled with lonely Louvre lecturers only enhanced the humor. And Marinette simply could not get enough.
"Are you okay, Marinette?" Suddenly she remembered the blonde supermodel standing next to her. She also remembered the amount of dirt on her clothes.
"I'm fine! Thanks for worrying, Adrienne!" She stated. She closed her email after favoriting Nathaneels and saving the photo. She reminded herself to print it out later, and hang it up on her wall. After she moved around some of Adrienne's pictures of course.
She looked back up at the blonde. She really has no idea what it is that's about to get into her, but she accepted it. "Anyways, back to your earlier question. Man, this day was dead awful. That has to have been the most boring lecture ever!" At this Adrienne let out a swinging laugh that anybody could tell was genuine due to the sheer crinkles aligning his face. Normally, Marinette would've lost her train of thought staring at those laugh crinkles. Instead, she continued. "I mean, we already know half that stuff. It was a waste of a perfectly good day!" Her boredom was transitioning into a courageous humor she never felt before, and honestly, it gave her stomach a weird feeling.
"I completely agree. Nino fell asleep half way through, and I had to wake him up. It was so embarrassing!" Adrienne yelled.
"I know right! Alya did the exact same thing! Honestly, those two should date and fall asleep on eachother instead next time!" At this, they both laughed in sync forcing a few heads to turn around. Marinette didn't even notice. She was perfectly fine letting Ladybug interfere.