How do people sit by their crushes and not hyperventilate and lose focus? How do people not feel their insides twist and mangle in a weird mix of nerves and joy? Marinette has no idea how or why they don't react near as bad as she does, or maybe they are just better at hiding it.
Inwardly, she longed to reach out and hug him, imagining that half-hug and wondering if he was as warm to hug as she hoped he was. Maybe he smelled like the cologne that his father sold recently or he'd smile at her, and she'd see cupids and hearts and doves, and her insides would squeal and her cheeks would turn red. Or maybe he'd frown and wonder why she was so close, and she hated that thought worse of all.
Marinette barely let herself scoot closer, close enough to feel the heat that radiated from his side, and close enough to feel her heart race so, so fast, and to wonder if she smelled nice enough for this today. DId she smell like the cookies that she kept in her bag for Tikki? Guys probably didn't want girls to smell like sweets or food, no matter how popular calling yourself a 'snack' was or a 'buffet.'
She wondered if her deodarant was doing its job or if she'd brushed her hair well enough today, and did she use mouthwash after she brushed her teeth or have a breath mint? Her clothes weren't rumpled, and they were clean too? She hoped so, even though she knew that she didn't grab dirty clothes that were laying around to wear. Just, on days that felt so lucky, it was easy for the unusally bad luck to surface.
Marinette tried to breathe past the nerves that clogged her stomach and practically melted when Adrien turned to her with a warm smile, because they were told to answer questions over the book with their seat buddy. She nearly hyperventilated. What did she read last night after patrol as Ladybug? It suddenly felt like a distant memory, and her insides swished. Got to focus! She turned her steady blue eyes on her seat 'buddy,' and forced herself to roll her mind back into gear and focus on the question at hand.
Suddenly, characters flooded her mind, and she moved closer just to talk much more quietly and the questions no longer seemed impossible. She did not at all notice how Adrien's cheeks turned pink or how his breath slowly shallowed, but she did notice when he seemed to forget the plot of the book like she had before.
Marinette smiled as she talked over the book and realized as she thought back over it, just how much she had liked it when she read it last night, and suddenly, it didn't seem all that hard to be Adrien's seat buddy, even when for some reason, he seemed barely able to answer those questions.
It would only be later that she realized that she'd scooted close enough to him for their sides to touch, like she'd done with Alya to be heard over the sudden chatter of the room, and so that the conversation felt a lot like passing secrets and not answering questions from the book that they'd read. Sometimes, of course, if they answered the questions quickly enough or if they got off topic, she and Alya did discuss secrets.
Just this was Adrien, and she'd realize later that maybe Adrien and Nino didn't answer the questions in the same way or that she might have breached on his comfort zone without thinking. She definitely hoped that it wasn't the latter; Adrien didn't need to be made uncomfortable.
Just, it sort of made it easier to be seat buddies, and maybe just a little like something completely new, and she kind of hoped that somehow they'd sit next to each other again on another day, and she might be calm enough to just talk like this again, even if it was just school related questions with their answers that ranged from easy to difficult. Maybe a side hug wouldn't be so impossible to dream about after all.